99 Meeting their Demise

As the fight with the raven continued to raged on at the back garden of the guild mansion; at the front of the guild mansion, a battle between family was about to commence.

"Let's finish this already." Pietro growled, as his gigantic battle ax surged with tremendous sinister and chaotic power.

As Pietro swung his ax over his head, Minerva's eyes widen in panic.

"Everyone take cover!!!" Minerva shouted at the top of her lungs, while her brain thought of a way to somehow stopping her brother.

Minerva didn't want to admit it out loud, but being raised by their father, Pietro is among the Gifted that Minerva acknowledges as a force to be reckon with. Unfortunately for her brother, he was too much of a father pleaser, rather than actually focusing on his own capabilities, holding him back from his own potential.

Pietro didn't give as much chance for everyone to retreat, when he swiftly swung his ax and slam it to the ground, just as fast as he swung his sacred weapon over his head.

A powerful shockwave erupted from Pietro's ax, leaving nothing but destruction on its wake.

Seeing her fellow guildmates' body enveloped in fear as they watched the shockwave swiftly approaching them, stunning them in place, Carla steeled herself and willed her giant skeleton to rush in front of everybody to take on the assault.

"Carla, what are you doing! Get back!" Minerva shouted when she saw Carla's giant skeleton, charging instead of retreating.

"She's going to tank everything" Caleb said in almost a dreaded whisper, as he suddenly realized Carla's intention.

"But she won't survive that hit!" Alisa almost shouted in horror.

"I know that!" Caleb said back, as he pushed his brain into hyper mode, trying to think of a way for everyone to survive the situation, but when no brilliant idea presented itself, Caleb gritted his teeth as he rushed to Clara's aid.

"Caleb where are you going?!" Alisa shouted when she saw her brother running towards the shockwave instead of away from it.

Not knowing what's going on inside her brother's head, Alisa let out a frustrated growl, before following him.

Carla's giant skeleton rushed forward and took on the shockwave head on.

"Ho? That skeleton's more durable than it looks" Pietro said with a dull and bored voice.

As Clara's giant skeleton struggled to take on Pietro's attack alone, Caleb and Alisa arrived just in time to provide much need support. Caleb and Alisa harnessed both of their unique energies and began transferring them to the skeleton. Suddenly the skeleton's plum flames burned even brighter than before, while transparent armor began cladding its gigantic form.

With a battle roar, the three pushed and endured to their absolute limit, gaining them the success that they needed. Together; Caleb, Alisa and Carla were able to successfully defend against an attack that could've brought great destruction if let alone.

Celebrations might've been in order but the truth that their opponents are still before them, prevented everyone from Maria's guild in doing so.

Drained out of energy, Clara's skeleton slowly faded, while Caleb and Alisa slumped to the ground, breathing heavily.

"Huh? Should I congratulate you maggots on surviving? Really now, why are f*beeping* pests hard to kill these days?" Pietro said in a condescending manner.

"Pietro, it's time I end your non-sense, once and for all!" Minerva said as she steps forward to face her half-brother.

*Pff* "You just had those other maggots defend for you while you were f*beeping* running away!" Pietro said with a mocking smirk on his face.

"And I'm ashamed of doing so!" Minerva said with a cold tone in her voice "I had ran from my fate all my life and let other people take responsibility for my own cowardice. But now it's about time I stop running and begin facing my life head on"

"Yeah?! And what can you f*beeping* do when I'm about to send you to hell, where father is!" Pietro scorned as his grip on his ax tighten.

"What can I do, you ask? Well for starters, I'll beat your ass to the ground" Minerva said, as she pulled a gladius from her bosom with her right hand, while a round circular bronze shield manifested on her left arm.

Lifting her shield in front of her, Minerva dashed forward at a blinding speed. Despite his surprise, Pietro managed to defend himself using his ax. Although he was able to lessen the damage he took, he was still knocked so far back by the sheer power of Minerva's shield bash.

Pietro didn't even struggle when finding his footing, when he planted his feet on the ground. Easily getting his balance back, Pietro began swinging his ax around. At first his whole body spun slowly, but as he kept spinning, his momentum also became faster and faster, ultimately creating a violent tornado.

Engulfing her sword in powerful bronze aura, with a mighty roar, Minerva shot into the air. With a large swing of her sword, Minerva broke through the tornado, producing a loud sound that resounded across the Castle.

