In an instant, all the Scarlet Grove soldiers had stopped what they were doing. They all turned towards the voice and bent the knee. The Traditionalists in their confusion had stopped the fighting. They just stared towards the direction that the others were facing.

Walking towards them in at a leisurely pace was the oldest man Daniel had ever seen. He wore a sleeveless tunic that looked as though one would just need to throw it on to get dressed. Wrinkles had formed on his face, becoming crevices. Hair had fallen off the top of his head and taking root on the side. The man walked with a cane and a massive hunch on his back. The mass on his back was probably the only massive thing about him. Although he was average height, his limbs were thin to the point that Daniel worried that he would break just by walking. And spreading from his back to his arms were a myriad of scars from years gone passed. Despite how frail the man looked, none of the assembled members of Scarlet Grove dared to cause a scene.

Elder Languor crossed the battlefield as though it were a park. Two people were on either side of him. They were both dressed in gray robes. Both had their head shaven. The two looked rather similar; perhaps they were siblings. If someone was in his way, they would have them scoot off. If there was a body, they would shove them to the side.

Daniel gave the man a confused look. Despite his frail appearance, Daniel found no weak points in the man’s stance at all. In fact, each angle screamed danger to him.

It was only after they locked eyes did Daniel realize that the old man was heading towards his direction. He turned and found that there Sarah was just as stunned as him. She didn’t look like she was going to move. He thought it was for the best.

“Hello, there,” the old man smiled as he walked up to them.

“Greetings.” Daniel’s voice was rather sheepish. He didn’t know how to address the person. While his actions clearly showed him being a part of the Traditionalists, the man didn’t seem to care at all. But it might have also been because he hadn’t seen what happened.

Then in the next instant, he turned towards Decadence. “You!” The man voice was poignant as though his words had just turned into a knife. It stabbed right into the Lone Rider’s chest. “Why were you holding one of your comrades like that?” Decadence opened his mouth, but Languor held up his hand to stop him. “I will say that I hate it when others are lying to me. This will be your only warning. Do you understand.”

“Yes, senior.” Decadence’s face was ice cold. Naturally he didn’t want this man to see through his guise.

“Good. First, what hall are you from?”

“Law Hall, senior.”

“Oh,” the man had a halfhearted surprise look on his face. Actually, he didn’t really to care. He opened his mouth and let out a yawn. He seemed so relaxed, Daniel wondered if he was on something. “So then, let me return to my original question. Why were you holding one of your comrades by his hair like that?”

“The soldier has been accused of treason-”

“Treason?” The man’s face snapped to attention. His face scrunched in anger as he looked at the ground. “What kind of treason has he done?”

“We have reason to believe that Gram Rui has been consorting with the enemy.”

“Oh, so you know that this is Gram Rui,” The man pointed with his cane at Gram. As soon as he lifted up his cane, the two that were walking beside him grabbed him on either side to steady him.

Daniel looked at the man. He was sure that that man was his uncle. His mother even identified him so. Had he been mistaken and there was someone else named Gram Rui? It didn’t seem likely.

“Yes,” Decadence said, “without question.”

“So you know that this is for sure Gram Rui?” The man’s face turned to relax a little. He brought his cane down and his two helpers let go of him. He turned to face Decadence.

“Yes, senior.”

“If you know that this is for sure Gram Rui, and if you believe him of treason, then why are you the one dolling out the punishment?”

“Senior, I don’t-”

“Which hall takes care of punishments?”

“Discipline Hall, of course.”

The man smiled. “Very good. Very good. Well rehearsed.”

“Rehearsed?”

Languor looked to one of the people standing beside him. The disciple helped him lift up his shirt. The scars were already visible on his sleeveless shirt, but they didn’t realize how far the scars had spread. A pungent odor came from the man’s back as the disciple took out an item that had been wrapped in cloth. The disciple placed it on the ground. The item was soaked in red and the pungent odor followed it.

The disciple undid the cloth revealing a man’s severed head. The person’s eye had rolled to the back of their head.

Decadence stared at the head. “Am I supposed to know who that is?”

“You should, this is the head of Lone Rider Gang,” the old man clarified. Decadence showed no expression or recognition at all. “Actually, my disciples and I wiped out the entire Lone Rider Gang that we met on the way here.” Still, Decadence remained stone faced.

Languor shrugged. “How about we discuss the hall you say you are from.” The old man began to pace around. “Law Hall’s philosophy is following order to a T, but you also believe that doing manual work is above you. Thus, Law Hall will let others Halls do their work for them. Law Hall would more likely bring Gram over to a Discipline Hall member rather than dealing punishment yourself.”

“Senior, naturally I would have, but this is a battle, there is no time for that.”

Footsteps could be heard as someone was running towards them in a breakneck pace. Daniel turned to see Jace rushing past the bodies towards them. His daggers were held to his side, ready to slice into whoever got in his way.

