Chapter 488 A Beast Underneath

Isaac gave off the vibe that his mind was elsewhere at the moment. Keng's question had taken him somewhere else and Keng didn't push it. The on-lookers, mostly healers, all mumbled amongst themselves about Keng and Isaac.

"Isn't that Fan'r's eldest?" A healer asked another.

"Yes! Isaac Wang! The rarest among the Human hybrids!" Another replied.

"Keng certainly didn't stand a chance against him. A four tailed Human hybrid versus a Three-tailed Fox Spirit?" Another healer stated.

"Y'know how Human hybrids are!" Another spoke. "They're powerful if they're given the opportunity to cultivate their power!"

"To think it's one of the rares too!"

"I think Keng has potential to climb farther than Isaac can, though."

"Bah, you're crazy! If Isaac attains immortality, he will be at the peak of the hybrids!"

"Keng." Gorrum's voice snapped him out of his gossipy ears. He turned and looked at Gorrum, leaving Isaac to be swarmed by his siblings. "Are you doing alright? How was the fight?"

"I think I lack a lot of things." Keng answered."Isaac is well trained in spear and glaive combat. He uses that to his advantage."

"Elaborate."

"Well," Keng thought aloud. "He used the length of the spear and glaive to his advantage. I had daggers, so I was immediately in a disadvantage. All he had to do was overpower me with his hits and he did just that."

"What was your plan in that fight? You didn't seem to do much. You were observing too much." Gorrum pointed out. He had spent almost two months with the young boy and knew Keng was innately gifted at combat, but the boy spent a lot of time staring off into space. He was always looking at things from afar.

"Mmm, I just wanted to see what the deal was about him, that's all." Keng replied. Gorrum raised his eyebrows.

"Is that so? So you didn't put your effort into fighting him?" Gorrum asked.

"Isaac, are you doing fine?" Lily asked. Isaac snapped out of his daze and looked at Lily and the others, nodding.

"I'm doing fine." Isaac replied. "Are we going to stay here longer? I know Elder Jyu'so graciously gave us a teleport scroll, but it's going to take days to get back home at this rate."

"Don't be so impatient." Bright told him. "We just got here. It's not like you have anywhere to be. You're off for a month, right? Rest!" Bright pushed his brother on the shoulder and Isaac took a step back. Bright chuckled as Isaac's eyes went to Keng.

"What's wrong? Not satisfied?" Jacob asked. He popped up like a ghost next to him. Isaac didn't even see him. Jacob followed his older brother's eyes to Keng and looked back at him. "You seem not all here. What's up?"

"Hm?" Isaac looked at Jacob. "What do you mean? I'm fine."

"You're lying." Jacob pointed at Isaac. "I know you. Something's on your mind. What is it?" Isaac's eyes went back to Keng. Gorrum seemed to be scolding Keng about something.

"I get Lily has to go with him because the gods degreed it, but there's something about him I can't put my finger on." Isaac finally spoke what was on his mind. "He's being compared to us like we're different. He isn't so different from us."

"That's it?" Jacob asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Isaac elbowed Jacob. "You know about this?" Jacob looked at Keng and nodded.

"I've met his Vessel - his partner. He's Human and a Fox Spirit." Jacob told Isaac. Keng looked down as Gorrum continued to yell at him about not taking the match seriously.

"Oh?"

"Mmm." Jacob nodded. "Keng is the manifestation of the Fox Spirit seed planted within Lee Seng, yet he doesn't radiate Fox Spirit energy at all. He just feels human to me. It was only in battle that day the Ire came, I noticed how feral he was. Did you feel that earlier?"

"When he attacked me for the first time." Isaac nodded. "And when he blocked my attack. Did you feel that?"

"Of course I felt it. I saw it plain as day. I'm pretty sure Sir Gorrum and anyone with experience knows." Jacob replied.

"Come on, Keng. This was a perfect time to go all out. You could've taken this opportunity to know where you need to grow as a fighter!" Gorrum patted Keng on the shoulder.

"Well, I didn't want to–" Keng began to defend himself. Gorrum raised his hand, cutting him off.

