The Martial Unity

Chapter 3275: Lacking Foundation

Rui watched with a hint of amusement as the dark elf women and girls began fangirling around Amare.

She would have made a good elf, he knew that. Even if she had grown to desire power strongly and actively work towards it rather than passively gain it as she used to, half of her was still the old Amare who was able to connect with people and impart her power to them remarkably well.

The Esil part of her only inspired the dark elves as they sensed a quiet intensity deeper in her eyes that refused to allow the world to trample on her bonds with the people she loved ever again.

She was universally popular among the dark elves in sharp contrast to Rui, who had an inhuman, deathly dark gray tint to his skin that reeked of death.

He looked as though he was partly drawn in black and white in a world of color that only further drove elven women away from him.

’Don’t take their reactions to you too personally. They are doing their best, but it is difficult to contain our sense of revulsion toward you.’ Mother Alicia’s voice reached him.

’I think you have done a pretty good job so far, don’t you think?’ Rui mused at her through nature.

’I am a Mother of Nature,’ she replied. ’I bear a great responsibility to lead my civilization into prosperity. And that includes befriending a deathly monster like yourself. It is the tribulations that leaders go through for their people.’

Rui huffed with an amused smile, shaking his head. ’It doesn’t bother me. It is in cases like this that not caring about what people think of you is quite beneficial.’

’You may have a point.’

It wasn’t long before the training session began as Rui and Amare personally led a training session that had dark elves begin training their physicality and their movements, building up a foundation of body and control over it.

It wasn’t just about building a bit of muscle; it was also about developing flexibility, balance, and training stamina.

The dark elves were unbelievably lacking in all these parameters.

They had nascent martial arts that were developed to work in conjunction with their nature manipulation, yet they didn’t even train their body to develop a physical foundation. It was such a bad approach that Rui truly couldn’t believe that they were that incompetent when it came to harnessing the potential within their own body.

This was the very first step that students in the Martial Academy went through. One could not even break through to their Martial Path if they didn’t at least have a physical foundation and a Martial Foundation on top of that.

The dark elves didn’t have either.

The shortcoming was so great that Rui estimated that there would be visible differences in their movements once they had gone through this process, for it was very low-hanging fruit that could produce significant results.

Being able to move better, have greater physical stamina, and have greater balance could all be highly beneficial in the field. This is what happened when people trained while also being the most pacifist as possible and completely absent any experience with large-scale conflict in recent times.

The elven warriors were brittle, so Rui and Amare needed to break before they could rebuild and forge proper warriors with a warrior mindset.

Even Amare, who was usually generous, couldn’t help but be boggled at how poorly these warriors trained their bodies.

“Have you never stretched in your entire life?” Amare asked with a bewildered tone as she pushed a dark elf’s back down to make the woman finally touch her toes. “You can do so much more with your body. Even if manipulating nature does not require physical rigor, combat still involves physical rigor.”

Human civilization had already begun transporting more people and creating more settlements with the express purpose of sending instructors who could help whip dark elves into shape and help them gain a solid physical and Martial foundation.

Amare had also begun teaching some of them basic forms that were commonly taught in the Martial Foundation, helping them learn and absorb them at remarkable speeds. What Rui found to be particularly interesting was the fact that the dark elves who learned from her absorbed them much faster than those who learned from him.

Perhaps it was because they loved her and hated him and were thus naturally more open to her, but he truly found it interesting that she was able to produce a drastically different outcome.

It was likely what had helped her pass on Martial Art through the Panama Continent the first time around. She appeared to be good at imparting her knowledge and power to others by forging a bond with them.

“Still, it appears like you’re still not having an easy time with them despite that,” Rui told her later on when they returned to their living quarters by the end of the day.

THUD

Rui collapsed into their bed, heaving a deep breath of relief.

“They don’t have any affinity for Martial Art, so I’m surprised that I was able to get them to do even that much.” Amare joined him, lying down beside him as her arms wrapped around his in a cozy snuggle. “They’re all such good girls.”

Rui scoffed at her words. “Those ’girls’ are centuries old, you know?”

BANG

He felt a playful jab to his ribs.

“That’s rude,” Amare insisted.

Rui chuckled. “I think I could have gotten them to train faster if I developed a system of thought to develop some even more targeted custom training exercises, but they were not receptive to my basic training, so it probably wouldn’t have worked. They hate me far too much for that.”

She turned to him, drawing closer as she rested her head on his chest.

“They may hate you, but I will always love you.”

Rui raised an eyebrow as his expression softened.

He silently pulled her in closer as they rested together in each other’s warmth.