A bit of a distance away from the Adventure's guild, Kevin, Alex, and Sophie stopped in their tracks turning around to look at Windy and Grayzer. Both of the FireStride siblings looked at each other knowing what was going to happen next.
"Is there a problem, Young Masters?" Grayzer asked feigning confusion.
"Don't play dumb," Kevin said holding his hand out towards Grayzer beckoning his fingers toward himself, "Give them here!"
Grayzer sighed and reluctantly placed the two gold coins in Kevin's hands.
'I knew it was too good to be true.' Grayzer thought to himself regretfully as he watched Kevin move in front of Windy.
Windy clutched her hands around the gold coins that remained in her possession as Kevin held his hand out waiting for her to give him the coins.
"Y-young master, these coins were rightfully earned by my brother and I." Windy said looking at the ground not daring to lock eyes with Kevin.
"Excuse me?" Kevin responded with anger in his tone. "I dare you to say that again."
Windy did not know why she was suddenly talking back to Kevin. She wouldn't have dared to do this before. Even Grayzer looked at Windy with shock.
'What in the world are you doing?!' Grayzer thought to himself as he watched Windy.
"Atlas personally gave us these coins, so the 5 percent earnings isn't in effect." Windy said looking up and locking eyes with Kevin once she finished speaking. Unfortunately, for Windy that was a mistake and Windy learned the hard way.
SMACK!
The sound of the back of Kevin's hand meeting Windy's cheek echoed through the road they were on. Individuals passing by glanced and ignored the altercation occurring. These people probably would've stepped in and done something if they were all of the FireStride branch. However, once they saw that the person who made the slap was a direct member of the Blaze clan there wasn't much they could do.
Windy raised her hand to touch her stinging cheek with wide eyes. Her shock of the slap morphed into anger.
Not wanting things to escalate beyond control Grayzer quickly grabbed Windy by her martial robe and whispered in her ear seriously,
"Control yourself," Grayzer released his wind mana and enveloped Windy in it causing a calm breeze to blow around her. The anger plaguing her mind disappeared like water thrown to a flame.
Windy released a breathe and relaxed once her brother used the wind skill "Calm Zepher".
Taking the opportunity in her relaxed state, Grayzer opened Windy's hands holding onto the coins, took them out her hands, and held them out for Kevin to take.
"Haha apologies about her, young master; I don't know what came over her. It won't happen again." Grayzer nervously laughed scratching the back of his head with his left hand.
"Hmph!" Kevin snorted out and snatched the coins from Grayzer's hand. "That boy made you forget your place." Kevin said looking at Windy before turning back around. "There won't be a next time."
During the altercation, Alex paid it no mind and took out his guild card, held between his index and middle finger, infusing it with his mana and scrolling to the contact section and selecting a name causing his orange guild card to pulse in intervals in an orange glow.
A couple pulses later and it stopped and glowed slightly brighter signifying that it connected. He brought the guild card up touching it to his forehead.
{Telepathic Connection made}
'HellHound Zoron, I need you to keep watch on someone and find out what you can about them.' Alex thought sending his thoughts to his personal Hell Hound.
These individuals had characteristics of a Blaze, whether it be the flaming look of their hair or their sunset orange eyes that burn with flames.
Hell Hound's served as special combat butlers or maids for those of the royal bloodlines. To have that edge of protection Hell Hounds must be 1 rank higher then their Royal master and are connected through a mana link in a form of a flaming red tattoo on both the Hell Hounds and the royal Blaze's body. If any sense of trouble comes through or death is close the Hell Hound will exchange places with their owner.
'Yes, young master.' Zoron's distorted voice said into Alex's mind
'He is a rather strange person. I'm sending over his contact info; memorize his mana signature as soon as possible.'
Alex thought as he scrolled to Atlas's name and sent over his contact info to Hell Hound Zoron.
'He calls himself Atlas Blaze. Yet isn't even close to looking like a Blaze in appearance, so he shouldn't be hard to miss. He also seems to have a strange ability to negate intent when he locks eyes with you. It's as if he removes your memory of anything. He can be dangerous if not careful.'
'Received.' Zoron's distorted voice replied back once he got Atlas's contact info.
Alex glances at the FireStride siblings in his peripheral, 'Windy and Grayzer seem to know more, but are likely keeping that hidden. It's unclear if he did something to their minds. I'll keep a close eye on them myself.' Alex squinted his eyes as he finished his thought.
'Anyways,' Alex sighs closing his eyes for a second before opening them again 'If he is dangerous get rid of him, but if you find anything else interesting report to me or my father immediately.'
'Understood, Young Master.' Zoron answered before the telepathic line was cut off. Alex returned his guild card back to his space ring and faced his siblings as well as the FireStride siblings.
"Let's get this bounty over with." Alex nonchalantly says as he leads the way to exit the clan walls and enter the Blazing Phoenix Forest.
Close by in an alley way not to far off from Alex and the group stood a young male in a hooded black cloak. Under the hood, the individual wore a black hound mask that covered the upper half of their face with red glowing specks like embers on burnt wood. Behind the mask, sunset orange eyes burned like raging fire.
