The two combatants took their stances. Bold looked at him menacingly and eyed the boy's every moment. The boy pretended to dash and retreated back which startled Bold a bit. But seeing how he had lowered his guard from the relief of safety, the boy lunged at him for real.

He threw kicks at his chest which Bold blocked. After balancing himself on the ground, the boy jumped forward and aimed to punch his face. Bold shielded himself with his arms. But the boy landed a knee kick to his stomach upon landing.  Bold attempted to punch the kid but he quickly retreated. Suddenly the kid raised his leg and slammed a roundhouse kick on Bold's chin.

The kick stunned him good. Wrapped in pain and confusion, Bold backed away. The boy continued to throw volley of kicks at him and Bold blocked a few of them but some kicks landed on his knees. Realizing that he was no match for the kid, Bold ran away and the kid followed after him. Just then Bold could feel his legs aching and burning. There was no way he could get a distance with like this. But thankfully for him, a tree branch was just nearby.

He jumped and grabbed onto it and kicked the kid back with skill. But as soon as Bold gave the kid a wry smile, the branch broke and he slammed into the ground with his butt. The kid turned around, flipped into the air and attempted to nail Bold to the ground with a double legged stomp. But Bold rolled out of the way and the kid hit an empty ground instead.

Shit, I’ve seen enough. There is no way I can beat this guy.

Bold ran away as fast as he could but the kid swiftly followed him.

Come on, there must be something I could do. Wait…YES.

Bold abruptly turned around and landed a sudden kick at the kid’s groins. The kid cried in pain and fell to the ground. Bold sat on him with his heavy load of a body.

He grabbed hold of the black helmet and the kid punched his jaws and scratched his hands to prevent it. But after a gruesome effort, Bold finally threw the helmet off. And a face that was all too familiar to Bold peered back.

“Lau Chen, you son of a cock”

“Says the guy who almost destroyed my cock. DARK PULSE!”

A black aura formed around Lau’s body. It blasted Bold into the air with great force. He flailed in the air for a moment and fell down to the ground with a thud. But the pain was not enough to distract him from the obvious fact.

“Y-you. You lost. You activated your spell”

Lau looked at him and grinned.

“Fuck you man. How was I supposed to know you would go so low” grunted Lau. 

“Y-you crazy bastard. You’re with the guys who kidnapped Gabi, aren’t you?”

“Pff, I lead the group”.

Bold’s eyes widened and Lau gave him a sly grin.

“Wha- Then stop your men. Before any of my friends get killed, you crazy psychopath”

“Right, right, right. Sure…after I recover from my pingus pain. I'm actually afraid to look at it now” said Lau with a smile.

“Get your small ass up. We’re gonna go back, NOW. And stop whatever the heck you did to Gabi” roared Bold.

“Uhhhh, fine”

Lau slowly stood up and pressed the cancelation button on his shoulder. The snakes that nested themselves inside Gabi’s body disappeared and she slowly got up to her feet. The three of them shared silent glares and soon headed back through the path Lau’s devouring dragon had created. When they arrived at the circular canvas, the situation looked quite dire.

Diego was lying on the ground. Whether he was dead or tired out was unnoticeable. Kenji and Kranos seemed to be still continuing their fight. Their moves, however, had started to become sluggish. Bob was crawling away from the scene of the battle.

Probably defeated by Mikhail, seeing as how he was standing there, eyeing the little man’s escape. Ryan stood far away from Kenji and Kranos’s battle but surrounding his body were three blades. He raised his arm and then stretched it down towards Diego who was on the ground. Immediately those blades flew into the air and plummeted down towards him.

“Brother!”           

"Stop!" yelled Lau        

Gabi, Bold and Lau were too far away to do anything. But just before the blades reached Diego, the blazing red snake blasted one of the blades. The other two plummeted towards Diego but he rolled sideways to dodge and the blades stabbed the ground.

Thompson, who was a few meters away from him, sighed and raised his fist into the air triumphantly.

“Everyone stop! If you don’t stop, this fat fucker said he would kill me” yelled Lau towards them all.

Bold bit his lips and punched the back of Lau’s head.

“Okay, I’m just kidding. He is a friend. I just realized I was trying to kill my friend and his friends. He said it’s not a good idea to do that. But I beg to differ”.

Bold locked Lau's head in his armpit and roughened up his hair. His group members looked confused at their friendliness. But regardless of their opinions seeing the two playfully wrestling together was enough to stop the fight.

Lau, Bold and Gabi walked towards them.Gabi immediately ran towards Diego and helped him to sit up. The others still looked at Bold and Lau with puzzlement but soon they all agreed to sit in a circle to talk out the situation that is currently happening.  

“So, this guy is your friend?” asked Mikhail.

“We were friends in middle school and high school.” said Bold.

“And you just suddenly vanished, who knows where” said Lau sarcastically.

“You’re the same guy with the armor, right? For a little pipsqueak you sure are strong” said Thompson proudly.

“Yeah, it’s cause he hoarded all of the cash our group collected and used it for his own power boost” complained Kranos.

“Hey, you don’t have to explain it like that. Bitches just love me okay. They can’t be still without giving me their cash” said Lau with a wide grin.

“Yeah, sure. Your chibi build and your chibi rod will surely attract women” mumbled Kranos.

“Don’t make me pulverize you with me DEVOURING DARKNESS DRAGON, Kranos”

“Hey, you bastards. I don’t care about your nonsensical bantering. I’ll only ask you one thing. Don’t ever come close to me or my sister ever again” roared Diego with bitterness.

Lau looked at him with contempt.  

“You think you’re the one to order me around? Look, I wanna hang out with my old pal, okay? I won’t try anything funny with your sister. So, won’t you lead me and my gang to wherever you’re staying? I actually haven’t eaten lunch too” said Lau with a taunting look.

“How can you be so nonchalant about all this? You tried to kill us all”  grunted Bold.

“Why be chalant, huh? I have my broken spells. If any of you tries to be an ass to me, I could show you the true meaning of pain”

“You kidnapped an innocent young girl, rigged the deal and tried to kill her brother. You’ve turned into the cheapest dirtiest villain” said Bold angrily.

“More like an antihero with dubious methods” corrected Lau.

“How is any of the shit you’re doing heroic?!” raged Bold. 

“Can’t be heroic without power”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever. Seeing how much of a douche you have become, I don’t want to even look at you” said Bold. 

“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that” 

Lau hopped and wrapped his arms around Bold’s neck and sat on his thighs.

“Get off, now” hissed Bold. 

“I’ll kill all your friends if you refuse to let me stay with you” said Lau with a friendly smile.

“Why you-”

“Hey, Don’t be so hard on him Bold. And if Lau wants to go with us. I personally don’t see any problem in it” said Mikhail happily.

“Oh what the hell, didn’t this guy and his men tried to kill us all just now” yelled Diego.

“Yeah. But if we piss of the little demon more he can kill us now too. So, what is the point of enmity?” said Mikhail and threw a clueless smile towards all of them   

Thompson nodded his head and spoke: 

“I side with Mikhail. Having a drink with a warrior as strong as he is is an honor”.

But his comments did not change Diego’s grumpiness.