The Martial Unity



"How are you going to win if there are only the three of you?" Kane asked out of the blue. It was a refreshingly straightforward question.

"We have our ways," Senior Leonil snorted, knitting his eyebrows. "The numerical advantage is indeed insurmountable had we been fighting outside of Ajanta Island, but there is a reason that the three of us have dedicated many years to the sect atop this island."

Rui remained silent, but he already knew what he was referring to. He knew that of the three of them, Senior Xanarn had a Martial Art centered around sound and had inferred that one of the other two had a Martial Art centered around breathing techniques.

Their Martial Art greatly benefited from the environment, and he was certain that this was one of the reasons that they chose to reside on an island like Ajanta Island.

Otherwise, their decision to stick so strongly with Ajanta Island did not make much sense. Why would three Martial Artists spend so much time and energy on maintaining their stronghold over an isolated piece of land that floated in the sky, isolated from the rest of human civilization that could only be reached and survived by Martial Squires and above?

It made no sense unless the boost that their power got made it was vastly greater atop the island than on the ground.

He understood their motivations, but he did not feel the same way.

In a way, the three of them had essentially fallen into the same trap that Kane had been compelled to in the Thundering Valley. His newest technique greatly benefited from the environment of that place, so much so that even Kane felt tempted to never leave that place due to how powerful he felt there.

In there, not even Tokugawa Ieyasu would be able to take him down easily with how powerful the Fulminata technique was in that environment. 

Regardless, this boost in power was definitely the reason that the three of them were confident enough to take on the Martial Seniors of the Kaddar Region.

"Furthermore, we do not need to gain a decisive dominant victory," Senior Sarak continued. "We simply need to demonstrate enough power to serve as a powerful deterrent. As long as we demonstrate that we are powerful enough such that the cost of killing us and taking over the island will not be worth the price, we can force this war to end."

Rui was glad that Senior Sarak seemed like a particularly rational and logical man. He did not hold any unrealistic expectations of being able to defeat all of them in some epic clash. He had a very down-to-earth idea of how to get the war to end without a loss for the Floating Sect.

"Oh…" Kane briefly shrugged. 

"May we know why you've called us here?" Ieyasu calmly asked.

"We've called the three of you because… We believe that the three of you are qualified to partake in the battle against the Martial Seniors of the Floating Sect.

Both Ieyasu and Kane expressed surprise, only Rui had been able to predict what the man was about to say.

"What?" Kane frowned, glancing at Rui. "How are we relevant to the battle against Martial Artists who are a whole Realm above us?"

"You have already defeated Martial Artists a whole Realm above you, haven't you?" Senior Leonil asked, throwing a playful expression at Senior Xanarn.

"She was not using her Martial Heart," Ieyasu replied. "Not even I can hold a candle to a proper Martial Senior using their power properly."

"We do not expect you to fight against a Martial Senior at their most powerful," Senior Xanarn replied. "What we do need is to be able to take them down after their Martial Heart is drained, and after they have lost the source of the power that makes them Martial Seniors."

Both Kane and Ieyasu quickly caught up to what the Martial Seniors were proposing.

Kane looked uncertain while Ieyasu appeared to be a lot less hesitant to take part in such an operation. Although he, rightfully, was concerned at the prospect of fighting Martial Seniors without any caveats, he was not too concerned about fighting them without their Martial Hearts, all because he was too strong.

"I don't know… This sounds a bit too much." Kan scratched his head. 

"Did you not defeat Senior Xanarn head-on in conjunction with your friend here, managing to force her to use her full power?"

"Yeah, but that was just a spar," Kane complained. "This is the real thing."

"It may even be easier than when you faced off against Senior Xanarn, since you'd only be deployed when the Martial Seniors will have emptied out during the entirety of the fight," Senior Sarak said. "Thus you do not have to worry about facing some Senior-level combat threat, that is not realistic at all."

The fact that they would be deployed only after the Martial Seniors had exhausted their Martial Heart meant that they were not going to deal with these Martial Seniors while these Martial Artists were particularly at the peak of their power, was reassuring. 

Even Kane was less unwilling to partake in such an operation. 

Still, there were some unanswered questions left surrounding the matter. 

"Why not bring in the other peak experts among the guardians?" Ieyasu asked.

"They're not good enough," Senior Sarak shook his head. "We have considered numerous candidates, however, only the three of you were able to take down a Martial Senior without a Martial Heart."

This seemed to surprise Tokugawa Ieyasu a bit. Yet he did seem to understand nonetheless. The rest of the conversation seemed to pass on without too much more of a broader contention of disagreement. There was a lot to execute such an operation lightly, there were tons of reasons that it could easily have gone wrong if the rules and guidelines were not fully explained without going in-depth into the matter and ensuring that everyone was on the same page.