Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 24. Negotiations.
A blood-red human-shaped draconic blur moved through the outskirts of the Two Weeks city at an astonishing speed, frightening the people on the streets and destroying large parts of the buildings each time he was taking another leap. Shortly after the first blur would pass by an area, three hundred more would follow in his footsteps, hurrying over and paying no mind to the destruction they were causing to all the rooftops they were passing by.
Each and every one of the experts had activated the Dragon’s body Art at its later stages, causing the tens of thousands of commoners to be utterly shocked.
“It’s the Red Dragon School! The experts of the Red Dragon School are moving! Dear Heavens, there were hundreds of them!” some people began yelling, unable to contain their excitement.
“Those blood-red draconic forms, they were all Elders! Over three hundred martial masters! Where are they heading to?” Various people raised questions, discussing the event with their friends or random passersby.
“Never mind that, did you see the first one? He was so fast! It must have been the Great Master Rudford, right?” All those people began trembling at this thought. Many of them had witnessed the duel between Rudford and Einrah earlier today, but now it was looking like Rudford and his Red Dragon School were intent on going all out! They simply needed to see what was going to happen even if it cost them their lives to witness it!
From the opposite direction, the wave of golden flames atop which two hundred golden-robed Elders and the three supreme figures of the Twin Phoenix School were traveling was causing no less of a commotion. Everyone was freaking out about what was going on, many wondering who could it have been to piss off the Twin Phoenix School so badly they would so brazenly take out into the city.
Additionally, apart from those two eye-catching groups yet another one was hurrying towards the southern part of the Two Weeks City. With Fohan and Luren at the head, nearly a thousand black-cloaked shadows were making haste, a few of the quickest amongst them separating from the main group and rushing into different parts of the city.
The one thousand black-cloaked figures were moving with great speed, yet the only sound accompanying them was that of their cloaks fluttering on the wind. The group was moving in an orderly fashion, their steps not damaging the rooftops in the slightest. Although their passage wasn’t as rough and spectacular as those of the other two ground, the silent and deathly aura emanating from them caused the people down below on the streets to shrink away in fear.
There was no commotion, no shouting and yelling as the ominous group of black-cloaked experts passed. Instead, all those commoners were instinctively hiding away and discussing what they just saw in the low voices, whispering.
“Who were those people? They were so scary! And they moved so quietly, too!”
Tens of thousands of people were intrigued by the appearance of the black-cloaked forces, but none of those commoners knew what faction those experts belonged to. They weren’t using any recognizable techniques and didn’t have any family signs on their clothing. There was no information about a force of this kind, so of course, those normal people had no idea who this force of one thousand martial masters was affiliated with.
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“Sorry kids, I will have you die here,” Zhira murmured to himself and swung his sword, but at the exact same time, an enraged roar reached his ears along with a surge of dreadful killing intent.
“Don’t you dare!” the enraged shout spread through the area of many kilometers, amplified by the powerful Qi of the seventh Realm of Heroes. The blood-red human shaped aberration broke directly through five buildings, treating them as if they were made from a wet carton. With madness in its eyes, the human-shaped aberration slashed upwards with its blood-red longsword.
Before Zhira could react, the five draconic claws were already centimeters away from him. In his current state, he couldn’t hope to dodge a full-strength attack from Rudford… so the Dragon’s Claws technique hit him directly and very literally blew his body up into a splash of gore, which along with the layer of ground the attack had ripped off was sent flying onto the wall of the nearby building.
“Laien! Siana!” Rudford landed on the ground, dissolving the blood-red draconic Qi around his body. He kneeled at the siblings’ side, feeling the boundless furry growing within his heart. Those people… the Cail family and all their allies…! He would rip them all to shreds!
“Elder brother…” Laien spoke up in a shaky voice. He grit his teeth, then took out a recovery pill from his interspatial ring and swallowed it; although his control over the spiritual energy would suffer, he needed more of it to heal Siana to the point where her life would no longer be in danger.
