This had to be the worst case scenario. Jack knew he could potentially hold his own against one opponent on his level of cultivation but seven was a different, impossible, concept.

The young man sniggered,

"Is that enough to show you that combat is useless and unnecessary?"

Jack gritted his teeth and gripped the Rune tile tighter as he looked at them closely and then turned to his own companions whom he knew would not really have the ability to offer assistance. The feeling in the pit of his stomach was worsening.

"Hand it over" The young man said again.

"Sure" Jack said "If you can catch me" and he took off into the forest.

The young man and the others with him blinked at the unexpected turn of events.

What the...?

"What are you waiting for? After him" The young man yelled and the Ninth stagers took off after Jack.

Jack could see this was his best bet if he did not want to surrender something he had worked for.

The way he saw things, he had been in this forest frequently enough to know how to lose his chasers.

Unfortunately for Jack however, while his chasers were upper class men, they also frequent the forest with the aim of learning more about the Salmon before the more general and public hunt.

The forest also happened to be a nice place to temper themselves in life and death situations against Demon beasts.

This men were far from being noobs.

They separated and three of them went ahead to cut him off while the other three worked to herd him in that direction.

When Jack chanced a glance behind him and noticed the separation, he could already form an hypothesis on what they were after but there was still one thing he could do.

Break out of the circle.

He changed direction suddenly and went after the one that had been running on his right side. His plan was to use his speed to heighten his strength is that he could quite literally break through that assailant.

The one he went after noticed his approach and his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

At the last minute, right before impact, the assailant stopped and held his ground,

*Bam!*

The impact saw the opposite of what Jack had been after and smacked him right into the centre where all six could surround him.

Jack stood shakily, wincing at the pain from his broken bones.

"What now?" Sneered the assailant he had just collided with.

There seemed to be nothing wrong with him despite the impact. Almost as though he was a rock.

At this point, Jack knew it must have been the sophistication of Cultivation techniques that had made the difference in their defensive resilience.

There was no need to waste anymore time and risk Jack taking off again, so the one he had collided with wrestled the tile out of his grip.

He inspected it with a grin and then kicked Jack's head for good measure.

When they turned to leave they heard a whoosh sound just as a voice called out,

"Look out below!"

They had barely a second warning after that before a body landed with a loud sound.

The six of them flinched involuntarily before they noticed the body was still very much alive. Not just that, they could even recognize it. Bloody as the face was, they could see it was the young man that had just ordered them after Jack.

The young man was weary and every breath seemed to take a significant amount of effort.

Immediately, they looked around for the one responsible.

They did not need to look far as he was already walking towards them. Using a fabric to clean off their companion's blood off his hands. His smile was so natural looking that had it not been for the blood on his hand, they might have mistaken him as a friend

They recognized him of course, he was Hal Payne who had caused a mild scene just before the competition began.

Looking down at the condition of their bloody companion and the smiling Hal with his now clean hand, it was easy to put things together.

"How dare you?" Asked one of the six.

(Who it was does not matter)

"How dare me what?" Hal asked with a surprised expression.

"How dare you touch him?" Clarified another with clear rage.

"Oh. Well you see, he had so many Rune tiles with him and he kept jingling them like an idiot... You seriously don't expect me to simply ignore such prime target do you?"

Hal said with a slight smile as Marla walked out of the covers of trees to stand by his side and look at the six of them with neutral expression.

*Jingle* *Jingle* *Jingle*

Despite having just called the one who had done this before an idiot, Hal still started jingling the tiles with him. The message was clear.

The act itself was not the reason for the idiocy it was doing such right in front of someone who could take it all away.

It was clear Hal did not see them as a threat.

"What do you think?" Hal asked with a smile and they all looked confused until they realized he had not been referring to them but to the young lady that stood by his side.

"Are you asking me if they are good enough?" Marla asked.

"Of course I am," Hal said as though he had not expected her to ask a question whose answer was quite obvious.

"But... I thought you would choose my targets" Marla asked in a surprised tone.

"I led us here but you have to decide if they are worth your time or not. That's not my decision and I do not intend to make it for you" Hal told her.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Asked one of the six and Marla turned her angry eyes towards him.

"Excuse me, can't you see we're having a conversation," she said with seething rage.

How dare this idiot interrupt?.

Having been a servant in the past, Marla was not particularly enamored with snotty upperclassmen.

"You injured my friend. Don't just gloss over it because you two want to have a sweet moment together"

This time Marla looked shocked (mockingly so),

"Friend? You're obviously his lackey. Are you just saying friend cause you know he's unconscious and can't hear you?" Marla said before imitating a baby's voice (again to mock the speaker),

"Are you going to go home after this and cross that off your bucket list?"

The speaker backpedaled,

"Lackey? How dare you?"

"Yes, I called you a lackey cause that's what you are. What are you going to do about it?" Marla taunted.

"You bitch!" The speaker raged but Marla just chuckled,

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

Somehow, this was the final straw that broke the camel's back as he ran straight towards Marla with his hand clenched into a fist.

Marla revealed her cultivation base just as she punched out with a fist of her own.

*Bang!*

*Crack!*

"Arrrrgggghhh"

The speaker's entire hand was completely fractured right to the wrist.

As he was thrown right back towards his peers and Marla stood in the same spot without taking even a single step back, he could only wonder what cultivation technique could strengthen her body to such an impossible state.

*Bam!*

He fell right at the feet of his companions who bent low to check his condition.

At that time Marla's voice sounded,

"That's it? With all his words, you would think he would be more impressive. What a disappointment. Get up you loser, let's go again"

She said and bounced from place to place with her fist punching out like a Boxer.

Hal chuckled,

"I don't think he can"

"He can't?. Damn it!. If I knew that, I would have done a lot more with the only punch I had" and she sounded truly disappointed.

The others turned to her as the speaker had fallen unconscious right after she had called him a disappointment and essentially dissed all his efforts to cultivate thus far.

They could see the danger where it lay and while it seemed more prudent to not engage, they could not just leave the Tiles with those two.

At least that was what the One Jack had collided with thought as he stepped towards the two.

"I want those Tiles back" It was clear from his tone that he was demanding and not requesting. He would not compromise.

"What's your name?" Hal asked.

"My name is Waldo from the Bale family" Waldo replied.

"Well, Waldo from the Bale family, If you want the tiles, you can come and take them from me," Hal said while still jingling the Tiles.

"With pleasure" Waldo sneered and he dashed towards Hal but Marla stood between them and forced him to pause.

"It's between me and your boyfriend over there. Move aside" Waldo said with an intimidating tone of voice but contrary to what he had expected, Marla swooned and turned towards Hal,

"You hear that? He called you my boyfriend"

"Yes I did, he has good observation skills" Hal chuckled while giving Waldo a thumbs up.

Marla giggled "For that, I will go easy on you"

Waldo blinked,

What sort of couple were these two?

"She's lying. She won't go easy on you" Hal said and Marla nodded begrudgingly,

"He's right, I won't. It's not that I don't want to but I've never done it before and so I don't know how. But I assure you that while it will be very painful, It'll be over quickly"

Waldo sneered as he readied himself,

"I won't be so sure if I were you"

He said before dashing forward once again but this time, his target was the interfering Marla.