The Martial Unity

It wasn’t long before Rui took off from the Quarrier Orphanage, heading away. As much time as he would like to spend with his family, he had other people he needed to speak with.

WHOOSH

He shot through the sky, running at incredible speeds through the skies of Kandria. One thing that he needed to do immediately was check up on his Master friends and make sure that they were okay.

He felt guilty that it had been a month since the battle with the Sekigahara Confederate, and he still didn’t know if all of them had made it through. Of course, he was implicitly certain since he would have received some message on the matter.

He didn’t blame them for not showing up for him when he woke up in the medical ward of Kandrian medical ward out of some expectation that they should have shown up. He was not a prince who needed to be coddled.

He was a prince, of course.

Just one that needed to be coddled when Masters had many important matters to tend to.

Ever since the war officially broke out. Masters had ceased international activity and spent more time in the Kandrian Empire.

Outside of the highly lucrative Beast Domain missions, it was not worth it to leave the Kandrian Empire behind in the middle of a war in what was shaping up to be the greatest war in the history of the Age of Martial Art. Manning the borders, reinforcing strong alliances, intelligence operations, and strategic deterrence. There was no end to the kinds of operations that the Masters could undertake to aid the Kandrian Empire’s strategic outlook.

Rui had no doubt that all of them were busy undertaking such duties and roles in the war against the East Panamic Treaty Alliance.

One thing that did reduce the burden that Masters would experience in the war was the death of a hundred and nine Sekigaharan Masters. Their deaths reduced the enemy-to-friendly Master ratio significantly.

Although they still had more Masters in total, even after all of Rael’s strategies to cripple their power, it was nowhere enough to decisively overwhelm them with a horrifically pyrrhic victory where there were no winners and only losers.

“It makes the war for allies that much more important, too.” Rui realized. “Looks like I cannot delay my decision for too long.”

STEP

He eventually arrived at the Town of Hrava, where the Longranger Sect was based. An enormous Martial Pavilion stretched out, accommodating many target ranges and a variety of other training resources for long-range offensive techniques. Within its walls, Rui could sense a large number of Martial Artists and aspiring Martial Artists training vigorously, no doubt in higher intensity due to the jolting inception of the war.

“Your Highness.”

The Senior-level guards outside of the pavilion bowed to the Master and prince.

“I’m here to see Ceeran, may I?”

“Of course, Your Highness, we have received special instructions from his Mastery to allow you in as though you were our own.”

Rui smiled as they opened the massive gates to let him in; it wasn’t long before Master Ceeran arrived, having learned of Rui’s visit.

“Rui! You’re back!” His ecstatic grin was infectious. “We were really afraid after the first ten days, but I’m glad you woke up. I heard that there were no complications regarding your recovery.”

“Yeah, thankfully, it wasn’t anything severe or critical; my brain just needed some extra rest to recover from the extra strain,” Rui reassured him.

Those words understated the issue by a bit, earning a frown. “I won’t blame you since I understand why you did it, and the end outcome was better than anything we could have ever hoped for. Still, be careful. Don’t ever do it again.”

Rui nodded. “I don’t intend to put myself in that position ever again. If not for Kane, I would have never done that.”

Master Ceeran nodded. “Good. I’m glad you took the time to come here and visit me. I would have come to you myself, but…”

He heaved a sigh.

“Are you in the middle of training?” Rui raised an eyebrow.

Master Ceeran nodded. “My power is far too insufficient. For the past year inside the manifold, I’ve been developing a new technique that will allow me to hold off against other Masters and even win. I cannot let myself be so vulnerable ever again.”

The battle with the Sekigaharan Confederate had been a bit of a wake-up call for the Masters of Kandria.

For the first time in what was probably decades, they felt what it was like to be vulnerable in a perilous situation where they could be felled at any moment and be entirely powerless to stop

it.

If there was one thing that the Sekigaharan Masters were far superior to the Kandrian Masters at, it would be war preparedness. They were fully accustomed to the perils of war that could reduce even mighty Masters to background victims.

While the fact that they won ensured that the Kandrian Masters didn’t let it dampen morale, many of them realized that they had been far too overconfident in their status as Masters.

In that battle, they felt exactly what a common foot soldier felt in war.

Perhaps they felt it even more strongly.

After all, Masters were essentially invincible in day-to-day human civilization. They were at the top of the food chain in an overwhelming majority of the Human Domain, after all. They were deeply unaccustomed to feeling vulnerable when Sages weren’t around. Thus, a lot of Kandrian Masters had found themselves more lacking than they’d like to admit. Thankfully, they took the hint with grace and immediately worked on shoring up their shortcomings. Ordinarily, it was too late to make up for one’s weaknesses after the war began, but thanks to the manifold, each month that passed on the outside world gave them a little over a year to make up for their weaknesses in combat.

“I’ve even been contemplating going back to Vilun Island to visit the G’ak’arkan Tribe to gain some inspiration from their unique techniques,” Master Ceeran remarked. “The Martial Union is considering garnering their Martial capital to aid us in the war; perhaps I shall pay them a visit then.”