The battle unfolded in a manner that shocked all of the spectators, especially the Martial Seniors of the island who were most certainly paying rapt attention to the conflict between two of the most powerful Martial Seniors on the island and the single outsider Martial Senior who had come to the island as a diplomat last time.
They had been quite surprised when they saw him intervening to protect his Martial Squires from the matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe. After all, none of them knew that he was even present on the island. Still, they cared much less about why he was here than they did about his battle with the leaders of the K'ulnen Tribe and his Martial prowess.
And, without a doubt, every last one of them was shocked at his techniques. Yet, none of them were more shocked than the Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"HOW IS HE DOING THAT?!" Senior K'ahru's jaw dropped as he momentarily lost all of his dignity and bearing as a Martial Senior as he witnessed Senior Ceeran elegantly manipulating his attacks like a magician.
"To think that the outsiders possess techniques that allow you to manipulate your attacks to such an extreme degree!" Senior K'Mala was unable to maintain her composure either. "Truly enlightening! It's a good thing we did not rashly attack them with just the two of us, isn't it little brother?"
She said with a measured tone as she threw a bit of a smug expression at Senior K'ahru. "If that man can fight the leaders of the K'ulnen Tribe and even injure them while remaining in pristine shape himself, the two of us would definitely have died a quick yet glorious death had we tried attacking their village."
Senior K'ahru gritted his teeth at her words. He was indeed the one who held the opinion that they ought to attack, dominate and extract the powerful long-range techniques of the outsiders because they clearly seemed to not possess a rank three Martial Artist like themselves, only rank two Martial Artists like the dark-haired diplomat who came to the tribe earlier.
Now he realized that had they tried to implement his suggestion, both he and his elder sister would have undoubtedly died. The two of them had fought the vaunted matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe together years ago and had almost died. They certainly would have died if not for their tribe leader intervening to protect them from the powerful woman at the last second. They had spent many weeks healing before they finally recovered from the burns that the matriarch had inflicted on them.
They both knew that she was a fierce and powerful warrior that had dominated them from the very start. She was worthy of her position as the leader of the K'ulnen Tribe.
So what were they supposed to make of the Martial Artist who bullied her with a fraction of his full power?
Just how exponentially more powerful was this Martial Artist relative to them?
They would die on the spot, and not even their chieftain would be able to save them in time, most likely. Maybe if the three of them took him on at once, they might be able to make it a fair fight, still, after witnessing his ridiculous Martial prowess, the three of them did not want to provoke a battle against him unless there was a real need to. Besides, unlike their hatred born of their many enemies and rivals on the island, they had no ill will toward the outsiders.
At the same time, they felt a great deal of quivering excitement at the prospect of fighting such a powerful being as dangerous as it was, they were warriors, after all. Not even the chieftain was able to quash such a temptation entirely.
Part of this was definitely also because of the fact that he was a long-range Martial Artist like themselves. This roused their interest and curiosity tremendously.
In the duration of their audience of the fight, they had already forgotten about the outsider's offense when he tried engaging in negotiations with them. He had already apologized, which had become much heavier after witnessing just how much power the man wielded.
He had the capital to look down on their techniques to a certain degree, they painfully realized, yet he apologized to them nonetheless all to prevent hostilities from breaking out and facilitate cooperation between both groups, all to obtain their techniques. Was this not a sign of respect?
The three of them found their reluctance in engaging in trade with the outsiders melting away. The events that had occurred over the past few months had shown them all of the merits of choosing to cooperate with the outsiders.
They had demonstrated the value of their techniques in both explicit and implicit manners, holistically in many avenues that were highly relevant to the G'ak'arkan Tribe. After watching the settlement flourish in every way possible, in many ways, thanks to their long-range prowess, not even K'ahru, in good faith, could deny the merits of cooperating with the outsiders.
In fact, Senior K'ahru was one of the most eager to master many of the techniques that were highly relevant to the Martial Art techniques that were highly relevant to his Martial Path. The prospect of making jumps into power overcome any xenophobia he had. Martial Artists hungered for Martial power, after all.
"Hm?" The chieftain N'Kulu had been the first to notice something strange in the battle between the outsider and the K'ulnen leaders. Their eyes widened as they saw Senior Ceeran launch a powerful surprise attack at the patriarch, breaking his existing pattern of alternating between them. The attack had been so powerful that it crumpled all of the momenta that the patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe had gathered, it flung him so far away that he ended up outside of the island!
The three Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe had realized that the battle had reached a new stage as the Senior Ceeran targeted the matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe momentarily unhampered.
