Kai awoke stretching before getting ready for the day. Last night had been rough for him; he had almost lost out on sleep just thinking about what his father had said to him and his siblings. Kai heard rustling on his tent before he heard a voice. "Kai wake up, we have a mission." It was Joy's voice. Kai opened his void key pulling out his sword that sat in its sheath and strapped it around his back before closing the void key walking out of the tent.
"So what is the mission?" Kai asked Joy.
"Not fully sure on the details Kang and Keya have gone ahead to speak with Xun who has the full details." Joy said.
"Hopefully it's not a protection mission, little time to try and advance then." Kai said.
"I know and Keya said we should expect Akura Underlords to come test us." Joy said.
"Well who do you think will come to test us?" Kai asked.
"I'm sure it will be who we encountered before; they aren't necessarily the strongest but they are still some of the strongest." Joy replied. Kai thought back to before there was Akura Rage, Akura Lust, Akura Fortitude and Akura Diligence. So it seemed they would be matched on those similar to them. Rage would face Kai, Lust was likely to face Keya, The two spear users Kang and Fortitude would face and finally the two that could fight with bows Diligence and Joy. The only difference between them was that the Akuras were Underlord while their group was only Truegold.
"So it looks like there is going to be some fun." Kai said. They both laughed as they came up to where Kang and Keya stood talking to Xun.
"There they are now to fill you in on the details." Xun said. They all now stood in front of Xun whilst he went on to explain their mission. "This morning we expected to have a patrol squad report what they had found towards the northernmost edge of the valley however we haven't had anyone report back to us from the squad. We need you to go investigate." Xun said.
"Why can't another squad go, we have to try and advance." Keya protested.
"Well normally I could just say you know the valley far better than anyone else but that would be lying so the reason is it was Kahori's squad." Xun said. Kahori is one of the strongest Truegolds in the empire; she is ranked twenty-two not only that she has one of the strongest squads in the empire. She had recently lost her Truegold partner and Husband Maro during a battle there mission was to protect a village one that Maro had grown up in and he protected it to the very end. It was also a mission that Kai, Joy and Kang had gone to help them after they sent out a distress call and we were the closest squad. So if her squad was taken in then, Something does sound wrong." Kai said. If they were at the northernmost area it was either the Li or Wei however that might have been where a vassal state arrived or worse the Akura clan. "Let's go guys and see what we can find." Kai said. He opened his void key pulling out his thousand mile cloud and pushing back in some natural treasures. Joy hopped on her staff whilst Kang and Keya didn't have their clouds on them. "Ok first we get Kang and Keya's clouds then we go." Kai said. They all ran off.
Kai,Joy,Keya and Kang had been told that the squad had been sent to scout the northernmost region of the valley so they took the route around Sacred the Capital and flew past Blackflame Mountain. They had a rough location so they would land soon and go scout on foot for them.
Kai and the others landed just on the outside of a forest. "Let's veil and scout together. If something got one of the stronger Skysworn squads then something must be wrong." Kai said. His team nodded to him and they all veiled themselves before entering into the forest. They walked through the forest looking for the squad. They wouldn't be able to use their senses but they were listening and looking for strong sacred artists. The forest that they walked through was one of the many mixed forests. It had the purple orus trees alongside the orange and yellow leaves of the oak leaves. The floor was also completely dry but that was due to them being so close to Blackflame mountain that it hardly rained here being so close also left off the smell of ash thanks to the fire and destruction aura around.
Before long their squad found what they were looking for they saw the squad however it was the worst case scenario surrounding the small skysworn squad was Akura Underlords. Anger now boiled up in Kai as they had captured this squad to lure them out. He was about to push forward to attack them when Joy held him back. "Let's observe first." Joy said. Kai wanted to rush in but that was the smart thing to do. The field that the Akuras sat in was not big so their squad was able to listen in on the conversations that were going on. The squad didn't seem too badly beaten but they wouldn't have stood a chance against one underlord let alone four.
