Chapter 68- Caged.

Shorty arrived, leaping and slashing down with his gigantic blade at Wilson. He was going for a one hit KO but Wilson was not a wooden training dummy. He would not just stand there and let himself get cleaved into two. He dodged two steps to the right and tried to swing his hand but Shorty was faster. Even though Shorty had missed Wilson. He, without delay ignored him for the time being and went for the wind ability user who was conjuring his fifth wind blade barely three steps away from the range of his blade.

Shorty roared and swung horizontally. Quickly, Jim jumped back and at the same time, sent the five, no, four and a half wind blades at Shorty. It was barely a threat for Shorty who deftly dodged the initial near-misses, causing them to continue on towards Wilson. The angle at which the wind blades moved made it seem as if they had been thrown at Wilson instead. Like Wilson was the actual target. He dodged the blades by simply running to the side to avoid their reach.

Shorty ran and slashed at Jim who kept retreating rapidly, jumping from side to side, while throwing half conjured wind blades at him. Needless to say, Jim was terrible at combat, having never taken the time to either train his body or skill. He had instead trained to use his wind ability for speed-related puposes and right now, that was his saving grace as that speed was the only thing keeping him from the aggressive Shorty's giant sword's blade.

Wilson closed in and struck at Shorty's wide back with his fist but Shorty had already sensed him. Shorty was not going to let someone with him, that cannot happen. 'Every extra bit of strength reserved, vastly increases one's chance of survival.' That was what the old hunter that had taught him to hunt always said. He jumped forward, both staying out of range of Wilson's punch and closer towards Jim, the wind ability user.

Shorty twisted his wrist and groaned as he swung his sword diagonally upwards, to the right. Jim speedily jumped backwards and began conjuring another wind blade while cursing under his breath in frustration. What did they ever do to bring the dwarf-like hunter, anyway? Why was he attacking them and where were his partners? Did the snow tiger eat them for lunch? He wanted to ask the short aggressor but he did not even have the time nor energy to spare for that kind of conversation. Heck, who knows if that would only infuriate the hunter more. This short aggressor was already excessively aggressive as it is. He did not even give him a breather. If Wilson were not here, he would have either been dead or escaped by now. Most probably dead.

After Shorty missed, he swung around on a foot like a dancer, bringing the raised sword down on Wilson. Wilson ducked to the right and swung his left fist. The punch connected.

*peng*

"huh!?!?!?" Wilson blurted out in confusion. What was that sound.

"F*CK!" Jim yelled an expletive. "Armour Body." He said. Armour body was a name given out to those with super strength and strength-related abilities. It was initially meant as an insult from a lady to her rival who had an almost impenetrable skin, but then, some group of men with strength-related abilities and techniques picked it up and began calling themselves the 'Armour bodied men'. With time, it became a standard nickname for those with a stone-like physique.

Back to the fight, Wilson seemed unbothered and immediately struck out with his left foot towards Shorty's left leg. He wanted to tilt Shorty's balance so that he could be more in control.

Shorty moved his left leg backwards and further jumped backwards so that Wilson would once again be in range of his giant sword's blade but how could Wilson allow that? He knew that such a big weapon was useless as long as he stuck close to the user. He quickly closed in again, swinging with his right hand at his opponent's head and simultaneously reached for the hand holding the sword with his left.

To Wilson's surprise, Shorty discarded of his giant weapon without any hesitation and in the sword's place, appeared a small dagger. Shorty ruthlessly stabbed his dagger into Wilson's left palm. Wilson winced in pain, his right fist that had almost connected with Shorty's big, fat face, lost strength and dropped.

"Heh, amateur!" Shorty sneered. He grabbed Wilson's left wrist and twisted his dagger before pulling it out of the impaled palm. Blood freely flowed out of the injured hand. Wilson's head blurred from the sudden pain and loss of blood and he swayed a little. Shorty grinned and raised his dagger-holding hand with the intention to stab upwards at Wilson's neck. Such was the advantage of being shorter than your opponent. Height was both a blessing and a curse, depending on the situation.

"DIE!!" Jim yelled as he threw out a talisman. His heart hurt as he threw it. Talismans were really too expensive for the poor. But he knew his heart hurt even more when he saw Wilson sway like a small leaf in the wind. He quickly threw the talisman at Shorty. Shorty felt his hair literally rise on end and ignored dizzy Wilson. He jumped away and rolled on the snow to dodge the talisman, hoping the talisman would continue on its path and kill Wilson on his behalf. That would be even better actually because then, Jim would be both shocked and distracted and that would make the second part of his self assigned assassination work (if it could even be called that), easier.

Unfortunately, the talisman had a homing function. It turned and followed Shorty.

"Dammit!" Shorty growled and swung his dagger at the incoming talisman.

*clang* *click* *click* *click* *click*

"Sh*t!" He growled again. As soon as he struck the talisman, it had immediately opened like a cage and locked him tightly inside. He tried to use his dagger but it could not even leave a mark on the cage. He sucked it in and clenched his fist as he glared at Jim.

"Hehehehehehehe....." Jim laughed like an old merchant who had just struck gold.

"Totally worth my savings." Jim said as he hurried to Wilson. He took out disinfectants, bandages and a small, red, low level blood pill.

"F*CK, the knife must have been poisoned." Jim said after seeing the wound which had already begun to blacken.

He quickly put his hand into his bag, rummaged a little and pulled out small black vial.

"This is two years worth of work you are drinking. You owe me big time for this!" He said as he poured the liquid in the vial into Wilson's mouth followed by the blood pill.

He then proceeded to disinfect the wound and bandage it.

"Well, this ought to do for now." Jim said with a sigh and yawned. He looked at the caged Shorty with disdain.

"Hehe!!" Jim sneered, gave Shorty teo middle fingers and promptly fell asleep.