The South Bamboo Forest was a forest of only bamboo trees.
Unlike normal bamboo trees though, some of these trees were mutated, growing as thick as a normal human's waist after decades of growth.
The hideout of the Bearman Gang was under a thick covering of bamboo trees at an open place in this forest.
They bravely choose this location as their hideout because they saw this forest as their turf. Another reason was, no one would expect them to be gutsy enough to place their hideout in such an open location in the forest.
The Bearman Gang consisted of almost 40 astral travelers.
Their real number was over 100 gangsters but most of these were just gangsters who were not talented enough to awaken astral energy, they were the grunt workers of this notorious gang of Centerpoint City.
Of the 40 real gangsters, most of them were Legionnaire Stage Warriors, mostly mid-tier and high-tier. There were only 3 Knight Stage Warriors.
These 3 formed the backbone of this astral traveler gang, and it was what helped them claim the position as one of the most notorious gangs in this city.
That night though, the Bearman Gang feasted in the forest.
2 drums of palm wine were placed on the ground as they celebrated their catch. Today, they managed to catch a big fish.
"Hey, can you give me some?"
They turned to look at him.
"Hehe," He chuckled. "I mean, some palm wine, I want to take part too. What's a man without enjoyment, right?" He laughed.
Jolly was 17 years old; he was handsome but looked pretty thin for a boy of such background. Like most of his siblings, he had the Macintosh trademark inheritance of light brown hair, his hair was short and neat though now filled with dirt.
The gangsters kept him inside an animal metal cage.
The leader of the Bearman Gang, Bear Fighter Jones was a hefty black middle-aged man who already had decades to hone his combat power and experience.
He wore dirty brown trousers while exposing his bare chest that had a sword scar running through it.
His 2nd in command was seated beside him, a slim red-haired man who seemed like your normal unassuming bloke on the street.
Hearing Jolly's words, Jones laughed. "He's a rare big catch and our reason for feasting tonight, what do you say we give him so palm wine?"
"Let's give him some?"
"Let's give him some!" They cheered.
And they gave Jolly some.
They were so confident in their 3rd in command, Ego's scouting skills in the wild and was what gave them the confidence to be so noisy in here.
As they feasted, Jones suddenly furrowed his brows.
"What?" His second in command asked.
"Ego took more than his usual time to return with a report this time".
His second in command downed another cup of palm wine. "Relax, you know how good Ego is, perhaps another merchant crew is passing by and he's waiting for them to leave completely before returning".
"You're right". Jones laughed and grabbed another cup of palm wine.
Just as he grabbed the cup, he felt something.
"Oh, it seems he's back".
"The silent scout is back!" The crew cheered.
Thud! Thud!
Silence.
Total silence suddenly descended among this gang as they stared at the 2 brats that swaggered into their midst with reckless abandon.
Where was Ego?
Freya's eyes were focused. "Finish the second in command and help me, I'll be tying him down before you come".
"With pleasure". Ramon's eyes narrowed.
"Movement Astral Technique: Cheetah's Dash!"
Whoosh!
The red-haired man's eyes widened in shock as the boy appeared directly before him in nothing but an instant. 'What?!'
His astral energy erupted, gray astral energy as he sprang to his feet the next moment even as he spread his hand in a blocking shape.
It seemed like a normal block but with the information that Freya already siphoned out of Ego, Ramon knew exactly what this was.
Bzzz!
His golden energy erupted, part of it converging on his eyes the next moment as the world changed, becoming much clearer and brighter in his vision.
This was a basic astral energy technique that Mr. Guendouzi taught them in their 4th year.
'Sometimes, you'll meet Manipulators with invisible weapons'.
'To match them move for move and read their unpredictable attacks, converge your astral energy in your eyes and focus'.
'If you focus it well, you should be able to see the traces of astral energy in the air which will also enable you see the invisible'.
At this moment, Ramon saw the invisible.
Spreading his hand in a normal blocking shape was a bluff, Mr. gangster already summoned his invisible whip and he blocked with it at this moment.
If Ramon charged head-first into it without detecting the danger, this invisible whip with sharp edges would slice his body into 2 parts.
Ramon halted to a stop, canceling his movement astral technique just before he collided against the invisible whip even as his golden astral energy erupted even more, coating his sword.
"Sword Technique: Quick Draw!"
It was a downward slash after rapidly unsheathing his sword from its sheath.
Whoosh!
Mr. gangster's eyes widened. 'What?!'
His fast reaction saved his life having read the move the instant that the boy halted, yet he could not fully dodge it. The boy's attack speed was unreal.
Mr. gangster lost his right ear to that slash.
Blood splattered as he covered his bleeding ear even as he groaned in pain.
Bear Fighter Jones finally detected the danger of this brat as he sprang to his feet. "In my territory? You dare…!"
Whoosh!
"Kyujutsu Astral Technique: Wind Arrow!"
"Specialist Self-Created Astral Technique: Probability of Hit- 7/10!"
"Specialist Self-Created Astral Technique: Probability Damage- 9/10!"
Freya Atreus' Specialist ability was related to manipulating probability.
Born with a natural affinity to wield a bow and arrow effortlessly, over the years in Centerpoint Astral Academy, she built her limitless potential specialist ability to fit her combat style.
During her third year, she created her first self-created astral technique, a technique that enabled her to manipulate the probability of hitting her prey when she unleashed her arrow from her bow.
