“Nonono, you got it all wrong, tough guy and sweet boy.” the man in a grey robe and with the glasses chuckled: “I am not talking about anything belonging to any house. I am talking about something of great importance - a key.”

“Key? What key?” Jason asked.

“So you don’t know.” the man in a grey robe gently clenched his fists,

Just this moment Jason sensed that the man concentrated his powers into his palms, and without a moment of hesitation, he rushed in front of Thomas and conjured a silver energy shield.

The man in a grey robe released his fists while his hands were still in the air, a shockwave consisting of some kind of shadowy energy exploded from his hands and clashed with Jason’s silver energy shield.

“Boom!” Jason was sent into the air and crashed into Thomas, Thomas was about to open fire on the man but his guns were almost knocked out of his hands. The man then turned around, just in time to block Aimee’s scimitar with his bracers made of metal and dark leather, then he pushed back at Aimee and released another shockwave, knocking Aimee back and tumbling on the ground.

“Hey! I’m here!” Jason yelled at the man to stop him from following up his attack on Aimee, then he jabbed his silver pen-spear forward at the man’s back.

“Ting!” the tip of his pen-spear and the man’s bracers made a pleasant metal ringing sound, the man’s arms were bumped back and hit himself on his own chest, then Jason swung his left hand and threw out three silver energy shurikens.

The man clenched his fists again and projected an energy shield in front of him using his shadowy energy. The shurikens pierced through the energy shield, but also lost their momentum and power.

The man in a grey robe took advantage of this opening and tried to run away from the fight, but Aimee’s scimitar attack stopped him on his way. With two consecutive swings, AImee almost sliced through his man’s arms and chest. But the man’s shadowy energy seemed to be protecting him even when he was not casting a spell, and the energy always pushed away her blade at the very last minute.

“Seems to me that your fighting could use a bit more energy.” the man chuckled and tried to cast a spell with his hands, but his moves were instantly interrupted by Jason’s attacks with his pen-spear.

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“Trash talk is kinda tasteless and uncool for this kind of situation.” Jason stared at the man as he twirled his pen-spear in an attempt to intimidate the man away from Aimee, while his hands were slowly infusing his Xuanli into his weapon.

“I would agree. But it’s not tasteless and uncool if you used it to prepare for an attack.” the man’s glasses kept shining in the weird blue light: “You’re an experienced fighter, but I can kinda tell that you don’t have much experience with this kind of fight. You see, one needs to do everything one can to have an advantage over the opponent. Like this - ”

Before the man in a grey robe even finished his sentence, he extended his palm at the ground and conjured an energy wave from the ground just beneath Jason. Jason also cast his spell and released a ring of silver shockwave from his hands.

Jason was pushed to the air by the energy wave, he instinctively created a silver energy shield below him to protect himself, while his spell was still slowly taking effect.

The man in a grey robe felt something was different with the spell cast by Jason, but for now he just could not tell what it was.

A silver shadow of Jason rushed from behind the man with his spear pointed right at the man’s back. The man waved his hand and sent a shadowy energy blade at the shadow, but the only thing the energy blade cut was air as the shadow just dispersed like it was made of a herd of fireflies

Three more shadows appeared from three different directions and launched their attacks at the man in a grey hood. He tried to create a shockwave at the shadows but was stabbed in the arms by one of the shadows - the attack was not heavy and had some of its power absorbed by the shadowy energy around his body, but it still left quite a bleeding wound.

This was the moment when Jason’s attack also descended from above, Jason did not intend to kill or maim this man, so he simply unleashed a heavy palm strike from a distance, which struck the man on his left shoulder.

The man’s shoulder plate absorbed some of the impact, yet his shoulder was still dislocated by the hit.

“Stand down! You are going to the academy with us.” Aimee and Thomas walked up and said: “And you’ll explain to the academy why you are following Jason, and why you would attack us like that.”

“Sorry, can’t do that.” the man panted as he held his dislocated shoulder in pain.

“You don’t have a choice there.” Aimee frowned.

“You’re right.” the man let out a laugh: “I don’t.”

The next moment, he took something from his pocket with his right hand and pointed at Aimee.

Barrel, muzzle, metallic body, a black grip and a trigger, it was a handgun.

“Bang! Bang!” the man opened fire, but it was Jason who was hit, as he pushed Aimee away from the man’s aim at the last moment.

Utilizing the moment of shock, the man unleashed a wide shockwave that pushed Aimee, Jason and Thomas back and made them fall on their backs, then he jumped up from the ground and disappeared into the night.

“Oh my god! Jason!” Aimee rushed to Jason’s side: “You’re hit!”

Jason coughed and ripped open his clothes to check on his wound in a moment of panic. The first thing he saw, was two mushroomed bullets rolling down from his chest and left shoulder.

There was dirt and shattered pieces of metal on his body where the bullet hit, but the bullets did not pierce through his skin, they only bruised him, quite badly, as both Aimee and Thomas could tell that those areas were swollen up in purple.

“Oh, my god.” Aimee sniffered and chuckled: “Oh my god, I thought you...”

“Yeah, I thought so too.” Jason laid down on the ground and laughed out loud: “Guess body tempering does work huh?”