The Martial Unity

"And on the other hand, her opponent, a prominent figure from the Kandrian Empire, the seventy-sixth Kandrian prince, Contestant Reese Von Kandria!"

Rui was belatedly glad that the gargantuan man was too focused to notice his reaction because he had been caught too off-guard to hide it.

He had, of course, noticed the man with golden hair and eyes, if only for his strength, but he had not realized that the man was a prince of Kandrian Royal Family!

Even when his name had been called when he passed the third round, only his first name had been used. Rui was not familiar with all the various Kandrian princes and princesses to recall the man's face and name.

Shit...

The presence of the prince indicated the presence of the Kandrian Royal Guard, it certainly meant that there was a lot of attention from the Kandrian Empire. That made him nervous. It wasn't that the Kandrian Empire was his enemy, certainly not, but it made him nervous nonetheless.

Thankfully, the Kandrian Royal Family did not have the kind of information on him as the Martial Union did. He knew that the two organizations weren't the best of buddies, and even had conflicts of interest. The Martial Union did its absolute best to conceal the confidential information on the profiles of each of its Martial Artists since these Martial Artists were its only militaristic power.

Furthermore, ever since Rui became a Martial Squire, he had undertaken a lot of missions under various aliases, courtesy of the safety measures for Martial Artists to protect their identity from potentially hostile clients and enemies they made while fulfilling commissions. He had also completed most of them outside of Kandrian territory.

Immediately after that, he served a little under two years as a diplomat for the Martial Union at Vilun Island where he grew much stronger after having mastered several new techniques. The Kandrian Empire certainly was not exposed to his growth there either.

Furthermore, the Martial Union most certainly would not reveal the growth that he had undergone in the Shionel Confederation to the royal family either.

And there was no way they had any idea how much stronger he was in the past three years he had spent after leaving the Shionel Confederation.

This means they would have absolutely no idea who Contestant Falken was. They would simply be too unequipped to possibly link him back to Rui Quarrier. Especially if he used techniques like the Metabody System, which would give anybody a completely misleading impression about what his Martial Path was.

more relaxed as a result of making those insights. He didn't need to be nearly as fearful as he was. Furthermore, even if the Kandrian Empire found out, they were most certainly no friend of Chairman Deacon. Selling out its own military assets to the grudge of a

studied the matchup. He wasn't sure who would win, but he would

of them

that we're going

contestants walked side by side as they headed towards

too long before they

"Take your stances."

crouched, stretching one leg as far back as he could on the ground while the fingers of

eyes fixated on Squire

intrigue. An offensive Martial Art that relies on accumulated momentum

Its clear downside was the fact that it was inflexible and more predictable, but its upside was that its offensive power was almost certain to be unmatched. Every collision would be damning, especially given the weight class and the muscle mass of the man. Rui wouldn't be surprised if he was capable of fighting Hypertrophic Surge

Frinjschia, however, was unperturbed. She simply adopted a neutral stance, much

him even more

grew more tense as the Senior priest let

soon, it was

"Begin!"

RUMBLE!

forward, the sheer amount of force he exerted

of power in

to eat attacks like that head-on. As expected, the

from the rest of their

the air with the sheer friction he generated,

yet, she had