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

peppered it with strikes over and

an hour later, the

precaution of observing it with Seismic Mapping for another ten minutes, just to ensure that there was no chance whatsoever that this creature was still alive. At a distance of five meters, he

he was finally convinced that there was no life left. He heaved a deep sigh of

was not enough to preserve even a decent amount of his

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 deeply inhaled the gas that had been stored as a pressurized liquid, allowing it to reach

seconds later, his skin was

he felt even greater

nutrients, compounds, substances and stamina for the newly regenerated tissue

a mental and physical rejuvenation potion, to

following post-mission protocols for Hunter missions. First, he turned off the eco-survey device, he had been told that it saved data automatically so he didn't need to bother with manual operation of it too much. Part of the data would be sent to the ministry apparently, while the vast majority of it would need be to handed in,

both objectives of the nested mission through the standard mission-tracking device given to him by the Martial

Aaaaand he was done!

sense of accomplishment and relief had filled his

mission was a dashing success. It was an eye-opening experience as well in many ways. He had come to realize that he quite liked the adventurous spirit of hunting missions. It