Chapter 9 - The Rescue

Patches of water vapour could be seen hovering inside a room that was located at the basement of the Zafisi Clan Palace. In the middle of the room, there was a large pond of warm freshwater, which was covered by a small layer of fog. Bathing inside the pond, there was a young man. His head and arms were resting against the stone wall of the pond, whereas the rest of his body was totally immersed in the water. His eyes were closed and his facial expression was one of total relaxation.

This young man was none other than Kane Barker, who was busy releasing his tension. What transpired a few hours ago at the Gululu farm left him totally humiliated, not to mention the minor injuries he had sustained. At the same time, this incident served him as a lesson. This was a very different planet when compared to his home planet Yuba. He still didn’t know anything about the various life forms that lived on this planet and the location of the different danger zones. He had already decided that next time he ventured into the unknown, he would firstly obtain information about that place. He had to be extremely vigilant, without showing any hint of overconfidence.

Suddenly, the door of the room burst open as two young female servants rushed into the room. The one in front was laughing whilst she ran holding the hand of the other servant, apparently pulling her. The face of the other servant was scarlet red. Their sudden intrusion alarmed Kane, but upon seeing that they were just servants, he breathed a sigh of relief.

After moving for a while, the woman in front turned her gaze towards the pond.

“Oh! So sorry! Oh dear this is so embarrassing! I just wanted to fetch some cloths I had forgotten in this room, I had no idea that someone else was currently bathing! I will be leaving immediately.”

Needless to say, Kane immediately realised that their sudden intrusion was done deliberately. Their acting actually sucked pretty hard.

The leading servant turned around and started heading towards the door again, whilst at the same time she was laughing and pulling her companion in a funny way. When the leading servant noticed that her companion`s face was crimson red, she instantly shouted to tease her. “Come on Monica! Move your ass! Why are you staring at him!?” as she kept running and giggling. Most people would have thought that it was impossible for Monica`s face to turn even more redder, but it actually did! They finally exited the room as they closed the door behind them with a bang. Seeing all this, Kane couldn’t resist not smiling.

“Audrey you! You devil! That was too embarrassing!!! How did you even thought about doing something like that!” Monica screamed to her companion.

“Ha ha that was so funny… too bad he was in the pond, I wanted to see more of his body!” Audrey replied giggling. Monica was visibly annoyed at her companion, but at the same time there was a hint of a smile on Monica`s face. “Come on Monica, you know I am a little naughty,” Audrey said as she hugged her companion. “Life here could be a little boring, it is up to us to make it more fun. Now we better hurry and get ourselves back to work, because if Colin notices we are here slacking he will definitely be mad at us!” Both of them immediately ran away while laughing.

Roughly two hours later.

Kane exited the pond, then he slowly dressed up. He left the room and slowly walked as he explored the rooms that happened to be on his way. In one of these rooms, a somewhat tattered poster caught his attention, as he approached it to inspect it. Kane`s eyes suddenly widened. “Servants Sword Tournament?” he whispered in his heart. He immediately picked up the poster and hurried towards Colin`s office.

Colin was currently reading a book when Kane`s steps interrupted him. “Oh, you`re back. How was your little excursion outside the palace then?”

Hearing this Kane frowned and pressed both of his lips together. It seemed like that Colin`s question had reminded him about an event he had just forgotten. Colin noticed that something wasn’t right and immediately asked, “Did something happened?”

Kane shook his head denying, then he put out the poster on the table, as he repeatedly poked his index finger on the poster. Colin glanced at the poster with a peculiar expression.

“Oh. That`s the Servants Sword Tournament. You know, every three years a tournament is held at the City`s arena. There are two different tournaments, one is the Young Genius Tournament, where the strongest youngsters below 23 years of age fight with all their might, and the other is the Servants Sword Tournament, where any cripple can take part of, irrespective of age. It so happens that the next Tournament will be the servant’s one and it is planned to start in eight months’ time.” Colin calmly explained.

When he heard this, Kane eyes flashed with excitement and anticipation. Kane`s behaviour surprised Colin as he uttered softly, “Don’t tell me that you are interested in participating?”

Without any hesitation Kane nodded his head in agreement.

“Have you ever used a sword before?” Colin asked curiously. Kane frowned as he shook his head.

“Then how are you supposed to take part in a ‘sword’ tournament if you have never used a sword before?” Colin asked in a somewhat mocking way. However, Kane had already decided and he kept insisting in participating. Colin let out a small sigh as he uttered, “Ok, listen, let`s make a deal. I will be giving you access to our sword room. There you will be able to use some of the clan`s swords for your training. The sword room is actually the training room of Charles Hearn, the strongest servant of our clan. He is currently outside of the city on orders of the Matriarch, and he should be returning back around one week before the start of the tournament.”

Kane instantly felt thrilled, whilst Colin continued with his speech.

“Let us be clear about something. I will be allowing you to train for three months. If by then you are still interested in participating, come and find me and I will immediately send someone to enlist your name. Just make sure that any training you do is done after you complete your daily duties. If by any chance I notice you have been slacking around, I would definitely punish you by prohibiting your participation.”

Colin then gave him the key of the sword room and the general directions of the room. Kane nodded joyfully and gratefully towards Colin, then immediately left.

“This young man, is really strange…” Colin whispered into his heart, before he grabbed the book again to continue reading.

Kane arrived at the sword room and instantly closed the door behind him to avoid any undesirable interruptions. He quickly inspected the room. In one of the corners of the room he found several different type of swords, which he examined one by one. The sword that he felt most comfortable with was a long one handed silver sword, that had a small green crystal gem engraved on it. It was nowhere as impressive compared to the sword Gregory Belly had back then on planet Yuba, but it was still good enough for him.

