The Martial Unity

A small ripple spread through the lower classes of guardians of the Floating Sect. In hindsight, everybody was certainly aware of the ways of scavenger guardians. It had become evident to everybody that Rui had become their target from the moment he was challenged by Squire Drevolus.

Rui came to learn that this pattern had occurred multiple times in the past. The man in question, guardian Seronin, had slowly climbed up, chamber by chamber. Furthermore, Rui learned that he always had an offensive Martial Squire and a defensive Martial Squire fight his target, recruiting weaker Martial Artists and promising to help them reach higher chambers in exchange.

Essentially, Guardian Drevolus and Fzartil were being treated as crutches to help him become stronger than he normally was.

The more Rui heard, the more disgusted he became. It was gross to him looking at someone with a Martial Art in the same field being so pathetic that he needed to go through such a song and dance just to fight a duel. The idea that the man was so insecure in his Martial Art that he did not feel the confidence to win even a single simple duel against anybody, as well as the fact that he would go through such means to try and secure victory was almost offensive to Rui.

He noticed his reaction was definitely leaning towards exaggerated, but apparently, he was touchy when it came to matters surrounding his Martial Path, clearly. Just thinking about the fact that this man had an adaptive Martial Art like him irritated him a lot.

Normally, Rui would not have been too invested in a duel against a guardian of a lower chamber. But in the next ten days, he tempered his mind and body, preparing for the duel. He wanted to ensure that there was absolutely no chance of him losing the duel to guardian Seronin.

"Aren't you taking this too seriously?" Kane scratched his head as he came across Rui meditating under increased pressure.

"Perhaps," Rui murmured as he opened his eyes. "However, it isn't as though there are no stakes at all whatsoever. I will lose my chamber if I lose. I don't to grow relaxed."

"Yes, but you seem like you're going to kill the guy," Kane remarked. "Not that that's an issue. That dickhead can die for all I care, but relax a bit."

Rui considered his words. Perhaps he was right, he did feel a little stressed recently. Although his drive to become stronger most certainly grew ever since he left the Shionel Confederation, it also made the journey of developing his Martial Art less enjoyable.

That was definitely a negative. But he hadn't even noticed it thus far.

"Fuuu…" Rui exhaled deeply, relaxing every muscle in his body. Just that simple gesture alone made him feel more at ease. "Good advice."

It was at moments like these that he appreciated Kane's cool simplicity. He definitely had a point.

Still, it wasn't going to change Rui's thoughts on the matchup. He did not intend to hold back against Squire Seronin.

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye as the allotted time for the duel came.

"Woah," Kane murmured once the two of them entered the colosseum. "There are a lot of guardians today."

"Yeah…" Rui glanced around the spectator stands briefly.

It seemed that word of Squire Seronin aiming for the nine hundred and first chamber with his little tactics had spread. Rui getting the nine hundred and first chamber in the first place directly as an initiate was quite exciting in and of itself, but Seronin trying to make a quick pass to reach the top of the tenth class would be quite startling.

Rui guessed that most of the guardians disliked guardian Seronin, after all, he was trying to beat them using tactics that did not translate to real strength. If he did end up beating Rui, he would be above ninety-nine other such Martial Squires, many of whom were above him prior.

('Even if he does beat me, he's going to get swarmed with challenges from these disgruntles Martial Squires who don't approve of him,') Rui mused.

Either way, it was a lose-lose for him. There was no way he was going to be able to keep the nine hundred and first chamber regardless.

('This is what happens when you try substituting real power with cheap tricks,') Rui snorted inwardly. ('If he spent all this time and energy on actually improving and developing his Martial Art earnestly, he would definitely be able to climb higher without needing to rely on such pathetic tactics. He would probably end up making more progress this way than otherwise.')

Of course, the fact that he retained his chamber for this long meant that he certainly wasn't weak. He couldn't prepare against initiates this way, and it meant that he certainly had some merit.

But it was precisely because of that that Rui felt a little irked. If he was already this strong, it meant that he had to have worked to obtain that power. It meant that he was capable of developing his Martial Art with individuality.

Yet, for some reason, he chose to go down this path.

Had he been a weakling who had no choice, it would have been understandable, but that was not the case here. This mean could have been a peer to Rui, who could have been a valuable acquaintance.

After all, in all the years that Rui had been exposed to Martial Art, he had never come across anything remotely similar. It took him traveling across the continent to finally run into one in a place where Martial Artists gathered. While other Martial Squires interacted with people with similar Martial Paths, this was Rui's very first time and he should have been excited to finally meet someone he could perhaps compare notes with or learn a thing or two, or at least gain a new perspective if nothing else.

But unfortunately, things didn't turn out that way.