Old Friend

The black colored crow tore through the air and perched on the shoulder of his master. Sif could feel the heat coming out of the soul beast, it was like having a bonfire right next to his face.

If he hadn't become a Rank 2 Fighter already, he would definitely get scorched by the high temperature. Thankfully, his body was enough strong to resist it now, even if it still wasn't the most pleasurable experience.

"You really want to continue ?"

The two warriors thrown to the ground by Luna were trying to move back to their feet, their bodies still covered in Fighting Aura.

"Don't, we lost" said the green haired archer with a broken voice, putting down his bow and getting on his knees. His eyes were fixed on the small horned crow sitting on the black robed youth's shoulder.

Silver Ranked Beast!

No level of coordination could help a group of Rank 3 Fighters against a Silver Ranked Beast. Even Great Fighters would lose against one. They truly were facing something that couldn't be defeated by the likes of them.

The two red haired warriors looked at each other a single moment. It was just a rapid glance, but they seemed to arrive some kind of mutual understanding.

Contrary to the archer, they didn't drop down and knelt but rose to their feet. Their lips twisted in smiles filled with brutality. Abruptly, their vitality auras exploded with even more might, focusing on their legs.

It was the same technique used by Imrai to suddenly increase his speed, a very rough concentration of one's fighting aura into the legs.

'Uh they really want to keep fighting? They are one of those, ah?'

Sif didn't retreat. Even if the two Fighters were desperate and would try to attack him with all their might, he wasn't scared of a couple of Rank 3 Fighters. That would be pretty pathetic of him. He was a Silver Ranked Summoner.

The earth cracked under an incredible amount of energy released by the warriors when they finally moved into action. However contrary to the expectations of Sif, they didn't try to attack him in a prideful last stand.

No, the two armored warriors darted away, fleeing in two opposite direction.

"So you're not that stupid. Good for you. However, it's too late for that…"

Sif shook his head. Although he appreciated people that made correct choices, he couldn't afford to let a bunch of ants try to kill him and then flee without any problem.

It made for bad publicity.

He pointed out, and Luna immediately darted in direction of one of the two fleeing warriors.

The white bat flapped its wings, soaring through the air. He looked at the two escaping humans, a dangerous light shining in its red eyes.

Then the creature moved into action, demonstrating a speed that was several times higher the one she used during the fight.

Lana rapidly caught up to the warrior fleeing east. The fact that the latter was using a speed enhancing technique didn't seem to matter.

Her white teeth flashed toward the man's legs.

Screams started to echo around the cave, making the second warrior, which was fleeing towards the west, feel a tight grip around his heart.

'Brother Sit'

Giving each other a single glance, he and his old friend Sit had decided to try to flee. Their reasoning was simple: the Summoner would never send both his Familiars to follow them. He would not want to let himself remain unprotected against the archer.

They both knew that only one of them could be followed by the Summoner's Familiar. Whoever it was, he would probably die fighting alone against the beast.

However, it was better to gamble and have a chance to stay alive than remain there and putting their whole destiny in the hand of a man that they came there to kill.

'I won'

His companion and he both took the gamble, and he was the one who survived. He wasn't happy though. Two of his brothers, people that grew up with him since he was a small child had died.

The warrior gripped the spear in his hands tighter.

Memories flooded his mind. How they became friends in their village, back in the Wilderness Region. How they fought each other to determine who was stronger and how they banded together afterward.

'Brother Imrai, Brother Sit, I will revenge you!'

The warrior could see one of the tunnels that departed from the cave and he darted towards it at the highest speed. As he moved towards the opening, he screamed with all his voice.

"I swear this on the name of my fal-"

Before he could finish, a white flash appeared in front of him.

Two red eyes looked at him with amusement for a single breath. Then a mouth filled with bloody teeth snapped open. Soon, new screams began to echo in the cave.

"It seems that your friends didn't manage to escape after all. What a shame, eh?" laughed Sif sitting on the rocky ground near a green haired man.

The man was even more in shock than before. He already believed that it was impossible to escape, but only because of the presence of that Silver Ranked Beast!

He didn't think for a second that even the bat he had been fighting against before was hiding its strength so much. To capture both his companion and deal with them in less than a dozen of breaths, was it even a bronze ranked creature?

No, it was something that even a strong late stage bronze ranked magic beast couldn't do. This meat that the bat was most possibly half step towards Silver Ranked!

'This guy… was basically playing with us?'

The green eyes of the archer looked at the youth before him. He was way younger than him, maybe on his early twenties.

A genius! Someone that could control beasts so powerful at such a young age could only be an absolute genius!

Did he truly do what Ivory Tower accused him of doing? Or they just wanted to get rid of him because they knew that he wanted to join the war against them? Either way, why they sent a group of Fighters at their level to deal with a Silver Ranked Summoner?

Stone Hurricane himself would have difficulties dealing with this guy, let alone a group of rank 3 Fighters! They basically threw them to die without any reason!

