Ubel reached out to feel the spatial pocket on his waist. It was a keepsake from Quan. Inside, he enclosed the area with his consciousness. His Qi covered both the gauntlets and the pristine white bow.

What should I do know?

He questioned. He had to. Things looked bad, worse even. City lord hung in the air with two chains grappling his limbs. One latched to the ceiling, the other stuck to the faraway castle entrance. The chains squealed now and then and stretched the limbs of the city lord. And the man had to evade the attacks of the two forsakens in this situation.

He is amazing- He had to commend the man. City lord gathered small dosages of Qi and placed them around several parts of his body. These little masses of Qi would explode and send his body swinging to the directions he willed. By now, he evaded ten such attacks this way. But at this point, evading wasn’t enough. The forsakens learned their lessons quick, however. And they used wide range types of attacks to strike the city lord.

Angel forsaken raised her hands and wings(?), then waved them forth. A gust of wind picked up in the air and appeared right before the city lord’s face. City lord grit his teeth in the face of danger and burst apart two Qi balls behind his chained leg. They exploded at the same time, the wind arrived, and his body swayed left a bit, unsuccessful on dodging. The wind tore several parts of his armor and the battle robe beneath. The robe fluttered and stuck out of the gaps between the armor.

Other forsaken came beneath him, his spear raised and covered in the blood-red aura. It flashed like lightning and struck right between the gaps in city lord’s armor. City lord gasped and shook his body once more, this time evading the other gust of wind with no damage. Yet, the spear inflicted way too much agony than normal it seemed. The city lord struggled to move his body this time, the forsaken fell then. And angel forsaken struck again.

Should I intervene? Ubel's power, against people of that caliber, wouldn’t matter much. Not because they were invincible, as they were in some situations. But because he didn’t know whether it would turn the things way worse than it was. City lord needed help and Ubel saw no way of any help arriving soon. He didn’t want to open his premature third eye to search for that possible help. If he did, he would get blinded from the shock of their auras. But without opening, he wouldn’t know the situation of his senior brother and the other path opener.

Then was it a better choice to act by himself?

‘’Hey boy, why are you staring so intent?’’ The voice of the angel forsaken sounded.

!?

‘’You look too calm- do you not wish to live?’’ She asked again and their eyes met.

I am calm? I am calm!? Ubel didn’t know his outside expression but he was not calm right now. He wouldn’t, he couldn’t be calm. Were forsakens also fools? Were they blind, sensless towards emotions of others?

‘’No-’’ City lord whispered at that time, Ubel saw the man’s face turn a notch pale.

Angel forsaken’s eyes flashed with a mysterious light at his defiance. ‘’An acquaintance? Or someone close?’’ She descended to the ground and approached to the periphery of the barrier. She put her hands on the milk-white surface and looked at Ubel. Her fingers spread and gave a light push to its surface.

Then cracks spread to the surface of the barrier.

‘’Maybe killing you would let me know?’’ She smiled. ‘’And that man would be easier to slaughter, no?’’

Ubel looked with wide eyes, his hand remaining on the spatial pouch and eyes on the angel forsaken. Really...I have to help then.

Ubel didn’t know how helpful this would be, but he chose to do anyway. It wouldn't do any help standing around, awaiting his end. And his gut feeling as a amateur hunter told him clear: You have a chance to live!

The angel forsaken lifted her left hand to the air and opened her mouth to speak. But Ubel acted at that time.

‘’Leave my father alone!’’ He shouted and pulled the bow out of the pouch in an instant. He nocked an arrow of Death River Qi and shot it forward.

Angel forsaken laughed, roared. ‘’I knew it!’’ She was someone who could contend with path openers of the immortals. There was no way she couldn’t react to the attack of a path finder. But Ubel took that into consideration.

She put her raised hand in front to block the arrow.

‘’Eh?’’ But the arrow took a sudden turn, it curved in front of her hand. The arrow head appeared right before one of her wings and struck.

‘’!?’’ The arrow exploded. A small, two fingers wide hole appeared on her wing. Together with it a dark miasma made of the Death River Qi started to turn the surrounding feathers to black.

