Ren had been up since midnight because a bad premonition had woken her. Others may waved it away, saying it was just her imagination, but she knew better than to take it lightly. Her senses were constantly irritated, and she felt jumpy. As a cultivator, especially in her realm, she would be a fool if she did not take heed...

  "What is it?" Lacuss came up to her, sensing that she was up.

  "Something is going to happen... And soon." She answered seriously, getting out of her bed.

  "I see." He nodded, crossing his arms before his chest, whistling softly, and from his Shadow, the bck wolf jumped out, standing beside him proudly. "Shadow agrees with you."

  "Well… his name at least describes him perfectly." Ren chuckled as they went out to the back gardens, "Kyu, on the other hand. Hoy! Fatty, come on! Wake up!" She shouted, but the big fluffball just turned to her other side, ignoring Ren, sleeping merrily. "See?" Ren ughed while a moaning sound came from the house as Isha followed them out, still sleepy, wearing only a white, thin robe.

  "What's the shouting for? Really… It's still too early. The sun is not even up yet!" Isha grumbled, scratching her head.

  "Maybe it's early, but we have a fight ahead of us." Ren looked back at her, being sure of it.

  "What…? I haven't done anything to you! Yet."

  "I'm not speaking about us!" She sighed, looking up at the clear sky, slowly getting lighter as the sun was about to peek over the horizon from the east.

  In that moment, Ren didn't even finish her thoughts before she summoned a violet, electric spear, tossing it like a javelin. It rumbled loudly through the sky, striking at a figure still trying to hide high up, melting into the darkness that still dominated the western part of the sky. Still, he was quick, and Ren's attack crashed into the giant kite shield he wore, exploding as if a lightning strike had hit him, its rumble waking the entire city.

  "Damn, someone is sharp!" Gilgan murmured, shaking off the wandering electricity from his shield, looking down at them from his position. "Cover is blown! Move in and kill all of them!" He ordered with a cold smile as he picked up speed and flew down, acting as a wall before their group.

  "Damn you and your senses, I just woke up…" Isha grumbled on the ground, already summoning fireballs in her hands, tossing them out.

  As they exploded in the air, it was a brilliant firework, but their enemies were clearly strong, as it did not hinder the first in line, Gilgan, simply tanking it with his shield. He was moving like a flying fortress as he took on the attacks, while the rest behind him remained unharmed as they nded in their courtyard.

  "They smell of blood," Lacuss commented, almost as if he were transting Shadow's thoughts, who was already ready to engage, but not without his master making a move first.

  "Very much so," Ren smirked, "Isha, try to hold on!"

  "Tsk! Don't need to remind me that I am the weakest here!" She snorted as the Hounds were nding and unching their attacks the next moment.

  "Seq, Algat, you take on the guy; finish it quick. Ortis, you get the busty woman; she feels someone in the body refinement realm, so she should be easy!"

  "Tsk, boooooring… but okay." He answered, dropping his shoulders.

  "Move! The small girl feels weird... So leave her to me."

  Just as he finished his words, Ren was already upon him, striking his shield, holding another lightning-spear, sending sparks everywhere. When the violet spearhead formed from pure electricity struck the shield, the white paint on it quickly peeled off, like fkes of skin, revealing the metallic luster under it, redirecting Ren's powers outwards and away from its owner. Gilgan promptly found his footing, resisting the overwhelming power transmitted through his left arm while swinging his morning star with the other, aiming it at Ren's face. The spiked head of his weapon was glittering in a greenish hue, giving off a strange, sickening odor. Clearly, it was dosed in some kind of concoction.

  "Poison?" Ren sniffed it before dodging the incoming attack and then stepping backward as Gilgan rushed her, holding his giant kite shield before him. "Hmf! Good, you are something else!" she chuckled, fending off his next strike with her spear in one hand, then summoning a second one in her other, stabbing out with it, but Gilgan immediately used his shield to block it.

  "I never saw someone dual-wield spears!" He snorted with a strange expression behind his shield, finding it way too fshy and pointless, trusting his own defenses to deal with someone as stupid as Ren was, for using two spears.

  "Well, sorry to pop your cherry, one-eyed willy!" She giggled, "You are going to see a lot of firsts!"

