Tales of An Nam

chapter 7: flamboyant business

Ring, ring, ring!

A ringtone sounded in a cozy room.

"Whaddup, golden boy-" a familiar voice congratulated. "News all over the place, you heard?"

"What news-" groaned the golden boy at his cozy bed, turning to his left side. "It's Sunday morning, ya know."

Thần merely opened his eyes to see the ticking clock. Since sunshines had already washed on his bed, he ought to continue that phone call. Khải Minh noted the meeting at his turf; very important, he said. Moreover, many gangs heard the voice tapping; and, they started conducting serious business. The Fervent Master gathered men from early morning, Minh admitted, and needed more capable men to join that campaign with high rewards. However, due to the difficulty requirement, Minh advised Thần had to check his gears and level to join that mission, for high rewards came with higher risks.

"Join me when you are ready-" Minh concluded after ending the call. "I'm sure you will find something interesting."

As the sun rose over the south side, Thần and Lâm headed to the turf. Among the flamboyant crowd, people already prepared their arms as the boys headed to meet Minh. Suddenly, a large, muscular grappler tackled Thần and pinned him down out of nowhere.

"How dare you!" The male grappler choked the neck of the opponent by one hand, lifting feets off the ground. "Ya dare mess with me brother!"

"Hey, hey!" Minh abruptly interrupted the scene. "Chill, bruv, this ain't private biz."

"Punk-ass T-800 bitch!" Lâm took out his bear claw, immediately jumped on the threat. "Let my homie go!"

Lâm performed a punch onto the target; however, the target failed to budge. Irritated, Lâm performed consecutive punches onto the target body; however, the target again failed to budge, yet was able to flex the muscular straps. Lâm exhaled, then inhaled deeply to perform another consecutive punches onto the target body; yet, only the target's strap moved to flex its muscle. That grappler smirked at the dumbfounded fighter; punched single-handed which created enough force to send a man flying afar.

Thần barely breathed on that choke, fighting for his life. Minh realized the situation would fail to bring peace on the table, demanding the rest to curb that mad beast. Men jumped onto the grappler with an attempt to save the victim; yet, was unable to rescue him from the monster grip. The grappler became more mad, swung Thần as a baseball bat to gain space. Thần knew his life would become vain if the situation escalated; therefore, he hugged his head tight to avoid critical damage. Minh ceased the command as a milk tea enthusiast came to the scene hastily. Thuan chanted his spell, drawing the mad beast onto him. The beast heeded; turned to attack the spell master with tremendous speed and dragged the victim along. As the eye's glowed in blue, the spell master completed the chant, and a few footsteps more, the beast ceased the movement with a blue, glowing Bagua on the ground, kneeled before the caster.

"Heaven and earth in balance be," The caster stepped forward to the mad grappler; raised a finger and wrote an ancient character from air. "Inner peace and harmony."

平

The ancient character formed by yellow Qi at the fingertip.

Bong!

The sound followed; echoed as the character displayed in front of the grappler. Airwaves blasted to the grappler as the chilling breeze of spring in a fracture of seconds. He lost his grip; snoozed in the middle of the scene.

The victim scrambled on the ground, breathing in short air. Thần crawled away and found a surface to lean on his ground. Terrifying, Thần described his feeling from the experience, since never imagined becoming a live baseball bat. The surroundings returned to peace shortly. People minded their own business; required Gym Leaders to deal with the mess.