In the eastern region of the mountain range of magical beasts, a bear-like man donning an imposing set of crimson armour could be seen holding the arm of a handsome teen of the Aryan race behind his back.
Right behind them was a young man around 16 wearing a set of red leather armour with the insignia of a pair of crossed swords going through a scarlet flame above his heart.
Just in front of them was a pair of teens. The boy had long black hair tied in a ponytail and pitch-black eyes that radiated a faint killing intent as he glared at the crimson armoured man, and beside him was a charming girl no older than 15 with long brown hair and eyes as blue as the sea that looked at the brown haired teen being held against his will, worried for his safety.
“My junior here said you’re from that same Yin-Yang Pavilion as that arrogant brat, Ace,” The crimson-armoured man said as he looked at the pair of teens in front of him with an evil grin. “Now you’re going to tell me exactly where to find this so-called Yin-Yang Pavilion, or I’m going to make you watch as I kill this little brat in the most painful way imaginable.”
The crimson-armoured man was Brutus, the representative from the War God’s Academy. The same man who was publicly humiliated by Ace and Wukong almost six years ago now.
Brutus didn’t have a particularly high standing in the Academy, to begin with, but since word got out about what transpired on the day of the selection tests, his middling position dropped even further.
As a result, instead of focusing on his training which most of his peers were doing, all he could do was dream of getting revenge. Unfortunately for him, Wukong was too strong for him to even think about getting revenge on. As a result, all of his anger fell on Ace instead.
The day Wharton reached the fourth rank and publicised his challenge of Ace, he was the one who led the search party, but there was simply no information to be found about the Yin-Yang Pavilion, Wukong, or his supposed senior brother.
But a little over a month ago, the young man stood just behind him; Manata, one of the students of the War-God Academy, returned from a training expedition in the Mountain range of magical beasts, where he was apparently saved by a group of teens who claimed they were students of the Yin-Yang Pavilion and classmates of Ace.
As soon as Brutus found that out, he immediately dragged the youth back into the mountain range to find the group he met.
It took two weeks of non-stop travelling, but when they eventually found them, Brutus let out an excited yet impatient laugh as he caught the boy, who appeared to be the leader of the group, using overwhelming strength to put him in an arm lock so he couldn’t move.
The teens in question were, of course, Joel, Yulana and Osiris, the members of team three.
After these last four months, each of them had made impressive improvements, with Joel, the strongest of the group, having broken through to the fifth rank as both a warrior and mage without the use of any incredible treasures.
Still, Brutus was a peak seventh-rank warrior. The difference between them was simply too large!
Osiris glared at Manata with killing intent. If it weren’t for the fact that he knew it’d only make things worse for Joel, he would’ve used the bow he was tightly clutching in his right hand to put an arrow between the teen’s brows.
When Manata and his group were being encircled by a group of fire apes, he had wanted to just ignore them and carry on with their own training, but Joel had decided to go out of his way to save them.
He didn’t blame Joel as he knew that as arrogant as he came off at times, he ultimately had the biggest heart of their class of ten, but that didn’t stop him from feeling pissed off by the snaky behaviour of the boy whose life they had saved.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Ooh, still don’t want to talk?” Brutus smirked. “How about now?”
As he said that, the sound of bones breaking entered the ears of those present, followed by the pained screams of the young Joel.
“No, please stop! I’ll tell you everything you want to know!” Yulana cried out when she saw her young master’s arm bend at an extremely unnatural angle. “Our Yin-Yang Pavilion is based in a mountain in the Anarchic Lands…”
“Now, was that so hard?” Brutus laughed joyfully as he felt how close he was to finally getting his revenge.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Yulana yelled when she saw Brutus wrap his giant hands around Joel’s neck as if he was about to snap it. “I told you everything you wanted to know; you don’t need to kill him.”