  Then she ughed loudly as her powers began to rise, and the red paint on her hair peeled off like rust from metal, revealing the original, moon-like silver beneath, while her eyes fshed with violet lightning. Seeing her appearance, Gilgan's expression immediately turned serious, then to something even worse... Showing... Panic.

  “Damn… damn it… Gods be damned…!" He cursed under his breath, only hearing it through the cackling of lightning coming from Ren's body, "It's them! The Royal Bloodline…! Even if we survive, we will be fucked… So fucked!"

  By then, Gilgan felt like crying; never had he expected it to attack someone from the Naulins, that the group they were looking for… were from them. Especially because they were one of their best customers! But... seeing is believing.

  "I need to bring this information back, if nothing else! Boss needs to know we are being stabbed in the back… fuck!" He thought to himself, resolved that if they couldn't kill them quickly, he would sacrifice the others and run.

  After the 'reveal,' Gilgan, mainly concentrating on defense, only swung his morning star when Ren got too close, making her dodge as his weapon, fused with his powers, brought an increasingly foul-smelling air with it, releasing poison with every swing, forcing her to dodge instead of parrying.

  Not far from them, Lacuss, just after Ren engaged her own enemy, was also fending off arrows, flying at him with speed he could not track; only his subconscious did, and the many battle experiences he had racked up over the years. The small arrowheads loudly crashed onto the giant saber he held before his vital points that Algat aimed at, saving him from having to rely on his body's natural powers. But... it was not a specially made weapon; it was just the first thing he found and bought, and it was slowly getting worn down.

  "You are not a novice, huh?" Seq swung his poleaxe, which took advantage of Algat's sniping, going around him, trying to strike the prince in the back. At the st moment, Lacuss managed to draw his weapon back to defend against the arriving sharp swing that was aiming at his neck... And it was then that Shadow jumped at Seq. "Tsk, fuck off, dog!" He tried to fling him off as Shadow was biting onto the shaft of the poleaxe between his hands, but even when he kicked the young wolf in the abdomen, he only snarled harder and bit on without letting go.

  Lacuss quickly switched targets, hacking at the now pinned Seq, swinging his saber, and releasing blood-like streaks toward his neck. The man barely could dodge, trying to shake off Shadow's bite, suddenly being at a disadvantage, forced to let go of his weapon.

  "Fuck!" Algat put away his crossbow, as he couldn't fire; hitting Seq was not an option, so he rushed in, wielding his two kukri knives in his hands, joining in the close combat action.

  "Strong!" Seq groaned as he dodged, waiting for Algat to arrive, surprised to see the wolf suddenly merge into Lacuss's shadow, disappearing.

  When his partner finally stepped in, aiming at the prince's back, from Lacuss's Shadow, his wolf came back out, defending him again, working in perfect harmony with his master. The twin kukris nded on his body, leaving deep scars, cutting through his bck fur, spshing red blood to the sides, yet Shadow just growled again, shaking Algat off, guarding Lacuss, who was fighting against Seq.

  "His energy and stamina… how can he keep the intensity up?" Seq thought, sweating as the second prince's rapid strikes were with the same force and same quickness every time, making it a stalemate between them.

  "If you ain't helping out, I won't feed you next time with my energy!" Ren's shout resonated through the battlefield, surprising the opposing party.

  They didn't know who she said that to, but Algat was the first to recognize the danger as an enormous mass of fur appeared behind him, holding two paws together like a martial artist, smashing down from above with the might of a meteor.

  "Wha-?!" He dodged at the st second, rolling away on the ground while Kyu's two giant paws smashed into the ground, making the whole area tremble as everyone else lost their bance for a moment.

  The ground broke up in a loud rumble as if indeed a meteor had just hit the ground, throwing dirt and rocks everywhere. Surprisingly, Kyu was swift, compared to her size, as she moved once again, curling up into a giant ball, rolling towards Algat, throwing mud everywhere as she stirred up the ground behind herself.

  "What the fuck is this?!" Algat groaned, meeting the giant, furry boulder with his two knives, holding it crossed before him as Kyu's body rolled against it, sending sparks everywhere, making it seem like they were being pressed against a grindstone.

  Algat's face twisted with annoyance as grinding pain traveled through his fingers, holding his weapons, mustering all his energy to stop this… thing. Luckily, he was of the earth element and could hold back Kyu; others might have already been squashed into a meat paste.

