Chapter 23: Bravery

The purple robed woman slowly floated down from the skies and stood in front of the trembling men.

What caught their eyes wasn't the fact that she pulsated with such pressure, neither was it her enchanting silver eyes, nor her face hidden behind a half mask, which radiated a cool sense of beauty.

It was the fact that she could fly!

It was common knowledge that only those who were at the Epic level could sublimate their life genes after the evolution at the Superior level, and soar through the skies like a free bird.

"Oh my God. She's at the Epic level." Markov silently muttered with fear in his heart.

The other members of his team shared his sentiments, as they all trembled silently.

And why wouldn't they? Markov who was their leader and the most powerful of them all was only at the Advanced level Peak Tier, a far cry away from the lady's power.

Hell, she could end his life with a single attack if she wanted to!

What does she want with us? From her actions just now, she's definitely not on friendly terms. Markov thought.

I can only try to smooth things over. I just hope she doesn't kill us directly. He wryly thought.

He stook a step forward and spoke with a flattering smile on his face, though the contrast between the two spoke volumes.

"I apologize for my impetuous actions just now, my lady. I wasn't aware of your almighty presence and failed to keep my folly to myself. I'll humbly accept any punishment." Markov bowed his head.

The members of his team were stupefied.

One of his teammates could not resist the urge and silently spoke what was going on in everyone's minds as he exclaimed in a low voice. "Is that really the leader? Shit! My youth has ended! To think that— Ow! What was that for?!"

He glared at another guy with burning eyes as he rubbed his head, which a a very perceptible bump on it.

"Shut up!, Or do you want to put us in danger? You do see what's going on here right? You keep up this behavior, and I'll personally kill you before we all die from this expert's rage." The other guy said calmly as he subtly glanced at the woman, then at the first guy.

His "friend", sensing his glance, read between the lines and kept his mouth shut.

The woman noticed all of this, down to the exact words the men spoke. But she didn't call them out on it. It's not like they'd survive if she wanted to kill them right now anyway.

As Markov kept his head bowed, a sultry voice came out from the woman's lips.

"Oh, what makes you think I should spare your life? Just because you said "sorry"? What gave you the guts?" The second part of her sentence had a faint chill to it, causing Markov to tremble.

The other members of his team also had cold sweat trickling down their faces as they stared at the woman in fear.

Markov just stood there, with a tremble on his eyes and fear in his heart.

"Forget it. I'll just take your arm as compensation." She waved her arm casually and before anyone could see it coming, Markov's arm detached from his shoulder as blood splashed everywhere.

Markov's eyes widened in shock, then an intense wave of pain coursed through his body.

A bloodcurdling scream escaped his mouth as he clasped his shoulder, which sprayed blood like a fountain.

All of the men present had horror on their faces as the looked at the cleanly sliced off arm.

They felt chills run through their spines.

"Now then, back to business. Hand over the boy, and I might let you idiots live." The woman said with a casual glance at the horror-stricken men.

'So unreasonable! How terrifying.' The thought crossed their minds as they looked away from the woman's eyes.

But someone wasn't having any of it.

"Who the hell do you think you are huh?, Do you know who I am? I am an Honored of the Dreylar Family! You may be powerful lady, but I assure you, you are making a big mistake if you think that you will be able to get away with killing me! So go on, kill me if you dare!" The young man humphed at the woman with a look of condescension on his face.

Marjov looked at the young man with surprise on his face as he clutched his shoulder.

The men looked at him in shock.

The woman looked at him with laziness and amusement in the depths of her dark eyes.

"How amusing, I guess it is true what they say, a newborn calf really doesn't fear a tiger." She gave him a distateful glance.

"Stop spouting shit! Who the hell do you think you're acting all mysterious for? If you really can do anything, then go and try it, you freaking bitch!" The young man looked her in the eye.

The place went silent. Over 60 pairs of eyes stared at the feminine looking young man.

Markov's look of surprise immediately turned into one of shock, wariness, fear, caution and mild fury. The expression on his face was so bad that on would have thought that he had eaten sh*t for breakfast.

The lady's eyes turned frighteningly cold.

'Shit! What the f**king hell did this guy just do? Is he trying to send us all to an early grave?' The expressions on the 60 odd survivors of the lady's previous onslaught turned ashen.

"What did you just say?" The woman's voice grew increasingly chilling.

"You heard me. I don't waste words on opinionated bitches." The young man's voice was casual as he waved his hand.

An elegant looking fan appeared on it, which he immediately used to fan himself. He really looked more like a cold princess than a man.

The woman's voice took on a calm; a scary and eerie calm.

"I see you have a foul mouth, well then, let me fix that for you." The woman said with a biting chill laced within her words.

"Oh. You planning on fixing my mouth? Well, how about fixing your ass first! You should learn how to treat someone of higher status than you with proper respect, you imbecile." The young man folded his fan and flicked his hair backwards as he spoke.

The men's faces were horror-stricken, including Markov.

'I'd f**king like to know where I can get this kind of bravery from!' Their heads were full of all sorts of thoughts.

Markov's eyes took on a profound glint. When he took on this mission, the details left unspecified the young man's power level, among many things.

Plus, when he and his team saw the boy, they all subconsciously looked down on him as another spoiled brat from a rich family that used a high level Spirit Art to mask their magic power fluctuations.

Never would Markov have expected that the young man they all looked down on would turn out to be the bravest amongst them.

{A/N: Or the most foolish....}

It made him feel a little hot in the cheeks.

The woman's eyes twitched.

"Although I was told not to kill you, no one said anything about losing a tongue, maybe a ball or two. Let's see how your sharp tongue will help you now. Forget it, why do I talk so much?" The woman's hand moved, and ice spikes rained from the sky towards the young man.

The young man's fan unfolded itself, and blocked the icy projectiles that shot in his direction.

The spikes collided with the fan, creating dull thuds on its elegant surface.

The woman looked at the young man with surprise.

"Seems like you're not all talk. Tell me, what's your name?" She asked curiously.

"Sorry, I don't dig chicks like you." The young man said plainly.

"Well, I'll just have to beat it out of you." The woman's voice was nonchalant.

Before her voice could travel towards the young man's ears, she shot towards him like a bullet out of a gun.

The young man suddenly pointed his fan towards a random spot in the air, and a thin arrow made of ice crashed against its surface a second later.

He looked around and said in a lazy voice, "Oy! I thought you said you were going to 'fix' me! Or are you all bark and no bite? I wonder who was the idiot that sent an even bigger idiot like you to kill me. I'd like to tell them they're going to be disappointed."

The young man sighed with a pretentious look.

All of a sudden, the young man started waving his fan around, like he was blocking something.

The thing is, none of the men felt, or saw what he was blocking, no fluctuations in the air, no sounds, nothing.

The men were confused and thought that he was merely being crazy, though they wondered how that might happen.

Only Markov could clearly see what happened, and his eyes grew more and more shocked.

Even then, he could only see vaguely.

In his vision, the young man's flamboyant looking fan seemed to be blocking a series of attacks.

Not just any attacks, he seemed to be blocking thousands, no, tens of thousands of icy needles seemed to have lunged towards him like an endless swarm of bees.

Markov grew pensive, and he wondered how this fight would end.

....