"So, wanna tell me how you got these bruises? I didn't want to ask you next to the entrepreneurs, but it's time you cough it out. Who beat my little brother?"
After Richard and Shumar left the room, leaving Leo and Glottis alone, it was time to give answers.
"Ah, Big Brother, it was just a silly fight at school."
"Do you think I don't know you didn't go to school?"
"Oh. Come on, did you hire spies to wait for me out of the gate? Fine, it was on the way to school, but it was against a classmate," Glottis, his annoyance apparent, explained what happened quickly.
"And you brewed a plot to get revenge together with that thug friend of yours?" Leo's expression turned contemplative as he considered intervening for his brother's sake.
"Yes, we will get him in a few hours, there's nothing to worry about," Glottis reassured. He knew that Leo disliked Donny's illegal activities. Not because Leo was a righteous civilian, but because it'd ruin Glottis' reputation if he hung out with known criminals, and even worse, it'd ruin the Sonora's family's reputation.
"Fine. Just to be safe, take this gun. It should be enough to deal with cultivators of the first stage, and I don't think a random boy your age can be anything stronger than that," Leo nodded and decided to trust his brother, a decision he usually regretted. Just to be safe, he gave him a pistol in case things went south.
"Don't worry. I will be on my way then."
"Good luck, ask Annie for a pill when you get home, we should have something that can heal bruises almost instantly."
---
Donny and Glottis met in the evening outside the club, and the latter entered a black car with his friend.
"Is everything prepared?" Glottis asked nervously. He wasn't used to cleaning his own mess, if that could be called that. Perhaps dealing with his own mess would be a better phrasing.
"Yes, my man drives that other car, and ten men, of them five are Qi Consolidation cultivators, are waiting in the designated place."
"Good. Let's go and watch the show."
---
"Dad, I'm sorry! Mike is useless and couldn't save you!" Mike cried bitterly in front of his father's coffin. The undertakers lifted the coffin to the hearse, and they agreed to let Mike ride with them to the graveyard.
Mike was heartbroken when he heard his father didn't survive the injuries from the car accident. He instructed his little sister to stay at home and locked the door behind him, promising her to be back shortly after. He did not want her to get traumatized by the funeral.
He was busy reminiscing the memories he had with his father. The way they played catch together when he was a little boy, the late hours his father returned from work, all tired and worn out, because he had to take care of two children by himself.
"AH!" The driver shouted in fright, prompting Mike to look up. His eyes widened in surprise; a black car came right at them, driving on the opposite side of the road.
"No!" He could only shout this single syllable when he remembered his father's corpse lying behind.
*BOOM!*
Mike was thrown out of the car, breaking the windshield on his way out. As a cultivator, his confidence rose and he stopped paying attention to safety, and his seatbelt was not fastened.
"Argh!"
*Cough* *Cough*
The young man coughed out as he held his side. He knew he broke quite a few ribs this time around, as well as his right arm. The rest of his body was wounded, bruised, and bleeding.
"Haha, good to see you again, Mike Teuto. I remembered your name, you should be happy!"
Mike lifted his head and squinted his eyes as he tried to concentrate beyond his pain. He knew he would be dead from the crash if not for his cultivation, but he was still not in a position to fight. To his dismay, he saw two men, and he recognized one of them.
A tanned youth with short black hair and brown eyes whom he kicked and humiliated only a few hours ago – Glottis. The other man was a tall black guy with an afro. Mike didn't recognize him, but knew this man was not an ally.
"Haha, Mike, was it?" Donny laughed, "Your father is quite unfortunate this week, he was involved in a car accident, twice!"
"Hahaha!"
"You…" Mike finally realized what was going on, "You did it! You have no shame! You degraded a dead man's body, do you have no values at all?!" Mike screamed.
"Now you just hurt our feelings. Of course we do, that's why we only did it to a dead man; we would never do such a thing to a living person," Glottis nodded righteously, ignoring the wounded men in the hearse and the fact that Mike himself was lying on the ground beneath him.
"I WILL KILL YOU!" Mike screamed, but getting worked up only made him cough more blood and suffer sharp surges of pain.
"That's what I said earlier today. Now, do you remember how you kicked me while I was down?"
*Thud!*
"AH! Hypocrite, I didn't kick you while you were down, I took you down and then kicked you! Shameless coward!"
*Thud!*
"Same! Thing!"
*Thud!* *Thud!*
"Apologize and I will stop," Glottis said with schadenfreude.
"I will not apologize!"
When Glottis tried to kick him again, Mike ignored the pain and grabbed his ankle. With a groan, he pulled him and threw his enemy away. Glottis rolled a few meters on the floor, earning a few new wounds in the process.
"Shit, he's strong!" Donny exclaimed before continuing from the same place his friend stopped. "I think this guy is at the second stage, we are lucky we didn't face him head-on," Donny shared his deduction with Glottis who clenched his teeth and debated with himself whether kicking Mike was worth the risk of getting flung again.
'Wait, I have an idea. Isn't his father important to him?' A thought finally struck him.