Rivalry or hatred?

The asphalt road skimmed past Eve's eyes as the goliath of a man carried him like a bag of sand.

His grip was that of a metal, strong enough to cause pain in his back which the man had grabbed.

He hated this, but the company of sprawling insects kept him rational and the liberation of leaving his house for the first time alleviated the humiliation.

Most of the bugs were fairly common. Disgustingly green, too many and too horrifying but occasionally, some relatively cool ones could be seen.

However, those couldn't help the blood rushing to his head, causing him to feel light-headed.

He skirted around and lifted his upper body up.

'There! His neck is vulnerable.'

Eve intended to attack Arco's neck to get him to drop him, or even better, to make him faint like how it is portrayed in movies.

In one smooth motion, Eve flexed the muscles in his right hand and aimed it at Arco's thick neck.

Having countless years of combat under his belt, Arco had predicted the attack coming as soon as Eve moved. Eve behaved just like a beast would, jumping to violence instead of using communication first. 

He was mistaken on that aspect, Eve had skipped the negotiation part because he knew Arco wouldn't talk to him. He was right.

With his other hand, Arco held Eve's incoming chop with no effort at all, causing Eve to get stuck in a position that threatened to snap his spine at any moment.

His spine creaked and popped, growing slightly painful with each sound.

Not willing to give up, Eve struck the side of his nemesis only to find its rock hard, and hitting a rock is detrimental to his bone structure.

"Gah!" Eve gasped in pain.

'Let me go, you oafing brute!'

Melina seeing the antics of the two rolled her eyes. The scene of two people, one big and one small messing with each other awakened a memory in her.

Not a memory suppressed in her soul but one that she had kept locked away in her mind for years.

"That's enough, I'm sure Eve won't delay as any longer so just let him go."

Arco did so willingly, by letting go of Eve.

He crashed on the ground, his head upside down.

If he didn't cover his head in time, who knows what might have happened.

He probably wouldn't have died, but he would have sustained a substantial injury for sure. Arco was just too damn tall to land safely in that position.

Eve's experience of the world was going very smoothly right now. People were already noticing him.

Now, all he had to do was to resolve this feud without drawing any more attention. One could get reported to the police for disrupting people and causing fights in the Empire.

It was what Eve was planning to do when the duo regressors called him.

He didn't want to get reported himself. Certainly not after leaving the house for only 5 minutes.

Thankfully Arco seemed to be not in the mood to waste precious energy on Eve anymore so he pressed on without looking back.

'That's right, run like a coward you are.'

'When I learn how to control soul power, I'm going to crack your spine so bad that it can't support that muscle body of yours.'

While a budding spark of competition took root in Eve's eyes, the resentment within Arco grew only darker.

All the while Melina was none the wiser.

'Ahh it should be fine. Eve seems to have trouble expressing what he wants to say or rather doesn't want to while Arco remains bitter that he lost in a contest of strength all those years ago.

Is it ago or in the future? Time travel is weird.

With time, these two should learn to co-exist. The reason why my group is small in the first place is to make cooperation easier while avoiding dividing the remainder soul power into smaller parts.

Now the question is… what should be Eve's Harvest Condition?

Should it be a dominance type like Arco? No, it's a bad idea. How about a group type like the twins? Hmm, Eve having followers is like a fever dream so it's out.'

Melina continued to brainstorm in silence.