Hansel turned his head slightly to his shoulder. He thought he heard or felt something. He listened, squinting his eyes.

Nothing.

But his instincts told him something was there.

He turned his head further back towards the cave entrance and paused. He focused and listened closely for anything off. But he heard nothing but an eerie silence.

Something was wrong.

He felt it in his gut. It warned him. The uneasy feeling grew. It churned inside of him, unwilling to let go of his attention. It pulled at him, warning about something outside the cave.

His gut instinct was right.

Subtle fluctuations of soul energy rippled through the air. Hansel grimaced. His face turned dark. He knew that feeling well. He resented it and loathed its owner's existence.

Flashes of anger contorted his serious face from the unwanted familiar feeling. He unleashed his power, clashing against a sudden strong wave of oncoming energy.

He abruptly sprung up to warn all those inside, but he was too late. The colliding torrents of soul energy shredded through the stale air of the cave, spinning madly the inside like a tornado. The gales hurled shards of rocks and clouds of dust, battering and cutting everyone inside.

Suddenly, it stopped. Heavy pressure slammed down all around. The swirling twister halted and flattened. The trio of the Adonis Guild stammered from the sudden strain, buckling under the force pressing down on their bodies.

The powerful aura grew stronger, slamming down harder. The newbie Climbers collapsed onto the ground. The immense pressure came from outside the cave. Sharp and yet explosive, the fiery aura lit up the interior walls with bright hues of burning red and yellow.

The bellowing of a man’s condescending voice echoed piercingly through the cave and around the guild members.

“Come out, little rats! Your soft-bosomed goddess has made you all weak with her merciful beasts. This farce of a tower is pathetic! Do you expect to win against the Dungeon Heathens by playing a game of hunters and gathers? Climbers fight real monsters! We fight with real danger! Spill the blood of monsters as they fail to spill ours! This is the way of the Ruby Tower!”

The blood vessels protruded and pulsed on Hansel’s forehead. His face burned with hatred and revenge.

“MURDERER! I’LL KILL YOU!”

Hansel needed to heed the advice he lectured to Luke earlier. He ignored all reason and acted on his furious emotions, unleashing all his hatred on the man outside.

Everyone inside the cave paled, turning white like a ghost. A massive tsunami of raging energy exploded from Hansel. It collided with the heavy aura, forcing it back.

Hansel dashed out at full speed, leaving deep imprints of his feet into the hard ground. He desired to spill blood. Every fiber of his entire being screamed, urging him to move faster. He wanted that man dead, bleeding in agonizing death. He launched himself off the ledge, torpedoing off the side of the ravine.

He dropped vertically like a bomb, exploding and rupturing the ground around him. The landscape crumbled. Rocks and boulders shot away, sending ripping shockwaves into the surroundings. The terrain violently shook from the earthquake.

“DAMION!”

“Well, well, well. The biggest rat of them all came out. Greet the dirty rat of the ‘so-called greatest’ guild, my new disciples.”

The two glared at each other with heavy tension. Hansel snapped the strain between them. The boiling massive aura of energy, raging around him, pulled inwards and started to condense.

“COLD-BLOODED MURDERER! DIE!”

The aura blasted with all of Hansel’s hate and anger. Damion shot back with his own, and the two sides of Soul energy collided, wrestling to consume the other. The clash ripped the earth, launching into the walls and crumbling parts of the ravine. The cave shook, and everyone inside tumbled and fell over. The collision ripped the air into gales blasting away the debris.

Behind Damion’s protective aura stood two identical young men with pitch-black hair and a fiery red-haired young woman. They all glanced from Damion’s side, unperturbed and unimpressed at Hansel’s presence.

The woman's face scrunched up from her ingrained distaste of the weaklings of the Ivory Tower while the corners of the two twins synchronically peeled up in a smirk.

“Guess even newbies know better than to greet a rat,” Damion said.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Damn stuck-up Ruby Climbers! The only greeting you deserve is my fist! Especially you! I’m going to beat the bullshit out of you before slitting your throat, Damion! You attacked Fortuna! You’re trying to kill another up-and-coming Ivory Climber!”

“Let me set the story straight for your tiny brain, rat-bastard Hansel. Your ex-girlfriend from Fortuna requested a battle with us from the Cardinal Guild, and we complied. Get it right!”

“...”

Hansel remained silent. He could not retort. Damion was probably correct. Knowing Mia, she did likely do so. He knew well that injuries occurred frequently in the Tower. He could not prove his disciples murderer, but it had a signature mark Damion was infamous for. Chopped off heads, arms, legs, and feet.

As long as it wasn’t a fight against the Dungeon Heathens, death due to infighting between climbers rarely occurred. Infighting leading to death had consequences. They could ignite wars between guilds and kingdoms. If caught and proven guilty, that is.

