"Come quietly, and we won't shoot!" Brad spoke into a megaphone from the top of the wall, standing next to a hundred Immortals with Guided Arrows drawn.
"That won't happen," Major Reed declared. "Give us our companions, and we will leave; otherwise, prepare for us to slaughter half of you before we run out of Qi and die."
Tension and paranoia swept through the Immortals, triggering past trauma.
"We seek equal negotiation," Brad announced quickly, sensing their trauma. "However, your people have attacked us before, so expect retaliation if you threaten us again. You're looking at our weakest members. You will face our leaders if you seek your companions or promote hostility."
It was the cultivator's turn to feel intense apprehension. The thought that the sea of Sky Realm cultivators was the weakest on campus made them feel intense anxiety.
As both sides prepared for battle, a familiar voice rang through the air, shocking both sides.
"DON'T SHOOT!" Roxy yelled, flying through the sky at high speed. "We don't want to fight Immortal Skye!"
Her soldiers were stunned, seeing her fly between the groups, trying to mediate. So were the Immortals, who only knew she was a cultivator.
"Shouldn't you be beggin' them instead of us?" Major Reed sneered. "Considerin' you sold us out and all?"
"I didn't sell you out!" Roxy snapped. "I couldn't contact you!"
"Wait, aren't you with the other group?" Brad asked sternly. "If so, are you saying that you knew this was going to happen?"
The tension between the three groups intensified, spreading sparks between the groups.
"I… these people are my retrieval team," Roxy said awkwardly, looking between the groups. "They're not hostile, so let's talk this through."
"Why are you making excuses like you've made some shady backroom deal and were caught in the act?" Major Reed smirked.
Murmurs spread through her troops, confused and emotionally lanced by her words. The same was true of the Immortals, who felt she was beguiling their leaders.
"I haven't made any deal with Immortal Skye," Roxy replied boldly. "However, I said I'd talk to you and the rest of our people."
"Is that so?" Major Reed smirked murderously, her pupils constricted and deranged. "Then how do you explain this ambush? And why the hell do you know where it is?"
"I was trying to contact—" Before she could explain, the blonde major flew forward at ghostly speed, wind spinning around her arm.
"DON'T!" Roxy yelled with wide eyes, realizing the blonde aimed to kill her. It caught her off guard, so she barely moved in time to prevent Major Reed's hand from thrusting through her stomach. However, the razor-sharp winds around the blonde's forearm shredded her stomach. "AGH!"
The brunette pixie's eyes flashed with murder, and she lifted both hands at ghostly speed. "Heaven's Order!"
Gravity crashed into the unhinged blonde like a freight train, sending her crashing to the earth.
BOOM!
"LISTEN TO ME!" Roxy yelled, wrath and disgust feeling her words. Unfortunately, no one listened.
"That traitor attacked our major!" A man with long blonde hair yelled, pulling back his hand, "I won't accept that!"
He waved his hand, and a flurry of raw Qi bolts shot at her, each the size of a spear. She dodged all of them, but the attack had larger implications.
BOOM! Boom-boom-boom! BOOM!
The bolts crashed behind her but were blocked by Immortals using Qi walls. In instant retaliation, fifty soldiers on the wall shot guided arrows back at the man.
WHOooOOooSH!
He scoffed at their weak attacks and casually flew upward. However, to the shock of all the cultivators, all fifty arrows followed his movements. "GUIDED ARROW!?"
With nowhere to run, he created a Qi wall to block, but multiple arrows went around it, hitting his sides. One arrow wasn't enough to break past his muscles, but multiple hits compounded the wounds and broke through.
"STOP THIS!" A brunette cultivator yelled, dodging arrows shot at her. She swung her hand, creating a hail of small, non-lethal Qi attacks on the Immortals, forcing Qi wall users to block. "WE'RE NOT FIGHTING!"
"STAND DOWN, IMMORTALS!" Brad yelled, releasing his cultivation base around the Immortals, preparing arrows.
"But Brad, they're striking us!" a black-haired woman yelled. "They're—"
"Look at what's exploding!" He yelled back. "The cultivators aren't responsible!"
BOOM! Boom, boom! BOOM!
She looked and saw that most Heaven Realm cultivators had shields surrounding them, creating a phalanx. They didn't seem interested in the attack. Instead, they focused on the fight between the two majors, which would determine their direction.
