The Martial Unity

Chapter 2226  Shifting Strategy

Rui couldn't help but grow wary of the Harbinger. He had never ever run into such a vicious Martial Art in his entire life before. He almost felt sorry for the Apostle of Gaia. It was one thing to fight in battle with honor; it was another to be relentlessly bullied in the most horrific manner that Rui had ever seen. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Yet, at the same time, he couldn't help but grow deeply intrigued.

How would he fare against her?

Would he be able to adaptively evolve to her?

He wasn't sure about that with his current juncture of power.

From what he could see, there were two possible means to go about it. One of them was to defeat her before she could commence her bullying.

The other would be to adaptively evolve to the bullying itself.

He wasn't sure how to go about the latter at all, while the former sounded extremely difficult, considering that even the Apostle of Gaia had failed.

Yet, he knew that he probably had very poor compatibility with Harbinger. It couldn't be helped; he had emotional vulnerabilities that would be brutally exploited by her if they ever fought.

Unfortunately, as much as he would have loved to watch them fight and speculate about how he would fare against either of them, he was still in the middle of an operation.

"Your Highness, intercept the Martial Masters who are making a run for the Kandrian Empire!"

Rui's attention was jolted to some stray Sekigaharan Masters who had managed to extricate themselves from their battles, one way or another, and were trying to run towards the Kandrian Empire in a rush to get within its territory and target vital infrastructure.

"Not on my watch."

He momentarily activated Neo Godspeed, shooting towards them at extremely high speeds.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

He overtook all of them before turning to them and blasting them with Transverse Resonance attacks.

The three Masters fell back as he pushed them back with everything that he had. "Trying to get into the Kandrian Empire sneakily, eh?" Rui smirked. "I guess you've given up on killing us all."

They gritted their teeth as they stared at him with hatred.

Initially, the plan was to head to the Kandrian Empire after obtaining a thorough victory against the Kandrian Masters.

However, their plans were thrown out of the window when Rui turned out to be monstrously strong, single-handedly taking down the surplus Masters of the Sekigahara Confederate—their sole task had been to kill him off with a massive numbers advantage.

Yet, Rui somehow survived the ambush and a massive gang-up and emerged thoroughly victorious. He had single-handedly killed off their extra Martial Masters in a shocking turn of events.

The original plan was scrapped, and now they had to get to the Kandrian Empire regardless of the outcome of the battle.

'It's not just these three…' Rui's eyes widened as he took scope of the entire battle, measuring the changes in the way the Sekigaharan Masters fought. 'Aside from the two grade-thirty Masters, nobody is fighting to kill their opponents. Instead, they're…' The shift came soon after Rui foresaw it.

"WARRIOR OF SEKIGAHARA!" The vice-leader's voice spread throughout the battle. "REACH THE KANDRIAN EMPIRE AT ALL COSTS!"

Rui's expression grew more grave as the battle changed.

One moment, all Masters of the Sekigahara Confederate fought to kill their opponents.

The very next moment, they shot away from their opponents, shooting in the direction of the Kandrian Empire in hopes that they would catch the Kandrians off-guard.

And they did.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Almost like clockwork, all of them slipped away from the Masters of the Kandrian Empire in the briefest openings that they could find.

"No!"

"Stop them!"

"We must catch up!"

The Sekigaharans grinned maniacally as they shot towards the Kandrian Empire. Because they had fought so aggressively to kill the Masters of the Kandrian Empire, the latter had been fighting with full power to survive rather than to protect Kandria.

This allowed them to find chinks in the armor of the interception force, whose whole goal was to keep them away from the surpass.

Unfortunately for them, Rui had no intention of letting them go so easily.

"Muspelheim!" He gritted his teeth as he activated Hypertrophic Surge.

He didn't dare activate the Yin-Yang Spear; the addition of that would trigger the Sun. However, he didn't mind them thinking that he was triggering the forbidden technique.

RUMBLE!!

The world shook as the realm of fire descended upon heaven and earth.

BOOM!!

In just a moment, the horrifying flames of Muspelheim eroded everything from the lands beneath their feet to skies above their heads.

Just as Rui predicted, the Sekigaharans fell for the trick.

"IT'S THAT FORBIDDEN TECHNIQUE!"

"RUN!

"THE DAWNBRINGER HAS DECIDED TO UNLEASH HIS GREATEST POWER!"

The Sekigaharan gritted their teeth as they leaped back, putting as much distance between them and him so as to not die under the horrifying power of the Sun.

"No."

A single voice among them cut through the noise.

Her hand drifted to her katana as her eyes sharpened. "This is not that technique. After all…"

SWING!

In a single, rapid, and extraordinarily smooth motion, she drew her blade, completing a sword swing within a tiny fraction of a microsecond.

"…it's too weak."

For a moment, nothing happened.

The mighty Muspelheim domain, powered by Rui's Hypertrophic Surge, burned in its glory, growing stronger and stronger.

The very next?

WHOOSH!

The Muspelheim domain was cleaved in half.

Rui's eyes widened with shock as the sheer pressure from her sword draw completely cleaved through the powerful heat of his domain. Her cold, stoic eyes fixed on him in the distance as Rui sized her up.

'I can't feel any pressure or power from her.' His expression grew more severe.

Yet, that only made her more dangerous in his eyes.

With the Muspelheim domain dispelled with a single attack, the Sekigaharans should have been free to head to the Kandrian Empire, but in the brief few moments that Rui had managed to stall them, the Kandrian Masters had regrouped, forming a barrier that stood between the Sekigaharan Masters and the Kandrian Empire once more.

-