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“But, Leon...”

“Listen to your Big Bro and don’t touch anything.” Leon leaned in close to his younger brother and whispered, ” We’re here to buy the medicine, nothing else, okay?”

“Okay...” Pauller reluctantly placed the wooden sword back on the shelf.

“Good, now follow me and be really quiet.” Leading the young Pauller through the shop, Leon found his way to a counter at the back of the store. “I’m here to pick up an order for the Practor Family.”

“Just a moment.” The elderly man behind the counter nodded and left to a back room. While Leon made sure no one was paying him any attention, the man took his time to find what he was looking for. A few minutes later, the man returned. “Alright, here it is. Since it’s so rare, the price will be one hundred gold coins.”

Leon grunted, “It’s supposed to be eighty-five gold. My father already discussed that.”

.....

“Prices fluctuate as the market changes. I’d hurry and take it before–”

“Fine, take it,” grumbled Leon, hastily yet sneakily placing a bag of coin on the counter.

The merchant then slid the bag toward a discolored spot on the counter. As the bag was left there, that part of the counter sunk under the weight of the coins. Clicking his tongue, the elderly merchant sighed, “This seems to only be ninety coins...”

“Just take them...” grumbled Leon, dropping ten more gold coins on the counter top, which the man swept into the coin purse.

“Here you go. Thank you for choosing the Keldon Merchantile. I’ll see you again next month.” The elderly man exchanged the pouch of medicinal herbs for the coin pouch in an instant, faster than Leon could see. In less than a second, the man had dumped the coins under the counter without a sound and returned the empty coin purse.

Storing the herbs and pouch, the young adult turned around. “Come on, Pauller, we’ve got to go.”

“Okay...” The young preteen stared at the swordsman training set as they exited the shop.

Both young men darted through the crowded streets under the midday heat. They weaved in and out of foot traffic effortlessly as if they had been doing so all their lives.

“Leon... Why are we going this way?” asked Pauller.

“Because we need to make sure no one steals the herbs,” whispered Leon. “If we go the same route as usual, then we’ll run into trouble again.”

“Oh, that makes sense...”

They cut in and out of alleys, passing the concrete buildings and entering the residential district filled with wooden houses. Soon, they would be home and in the clear.

“Look who we have here...”

Leon came to a grinding halt, holding back his little brother. “We’re with the Practor Family. Please, let us pass.”

“Ohh, the Practor Family... I’m so scared!” mocked the broad, muscular man in front. “If you think me and my friends are worried about a declining family, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“Yeah, just hand over your rings and no one gets hurt!” laughed one of the two men behind the leader.

“We can give you gold, so please, let us pass.” Without question, Leon retrieved a small sack of gold and tossed it at the men.

“Not bad, kid. But this is nowhere near enough to satisfy all four of us,” stated the leader with a cold smile.

“Four?” Looking back, Leon noticed a man blocking off their route of retreat.

“Just hand over the rings and we’ll happily let you go. In fact, we’ll escort you back to your family,” the leader joked cruelly.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that...”

“Then maybe you’ll be able to teach us some of the Practor Family’s famous swordsmanship. Oh wait, you still aren’t a swordmaster, are you?”

With an ugly face, Leon and glared at the four men as he retrieved a sword. “Fine, since you give me no choice.”

“Try him out boys! Let’s see if he’s really become a swordmaster, like his ancestors.”

The two men behind the leader charged at Leon. One pulled out a pair of daggers while the other brandished a whip with bits of metal woven into the tip.

“I’ll face you, so don’t touch my brother!” shouted Leon, pushing Pauller back, away from the incoming threat.

Seemingly agreeing, the two men tag-teamed Leon, attacking from both close-range and mid-range.

Under the constant threat of the whip, Leon could barely keep up with the speedy daggers being thrust at him. Though he avoided major injuries, Leon was still cut and bled from his arms and torso.

“Not bad, kid. What are you, nineteen years old? And you’re already an adept like us... That’s pretty good for a fallen family,” laughed the leader. “You should just hand over the rings, that way you won’t regret any injuries or your death.”

“I’ll give you more gold,” retorted Leon. “I can even go back and get you more gold from the family if you’ll let us pass.”

“Nah... Just give up!” The man with the daggers lunged forward, twirling his blade to misdirect Leon and slash across his chest.

