"Ah, there you are. We've been waiting for some time, master Aries. Master Scorpio is just over there."
A well-dressed old man stepped forward as soon as they opened the door, then passed through it. The curt man seemed to be in his later days, with a patch of white hair on top of his head. Despite that, though, he held a somewhat robust posture, straight and true like an arrow. His hands were behind his back, showing hospitality and hidden agendas, as if he was ready to stab the two at any time with a hidden blade.
He bowed with elegance, a mark of a true servant, and motioned the two to take a seat at a pair of comfortable sofas in the middle of the room.
Lieren squinted his eyes and looked at a somewhat familiar figure — Scorpio of the Mocný family.
Not bothering to fix his attire, he put a brave and daring front on, confidently stepped forward, and sat opposite the teenager, probably about fifteen or sixteen-years old.
"…! Ah, you actually came. I was starting to think you were going to run away and hide behind your guardian, or something. Color me wrong."
Resting his back with an outwardly relaxed temperament, Lieren put hid hands together and responded with an equally-mocking tone:
"Haha! That's funny. Very funny. I really thought you were thinking about yourself. My bad, my bad."
'I'll provoke him for now, just to see what he knows.'
"Hngh…"
The angst teenager grunted in a low tone, and gripped the sofa. His claw-like hands dug into the fine leather and stuffing very easily, as if he was a rabid beast nesting in the wild woods.
Scorpio was rather well-built, with lean muscles rolling under his skin — solid proof of many years spent hard at work. He was more slim than thin, except for his broad shoulders and childish face. He seemed to be on the brink of adulthood, well on his way to becoming a full-on adult. He had gleaming brown eyes, bright and shiny. His simple suit outfitted him very complementary.
Compared to that, Lieren looked nothing more than a toddler — an older toddler, sure, but a toddler nonetheless. His muscles hadn't fully developed, and his face was still that of baby's. Still, in a way, that made him even more threatening, his strength significantly more surprising. It gave him an advantage against new foes, but not with the person right in front of him. Or anybody who knows him, for that matter.
As Mysta stood next to him and retained her straight posture, like an attendant should, Lieren stabbed one elbow on the sofa and rested his cheeks on his hand as if he truly couldn't care about what was to happen.
Just as Lieren was about to say something, Scorpio decided to take the initiative and ask first:
"So, why this place? You clearly don't seem to like it — appalled, even. It's an oddity."
'....'
"You're… pretty calm, huh. Weird, wouldn't have pinned you as that type."
Having seen and heard Scorpio yell at him from great heights, he'd really thought that the man would have been more… temperamental, should we say. However, that seemed to be nothing more than a façade, cold and false.
Or, at least, it seemed to be. Truth be told, Lieren had done some pretty nasty things to the man, and after looking back on it, his anger may have been more justified than he thought.
Scorpio, nor quite understanding his question, raised a brow and shifted a little.
"And why is that? Because I yelled at you. Fool! I was at a high place and you were at they very bottom. Of course I would be yelling at you."
Fixing his posture a little bit, Lieren rested his back on the sofa and smiled ammicably.
'…Well, I guess that's true. I forgot to take into account environmental factors.'
Then, his thought suddenly turned cold like ice as he felt the mood tense, in a way that he had not grown familiar to yet, but has learned to recognize.
Killing intent.
The man wanted to kill him, take his pendants, and win this competition.
Calming his mind in a few seconds, Lieren looked back at the man with an ice-cold gaze.
'So much for information gathering. I wasn't even able to make him talk for a while. What a blunder.'
Standing up without a word, he unsheathed his brilliant dagger and brandished it with familiarity. Throughout the passing week since obtaining the striking blade, he had grown accustomed to its shape and weight, and learned to use it more efficiently.
Lieren glared at the man coldly.
"Hmph. So, you're still sticking to that, huh."
Not bothering to stand up, the man flashed wicked grin and glare at him, too. His, however, were taunting and playful, as if a new game was about to begin.
"I'll be taking those pendants from you now, Aries."
◇◆◇◆◇
'Behind!'
Feeling a cold shiver run down his spine like a lightning bolt, Lieren skipped to the side with a mana-infused step, carrying him farther than he usually would.
As soon as he did, a large spear suddenly rose from the walls behind him and flew out at astonishing speed, missing him by a hair's breadth. It was sharp and pointed, enough to easily pierce through him easily just from pure kinetic force alone.
*FLASH!*
A blinding outburst of unnatural light suddenly emitted from Scorpio's body, completely hiding him from view and obscuring Lieren's vision, throwing him in disarray. It was all so sudden and quick that he reflexively threw his hand up to shield his eyes, which themselves were already closed.
In the end, that only served to further lower his guard.
"…What?"
Looking down with a pale expression, Lieren looked down at his leg, where a piece jagged rock was peeking out from the other side of it, like some kind of mole. A remorseful expression took over his face.
'Oh, this is bad. Really bad!'
He had miscalculated.
Hurriedly fortifying his legs and running mana through his channels, Lieren burst forward and broke off the earthen protrusion with his dagger, leaving the stone lodged in his leg for the time being. It was thin and sharp, condensed to the finest point in order to pierce through his augmented skin, muscles, bones, and blood vessels.
But in the face of the devious teenager, it seemed nothing more than crude paper made by a novice. Flimsy and pathetic, with no visible future prospects. And yet, he continued on, dashing through a barrage of manipulated earthen spears protruding and launching from the walls, ceilings, and floor like some kind of manmade maze.
'I have to get this out!'
Gritting his teeth in pain, Lieren desperately clung to his leg, tried to pull out the murderous object, and immediately gave up when another spear jut out of the ground. Except, this time, they weren't condensed or enhanced. Rather, they were merely manipulated constructs, without much mana or focus put into them to further hone their physique.
"Damn it!" Cursing under his breath, Lieren threw his head back and flexed his back, recalling the flowing aspect of master Feng's solid and flowing battle art.
Performing a backflip with a damaged leg was not an easy task — monumental, even. But possible under the right circumstances. And he just barely met those, even with all of his talent, ability, and experience combined.
As soon as his feet had done a complete one-eighty in midair and landed on the floor behind him with a reverse spin, a half dozen crudely-made earthen spears shot from where he just was, almost skewering him like a kebab.
Fixing his orientation with the same solid and flowing battle art, he then recalled Vesba's battle art — specifically its deceptive and unexpected nature.
He took a deep breath.
'It's okay. I've done image training. I doubt it's enough but something is better than nothing… right?'
Before his doubts can fully form, Lieren willed his Resistance to become thicker and cling to his body more, protecting his soul and keeping his mana more internalized, greatly reducing its leakage and giving him just the slightest boost in strength, endurance, physical power, and bodily resilience.
It wasn't a lot, but it was something.
Glaring at Scorpio, he grabbed Taurus' pendant and dug deep down, reaching for that well of vitality, energy, and constitution that had helped him in the past…
He desperately needed its power, more than ever, perhaps.
However…
'Please, please, please, please, please… huh... what?!'
Life is not always fair. In fact, it rarely is.
"It's… empty." He unconsciously blurted out, his blue eyes filled with silent horror.
Meanwhile, more and more spears jutted out of the ground… all of it pointed at him.