Chapter 3

The Lone Rider Gang stared at the newcomer. He was tall man with hair going down the side of his face to the point it looked like a mane. His beard was well groomed into a point that reached down to his chest. He had piercing green almond eyes that seemed to stare into the depths of one’s soul. There was something familiar about him, but Daniel couldn’t say what. As he looked at each and every one of the bikers, he had a cruel look on his face.

“Greetings senior,” Decadence said, “I hope we aren’t disturbing you.”

“Disturbing, hmph, that’s one way of putting it.” He held out his dagger, pointing it at each of the bikers. Pointing out a dagger like this was a complete show of disrespect, even someone who lived a hermit life like Daniel knew that. It was basically just asking for a fight. “What I see are bunch experts bullying a woman and a defenseless child.”

“This is the business of the Lone Rider Gang,” one of the bikers shouted. The one who shouted was a young man, probably not even in his twenties. In his eyes were a brazen look. “Back off before you hurt your back, old man.”

The others looked over and gawked at this child’s audacity. This man just sliced their guns with nothing more than a thrown dagger. Just who did this junior think he was?

But before any of them could reprimand him, the knife the man had been holding out to them flew through the air and into the boy’s neck. The boy’s eyes were in complete horror. The others could do nothing but watch as he bled out. Some clenched their fist at the sight, but none of them moved to help him. That was the cruelty of this world. If you couldn’t help, you were dead meat. There was nothing for it.

Some of the Lone Rider Gang looked at the newcomer. None of them really liked the kid, but it would harm their reputation if they just let an incident like this slide.

“If I want to save this woman and child, what of it?” The man’s voice was hard and prideful. He held out his hand in a gesture, daring the men to come for him. “What can you do about it?”

“Great hero,” Decadence spoke up. “You should know that the child stole a precious treasure from our sect. It is them who are at fault in this matter, not us.”

“Really?” The newcomer looked so amused. He began to stroke his beard. He pointed over to Daniel. “Child, empty your pockets.”

Daniel stared at the man. Until today, he had never seen someone die. Now he had seen it done multiple times in one day. He felt the reality that his father told him start to sink in. Never did he think he would see a dead body. It was as though the world were mocking his naivete.

The man had to repeat himself again before Daniel did what he asked. He reached inside his pockets without complaint. He pulled them out to show that there was nothing in his pockets. They were completely empty with nothing, not even a bit of lint falling out from them.

The newcomer looked back at the men. “Do you think lying to me will get me on your side?” He let out a half hearted laugh. “Do you think I’m dumb?” His laughter died as he glared at each of them. “Are you dumb?”

“Great hero, we wouldn’t dare.

“Good. Then you can leave and take care that I never see you again.” The man turned his head to face Daniel and his mother.

“You think you can say a few words and that will be that. You killed a member of the Lone Rider Gang. We must repay your kindness in kind.”

“My kindness,” he laughed. “I guess it could be considered a kindness to let you off with one death. But now you are offering more, tell me, are you one of those pig headed that doesn’t let go of things because of reputation? How audacious.”

“No more mincing words.” Decadence pointed his finger like a gun. He pointed them at the newcomer. All the other riders knew what this was.

The engines of the biker’s roared once more. Smog spewed from their metal monsters as they sprung forth. They all began to circle around the man. Each one of the bikers were too close to each other. If someone moved too fast or too slow, there was a high chance that they would have broken formation and knocked into one another.

Decadence was the only one who stayed outside the formation. He turned off his engine and grabbed a bat that was strapped to the back of his bike. It was a metal bat that had nails hammered at the top.

He then charged into the fray, somersaulting in the air. He landed on one of the biker’s helmets. The biker had continued his speed, not getting messed up even a little bit. It was quite astounding that he did not even react to the amount of pressure placed on his head. Even if the initial impact didn’t hurt, that was still someone who weighed at least one hundred fifty pounds, maybe more.

“Oh,” the man with the mane laughed. He placed his hand on his back. “Is this the [Roving Fallen Angel] formation? How amusing.”

“Mom,” Daniel said. “Should we run?”