As the loud clashes of steel rang, Minerva and Pietro pulled out all their strength, either one not wanting to be out done by the other.

As the sibling's fight raged on, their surrounding weren't left unscathed, either it be Shadows or buildings, all were left destroyed in their wake.

Not wanting to be caught in the maelstrom of clashing blades, the rest of Maria's guild started going back inside the guild mansion to take cover. But what greeted them, standing at the very entrance of the mansion, is a young woman who's idlily playing with her dagger.

Suddenly the woman threw the very dagger that she's playing with. The dagger zipped through the air, heading straight towards bobby who's currently carrying an unconscious Clara in his arms. As the dagger continued to fly, a diamond hand intercepted it by grabbing unto it.

"I won't let you hurt any of my friends!" Ji Soo said with a cold voice.

The shy and timid Ji Soo now stood in front of his friends, his whole body now transformed into diamond, facing one of his former bullies, unafraid.

With a huff, Katarina instantly teleported to where her dagger is, which was currently held by Ji Soo. Suddenly closing the distance, Katarina spun and kicked Ji Soo on the torso, to which Ji Soo took it without even budging a single inch. Thanks to his diamond armor, the damage that Ji Soo took significantly lessened.

Ji Soo grabbed Katarina's leg with his left before bringing down his right elbow with great force. To his great surprise Katarina's leg didn't break like he intended for it to. With a smirk, Katarina wrapped her free leg around Ji Soo and pinned him to the ground and began raining punches on Ji Soo left and right.

As Ji Soo continue to endure Katarina's barrage of attacks, out of nowhere his assaulter suddenly went flying. Turning his head, Ji Soo saw Bobby with a deadly expression on his face as he held his metal bo staff.

"You okay?" Bobby asked Ji Soo with extreme concern, as he carefully helped him up to his feet.

"Yeah" Ji Soo confirmed with a grunt. "Where are the others?"

"Everyone's safe inside the mansion" Bobby answered in confirmation, which made Ji Soo let out a sigh of relief. But then he realized something that made him tense once again.

"Then why are you back out? You should've stayed with the others!" Ji Soo started to argue

"I was worried about you!" Bobby only said, silencing the young Korean man.

"I'm sorry for shouting at you and thanks for coming back for me" Ji Soo said in apology.

"I'll always come back for you" Bobby said as he turned to Ji Soo with a tender glance.

"You people make me sick!" Katarina spat as a disgusted expression marred her face.

"I'll F*beeping* kill you all!" Katarina said as she threw one dagger after another towards Bobby and Ji Soo.

Taking stance, Bobby and Ji Soo stood side by side, readying themselves. And with perfect synchronicity, Bobby and Ji Soo fought Katarina.

Katarina speeded into battle, constantly teleporting and throwing daggers at the duo, but with Bobby and Ji Soo's impeccable team work, she wasn't able to break through their defense.

Bidding their time for the perfect opportunity, like an well oiled machine, both young men watched each other's backs, trusting each other with each other's lives.

It was but a half a second, but when Katarina's rhythm fluctuate, the duo immediately pounced on to the much awaited opening that they needed. After charging his bo staff with kinetic energy, Bobby swung his weapon towards Katarina. Katarina easily dodged Bobby's attempted assault, but what she didn't know was that Ji Soo was already at her blind side. Swinging two diamond batons, Ji Soo caught Katarina by the side of her torso, knocking the wind out of her lungs, plus effectively breaking some of her ribs in the process.

Learning Arins from Alex and Pearl were one of the best decisions that Ji Soo has ever made in his entire life. The couple effectively found the best fighting style for Ji Soo, which also helped with the young man's confidence issues.

Threading Ji Soo's assault with his, Bobby slammed his staff on Katarina's shoulder. Sensing that the current situation was against her, Katarina quickly teleported to a dagger located far away from the two young man.

Breathing hard Katarina's eyes glinted with murders intend, filling her whole being with hatred. As she was about to retaliate, the next thing she knew, her head has already been dismembered from her body, while blood gushed out from her neck.

Stunned, Bobby and Ji Soo stood frozen in place as they watch a familiar young boy approach Katarina's still alive head. The boy wielding a gigantic scythe, still drenched in Katarina's blood, while the presence of death dance around him.

"Hmm... You're not dead yet?" Teddy said with a confused tone in his voice.

