The hunter who was merely 21 years of age accepted the challenge without thinking. One of his fellow hunters who knew what Aselia was capable of tried to talk him out of it but he simply refused.

Yurian and Aselia passed each other meaningful glances as it was decided that the challenge will take place right there and no weapons will be involved. It was to be a hand-to-hand combat.

All of them pushed back the tables and chairs to give them a wider space, word spread, and more hunters filed in to watch the fight. Chanting slogans in favour of the boy.

Aselia moved to the center and took her martial arts attack stance, with her right hand projecting forward she gestured for the boy to make his move.

The boy had light brown curly hair and he was a few inches taller than Aselia. He took his forward kung fu stance, their eyes met and Aselia tilted her head with an evil smile.

"I am going to wipe that smug smile from your face," he scowled at her while attacking her with a punch but was too slow for Aselia’s standards, she caught it and twisted his wrist with full force, revolving around him at a 180-degree angle she elbowed his cheek. He shrieked in pain but she didn’t let go. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Ugggh,"

"Ewww,"

"Dead meat," a few hunters shouted who knew what Aselia was capable of. Yurian watched with an amused smile, his arms crossed against his muscular chest. He remembered the times when she had beaten him up during practice.

Aselia twisted his arm further making him bend over in pain as he tried to reach her with his other arm but she got hold of it too, moving to his back she landed a hard kick on both sides of his back knee depressions. This made his legs buckle and he fell to his knees with a scream.

Aselia let go of his arms and yanked down his head by grabbing his hair as her arm went around his neck and she held him in a choke slam. The Elven hunter glared at him, his eyes were twice in size from the shock of her movements. She hollered:

"Next time, be careful whom you challenge, bit*h," a little more pressure to her choke hold, and his body went limp as Aselia let him go and he plummeted to the ground.

"Poor guy, going against White Falcon, he had his days numbered," someone shouted and others began to laugh.

Aselia stepped back with an amused smile while his friends quickly moved toward him and offered him some water to help him regain consciousness. Yurian sauntered over to his partner and placed his elbow on Aselia’s shoulder.

"Tsk, tsk, and he thought he could beat you. I knew he wouldn’t be able to launch a single punch. The audacity though of these newcomers is certainly applaudable," Yurian pursed his lips to prevent himself from laughing out loud.

"Well, next time he will use his brain for sure," Aselia dusted her hands off, a smile permanently adorning her lips as she shouted:

"Anyone else who wants to challenge me? Or can I eat in peace now?" Many of the hunters that had gathered began to disperse at her words, scurrying away to the holes they had crept out of with their small minds.

The boy was carried away by his friends who threw ugly looks at Aselia, the girl in return simply stared back at them with an amused smile. She finally sat down to eat with Yurian when Silver Wolf appeared.

His fuming eyes scanned the area as his gaze landed on Aselia. "WHITE FALCON, TRAINING ROOM, NOW," he thundered making Aselia grumble and let out curses:

"Fu*k,"

"Sh*t,"

She reluctantly began to rise from her seat. When Yurian spoke:

"She hasn’t even eaten yet. Let her eat something first."

Silver Wolf focused his scrutinizing eyes on Yurian and growled: "Then she should have been eating in the eating area and not injuring her fellow hunters. Move now," Aselia sighed before saying and walking away:

"It’s ok, Yuri. You eat, I can handle him."

Silver Wolf was striding ahead of her and once they entered the training room he banged the door shut and turned to face her.

"Explain yourself," he asked with a grimace, his hands balling up in a fist.

"He thought he could defeat me, I just showed him where he stood on that front. I simply wanted to eat in peace and they thought I had no right to sit there, I made sure they knew I had every right."

Aselia replied with her hands on her waist, her eyes shining with determination, showing him she wasn’t afraid.

"Why are you always seeking trouble? He could have been severely injured. Haven’t you hurt enough of us? Haven’t you killed enough of us too?" His words hit her like stormy waves hitting a dingy boat on an open sea, toppling it and wrecking it.

"I never killed any of my companions and I am part of you people too, accept it or not, it’s your choice but I won’t let you take away the years of my life I have given to this organization. Forgetting who I was in the process. Do you people even remember I am a girl? Look at me, just look at me."

She shouted at him, rage filling her body as she gritted her teeth at him, Silver stared back at her, clearly in shock but she wasn’t done.

"It so easy for you men, you can fu*k whomever you want, without consequences. Your bodies are stronger than us, you have to put in less effort to train than us. I trained twice as hard as all of you, and I have earned the right to be here. Accept it or not it’s your choice, but I am fu*king done with being put down for choosing someone who finally loves me for who I am."

With these words, she stood her ground, glaring at the man in front of her, refusing to get trampled over anymore.

"You betrayed us, you betrayed our trust and you betrayed this organization by letting the enemy escape. That’s why you are in the position you are in right now. Never said you didn’t work hard." Silver Wolf’s tone had remarkably softened, and his eyes held less hostility. But Aselia was not buying it:

"And yet you forgot to acknowledge I am your equal and not someone under you. The only person who got betrayed was him. We disrupted his peaceful city, turning it into our personal battleground. He was innocent and yet I kidnapped him, he warned us and we paid no heed to his warnings. We turned him into an enemy due to stupid decisions, including mine," She shook her head and momentarily closed her eyes before continuing:

"And when he sought retribution, then we couldn’t accept it and somehow you people turned that into my betrayal. I simply let him go back home, where he belonged. He shouldn’t have been here in the first place."

"You should have gone with him then. Hunters don’t take it lightly to betrayal," Silver Wolf told her in a calm voice, the raging storm inside him had subsided. He could never forgive her but to some extent, he understood what she said was true.

"My goal is to kill the Phantom and rid this world of his atrocities. Don’t worry, the day I achieve my goal, I will be gone and you people won’t have to be bothered by my existence. Bear me a little longer." She replied sarcastically and placed her hand on the door handle, ready to leave when he spoke:

"You should know I don’t hate you, only had high hopes for you but I guess I didn’t realize one can’t kill all the emotions inside a heart."

"One can’t," with these words she left the training room and headed for her room. Every day was now a challenge in this place she called home. This didn’t feel like home anymore, the judgmental eyes, sneers, and lewd remarks she experienced every day were having a toll on her.

At times she understood their reactions but it was tearing her apart, slowly. She reached her room and did the first thing that popped into her mind. She called Xiran.

He picked up on the second bell and his soothing voice made her smile when he spoke in his sing-song voice:

"Hey! you missing me already?"

"Yes, I just needed to hear your voice," Aselia tried to keep her voice straight. But he knew something was wrong.

"What happened? Your voice is down," The playfulness in his voice disappeared and was replaced by concern.

"Xiran I need you to be my listening ear, without getting hyper or jumping to murderous intentions because I can handle myself. What I am not good at handling is the barrage of emotions I have been feeling lately. Help me channel them in a healthy way for I am drowning here."

His heart sank at her emotional words.