“Don’t be disrespectful. Senior is clearly trying to help us. Why do we need to run?” After she said such words, she lurched forward. She was in the throes of a coughing fit. Daniel patted her back like what she did when his father ate too much. He didn’t know what to do. He wanted to run away from this fight. But where would they go? And with his mother so sick, it didn’t seem right to leave her.

“So you know [Roving Fallen Angel], then you know we don’t let anyone off who has seen it.”

Decadence leapt off the man’s helmet. He held his bat as though he were going to hit a home run, only he was gliding downward. His bat was poised into a position to strike.

Ready. Swing. The bat rushed through the air. It let out a horrid screech as it came towards the man with the dark mane.

In a quick flash, the man brought his hands out from his back. In his hands were multiple daggers. He carried each one in between his fingers for six daggers. He brought up the daggers to parry Decadence’s attack.

Unperturbed, Decadence used the blow to do another spin in the air before he landed into a roll. From his roll, he got in front of a motorcycle. He would have been crushed, but his mastery of the formation had him grab onto the motorcycle in front of him, and swing onto it, sitting right behind the rider.

They continued to circle him. Each time, Decadence would leave the outer ring, using the speed of his subordinates to hide his location. Once he disappeared from view, he would try to strike at the newcomer. He would strike fast before retreating back into the formation. Rinse and repeat. From his attack pattern, he was barely using up any energy while the newcomer was using a lot more of his focus to keep up with Decadence.

“I once paid a visit to the Flame Drum Cult. I must say your technique is on a much lower level.”

“What are you implying?” Decadence asked. He was currently standing on top of one of his subordinate’s helmets.

“This technique is similar to their Flame Deity Roaming the World. But the technique has thirty different variations from the various elders who were taught it. I wonder which one of the elders you stole this from.”

Stolen or not, Decadence’s skill was quite impressive. Each time he retreated, he would need to know exactly where the riders were at any given time. The fact that he was able to go back as he pleased, just showed how well these men had practiced their formation.

And yet, the newcomer had time and again been able to block the man’s attack. His bat would come down, but it couldn’t so much as get close to hurting the man. His daggers, his arms, his legs. He would knock Decadence back each time.

Decadence leapt from the man’s helmet. He went for a basic swing once more. And once again, the newcomer used his daggers to block. But this time, Decadence flew through the air, landing right behind where the newcomer was standing. His quick reflexes had him go low, aiming to skewer the man by his ankles.

But before he could reach him, the newcomer leapt into the air. His daggers came like claws, slashing at Decadence’s face.

He couldn’t get his bat up to block in time. He tried to dodge instead. The daggers slashed at his forehead. Two made marks while the last one missed entirely.

Even with the damage, Decadence was still able to spin horizontally in the air, landing in a sitting position on one of the bikes.

“Was that your ultimate attack?” The newcomer laughed. If that really was, I must say it was rather pathetic. Train for another fifty years and maybe you’ll scratch me!”

“How prideful,” one of the riders said. “We should take him down a peg.”

“That was just an attack from our leader, let’s see how you take an attack from all of us,” the Lieutenant shouted, “Nine Headed Hydra!” The riders stopped circling. They began to ride towards the newcomer. Their engines roared as they charged towards the newcomer.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

All of them headed close by, but only half of them went close enough to be in reaching distance. They mostly focused on defense. The others were close, but they went past the circling ring and tried to hit the newcomer as a hit-and-run. When he left himself open, a rider would come in with daggers, chains, bats, or whatever weapon they had on hand.

Each of them went in a pattern of getting in close to attack, once they went past a certain distance, they would U-turn to strike or do a feint against the newcomer.

A few of them were able to land a kick or punch in, but none of them using weapons even made it close to hitting the newcomer. He held his daggers in between his fingers. Some would get a few scrapes, but many of them were too fast for him to even leave any lasting blows. Some of the defensive riders used chains to move the daggers away, making it hard for the new comer to do a counter attack.

In terms of skill, this man was equal to all of them combined. It didn’t seem there was an end in sight for either of them.

“So this is the Nine Headed Hydra. Interesting. You are able to attack and retreat like cowards. You boys are a real riot. You guys are the best joke I’ve heard in a long time.”

“Do you think that we’ve showed you our true power yet!” Decadence yelled. “Hog Stampede!”

All of the riders got into a line. It was as though they were a large spear, all of them began to ride towards the newcomer.

