The Martial Unity

The supply dispatch had exited borders of the town of Hajin just under two hours. The Apprentices in the carriage had already perked up, growing more and more alert. They had decided that at the very least a minimum of three of them ought to keep a lookout at any given point in time.

Although the dispatch naturally had guards on horses forming something of a perimeter around the dispatch team, surveilling their surroundings, Martial Apprentices were still better. The Foundational Stage of the Academy carefully trained sensory awareness as well as their kinetic vision well beyond the norm. And the discovery of the Martial Path further raised those attributes and parameters above the conventional limit.

Three Martial Apprentices keeping an eye from within a carriage were better sources of surveillance than all the guards on horses outside.

Rui was currently off-surveillance duty along with Dalen. He used this time to gather his thoughts.

('According to the intel provided by the Martial Union, the bandits likely operate by incapacitating the dispatch convoy by crippling their means of transport.') Rui mused. ('In most cases that involves damaging the carriages sufficiently enough and slaughtering the horses.')

The reason the bandits did this was because the chances of survival of any travelling convoy was minimal if they could not maintain a high mode of transport.

Thus, even in the unlikely situation that a travelling transport or supplies dispatch convoy had the means to counter them, they would not be able to escape their predicament easily at all. The bandits could simply retreat and wait until for the right moment to launch an ambush.

Of course, thus far not a single travelling convoy had been able to successfully resist the bandit ambushes.

('Yet despite this, they continue with the norms of crippling the means of transportation in their initial strike.') Rui thought. ('That sounds uncharacteristically careful for bandits.')

were not careful and methodic like an organized strike force. Yet all the data that Rui had gone through indicated that this bandit group was more akin to the

of criminals, that was much scarier than messing with a random group of thugs who simply used a braindead numbers advantage to edge

unlikely that this bandit

explain the sense of order that Rui got from them. Perhaps they were formed by some behemoth in the black market,

his head. It wasn't relevant. The point was that if they were targeting means of transport

Rui and the others, knowing about their modus operandi did not mean they would be able to counter it. In their current circumstances, knowing this did not

to defend, protect and eliminate threats. That did not change regardless of what intel

already concluded it would be extremely difficult to entirely and completely prevent them from damaging their means of transport at all. Largely because of the nature of an ambush. The element of surprise in the hands of the enemy Martial Apprentices could not be mitigated easily, and

were the measure they could take to mitigate the damage inflicted,

focus on the most important and vital parts

act as a shield for the inner portion of the convoy, where the

immediately focus on ensuring the inner circles endured as little harm as possible. The outer

they distanced themselves from the town of Hajin, and the mountains that were on the

noted. "The Shadow Trails is only half an hour away from here I

time since I came here."

before?" Rui turned