**Half an hour earlier**

"At least I am not the only one being left out haha.." Kyro remarked as the group of friends exited the plantation after their work hours. "Huh.. keep lazing around like this and very soon you will be." Jake squashed the boy's jovial mood ruthlessly. 

"Hey... I am trying my best. What can I do if I am not as naturally talented as you people?" No one took his sulking to heart. Instead of sympathy the boy only evoked a small chuckle from his friends. "That's just an excuse for you to skip your training sessions."

"Ahh.. that was only once, man. I was genuinely exhausted." "Yeah, yeah!!" Ryu and Kira heard their friends' endless bantering, without intervening. Both of them were used to these verbal spats. "Ryu." The group had just walked some distance away from the exit when they heard a voice speak out to him.

The green-haired boy turned back to find a familiar face walking up to him. "Hmm? Yeah?" This was probably the first time this boy had ever spoken to him on his own accord. "Can you come with me for a few minutes? I need to talk with you." 

Well at the very least he was polite. He didn't find it strange that Jim had approached him. After all, Amelia has almost cut this guy off her life totally. It was only natural for him to be restless. "Okay." Not thinking much about it he agreed.

"We will come with you." Jake immediately stepped up, his thoughts echoed by the other two people as well. "It's okay, I can handle it myself." As far as he was aware this boy had mostly mended his ways, even going as far as apologizing to him. 

Jim didn't wait for the guys to discuss it through, just walking off. Assuring his friends once again Ryu followed the guy confidently. They traveled for the next few minutes until they reached the end of the streets. "Mhh?" His senses tingling, the boy caught on small fluctuations in the mana around him.

"Cough..! Listen to what I say very closely." Suddenly Jim's voice took on a grace tone, warning Ryu that this guy might have some malicious intentions. Not bothering to reply he waited for him to complete his sentence.

Jim turned around to face the kid, his eyes red as if he was suppressing great turmoil. "I don't want to see you anywhere around Sophia, from today onwards." Ryu kept staring at the boy's face, partly in confusion and partly in scorn. 

"Ahahaha.. so it was true after all. I heard somewhere that you had a thing for my girl. Alas.. she is taken, my friend. Go look for someone else." Waving his hands disdain the boy turned on his heels, ending the conversation right there.

*Crackle* Jim's bones cracked at his hands balled into fists. Sophia was life for him. How dare this guy refer to her as his girl? Who the fuck he assumed he was? All this while he had shown mercy just because of Amelia. 

"This will be your last warning kid. Don't make me take drastic steps." The boy in front of Him stopped in his tracks before looking back at him. "Are you threatening me?" "Absolutely." Their conversation was calm but both can see the simmering rage in each other's eyes.

"Hahaha.. Don't overestimate yourself, man. You are not as scary as you make yourself out to be." Jim had certainly not imagined the conversation to go like this. "I see." *Boom* Sparks of fire ignited all over his body. His mind was loosing all sense of reasoning. The best he could do was to warn the guy... if he still refused to listen.. 

Ryu can tell that the situation has turned serious. Was he afraid of facing this guy? Not at all. With a smile on his face, he let out a deep breath. His mana bubbled in his channels, his eyes shining with a dark green light. "These days I am especially annoyed at silk pants like you, young master Jim."

Just the mana leaking out from his body had caused multiple vines to germinate all around him. "Maybe a few broken bones will help you thick with a clear head." It was an empty portion of the streets, which meant there was no one around them to intervene.

"Hahah.. big words, for a pipsqueak like yourself. You are going to get yourself killed." With every sentence, Jim's mana was breaking out of his body, the heat around him incinerating the vegetation that had now covered almost all of the street. 

    

Ryu cracked his neck. "These past few days, all I have done is to train non-stop. It's time to test it out haha.." More than Jim those words were meant for him. Finding himself in this new world all he had done was to engage in debauchery. But now that he had developed close-knit bonds with the people here, he found himself emotionally attached to each of them.

Unknown to Jim, he had come to develop a sense of hate towards the privileged brats. He had no issues with them fucking around as long as they stay clear of his women. *Booom* An explosion triggered both boys to launch towards each other. 

*BLAST* They were not far from each other, to begin with. Their fist crashed into each other, throwing both of them away. With his feet dragging across the cross the terrain Ryu forcefully came to a stop. Despite the burn his fingers suffered in the clash, he had a smirk on his face. 

"If that's all you got... then I got to say. It's rather disappointing." He rubbed his hands together, ready for another clash. Opposite to him, Jim stood in his place stupefied. "You..!" The girn on the face of the kid felt especially irritating to him, not to mention his sudden increase in strength. 

A single punch should have been enough to give the boy multiple fractures, but the truth was that he still stood against him just as smugly. 'Hmm.. this kid is quite special. Your normal logic won't work on him. Then again if you can't even defeat this brat.. I guess you should just forget the girl.' "Shut the fuck upp...!!"

