On a large boulder, several people stood.
Osho counted 7 of them, and similar to their group, each of them had the special nano-armor. The group consisted of 4 girls and three guys.
Each of them looked older to be a bit older than average, so Osho judged that they were his seniors.
The lead person, a muscular individual who looked to be of Middle Eastern descent stood with a large golden lion by his side.
Osho narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw the beast and its rank.
The purple undertone to the golden aura of the lion was hard to miss. Moreover, from what he could tell, the beasts of his companions were all at the Adeot rank.
'This could be troublesome.' He thought as he stood up along with the others.
The other group got off the rock and approached, which caused everyone's beasts to be wary.
Seeing this, the guy in the lead sneered.
"Oh? This is interesting. What are greenhorns like you doing in a place ?" He asked, not bothering to keep the disdain out of his tone, which made Osho nearly roll his eyes.
"There is no rule against who can enter this place, is there?" Osho asked rhetorically, and the guy snorted.
Behind him, his group members all had contemptuous or hostile looks on their faces. It's clear that they didn't have friendly intentions.
"Heh, you must be new here," The guy shook his head. "Even if Stellaris says anyone can access it, that's only the truth on the surface. Each part of this place has a faction that controls it, and right now, you are on ours." His face turned cold.
"So tell me, who sent you? Was it The Supremacists? Or perhaps those Libra bastards? Are you here to scout me out or what?" Hearing this, Osho's eyes widened a fraction.
From that alone, he could glean some information.
'This must be what Veronica and Mateo spoke about. I see, so different parts of this place are 'owned' by certain factions, and it seems like they aren't on friendly terms. I wonder what faction this guy is from.' Osho wondered.
At that moment, Ellie stepped forward and raised her hands.
"Hey, look. We aren't from any faction, we just came here to hunt and train. Nothing more. If our presence is a bother, then we will leave." She said cautiously. They were outranked and outnumbered. If she could help it, she'd rather they avoid a confrontation.
Hearing her words, the guy glanced at her before looking her up and down. Then he whistled.
"They sure know how to pick 'em, I'll give them that." As soon as he made that statement, Osho, who had a neutral expression thus far, turned cold.
This didn't go unnoticed by the others.
"Oh? Are you getting angry?" The guy walked towards Osho and stared down at him. Despite Osho being over six feet tall, he still had to crane his neck up to look at the guy.
Not that he was intimidated. Far from it.
"I advise that you keep your eyes and comments to yourself." He said calmly, but the implications were anything but.
"Heh, you have some spine, I'll give you that." The guy chuckled, then his aura flared.
Osho felt a powerful force press down on him, aiming to send him to his knees.
With a difference of two ranks, aura suppression should have been more than effective.
"Is that all?" Osho tilted his head and said mockingly as his feet didn't even budge.
Not only did he enjoy some of Gale's ability to not be bound or suppressed, but they were currently within the range of the bird's domain. As such, Gale could render virtually any hostile force aimed at Osho useless.
A trace of surprise appeared on the guy's face when he saw Osho was still standing, but Osho wasn't done.
"May I take that as a sign of aggression?" He asked, and behind him, the others shared glances as their beasts slowly got into position.
"You..." The guy stared at Osho for a few seconds, then he threw his head back and started laughing.
The action was quite sudden, and even his companions were taken aback by the change.
"Hahaha! I see! It seems like they've picked up quite a good one. You're bold, that's very nice." He said and clapped a few times.
"It's just unfortunate," He exhaled and stared at Osho, his gaze becoming icy once more. "Barking isn't the same as biting."
A massive fist barreled towards Osho's head like a rocket.
Osho could feel the wind get displaced and slice at his cheeks as the fist gradually filled his vision. The attack contained no Mana, but he knew that if he took such an attack head-on, a concussion would be the least of his problems.
But with such a wide gap in power, mustering a decent defense was simply out of the questio–
A noise no different from a grenade going of sounded as a gust of wind blew. The guy's head whipped back like he'd been hit by a baseball bat, and he briefly staggered.
Meanwhile, Osho stood with his arm outstretched. Smoke wafted off his fist as his head was leaning to the side, just barely avoiding the attack.
Neutron Style: Pulsar.
Both sides stared in shock as Osho not only managed to avoid the attack, but he had even countered with one of his own, and it seemed to be strong enough to make the other person stagger despite the rank disparity.
"Motherfucker!" A loud curse snapped everyone back to attention.
"Sneaker bastard." Osho watched as his opponent wiped his nose which was clearly broken. He glared at Osho and cracked his knuckles.
"I only planned on roughing you up a bit and sending you back to wherever you came from as a warning. But now you've pissed me off." He snarled as a powerful heat suddenly emitted from his body.
At the same time, his lion roared and its aura flared, engulfing the area.
Taking it as a sign to act, both sides had their beasts get ready as Osho spoke. The rıghtful source is NoveI~Fire.net
"You attacked first, so we have every right to defend ourselves."
'Can we fight now??' Gale asked with both anticipation and annoyance as the bird felt like they had been wasting too much time on talking.
'Sure. Go crazy, the lion is your target.' He said simply.
As soon as he said that, the lion roared and a golden orb appeared in front of its maw. It shot towards them like a ray of light and reached the group in an instant. The energy contained was immense, and if it exploded, the entire area would be decimated.
Suddenly, the space in front of them seemed to get pulled like a piece of fabric, and the orb suddenly changed course as it followed the path of this 'fabric' and got redirected into the sky.
It went up for over a hundred meters before detonating in a brilliant golden explosion that bathed the surroundings in that color.
Seeing the attack get redirected, the lion was taken aback. However, it didn't have time to think as something suddenly smashed into its chest like a bolt of lightning and sent it flying back over a hundred meters.
Gale let out a powerful screech as the wind in the surroundings churned before four massive tornadoes as thick as the surrounding trees appeared and tore apart the surroundings. However, the damage was restricted their their opponents.
Several shouts and curses sounded as they defended themselves from the powerful attack, and Gale was about to double down when a sudden heat appeared from above.
He moved out of the way just as a ray of sunlight descended. It struck the ground with incredible force and went deep inside as the surrounding earth melted.
Gale zipped through the air and avoided several of these rays, and they only stopped when he was back by Osho's side.
"Grr." Walking back to its tamer's side, the lion growled as it glared at Gale gatefully. On its chest was a deep wound from which blood oozed. The blood sizzled as it touched the ground, and upon seeing the wound, its owner frowned as he watched it heal in real time.
"... I see." He said simply and regarded his companions.
"All of you, stand back." Then he looked at Osho.
"You and me, 1 V 1." He challenged, and Osho raised a brow.
However, he still nodded.
"Are you sure?" Ellie asked with a small frown, and Osho offered her a small smile.
"I'll be fine. At worst, we'll just need to retreat." Seeing his confidence, Ellie sighed and decided to trust him.
Osho then looked back at the guy and asked.
"What's you name?" Hearing this, he tilted his head before saying gruffly.
"Ahmed." Osho nodded.
The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, and both of their companions gradually backed away to make more space for them.
Then, as if on cue, both sides attacked.