With her normal ability and talent, when fighting against normal astral warriors of her level, her hit rate with her bow and arrow was 10/10, 100%.
When fighting stronger astral warriors of her level, this rate decreases, and when fighting freaks like herself like Aegon and Ramon, it decreases even more.
With this technique, she gained the ability to manipulate this probability of hit. By expending astral energy, she could increase her probability of hit.
Originally, when going up against an astral traveler that was a tier stronger than her, and who was a veteran with decades of experience under his belt, her normal probability of hitting him with an attack was just 3/10 or lesser in her scaling.
And it was 3/10 because she was freakishly talented with her bow and arrow.
Yet, by expending her astral energy, Freya managed to increase this probability of hit to a staggering 7/10, decreasing Jones' chances of dodging.
She created her 2nd self-created specialist ability during the beginning of her 5th year, and the principles were more or less the same.
The difference was that instead of manipulating her hit rate this time, she manipulated the probability of critical hit and how much damage her attack would deal when it hit her target.
Bear Fighter Jones was an Evolver, a powerful one.
His skin was thick having trained for so long and attacks from lower-tiered experts barely ticked him, not this time though, Freya already manipulated probability in her favor to an incredible margin of 9/10.
Jones sprang to his feet. "In my territory? You dare…!"
His words were cut short by what followed.
BAM!
Jones felt his face fat jingle like coins hitting against each other as the arrow that he thought he already dodged dug into his cheek, mere centimeters away from digging into his skull.
All the flesh and blood vessels in his right cheek were ruptured as this veteran gangster felt a sharp spike of pain register in his brain.
"Ah!" He grunted, shocked.
'What was that?!' He thought.
'What just happened?'
"Wind Technique: Level 1 Wind- Gust!"
"Kyujutsu Astral Technique: Multiple Wind Arrows!"
Freya was a Warrior Transmutator.
Now a Knight Stage Warrior, and with her better grasp over her wind affinity, she was able to use this basic wind mage transmutator technique.
A gust of wind picked up as soon as she activated the technique, then loading 5 arrows into her bow at the same time, she unleashed them.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
"…!" Jones felt the danger and jumped back in shock.
This was when the other gangsters finally realized what was happening.
"Boss!" They sprang to their feet, scrambling for their weapons.
They dared not interfere though; this was a fight above their level.
But they stared at their 2 enemies in shock. 'These 2 brats…, Knight Stage Warriors?!"
'How?! The world is so unfair!'
Dodging the girl's barrage of arrows, still shocked by everything that was happening even as he thought of Ego, Jones turned to look at his 2nd in command.
As soon as he looked, this veteran felt even more shocked.
"Self-Modified Astral Technique: Repeated Quick Draw!"
During his 2nd year in his first expedition to the Wheat Trye Wilderness, fighting against astral beasts, Ramon followed his instincts and came up with this modified version of his Quick Draw technique that enabled him to use it non-stop.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
As soon as he cut off the red-haired gangster's ear, disoriented by the stinging pain, he no longer had the time to recover as the boy's barrage followed.
"Are you the one who cut the girl's head?!" Ramon roared at him even as his hand sliced and diced at incredible speed.
The red-haired man barely kept up, defending with his invisible whip.
"Are you the one who cut the girl's head?!"
"Answer me!"
Seeing that the red-haired man had no intentions of answering, Ramon took a deep breath and suddenly retreated.
The red-haired man's eyes gleamed as he saw the opportunity.
Whoosh!
He made use of a technique as he swung his deadly whip forward for a deadly attack but Ramon's eyes gleamed as he stared him back in the eye.
"Kenjutsu Sword Technique: Mountain Block!"
BOOM!
Ramon blocked the full attack but he didn't stop at that, he counterattacked.
"Battojutsu Sword Technique: Mountain Thrust!"
The finishing combo move from the Immovable Mountain Swordsman.
Hungrily devouring all the residual golden energy left after blocking the attack, Mountain Thrust worked by using this energy as momentum to complete the combo move, a terrifying thrusting counter-attack filled with heavy force like that of a huge broad sword.
BAM!
The red-haired man's eyes widened; he looked down only to see the sword that seemed to become a huge broad sword for a second now inside his belly.
He felt his insides twist and shake.
"Ugh…!" He coughed blood.
He looked at the boy, Ramon looked into his eyes.
"Battojutsu Sword Technique: 4 Tempest Slash!"
Whoosh!
Pulling his sword out of the man's abdomen even as blood poured like a fountain, he slashed 4 times before he could react and, in an instant, this man lost 4 of his most important body parts.
He lost his 2 legs and his 2 hands from the knees and ankle down.
"ARGHHH…!" He screamed in pain as he collapsed on the ground while bleeding heavily.
Bear Fighter Jones saw this scene and this was his cue to jakpa.
Jakpa was a slang in Stoneflower State meaning to run.
This man's eyes showed no hesitation when he made his decision. 'A monster!'
'Freaks!'
'2 freaks!'
Ramon finally turned his head, fixating his gaze on the leader as he readied his sword to attack but he was shocked.
"Movement Astral Technique: Disappearing Feet!"
Whoosh!
Like a ghost, Bear Fighter Jones disappeared.
"…"
"…"
"…..!"
Ramon was stunned. "He ran?!"
"Coward!" He roared at the forest.