Ryu heard the boy scream to himself. 'Damn.. did he go senile in his head?' In spite of his earlier words, he was extremely cautious. Even with all his advancement, he remained a step away from entering the earth realm. While it was well known that his opponent had been in that realm for years probably.

"Hahah.. good. Good.. I think I don't need to hold back then. Try not to die." A fire blaze took over Jim's body as he was slowly pushed into madness. Like it was displaying his inner emotions, the color of the fire began turning deeper red until it was crimson. 

"You talk too much..!" Ryu took to the offensive this time, his body shooting over at an amazing speed. *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* Just like he mentioned, Jim was not holding back this time around, calling onto both his fire and lightning mana to launch vicious attacks at the eyesore.

"Ahhhhh!!" *Crackle* *Crackle* Sparks of blue bolts cracked around both of them as they engaged in a fistfight. Undeterred by the large mana reserve of Jim, Ryu fought incessantly. *Pughh* Both of them vomited a mouthful of blood as their bodies were thrown back, this time crashing into the vacated houses. 

Loss. Anger. Betrayal. And no shame. These were the only overwhelming feelings in Jim's mind right now. A kid even younger than him was trying to stand on par with him. The more he thought about it the more furious he became at himself. How was he different from a failure? 

On the other hand, Ryu was feeling a strange adrenaline rush in his brain. The punch to his chest has certainly broken a rib or two, but the more injured he got the more he wanted to continue. This guy would not even be his match if he can step into the next realm. 

"I am going to kill you...!!!" Jim growled like an animal. Instead of charging once again, he stood in place bringing his hands together to chant a spell. The electric charges around him accumulated into a long lance. "Die!!" He didn't care about Amelia. He didn't care about Sophia. All he wanted right now was to make this guy disappear from his sight.

Ryu's pupils dilated watching Jim throw his lightning weapon right at him. For the first time in the fight, he felt an emergence of anger. This attack was truly meant to take his life. "Release." Enough playing around. He was going to squash this guy like a bug.

*BOOOMMM* Jim was barely able to hold his ground as a swirl of wind surrounded the kid, a huge amount of lightning covering the surrounding area like it was eating away every life force. The guy was dead, finally. Just as the thought crossed his mind, he heard a scoff in his mind. 

Alerted, he noticed the charred plants around him once again come to life, this time they grew rapidly until there were multiple trees around them. As the dust settled, his eyebrows bunched up together to find the boy standing in place, alive. 

"How can this...?" Jim felt like he was in a dream. That lance was one of his most powerful attacks and his opponent had actually caught the lightning weapon mid-air. This was simply unfathomable. It was common sense that if you try to handle a type of mana not compatible with your body, it's going to backfire. 

*Crackle* *Crackle* Jim has thoroughly angered Ryu with this attack. It was foolish of him that this guy can change. Each of these silk pants bastard was the same, treating life as grass. His hands clutched harder on the lightning lance. The sparks had burned the skin of his right hand, but the hate in his heart surpassed the pain from the electrical discharge.

"Here. I will give it back to YOU..!!"  Jim felt the hairs on his neck stand as the lance that he himself created zoomed through the air traveling even faster than when he threw it. In a desperate attempt, he raised his hands to cover his body into a massive ball of fire. *BANG* 

The fireball exploded bathing the entire ground under fire. 'Hehehehe.. Trying to copy me? Don't be in a delusion that if I can control multiple elements then somehow you could do the same brat haha..' Ryu looked down at his burnt right hand. 'Don't go one lecturing me on MY own body, demon.' 

Ryu stood in place observing the fire die out, revealing a dismal-looking Jim who had survived the explosion but not without spewing another mouthful of blood. "He is not even in the same realm as me..  why??" 

Why was this world so unfair? First, he tried to mend his ways only to have Amelia cut him off. Then when he had managed to pick himself up, he found the love of his life in another boy's arms. And now he can't even defeat a mere Junior realm brat. Disappointment after disappointment. 

"I must kill you..!!" "Come try." A large pillar of flame was blasted by Jim towards the boy burning away everything in his path. "You are pathetic." With a wave of his palms, Ryu made the trees around him take the damage for him, while he himself charged right at the boy.

Jim's eyes sparkled with electricity as each mana-clad punches crashed into each other. Ryu was not holding back at all. Having released his seal, he got access to a massive amount of excess mana that can be called at will. 

"Emergence!!" Ryu directed multiple large roots from the trees towards the flame-covered boy. "Burn away!!" *Boom* Tongues of red flames burnt the roots and branches surrounding him. "Haah.. haah...!" Both of them found each other evenly matched. 

Their clothes had been turned to ashes, blood covered their body and both of them were breathing heavily. "What happened, little young master... Believe me now? You are nothing but a condescending punk who overestimated himself hahaha...!!" 

Despite the wounds all over him, Ryu was completely satisfied with his performance. This was the first time he had ever had such a neck-to-neck battle. In stark contrast to him, Jim was left extremely enraged. "I will kill you.. bastard!!" 

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Kudos!!>>