The Martial Unity

The spectating Martial Artists were so engrossed in the unfolding battle down below to the point that they had forgotten about their original objective, which was making sure that the other side didn’t interfere with the battle.

Instead of focusing on their enemies, more and more Sages and Masters began dedicating most of their attention to watching the two strongest Masters duke it out with each other.

They marveled at the endless versatility that Tokugawa Ieyasu displayed and the incredible adaptability that Rui demonstrated in response to everything that the former had thrown at him. One after another, Ieyasu unleashed Martial Art after Martial Art and, one after another, Rui adaptive evolved.

He adaptively evolved not only to all of Ieyasu’s copied Martial Art, but also the assimilated Martial Art hybridized with every Martial Art that Ieyasu had ever copied. Each time Ieyasu pulled out a new trump card, Rui managed to overcome it narrowly.

Yet, none of the spectators were sure whether Rui would be able to do so for Ieyasu’s latest trump card.

Sage Sera watched him employ her Martial Art against Rui with remarkable success. Despite the fact that she should have felt honored that her Martial Art was amongst the most powerful trump cards he had ever run into, a hint of displeasure appeared in her eyes.

“Tsk, he really sucks at trash talk.”

She had noticed this before in their battle, but Ieyasu did not have a personality that was very compatible with her Martial Art. Of course, he made up for this with his broken mind-reading ability that Kane had told everyone about recently. Still, given how much intimate information he seemed to have on Rui, his results were very lackluster.

If she had been in his place with the sheer amount of information that he had, the fight would already have been over. She actually found it extremely irksome that he was incompetent at insulting and provoking people. She just hoped that people didn’t assume her real Martial Art was as weak as what Ieyasu was doing. She wouldn’t have been able to get Martial Masters to commit suicide if she had been only capable of the piss-poor lukewarm roasts and provocations that Ieyasu seemed limited to.

On the other hand, it was a good thing that he was terrible at her Martial Art. It meant that Rui still had a way to adaptively evolve to him in time to avoid going down with him.

The only reason that it was so effective was not that Ieyasu’s verbal and non-verbal communication was extremely good, but rather the sheer magnitude of Rui’s trauma was so high that even bland and mundane emotional abuse in this direction was enough to completely throw him off his game.

She had sensed how deep the emotional turmoil buried deep within his mind was in the past, which was why she had refused his challenge for a duel. She did not possess the ability to hold back. And she would rather not be responsible for the suicide of the Final Prince and the diamond boy of the Martial Union.

Regardless, she didn’t think highly of Ieyasu’s ability to be witty and particularly corrosive with his trash talk. Yet, she wasn’t sure if the Void Prince would be able to climb out of the pit that he had fallen into. She understood how her Martial Art worked better than anybody else. The best way to counter it was to not allow it to get started at all. Once it got rolling, it simply became more and more impossible for one to break out of it.

And it proved to be true as Ieyasu’s psychological sabotage completely threw Rui off his best game and deprived him of his greatest weapon: thought. He used his mind-reading ability to gather deeply personal and private information. She had to admit that it was indeed a good decision to copy her Martial Art; he possessed a bizarre but potent affinity with her Martial Art thanks to that even if his personality was highly incompatible with it. It was able to compensate for his pitiful trash-talk, allowing him to land devastating blows on Rui’s psyche.

The air around the spectating Martial Artists grew more perilous.

The atmosphere tingled with tension.

The alliance Martial Artists grew more and more excited while the Kandrian Martial Artists grew increasingly grim and worried.

With each blow that Ieyasu blasted Rui with after completely negating his defenses with psychological sabotage, it became increasingly likely that the Sekigaharan Master was going to win this fight.

If that ruinous reality did come to pass, then the Kandrian Martial Artists would need to leap in and ensure that, no matter what, they killed Tokugawa Ieyasu. If they failed in doing that, then the Kandrian Empire was doomed.

It would be beyond disastrous.

It would mean an apocalypse for the Kandrian Empire as Prime Minister Edward would gather up all the power in East Panama and then completely and overwhelmingly destroy the Kandrian Empire without needing to suffer a pyrrhic victory.

RUMBLE…

The two sides grew more intense as they bore witness to the battle that could define the rest of the third Great East Panamic War. With each passing moment, the battle grew increasingly one-sided. With each passing moment, it became clear that Rui had no way of resisting the Harbinger’s Martial Art.

And thus, with each passing moment, they grew increasingly more impatient.

With each passing moment, their Bodies stirred as their Realms of power were on the brink of awakening in all their glory. It wouldn’t be long before they would have no choice but to leap in and intervene.

They hoped to be able to intervene just a moment before his potential loss. They hoped to intervene just before it was too late.

And then the moment came.

Far away in the battlefield, the battle approached the moment of collapse.

“A broken man following a broken path.” Ieyasu’s voice grew chilling. “Allow me to put you out of your misery.”

RUMBLE!!!

A devastatingly powerful piercing throat surged for Rui’s throat, threatening to kill him then

and there.