The Martial Unity

Rui had seldom fought against weapon-oriented Martial Artists in his life. The reason for that was that they were quite rare barring the right circumstances. It took an extreme amount of brainwashing and conditioning for it to become the Martial Path of a Martial Artist.

Not only that but there were logistical constraints to their emergence as well, especially for weapons centered around a blade or sharpness. It took an extremely durable substance to withstand the full power of a Martial Artist through the tiny edge of the blade without breaking, cracking, or being damaged significantly.

The reason that humans could wield swords without such a problem was that the high-carbon steel used for normal swords had a tensile strength that far exceeded what humans were able to break. That was why there was no fear that such a blade would crumble in the middle of combat. Not even the strength of a thousand men could break such a tough alloy.

The same could not be said for Martial Artists.

For an alloy to be as overwhelmingly superior to a Martial Artist, it would have to, at a bare minimum be of a grade that corresponded to the Realm above the Martial Artist, sometimes even two Realms above the Martial Artist!

It was simply impractical, and had it been the norm, would pose serious hindrances to Martial Artists as they grew stronger.

Rui was aware that there were more philosophical reasons why the orthodox Martial Sects and communities around the world rejected weaponry.

That had to do with dependence and reliance on science and technology to provide them with apt weapons. That was something that many Martial Artists eschewed. Science and technology were not in their control as Martial Artists, it was usually in the control of the private sector and the governments to a certain extent.

Growing dependent on it would be no different from growing dependent on them. Many Martial Squires feared that an overdependence could cause the age of Martial Art to come to an end and return Martial Artists to an era where they were not weak enough to resist the power of the state.

It was bad enough to them that the Squire Realm was impossible without such technology, but Martial Artists had long since secured a stronghold over it to ensure that they would not grow dependent on non-Martial Artist sources.

Furthermore, the orthodox Martial Sects did not have much regard for unorthodox fields that involved external elements, like poison-oriented Martial Art, symbiotic Martial Art, or the weapon-oriented Martial Art.

Yet despite all of that, the power of weapons could not be disregarded.

Prior to the advent of Martial Art, humanity was exclusively a tool-wielding species. Even today, one of the biggest checks on Martial Art were big and powerful weapons that relied on size and powerful esoteric substances that allowed weapons to exert enormous power that could hurt and kill even Martial Artists.

While the weapons wielded by Martial Artists were not of the same nature as these super-weapons, the principle was still the same. Humans wielding tools were superior to humans without, and that principle did not diminish entirely when it came to Martial Artists wielding tools versus Martial Artists without tools.

That was why Rui did not underestimate the man before him wielding a blade that resembled a katana. Rui did not need another look at it to know that he could not afford to get hit by that blade even a single time.

He could handle normal piercing techniques that involved using the body as a blade. While those left open wounds and could be very dangerous if they hit a vital, they were not insurmountable when it came to defending against them.

Rui knew that that probably would not be the case when it came to sword techniques. He did not stand a chance at defending against a blade that was created to cut Martial Artists. If Rui tried to block a full-powered swing with both arms, then his arms would cleanly fall off before he even realized it.

This was the difference in the quality of the technique. He could almost certainly exert a level of lethality with every blow that made Rui envious.

In just the briefest of moments, while they approached each other, Rui analyzed him. The first thing he noticed was the man's profusely sharp sense of pressure. Just based on the peril that the man emitted to all those who beheld him, Rui could tell he was either a grade-ten Martial Artist or one who was extremely close to being considered one.

This meant that his fight was not going to be easy.

('Body mass to muscle mass ratio indicates a Martial Artist focused on speed rather than power,') Rui narrowed his eyes. ('The structure and shape of the blade, as well as the size of the hilt indicates a single-handed blade. Thus it can be inferred his sword style is centered around speed rather than power.')

Rui froze on the spot, before immediately diving back. ('That means confronting him in close-quarters combat is highly ill-advised.')

He took a deep breath, sucking in an enormous amount of air.

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!!

The best part about having learned Whirlpool Breathing and Elephant Breathing was that they could be used to massively improve his long-range offense in addition to being the key to activating Weaving Blood.

The resulting sound projectiles he fired were enormously powerful and were reaching the quality of high-grade offensive Martial Artists!

Yet, Rui's jubilation whithered when his opponent's sword flew out of its scabbard, cleaving every attack one by one with a single ordinary swing!

('What?') Rui's eyes widened.

He had underestimated the man's offensive power. A single swing was able to cleave and disperse his Mighty Roar Flash Blast technique. It appeared that he had profusely underestimated his opponent's ability to cope with long-range attacks.

However, his opponent was evidently not content with simply cutting Rui's long-range attacks either. His eyes narrowed as he rushed forward, looking to kill Rui in one shot.