  "Your friends are strong!" Ortis chuckled, once again whipping towards Isha, who could barely keep up with the speed of her enemy's weapon that aimed at her legs, trying to warp around them.

  "Hmf! I'm surprised some bandits can keep up with them!" Isha shot back at him.

  Hearing the provocation in her voice, Ortis immediately went on the defensive, expecting another animal helper, and he wasn't wrong. Isha's horse, Ghoda, came rushing in, leaving a fming trail from nowhere, trying to stomp Ortis down.

  "I knew it! Bitch! Tsk, you stole our merchandise and then now try to use them against us?! Fucking gall you have there!" He snorted before a strong wind surrounded him, bsting out with such force that it toppled the horse, sending it tumbling backward, snuffing out his fmes.

  Yet, before Ortis' whip could nd on Ghoda, Isha's fming hand stretched out, catching it, pulling it back towards herself.

  "Fuck off!" Isha screamed, sending out her fist, which was entirely covered in red-hot fmes, tripling its size.

  "Dream on!" He met her fist with his own, and when the wind and fire met, it created a loud, forceful explosion, sending both of them flying backward, tumbling through the ground.

  The explosion's force even disturbed the rest of the group, and the first to act was Algat. The momentary pause in Kyu's attack as she stuck her head out from the ball form to see what happened prompted the stocky, short man to finally get away and arm his crossbow.

  "Ortis!" he shouted as the bolts were already on their way.

  As he released them, Kyu was already back on him, smming down her giant palm once again. Algat raised his crossbow to fend it off, but it broke into thousands of pieces as he coughed out a mouthful of blood, allowing Shadow to jump on him, biting into his arm, trying to twist it off.

  While this was happening, Ortis was already flying out, and Isha, who had barely just nded and was in the middle of getting back up, could not dodge the bolts. They painfully penetrated her body, but she held back her screams, biting her lips in defiance. Looking down at her body, the bolts had nded in her left thigh, the left side of her abdomen, and one in her right shoulder, almost pinning her to the ground completely. Moments ter, Ortis was already on her, wrapping the whip around her neck, pulling hard, lifting Isha up from the ground as he flew up, effectively hanging her. As she was struggling up there, Ortis's shout resonated all around, trying to intimidate everyone else.

  "Better stop, or this busty little birdie up here gets a nasty ending!"

  "Kyu, back off!" Ren shouted as she unched backward, drawing distance between herself and Gilgan, who had his shield dented in multiple points, while the electricity left vein-like marks on it everywhere. The shield itself was now barely usable... and for sure, unfixable.

  At the same time, Lacuss also ordered Shadow to back off as he fended off another strike from Seq, and both of them were panting for air, welcoming the momentary pause.

  “Fuck… that…” Isha groaned in the air, still struggling, looking down at Ren. "Don't mind… me… kill… them!" She choked, forcing out her words as an order, trying to peel off the whip that was sinking into her neck.

  "Wha- you!" Ren trembled as the colr on her started to react to Isha's words, and Gilgan already noticed the strangeness of it... Was that... a sve colr?

  "Try it, and I'll crush her neck right here and right now!" Ortis shouted, tightening the grip on his whip as its spiky end tched onto Isha's back, digging deep into her skin, but she refused to scream… or couldn't get enough air to do so.

  Ren was trying everything to hold back the impulses, but the colr was already invading her mind, urging her to do it. The order was absolute.

  “Fuck me… and this shit…” She gritted her teeth before screaming out, holding onto it with two hands, gripping it firmly as all her powers released. "I made you! FUCK OFF!"

  The air around them was filled with electricity all of a sudden, and the hair on their body started to lift up. Feeling it happen, Kyu and Shadow suddenly began to whimper as their fur curled up everywhere, same with Ghoda's mane as he was standing below Ortis, trying to catch his master if she fell down.

  "Kill her!" Algat shouted, holding his maimed left arm, which was now almost useless.

  "You may try!" Ren roared.

  Time seemed to slow down for her as her violet eyes suddenly lit up with an intense purple hue, using her bloodline's gift for the first time, to its fullest, influencing herself.

  "She is really of the Naulins… and this strength must be… something hidden of theirs… but the colr… why? Fuck! Never mind… I need to leave!" Gilgan whispered as he dropped everything, never having felt anything so strongly before, but the urge to flee.

