The Martial Unity

While the Martial Sages and Martial Masters deployed to South-West Panama retreated from their battlefield, admitting defeat in the initial battle, the other battalions of Martial Sages held strong.

BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM!!!!!

The Reverend of Reckoning’s eyes flared with fierce determination as he blasted multiple gigantic mechs, taking three at the same time. His powerful sense of Order allowed him to discern the structure of the gigantic machines, admiring the sheer accuracy and precision of each and every single component, some of which were as small as nano-particles.

It was precisely because he had gained nigh-Transcendent mastery of Order that he could tell.

“Each and every single speck of this giant machine had been carved out by man.”

Every molecule and atom in the gigantic mech was aligned with pristine perfection, demonstrating a level of craftsmanship that was beyond anything he had ever seen in his entire life.

Although he despised the little dwarves for wanting to dare to touch the Namgung Dynasty’s Primordial seed reservoir, as a Martial Artist that followed in the path of Order, he couldn’t help but bring himself to admire their work.

“You are worthy of my respect.”

His powerful voice spread across the entire battle.

“If you depart and retreat from the battle now…” he offered. “I will spare your lives.”

He deployed his Martial Path in his communication.

He conveyed the very Order of his words and their meaning to his opponents, ensuring that they understood what he was trying to say.

The battle across the battlefield quietened as the gigantic mechs backed off for a moment.

From the grim expressions of the little dwarves in the transparent cockpit, piloting their mechs, it became clear that this battle did not go like they had expected it to.

They were attacking a single polity in the continent that covered territory that was nothing before the Dwarven Republic of Glybbel. The territory covered by the Namgung Dynasty was a literal dot compared to their expansive dwarven polity.

This had given them the illusion that such a small empire could never have been able to defend against the small but decently powerful force deployed.

And indeed, their estimations were nominally correct. The Namgung Dynasty, post-Unfolding, only possessed sixteen Martial Sages, barely recuperatng the dead Martial Sages in the depths of the Beast Domain thanks to the pressure and growth that the Martial Masters had experienced in eleven years.

And yet, thanks to the Emperor of Harmony, they were able to muster a whopping sixty Martial Sages to defend the Namgung Dynasty from northern invasions.

VMMM…

SPARK SPARK SPARK

CRACK CRACK CRACK

The sheer onslaught that sixty Martial Sages had unleashed upon the gigantic mechs was beyond the pale, making even those great machines with their extraordinary technology go bust.

In terms of pure technological prowess, the dwarves shockingly exceeded even the tekvores.

Their mechs were powered by technologies beyond anything that even the Reverend of Reckoning was able to fathom, relying on zero-point energy reactors that drew virtually infinite energy from the very fabric of nothingness and dark energy reactors that absorbed the energy that expanded the very fabric of the universe.

It was no wonder that the gigantic mechs hadn’t lost any of their vigor despite fighting for extended periods of time.

However, what they couldn’t avoid was the fact that their machines had limits to the amount of wear and tear they could take. The Reverend of Reckoning was, in particular, their nemesis, as he spotted the one out of a trillion ways in which the order of the gigantic mechs was exploited to launch damning attacks that crippled the gigantic mechs from the inside out.

The dwarves glanced at each other before making their choice.

VRMMM…

The mechs powered up before slowly departing from the Panama Continent.

The battle with the dwarves had concluded.

A similar incident occurred elsewhere in the North-East of the continent, led by Amare, who fought against the invading giants.

“Huff… huff…” she panted with a degree of exhaustion.

BADUMP…

The Martial Heart of her opponent had begun to slowly wane.

The body of a giant consumed proportionally far more power than the bodies of human beings, causing the energy to be supplied by its Martial Heart to be consumed more quickly and last a lot less long.

The two group leaders directed a piercing gaze at each other as a brief reprieve appeared upon the battlefield. It wasn’t long before the giants decided that they had apparently underestimated the Lost Continent, swiftly departing from the battlefield.

There was no point in fighting any further when they exhausted despite failing to set a single foot upon the continent. The exhausted Martial Sages heaved a sigh of relief as the battle came to an end, allowing them to finally get some reprieve.

It wasn’t too long before a similar phenomenon unfolded with Bodhisattva Maitreyi and the convoy of therianthropes that had reached South-West Panama, tangling with the Martial Sages after their offer offended their cultural values.

BOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOM!!!!!

RUMBLE!!!!!

The two sides were launched away as a fierce collision separated them with a powerful shockwave.

The Martial Sages were wounded and bleeding, heaving exhausted sighs after a few hours of battle, while the beasts that the therianthropes had entered and embodied were profoundly wounded and quite exhausted as well.

Flashes of worry and concern emerged in the eyes of the beasts, perhaps reflective of the emotions of their beast tamers. The same cultural values that caused them to react violently at the notion and capturing and selling beasts and monsters were the same cultural values that made them unwilling to watch their own beasts die.

Additionally, if they sustained too much damage, then returning to their continent became increasingly threatened. The absence of a secure stronghold impeded their ability to fight sustained conflict.

Especially when the resistance they ran into vastly exceeded even their greatest expectations. The Minotaur had truly not expected to run into a being that could fight him as an equal despite wielding the power of light.

The Destroyer Bull huffed with grudging reluctance as it gazed at Bodhisattva Maitreyi.

“Know this…” the bull growled. “We will return.”

Bodhisattva Maitreyi sharpened her eyes.

“Even now, it is still not too late,” she informed them. “If you return with an offer of friendship and bilateral ties, we will take you up on it. However, if you return with war…”

Her tranquil tone grew intense.

“We will respond in kind.”

The Destroyer Bull threw one last gaze of grudging respect before departing from the Panama Continent.

And just like that, of the four battlefronts, three had ended in successful victory and one had ended in a damning failure.

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