The Martial Unity

"The Longranger sect... is it?" Rui considered the name, not having heard it before.

The Martial Sects were not public knowledge, one only learned about them if one reached a certain level of political or economic status, or if one was a Martial Artist. Furthermore, learning more about any one of them required actually entering a Martial Sect, or being approached by that Martial Sect.

Rui didn't fulfill those conditions until now, explaining his ignorance of what was surely an important Martial Sect.

"That's right." Senior Ceeran. "We Longrangers fight for an increased weightage on long-range techniques than they are currently given. Long-range techniques have very simple but potent advantages and benefits that ought to be more capitalized. Our techniques are simply superior to short-range striking."

Rui raised an eyebrow at those words. "Both ranges have their strengths and disadvantages, as I'm sure you'd agree."

"This is not false, of course," He nodded. "But the more accurate truth is that long-range techniques have better advantages to offer and lesser disadvantages to hinder the Martial Artist from using them. If you are in a sparring match or a duel where you and your opponent start meters away from each other, things may seem more equal, but in practice, such circumstances are quite rare. Especially in circumstances of war, having long-range offense has been shown to be dramatically more successful than engaging in close-quarter brawls."

Rui wanted to retort, but he paused, considering the matter.

It was not easy to refute the man's words. Especially when Rui had lived an entire lifetime in a world where projectile weapons with range were demonstrably more impactful in combat than close-quarter weapons.

This was especially true in larger-scale conflicts where there were no rules of any sort. Even bows and arrows and spears were historically more potent in warfare and became a main staple in conflicts. Most genuine conflicts began at a distant range, thus long-range offensive measures always gained the advantage of inflicting damage before shorter-range weapons could. Many a time, this was the difference between life and death.

notion that long-range offenses needed to be given higher priority relative to short-range offensive measures. For once,

good balance between both was key. Increasing both his long-range and short-range offensive capability was

trajectory manipulation techniques that he specializes in,') Rui

could expand the Pathfinder technique to include a long-range

the technique would truly live up

admit that Senior Ceeran was on to something with trying to

Pathfinder was even more interesting than the actual technique itself," The man noted. "Truly, you'd just

recruit me,

your profile. You've already rejected the invitations to Martial Sects much more alluring and powerful than that of the Longranger Sect, like the Fire Sect, for example.

"That is true.

first place." The man replied. "That's why there are none. It doesn't make sense to advocate for all fields equally, that

"True..."

Martial Senior smiled. "I promise you that the Longranger Sect will not be ungrateful for your technique, especially once we verify that the technique actually works the way you claim

what you have to offer, truly." Rui raised

good time." The man smiled, before gesturing forward.

turned, facing a

made even his eyebrows rise. Extensively long tracks over with all kinds of targets on the other end. Even the ceiling was remarkably high, meant to accommodate larger