Yamo materialized a cloud that quickly changed into her white Quarterstaff.

“That technique,” The Ox King had a pensive look. I didn’t know how he accomplished such a thing with the kind of face he had. It baffled me.”I see. He is your mate, right? If I remember correctly, females from the Yan clan only have a mate when they are beaten in a mate duel, agreed by both parties,” The Ox King narrowed his use, “Weird, I thought only Yan clan members could issue that kind of challenge. Outsiders to the clan aren’t allowed to..”

I was looking at Yamo as the Ox King was talking. I noticed that she was getting as red as a tomato the more the Ox King talked.

“Unless,” The Ox King stopped. He suddenly smiled and started to laugh uncontrollably.

Yamo was redder than a tomato, smoke coming from her ear from embarrassment. I knew it wasn’t from anger because her Ki didn’t spike. She would always lose control of her Ki when she was angry. I know from experience.

“So it was you.” The Ox king kept on laughing. “I was told about some females from the Yan clan that would always pester Brol into making one of them his mate. He deserved it if you asked me.” The Ox King started to calm down. “Tire of them, he decided to issue a challenge so that they would leave him alone. They agreed to the challenge as long as the winner of the challenge could become his mate. The challenge involved beating every man of their generation and a 100 men from out of the clan. They couldn’t be too weak. If the male from the clan they challenged won. then they become battle partners and mates. Moreover, if the winner was an outsider, the same applied, with the exception they can be challenged by any male of the Yan clan, but Brol himself, for the hand of the beaten female. The outsider must fight any males from the Yan clan that issues a challenge. Brol thought that those females without a name of their own or battle partner would be paired up with males from within the clan because he thought none of them would make it beyond the first part of the challenge. Only five of the Yan clan men in that generation didn’t have a name or title. Plus, none of them have a battle partner yet. They wanted to make a name for themselves first, like some of their elders, to be able to choose a talented battle partner.” He resumed his laughter.

Yamo didn’t want to let him finish and attack him. The Ox King easily blocked her attacks and counter-attacked. Yamo kept going as if she didn’t feel any of the blows that landed on her.

“Why are you interrupting? You should be overjoyed that I am wasting time talking. Unless..” The Ox King looked my way. “You didn’t tell him, did you?” He smiled. “You must have told him some half-ass story while trying to kill him, didn’t you? Typical of a member of the Yan clan.” Yamo attacked with even more gusto, receiving serious wound after serious wound from the Ox King. “More importantly, you and that boy can use that man’s martial arts. Yeah, the boy’s clothes even took the form of a cloud, just like one of the annoying techniques that man used.” Yamo separated her Quarterstaff in two. The Ox King started laughing again.

“Today is your lucky day, kids!” The Ox King yelled and disappeared with Yamo.

Ten seconds and some thunder-like sounds later, Yamo appeared lying beside me. she was in the same near-death condition I was in. The Ox King showed up, standing up right where our feet were. The lightning that was circulation throughout his body disappeared. His eyes turned from lightning white to brown and his horn stopped shining.

“Tell me, kid. Are you looking for the little girl that we kidnaped a while back?” The Ox King asked me.

“Yes,” I responded, reasoning that there was no reason to hide it. I was thinking about asking him where she was at after I won the fight, somehow.

“So you just came to my domain and provoked me in order to fight me, hoping you might have a chance against me, win somehow and then question me about her whereabouts, right?” He asked.

I nodded. ‘Was that so obvious?’ I thought.

“Well, thanks to our little game here, which forced me to use my incomplete technique, the remnants of the crown spell put on me by Hegar has gone away. If that old man hadn’t accidentally broken a piece of my crown, allowing me to regain some of my reason, I would still be under Hegar’s control,” The Ox King massaged the underside of his ox jaw. “With the spell gone, Hegar will think I died like the other two because he thinks his spell can only be undone by dying. I will be able to take my people back to the demon world as the others did, except I and Brol.”

‘I didn’t expect things to turn out like this. Yeah, I must admit I didn’t think this through, like, at all. ‘ I thought. ‘I should learn from this mistake of mine.’ I looked at Yamo.

‘Yamo, would you mind telling me what he meant when he said that I was your mate?’ I told Yamo using my Mind’s Eye. She looked away and ignored me. ‘Yaaamooo,’ I dragged out her name. Her body twitched. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll have a lot of time alone because I think the Ox King won’t kill us. I’ll use that time wisely.’ This is another lesson for me; don’t take things at face value. There is always something else at play. The destruction of Planet Vegeta is an example of this. Frieza destroyed it because of an order form the god of destruction and the message about a Super Saiyan left by his ancestor. It wasn’t just because he felt like doing it.

“I’ll explain to you how things are,” The Ox King caught my attention. “First, about your partner and Brol.” He pointed at Yamo. “She went beyond what Brol expected. As I said before, he didn’t think that any of the females would be able to even come close to completing his challenge. This young one surprised him. Making him think that he made the challenge a little too easy. When the news about her defeat reached him, he was relieved. Just so you know, Brol is the only one from the Yan clan with a humanoid form.

Not much is known about Brol. I suspect that he never was under Hegar’s spell. Brol would only listen to him when there was someone for him to fight. Heck, I’m pretty sure that the only reason he is here is to fight Hegar once he recovers. You see, Brol only thinks about fighting. He was Hegar’s secret weapon before he lost his power to a curse. He was the one that made it possible for Hegar to control us. He defeated every single one of us and took the Monkey King’s throne just because he felt like it. Moreover, I don’t even think that he shares much with the Yan clan now that I look at your companion, boy.” He looked at Yamo again.

“Brol’s humanoid form is closer to a monkey’s while your companion’s looks more human, which is weird.” Stopped and breathed. “look at me for example. “The only reason I’m closer to a human than any of my people is because my mother was human, making half-human. Moreover, your mate is the only Yan clan member ever to be able to take a humanoid form from what I could gather.”

‘Why do I have a really bad feeling about this Brol person, which should be the current Monkey King.’ I frowned.

***

In a castle here hidden inside a forest. Noise akin to of training could be heard from within.

A special training room.

An old man purple man sat on a fanciful adorned chair while looking at a dark skin girl of about eight years old train. She was wearing white training clothes while she attacked some moving wooden dolls. She moved with a finesse that resembled a dance, one as deadly as a blade. Her hands shining bright blue, which left a fading trail of blue light behind.

The old man smiled in a way that would give anyone shivers.

‘Good, she has improved enough these last few months. Her strength is now comparable with that wounded ox.’ The purple man thought. ‘Speaking of the devil, it looks like he has been killed. Must have been the young boy the girl talked about and that damnable Ras.’ His eyes sharpened. ‘So that old bastard survived.’ He laughed, sinisterly. ‘Doesn’t matter. I am closer to my goal than ever before, thanks to this little lamb here.’

The girl destroyed all of the dolls and screamed, overjoyed.

“Gramps, Gramps Ras, I did it.” Yu hugged the purple man. Her eyes had a shining purple light on them.

“Well done, little one. Well done.” The purple man patted Yu’s head. “You should go get some rest.”

“Gramps, when is Yamo coming back?” Yu asked.

‘This girl.’ The purple man growled inside. “Soon, Yu. Remember, how quickly he can finish what I tasked him to do, depends all on him.” He replied. “Do you fancy him that? You ask me the same question every two days.”

“It isn’t like that!” Yu blushed and ran away.

“soon, everything will fall into place,” The purple man said. “Maybe I should send something to entertain them.” He laughed loudly.