A kick to the head and a flip of the bird

"What the hell?! Where this wall come from?"

"Where'd Zhen Hai go?!"

"It might be an attempt to block us! Just smash it!"

The surrounding aether became turbulent as the three warriors rushed forward to break through the sudden rock wall.

[Gator Crunch!]

[Heavy Hammer!]

[Bone Cutter!]

The three Acolytes went all out and shattered the rock wall into pieces, kicking up huge clouds of dust and shrapnel. Any mortal below the Master would have surely been rendered into paste if they were on the receiving end of such a devastating combination of attacks.

Unfortunately for them, there was nobody on the other side!

"Huh? Where'd he go?!"

_________________________________________________

Seconds earlier

Zhen Hai was understandably shocked at the sudden appearance of the rock wall separating him from his opponents. Even moreso when a pair of arms suddenly grabbed his own arms and forcefully yanked him off the ground.

Zhen Hai was now dangling midair as a pair of hands held him by the wrists and kept him swinging about. He was about to freak out and cuss out at his kidnappers, until he saw that the ones who grabbed him was Sullivan. Alongside the digger was Zhen Hai's cousins, and his cousin's absurd aether puppet. The fact that they were all sharing a singular giant stone surfboard was somehow the least weirdest thing to him.

"What in the- huh?! How'd you guys catch up with me so fast?!"

"I am very good at modifying my...puppet," Zhen Liu answered, "Now then, we're about to make another pass at those guys who tried to kill you, do you know any kick based arts or what?"

"I was just about to-wait what?"

"I'll take that as a yes." [Nepherage, turn us around and position Zhen Hai into kicking position.]

[Understood.]

The stone board turned hard left for a few moments before turning back onto it's original path. After the maneuver was done, Zhen Hai could now see that he was right in the path of collision of the three A-holes that just tried to gang up on him.

"Oh...well then!"

_________________________________________________

As the three subordinates of the Wolfe Family tried to figure out what had happened to their quarry, the sudden shout of a familiar voice caught their attention.

[Oarfish's Tail Smash!]

Zhen Hai's feet began to glow a deep blue as the faint outline of a massive oarfish's tail manifested around them.

"What the-oof!"

"Gah!"

"Shit!"

The scraggly Acolyte with the golden teeth was the first to turn to see where Zhen Hai went, and ended up getting kicked in the face with an Aquarii major corporeal art for his trouble. (Un)expectedly, this led to him to getting launched into his co-conspirators, knocking them over like a set of dumbass dominoes.

"My face!"

"Get off me you heavy dolts!"

"They're getting away!"

It took awhile for the three of them to get their bearings back, but by the time they did it was too late. The Zhen Clan team was much too far ahead of them.

"Damnit..."

"The young master ain't gonna be happy..."

"At least they can't catch up to him, right?"

_________________________________________________

"You know I could've taken them by myself, right?," Zhen Hai boasted while dusting himself. He had used momentum from his kick to land onto the stone surfboard, it was honestly a very clean jump.

"That might've been the case, but who knows whether or not the Wolfes or the Corradas had other plans in store. We need you in top shape before we get into the ruins," Zhen Yue said in placating manner. Zhen Hai was about to retort, but once he digested what Zhen Yue had said, he was mollified.

"Well...okay then. But next time there's fight, stay out of my way."

"Yeah, yeah you blood-hungry shark," Zhen Liu interjected, "I think I can see the Wolfe and Corrada family teams up ahead."

Dead ahead of them, Zhen Liu could see several groups of people. One was a group of heavily armed young warriors rushing ahead of everyone else, a wolf head emblem plain on their backs, while the others were currently fighting a team of nothing but women,a rose-like emblem plain in their clothes.

It didn't take a genius to figure out the Wolfe Family paid off some of the contestants to mess with their rivals for them.

Zhen Yue and Zhen Hai both looked ahead to see if Zhen Liu was telling the truth. Once they had confirmed, a vicious smile formed in Zhen Hai's face.

"This is great! We can knock them both right here and now! How do you pilot this thing?"

"Pass," Zhen Liu refused, "we'd burn up way too much energy in fighting them, making it way too easy for everyone else to get ahead of us. We're gonna need everything we got to clear the ruins anyways. Besides, wouldn't you find it more cathartic to pass them, insult them and win the competition?"

Zhen Hai did not appreciate Zhen Liu's tone and was about to lash out at him. "Listen here you little-"

"Yes," Zhen Yue interrupted, "but what do you mean by insult?"

A devious smile formed on Zhen Liu's face as he heard his cousin's answer. "Ever heard of the term , 'flipping the bird'?"

_________________________________________________

'Hehehe! I do hope those piss drinkers and those toxic bitches enjoy the welcoming party we left them," Donovan thought to himself as he and his team rushed for the wandering ruins' entrance.

As of this moment, the Wolfe Family team had managed to rush pass the rest of the contestants and were now leading the pack. Surprisingly none of the other teams had attempted to stop them from getting ahead. There were two reasons for this.

First, as one of the Big Four of Stone Claw City, not a lot of people were willing to get on their bad side. This may have been a friendly competition of sorts, that doesn't mean people don't hold grudges or weren't sore losers. There was a rumor that the Wolfe Family once made someone and their family disappear, after they had been insulted by them. No one knew for sure, but the rumors persisted.

Secondly and more importantly, they physically paid off everyone that could've been a problem ahead of time.

Why risk the ire of the Wolfe Family and possibly lose the competition anyways, when they could help them win and rake in a small amount of profits. As the old saying goes, let them eat meat while you drink soup, or something like that.

As Donovan and his team got closer and closer to the entrance, they decided to slow down a bit in order to conserve energy. Also, Donovan wanted to see the handiwork of his paid off subordinates.

'I know that Corrada girl is busy dealing with the Woodrow brothers, now I wonder if Zhen Hai and his kind had been-what in the nine hells?!'

Donovan had been expecting to turn back and see the defeated forms of the Zhen Clan, since they had three teams sent after them, but instead he saw a giant demonic woman made of jade, riding a stone surfboard, rushing towards him and his teammates.

"Holy shit!"

Donovan and his team quickly dodged out of the way as the rock wave riding woman passed by them. Donovan soon noticed that riding behind the demonic woman was none other than the Zhen Clan team. Three out of four of them were presenting towards him their middle fingers.

Donovan didn't know what this meant, but he felt insulted for some reason.

It took Donovan a solid minute to finally notice that Zhen Clan team was the first to cross the entryway and into the wandering ruins.

"Damnit!"