The Martial Unity

The dynamics of the Derschek Region shifted as a small chunk of the less committed assassins left the region and the Shadow Isles, unwilling to get tangled up by what was clearly a veteran Martial Senior assassin targeting them.

The supply of assassins was reduced by a little, increasing their scarcity and driving up the prices of the assassination services.

"We have already measured a nine-percent decrease in the number of commissioned assassinations per capita across all Realms across a ten-day time period." The professor exclaimed.

"That's good, but it will need to plummet much more than that," Rui remarked. "Still, considering that the median prices of assassinations across all Realms have experienced a slump after only five assassinations. It has given me a good picture of how entrenched the assassination industry is. Unfortunately, for my next targets, killing a single Martial Senior will not be nearly as effective as it was the first five times."

"What do you plan to do then?" Professor Carl asked.

"I eventually plan to take out the few Martial Seniors that have grouped together in a pair in hopes that that will deter me from killing any of them," Rui replied as his tone grew sharper.

"I will show them that they cannot deter me with such a trivial measure. If they want to hinder me, they'll need to huddle up like they're homeless on a freezing winter night."

"Isn't there a chance that one of the duo might be able to survive your assassination attempt and reveal the manner in which you kill your targets?" Professor Carl asked.

"It's impossible to kill both within the same assassination," Rui admitted. As much as he wanted to claim that such a thing was trivially easy for him, he would be dishonest in doing so. "However, I can definitely kill one of them."

"So you're saying that it is inevitable?"

"Yes. I haven't reached a level where I can continue preventing them from learning anything about my assassination style for too much longer." Rui replied. "I'll take out as many individual Martial Seniors as I can, but once I reach the duos, the secret will spill, unfortunately."

"How will that affect your plan?"

"I've already accounted for it." Rui calmly reassured him. "Once I whittled their numbers down, and also demonstrated that simply pairing up is not going to save them. One of them will die, and the other may escape for a while, but not for too long."

"What if the one that survives pinpoints your location and then decides to attack you?" Professor Carl. "Because you're the youngest Martial Squire, your Martial Heart and Martial Body are probably going to be weaker."

"Ordinarily, you'd be right in saying that this would be a severe threat. However..." Rui smirked. "I am not an assassin. Despite my recent accomplishments, I'm at my strongest in a head-on fight. On top of that..."

His eyes narrowed. "...I'm at my strongest when I'm prepared for my opponent."

Although Rui had avoided doing this in recent times, he was far stronger than his baseline power level when he had a predictive model on his opponent built from the get-go. He could massively outperform his usual strength and was truly a menace to deal with in such a case.

On top of that, his opponent was an assassin, someone who specialized in covertly eliminating targets through preparation.

Assassins thus weren't as good at head-on unprepared combat as they were at assassinations. Thus even if Rui killed one of the two people in a pair, and the second surviving Martial Senior managed to pinpoint the location using that assassination. Rui was not nearly as concerned because they would be forced to confront him in his specialty, while he was fully prepared and at his strongest.

"Once I succeed in assassinating one of the two that belong in a pair, and defeat the second one in head-on combat. They will understand that they cannot survive me without extreme measures." Rui calmly concluded. "Of course, in most cases, the second surviving member of a pair would rather not fight their assassin head-on because the latter is prepared for them while the reverse isn't true. But even still..."

It was enough.

"So you've planned everything."

"Close to." Rui shrugged. "It's not possible to account for every variable, but I've processed every iota of data within the sect's library of intelligence on the assassination industry of the Shadow Isles and this is the best plan that I can think of. It's impractical to try and kill every assassin one by one. Scaring most of them off with an unspoken ultimatum and threat to their life is the most efficient and effective path forward."

Professor Carl nodded. "The regional head has authorized full-fledged cooperation of the branch with you and your operations. We have commissioned many Martial Seniors before. None have managed to make anything more than insignificant progress before leaving because they were compromised or killed. This is unprecedented."

Rui smiled as the excited professor rattled on.

His thoughts turned to his true objective in the Shadow Isles.

The Silent Shadow. She left hints of it every time she accepted a new pupil, a sign here or there. It was a way of reminding people that she was still alive and still judging those who sought her.

She hadn't accepted a pupil in quite some time, according to reports. And Rui grew increasingly convinced that it was the lacking qualities of the assassins who sought her. If a true assassin eliminated the hurdles in their way, then Rui as he was right now was the poster boy for such an archetype.

If not even that was enough to gain her approval then...

He shrugged inwardly. 'I tried.'

He shook his head before getting up and leaving.

"Where are you heading off to now?"

"To kill my next victim, of course," Rui calmly remarked, donning his mask before heading out.

That day, yet another Martial Senior fell, stoking the flames of the crisis that had beset the assassins of the Shadow Isles.