Kahori had failed her squad, not only her squad but her late Husband she was still grieving over his loss; it had only been two weeks. The mission in Aramoor had been a disaster; the only saving grace was that most of the village had been saved including Maro's own family and her in-laws. In fact if it hadn't been for the late arrival of Akura Joy, Wei Shi Kai and Jai Kang the whole village might have been wiped out from genocide. She regretted that day for the longest time. If only she had been quicker or was more skilled in her path she might have been able to save Maro from those murderers that had slaughtered him. Her squad had tracked down some of those same bandits. She had killed every last one of them but then she had attacked someone she shouldn't have an Akura was close by and she had attacked them in her blind rage they were Underlord. There were four of them so she was overwhelmed quickly but they had been captured and she was likely to be dead before anyone from the Blackflame Empire came looking for them. She now sat there crying pleading still with the Akuras to let her squad go. She didn't mind if she died at least then she would be with Maro.
"How long is this going to take?" One Akura said impatiently. His hands crossed showing off some sort of shadowy ink over his arms as he tapped his foot away on the ground and leaned back his head as if to shout out for someone.
"Hopefully not long, as I don't know how long I can last having to babysit some golds." Another Akura said. The two that had just spoken looked like Twins but what were they waiting for. The only squad likely to come would be Joy and Kai but what could they do against Underlords.
"If this plan goes as planned the only squad that should come to rescue them is Joy's squad." A third said. She had her black hair in a ponytail and looked taller than the two twins from before but Kahori couldn't tell as she sat on a nearby tree bow drawn watching diligently for anyone to come by.
"Good because I still need to beat Wei Shi Kai. There is no way an adopted member could be that strong." One of the twins said. Maybe they didn't want to kill her after all. Maybe she could bargain and say that she would get Kai to come and fight them. Another Akura sat nearby but he didn't seem to pay attention to the others as he sat with a rock sharpening his spear as if preparing for a battle.
"Please let us go and we will go tell them to come here." Kahori pleaded.
"Shut up! You're lucky we didn't kill you for what you did." The twin shouted. All of a sudden there was a rustle from the woods everyone had looked over in that direction but it was too late the Akura that had just spoken was punched to the ground. Standing where he had stood before was Wei Shi Kai flaming in what Kahori had known as his enforcer technique. The other three Akura Underlords went to surround him but they were met by three other Truegolds. Akura Joy held an arrow towards the Akura that had spoken of a plan, the dragon head on the bow hissing at her. Jai Kang had his ancient orus spear flowing with the light madra of his path clashed against a metallic spear that had dark shadow madra flowing through it. Then the final Truegold who Kahori assumed was Wei Shi Keya had flaming black and red eyes as she shot her blackflame striker technique into the path of the other twin forcing him to jump back, stopping his movement towards Kai.
"Let the skysworn go. If you want a fight then let's fight but don't drag others into this." Kai said. Akura Rage started to pick himself up off the floor. Kai still had his enforcer technique blazing as he stood over the Underlord.
"Fine, at least then we won't get into trouble for killing them." Rage said. Kai felt like punching the man down again for considering killing them but he needed the squad out of here. Rage walked up one by one releasing the skysworn squad. They all ran off except Kahori who bowed and thanked Kai before pulling out her thousand mile cloud and speeding off. Tension was now growing in the air as everyone stared down. "They are lucky our Monarch and clan still like the Blackflame Empire otherwise I might have killed them for attacking me." Rage said. Right now instead of Rage living up to his name Kai was living up to it. As soon as Rage had begun to walk back over Kai smashed his fist into his face. He hated those who looked down on others and if this was how Rage thought then he would have to beat him.
