The Martial Unity

The atmosphere was perilous. Before such oppressive pressure, even Martial Apprentices were scared stiff.

A second Squire-level aura bathed the battlefield as Rui stripped away his mind mask. The two Martial Squires made their presence known. The fate of the battle rested upon the conclusion of the battle between them. Even if the human and the Martial Apprentice forces of one side won, if the Martial Squire of the opposing side lost, then they would still lose. They could not defeat a Martial Squire who had mastered his power.

The dust cleared as the two Martial Squires got a close look at each other.

The man who stood at a distance from Rui was a surprisingly young man, perhaps several years older than Rui. Rui could sense that he was similar to himself, someone who had somewhat recently begun his journey in the Squire Realm. At the very least he wasn't as strong as someone like Squire Kyrie who had mopped the floor with Rui even after he became a Martial Squire.

It was not going to be an easy battle if Rui chose to fight it in the first place.

"Heh..." Rui grinned at the sight of the man.

Rui had already suspected this scenario was a possibility. He didn't how it was possible. How did the Martial Union not know this ahead of time? This was almost certainly something that the old general knew, clearly. This was what he was hiding, there was no doubt about that in Rui's mind.

He didn't know how or why this happened, but frankly, he cared even less. This was one of the possibilities he had suspected, but it was also one he wished occurred rather than hoping against. Why had he been yearning to undertake higher-grade missions? It was all so that he could fight full-fledged Squire-level threats!

Now that he had been prematurely blessed with the opportunity to fulfill his wish, he was not going to let it go. This was very evident in the frightening bloodlust in his aura that drove chills down the spines of all those who experienced it.

Rui had no intention of running away. He was going to fight and defeat that Martial Squire, no matter what!

The two Martial Squires didn't even bother exchanging words with each other. They had already communicated everything worth communicating.

that was left

brief moment,

Every soul was still.

Something had to give.

And something did.

BOOM!!!

propelling forward. The

BAM!

a devastating shockwave to emerge from their clash. It expanded outwards, launching humans into the air. Only the Martial Apprentices

The Martial Squire threw a heavy attack toward Rui, aiming for his

WHOOSH

kick with his right leg, aiming straight for the jaw of his Martial

POW!

attack connected, much to Rui's surprise. Yet what surprised him, even more, is that he shook it off relatively easily despite flying high into the air. He didn't seem particularly shaken or damaged at all. There wasn't the slightest bruise on his

WHOOSH

air and

POW POW POW

simply took Rui's strikes head-on. Rui frowned, confused, it was a bizarre sensation. Rui was going his best to inflict as much damage on his opponent as possible, it felt distinctly ineffective. As though the impact of his

hard to comprehend when he was constantly using Reverberating Lance to permeate the damage as deep as possible. It was a powerful technique that increased the lethality of his strikes significantly, yet

POW!