Chapter 2239: Turning Tables
"Tsk," Kane tutted, consuming a physical rejuvenation potion as he disappeared from the spot after having defeated Master Inyen.
Rui got up, glancing at her corpse momentarily. "Ah, well, I guess we'll never be able to put an end to our match."
He didn't really care.
He immediately surged to follow Kane and rejoin the main retreating group at the center as he watched Kane relentlessly bully the retreating Masters of the Sekigahara Confederate.
Their numbers had been trimmed from all the relentless harassment that they faced from the powerful Martial Seniors
"They're strong." Rui nodded, impressed. "Even the Sekigaharans are shocked by how strong the Seniors of the Kandrian Empire are."
The two largest reasons for this were the manifold and Rui's voidlet techniques. They had allowed the Kandrain Masters to be able to generate a system of thought a lot easier and sooner than they would have otherwise.
It had been eight years since he introduced his techniques, and since then they had been disseminated extremely far. Enough time had also passed for them to make a visible impact on Martial Seniors of the higher echelons.
And it was completely on display on the battlefield. Nearly all of the Kandrian Martial Seniors were thinking deeply with their systems of thought, using them to make the right decisions in combat to increase the probability of victory.
Even Nel had developed a system of thought, much to Rui's shock. Despite how low his capacity for systematic thought was, he was also already ready to become a Martial Master.
The only one who wasn't thinking was the Gatekeeper.
Yet, he was still the strongest of them all.
More importantly...
"At this rate..." Rui narrowed his eyes, "his Martial Body is going to reach the Senior Realm with its innate normal power, without the need of Martial Heart."
It was absurd, but that was how strong the Gatekeeper's body was becoming.
Currently, there was a decent chance he could fight the weakest Martial Senior without his Martial Heart and survive. Rui didn't understand. Granted, the Gatekeeper had spent seven years in the manifold, but even then, Rui didn't understand how his Martial Body was starting to grow at such an extraordinary rate after the age of five hundred when he was truly old biologically.
Yet, Rui's evaluation was accurate.
The Gatekeeper had grown nearly twice as strong as he had been when he fought Rui purely through bodily growth.
"His training must have improved astronomically. I don't know what he did, but I don't think even Nel's physicality has grown this fast, ever."
Currently, the Gatekeeper was the biggest menace on the battlefield.
The exhausted Martial Masters needed to gang up on him to keep him at bay from massacring all of them.
They were on the verge of absolute failure at all times.
Most of their attacks bounced off of him, inflicting little to no damage.
Kane and Nel were menaces in their own right, of course. Having greatly benefited from the Gatekeeper's magical training, Nel's physicality had reached an extremely high level as well. While he didn't have the ocean of accumulation that the Gatekeeper had amassed over his lifetime, he was born with a superhuman body that made up for much of the gap. His body was also less bulky, allowing him to be faster than the Gatekeeper but far less durable and strong.
Kane, having gained confidence in his new domain after his battle with Master Inyen, employed it everywhere he went. Nothing could so much as touch him.
His reflexes had reached a degree that Rui couldn't even fathom possible in the Senior Realm. His reflexes reacted not only to things that were to occur but even to things that had yet to, allowing him to invalidate everything that his opponents threw at him.
He even circled around the retreating Sekigaharan groups, with his back facing the direction of the Sekigahara Confederate, impeding their desperate retreat home.
It forced them to fight him head-on.
Out of all the Martial Seniors that had taken part in the operation, the three Martial Seniors drew the highest amount of opposition. There weren't too many grade-fifteen Martial Seniors, so most of them fought multiple exhausted Masters at once.
Yet, this was most true for the trio.
Each of them fought many Martial Masters that struggled to suppress their devastating power on the battlefield.
Unfortunately, everybody had limits.
In this case, it was the trio that hit their limits first.
SPLAT!
Nel's grin grew gruesome as a blade impaled him, poking out from the front.
"Die, monster!" one Martial Master bellowed with desperation.
All it took was a single mistake for the battles to turn over.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
The Gatekeeper turtled into a defensive guard as more than twenty Martial Masters ganged up on him, blasting him with powerful attacks with deep desperation in hopes of downing the monster.
He was undoubtedly strong, but not even he could ignore such an immense influx of powerful attacks from those with active Martial Minds.
"That's not all..." Rui glanced at a group of exhausted Martial Masters that desperately consumed potions while their peers held off the small group of powerful Martial Seniors. "Things are about to get much harder."
BADUMP!!
"THAT'S IT!" Several Martial Masters with rejuvenated Martial Bodies and Hearts surged into battle. "I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"
BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!
Of course, that did not mean their Minds were rejuvenated as only deep sleep could do that. But even the tiny spark of Mind capacity they had left was enough to turn the tides.
Hell, even if their Martial Minds were completely exhausted, they could still turn the tides with the sheer amount of power they could channel.
In turn, they could take over the duties of suppressing the three monstrous Martial Seniors while their peers earned their reprieve that they were looking for to consume their own potions.
The turning of one table led to a cascade of turning tables as an increasing number of rejuvenated Martial Masters ganged up on the three strongest Martial Seniors of the Kandrian Empire with fury, ready to repay them for their humiliation.