The Martial Unity

"Look at that guy, he has the audacity to sit down in the middle of the competition!"

"He's either confident or cocky."

"Tsk, who does he think he's fooling? He's just waiting for an appropriate target to get a hand on a pass, and then steal it from them!"

Rui did not care for the small commotion he drew. It was easier to resist the storm when he was more anchored to the ground and the colosseum wall behind his back, allowing him to conserve more energy from the storm.

That was the reason he went out of his way to do that, it had nothing to do with anything else. 

('Hm, so far, only fifty percent of the contestants are making actual efforts in trying to get their hands on a pass. The remaining fifty are clearly opting to go for the robbing route.') He noted.

This made sense since not everybody was compatible with trying to overcome a tornado like this. Poison-oriented Martial Artists, for example, were extremely incompatible with non-living threats. They could be exceptionally dangerous as long as their opponents were alive, but that was no longer true if they were dealing with forces of nature. 

In such a circumstance, they could not accomplish anything against a tornado. It made sense to wait until a contestant got their hands on a pass, and then poison them and take their pass.

If Rui chose to go for obtaining a pass from the table, then he would certainly be forced to deal with those predators that were simply waiting for an opportune moment. However, being the predator did not strictly sound fun either, each contestant was going to defend their pass with everything they had, and he would be forced to reveal a lot of his power to all the other contestants if he chose to fight.

That was an undesirable outcome. This was not just a competition for passes, it was also a competition for information. The one that gained the most information had the highest chance to succeed.

Of course, that did not mean Rui ought to immediately begin developing predictive models for all contestants.

That was stupidly inefficient, not to mention impossible given that there were two hundred contestants and the fact that he also needed to focus on the challenge more than anything else.

He only collected some preliminary data to try and figure out which approach was the best. He had been observing the success rate of the various approaches being employed by the contestants. The results left him feeling admiration.

Not for the contestants, but for the examiner.

('All three approaches are equal in their progress rates,') He mused. ('That's not a coincidence. It means that Master Uma has perfectly manipulated the resulting storm to give all three fields of combat an equal chance to succeed, so as to not unfairly give any one category of Martial Artists an unfair advantage.')

It appeared that she was not as uncaring as she portrayed herself.

Still, that did not mean she was lenient.

Not a single Martial Squire had succeeded yet.

There were some who had made far more progress than the others.

Rui noted that the elder granny had made a lot more progress towards the table than most. She breathed in a particular manner, taking slow but measured steps in the direction of the table, which was certainly an impressive feat.

Rui glanced over, looking for a particular individual out of all the others. 

"Hmmm…" Squire Meera stared at the storm with an impassive expression. "Pushing through the storm like a coolie, or letting my attire get battered by the winds…"

Rui narrowed his eyes.

The depth of peril she radiated spiked all of a sudden!

Her demeanor emanated displeasure.

Three words escaped her mouth.

"How aesthetically unappealing." 

Rui tilted his head in confusion. 

She wasn't done, however. 

"I refuse such an outcome." She leaped into the tornado without activating a single offensive or defensive technique.

Rui widened his eyes in amazement as he watched pirouette through the gaps of the storm in an elegant fashion, unperturbed. It wasn't long before she came with a pass in her hand. 

Her actions had not gone unnoticed by the other contestants.

They all couldn't help but gape at her in shock as she walked into the storm one moment, and exited a short while later with a pass in her hand.

She was the first contestant to get her hands on a pass!

Rui had to admit, her maneuvering prowess was quite impressive. Her attire and her neatly groomed hair were nearly unaffected by what she had done, which was astonishing given that she had just walked into what was effectively a tornado!

It meant that she had somehow managed to smoothly exploit the gaps in the tornado to find a way to the passes and back unperturbed.

  However, it was bizarre because it didn't feel like she was a maneuvering-oriented Martial Squire in the first place. Furthermore, it had sounded as if she had actually considered the offensive and defensive approach, which meant she had the ability to at least attempt those approaches, but had ultimately rejected them because they were too ugly.

He didn't quite understand that part. However, when he compared some of her previous statements, he had begun to get an inkling of what that was all about. She may very well have the most remarkable Martial Art that he had ever seen.

Unfortunately, that was not the only challenge she faced. She also had to overcome the hoards of hyenas that converged on to her to get her pass.

Rui briefly considered trying to take her pass, before shaking his head. Competing with all the Martial Squires who were incapable of dealing with the challenge while also trying to fight the champion under these circumstances was not the best way of going about it. As long as the two of them kept winning, they were bound to clash in the near future.