In the twilight of dusk, which was like the perfect state between day and night, not quite dark and not quite daylight. A high yellow flame was still licking and spitting in the trees to the left of the main road, burning timber collapsed amidst the intense heat of the inferno. The scent of burnt meat wafted through the air like a jovial family picnic, Qin LI and Lou Tai stopped ten meters in front of Hartley forming a triangular formation.

The scar faced man appeared in the middle of the road with another 3rd layer xiantian to his left. He casually took slow steps towards the trio from the Lou clan. He had a angry anxious sneer on his face,

"You don't know what you've gotten yourselves into" he said with a shout "now you can come back with me willingly or die here, then my friend here will capture those merchants"

Hartley responded without thought "that's not going to happen. Who are you and what do you want?"

"Who I am doesn't matter and I want to complete my mission which means none of you can leave, now come with me, I won't ask again." Scowled the man.

Hartley had no time for deluded people, the man was outnumbered and still acting like he had the upper hand, again the whistle blew twice and Lou Tai unleashed another fireball.

"Fools! not one of you shall leave here with an intact body!" said the angry scar faced man, his skin turned the color of the dirt he was standing on, his right foot stomped down and a brown earth wall two meters wide and five meters high quickly rose up in front of him, the fireball thundered into the earth wall with a loud explosion and a flash of light. The earth wall shook but stood firm, it then silkily fell back to the floor like sand through a hour glass and disappeared.

Hartley moved forward leaving a blurred blue line and his robes flapping behind him.

The expert to the left of the scar face man made a move towards Qin Li, Qin Li slashed out his battle axe with an overhead strike sending a lightning quick green wind blade slicing at the man as he retreated a couple steps.

Lou Tai quickly engaged the scar face man with his long sword, his body with an armor of yellow fire from waist to neck. The scar face man retrieved a huge hammer and took up his battle stance, he held the handle of the hammer with his right hand over his left hand as the hammer leaned diagonally in front of his right shoulder, Lou Tai casted a fireball and rushed in behind it...

The man attacking Qin Li was a 3rd layer water element xiantian, he effortlessly sidestepped the wind blade, his robes fluttered as he advanced pass the residual gusts of wind, his moves flowed like liquid as he feinted right then left and attacked from the right crouched with a low upward strike from his short sword.

Qin Li had reacted to the opponents prior feints so he was off balance stumbling backwards facing the short sword strike, he pushed his speed to the limit, his axe glowed green as he slammed down his axe diagonally from high-right to low-left to intercept the smooth strike. As soon as the axe made contact with the short sword, the man rotated his sword in a quick circle, with a clang the axe was parried to the side leaving Qin Li wide open, the man then followed with a smooth and quick left handed fist glowing bright white into the chest of Qin Li, sending him tumbling across the dirt as he cried out.

Qin Li flew pass Hartley who was making his forward towards the scar face man and struck up a cloud of dust as he wailed by, tumbling and rolling. Hartley's primary target was the scar face man but now he had to switch targets because Qin Li was obviously over matched....

Qin Li came to a stop behind Hartley, he then struggled to one knee and shook his head to shake off the pain, his left shoulder was dislocated, he punched it with his right fist with a loud grunt through his nostrils, his shoulder popped back into place with a bone wrenching sound,the pain shot through him like a bolt of lightning. Qin Li screamed through clenched teeth as sweat washed over his face. He needed both hands to rejoin the fight, his battle axe was not a one handed weapon. He got up and fought through a dizzy spell and stumbled around disoriented for a few seconds before regaining clarity.

A deafening explosion sounded out as the hammer of the scar face man dug a deep pit into the road sending fist sized pieces of clay out like lethal munitions, Lou Tai was struck on his armor in several places but the clay just melted away without doing much harm. Earth elementals usually did not have high attack power but this guy was breaking the conventional rules. The only saving grace for Lou Tai was that the man's movement speed and attack speed weren't exceptional and could be manged if he was careful.

Lou Tai played a game of cat and mouse as he danced in and out of the hammer's range trying to get in his own attacks, the problem was, the man had impeccable defense. An earth wall would stop all fireballs and the man's skin had transformed into some kind of earthen armor.

