The Martial Unity

Had anyone witnessed what Rui did, they would be shocked beyond words. It was an absolutely bewildering choice. Some would even question whether he made a mistake, whether he tripped on a rock while running at top speeds, sending him flying into the Root's mouth.

Yet none of it was true. Rui understood what he was seeking to do, and why he was doing it, and did it anyway.

This was the only way for him to take down something as large as the Root. It was far too large for him to take down with his regular attacks. This meant that he had absolutely no ability to take down the Root any time soon with his regular attacks. He would only be pricking the Root even if he used his tiny little sword or his strongest Transverse Resonance attack. The Root was large enough to make even the likes of Senior Ceeran use serious attacks to destroy it.

Thus the question of destroying it wasn't a question any sane Martial Squire would even fathom asking themselves.

But Rui did.

It was a question that he had struggled over for many months. How exactly was he supposed to take down the Root?

Should he have filled his dimensional ring with a substance that was extremely lethal to the organic tissue of the plant kingdom? Maybe if he dumped enough of it, he could kill the Root. That was one of the first possibilities that he looked into.

After months of consideration, he ruled out almost all possibilities.

Except one.

Although he had only just verified its full plausibility in this battle, there was a huge cost that came with it. It, unfortunately, involved doing some rather crazy things.

It was a gamble.

The second he entered the mouth, its opening closed, leaving him trapped.

Inside was a gap between the upper and lower roofs of the mouth. A gap that would close completely in order to crush the esoteric ore deposits before releasing the digestive acids to aid with the breakdown and refinement of the esoteric ore deposits.

That was where Rui had thrust himself into.

Certain death.

BOOM!

jaws rapidly moved toward each other at blindingly fast

something had already begun to

tiniest fraction of a millisecond, but the air changed drastically

titanic amount of pressure erupted from him, flooding the

powerful Mind Mask, taking on the

microsecond, the entirety of the Shionel Dungeon perceived an existential threat from the exact location Rui was present, shaking violently as a multitude of the roots that spawned from the Root lashed out toward Rui the very

the Root was in the way between them and Rui did not seem to matter to the roots.

less than a millisecond, but alas, it

jaws had

his teeth as he desperately balled himself up, trying to reduce the amount

jaws exerted on him was greater than anything else he had ever been subjected

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

bones snapping like little

was being wrung as it tore across

were not exempt from the damage, all of the internal systems

only one goal; keeping his brain intact. He positioned his body in such a manner that most of

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

a millisecond, he had

that moment than he had since the Squire

maddening amount of pain that would have driven any normal

to keep his head intact the entire time. His efforts had