The Martial Unity

The moment the SOUL System completed the SOUL models on the obsidian wyverns, Rui gained an inordinate depth of insight.

With it rose precision and accuracy.

Because the future was transparent, he could prepare for it.

The more time he had to prepare, the more he could refine the precision and accuracy of his timing and placement right down to the micrometer.

His attacks soared past the present.

They struck the future.

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!

He fired off five Mighty Roar Flash Blasts almost simultaneously. He didn't even bother looking at his opponent, and yet—

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!

Each and every single one of them struck true in a wyvern's eye.

"ROOOOOAAAAAAR!" they roared in pain.

Yet, they never relented. All twenty-two of them converged on him at extreme velocities.

None of them could so much as touch him.

Rui's movements had undergone a profound change. Before, they were furious as he struggled to match up against twenty-two powerful creatures all by himself. Now, however, he sashayed with the grace of a ballerina.

Each maneuver overflowed with an elegance that didn't belong in a battle.

It didn't belong in the Beast Domain.

Yet with each passing movement, his movements grew dimmer.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Rui shifted inches as their claws came within millimeters of cleaving his head in half.

He began moving less and less.

And less.

His movements continued reducing until…

Until he stopped moving entirely.

Ordinarily, such a decision was one that courted death.

Yet, it never happened.

None of the wyverns understood.

Perhaps, it was because their intelligence was lacking. Perhaps it was because the state of mind at the root of such grace was beyond anything a beast would ever be capable of.

Regardless, none of them understood.

None of them understood why they were unable to so much as touch Rui even though he was stationary.

He didn't move.

He didn't so much as twitch.

It was a tantalizing sight to the predators, yet every time they attacked him,they could not touch him.

"ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR!!!" A wyvern charged at Rui with overwhelming frustration and fury.

Yet, it passed right through his body.

WHOOSH

It passed through his body like it was a hologram.

It passed through him like his very being was ethereal.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Each time they charged into him, they passed through him like he wasn't even there.

His eyes were closed, and his body was relaxed.

No force in the world could torment him.

Or, so it seemed.

In reality, his powerful mind churned non-stop as he constantly bore witness to the future itself. Well before an attack arrived, he would step away. However, he stepped away while feinting to his original standing position, making it seem that he was still standing there.

In addition, he also misdirected attention away from him to the feinted image, thereby reinforcing it.

In the minds of the wyverns, he never stepped away.

To them, he had been standing there the entire time. They continued crashing into emptiness while Rui promptly returned back to his old position after the attack had passed, making it seem like he had never stepped away and that the attack had passed through him.

It was an extravagant flex that served no practical utility.

Yet, Rui couldn't resist.

It was an extraordinary feat of precision and accuracy of timing and placement. It was an extraordinary feat of maneuvering that should have been impossible to replicate against those whose physicality significantly exceeded his.

Unfortunately, the Martial Heart did not have endless stamina.

Without it, no amount of thought would be able to save him from being torn to shreds.

"If fear cannot move you…" His voice grew cold and perilous. "Then pain will have to do."

Ironically, it was at that moment that the wyverns experienced paralyzing fear gripping their hearts.

But, alas, pain was already on its way.

Rui activated a breathing technique, creating powerful wind currents and pressure gradients with the force of his breath before bending it to tame the very heavens that enveloped them.

It became his weapon.

Simultaneously, his powerful mind stirred, activating the Hypnomatrix.

Pain had arrived.

"Phantom Pain. Sonic Singularity," Rui whispered.

The world screamed.

VMMMMMMM!!!!!

As did the unfortunate wyvern that Rui targeted.

"ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!!!" It bellowed in pain as a tsunami of sound converged on it.

It became a singularity.

Not just of sound.

But of pain.

VMMMMMMM!!!!

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

RRRRR!!!!!" A guttural screech of excruciating agony echoed throughout the Forest of Fear.

As a hypnotic technique that magnified pain exponentially, Phantom Pain worked extremely well with Sonic Singularity. The latter caused immense pain that was magnified beyond what the mind could fathom.

"Your scales are tough, but your insides are not nearly so." Rui smirked. "I can only imagine how much pain you must be going through."

The other wyverns watched with palpable terror and horror as the one that Rui singled out began bleeding from its eyes and from all orifices.

Rui dispelled the technique, leaving the creature half-dead.

Scram. Rui glared at them. Or you'll be next.

Predators, while hardly rational, were capable of making risk-

reward analyses. Especially ones that involved a lot of suffering and death.

The twenty-one wyverns immediately took off with great vigor, never once turning back.

"Huff…" Rui heaved a sigh before his eyes widened with alarm. "Kane!"

The average power level of the wyvern group was high-grade Martial Senior. Kane did not possess the power to take on such opponents at his current stage.

BOOM!!!

Rui immediately shot off at extraordinary speeds, igniting the air in a massive inferno from the sheer friction.

In just moments, he arrived.

What he saw shook him.

Kane had an eye missing with countless gashes across his entire body. On the other hand, the wyvern hunting him had lost both eyes.

RUMBLE

An unfathomable amount of bloodlust erupted from deep within Rui, suffocating the wyvern stiff.

"I will eat you."

His voice dripped with malice as a powerful glare bored holes into the wyvern. His words contained the weight of the future.

The future that he could see.

The future he could create.

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