He then grabbed onto the sword and gave it a few swings to test it out. He was instantly pleased by the results and began to swing it harder and faster. Although the design of the sword was simple, he could feel that the power employed within it was beyond his expectations.

Time slowly passed by, as Kane remained totally immersed into his training. His desire to fight, which had been forever suppressed within him, had finally been unleashed, motivating him to keep on training.

Meanwhile, on another green planet far away from planet Magenta, the atmosphere was beginning to turn tense.

On the ground there were hundreds of tents, and each of these tents had the symbol of a black serpent dragon drawn on it. In front of the tents there were around one thousand fighters, while higher in the sky stood another one thousand fighters. Two men high up in the sky were leading the armies, and one of them was wearing the green black serpent dragon military coat. Both of them were looking at the sky, patiently waiting.

Suddenly a flash of light appeared into the sky, as a huge base dropped from the sky onto the nearby ground, creating a powerful shockwave that rattled the surrounding area. If Kane was here he would instantly recognize the base, it was none other than the base of the SRC!

Shortly after the landing, a dimensional portal formed as a woman came out from it. She looked like a demoness, as her angry gaze swept the area, until it finally stopped on the man with the green coat.

“How many years has it been Julia,” the man with the green coat said in a very casual way.

“Shut your mouth Mark Bordas. I hope you have a valid reason for interrupting our journey. Why have you issued a high level imperial order for us to land here?” Julia furiously asked.

“Oh my! Such hostility Julia… I don’t need anything from you in particular, but it so happens that this man standing next to me is actually searching for a subordinate of his. He had politely asked for my assistance, and since I am a true gentleman, I duly agreed to help him. Then I remembered of you dear ones of the SRC, so I came here to greet you, maybe who knows, you might actually be of an assistance to us.” Mark said sarcastically as he signalled the man next to him to speak.

“My name is Frank Barracuda, one of the elders of the Barracuda clan. I am looking for Konrad Barracuda, and according to our intel, he should now be on your ship. Hence, we are demanding his release with immediate effect!”

Upon hearing this, Julia twitched her eyes slightly, as flames began roaring out of her body. “You… You… Bastards!” Julia angrily shouted, as her battle aura was suddenly unleashed. The weaker fighters on the ground quivered with fear, whilst the weakest fighters couldn’t even resist the aura as they started vomiting blood.

“What are you trying to do Julia? Are you going to start fighting against the Imperial Government?” Mark asked mockingly.

“I am not afraid of you Mark. We may have been evenly matched in the past, but now I am more than confident that I can beat you. You don’t even stand a chance against me…”

She was, however, immediately interrupted by Mark, who was now losing his patience. “Cut the crap Julia! You of the SRC should know your place already! Who do you think you are, to talk to me with such an attitude? I represent the Imperial Government, the strongest human organisation of the entire galaxy! All our warriors hail from the greatest clans of the galaxy. We are the protectors of the galaxy! We aren’t murderers like you shits of the SRC!”

Then he paused for a moment, before speaking calmly. “Now, be a good girl, and bring Konrad Barracuda out.”

“What if I refuse?” Julia asked arrogantly.

“Right, you know you can’t refuse. Besides, I am not the only one here.” Mark coolly replied.

Julia was cursing into her heart. “Damn it, this was unexpected. If I release Konrad Barracuda we would be failing the mission, after all the effort we spent to capture him! On the other hand, if I fight openly against them, it would be considered an act of open aggression against the Imperial Government, and the higher authority of the Imperial government will surely punish me!”

It was at this instance that an ancient voice was heard, originating from one of the tents below on the ground. A colossal aura suddenly descended upon the entire area, calming even the wind. Everything returned to a still, and nobody dared to move an inch from their positions.

“Julia of the Spector Clan. I just had a conversation with Dr.Vegu, where he agreed to release Konrad Barracuda. Thus, I am giving you no more than five minutes to release him. In case of failure to fulfil my request in time, I shall be crushing you along with the entire base.”

Julia was completely stunned, as blood fell from the right corner of her mouth. She immediately took out her communications device and started yelling.

“Ozzy, no questions asked, immediately release Konrad Barracuda and bring him out now! Hurry up your ass if you want to continue to live!”

She then removed her device as she stared downwards towards one of the tents. She was completely terrified, as she stuttered into her heart, “This aura… it can’t be… this person… is definitely an immortal! Why… why would a Chief Kanklar be here!!?” She was deeply horrified and kept staring in disbelief.

Inside the tent, there was an old man that was sitting on a large chair. He looked ancient, had long grey hair and his face was totally expressionless. He was wearing the same cloths as Mark, with the only difference that the colour of his military coat was red not green. He was waiting patiently, whilst he slowly tapped two of his right hand`s fingers on the arm of the chair.

Two minutes later, Ozzy came out together with Konrad Barracuda. Before Ozzy could utter a word, Julia promptly commanded him, “Take him to that man standing next to Mark Bordas, then return to base and wait for my return.” Ozzy couldn’t believe what he had just heard, but he still obeyed her instructions. Then he flew inside the base.

“The request has been fulfilled.” Julia`s shout echoed throughout the area.

The old man completely ignored her, as he leaned his posture to the front. He rested both of his elbows on his knees, fingers crossed together, still sitting. He slowly murmured, “So now you are after the power of the black crystals eh? If you want to start a full out war again, go ahead, we of the Bordas clan aren’t afraid of you, Lafran clan! If a war happens, this time we will make sure that it doesn’t end, not before one of us is totally annihilated!”