Chapter 131 - Rendezvous

"Who's going to pick me up?" Samuel asks.

He has seen enough of his circumstance to figure out that he will be released in exchange for whatever Red has demanded of his family.

"Dominic Little." Red reveals in dismissal.

"…" Samuel's eyes go wide.

Of all the people, he was not expecting his great grandfather, who he has not seen in years, and suspects to either be sick or even dead, to be the one who Red asked for.

"You're insane." He cannot help but utter.

"I'm not important enough to be rescued by him." He adds.

"And yet you look very hopeful." Red chuckles, seeing through what Samuel really is feeling.

Samuel is rendered speechless at getting caught.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough." Red says and points at some random direction on the horizon.

Samuel looks and sees what looks like a small ship, or a very large yacht, drawing near at top speed that the watercraft can go.

The two of them sit in silence as they wait.

A minute or two later, *vooommmm* the ship blows its horn, as if announcing its arrival.

After the ship anchors a few meters off the beach, a human figure flies out of the its deck and starts making its way over to Red and Samuel.

"Mr. Wenham…" Samuel utters in recognition as a man sporting a combat jumpsuit, carrying a wood crate draws near enough.

Even though he is a bit disappointed, he knows that the man who arrived at his rescue is one of the strongest superiori he knows. The man who looks to be his age, is actually 75 years old whose youthful looks is a benefit of the man's superioris level.

Soon enough, *thud* the newcomer drops the crate a few meters away from Red and Samuel before landing himself on top of it.

"You are not Dominic." Red says in acknowledgement.

"No. I am not. I am Darcy Wenham, Mr. Little's representative." Darcy introduces himself.

He then notices that Red is barely giving the wood crate a look, which confirms to him that Red is not after the gold he brought.

"My instructions were clear." Red says in a dismissive tone.

"Yes. They couldn't be any clearer." Darcy nods.

"However, Mr. Little is not in good health to travel long distances especially to destinations like this place." He smoothly rolls out his excuse.

"Is that so…" Red simply smiles mysteriously.

"…" Darcy immediately feels that something is wrong.

"A-anyways. Here's the gold…" Darcy stomps on the crate under his feet, making it collapse, revealing a 50x50x50 cm stack of gold bars.

"It looks way more than what I asked for." Red says.

Darcy gets apprehensive, seeing the disinterest in Red's face.

"As Mr. Little cannot come himself, we have doubled the amount that you asked for. I hope it's satisfactory." He confirms for now as he steps away from the gold bars.

"Meh." Red grunts in dismissal.

Samuel and Darcy are surprised at Red's next actions.

Red simply unchains Samuel and, "Nice doing business with you." gestures Samuel to join Darcy.

While Samuel is relieved that he is finally free, his gut is telling him that the exchange was too easy.

"You can go now." Red adds, pulling out the two men from their dazes.

"Samuel. Can you go to the ship by yourself?" Darcy asks rhetorically.

Samuel quietly and excitedly takes off the ground and flies to the ship for safety.

"I thought our business is over?" Red asks.

"I'm here to trade… for the… thing."  Darcy gets to the point immediately.

"Ah…" Red takes out a wood chip from his pocket and, "…This?", he asks.

This action immediately triggers excitement in Darcy.

"Precisely." Darcy is trying his best not to pounce on the treasure fragment.

"No." Red refuses as he pockets the thing again.

"There are three more tons of gold in the ship." Darcy reveals.

"We are already generous to pay you for something that rightfully belongs to the Little Family." He adds.

"Rightfully yours? If these babies can speak, I bet they'll disagree." Red scoffs.

"They wanted to come home, TO ME. And now they're home." He emphasizes.

"..." Darcy cannot argue with the logic.

"The Fowler family's… is it in your possession?" He can only change the subject.

"Of course… Where else could it be?" Red gives him a strange look.

"Will you really not consider a trade?" Darcy asks.

"For the second and last time. No." Red shakes his head as he walks towards the gold bars.

As soon as Red turns his back to him, Darcy immediately summons his powers. A huge cloud of silver colored sand-like substance suddenly appears, making the air around a thirty-meter radius look like it is in a thick sandstorm.

