Magnolia awoken inside a cell.

“Hello, 25th,” Amitate said, namused from the adjacent prison. “Thanks for contributing nothing to our capture.”

“Shut up, Amitate,” Sevar and the rest of the imprisoned elves growled from a neighboring cell. “I lost because of your sneak attack!”

“You lost because you suck,” Amitate yelled.

“We lost because you can’t work as a team.”

Outside the cage, Emily Aztellic snorted.

“Shut up, Sis,” Amitate yelled. “Hey! Bucket-head! Why did Emily get to stay outside of the cage?”

“Because she is a better listener. Now, quiet, Ricky is reporting.”

Hikma pointed to a two-meters tall wolf he was petting. The wolf arrived after the 3 stooges and minions got shove into Hikma’s DIY enchanted rock prison.

The wolf yelp happily.

Magnolia suddenly realized she was in her underwear.

Everyone but Emily and Chronicler was half-naked.

She screamed, but no sound came out.

Emily Aztellic turned toward Hikma De Darwin and gave him a thumb-up.

“Mute cage?”

“A sound block,” Hikma shrugged. “My friend expects she will scream a triad of threats, so he recommends I install a noise block.”

“But why does Emily got to keep her cloth?” Artos complained. “Why are you stripping us anyway?”

“Because the girl handed several hidden weapons and her Storage Ring in good will. She has no desire to escape without Amitate. Meanwhile, you are an unstable chemical. Don’t worry you can all have your rings back when this debacle is over.”

“You know she is an Aztellic, right? A fucking demon!”

“I don’t judge people by their race, and sin of the parent isn’t something I believe. Unlike, you I don’t waste time starting a stupid crusade on people who try to live their best life. Hell, my plate is already spilling.”

“She will turn on you?”

“And you won’t?”

“We elf are…”

“Known for tossing your children to the wolves the moment they got power you don’t like,” Hikma cut Artos in second with precise interruption.

Amitate laughed.

“Hey, you have a good taste. I like how you handle that sanctimonious asshole. If you open the cage, kowtow in apology and swore to serve me and I guarantee you will…”

Hikma snorted.

“You are not much better. Sorry, I don’t want to end like Majesty Solarmaria. The point still stands. Your race guarantee nothing. Your family guarantee nothing. Your fame guarantee less than nothing. I judge people by action, not words. So, Miss Aztellic, do we have a negotiation.”

“We have none. You win. I will submit, but please let my brother go,” Emily tried to cramp down her discomfort.

Hikma groaned.

“Might make right? I don’t think you get me, Miss Aztellic. My power doesn’t exist to enforce the backward notion that a bigger fist is justice. In fact, I find greater profit on a longer path to convince you than forced servitude. I will simply tell you a story and nothing more. The rest is up to you.”

…

Distance away

Sun Senwei and Mamacia Cocogar rushed through the forest, leaving behind corpses of mind-controlled animals. Behind them a voluptous member of holy church impaled a giant bird with her sword and blast the poor animal to ash with the holy burst of energy. 

Mamacia stealthily hid behind the three and produced a binocular. In the distance they saw their target, Sorin Enma was lording arrogantly over the band of fallen competitors.

Senwei palmed a gigantic bear, exploding its head like a watermelon. Disregarding the blood, he walked over the corpse of twitching animal to the unperturbed Mamacia.

Aryssa Holyworth snorted and decapitated three more flying animals.

“Bunch of rats everywhere,” Sun Senwei spoke. “How is Sorin?”

“Flexing his ego per usual,” Mamacia replied. “I trust you will stick to your word, Sun.”

“Yep, all three of us sneak attack on Enma. That bloody son of a bitch is a direct descendant of Enma clan. His pocket would be loaded.”

Aryssa joined in.

“What about the trashes bowing to him?”

Sun Senwei laughed.

“Simple. We use them to help explore the forest. Anything can happen in this expedition. We need bait and meat shield to guarantee a maximum harvest.”

“You know they will be a witness when we murder Enma, right?”

Aryssa Holyworth voiced that out.

“Seriously, the fairy of the Holy Church actually cares about them?” Mamacia sounded surprised.

“Those insects?” Aryssa's face scrunched in disgust. “No. I just want to ensure we cover all angles. If one of them escape alive and told the Enma clan, we will need to deal with the repercussion from killing Sorin. I suggest we silence all the witnesses before fighting Enma.”

“Really?” Mamacia looked between the two. “That is what we are going to do.”

“Merciless as always, Aryssa. Good to see the Holy Church haven’t lost their touch. Still, I believe keeping them alive as our asset is better,” Senwei complimented.

Aryssa gave a sweet innocent smile a stark contrast to her ruthlessness.

“What are you going to do if you cannot kill all of them? Your reputation might not matter, but I still got the Holy Church’s reputation to preserve.”

“Relax, Aryssa, it is those ants’ word against yours. They couldn’t protect themselves, much less strike back at us.”

A new voice muffled by a modulator arrived to shatter the three glorified bandit’s dream like Darth Vader approaching from hallways to hell.

