At this moment,
"Big brother, Alex!" Alex heard a voice calling him from outside his house.
Just as the last syllable rang out, Anna appeared in backyard.
Now that Anna was 14, with a small and exquisite face, and eyes that shone especially brightly, Alex could see hints of beauty blossoming in the features of this little girl, Anna's body was in the initial stages of puberty. After all, she was 14, only 1 year more to be considered an adult.
"You came alone? Where is Tom and Hank?" Alex curiously asked, as he did not see them tagging along. For the past years, every single day without fail, around this time, Tom, Hank and Anna would visit Alex together and chatted with him. Tom and Hank were 1 year older than him. Hank and Anna were siblings and their parents were friends and teammates of his Uncle and Aunt for hunting. Tom was a single child of his mother who worked as a prostitute in pleasure house beside the bar in the market area.
He became our friend when the previous Alex helped his mother who was being beaten by a drunken customer. Of course the weak Alex had called his Uncle for help, but that was enough for Tom to become his friend.
Anna was the youngest among us four. Alex treatment of her and the other two guys was sincere and from his heart. Despite not being on good terms with the rest of the kids in the village, in his heart Both Alex,previous and present, fiercely doted on these little friends of his.
"Tom and Hank are battling that Ryan right now, He broke through 2nd grade of Body tempering realm so he had challenged both of them today" Anger and helplessness could be heard in her voice as Anna broke down.
"Ryan?"
The name was familiar to Alex, memories surged in his mind as he attempted to associate this name with reference to his recollections. A picture of a snot faced brat, appeared in his mind.
"Oh that Ryan but why would he do that. He should not have any enmity with Tom and Hank. Plus both of them are in 1st grade of Body tempering" Alex said while running with her towards the direction where the fight was going on.
From what he knew, Ryan was the son of Jon the Village Head. Ryan was a typical person who bullied weak people because of his father's position. But his group of four had never interacted much with Ryan. He didn't bully us before because both his Uncle Jack and Anna's father Donald were 5th stage Body tempering cultivator. Just one grade below Ryan's father Jon.
"Ah, don't you remember, my father is going to break through 6th grade soon and then he can challenge Ryan's father for the position of Village head. Plus the people in father's group are all strong like Uncle Jack, Theo, Joe, Aunt Meg, and my Mother Julie.
And that is why lately Ryan is annoying my brother Hank for few days. Today, he surrounded both Tom and Hank before unreasonably he started fighting. Our also our parents group have gone to the forest to hunt today" she started explaining everything in one breath.
"Alright, I get it; it must be Ryan's father who had instructed him to fight your brother. In this way when Uncle Donald come back from his hunt, see his injured son and if he cannot control his anger then he will definitely go fight with the village head before he had advanced to Grade 6. This way, Jon can easily defeat your father. If your father keep his emotions in check and go after he advances then that village head will just find other reason to have duel with him before Uncle Donald can do so or he will use some under handed methods like he did with that guy last year who had challenged him for Village Head position" Alex could get a jist about their motives because his Uncle had warned the previous him before of such thing happening just that the new Alex remembered it now.
"Right, that's what my mother had said before. To not go anywhere near that village Head Jon and his son but who would have thought he would block us on the way here. We didn't know that they would be so bold in the village. What do we do now big brother Alex?"
"What else can we do, lets first wait till Uncle Donald come back from hunting. The Village Head should have also gone out by now, we have to stop Ryan from seriously injuring Tom and Hank"
....
"You think your trash of a father could challenge my father, you dogs must be dreaming. Maybe I should beat some sense into your dreams a little more" Ryan laughed while punching Hank's face.
Tom who was lying injured on the ground tried to stand up to help his friend. But then two guys pushed him onto the ground again with their legs.
Alex and Anna had just turned around the corner to see this seen. Anna couldn't help but shout "Brother Hank!!"
Ryan turned around to see them when he heard Anna voice.
'Ah, there goes my surprise attack, looks like I need to teach her some common things not to do when fighting' Alex thought while taking his left hand behind his back a little which was holding a stone he had picked up on the way here.
Alex knew that he was not as strong as Ryan who could toss him in the air with a single hand but he knew how to defeat, mostly kill in a single attack such types of people.