The man felt the piercing gaze of the Summoner stop on him again. "So, it's only us now… how about you explain to me why a group of Fighter wanted to kill me? "

"Orders my Lord." Said the archer, keeping his head down.

Sif's eyes narrowed. "I wouldn't have anything to say If you just wanted to kidnap me and wait for a ransom, but you wanted to kill me... so I will need something more than that…"

The Red Eyed Crow on the Summoner's shoulder pointed its eyes on the green haired man and the latter started feeling an increasingly strong pressure falling over him.

The man didn't hold any information. He fully realized that doing so was useless. "This was a special mission, my Lord! It was delivered directly by Lady Jiang."

"Who's that?" Sif had no idea of this Lady Jiang was. He never heard of her, not even when he was listening to the chat between the two Summoners in the Level Elevator.

"Lady Jiang? She's the wife of Ivory Tower's Leader." The man's eyes lit up for a breath. "Here, let me show you…" he put his hands inside a purse on his lower back.

Sif wasn't afraid of him bringing out something that could harm him. He was behind his Energy Shield after all. Even so, he still sent a wave of Willpower to check on the archer.

His invisible power told him immediately what the man was trying to take out: it was a small jade compass.

'That should be a tracking device… '

From the aura around it, Sif could tell that it was a Silver Ranked Treasure. There was no way that it was something owned by the Fighter. Probably it had been given to him by whoever sent him and his team.

'Not bad at all…let's see what else he has…'

Sif continued examining the rest of the things inside the purse.

He first came into contact with a bunch of alchemical formulas for very basic poisons. Although none of the arrows he used against Luna had poison on them, having the formulas made sense: the man was an archer after all.

Sadly there were things that Sif could already create and they had effect only on low leveled Fighters. Even if he sold them, he wouldn't be able to make much of them.

He continued the inspection, finding several books on dual cultivation. If this wasn't strange enough for as Fighter would not benefit whatsoever from dual cultivation, Sif found also a parchment that contained some kind of ballad.

The youth's face fell when he read the title of the ballad.

'Prince Rama and the Monkey Kingdom?'

He knew that song. He knew every single damn note of that damned thing.

When he was still a Master Summoner, fighting to get his hands on a Rank 3 Familiar in the Dominion Territory, he traveled for a while with someone that loved humming and listening to songs about Prince Rama's adventures.

The youth looked at the archer in front of him under a new light: green hair, a large green bow, and leather armor.

Those things alone didn't ring any bell in Sif's mind, but when considered together with the stuff he sensed inside his bag, things changed.

'That look, plus the song about Rama, Books on Dual Cultivation and Poison Formulas? This should be a follower of that damned serpent… probably he sent him around to collect things he needs'

Sif's arched upwards and an amused expression appeared on his eyes.

"Hmph… you should be from Forest Will Tribe.."

The man opened his eyes in shock. The Summoner knew of his Tribe? It was just a very small village in the extreme border of the Wilderness Region. Right next to the Black Forest.

He never met anyone who knew his village by name. Even his companions that came from his same Wilderness Region, didn't know anything about his tribe.

Forest Will Tribe was indeed an insignificant power, that never produced even a rank 2 Fighter, let alone a Rank 3.

It was only with the recently, when a tyrannical magic beast had taken control of the tribe that they started being able to train stronger Fighters. However, only those who made that monster happy would receive the techniques and resources necessary to cultivate.

One of the reasons the archer left the tribe was exactly to find stuff needed by the magic beast.

"…am I right?"

The archer could feel a change in the Summoner's tone. Before he was calm and tranquil but there was also a feeling of danger in it. Now, however, it was way more friendly and he didn't feel threatened at all.

"Yes, my Lord. Do you know my Tribe?"

Sif smiled. "No, but I heard of the cultivator that made your tribe his bitch."

The green haired man's face fell. A figure flashed in his mind, making his blood run cold and his body trembled instinctively.

The black robed youth looked deep in the eyes of the archer. "Go back home and tell Darkscale that if he wants a complete version of all the songs about Rama he should go check Fallen Torch's Great Library. They open it to the public every 5 years… "

'That should be enough to entice the fucker to come to Fallen Torch City… he won't be able to resist the temptation… that moron attacked alone an entire sect once because he heard that they had a Rama song that he didn't hear before'

The archer's eyes widened again. All the songs? If that information was correct, when he went back to his tribe he would be awarded enough resources to become a Great Fighter.

Sif's eyes suddenly became colder again. "Now give me the compass and get the fuck out of here. If I see you again down here, I will skin you alive…"

The green haired man pulled out the jade compass and put it on the ground before starting to run away, thanking the Summoner for being so merciful.

Sif looked at the archer fled the cave.

"That was an unexpected opportunity…"

If he managed to actually convince that old friend of his to come to Fallen Torch City, his help could be of vital importance for his plan to become Blackwing's disciple.