The Martial Unity

Yet, she wasn't the only one who was having trouble. She wasn't the only one who had been forced to fight four Martial Seniors at once.

Senior Leonil gritted his teeth as he rushed away, desperately trying to avoid the hail of attacks that he was being bombarded with.

He was nowhere near as aggressive as he was last time, just like Senior Xanarn, he had been forced to avoid even bothering with offense if he had any hopes of surviving.

However, unlike Senior Xanarn, he didn't have any compunctions of protecting the Floating Sect with his life. Of course, he was willing to defend the Floating Sect if it was in danger as he was doing so at the moment, but he did not care to sacrifice his life for the sect.

He was one of the Martial Seniors who was on the sect for more selfish reasons compared to someone like Senior Xanarn.

His fight was more destructive to the sect than Senior Xanarn's fight was. He didn't even mind if he ended up killing the Squire-level guardians as a result.

Senior Sarak was in the middle between them, however, he couldn't help but feel as though he had ended up becoming the most useless of the three despite being the strongest. It was frustrating because he desperately wanted to join his comrades and relieve them of their predicaments, but alas he wasn't able to.

He wasn't fast, so he wasn't able to juke his opponents and join his fellow Senior guardians.

He wasn't power or offense-oriented, so he wasn't able to force his way through and get to his comrades.

All he could do was stand there like a pillar, feeling stupid and useless.

He felt an immense amount of self-loathing, but his strength was centered around counter-offense, with a heavy slant towards defense more than anything else. Every time he tried to juke his opponents and move towards his allies and comrades, he would fail.

He wasn't too concerned about his own well-being.

Of the three of them, he had been the only one who was stronger than his all of opponents last time, and that hadn't changed.

All eleven Kaddar Martial Artists went all out.

They had an advantage, and they knew they had an advantage. Senior Sarak's opponents knew that they couldn't take him down, so they made use of every ounce of their energy to keep him where he was.

It was easy too.

All they needed to do was attack and force him to use the one technique in his Martial Art that he had, which he was best able to do while stationary.

The stage had been set and the plan executed by the Kaddar Martial Seniors was going on track.

Senior Xanarn coughed some more blood as his expression tightened.

The addition of a poison-oriented Martial Senior turned out to work wonders for the Kaddar Martial Seniors.

Not only did the presence of the extra Martial Senior make things much harder for Senior Xanarn naturally, but also, the Martial Artist being centered around poison was the best way to make her feel that extra Martial Senior when battling.

Rui's expression grew increasingly more tense as the battle proceeded, just as her condition did.

None of the original three Martial Seniors she fought had actually inflicted much damage at all. They merely focused on burning all their power to ensure that their poisonous friend would be able to bypass her defenses really well.

Rui did his best to analyze the kinds of poisons being employed, but he wasn't able to. Still, she did have a few broad kinds of poisons.

She seemed to have an anti-coagulant drug that made each wound bleed and take a bigger toll on Senior Xanarn.

This was particularly bad for Senior Xanarn, and it burned her healing factor because of the lost blood in addition to wounds. It meant that Senior Xanarn may very well not survive until the end.

Even if she did, she was going to be in a horrible condition.

('That isn't all,') Rui's eyes narrowed. ('She's also attacking Senior Xanarn's senses.')

He could see that she was having a harder time registering her opponent's attacks. Her ears were also bleeding and had taken on a strange hue.

She was far from doing well.

And she only got worse.

Her breathing grew very ragged.

Her wounds grew more severe.

Her blood loss grew untenable.

She was in circumstances that were beyond dire.

Yet she fought fiercely. Even in her circumstances, she refused to allow her condition to get in the way of her duty of protecting the Floating Sect. She still minded her environment and made sure that she didn't take the battle near the chambers, or near the entrance to the shelter in an effort to ensure none of the members of the sect were put at risk even as she was literally dying.

Rui couldn't help but feel immense admiration for her.

It was easy to talk, but it wasn't easy walking the talk right down to the T. She truly was committed to protecting those she vowed to protect, even if it came at the cost of her own health and life.

In comparison, Rui's Martial drive was a lot more self-centered. He largely was driven by personal ambition, as well as a desire to protect his family. But aside from that, he wasn't selfless.

It was in moments like these that he truly felt humbled.

He did not think he was wrong to have self-centered ambitions like Project Water, not at all. But he did admire people who dedicated themselves to others. He did not mind lending them his power if and when he could.

Especially when he was attracted to them.

His body tensed as he and Kane prepared themselves to act.

The Martial Hearts had been blazing for more than an hour and had now begun diminishing by the minute.

Any time now, Rui, Kane, and Ieyasu could jump out and turn the tables!