The Martial Unity

Leonel awoke with his body on fire, the slight whiff of something catching his attention. The smell made his stomach growl furiously, his mouth almost dripping with water despite how dry it felt.

Leonel didn't know how his friends were being sustained, but he did know that he hadn't felt the need for water until he woke up. And, now that it had been over four days since the last time he ate, he finally couldn't suppress his hunger anymore.

It was only then that Leonel realized that the Spaniards had been roasting a full pig when he initially entered. He must have not smelt anything before because it had just started to cook.

Leonel struggled to pull himself up, peeling all the heavy armor he wore from his body. He hadn't felt this light in a very long time.

Luckily, since there was no one to tend to the fire, the embers had died off while Leonel slept, sparing the pig from being overcooked.

It was inevitable that it was still burnt in some places, especially since no one had been there to turn it, but Leonel could hardly bother to care. He ripped off a leg, devouring the meat madly.

Initially, he had believed that a leg or two would be enough. But before he realized what was happening, he had already cleaned away half of the pig. Leonel had always been a big eater, but it was always within reason. Something like eating half of a 20 kilogram pig was far beyond his means.

"I want you to find that damned entrance! There's no way that barbarian entered from the front, there must be a hidden entrance! Look at how many of our people those savages have killed!"

Words Leonel couldn't understand drifted from the hidden entrance. It became obvious quickly that he didn't have much time. All those who saw him come out of the hidden staircase were already dead. But, it was only a matter of time before they started looking for false walls.

Because Leonel had knocked down the false wall on this side without replacing it, it was much easier to hear things than it had been in the past.

Moving quickly, Leonel replaced his armor with that of the dead leader's. He was going to pour some more alcohol on his wounds first, but he was shocked to find that many of them had faded. In fact, the aches in his body from his torn muscles had become quite dull as well.

'… Food. It must be food.'

Leonel bit his lip. Where else would he get food so easily? There was no point in carrying this pig with him because it would go bad in at most a few more days. Plus, considering the pace at which he ate it, it wouldn't last that long either.

'The only option is to continue to steal food or to leave this temple…'

Leonel couldn't come up with the perfect choice now. He had to hurry.

'I came here for… there it is, the atlatl.'

Atlatl's were essentially sling shots for throwing spears. They were a wooden attachment one could slot a spear or 'long dart' into to gain more leverage. Then, using the same throwing motion one was used to, it was possible to throw more than double the distance and with much more speed and force.

To think such a thing was invented over 20 000 years ago, even before the era of the Mayans.

Leonel abandoned his hand axes, using the belt he had stolen from a Spaniard to slip in a few atlatl's. Considering they were reusable, it was unnecessary to have more than one. However, Leonel had learned to plan for the unexpected.

He kept four atlatls with him on one hip and strapped a short sword on the other. He would have taken the leader's long sword, but he had his reasons for not.

Along the walls, countless barrels of throwing spears fitted for the atlatls. Well, to call them spears was a bit inappropriate. They looked like sturdy arrows one might fire from an large-scaled crossbow.

them all. He realized after carrying around his 30 lb silver rod for so long that his body's

about a meter and a half in length and by Leonel's estimations could hold about 50 atlatls darts or

initial instinct was to try and overfill it, but he knew this would be foolish. If he failed to

'Let's test it.'

his atlatls, fitting an extra spear to it, he held its

atlatls. As for the atlatls itself, it attached to the end of the spear, allowing it to sit upon it. The body of the atlatls, which Leonel held, curved back around like an 'S' drawn much too tall and

launched the

stuck into

per second or 180 kilometers an hour. It was even still accelerating when it hit the wall, so it still had more left. The effective range

calculations, but he was even more surprised at just how much the atlatls improved his throwing ability.

of his stupor, Leonel ripped the meter and a half long dart from the wall and hid it within the barrels of spears. In case the Spaniards made

dug deep and lifted the stone that covered the hidden entrance back up and into its place. This way they wouldn't be able to tell which path he came from. Of course, he only did this after retrieving the last third

hidden entrance in this very room. In fact, he counted a total of five. It could only be said

pathway with the least activity on the other side, slipping away

the temple with the exception of the lowest which he believed must have housed the

could hear footsteps from further away, and from those footsteps he could tell everything from the height of the soldier in question to their weight. At the

he left the weaponry, he did manage to find a path outside. Once he had mapped out the hidden pathways he could use to reach it, he exited frequently,

Spaniards from the outside. Without the ability to take advantage

difficult for Leonel to find small groups to attack. As a result, he had no choice but to begin assaults on groups of four, five,

skill grew more pronounced. His throwing ability was already at a near unconscious level, but it was his combat ability that

never been formally taught in any martial arts, but as his mind spun and his deductive abilities

he would adjust his fighting style ever so slightly to account for it. Months later, Leonel no longer had to rely on his throwing prowess to gain victory against large groups. Even when battling a group of ten

bordered on fraudulent. He wasn't entirely sure how the grading system worked, but if others had higher grade abilities than what he was already able to accomplish, it would be far

single glance, he was able to categorize his opponent by giving them an athleticism score. He broke down his categories into Strength, Speed, Agility, Coordination

weigh this category by how much power a person could generate by swinging, throwing or using their best attack. In this case, it would

something Leonel categorized

direction, and how quickly a person could use their weapon —

was in using their strength, speed and agility. How

most straight forward. How long could you maintain your optimal

a scale of 0 to 1, where 0 was having this ability completely crippled and 1 represented the pinnacle of the human race. This pinnacle was something Leonel used

of Earth would have a 0.5 in the category they needed the most for their

averaged about 0.4

0.51; Agility: 0.55;

encompassed reaction speed, but also factored in the instinctual movements battle experience gave you. Of course, most of the reason Leonel's Reaction was so high wasn't due to his

opponents systematically with his self-created method, taking them down became even easier. He shamelessly targeted

those with great speed and agility, he overwhelmed them with strength. For those with great strength, he overwhelmed them with speed and agility. For those with great stamina,

numbers floating in his mind, it suddenly became easier to do what needed

growing strength, Leonel began to assault the Spanish from within the

how much time he had spent in this Sub-Dimensional Zone, but it