The Martial Unity

The Martial Union wasn't interested in a long-drawn conflict that would stretch out for many months to half a year. The goal of this entire conflict in the first place was to demonstrate the power and utility of their long-range techniques and draw out the greed of the G'ak'arkan Tribe for those techniques so that the next time that Rui makes an attempt to negotiate with them, it would go much better than it did before.

That was why Rui had no problems rushing the conflict between the Martial Union and the G'ak'arkan Tribe to the next level. After all, once the conflict between the two groups reached its peak, then their little exhibition conflict would be done, having exhibited everything that they need. At that point, the conflict was no more than a liability that did nothing but sapped away the capital of the settlement.

Once that happened, Rui would immediately have Kane execute Operation Endline, an operation that would frame another tribe of having abducted the women of the K'ulnen Tribe. Once that happened, that tribe would earn the absolute ire of the K'ulnen Tribe. It was far worse than killing one of their Martial Squires fair and square on the battlefield.

"Hm?" Rui's attention was drawn by one of the younger and weaker Martial Squires raising a hand. "Speak, what is it?"

"Uh, sir? I thought that this plan could only be executed when certain conditions were fulfilled, conditions that weren't always fulfilled?"

"Correct," Rui nodded. "The goal of this operation can only be accomplished if the K'ulnen has already dedicated a considerable portion of its Martial Squire capital to other battlefields. The intelligence team very recently discovered that this soon going to be the case, most likely. Once we verify that this is the case, and the K'ulnen Tribe dedicates greater manpower to its battles against H'Nata and the F'Ruku Tribes, then we shall swoop in and attack in its temporarily spent state. It will need to muster out all of its remaining Squire-level assets once that's done."

This also helped Rui's predictive model, allowing him to make far better predictions with the information that he currently held.

"What about the mission bill for this operation?" Another Martial Squire asked.

Each of the Martial Squires had grown so accustomed to the system of mission bills that contained all of the information that they needed to know in a compact form that the settlement adopted the same briefing to all of its Martial Artists.

"They've been composed, of course," Rui nodded to the team of assistants in the room. "I'll break down the most important parts of the plan myself here, you can go through the details in your own time immediately after. Of course, there isn't much time left before the commencement of the mission."

Rui paused for a moment as each of the Martial Squires received a mission bill, before continuing.

"The goal of this operation is to make a final demonstration of all the cards relevant to the trade that we wish to make happen between the Martial Union and the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui informed them once more. "Which means, by the end of it, we'll have deployed every Martial Squire we have, and more."

Several Martial Squires frowned mildly at that.

"And more?" One of them asked as her eyes widened. "You mean..."

"That's right," Rui nodded. "If all goes as planned, then Senior Ceeran will have intervened in this battle."

The otherwise composed Martial Squires stirred at those words. Their reactions ranged from excited and motivated to a little anxious and uncertain.

"Based on our estimations, the K'ulnen Tribe does not possess the assets to push back against the forces in this room with their Martial Squires. This means that they will be forced to deploy a Martial Senior if they wish to avoid incurring heavy losses. After all, the remaining Martial Squires in their village at the moment are the only Squire-level assets between us and their village," Rui explained, before continuing. "If we deploy all of our long-range Martial Squires at once, then it is quite likely they will take one look at our numerical advantage and immediately deploy a Martial Senior, with or without their Martial Squires."

The Martial Squires looked a little pale at the scenario that Rui just described. While the gathering of the Martial Squires within the military conference room was certainly impressive, none of them thought they could fight a Martial Senior and win.

"Of course, I think we can all agree that such a scenario is undesirable," Rui smirked. "Instead, we will begin by deploying a number of Martial Squires just five percent below the number of Martial Squires that they are able to deploy at all once they have committed Martial Squires to other battlefields. This is just enough of a margin to be assured that the K'ulnen Tribe won't deploy its Martial Senior from the get-go."

"What if it isn't?" One of them asked, with a skeptical expression.

"Even if it isn't, and this is very unlikely, but even if it isn't, we have Senior Ceeran waiting on standby and on high alert. He'll move in at top speed the second we have even the first indication that a Martial Senior will be deployed immediately."

This brought some relief to their faces. As Martial Squires of the Longranger Sect, all of them looked up to Senior Ceeran. Furthermore, as a long-range Martial Senior, he could protect and intervene even before he actually reached the battlefield. This was an even greater reassurance.

"The likeliest scenario is that we will be embroiled in a heated conflict with the Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Sect," Rui reminded them. "We will need to fight hard and fight strong and produce good results. You have all been assigned duties and roles that are suited to your strengths so that your very best performance can be drawn out of you. Be sure to go all out and show them what we are capable of one last time."