"If we are all going to fight, let's not get in each other's way and have everyone separate." Kai shouted. His team seemed to nodd as they battled their Underlord counterpart away from each other. Rage was now furious he leaped up with an enforcer technique of his own and charged at Kai punching him in the chest Kai went flying backwards before tumbling but landing on his feet. The sacred beast meat his father had fed him growing up seemed to work well for him not having an Underlord level body yet. This fight Kai would have to rely on his own skills and hope that his bloodline would come out to play. He charged forward with his enforcer technique and struck at Rage's chest once again but he put more force into it this time as his teammates weren't around but Rage was quick to react and had used his bloodline armour so Kai's punch just landed on his armour but Kai had noticed it left a slight crack where it had been struck. Rage then put Kai on the defence as he started to pummel Kai with punches. Kai noticed from his senses that his madra had been concentrated on his fist and as he threw the next punch it came out a giant shadowy fist smacked into Kai sending him flying once again. Kai would have to come up with something quick else this would just be a battle of trading punches. He had to act quickly so he dropped his enforcer technique and used his striker technique not on Rage but on the ground if he punched hard enough not only would his fire madra burn the grass around creating fire aura for him to use but as his force madra pushed into the ground it forced it to split a crack into the ground.
"Wasting your madra on the ground now. How pathetic do you plan to run?" Rage said. Rage was starting to get on Kai's nerves. The fire madra from his striker technique had started a fire on the ground around them now. He opened his copper sight and could see the fire aura starting to increase.
"Seems like the Akura can name their children well as if Diligence was here she probably would have known what I had done." Kai said. Just as he expected, Rage charged at him. Kai met his charge using his enforcer technique but also his forger technique the spike of flaming madra and slammed it into the crystal armour around Rage and the spike did absolutely nothing. So it looks like it is a lot stronger than he thought. Kai then pulled his sword off his back and twirled it around readying to fight Rage he needed an opening in the armour so then he could use his ruler technique sending it into the hole or he would have to advance.
Joy had managed to push Akura Diligence away from where Kai and Rage were fighting. Diligence currently stood on a tree branch aiming it down towards Joy. Joy and Diligence had grown up and trained together despite diligence being two years older than her making Diligence twenty-one. Where their difference lied, as Diligence's name suggested she was a hard worker much more than Joy who like her mother had natural talent. "The sage showed us your battles, Joy. I look forward to this more than when we were younger." Diligence said.
"I'm not sure what you expected to find from those battles as I was holding back and so were the others. I am sure you noticed." Joy said.
"While I can't say for the others I could see you held back. So let's see what you've got." Diligence said. Joy summoned her Book of Unending Midnight, preparing herself for battle against Diligence. Diligence smiled before drawing back her bow and shooting shadow and sword madra towards Joy. Joy easily dodged it before using her enforcer technique at full strength shadowy strings formed on her bow and when she used her striker technique instead of one arrow three formed along the strings. The three arrows flew towards the tree branch that Diligence stood on forcing her to jump away before the shadow madra from the arrows could grab her. Diligence landed in the tree to her left now pulling an arrow back unleashing a volley of arrows towards Joy. Joy responded by using her bloodline power and the crystal armour surrounded her before also jumping back two of the arrows hit the armour. The force sent Joy flying back, she sprung backwards with her Puppeteers Iron body landing safely. Joy's path was the perfect path made by her mother. She used her bow Suu even her Iron body was the same but there was something that she could never get off her mind and that was she felt she was living in her mothers shadow. She had now been named heir to the clan. She was worried and scared about what that would mean for her future but for now she had a fight to keep up with.