“Of course I do!” Brutus said viciously. “I can’t let you go and pass word back to Ace, just in case he tries to escape.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Osiris said indifferently. “The boy you’ve got in your hands is Joel Dawson, a direct descendant of the Dawson family. The owners of the Dawson conglomerate, one of the leading trading companies on the continent.
Something tells me it won’t be very hard for them to deduce who was behind the disappearance of one of their most talented children after Wharton finds Yin-Yang mountain with intelligence provided by you.”
Hearing that, Brutus looked down at the blonde-haired boy he had captured in shock and a hint of fear.
The Dawson Conglomerate was a behemoth not much weaker than the big six. He knew if they wanted his head, his War God academy would do nothing to protect him.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Brutus asked suspiciously.
Osiris wanted to roll his eyes at this point. It was clear the man was all brawn, no brain.
It was public knowledge that all direct descendants of the Dawson family wore ‘The Dawson Ring’. A ring that had the Conglomerate’s logo etched into it. Although it wasn’t an interspatial ring, it was still a spiritual artefact that eased the burden when casting spells for the user by almost 50%.
Even though it was an incredible treasure, virtually no one would try and steal it for themselves unless they had a death wish. Since it was a treasure bound by blood, the only way for a non-Dawson to use it would be to kill the Dawson it originally belonged to, which also meant antagonising the behemoth that was the Dawson Conglomerate.
Still, Osiris kept his thoughts to himself as he pointed to Joel’s ring finger reminding the tyrant of the family’s identifying ring.
When he saw the fear and hesitation on the man’s face, a hopeless sigh escaped Osiris’ lips before he continued. “You don’t have to worry about Ace running away. Call it arrogance or confidence, but there’s no one in the same generation that could make him run away.”
Hearing that, Brutus was inclined to believe him as he could vividly remember the overwhelming arrogance Ace displayed back at the selection.
As much as he hated to admit it, he knew Ace wasn’t the type to back down from a challenge. Still, that wasn’t what he was scared of at this point. “If I let you go, do you promise not to say anything to the higher-ups of the conglomerate?”
It was only when all three of them agreed that he reluctantly let Joel go before hurriedly leading Manata to escape.
He knew this was far from a binding agreement, but his hands were tied. He couldn’t afford to kill them, or when the Conglomerate found out, there would be no saving him. But this way, if they did come for him in the future, he would at least have some wiggle room.
“Joel!” Yulana called worriedly as she hurried to her young master’s side to help him.
Though water wasn’t as good as the element of light when it came to healing, it still had a few decent healing spells.
“Looks like I should’ve listened to you when you said to ignore that group from the Academy,” Joel said wryly as he looked up at Osiris, who had successfully negotiated his release, essentially saving his life.
“What’s done is done,” Osiris replied, indifferent as ever. “I just wish I could’ve put an arrow through the skull of that ungrateful bastard.”
“Do you think Ace will be mad I told them where to find him?” Yulana asked hesitantly.
After their first interaction, things were awkward between Yulana and Joel and Ace. Well, more uncomfortable for them than for Ace.
In Ace’s eyes, they were just children. He never took anything they said from back then to heart. Still, they didn’t realise that until much later. It was only when Ace agreed to teach them [Soru] that their relationship improved.
Since then, all ten students of the Pavilion became extremely close. Still, because of how their relationship started, Yulana couldn’t help but feel worried about Ace thinking she betrayed his trust, but Osiris’ answer definitely helped put her mind at ease.
“I doubt he’d care one way or the other.” Osiris shrugged. “If that Wharton guy actually comes, it’s him I feel sorry for.”
Yulana and Joel didn’t say anything in response, but the smiles on their faces spoke volumes.
Wharton may be a Dragonblood Warrior, but Ace was already capable of fighting those at the seventh rank before they left and knowing how talented he was, they didn’t even dare to guess how strong he was now.
Forget Wharton. As far as they were concerned, not even Brutus would be a match for Ace.
“C’mon,” Joel said as he stood back up, ignoring the pain his arm was in. “We’ve been here long enough; it’s time we start heading back to the meeting point.”