Those words motivated the Martial Squires a lot. Since this would be their final battle against the K'ulnen Tribe, they were definitely going all out.
"If this is our final battle, then that means that Senior Ceeran will be taking part anyway, correct?" Another Martial Squire asked.
"Of course," Rui nodded. "The battle will begin with only Martial Squires, however, as it progresses, we will have reinforcements giving us the edge against their Martial Squires. The K'ulnen Tribe will have no choice asides from deploying their Martial Senior and by that point, it will be outside our hands."
The Martial Squires nodded, understanding the plan.
This way, they get to demonstrate the full power of the Squire-level assets of the Martial Union, before then demonstrating the full power of the sole Martial Senior of the Martial Union settlement.
"Um… The K'ulnen Tribe has two Martial Seniors, right? Will Senior Ceeran be able to handle them by himself?" Another Martial Squire boldly voiced out.
Of course, he immediately turned himself into a target for the glares of his fellow peers and sect members. It was a considerable lack of faith on his part to ask that question, though Rui did appreciate the caution.
"Had it been more than just a handful of Martial Seniors, I would entirely share your concerns," Rui smiled. "But just two of the native Martial Seniors of this island are not enough. Senior Ceeran is in the upper echelons of the Senior Realm by the Martial Union's standards. That's good enough."
There was a moment of silence as the air turned awkward. Not everyone was convinced.
Rui sighed. "The quality of our Martial Apprentices is greater than that of theirs. This is true across all Realms to varying degrees. The difference is the least in the Apprentice Realm."
The power of Martial Apprentices had the fewest variables controlling them out of all of the three lower Realms. The potency of one's Martial Path, the quality of techniques that one had mastered, physicality, and experience were the major factors that decided the power of Martial Apprentices.
"Because there are fewer variables that determine the power of a Martial Apprentice, that ends up meaning that there are fewer advantages that our Martial Apprentices possess over theirs," Rui explained. "Which is why the gap is the smallest. From what I can see, their Martial Apprentices are about two grades lower than that of ours, on average."
Rui was absolutely certain that his Martial Apprentice self would have crushed any and all Martial Apprentices on Vilun Island with laughable ease. He was once the strongest Martial Apprentice in the entirety of the Kandrian Empire, it was possible that he would have been mistaken as an extremely weak and young Martial Squire on Vilun Island. Especially when he had the Mind Mask technique making him look like a weak grade-one Martial Squire.
"However, the story is not the same when it comes to Martial Squires," Rui smiled. "The power of Martial Squires comes from not just all of the aforementioned factors for the Apprentice Realm, but also the compatibility and synergy between each of the Martial body, the Martial path, and the Martial Art techniques. The synergy between each of these three provides tremendous amounts of power."
Rui would know. He produced a grade-eight defensive technique, something that was probably beyond his ability to learn otherwise, and a grade-ten long-range technique that put even Martial Seniors like Senior Ceeran in a fervor.
"In this regard, it is absolutely the case that we are well beyond them. Take a look at our revolution breakthrough process. We each possess Martial bodies that are most aligned with our Martial Art and Martial Path. However, do you think the same can be said for them?"
The evolution breakthrough process of the super-nations of the Panama Continent gave the Martial Squires a physicality best suited for their Martial Paths. However, the intelligence and analytics teams had come to the conclusion that their sacred Ascension ritual was incapable of providing the same benefit to the same degree that the Martial Union could.
This meant that on top of all of the advantages that the Martial Union Apprentices had over the Vilun Apprentices, the Martial Squires had the advantage of a superior and more customized evolution breakthrough process.
On top of that, they also possessed a greater diversity of techniques and a much stronger foundation due to the sheer amount of research and development that went into optimizing and creating techniques.
"By my estimate, we, on average, are superior to the native indigenous Martial Squires by two grades. Two grades of the Squire Realm," Rui continued.
The difference between grades was larger in the Squire Realm than it was in the Apprentice Realm, which meant that there was a greater gap between the Squires of both sides than the Apprentices of both sides.
"Now, if we extrapolate this to the Senior Realm…" Rui smiled. His point had become apparent at this point. It was a solid rationale that was quite convincing to the Martial Squires present.
Of course, not all of the Martial Squires were aware of the conditions to break through to the Senior Realm, and he highly doubted any of them were actually aware of what the apotheosis to the Senior Realm actually was. Still, even if there were no additional variables in the Senior Realm that further widened the gap between the Seniors of the two sides, it could certainly be no smaller than the gap between the Squires of both sides.
"And that alone is enough to have confidence in Senior Ceeran," Rui calmly told them. "I have already spoken to Senior Ceeran regarding the matter, and rest assured that his confidence was quite compelling and reassuring to me. In fact, he seemed quite excited to see action after a long time of doing nothing but laying low. All of you can talk to him when you get the chance."
Rui's words reassured them, his logic was sound which made his confidence much more relaxed.