Ubel’s attack reached.

And it proved to be effective.

*********

Father?

Sid’s eyes widened, the forsaken caught on that, and his face returned to that anxious expression. Is he deceiving them? It had to be so. Mistaking their relationship would make them focus on something else, the boy himself. This could give him a breathing room for a small time indeed.

But he will be in danger!

He had a promise to hold, Sid reminded himself. He had to keep the boy safe until the master of cindersnow came back. Or else...he feared for his fate.

Sid grit his teeth and pulled up on the chains once more. No matter how much power he pulled with, they wouldn’t budge. It was not a matter of where their tip latched on, the base material of the chains suppressed his power way too much.

‘’Eh?’’ Then he heard the voice of the angel forsaken. He burst one small Qi ball, rotated backward, and looked between the gaps of the chains binding him. His eyes widened at the sight and his face went pale further.

He saw a tiny hole in the wing of the angel forsaken, like a burn mark. A dark purple mist rose around it. Although it couldn’t cover the whole, the miasma started to corrode the rest of the feathers.

No-

Sid had to correct himself, it wasn’t corrosion. It was decay, the aura of the dead. But the attribute of the attack didn’t matter to Sid. What mattered was the reaction it provoked from the forsaken, from the forsakens.

Because Ubel, with an unintentional reflex, revealed his connection to the sect.

And what did forsakens hate the most beneath the heavens?

The sect.

‘’He practices a hunting art? Hm...’’ The spear-wielding forsaken narrowed his eyes, turned his spear sideways and glanced upwards to Sid, hanging like the pig he was. Sid couldn’t catch what he thought, but he knew it was up to no good.

The angel forsaken, however, reacted much different. First, her wings trembled. Then shook, and feathers fell under the pull of gravity. Her hands grasped the tendrils of golden hair, pulled on them as she would choke some mortal enemy. Then she pulled them off. Her hair, the epitome of yellow, the beautiful golden hair came off.

‘’CINDERSNOW-AAAAAAAAHH!’’ She screamed. Her wings shook further, more feathers fell off. Under those blinding silver feathers, Sid could see the foundations of a wing. Bones, dark red like the top of a volcano with streaks of black. ‘’HOW DARE- HOW DARE ONE APPEAR!? I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!’’ Her howl reached a peak and her feet lifted into the air.

At the same moment, Sid saw Ubel nock another arrow to his bow. This time the arrow looked much bigger, its aura stronger. Then came the stomp of the angel forsaken.

Her feet struck the ground and everything in front of her feet shattered.

The ground rose like a tidal wave, boulders and rocks and rubble pierced the living and corpses alike. The tempest swallowed them between the widening gaps among the many, and crushed them under their weights. Barrier and the formation at the center alike cracked, the people controlling the both started to flee. From outside, a huge noise like the popping, breaking, of a glass sounded. Angel forsaken flapped her wings, rose into the air, and flew towards Ubel.

Then the arrow escaped from the string. It flew past the angel forsaken and escaped from the reaching spear of the forsaken. It traveled among the rubble floating in the air like the arrow itself. And it came right before the hook latched on the ceiling.

Then it exploded.

The stone holding the chains broke off. Pieces of marble fell and Sid’s arm regained its freedom. But it wasn’t the time for getting delighted over the recovered. Halfway through the Ubel, Angel flapped her wings once more to increase her speed.

Sid had to move fast, and he moved with all his might.

He grasped the chain still tangled around his forearm and burst off one grand Qi ball behind his back. The Qi exploded like a bomb and he swung in the air, connected to the other chain. The gravity and the chain on his leg tugged him to the ground and the Qi ball managed to resist them both.

His body flew like an arrow to its target, angel forsaken, and he came right above her. Sid grasped the chain much tighter and swung it downwards, in front of Ubel.

Ubel also cast a divine ability at that time and a huge, dark muscular spirit appeared in front of him who sent a punch. Angel forsaken roared again and her speed increased further.

The punch of the spirit connected and, instead of delivering, suffered damage. Its arm bent backward from the recoil and forsaken came right before the spirit’s nose. The chain appeared at that time. It coiled like a snake and struck the forsaken right on the face, covered a wide arc, and sent her lying back.

