More importantly, the scale of the conflict had just crossed an important threshold which meant that the conflict would no longer be unofficial and under wraps.
"We are now at war with the K'ulnen Tribe," Rui softly stated out loud.
The mood was a little somber, yet everyone wordlessly waited for the reports.
BAM BAM
The K'ulnen Tribe Martial Artists gritted as they withstood the attacks from the long-range Martial Artists of the Martial Union.
"What's going on here?"
"Damn! How are they hitting us so hard from so far away so accurately?"
The two Martial Artists that had been used to take down the K'ulnen Martial Apprentices were in a sense heavy artillery. They embodied the sniper's way of doing things, powerful aim and power while sacrificing personal close-range prowess in order to pursue range.
They could not avoid or defend against attacks like this in order to give everything that they had toward long-range offense.
They were perfect for a first-time entry and debut to the Martial tribes of Vilun island.
"Tsk, retreat!"
Eventually, one of the K'ulnen Tribe Martial Apprentices realized how futile and bad this situation was, ordering a full retreat of all their people.
Immediately, all the people belonging to the K'ulnen Tribe retreated back to where they came from, seriously.
"Operation success!"
There were some general celebrations in the war room in the Martial Union settlement. The debut of the Martial Union as a party that is capable of competing with the other Martial tribes in, at least, lower grades.
('That will change given time,') Rui nodded.
Soon, Martial Apprentices would begin partaking in this war regularly.
Eventually, that would escalate to Martial Squires.
"Order full retreat," Rui nodded.
That team truly could no longer afford to stick around in the hunting territory of the K'ulnen Tribe. If they stuck around, then the K'urnen Tribe would soon send stronger reinforcements that were much more capable of handling the specialties and the competencies displayed by the Martial Artists that had been part of the team covertly and some ways behind the team.
While the Martial Union cheered and the K'ulnen cussed them out, a third-party spectator watched silently, with many different emotions spiraling through their mind. Surprise, caution, skepticism, and fear.
"…That's quite impressive," One Martial Artist sighed.
"Maybe… Maybe exchanging techniques with them isn't a bad idea…"
The G'ak'arkan Tribe's attitude towards the Martial Union had begun changing slowly for a while. It all began with the hunting that had begun a while ago, hunting that was used to regularly bring in enough food for the entire settlement.
That, however, was against prey. The circumstances were highly in favor of the hunter in such scenarios. After all, the hunter has too much power over his prey. This was one of the reasons that the G'ak'arkan Tribe had reservations about putting too much weight on such feats.
However, what they had just accomplished, was much greater than the last time. They had walked into the K'ulnen Tribe's hunting territory, and beaten them back in their own territory despite the K'ulnen Tribe escalating the level of the conflict to the Apprentice Realm first and foremost.
The techniques that had been demonstrated were each solid and reliable, and very powerfully covered the areas of weakness and shortcomings that the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Rui was absolutely confident that the G'ak'arkan Tribe was having a serious meeting that would deliberate once more on the matter of the Martial Union.
Now, whatever part of the G'ak'arkan Tribe had already expressed support in increasingly in was growing stronger and stronger in its political weight and capital.
"Can you handle the rest, Captain Cravis?" Rui asked the captain of the intelligence leader.
"Yes sir, but do you plan not to?" Captain Cravis threw Rui a puzzled look.
"For now, no," Rui shook his head,
The brain-storming part of the mission was done for now. Rui had to make personal preparations to make sure that he was personally ready to take part in the incoming Martial conflicts with the K'ulnen Tribe.
('Any longer, and my battle instincts will begin to dull,') Rui sighed, before steeling his expression.
In the past three months, he had been receiving very little logistical support in helping the mission succeed had, meaning that he was very busy, they did not have the capital to help him out despite the fact that he had something that could stay for him to suffer.
"Thankfully, this phase of the mission can safely be delegated to other qualified personnel," Rui grinned.
What this meant was that he had more free time than he had ever had in the past three months. What he was going to use that free time for, was entirely obvious.
"I need to train hard, and strong," Rui murmured.
His situation was particularly sensitive. The Mind Mirror technique causes him to be evaluated as far more dangerous than he actually was. This worked just fine when he was a diplomat on a warmongering island, but it did not create the best situations when he himself would be fighting out there against people who think that he was much stronger than he was.
Meaning, that it was quite likely that powerful martial Squires would be dispatched to target him specifically. Martial Squires were equipped to take down someone that they perceived was a grade nine or grade ten Martial Artist.
This was bad because Rui was much weaker than grade-nine or grade-ten Martial Artists. Rui needed to get back into absolute peak form otherwise, he did not stand a chance against any such measures if he did not go all all-out.
"This is going to be some good old fun times, just like in the old day," Rui smiled. Despite the tribulations that were incoming, he couldn't help but grow genuinely eager and even excited at the prospect of engaging in some conflicts, with meaningful and important relevancies to him. Growing stronger was something Rui was highly accustomed to doing.
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