The Martial Unity
chapter-2175

Master Uma's eyes lit up with delight at the extraordinary domain that Rui outputted. She had not expected him to have such a powerful domain that was clearly based on high principles.

"Indeed, for even heaven and earth bow down to the Antithesis."

Yet, she was not resigned to ceding ground to her Godling, even if he was her God in the making.

Precisely because she was not ready yet.

She pushed her breathing to the very limit as she strengthened her winds with even greater power, generating powerful currents that surged straight toward Rui, threatening to tear him where he stood.

Yet, they never reached him.

WHOOSH…

Master Uma's eyes widened with surprise as Rui surged on unperturbed, and the winds faded by the time they reached him. This was the same tactic that Rui had used against the chimera's angel side in his battle against it.

The extremely high temperatures of the Muspelheim were able to batter the wind currents that Master Uma was generating with her techniques. Every attack she threw at him was deeply weakened by the time it reached him.

However, Muspelheim was highly expensive as a defense.

It was not something that could be maintained for very long, even if he could handle it much better than when he had been a Senior due to the Sandflower Nectar Potion. If not for its perfect defense to the wide-scale and long-range offensive of his opponent, there wouldn't be much of a value proposition due to how much energy it consumed.

He needed to end the battle before he lost his stamina.

And his self-control.

STEP

With outer convergence and Gale Force Breathing, he surged towards unperturbed at remarkable speeds. Ordinarily, anybody who stepped within the range of Master Uma's storm would get shredded to the finest confetti. The storm served as both her bodyguard and her offense.

Yet, the heat of the Muspelheim domain protected Rui from the omnidirectional storm that enveloped the entire domain, ensuring he didn't suffer any harm.

In just a moment, he had arrived before her.

"Consider this mercy," he growled as a powerful blow surged towards her, threatening to knock her out.

Yet, it never reached.

WHOOOOOSH!!!

Moments before the attack could make contact with its target, the surrounding storm rapidly compressed, coiling to form a hyper-dense tornado around its user.

It didn't block his attack.

No.

But its powerful currents redirected it, causing it to veer off target.

WHOOSH!

By the time his attack ended, his fist was far away from its target, causing him to veer off-balance before he could realize it.

Master Uma was not kind enough to ignore the opening he presented her.

WHOOOSH!

A large amount of sharp winds surged towards him in the blink of an eye.

BOOOM!!

The impact flung him a good distance away. If not for the fact that the predictive model foresaw the attack, he wouldn't have been able to defend himself in time.

Master Uma frowned as she realized that the impact of her attacks had been diminished. It wasn't until the flames grew hotter that she realized what had happened.

"You converted the force of my winds into the heat of your domain…" Her eyes widened with surprise. "This must be the power of high principles."

The Muspelheim technique, by design, was meant to sustain itself by feeding off his opponent's power. Rui absorbed impacts through Flux Earther and, instead of harmlessly spilling the energy back into heaven and earth, he used it to fuel the heat of the domain through thermoacoustic conduction.

While Master Uma admired the remarkably powerful heat domain that Rui had created, he had begrudgingly come to respect her power.

'She has completely erased her close-quarters weakness.' He narrowed his eyes as he analyzed her technique. 'Without any glaring weaknesses, I probably cannot end this battle as quickly as I hoped to. Oh well, for now, I can stick to gaining more data.'

Yet, she acted against his intentions as though she possessed the means to intuit them. She conjured a power barrier of wind to cocoon around her, preventing him from being able to perceive her.

She knew that he possessed the remarkable ability to, via his systems of thought, gain deep insight into his opponent through a thorough analysis of what he saw. In the past eighteen years, she had developed a solution to just that, successfully creating a wind barrier that isolated her from any transfer of information or energy.

Rui's expression grew uglier as she managed to impede even his mind sense.

By doing so, the development of his SOUL model was hampered.

Yet, that wasn't all.

WHOOOSH!

Rui stirred as the storm grew larger and larger, intensifying by the second.

Not for no reason.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

Rui's eyebrow rose as the storm began churning up the ground, which was made up of esoteric substances that were meant to ensure that the battlefield did not leak the energy output of the two Masters.

The storm ground at the bedrock of the battlefield as a larger amount of gravel and sand got caught in the winds of her technique.

Her intentions were clear.

While Muspelheim could impede her wind attacks by battering the wind currents, it could not impede tiny projectiles because the domain did not exert unidirectional force.

WHOOOSH!

A storm of gravel and sand was flung at Rui at remarkably high speeds, threatening to burrow into his flesh with their momentum. "Tsk." Rui's expression grew dissatisfied as he activated Nemean Blossom, withstanding the incoming influx of sand and gravel that threatened to tear him apart. In this particular battle, durability was a more optimal choice to pursue than speed or strength. The sand was dangerous but it merely threatened to do surface-level damage at best. There was no better option than Nemean Blossom.

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!!

Rui fired a barrage of sonic bullets, testing her defense as he maneuvered around, ensuring that she wasn't able to easily attack him.

Much to his surprise, however, the attacks were simply absorbed.