That's because he had the needed skills stuffed inside his brain and soul by his mother and grandfather. One was a battle maniac while the other was a one hit kill assassin. He had never killed other human before besides killing a few wild beasts on earth like wolf or other carnivorous animals, his mother and grandfather had chosen. His father and grandmother were against such things as they considered intelligence and wit above anything else.
Anyway, he can't kill Ryan or he would give a reason to the village head Jon to start a fight tonight.
He also can't injure him seriously for the same reason. This is what made the whole thing more difficult. If he can just defeat him without giving any serious injuries then Jon won't be able to do anything for now.
The Previous Alex wouldn't have the guts or the strength to have thoughts like this, though he was intelligent for his age but the new Alex was different, he had the ability to back his thoughts.
"Oh, here I thought who would that bitch be calling for help, isn't this just the trash who couldn't even cultivate, what's with that look you can't be seriously thinking of fighting me with your weak stick like muscles. I could crush your bones with a single punch" Ryan said while showing deep contempt in his eyes.
"haha..haha…. you are right boss. What's the use of bringing this weakling here"
"Who in the village doesn't know of this dumb guy? Let me put him where he should be"
Said the two underlings of Ryan, while one of them rushed towards Alex to make a show out him.
This guy was In Grade 1 of Body tempering with the strength that was double of a normal adult human. He extended his hands in a grabbing motion towards Alex.
Though his speed was greater than an average person in front of Alex it was slow in comparison to his mother's.
Alex sidestepped that arm while punching square on his right ear with his left hand. It was not just this; Alex quickly went behind that now disoriented guy and kicked hard on his neck with full force. A person's leg power was normally triple to that of his hands. Places like ears, neck, groin, eyes and nose were also some soft areas where people could hardly strengthen. Even cultivators in Body Tempering realm below Grade 7 could not.
That guy went out cold on the ground, this was effect that Alex had expected but his moves had shocked everyone standing there.
"Yo.u..how..did.how..it's impossible how could you defeat him so easily" The other guy who had one of his legs on top of Tom was stunned speechlessly while thanking gods in his mind that he was not the one who had rushed out.
Ryan growled at him "Shut up you dumbshit, can't you see Reo underestimated him and that trash just made use of that. You think he can defeat a cultivator so easily, he got lucky there. Go now, he can't match you in strength" but he was thinking entirely different thing in his mind. Ryan did not have frog's eyes, he could see that Alex though not a cultivator but he was proficient in using martial art techniques to fight which Ryan had only seen in experienced hunters. He had just sent his other underling to test this guy more. Of course, Ryan never thought that he couldn't defeat Alex but he just wanted to know how deep this trash had hidden his skills, if he ever could become a threat to him than Ryan had to cripple this guy now or better kill him.
Hearing Ryan words, his underling suddenly enlightened himself, he walked slowly towards Alex while heightening his senses.
Seeing this, Alex too walked slowly towards the guy, it's not that he became relaxed after taking a guy out easily but he was actually more focused now while showing his enemy that he was more casual and calm than him to just put doubt and pressure on him.
If Alex took even one hit from him then either his ribs would get broken or he may have his internal organs displaced. Taking a hit from a cultivator as a normal guy is very dangerous.
Just after coming 1 meter to each other, the guy suddenly called out
"Reo take that girl hostage"
Alex:"… -_-…."
Ryan thought while face palming 'why do I have such an idiot as my subordinate…'
Anna who was drifting towards Tom discretely was frightened enough to look behind her but seeing that the unconscious guy was not getting up, she patted her still developing with a sigh of relief
and thought
'Big brother beat that stupid liar'
Alex would be dumb to believe his words; though cultivators are more resilient than normal human but the force that he had used in his kick can definitely make him remain fainted for an hour.
The guy had his face gone red from shame. He thought himself as a genius to think of such plan. In his head when he called out, Alex should have turned so that he could fool him with a surprise attack.
"How dare you call me an idiot?"
Alex:"….. --_--….I didn't"
"Wha..but ymbm!!!!!" before he could say more Alex just took that opportunity to fling the stone at his face from his right hand.
And it hit right on target.