The Martial Unity

"Which territory were you assigned to?" Rui asked Fiona.

"The State Hreefal." She replied. "You?"

"Kingdom of Nochus."

Rui found it a shame that they weren't working together, but the decision wasn't in their hands.

"Martial Apprentices assigned to the Kingdom of Nochus." Commissioner Carnes addressed all of them at one point. "The data regarding the defenses of the territory of the Kingdom of Nochus are present in the mission bill each of you was provided, but I'll be breaking it down once more."

He projected some images onto the wall of the room they were all in.

"The Kingdom of Nochus has opted for a rather straightforward standard fortification structure. The territory is protected by a rather straightforward large spiked wall that prevents entry. The wall has openings through which heavy artillery can be mounted and fired. The twenty-four of you are best off simply bypassing the wall from the top. With your capabilities, it cannot prevent your entry indefinitely." Commissioner Carnes explained. "Remember, your goal isn't necessarily to conquer but to hinder and obstruct their expansion capabilities."

The Martial Artists nodded, well aware of their role. Rui glanced around him, counting the number of Martial Apprentices that were assigned to the Kingdom of Nochus. A total of twenty-four Martial Apprentices were assigned to the mission. It was a rather formidable offensive force that would be no doubt extremely difficult to counter. Especially considering that each of the Martial Apprentices was high ranking Martial Apprentices.

Rui sighed as he sensed the hostility of Ian Nepomniachtchi from the crowd. It was rather unfortunate that he was paired with the hostile Martial Apprentice, Rui would rather have been assigned a different target.

Soon, it was time for dispatch. The Martial Apprentices all prepared themselves as the time for the commencement of the assaults began.

They all set out in the direction of their respective targets immediately. The Serevian Dungeon was as large as a small city, however, that wasn't too big a problem for the Martial Apprentices. It didn't take more than twenty minutes for the Martial Apprentices to arrive at the target territories that they were supposed to assault.

Suddenly, Rui's Primordial Instinct warned him about a barrage of attacks from the enemy base.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

Rui avoided cannon balls that narrowly missed their targets as each of the Martial Apprentices dealt with them in their own way. Each of them was high-grade Martial Apprentices that had been chosen by the Martial Union to partake in the Serevian Dungeon wars and the assault on the territories of the Kingdom of Nochus.

BAM!

One of them blasted the canon balls into tiny smithereens with a fist. Another simply rampaged forward through the attacks that barely fazed them. Rui merely shifted slightly as he moved the bare minimum needed to evade them.

BOOM!!!

One of the Martial Apprentices, a burly large man, landed a staggering blow to the fortified wall. The sheer force with which he struck the barrier was tremendous.

CRACK CRACK

A deep web of cracks formed on the fortified walls. The materials with which the walls were constructed were certainly not average as they managed to not instantly get utterly annihilated by the devastating attack that the Martial Apprentices had unleashed.

BAM BAM BAM!

The other Martial Apprentices took that as a cue as they launched a barrage of attacks on the damaged wall.

BOOM!

RUMBLE

An entire section of the fortified wall collapsed as the weight of the attacks of the Martial Apprentices was simply too much. The Martial Apprentices rushed in immediately, yet they were immediately met by enemy Martial Apprentices.

A battle ensued as Martial Apprentices clashed with each other.

Rui simply walked in as he looked for the most powerful Martial Apprentice. Primordial Instinct precisely gave him the danger evaluations of every Martial Apprentice in the vicinity, thus he could tell that the Martial Apprentices of the Kandrian Empire were stronger.

It likely had to do with the fact that the Martial Union went above and beyond in investing in the growth and development of Martial Artists and Martial Art. A small country like the Kingdom of Nochus simply couldn't compete with the Kandrian Martial Union as far as the growth of Martial Art and Martial Artists went. This clearly reflected in the difference in the quality of Martial Artists.

Rui didn't feel much threat despite being in the middle of a war between Martial Apprentices. His sense of security was simply too high, at this point.

"Him." Rui muttered as he fixated on one individual who was casually defending from the attacks of two grade-nine Martial Apprentices of the Martial Union.

Rui dashed towards him at an incredibly swift pace.

BOOM!!

He exploited a momentary pause in the battle between the three Martial Apprentices as he rammed into his target with a heavy Flowing Canon, separating him from the Martial Apprentices that he had been taking on.

"I'll take this guy on," Rui told them.

He didn't even bother listening to their response as he began unleashing an onslaught of attacks on his opponent with extreme power and speed.

Yet, much to his joy, his opponent cleanly redirected every attack with surprising accuracy, precision and success.

('Hehehe. I'm going enjoy this one.') Rui grinned behind his mask.

His opponent was a defense-oriented Martial Artist. He had a clear focus and slant toward active defense.

Active defenses were defenses that required the conscious cognition of the user to function. The Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift, and Acute Edge techniques were all dynamic. These techniques required the user to process and time them correctly, otherwise, they were simply ineffective. The advantage of active defenses was that they were much more flexible their effectiveness didn't usually have a hard upper limit and often depended on the skill of the user and the accuracy of the timing of the user.

Rui enjoyed fighting against active defenses, they were a better exercise for the VOID algorithm and allowed him to thoroughly test the offensive prowess of his opponent.