The Martial Unity

Most fights ended anti-climactically. In most cases, there wasn't a last-minute powerup, a last-minute turn-around, a last-minute victory. In most cases, fights ended exactly how one would expect it to. There was no flashy clash, high-risk decisions from both sides or high stakes. The winner simply won, and the loser simply lost.

This was the cold unromantic reality of Martial conflict, of the martial World.

Yet every once in a while, this truth was broken.

Fights where one combatant was clearly losing, ends up winning. Despite all odds, despite all the damage one had suffered, one occasionally managed to win. These were rare and marvelous moments, where the losing fighter managed to defy all odds and deny his or her fate.

Unfortunately for the beast, this wasn't one of those times.

The beast was covered in blood, as multiple orifices gushed it out. It had begun losing its balance, speed and even the ability to dig underground.

Rui had splendidly managed to avoid any lethal attacks, even if just barely at times. In the end, he had managed to pull through the worst of it.

BLAP

"ROOOOOAAAAAAR!" Its roars had lost all anger, leaving only despair and fear.

Rui had timed a Flowing Canon and an Outer Convergence attack perfectly well with a Blink, and had managed to damage its eye almost entirely. The beast had lost most of its vision, and now was flailing around wildly.

BOOM

BAM

POW POW POW

WHAM

it with strikes over and over, for nearly

hour later, the

minutes, just to ensure that there was no chance whatsoever that this creature was still alive. At a distance of five meters, he would

no life left. He heaved a deep sigh of relief

continuous usage of Helical Breathing was not enough to preserve even a

his belt, opening the pouch and taking out a healing potion. The first healing potion he'd needed in the entirety of the mission. The beast had left many acid burns throughout their long, drawn-out fight. Each time it had burned immensely, but Rui expressionlessly bore the pain, since he knew, he didn't have to worry about flesh

been stored as a pressurized liquid, allowing it to reach the deepest parts of his lungs via Helical Breathing so that as much blood as possible would come into

later, his skin was back to

he felt

compounds, substances and stamina for the

proceeded to consume a mental and physical rejuvenation potion, to

had been told that it saved data automatically so he didn't need to bother with manual operation of it too much.

the nested mission through the

Aaaaand he was done!

deep sense of accomplishment and relief had filled

as well in many ways. He had come to realize that he quite liked the adventurous spirit of hunting missions. It felt open-ended and free, he had never experienced a mission with as