"Young master!" one of the members of the White King Tiger tribe screamed as Jefferson struggled to keep himself upright. Seeing their young master on the brink of defeat was enough to make them angry enough to attempt retaliation, but Jefferson was not going to allow anyone from his tribe to take action.
"Stand down," he ordered through gritted teeth. His tribe took his order and held their ground.
Jasper half-smiled at him. It took all of Jefferson's strength to stay on his feet. However, he once again got ready for the battle. Jefferson was now gruesomely bruised and extremely weakened. Obviously, he had been seriously hurt by Jasper's thunder attack. But anyhow, he still managed to survive Jasper's attack.
It was no surprise, really, because Jefferson was sure Jasper was not meant to kill him. Not yet. "What's your answer, Jefferson?" Jasper asked lightly.
"You know my answer!" Jefferson growled.
Jasper and Jefferson were both geniuses, and Jefferson was unwilling to accept the result of their battle. Every time the two fought, Jefferson never won once. Their first battle ended in a tie, but Jasper defeated him, although not easily, in their second battle in the land of legacy of the Massacring Holy Tiger tribe.
Jefferson even dared to summon his blood power the third time he fought Jasper, but it was still not enough to defeat him. Actually, he posed almost no threat to Jasper. It killed him to realize that while he and Jasper were both geniuses, Jasper was much more powerful than he was.
Jefferson could not live with that, and so he would fight until he erased Jasper from recent memory.
He would not let Jasper ruin his journey on the road of martial arts.
"Good. I'm impressed by your courage to face such a dangerous situation by yourself. You're not really that bad," Jasper mused.
"But just a piece of advice. The next time you decide to fight me, make sure you've made progress in your training. The gap between our talents is getting larger."
Jefferson bristled at his opponent's derision. "I will end
. The rumors are true. You are indeed an extraordinary man," one of the young men replied. "No wonder Jefferson came to us," the other added with a sigh. "I'm Killer No. 4, and this is Killer No. 3."
Jasper's eyed widened.
He marveled at the fact that he was standing in the presence of two highly trained and exceedingly talented killers.
"If Jefferson allied with you, why didn't you help him?" Jasper asked.
"Jefferson is a joke, and we don't ally with jokes. He couldn't even get past your defenses," said Killer No. 4.
"Jefferson and the others can enter the Holy Herbal Garden because of you. It's clear now," Jasper murmured.
"Did you think he had the ability to enter the Holy Herbal Garden himself?" Killer No. 3 smiled.
Jasper watched the members of the White King Tiger tribe fume with rage over his conversation with the two killers, but they stood back as if still expecting the assassins to kill Jasper and save Jefferson.
...
"I've heard that the top ten killers of Endless Shadow are all extraordinary genius killers. I want to see for myself," Jasper said coolly. Picking a fight with Killer No.3 and Killer No. 4 of the Endless Shadow was a death wish, but Jasper was willing to push his luck.
They were the only ones absolutely qualified to be his real opponents, and he could not wait to put their deadly energy to the test.