The Martial Unity

This was the single riskiest mission Rui have ever partaken in, not even the mission in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana that featured an enemy Martial Squire had been so threatening. Each of the three nations had sent its own team of Martial Apprentices that was meant to suppress him.

Of course, none of the nations had expected that he himself would be deployed alone with no backup. But the Martial Apprentices that were specifically deployed to target him were immediately informed of his arrival.

Rui pushed to his absolute maximum. He used nearly every technique at his disposal as he fought violently, trying to break past the many Martial Apprentices that had been targeting him. What surprised him was that although the Martial Apprentices targeting him from different nations did not actively cooperate with each other, they did not fight against each other either.

They were completely focused on taking down Rui.

He was forced to fight nine powerful Martial Apprentices that were specifically meant to take him down. Yet, to everyone's surprise. Rui managed to hold on, even if barely.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Rui managed to cleanly evade the powerful attacks of a close-range Martial Apprentice.

BAM!

He was immediately struck with a wide-range projectile, pushing him away.

('I can't separate from the close-range Martial Apprentices.') Rui immediately concluded. The long-range Martial Apprentices had to restrain themselves when he was in close-range proximity to their close-quarters teammates.

He immediately rushed forward to meet the close-range Martial Apprentices as they aimed to take him down in hand-to-hand combat.

Despite being surrounded by Martial Apprentices, he managed to keep up. His heightened awareness and reactions were an absolute godsend, the combination of the Mindmirror brain and Primordial Instinct was incredibly powerful even at the highest of echelons of the Apprentice Realm.

He blocked some attacks while simultaneously contorting his body to avoid an equal number of strikes. He abused his maneuvering and speed technique to the maximum, using Parallel Walk, Balanced Direction, and Wind Breathing to allow him to evade position himself at the right time and place accurately. He further used Phantom Step to feint to misdirect their attacks and aim. He used Flow Flux to intercept and destabilize his opponents while using Blink to land as many surprise attacks as he could.

PEW!

WHOOSH

to land the Stinger on one of his opponents while evading

POW POW POW!

Martial Apprentice managed to tag Rui with a barrage

BAM!

swing slammed into Rui,

POW POW POW!

him with different kinds of

grimaced as he quickly regained his bearing, yet he was immediately beset by three more Martial Apprentices

Acute Edge, Elastic Shift, and Adamant Reforging to deal with the attacks of two of

BAM BAM BAM!

launched a barrage of swift and powerful attacks, using Reverberating Lance to permeate the impact of his attacks to his vital organs,

remaining two Martial Apprentices, he positioned himself between them and waited

WHOOSH

BAM!

POW!

image, passing through it and striking

to tag him. He threw them off with a combination of Phantom Step and Shadow Step and the Mind Mask technique that reduced his presence and sense of

battlefield as the Martial Apprentices chased after

nations had already built an extensive

to get caught up in

had realized

BAM!

their blind spot with Shadow Step and the Mind Mask technique, slamming the offensive speed-oriented Martial Apprentice with a power Flowing Canon.

the distance, as Rui reduced one of the Martial Apprentices meant to