Hartley changed direction and intercepted the water elemental expert moving towards Qin Li, he stepped forward his blue eyes calm and unworried. In a single smooth motion he lashed out his red short sword in his left hand. This time both of Hartley's hands had a blue aura writhing and roiling from his shoulders to the tip of his swords like a serpent oscillating in a clockwise direction.

Hartley had seen the first exchange between this expert and Qin Li, he knew the opponent was very versed in using soft to control hard, he could use the force of his opponents strike and guide the opponent's weapon where it would leave the opponent the most vulnerable. Hartley's left blade stabbed forward, the water elemental expert took a side on stance and tried to rotate his sword out to the left on contact...

When the swords clashed it was like a missile had detonated on the mans short sword, a blue glow exploded into the dusk air exposing both fighter's silhouette as sparks flew out from both swords, the man stumbled back, his sword arm numb from shoulder to fingers, not giving him time to even breathe Hartley executed a quick overhead strike with his right handed silver sword in a quick follow up while the man was stumbling back, the expert pushed up his sword and tried to parry the strike out to the side again.

This time as soon as the swords made contact Hartley lowered his hips and rotated his sword in a circle faster than the opponent, then pushed his sword upwards high and to the right with maximum strength, the short sword flew out of the opponents hand and disappeared into the forest. Hartley then took a step and a half to the left circling around as the wide eyed man was off balance and executed his typhoon kick, his right leg lashed out leaving blurry blue shadow images as it made crunching-contact with the man's back sending him flying forward screaming in horrible pain from a broken back and headed in the direction that Qin Li was...

Qin Li had just shaken the rust out of his head, his confidence was taken down a notch in one exchange with the elegant water element expert. He clasped his hands around his axe and headed back towards the action...his eyes then widened with glee as if a pie just fell out of the sky..The man that kicked his ass a few minutes ago was screaming in pain and flying towards him absolutely defenseless, Qin Li gripped his axe, it glowed bright green and he chopped out as the man was about to fly pass, The man screams abruptly stopped as his top half was separated from the bottom, both halves flew pass Qin LI leaving a trail of blood, inner organs and entrails scattered about the main road.

Qin Li muttered under his breath, "nothing like an easy kill to get your confidence back up, now time for that other bastard." He went to join Hartley and Lou Tai...

BOOM! WACK! KABOOM! The scar face man's hammer turned anything solid it came it to contact with to splinters, dust and pebbles..The problem was he was too slow and his strikes too predictable, as the scar face man swung at Lou Tai, Hartley popped up behind him like a phantom and struck out a powerful strike at his back with 20x gravity applied to his silver sword, BOOM! the earth wall appeared again guarding the man's back but it was shattered, the silver sword went onto slash against his back launching him rolling on the floor, Lou Tai and Qin Li quickly surrounded him and got in their attacks but they couldn't break through the man's stone skin.

The scar face man got up with a look incredulity on his face, there was blood running down his back, his robe was shredded where the strike had landed, it had been a long time since someone had broken through both his earth wall and stone skin in one strike, not since he was in the third layer and sparring with his master. Now he turned to face Hartley giving his back to the other two, slowly backing away disregarding the two at his back as sweat was dripping down his face, a genuine fear could be seen in his expression.

He made an executive decision there and then, even though this mission was important, it could never be as important as his life, he had to preserve his life and with this young man in front of him, it would be matter of time before the three opponents wore him down and executed him in the streets like some common criminal.

Hartley was surprised, that strike would have turned a boulder 20 meters high into fine powder, this guy is tough thought Hartley, The man then turned into sand and fell to the ground and disappeared, he materialized a hundred meters in the direction of the Cosmos region. Lou Tai and Qin Li dashed after the man and Hartley shouted "stop, let him go."

They both stopped with unwilling looks, "its been a long mission, lets not chase him back to the Cosmos region." Technically Lou Tai was in charge and he could have pulled rank, but he turned back and so did Qin Li. With the man obviously reluctant to battle any more, Hartley led the group to catch up to the merchants and headed towards the Waltham province..

The scar face man too had a unwilling look on his face, how was he going to explain that he was repelled by the youngsters and lost two experts. He headed back in the direction of the Cosmos region soon after...