The Martial Unity

The Suffocator did not appear to be in a hurry.

Rui found this strange.

Instead, he simply noted Rui's enhanced regeneration, as mentioned in the intelligence that they received, born from the Hungry Pain technique.

"Who put you up to this?" Rui growled as he recuperated, grateful to the assassin for giving him a few seconds to catch his breath.

He may have already triumphed over the twins, but they definitely strained and stressed him out.

He even deactivated his Martial Heart. It was an extraordinarily precious resource at the moment.

"I have no idea," The Suffocator replied. "Probably someone extremely powerful. You have powerful enemies, Rui Quarrier."

His strange accent being warped through the mask left his speech to be quite different.

"Have you bated your exhaustion?" The Suffocator asked helpfully.

"…Do you mind if I drink a rejuvenation potion?"

"Even my generosity has limits," The Suffocator scoffed. "Now then. Bare your domain."

Rui raised an eyebrow. "Why would I do tha-"

"If you don't want to die, that is," The Suffocator's voice grew cold as he began bending heaven.

Rui's eyes widened as he got a good look at what he was doing.

He was creating a density of gradient vertically, then filtering out gases of a certain amount of relative density by eliminating gas across between that gradient.

Namely, oxygen.

That left a domain without any oxygen.

Rui held his breath as he leaped away, yet the man leaped along with him while also expanding the domain with him.

"What's the matter?" The Suffocator's voice called out to him. "Cat got your domain? Not confident you'll win?"

He was surprisingly fast, refusing to allow Rui to exit his domain.

Naturally, Rui could expect him to have prepared counters to escape domains by simply exiting them. One of them was simply following and taking the domain with him.

The influence of the domain followed him, spreading through the air, filtering out the oxygen.

Rui narrowed his eyes as he considered whether he ought to use Neo Godspeed to escape the influence of the domain.

'…No,' He shook his head even as his breathing grew labored.

It took too much energy and strained him far too much. He still had many assassins to survive and overcome. He needed to preserve as much as stamina as possible.

That was why he had kept his Metabody consumption to the absolute minimum.

His physical stamina was the reason that he needed to keep it to the minimum.

Rui was surprised as the man rushed forward towards Rui, launching a flurry of blows.

BAM BAM BAM!!!

His blows were surprisingly heavy.

'No…' Rui's eyes widened with realization. 'He's using a domain to accelerate his attacks!'

He was using that as well as the oxygen-depriving domain simultaneously!

Not only that, he was fighting hand-to-hand unperturbed!

"Passive mastery…" Rui murmured.

"That's right, Rui Quarrier,"

The Suffocator's voice was solemn.

"Your domains are powerful, yet you are unable to use them simultaneously. You are also unable to use them while fighting unarmed," The Suffocator's voice was gleeful. "Well then, suffocate to death. Like all those before you have."

Rui was forced to halt his combat as he began heaven-bending. He wasn't using a domain technique in particular.

WHOOSH!

No, he was just employing heaven-bending to disrupt his opponent's heaven domains.

"Good thinking," The Suffocator commented. "But unlike you, I can weave domains passively, which means…"

BAM BAM BAM!!!

Rui grimaced as he did his best to disperse the impact of the powerful blows of the man's attacks with passive Flux Earther.

Under any other circumstances, these attacks would have been quite easy to deal with, but they were particularly difficult to do so while he was doing heaven-bending.

He was truly pushed to use the Metabody System this time. Yet despite that, he still held back.

It was too early to use it, considering how much it drained his stamina.

His Martial Heart was already passively drained from taking on the first four assassins.

That was why he could not also afford to further drain it with the Hypertrophic Surge or Godspeed.

Instead, he used the stamina-preserving Metabody System with final breathing and Hungry Pain technique, allowing him to prolong his energy reserves as long as possible.

Yet that still left him with the huge problem that he was facing.

POW POW POW POW POW!!!

"What's the matter?!" The Suffocator's voice was filled with sadistic glee. "Too exhausted from previous assassins? Too concerned for assassins that are surely to come even after? Does it feel suffocating? Does it feel like you're choking? Like the walls are closing in? Like a painful death is the only foreseeable outcome?!"

The man's voice became drowned in ecstatic pleasure as he witnessed Rui's pain and suffering.

Yet, despair never entered his eyes.

No, his eyes were fixed on his opponent's.

They were waiting.

The void within his eyes unfurled.

Hungry.

Yet the Suffocator was far from done. Even as he entered what seemed to be an ecstatic and sadistic stupor, he unveiled a new domain.

Rui's eyes widened as the air around was sucked away.

The little bastard had created a vacuum around him!

Rui rushed into action!

"Heavenly Convergence!"

The target of the domain, of course, was himself.

By redirecting the vectors of force towards him, he fought back against his domain, pulling back the atmosphere as he gasped for a deep breath of air.

"Clever!" The Suffocator rushed forward to take into account the fact that Rui's hands were busy with heaven-bending.

Yet that was what Rui was waiting for.

'Breathing Crucifix.'

Yet that wasn't all.

TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP!

Rui flicked his nerves with Thunder Tap, paralyzing his diaphragm.

"…!" The Suffocator suffocated.

Rui knew he only had a few moments.

A few moments when the man couldn't breathe under the influence of two breath-crippling techniques.

BOOOOOM!!!

He fired the man with his most powerful tier-five Transverse Resonance, amplified with a temporary Hypertropic Surge.

It was a single attack.

Yet it was all that he needed.