True to its name, the motorcycles rushed towards the newcomer, the noise they made was not a single wit inferior to actual animals in a stampede. Some of them even cheered with their fists pumped in the air. They were revving their engines and their spirits for battle.

Steam began to form around the man. Intense heat caused reality around the man to blur. He put the daggers in his hands away. He then brought his right hand back. To Daniel, he couldn’t see what was happening, but those bikers could see that the newcomer had just held out his middle finger with his left hand.

“Kill!” Decadence shouted. The rider he was with had taken to the middle of the pack. His voice had reached the others, even with all the loud roaring of engines.

They were getting closer.

Ten feet.

Five feet.

One foot. They were close enough that the man had already launched his right hand at the Lone Rider Gang. The strike had shocked everyone as that strike was enough to not only stop the motorcycle, it had actually pushed it back.

The motorcycle flew backwards, crashing into the other motorcycles.

With their formation broken, the riders were flung from their bikes and onto the ground.

The newcomer didn’t let up. He took his daggers out once more. He began to toss them at each of the Lone Rider Gang with lethal accuracy.

Three of them didn’t even see it coming as the force had them facing the other way. They died without even seeing their killer’s face before dying.

Two were hit in the chest. Pain and regret were in their eyes, but there was nothing they could do about it. Blood spilled until they were beyond the point of no return.

As for the last one, Decadence held up his bat to block. It had just enough fortitude to stop the dagger just a hair’s width from his eyes. Those eyes went wide at the sight.

Seeing how hopeless they were, he got on his knees and began to smash his head into the ground in a kowtow.

Thud. Thud. Thud. “Great hero, please show mercy to me. I can see that you have a skill similar to Spencer Shaw, and must naturally owe him a debt. But you already killed my men. That’s enough, right. I won’t harm you or this family again. I swear it. Please, just let me live.”

The newcomer held up his index, thumb, and middle finger. “Three times. You called me great hero three times. In all my years no one has ever referred to me as great hero- and you know what?”

Decadence looked up. “What?”

“I haven’t had such a greater insult.” With a swift kick, the newcomer slammed his foot into Decadence’s face. He went flying back.

Decadence laid on the ground. The sand was hot to the touch, almost scorching. Although this had been his home, he never realized how hot it was until now. He wondered if this was what the underworld was like. He never expected his deeds would lead him to this. He was an elder of the Lone Rider gang. How was he supposed to know that he would come to such a state?

“You call me great hero, but let me tell you who I am. I’ve been referred to as the Butcher of the Innocent, Scorpion of the Desert, Calamity of the World, Blade of the Underworld. But the title I’ve referred to myself is Western Fiend, Gram Rui.”

“Gram Rui? Gram Rui!” Of course he knew of him. Who didn’t know about the Fiend of the West? He was an utter monster, a real monster among men. He said what he wanted and did what he wanted. He would save people on a whim, but kill them the next day if he felt like it. Stories and rumors spread like wildfire about him. They were too numerous, many of them were clearly exaggerations, but something they all had in common, he wouldn’t let off anyone who offended him.

“I know I’ve wronged you. Forgive me. I’m not ready to die yet.”

“Hmph. Do you think I let off people just because they beg for their lives?” He scratched his chin. “However, I do have a way that you can live to see tomorrow.”

“Anything, senior. Just say it and I’ll do it.”

“Don’t be so quick to agree. I can see the woman there is poisoned. Give her the antidote to whatever poison you gave her and I’ll let you off the hook.”

“Senior- the- the poison Three Doves root. I don’t have the antidote with me. When we went out on assignment, I didn’t think we’d need it. Lone Riders are trained to be immune to it.”

“What a pity.” Gram bent down. With a thrust of his hand, he stabbed Decadence in the stomach. Fear and horror was on his face.

“I- senior- nothing- for-”

Gram then turned to Daniel and his mother. He looked at the two of them with the same face he had faced the Lone Riders with.

In a heartbeat, Daniel stood in the way. He spread out his arms. “Don’t harm my mother.” Despite his brave words, Daniel couldn’t help but quiver. His body was shaking from head to toe. His body let out a gulp.

He cursed his weakness.

