The Martial Unity

While it was true that half of all nations, states, and groups of humans did not have access to a Martial Squire, or the Squire Realm. Thus from the perspective of humanity as a whole, Martial Squires were not abundant, and thus they were a precious resource to a certain extent.

Yet, to Rui, the Squire Realm was just one of the earliest and lowest checkpoints in his Martial Path and journey. He could never grow super prideful or arrogant on his current level of power when he knew that Martial Seniors could squash him with ease, and Martial Masters were so powerful that they could probably blink him from existence.

He didn't even need to say anything about Martial Sages or Martial Transcendants.

The two of them quickly made their way to the colosseum. Rui focused himself as he ignored the bravado coming from Squire Drekiole.

"You're dead, dead, you hear me?" The man snarled.

"Why are you getting so worked up?" Rui sighed. "It's just a duel. The Floating Sect has prohibited killing, so I'll make sure not to cross that line, don't worry."

The man only barked back louder in response to that.

They finally reached a sparring colosseum that was not being occupied at the moment. The two of them quickly filled out the basic paperwork, and soon enough there was an official arbiter that presided over the match.

"Challenger; Guardian Falken!"

Rui stepped forward.

"Defender; Guardian Drekiole!"

The man stepped forward, eying Rui from top to bottom.

He was a lot older, like almost all Martial Squires were, and a lot taller. Yet he didn't look nearly as old as he was thanks to being a Martial Artist.

Yet he was still mentally younger than Rui was.

Psychologically, he was probably a child, given his juvenile mannerisms thus far.

"Take your stances," The arbiter instructed.

The man spread his arms, crouching a bit.

Rui, too crouched as he took an open arm position.

Squire Drekiole's eyes narrowed at the sight of that. "You bastard…"

Rui knew that Squire Drekiole was a grappler. He was a grappler whose offensive lethality came from the friction that his skin generated against his opponent.

Rui wasn't able to directly observe it since they were too small, but he strongly suspected that the man's skin was riddled with spikes that would tear into the skin of his opponents. Moving would instantly inflict wounds on his opponent's outer flesh.

Furthermore, the wound was such that it maximized bleeding. He could cause his opponent to bleed out very quickly, losing the fight.

He was not weak, he most certainly had earned his place as a guardian, and one that was as high-ranked as he was.

However, Rui ignored his barbs and threats and did not get personally involved.

He recalled Senior Xanarn's words. He could not cripple the Floating Sect in these circumstances by making one of their guardians an invalid.

That was why this was not personal to him, he simply did not invest himself in the fight. It was just a duel, it was an experiment to measure the effectiveness of Weaving Blood as a means to alter the spec configuration of his Martial body to adapt to a Martial Squire with high lethality.

"Begin!"

The two of them rushed forward, executing a shoot maneuver, immediately crashing into each other as they put their hands on their opponent's shoulders, trying to control their balance.

They immediately noticed each other's techniques.

Rui grimaced as he felt his skin peeling off at the points of contact with his opponent.

It appeared that he had underestimated how painful they would be. The man had straight up ripped up Rui's skin like it was nothing despite his Adamant Reforging conditioning technique.

It appeared that whatever training he had trained in making the lethality of skin far greater than what a single passive defensive technique that he had bought, not created, was capable of granting him.

Adamant Reforging was not a technique that he had great synergy with because it didn't contain the synergy with his Martial body and Path that techniques that he created naturally had.

Adamant Reforging was one of the first techniques that he had mastered in the Squire Realm back when had just broken through. It was a useful passive defensive technique that had served him well enough. But Rui today realized that it wasn't anywhere near enough at the highest echelons of the Squire Realm.

His passive defense was falling back.

Thankfully, Weaving Blood was quick to pick up the slack as it quickly began healing Rui's wounds even before they were fully inflicted.

They wrangled a bit before pushing each other away.

Squire Drekiole looked surprised at Rui, noticing that the wounds that he had inflicted were already disappearing.

His expression darkened. "Is this why you were so confident? You're an endurance-oriented Martial Squire eh? Well, let's see just how much you can endure."

He launched forward with another shoot maneuver, which Rui matched. The two engaged, as they began wrangling each other once more.

BZZZT!

The man frowned as he felt a portion of his power freezing.

CLASP!

Rui lunged in, gaining a good and dominant position against him, exploiting the opening. However, even that gesture caused him to lose some skin, bleeding instantly.

Yet he forged on, relying heavily on Weaving Blood to fix his wounds.

And it did.

However, Squire Dekriole was not satisfied with just playing a passive position. He quickly lunged back, bear-hugging Rui, hoping to rip off huge swathes of flesh with this gesture. It was one of his killers.

He employed many strength techniques, making it extremely difficult to escape.

TAP TAP TAP TAP!

His arms suddenly went limp momentarily as his eyes widened. Rui had simply struck at them lightly with his index finger, yet he felt as though they disappeared, becoming numb as they plummeted midair.

BAM!

Rui struck him in his gut with a flying knee kick, striking his diaphragm, and making it difficult to breathe.