Nate gagged as stomach acid and bits of his breakfast spewed from his mouth and onto the cultivator who had hit him.

The cultivator spared the sputum a single glance and then backhanded his face. The force from the blow strained his neck to its absolute limits as it struggled to keep his head attached to his body. With it aching and cracking in places that would make a chiropractor jealous, he spun helplessly through the air.

During the midst of his spin, he saw that the phone had vanished from Angie’s hands and was laying in pieces at her feet. The other three cultivators had quickly subdued the two girls, while the other was taking care of him. In their eyes, they needed to treat Angie and Lindsay far more gently than him. After all, Jace was interested in them, not him.

Lindsay helped Nate up from the ground, her hand cradling his sore neck. “Come on, up you get.”

He groaned and slowly climbed to his feet with her help. The entire side of his face was red and already beginning to swell. “I think a truck hit me.” He muttered, his addled mind vaguely wondering if Truck-kun had taken on a human form. Taking a hit in his physical body was different than taking one in his avatar.

“How is he?”

“Well, he’ll survive, but I think they broke his mind.” She told Angie as the other girl joined them.

His weak legs buckled, and he slid to the ground as he shook his head. “No,” He slurred. “I’m fine.”

Both girls rolled their eyes and sighed. “Sure you are. Nate, there’s a bump on the side of your face the size of an apple.”

He gingerly felt the sore side of his face and winced at how sore it was. “What now?”

“Now, we create our cores using some energy cores. I guess,” Angie told him, defiantly facing the four cultivators.

Jace was struggling to pick himself up off the floor while cradling his sensitive and abused family jewels. His eyes were alight with a fury rarely seen in someone so young.

“I’ll go first,” Lindsay volunteered softly.

“No, I dragged you into this. I’ll go,” Angie corrected her friend with a gentle smile.

“He would have come after me anyway, you know that.”

“Maybe, but I can at least delay it for a few more minutes if I do this.” She picked up the duffel bag of energy cores that Nate had run into earlier and began sifting through them. “Any tips Nate? You seem to have made it through the process without changing at all. You must have chosen a core with a good elemental compatibility. How did you do it?”

He waved her over while pointing to the bag. “I just went for the one that felt right, like it wouldn’t hurt me. Most of them felt wrong. It’s a little hard to explain, but maybe now that I have my own core, crappy as it might be,” It was impossible to keep the bitterness out of his voice. “I can use it to help you both find a core with good compatibility. Maybe I just got lucky, or it could be I have a talent for it.”

Angie passed the duffel to him with a shallow nod. It made no difference to her. She had played around with energy cores in the past and never felt anything special about them. Whatever Nate picked would be no worse than whatever she thoughtlessly grabbed, and maybe, just maybe, he really did have a talent for it.

Ignoring the goons around them, Nate opened the top of the bag wide and put his hand inside while grabbing Angie’s hand. He was making this up as he went, but it made sense that he would need contact with her.

Unlike before, now that he had a proper core, the sense of wrongness or disquiet he got from each of them was muted. It still wasn’t as good as inside the dungeon in his avatar form, but he was certain that he could absorb a portion of the energy in each now.

Refocusing, he felt the tiny pulses of reactionary energy he was getting from Angie’s hand. It wasn’t as strong or as clear as when he had done his own core, but it still had its own flavor to it. Once he locked onto that specific signature, he simply needed to find a core that matched.

His free hand searched around the bag until he found an energy core that was close. Pulling it out they saw that it was a pale mix of green and blue. Taking a breath, he handed it to her.

“This one feels like it matches with you.”

Angie gingerly took it from him and took a seat in front of them without delaying another second. They needed to keep the group here for as long as possible, and the only way they could do that is if she did this.

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Just like him, she put the energy core inside her mouth and swallowed. With that done, it was too late to turn back. All they could do was wait for her to finish the process. Or they could risk disturbing her and do the exact same thing that had happened to Nate during his attack.

A sense of pressure and energy built up around Angie as she continued to absorb the energy inside the core.

While she was doing that, Nate was helping Lindsay to select her own energy core. They went through the same process that he had done for Angie mere minutes earlier until he withdrew a core with a metallic sheen in the center. He handed it to her, knowing she would swallow it as soon as their friend even looked like she was getting close to being finished.

During all of this, the cultivators watching over them made no move to stop them from continuing their activities. Instead, they were carefully watching Angie along with mostly ignoring Jace’s pained grunts as he caterpillar’d along the floor.

