The Martial Unity

"Did you take a rejuvenation potion?" She asked, tilting her hair squinting her brown eyes with curiosity. "You did mention you had some."

Rui shook his head. "Those were for rejuvenating the mind, negating the need to sleep."

Bella nodded, well familiar with mental rejuvenation potions herself. "How do you have so much stamina?"

"It comes from honing my stamina through strict intense physical training, and also from an Apprentice-level Martial Art technique called Helical Breathing." Rui explained. "It saves increases efficiency of energy consumption, allowing you to accomplish the same results with less effort."

"Hmmm..." Bella nodded. "Must be nice to be a Martial Artist. You have so much power, you must feel incredibly secure and confident."

Rui thought about her words. It was true to some degree, unless his opponent was a Martial Apprentice, there wasn't much that ordinary humans could do. However, it wasn't something he really thought of. He never began his voyage down his Martial Path in order to obtain more physical power. His goal was to practice and develop his Martial Art forever, just that alone gave him true elation and fulfillment.

The physical security was ultimately just a good bonus, it was not his motivation or his goal.

Furthermore, having spent most of his time in the Academy since he became an Apprentice, he hadn't experienced much of the sense of increased security. Since as soon as he broke through to Martial Apprentice, he was immediately booted out of the Exploration Stage and shipped to the Apprentice section. He was immediately surrounded by Martial Apprentices who initially all much stronger than him.

There were, of course, the Martial Apprentices of his batch, who were all stronger than him. Then there were Martial Apprentices of the senior batches who had accumulated more techniques and experience than the Martial Apprentices of his own batch.

It was not easy to feel physically secure when all of your peers were stronger than you.

he had spent outside the Academy was when he went home for the winter break, but that was incredibly brief, he hadn't really

strong sense of security in this mission. As a Martial Apprentice, realistically only another Martial Apprentice could threaten him, and this mission would be, at the very least, a

extremely unlikely given that this a low-grade mission, so he was alert,

security is good."

this catastrophe has shown me how

you are helpless, like all humans." Rui straightforwardly affirmed. "But once you consolidate your position within the Hier Industries, your power would far exceed mine. There is more than one kind of power, I pursue Martial Art because I love

didn't strike me

this is a mission, I'm expected to

little conversation?" Bella asked, with just the slightest

Rui shrugged.

to lift her mood up slightly, but he didn't want to say that out loud.

I appreciate it." She rested her chin on his shoulder.

Rui

obscure routes and paths through district fourteen, a few hours later they had finally reached

huff..."

tired. After considering his situation, he decided to take one

thought you were planning on saving those."

last three days." Rui stated. "I think if you had a more nuanced understanding of what Martial Apprentices were capable of, you would

"How so?" Bella wondered.

evaluation from the Martial Academy was well above the difficulty grade assigned to