Dusting off his cloak, a hooded figure walked through troubled halls, his casual stroll stopped by the sensation of a breathing entity. Pushing open the door to where it rested, Salemn, a callous man saw the recovering Matsya laying atop a futon. Trash cluttered Salemn’s way, pots, clothes, trinkets, anything you could name really made him wonder if there was a floor at all.

  So this is the one. That fool Luan, he was supposed to simply watch this boy. I suppose when you're a hot blooded young man, hearing about someone better can get ya a little riled up. Either way, I’m now stuck watching over this brat. Kids… If only I wasn’t being paid so well for this lousy job.

  Sitting upon a pile, Salemn rested his chin, opening a yellowed book; its cover worn and torn. Flipping through the pages, he began to read as he waited.

  Luan Shao collapsed Monaha’s chest with his foot. Using him as a spring board, Luan leaped upward, condensing light into his feet to propel himself toward the ground. Rocketing into the earth, stone slabs crumbled as he blasted three holes into Ignis’s stomach. Ignis dropped into a puddle of his own blood.

  Distracted by his immense speed, Hau couldn’t aim her strikes, even when she had a good glance of the blurring figure; appearing in flickered passes, shattering her arms the second she glanced at him once again. Howling in pain as her body flew to the rooftops.

  “Three down, now I should torture them to get Matsya’s attention…” Luan Shao said.

  Thumping footsteps echoed in the fall of smoke and dust, a white gi fixed firmly to the form of the young man entering the distorted veil. Choppy black hair tied back with a cute bow, orange eyes as deep as a sunset. Mocha skin that complimented his feminine gait; his slippers shaking the ground with every step he took. Beneath his gi however, he wore an even more skin tight shimmering crimson martial-arts uniform.

  “Ho-ho, my dear sister, what could have happened here?” Robin said, his voice as smooth as velvet. “So who do I have to thank for roughing up my dear sister?”

  “Heh, who are you? Perhaps you are Matsya Fartford?” Luan Shao questioned.

  “Huh? Are you stupid? I am Robin Dicce, the most powerful martial artist in the land, or so I would like to say. You can just address me as Robin however, that should be fine for now.”

  “You’re haughty beyond your years…” Luan smirked.

  “Hah! Look who’s talking shrimp. Barely taller than a shrub and have the voice of a baby lamb. Pathetic, crawl in a hole and die!”

  “Now you’ve done it!” Luan rushed forward, but before his light could take shape, Robin stood tall by his side. How? He’s beside me, but I didn’t even see him move— In a split second Robin’s knee made contact with Luan’s stomach, launching Luan into the air where he met Robin once again. He’s too fast! Is that even possible? What ability does he have? He must be at least a Lord class, no, Monarch!

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

  “Stop overthinking it,” Robin said, slamming Luan into the crater created earlier. “Weak, far too weak for me to connect to my pillar.”

  What? He hasn’t tapped into his pillar yet? It must be true, I haven’t noticed any elements being used, but he could be like me…an alignment attribute.

  “Damn…” Luan coughed, blood trickled down his lip.

  “Like I said, stop overthinking. That’s why you're so weak. Folks like you, born with everything, bastards who know nothing but to swing their fists at anything they don’t accept. I’m connected to an earth pillar. So again, understand that I wasn’t born more powerful, you are just weak.”

  Luan’s eyes sunk in on themselves, his hands shaking with rage. His moonlit face took on a lunar eclipse with how red it was turning. Wrinkling his chin, Luan tried to hold in his tears. Robin couldn’t hold back his laughter, it was truly a sore sight. “Pathetic, hahahaha! What a fucking loser! Hmm…something…no. Someone, who could have such unnatural energy…hoo, this could get exciting.”

  “You think,” Xertoz whispered into Robin’s ear. As if caught in the jaws of a great beast, Robin froze.

  Impossible, no one could have such an ominous presence, unless. “May I ask for your name, honorable one?”

  “Hoho, polite are we? I was just passing by, I’m good friends with the headmaster. So I wanted to check in, but that’s when I noticed someone with some talent. Now tell me, moon child, who ordered you to do this?”

  “I’m the chosen one, I answer to—”

  “Boy, let it be known my patience is thinner than the air that stands between us. Answer as if your life were already mine.” Although Luan could not see the eyes behind the shades, he could instinctively feel the deadly blood-lust exuding from them. “Become my apprentice and I will make you what you wish to be.”

  “Fool, you Lords all think alike, that is why none of you have reached the pinnacle of power, and all you do is seek out obtuse powers. Is this delusional fool so great just because he was chosen from a rarer pillar?” Robin asked with his shivering legs locked set by his clenching abdomen.

  “Upset that you were only chosen by an earth pillar? It is what it is, there are those chosen by higher beings, and there are those chosen by the common. You can’t count every ant that walks the planet, can you?” Xertoz said as if to make a matter of fact statement.

  “Hahahaha! I knew it! Ahh, I really hate your stinkin’ guts,” Robin said whilst delivering a backhanded strike that sent Xertoz back a few meters.

  “You lunatic! He’ll destroy us all!” Luan cried.

  “Stop your whimpering! Right here, right now, I will prove to you what real strength is. For he is worthy of witnessing my ability!” Robin’s eyes glowed faintly as the ground below his feet began to shake.

  “Interesting, show me what you got, boy,” Xertoz whispered to himself.