With victory on their mind, the plan started with minor tweaks. Charles had decided to participate since there was no risk and his participation would make the job easier to finish.

He was a true devotee of Athena and believed that she would deliver them victory as promised. He didn’t need to sit back anymore and act wary. He was assured and satisfied while the warriors were burning with fighting spirit once they heard the news.

There was no stopping them now. There morale was all time high and all sense of fear for their lives had vanished.

With such a mood, Richard was sure that they would perform better than they had ever done.

Leaving the warriors aside, Richard and Rosalina were delivered to the woods by Noah. The tragic and stressful atmosphere was nowhere to be seen as everyone was just filled with confidence.

“Sit tight and we will finish the battle soon.” Noah told them before leaving the territory of the Earth Bear, Max.

Noah walked with purpose and there was sense of closeness that had been missing. It wasn’t like it used to be, but Noah was warming up to Richard.

Watching him vanish in the darkness, Richard and Rose turned to their temporary accommodations. They were going to live inside a cave protected by the Earth Bears.

This was something they didn’t have to do, but Richard pushed for it. With Athena’s promise, there was no actual need for the hostage situation or the cooperation.

Charles asked him if they should drop it, but Richard explained that they needed it. The cooperation with the beasts could go a long way and they could end up as true allies.

Though, the main reason was that Richard wanted to experience such an event in a controlled environment before testing it out in the future. There was no risk at the moment so he would be dim-witted to avoid such an opportunity.

Such negotiation and cooperation wasn’t easy to work with, so it was best to have experience for future times.

One thing Richard had learnt through life was that one should always take the opportunity to try something new and learn from it, even if might not seem important at the moment.

The small experiences would accumulate and help in the future. Thinking that you knew how it worked without actually experiencing it and seeing it, was foolish and led to failure.

Everything could look nice and perfect on paper, but it was the actual implementation that showed how imperfect the plan could be.

Everything could be managed except the human factor, and that factor was always involved. So, it was best to experience things and understand how people worked.

In the current situation, Richard could see how he dealt with these beasts and how the beasts dealt with him.

“Let’s meet our hosts.” Richard muttered calmly. He had new sense of confidence after the power up and didn’t feel so powerless against these creatures.

Rosalina nodded and walked beside him. She took comfort in his presence and didn’t feel any fear at the moment.

She was obviously not new to the forest either and knew how to fight, and hunt.

Both of them wore metallic armor for protection and it covered them completely. Under it they wore some chainmail and the armor had magical seals for silence to avoid making noise when walking or fighting.

The armor was of high quality. Rose had custom made armor that was silver and light blue with beautiful design while Richard wore Charles previous armor that he wore in his younger years.

Richard’s armor was black and gold that looked intimidating and bulky. The helmet had a red ponytail and two bull horns. The whole thing weighed around 60 Kg while Rose had 45 Kg.

It was much higher than most medieval armors in the normal world which weighed around 25 Kg. That was much lower than the amount modern infantrymen carried and it was distributed around the body, so it didn’t actually disturb the movement.

Richard had no idea where people got the idea that the armor was too heavy and made it impossible to move around with when people actually fought in these things.

It wasn’t Richard’s first time armor as he had tried it out back on earth, his friend Johnson was a medieval fan so he had collection of items from those times.

Richard called the armor Tauros Alpha since the armor had the bull motive. It was a beautiful piece and gave ample protection while the movement wasn’t too restricted.

He couldn’t perform his crazy grappling moves but that was worth the defense. Fortunately, Richard had gotten rid of his annoyance that came from wearing anything over his head or the experience of the helmet would have been mind numbing.

Both kids were also armed with long swords that weighed 10 Kg and short swords that weighed five Kg. They carried a shield on their back weighing 10 Kg.

It looked like a crazy amount of weight but both kids were beyond human level of physical stats and could carry around 500 Kg without even using their Ki.

It was the difference between a normal person and the ascended mortals. People with Ki didn’t just have better stats as they could also live longer, at least 120 years to 200 years.

Getting back to the situation at hand, Richard and Rosalina walked towards the two creatures. In the darkness, Jack was completely invisible and only the moon light above helped them see him.

Both young warriors walked properly without stumbling in the dark forest and arrived in front of their hosts.

From afar they hadn’t looked so big, but standing closer to them was a different game.

They towered over the kids and made them feel weak. Being stared at by these creatures was a scary experience that Richard felt that he needed time to adjust.

His heart felt tight as he stood in front of them. Rose also felt the pressure but she felt better after seeing that Richard remained composed.