Jumping back, Leon managed to keep the cut superficial but he had no way to stop losing more and more blood.

“HELP!”

Looking back, Leon saw Pauller shouting and sighed.

The leader laughed even harder when Pauller started crying. “Kid, you don’t know when to keep your mouth shut do, you? Besides, who’s gonna help you? Who would be willing to do that?”

“Shut up!” shouted Leon, charging at the knife-wielder.

“Uh, uh, uh...” Just then, a whip lashed out and wrapped itself around Leon’s neck. The metal bits at the end scraped his face, cutting open his cheek. “If you don’t focus, then you’ll leave yourself wide open. Consider your rings as a lesson fee.”

The whip tightened around Leon’s neck, strangling him.

“If you don’t hurry up and throw your ring away, then you die!” Taunting Leon with his daggers, the man stepped closer and closer to the young man.

“Let me guess, a mugging?”

Everyone looked back to the alley’s entrance, noticing another young man walking closer. But he couldn’t be compared to Leon in terms of stature. Even the large thug felt threatened by the definition of the new arrival’s muscles. And the young man’s height and broad shoulders only added to the threat the thugs felt.

“Get out of here, we’re busy,” stated the leader, not sounding hostile yet in control.

“Well, maybe I don’t care if you’re busy...”

As the young man neared the bandit blocking Pauller’s and Leon’s retreat, he suddenly picked up the pace. That thug tried to stop the young man, but the young man seemed to disappear before his eyes.

The young man reappeared on the other side of the thug and rushed the man holding the whip.

With his whip already in use, that man pulled out a shortsword to defend himself, but the young man easily dodged his attacks and grabbed the man by the throat. Before he knew it, that man was being held in the air, unable to breathe.

“Are you going to release him, or do I need to actually start squeezing?”

The young man’s emotionless voice had the suffocating man wide-eyed. In a flash, the whip loosened around Leon’s neck and fell to the ground.

“Good, now get out of here.” Casually, the young man tossed the thug to the side, yet the thug flew a few krin into the man blocking the boys’ retreat. “Do you guys need convincing too?”

Lowering his knives, one man backed away from Leon, getting distance between him and the new threat.

“Why you...” Seeing disloyalty in the eyes of his men, the leader gathered earth essence around his hands. “If you’re so tough, then prove it!”

While the lead thug ran toward him, the young man smirked, “Makes sense.”

The leader reached the young man in but a moment, thrusting two solid fists at his chest. “You idiot!”

Both fists connected, striking the young man’s chest without any interference. Yet, the thug had a look of terror in his eyes.

That young man stood there, unmoved and unaffected. “So, I guess it’s my turn...”

“W-wait–”

Not giving the man a chance to change his mind, a fist rocketed into the lead thug’s gullet. The lead thug hurriedly put up a defense of earth essence, but the earth essence around the young man’s fist proved too potent to deny. With no ability to defend, the large man was pushed into the air, crashed into one of the alley walls, and nearly brought it down on impact.

He said nothing. He couldn’t. Unconscious, the lead thug fell from the wall onto the dirt floor.

“Anyone else?” asked the young man, looking indifferent.

The other three bandits scurried away like rats found hiding in broad daylight.

Leon looked at his savior in awe, unable to think of what to say. But Pauller didn’t have that issue, leaping at the young man and hugging him. “Thank you, mister, for saving my brother!”

“Pauller! Get ahold of yourself!”

“Don’t mention it,” chuckled the young man.

“Please.” Leon hurried to pick up the coin purse he had thrown at the bandits. “You should have this, as payment for your help.”

“Really, don’t mention it.” shrugged the young man. “I don’t need money, and I don’t need people talking about it, so let’s keep this between us.”

“But you–”

“Trust me, that was easy. It’s not like I was trying or working hard enough to warrant payment,” laughed the young man.

“Then...” Struggling to think of how to repay the young man, Leon groaned.

“My name’s Pauller, and he’s Leon. We’re from the Practor Family. Do you know the Practor Family?” asked the preteen with a twinkle in his eye.

“I can’t say I do... I’m new to Trighton City, so I don’t know the important families here.”

“Well, then you can come stay with us! We have plenty of room for you,” replied Pauller with an eager nod. “What’s your name?”

“Oliver.”

.....