It took almost half a day for the procession to get up the mountain. For some reason dryads moved at the same speed as Leo crawled up on all fours in the darkness back then. Obviously this looked like a part of a ritual, but in all honesty it was long and dull, and an unnecessary one. It also might’ve something to do with the fact that it became harder to breathe and some contestants even had to occasionally stop to catch their breath. Fortunately Leo was already familiar with the side effect and a slight boost now and then from his cultivation base allowed him to casually do what the others found tedious.
Of course, the youth was bored out of his mind and began to think of ways to provoke the foreigners for a fight, but unfortunately no one was paying any attention to him. Both – the dryads and competitors looked solemn and important, but to Leo it seemed snobbish and rather uncharacteristic for the people of the Greenland realm. Fortunately everyone was busy with themselves and he was able to sneakily drink and eat on the way. At least he had something to do until the mist began to clear.
When the group finally arrived, Leo couldn’t recognize the place. Besides the bushes and trees that were in full bloom, the dryad huts were decorated with flowers and the trail leading further up the mountain had several wooden arches set up, making them look like gates to a higher realm. These arches were similarly covered in flowers which to the great shock of foreigners were not green, but white, red and yellow.
Clearly the ladies of the mountain had put a lot of effort into decorating the place, but while everyone was admiring the beauty of their work, Leo’s eyes were fixated on a spot ten, maybe twelve yards in diameter encircled with dark stones. This was clearly an arena! He almost lost hope to be have the last chance to spar with the cream of the crop of the Greenland realm, but in the end there was going to be a combat practice after all.
The problem was – there were only nine of them left. He had no clue what the dryads had planned, but it was unlikely they’ll all have a chance to spar with each other and some kind of elimination matches were about to happen. In that case Leo’s chances to have more than three fights were rather slim.
While Leo was inwardly struggling, dryads graciously took their designated positions around the area – a couple stood at the arches, few around the spot Leo thought was the arena and the rest in between. While slowly walking over to their spots, all of them began to sing a soft, pleasant tune and the atmosphere became rather dreamy.
The contestants, standing in a neat row, speechlessly stared at the middle aged and elderly ladies dressed in green tree bark clothing as if they were goddesses. Already below the mountain, in the city, they seemed as if they were higher beings, but here the only word that could describe the scene was ‘otherworldly’.
Leo, of course, almost didn’t pay attention to them. A bit more than a year ago while hiding in the bushes he had observed dryads doing their daily chores and to him they looked just like any other women thus no one around here, except for the foreigner circus, seemed special.
What he noticed was the elderly dryad that was arranging his duels on the first day. She stood not that far away from the contestant group and softly sang along the rest. For some reason she had left the strongest impression, therefore after pondering for a while about the potential repercussions, Leo, under the stupefied eyes of other men, walked over.
“Excuse me!” He politely said, “For the next stage – is it possible we all would compete against each other? I mean – you could get a better idea of our strength if each of us fought against the rest.”
“How arrogant!” Before the confused dryad could reply, one of the contestants, the smaller guy with the little human heads on pikes angrily barked, “Do you think you can take on all of us by yourself?”
The guy dressed in the bright feathers immediately took off his upper clothing and joined, “Alright! I’d like to see how you’ll accomplish that!”
One after another six of the contestants surrounded Leo throwing angry remarks at him and in an instant the situation became so heated, the elderly dryad barely made out from the encirclement. Apparently the men had stomached Leo’s ‘unacceptable behavior’, whatever it was, long enough and his ‘taunt’ was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. In addition, everyone loosing their breath on the way up gave them hope the youth was not in his top form thus giving the rest a chance.
The only two who managed to maintain their bearing were the respective leaders of the easterners and westerners – the one wearing the eagle’s head and the other – the strings of greenlander beast teeth. Clearly what currently happened was beneath them or maybe a similar incident was planned long ago, except now Leo played into their cards himself.
“No, you misunderstood … I” Leo wanted to explain he wished to fight each of the eight opponents one by one to have a little more practice, but somehow he was misunderstood on the spot.
Unfortunately no one intended to listen to him. Who knows which contestant threw the punch first, but a split moment later fists and sticks began to rain down on Leo’s head. This was anything but training and Leo, angry his simple plan failed, also had enough.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Ignoring the incoming attacks, he landed six quick Lightning palms in succession knocking out all six hotheads. As the result the unconscious bodies flew several yards away and landed on the ground with heavy thuds, unable to get up for the rest of the day.
Only afterwards Leo realized he had probably went overboard, but it was too late.
“Uhmm … sorry!” He said, awkwardly scratching his head, “They all came at the same time, you know … I had no choice …”
The two leaders who didn’t attack him, simultaneously gulped in fear. They couldn’t explain it, but what just transpired was anything but normal.
