Shambala Sect

If danger had a face, it would have resembled Boksa"s current countenance, for his face swam in the sea of rage and thoroughly soaked itself. The towering temper that over-exuded out of every single pore on his skin whispered a warning to the ones in the vicinity.

"This number 28… what has he done?" one man among the audience clutched the arm of the one next to him as gooseb.u.mps trailed over his spine. "He"s gonna get killed for sure now."

"U-Uncle Pig? Did he say what I think he did?"" another man was bewildered as he riveted his eyes on Lirzod. "That boy … just how long is his spine?"

"It"s unmistakably touching the clouds!" someone else hollered in a stupor.

"No," a different man whooped a cough, "it"s not just touching the clouds but piercing right through them with no end in sight!"

"Still, he"s a goner," another man bellowed. "Now that he brought such shame to Brown Hill, he"s done for!"

One man let worry pucker his brow as he spoke, "It was one thing if there were only men in the hall, but that red-haired girl had a front row seat for the show her bodyguard performed. There"s simply no way Brown Hill is going to let that boy live now! I wouldn"t be surprised if he punches him to oblivion."

Even the referee and the a.s.sistant referee had their eyes glued to Boksa as would rabbits do as they unaffectedly watch a wolf hunt one of their kind.

Hundred left his mouth wide open and wasn"t bothered even when a fly took a tour inside.

"Kah-haha," Tarkan, on the other hand, giggled like a chimp. "I like that boy."

However, Hundred wasn"t at all impressed with Tarkan"s words just as he wasn"t—with Lirzod"s actions.

Boksa ground his teeth so hard that he would have pulverized rocks if they were in between his teeth. "You little piece of s.h.i.t…" He raised his hand—a subst.i.tute trunk of an elephant, or at least what it appeared to be—as high as it could reach and whipped it down at Lirzod. "Die!"

Waves shaped up at the water surface underneath his arm, following its trail as it stormed into Lirzod who ducked down and dipped his head into the water as fast as a swan would, thereby dodging the attack by the skin of his teeth. A stream of water gushed out as Boksa"s hand perforated through the water surface, sprinkling cold rain on many people on his left.

"Hill Drill!" Without going for another breath, Boksa straight away unleashed the other fist at Lirzod who was swimming away—chest facing toward the ceiling—while hidden underwater, but the attack was just a bit hurried, for it ended up sc.r.a.ping past the inner thighs and smashed into the ground between his legs. The impact opened up a hollow s.p.a.ce in the water, revealing the ice shards for a brief moment, but more importantly, it also gave momentum to Lirzod who made great use of the waves and swam enough distance, albeit he ended up swimming toward the entrance of the ice dumpster.

Hundred"s heart had almost stopped from what he witnessed, "If that Brown HIll had aimed his punch a few inches higher, Lirzod would have said goodbye to his lizard."

"But, he sure is swimming weirdly," Tarkan made a foggy expression. "What"s that style? It somewhat resembles a frog style. Still, this is my first time seeing someone implement a reverse swim underwater. Was he just desperate, or..."

To all appearances, there was no word in any known language that perfectly described how p.i.s.sed off Boksa was at the moment. Merciless fists bombarded into the water, drilling ephemeral holes left and right, shattering all ice shards in their path as he vented his spleen through paroxysms of rage.

"You little rat!" Boksa"s fury further intensified with every pa.s.sing second as also reflected in the frequency of punches he threw—thick and fast—aiming to emboss the marks of his fists on every inch of Lirzod"s body. "Stop struggling."

Having frolicked underwater for so long, Lirzod ran out of oxygen. With no more oxygen left in his tank, he was forced to pop his head out. Boksa, who had sensed such an occurrence beforehand, grinned and lunged ahead as fast as he could, his arms stretched to his front as if he was diving into a pool, in turn widening Lirzod"s eyes. "Mountain Burial!"

As his ma.s.sive body crashed down, the shifting walls of water splattered around and blinded most of the audience for a little while as the waves generated in the process traveled to both the nearby edges of the ice dumpster, surprising the guards standing at their positions.

An eerie silence birthed in some sections of the audience, though it didn"t last long.

"Did that boy get squashed to death, or, did he maybe escape?"

"Idiot, his opponent is too huge. There"s no way that brat could have escaped in that short of a time."

"Yeah, even if he did, at least most of his bones would have broken in that process."

"Brown Hill intends to annihilate that boy. He"s certainly gone insane. The referee must stop him before he deprives the boy of his existence."

As different members of the audience held several impressions on the fight unfolding before their eyes, the waves in the ice dumpster settled down in a moment. The very next instant, all of the audience got baffled when the first person their eyes caught sight of was a boy who got back to his feet, his clothes thoroughly drenched in water and possibly much more. "That was close." He didn"t seem to have suffered any major wound and seemed flawlessly fine.

"W-W-What"s going on? Why is he the one who stood first?" some of the audience ogled at him, manifesting buffalo faces.

Hundred, however, breathed a sigh of relief before squinting his eyes. "How did he move away in so short of a time?" His subtle smile appeared content. "He"s better than I thought."

"Not really," Tarkan"s words briefly put Hundred in a fog. "That fat a.s.s overestimated his jump."