“Don’t worry about anything and focus on healing your sister,” Rudford crouched as Laien’s side and said reassuringly. He put his hand on Laien’s back, looking around the half-destroyed area of the district. He killed the strongest one of the present black-cloaked men… but he could sense dozens more martial masters hiding around along with hundreds of mortal realm practitioners.
He stood up, hearing his Elders approaching from about a kilometer away. “All the rats that are trying to hide in the area; kill them all!” he shouted the order out, frightening Zhira’s subordinates to death.
The black-cloaked men quickly scattered and attempted to flee, but how could their techniques be enough to hide them from the keen Battle Senses of fully concentrated Elders of the Red Dragon School? With Roderick and Vatras acting as commanders, the three hundred Elders separated into groups counting five to seven people and gave chase to the fleeing forces of Zhira’s.
With their formidable physical abilities, the Elders effortlessly caught up to the fleeing rats and began cutting them down one after another. More and more corpses feel from the rooftops, many martial masters of the Cail family being killed just like that.
Even though both parties cultivated a top-level martial art, the Red Dragon Art was simply too superior in the direct clash. With their stealth-focused abilities, the side of the Cail family couldn’t do as much as break through the protection of the Dragon’s Body of those Elders, much less actually injure or kill them.
“Slaughter those fleeing cowards!” from the opposite side, the forces of the Twin Phoenix School entered the fray and cut off the escaping bunch. With golden flames lighting up the night’s sky, even more of Zhira’s men began getting slaughtered. In the span of about twenty seconds, practically all of them ended up being killed by the joint assault of the Red Dragon School’s and the Twin Phoenix School’s Elders.
In under a minute, the Cail family lost Zhira, a powerful dual-element martial master of the fifth rank, fifty-three martial masters between first and second Realms of Heroes and well over three hundred practitioners at the late stages of the mortal realm. This kind of horrible loses… anything like this hadn’t happened since the times of the Great War.
“Rudford, ha! Who would have thought it would feel so satisfying to fight by your side!” Einrah called out from a platform of golden flame. He looked at Laien and nodded contentedly after confirming the boy was fine, then spared a brief look at his sister. At the rate she was being healed she probably wouldn’t die nor sustain any permanent injuries, but truth to be told he didn’t care too much about her. What was important was that the boy he took a liking to was safe and sound.
“Gather up! Form the ranks!” Vatras’s yell resounded throughout the area, after what Einrah gave the same order. Both of them had noticed the large group of black-cloaked experts approaching them from the direction of Neil City. Sensing the aura of strength the unit was giving off, they couldn’t help but grow a bit wary.
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“A disaster,” Luren groaned silently. He had not only committed the worst screw-up of his life but the fact of it happening got pointed out to Fohan by the nephew he was supposed to be overseeing. What was this saying about his competence…? Judging by the cold, murderous aura Fohan was emanating he wouldn’t be surprised if he got sentenced to death after today’s events would be over.
“Fohan Cail!” Rudford roared, joining the bulk of his forces after assigning a group of Elders to protect Laien and Siana. Since Ninrah chose to stay by their side too, he could fight with all he had and not worry about the sibling’s safety. “Do you have anything to say before your family is erased from the surface of this world?!” he asked furiously, the blood-red draconic armor of Qi once again converging around his body.
“Rudford…” Fohan said coldly, then sighed and steeled his resolve. He didn’t want to risk dealing with Great Master level experts so soon, but if force was the only option left to him, then he wouldn’t hesitate to use it. “I see you are somewhat mistaken. We are the ones offering you a chance to surrender unless you want to see your school destroyed and those kids killed,” he stated calmly and smiled. Their timing was really quite exquisite, just as he finished speaking!
“Those people are…?” Rudford frowned, first sensing then seeing three large groups of martial masters approaching. “Thurand family…” he said with a bitter look on his face, looking at the five hundred people with crests of the black wolf on their clothes.
“Cioze family,” Rudford murmured, his gaze shifting to the four hundred martial masters with large crests of horses on the back of their capes. The City of Buare had always been famous for breeding best war horses in the Sarkcente Kingdom and had always been very proud of it.
“And… the Fire Serpent School,” he added, the sight of three hundred green-robed Elders worrying him the most.
