Jareth slowly pulled himself up and stared at the group above.
His gaze dropped to Finnian, seated on the floor. "Finnian, give them twenty of our kills out of the forty."
"What? Ah! Okay."
"You think I'm a fool because I can't search your badge?" spat the leader.
Lifting his gaze, Jareth held the man's gaze behind his beautiful helmet. "No. I never thought that. That's why I'm giving you half of our kills."
"Although I can't check your badges, I saw the number of beasts you killed. But I'm in a happy mood today, so…" he raised two fingers. "Nothing less than twenty Rank 2 beasts."
Jareth blinked while scanning his surroundings with the corner of his eyes. All the other arcanists watched but didn't move to help. "That's making things difficult for us. We don't have that many," he explained.
The man clicked his tongue. "Then you will have to work for it, since you don't want to cooperate."
Jareth locked gaze with the man in silence, his expression plain, but his thoughts were calculating his chances against them. 'Do I battle them? They might be merely Awakened arcanists.'
The man slowly crouched lower after a few seconds of holding Jareth's gaze. "So, what is it going to be, kid?"
After much internal struggle, Jareth shut his eyes and took a deep breath. He snapped them open again. "We—"
"Scram!" A snarl interrupted Jareth.
Snapping his head, Jareth spotted Liana's gang on the top of a building not too far, quickly approaching them by jumping from roof to roof. What was surprising was that Zelda and her brother were with them.
"Who are you? Why are you getting involved?" The man stood up and faced them.
Liana led the group to the roof of the building where the group stood, halting just a few steps from the group. Cocking her head, she glared at the leader despite the height difference.
"Because you're messing with my brother," she growled through gritted teeth.
"He messed with me first. He owes me twenty Rank 2 corpses. Unfortunately, kid, you're still not qualified to meddle in this situation with your meager strength. So, just walk away now that I'm in a good mood."
"I'm not qualified?" Liana arched an eyebrow. "Then let's get at it. Let's see how many of us will live to tell the tale."
A fire spear materialized beside Liana.
Jareth instantly retrieved his sword, crimson flame spiralling and coating the surface.
"Guys. Guys. Guys." Alven quickly rushed from the back to the middle, his hands stretching both ways to stop the group.
"Liana, let me settle it."
Liana threw him a short glare before retreating without dispelling her fire spell.
Then Alven faced the group.
"Hello sir, could you please just let it end at this?" Alven said with a smile on his lips.
"Why should I listen to a brat like you?" the leader replied.
With a smile still playing on his lips, Alven replied, "Because I'm Alven Crestwell, the son of Gaius Crestwell."
Jareth, who was already prepared for battle, noticed the man's eyes narrow.
'A big background?'
After a brief silence, he questioned again, "Why should I believe you?"
"You don't need to believe me. You just need to kill me and find out," Alven answered without breaking his polite smile.
Another bout of silence took over before the man gestured at his group. "Good luck, kids. But your background won't always save you."
"Thank you, sir, for your magnanimity and kind advice." Alven bowed slightly.
Jareth watched as the group jumped down and disappeared into the ruined landscape.
"You don't have to fight every time," Alven said to Liana.
"I just want to punch their faces and roast them! They are weak Elite arcanists, who only bully the Awakened arcanists," Liana retorted.
"You can't be sure," Alven argued.
"I'm a hundred percent sure, or else they wouldn't be robbing for those weak Rank 2 creatures. Hell! What powerful Elite arcanist would rob a Rank 2 Level 1 beast? I bet, they only hunt close to the boundary, where only Rank 2 Level 1 beasts populate," countered Liana as she jumped down to meet Jareth, staring intensely at his glowing sword.
"This is cheating!" she hissed at the sword.
"You basically have that loser's spell and mine too?" she pointed at Zelda.
"Who's a loser?" Zelda snarled from above.
And Liana forgot about Jareth and went at Zelda.
Jareth dispelled his spells and sent his sword to his badge.
The group jumped down, making the narrow alley crowded.
"Nice look," Nadia said to him with a toothy grin.
Jareth chuckled in return at his messy appearance.
"Who is he?" Alven asked Jareth.
Jareth turned to see him pointing at a nervous Finnian, his eyes darting around at everybody as he shrank into himself. "Oh! Finnian Thorne. I think he's your classmate."
"My classmate?" they all chorused and peered at Finnian, observing him in silence like a specimen.
Finnian shrank deeper into himself, almost melding with the wall.
"Stop looking at him like he's an animal in a zoo."
"What is a zoo?" Liana asked him.
"Forget it," Jareth waved her off, realizing there might be no zoo in the Xeran nation.
"Are you really our classmate? As in, the current student of the Arcanist College?" Zelda asked Finnian.
"Y-Yes," Finnian replied.
"I've never seen you before," Alven said.
"Where would you see him from? Do you know all ten thousand students in our class?" Nathan retorted.
"Thank you guys for your help," Jareth said.
"Of course, you're my brother. I knew you were cool but not this cool. The way you were killing everything, even Nathan was impressed," Liana grinned.
"I wasn't," Nathan retorted.
"How did you see me?" Jareth asked.
"The binoculars," said Liana.
'Really?! I better be careful with my Quagmire.' Jareth mused before looking at Finnian, who was fidgeting. "Let's split the kills."
Finnian hurriedly nodded.
"Let's find a room," Nadia stopped Finnian, who was about to release the kills.
Nadia led them to a room, where Finnian dropped the pile of beasts on the floor.
Nadia quickly counted. "111 beasts. There are about ten Rank 2 beasts. There might be more Rank 2 beasts I missed." Then she turned and narrowed her eyes at Finnian. "Are these all the kills?"
"Y-Yes," Finnian stuttered under her gaze.
"Why do I feel you're lying?" She stood up and locked gaze with Finnian, who took a step back and lowered his gaze.
'Déjà vu,' Jareth thought.
"Stop that." Jareth butted in. "You can't be like that to every stranger you meet."
"I'm standing up for you," she snapped at Jareth.
"Yeah. I can see that, but sometimes, you have to have a sliver of trust to keep an acquaintance," said Jareth.
"Good luck trusting strangers and having a sliver of trust." Nadia kicked the bodies and stormed out of the room.