"We're in trouble sis!" A golden horned dragon youth cried.
"I can't find an opening to this cave. We'll have to hide!" Yelled a beautiful golden horned dragon girl.
This brother and sister pair were the twins Kal searched for. The pair came to this universe in the hopes of finding a way to speed up their growth. Dragons took thousands of years to grow up. They were supposed to help their young lord make his way in the universe, but how could they do that when they were just a couple of dragon babies?
They found the world not long after they arrived in this universe. At first, they came exploring and thought it was a nice place to cultivate. Pianzi, her brother, managed to get high-tier Gold-Dragon cultivation techniques. If they had been able to get the high-tier Five-Clawed Gold Dragon cultivation techniques, they wouldn't have needed to come to this universe. They just didn't have the access to those highly protected techniques.
It was fine for the first few thousand years they were here. They were even able to go into their long baby dragon sleep cycles without a problem. They brought several puppets to guard them while they slept. Since they didn't have Samsara pods they had to find hidden caves to sleep in.
About three thousand years ago, someone spotted them on one of their scouting trips. The person recognized them for what they were, dragons. In this universe, dragons were now non-existent although they used to live here long ago. The dragons mysteriously disappeared. Many dragon inheritances were left behind but only dragons could use them, so they were pretty useless to everyone else.
The one thing discovered in an old ruin before the twins arrived was a technique for transferring the natural dragon talents from a dragon to a non-dragon. This would boost a person's cultivation through the roof. Bottlenecks became almost non-existent. Of course, the dragon would be consumed in the process, but who would care about that if it made them strong.
Until the twins were discovered no dragons were ever found so even though it was a powerful technique it held little value. It became a curiosity. Some tried adapting the technique for other powerful species, but the results were hit or miss.
Then these two dragon youths appeared and quickly became the hunted. The wily twins did a pretty good job of evading capture so far, but a few hundred years ago they were forced back to this planet and barely escaped before the ship was destroyed. They'd had little rest since then.
Today, they were discovered while looking for food and fresh water. Just as they got near a river and were about to start fishing and getting water, other cultivators showed up. Both sides were surprised when they ran into each other. Congming, the female dragon, managed to kill one of the cultivators, but the other one ran off and raised the alarm.
The twins immediately ran away and tried to get to one of their hidden lairs. Unfortunately, they couldn't lose the cultivators who were tight on their heels. The pair were finally forced into this cave. They were safe, for now. The cave only had one entrance and it was easy to control. However, pretty soon the cultivators would find a way to force them out. When that happened, it would all be over for the dragon babies.
The only thing going for them right now is the cultivators were at an impasse as to who would get the dragons. The air outside was extremely tense. It was a powder keg waiting for a spark.
Kal N'Dar showed up around this time. Sensing so many cultivators converging at the spot where the tracker indicated the dragon twins should be; he immediately deduced these cultivators were after the dragons.
It was clear the first thing he needed to do was find out what was happening. Kal blended in with the other cultivators. Kal looked as if he was just walking around, but what he was really doing was observing and listening. He discovered everyone wanted the dragons to use a technique that could transfer the dragons' strength into them.
The problem everyone was facing was who would get the dragons? There were only two of them. Kal sensed the tension. Soon, there might be a fight amongst the cultivators. This would be the time for him to save the dragon twins. He needed to light the match on this explosive situation before cooler heads prevailed. Stirring up trouble was something at which Kal excelled.
Preparations were quickly made and Kal began his rescue plan. Time to stir up some trouble. The easiest way to turn this into a free for all was to increase the pressure. Right now, there was a fine balance between all of the forces. This helped prevent things from going out of control. Everyone still felt they had time to act and there was no need to hurry. All Kal had to do was give everyone a reason to hurry.
One of Kal's lesser-known talents was ventriloquism. It was something even mortals can use, but no one ever bothered to learn it except for performers. Kal always liked this skill. It didn't use any qi or other energy, so it couldn't be traced to him. The only trick was cultivators' senses were extremely sharp, but Kal had taken his ventriloquism to the next level. He could throw his voice so well he could make people think it came from wherever he wanted it to. This was a no-cost trick that helped him strategically start a lot of very beneficial trouble.
