Aimless Ascension

From whatever point Gale looked at the conflict from the outside, it appeared like he was bullying his juniors. Well, he would prefer the term teaching a lesson instead of bullying. After all, juniors needed to be taught every now and then, especially juniors of this kind.

The two iron rankers charged at him, commanding their martial skill, as colourful Qi spurred the air. Gale gave it half a glance and flared his non-attributed Qi to break them apart even before they could come to the point of being any bit threatening.

The two blokes had no clue what happened, but they still charged at him with bold stupidity. Gale thrashed the one on the right, using a lash of wind Qi against the ground to lurch in his direction. Gale knocked him out too easily and proceeded to do the same to the other one, who was already joined by the last two.

Only Young Master Han stood alone, completely stupefied. It wasn\'t supposed to go like this. He was supposed to capture the outsider and teach him a lesson that he would never forget. It was all because of his useless men. Han Xiao started yelling at his men, probably after finding out he wasn\'t doing much.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Han Xiao yelled. "You worthless bums! He\'s just one man. How hard can it be?"

Gale shoved another man in the young master\'s direction.

"Why don\'t you come and see it for yourself?" he said, and rammed his foot on the knees of an iron ranker, leaving only one to remain standing. "Are you still going to attack?"

The last iron ranker clearly wanted to run as far away as possible from this smiling demon, however, the screaming Young Master narrowed his options too short. In the end, he came to Gale with some random moves.

Gale knocked him out, punching him in the face.

"Who would\'ve wondered it would be so easy," he muttered and turned to the young master. "Well, I did."

"YOU!"

"Me?" Gale smiled. Perhaps it was a little fun.

"You! You will not get away with this," Han Xiao said, and unconsciously stepped back. "You don\'t know who my father is. My uncle is the mayor of this town. You won\'t get away with this, I assure you."

"Again, with overly used young master lines. When will you guys learn to improvise?" Gale said, shaking his head. "Don\'t you have any weight of your own? Why don\'t know come at me like your men did? I would really feel bad if I had to chase down a scared, shitless young master and thrash him. Although it wouldn\'t be the first time I have to do it, I assure you."

"You!" Han Xiao repeated the same word in anger and humiliation, like a broken record player. He turned around, as if watching the shadows. "What the hell are you waiting for, Uncle? He\'s threatening me blatantly."

Gale raised his eyebrows and scanned the surroundings. \'I guess I missed that,\' he mused as his senses finally discovered a faint presence in the shadows. It was a silver ranker, quite good for a sneaky type, but couldn\'t hold a candle against Twilight whose power was literally a cheat for sneaking around.

\'How could I have forgotten? There was always someone watching the young master\'s back, protecting him from the outsider as well as himself.\'

"Uncle!" Han Xiao kept screaming, now uncertain whether or not his uncle was there.

"He\'s in that direction." Gale pointed to the left, in the shadow of a tree.

Han Xiao didn\'t have to search for the hidden silver ranker anymore as a shadowy silhouette materialised soon in the direction where Gale pointed.

"Uncle!" Young Master Han sighed in relief. "Quickly capture him. I\'ll make him pay for everything he caused--"

"Shut your damn mouth," the shadowy newcomer said, "fool boy."

"Uncle! You."

The shadowy figure crept before the young master and confronted Gale. His entire cloak was made of shadow, it was fluttering in the idle wind, looking real menacing. It was probably a fate-lock in the shape of a cloak.

Gale always wanted something like that when he was first summoned to this world. He even found one, but decided to not fuse with it as it might raise his chuunibyou tendencies.

"I certainly hadn\'t hoped to see a practitioner of your caliber appearing in this town," the shadowy man said. "Why are you acting against us?"

Gale tilted his head. "I made the right decision," Gale mused. "The cloak does make one delusional. Oldman, are you dumb or just a regular crack-head?"

Both parties were entirely aware Gale hadn\'t started it. Well, he did make the young master run for his father the very first day. It still couldn\'t be considered him acting against them. Not in his book.

It was Young Master Han who came after him. Both of them knew that, but the Oldman had to throw empty words. And if you\'re really throwing empty words, why don\'t you just put the blame on the other party?

"Junior, don\'t cross the line," the elderly assassin said as the air grew still.

Gale clicked his tongue and broke the little intimidation skill the elderly assassin had learned. Air was, after all, his domain.

The assassin narrowed his eyes. He tried to gain control of this invisible conflict of aura, but failed miserably in whatever he tried.

A smile crept on Gale\'s lips. This Oldman was good. If only he tried to do something else other than tricks with air, perhaps he might stand a chance.

"I\'ll give one last chance," Gale told the Oldman. "Educate your young master better. If I ever find him involved in some misdeed, especially involving Xiaolin, I\'ll cripple him myself and that\'s if my mood is decent."

"You," it was the young master who replied first, "how dare you speak to me like this?"

The assassin raised his arm to silence the youth. "Young man, you don\'t know what you\'re going up against," he said from a superior stand. "You don\'t know who you\'re making an enemy of just for one useless girl."

"That useless girl is my disciple now, and I don\'t mind going against the world if the world is in the wrong, much less the mayor of some town."

___________________

Gale is crazy.