Gram only snorted. “If I wanted to harm your mother, what could you do about it?” He walked over to them. His walk was casual. There was nothing about it that seemed threatening. But Daniel had seen what he could do. This man was no ordinary person. Still, if it came down to it, he would risk his life to save his mother’s.

With a swift knee to the stomach, Daniel was lifted into the air. A hand came right from behind and slammed him to the ground.

The wind was knocked out of Daniel. He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t move. His mind had no idea what was going on. Pain became him, it became his entire world in that moment. Nothing in the world existed except this.

“Colleen,” the man said. He didn’t have as hard of an expression when he looked at her. Still, his face was intense. It was as though the scorching sun had blessed his face to become its avatar. And he was radiating that heat at Daniel’s mother.

Daniel’s mother glared at Decadence. It was as though nothing in this world mattered except that man.

“Let’s talk somewhere where others haven’t died.” He grabbed onto her and Daniel. He carried them as though they had weighed nothing.

As much as Daniel hated to admit it, the man was powerful. He tried to flail, but his body wouldn’t respond. He couldn’t move. All he could feel was the intense pain. It was as though the pain had filled his body, leaving no room for his mind to reach his limbs.

He walked for quite some distance. The Lone Riders had already become nothing but a speck in the distance. Once they were far enough away, he dropped them onto the ground.

Thud. Thud.

“Is this your son or some stray you picked off the street?” Gram asked. He pointed his foot at Daniel, but he didn’t kick him. Not this time.

“He’s your nephew,” she said.

Gram let out a short laugh. “Looks like you and Spencer got busy.”

Colleen stood. Her movements were still shaky, but she managed. “Thank you for saving us.”

He waved off her comment. “No need for thanks. You are my sister, why wouldn’t I save you.”

Colleen looked at Daniel. “Dan-Dan, pay your respects to your uncle.”

Daniel looked at the man before him. This was really his uncle? He could see it now. His features were so familiar because they were similar to his mother’s. He didn’t have to give a second thought, he bent his body as he bowed. “Greetings, my name is Daniel.” His body was still aching. Still, he didn’t want to offend the man who just beat him up.

“Is that how you give greetings?” Daniel watched as his uncle came closer to him. His eyes widened. He didn’t know what to expect. Another beating? Up until today, he never knew that he even had an uncle.

Gram scooped Daniel around his arms and wrapped him into a large bear hug. Gram’s hug was exacting and firm. Daniel couldn’t even get a single breath. And yet, there was something about the hug. He felt it on the inside. His hug had begun to heal him. This really was his father’s skill.

Thud.

They turned to see Colleen on the ground. Her arms dangled from her shoulders. But her head was placed on the ground. “Gram, I won’t be able to get treatment in time. I beg you, please raise Daniel in your sister’s stead.”

He let go of Daniel and walked over to his sister. “Huh? What do you think I am a nanny? I can’t raise a kid, I don’t even raise my own kids. What am I even supposed to do with him?”

Daniel looked offended.

“Please, as your sister, I beg you. We both know how cruel this world is. Without his mother and father, the world will try to take advantage of him. Many sects will try to take him in and force him to reveal his father’s skill.”

Gram looked at his sister from his high position. There was a quiet moment between the two of them. It was as though they were speaking, but neither of them said a word. Times of old swam in the space between them.

Gram let out a sigh. “Very well.”

“Thank you, big brother.”

He nodded. “Don’t thank me. I’m doing this because this skill is ours’. All those other sects can forget about stealing our technique.”

“Even if that’s the case, thank you.” She kowtowed to her brother.

“This is where we say goodbye,” he said.

Colleen knew what he meant. “Goodbye.”

The dark haired man let out a sigh. He then brought his hand back.

Daniel wondered what he was doing. He wondered if his mother would get healed, just like how he was. But that didn’t seem right. His mother was hit with poison. His father’s skill was supposed to be able to lead the body into a natural state, but it couldn’t purge any foreign entities.

He brought his hand down on Colleen’s head. The force that he struck her with was enough to send a small pulse into the ground.

Even though it wasn’t loud, Daniel could hear something. It echoed in his brain. Each time it came back louder. Louder. It didn’t sound right, it couldn’t. It sounded as though something had cracked. But what could it have been? What could have made that sound!