On his side, he wore three katanas with blades made from the teeth of an actual hell hound beast.
Zoron took the hood off revealing buzz cut black hair and removed the black hound mask from his face.
"Someone who calls themselves a Blaze? Interesting." Zoron smirks looking at his guild card and using a special Hell Hound technique known as "Hell Stalker ". A high level technique thought to every Hell Hound member.
Focusing on Atlas's name a small scent started to be detected.
To use this technique, one will start by learning it by having to memorize a mana signature of someone in front of them, and each time try to locate them the farther they get.
Eventually, the mana signature will get smaller and smaller until just a small sliver remains that is undetectable. Once a "scent" is a caught they immediately send out their perception to locate the individual in question. And doing this process, Zoron was able to locate Atlas's location in a split second.
"Found you, Atlas Blaze." Zoron grinned removing his cloak and Hound mask placing them in his space ring. All that remained on his body was black harem pants, ninja tabi shoes, and a black tight muscle shirt.
Walking out from the alley way he headed in the directions that lead to the Adventure's guild. Once he arrived he didn't go in but decided to wait by the door. Zoron used his perception to view all that was happening inside focusing on Atlas who was selecting his bounty.
'This is the one pretending to be a Blaze? He seems younger than Young Master Kevin and Sophie.' Zoron thought leaning on the wall with his arms crossed with his eyes closed.
'Oh,' Zoron raised an eyebrow before he smirked 'I can probably do something with this.'
Within the building Zoron perceived a group of individuals walking away from the supplier's desk and watched how the leader of the group purposely bumped into Atlas causing his lackeys to laugh.
When the leader and lackeys walked through the door Zoron opened his eyes.
"Hey!" Zoron called out towards the group causing the leader to turn towards him with a frown on his face.
"What do you want?" The leader answered towards Zoron who walked towards him placing his right hand to rest on one of his Katanas.
Seeing this action caused the leader to squint his eyes and released his killing intent to threaten Zoron.
"Reeelaxxx," Zoron began using his free hand in a calm down motion. "If I wanted to kill you, you and your cohort would've been dead."
Zoron squinted his eyes released his own killing intent which overpowered the leaders and caused not only him but his subordinates to freeze on the spot. It was only a brief moment and they already looked like they were going to piss their pants.
"Anyways, that boy you ran into earlier. You have a problem with him?" Zoron asked the leader who realized the flaming tattoo on Zoro's right shoulder and gulped.
"N-not really, the attendant just happened to yell out that he was a Quadra mage and had the surname Blaze. He didn't seem like he had any relation with the Blaze clan as he just recently joined the guild."
Zoron lets out an impressed whistle when he learned of the info of Atlas being a Quadra mage.
'So he has affinities for three other elements? His mana signature only shows that he awakened the fire element. If he can awaken the other elements he'd be a force to be reckon with…if he survives of course.'
Zoron thought releasing a small smirk.
"You're right. He doesn't have any relation to the Blaze clan. That's why I have a job for you."
"Job?" The leader wondered while raising an eyebrow.
"I want you to kill him. Can you do it?" Zoron asked casually moving the hilt of one of his Katanas on his hip up and down.
"You want me to kill the kid?" The leader asked surprised.
"Yeah," Zoron answered "For three Gold coins. How does that sound?"
The leader started to grin from ear to ear. That was going to be the easiest 3 gold coins he ever makes, and it's to kill a young kid.
"Alright," The leader answered and Zoro nodded his head.
"Good, take care of it at night time. It appears your target just accepted an E rank bounty for Moonlit Moth Collection. That would be your chance." Zoron said overhearing Atlas conversing with the supply attendant.
Zoron flicked over a gold coin to the leader and added "that's your down payment for the job. You'll get the rest once it's done. You'll meet me back here for the rest of your payment."
The leader nodded his head in understanding which initiated Zoron to disappear from sight as he disintegrated into flame embers. He reappeared in an alley way where he can still sense Atlas to keep an eye on him with his perception.
The leader turned to a member of his group, an individual around the height of a child with 2 buck teeth and a bit chubby.
"Rat scout, you'll stay behind and keep tabs on him. You'll inform us what you know before he heads for his bounty." The leader says to which Rat Scout nodded.
"And you, you already know what to do Damsel." The leader said to a feminine figure wearing a hooded cloak which only revealed the bottom half of her face.
"Mohhh," the hooded figure stomped her right foot causing her bust to jiggle. "It's always the same role Tremor."
The other 3 members of the group including Tremor and rat scout faces turned a bit pink witnessing the jiggle physics of her chest.
"Ahem," Tremor coughed into his right hand shaped into a fist. "Good, the rest of us will be camping in the vicinity where that fake Blaze would be for his bounty."
Tremor and the others headed in the direction to the flaming forest while Rat scout stayed behind to gather info.
Trevor smiled with a face of pleasure slowly etching on his face 'I'm going to enjoy killing that fake Blaze.'