Darcy hurriedly manipulates his silver-colored sand to congeal it towards Red.

The next moment however, he feels that something is amiss. The figure he was expecting to trap suddenly disappeared from his detection.

"Ooh. Nifty." He suddenly hears Red's voice from behind him and at the same time feeling the man's presence once again with his sand particles.

He turns around immediately while sending his silver sand to the same direction. Yet again, he does not find Red however or the even man's presence.

"Titanium sand? Nice…" He hears Red's voice from behind him again and at the same time, Red's figure is in his senses once again.

"Wha-" Despite turning around, reacting much faster this time, Red's figure escapes his sight and his detection again.

This is not the first time that his detection abilities within his sand cloud became faulty. In his experience, there is only one reason why; hi opponent is moving much faster than he can control his sand.

The last opponent that managed to achieve what Red is doing currently left fear in his heart. Fearing that the same thing will happen again, he immediately ascends to the air, hoping to distance himself from his opponent.

Unfortunately for him, "Hey.", Red suddenly appears in front of him.

Before he can even react, he is already hit in the face with a strike he did not even see, and he is smacked back down to the ground.

He thanks his reflexes that he was able to cushion his fall with his sand, coming out of the short exchange unharmed except for his stinging face where Red's strike landed.

His relief is short lived however as he sees Red zoom towards him.

He manipulates his sand to act as a shield, but before the shield can even be formed, Red penetrates his thick sand like knife through paper.

Even though his eyes can catch up with Red's speed, his body cannot react fast enough and he receives a strike to the face squarely.

This time, his stomach sinks as the strike he received this time is much stronger and made his concentration slip, as evidenced by his momentary loss of control of his sand.

Before it is too late, he goes on defensive, and collects his titanium sand to himself to form a full body armor.

In just ten seconds flat, it is as if he became a three-story tall silver giant. His armor, formed from his titanium sand, follows his form and image and therefore looks just like him. Instead of a full-body armor, it is more like a humanoid robot that copies his movements.

Then left-over sand, he manipulates into a vortex around him. As he cannot see Red, with his entire body being covered in his armor, he makes use of his sand particles as radar to detect Red's presence.

Soon enough, he feels his sand particles brush against Red's figure prompting him to swing his huge arm to the direction where he detected Red.

Unfortunately, his limb fails to catch anything. While he knows that he has the strength to hurl cars to the air easily with one hand in his current form, he also knows that his speed suffered and can only move his giant body as quick as a C-Class physical superioris at best; a speed that he knows is useless against Red.

"Hey man. Why don't we stop here?" He can only ask, his giant titanium sand armor amplifying his voice.

"I admit I was wrong with what I just did. I wasn't thinking straight." He adds after feeling that Red's figure also stops moving.

"WHY SHOULD WE STOP?" Red asks in return, his own voice amplified.

"Because we won't be able to hurt each other anyway. I can't match your speed, but you also can't penetrate a meter thick titanium." Darcy reasons.

"You can't be that ignorant, right?" Red says, making Darcy apprehensive.

"You're wearing compacted titanium sand, not a titanium plate." Red adds before charging forward once again.

While Darcy knows that what Red said is true, he is still confident in his defense.

The next moment however, he is stunned by Red's next action.

He feels that Red, with what he figures are strikes, are digging away at his armor like shovel. He tries to congeal his sand back, but Red is digging in his armor much faster than he can fix it.

He cannot even try to bury Red among his sand as Red easily shakes off the sand that he sends to capture the man.

Soon enough, the darkness in his vision disappears as he sees Red's bare hand dig the last layer of his armor right before his face before, "Hello.", being greeted by Red's smiling face once again.

He takes this taunt as an opportunity to wrap Red around his armor, but before he can, *THWAK* he gets hit in the face.

A sudden bout of dizziness assaults him immediately. Along with the dizziness is a huge headache and sluggishness of his body.

It has been a long time since he has felt the feeling, but he knows that he just received a moderate concussion.

The concussion also breaks down his concentration, making his full body armor collapse in form. He can only helplessly fall to the ground along with his sand.

With his barely conscious mind, he can only look in disbelief at Red before getting buried in his own sand.