The Martial Unity

The answers to those questions were exactly what Rui wanted them to be. Rui had already made up his mind on how to complete the mission. He would no intentions of fighting them in the village where they were most comfortable, not immediately at least. He would draw them out to the forest and finish them before they ever even knew that their enemy was a human.

At the very least, he absolutely had to fight Vranil away from the villagers and the rest of the Ruyloken gang. That was a bare minimum condition he had created for whatever plan he would enact to complete the mission.

He had computed seventeen potential plans. Out of which only four had a reasonably high probability of success. Drawing Vranil out into the woods under the pretense of Apprentice-level beast had one of the highest probabilities of success.

Furthermore, these created the best and most advantageous circumstances for Rui to fight Vranil as well. The mentality one adopted was very different from the mentality needed to fight humans. This would work against him in their fight.

"Still, he's strong." Rui murmured. "It's been a while since the difficulty grade of my mission was inaccurate."

He thought back to his very first mission nearly two years ago.

Still, this wasn't nearly as bad as that was. The mission should have been a grade-ten mission as far as difficulty went, in Rui's opinion. Vranil was almost quite likely a grade-ten Martial Artist, instead of the grade-nine that was the estimated difficulty of the mission.

Vranil was strong. His offense was even greater than was advertised. His piercing offense was lethal.

"No, it was closer to ripping than it was piercing." Rui murmured to himself. The man had not conditioned his nails to be particularly sharp or anything of the sort. He had incredibly powerful hands and grip strength. He sheared the flesh off of the bear, which was an even more impressive feat as far as Rui was concerned.

"His defense was extremely impressive too." Rui murmured. The fact that the bear was unable to hurt his hand with its bite was quite problematic, even if the bear was already weakened and damaged immensely. Rui would not be able to win the battle with a single Stinger, most likely.

His speed, however, was unflattering. Rui definitely held a significant edge in this regard and that would most certainly turn out to be a huge boon in the fight. It was an advantage Rui intended to abuse.

For now, he had done everything he needed to. Rui merely needed to wait until the next morning,

And waited he did. He consumed a few rejuvenation potions. He had been quite exhausted from the bear chase, and he also did intend to stay up until the next day until the men went out for hunting. Falling asleep would be an absolute blunder, even if he had been trained to sleep very lightly in the Martial foundation stage.

The night passed as Rui observed the gang members on guard and patrol duty than night. It seemed as though word of a potential Apprentice-level predator in the forest had spread among the men of the Ruyloken gang, as they were all extremely tensed and alert as they patrolled the village, far more so than usual.

Soon, dawn came.

And as expected, the hunting team was loaded.

Nine heavily armed men set out cautiously, early in the morning just as dawn cracked in the sky.

It was a beautiful day that inspired positivity.

Yet the men looked terrified.

"Ssshh." One of them whispered to the other. "You're making too much noise!"

"I can't help it!" The other replied. "It's literally a pouch of metal bullets!"

"Why the fuck did you bring that along with you?"

"It can save our lives! More bullets mean more firepower!"

"Idiot!" He cursed. "You won't have time to reload that many times if we do find the Apprentice-level predator!"

"Oh." Realization dawned on his face.

If Rui could understand their words, he might have burst out laughing, giving away his hidden position.

Once the men were one-hundred meters into the forest;

THACK

A sudden sound behind them drew their attention, as they instantly turned around with terrified expressions on their faces.

"It was just a stone that fell." One sighed, before his expression turned confused. "Fell from where?"

Suddenly, the air grew extraordinarily peril.

Yet, before they could even begin to process it.

THWACK

POW

BAM

...

In the span of two seconds, Rui had whizzed in and broke all the limbs of all the men.

They began screeching in pain even before they hit the ground, and Rui watched as they did.

CRACK

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHH!" One man screamed as Rui crumbled an already bone with a single step.

('I need to finish this now.')

He grabbed one of the knives, walking over to the men.

Raw terror coursed through their body as they understood what he was about to do.

Rui understood what he was about to do.

How could he not?

He could feel a part of his heart holding him back, begging him to stop as it moaned what he was about to do.

What he had to do

Every step he took forward felt heavier and heavier.

Yet, he didn't stop.

"NO! PLEA-!"

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT

The man choked in pain as Rui hacked at his body thrice swiftly, leaving deep gashes that killed him on the spot.

Rui could feel it.

He could feel the very moment the light escaped the man's eyes, sending a shudder down to his very heart.

He forcefully turned his eyes away from the corpse's eyes that still contained horror in them.

The remaining men all screamed in terror.

They screamed at the top of their voices in despair.

And then, they didn't.

Their voices died down.

One-by-one.

It happened quickly.

Yet, it took forever.

When it ended, he was surrounded by corpses. His eyes were cold, and his lips were pursed.

The worst part was that he didn't quite feel as bad as he wanted to.