The Martial Unity

Barring the first attack which gave her space, Rui found that she actually fought remarkably reserved. That made sense, there was no point to a training session if she simply blew them away with the power of her Heart.

('In fact, she doesn't even seem to be using her Heart.') Rui's eyes widened.

That was incredibly impressive in his eyes. It meant that she was severely restricting herself to ensure that she didn't devastate them with a single attack.

Rui had wondered how strong Martial Seniors were without their Martial Hearts. After all, the power of the Martial Heart was the defining condition that separated the Squire and the Senior Realms. Did that mean that a Martial Senior without their Martial Heart was merely as strong as a Martial Squire?

('Surprisingly, that doesn't appear to be that far from the truth,') Rui realized as he watched Senior Xanarn fight. ('She's holding back by fighting without her Martial Heart, yet with the limited power that she had availed to herself, it doesn't appear to be too easy.

Her movements were sharp and her expression was taut. She certainly was not at a lower hand, which meant that she was probably operating at grade-ten Squire-level power or perhaps quasi-Senior level power.

Rui thought back to the Root, which was a quasi-Senior level threat. She definitely wasn't operating at that level right now, given that she had sealed her Martial Heart. It also showed Rui that the Martial Heart was an overwhelming proportion of the power of Martial Seniors. Unlike when Squire Kyrie restricted her movements, this wasn't as much of a restriction of her normal power, but a complete absence of it due to the Martial Heart not being activated.

Squire Kyrie retained her toughness and reaction speed even when she held back because she could not hold those back.

Yet Senior Xanarn could hold those back to a much greater degree.

('Interesting,' this is so different from the power of the Apprentice and Squire Realms,') Rui mused as he studied her movements with interest.

enhancements to the brain gained by discovering the Martial Path were permanent, barring

a Realm, in

the other that's unique in the power that it

had exerted was not all that great, yet she exerted them with a level of

the Martial Squires. While it was true they were powerful, he had

he focused on her movements as

building a predictive

against guardians because he did not want to become dependant on pre-preparation to defeat people he ought to be able to defeat without preparation like fellow Martial Squires, and because he didn't want to

with a Martial Senior who he could never possibly defeat

observed the patterns

movements are

necessary amount of effort, and nothing more. She exerted a level of efficiency

sound-oriented Martial

manipulation of sound

offense, defense, and

techniques. It was as though her intuitive understanding of sound was so great that she

to higher Realms?') Rui wondered. ('Do techniques cease to have form

the higher Realms for him to be able to come