The other forsaken snuck behind Sid after this strike and stabbed his spear to the last wound. It pierced the flesh and bone together. Sid’s eyes teared from the pain but he kept the scream inside. The forsaken, unsatisfied by the result, retracted the spear and stabbed again.

To evade, Sid let go of the strength at his back and allowed the chain and the gravity to pull him down. Forsaken’s spear missed and Sid fell between Ubel and the frenzied angel forsaken again. She rushed and forced her body to fly once more. The other forsaken also spat in anger and followed them down.

Sid looked over at them, then back to Ubel at the short notice. The spirit beside him covered the boy behind it like a meat wall. This made him relieved for a bit.

‘’DIE! CINDERSNOW SCUM! DIE!’’ She continued her wails and appeared right before him once more. The other forsaken tried to sneak behind him again, this time to attack Ubel he presumed.

Sid closed his eyes to focus.

He opened his eyes.

His eyes were now emerald, or like jade.

His eyes trailed off from his enemies and landed on the two chains. Then his body moved.

He swung his arm to the right and the chain on his arm dashed towards the side. It struck the angel forsaken in the belly. Her mouth opened wide as the pieces of metal slammed and blood poured out. Her body hurled back again like a rag doll.

The following moment, Sid tugged the chain on his leg and took off the whole thing from its place at the entrance. He revolved like a whirlwind. Together with him his leg rotated, and he whipped it towards the forsaken right above the Ubel. The chain followed his leg's movements and the hook at the tip caught the forsaken from his robe.

‘’DAMN IT!’’ He let out a bellow of anger and the chain swayed. Forsaken's body shot off to the side as the angel forsaken's did. His body pierced through the weakened walls of the castle and flew further. With one look, Sid assessed that the man shattered the foot of the walls with his back. The force would knock him sensless bit It would take the man a few seconds to regain his mind and reach back here.

And he had to finish off this crying bastard before he came here.

*********

Yuan Shu took out the vial from his spatial pouch and held inside his right hand, clenched. His fingers felt the smooth, glass surface and touched the plug on the mouth of the bottle. He loosened the top a bit, enough to open the thing with a swift motion, then looked at the front.

The forsaken started to gather his crimson aura again. It enveloped him and his spear, the golden tip flashed among the stars of red bright enough to take notice. And the blue runes. Light, a pristine version of sea blue. They also lightened, stretched to the tip and the shaft. But when he took the vision inside his eyes, devoured the contents and their meaning, what left was just a thought.

I need a distraction, something big-

‘’Alright then, here I go!’’ Forsaken shouted and took a step. One motion, a small push from his toes and he glided towards him like an eagle.

Yuan Shu felt sweat break on his back and neck, some traveled at the back of his nape, and anxiety. The forsaken came closer and closer. The distance of a few dozen meters he managed to open between them didn’t seem far enough. Just one more step and forsaken would be right before him, and the spear inside his head.

But it didn’t happen.

A pop. Like the popping of a bubble, small yet dull, sounded. Both of their eyes slid to their side, to the barrier covering the city. Cracks. There were hundreds of small cracks like spiderwebs, spreading on the barrier’s surface. And they continued to appear. Like a tidal wave, the cracks rushed to the top of the barrier at a hastened rate from all sides. And when they all connected at the top, another pop sounded.

Under that big sound, Yuan Shu hid another sound. His hand moved fast. Fast enough for the distracted forsakens to not notice and the vial's contents ended inside his mouth. Te dark-yellow liquid inside it, it tasted bitter. Like champagne, or grapefruit. And it moved like a slime inside his mouth down to his belly.

As the disgusting texture of the liquid turned distant, another feeling came closer. It was power, strength. Courage also came with it, the confidence that he, Yuan Shu, could defeat his foe with no effort now. But there was the consequence of it at the same time, the other feeling. The emotion that it wouldn’t last forever, and it wouldn’t be long.

