The man was dressed up in black sweatpants, an all white shirt. And over that shirt was a black jacket with a dragon scale pattern.
After he unsheathed his sword, he stood in a defensive stance and awaited Patricia's arrival. And as expected, Patricia had taken the offensive and began charging towards the man.
The man stood there calmly with a wide smirk plastered across his face. His brown eyes tracking each and every aspect of Patricia's body, he was evaluating her strength but had the sole purpose of looking for her weakness.
Then a few seconds later their weapons had clashed and Patricia's body shook in pain as she was sent flying through the air. The man had completely overwhelmed her with his strength, but his main target was her slightly above average gauntlets.
If one could see Patricia's gauntlets up close then they would easily notice the one with cracks running through it projecting the image of spiderwebs.Though her other one had only been slightly chipped.
That's because upon reaching the strange man's location, Patricia for the second time in her life had felt unwavering danger and also she could sense it… the man's strong intent to kill.
It had sent shivers up her spine but this wasn't her first time encountering such, which is why she made her left hand take up most of the damage and not her dominant hand.
"You're pretty good for a beginner, but let me tell you something that'll shake your world. That attack you suffered so severely from didn't even utilize Ki!" He yelled over to Patricia who was still on the ground recovering.
As he said those words, he could practically see Patricia cower in fear. That was until she had envisioned someone who she thought to be much stronger than her current opponent, this was of course her master.
So she slowly rose to her feet, though that was all the time the man needed to reach her location.
And as he did, he slowly said,"Don't worry, I won't kill you, so consider yourself lucky. My Trophy." He said before sheathing his sword and knocking Patricia out with a quick chop to the back of her neck.
Thud!
That was the sound of Patricia's body hitting the ground, though luckily, it wasn't lifeless.
And after a good twenty seconds passed, the man sighed as he dropped down to the ground beside Patricia. "Master was right, bluffing can truly get you out of a pickle." The man said while checking his ki storage.
He had used over a total of thirty Ki in one quick attack and had been left exhausted mentally and physically. He had never before attempted this stance; his master's idle move.
Why hadn't Patricia seen his sword glow? Because he had waited until the moment upon impact to release his Ki all at once, thus rushing it out of his body in a hoard.
Then once he had recovered most of his strength and was stable, he carried Patricia back to his spot.
The spot was an indent into a hill hidden by tall trees, it wasn't the best of spots but it would surely do.
"Now after I tie her up, I'll rest a bit before I make her tell me the required information that the master wanted. After all, I've been in the Golden for at least a few months or was it a year?"
"All in all, this should be a cake walk." He said before he rested his head on a tree. A place where he could spot Patricia if she tried to break free from her binds and generally just monitor her movements.
Around this time, both I and Autumn had arrived back at the agreed upon spot.
"Where is the woman, shouldn't she have been with you?" Autumn asked, while she was dressed back up in her original attire along with all of her piercings.
"I don't know, we agreed to meet back here after a little while. Maybe she lost track of time?" I said while looking around.
"Or maybe she got caught and sent back to the start." Autumn replied.
"I don't think so, she wouldn't be that dumb as to get caught already, would she?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, after all we've known her for the same amount of time."
"Well while we wait, we might as well share information. Since it was my idea obviously I'll go first." I said while analyzing Autumn's appearance.
Seeing as I had practically been training my alertness, I'm able to detect almost the slightest change in a person's appearance.
'Isn't she missing a nose ring?' I thought before upright asking her.
"Aren't you missing a nose ring?" I asked while staring intensely trying to see if I could spot anything else wrong with her appearance.
"Oh yeah, it must have fallen out along the way here." She said calmly before approaching me.
"Now are we just going to stand here or are we sharing intel?"
"Alright. So on my way here, I discovered some sort of secret cave. It was even furnished with bear and beast rugs."
I said looking down on the woman in front of me, ever since all that took place in the lab that day, I had grown someone where around five foot eleven.
Or it was during the month I spent alone, one of the two.
Anyways, once I had finished my report, Autumn's entire body was frozen.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
'Could she know who made the cave? Or is it something else?' I thought before Autumn grabbed both of my hands.
"Can you show me the way? It sounds like the perfect place to stay. Plus I don't think Patricia's coming back here anyway."
She said as she pressed her front against mine with only our hands being held keeping some personal space.
"Sure," I said before taking my hands away and turning around, quickly.
'She's trying to take control of my male emotions. But I must be strong!' I thought before leading the way back to the hidden cave.
Once we arrived I was able to notice a change in both the sky and Autumn's appearance. For the sky, it was now night and no longer midday.
As for Autumn, she now had her nose ring back in place. And there was the same color ring as the two I wear on my fingers on her hand.
This meant that…
'Autumn must have a space ring as well.'
"Just right through here is the place," I said while holding up some dead vines that covered the entrance place. And it revealed the small hole that one needed to enter to see the cave.
After I went through, Autumn soon followed once through a felt excitement course throughout her entire body.
"I'm here, inside of one of his great spots. Hey, whatever your name is, don't touch anything who knows what the person that made this might do if we were to break something of theirs." Autumn said after mumbling the first part of her sentence, though it was loud enough for me to process.
'Weird how could she know more about this than me, even if she has someone backing her? I thought uncle was higher than normal members in the Golden, could her backer outrank Ka'dar?'
"Sure I won't, and I'm not hungry. So, I'm going to just head to bed." I said.
Though the truth is…
'I couldn't possibly fall asleep knowing that there's a person in the same room as me and I can't completely trust them.'
'For one she faked her physical test and kept her space ring hidden in who knows where. She seems very untrustworthy.'
I thought before laying down on a bear rug and closing my eyes.
'I'd never be so dumb as to fall asleep with a stranger around me.' Or so I thought until I awoke the next morning.