The Martial Unity

The Kingdom of Violis was sending supply shipments of particular esoteric resources that were necessary for maintaining the communication technology that facilitated remote communication in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.

This was the supply shipment that Rui was supposed to be targeting.

When Rui had finished scrolling through the mission bill, he had come to understand the greater picture behind the motives of the mission.

('They're trying to cripple Vinfrana,') Rui concluded.

Although the Kingdom of Violis was the prime target of the commission. Although the supply shipment was from the Kingdom of Violis, the Kingdom did not lose anything regardless of whether the supply shipment made it through or not, though they most certainly would be losing a Martial Squire.

The mission bill clarified the identity of the true client as well, referring to some hotshot from a neighboring nation.

As for why they were trying to accomplish what they were, Rui couldn't care less.

"This doesn't fit all that bad," Rui murmured as he tried on the Martial Art garb that he was obliged to.

"We've bought various different fits for different physicalities," The assistant added. "Furthermore, they're self-adjusting to a certain degree, thus there should be no problem. Of course, if there is a problem, feel free to try another."

"It's fine," Rui finished adjusting, testing it out.

Once he was done with that, he could focus on finishing the mission.

He immediately took the air, flying high as he headed east, towards the supply route that the supply shipment convoy was supposed to be taking.

Reaching the Kandrian border took him only fifteen minutes, however, he needed to keep himself to the ground while he was out of the country.

Especially when he was wearing the garb, as that could potentially violate the non-exposure clause in the contract.

('Which means I cannot travel through the many nations on the way to the traveling route between the Kingdom of Violis and Vinfrana.') Rui noted.

Generally, he transited past the many small, satellite sovereign nations that were in the geographic surroundings of the Kandrian Empire.

('That might make the journey longer,')

He would need to take certain detours around these states and travel through the small cracks in between their borders.

('If it's a nation with no Martial Squires though, I don't need to bother.') Rui shrugged.

These nations were too weak to stop him even if he dashed passed their sovereign borders.

Regardless, he needed to get to his destination as fast as possible.

('The convoy has actually already been dispatched a day ago. I need to make sure that I intercept them at the right point in the convoy's journey to the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.')

He simply needed to camp ahead of time at a particularly suitable location and ambush the convoy when it did reach him. Thankfully, he had gotten pretty detailed information on the convoy's structure and constituents, its speed and path among other things.

('This seems about right,') Rui reached a particular spot on a hill.

Down below, a large, wide road of sorts winded as far as the eye could see in both directions.

He had reached a point on the route that the convoy in question would run into in about an hour or so.

He didn't want to reach a point that was too close to the convoy at the time that he would arrive for he might not get the timing right. He wanted enough time to where he could choose a good spot that would allow him to spot the convoy coming but was probably too far for any of the few sensory Martial Artists that he had been informed would be present.

As for the measure he took?

"Huff..."

He sat down behind a tree.

He was monitoring the situation with both Seismic Mapping and Tempestuous Feel, so there was no risk that he would somehow miss the convoy passing through at this point.

In truth, Rui didn't intend on exploiting his element of surprise too much. He didn't want to land a critical blow on his Martial Squire opponent via such a method. That would render the whole point of the mission rather meaningless.

He would let the crew members, including the Martial Apprentices, escape, so he could have a fair one-on-one with his opponent so that he could test how effective the Flux Earther technique was against a powerful impact-centric Martial Artist like.

If he managed to land a critical blow when his opponent was unharmed, then the following fight would likely become meaningless.

Of course, Rui was aware that this attitude wasn't exactly most commensurate with the mission, which was defeating and killing his opponent at all costs and subsequently handicapping the supply shipment. Furthermore, he didn't have unlimited time as the surviving crew members would no doubt manage to contact the Kingdom of Violis and reinforcements would be dispatched the moment they alerted their home nation of the ambush.

This meant that Rui had to work fast the moment that he initiated the ambush. Thankfully, his opponent was an offensive Martial Artist. Had he been a defensive or an endurance-type Martial Artist, then Rui would certainly have had an incredibly hard time trying to take them down within a short amount of time.

But the situation was a lot more manageable since his opponent was an offensive Martial Artist. Now, as long as he exploited his opponent's weaknesses while mitigating his strengths well enough like he always did, then he would be able to pull a win.

In the worst-case scenario, Rui didn't think his life was in danger. At worst, he highly doubted if the Martial Artist in question could possibly restrain him from escaping. A Martial Artist that focused on using torque to deliver highly potent singular impacts was likely far unqualified to be able to prevent Rui from escaping from the scene.

While he would fail the mission, he would gain partial credit for the attack, and while failing sucked, staying alive was worth it.