“They can’t, but I can.”

The three turned toward the voice; to face the girl who would haunt their nightmare.

There she stood. The hooded figure in black battle suits lined with Aria steel. The white symbol of Hope Dawn shone with brazened pride. The hooded figure glared at each of them through her mask. Lightning crackled around her ominously.

“Better pray your gods for painkiller,” Luxinna Latoria’s voice was merciless. “You will need it.”

…

Sorin Enma was in a very good mood.

No one knew what Alcra Shaxter wanted for a successor, but the competition and the unnaturally aggressive animals pointed at strength. The entire forest was a battleground to weed out the weak and selected the strongest man as the victor. This phase of the competition was an audition, and Enma knew exactly how to impress the would-be watcher.

He laid an attack. The adventuring band of ten never realized what hit them. Sorin Enma and his gigantic beastmen slaves utterly tore their futile resistance. Half of them died within the first minute. The rest tried to snap the IK’s badge to escape, but Sorin simply activated a strange artifact to block the teleportation. The result was tragic. The two women of the group were being manhandled by Sorin’s animalistic slaves, enthusiastically awaiting the order to violate their captive to death. Out of the three men, one was in critical condition and another won’t last much longer.

A weak martial artist groaned only for Enma to kick him in the face.

“Why? We never…” the man muttered until Sorin simply stomp down on his throat, choking him.

“Because you are in the way,” Sorin said. “Blame yourself for not overreaching your station and signing up here. The weak exist to be trampled by the strong. That is a qualification to be selected by Alcra Shaxter. What are you doing here? Treasure hunting? This is a killing zone, old man.”

The man gagged, but Sorin pressed harder.

“Please let him go?” a young boy watched helplessly.

“Impudence,” Sorin sneered. “What can you offer to me? You are all a chick in my palm.” Sorin showed the kid his stolen IK badge. “You can’t even run away. And the stuff in your bag it is already mine. Poor little kiddie too powerless even to resist.”

The boys gritted his teeth. He cursed himself for coming here, blamed the world for not being stronger. Why did people like Sorin Enma deserved the power to trample on all of them? What did they do to deserve it?

“The weak can only blame themselves for being born a bug,” Sorin pressed. “You know what? I feel merciful. Knelt in front of me, swore yourself to by this royal one slave, and kissed my boot. Then maybe I will let you lived.”

The boy shuddered.

“Don’t you agree old-man,” Sorin lifted his boot, allowing the man to breathe.

“Yes,” the uncle begged, trying to appease the psychopath to survive. “Thank—"

“Oh,” Sorin eyed the man with malice. “I don’t like your tone. It seems you don’t recognize your place as an insect.”

Sorin lit his foot with lightning.

“Wait!” The old man begged in tear. “This lowly fool is wrong. Compare to the mighty lord I am just an ignorant slave. Please allow this old man to serve you with his life. I am just insignificant trash so it will be an honor to lick your boot!” The old man sobbed. “Just let me live, please!”

Sorin sneered at the boys.

“This is how you beg kid,” Sorin was ecstatic. “A bug should know a place of bug. This is your punishment for daring to fight back when I attacked.”

“Bullshit,” one of the woman captive yelled. “You won’t get away with this!”

“Still got spirit,” Sorin sneered. “Rape her to death, Slave 8, and then eat her.”

The growling beast started ripping into the resisting woman as Sorin started his villainous monologue.

“This is reality kid. The biggest fist judge everything. All of you are beneath me. Heaven itself sides with my power. I don’t know why you people still keep trying to get away from my clan and those fuckers. What honor could life give you more than to serve us? Aren’t we your greatest protector? Who else could you turn to for salvation? Isn’t servitude a cheap price to pay for protection? Who else would save you!”

Slam! Crash! Bam! Crash! Crash! 

Something landed behind Sorin Enma, bounced from the earth, smashed through two trees and collided into the boulder next to him. Sorin felt a shiver down his spine. The slaves duo suddenly froze for an unexplained reason, leaving the crying woman blinking in shock.

The half elf in front of him was his fellow 33 Stars, Mamacia Cocogar. The young Enma barely believed his rival’s battered state. Mamacia was a beauty in her own right; lithe, stern and sharp as an intellectual from the Isle of Knowledge. Far from a wrangled mess before him. Her face was bruised. Her clothing smoked like someone slammed a million volts through her body. Her hair stuck out like a porcupine and her proud nose caked with bloods. 

Sorin gulped. Cocogar was technically weaker than him, but her skills were first rate. Who or what could batter her to a pulp like this?

“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!”

Boom!

Sorin watched a man in a green jacket dropped from a sky like a meteor. The familiar body of Sun Senwei broke the Earth with his shoulder. He flipped to his feet in a display of dexterity, but the only emotion on his face was fear as he gazed skyward.

Sorin slowly craned his neck in the same direction.

They saw the majestic entrance. A girl in a black cape and skintight battle suit stood tall on a floating lotus. Electricity sparked around the knight of Dawn. The limping Aryssa Holyworth dangled from her right, twitching like a dying cockroach. Her clothing blackened from massive voltages. Her originally luxurious hair frayed like cotton.

