It was a Dare!

And one that was as clear as day.

Angry and insulted as San was, he could not help but praise Hal in his mind.

First Hal had done something that made the whole Mansion seem devoid of Astral energy which normally should have made the Plebeians overconfident that all was well but because Hal was already a known Runemaster, the Effect was not the same and it was only glaringly suspicious and made the Plebeians even more cautious.

To an avid observer, Hal's plan of surprise was ruined because of this but San could tell that this was the effect Hal had wanted.

Because of how suspicious it was, San had decided to send in those he considered expendable due to the abundance of Cosmic Pearl realm cultivators as opposed to Cosmic Armament realm cultivators who were far more scarce and valuable.

And it was the perfect avenue for Hal and his ladies to display dominance and intimidate even the Cosmic Armament Realm cultivators on the outside.

And as Hal and the ladies had not let out the pressure of their cultivation base, how strong they were was still mostly unknown. At most, the Plebeians had only come up with a guess, which was that they were at least at the Cosmic Armament realm.

The eyes of the Plebeian leaders widened at this conclusion, they needed to make sure Hal died now or else at the rate this monster was growing they would be incapable of threatening him soon enough.

Now that they had seen his prowess as not only a Rune master but also a cultivator, they could not help but lament that they had ignored him and let him have room to grow this much.

San on the other hand could not help but chuckle,

"If that is all you have then you're screwed" he said and ordered all those available to storm in.

Strong as Hal and the ladies might be, they could not possibly hold off all of these men. Even if Hal could make use of more Arrays, he could not possibly keep all of them away.

Or so he thought.

What San was unaware of was that Hal had an immense supply of Astral energy and was more than capable of erecting even more arrays.

The Rune Array Protective Dome was the only Array that had been prepared beforehand. The only reason Hal had cleared all residual signatures of Astral energy from the Mansion was that he wanted the Plebeians to be cautious.

Every Array he planned to use now was spontaneous and created on the spot because it allowed him versatility and made him able to tailor-make the arrays.

He allowed himself a few seconds to breathe deeply before he released a torrent of Astral energy, so strong that the attacking men paused as they felt the pressure of an energy they could not sense as they lacked Astral sense.

This was their salvation and made it bearable for them, but for the two Runemasters who had Astral sense but it was too weak to endure such high-powered Astral energy, the strain on their mental health was massive.

The eyes of Baret and Ian widened as they felt and sensed it,

"Impossible..." Was all they were able to say before they grabbed at their heads, fell to the ground and began to convulse.

San's eyes were filled with fear as he saw his comrades (For among the Plebeian heads, only these two qualified to be called his comrades and friends) fall victim to the torrent of the pressure that emanated from the Energy he could not sense.

Despite being a layman with no in-depth knowledge of Astral Sense, he knew it was because he lacked it that he had survived.

The fall of the Plebeian Runemasters caused quite a commotion and it even caused the men rushing into the Mansion to look back.

Hal on the other hand did not give an inclination that he noticed the Commotion. The other ladies that had been inside the Mansion and Castor and the guards that had stepped back 'Out of fear' took the pressure as a sign to converge in the compound.

When the men who were planning to storm in and now looked at Hal with a mixture of anger and dread, turned away from the commotion at the back and saw the compound suddenly filling up with at least Fifty people with twenty of them being females, they began to step closer again.

They still had numbers on their side.

Just then, Hal was done amassing all the Astral energy in his body and used them all to begin casting Runes.

The Runes formed together and created what looked like elastic veils that stood before the Men.

One of them did not bother to wait and let out the pressure of his Peak Cosmic Pearl realm cultivation slam against the veil in front of him. He passed through it successfully and then the next after that but when he was in front of the last veil and made to push through like he had done the other two...

*Bang*

...he was repelled and slammed right back through the other veils and unto the bodies of his comrades.

Hal smiled as he saw the veil work successfully.

"I call this, 'The Sieving Veils'. It's perfect for this situation. So what if you have numbers, it's next to useless if you can't attack together." He said with a smug smile.

