Squire Yuna Xeli was a native Martial Squire of the Shionel Confederation whose Martial Path was large-scale countersurveillance. She specialized in covertly taking down Martial Squires after scouting them from further away than she could be scouted.
In short, long-range senses were her specialty. She had mastered multiple grade-nine techniques that allowed her to accurately and in a detailed manner scan.
That was why she rejoiced when she learned about the special traits of the Shionel Dungeon, the fact that it could jam senses to an extreme degree may have seemed like it was her antithesis, but in reality, it made her services all the more valuable.
She received an astonishingly luxurious contract with Deacon Industries, offering her powerful sensory services as a high-grade sensory Martial Artist.
She wasn’t as incapacitated as the other Martial Artists in the dungeon, this made her extremely useful in dungeon raids and dungeon exploration.
However, what others didn’t know was that she was also equally a covert operations-oriented Martial Artist as she was a sensory Martial Artist.
Among the techniques that she had created was the Lying Corpse technique. A technique where she manipulated her body such that she was indistinguishable from a corpse. Her body temperature lowered to match that of a cadaver, she reduced her heart rate and made her heartbeat motions extraordinarily slow so that they basically would not be detected unless someone knew to look for it.
Her breathing was extremely slowed down as well, allowing her to sustain her body with oxygen in an extremely discrete manner.
This was a technique she used to, literally, play dead. It helped in circumstances where she didn’t think she could get away alive.
Circumstances like the Root floor of the Shionel Dungeon. Given that she served as the scout of a thousand-strong army of high-grade Martial Squires, led by five grade-ten Martial Squires? She didn’t think anything could possibly go wrong.
She didn’t realize how wrong she was until the actual conflict began.
It was overwhelming. The Martial Artists did their best to resist, and to their credit, didn’t take too little to defeat them, but she realized very soon that they were doomed. They stood no chance of victory whatsoever.
Each root was as powerful and fast as a grade-ten Martial Squire, they were unquestionably weaker. And it became apparent very early on.
Instead of choosing to die, she chose to literally play dead on the spot. She had considered running away, but that would single her out from a crowd, and the roots would definitely target her. As such, she had no choice but to feign death and fall to the ground as a corpse. She had no chance of defeating even a single root.
Her senses did not cover the entire floor, far from it, she could only sense what was happening across a portion of the floor.
She witnessed as the Martial Squires put up a vain resistance, dying one by one until the last one remained.
Captain Deacon.
He put an admirable and immensely powerful resistance, taking on more root attacks than she could count, but even he eventually retreated. He was the only one who could turn his back to the root, get struck, and still be able to continue running.
Just as Squire Yuna thought that Captain Deacon would escape, a new figure arrived out of nowhere seemingly, killing Captain Deacon with two strikes.
𝑶𝑽𝔩xt.𝔠𝑂𝓜
His words seemed to anger the otherwise calm and collected Captain Deacon.
(‘How was he able to sense him?’) She wondered with shock. (‘For him to know that the battle has ended, and to know that Captain Deacon was escaping, he would have to have a huge sensory range…’)
Blood drained from her face when she realized who this individual was as she felt a tremendous amount of fear.
The Voider.
Every Martial Squire in the Shionel Dungeon, and perhaps across the entire eastern side of the continent, had heard legends about them. A singular force said to possess unfathomable power within the Squire Realm, capable of equaling one thousand Martial Squires!
As someone who had regularly been covered by international media for quite some time, his infamy had spread.
She felt an immense amount of dread of actually seeing him, she had no doubt that she stood no chance against him in combat, given that he was said to be an extraordinary grade-ten Martial Squire.
She was even terrified that he would detect her, but he didn’t even though he was extremely vigilant.
What followed next blew her mind away. He moved so fast that she couldn’t even perceive him. He, along with the roots, was too fast for even her to react to. But she could still sense the sheer magnitude of the feat that he was accomplishing.
Dozens, hundreds, and at one point even a thousand!
His graceful movements allowed him to sharply evade every single attack that came his way!
She could not fathom how a Martial Squire could possibly evade so many high-grade roots attacking him simultaneously. She grew entranced as she watched the sheer magic that she was witnessing. She understood that this was not somebody that could be defined by any semblance of normality. What he was accomplishing was absolutely insane. He was either the world’s greatest genius or the world’s greatest fool.
As time passed, she simply stayed put, hoping that she would eventually get out. She prayed that she didn’t get hit by a stray attack, fortunately, she was quite far away. She still didn’t dare indicate that she was alive.
At some point, she felt a Senior-level aura, shocking her. She extended her senses as far as she could only to discover with absolute shock that the roots of the Root were harming the latter!
Things soon calmed down after that, the roots fell flat to the ground, growing inactive. She had no idea what had happened to the Voider, but she didn’t care, she had enough reason to get up and sprint out of the floor at top speed, even breaking into a sob after she realized she wasn’t dying.