"What the hell are you?!" Katarina growled angrily as she starred daggers at the young boy.

Surprise is definitely an understatement to express how Katarina truly felt at that moment. Her face contorted in all types of ugly ways, not sure how to fully express the raging mixed emotions and dread that she felt. She couldn't understand why she felt so afraid when looking at the seemingly young and innocent boy standing over her.

Quickly losing interest over Katarina's somehow still alive body, Teddy suddenly disappeared from Katarina's sight. Next thing Katarina knew, her decapitated head and body were finely sliced into shreds.

Seeing what just transpired in front of their eyes, Bobby and Ji Soo shivered as a cold chill ran down their spines. Both young men were just thankful that Teddy is on their side.

"You okay?" Bobby asked Ji Soo with a tender voice of concern.

"Yeah" Ji Soo answered with the same tender voice, as he stares into Bobby's concern filled eyes.

"Are you guys okay?" A voice called out to them

The two young man turned to the owner and saw Caleb rushing to them with Pan, Charlie, Nadet, and Chen hot on his trails.

"Yeah! But why are you guys out here?!" Bobby asked

"We couldn't find Teddy anywhere! Have you guys seen him?" Caleb asked filled with worry.

Glancing at each other before turning back to their friends, Bobby opened his mouth and was about to explain what just happened, when Teddy beat him to a punch.

"I'm here!" Teddy said with a cheerful voice, as he stood behind Caleb and the rest.

"Where were you?! Do you know how worried Isabelle and I have been?!" Caleb scolded the young boy upon seeing him, to which the young boy began tearing up.

"I-I'm sorry Caleb *hic*" Teddy apologized, trying his best to hold in his tears.

Letting out a sigh Caleb rushed to the boy and hugged him tightly.

"It's alright, just don't go disappearing on us again, okay?" Caleb said with a soft voice as he gently patted Teddy's back, to which Teddy answered with a adamant nod while tightly hugging Caleb back.

Bobby and Ji Soo once again glanced at each other, silently agreeing to keep the previous events that just happened to themselves for now

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Back at the battle between the siblings. Pietro was down to his knees, breathing hard, his face marred with so much anger and hate for his sister.

"Why are you so strong?! Why are you still better than me?! I should be the one winning! I should be the one finally laughing at your defeated face! Why?! How can you still be standing?!" Pietro shouted at the top of his lungs.

Minerva stayed silent as she starred at her brother with pity and sadness. Once upon a time, their sibling relationship weren't always so broken and non-existent. But once their father started showing favors, jealousy and envy began tearing them apart. Pietro has always been hell bent on being acknowledge by their father, to the point of him succumbing to his own insecurities and finally falling to the temptation of turning his own back to his own kind.

The tension in the air thickened more and more, as the siblings starred at each other. Minerva might've had the upper hand against Pietro, but that was all due to the intense training that she went through, under Isabelle, Alex and Pearl. At fist, Minerva honestly stayed skeptic on Isabelle's team's ability to really help them grow. But as the time went by and she slowly went through their process, only then Minerva admitted her wrong biases and actually started enjoying her training. It was the first time in her life that she looked forward to training and bettering her self more and more.

Pietro always had this sinking feeling in his heart that he knew he was always going to lose against her sister. Now in his great desperation, Pietro sliced his left hand off and let his dark inky blood drench the soil. Slowly multiple alpha Shadows began emerging from the ground.

"I won't let you win this time Minerva! You're going to have a taste of dirt for the first time in your life!" Pietro shouted with big crazed eyes.

"Kill her!" Pietro commanded the Shadows, but the Shadows just turned to him and just tilted their heads at him, making Pietro seethe even more.

"What are you f*beeping* doing?! I said to f*beeping* go and f*beeping* kill her!" Pietro shouted the command on the top of his lungs.

To his surprise, the Shadows not only ignored his command, but they pounced on Pietro instead and began devouring him.

Turing around from his brother's demise, Minerva started walking back to the guild mansion.

"Minerva help me please!" Pietro pleaded, but when his sister just kept walking, his pleads turned into curses.

"F*beep* you Minerva! F*beep* YOU! F*beep* YOU ALL!"

Hearing her brother's voice slowly fading away, a single tear escape Minerva's eyes. Steeling her resolve, she continued walking and never once looked back.

As she walks towards the guild mansion, their in front of her stood a young man gazing intently at her with comfort in his eyes.

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