The battlefield had escalated in violence astronomically. Martial Apprentices were those who were able to exceed the limits of their physicality via their Martial Art and their Martial Path. This meant that the scales of power in a fight with eleven Martial Apprentices would far surpass what ordinary humans could do.
If someone from Earth heard the battle from afar, they would no doubt assume they were near a live warzone and immediately flee. If they were to see the battleground of the Martial Apprentices, they would assume a rogue demolition vehicle had gone nuts in the area.
Broken trees, cracked rocks, cratered land, broken carriages, mangled bodies.
It was not conceivable that mere humans were responsible for such devastation.
The outer section of the convoy was damn near entirely destroyed and scattered, the men from the security team had huddled at the center of the behind the Martial Apprentices of the Martial Union. Ordinarily they would have long escaped while the bandit Martial Artist were held back, but they were to remain in the battlefield so that the Martial Artists of the Martial Union would be able to remain there to fight the bandit Martial Artists along with their own Martial Artists.
The remaining security and other non-combat personnel quickly huddled in the carriages and prayed for the best.
BOOM
Fae slammed Vale with a flurry of palm attacks, peppering with powerful blows as he guarded against them with furious tenacity.
The man's physicality was greater than even that of Dalen, so Fae had adjusted her fighting style just a little. Reducing the number of blows she fired in her barrage in exchange for increasing the power of each blow. This was because, a large number of weaker blows would not do as much damage as lower number of stronger blows.
Damage did not work like that; it wasn't linear and additive in nature in that way.
"RAAAGH." He swung at her with great power.
FWHAP
Fae deflected the attack to the side with a powerful palm attack. This was one of the latest techniques she had mastered; Spiral Palm; By twisting her core to generate torque, she could use her palm attacks not just in a linear fashion to attack, but also to deflect all incoming linear blows. It had high efficiency, although its flexibility was a little low.
The reason for that was because it really only worked on linearly incoming attacks, and not strikes with a non-linear trajectory.
BOOM
She managed to land another strike clean on his abdomen through his guard by altering her trajectory mid-strike with the help of yet another Apprentice-level technique; Curling Convergence. Since her fight Kane, she had done her best to increase her versatility. She had realized she was too limited, limited to throwing straight palms.
This wasn't particularly her fault; she had broken through to Martial Apprentice just a little after she turned fourteen. Although three years was not a short time. Learning and mastering Martial Apprentice techniques took an extremely long time, unless you were Rui, it had taken her a long time to develop the basics of her Martial Art.
The strike she'd landed on Vale had struck his diaphragm much to her fortune disorienting and incapacitating him.
BAM BAM BAM
She peppered him with more strikes, trying her best to ensure she didn't allow him to recover.
A well-placed impact to the diaphragm hindered breathing significantly, since it was the sole muscle responsible for the process of respiration.
BAM
POW
THWACk
BOOM
FWACK
POW
As she went on, it became clearer and clearer to everyone that the fight was going worser and worser for Vale. Following his brief mild, yet vital incapacitation, Fae exploited the opening to land a flurry of strikes on his vitals.
Throat.
Liver.
Solar Plexus.
Lower jaw.
Philtrum.
Glabella.
BAM BAM BAM
She launched a final combo. A straight palm into the diaphragm, an uppercut palm attack to the jaw, and a final palm strike into his throat.
Vale staggered for half a second, before collapsing to his knees and then flat onto his face.
What happened next drew the attention of every Martial Artist.
BAM
She launched a final palm strike pumped up with power straight down onto the skull of the unconscious man.
CRACK
Without any Apprentice-level techniques, the human body would simply be crushed by Fae's sheer raw power.
For moment, all the fights paused as the Martial Artists glanced at Vale's mangled skull atop a pool of blood and cranial fluid.
Martial Artists of the Martial Union and the Lowminer Industries inwardly rejoiced, while the bandits felt their heart sinking as cold terror and despair had begun to engulf them.
Everybody knew that the outcome for the first fight would decide the outcome of all fights. The reason was rather simple. The victor of that battle would go on to aid their comrades, adding another force that they would have to deal with.
If Vale had managed to kill Fae, then he would have been able to supplement his comrades. The battle would have gone from eight against four, to seven against four. Making life much easier for the bandits.
"That idiot...!" Feilin cursed.
Now that Fae had won, she would be coming to reinforce one of the three ongoing fights.
The bandits were already having a hard time fighting their opponents, especially with Milliana and Dalen regularly chipping in to either kill away any brief advantage they gained or put them in a worser position.
With someone as strong as her coming into one of their fights, another one of them was guaranteed to die.
Feilin, Han and Rajak kept an eye on her, looking to see which fight she would join.
Her decision was quick.
STEP
She leapt towards Rajak at top speed.
BAM
She slammed him with her most powerful attack, expecting atleast significant damage.
Alas, Rajak was not a trivial man. He slammed her attack while also partially dodging, a combination of both ensured her attack missed cleanly.
BAM
He struck her with immense force, sending her flying away despite her block.
She quickly repositioned herself, forming a triangle with Rui and Kane.
It was now three-on-one.