"Did you hear that the Lion's Roar Syndicate was on the way?" Someone whispered.
"The Lion's Roar Syndicate is on the way?" Someone suddenly yelled in surprise and fear. All of the cultivators panicked. If the Syndicate got here, and they were still at a standoff then no one could get a piece of the action. Everything would go to the Syndicate because no one would mess with the Syndicate. Whatever the Syndicate wanted, none of them would be stupid enough to stand in their way. If anyone wanted those twins it was time to make their move. Almost all at once several people rushed towards the cave. Immediately, others rushed to stop them. Soon a massive fight broke out!
"It was just that easy," Kal smirked as he patted his own back.
Inside the cave, Benton's holo-pod arrived. The twins were informed Kal was here to save them. The two were immediately relieved. They thought he would have arrived a long time ago. Little did they know they underestimated how big of an effect greed had on the Dragon Clan. Everyone's greed kept the search for the dragon twins delayed for over a month.
"What's the plan, Benton?" Pianzi asked.
"We're going to try and sneak out," Benton said.
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"Can't we just enter your holo-pod?" Congming asked.
"This is not BS42's holo-pod. Kal's Samsara pod is topnotch, but it's much more limited than BS42's," Benton said.
"How are we going to sneak out then?" Pianzi asked.
"Just wait a couple of minutes. You think you're a trickster. Wait and see what Kal does," Benton said.
"Oh yeah, hide those horns." Benton suddenly remembered.
Outside the cave, chaos reigned. Several cultivators had already died.
"It's time for someone to break through," Kal thought to himself.
Kal spent his time looking for something while on the battlefield. He finally found what he needed. Sneakily moving through the battlefield Kal got behind a male and female cultivator and suddenly punched both of them in the back towards the cave. The punch instantly killed the two. However, to everyone else, it looked like the pair was rushing to the cave.
"Ah, someone's makin' a break for it!" A voice suddenly shouted.
Before anyone could move the pair of cultivators flew into the cave. Almost immediately the two flew back out and into the field. The pair crumpled on the battlefield with their cloaks covering their figures. Someone went and checked them.
"They're just knocked out he yelled." Everyone started laughing.
"What a couple of dumb skogs!" someone else yelled. The fighting intensified afterward.
After a couple of more hours of fighting more than half of the cultivators were dead or fled. A booming could be heard coming from the sky. Everyone stopped fighting and looked up! Three Destroyer puppets in the markings of the Lion Roar Syndicate came through the clouds. The cultivators stopped fighting.
"This is the Lion's Roar Syndicate. We have come for the dragons, everyone else, SCRAM!!!" yelled an imperious voice. The crowd knew it was time to leave and so everyone fled as quickly as possible. Since the Syndicate was here they had no chance of getting the dragons. The area in front of the cave was cleared of all living people. Only the dead remained on the battlefield.
Out of the clouds descended Lion's Roar Syndicate ships. Three spaceships escorted by a dozen fighters. Out of the ships descended several Syndicate members with armed guards. The Syndicate members made their way to the cave and the guards cleared the entrance before a few of the members entered.
A loud boom sounded from the cave! The explosion blew out bodies from inside. The Syndicate forces were in disarray. The remaining members and guards quickly rushed towards the cave. Those who went into the cave were actually high-ranked members of the Syndicate. If any of them could be saved, then the rescuers would be rewarded heavily.
No one noticed someone slip aboard one of the ships. After a few minutes, the figure slipped out once more and headed west.
After excavating the site and determining everyone was dead, the remaining Syndicate members boarded their ships. The command was given, hunt down and immobilize all ships until the dragon twins were found! The three Syndicate landing craft rose through the air. Unexpectedly, the landing craft opened fire on their fighter escort. The fighters were taken completely unaware and destroyed almost instantly. After all of the fighters were wiped out, the three landing craft self-destructed.
In space, a Syndicate Carrier and frigate watched what happened on the planet. Command was shocked! It wasn't that no one ever attacked the Syndicate before, it's just, the Syndicate never attacked itself. What was going on?!
In a cave, west of the battlefield, Kal entered. There he found the two dragon twins waiting fearfully. Kal walked in with a big smile on his face.
"Look at this, all grown up. Made a mess of the Dragon Clan, got General Long in trouble with the Dragon Emperor, and got me in trouble with BS42!" Kal said angrily.
