Behind the swollen woods stood a young man heaving out large breaths. Next to him was another young man in a sleek suit with half-curled hair, an abnormal left eye, and a cold smile. His image was daunting compared to the current atmosphere.
"Don't worry Fachtna, here climb through this. Once I claim his body, I'll send over a letter. Now I must clean up this mess before any imposing figure decides to muck about."
"Are you sure you can... Though some of them don't have family, for so many bodies to just disappear."
"Stop being in a fright, head to this destination once you climb through the broken space. Wait a week at least for the bout, once Maah is defeated I'll call you about the retrieval."
"A-ah, ah alright."
Fachtna then got up and walked through space as reality bent and the vision of the world broke like smashed glass. On the other side was a concrete domain with three tall buildings, the broken shards of the world slowed even more as they floated down. He took a step in and in a flash of light, all looked normal.
"Now then."
***
Around a week later, in a small garbage heap, Jo and his respectively known friends were standing around.
"I saw Judar'ł visit with Muhktar for the hundredth time already."
Jimi said solemnly.
"Yes, well it is a slight shock. To imagine his death is abnormal."
Jo chose not to ever mention his collaboration with Maah to fight against Fachtna, instead, he said that the dispute was over and that Maah had simply challenged him to clean up his tracks.
Jimi didn't believe it much, but it seemed all the younger individuals of the group took it as honest as it could be.
"Hah, you really shouldn't fight. This is ridiculous. If I knew this island was going to be this insane I would've begged Godmother to never move here."
Yaffa in recent weeks was coming closer with the general group, mostly bantering with Jimi and giving slight hellos and opinions on certain topics to everyone else. Though the island was an island, it was still quite a large place, with a central mountain, to the East where most land and quality amenities resided, mostly for the rich such as Jimi and Yaffa. To the North was where criminal affairs would generally take place. The South was less a criminal hive, but just a simple ghetto, the 'slums' as one could call it. This was where Jo and his family lived, a small shack a few blocks down from the gym he trains at. The orphanage is closer to the West side of the peasant grounds, and to the farthest side of the West was the main school of education. It wasn't much and quite faulty. Jimi himself would've never gone if it wasn't for his constant begging.
His initial words at the time were, 'Being with Lull will be funner than sittin' around on me...'
At the time he was cut off seemingly no one in the family cared much, for he was quite young. It was strange for Jimi was getting up in his slight teen years, and though he's been held back, he should be getting closer to attending special-ranked academies.
His two elder brothers both went to some of the finest academies on the mainland. Jimi could remember the stories that Otus would come back with. Otus unlike the rest of the family indulged in whatever he liked. He was one of the small reasons why Fachtna's business went along so well and seemingly didn't get targeted by higher powers like the Xyken.
Jimi knew not of Fachtna's business all that much for he didn't care, and so in turn he never found out anything about the Xyken hypocrisy.
Anytime Otus arrived home, bloodshot eyes and dark rings circled them. Otus simply told Jimi, 'It's a drawback of my medication.'
So anytime Otus was high, drunk, or almost at death's door a multitude of times, Jimi simply figured it was side effects. Sooner down the road, he figure something was off, and around his twelfth birthday. Otus gave Jimi a present, most in the family didn't care much, but Otus was as bad or incorrigible as the family thought of him. He was still the closest next to some of the head maids when it came down to being familial with Jimi.
So even in his glaring understanding of Otus's flaws he still cared for him almost the most. Though Jimi would argue most that his eldest sister Theia was much better, she sadly never came home or got the chance to interact with her siblings. That's why the small interval of talking he had with her after the banquet made him so content for the many days after.
But on this day, Jimi was given his present, he had others, but this one was different on many levels over. Jimi loved to hear his brother's stories of the mainland many times, but to have another story as a present, well Jimi was a little bit more than disappointed. Either way, he at the time still tried to hold up great spirits. For a present to be just a simple story didn't make sense, it must have been an incredible story, a story of adventure and action.
Many thoughts came to Jimi's head at the time, and sure enough, it was incredible to a certain extent. Otus for the next hour after Jimi's small greetings with the family had been over, was speaking loud and proud about the most detailed information on what the best races were to have sex with.
At the time Jimi almost passed out, he thought his brother at least had some class, to not speak of such things so openly to a newly aged twelve-year-old. Otus didn't care though and since no one else was around, he kept talking.
He went down the list from every specific thing he and others did. Jimi could only sit in complete silence and shock. And so when Otus blabbered about skin, technique, and rather other details that when given Jimi thought 'What did any of that have to do with what you were saying.'
