The Martial Unity

Chapter 3415: Battle Track Records

Even as Amare drew closer to him in her sleep, dozing comfortably on his chest, he couldn’t help but fall into thought about her battle with the Dragon Emperor.

”You’ve grown stronger,” he whispered to her softly. ”You had a chance to win if you had maintained your cool.”

Unfortunately, she had psychological weaknesses, and Rui was one of them. Perhaps it was because of what Rui had meant to her in her life and what she had gone through for and because of him, but even with Enlightenment of Self, the Dragon Emperor was able to use her emotions against her and spring a trap that would have killed her on the spot.

He approved of her strategy and tactics prior, of course. She had done a splendid job dealing with the Dragon Emperor’s extraordinary physical power and his invulnerability and the trap that she had sprung on him made Rui proud.

”I’ve rubbed off on her, she wasn’t so flexible and dynamic before,” Rui smiled with a hint of pride in his tone. ”I’m glad that she had inherited some of my traits and even some of tactics in so far as my adaptive evolution goes.”

Still, it wasn’t enough to defeat the Dragon Emperor.

Rui still couldn’t believe the absurd physicality of the dragon. He still couldn’t believe that the dragon possessed an innate body with so much power that it gave even the giants a run for their money.

On top of that, his gamma radiation offensive was lethal and highly dangerous. The fact that he could generate so much of it while remaining immune to it himself made him extremely difficult to defend against.

To an extent, gamma radiation bypasses external defenses and directly harms one’s body internally, damaging their DNA and biochemistry. There were defenses to it, and Amare had even deployed those defenses, but they were much harder than defending against physical attacks.

”He’s a force to reckon with.” Rui’s eyes sharpened as he considered how he could handle this foe. ”Thankfully, the data that his battle with Amare has given me much to work with.”

Rui had already formed preliminary predictive models and even a preliminary SOUL model. He had already formed some preliminary tactics that he could use against the dragon and eventually fell him.

In terms of raw, net combat power, Rui wasn’t sure if he was stronger than the powerful dragon. Amare had grown much, much stronger over the span of nine months, and even she wasn’t his equal by any means.

On top of that, Rui was certain that he had held back most of his power in his battle with Amare. A dragon that had lived for many centuries was not going to have merely physical attacks and only one trick up its sleeve.

When he used prophecy, he foresaw mixed futures.

Victory was possible.

But defeat loomed as real as any victory he could achieve.

A battle with Dragon Emperor was one where he would need to truly risk his life without being certain of the outcome against a foe that could very well be superior to Rui and all his power.

”...This is just the Dragon Emperor alone,” Rui muttered to himself. ”What the hell am I supposed to do against the entire War Coalition?”

Mother Vyia had already clarified that the dragon was not going to bother with concepts such as Rui to fight him alone. Instead, he was going to summon an army of dragons and raze Rui to the ground along with them.

”...I need something that will help me come up with a viable strategy to overcome the War Coalition and kill the Dragon Emperor.” Rui heaved a deep breath. ”Damn, that woman better have the information she claims she does.”

He hadn’t forgotten about the Whisperer and her promises of giving him the information that he sought. In order to do that, he needed to get the Empress not to give up neutrality to pursue an alliance with the Evolutionary Army.

”Thankfully, it seems like I won’t need to rely on that prophecy, after all.”

The attack by the Dragon Emperor showed the Empress what it was like to be at the mercy of a superior force that didn’t care for the Hlakaschken Trade Empire. And that was bound to happen if the Hlakaschken Trade Empire stopped becoming as important as it used by losing trade and commerce.

Which was bound to happen if it chose to move away from neutrality.

He just hoped that she had returned to her senses, although he wasn’t sure, given how much she feared the Evolutionary Army and the fruit of Transcendence that Supreme Commander Anthea had left behind for the future generations of evosapiens, granting them unfathomable power.

He just needed to overcome her fear of the Evolutionary Army.

”Thankfully...” his gaze shifted to Amare. ”You’ve done a good job showing her our power outside of myself.”

His words stirred the drowsing Amare, and before her eyes slowly opened.

She found herself gazing at Rui with a lost expression, before her expression darkened quickly. ”I was defeated, wasn’t I?”

”Well...” Rui’s expression grew complicated. ”Yes.”

She huffed, turning away from him with a displeased expression.

”Oh come on...” Rui tried coaxing her. ”Everybody sustains defeat. It’s quite normal. I was just telling you about what happened, don’t blame the messenger.”

”I’m not mad at you,” she huffed lightly.

Rui knew she was telling the truth, since he could sense her mind and her emotions within it.

”I’m mad at myself.” Her amber eyes sharpened with a hint of self-loathing. ”I trained so hard in Genora with nature manipulation. I trained even harder after you were ambushed. But even then, it wasn’t enough.”

”It’s like I said, everybody loses, you know?”

She turned to him with a hint of irritation. ”Really? When was the last time you lost a battle?”

Rui scratched his head awkwardly. ”Er, my battle against the light elves wasn’t a victory since I ran away and relied on the kindness and wisdom of Mother Maeria.”

”Bullshit.” She glared at him. ”Don’t give me that nonsense. You overcame the light elves and even killed the ringleader. Even with Mother Maeria, that wasn’t luck. That was you using prophecy to get what you wanted. Everybody in the world views that as a victory for you and a devastating defeat for the light elves.”