Rui gazed at him with a serious expression. "Why has he not attacked you yet and taken over your faction after killing you?"
The man chuckled. "Such little faith in my power, I see."
"...Are you able to defeat him?"
"No," Lord Vakratunda admitted. "But the reason he doesn’t attack is because he knows he will suffer grave injuries against even if he erges from our battle victorious. It will create plenty of opportunity for other powerful therianthropes within our continent to kill him."
Rui could tell that the Gajanan leader was powerful. His body, too, possessed incredible density, comparable to that of the Dragon Emperor, likely aning that he, too, had undergone Convergence of Beast, the therianthrope equivalent of the Singularity of Nature in the Nature Path in the elves.
"So you pose enough of a threat to serve as a deterrence." Rui fell into thought. "That must also an that you pose enough of a threat to serve as an impedint, correct?"
Lord Vakratunda tilted his head. "I do not follow. Impedint to what?"
"Impedint to the rest of the War Coalition and the Ryu Clan that will undoubtedly aid the Dragon Emperor in killing while I fight him," Rui replied with a serious tone. "I will be perfectly transparent with you. My goal is to battle the Dragon Emperor one-on-one. The War Coalition and the Ryu Clan won’t allow to fight him alone, and he, too, will use all the advantages he can get to crush effortlessly. That is why I need a force to keep the War Coalition busy and impede them from reaching the Dragon Emperor while I fight him."
Lord Vakratunda stirred as he fell into thought. "Fascinating. Why do you wish to fight him alone? Is there not a more efficient allocation of resources that could perhaps guarantee a more certain outco? Why not fight him together with ? Neither of us might be able to win alone, but together, we will certainly be able to slay him. Not to ntion..."
His serene, elephantine eyes shifted to Amare.
"We have you as well, Omni-Martial. I saw your battle with the Dragon Emperor; you are truly strong. I sense you have grown even stronger."
Amare was just a little irked at being acknowledged so late, but she had decided to keep it bottled, understanding that she was in a different environnt with different norms and understandings of won, even if she detested them internally. Considering that they were here as guests requesting the cooperation of the Gajanan Clan and the Harmonist Faction, it was not the ti to lecture them on respect.
She turned to Rui knowingly. "Rui wishes to fight the Dragon Emperor alone."
Lord Vakratunda shifted his deep gaze to Rui knowingly. "As I suspected. That is deeply unwise, Dawnbringer. The Dragon Emperor is a force to be reckoned with. He is one of the most powerful beings in the entire world. His combat prowess is beyond anything you have ever seen before. I’m aware that you have survived great tribulations and have overco great foes. But do not risk fighting with the Dragon Emperor alone. He is the ruler of Kiriket for a reason. He managed to gather all that power for a reason."
"I am not underestimating him," Rui replied. "I have done my research and have even made preparations to perform much better than I normally would for our eventual confrontation. I am confident that I can erge victorious in our battle."
Lord Vakratunda shook his head. "This is not a good decision. Heed my advice and try fighting him with your partner there. The two of you together stand a much better chance."
"You will need Amare in order to hold back the War Coalition and the Ryu Clan from reaching him when I get there," Rui replied. "I have no intention of taking anyone to fight him in the first place."
"This is truly unwise," Lord Vakratunda replied with a calm tone. "What I’m trying to understand is why it must be you who must fight him in the first place. You have the Authority of Alpha, do you not? Then it does not make sense for you to fight the Dragon Emperor instead of the War Coalition. It makes more sense for and the Omni-Martial to fight the Dragon Emperor together while you fight the War Coalition and use your Authority of Alpha to break them from his spell."
Rui had to admit that it was a sensible plan, but unfortunately, one of his goals was to fight the Dragon Emperor one-on-one. He would not yield to such a plan that deprived him of what he had co for.
Of course, human civilization also had a stake in this civil war, which was another reason he was doing it. But his desire to fight the Dragon Emperor was too intense for him to possibly ignore it.
"My Martial Path is Adaptive Evolution," Rui tried another way of convincing him. "I have prepared specialized and antithetical counters to the Dragon Emperor. I believe that I have the ans of taking him on, fighting him, and causing minimal damage from the battle. If you fight him, it is very likely that it would be an extraordinarily destructive battle where one or both of you might lose your lives. It’s not worth it."
"If the Harmonist Faction were to ’hold back’ the War Coalition and the Ryu Clan, it would cause untold damage to our people and our continent," Lord Vakratunda remained calm and composed even when it beca clear that he was not pleased by Rui’s insistence on fighting the Dragon Emperor. "The goal is not to destroy the War Coalition at all costs. The goal is to deal with the problem while causing as little damage as possible. Your strategy does allow you to fight the Dragon Emperor, which is clearly motivating you, but it will bring about great destruction within our people. That is sothing that I find myself unanable to."
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