  Ren's fingers crushed the colr as her mind pushed back its control, and when it finally broke off, she was already flinging its pieces out like a bullet, as her father taught her. The speed she demonstrated looked like slow motion to her, but to others it was almost as fast as lightning. No... it was as fast as lightning.

  The blinding light made everyone cover their eyes, which was the first mistake. By then, the shrapnel had penetrated their legs, and as the light faded, the buzz of electricity became deafening. Ghoda neighed loudly as he caught the falling Isha on his back, while in the air, Ortis' corpse already missed its head that was pulverized by the exploding colr's shrapnel, most of which was aimed at him from the get-go.

  "Kill them!" Ren yelled coldly, turning towards Gilgan, yet her enemy was nowhere to be seen, already choosing to run before Ren tossed out her attack. "Coward!" She spat, but instead of pursuing, she turned towards Algat, who was surrounded by Kyu and Shadow.

  At the same time, Lacuss had used the distraction to stab his own enemy and was pulling out his saber from Seq's chest. Finishing him, the prince immediately turned towards Algat, ready to help out. Still, he saw Ren arriving ahead of him, stomping on the man's head with all of her strength, squashing it like a watermelon, sending grey matter flying everywhere, with chunks of his skull nding far away.

  "Isha!" Ren panted heavily, not even bothering with the remains as she rushed over to her, taking her off the horse, peeling the still attached whip off of her neck, letting Isha grasp for air and let her begin coughing loudly and wildly, throwing up small sptters of blood, right onto Ren's p.

  “I’m fine… fine… ugh… thanks…” She chuckled with a pained face as the bolts were still stuck in her.

  "Rex! We brought a ton of medicine with us!" Ren leaned close and kissed her forehead. "You will be fine!"

  "You say it… like I'm dying… don’t… jinx me…!” Isha joked, but she also knew that she was indeed a hair away from really dying.

  "Okay, okay…" Ren chuckled, looking up as Lacuss. "The leader escaped," she sighed, shaking her head.

  "The rest is-" He turned back to where Seq's body had fallen, but the spot was now empty. "..." he looked on seriously at the missing body... as if he was unsure if he had stabbed him through the heart or not... but he shouldn't have made a mistake. "My target is gone too."

  By then, their pets had also turned around, looking sideways, not wanting to be the ones to bme.

  "Really?" Ren leaned to the side to see if the corpse was genuinely missing. "What element did he use?"

  "Nothing."

  "Tsk… he was cautious… huh? Never mind… they can run if they want. Isha comes first! Help me bring her in; we need to tend to her fast!" She stood up as the two brought her into the house so Ren could remove the arrows from her body and examine her injuries.

  …

  ….

  …..

  It was a dozen or so kilometers away from the city where Gilgan stopped, slipping into one of their hideout, under an old watermill. It didn't take long for Seq to also arrive, gasping for air and holding his already-healed chest.

  "You ran fast… leaving your son just like that! Harsh!" He joked, almost colpsing on the dark room's floor.

  "Zip it; you always py dead to get away anyway!" He shook his head, flicking a bottle of wine at him that he thirstily emptied.

  "Well, I was lucky to inherit my mother's self-healing ability! But still… this time, it went through my heart... This will take months to fix or even a year! I am out of commission until then, Dad." He moaned, as now they were the only ones there, Seq had stopped being so formal so as not to break the chain of command in their group.

  "No worries... You go back home to your mother and rest a little! I need to get two new members recruited anyway and report back to the Boss... You saw it, no?"

  "Yeah… that was clearly a Naulin. Why would they go against us? They are our most notable partners when it comes to buying our merch!"

  "Don't you know what they are like?" His dad snorted, opening another bottle to take a swing, "When someone grows strong, they hammer them down... Not too long ago, they just massacred one of their own branches. What are we to them? Nothing! But we could be something... That is why we need to report this as soon as possible. We've reached the point where they are coming for us; we need to get ready to fight back! We won't go down without a proper fight."

  "Got it… man… They were strong. Especially that girl!"

  "Yeah, no wonder she was parading around as a sve; nobody would blink an eye or two and look deeper into her... Tsk! They are crafty bastards! Anyway… rest, we go when night falls..." He patted his son's shoulders before both of them started meditating to recover as much energy as they could to make the journey back home, not knowing what consequences their mistake would bring ter on to the Kingdom and the world.