Near the back of the assembly and leaning against a stone pillar, stood Torben. He was still watching this little series of events unfold.

  The representative from the Northern Continent watched the scene unfold with a look of profound cynicism. He had his arms crossed, his heavy fur cloak pulled tight against a chill that wasn’t in the air.

  Torben let out a low, mirthless chuckle.

  ‘Fools,’ he thought to himself. ‘Damn fools, every one of them.’

  He looked at the beast armies massing on the horizon of his mind, the existential threat that hung over this continent and eventually the entire world. Chaos was happening more and more. He had seen it in his homeland.

  Then he looked at these Eastern cultivators, bickering over spoils they hadn’t earned, trying to rob the only person who had actually achieved a victory since he had gotten here.

  ‘The beasts and who knows what else are at the gates,’ Torben thought. ‘And they are fighting over who gets to hold the sword for glory and profit. There will be no such thing when everyone is dead. You have to be alive to enjoy the spoils. That boy is also not simple, he clearly beyond their understanding. They are too blinded by their ways to see it.’

  He looked at Li Yu. He saw the cold calculation in the boy’s eyes. He saw the restrained violence in the massive centipede. And he saw the death sentence hanging over Valen’s head, even if Valen was too blind to see it.

  Valen didn’t even think for a moment that he could be at a disadvantage. Thoughts of the boy using some kind of hidden treasure or something else to capture the beast. Years upon years of doing what he wanted and getting his way had clouded his judgement. It has always been easy and it will be easy here as well.

  Torben made a decision then and there.

  ‘I will not die for these people,’ he promised himself. ‘I brought my men from the North to fight the beasts, to save humanity. To save and to be rewarded for doing so. But if this is humanity? If this is the Alliance?’

  He spat on the ground.

  ‘We will do our minimum. We will fight when we must. But the moment the wind turns? The moment the danger outweighs the duty? We are leaving. I will not sacrifice a single Northern son or daughter for these greedy bastards.’

  The internal laughter bubbled up again. It was a dark hysterical thing. He watched Valen puffing up his chest, thinking he had the upper hand because he had gathered a mob. Torben knew better. A mob of sheep could bleat all they wanted; they were still just meat to a wolf. And Li Yu… Li Yu was definitely a wolf.

  Back in the center of the square, the verbal jousting continued.

  “Look at them,” Li Yu said, gesturing to the group that had formed behind Valen. He didn’t look worried. He looked disappointed. “A gathering of heroes. Or is it a gathering of vultures?”

  “We represent the will of the Alliance!” Valen shouted, bolstered by his support. “We demand you hand over the beast! It is for the safety of this continent and all who live in it. You, an outsider, would not understand our needs or our goals.”

  “The will of the Alliance?” Li Yu scoffed. “You represent nothing but your own greed. You talk big, Valen. You and your friends here. You talk about what you would do with Tekton. You talk about how well you would manage him.”

  Li Yu took two steps forward, closing the distance. The psychological pressure radiating from him began to rise, a subtle weight that pressed on the chest.

  “If you are so capable,” Li Yu asked softly, “why is he standing behind me? If the House of Crimson Fang is the premier beast taming sect of the East… why has the Scavenger King been roaming free? Why didn’t you tame him before I got here? Who knows how many lives you could have saved by doing it sooner. Isn’t that what you were saying, this is all to save more lives?”

  “We… the opportunity did not present itself!” Valen stammered, caught off guard by the logic.

  “The opportunity?” Li Yu laughed. “He is a massive metal centipede! He isn’t exactly hard to find! He’s been eating and destroying since your scouts discovered him. Probably even a bit before that!”

  Li Yu swept his gaze across the group of detractors.

  “You didn’t tame him because you couldn’t. You were too weak. You ARE too weak. Or too scared. Or too incompetent. You can pick whichever one you want, the fact stands, you all were too pathetic! Centuries of beast taming heritage? More like centuries of picking meat from bones. Stealing from the work of others.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “You let him run wild because you had no choice. But now? Now that I’ve done the hard work? Now that I’ve beaten him into submission and put a banner on him? Now you suddenly have the ‘expertise’ to handle him?”

  He shook his head, looking at them with disgust.

  “You aren’t righteous. You’re just thieves. And lazy thieves at that. You want to steal the fruits of my labor because you’re too pathetic to grow your own. Aren’t you ashamed? How did people like you ever get to your positions?”

  The question hung there. Aren’t you ashamed?

  For a cultivator, face meant a lot. To a Sect or Clan, it meant everything. To be called a thief and a coward in public was a slap in the face. A dishonor that no one wanted to be branded with..

  “Silence!” Valen shrieked, his face twisting into ugliness. “You twist words with a forked tongue! We are doing this for the safety of—”

  “Oh, shut up about the safety,” Li Yu snapped, his patience finally ending. The time for fact finding was over. The playfulness vanished completely.

