Lord Of Beasts

Outside Darren’s house, chaos had reigned for barely half a minute.

Gunfire had ripped through the quiet countryside, shattering the peaceful morning that usually settled over the isolated farmland. Thunder cracked loud enough to rattle the windows, while brilliant flashes of blue lightning repeatedly turned the world white for the briefest of moments.

Somehow, amidst all of it, wild laughter echoed across the battlefield as if the two people responsible were enjoying themselves far more than they ever should have.

Darren had spent the entire exchange crouched behind one of the thick wooden support pillars supporting his front porch. Shotgun or not, he wisely decided that standing between two Titled monsters and a dozen armed lunatics wasn’t the best idea.

Every few seconds, curiosity got the better of him.

He cautiously leaned around the pillar, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening.

Only to immediately duck back again.

"What the hell..."

Then, everything stopped.

The gunfire ceased, the thunder faded into silence, and only the faint smell of burnt ozone lingered in the air. For several long seconds, Darren simply remained where he was, waiting to see if the shooting would suddenly begin again.

When it didn’t, he slowly leaned out one final time.

His eyes widened.

Every single attacker lay scattered across the ground.

Some were smoking lightly from the residual electricity still dancing across their clothes. Others twitched every now and then as unconscious muscles spasmed. But none of them looked capable of standing again anytime soon.

Standing calmly amongst them, Ethan casually brushed a bit of dirt from his sleeve as though he’d just finished gardening.

Darren stared.

His mind struggled to reconcile the man before him with the person he’d once known.

’Is that really the Ethan I knew?’

The man standing out there looked nothing like the mentally unstable young criminal he’d shared a prison cell block with all those years ago. He looked almost heroic, which felt strange, to say the least.

’I never could have imagined he would change into this.’

Meanwhile, inside the house, Mark had eventually given in to curiosity as well. Unable to ignore the deafening thunder outside any longer, he’d cautiously edged over to the front window and carefully peered through a narrow gap in the curtains.

What he witnessed left him speechless.

His brother darted across the battlefield like living lightning, while Kaela casually walked through gunfire as if bullets were little more than heavy rain. Neither of them had looked remotely pressured.

Mark found himself staring at Ethan for longer than he’d realised.

’Fire, lightning, beasts... what can’t he do?’

Pride swelled inside him, but so did something else, a feeling he wasn’t particularly proud of. He and Ethan were always the duo who planned on taking on the world together and had each other’s backs.

But watching him dismantle over a dozen armed men without breaking a sweat reminded Mark just how insignificant he was.

His fists unconsciously tightened.

’I really can’t keep up anymore. At this point, I’m just a pathetic leech.’

The Association worker looked equally stunned, though his concerns were rather different, quickly counting the unconscious bodies.

His expression slowly grew paler.

’Please God, let them all still be breathing.’

He wasn’t worried because they deserved to be alive, but because the paperwork would be horrifying. And even worse, the Aryan Brotherhood wouldn’t simply let something like this go unanswered.

A massacre would send this entire region spiralling into chaos overnight.

Silently, he prayed that Ethan had shown enough restraint, and, thankfully, judging by the steady groans rising from various parts of the battlefield, most of them hadn’t died.

The Association employee released a relieved sigh.

Then, before Ethan had even finished brushing himself off, a crimson blur appeared beside him. Elara blinked outside the moment everything settled, her crimson eyes calmly sweeping across the unconscious gang members littering the dirt before finally settling on Ethan.

There wasn’t even the slightest hint of surprise on her face, only admiration.

She gave him a small, approving nod before signing simply,

*Next time, I want to fight too.*

Ethan couldn’t help smiling.

"Oh..."

He wrapped an arm comfortably around her shoulders and gently pulled her closer.

"You’re going to have plenty of next times with me."

He laughed softly.

"Don’t worry. You’ll get your turn to fight."

Elara smiled contentedly.

Only after confirming that the fighting had truly ended did the Association worker cautiously step outside. He looked around again, on the off chance he was dreaming, then he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Alright, we really need to sort this out. Otherwise, this could become a massive problem."

Ethan casually lit a cigarette as the haggard black suit approached.

"Are these redneck retards really that scary?"

The man hesitated before answering.

"Well... Yes, they are."

He sighed.

"The Aryan Brotherhood around here isn’t just a handful of racists. They’re generations of racists. The hatred gets passed from fathers to sons, and they’ve existed for decades. But..."

His expression became noticeably more serious.

"Over the last couple of years, they’ve grown much more aggressive. A lot of their members were recently released from prison. And through sheer probability... some of them awakened Titles."

He gestured vaguely across the surrounding countryside.

"Association resources out here are limited. There aren’t enough Gates to justify permanent high-ranking deployments. So they roam almost freely and are involved in weapons trafficking, drug distribution, protection rackets, extortion... You name it, they do it."

"Okay," was Ethan’s relaxed response.

"The authorities out here also can’t do much, with most of them having ties to them to begin with. They basically can do what they want, and every month they seem to get bolder."

Ethan slowly nodded.

"So these dumb fucks are getting too big for their boots."

The man gave a weary smile. "I guess that’s one way of putting it."

Kaela cracked her knuckles.

"Sounds like something the Enforcers should fix."

Ethan nodded, exhaling slowly.

Elara was also in agreement, though she wasn’t doing as good a job as her partner at hiding how angry she was. Crimson mana flickered in her hands, and she seemed ready to level the entire state.

What had started as a nostalgic trip to visit an old prison friend was rapidly turning into something much bigger.

Ethan crouched beside the unconscious gang members, thoughtfully scanning each face until his gaze settled on the young man wearing the stained white vest. He was the same one who’d been shouting orders throughout the fight.

"Him."

Kaela grinned, also recognising him.

"Wake him up."

She nodded, but before she could move, Mark unexpectedly stepped forward.

"Let me do it."

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