A few years earlier.“Why did you have to side with just the Arris family?” Russell was arguing with his grandfather. “You should have allied with the other two families, too.”“I would have if it was possible,” Regan didn’t even want to talk about it. “I wanted the Arris family to build the infrastructure for Creed Zone. That’s all I thought about at that time.”“But the Arris family is not the strongest. It’s the Agnar family that’s the strongest out of the three supreme families,” Russell retorted. “You think they’re going to just watch as you give some of our profits to the Arris family every year? They will wait for the right opportunity and then take revenge on us. They live on a remote continent, Grandpa. They don’t depend on tech like the rest of the world. If they all decide to come at us, I will not be able to do anything to them with my hacking system.”“You can also hack people’s minds and bodies with that system, can’t you?” Regan asked him.“Yeah,” Russell deeply frowned
The air was thick with tension and the scent of impending rain, as Gabe and Atarah were in a stare off like predators that had crossed paths.Atarah’s daggers moved ever so slowly, and the shadows of those daggers danced on the ground and whispered secrets and echoed the horrors of all the souls she had taken with them.The woman, who was infamously known as Steel Rose, by many people in the underground who feared her strength and skill now set her sight on Gabe.She had the habit of hunting treasures and collecting bounties, turning the hearts of men to dust in the process.Now, she was planning on at least turning Gabe’s heart to ice.“As you wished, I’ll force you to spit out everything,” Atarah stepped ahead, her dagger releasing a burst of cold energy that froze the surface of the earth and the nearby plants and bottom parts of the trees.Even Gabe’s legs were covered with frost, but he released lightning and easily freed himself before he thrust his palm forward.Gabe’s palm met
The rose white petals attacked Gabe while the dagger attacked Mia. This was a move which showcased just how much experience Atarah had got over the likes of Gabe and Mia.These people from the Agnar clan were all battle-hardened, after all.Gabe used all his speed to dodge the attacks and rush in Mia’s direction, but Atarah brought her foot in between and made him fall and roll.The dagger rose out of the ground right in front of Mia, soaring straight at her heart, seeking to turn it into ice.In that fraction of a second, Mia’s adrenaline rushed because she didn’t want to die. The fear of dying brought out something that was bound to happen one day.Yellow petals formed out of thin air and swirled around the dagger and brought it to a halt right before it hit Mia’s heart.Atarah’s expression changed as she saw the yellow petals shimmering gently under the sunlight.{You have achieved the Lunar Blossom!} Stemmer’s excited voice rang in Mia’s mind. {Even though it’s late afternoon, the
Gabe put the strength of a hundred elephants behind his kick, thanks to his ability of increasing his weight as much as he wanted to.The only downside to his skill was that he would feel his heart becoming heavier and harder to breathe for sometime. Otherwise, he could add more weight to his body.Despite Gabe putting enough strength into the kick, he was not satisfied with the result.After all, Atarah wasn’t even blown off her feet. She slid back on her feet and managed to stay on feet.Gabe tightly clenched his fists. (I was trying to kill her with that move, but I barely broke two ribs. The ethereal energy around her body also injured my foot. It feels cold and it’s hurting from the frost. To think that even her vivre has the attribute of coldness attached to it… defeating her won’t be easy.)[It’s not just the vivre around her body, but her body itself was strengthened by vivre.] Systa’s voice rang in his mind. [ Her ribs should have shattered after taking your attack, but they
Atarah was taken aback, feeling as if she stood on the edge of a crumbling precipice, not out of fear from what she had seen in her opponent but out of ample surprise and shock. Thoughts whirled through her brain as fate had provided her with an invaluable opportunity by earning the honor of bringing the Alpha System back to the Agnar family.At this moment, she wasn’t even considering that Gabe was the grandson of the patriarch of the clan. Perhaps, in the back of her mind, she was well aware that Gabriel wouldn’t agree with Gabe joining the family. After all, Gabriel didn’t let his own daughter return to the clan even though he raised her on his shoulders. So, why would he be showing any sentimental emotion toward Gabe who he had no prior attachment to?Atarah didn’t have the time or luxury to think about all this, either, as the air crackled with lightning, thickening the tension and charging their souls with the raw energy of the impending confrontation.Gabe stood tall and poised
The two elemental energies fought for supremacy, and Mia who was watching their battle felt nervous. She wanted to jump in and help Gabe, but she wasn’t sure if she’d really be able to help or end up becoming a burden again.Mia thought that she had become strong enough, but after seeing how differently an experienced fighter like Atarah was using their techniques and tactics, Mia’s confidence took a big dent.With each passing moment, the intensity of the battle magnified.Atarah sent swirling arrows of ice at him nonstop.Gabe threw his arms at the arrows, deflecting them in every direction, redirecting some of those arrows back to her.Gabe reformed his energy into a spiraling tempest of lightning that spun towards the opponent. In response, Atarah conjured towering blue ice walls to shield herself from the attack.Gabe broke through the shield with effort.As if she expected that, projected shards flew with deadly precision toward him.Gabe couldn’t dodge in time, and the shards st
Atarah fell.The dragon constructs she had, however, still attacked Mia and Gabe. One attacked Mia. Another attacked Gabe. The third one focused on rescuing Atarah.“How the hell are they still able to move?” Gabe had to expend more lightning energy to not just resist but overpower the dragon’s cold breath attack. “They are capable of doing tasks even after their creator is down and out?”The dragon flapped its wings and sent cutting slashes of cold energy at him, to keep him at a distance.Gabe found it annoying because these dragons were pretty fast despite their size. Instead of trying to get closer to the dragon which was flying, he ran over to meet up with Mia who was still under Stemmer’s control.Mia was able to use psychic energy to cover her fists and deflect the ice attacks that came at her.Gabe was surprised to see that. “So you can use psychic powers?”{You should be able to use them, too.} Stemmer replied through Mia. {Your body maybe tired, but your mind can still work.
“It’s one thing that James lost, but for Atarah to lose to this brat…” The number one ranker of the Jaguar Squad, Stark, spoke. “This is quite shameful.”“Indeed,” Fang, the second ranker, opined. “I feel a little embarrassed since I’ve trained James for over a month now. For him to lose without even taking an opponent’s limb is quite disappointing. I hope he’s not dead.”“James is the last ranker, the number 10 of the squad,” the zeroth ranker and the head of the Jaguar Squad, Zephyr, replied. He had a sharp mustache and was cleanly shaven. “He’s the weakest, but Atarah is the ranked fourth in the squad, and she let her younger comrade lose. So, she failed both as a teammate and as an individual fighter. She needs to be punished for her mistakes later. But for now…” He glanced at the number five ranker, who was a green-headed female, Pixie.Pixie stepped forth and treated Atarah’s injury with her vivre. It was as though she was conducting surgery with her vivre, using it as needles to