The Martial Unity

Rui's plan was straightforward.

He would employ his Mind Mask technique and diminish his presence to an Apprentice level and his appearance and identity with a mask. The Martial Apprentices all wore masks anyway as Martial Apprentices normally did, so there was nothing suspicious or abnormal about that.

The Martial Apprentices had all been debriefed about his presence in the operation. However, they had all been informed very firmly that Rui would not divulge his power until the Martial Squire appeared. He would be operating at the level of a modern grade-ten Martial Apprentice of the Martial Union. When, and only when the Martial Squire from the K'ulnen Tribe would be deployed would he intervene and fight with them.

They were to retreat when that happened, for they could all potentially die being near the fight between Martial Squires.

('Not that it will even reach that stage,') Rui kept that thought to himself. If his plan worked out, then he would achieve the most shocking victory a Martial Squire could have over one of their peers.

Of course, this wasn't that easy given that he wasn't all-powerful within the Squire Realm like he used to be in the later years of his time in the Apprentice Realm. He was in grade-four, perhaps verging on grade five.

The natural growth of the Martial bodies due to evolved muscle hypertrophy and enhanced cell adaptability meant that the strains that came with subjecting the body to training and combat made the Martial body stronger that was one of the reasons that the Squire Realm was so much larger than the Apprentice Realm, the body was a constant, rather than a variable, in the Apprentice Realm. What didn't kill a Martial Squire always made them stronger in the long run.

('Still, it's not like they're going to send in their top Martial Squires just to protect their Martial Apprentices from a losing battle against other Martial Squires,') Rui noted. ('It's quite likely they'll send in someone on the lower half of the grades of the Squire Realm. Which means it isn't likely that I'll be overwhelmed in a fight.')

the preparations for the operation to begin

military facility in the outer ring of the settlement, heading to

"Squire Quarrier,"

gathered Martial Apprentices

his presence to the peak of the Apprentice Realm. "I'm a

were many rumors and legends floating around him in many circles. He was the reason that the Martial Union adjusted the grading standards for Martial Apprentices. He killed a Martial Squire with his team. He was the reason the Kandrian

preparations were done, they simply left the settlement, heading towards the K'ulnen Tribe at a solid

in a hurry by now,') Rui

Martial tribes had scouts watching all of the others. Their means of surveillance were much more primitive than that of the Martial Union, but they were still enough to get the job done. It would be impossible even for the Martial Union to dispatch such a

little over ten minutes to the tribe at this rate, though

tribes was quite large, it

said calmly as they

was no way that he could suppress his own senses. He could sense far beyond any of the Martial Apprentices

One of

ours. Maybe about five

it meant that they really were being stretched by conflict in three ways. It seemed