His statement was the prelude to his next action and the ending of this entire scene. The cloaked figure dashed towards the two family leaders, his figure blurred seeming like an arrow at its peak of flight.

The duo could barely see the hooded mans figure, it was too fast for their eyes to process. James slashed down at the blur that appeared right before him, yet the figure vanished and leaving his sword just striking the air in the next moment he was punched from behind.

Crack!

“Argh!” he cried out, his body crumpled backwards falling down onto the floor.

At that moment Hans appeared before the blur, what seemed like a perfect strike was evaded with ease by the hooded figure.

The two felt a cold sensation, the feeling that they should never have provoked this person who was overwhelmingly suppressing them.

The two did have an inkling of who this man was but they could never believe that the person could be so strong, yet at this moment he was a threat to them. James slashed out with his sword at the blurred figure, the sword slashed from head down yet the blur suddenly stopped. This sudden change of momentum caused James sword to fall short, yet the hooded man grabbed the sword with his gloved hands.

The hooded man raised his head slightly just enough so that their eyes met. That feeling of trepidation that was slowly bubbling up in James heart burst, a sense of terror enveloped him; those cold eyes were the depths of the abyss.

This only took an instant to occur when from behind Hans stabbed at the stationary figure. The hooded man didn’t even bother to dodge it and casually grabbed the dagger by the blade with his free hand.

“What!” Hans could not help but utter aloud, his dagger was sharp enough to stab through the trunk of a tree with a single stab.

“Weak and you think to hunt me down? What utter fools!” He mocked in disdain, Richard had heard the entire conversation, and had been waiting in the shadows the entire time to take care of anything unnecessary and that unnecessary situation was the one he was in.

At this moment the two realised that their conversation before had been heard and they realised the reason for this man’s animosity, it was because of Hans declaration.

Before they could even finish processing their thoughts, Richard applied some pressure to both the dagger and the sword causing them to shatter into countless metallic fragments.

“Aah!” The two cried simultaneously, watching with wide eyes as their weapons were broken right in front of them, these were their Sage Weapons, weapons that they could imbue their energy to increase their strength.

“You’re weapons are just as useless as the two of you,” he laughed scornfully, there were a few fragmented pieces of metal in his palm that he casually dusted off.

There was absolute silence and the pressure was slowly becoming suffocating. James felt fear rise up, if he did not speak now he would be leaving his life to the hands of this man.

“Please forgive the two of us, I’m part of the Sage Association and he’s related to the Reinhart Clan of this kingdom, if you do anything to us we can’t do anything in return but are you willing to go against the monstrous backers we have?” James had quickly assessed the situation and gave a warning to Richard, he knew that they were in a tight spot and could only hope that theirs backers name could inspire fear in Richard.

“Do not try anything to us or you’ll be ignoring the authority of our backers, they’ll hunt you down and kill everyone related to you.”

Richard looked up his gaze meeting Hans mid-sentence, at that moment Richard released a killing intent that Hans had never felt in his entire life, it was so strong that it was impossible to determine how many corpses a man had to go through to develop that strong intent.

“Are you perhaps threatening me?” This time the mocking tone of Richards's voice disappeared, his voice almost mechanical, his eyes widened as the killing intent soared to new heights.

Seeing this Hans felt like a child facing a Lion, an uncontrollable sense of terror swept through him and he felt the dampness in his undergarment.

“Do you think I fear the Sage Association? And the Reinhart Clan, do you think I’d bother recognising trash?”

Without saying another word Richard grabbed Hans by his arms, his other palm grabbed his shoulder.

A moment of silence filled the air before:

“AAARGHHHH!” A blood-curdling scream resounded in the tower, sending all the people in the vicinity to awaken, the scream caused the people to feel fear in their hearts.

The scene that James witnessed at that moment was barbaric, yet he could not turn away, the moment he did he felt a nauseas feeling in his stomach as Richard ripped Hans arm straight off his shoulder.

Blood splattered across the floor, Hans screamed grabbing his mutilated shoulder, his neck and face was covered in blood yet his face was drained of its blood making him look like a ghost. Richard stood there motionlessly holding onto the severed hand, blood dripping uncontrollably onto the floor.

Even while screaming in pain he stared at his arm as Richard tossed it to the side.

Richard turned, James covered back subconsciously with dread, and he felt absolutely powerless, like an ant in front of an elephant.

“The Sage Association are filled with old monsters, a bunch of old coots who do nothing but sit in their seats thinking that the world will cower under their names, how hilarious.” Richard laughed, yet James couldn’t believe the man’s words, he was mocking the authority of the Sage Association without a care in the world.

“Believe me when I say this, the Sage Association wouldn’t even care even if they found out about what I did, but this is my warning to you!” Saying this he walked towards the balcony once again, at the same time he pulled a sword from underneath his cloak.

Standing on the balcony ledge he slashed horizontally towards the tower only a few hundred meters away.

A huge tempest surged up as a beam flew across.

“BOOM!”

James stared, his heart trembling, this feeling of realisation of what kind of power he had offended scared him to the point that he wet himself.

“Sage Ancestor… We offended an Ancestor…” He murmured silently, in that instant it seemed his faced aged many years ahead.

Richard jumped off the ledge of the balcony and disappeared from the site leaving the two families in chaos.