"Did you guys use us a bait?" A blood-covered youth asked, glaring at Gin and others of his group in contempt.
"Do you want us to praise you for lending a hand? If you have acted sooner, my friend could have lived." A youth shedding tears for his female friend bellowed, hatred burned in his eyes.
"I thought you were some kind of warrior, striving to kill the fiends but your actions were worse than the fiends. Thankfully, I didn't follow you!" Another youth spat.
A youth sheathed his dagger, sped towards Gin, roaring, "You should accompany my companion to the netherworld."
Unbothered about the hateful words, Gin smirked and caught the rushing youth by his neck and seized his dagger. Flinging the dagger away, he kicked the youth at his chest.
Not bothering about the youth who was coughing blood due to his kick, he spoke in a relaxed tone, "I am not good at holding back my strength so think twice before pointing your weapons at me."
"Apart from my life, my friends, and my loved ones — I don't care about any of you. And, none of you are qualified to judge me." Uttering such cool words, he walked away in style.
Gin wasn't angered by them as he got accustomed to hearing these types of thorny and hateful words for years. Reminiscing about the things he battled these past few years, Gin chuckled.
--
Memories of his childhood danced before him in bits, like a fast forward movie.
~"Don't think just because you are better in combat class, you are some kind of gifted person; Don't forget, you're just a waste who didn't awaken any spirit seal."
One of his closest friends suddenly spoke cold such words, stunning Gin. Only later he found, they feel inferior and resent him because he's better them; both in grades and combat class, even though he was trash.
~The teacher who always answered his questions enthusiastically, start to ignore him. His status plummeted from a favorite student to one that was ignored and overlooked.
~He was even targeted by bullies. He was 10 at that time, his world was small; apart from school, home, friends, and the training center he didn't understand anything.
When his small world starts to crumble, he didn't know what to do and was deeply hurt. He distanced himself, lessened his interactions, and shielded himself from the others.
Only a few peoples accompanied him at his troubled times, like Hammer who always stood by his side and cheered him as a Friend.
The things he experienced, matured his thoughts and taught him a valuable lesson about human nature and how things work in the world.
'Hammer, you missed such an exciting battle and adventure, knowing you, you will definitely regret it.' Gin mused and laughed.
Soon, Yirene's beautiful image emerged before his eyes. Gin suddenly shook his head, 'I am weak and I need to get stronger if I want to meet her again. It won't be long.'
--
"Shaun, I know you are a feeble-minded person but I can't believe you would join with a stranger and watch your fellow students getting slaughtered by the Fiends." A youth from the Rising Dragon academy spoke.
"Shut up, if not for him, none of you would be alive to utter such hateful words. If I were him, I would have let you bastards die." Shaun spoke in an angry tone.
"What are you trying to say?" Another youth asked.
"If not for us exhausting the Fiends by luring magical beasts and assassinating some of them, your souls would have already reached the netherworld."
"From the start, you bunch never stood a chance against defeating them, if not for us. A bunch of overblown wastes who can't differentiate between good and bad."
"What did you say? Shaun, do you realize who you are talking to?" Another youth who wore the same outfit as Shaun spoke with narrowed eyes while a dangerous gleam flashed past his eyes.
"Yes, I am talking to you all. What are you gonna do?" Shaun snickered.
"How dare you?" A youth stepped forward but was held by others. Since the other group played a big part in the battle, they can't criticize anymore.
In truth, the youths here can't accept the harsh truth — that they couldn't save their friends and fellow students because they are weak.
"Hehe, there's another 4000 some fiends in the beast garden. Wise up, if you want to defeat them and leave this ruin alive." Shaun uttered.
"What? Are you speaking the truth?" The human youths who were relaxing jolted up, hearing the grim news.
"Miss Luna, please explain to them," Shaun spoke and sprinted at the direction Gin left.
Shaun thought Gin left the area because he was feeling low. Of course, Gin wasn't feeling down, he even felt great spouting such cool words.
How could Shaun know that? He was busy thinking about what kind of words he needs to speak, to comfort Gin after catching up with him.
---
At the edge of the Beast garden,
Thousands of Fiends swamped the entire area like fireflies. All of them sat in groups, chattering, and cackling among themselves.
At the center of this noisy bunch, sat two figures discussing something – Zhyler and Hadeon.
Zhyler is a tall youth, with black hair and grey eyes. One of the distinguishing features about him is the skull-faced tattoo printed on the back of both his hands.
He wore a dark-purple leather outfit and fur coat over it. He exuded an air of supremacy as if he was a born leader.
Unlike Zhyler, Hadeon looks like a simplistic person. In fact, both of them looked like humans, as if they didn't inherit Fiend's characteristics; pale skins, murky eyes, dark and sinister air that surrounds them.
If placed in the crowd of humans, none would discover their identity.
Hadeon was athletic, tall, and was born with dark-green wavy hair while some dangled above his right eye.
He lovingly stroked his metallic blood-colored spear and asked: "Do you think that thing said by Fiend Lord is still alive?"
"Countless years passed since this Inheritance ground has been built, so the spirit governing this place should have passed away."
"At most, there should only be some weak array formations protecting the place but now, I can't be sure."
"Only the spirit governing the inheritance ground can command these magical beasts constructed from the arrays of this place." Zhyler solemnly stated.
"But, What I find confusing is? If the spirit knows we are intruders, Why are we still not completely annihilated?" Zhyler spoke, confused while Hadeon thoughtfully nodded.
"Did you received any other message from Raz, apart from his last one?"
"No, after his last message — I think my group is getting targeted by the same force—I didn't receive any."
"I have this unsettling feeling, that something terrible going to happen," Zhyler replied, lost in thought.
At that moment, Zyler's communication tool flashed with light. When he injected his essence energy, a message popped before both of their eyes.
"I think humans have killed Darkfang and his group. As we are already half-exhausted fighting the magical beasts, we are at a disadvantage."
"I don't think I can hold any longer, I am proud of being a Fiend." — Raz.
Reading the message, Zhyler didn't show any emotion but Hadeon gripped his spear tightly and spoke in a magnetic voice, "Rest well brothers, I will kill and send every single human youth present inside the ruin as an offering."
--
Gin twirled the red leaf in his hand and enjoyed its beauty as he walked – relaxed and carefree.
Unknown to him, three human shadowy figures were quietly following and watching his actions from the distance. They are none other Garyx and his fellow companions from the Silver dragon domain.
In fact, Garyx reached the battle location when he heard the sounds of conflict, just to witness the heated battle between human youths and Fiend minions.
He lied in wait to see how the battle will progress; if the humans showed signs of victory he planned to show up at a perfect moment and kill some fiends to gain others' favor.
Some of the youths in the group have a strong background similar to him, so winning their favors will enhance his influence and authority.
If the Fiends gain an upper hand, he will depart without leaving any trace as his life is more precious compared to the so-called favors.
When the human group showed signs of victory, he planned a perfect entrance and want to rescue some of the youths who were in the perilous situation.
But, his plans were overthrown when another human group[Gin's group] charged at the fiends from behind and that too led by Gin, whom he was supposed to kill.
At first, Garyx wanted to kill Gin because of Protector Jaux's request but after the little uproar and watching his battle, he wanted to destroy Gin for himself.
He has a hunch, an intuition; if he can't kill Gin today, he will become the biggest hindrance in his martial way.
He was waiting for a perfect opportunity to make a sneak attack on Gin. As he expected, an opportunity was presented before him.