As beastmen demigod, Sorin’s eyesight was superhuman, so he noticed the masked girl’s piss-off expression from the earth.

“Who are you!?”

The girl disappeared from the sky and reappeared an inch from Sorin’s face.

“The protector of the defenseless, jackass,” the girl answered, golden armor surfacing into existence as she tossed out a punch.

Sorin blocked with a palm strike, but sheer might of the overclocked muscle still blasted him to submission. Friction tore the earth and shock-wave cracked the atmosphere to mark Sorin Enma’s tour across the air.

Sun Senwei watched the former biggest threat in the competition being knocked deeper into the wood. He cycled through his option to deal with this beast of lighting and settled with speed. Gathered his Qi on the foot, he exercised his movement technique and appeared behind Luxinna in a flash of rippling space and wind.

He tossed out a punch that transformed into a gigantic wind dragon. Sun possessed supreme confidence that his punch would land at point blank, but the elf saw the blow coming.

[Overflow]

Sun Senwei watched his target vanished as a drop-kick buried his face into the ground and extinguished his attacks. His mind barely comprehended how this monster reacted to a movement technique incorporating spatial teleportation before Luxinna subsonically face-planted him to the earth. The strike knocked Sun's consciousness to sleep, burying his head with his feet pointing up like an ugly tree. Being a kind soul, Luxinna delivered another kick to his midsection, unearthing him from the soil and blowing him through several trees.

Sun Senwei puked the combination of soil and his breakfast. His eyes blurred as his mind buckled beneath the trauma of a catastrophic darkness under the earth and fear of the unforgiving dealer of that punishment.

Her mask would forever haunt his memory.

Luxinna watched Sun Senwei fell and stated.

“I know you two bitches are playing possum.”

The Holy Church elite dangling helplessly in Luxinna shuddered in fear. Distance away, the half-elf prayed, trying to stay perfectly still. Alas, forlorn hope didn’t stop Luxinna from catapulting Aryssa Holyworth at Cocogar with a speed of military grade missile. An impact and dust clouds later, the two girls stopped playing dead.

Thumps

“Protector of the fucking defenseless!? Don’t make me laugh.”

Sorin marched from the forest slowly fixing his dislocated shoulder.

“Those self-righteous sects or those icy bitches always claim to represent the weak, but they all fold to us after a stack of cash. Those talks of justice are just a slogan. Come on! Tell me how much do you want?”

Luxinna said nothing. She simply strolled to Enma.

“A billion credit? My clan can offer that easily? Do you want a secret technique or a benefit? We can give you rank or fames. You only need to move out of the way. This got nothing to do with you anyway. Will you offend the Enma clan for insec--“

[Overflow]

Sorin stopped making offers as he got blasted into the sky by a flash of lightning.

Sorin coughed up a bucket of blood midair. He must do something. His opponent was too fast.

“[Divine Beast Raiment]” Sorin screamed, doubling all his stats. His body bulged as a raiment of Mana snaked around his body. Now, he needed to find that monster.

Then he felt the presence from his back; an unforgiving storm of static electricity.

Sorin looked behind him and registered the lotus of light, and the girl in golden, radiant armor leaning from the golden flower. Her mask shone with red-glare. Sorin realized his time was numbered. He won’t have any window to cast a counter against the coming attack. Luxinna was simply too fast for most spell-caster and cultivator to deal with. You either saw her attack coming, possessed passive defense, or fold over to die by hypersonic beating.

“Wait! Do you know who I am? I am the son of…”

Luxinna vanished and electromagnetically plowed into the buffed Sorin. The demigod lifted his lightning covered arms to stop that strike, but Luxinna was simply faster. She altered the direction of her fist split-second before the collision and smashed directly at Sorin's unguarded stomach.

[Electro Gift] + [Electro Lorde]

Let be clear, Sorin wasn’t a joke. He was a master of lightning-based Ki, possess destructive power and superhuman body. Trained since age of five from the best in Enma clan, his battle experience and natural aptitude in martial art was considered the best. The story of his defeat was he drew a short straw against an absurd opponent. His prior battle environment was a controlled duel or scenarios which the Enma names could silence all opposition.

Facing against a HD knight was totally new to Sorin. His arrogance and narcissism became downright detrimental against an opponent who served a higher purpose than material desire and trained rigorously to fight an entire world if need be.

Sorin utterly overestimated his worth, underestimated Luxinna’s firepower, and utterly caught unprepared with only [Divine Beast Raiment] to protect him. Sorin might last a minute if he came with a mentality to fight to death, but anything less snowballed his disadvantage into a clean defeat.

Lightning discharged as shock-waves and thunders blasted a crater with Sorin Enma electrocuted body. He slammed hard enough to shake the ground; racking bruise, electrical burn, and internal bleeding. He felt his breakfast traveling from his stomach as he vomited skyward.

Luxinna landed out of the crater, rushing toward the injures adventurers, leaving Sorin to smoke in a crater.