The Martial Unity

The flames of war that the Kandrian Empire had lit could not be snuffed out. As the four nations began expanding their territory bit by bit. There were all kinds of scuffles that began occurring as a result. The core was the only part of the Serevian Dungeon that was yet to be colonized. However, as the four super nations expanded, not even that was going to remain uncolonized for too much longer.

The scarcity of the remaining resources made them even more valuable. This caused the conflict to become more frequent, causing the Martial Apprentices to be deployed more often than before.

Today was another such day for the Martial Apprentices of the Martial Union. The offensive team, for the first time since the previous clash, would be clashing with the Sekigahara Confederate over a territorial dispute.

"The mission today will not be quite the same as the one nearly a month ago." Commissioner Feristen informed them. "Back then, we attacked the fortified core territory of the Sekigahara Confederate with a powerful assault team to inflict as much damage and force them to stall their expansion endeavors. Of course, they have more than recuperated and have eagerly begun expanding once more to make up for the lost time. This has predictably led to a clash of interests as far as expansion interests go."

Commissioner Feristen pressed a button on a device, projecting the image of a marked map on a screen.

It was a map of the core of the Serevian Dungeon, highlighting certain territories in different colors that were relevant.

"As you can see." Commissioner Feristen continued. "The territories in red are the territories that the Sekigahara Confederate have demonstrated interest in, in the past month. The territories in blue are the territories that the Kandrian Empire aims to colonize. The territories in purple are the territories that both Sekigahara Confederate and the Kandrian Empire have demonstrated interest in."

The way that all of the nations within the Serevian Dungeon expanded wasn't by simply blindly expanding from their core territory outwards in a singular circle. That was wasteful and inefficient because the distribution of esoteric resources was not even, obviously. The net territory of each nation was divided across multiple settlements in the more rich and lush parts of the Serevian Dungeon, including the guaranteed core territories that all of the participating nations had.

"One of the purple territories is actually the Bolexeuen Hills." He said, projecting another image. "A Sekigahara Confederate convoy has been spotted heading towards the Bolexeuen Hill. The intelligence makes it clear that the Sekigahara Confederate intends to colonize the Bolexeuex Hill, based on this and other things. Your mission is not merely to sabotage or damage the colonization endeavors of the Sekigahara Confederate, but to completely drive them away from the Bolexeuen Hill. Even though the defensive measures of a convoy are most certainly not equal to the defensive measures of one of the main territories of the Sekigahara Confederate that the offensive team launched an attack on last month, the actual objective of the mission isn't as easy as it was before."

In short, they were no longer merely going to be fighting over trying to inflict damage to slow their opponents down, the Kandrian Empire wanted to boot the Sekigahara Confederate from one of the prime locations for esoteric resources that they both had had an eye on.

The Kandrian Intelligence Agency and Intelligence department of the Martial Union hadn't been able to gain an accurate understanding of the Martial Artist assets that had been deployed to protect the convoy as it began colonizing the Bolexeuen Hill.

Regardless, dozens of Martial Apprentices had been mobilized to partake in the mission. Among them were, of course, Rui, Kane, Fae, Nel, and Fiona.

And much to Rui's chagrin, Ian.

He shook his head putting him aside for the moment.

Commissioner Feristen continued in greater detail regarding the topographic features while explaining the route that the strategic department had charted out for the operation. He went into several other things before nodding. "Alright, that brings us to the end of the mission breakdown seminar. Be prepared until it is time to commence the mission."

The Martial Apprentices went their ways, needing to prepare for the upcoming battle.

"Do you reckon this is going to be easier or harder than the initial clash with the Sekigahara Confederate?" Kane asked.

"Harder." Rui replied. "In the previous mission, we simply assaulted one of their main territories with the intent of hurting. And more importantly, our win condition was quite shallow and light. We did not need to force our opponents back, this is not true in this case. This time we'll need to overwhelm them completely otherwise we won't be able to displace their convoy from the Bolexeuen Hill. That's a much taller task to impose on us than just inflicting a lot of damage."

"Makes sense." Kane nodded. "Still, if this battle goes anything like it did the first time, dominating them shouldn't be much of an issue."

"That's if it goes as it did in the first attack," Rui replied to him.

"You don't think it will?" Kane raised an eyebrow.

"Hard to say." Rui sighed, shrugging in response. "But it is best to proceed under the assumption that it won't. The Serevian Dungeon is such that the nations can surveil the battles directly in real-time, meaning they have an intimate understanding of why they lost. And part of why they lost is because the two of us took down a disproportionate number of Martial Apprentices. Unless the Sekigahara Confederate is incompetent they will likely have solutions to ensure that at the very least something like that won't happen again."

"But how?" Kane asked, frowning.

"I can't say for sure, but regardless, be wary and careful. Don't just bombard around the battlefield without any caveats or caution." Rui advised.

"I'm an evasive maneuverer." Kane shrugged. "Caution is my last name."

"No, your last name is-"

"Shut up."