"And don't even say you didn't want to go all out. I saw what you did. Anyone with experience knows what advanced magic you pulled off!" Gorrum folded his arms together, pulling Keng's attention.

"What's that?" Keng asked.

"You know you're very different from everyone right?"

Keng nodded. Gorrum stuck two fingers out.

"There were two instances where you showed your true colors. One, when you finally took the initiative to fight back. Two, when you caught the spear." Keng's eyes grew wide. "Haha, you didn't even know? You're an interesting kid. You let the Fox out and even managed to spook some of the Healers. You even spooked Isaac, himself!"

"What? I scared him?!?" Keng asked. Gorrum bellowed a hardy laugh, nodding. Keng looked over at Isaac, who seemed to have heard him. He turned away as Jacob laughed, patting Isaac. "But how?!? I was just trying to match his energy."

"You know they say Human hybrids are the ones with the most and least potential amongst the hybrids?" Gorrum told Keng like it was a comment he should have known. "Well, there are rare cases where a Human hybrid gains tails like Isaac. People fear them because they could attain so much power.

"But with you, you're different. The first Fox Spirit who bonded with a Biohuman. Your bond with Lee Seng is so strong you don't smell or even register Energy-wise as a Fox but a Biohuman. That moment you caught the spear and didn't die to his move, he felt threatened and almost ended it. That's why I called it quits."

"Ahh." Keng nodded. His eyes went over to Isaac. The siblings seemed to be talking about something. Lily noticed this and broke away. She wandered over.

"You did pretty well against my brother." Lily complimented him. Keng's eyes didn't seem to go to her. It kept on Isaac. "If you know what you did now, go say something. He didn't expect that from you, that's all. He feels guilty he almost killed you twice."

"He feels guilty?"

"Mmmhm. His hands were tied the moment you said the gods wanted me to go with you. I told him the day after and he accepted it with ease."

"Then why was he so shifty?" Keng asked. Lily laughed.

"Cause he knows he's stupid." Lily replied.

"Just go apologize for the way you were acting when you got drunk." Jacob motioned at Keng to Isaac. "He doesn't know you changed your mind. You have to say something to him for him to understand. He's not a mind reader."

"He can telepathically speak to us but he can't rest your mind if you don't let him." Winn commented.

"You cheeky little bastard." Jacob elbowed Winn. Winn let out an ugly gremlin laugh as he pulled away from Jacob.

"He'll understand." Bright reassured Isaac. "Dude's hardy. He saved the village even though he didn't have to. He has bigger fish to fry anyways."

"Mmm. I guess." Isaac slowly spun around. Keng noticed this and made his way over. The panic in Isaac grew apparent. He wanted to retreat when Bright and Jacob shoved him over.

"H-hey!" Isaac shouted, turning. Bright, Winn, and Jacob motioned for Isaac to get it over with and spun around.

"Isaac." Keng initiated first. Isaac gulped and turned his attention to Keng. "I, uh…"

"Sorry." Isaac and Keng both apologized at once.

"What is this?" Winn whispered. "One of Mom's stories?"

"Shut up, Winn!" Bright jabbed his brother in the side.

"Huh?" Isaac and Keng spoke in unison. Keng smiled and chuckled.

"You go first." Keng motioned.

"Oh well… Uh, I'm sorry about earlier. You caught me by surprise and instinct took over. If Sir Gorrum hadn't called a stop, I would've…" Isaac made a noise as he motioned with his hands, Keng's eyes getting popped off by a spear.

"Oh." Keng nodded. "Yeah, I didn't even know I could scare people like that. Gorrum told me I spooked you and some others by doing that… I honestly don't know the difference so sorry."

"And about my sister… She can go with you. I was drunk when I said that cause I didn't believe you. I didn't think my baby sister was already on her way to being needed in the world… Someone like her could be so important and needed. Take care of her for me, 'kay?" Isaac stuck his hand out. His shy and offsetting demeanor switched back to warm and confident.

"Promise." Keng shook Isaac's hand. The two pulled away.

"So, did you figure out how your Soul Gate's are?" Isaac asked.

"Not really." Keng shook his head. "Everything feels so normal. How is it supposed to feel?"