The Martial Unity

Rui regarded her words with approval.

She was right. Victory in war was very different from victory in a duel between Martial Artists.

They weren’t even remotely comparable. Not only were the conditions for what counted as a victory in the war different from the conditions for victory in a duel but the way one would go about the former was very different from the way one would in a duel.

That was the purpose of the little briefing that was being held for the Martial Masters of the Kandrian Empire.

“Killing one opponent and wounding another is considered a failure if you allow the latter to reach the Kandrian Empire while you’re busy killing the former,” Master Sera calmly informed the gathering of Masters here. “Injuring both opponents and ensuring that they remain with you and don’t go anywhere, on the other hand, is considered a victory. I only hold these briefings because none of us have gotten any pressing border defense experience in recent times. Thus, it would behoove all of you to shake off all individualistic notions of victory in this operation.”

It was a prudent choice.

There were probably several Martial Masters who would have fought with the intention of obtaining individual victories as much as possible.

She had keenly realized that and sought to break them out of this mindset rather than have such fools ruin the operation she was assigned to be the head of.

The reason that she was assigned to be the head of the Master-level interception force was rather simple.

She was the strongest.

Out of all one hundred and eighty-five Martial Masters in the Kandrian Empire, she was the absolute strongest without any dispute. She was one of the three grade-thirty Martial Masters that existed in all of East Panama and was considered to be a Sage seed, someone with a particularly high probability of breaking through.

“We’re outnumbered,” she continued. “The Sekigahara Confederate has essentially depleted all available Master-level resources in their nation at the time and thrown them at us. If not for the fact that we have a mysterious surge in the number of Martial Masters recently, we would be outnumbered even more significantly.”

No one here knew that Rui was responsible for the accelerated breakthroughs except for theHarbinger herself and the headmasters and headmistresses of the academies who had cooperated with him on the breakthroughs.

It was true that without Rui, there would be much fewer Martial Masters at their disposal. Not only had he introduced the voidlet techniques all those years ago that were finally spreading to all layers of the Senior Realm, but he also broke them through in his spare time.

If not for that, they would be screwed in many ways, but Rael had taken all of this into consideration when he sent so many Martial Masters and Sages to the Beast Domain to get their hands on precious treasures that could be further used to elevate the Kandrian Empire.

“However, while we have a numeric disadvantage, we do have the element of surprise.” Master Sera smiled. “All of our Martial Bodies are substantially stronger than ever before, unbeknownst to them and thanks to the Divine Doctor. Furthermore, we have trained for six years in the manifold, having made noticeable progress. On top of that, the information about our accelerated Master-level breakthroughs has not been disclosed yet. Thus, their numerical advantage will be much less than they were informed of.”

A smile cracked at the edge of her mouth. “These miscalculations will catch them off-guard and will allow us to kill more than we can after they adapt. Faulty intelligence can be devastating if exploited correctly. And the way to do that is…”

Her smile grew sinister. “…to push yourself to the limit to kill as many of them at the very inception of the battle when they will be caught most off-guard.”

The Masters listening to her stirred. “The shock from the faulty intelligence and the sudden deaths of several of their allies will most likely inflict a psychological blow,” Master Sera continued with a knowing tone. “However, this will only amount to an advantage; it cannot singlehandedly turn the tides of the battle in our favor. After all, we’re fighting the damn Sekigahara Confederate. Those bastards participate in wars multiple times every day. They’re in their home element while we’re outside our comfort zone due to the lack of serious war since the last Great East Panamic War.”

Rui nodded appreciatively.

Her analysis of the psychological aspects of war was spot-on.

Then again, perhaps it ought not to be much of a surprise, considering her specialty and her Martial Path.

She was the only Martial Master he knew who possessed an academic degree aside from himself. She was a licensed therapist and psychiatrist in the Kandrian Empire, graduating from the Kandrian Institute of Humanities with honors when she had been a Senior. Of course, she didn’t just do it for fun. No.

It had to do with her Martial Path.

Trauma Induction.

She diagnosed the mental health of her opponent’s mid-battle using a system of thought created by her background in psychiatry and identified mental, emotional, temperamental, and personality weaknesses and damage in their mind.

And then, she broke them.

To be more precise, she used a second system of thought to identify exactly what needed to be communicated to them in order to trigger PTSD, panic and anxiety attacks, and mental and emotional breakdowns.

And in their mentally weakened state, she killed them.

She was also the only known Martial Artist in history to win battles by making her opponent commit suicide.

Not a single Martial Master dared to challenge her to combat. Not even a spar.

Nor did she accept the challenge that Rui had issued to her during his time in the manifold grinding for experience.

“Ah, young man.” She had laughed at him. “I can’t control my power. I would hate to make your path to the Sage Realm harder than it already is.”

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