In a more quiet tone of voice, he told those that were with him all about the veils as he could understand that they were just as confused with what he had created the commotion causing a torrent of Astral energy for,

So Hal explained to them that the Veil that was right in front of them would only allow those weaker than the Peak stage of the Cosmic Pearl realm to pass through, the one after that would only allow those at the Peak stage or weaker to pass and the one right in front of the Plebeians would only allow those who had not yet reached the Cosmic Armament realm to pass.

Hal had devised this method as the perfect way to completely decimate the numbers of the Plebeian forces. While he had Cultivators training to get stronger in his newly bought estate, he only called a few of them. Mostly because there was something else the Marked Brethren were supposed to do.

He was that confident that the ones he had with him were more than enough to trump the Plebeian forces, at least until the second part of his plan began.

The cultivator that had been repelled because he was at the peak stage of the Cosmic Pearl realm stood up and tried to push through the Veil in front of him but failed.

"Oh yeah, if you're repelled, it becomes harder for you to pass through even those veils you went through successfully."

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Even when Hal said this, the Cultivator still slammed against the veil in front of him repeatedly.

San looked up and quickly got the gist of it, whether it was accurate or not though was still unknown but even so,

"Go, go, go." He ordered and those that were weaker than the peak stage of the Cosmic Pearl Realm went through the veils without any hindrances and right at the end, the first they met were the grinning Marla and the weirdly smiling Amelia.

Marla found it surprising that Amelia would smile in face of an eventual conflict. The impression she had of the Horst maiden was that she was shy and that impression was true so she could not help but raise an eyebrow to this peculiar action.

Amelia looked sideways and saw Marla staring,

"What?" She asked.

"You're smiling. I find it queer" Marla shrugged in reply.

Amelia chuckled as she blushed,

"I'm kind of a freak when it comes to conflict. Unlike how I am seen in this city -Dainty genius-, in my sect, I am known to be quite aggressive. There's no challenge among my peers in this city. It's one of the things that bore me" her cheeks were getting more red the longer she spoke.

Marla stretched out her fist and punched Amelia lightly in the arm,

"Well, I'm sure you've said goodbye to boredom now" she said and winked for good measure.

Amelia blushed even further as the topic was getting ever closer to what had replaced the thrill of combat for her which was that as long as Hal pounded her constantly, she could never be bored.

Marla chuckled,

"How cute"

It was then that those Plebeians broke through the last veil and stormed towards them.

Marla was at the Early stage of the Cosmic Pearl realm and was getting closer to the mid-stage. As for Amelia, she was at a Late-stage.

When she had come to stay with Hal two days ago, she had been at the Early stage of the Cosmic Pearl realm. Thanks to Hal's ungraded Dual cultivating technique, she had advanced two stages.

As expected of a genius! Marla thought.

Amelia let out the Pressure of her Cultivation base as a few of the Ladies from Pleasure inn stood to serve as the backup. The coming threat was mainly to be faced by the young duo.

Something the duo not only had no problem with but had also suggested.

The first assailant to run out of the veil went straight for Amelia as it was no secret that she was a target San Fidwud and the other family heads would love to kill first.

Amelia smirked and met the assailant's fist with one of her own. As they were both in the Late-stage, the connecting punches only resulted in a stalemate but Amelia was not done as she slammed her left palm into her opponent's unprotected stomach...

*Bam*

*Bang!*

...and blasted him point-blank with a Cosmic Attack that ruptured the poor guy's insides.

"Arrr...." He started to yell but Amelia disconnected their fists and slammed hers into his mouth.

*Bam!*

The force of it slammed his head back so hard that his neck snapped.

All this happened within the space of a few seconds and by the time the lifeless body was falling to the floor, she was already pointing at the others that were getting closer...

"Second Grade Skill: Cataclysm"

...to summon a two circled ring, out of which rolled out boulders composed completely of Cosmic Energy.

*Bam* *Bang* *Slam*

The impact sounds continued to ring out.

Marla grinned,

"Nice. But leave some for me"

Amelia smiled at her as the assailants who had survived paused to reexamine the situation,

"No promises"