Jai Kang had lead Akura Fortitude towards the way their squad had came from the forest could end up being an advantage to him but he was unsure of Fortitudes path he knew he used a spear like himself and most paths that use their enforcer techniques to enhance their movement in addition to their spears movement. Fortitude thrusted his spear forwards shadow madra twisting around the tip of the blade Kang enforced his orus spear and himself before parrying with the spear he now stood face to face with Fortitude. Fortitude had short black hair that was spiked upwards, bright purple eyes staring into Kang's bright pink eyes that he got from his mother. Kang assumed that he didn't have the Akura bloodline otherwise he would have used it as Kang had managed to slice his robe the tiniest bit when they first clashed. He had been training himself to be able to fight by himself in most of his missions so far with Joy and Kai was him running in and them having to cover him which Kai didn't appreciate. But after his fight with the Seishen Kingdom and over the past couple days he had been practising to make full use of his abilities if this fight was to be ended quickly but he had never fought a Underlord so he just had to give it his all.
Fortitude pulled back his spear once again before thrusting it forwards with speed that Kang didn't have time to react to; the left side of his robe was grazed now. His enforcer technique stopped the spear from piercing his skin but it would only be a matter of time before he would run out of madra. He currently didn't have a plan but he would have to think of one or he would have to hope that someone else finished their fight. He thought back to his younger days being trained by his Uncle and Mother this was no time to be thinking of help if he wanted to grow stronger he would have to do this himself.
Kelsa had Lust chase her out towards another clearing so they could have their fight using her spiritual perception; she was able to sense Kai and Rage in the middle of their battle. She didn't know much about the Akura Underlords but from what Joy had told them they seemed to be the most likely candidates for the Uncrowned King Tournament. All she would have to do here is beat Lust to prove herself and also try and find out her Underlord revelation. Kelsa and Skye had gone through hundreds of different revelation ideas but not one had worked so far. Even her brother and Joy had no luck. They had been Truegold even longer than her, following her fears she had been told but what she didn't fear anything then Skye interrupted. [I know you have been pushing it to the back of your mind but you do have something you fear.] Skye said to her. She thought of what Skye meant and it came back to her when her father had said about leaving Cradle she feared what it meant for her future not only that but fear for her family. [Hey, your thoughts are a mess now. Although I just caused that so let's put on a show for the people watching.] Skye said. Now she had people watching her. She asked Skye what she meant. [There is a silver owl and also a purple fox hiding whilst watching us.] The silver owl she was unsure of but the purple fox would have to be her Aunt Kelsa hiding and watching. She was probably here to make sure that each side didn't kill each other.
Lust charged towards Kelsa enforcer technique of shadow wrapped around him she dodged it with ease thanks to the warning from Skye. Now all she had to do was draw out all his moves so Skye could build a model. Kelsa cycled to blackflame and shot blackflame towards Lust who easily dodged it. "I'm glad I get to fight you, Wei Shi Kelsa. The Wei family is strong, that is why I get to fight you rather than that pathetic adopted son." Lust said. Kelsa stopped her attack now facing towards Akura Lust she was cycling Blackflame and the sentence that Lust had just said made her rage. Herself and the other two siblings had once bullied Kai calling him weaker but also not treating him like a brother but that changed when Kai ended up saving Kelsa. He had been the first to react to her being grabbed by remnants not only was the remnant a Jade whilst he was Iron he had destroyed it with such ease that not even Asuna had time to react at that point it seemed that all their opinions changed. Asuna had spent most of the time 'babysitting' Kai even though she was only two years older, since he would dive head first into fights. Kelsa was so scared but she saw it as her big brother saving her.
"If you are calling him weak then you know nothing of our family." Kelsa said to him. He let out a smile before charging towards her again. She shot blackflame towards him to slow his movement forcing him to change direction before swapping to her pure core and smashing an empty palm into his core. Her rage took over her as she stepped back from him. The effects wouldn't last long as he was an Underlord but it would be enough to say what she wanted. "If you think any of you Underlords are going to win today then you are mistaken not only that but if Kai gets mad or his bloodline kicks in you guys are screwed." She shouted at him. Skye was trying to get her attention; she assumed it was for her progress on her model of Lust but it wasn't. Skye pointed her in the direction of where her brother was fighting and she scanned the area. A smile lit up across her face. There were two Underlords.