The Martial Unity

The battle eventually ended in a somewhat unclear draw. The incoming invasion had been impeded and halted from entering Floating Island, but it had cost both sides a lot of Martial Squires.

A small proportion of the guardians of the Floating Sect had perished in battle.

Floating Sect had grown weaker. Every battle chipped away at its net strength. Although not many died, and although it would not be easy to deplete the guardians of the Floating Sect, it was still something that would take a toll on the sect.

Especially since the sect could not replenish the lost Martial Artists. Every Martial Squire lost was a permanent loss.

The reason for this, of course, was the heavy restriction from the Kaddar Treaty Organization. They had deterred Martial Squires from entering the island in the past, but it had never been an absolute barricade as it was this time.

In the past, there was no way to wage large-scale wars against the Floating Sect. The proximity of conflict near the island causing just enough damage to destabilize it and trigger a chain reaction that would lead to the island collapsing and plummeting was too high for the risk to be taken.

In that case, enacting a permanent restriction that prevented any Martial Squires from entering the island was not worth it because it they would need to maintain it forever since the island would be around forever since they could not do anything about the it at the time.

However, things had changed.

Now, with a some long-range weapon that had been customized to employ the gravity of the core of the island to stabilize the island, they could not wage war against the sect without fear. In that case, the replenishment of guardians that the Floating Sect gained from the incoming Martial Squires was too great.

It would stall the way forever.

If they wanted the war to end, at all, they needed to prevent the Floating Sect from healing.

While it was true that the quality of Martial Squires of the Floating Sect was higher than arguably anywhere else, everything had a limit.

Waves after waves chipped away at the strength of the Floating Sect. They drained the power of the sect, and eventually, it would be over.

Of course, Rui was aware that what truly decided the outcome of the war was not the Martial Squires of the Floating Sect, but actually the Martial Seniors.

However, he also understood that as long as the Kaddar nations had not yet come to a consensus on exactly which nations' Martial Seniors would be deployed to counter the Martial Seniors of the Floating Sect, they would not escalate the level of conflict to that degree.

For the same reason that no nation on Earth would willingly give up its nukes for the sake of the continent with the risk of losing their nuclear weapons forever while their neighbors retained them, none of the nations of the Kaddar Region were willing to deploy their Martial Seniors on such an operation lightly.

This had originally been a little strange to Rui as these nations did not shy away from deploying them for other operations. After all, it wasn't as if these Martial Seniors whiled away their time doing nothing. They trained or worked in the field.

Yet there was a valid reason for why the nations of the Kaddar Region were reluctant to deploy them against the Floating Sect.

('The Senior guardians of the Floating Sect are too strong on the island,') Rui mused.

He already knew that Senior Xanarn was on her home turf in the environment of the island. She could at least take on two Martial Seniors on at the same time, potentially three if she fought extremely defensively.

Furthermore, he had inferred that another one of the Martial Seniors also had a huge home turf advantage because the library had an abundance of breathing techniques like it did sound, suggesting that one of the Martial Seniors was specialized in breathing techniques.

Which meant they too were most likely greatly empowered by the environment. If Rui assumed that the reason these three Martial Seniors of the sect, clung to it so tightly was because of how much it empowered their Martial Path, then the Kaddar Region would need anywhere from six to nine Martial Seniors just to match them.

They would need more if they wanted to win, and even more if they wanted a decisive victory.

Regardless of who won, it was a given fact that Martial Seniors on both sides were going to die.

Twelve Martial Seniors did not just go all out in a conflict that ended with not a single casualty.

This was what the Kaddar nations were afraid of.

Thus, until they made up their mind and resolved to send all Martial Seniors at once, they could not help but try and win the Squire-level battle first.

Especially when Rui had now learned that Martial Squires could potentially take down a Martial Senior if their Martial Heart burned out, returning them to their base forms. The Kaddar Region had already witnessed the supremely elite Martial Squires of the Floating Sect, especially monsters like Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Getting rid of them meant that the probability of losing a Martial Senior in battle was much lower.

Rui's attention returned to the battlefield as the battle between both sides came to an end as both sides retreated towards their respective bases, wary of anything funny from the other side.

Rui, too, followed suit as he retreated back along with the guardians of the Floating Sect with a satisfied grin on his face.

The Floating Sect had recently instated the policy of rewarding Martial Squires of taking down Kaddar Martial Squires. The stronger the Martial Squire, the greater the reward. Considering that Rui took down a Martial Squire that was definitely top hundred material when it came to the guardian rankings, he was sure that he earned more training time from the Martial Seniors.