"Of course it is large," Rui smiled. "The difference between the bottom of the Apprentice Realm and the peak of it is immense."
The two of them were quite surprised by this.
"So we have a long way to go before we can reach the Squire Realm?" Max heaved a sigh.
Rui couldn't help but be amused. These two did not have any idea about the difficulty of breaking through to the Squire Realm, clearly. He did not intend to divulge all of it, either. He had not been told about the evolution breakthrough process to the Squire Realm for multiple reasons, and he could understand why in hindsight.
For starters, the power that it provided was too alluring, while Martial Apprentices were generally young and inexperienced, and lacking in maturity. The evolution breakthrough gave the Martial Artist a Martial body; a body that had transcended the limits of humanity through Darwinian evolution. It was a dreamlike power that any normal Martial Apprentice would feel an immense amount of greed and lust for. There was the fear that if divulged too early, their greed for this power would warp their Martial Paths to revolve around their body, rather than molding their body to revolve around their Martial Path.
That was why Martial maturity was one of the conditions for Squire candidacy. It was to ensure that the Martial Apprentice had developed their Martial Art to a certain degree and had set it in stone so that an excessive amount of corruption of it due to greed would not occur.
Rui could appreciate this, even though he did believe that he would not have been corrupted regardless.
There was another reason for not disclosing the secret of the breakthrough to the Squire Realm. The breakthrough to the Squire Realm was a man-made way to allow Martial Artists to climb higher Realms. It was not something that could naturally be obtained. Thus it was a way for the Martial Union to ensure that others did not get their hands on it by some young and immature Martial Apprentice spilling the beams by some foreign power like the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.
He had faith that the Apprentice and Squire instructors of the Martial Academy would take good care of them. He was especially reassured by the fact that Headmaster Aronian was watching over them.
"By the way, big brother," Mana drew his attention back. "What does it take to become a Martial Squire? Can you tell me? It could help us become stronger quicker."
Rui smiled, shaking his head lightly. He reached out for the top of her head, ruffling her hair a bit. "Focus on your Martial Paths. Grow stronger. Make sure your Martial Paths truly belong to you and not to anybody else. Remember these words, okay?"
They nodded solemnly. They had an immense amount of faith in their older brother. His words, especially regarding Martial Art, were
He said the latter half with a pointed tone, making allusions to the concept of individuality. He had considered explaining the concept of it to them but ultimately decided against it. Individuality in their Martial Path was not such a dire necessity in the Apprentice Realm.
Besides, the creativity needed to add individuality to your Martial Art by creating your own techniques with uniqueness and originality needed some foundation to come from. These two had not yet mastered a single technique, how could they be expected to create their own techniques? He did not want to burden them with information that they not only could not make use of in the short to medium term but would only serve as a thorn of insecurity as they grew stronger.
"You're not gonna tell us about what the breakthrough process for the Squire Realm is either, are you big brother?" Max remarked with an unsatisfied expression.
"Most certainly not," Rui smiled pleasantly.
"Figures. But I don't care about that right now," Max shook his head. "I just want to fight you as a Martial Apprentice at least once."
"Hehe…" Rui smiled. "Alright, enough talk it is."
He stepped ten meters away from them, before raising an arm and gesturing them to attack. "Come, let's begin."
The two of them did not even hesitate.
They lashed out towards Rui, Mana reaching him a beat earlier. Her sprint was efficient and rapid, she reached him in an instant before launching a driving kick straight toward his torso.
WHOOSH
Rui simply sidestepped gracefully as he twirled out of the way of the attack.
Yet as soon as he finished that maneuver, Max had already arrived. His right arm was coiled beside his ribs lashing forward as he channeled all of his momentum straight towards Rui.
Rui's eyebrows rose as he studied Max's form in slow motion.
('This attack is good enough to match the Flowing Canon technique,') Rui noted with pleasure.
He wasn't too surprised considering the concept of the Flowing Canon technique was what Max's Martial Path was related to. Max would be able to wield that technique, and techniques similar to that far better than Rui ever could due to his Martial Path's affinity towards it.
While Mana was outside of his field of vision behind him, he could sense that her agility and fluidity were much better than that of his when he had broken through, for the same reason; it was her Martial Path. She rapidly turned all of the missed momentum of her first attack a complete one hundred and eighty degrees before throwing it back at Rui once more from behind. The two had times their attacks that he would end up facing their attack from opposite directions simultaneously.
('Their coordination has improved yet again,') He smiled as he leaped slightly.
BANG!
Their fists cleanly crashed into each other as the two of them grimaced.
STEP
Rui landed on both their fists gracefully, looking down at them from above with an amused, yet proud smile. "That was a good combo, did you prepare it just to use it against me?
