The Martial Unity

Being a Martial Artist was not always easy. A lot of people who found their Martial Path were unable to tread deeply down it because they simply lacked the perseverance and dedication needed. Completing missions was not so easy when you were on the lower spectrum of the Martial Apprentice grade scale, you earned a decent amount, but that was about it.

That was a why a lot of Martial Artists turned to the underworld, there were many alluring fruits within reach, poisoned as they may be.

Kate Kole remembered the first time she sold a child. She had earned more than ten time's what she would normally earn as a low-grade Martial Apprentice of the Martial Union. And it was trivially easy too, capturing a single child from the backwaters of the Empire and shipping them to the commercial hub of the town of Hajin and selling them in the thriving underworld of the town required very little physical effort from her, compared to completing the often long, difficult and tiring missions of the Martial Union.

It was addicting. The first time she had kidnapped and trafficked a child, the sheer ease with which she was earning a larger sum of money had pulled her into the Underworld. She would never be able to go back to being regular Martial Artist. She went around changing her name time and time again, Martha Myers, Jenna Jill, Ciara Carter and so on and so forth. She had amassed an immense amount of wealth.

Of course, the Underworld came with its own fair share of detriments. There was a saying that there were only ten people in the Underworld who weren't exploited by someone else, the ten most powerful people in the Underworld. Everybody else below them served someone or the other and was at the mercy of someone or the other.

The moment she stepped foot into the Underworld, she was unable to escape. The demand for her goods was strong, and those that she had provided for would not let her go so easily. She was coerced to continue her child-trafficking business. Lest the Underworld sold her to the government once she was no longer of use, they had too much dirt on her.

Life in the Underworld was one of fear, fear of the Underworld, fear of the overworld. She could not stop trafficking children; she was not allowed to. She was constantly afraid that the Underworld she had stepped foot in would consume her, or spit her out into the open where the Empire would consume her instead.

Eventually, she had reached a stage where she was willing to give away all of the wealth she had built upon the heinous suffering of innocent children just to be able to sleep at night without wondering 'When are they going to come for me?'.

Today, she realized, just very well might be that day.

She turned around in fear as she saw Rui pursuing her relentlessly. This wasn't her first time being pursued by a Martial Apprentice. She was normally too fast for them to even keep up, she had managed to acquire many Apprentice-level maneuvering techniques in fear of being caught and mastered them to give her some sense of security. That in combination with her intimate familiarity with the town of Hajin allowed her to escape all her previous pursuers.

was a Martial Artist of the Martial Union, not the government, this must have been a commission

she didn't care. All she knew was that she had to get away from him. As long

Or so she thought.

between them, he was still somehow able to keep

has a sensory technique!') She

even further in order to get of his sensory range. This would take

she didn't know if she could

grown rusty, and her physical parameters had plummeted in the time that she had stopped training, more so than she had imagined. Her body had ached all over from stressing itself, her stamina was depleting already. Her lungs felt like they were on fire. Her joints felt like they were about to break apart and her bones felt like they were going to break. Her muscles

His entire life, he had trained immensely, even prior to the Academy. Furthermore, once he entered the Academy,

running and running some more, without ever

foundations were in

he didn't. He just ran like there was

and the two of them had already crisscrossed and

the moment

CRASH

strained state, Kate had stumbled on a rock and crashed hard into

experienced far surpassed the

didn't even need to turn around. She could feel the weight of his mind pressuring her instinctive and primal sense of

her hair before she could even turn around. He didn't utter

screamed. "HELP! SAVE