The dryads also stared at Leo in deep shock, but for a different reason. When the group attacked him a moment ago, they tore off the upper part of his clothing and for the first time someone could clearly observe his upper body, but the sight was horrifying.
If easterners and westerners bragged showing off the greenlander beast bites, at most they have been bitten four, maybe six times. On the other hand on Leo’s torso there were tens of bites clearly visible. All scars looked similarly fresh, as if the damage was inflicted during the same encounter, but in that case – what in the world did the youth go through?
“Mata faka!”
While everyone was gawking at Leo’s scars, another person arrived through the mist, but contrary to her expectations she was not the one in the center of attention. Fortunately, before it spoiled her mood, she noticed the half naked Leo in the center with a bunch of unconscious bodies around him. Truth to be said, the youth did look rather manly, but the high dryad, just like her subordinates, was too shocked by the scars to appreciate the sight.
“Mata faka!” The high dryad repeated in a soft, musical voice and came over to take a closer look at the half naked young man.
She looked like she was in her early thirties, thirty five at most, but her facial features, especially the eyes, felt warm and pleasant and left the impression of a kind person. Her mouth was small and the straight nose slightly pointy, but it was the pure blond hair that stood out the most. Also this was the first person Leo saw in Greenland who was dressed in pure white, but it was unclear where one could get clothing of that color around here.
The two remaining men stared at the otherworldly beauty, by the local standards, of course, speechlessly, but Leo had washed a few prettier ones, albeit this lady didn’t seem half bad. Fortunately, before he began fantasizing about washing and drying her, the youth realized he was currently kind of showing off, but there was no way to stealthily take out new clothes from the amulet to wear.
“I’m sorry, I made a mess.” He said apologetically and pointed at the unconscious men on the ground, “I can carry them all down if needed.”
The high dryad ignored his words and came over to observe the scars more closely. She curiously stretched out her hand intending to check by touch if they were real, but then realized what she was about to do and quickly recovered her demeanor. She took few steps back and the rest of dryads also finally reacted. They rushed to her side, greeted by politely bowing and the oldest quickly reported.
“Master!” She respectfully said, “We brought here the most promising men of the world and …”
The dryad took a pause and threw a glance around, but then as if having a new idea continued, “And now there are only three left. Please, present your gifts to the high dryad!”
‘Gifts?!’ Leo was confused, but seeing the two remaining men take off their clown costumes realized what the old lady meant.
Obviously they were invited to entertain the high dryad during her matrimonial ceremony and it was only logical to bring gifts! With all the nonsense the old witch from the city spouted, couldn’t she remind him of something so basic? He didn’t even grab a flower bouquet, to not speak about a real present! Where in the world was he supposed to get something around here – he was half naked himself!
“This is the head of the flying beast I hunted on my own!” The man of a grayish skin rushed forward first, “It killed countless our tribesmen until I defeated it! Your holiness, my greatest wish is to stay in the Dryad mountain to protect its people!”
He said all of that in one breath and it sounded arrogant and humble at the same time, but for some reason Leo found the content hypocritical.
‘Who’s going to protect your own helpless people if you will move here?’ He inwardly grinned.
Just like the Old Hebe’s tribe, the Dryad mountain was also attacked by high ranked birds, but the attacks were rare and if a bird didn’t manage to snatch a child or an elderly, most likely it had to quickly escape. Locals might not be incredible hand to hand combat masters, but they knew how to hammer down a large chicken with their tools.
The leader of westerners was not going to fall behind his colleague and, the moment the easterner was done, he presented the stings with greenlander beast teeth.
“I’m the strongest man in the world and here’s the proof!” He said without blushing. For some reason he had decided to go all out and use all means necessary to leave a lasting impression, “I might not have as many scars as the others, but that only proves my skill and ability. In my life I’ve killed hundreds and hundreds of mata fakas and with me around you’ll never need to fear anything!”
Leo barely held back swallowing ‘you’re so humble!’ remark, but before he managed to use the chance and challenge the braggart, high dryad’s impatient eyes landed on him. Apparently she expected a present, but he only had tree bark pants and the amulet and there was no way in the world he would give any of those away.
At first he thought of gifting one of the snake-headed beast eggs, but then everyone would start to question where did it appear from. And apart from a small pile of cooked meat and several boxes of antidotes, he only had the beast cores.
They did look shiny and from what Leo knew women often liked shiny things, but the rank three beast cores were too worthless, but the rank fives and the two rank sixes he had he really didn’t want to give away – those were his ticket to start a new life in the Golden city.
‘Right!’ He felt like kicking himself after remembering he actually had another treasure.