“Twin Phoenix School, there is no irreconcilable feud between us,” Fohan spoke up and looked Einrah in the eye. “We are willing to give you a chance to retreat,” he offered, refusing to believe someone as selfish as Einrah would risk dying in this place for Rudford’s sake.
The combined forces of the Red Dragon and Twin Phoenix School were indeed formidable, but there was only five hundred of them. Even with a supreme expert like Rudford on their side, they would have very low chances of emerging victorious against their two thousand two hundred martial masters. Especially with the presence of the Fire Serpent’s School elite forces and their Grand Elder Fohan couldn’t imagine their side losing. They would sustain great casualties… but in the end, they would emerge victorious. The other side needed to be pretty much aware of that, too.
However, instead of giving Fohan the reaction he expected, Einrah smirked as replied with contempt. “You old goat want to tell me to run away? So what if you and your little dogs have a few martial masters of the fifth rank in those two thousand you brought here? The martial art of your family might be top-level, but it’s not suited for battle; all those others practice merely high-level arts. Do you really think we would be scared of them?” he asked with a smirk. Were those trash-tier martial master so delusional they thought they stood a chance against the Twin Phoenix and Red Dragon Arts?
“I think you are forgetting about someone, ‘Great Master Einrah’,” the green-robed Grand Elder of the Fire Serpent School spoke with a vicious smile, the three hundred Elders who he had brought joining the three Great Families and completing the encirclement around the Red Dragon and Twin Phoenix Schools’ forces.
“Qin, are you really going to take the side of those coin-slaves?” Einrah asked, his voice filled with disdain. For a Great Martial School to fall so low as to become a lapdog of a Great Family… it was humiliating!
“What do you know, Einrah. Master chose to support them, so he must have his own reasons,” Qin said resignedly and shook his head. He didn’t understand why the old ancestor decided to side with the Cail family, but it wasn’t up to him to decide what was right and wrong. He simply followed orders of his master.
“One last chance Einrah. Go back to your senses and abandon the seventh Prince’s camp. If you promise to do that, there won’t be a reason for us to fight,” he offered, honestly not too thrilled by the prospect of fighting monsters of the likes of Rudford, Einrah, Ninrah, Roderick and Vatras. The weakest of those five was more than a fair match for him, while the strongest… was out of his league. Even though the Fire Serpent Art was highly squired to restraining people and defending from attacks, most of the forces he brought here would be required just to tie up those five; just tie up, not even defeat!
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“Go eat shit, Qin,” Einrah said with a snort and judging from his expression, was no longer open to any kind of negotiations. There were very few sacred things in the world to a person like him… but not only was that kid his nephew’s friend, but he had also impressed him and helped to solve a very annoying matter within their family. He wouldn’t abandon this boy just because things got a bit dangerous.
“Why are you all so stubborn anyway?” the Leader of the Cioze family, Kinze, spoke up. “I believe this conflict is about what a certain idiot from the Cail family, who by the way is already dead, did to Rudford’s disciples. Is there truly a need for us to battle here?” he asked, very much preferring to avoid having most of his forces killed by those frightening Elders of Rudford’s and Einrah’s. He was aware that if a battle were to occur his men would most likely end up playing the role of cannon fodder; what he very much would have liked not to happen.
“I know how Cail family operates,” Rudford said coldly, great anger resounding in his voice. “They don’t act without orders. My disciples’ lives were targeted, they would have been dead had I arrived any later! Blood shall be paid with blood!” he spoke calmly, yet furiously. “Why don’t I give you all an offer instead? Retreat and let us pay the debt of blood to the Cail family. If you do so I promise your lives will be spared,” he offered with a disdainful laugh, the flames of anger burning wildly inside his heart and soul.
“Hmph,” Kinze snorted and shook his head. “You aren’t in the position of power this time, Rudford. Step down for your own good. We might not be able to kill you, but we can suppress you long enough to kill everyone else, those disciples of yours included. Do you want to lose your family again?” he threatened and provoked, but quickly realized he had said too much.