Daniel wanted to intervene, but he didn’t know what to do. He watched as Jace moved past him and went right towards Languor.

Languor raised an eyebrow just as Jace got there. He swept Jace’s leg to the side. Right before Jace even fell to the ground, the man delivered two swift jabs into either arm. His movement was too fast for most normal to even notice. Even Daniel only saw the man retract his hand, which was how he knew that the man struck at Jace. Jace’s daggers fell at his feet. His two disciples collected them.

“Jace,” Daniel and Sarah found it in themselves to break out of their trance and run to him.

“Don’t worry,” the old man said comforted. “His arms are paralyzed, but he’ll be fine in a day.”

Daniel looked up at the man who he looked frail. He knew that the man was an expert, but the way he moved. It wasn’t ordinary. There were no white wisps. This man wasn’t unleashing qi, he was just that fast.

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Languor turned his attention back to Decadence. “How about we move on to the fact that you know the man on the ground there is Gram Rui? How is it you know? There are many soldiers here.”

“Naturally my Hall elder told me.”

“Oh, my sworn brother told you?” Languor seemed rather amused by that. “Because even he didn’t know that Gram Rui was part of the Scarlet Grove.”

“He must have heard it somewhere.”

It was then that Daniel saw a crack in Decadence’s façade. Thus far, if Daniel hadn’t known him, he would have believed Decadence’s words. But the way his mouth tilted, the way his eye twitched ever so slightly, he was nervous.

“That is a possibility, but then why has he sent a bounty out on Gram Rui’s head.” Decadence’s face faltered. Languor smiled, watching as the man squirmed. “You didn’t know. It is quite well known that many years ago, Gram Rui slaughtered ten of Discipline Hall’s disciples in one exchange. Since then, both Law Hall and Discipline Hall have set a bounty of one hundred gold. It has been fifteen years. Why haven’t they rescinded the order?”

Decadence’s face changed. He thought of something else. “Senior, if you know all this, why didn’t you rescind the order.”

Quite a few of the Scarlet Grove disciples began to stifle their laughs. Even the disciples near the Languor tried to hold back their giggles.

“It’s because I’m too lazy.”

The battlefield resounded with laughter from the Scarlet Grove sect members who knew the reputation of this elder of their sect.

Decadence looked back and forth. He tried to understand what was going on, but everyone around him was too busy laughing to explain. In the end, he just snorted. “I’m sorry if I don’t understand what senior means by this.”

Languor held up his hand so that the others knew to stop laughing. Slowly but surely, the laughter began to die down. “Maybe you are new and just don’t understand,” he said. “But let me ask you this. And this one is an easy question. Why are you wearing a jacket of the Lone Rider Gang?”

Eyes began to turn towards him.

“I merely found the jacket,” he said. “I thought it looked nice.”

With a flash, Languor lunged towards Decadence. His movement speed was incredible, faster than even Spencer had ever shown. In a moment he was right in front of Decadence. He extended his hand out in a strike. It was a simple motion, not even a technique. But what it had going for it was speed. It moved through the air knocking air particles out of the way for being too slow.

Decadence moved to block. He brought his arm low, aimed to sweep the old man’s leg from under him.

Languor pressed his foot into the ground at the last second, rooting it into the ground. When Decadence went to pull, he found an immense weight holding the old man down. Languor laughed as he grabbed Decadence by the neck and lifted him up. The Lone Rider struggled to break free. But his hands weren’t able to wrench the old man’s fingers free. And his kicks were about as useless as throwing cotton balls.

While in that state, Languor delivered multiple strikes to the man’s body. These were fast precision strikes. Daniel remembered these. Those areas were what his uncle had called acupoints. Qi flowed through them. They were necessary not only to move qi throughout the body, but the health of one’s body.

Languor dropped the Lone Rider onto the ground. Decadence clenched at his throat as Languor bent down low to speak to him. “I gave you a warning not to lie to me.” The old man then straightened up as best his hunched figure could allow. “Everyone, let me be the first to apologize for the misunderstanding that has happened here today.”

“Scarlet Grove members, you have been deceived.” He gestured to his side. Without anyone realizing, Languor’s disciples were standing next to one of the heavily armored soldiers. Both of them held knives to the man’s throat. Despite the heat of the sun, the man was still wearing a leather jacket over his armor. Daniel didn’t need to see the back to know what was on there.

“Would you be so kind as to tell us who you are and what you are doing here?” Languor asked. The disciples sliced the man’s neck ever so slightly to let him know that they weren’t fucking around.

He looked at them. His face was cold, but just below, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “Lieutenant Anathema of the Lone Rider Gang.” After he said this, the two backed off. “I was sent to lead the Scarlet Grove members to believe that the Traditionalists were going to war with Scarlet Grove sect, to establish themselves in the Wasteland.”

“As you can see, we have been deceived. Scarlet Grove, stand.” All the members of Scarlet Grove who were able to do so stood up. They all began to shuffle around Languor.

