The Martial Unity

In the middle of that ordeal, she threw him a simple question.

"Have you fulfilled the two conditions of Squire candidacy?" She asked him straightforwardly.

"I have," Rui truthfully answered. She peered at his reactions with her sharp eyes, discerning every detail. Rui felt transparent, for the first time.

"Tell me about your Martial Art and your Martial Path."

Rui paused for a moment as he contemplated his answer.

What could he even say on the spot to such a request?

"My Martial Path is adaptive evolution. My Martial Art allows me to adapt my combat style and all of my movements to suit my opponent's, Martial Art." He replied, pausing before continuing. "In its most ideal state, I would be able to adapt to any form of opposition of any kind in combat. However, unfortunately, I'm far away from achieving that goal. I have yet to develop solutions against many fields of Martial Art, several domains and different kinds of opponents as well."

"An ambitious goal, no doubt." She commented. "How do you hope to go about it?"

Rui paused. This alone was more than he would tell most people, but this was clearly part of the test. "By expanding the diversity of my capabilities. Every Martial Art has a unique solution, the greater the diversity of my capability, the greater the number of Martial Art I can adapt to."

He didn't mention adapting the VOID algorithm to the world of Gaia, although it was relevant. It was difficult to explain the VOID algorithm to people of this world, let alone explain its flaws. He couldn't very well tell her that the VOID algorithm was a relic from a different world that was limited to the previous and needed to be adapted adequately to suit this world.

"I see..." She appeared deep in thought. "That will take a long time to achieve."

"Most likely," Rui admitted. "Yet, I intend to see it through to the very end."

"That's quite admirable of you." She replied. "Do you remember the moment you felt the maturation of your Martial Art?"

"Vividly." Rui nodded. "It was like time slowed down, and an immense wave of clarity washed over me. I felt ready to step into a higher Realm of power."

"When did the moment happen?" She asked.

"Very recently, a few days ago," Rui replied. "It happened in the middle of combat. I had been beset by targeted attacks from ten Martial Artists across three nations on the battlefield. The situation was dire and I had been pushed to my very limit. For a moment there I had been forced to use all of my Martial Art, every maneuvering technique, every supplementary technique, every offensive, and defensive technique. It was at that moment that I had an epiphany."

"Are you ready for a higher Realm of power?" She asked him.

Rui paused for a moment. "As ready as I'll ever be."

She stared at him.

Suddenly, the pressure she exerted on him was gone.

"Okay, that concludes the test." She nodded. "In my evaluation as a mind-sensory Martial Squire, you are indeed qualified to undergo the breakthrough to the Squire Realm."

"'Mind sensory Martial Squire?'" Rui echoed with raised eyes.

"It's a very niche field, an overlap of the sensory Martial Art techniques and mental techniques." She explained. "It allows me to peer into the mind of my target to a certain degree. Most applications of my Martial Art are purely combat-oriented. But it is quite useful in circumstances like these, where the state of a Martial Apprentices mind is required to be verified by a credible and reliable source."

"So you verified that I am a Squire candidate through those techniques?" Rui asked, incredulous.

She nodded. "Indeed. I verified that you have the mental fortitude to at the very least not be guaranteed to die to the procedure due to being too weak. Furthermore, I have verified the stability of your Martial Path as well as the sincerity of your recounts."

Rui's eyes rose up in interest. He had never seen a mind-sensory Martial Squire before. It was a fascinating concept to him.

He wondered if he could master some mind-sensory techniques. Although he had no affinity for sensory techniques, he certainly did have some affinity for mental techniques. Surely that meant he would have a certain degree of affinity to an overlap of mental techniques and sensory techniques, right?

Squire Deria had mentioned most of the applications of her Martial Art were meant for combat. He wondered what that would actually look like in practice. He wasn't entirely sure, but he had a few guesses regarding what she meant.

For example, he would be quite surprised if there weren't techniques that allowed the user to sense the intentions of their opponent, one way or another. Although such a technique would undoubtedly be extremely high-grade. He would expect there to be a technique that allowed the user to sense the weaknesses of their opponent via a mind-sensing technique. There probably were techniques that allowed the user to sense the kind of Martial Art their opponent had.

Of course, this was all merely conjecture, but these were the kinds of techniques he pictured when he thought about mental sensory techniques.

('I'll definitely have to look into this intersecting specialty when I become a Martial Squire.') Rui mused.

He instinctively felt that there probably was something that would aid his Martial Art significantly. After all, the mental sensory technique was a niche field that allowed the user to gain information about their opponent in a very unique and special way. Considering the fact that his Martial Art heavily relied upon gathering information about his opponent, it was quite likely there was something that could at the very least supplement his information-gathering ability on his opponent. He would be quite surprised if there wasn't a technique that could aid in the creation of the predictive model or the execution of the predictive model to predict the movements of his opponent.