Rudra entered the courtyard and saw the whole courtyard was bustling with those busy members, whereas many members were holding heavy metallic crates in their hands transporting them to the entrance.
Rudra out of curiosity asked one of the clan members who instructed the others to take the crates carefully and as the supervisor, he was observing everything very carefully. "Hey, where are you guys transporting such heavy crates?"
As soon as the supervising member and the other nearby members of the branch heard this, they looked at Rudra with awkward expressions. The supervisor looked at Rudra very carefully and then looked at his badge.
"Maybe, you have recently been transferred to this branch, we have extracted a lot of minerals recently from the town-side river and the leader of our clan has asked us to transport all these minerals as soon as possible in his presence in the clan.", the supervisor boy said.
"Umm, I am seeking some help, I need to head to Kashvyagiri city immediately.", asked Rudra.
"For what reason!", that boy asked.
"I was on a venture in the nearby forests for training but lost the way back to the city, somehow I found this town and decided to ask for help!", Rudra explained
"Okay, we will help you, but first I will have to ask the captain of this branch.", the boy introduced himself, "Myself Tarun!"
He asked Rudra to follow him and guided him to the exit of the clan's Town outpost, where now right beside the wooden gate were a few heavy metallic crates on the ground, and some clan members were loading those crates on a cart. There was also a young man ordering them to put those crates carefully.
"Hey captain Mayaan, meet him, he is a member of our clan who seeks help from us to get to the Kashvyagiri city.", Tarun introduced Rudra to their captain.
"Myself Rudra!", Rudra said as he joined his palms greeting the captain.
"Hmm! If it's so urgent then as a member of the same family, you can come with us!", Mayaan said in his calm voice as he looked at Rudra's badge and then he again got focused on the work of loading those crates.
He seemed very mature, calm, and cold. This was when a man covered in a spy dress ran to Mayaan and whispered something in his ears. Suddenly, the calm expressions on his face were exchanged for tense expressions.
"tell everyone to clear this branch outpost right now, and get ready for a battle."
"What happened leader is there any problem?", Tarun asked.
"According to that spy, Masaan clan members have invaded this town and will soon attack this outpost, we need to get out of here as soon as possible!.", Mayaan explained.
Right now all the weak members of that branch ran to and fro to load the crates on the cart as fast as possible, whereas the strong ones stood there for defense.
"Tarun, send a message bird, ask for reinforcements from the main branch in the city, we can't hold them for long, we will have to escort the crates out of the town through another way!", Sudrakh instructed.
"If they have planned to attack this branch, most of the members would be above the practitioner rank, 2nd stage, therefore all the practitioners present come together our main focus is to defend the supply carts.
"Hey, can you give me one of your daggers!", Rudra borrowed a dagger from one of the clan members, although he already had the rusty one, but in his opinion, two daggers were better.
"By the way senior, why are you focusing more on protecting these crates instead of the outpost?", Rudra asked as he walked to Mayaan.
"Because the leader has asked us to focus on protecting the stuff in these crates, even if we lose the outpost, that stuff seems very important.", Mayaan explains to Rudra.
Hearing this Rudra pondered upon the reason for his grandpa to value some extracted minerals, of course, they were very valuable if Vihaan was even ready to let go of a town from their hands.
"So what are these minerals or stuffs?", Rudra was still curious about those minerals.
"they are some kind of rare ores, scarce in the entire state, which are used for forging powerful weapons and gears, luckily this town was under our clan's control we extracted all of it, and now we will transport it to the main base.
Once we succeed, our clan can become the most prosperous and influential clan in the state, this could also be one of the reasons why the Masaan clan attacked right now, their intentions could be to steal these ores."
*Whoosh
This was when a spear came tearing through the air. It hit the ground right in front of the Outpost. The spear was thrown with such power, that it stood there as its tip dug down and got stuck in the ground. There was a piece of paper rolled around that spear.
Mayaan took out that paper, "Mayaan, this time the Outpost and all the extracted minerals will be ours."
As Mayaan read through those words he ran to the street road in front of the outpost, Rudra and others followed him too. As soon as Rudra and the others came to the road from the outpost entrance all they saw were a few people with weapons held in their hands, standing at the other end of the road.
Rudra by sensing through his kundalini, could easily tell, that those standing in front were at the practitioner level. But one of them seemed weird, as Rudra couldn't sense his power. Maybe, that guy was much more powerful than Rudra.
