55 Under The Lake

"Mph" Darkscale didn't respond well to her request.

Talking? Maybe before he was attacked there was a chance that he actually stopped to hear out what the hooded figure wanted. Now? No, there was no chance whatsoever of that happening.

He and the green-haired woman next to him made eye contact for a moment. It was a single instant, but they both understood what was going to happen next.

'I'll cover you' said her voice inside the serpent's mind, brought directly to him by a pulse of silver energy coming from the girl. The serpent didn't give the youth an answer and started the attack immediately. He darted away from his position, silver waves expanding from his body while he devoured the short distance that there was between himself and the mysterious figure armed with a Green Bow.

Star Leaf didn't move. Instead of joining the attack, she started using her energy to lock down on the figure's position. Plus she tried to make sure that there weren't any others attackers hiding in the shadows, waiting to ambush her companion when he least expected it.

They both knew that there was at least another cultivator on the enemy's side and it was probably also in the vicinity. Otherwise, why would the hooded figure feel confident enough to attack them?

Darkscale and Star Leaf knew this but they couldn't let the attack from before unpunished. If they didn't do anything it would make them look weak. They had to flash out the second cultivator and at the same time send a message to the first.

"You should have stayed away, stupid bitch!" said the Forest Will woman, while the silent snake appeared before the bow-wielding silhouette and tried to crush her to the ground using his tail.

The figure jumped back, avoiding the blow. The fast movement made the hood that covered it to fall on the figure's shoulder, revealing the long black hair underneath. Two angered black eyed were illuminated by the light from the bonfire.

The violet-eyed reptile finally could see the face of the hooded figure and immediately recognized an old acquaintance of his: Snow Leaf! Yet, he wasn't surprised: he already had an idea of who was the mysterious figure from the beginning. The hooded attacker had his same cultivation technique, the Heavenly Battleground Technique, used a Green Bow and had a female voice that remembered him of the human that he first used his Slave Mark Technique on. Even a moron couldn't miss the connections.

"Those are lots of words for a slave" exclaimed Winter Leaf, responding back to her family member as she kept moving back with great agility.

After putting a dozen meters between herself and Darkscale, she stopped. She looked at both the green haired youth and the serpent with the same quantity of hate. Darkscale had imprisoned her and stole her forced her to do his bidding and Star Leaf tried to get her kidnapped by the Fire Earth raiders.

"Slave? Ahahaha, just because you are useless that doesn't mean that everyone else is the same." laughed Star Leaf, snickering at the black haired woman. The latter was going to respond with some insult when her expression warped in a contorted grimace and sped away from her position.

Darkscale's figure appeared in the fugitive previous position a moment after she left it, speeding behind her while his whole dark body was recovered by silver ghoulish light. His speed was even higher than before and he almost managed to reach and hit the woman, before a grey shield of energy blocked him and bounced him back.

In conjunction with the appearance of the shield, Winter Leaf stopped her run, her eyes lighting up with fervor. It was her time to punish him!

'No good' thought the serpent, being sent back flying. He could tell from the expression of his old servant that she was sure that she was winning.

Soon it was also revealed why: a violet creature slithered from beneath Snow Leaf's large clothing, darting towards Darkcale as the black haired Leaf woman followed close behind.

The creature was a snake! A violet colored snake, with dark violet eyes and light violet scales. On the creature's body, there was a little blue gem embedded in the middle of its head.

"The snake was with her the whole time? How?" Star Leaf was shocked by what she was seeing. It seemed like the snake hid under the human's clothes from the beginning and waited for the perfect moment to strike.

However, the attacking snake highly underestimated the resistance of a body tempered by the Pretorian's Breath. The violet creature attacked with a powerful blow the black snake that was going after Winter Leaf, but it only caused the latter to be pushed far away.

"You must be Darkscale, we were looking for you" exclaimed a melodious female voice coming from the violet serpent. The creature was a female! While she was talking, her grey energy flowed back inside her body. She didn't run after the black serpent after she realized that she wouldn't be able to easily harm Darkscale.

"Why were you looking for me? Are you here to give me my slave back?" said calmly the black serpent, looking at the woman next to the violet snake. Although the surprise attack of the enemy didn't work, he still didn't want to lower his guard. He didn't want to be taken by surprise a second time!

Winter Leaf expression darkened as she held her bow more tightly in her hands. Red waves of energy started to emerge from her body, violently shining in the darkness."You be careful with your words, asshole" she gritted between her teeth.

"We're not here to fight" said the violet serpent, giving a stern look to her companion. Winter Leaf begrudgingly calmed down, but still gave to the couple before her a look of contempt. Devassa then looked back at Darkscale, and their identical violet eyes fixed themselves on each other for a long moment.

"My name is Devassa... I hear that you are quite good with Rune Manipulation" said the serpent, presenting herself. Darkscale didn't budge. Not even his eyes changed, continuing to express only a placid calm.

A charged silence formed between the two groups of cultivators.

"That's not an answer to my question" simply stated Darkscale after a dozen of seconds, breaking the strange silence between the two parties. The violet serpent narrowed her eyes, she couldn't read Darkscale's expression. Maybe Winter Leaf was right and he was good in Runes, or maybe she was completely wrong as the only time she could see his runes was when she didn't even start cultivating.

Everything from the cultivating world would seem incredible for a common mortal. Devassa had some confidence on Winter Leaf assumption, she considered the woman quite smart and liked her character. In the end, after lots of thinking, she decided to trust her judgment.

Snapping her jaws, the serpent looked at the two figures before her. "If you really do, I have a proposal for you." she started saying, trying to attract the serpent's attention.

"No thanks. I don't team up with people who try to kill me" immediately responded the black snake. At his side, Star Leaf giggled, making the serpent wanting to slap her to death for a moment.

" There are two types of pure energies inside your aura, you are following the Devil Path." stated the violet snake, looking at him with a strange gleam in her eyes.

"The technique that you took from Winter is incredible and you have waisted it by following the Devil Path, that's quite sad." continued the snake, with a hint of pity in her eyes.

"This is not making you look better, little violet snake" said sarcastically Star Leaf, while she sat on the ground, next to Darkscale.

"... even if I feel that you are following the wrong path, I won't try to convince you to change it. I will aslo help you." continued Devassa.

"So kind of you" said ironically Darkscale, grinning in a rare display of emotion. The fact that this snake before him thought that he could be tricked so easily made him almost want to burst into laughter.

"I can help you get a Devil Core." said simply the other party.

"???"

Seeing the shocked look on Darkscale's face, the serpent explained herself more. "Although it's true that Devil Cores can be used by people of other paths in various ways, it is more useful to you as you can try to consume it directly," she said.

"So you just want to hand to us a precious item like that? Do you think that we're stupid or you are that stupid?" asked Star Leaf ironically.

"I don't need it, I want something else in the same place where we will find the Devil Core and I also need someone that can open a Rune for me. " explained the violent serpent, shaking her head. "I think it's a fair deal. Everyone will obtain the thing that they most desire."

"Let's say that I know some Rune Manipulation, how can I be sure that you're not only saying this to attract us into some kind of trap?" said Darkscale, looking the other snake right in her eyes.

"I guess that you'll have to trust us" answered the Derassa, instead of giving some random general reassurance.

"Where is this rune?" asked the black colored snake, without saying explicitly that he accepted the deal.

"Inside the Yellow Lake." revealed the violet snake with a strange expression. She looked in the distance, almost as she could see the yellowish waters of the poisonous pool of water.

"Deep, deep, deep inside it"