The Martial Unity



Yet the Martial Seniors frowned when Rui voiced his thoughts about his limitations and conditions.

"Requiring firsthand data on them ahead of time is troubling but not too hard to accommodate," Senior Xanarn murmured. "But the idea that you can partake in many battles at once is one that I find troubling to accept and allow. It is already pushing it to allow you three to take on Martial Seniors once their Martial Hearts have been burned out."

Rui shrugged. "It was just a suggestion. It would be easier for me to partake in a single battle at a time, so I don't necessarily mind going this route."

Rui was happy that they found him qualified to partake in Senior-level battles, even if there were heavy caveats.

None of the other guardians had been treated this way barring the ones in the room. It meant that the Martial Seniors were put the three of them above the rest.

Of course, In the case of Rui and Kane, it was partly because of how overpowered the teamwork that they demonstrated against Senior Xanarn was.

In the case of Ieyasu, he was powerful enough in his own right.

"We will require you to be on standby, available at any moment to jump into the battle." Senior Leonil added. "We can't afford to send a signal to you while we're in the middle of combat, you'll have to use your own judgments about when it is most apt to jump into the fights, but it definitely has to be after we have drained the Martial Hearts of all the Martial Seniors at hand."

This definitely made sense, given how intense the battles were going to be. The three Martial Seniors were going to be completely consumed with fighting against their enemies. They could not dedicate any attention to coordinating the attacks of three Martial Squires.

"One thing that you ought to know about Martial Seniors and Martial Hearts is that it isn't as though the Martial Heart switches on and off like a switch, it isn't binary." Senior Sarak explained. "The Martial Heart slowly declines in power across time, much like how one's normal combat power declines over time as one continues exerting one's self and draining one's stamina."

That made sense. The physical power of any Martial Artist, or any human or beast naturally declined over time due to continuous exertion in a fight, it was never a sharp decline, and it made sense the same would be true for the Martial Heart, as the Martial Heart was merely a hidden and locked extension of the full power of the Martial Body.

"Pay attention to the physical indications of the Martial Heart," Senior Xanarn told them. "The glowing blood vessels are one thing for sure, the Martial Heart cannot be used without such a thing happening. Furthermore, once the combat speed of the fights is something you can keep up with, then you can be sure that all parties have completely exhausted their Martial Hearts at that point."

This was also a good pointer. 

Martial Seniors were far too fast for any individual Martial Squire to keep up with when they were operating with their Martial Hearts, once the three of them could actually keep up with the Martial Seniors, then that was a good sign that the two of them.

"Given that two of you have Martial Art that grows stronger in battle with time, it is best that you only observe the first battle between us and the Martial Seniors of the Kaddar Treaty Organization." Senior Leonil commented.

Immediately, Rui and Ieyasu exchanged a glance.

Both of them knew that Kane was not included in that statement, and they immediately learned more information about each other.

('Well, I always figured that his copying took time,') Rui mused.

There was no way that he could do it instantly at the start of the battle, that would be absurd.

('But can't he just use other Martial Art that he has copied in the past?') Rui wondered.

After all, he fought Senior Xanarn and copied and even evolved her Martial Art, couldn't he just use that Martial Art in the battle against the Martial Seniors?

The fact that Senior Leon stated that he required time most likely meant that for some reason he could not, since that wouldn't have required any time.

If so, that was a limitation that Rui hadn't expected. It was interesting to know that his imitative evolution wasn't flawless and perfect.

This made Rui a little more confident about beating him in the future once he trained enough and became strong enough to.

Regardless, that wasn't on his mind at the moment.

He had just been asked to fight Martial Seniors, as a Martial Squire. Martial Artists who were all an entire Realm above him were going to attack and try and kill him, yet he didn't feel despair.

If anything, he actually felt excited. Testing his adaptive evolution against the very limits of what he could possibly handle was definitely something he felt a great amount of anticipation for. It was a testament to how powerful his Martial Art was at the end of the day. Just the fact that he had been called in for consideration in regards to how he could impact battles that were a Realm above him at this point in time was a testament to the power of his Martial Heart.

The same was true for the Martial Art of Kane and Ieyasu, the two of them were most certainly quite powerful too.

"The attack will be coming soon," Senior Sarak warned them. "We have begun evacuation protocols of the staff members, and cautionary guidelines for the guardians. Use this opportunity to get a good understanding of the Senior Realm as well as your opponents so that you can take them down when the time comes. The key is to utilize the element of surprise that will come with your initial participation in a Senior-level battle.