Rui and Kane were long thinking about the words that the Martial Seniors shared with them long after the two of them had been dismissed. Squire Ieyasu went his own way immediately after, seemingly uninclined to speak with either of them.

"Oh man," Kane sighed. "This might be our toughest battle yet."

Rui nodded. "This is going to be harder than my battle against the Root because I'm not dealing with a mindless drone, I'm dealing with a sentient being. Not just any sentient being, but expert Martial Artists who are extremely skilled and have decades of experience as Martial Artists."

While Kane couldn't help but feel anxious about what was to come, Rui simply smiled as he thought back to the discussion that he had with the Martial Seniors. 

For the first battle, they only needed to observe, it was only in the second battle that they would participate.

Rui understood that they were hoping that sudden additional elements into the fight could throw the Martial Seniors of the Kaddar Nation off, and potentially even cause a few casualties and yield a highly desirable outcome.

Rui wasn't sure whether he would be able to produce the desired result, but he did intend to do his best. The debut mattered the most since it was the only time that they would be able to catch the Martial Seniors off-guard.

After the first time, the Martial Seniors would be prepared for the three of them, and there would be a lot less that they would be able to accomplish. Simply being aware of an incoming threat and being prepared for it could cause a radical change in the outcomes.

Rui had many thoughts on how to make the most of how to make the most of his debut, for one, he was convinced that he needed to pick his targets appropriately.

He only had Martial Bodies for healing, stamina, and maneuvering, thus he only ought to pick Martial Seniors against whom these spec configurations would be the most effective.

"Martial Seniors are extremely fast, right?" Kane asked out of the blue, drawing Rui's attention to him. "They would be able to cross the distance between the land and this island rather quickly. We won't be able to do everything in time if they cross the distance quickly and attack us swiftly, right?"

Rui shook his head. "The Floating Sect definitely has eyes and ears everywhere in the Kaddar Region, and it is particularly difficult to hide the movements of high-profile Martial Seniors, it simply cannot be done."

"So they predict the timing of the attack by looking at the movements of the Martial Seniors of the Kaddar Region?"

"Yes, and they take precautions well ahead of time to make sure to account for margins of error in the prediction of the timing of the attacks," Rui explained. "Thus we'll no well ahead of time when the attack is in-bound. Considering that the Martial Seniors called us and did mention an incoming attack, it is likely that they have already gotten the intelligence indicating that the attack would be coming soon. I predict that the civilian members will soon be evacuated to the underground shelters that are deep within the island."

"Will they be safe there?" Kane wondered. "It is Martial Seniors who are attacking after all."

"Yes, but don't forget the gravitational reinforcing weapon that the Kaddar Region is employing to reinforce the island to be able to withstand the rigors of even Senior-level combat," Rui replied. "Given that the Kaddar nations are soon going to dispatch Martial Seniors, we can be certain that whatever that the Kingdom of Graheria purchased is probably a Senior-level weapon that can allow the island to endure Senior-level combat in its vicinity."

"I dunno, that sounds rather extreme for a single machine," Kane remarked.

"Don't underestimate the power of science and technology," Rui replied. "They can accomplish wonders. In this case, the Kaddar nations would not have even started the war if their weapon could not cover Senior-level combat. The fact that they even decided to wage war in the first place means that they were certain that the island would be reinforced enough to handle the rigors."

The Kaddar Treaty Organization was not stupid. They would not wage a war that could directly result in a catastrophe that wipes out most like in the Kaddar Region. 

Furthermore, it wasn't as though the device that they would be using would be the only thing protecting the island.

The Martial Seniors of the Floating Sect were undoubtedly going to fight a defensive game, they could not afford to be hyper-aggressive. Their goals were to have a drawn-out stalemate where they were able to maintain a stable defense to ensure that there was as little of a loss as possible.

Although ensuring that there was no loss was probably impossible, they could do their best to ensure that nothing was damaged and no lives or lost, but that was unrealistic.

Especially because the Martial Seniors of the Kaddar Region were going to be aggressively on the offense. There was no doubt that they would be lashing out to kill the Martial Seniors of the Floating Sect with everything that they had.

Each of them had limited windows of opportunity to root out the looming threat of Ajanta Island forever, they were not going to let up so easily. As residents of the Kaddar Region that had grown up with the threat of Ajanta Island terrorizing them and their loved ones, Rui was certain that each of the Kaddar Martial Seniors had a bone to pick with the Floating Sect, they were going to vent their grudges on the three Martial Seniors of the sect.

One side was going to be absolutely defensive for the most part, while the other side was going to be absolutely offensive. 

Just as Rui concluded his thoughts, an alarm rang across the entire island.  content.

Evacuation protocols were underway.

An attack was inbound very soon.