The Martial Unity

K'ahru grinned at the chieftain's words. "Does that mean-!"

He froze as a wave of anger washed across him.

"Do not interrupt me," The chieftain's sharp eyes glared at him. "I see much merit in both your stances. However, what we lack is the necessary information we need to make this decision. Therefore, I have decided we will wait until we can move with confidence. None of us wish to weaken ourselves with a war that doesn't need to be waged just to be consumed by our real enemies. Yet, at the same time, none of us wish to simply hand over our precious and sacred techniques so easily."

He stood up, indicating the end of the meeting.

K'Mala and K'ahru felt ambivalent, while they did not get what they wanted, at the very least what they definitely didn't want happening did not happen. Thus the outcome was tentatively neutral.

The council dispersed quickly as each member processed what they had learned from it.

Back in the settlement of the Martial Union, Rui and Special Agent Cravis were still concerning themselves with the reaction of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.

wiretap in the council meeting

three Martial Seniors concentrated within such a small village makes it

were sharper than all of Rui's sensory techniques combined. This meant that trying to

K'ahru had left the village temporarily at night while the chieftain was asleep. That is the only reason I approved Kane infiltrating the village and planting wiretaps," Rui sighed. "Even

not willing to put his best

what can the intelligence and analytics teams tell me

we can be assured that they will be shocked regardless of what course of action they choose to

took some pride in knowing this. The fact that his Void Pathfinder was able to shock a tribe that had been practicing and refining their long-range techniques for centuries was

"Well?"

against us to obtain our techniques," Special Agent Cravis explained. "Cooperation would be the common sense option were they a normal state, but given their warped culture as well as the fact that they perceive a Martial Squire instead of a Martial Senior leading our settlement

prop Senior Ceeran back up, I presume?" Rui asked as he quickly understood the circumstances and immediately came up with

is true," Special Agent Cravis nodded. "However, the

knowing expression. "His previous interactions

to negotiate with them. One of the reasons that war didn't break out then and there was because he apologized. Martial Seniors apologizing are an extremely heavy and significant gesture in the G'ak'arkan Tribe, after all. Although Senior Ceeran never intended to offend the and was merely being brutally honest, that doesn't change their impression of him. Given how irrational the G'ak'arkan Tribe is, they may be more driven to wage war seeing him. After