Old cane lady aka 'Grand Elder' was infuriated at the sight of Ruthless and his swordsman and so were the rest of the oldies. They took a couple steps backwards as they stopped whatever they were doing and faced the Ruthless and the men and women who were exiting the portal in their numbers. Old man Jenkins saw a chance to make a move but unexpectedly, as he turned towards the nearest opponent, the blur faced him as well and frowned. Old man Jenkins looked her in the eyes as the young oldie sent a message to him telepathically.
'Jenkins, how about a truce?'
'Truce?'
'Yes, truce! If you help us, we will release Alice to you. It is not too late as the brainwashing has not begun to damage their brains yet. At least, not severely. It is not too late to save your granddaughter.' She quickly bargained without wasting time on trivialities.
'Why should I help you? What makes me sure that you will not backstab me all over again?' Old man Jenkins asked. His green mist veil that covered him from head to toe grew thicker and more condensed as he thought about the betrayal and Alice.
'Because we could have gotten rid of her to distract you but we did not.' The youngest old lady answered him even as she scanned through the crowd that had just exited the portal and were excited and impatient to begin their fight, or as they believed it would be; slaughter.
Personally, old man Jenkins was not convinced and he made it known through his thoughts.
'Look, listen, we were going to kill you and that boy as at half a minute ago, but now, an even bigger and worse enemy has appeared with a number of people which cannot even be considered one-tenth of his actual army. He is definitely confident that he can take care of all of us with this many people. And let us not forget, men like him are our worst enemies. Fight with us and I promise we will let Alice go.'
Old man Jenkins thought a little about it and figured that he did not have much of a choice. Alice would die if they lost so he might as well fight and raise the odds in their favor a little more.
'Wait, you have to release the kid as well and I mean, right now!' Old man Jenkins said as he saw that Wilson was battered and was weakly struggling against the lady that was strangling him from behind.
***********
About three minutes ago, Wilson watched three women and two men join the bulky, seven feet six oldie that now looked like a thirty-three years old with devastatingly good looks. They surrounded him in a tight formation.
"Kid, I am sorry, but you need to be neutralized!" the hunk said and instantly rushed at Wilson with his blank listless face looking especially cold.
As Wilson wanted to step forward, he sensed danger and jumped sideways. A small fireball landed where he was before and exploded. Wilson's flesh squeezed together from the intense heat and he hissed in pain. Just as he was trying to adjust to the pain, a fist came at his right cheek. He dodged by moving his head backwards but was immediately grabbed in a sleeper hold. Wilson cursed in his mind.
'Who is this grappler? Why am I getting involved with grapplers so much?' Wilson asked himself. He was about to stomp on his grappler's feet when he saw the bulky oldie arrive before him and swung his fist at Wilson's face. Wilson raised his arms to block his face but that was only a diversion, the oldie stopped his swinging fist midway and punched Wilson's chest, instantly breaking a couple ribs. Wilson felt his body instantly weaken. He did not understand what was going on. All he knew was that the combination of the sleeper hold and the punch had caused his adrenaline to disappear. He felt there was more to it than met the eye but he could not figure it out and he did not even have the time to. He needed to escape this grappler. She was clearly more skilled than the grappler at the training room, the one he had killed.
'Oh, is that it? Are the two of them related? Perhaps, siblings? Or maybe mother and child? Or simply relatives? It does not matter. I need to get out of here fast.' Wilson thought and struggled to free himself. He tried to push her to the floor but she was obviously stronger than he was and only ended up with his feet swinging in the air. He wanted to stomp her feet, grab her hair, hit her with his elbow, but no matter what he tried, she did not loosen her grip, it only got tighter and tighter.
The oldie hit Wilson in his stomach twice leisurely. He was obviously taking his time. The other four fighters that had come to help the oldie felt that they were not needed at all. Why were so many people assigned to this young handsome boy if he was not much of a fighter to begin with? Where was the danger the elders said he possessed? This kid was obviously a terrible fighter. A noob. He had too little experience and skill.
'Tsk, tsk, what a waste of time.' They thought and turned to look at the other group but could see nothing through the dense white mist.
Time slowly passed and Wilson got weaker and weaker. They were intentionally dragging things out. They could have killed Wilson a long time ago but instead, chose to make him die slowly. The oldie punched his chest and face leisurely and the grappler slowly tightened his neck until finally, he could not breathe. When the oldie saw Wilson's face slowly change color from lack of oxygen, he smiled and punched Wilson's chest again but with a lot more force this time. Blood rose and got stuck in Wilson's throat. He choked and unconsciously tried to cough but due to the grapple, he could not cough out which only made the choking worse. Wilson was drowning on his own blood and losing consciousness when the portal had fully opened and Ruthless had appeared and started talking dirty.
***************
'Steph, release the boy!' The youngest old lady commanded the female grappler.
"What? No way! He killed my brother!" Steph yelled out loud.
"Release him." The old cane lady said with a frown as she tried not to take her eyes off Ruthless in anger. The bulky oldie that beat up Wilson, seemed to have received an instruction as he suddenly turned to face Steph who was by his right. He moved closer to her with an intimidating look on his face. She was intimidated but was also unwilling to let go. She retreated with Wilson in her tight grip, taking a step back every time the intimidating, bulky oldie took a step forward.
Ruthless, on the other hand looked at Steph and the boy that was slowly dying in her grip.
"Oh? Is that not the boy that escaped prison after surviving the Abyss? Were you the one that helped him escape prison? Impressive, impressive indeed. So tell me Steph, what did he do to your brother that is making you disobey your superior? Isn't it just killing the boy to avenge your brother? Why don't you join me and fight against your superiors and I will preserve the boy for you to torture as much as you want? After all, I, unlike your superiors don't mind you killing the handsome miscreant. Just you join me and I will ensure the boy gets what he deserves." Ruthless offered. He was not afraid to recruit anyone in front of their superiors.
"How dare you Ruthless? Trying to persuade my juniors to go against me? Do you really think she will agree to your offer for such a stupid reason?" Old cane lady yelled at Ruthless furiously.
Ruthless only smiled at her. He knew she was scared of him. After all, he made sure to leave a lasting mark on her in particular when they had last met. He ensured he left her traumatized and he could see that she had not yet gotten over her trauma. So, he smiled with an understanding look, then he asked with a cool, calm tone.
"You scared? Why are you yelling?"