So he moved. His feet lifted from the air and he stepped through the dented and broken parts of the walls. He rushed, he forced his body to act with every ounce of strength it could produce. The forsaken now realized his folly and turned his attention back to him. He rotated his spear in a large arc and swept it right between the shoulders and the neck of Yuan Shu.

I can evade that- Yuan Shu assured himself. He was only a few meters away from the forsaken now, and the time slowed in his vision. Veins bulged out of his skin, and his muscles underneath those snake-like patterns. His eyes took a bright golden color and his hair assumed the form of gold.

‘’What are you!?’’ Forsaken shouted in...fear? It was...worry. Forsaken worried for his life, he feared that Yuan Shu would steal him of his life.

And his fears were well-founded.

Yuan Shu slipped underneath the spear like a rat and came right under the forsaken’s head. His hands moved way too fast for the forsaken to react and he struck the arm holding the spear.

‘’No!’’ Forsaken cried as his arm broke from the elbow. The bones in his forearm shattered, and they pierced through his skin like a blade. The blood painted white tips came into the view of the audience.

‘’Junior!’’

‘’Damn it!’’ The three forsakens reacted at the worst time available. They all moved in sync and rushed towards them with their spears pointed to Yuan Shu.

Yet they were too late.

Out of nowhere, a black dot appeared from the direction of the castle. Its speed unsurpassed other than a bolt of lightning, and like lightning, it slammed on the walls beneath them. The foot of the walls, together with the foundation, broke into smithereens and the stable ground they stood on collapsed.

Forsakens lost their balance, with them Yuan Shu and their junior.

Yuan Shu did not let go of the chance and grasped the falling forsaken from his injured hand and his back. He fell together with the forsaken but did not stop his attack. He pulled the forsaken towards him with a push from his back and tugged the injured arm with his newfound strength.

The arm ruptured from the shoulder. The whole thing came off like a string from a cocoon, smooth. And yellow blood sprayed to his face.

‘’Don’t you dare!’’ Forsaken shouted, indignant. Yuan Shu did not care and rotated the arm inside his hand. He made the bone-sticking forearm face the forsaken, let out a devilish smile, and shoved the man’s own bones into his brain.

The arm pierced through the wounded head like a hot knife through butter. It smashed the brain matter and the incomplete skull into particles of flesh and bone. It sprang from the other side trailed by the severed flesh. Yuan Shu felt his feet feel the ground at that same time and released the forsaken's body.

As his feet touched the earth again, the forsaken’s body reached at the same time. One fell with a sigh, other with a thud. Forsaken’s body twitched once. Yellow blood poured from the huge hole inside his head, then he ceased moving.

With a swift motion, Yuan Shu took the body into his spatial pouch and ran. He ran with all his might, else the other forsakens caught him. Else he lost his life after fighting, and losing, against a forsaken for the first time in his life.

His legs moved and he passed through the scenes of carnage and massacre. Sceneries of slaughter, goliaths crushing soldiers with their tusks. Visions of horror, tree monsters skewing poor men from their limbs with their roots. Wood spirits drilling screaming, poor souls with their steel like feathers.

He saw a goliath coming towards him as well and ignored the monster. But the beast in question didn't do so as he wished. It leaped towards him and let out a mighty roar. Yuan Shu kicked the ground in response and slammed his fist onto the belly of the beast.

The goliath let out a pitiful voice and fell down with a huge hole on his belly. Yuan Shu kept going and other monsters inspecting him did not dare to come close, they let him go in peace.

After putting a decent distance between him and the southern walls, Yuan Shu slowed his pace.

He took a deep breath.

Then he laughed. He roared in laughter.

How satisfying that was!

His insides melted at the sight of the forsaken falling to the ground. Eyes wide, jaw dropped. And the blood, the scene of it flowing like a lake. It made him proud.

For this was the first hunt in his life. And for sure, it wouldn’t be the last.

But the matter at hand wasn’t to cherish his first experience, it was to secure his life. And he intended to do so with all his focus on the matter. Still, he couldn’t help but notice a body flying to the castle at the center from the foot of the wall.

The dot was that? He shuddered at the aura, not noticing him fleeing from the scene of murder.

...I am lucky...