"I apologize for my rude behavior. Why don't we proceed with the buffet?" Borus smirked, pulling out a chair to sit down.
[Sly Fox. He just enhanced his dominance over the situation.]
Behind, the man whom words were played by Atlas was ushered out, taking the second seat beside Borus, while the rest continued guarding cautiously.
Borus played around the food with his chopsticks, but when he took a bite, he was in awe. "I must say. This is delicious! Who's the chef?"
"Me." Atlas answered humbly, also feasting on his own master piece.
"That's a pity." Borus sighed, placing his chopsticks on the table. "You could have been a legendary chef with such culinary skills. Too bad you chose the wrong path and became a kidnapper."
Atlas chuckled, carefully pouring wine from a wine bottle into a glass before mildly twirling the liquid within in a clockwise motion. "I've just been a fan, Mr. Borus. It's an honor to meet you. Care for a toast?"
Borus accepted the drink, sniffing its sweet aroma. "Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-Conti Grand Cru 1990. Expensive vintage red wine I smell. It would be a shame if it's contaminated with venom."
"Suit yourself. This is rare and expensive liquor." Atlas sipped the wine, smacking his mouth to better the taste.
[Ew. Alcohol is disgusting. Also, does smacking my lips make me look like a professional?]
{Nah. You look like an idiot.}
Borus grinned at Atlas's action. "You're right. It'll be a loss."
He drank his as well, so did the man beside him.
[He drank it!]
Atlas bit a capsule hidden in his jaw. Every professional knows that venoms require antidotes. In case of, you know, an emergency of when your creation backfires.
"The nostalgia from tasting this wine again." Borus smacked his lips as well, but in a more elegant and professional way. "The Coiling Dragon Arena always serves the best drinks. Anyone close to me will know...."
Borus stood up, slamming the table forcefully. "I hate those assholes!"
"Calm down!" Atlas stood up as well, glaring at Borus. "You messed up a table of wonderful food!"
Borus stared silently and intently at Atlas for a few seconds, before sitting back down, placing his hands not on the chopsticks anymore, but instead above his lap.
"Can I have my son back first?"
"Sure." Atlas gave Blade a look of confirmation.
Nodding, Blade sliced off the ropes binding Bob, freeing him instantly.
Bob stumbled forward, unable to react to the situation.
It's not hard to understand why.
He had to witness his biological father, kill the man who he thought was his father and has raised him for the past 18 years, by turning his head into mashed potatoes.
Inarticulate, Bob fumbled between running for his life in the opposite direction, or to walk towards the real 'father' who is here to save him.
Finally, he chose the latter.
"My son is everything to me." After a moment of silence, Borus said. He glanced at Bob, who was grimacing while pressing his palms against his temples, clearly trying to process everything going on.
Not a sentence Atlas is expecting from a man like Borus.
"Then why do you leave him outta your sight?"
"To keep him safe from what I do." He said.
[Still, your son ended up as a dickhead.]
Atlas murmured. "Then you really shouldn't entrust your son to a horrible influence."
"That's why he's dead now."
Despite the unnatural conversation, the tension seemingly soothed and several crows decided to seize the opportunity by nestling on the edges of the vacant industrial buildings.
However, the abrupt and nervous caws of spectating crows alerted Atlas of a potential upturn of event.
Borus scratched his neck, as if experiencing a tiny itch of some sort. "Let me tell you something interesting. Not many knows this, but I actually control the black markets here."
Atlas saw his hand twitch, and his eye lid twitched as well.
[That's not a very positive sign.]
"So I have access to each and every face entering, and leaving the compound. The goods they purchase is also something I keep track of."
Borus scratched his neck once more to soothe a discomfort.
"And I believe your people left a trail behind by accident."
Suddenly, immense danger unexpectedly washed over Atlas as he heard the next few words from Borus.
"You have no idea how sensitive Tier 6 Warriors are..."
Borus kicked aside the table, sending it flying before smashing into pieces on a concrete wall.
"To danger."
Pfh! He spat out the red wine, wiping his lips with his sleeve. "Impressive how you can make odorless, colorless and tasteless poison. But Warriors like I are grizzled enough to identify."
Atlas's expression immediately changed at the very moment Borus spat out the venom, but for the other man who drank the wine too, his expression changed even more drastically.
Then, sick paleness enveloped his face as he began wobbling intensely despite his muscular build.
"Luo! What's wrong!" One of the men guarding behind stepped forth to steady Luo, asking frantically. Borus also turned his attention onto Luo, his expression becoming grave.
The cavaliers brought from the Sinister Scales along with the Tier 6 Axonn, Borus, were two Tier 5 Axonn, 4 Tier 3 Axonns and 4 Tier 2 Axonns.
"Shit! The venom... it's... too poisonous..." Luo's skin looks like it has been replaced by white paint, whereas deadly black veins started running up his face, entering his brain.
His eyes rolled upwards till his pupils disappeared, and he was safe to announce dead as white foam oozed from the corner of his mouth.
"Luo! No! You idiot! You don't drink whatever your enemy serves at a feast!" Borus pounded the ground, displaying not sorrow, but instead frustration. He turned to Atlas, pointing at his handsome face in rage. "You killed one of my best men! I will rip you apart as a sacrifice to Luo!"
There is a huge gap in terms of strength in the Sinister Scales, for as including him, he only has two other trustworthy partners who are above the cultivation rank of Tier 5 Axonn.
He cannot afford losing 1 out of 5 of his next strongest batch of men, but reality has just shown how fragile a Tier 3 Axonn can be, even though they can be capable of inhuman activities.
"Lei Zhan! Go kill this kid!" Borus waved his arm, shouting a command. As the second strongest Tier 3 Axonn, right before Luo, Lei Zhan charged out from the group, ready to pulverize the Tier 3 Axonn in front of him.
After all, what's a Tier 3 Tyro Axonn gonna do to a more experienced, higher cultivation leveled, Tier 3 Expert like him?
"Die kid!" Lei Zhan roared, his fist diving at Atlas's face, his whole body emitting a determined intention to kill.
Atlas stood there with a bored look, studying his nails as if scrutinizing a magnificent artifact.
A gust of wind brushed across Lei Zhan's face, and alike the soft breeze of the wind, he felt the same amount of lightness on his arm, as if... as if it wasn't there anymore.