When the two reached the fences, Ryne stopped in his tracks and refused to walk further. The warrior's frown deepened when he saw this and his ego took another blow.
'Rohilo is one thing, but even his disciple refuses to heed me now? Heh, you need to be taught a lesson.'
Quickly coming up with something to punish the kid standing in front of him and alleviating his anger, the triangular -eyes warrior revealed a wide, cunning, yet stiff smile and commented,
"Hey kid, it's not like I'm trying to disparage you but at your age, if you still haven't become a Grade-1 warrior, chances are, you'll likely be a loser all your life." Starting with a fake empathetic and grandiose tone that made him seem much closer than he was as if the warrior was casually and informally thinking of solutions in his stead, he attempted to convince Ryne to follow him.
"But don't worry kid, I know some Grade-2 little brothers and my Grade-1 disciple, who would be able to improve your performance through sparring with you. You must know, a warrior can only become formidable through fighting continuously, if you don't fight with all your heart, you can never advance as a warrior. " As the warrior saw Ryne showing signs of hesitation, he decided to strike his final blow here,
"Moreover, if you're worried about injuries, you can rest assured that with me there, they wouldn't dare to not show mercy, so how about it kiddo?"
Even back in his home, Ryne was a sheltered child, and although his 4 years outside have been quite an adventure, he didn't interact much with people. Therefore, he was unable to identify the malicious intentions underlying the kind and suggestive words of the warrior in front of him.
Since his master cared too much about him and was always afraid of causing him harm, intentionally or unintentionally, he never forced Ryne under extreme situations to whet him. This was the reason why, although both Ryne and Daney having similar abysmal talent, Daney was able to progress to Mid Grade-1 while Ryne wasn't able to even begin his journey as a warrior.
For all he cared about, it was worth giving a try. Ruminating till this point, he nodded his head sincerely before putting his condition along,
"Thank you, Mister but my master told me to wait here so I can't go too far away."
The warrior delightfully nodded his head at Ryne, "It's no problem, kiddo. Wait here, I'll bring my disciple here."
Saying his piece, he left, taking quick strides towards the tribe. Coincidentally, no one was left guarding the main entrance, the most crucial entry point of the tribe.
After 5 minutes, the warrior returned, along with a 7-8-year-old messy-haired child. The child was a head shorter than Ryne and had a self-satisfied smirk on his face but due to his missing canine, he gave off a silly impression to Ryne.
Without even waiting for Ryne to begin, he hoisted his fist at him and said, "So you're the trash I need to beat today?"
"...um I guess so." Ryne peeked at the warrior standing beside the child and noticed something off about his slightly curled up lips.
Catching Ryne peeking at him, the warrior's smirk widened further as he said,
"Ok, the two of you follow me." Saying this, he took a stride towards a dense thicket and stopped after walking around 100 steps inside, there was a little clearing made by someone with a sharp tool as the bushes nearby were cut neatly.
Ryne walked just behind the little kid that continued making snide remarks at each step,
"Why are you so slow?"
"I can punch a stone and crush it. What about you?"
"Wait for the beating, trash, I'll make you cry!"
Ryne, instead of feeling intimidated, felt embarrassed by the words that came out of the crude little boy's mouth, turning his face a little red, which made the little boy assume that Ryne was scared.
"Ok, begin." As soon as the warrior said the words, his disciple shouted some gibberish before taking a lunge towards Ryne with his right fist.
Even though Ryne had killed a lot of weak magical beasts over the years, it was still his first time sparring with a human. Unable to predict and unable to prepare, out of sorts, Ryne tried blocking it with his arms but instead, he was sent flying back 10 meters, tumbling down the ground.
*crack*
Ryne experienced a searing pain as his elbow bent at an unnatural angle. As he was trying to suppress his anguish, he saw a fist about to strike his face.
Almost out of habit, he summoned the only fire-elemental spell that he could cast instantaneously without chanting.
"Blazing bolt", although it a Grade-2 spell, Ryne's proficiency with it was astonishing due to it being the one of the spells that he had practiced continuously over the last 4 years of training.
The 'blazing bolt' that came out of his fingertip though, was embarrassingly small, only half an arm's length instead of the usual 2 meters long zipping bolt of fire.
It was still enough to scorch the arm of the little child, though, who quickly felt the same abundance of pain Ryne was feeling.
"Peak-Grade-1 mage!" The warrior enjoying from the sidelines let out a startled voice but before he could react, the little bolt of fire had already scorched his disciple's arm.
At first, the cunning warrior was annoyed at his disciple's incompetence but when he saw his arm, which had a layer of skin shed of, which would take at least a month to heal with the pills he would afford, he channeled all of his emotions into a rage that he directed towards Ryne.
Ryne, on the other hand, was gritting his teeth hard to avoid letting out a painful cry. He couldn't notice the strong hand that was rapidly reaching for his neck.
Ryne felt a tightening sensation around his neck and by the time he could fully comprehend what was happening, he was already hoisted high up in the air like a trickster's wand.
"You little SHIT, how DARE you?"
The world around him grew blurrier as the hand that held him gripped him tighter. It seemed to Ryne as if his eyes sockets were about to pop from their sockets. Nausea simultaneously hit him hard along with discomfort and pain as he tried to let out a mouthful of blood.
The hard grip though didn't even let do that as the blood remained stuck in his mouth.
A clear voice rang out.
"Ok, you can stop it now."
Just as the fuming warrior was about to crush his throat, the voice he heard calmed his hatred a notch.
"Senior Lumien!"
"Raphael, Why are you slacking off your duty? and why are you bullying this child now?" Lumien's frustrated voice reflected the annoyance he was feeling.
Rohilo and Raphael were supposed to be 'elite guards', yet both of them were found slacking at the same time.
Since he had left before he learned of Golver taking Ryne as his disciple and Chief announcing the adoption, he didn't know much about Ryne, yet a critical guard leaving his position and bullying a kid was enough to tick him off.
"Oh, it's this traitor. Is he finally exposed now, Uncle Raphael?" By this time, Daney reached the place as well and commented from the side as he saw the view.
Ryne coughed three mouthfuls of blood when Raphael released his grip and he was thrown to the ground.
Raphael gave Lumien a respectable bow with a dark expression adorning his face and left after giving Ryne a hateful stare.
At first, Lumien was about to leave the scene as it was but he stopped when he saw how delighted his disciple was seeing the weird kid rolling and wheezing for air.
'Such a strange kid.' Lumien looked at Daney and chuckled as he thought of a plan.