The Martial Unity

Rui immediately took off once he had exited the carriage.

(‘Alrighty, how do I deal with this?’) He wondered.

The very first thought he had was engaging in recon to figure out what part of his daily schedule had the highest exposure to the public eye whenever Rui killed him.

It was then that he realized something.

(‘What if I just kidnap him and drag him into the public eye?’) Rui wondered.

The condition he had been given to fulfill was the assassination of King Fujilin with as much exposure as possible. Wasn’t it better to drag him out into the public eye and then kill him rather than wait for him to go into the public eye naturally?

Who knew how long it would take before the man would step out of his castle and actually make his way into a place with enough exposure?

Rui didn’t want to waste all that time doing nothing. Ideally, he would have liked to complete the mission as early as possible.

(‘Will she get mad if I drag the king out to a busy area and kill him there?’) He wondered before a mischievous grin cracked on his face. (‘Even if she gets mad, what she can do?’)

Her request was unofficial and something Rui was willing to humor because it wasn’t that big a deal. Meaning, she couldn’t complain to the Martial Union about the way Rui went about it. He technically will not have violated the contract and will have fulfilled the mission as quickly as possible, which was a performance parameter that the Martial Union cared about, and one that went into the rating evaluation of a Martial Artist. This was another reason to go all out and kill him quickly, he wanted to upgrade to a higher grade as soon as possible.

(‘Well, she should have been careful what she wished for.’) He sped through the Kingdom of Dermile, arriving at a bustling and surprisingly urban town.

The town of Bulgare was a rather posh town that was occupied by the rich of the Empire, by the looks of it. It was also not too far from the Royal Palace. He nodded as he walked around, looking for a good spot, it took him a while to spot what he was looking for.

(‘Perfect.’)

He stopped as he happened upon the town center, where a large podium in the middle of a bustling area was present. Anybody that died atop that in front of the crowd could not possibly have their death exposed to a greater degree.

(‘Alrighty.’) He turned in the direction that the Royal Palace was in, geographically, before immediately heading towards it. It only took him a minute to arrive at his speed.

Thanks to the information provided to him by the Martial Union, he knew the structure of the Royal Palace and the location of the king’s personal chambers. All he had to do was verify that the king was there, and he could immediately swoop in and pluck him out and run with him to the town of Bulgare and off him on the podium.

He sneaked up as close as he could before extending his Seismic Mapping as far as he could. Its range had risen significantly compared to before he had the Mindmirror brain and before he obtained his Martial body.

(‘Hm…’) He discerned through all the seismic radiation that he picked up on forming a decently crisp view of the Royal Palace. (‘There are multiple presences in the king’s personal chambers.’)

According to the intelligence that the Martial Union had provided, the king’s chambers were off-limits unless one had the king’s authorization. Which meant that the people in there were almost certainly the king and others that had been authorized to be in his personal chambers. The Martial Apprentices, and the servants perhaps?

Primordial Instinct did pick up the presence of Martial Apprentices near the same location.

(‘Good enough.’) Rui shrugged.

He crouched, as his legs tensed up, the very air quaked as his muscles built up power. His eyes narrowed as he estimated the distance, angle, and force for his launch.

BOOM!

He launched himself like a bullet as he crossed a great distance with a single leap.

BOOM!

He landed right in front of the entrance, shaking the ground and the entire palace with the sheer impact.

The Martial Apprentices guarding the doors took a moment to overcome their shock as they charged at him. Yet he simply ignored it as time slowed down from his perspective. He activated Wind Breathing as he hurried past them, still moving in slow motion to him, heading towards the king’s personal chambers.

He ran into several Martial Apprentices, but he simply ran past them like they were crash test dummies.

POW POW POW!

Several Apprentice-level attacks landed on his body as he reached the king’s personal chambers.

(‘Oh? Not bad.’) He nodded. The Royal Guards certainly appeared to be the best of the best of those Martial Apprentices assigned to the castle.

Yet he didn’t care to kill Martial Apprentices that he didn’t need to. He simply blitzed past them inside, where he found the target he was looking for.

The defensive Royal guards were already in position, forming a defensive boundary around the target of their protection. Within their circle of protection was a nude, obese man surrounded by several nude women, cowering in fear at the sudden thunderous quakes.

Rui sighed. He fit the stereotype of a lecherous greedy ruler so well that it was almost funny. Rui simply brushed aside the meager defensive attempts that the Martial Apprentices attempted before grabbing the king and his garments and simply leaving.

The Martial Apprentices sounded the alarm for the kidnapping of the king, but it was far too late. Rui had long left the palace by then as he literally ran with the king above his head to the podium in the town of Bulgare, reaching there rather quickly.

THUD!

He dropped the man atop the podium as the two of them began drawing attention from the crowd.