From the Traditionalists side, Diane walked forward. The other Traditionalists stood behind her. “Do you think that you can just apologize and this will be over?” Diane snorted. “How many of my men has your sect killed? We won’t let such actions go unpunished.”

Languor nodded. He looked around at the members that the Scarlet Grove members sent. He pointed at one of them. “You.” He motioned the man forward.

The man was leathery face man roughly in his thirties. He had well groomed hair that went down to his shoulder blades. He also wore a blue robe with regal gold and white patterns on it. He approached Languor.

“You’re from Law Hall, yes?”

“Yes, Elder Languor.”

“Then discuss with the Traditionalists how they want to settle this matter.” As Languor spoke, he spread his arms wide and yawned. He clapped his hands and his two disciples brought some kind of thin object from their robes.

It looked small at first, but Daniel realized that it was some kind of foldable object. They began to unfold the object. As one did, the other placed their lips in a kind of opening and began to blow air into the object. The object expanded larger and larger until it was the size of an arm. They placed the object on the ground and the Scarlet Grove Elder laid his head on it.

Just like that, he was asleep.

Diane eyed the Elder wondering what kind of trickery this was. But the elder slept on.

“Apologies for Elder Languor,” the Law Hall disciple said. “He is known throughout our sect for being incredibly lazy. In all honesty, most of us haven’t seen him out of bed in the past few years.”

Diane’s eyes lingered on the elder for a little longer before believing the Law Hall member. “Then what shall I call you?”

“My Hall has gifted me the name Hubris.”

“And what makes you think that the others will just do what you say, Hubris?’

“Law Hall is leader amongst the other Halls within the sect. If a Law Hall disciple is to issue a decree, it can only be over ruled by the Hall Elder. Not even other Law Hall members can revoke what has been written.”

“Very well.”

Diane and Hubris began to negotiate the terms. When it became apparent that the conversation wouldn’t be settled so easily, they sent back their two forces. The Traditionalists went about clearing out the dead. No matter who it was, they would help to clear out the bodies. But the Scarlet Grove Sect had only a select few clean up the battlefield. Only those who wore grey robes, similar to the two that stood by Languor, cleaned up the bodies.

One of the grey robes went over to pick up Gram’s body. As soon as their hand began to reach towards the body, Daniel hissed. He wouldn’t let anyone move his uncle’s body let alone touch it.

The grey robe held up her hand. “I’m merely bringing the Western Fiend to get looked at for medical attention.”

Daniel began to back away. He watched the woman’s every move. Each breath, each twitch, he watched her. Five hundred. Despite the woman being a head taller than him. He was sure he could land a five hundred moves easily. Three of which would have been deadly.

As she walked away, Daniel trailed behind her. Sarah and Jace followed behind him.

Scarlet Grove erected a tent. Underneath were large mats that people laid on. The mats themselves weren’t all that thick, they were towels at best. Grey robes buzzed around the tent, attending to the various injured. Agonized moans and bandages were everywhere.

When they went into the tent, a man who had a cut across his chest was bleeding profusely. His eyes were closed and he was screaming out in pain. Daniel watched as one of the grey robes went over to the man. The grey robe took out a dagger. Daniel was only confused for a moment before the grey robe sunk the dagger into the man’s chest. With already the gaping wound, it was like slicing into butter. A sickening squelch came from the wound and the man breathed his last.

“Thank-”

His life had been snuffed out.

Daniel ran to his uncle. His uncle was laid down on a single mat that was no different than all the others. The place he was set was no different than any other. And once the grey robe placed Gram on the ground, she walked away. It was as though his uncle’s life wasn’t any different than all the other people in the room. Daniel turned to shout. He wanted someone to do something.

Didn’t they see his uncle was shot? Where did they think they were going?

Immediately after Daniel turned, Sarah placed a hand on his shoulder. Her face was solemn. There was something about the way she looked, maybe all the pain and death inside this tent, but Daniel was stunned to see her like this. “We should leave for now.”

“What?” Daniel didn’t understand what she was saying. There was no way he would leave his uncle. Not now. Not like this.

“Look at how many people are here. If we stay, we’re only going to get in there way.”

“But-” Daniel clenched his fist. Although he didn’t want to, he knew she was right. He took a deep breath. He let out a whisper. “Fine.”

Sarah leaned close so only Daniel could hear. “We won’t go far. If they attempt to kill your uncle. We’ll kill them first and make a run for it.”

Daniel only nodded and they left the tent. The two of them went only went a few feet away. But it was enough that they were out of earshot of the rest of the tent. And although Daniel hated to admit it, the breeze was much better. He didn’t realize how the stench had lingered inside his nose until he took that breath.

“Feeling better?” Sarah asked.

Daniel nodded.

“Good.” In an instant, Sarah’s face went from solemn to stern. “How are you related to Spencer Shaw?”