101 Helping the Bullies (1/2)
”Where is he?”
”Calm down, I'm sure he'll be here soon.”
The two hooded men then discussed their thoughts about this Iron Territory they had recently entered for the first time.
As the two men chatted, a figure emerged from the surrounding trees. The more impatient man chuckled, ”Finally, you're here. It took you long enough. What do you have to inform us?”
”Do you have my payment?”
”Of course,” laughed the second man, who tossed a bag of gold to the ground. ”Is that enough?”
”And you promise that you won't target my clan or my son?”
”Sure, why not. Now, give us the information you've promised us,” stated the impatient man.
”Yes, yes,” nodded the figure as he stored the gold in his recently acquired void choker. ”The students and the instructors have already entered the jungle to the northeast. There the students are training while the instructors can guarantee their safety.”
”Hmmm… interesting. What about the leopard?” asked the second man.
”He's not there. Since the territory ruler had to leave to make the territorial offering, the leopard decided it was best to stay in town to prevent any possible disasters.”
”Ohhh, that's annoying,” grumbled the impatient man. ”And here I was wanting to attack the town. I guess we'll have to settle for the students in the jungle.”
”But remember not to target my son, he's there too.”
”We know, don't worry. Since you've been a big help, we wouldn't dare try something like that,” explained the second man. ”Besides, we'll want your continued help in the future. So there's no reason for us to do something so foolish as to offend you.”
”Good…”
”So what are the teachers like? Anyone we should be wary of?” The first man showed a cruel smile under his hood.
”All four of them are gorillas. There are two peak elders and two early perennials. I'm not sure what their abilities are though since I've never seen them fight anyone.”
Still smiling, the man chuckled, ”That's more than enough. With that in mind, it sounds like the plan should work without a hitch.”
”Can I ask what you guys plan to do?”
The second man also chuckled, ”What do you think we're going to do? We'll be interfering with the school trip and will be targeting some of the more promising youth. It'd be best if we can cripple the territory's growth, especially the gorilla clan.”
”Oh, so you're after Oli.”
”Yeah, but that's quite obvious. Considering the talent he's shown, we can't let the gorilla clan grow thanks to him. No matter what, he'll have to go, even if all else fails.”
”Is there anything else you need from me? I could always use mare gold.”
”For now, we've gotten enough information. We'll contact you in time when we plan to make our next move,” laughed the first man. ”Let's go, we've got some distance to cover and we need to explain the plan to the men.”
”Right.” The second man then bowed. ”Thank you for your cooperation, and we look forward to your continued support.”
”Of course.” With that said, the figure quickly fled and disappeared into the forest.
”Are we really not going to target anyone from his clan?” asked the first man.
”That would be best since we still need his help in the future.”
With a groan, the impatient man frowned. ”Fiiine… we'll keep our word, for now. Once we're don't need help, then we'll forget our past promises. To think we'd make a deal with someone weaker than us.”
”What else can we do? For now, we need to follow orders and get rid of that brat gorilla. Then we'll move on to the next phase of our plan,” explained the second man. ”It's also a good thing that the oaf gorilla leader is already being taken care of. That makes our job a bit easier.”
”But we do need to be careful of that leopard.”
”Oh, so you agree that he's hard to deal with,” laughed the second man.
The first man nodded. ”He's an assassin. Those are the worst type of enemies. If we attack him and can't finish him off before he escapes, then there's no telling what would happen to us. It would be impossible to live peacefully.”
”True… Neither of us wants that happening,” agreed the second man. ”Then we'll have to hurry up and explain everything to the men. Let's hurry to jungle and do our job before the leopard knows any better.”
”Agreed.”
Both men bolted into the distance, going the opposite direction as the figure that they spoke to.
*****
After their rest, Oli's group continued searching the area. Now they went further toward the jungle's center. Though they were sure that the beasts would get stronger, they wanted to learn just how far they could go without finding a low adept beast.
They traveled another twenty minutes before they sensed a beast even stronger than the ones they had already fought.