“Yeah…” Rudford suddenly began openly releasing killing intent, causing the very majority of the present martial masters to shudder in fear. “You might be able to do so, but you’d better be ready for me to attack you… attack you… and attack you until none of your forsaken brethren is left alive!” he yelled furiously, his words causing Kinze’s face to turn pale white. In fact, everyone from Cioze and Thurand families began having doubts as to whether they should keep pressing Rudford.
If Rudford really were to make his threat come true… they really would have no means of stopping him! Slowly but surely, all the members of their families would all be killed by him!
“Damned hot-headed freaks,” Fohan cursed silently. “That’s why I hate dealing with those idiots from the Great Martial Schools,” he thought helplessly. He also didn’t want this to escalate into an open conflict! He wanted to show those blockheads it wasn’t worth it to fight his side… but currently, they were heading nowhere else but straight into an all-out battle.
“Master Rudford,” the young Leader of the Thurand family brought up respectfully. “I know you and my grandfather had been friends and had fought together on many fields of battle. This time, I believe the Cail family is in the wrong. From what I know, the man whom you had killed Master Rudford was a direct subordinate of Luren Cail, not Fohan Cail. Thus, If the debt of blood is repaid this way… could we possibly avoid this battle?” he proposed, his words causing Luren Cail to freeze both in body and mind.
To have him killed to appease Rudford? He was the master of shadows! He was one of the three masters of the Cail family! However… if Rudford nodded to that… wouldn’t Fohan happily agree to trade his life in order to avoid the battle? Considering he had lied to Fohan and that this situation was a result of his own actions to begin with… he wouldn’t be all that surprised if he really were to be sentenced to death one way or another.
“Yeah…” Rudford responded, trying to contain his anger and act at least in a somewhat reasonable way. “But under one condition, I get to kill him right here and right now,” he declared, causing many people on the Cail family’s side to sigh with relief; they would obey the orders and fight to death if necessary, but they didn’t want to be dying in a fight where they would be nothing but cannon fodder.
“Out of the question,” Fohan said with a snort, then laughed when Luren couldn’t help looking at him disbelievingly. “What, you thought I would forsake you over one failure? That’s what you do with knives when they are rusted; a sword which lost its edge simply needs to be sharpened,” he said rather quietly, controlling his voice with his Qi so that only Luren would hear him.
Despite his best efforts, Luren failed to conceal the surprised look on his face. Even after all of that, Fohan was still willing to forgive him? It was making him incredibly happy to know Fohan valued him so much… but at the same time, he felt regretful he hadn’t told Fohan about everything sooner. Had he not tried to solve the problems beyond his ability on his own, they wouldn’t have gotten into this compromising situation to begin with.
“Really so,” the Leader of the Thurand family sighed. “Fohan, we allied with you because we also want to see this Kingdom flourish, not to lead an internal, self-destructive strife. If you want to fight them, go ahead but my family won’t be joining you in this battle,” he declared in a rather disappointed tone, then looked at Rudford and clasped his hands.
“Master Rudford, my grandfather had often told me how you saved his life on more than one occasion and had turned around many seemingly impossible to win battles. From the bottom of my heart, I wish you luck Master Rudford,” the young man said with a smile and bowed slightly, then waved his hand and ordered his five hundred martial masters to retreat.
The look on Fohan’s face was incredibly ugly to behold as he watched the Thurand family leave the district. “What can I offer Rudford for it to be enough to appease his anger but not to damage my long-term plans?” he asked himself, unwilling to throw almost half of their country’s military strength away only to subdue two Great Martial Schools. There needed to be some other way! And now that he thought about it, there indeed was!
“You kid down there, Laien right?” Fohan called out across the forces of the Red Dragon and Twin Phoenix Schools. “You tell me, is there no way for us to reconcile without needless bloodshed? I promise to make amends for what my subordinate did, so think about it! Do you really want your Master to lead your allies into a bloody battle, one which many of them won’t be able to survive?” he questioned, trying to appear to Laien’s sense of responsibility in order to make him feel guilty, but.
