The Martial Unity

Rui activated Weaving Blood as his fists began healing from the damage they had taken from their clash with invintium. He could have used his own invintium, of course. But he didn’t feel the need to go with such an extravagant solution. She was strong, but she was not of the caliber who could push him to the limit.

’It doesn’t appear that you require medical assistance,’ Mother Alicia noted.

“I don’t,” Rui confirmed, as he flexed his hands and fingers. “All fixed. So who’s my next opponent then…?”

He directed an excited smile at the giant tree.

“Will it be you?”

He could sense amusement from the great tree.

’I’m afraid that I will have to decline. Our battle would be far too destructive to the elven warriors in this forest. This forest is a strategic facility to us; we cannot afford to have it destroyed.’

Rui heaved a sigh. “Shame.”

’What do you think of the Genoran Guardian?’

Rui directed a knowing gaze at her.

“I got an even stronger sense of the earlier critiques I made of your military power,” Rui replied. “She has great power, but she does not know how to use it. She doesn’t have much experience in true combat at all. It gives me the sense that she has recently reached this stage of power.”

’That is correct,’ she mused in his head. ’Indeed, this is a new breed of warrior that we have developed somewhat recently. We have tried focusing on creating a more discrete kind of elven warrior that relies on the Nature Path to be able to fight the powerhouses of the other continents head-on at close range.’

Rui fell into thought at those words. “I see. She did give me a different vibe entirely from the other elves, not just in power level, but also in the way that she used her power. In her case, the distinction between Outer and Inner Realms was meaningless. She used them both in great harmony to produce incredible combat results.”

’I’m glad that you feel that way,’ Mother Alicia’s tone grew appreciative. ’We have worked hard on ensuring that our combat and military prowess keep up with the rest of the world. The way we generally tend to achieve this is through biotechnological innovation to strengthen our flora and make sure that it doesn’t fall behind the technology of others, and even exceeds them and stays ahead. However, what you have seen with Mierul is one of our attempts at improving the quality of our warriors.’

“It’s a good attempt,” Rui admitted. “The issue is that no amount of manual innovation in combat can compensate for experience and battle-testing. In fact, it could be dangerous. If you blindly adopt flashy new paradigms that seem good on paper but are disastrous in practice without actually battle-testing them, you will be screwed when you actually need to rely on them to protect yourselves from a genuine enemy invasion or something. The Genoran Guardian is good, but this sort of solution does not handle the main problem.”

Clearly, Mother Alicia was aware of this as well. ’We have attempted to solve the problem of battle-testing our troops in mock wars and battles. But it has not yielded the results that we seek. We have yet to find a way to actually give our troops the experience they need without actually waging war.’

“Well, it’s either or in this case,” Rui replied. “Still, I find it hard to believe that there is no opportunity for war, considering how ripe for the taking the Genoran Continent is. Is there truly no party out there that seeks to invade this continent?”

’Aside from the occasional giant invasion, not quite, no,’ Mother Alicia admitted. ’We have been largely left alone because it is not worth attacking us relative to the losses they would undoubtedly suffer and the scant gains they could possibly make. Even the evolutionaries and the tekvores have put aside invading us because it is not something worth pursuing for them.’

It was an effective deterrence.

“What is this about a giant invasion? Do they regularly try to invade Genora?”

’The Giants have attempted to take over multiple continents in their time, but they have focused on Genora and Kiriket the most,’ she explained. ’They are drawn by the vast flora of the Genora Continent and the rich fauna of the Kiriket Continent. The only battle experience we have had in the past few centuries are against the giants.’

“That’s not too bad, then,” Rui murmured. “However, I’m assuming the scale of the attack simply isn’t large enough to give most of your people an opportunity to engage in all-out war.”

’Correct,’ she replied. ’That is partly why we have the problem that we do.’

“…In that case, if you’re truly serious about gaining fighting experience, then why not provoke the giants?” Rui raised an eyebrow.

’Provoke the giants?’

“Yes, as in, do something that draws them even more to the Genoran Continent so that they mount even more serious attempts to invade the Genoran Continent,” Rui replied. “This way, you can give your warriors some experience with a war that you have great control over and can regulate. I’m sure you elves have documented what kind of scent draws them, which means you should be able to manipulate them as you please.”

In Rui’s mind, this was quite a sensible solution to the problem, but apparently Mother Alicia didn’t think so.

’We don’t want an actual war,’ she insisted. ’We don’t want to actually trigger an actual conflict. We despise war as a civilization.’

Rui spread his arms with exasperation at the giant tree. “It’s either-or. Either you try to get some experience in an actual conflict, or you accept that your soldiers and tactics will grow increasingly brittle and unreliable the longer you go without a serious conflict.”

’We are aware of this ultimatum, we were hoping that you Martial Artists of the Panama Continent would have a solution to our dilemma,’ she replied with a hopeful tone. ’Since you are a civilization that pursues the path of conflict, disciplined and coalesced into a Martial Art, we hope that you have some means to allow us to train our dark elves without actually engaging in war.’