The Martial Unity

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Mana was an agile and flexible fighter while Max leaned more toward power and durability. Their approaches in combat reflected that. Mana reached Rui the quickest before throwing a flurry of quick and light jabs, testing Rui's reaction to them.

Rui lightly blocked them, redirecting them away. He was planning on limiting himself to human-level power, about what one would expect from an ordinary seventeen-year-old boy.

Max followed through quickly, throwing a powerful blow.

WHOOSH

Rui simply avoided the blow as he sidestepped, spiraling out of the way.

The two of the lashed out after Rui, attacking together. What impressed Rui was the fact that the two of them could not only attack him simultaneously but do so in a manner that did not detract from each of them individually.

They either utilized as much space as they needed around Rui to be able to simultaneously attack without getting in the way of the other to any degree. Other times, they would attack from the same direction but time their attacks rapidly after each other's, making it more difficult to defend against the relentless onslaught that they generated.

They had developed a respectable degree of coordination, just as Rui had hoped.

One of the things Rui had hoped was that by developing a good degree of coordination with each other, they would have a higher chance of cracking the entrance exam of the Martial Academy. Individually, they would have a very hard time, it was very rare that someone their age applied for the Martial Exam and even rarer that they would successfully pass.

The only thirteen-year-olds who had passed in their batch were Kane, who was already a Martial Apprentice by then, and Rui, who was... well, Rui. Both of them were far from the norm without a doubt.

Rui carefully analyzed their combined combat strength as they tried their best to take him down. While it was true that they had good teamwork, that alone wasn't particularly special. It wasn't like teaming up to crack the entrance exam was unheard of. Hell, Rui himself had teamed up with Kane in the second round of the entrance exam.

He intended to harden their training as time passed. Particularly, he wanted to ensure that their defensive and evasive prowess was solid, it would lower their chances of suffering grave injury or, in the worst-case scenario, death. He didn't particularly care too much if they didn't manage to crack the entrance exam, they had five more attempts as they progressively grew older and stronger.

A few hours later, the two of them were flat on the ground, entirely exhausted and drained.

"Man, in the end, we couldn't even properly attack a single attack on him!" Max complained.

"It was to be expected, he's a Martial Squire." Mana sighed.

"The two of you did quite well for your age," Rui told them. "Keep training hard, you two."

He turned to the Apprentice trainer that had been spectating the training spar. "Please look after their training."

"Of course, Squire Quarrier." She bowed respectfully.

He nodded before heading back in.

"RUIII!" Alice greeted him first, as always, yet this time she wasn't too happy. "You've been home for hours yet you didn't come to greet us! Hmph!"

Rui smiled wryly as he scratched his head awkwardly. "My bad. I'll greet all of you immediately next time."

"As you should!"

He spent a few days hanging about with his family. It was always a good break mentally when he could spend time with them, a natural soother and relaxer. If not for his family, he would have no speed breaks that forced him to slow down and appreciate the finer aspects of life.

A few days later, he returned to the town of Hajin. However, it wasn't to pick another mission, not immediately, at least.

"Show off," Kane grumbled as Rui sky walked down to them.

"Sky Walking is always a sight to see." Fae sighed, earning a nod from the others. Hever, Dalen, Milliana, and Nel were present as well.

Rui smiled at his friends. "It's been quite some time all of you, nearly a year."

It wasn't easy meeting them because everybody was busy, consumed in training or completing missions. Right after he broke through to the Squire Realm, he needed to immediately dive into Squire habilitation to get accustomed to his power. He hadn't been able to meet his friends after due to conflicting schedules. Most of them had been away on a mission while the rest had been in the middle of training.

Immediately after that, Rui spent half a year in training and had undertaken his first Squire-level mission soon after. He was grateful that they had finally gotten together after that long.

"So, how's it all been going?" He asked.

Kane shrugged. "It's been going good. Good enough, honestly."

"How's living truly independently been working out for you?" Rui asked. He had, of course, been exchanging messages with Kane, so he knew that his plan had been successful enough. Joining the Wind Sect within the Lightning Sect had given him the power to be able to live independently. With the sheer talent that he undoubtedly possessed, he was quite a valuable asset to any Martial Sect. He had leveraged his value to be able to resist the Arrancar Family's claim over him.

The Arrancar Family was led by a vaunted Martial Sage, leader of the Fire Sect. It was no longer as simple a matter for the family to reclaim him, and the Lightning Sect was a Martial Sect of equal power and influence as that of the Fire Sect. It could not allow the Fire Sect to blatantly steal one of its most valuable Martial Apprentice assets not only because it would violate the only condition that Kane had provided to them, but it would also make them look weak, hurting their prestige and their ability to recruit Martial Artists.

"Better than I expected." Kane grinned. "The Martial Academy was alright, but this is way better!"