The Martial Unity

“Well, it doesn’t matter what technique principle I use as long as can successfully conceal my power, right?” Rui asked.

“That is true. As long as the objective is accomplished, the means are irrelevant.” She nodded. “Still, with such a powerful mind, you are suited to learning mental techniques.”

“I do intend to learn mental techniques as well,” Rui remarked. “However, learning exclusively assassination techniques is quite important to me.”

“Assassination and mental techniques have quite the overlap, you know,” She twirled her hair. “It will be exciting to see what kind of assassin you become.”

She smirked at Rui with a glint of interest. “When you do set out to assassinate the person you want to, be sure to invite me. I don’t mind witnessing an incredible spectacle.”

“I’ll be sure to book front-row tickets.”

“My, what a kind pupil. I shall do my best to be worthy of such affection.”

Rui glanced at her. “Maybe you could kill him for me, then.”

“Hahaha!” She laughed, bending. “And deprive myself of an exciting tale of revenge? I think not!”

Rui heaved a sigh. It was worth a shot. He couldn’t ask Master Deivon since the Shionel Confederation was in an allyship with the Virodha Theocracy. As valuable as the Virodha Champion was, he highly doubted they would be willing to break a partnership with a sage-level nation over a Martial Squire.

“But, coming back to the main point…” She said. “Simply concealing your true power isn’t always enough. Especially when your target knows who you are. Or in circumstances where you can’t approach your target regardless of your perceived power level.”

Rui nodded. Chairman Deacon knew of him and had probably done a lot of research on the past data that he had on Rui. Even if Rui had grown, he was not going to get past the man just by concealing his power level.

The man had probably memorized every single facial feature that Rui had after hunting for him for almost four years now.

“I could use both stealth and disguise.” Rui mused. “I don’t mind learning both.”

It was not going to be that easy to infiltrate the Shionel Confederation using stealth. It was a sage-level nation and thus their defenses were much better than those Senior-level nations that Rui could easily bypass.

In that case, it was better to infiltrate via disguise.

“Alright, so we have a close-range assassination technique, a disguising technique, and a stealth technique.” She nodded. “You’ve already decided to take care of the assassination techniques. So why don’t we begin with the disguise and stealth techniques?”

Rui nodded. “I am looking forward to that.”

“Follow me.” She got up, walking across the training chamber. “The art of disguise and stealth are as old as human warfare. However, only after the age of Martial Art were they elevated to a much higher level. Prior to the age of Martial Art, they were a lot more primitive and harmless.”

Without the power of Martial Art, techniques, in general, were much more limited. That applied to disguise and stealth as well.

“However, when the power of Martial Art empowers them…” Her palm rose to her face, swiping across her face. “They can become something else entirely.”

Rui’s eyes widened as her appearance completely changed. Her skin color, facial features, and even bone structure shifted. It was an almost magical transformation that Rui didn’t even entirely understand.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” She smirked. Even her voice changed, before returning back. “This is a result of years worth of training and experimenting. I can mimic any and every appearance.”

“I’m supposed to master that technique?” Rui asked with a dubious expression.

“No, like I said, I’m simply going to impart some principles,” She replied. “You can make use of them however you like. You don’t need to master such an extreme technique for your purposes.”

This was true, Rui did not need such a high-level disguise ability. She had reached an extraordinary level of impersonation. What he needed was anything that allowed him to make him harder if not impossible to identify.

“Such a thing can allow me to travel without a mask too,” Rui noted.

The Master-level mask that he continuously wore drew him more attention than he liked. Anybody who hid their appearance was someone who had a reason to hide their appearance.

That was also part of the reason that Rui was interested in the disguise in addition to not having to worry about being detected by Chairman Deacon.

“However, I do also want a stealth technique,” Rui noted. “There’s a good chance I’m going to need it to kill my target.”

“We can work with that. The only question is finding out what principle of stealth suits you the most.” She wondered as she stared at him.

“What kinds of principles are there?”

“Oh several. One of the more common principles of stealth is misdirection. Given your affinity for mental techniques, that’s probably the best route to go through. Though there are other principles that involve camouflage, not generating anything that can be perceived by sensory techniques.” She said as she took a single step, seemingly completely disappearing from reality as her figure escaped Rui’s senses entirely.

Rui narrowed his eyes as he tried sensing her with all his techniques. He even activated the Martial Heart, actively empowering them, yet he still wasn’t able to detect her existence.

“Incredible,” Rui murmured. “I didn’t even know such a level of stealth was possible. You can completely erase your existence from people’s senses and minds!”

“Heh.” She reappeared, smirking with a hint of smugness. “Very few assassins possess that level of stealth. It takes many many years of training to achieve something like this.”

“I have a friend with a similar technique.” Rui was reminded of Kane by her display. “Except his stealth technique required him to keep moving.”

“That technique relies on maneuvering to compensate for misdirection.” She replied. “Misdirecting one’s attention in one direction while moving away from that direction to separate one’s self from the target’s awareness creates the illusion of the user disappearing. However…”

She narrowed her eyes, before disappearing from Rui’s awareness once more. “If one’s misdirection is powerful enough. They do not need to rely on such a crutch.”