The Martial Unity

Chapter 3490: Potential for the Beast Path

When Rui returned to their quarters, he found Amare lying in her bed, deep in thought, her long, amber hair spread messily around their bed, while her bronze skin was sweaty.

”You look exhausted,” Rui remarked as he walked over to her side. ”Are you ready for what is about to come?”

She nodded slowly, her amber eyes still fixed on the ceiling while the darkness of the night sky crept in from outside the windows. ”...I won’t know for sure until I use it in battle, unfortunately. No amount of simulation and practice can compensate for experience, but I look forward to testing myself against the leaders of the War Coalition. Ideally, I would have liked to fight the Dragon Emperor, but...”

She turned to him with a resigned sigh. ”I’ll let you have your turn. If he survives, however, I will be the one to kill him.”

Rui huffed lightly, shaking his head. ”He is not going to survive. Trust me, I don’t fail often when I’m fully prepared.”

”I know,” she replied, gesturing to her side to invite him over. ”Still, I wanted to make that clear.”

Rui joined her by her side, indulging in her warmth and touch. ”Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a time, you know?”

She nodded. ”I can’t wait to push myself to my limits with the high principles I inherited from you. I don’t know if I can defeat Lord Shenlong yet, but I do wonder how I compare to Lord Vakratunda.”

Rui’s expression grew more thoughtful. ”That one is strong, alright. He isn’t one you mess with. I could feel the immense power within him. I don’t think it would be anything short of difficult even for me to take him down in a battle.”

”Really?” Amare’s amber eye lit up with concern. ” That’s high praise coming from you. I wonder if he would agree to fight me later on.”

Rui’s standards were so high at the moment that even a Transcendent Candidate was difficult for him anymore; he had already long surpassed them and kept growing stronger. For him to say that someone was difficult for him, it would have to be extremely high praise.

”He doesn’t seem like much of a fighter at heart,” Rui remarked. ”I doubt he would agree to fighting you; he would much rather eat and relax. Very strange for such a wise person to be such a glutton.”

”I think it’s cute, he’s so relaxed. I think he would make for a great leader of his people.”

”I sure hope so. I think he and my dad would get along well since they’re both about Harmony,” Rui replied, falling into thought. ”More importantly, I look forward to spending some time learning about the Beast Path when the time comes.”

”Oh, true...” Amare’s eyes lit up. ”That was one of the reasons that we came to Kiriket, after all. I want to get a pet beast to travel around with. It would be so cute to get a squirrel or a hamster.”

”They tend not to be useful in combat, you know?” Rui raised an eyebrow. ”Though I guess with their technology, they can give you radioactive rodents and antimatter cats or something of the sort.”

”I don’t want a living bioweapon for a pet,” Amare huffed. ”I would much rather have a creature that I can build a bond with. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

”If you say so,” Rui shook his head. ”It’s not something that appeals to me. It’s the same reason I reject MECHAs. The power they bring will force me to sacrifice adaptive evolution, something I absolutely cannot do. Traveling around with these resource and energy-intensive beasts is simply too much energy. Fighting with them will constrain my battle style too much.”

Amare frowned. ”Why don’t you travel around with an abyssfeeder then? Isn’t that your spirit monster in some ways? I think it would make for a perfect partner to someone like yourself.”

Rui stirred at the thought. ”I have considered it, of course. Abyssfeeders are extraordinarily versatile, but even then, the shackles that come with adopting a beast to travel with are limiting.”

She frowned. ”How do you intend to adopt the Beast Path with traveling with a beast by your side at all times?”

”I’m not sure,” Rui replied. ”I might reconsider, but also, I have Authority of Alpha.”

His smile deepened. ”I can control any beast I run into to fight for me. But the question is whether I can find a beast like that for me each time, of course. I could go for a more humble creature, too, something that is more manageable and less burdensome. Hard to say because the animal kingdom is truly highly diverse. It is impossible to judge whether or not it will work out. But...”

He turned, closing his eyes as he pulled his blanket over himself.

”...It’s for after we finish this battle.”

”True.” She nodded, relaxing and closing her eyes. ”Good night, Rui.”

”Good night.”

They fell asleep almost immediately as their brains recovered from the exhaustion they had accrued with their training and acclimatization. They hadn’t even been able to go anywhere near all out due to the fact that they would leave an energy signature that would be too difficult to cover up, leading the Dragon Emperor’s eyes to them instantly, where the situation would rapidly escalate.

While they slept, the Gajanan Clan and the Harmonist Faction completed their final preparations for the battle to destroy the War Coalition and kill the Dragon Emperor once and for all. The preparations had finally reached the stage where they were noticeable to the other parties on the continent, as the greater energy expenditure in the Harmonist Faction, as well as the increasingly unusual movements of troops, siege machines, and other military capital and resources, began growing harder and harder to hide.

The tensions on the continent began growing as the onset of war appeared inevitable to those in power.