Etheric Fruits (2)

"Oh? The gold bird mercenary. You even believe in children's tales?" an singsong voice said, causing every body to pause.

They all looked towards the location of the voice. Surprisingly, it was above their head. Three young men and two girls stood in the air looking down on them with eyes filled with amusement and disdain. The me were all dress the same, and the girl too. They all looked to be around the same age.

"My senior apprentice brother asked you a question." one of the men spoke. They looked to the one leading the group. It was a fairly handsome boy with sharp nose and glassy eyes. They all had their long hair tied back, looking ethereal. Those words confirmed the captain's worst fears. These were students of a sect. From their attire, their sect must still have some influence in the demon lands.

"Brother, since you know who we are, you don't mind telling us who you, right?" the captain asked. They were all guarded. He called the young man brother because he could see that they were all in the spirit awareness stage, except the leader, whose cultivation looked to be around the peak of spirit awareness; a step ahead of his.

"Had over the bad of etheric fruits and leave." their words made Ed think, Etheric fruits, that;s what they were called? Well, it makes sense wince they have a well of etheric energy in them.

"We found these fruits fair and square." the vice captain said and the newcomers laughed.

"Only power will decide." one of the boy said and the captain paled. Even though the two groups were more or less at the same level of cultivation, he knew that those trained by sects where more powerful, as their sects spared no expense to raise them. If a fight broke out, he would be on the loosing side.

"Ed!" Meryl spoke into his mind and Ed looked at her.

"This may be our chance. If a fight breaks out, we should use that opportunity to escape." she said, but Ed did not answer her.

"Are you really so righteous, you would save them, then still fight with them?" she asked in anger. She did not believe Ed would give up his life for people he did not know, and she was right. Ed did not save them because of his righteous heart. Righteous heart? He left that back in his world. In this world, he is ready to climb on heads to get to his goal, even if it's infant's blood he must drink.

He save them because he needed them to lead him to this fruits. Now that he is standing in front of it, he had no intention of walking away. He intended to take the fruits and leave.

"Fight then!" vice captain said and the two groups geared to start.

"Do you think it's winner takes all? We came to kill you and take the fruits. We don't need people out there that can tell other that we have it." one of the girls laughed softy and attacked. She pulled a sword out of her spatial ring and her body warped. The next moment she was standing before one of the men. Soon as she appeared, he sword descended.

The man was well experienced as he had fought many battles. He snorted and blocked with his axe. With one swing she broke his axe, causing his eyes to shrink. She did not stop there, she swung her sword at the others and attacked. What was she holding? A high grade human weapon? They paled.

Her actions showed them that she intended to fight them all alone. Her action caused their anger to rise. They noticed that the others were just hanging around and watching. This was a blow to their self esteem. She was faster than all of them combined. In a heart beat she had taken two of them out.

"Ed!" Meryl called, but Ed ignored her. he was looking for an opportunity to take the bag of fruits. With a huff, she tried to escape on her own. She turned and dashed out of the cave. Approaching the cave mouth she met one of the boys at the entrance.

"I don't like to hurt women, so..." he kicked her back into the cave. "why don't you consider becoming my slave? I will treat you right."

"It's better she dies? The dead a best off than your slave" the other girl said with a scuff. The leader kept watching Ed with interest. This man had not moved. He looked completely uninterested in what was happening.

"Vice captain, the bag." Ed said, neither loud nor soft. The vice captain there him the bag, hoping Ed would escape with it. It was a desperate act, but they rather the fruits be gone than the newcomers take it. The girl fighting narrowed her eyes at Ed's form as she finished of the last person. One could see the regret and unwillingness on the faces of the corpse. A testimony of their disbelief that their life ended like this.

They were prepared for Ed to make a dash for the door but he did not. They watched as he looked into the bag, then at them. He completely ignored the dead and the coughing Meryl, looking at the leader square in the eye.

"Hand it over. Do you think a spirit picking junior like you can do anything?" the leader said. He looked at Ed interestingly, as though looking at something hard to figure out.

Ed was never one for words. He placed the bag in his spirit ring and removed a wooden sword from it. Holding the wooden sword, he stared the blankly.

"Come." he said.