"TRAITOR! Traitor-traitor-traitor!" Major Reed screamed. "I TRUSTED YOU!"
She threw another wind scythe with every word, crashing to the ground behind the pixie. They flew low to avoid hitting the wall or the sea of Immortals. However, only one of them was attacking.
"I didn't betray you!" Roxy yelled. "I left to contact you, but your—"
"SHUT UP!" Major Reed laughed. "You're not even attacking because you're afraid to hurt them! You'd rather die here than hurt your new friends!"
By striking the brunette, the blonde anticipated dying, so she kept her back to the Immortals so none of her attacks could hit them. That way, none of her people had to die for her outburst.
"That's rich, coming from someone keeping your back to an ENEMY!" Roxy scoffed. "I'm also not trying to hurt you!"
She waved her hand, and a raw Qi sword materialized, "Otherwise, I would be fighting past the limitations!"
"You're reaching!" Major Reed grinned, creating her own sword. "You're not using that thing because you can't!"
The blonde lifted her sword with both hands and swung downward with intense force.
Roxy molded the sword into a rod and held it with both hands to block, but the moment the sword struck it, her stomach ripped open, and she crashed into the dirt.
BOOM!
Without stopping, the blonde flew down. However, the ground forces outside the walls surrounded them with Guided Arrows drawn. They were covered in dirt and angry.
"STOP FIGHTING!" Sammy, the dark-haired tennis player, ordered. "NOW!"
"This is our problem, so stay the fuck out of it!" Major Reed snarled. "Wait until I kill this traitorous bitch, and I'll come quietly. If you don't, I'll kill a hundred or more of you before you kill me!"
"No, it's my problem," Jake declared chillingly, pushing through the crowd. "If you don't stop what you're doing and tell me what's happened so far, I'll publicly draw and quarter you to prove that there are more effective means of obtaining total control!"
═─┈─═
"Your fate depends on how this boy judges your foolish actions," Crux declared coldly. "For now, I'm taking you to a spare mansion until he wakes up."
Major Reed felt as though she had just stepped into an alternate dimension. "Did you… just imply you were taking the kid's orders?"
"That is correct," the Panthera replied coldly. "I serve under this boy when our leaders are away. My motivations for doing so are irrelevant, as you will soon understand yourselves."
"I see…" the blonde replied. "If you don't mind… I need to know. Why didn't that barrier block your and his techniques?"
"It's our barrier, you foolish woman," Crux scoffed, leading the group away.
***
"How long have I been out?" Jake groaned, waking up on a couch. He looked around and found the living room of another guest house filled with cultivators.
"You've only been out for thirty minutes," Crux said calmly, explaining what had happened. She recounted the fight between the majors and how Immortals and cultivators had gotten hurt in the chaos. Both majors shivered, realizing she had watched the whole time.
"Thank you, Lady Pyron." He nodded after taking a deep, thankful breath and turned to the cultivators. "Are you satisfied with treating this as a misunderstanding?"
Both gave their approval, confused why they had any say in the matter. However, Jake thanked them and whispered orders to Sammy and Lily, who pulled out strange white rolls and wrapped them around the cultivators' busts, waists, and limbs before disappearing. Thirty minutes later, they returned with ten people and heaps of clothing in their hands.
"I ripped your clothing and have thus prepared compensation," Jake smiled. "At the very least, please wear it to prevent misperceptions that we fought. You can have multiple outfits, so please choose a princess dress and casual or tactical wear."
Roxy stared at the man discerningly. After getting played, she knew his offer wasn't out of goodwill. The resolution was eerily smooth, leading her to believe there was a major catch. However, when she saw the luxurious dresses the women brought, her eyes glittered with excitement.
Major Reed scoffed and rolled her eyes until she saw Earthian tactical gear; then, she pretended to be disgusted as she did a detailed sweep of her options. Naturally, Roxy sent her a snide smile, sparking a cold war.
While the cultivators had different reactions, they all got dressed quickly. Most women chose dresses after Roxy returned in a stunning purple cocktail dress, reminding them of the impossibility of getting such an outfit on the Sky Plane.
Once everyone was dressed, Jake led them to the guest house with a mysterious smirk that made the majors uncomfortable. It bugged them, and they wanted to know why he felt victorious! However, it didn't last long. Once he opened the guest house doors, they instantly knew why he looked so victorious.
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