Damion smirked. “Not like a few dead Ivory Climbers will make a difference anyway. You’re all too soft. I would have been merciful and given them a quick, painless death compared to dying under the hands of Heathens.”

Another heavy pressure blasted at Damion for his snide comment. “I knew I smelled the nasty remains of washed-up charcoal. Hansel, I say we do this the other way around and give the Ruby Climbers a merciful death.”

Antwon walked along the ravine to Hansel with his disciples following close behind. Damion glared at the newcomer, feeling uneasy. It was now two against one.

“What are you trying to say, Antwon!? If a guild war is what you want, we can start it right now!”

Hansel scoffed, “what, you scared now? Making empty threats? War only starts if you can prove it. The dead and missing can’t prove anything.”

Damion jeered back, “I know. Just like those dead Ivory newbies. Hahahaha!”

Antwon and Hansel’s narrowed their eyebrows. Their faces burned and contorted with anger. The provocation stirred up painful memories. They recalled the mutilated bodies of their previous disciples. They were slowly tortured to death. Toyed with. Beaten. Bloodied. Dismembered. Their faces were frozen stiff with the agonizing last moments of their life.

The Guilds refused to go to war, afraid they would weaken their power and be taken over by another. Everyone knew it was Damion. But it was his words of denial against theirs. They had no witnesses or solid evidence. He got away without even a slap on the wrist.

The two Vice Guild Leaders were about to go on a full-out attack and call out their summons, but the token of the Ivory Tower Damion held out in his hand stopped them in their tracks.

“Ha! This is why you all are weak! Stopped by a token. Pathetic.”

“Screw it! I’m doing this! If it’s war, so be it! Come forth!-“

Antwon first regained his calm and logic. He blocked Hansel’s path, shaking his head.

Hansel was about to thrash through him, but Antwon whispered an explanation, trying to reason with Hansel’s emotions.

“You know the reason. You know the other kingdoms are checking us out! We can’t give them any chances right now. Cool your head, Hansel.”

Hansel glared at Antwon. “The fucker killed my disciple! Don’t tell me to cool my head! I want that bastard dead!”

Antwon covered Hansel’s ear and whispered, “I know, but not now. The Kingdom of Lazar can’t afford a war at this point. We need to tread carefully. You already know they’re probing us, that’s why the Kingdom Tournament was sped up. They want to know about Kai and the other guild masters. The rumor of them moving on has already spread. We can’t risk an attack on ourselves. We need to consolidate our powers for now.”

“What are you two rats whispering about? What’s there to hide, huh? Is someone leaving soon? Hahaha! You can’t do anything to me, Hansel! The Cardinal Guild knows I’m here. Anything happens, and the Kingdom of Lazar will face the wrath of the other kingdoms!”

“Just your puny Kingdom of Jafar. No one else would dare take us on.” Antwon retorted.

“Not from what I hear. Haha!”

The trio of Adonis’s new disciples approached the entrance to see the cause of the commotion.

Damion saw the three and smirked with a devious scheme. “Since we can’t fight ourselves, let's have our disciples fight on our behalf. Or are you going to be a mother chicken, Hansel?”

Hansel followed Damion’s line of sight. Liam surprised him, being the first to peek at the climbers of the Ruby Tower.

“Stay back, Liam,” Hansel warned, but Damion clearly heard Liam’s name.

Damion solemnly looked back at Liam, troubled but scoffed. “That’s Liam? The Dysfunctional Sir Michael mentioned? That weak-looking scrawny guy?”

Hansel’s anger immediately cooled. Both sides raging auras stopped. The cogs in his head spun crazily, hearing the name of the ruler of the Ruby Tower and it knowing of Liam’s existence.

“Why are the Tower Rulers so interested in Liam?” Hansel questioned himself.

“Why so protective, Hansel? Afraid to lose another disciple? Ha! This is why you Ivory climbers are weak! How can anyone grow without real danger!?”

“You make one move, and war it will be. I swear on the Ivory Tower. You won’t leave here alive, Damion.”

“I don't need to do anything against a Dysfunctional. They can’t even summon something to protect themselves! They’re fodder meant to be killed. You can’t blame me if a useless Dysfunctional dies unable to protect himself.”

Damion glanced at one of his disciples. “Let’s see you struggle, Dysfunctional! Test him out, Aden!”

The twin on the right stepped forward, cracking his knuckles. “He can’t even call out a summon. I just have to clobber the weakling and get this over with. Get down here, Dysfunctional! Don’t worry, I’ll just beat you half to death.”

Hansel scoffed at Aden’s unknowing assumptions. However, he debated revealing Liam and Beta, but he knew eventually the secret would be shown for all to see anyway.

If Damion tried to make one wrong move, it would give him the grounds for him and Antwon to kill him. He readied himself to take immediate action against Damion and motioned to Liam to fight.

“Since you never got the chance to try out your new summon, go and show us all what you can do, Liam.”