  The atmosphere in the square dropped. The killing intent that Li Yu had been suppressing leaked out but just a fraction of it. Even so, it was the heavy suffocating pressure. This was someone who had walked through various law rivers, someone who had stared down entities far older and darker than these petty politicians. Someone whose target was much more powerful and dangerous.

  The air shimmered. Tekton sensed his master’s mood shift and he knew it was getting to be that time. Time to erupt with force. The giant beast lowered his head. His mandibles clicked. Steam hissed violently from his vents, slightly fogging the entire area.

  ‘Li Yu,’ Tekton rumbled. ‘I am hungry. I like eating red things best.’ Tekton then flared his aura up a little bit as well, pressing down directly into the group of people standing against Li Yu.

  The small pressure from Li Yu made some of the disciples on the edge of the square to fall to their knees, clutching their heads. Valen stumbled back a bit, his face red from the embarrassment. He was shocked that Li Yu would be willing to confront all of them here and now.

  Li Yu didn’t comfort them or say anything. He didn’t hold Tekton back from flaring his aura either. He just stood there, a small figure in front of a mountain of death that was about to explode.

  “You want him?” Li Yu asked.

  He spread his arms out wide. He smiled. It was the smile of a predator inviting a rabbit to jump into its mouth.

  “Come and take him! If you can, that is.”

  The silence was absolute. Even the wind seemed to stop, afraid to make a noise. A long quiet moment passed.

  “I am right here,” Li Yu said softly. “The control seal is in my mind. The connection is in my soul. If you want Tekton, you have to go through me. There are no regulations here, Valen. No politics. Just you, me and the beast you claim to own.”

  He took one step forward. Valen took two steps back. The coalition of elders behind Valen shifted uneasily as well, looking for an exit.

  “But I will give you a warning,” Li Yu said, his voice cheerful and terrifying. “I meant what I said about not caring. If you attack me… I won’t just kill you.”

  He tilted his head, his eyes locking onto Valen’s.

  “I will kill you. Then I will kill everyone standing behind you. Then Tekton and I will take a walk to the House of Crimson Fang. I hear your sect headquarters is built on a mountain? Tekton loves mountains. He eats them for breakfast. Then after that, I will destroy the organization of every single person behind you as well.”

  “You… you wouldn’t dare,” Valen whispered, his voice trembling and failing him. “The Alliance… Shen Tu…”

  Valen looked over to Shen Tu. The Supreme Commander stood with his arms crossed, staring at the sky, seemingly fascinated by a particularly dull cloud in the sky. He was signaling, loud and clear: You started this, Valen. You finish it. I am not involved.

  “That isn’t going to save you,” Li Yu said. “And neither are your ancestors who are not here. So, think very carefully, Valen, the vulture. Think about your house. Think about your disciples. Think about that legacy you’re so proud of.”

  Li Yu’s smile widened and was now showing teeth. A little bit of this was for Kael but a lot of it was for Li Yu himself. He really detested people like this. He wouldn’t mind taking all their resources for his own benefit and rid the world of this kind of plague.

  “Are you willing to bet the extinction of your entire bloodline on the chance that I’m bluffing? Do you believe that you can defeat me?”

  Valen stood frozen. The greed was still there, burning in his gut but the fear was colder and stronger. He looked at the beast. He looked at the boy. He realized with a sinking horror, that he was looking at a monster far worse than the Dreadnought.

  The Dreadnought was a force of nature. This boy was a force of will that he had not encountered in a long time if ever. Everyone else cowered. Giving the Crimson Fang what it wanted when forced. But not this boy. He was willing to fight to the death.

  They had roots, a headquarters and countless other locations. They couldn’t just escape or easily pick up and move. Fighting against someone strong with nothing to lose would be a nightmare for any large organization. He could terrorize them to no end and they would have to spend considerable resources to catch and kill him.

  Li Yu waited. He held the moment to let the fear soak into their bones.

  “Well?” Li Yu asked. “I’m waiting. Come take the beast. Or get out of my sight before I decide that Tekton deserves a snack.”

  The tension was pulled so tight it vibrated. Everyone watched Valen. If he attacked, it would be a bloodbath. The boy’s strength was unknown but it clearly wasn’t weak. If Valen retreated, the House of Crimson Fang would lose immense face. But losing face was better than losing heads.

  However, it wasn’t so simple. To show weakness was also a sin, especially on this continent where the strong were right and the weak simply had to swallow their words. If the Crimson Fang showed they were afraid of this one boy from another continent, it could be disastrous.

  Torben was still watching from the back, letting out a long breath.

  ‘What will you fools do now? Will you be as smart as me and know to back off? Or will you be stupid and send your ancestry to the grave. Becoming the sinner of your house.’ He thought to himself. ‘What are you going to do?’