Rudra realized that there were a total of four practitioners instead of the tall and muscular one that stood in the middle. Which means there could be five practitioners in total. Except for those five, there were many more people standing behind them, but all of them seemed to be at the beginner level.
While Sudrakh on his side also had five practitioners including Rudra.
"Mayaan, I will have some mercy upon you if you hand over this outpost and all those crates willingly!", that muscular man said with a sarcastic smile on his face.
"I think you should forget about that because we won't do that!"
"You would not want to do this Mayaan, don't provoke us!"
"I am just fulfilling my responsibility."
"If that's so, then I will take the authority of this Outpost and these crates by your end", that muscular man rushed towards Mayaan.
As if a war broke out, the whole group of the Skambha clan and Masaan clan jumped into the battle.
"Hey, kid take this.", A punch came flying towards Rudra.
But Rudra used his rapid reflexes and grabbed the fist coming towards him. That guy was shocked to see this, maybe he had meddled with the wrong guy. Rudra twisted that guy's hand, "You are just an edge beginner, I would suggest you fight with someone else."
Rudra then hit the guy with a swift kick, making him fall down. Rudra then went on knocking all the edge beginner members from the Masaan clan quite easily. Here Mayaan and that muscular man were engaged in a serious battle. Both of them punched each other. Their fist flew through the air and both of those fists collided with each other.
*Boom
The energy released from the collision caused both of them to be pushed back. This was when the Muscular man spotted Rudra eliminating all his gang members.
"Hey, leave those weak fellows, Target that guy.", that muscular man called one of his teammates at the practitioner level and ordered him to engage Rudra.
Here Rudra went on eliminating the members recklessly when he sensed something weird. He immediately stepped aside and dodged a powerful punch that went right beside his head. Rudra's eyes following that fist, and the arm that launched it, turned back to find one of those guys who were at the practitioner level.
"Ha Ha, you might be lucky to dodge that one, but next time, your fortune won't work.", With that he launched another punch towards Rudra.
Rudra was aware, and he dodged that punch too, but just with an inch. Rudra showcasing his reflexes grabbed the arm of his opponent and delivered a swift kick on his waist. That guy imbalanced at first, but managed to stabilize himself.
That guy then took out a spear, dashed forward, and thrust that spear towards Rudra's head. Rudra took out his two daggers, he became more careful as he very rapidly brought both of his daggers to the front forming a cross to block that attack.
*Bang
With the sound of metals colliding, both of their weapons applied incredible force against each other. But Rudra was somehow able to stop that spear. Now, Rudra had realized that just those daggers weren't enough, he needed a better weapon.
Rudra used all his kundalini and thrust his dagger towards that guy's waist. But that guy was able to dodge it. At the very next moment, Rudra heard the sound of air, and felt goosebumps, he ducked down and rolled away, avoiding the deathly strike of the spear that pierced through the air at the spot where he was a few moments ago.
Rudra had got an opening, and as he attacked him again, Rudra using his dagger sliced through the air, and before that guy could dodge, Rudra's knife landed on his knees and left behind a large cut. A lot of blood bled out of that cut.
That guy exclaimed in pain, as he swung his spear at an incredible speed. Rudra wasn't able to keep pace this time, and the only thing he could do was strike at the spear with his daggers. Although his hit on the spear seemed to have worked, that spear still continued on its path as it pierced through Rudra's cloth and drilled inside his shoulder.
That spear must have torn his chest, If Rudra hadn't hit that spear with his daggers, causing the spear in that guy's hand to change its direction due to external force and hit Rudra's shoulder. A lot of blood flew out of Rudra's shoulder as water. Right now his left arm felt as if paralyzed he couldn't use that arm due to his pain.
That guy smirked in sarcasm, looking at Rudra's condition. Rudra was now using all his kundalini. He spread his spiritual energy around him to sense even the slightest of movements of his opponents. In that while, that guy spun his spear towards Rudra, but this time, he targeted his other shoulder.
That guy wanted to disarm Rudra completely. But here something strange was happening with Rudra, he felt as if a part of his spiritual energy was sucked by something, and it disappeared suddenly. Upon inspecting he found that something within his body, near his heart had sucked a huge part of his spiritual energy.
He felt a jolt of current in his body, shaking all of his tissues. But avoiding that, Rudra looked towards his opponent, who had now rushed towards him. Suddenly, anxiety-filled expressions appeared on that guy's face as he stopped right there. His spear was just an inch away from hitting Rudra. That guy searched around him as if he was finding someone, avoiding Rudra's presence in such a way as if Rudra was invisible.
Rudra couldn't understand what was going on.