They were inside a dingy old warehouse, but suddenly a burst of wind began to pick up, centered around Angie. It was a sign that she had truly prepared enough energy for the creation of her core. Unlike with Nate, where nothing exciting had happened because of a lack of overall energy.

“It looks like you chose a good one for her,” Lindsay said in relief, both for herself and her friend.

If it was the same for her, then this little side expedition could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. As long as they were rescued, in any case. Using the energy cores already put them a step ahead of where they would have been normally.

He ground his teeth angrily and glared at the boy crying on the ground. He wished he had ripped that part of his body off when he had the chance. He knew he would have to move past it if they survived, but it was too fresh at the moment.

As soon as it looked like things were beginning to settle down with Angie, Lindsay sat down and popped in her core.

There was no going back for her either.

A couple of minutes later, Angie opened her eyes and smiled at him. “It worked. That core was the perfect fit for me. I have the wind attribute.” Her eyes twinkled mischievously. “I guess I’ll need to change my weapon if I want to make the most out of what it can passively do.”

“What weapon would that be?” He asked, helping her to her feet.

“A bow, slingshot, atlatl, anything ranged of that nature.” She thought for a moment. “Although, I have heard of a few cultivators with the attribute who have a more physical kind of speed enhancement that still use close-range weapons. It will make their arms or feet faster. I guess it just depends on how it manifests with me. I might be one of the ones who isn’t exactly normal.”

Nate nodded along, unable to truly comprehend what she was saying.

“How is Lindsay doing?”

“I don’t know. She only started a couple of minutes before you finished. I selected a core that felt right for her, so hopefully that helps…” He trailed off, hoping he had gotten lucky a third time. The girls were gambling on something that even he didn’t understand.

Granted, he understood that it wasn’t like they could have done any worse. However, if Lindsay turned into some sort of metal-human-monster-hybrid, that would be on him. Simply knowing there was a chance was enough to scare him. Even before, when he had been older and dying, he had never been responsible for another person’s life in this manner.

It was terrifying.

Jace finally struggled to his feet, his eyes blazing with a promise of pain for the boy who dared hurt and embarrass him. Despite that, he was smart enough to not say or do anything while Lindsay was in the middle of constructing her core. He would wait until she had finished before making a move.

At this point in time, Nate didn’t even think the duel mattered anymore. Jace was simply going to force them to do as he wished, no matter what ended up happening.

It was the sad truth of the deranged boy’s mentality; he had completely lost all reasoning this time.

The four cultivators surrounded them closely as Lindsay’s skin took on a metallic sheen before fading away. It was the same kind of sign that Angie had exhibited, except attuned to her own elemental attribute. He had chosen well.

Nate let out the breath he had been holding and subconsciously took hold of Angie’s hand as Lindsay’s eyes began to flutter.

She was nearly done with the process of creating her core, and just like her friend had done it with aplomb. The energy core he had given her had been a perfect fit and had pushed her own core to the next level. Both girls had reached a starting point that few people ever even dared to dream of standing at.

Yet, they owed part of the chance to an enemy, and part of it to a boy who had suddenly appeared in their lives. They weren’t ignoring their own years of hard work, but they also knew Nate and Jace were the only reason their cores had increased like this.

It was… a confusing thing to think about, so neither girl did at the moment, choosing instead to focus on the matter at hand. Which was escaping their current situation.

Angie had managed to call her parents, but the location she had given them could have been wrong. She had never been to this part of the city before. It was pure hubris on Jace’s part that he had allowed them to see where they were going through the car windows.

She didn’t know how long it would take for a rescue to arrive, if it even would. She had already placed the call over fifteen minutes earlier and yet still they hadn’t arrived. If anything was to happen from here on, it was going to require them to act again.

“What now, Jace?” Nate asked softly as Lindsay stood to join them. “Are you really going to force them into a pair of duels?”

“First, I’m going to kill you!” He replied in a higher voice than normal. The boy coughed a few times before trying again. “First, I’m going to kill you! Then we’re going to leave this city. Only after we have left will we have the duels. I expect far more destruction to occur from a fight with them than I do with you. They have been trained and have decent cores. You have the weakest core known to man, and from what I understand, have forgotten all your training.” He sneered in an ugly fashion. “Pull the girls and the bag to the side. I want nothing in our way for this little tête-à-tête.”

Nate released Angie’s hand and quickly pulled up the menu on the wrist computer that only he could see. It was time to arm himself. He simply prayed that he would be able to store the kukris again later when he was done with them.