"Not only have you not repeatedly followed orders; you nearly got yourselves killed!" Kal shouted.
"But Kal, we thought you would get here a lot sooner!" Congming whined.
"Oh, so this is my fault now?" Kal sneered.
"That's not what Congming meant, we just figured you would follow the clues we left and get here faster..." Pianzi started.
"So now I'm stupid," Kal said as he radiated anger.
"Let me tell you two amateurs something! The reason I didn't get here sooner is your trick caused those guardians of yours and an unknown number of elders in the Dragon Clan to delay telling General Long for over a month. The reason is they wanted to claim credit for finding a new universe. I had to get BS42 to help me find you and then I had to blindly fly into the rift! On top of this, the two of you had no way of knowing the nature of the time disfasia, if there was any, so how could you know when to expect me? Come, come, share some of your brilliant insights with me now!" Kal roared.
The twins knew the best thing to do was keep quiet.
A few hours passed before Pianzi finally summoned the courage to ask Kal some questions.
"Uhm, Kal, why didn't we sneak away to your ship earlier when we had the chance?" Pianzi asked.
Kal gave Pianzi an angry look and ignored him. Kal spent most of his rage on the kids but he was still upset with them. These two were crucial to the success of their mission. They acted recklessly for no good reason, just like a couple of hot-headed kids.
These two kids weren't kids at all. They cultivated thousands of years before their disembodiment. If they thought Kal yelling at them was enough to make things go back to normal, they were crazy.
"We just want to understand your plan," Congming said with a friendly smile.
"Now the two of you want to understand my plan...You never tried to understand my plan before!" Kal shot back at Congming.
You two...I don't even know what to say right now. Do you know what? I'm going to explain my thinking to you in the hopes the next time you get a hairbrained idea you might actually know how to think so you can successfully execute your hairbrained idea!" Kal said.
"First, there is a blockade in space. The Syndicate was informed of your location the moment you were spotted. One of those cultivators out there figured they were more likely to get paid by the Syndicate than have any luck capturing the pair of you. The Syndicate was waiting in the upper atmosphere until the cultivators thinned themselves out.
Second, most people rabbit as soon as they get the chance when they're being chased. The Syndicate was probably looking for this and tracking every ship in this world.
Third, those smart enough not to run immediately will usually hide in their ships. like I said before, the Syndicate is probably tracking the ships so right now they’re going ship to ship looking for you two. Our ship is already in space sending me updates on movements made by the Syndicate. When the Syndicate leaves, we'll leave," Kal said.
"I don't understand one thing," Pianzi said. "If they were watching every ship then how did your ship get off the planet without being noticed?"
"Simple, my ship was only on the planet long enough to drop me off. I had Benton take the ship out to look for some info on what's transpired in the region. It just so happened not long after Benton left, the Lion's Roar Syndicate showed up," Kal said.
"How come we were able to leave the battlefield? Why didn't anyone stop us, and how come the Syndicate hasn't found us in this cave. Don't they have precision sensing equipment to find us?" Congming asked.
"There was too much chaos, you two laid there for half an hour pretending to be knocked out. After half an hour it wasn't unreasonable both of you woke up. There were also a lot of cultivators leaving the battlefield when you woke up. No one cared about you. You were one less person they had to fight.
"The reason the Syndicate can't find us is the glyphs in your bodies allow me to track you while at the same time hiding you from others when your heart rate is elevated," Kal said.
Kal was clever, he was a great on-site strategist. He really understood human psychology and how to take advantage of it. Whoever came up with that glyph was a genius too. Heart rate hides them.
"Kal, does that mean if our heart rate isn't elevated they can track us?" Pianzi suddenly panicked.
Kal was waiting for this question. Not so dumb after all. "Here, put these on." Kal took a set of armor for each of them from his storage ring and tossed them to the twins. He also threw out weapons for them.
"Those are stealth armors. Exactly what a couple of scared little rabbits need right now," Kal said as he smiled.
The twins quickly changed into their new armor. Congming sat down and looked at Kal.
"Now what?" Congming asked.
"Now we'll wait until everyone leaves, and then we go," Kal said.
The pair simply nodded their head and started cultivating.