The Martial Unity

Even as the young Martial Apprentice brazenly blabbed on, Rui's mind had tuned out. In his perception, the Martial Apprentices were talking in slow motion. He pondered how he ought to go about this.

('Should I just flex again?') Rui wondered. He very well could drop the mind mask and unleash the bloodlust of a Martial Squire.

('No.') He decided against it. ('These aren't the same circumstances as last time.')

He wasn't isolated like he was with the two Martial Apprentices and the finance minister two missions ago. He was in a densely populated area with a small army that was on edge because of an upcoming battle. Unleashing the bloodlust of a Martial Squire at this point in time would have negative consequences that he would rather avoid taking the responsibility for.

At the bare minimum, he would be hurting morale and terrifying the already anxious and nervous soldiers of the rebel group. The bloodlust of a Martial Squire would spread far and wide, unlike that of a Martial Squire, and would impact the entire army. It might even delay the operation as the old man would likely decide that the army was in an insufficient state for the war. That was something Rui definitely wanted to avoid.

He pondered even as the young man threw taunts at him in extremely slow motion.

('Should I just ignore him?') Rui wondered. He could just walk around and avoid the man, that option was always there.

('No...') He quickly glanced at the Martial Apprentices in the vicinity, the look in their eyes indicated this most likely wasn't something spontaneous. Knowing how cocky Martial Apprentices could get, it probably wouldn't work. Besides, running away from them also would be bad for morale, since he was someone that they had paid an enormous sum of money to hire for one specific purpose, that too. In the

ought to handle this head-on?') He wondered before his eyes narrowed. ('Did the old

observations of the camp across the day, the camp was exceedingly well-run, like an oiled machine. There was a lot of order and discipline in the way things worked around here, clearly. The man knew how to run an army efficiently, as one would expect from his

glanced at some of the Martial Apprentices and their clothes, noting that several of them weren't even supposed to be in this part of the base given what unit

when he expressed I was qualified to be here?') He wondered, he

with what he ought

killing them obviously. But it also meant that there could be no collateral damage whatsoever, he could not destroy their storage and inventory or other essentials that would slow down

Martial Apprentices out. He could take off his mind mask slowly amidst combat while avoiding an extreme emotion that would make his aura scarier than it needed to be. As long as he warmed them up to it in the right manner, there ought not to

finally turned his attention back to the Martial Apprentice in front

normal person. Is that Martial Art uniform even yours?" He snorted, putting his hand on Rui's shoulder, feeling the

THUD

the ground with a resounding impact, having hit the ground before he realized what had even

man grimaced lightly,

everyone heard him clearly as the weight of his presence slowly escalated,

say?" Another joined in, as they walked in closer. "He was just talking to you. No reason to

snorted, ignoring