Rui narrowed his eyes as he followed the movements of a Hermitian Squirrel. This species of squirrel, which was known for its remarkable senses and illusive agility and speed made for the perfect sniping practice target. It was an Apprentice-level creature in a forest in the Mantian region
It sniffed around, winding about a tree, it was never static for more than a second. This would normally make it practically impossible to snipe for more than half a kilometer away.
Yet Rui was attempting to do just that.
He kept track of the squirrel with the help of Tempestuous Feel and Seismic Mapping, of course. He had also already built a predictive model of its movements, having observed it for a while. It was difficult to build predictive models of targets outside of combat, especially erratic creatures like Hermitian Squirrels, but as long as Rui had enough time and data, he could pull it off, it just wouldn't be as effective as ones made out of and for combat.
Suddenly, his eyes widened as he executed the ODA System with the predictions of the VOID algorithm. Just a moment later, his mouth opened, and a dense sound projectile escaped from it, flying straight towards his target.
THWOOM!
The projectile coursed forward at the speed of sound, before nailing the target in the head.
SPLAT
Even though the energy of the projectile had undoubtedly decreased over the large distance that it had traveled across, it still was more than strong enough to crush the bodies of Apprentice-level creatures. The head of the squirrel exploded into a confetti of blood and tissue.
"YES!" Rui exclaimed, rejoicing as he managed to execute an exceedingly difficult snipe. It was more than just a little difficult to snipe hermitian squirrels from that distance, any Martial Squire would laugh and call him a liar if he claimed that he was capable of such a feat.
"It's finally done!" Rui pumped his fist. "Seven months is all it took!"
That was partially sarcastic and partially genuine. Seven months for developing a technique, or two techniques, was much longer than it took to master two techniques of the Martial Union that had been refined, and had a well-constructed training regiment as well as the necessary training resources to master it. Yet, it was also an incredibly short amount of time considering he created a potent brand-new technique out of nothing.
Rui had to suppress the urge, once more, to sprint to the Martial Union, and immediately pick out a mission.
"Wait, hold on." He stopped himself "I still have shit to do."
He needed to name this technique as well. He was quite satisfied with his previous name, and thus wanted to come up with something just as good.
"Pathfinder."
It was a simple name that bore allusions to the purpose of the technique. Ultimately it was one that satisfied Rui, and that was all that mattered.
After seven months of effort, he had finally created the Flux Earther and the Pathfinder techniques, the two latest additions to his Martial Art, strengthening it tremendously.
"Alright, now that I've finished training, I have to go pick some missions that will allow me to use these techniques in the field."
Finding missions that would allow him to use the Pathfinder technique was easy, all he had to was go pick some assassination missions and that would most likely allow him to exercise the technique.
As for Flux Earther, ideally, he would be on a bodyguard mission when a striking-oriented Martial Artist tried to assassinate his target of protection, and he would be able to exercise the Flux Earther technique.
However, the most ideal circumstance would be a striking-oriented Martial Artist trying to kill him. If he was protecting someone, he couldn't fool around and prolong the battle because he wanted to test the limits of his techniques. That would be unethical and also a violation of the agreements that every Martial Artist had with the Martial Union.
It wasn't as easy to be able to perfectly choose a mission that would specifically allow him to test the Flux Earther technique or any other single technique in his Martial Art. Especially one that technique addressed only one aspect of combat when combat will naturally include all aspects unless both Martial Artists were extreme specialists. But even then, even the most extreme defensive Martial Artists needed to attack, some way or the other, to win, and even the most extreme offensive Martial Artists needed some way to defend or evade to not lose.
In comparison, the Pathfinder technique could be used outside confrontations, giving it greater versatility in utility. In comparison, the Flux Earther technique could only be used for defense against strikes and absolutely nothing else.
"Not that that's a bad thing," Rui noted.
The Flux Earther did the one thing it was supposed to do extremely well. The defensive prowess that this technique gave him was much greater than Adamant Reforging and Inner Divergence combined. Normally, his limit with the difficulty and potency of techniques was grade seven, at least, as far as techniques offered by the Martial Union went.
However, because of the synergy this technique had with his capabilities, it effectively performed at much higher grades of potency. Its difficulty was not low either, if anybody else tried to master the Flux Earther technique, they were almost guaranteed to fail.
Because they lacked Rui's unique strengths that allowed him to master and execute the technique with admirable proficiency. That was why his defensive prowess had suddenly become on par with a defensive Martial Artist despite being an all-rounder in every sense. It was much more difficult to bridge the gap between all-rounders and specialists in the Squire Realm because the gap between their bodies was enormous in addition to techniques that were synergetic with their bodies and capabilities.
If not for the fact that Rui had created a truly impressive defensive technique, it would have been impossible for him to match the defensive prowess of a defensive Martial Squire.