“You people nearly killed my sister…!” Laien roared, allowing himself to enhance his voice with spiritual energy since he had just finished healing Siana. Normally, it would have taken much more to regenerate the injuries of this kind… but apparently, the Qi and spiritual energy in Siana’s body was extremely compatible with his own thanks to them being siblings. It had aided the recovery process and made it very simple and effective.
“It was a mistake born from hastiness on our part, for what I apologize,” Fohan spoke calmly, swallowing his pride and making an apology to a mere child in order to reconcile.
“A mistake born from hastiness?” Laien repeated with a disdainful laugh. “I wish I was strong enough to kill all of you and call it ‘a hasty mistake’, oh I wish I was!” he shouted furiously, the overbearing killing intent he had displayed to Zhira and his men once again making its appearance and shaking everyone to the core. This kind of murderous intent was comparable to the one Rudford was releasing…!
“You heard him,” Rudford said hatefully. “The time for chatter is over, prepare to die!” he roared and raised his Red Dragon Sword up into the air, causing the three hundred Elders to respond with an ear-deafening battle cry.
“Wai-wait a second!” Fohan called out desperately, shedding any sense of dignity he might have still had until a while ago. He had miscalculated! He miscalculated horribly! Those freaks from Great Martial schools and their disciples, they couldn’t be faced with reason at all! Those madmen really were about to attack them!
“Ha, who would care about your yapping at this point? It’s the highest time to teach you some respect, you old goat!” Einrah called out with a laugh and roused his Qi. then swung with his greatsword and released a wave of golden flames right upon Fohan, Luren and the martial masters near the two of them.
“Motherf…” Fohan cursed and retreated hastily and so did Luren, but ten or so of their weaker subordinates proved to be too slow in their reactions and got devoured by Einrah’s attack.
The moment the first blood had been drawn, all five hundred Elders and the Great Masters leading them charged forward with abandon, each and every one emanating a terrifying killing intent. The battle didn’t even begin for good, but the forces encircling the two Great Schools began collapsing and retreating, not dozens but hundreds of their martial masters being slaughtered in seconds under berserk-like offensive of the Red Dragon and Twin Phoenix Schools.
Were it not for the Fire Serpent School readily joining the fray, Qin and the three hundred Elders releasing their dark-green serpent-like chains of Qi and desperately slowing down the ongoing massacre, their whole forces might have just went up and collapsed.
“Over three hundred dead,” Fohan was so bitter that even the sweetest wine would turn sour in his mouth. “I can’t believe there is this much difference in a head-on battle,” he thought helplessly, meanwhile emerging from the shadows and delivering a clean thrust through the heart of one of the Elders of the Red Dragon School.
Yet, even with his heart pierced through, the Elder grabbed at the sword in his chest and struck out with his own blade, intent on taking Fohan to the grave with him.
“Damn,” Fohan cursed again and let go of the sword, retreating hurriedly. He was at the sixth Realm of Heroes and yet, he could barely pierce the defenses of a martial master of the second rank! Had he went for the man’s head, he probably wouldn’t have been able to slash through the Dragon Body’s protection. “How can they be so vicious?” he asked himself, seeing how the man ignored the sword through his chest and leaped back into battle, trying to take as many enemies with him as possible before he would inevitably drop dead.
“The level of martial arts and the overall cultivation bases of my men are too low compared to theirs. The Fire Serpent School is somehow holding them back, but they don’t have enough experts to suppress those five… the Cioze family… is practically worthless, they can’t even wound any of those monsters, be it because of that blood-red armors of the golden flames…” Fohan ascertained the situation and sure enough wasn’t happy with how the battle was developing. He… didn’t know why had he made a miscalculation this huge!
His people simply weren’t comparable to those Elders of the Great Martial Schools. He had threatened Rudford with heavy casualties on both sides, but so far the Red Dragon School lost only one Elder; the one he had killed personally, while the Twin Phoenix School lost three. In comparison, they already lost nearly five hundred out of their one thousand and seven hundred martial masters!
Fohan couldn’t truly be blamed for his miscalculation though. During the Great War, his job had been to gather intelligence, assassinate enemy leaders and launch surprise attacks on their weaker units. He might have thought he knew what it took to create a truly elite force… and he indeed did create an elite force in its own right, but his people weren’t suited to a head-on bloody battle! Neither were their martial arts nor were their hearts! Against the fearless and fearsome Elders of the Red Dragon and Twin Phoenix Schools, they were dropping like flies while putting up barely any resistance.
