What they sensed shook them.
All of the human extractors: dead.
All of the Martial Apprentices: dead.
All of the Martial Squires had sustained injuries from merely the side effects of the collision.
Just like that, a titanic crater spanning a city had been formed.
At the epicenter stood a masked Martial Senior, kneeling on the ground with one knee. His fist was buried in the ground, right at the neck of a female corpse.
Right where her head should have been.
Without an active Martial Heart accelerating the metabolism of the osteoblast cells leading to a temporary hardening of bone while the Martial Heart was active, she could never have survived a powerful charged Senior-level blow to the skull.
That was not what shocked the Martial Artists into silence.
It was the fact that this Martial Senior had somehow approached the entire extraction squad without anyone ever noticing!
Not only did he approach the squad without a soul gaining so much even the tiniest hint of his existence, he somehow also got to the center. He got to the center and then wiped out the humans, the Martial Apprentices, and their chief sensor with a single attack.
The three Martial Seniors assigned to the security detail were stunned in silence for a fraction of a millisecond.
For just about a fraction of a millisecond, they simply stared with aghast expressions and dropped jaws.
Senior Genshin was the first to break out of his momentary shock.
Blood-curdling rage emerged from the depths of his heart.
His jaws gritted, generating flames from the sheer friction between his teeth.
His eyes reddened as his pupils sharpened in an inhuman manner.
"You…" His voice quivered with boundless fury. "You…"
His mouth opened, unleashing bellow that shook the very skies. "YOU DARE?!"
His Martial Heart blazed into action, and streaks of bright red flashed across his entire body, emerging from his heart.
His expression grew rabid as his feeble rationality was unable to contain his feral bloodlust.
The masked man glanced towards him. Yet he didn't look into the Senior Genshin's eyes.
It was the claws that had drawn his attention.
"Sharp," Rui murmured, glancing at the man's claws that were closer to sickles than nails.
The Martial Heart increased not just his sensory range, but also his accuracy and precision of his senses, allowing him to sense microscopically. Objects that were previously stationary appeared to be quivering ever so slightly to his senses.
Blades that were sharp appeared to be dull to his senses.
Yet when he inspected Senior Genshin's claws with his senses, it possessed a razor sharpness the likes of which he hadn't seen since becoming a Martial Senior. It was extraordinarily sharp, to the point of making standard-issue sharpness look like a blunt club.
Rui knew that if he let those claws hit him, it would be game over. Not even Nemean Blossom would be able to protect him with such sharpness amplified by the gargantuan raw power that the man clearly possessed.
The other two Martial Seniors had also activated their Martial Hearts, leaping at Rui. But alas, Rui was far too pragmatic.
WHOOSH!
He simply disappeared into thin air.
The three Martial Seniors widened their eyes, stunned.
It was almost as though he faded out of existence itself. Unlike before, they were fully focusing on him, and only him this time. The sum entirety of their conscious minds and senses were fixated on him.
Yet they were unable to so much as fathom his disappearance.
"Where is he…?" Senior Genshin's voice had been reduced to bestial snarls, quivering with rage.
"…" The two Martial Seniors regarded the high-grade Martial Senior with fear.
"WHERE IS HE?!" The man bellowed.
RUMBLE
The very land beneath shook with his fury.
"I can't sense him, sir," One of the Martial Seniors replied, mustering up some courage.
"USELESS!" Senior Genshin bellowed, swiping his claws in the man's direction.
SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!
"…Eh?" The Martial Senior glanced down at the five deep gashes that had emerged on his chest out of nowhere.
Claws were limited to close range.
But apparently, nobody had informed Senior Genshin about that.
"FIND HIM!" The man bellowed.
"Sir…" The remaining Martial Senior swallowed nervously as she tried her best to not follow in her bleeding peer's steps. "It's already…"
It was already too late.
The words choked in her throat, but it was the truth. How were they supposed to track him at range when they couldn't detect his arrival and departure at close-range?
The fact that Senior Nereau, who possessed two grade-ten sensory techniques, was unable to sense the attack and warn people or make any kind of reaction should have been enough to demonstrate that this was not something that was within their tracking capabilities.
Thankfully, even the irrational human beast understood that they were helpless.
His teeth gritted as boundless fury and rage overtook him.
"Rgh!" He stomped his foot with frustration.
Yet his powerful Martial Heart was still active.
BOOOM!
It made the simple gesture yield an impact that shook the entire forest, sending ripples across the entire land and yielding an enormous crater that rivaled the one created by Rui.
"Yikes," Rui murmured as he gazed at the man from a distant mountain. "So this is the power of a high-grade Martial Senior."
This was the first time he had come across a high-grade Martial Senior, and even he had to admit that they were extraordinary.
In terms of combat parameters, Senior Genshin eclipsed and dwarfed him in every physical parameter. The offensive lethality of his attacks made Rui feel like a normal human. Not only did he possess an extraordinary amount of raw power, but he focused it through those ridiculous claws of his, on top of that, he could project those lethal attacks at range and make them manifest on his opponent.
His Martial Heart raged like an inferno, making Rui's look like a homely bonfire. Any sense of superiority that Rui may have had from his vastly superior rate of growth and progress disappeared.
The slightest mistake against that man, and he would die instantly.