Jimi was more confused at certain times than anything else, and after twenty minutes he began to get desensitized to it. His brother just kept on rambling. Finally, in time Jimi came to the conclusion seeing that Otus may never finish and possibly even answer.
From his overly long-winded story, Jimi concluded that rogue elves, elves of original descent with no other specific traits, and that had left the general mainlands without escorts or the like. Mainly ones who wished to break away from certain stuffy traditions in the culture that Otus found the most appealing. Otus was decently good looking and with Xyken's name he was unbelievably rich, but even Jimi couldn't stomach the absurdity of Otus.
A one-man-seven other elf-girl orgy did not seem plausible to the young Jimi. Jimi was smart, and so when Otus would continuously use certain phrases or words, he began to understand.
Close to the end of all this nonsense, Otus firmly and seriously stated, not to get entranced by vamps, succubi, or any other race that have mental controlling natures. He didn't say it was because it was dangerous, he merely mentioned that it had stopped his manly traversal for a few weeks. The 'draining ability' as he called it was very 'powerful,' but cost him quite a bit. So he chose not to indulge himself with such things.
Concluding his long-windedness, Otus handed Jimi a small file cube that would only open when he turns nineteen. Otus had grinned capriciously as he handed it to Jimi, then he had rushed out the door screaming his eldest brother's name, 'Erebus! Erebus!'
Recalling this odd memory completely shook Jimi's thoughts as he forgot why he was thinking of such things.
Either way, it mattered not as though Jimi and the rest settled in this distinct educational lain. Yaffa on the other hand went to an all-girls school of proper martial etiquette on the mainland. Which she attended four times a week and would travel to and fro by the family's private yacht.
Jinu and Jeanne sat towards a small corner, and though it seemed none else arrived to watch, cameras were hidden everywhere.
Maah stepped through a small hall, walls of rusted scrap and overbearing garbage shadowed over him.
"It's good to see you, Jo."
His voice was calm and somewhat sweet. It gave shivers down the kids' spines.
"..."
Jo didn't feel much the same, as he didn't fully recover from last week and his body was in a quartet of pain.
"Shall we get started then?"
"I suppose."
"Excellent."
Maah slowly tied his long hair that glistened, it felt as if all the filth around them was no longer there.
'Aura...!'
Yaffa was in shock, she was looking at an indescribable person and her face felt like it was burning.
"Yo Yaffa, you good, ya look like a weird fruit or something, pink hair, red face, what a serious weirdo."
Jimi then began to snicker as he seemed to have realized what was going on after taking a swift glance at the ghostly white man. Other than Jo all the rest seemed completely clueless.
Yaffa in sheer embarrassment didn't even want to throw a quip back, she just wanted to hide.
'It's not my fault! It's not my fault! It's not... That stupid aura of his is weird, not me!'
"Haah." Jo took up a deep breath as he tightened his navy blue workers jacket around his waist. His white tank top was somewhat stained in a few areas, and his light facial hair and fuzzed-up braids made him look like he was four years older. Even though he was young, he was still built strong, abnormally strong.
In recovering she stared more towards Jo than anything else, realizing why she felt it was so odd that he was somehow in a fight with such a being across.
'Martial Body... Not even the brothers or even Grand Uncle have such a clear Martial Body. Though I don't know much, it seems all he does is train physically, because I can't sense 'it' for it looks to be that he's behind in a few spiritual stages. Though I haven't advanced much, so I have not much to judge. The other guy is weird though, and not because he's pretty. Because his energy feels like it lasts forever, yet I'm confident in saying he trains not at all. He's slim, barely enough muscle to lift a rock. Sure some martial arts can work without a powerful body, but he would need to be at the Peak. To use such an underutilized field of martial arts, to become this powerful, he should have trained for decades. None of this feels right, he can't just have natural talent. I'm not weird for starring, seriously, he's the real weirdo!'
Jo then stepped forward taking off his two large metal boots that connected under his torn pants clamping around his knee. They sunk deep into the ground as their weight smashed through the soft dirt.
"Hmm... Shall we do this the proper way then?"
Jo nodded as he tried to calmly stabilize himself.
"Alright then. I Mashrier Kwah, in the challenge by name declare you, Jo, to a battle of death!"
"And I, Joe Boy, in the challenge by name accept you, Maah, to a battle of death!"
As soon as Jo's words slipped away towards silence, the two pierced the ground flying at each other as they announced in a simultaneous blazing roar.
"FIGHT!"