The Martial Unity

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

She hopped through the air as she evaded waves of attacks one after the other. Her graceful movements reminded Rui of a ballet dancer. Every step she took produced melodic notes, winding into an orchestra of sorts as she maneuvered across the arena.

('She's using sound to propel herself forward,') Rui admired her footwork.

While the other Martial Squires were at a loss as to how she was doing that, Rui had already figured out the mechanism. Acoustic propulsion was a concept that already existed on Earth, although he wasn't too familiar with it since it was something he had glanced over back when he was doing his degree.

The very atmosphere was nothing more strings of a guitar for her to play her melody over.

('Furthermore, she uses this trait to her advantage to produce sounds that actually impair her opponents!') Rui winced as a painful frequency of sound bombarded his ears.

It produced a neurological response that would get in the way of combat. It meant that even as she dodged, she was attacking her opponent!

('This must be the first evasive-offensive attack that I have ever seen.') Rui gaped.

He had never seen an attack produced by avoiding an opponent, although had seen evasion and offense simultaneously, this was different.

Some Martial Squires had already fallen to their knees, clutching their head as they shivered in repulsed pain.

The stronger ones managed to weather through partially while they still retained combat effectiveness.

('I bet she could easily destroy their eardrums and knock them out unconscious, if not kill them if she wanted, but that would be going overboard, and it would be of no benefit and antithetical to the point of a joint sparring session as this,')

WHOOM!

All Martial Squires leaped back, grimacing as she spun on her toe, radiating sound like the sun did light.

('Furthermore, there's no doubt that Ajanta Island is her home court!') Rui realized.

After all, the atmosphere of Ajanta Island was like an ocean due to the extreme gravity pulling down on the air, making it as dense as a light liquid!

It also meant that the speed and intensity of sound were much greater, and it was easier to produce sound through the atmosphere on the island than on land.

('She's in her element,') Rui realized. ('Even if she isn't the strongest Martial Senior of the Floating Sect under normal circumstances, she's probably extraordinarily powerful on the island and unrivaled by fellow peers.')

Rui felt more confident about the prospects of the Floating Sect's survival with Senior Xanarn keeping a watchful eye on it.

('I wonder who would win between Senior Ceeran and Senior Xanarn,') Rui's mind delved into the interesting hypothetical scenario.

Senior Ceeran was without a doubt the strongest Martial Senior he had ever seen under normal circumstances, he was a high-grade Martial Senior who was working his way to the Master Realm. He fought off two grizzled Martial Senior warlords who had spent their entire lives waging life-or-death wars and decisively won against both of them.

He did not believe that any of the Martial Seniors he had ever seen were his equals. However, Ajanta Island was an overwhelming battlefield advantage for Senior Xanarn, she was an absolute nightmare to her peers, and he doubted whether Senior Ceeran would be able to win without a grueling fight.

"It's a shame she isn't going to show her Martial Heart," Rui murmured as she began dowsing the final flames of resistance from the various guardians.

"I did," Kane smugly responded.

"Hm? I'm guessing she did a demonstration of it that I missed? Shame."

"No, actually," Kane shook his head. "She did it in the middle of a sparring session against the first class of Martial Squires."

"What?" Rui frowned. "She said she wouldn't use her Heart."

"Yeah, but she broke her word," Kane replied.

Rui raised an eyebrow, turning back to the fight. "Well, the first class must comprise of the most powerful grade-nine Martial Squires and the veteran grade-ten Martial Squires, still, it's incredible that they managed to force her to use her Martial Heart."

"Actually, they didn't."

Rui turned back to Kane, perplexed.

"The guardians of the first class were incredibly strong, and they definitely pushed her extremely far, based on how much she was strained. But she beat almost all of them without using her Martial Heart."

"Then…?"

"It was the guardian of the first chamber, Tokugawa Ieyasu, that forced her to use her Martial Heart, all by himself."

Rui's eyes widened in shock. "You're telling me one man forced her to use her true power?!"

"Yeah, it was unbelievable," Kane sighed. "He waited for her to deal with all of them, and then fought her one-on-one. Her attacks that wore down dozens of grade-ten Martial Squires could not push him back. I did not know someone could be this strong while still being in the same Realm as me."

Rui's mouth opened, dumbstruck, as he listened to Kane issuing some serious praise!

"By the end of it, he came this close to beating her, but then her body lit up with those red lines and it was over."

"That…" Rui almost cursed himself for having been on a mission. "Damn."

His curiosity spiked. Now he wanted to know everything about this Tokugawa Ieyasu.

('That sounds like a Japanese name, I feel like I've heard it somewhere back on Earth, to be honest,') He considered it before putting aside the idea. ('If he's that strong, I can see why he's the number one.')

WHOOM!

A widespread soundwave from Senior Xanarn blew away the few remaining guardians fighting, putting an end to the sparring session.

She wiped some sweat off her forehead as she undid her hair. First aid teams immediately swarmed over the guardians at her instructions quickly healing the Martial Squires one by one. Many of them were merely injured and exhausted, though many were knocked out and some were even seriously injured.