“Good evening, my name is Richard and I am pleased to be in your presence.” Richard made an introduction in a respectful tone. He treated it like a business meeting.

“Good evening Sirs, my name is Rosalina Harrison and I hope we can have a beautiful cooperation.” Rosalina followed through with a smooth voice and body language. She didn’t break and acted like these two creatures were nobles.

“Haha, I thought you would be a little bit scared. It is a surprise indeed.” Jack chuckled as he walked around them and got closer suddenly, making them jump back in shock and fear.

“Hahaha, that’s more like it.” He laughed seeing them show some fear.

“It is nice you meet you children. Please ignore my friend here and make yourselves comfortable.” Max walked forward and swatted at Jack for playing around with the kids.

The father bear loved children and since they were allies, he also felt that for these kids.

“You can be such a bore, Max. Lighten up; I am just helping them grow up. They won’t survive if they jump like that every time something gets too close… What do you think kids? Want to play a game?” Jack asked as he smiled at them, which caused Rose to step behind Richard.

Richard stared into the dark pools of the creature and felt like it was bringing out the weak man inside. Darkness corrupted the mind and fed on the negativity.

It was an ethereal element.

Richard never really stared at the face and would usually look beyond the person while talking. He didn’t like looking at people’s face.

But, this time it was hard to look away. And, it was making him panic.

He felt like he was dropping into the abyss of despair. Richard snapped out of it as Rosalina touched his back.

It had only been a few seconds but Richard felt like hours had passed and his back was covered in sweat.

Jack had stopped playing mind games with him and let him rest.

Snapping out of it only brought rage inside of him. Richard would overreact around his people and when he got hurt by mistake but when it was done by someone else, only rage would appear.

His pain sense would get subdued and his desire to cause harm would surface.

In this scary situation, his fear got subdued as he felt the desire to shoot the filthy creature.

“We will play.” Richard spoke with control and calmed down, knowing that he had no chance. He decided to use the beast to condition himself to avoid a panic attack in the future.

He decided for Rose as it was a good opportunity to learn. Rose wanted to say no but seeing that it was Richard, she consented.

“Oh, I see we have someone with guts. I was starting to think everyone you humans except Charles were spineless.” Jack was amused and happy to have some toys to play with.

“It is a simple game. I will keep on scaring you and I will only stop when you touch me. Simple, isn’t it?” Jack explained his game where he could mess with their heads until he got bored, them touching him was a bad joke.

Richard and Rose could also see that the game was rigged. Jack was too fast and lived in the shadows, he was a stealth specialist.

But, it didn’t matter to Richard. He was using it as an opportunity to train his heart, not for victory.

Though, he already had a way.

“You can start any time.” Richard responded calmly while taking Rosalina’s hand. He thought she might be scared.

His bravery and good intention weren’t ignored as it increased Rosalina’s impression of him.

Jack smiled as he found a good toy and with that he vanished from sight.

“Child, you shouldn’t act so irresponsibly. Fear isn’t some temporary thing, as it can stay with you for life and destroy everything. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always.” Max the fatherly bear warned as he felt that the children were acing careless by messing with someone that was part of darkness.

Darkness was the element of mental corruption and destruction. One of its main points was to inflict fear on its target.

Hearing such philosophical words from a bear surprised Richard, he knew they could talk but those words were beyond the capacity of a simple man.

It seems they weren’t so different from humanity and it would be best for him to accept such a fact.

“Thank you for your care Mister Max, but I understand what I am doing. I know that there might not be a chance for victory. However, I can use this chance to polish myself. Also, we must never allow fear to rein over us. We must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if we don't, if our fear becomes a wordless darkness that we avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, we open ourselves to further attacks of fear because we never truly fought the opponent who defeated us.

A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it. That is my belief.” Richard replied calmly as he looked at the terror inducing bear, thinking that it was an intelligent and friendly creature helped in avoiding an embarrassing situation.

Max had taken them lightly but Richard impressed him with his words. It showed that the boy was learned and experienced in life.

“I am enlightened by your words. I appreciate such nuggets of wisdom and hope that you will consider having conversations with this old bear in the future.”

Richard answered and built some expectations, but this went beyond it. He thought Max would be satisfied and let it go.

“I would be happy to oblige.” Richard answered with a smile and extended his hand by habit.

Max didn’t know what he was doing and looked at the hand.

“We shake hands on it.” Richard elaborated and Max went with it, putting his giant paw on the tiny hand.

With that done, Max left the duo alone near the cave.