"Kill them?" Artio's face twisted in fury. "These three are worth the most out of the whole lot! Just these three alone are equal to almost the entire herd!"
"Artio, we can't keep this up much longer. With damages this bad, there's no way that we can fix the wagon without wasting an entire sun to gather materials and rebuild it," Brado persuaded.
"But without these three cash cows, we can forget our cozy life. What about all of those toasts we made last night? The promises? What about them?!"
"Then forget my share, I'd rather be done with this and get home. Hurry up," Brado turned to head back to the front.
"But…" Artio's pride couldn't let such an opportunity go. He had hoped to gather all the money possible from this and even assassinate Brado with the help of poison that he added to Brado's wine the night before.
This particular poison targets the divine core of perennials, slowly blocking the flow of their essence and reducing their battle prowess more and more with every dose. After a single dose, Brado would already be reduced to the strength of a low-perennial, the same as him. Artio would prefer to wait till he had the chance to give him more poison, yet Brado's determination to avoid even the smallest bumps in the road was getting on his nerves. Artio decided that all he had to do was catch Brado off guard because Brado had no idea he was weakened, and he wouldn't know until he tried to use his divine essence in battle.
"Start gathering materials to fix the wagon!" commanded Artio.
Brado looked back at Artio in disappointment but was shocked that everyone disregarded his order for Artio's. "Artio, you—"
"Yes, Brado. Since you're incompetent, I'll just have to take control of this operation," interrupted Artio.
"After everything we've gone through… Why Artio?" Brado wasn't the sharpest guy, just the best fighter of the guild. He had plenty of experience betraying and being betrayed, but he shared all of those experiences with Artio and they had even saved each other's lives countless times.
"Everyone's got a price and my price for you was never reached until now. That's just the flaw in the industry, right Brado?" Artio's twisted grin showed his malice.
As time passed, the distance between the two founding partners only grew. But because Brado just assumed it'd work out as long as they worked together, he never bothered to notice the growing coldness in Artio's heart.
"Nothing personal Brado. I was originally going to do this after we made our money, but you've forced my hand with this selfish action of yours." Having said that, Artio dashed for Brado as he drew his saber and swept his other hand across the blade to taunt Brado.
"You fool!" Brado matched his former partner's actions and charged him.
Artio and Brado both released their divine essence to their limits, but Brado quickly realized that something was wrong. The flow of his energy was slow and loose, it was hard to compact and take shape.
"Ha, you finally noticed?" Artio commented when it was too late for Brado to readjust. Both swords crossed in the middle, but one overpowered the other and broke free, delivering a hard blow against the loser's retreating chest.
"You… What have you done?" Brado had already received a scathing blow on the first clash and knew that from here on out he was fighting a losing battle.
"I'll fill you in, seeing that there's no longer a chance for you to escape," Artio seemingly dropped his guard while speaking to his once old friend. "It's a poison that targets your divine core to gradually slow and block the flow of your divine essence. I wanted to do this later partly because I wanted you to be even weaker when we fought but after taking that strike you should find it even harder to face me."
"Hmm?" the distracted Brado continued to try and release his essence to no avail. "You… laced your sword with the poison?"
"What, you thought I'd fight you fair and square? Of course, I'll take the necessary precautions to handle you thoroughly. Now, you should barely even be able to maintain the aura of an early-perennial. Am I right?" Artio licked his lips.
"Why you! If you think I'd let this happen so easily, then come at me and prove it," Brado refused to go down without a fight, even if he knew it was futile.
"Have it your way, old friend," said Artio. The constant clash of the two perennials' swords left the other mercenaries in suspense of who would be their leader in the end.
* * * * *
Just on the other side of a tall hill, Rathe motioned for all of the gorillas to come to a halt. "This… is divine essence," said Rathe cautiously, "two divine essences to be exact. And they're fighting…"
The gorillas all looked at each other in confusion. They could all feel a powerful aura coming from the other side of the hill and were glad that their chief allowed them to stay hidden. And when they heard Rathe saying that there was an internal conflict, they were glad that their job just got easier.
Rathe continued, "It feels like two low-perennials are fighting each other, maybe for control of the group? But one is waning, and his energy is fading way too fast. Could it be… poison?"
Rathe wasn't the most intelligent when it came to politics but if it involved combat, Rathe had most likely experienced it and learned from it. That was Rathe's edge, he may fall for a trick or two, but he won't fall for the same trick twice.
"Everyone, we'll wait for their fight to end. It shouldn't take long, and I'll handle the remaining perennial. I doubt that there are any other perennials with them because if there were, whoever wins this would be a sitting duck for the next challenger. They are most likely the ones in charge of this whole thing and based on Hollen's knowledge there probably aren't too many elders either. You just need to hold them off until I'm done with the lowlife coward in charge of all this. And don't worry too much about the many adepts, they'll be too busy containing the stallions in the meantime. Any questions?" Rathe cut to the chase.
Thanks to the bear bandits' cores, he was able to finally breakthrough and he was anxious to finally test out his new strength.
"Uncle, what about me?" asked Oli.
"You remain back here. There are too many adept cultivators for you to help break the guards' encirclement and we can't chance you getting too banged up or your mom will kill me. You'll have to sit this one out, okay?" Rathe's tone became serious in the last line, forcing Oli's cooperation.
"Okay, I'll just watch from back here," Oli knew he was still a liability.
"Good boy. Now, I feel like they should be coming to an end soon. As he goes for the killing blow, I'll dash for the perennials at top speed and the rest of you follow," Rathe quietly pounded his fists together.