Hundred"s mouth partly opened from hearing that. A scare whooshed over his face, robbing all the pleasantness from it. "You mean…"

"He probably didn"t use that "move" in a long time," Tarkan alleged, dropping his head as he slowly shook it. ""Mountain Burial" or whatever it was … in the end, he buried himself."

"A flopped burial huh…" Hundred had a blank face, but the other men in the vicinity either shook their heads or jerked their shoulders; howbeit, Sariyu was the first one to giggle, though only slightly, her expression was potent enough to spread to whoever lay their eyes on her. Consequently, many members among the audience began to guffaw as the contagion of laughter flowed over the audience stands, touching almost everyone. At the end of it, even Hundred couldn"t withstand against it and ended up letting out a restrained laugh.

As Lirzod hastened away from the spot, he glanced at Boksa who still lied at the bottom of the ice dumpster, fully submerged inside the water, his silhouette almost apparent to the naked eyes of the bystanders. "Man, I am not that knowledgeable, but you should include some almonds in your diet—they make you light."

"He"s all good," Burton told Sariyu, "let"s go."

"Mm," she nodded and turned back when she felt an abnormal gust of wind blow past her face. As she rubbed her face with one hand, she felt the coldness in the air. The increased whiteness in her breath also distressed her a bit. "It"s getting much colder now."

"Try to hang on," Burton voiced support, albeit his tone lacked enthusiasm. "if you keep moving, you won"t feel as bad."

"I know that, but..." she crossed her arms and at the same time rubbed them.

At that time, Lirzod joined them. "I"m back."

Sariyu glanced at him coldly and spoke with a tinge of anger in her voice, "I will take care of you after this event ends."

"What are you talking about?" Lirzod reproved her words. "I took care of Uncle Pig for you."

Her blood boiled instantly, and she stomped on Lirzod"s foot. "I fought him for your sake in the first place, fool!"

"Ouch, my foot!" Lirzod took a step away from her, his mouth blowing air at his foot, while he hopped on a single leg. "Y-You are right, Sour Sariyu. My bad."

Some of the audience envied Lirzod. "Not only did she save him from Brown Hill, but she also waited for him. He"s the luckiest bodyguard I"ve ever seen! I want to trade places with him!"

"Hey, I forgot to stuff my pockets with some nuts," Lirzod asked Sariyu. "Do you have some?"

"This isn"t the time for snacking!" Burton hastily replied.

"Who asked you?" Lirzod snorted. "Mind your business, got it?"

Burton ignored his words and glanced at Sariyu. "Don"t give him any."

"Forget about giving him, but who would even carry food to a place like this?" Sariyu barked at Lirzod, "And stop lying! I don"t believe that you forgot to fetch some nuts on your way here."

"I did fetch some…" Lirzod uttered in a dejected tone, his expression taking after a sad and starving squirrel that hadn"t even seen much less gotten a sniff off of nuts in quite a many days, "but before I could stuff them in my pockets, they got stolen."

"Stolen?" Sariyu raised a brow. "By who?"

Lirzod pointed his finger at a particular spot on his face. "This thing called my mouth."

His words lit a spark of rage in Sariyu who instantly got triggered and swept her hand into his mouth. "Thief Thrashing Slap!" The dorsal side of her palm smacked his mouth vivaciously, making Lirzod right away cover his mouth in suffering.

A slap straight to Lirzod"s mouth eminently entertained many of the audience.

"Haha, she sure knows how to put a bodyguard in their place."

"Now, I like her even more."

"Slap him again, please!"

Lirzod paid no heed to the voices of the crowd but still made a long face as he spoke to Sariyu. "When I die from hunger, don"t come to my grave and offer some nuts, because a buried man eats nothing but dirt … and maybe worms, too. That"s why I wanted you to give me some nuts."

"No problem. I will leave some extrlarge worms for you," Sariyu shrugged half-heartedly, deepening the pitiful look on Lirzod"s face.

Meanwhile, Boksa slowly rose to his feet and brushed off the ice shards stuck to his body before exercising his limbs as his eyes worked to locate Lirzod. Seeing him stretching his body poorly, some people subtly shook their heads. "I ended up taking a nap. Where was that little rat again?" Because he had been underwater, he didn"t hear Lirzod"s words or even the riotous laughter of the crowd.

"S-Sleeping?" the crowd who heard his words felt not only stupefied but perplexed at the same time.

"That"s impossible. How can one sleep underwater?"

"Yeah, he"s surely lying."

"Oh, so he"s hiding the embarra.s.sment this way huh…"

"Pfft, he shouldn"t have put up such a facade. Most people probably already forgot about his fall. He"s simply reminding us again and possibly also unintentionally helping this memory get etched in people"s minds."

HAHAHA~!

As the laughter of the crowd came across his ears, he initially didn"t believe it was addressed to him as he wasn"t used to being laughed at, but as time pa.s.sed, his thoughts changed and so did the fake composure, which chagrin notably traded places with afterward. "I will get back my face by the end of this race." He marched onward like an eminent wolf. The crowd got gooseb.u.mps, yet they didn"t know why.

The emotions and feelings of despair in those who had fought with Boksa, now surfaced out, reminding them once again that this sole remembrance will not fade away as long as they lived.

Tarkan narrowed his eyes as he observed Boksa. (The Alpha never cries, because it only knows how to make others cry. Now, will this Alpha succeed in making his enemy cry before the event ends?)