“Don’t force my hand, Einrah! Even you shouldn’t be as stupid as to go against the wishes of the ancestor of my Fire Serpent School!” Qin raised his voice while exchanging blows with Einrah. The deep-green flames of the Fire Serpent contended for supremacy with the golden flames of the Twin Phoenixes, the dark-green chains of Qi struggled to keep Einrah’s greatsword attacks in check.
“Your ancestor? I don’t see him here now, do I? If he really cared about those coin-slaves, he would have come here himself! I can give you one last chance to back off, Qin. If you don’t, then… hmph,” Einrah shouted back arrogantly, but in the end gave that old monster some face. He had fought against that bastard a few decades ago… and his loss was even more miserable than the one against Rudford earlier today.
Fohan looked at the green-robed Qin anxiously. Were the Fire Serpent School to withdraw now, then even if he were to order a full retreat without delay his forces would still get decimated by the Red Dragon and Twin Phoenix Schools and their Great Masters. Most likely, merely a few hundred would be able to escape. The takeover of the Valius family would be overturned as quickly as it had happened originally and he… could very well end up being forced to flee the country! Be it Luren, Zhira, those siblings or the unreasonable Great Masters… it was all those damned people’s fault!
“What do you take a word of a Great Master for, Einrah? Our Fire Serpent School decided to support the alliance of the three Great Clans and it won’t go back on its promise!” Qin stated stubbornly but was painfully aware that his Elders were being withered away by the remaining four Great Masters. Over fifty of them perished and once a few more died… he would have no choice but to surrender and beg Einrah and Rudford to spare their lives to give face to the Fire Serpent School’s ancestor.
Steadily, the whole district was being turned into a pile of rubble and a sea of flames. In their quest for slaughter, the Elders of the Red Dragon School attacked madly, their powerful strikes and nearly impregnable defenses providing them with absolute superiority on the field of battle. Their techniques shattered the enemies and buildings alike, reaping great claw-like scars on the ground. The Elder of the Twin Phoenix School didn’t lose to them in ferocity, the mere heat of their golden flames preventing most of their opponents from getting close as their burned them all to ashes.
What was going on couldn’t be called a battle… it was a total and utter one-sided massacre! The countless people who had taken to the roofs of both Two Weeks City and Neil City were crying out in shock, at the moment more concerned by the unbelievable scenes going on before their eyes than the potential consequences they could bring to their country.
A battle between thousands of martial masters… it wasn’t something those people ever hoped to witness with their own eyes! And yet, it was happening!
“I have no other choice,” Fohan took a deep breath and suddenly, rushed straight to the center of the battlefield. Even though Ninrah was right there, from time to time unleashing long-range attacks against his forces, his only hope was to somehow get past him and take those two kids captive! It was risky, stupid plan… but he truly had no other options left!
“Fohan!”
Rudford’s roar and his approaching presence caused Fohan’s heart to skip a beat. He immediately turned around and started fleeing, terrified of the enraged monster which caught sights of him, apparently only having had been waiting for something like this to happen the whole time.
“You are dead, first you and then Luren!” Rudford yelled, chasing Fohan past the inner circle of the battlefield. Fohan was incredibly fast, but so was he; and with his Dragon’s Body and the Aspect of Tranquility, those people here could forget about wounding him. He had killed enough Elders of the Fire Serpent School for them to be unable to spare any manpower, so there was no one who could stop him from claiming the heads of those two people!
Yet, just about the time Fohan was starting to feel hopeless a mighty wave of azure Heavenly Flame exploded from the Royal Palace and headed straight to the battlefield. As the millions of spectating people called out in shock, a second smaller but no less powerful surge of Heavenly Flame appeared, also heading in the same direction. The two clusters of Heavenly Flame moved at great speed, much faster than the golden flame of the Twin Phoenix School had. After just a few seconds, the two of them arrived at the battlefield.