The scraping sounds of metal armor against the cobble stones were drowned out by the painful howls of the panic stricken soldier, he was now finding it hard to draw breath through his clogged nasal cavity. The cut was so deep that blood was flooding down his nostrils making his waling cries a pitch higher transforming his voice to a falsetto. Qin LI turned and looked at Hartley with his jaw on the floor. Hartley flashed him a knowing smile. Qin Li smiled wryly back at Hartley and turned to watch the show.

The curdling shrieks of their comrade made the other two soldiers stand in place. The simple task didn't seem so simple anymore. They raised their swords with new found wariness. Yes their mate might have been careless but he got his ass thoroughly handed to him on a plate. Holy Matriarch, how was he ever going to step foot back inside the barracks. His fate was sealed even if he got up and slaughtered all three of the offenders.

In the competitive environment of the soldiers camp, being nonchalantly slapped down by a weak looking female in front of the whole squad was a sure way to be assigned latrine cleaning duties for the next year. To make matters worse he was laid on his back screaming and wailing like he was about to give birth. The leader still mounted on his black horse with a shaggy tail barked "Disgraceful" as he looked at the foot soldier wailing, he pointed at the other two "you two get her and kill her if she resist" The embarrassment was so bad that he dared not send any more of his troops, he'd just have these two kill the woman to save some face.

The men inched forward carefully under the gaping stares of their comrades and the leader who was a 3rd layer xanthian. Zhi Ruo stood elegantly with both daggers pointed towards the ground. She could only see the men's cold irises approaching slowly, After Hartley had expressed his doubts earlier, she felt she had to show off her skills and assure Hartley of her commitment to his ambitions of dominance over the country first and then the continent. It was time to show the things she had been working on privately with Hartley.

Hartley was nervous, she had taken down the first soldier easily enough, he had trained with her so he knew she would not easily be defeated by anyone under the xanthian realm, but he wasn't sure if she wass ready to face two fully armored soldiers. IT was time for him to step in. Again, just as he was about to make his move, she held her right fist up signalling for Hartley to stay back. She pointed her nose towards the sky and did her trademark snort."Hmph... Let me handle this" she smiled.

Hartley did have his misgivings but if she said she could handle it he would trust her words,he prepared himself to step in and handle the situation if needs be. In all honesty her spicy personality was one of her traits that Hartley had fallen in love with. Even though he wasn't experienced in the field of relationships, from what he saw in society, women were usually docile, almost the property of their husbands. Zhi Ruo was different she was loving and gentle and at the same time feisty and fiery and when she showed her overbearing side, not even Hartley wanted to be on the wrong end of it.

The shiny armors gleamed in the morning sunshine which doused the surroundings with its warm bright light, a cold autumn wind simultaneously danced through the empty streets as if at war with the warmth of the sun. The men moved, clank clank clank, they split five meters apart planning to attack in a pincer formation, if Ruo committed to fighting with one soldier the second would attack her unprotected back. The soldiers were all men with no hope of reaching the xanthian realm. They had long since passed the age of expiry for making it to the peak of the houtian realm. The only way for them to make a name for themselves was by training hard, achieve some merits on the battle field and move up the ranks of the clan they were attached to maybe landing a spot with a noble, this was a golden opportunity to get in the good books of their commanding officer.

The man on the right came at Zhi Ruo, she now had the look of concentration on her face whenever she fought or trained. Zhi Ruo was now beginning to understand the miracle of Hartley's gravity field, she had gotten used to moving in 5x gravity while training, now moving in normal gravity she felt like a tiger with wings unleashed against rabbits.

She daintily moved to meet the challenge, the man laden in iron was moving so slow he might as well be moving backwards. The silver blade glinted as the man slashed horizontally aiming at her waist from right to left. This was the moment of truth for Hartley, sweat washed over his body as he prepared to intervene...it wasn't needed, Zhi Ruo raised her left dagger only about a quarter the length of the long sword and met the silver threat with a clang and with exquisite timing she moved the dagger in a circle and stepped left.

The result was an explosion of sparks as the man lost control of his sword and stumbled leaving him wide open but she didn't force an attack due to the protection of his armor instead she whirled on the ball of right foot and glided two quick steps back to the right and caught the man on the left sneak attack with exquisite timing and parried it also leaving him stumbling back as he over rotated,the impressive co ordination and a complex double angled parry performed by Zhi Ruo left everyone watching amazed. There was murmurs coming from the squad thanking the Holy Matriarch that they weren't the ones being embarrassed. The leader sat uncomfortable on his horse with his exposed eyes red with rage, he was about to lose all face today without even facing a single person from the Tiger Mercenary Guild.

This was what Hartley and Zhi Ruo was working on in training, on the main road in the Cosmos regions Hartley had met a 3rd layer xanthin with water elemental affinity, the man only used a short sword and was very adept in using soft to control hard. This was the concept that Hartley thought best suited her. She had shown great speed and precision, but her physical strength was lacking so she had to use the opponent's strength against them added to her elegance in movement, it was like watching a ballet.

As the second attacker stumbled back while half turning Zhi Ruo stuck close to him like stink on shit and crouched then stabbed upwards with her dagger. There was a ripping sound as she pulled back her dagger from under the man's armpit, he screamed as blood stained the right side of the man's pristine spotless armor. Before he could disengage she rotated her blade and swept it viciously to one side of the man's helmeted head with a huge clang the man went sprawling on the cobble stones, making a racket as he rolled over and over before coming to a stop.

Zhi Ruo turned with a smile to face the other soldier, "now its one on one" she said but at this exact moment the commanding officer gave a signal to someone in his squad. A man about 2 meters tall rushed out from the soldiers, his shoulders as broad as the length of two adults standing side to side, his armor must have used at least double the amount of metal used on an average soldier. Armed with a axe double the size of Qin Li's . The man made a beeline for Ruo.

Suddenly there were two Hartleys, one stood next to Qin Li and one delivering a lightning fast punch to the chest of the Brute of a man. The hartley standing next to Qin li wriggled in the wind and began to disperse. The Hartely in front of the giant man had his fist moving forward, the skin on his hand from his fist to his elbow was now a dull blue, there were wisps of steam like white smoke roiling upwards. As his hand moved forward bright white concentric circles formed, his hands went through the circles like a train exiting a tunnel and BOOM! silver shrapnel flew into the squad of soldiers..

It was pandemonium, horses railed up on their hind legs neighing and braying, men screamed in horror as the hail of shrapnel sliced through armor like a knife through butter. Chaos! Panic!.... Not even even the commanding officer who was a 3rd layer xiantian fire elemental expert escaped unscathed, pieces of shrapnel flew through his upper arm and his horse was laying dead.

Hartley stood in the pose which he delivered the punch. There were no signs of the big brute, no blood, no bones, no flesh, nothing remained at the spot he was a couple seconds ago. Again there were two Hartleys. One stuck in a punching pose and one standing next to Qin Li, the Hartley that was in the punching pose slowly faded away with the wind. The commanding officer gave the order to retreat which was like heaven to the soldiers ears, they quickly made their way back the way they had come, some on foot, some with missing limbs and some with injured horses as they disappeared from view quickly, leaving behind bodies of horses and men with some chopped off pieces of armor that held body parts inside.

Hartley quickly went over to check Zhi Ruo, even she had her mouth wide open in awe.. He looked at Qin and said "lets go we've lost enough time already." The carriage clattered down the street as people poked their heads out of buildings inspecting the mess left behind.