"The experiment failed? What happened?"
"I don't know. Several dozens of years ago, a group of people escaped from a human subject research center. I've seen telekinesis before and I knew they were strong, but that's all I know." Celine shook her head.
"Last question, do you know anything about the Golden Sword Throne?" Garen asked in a light tone.
"What's that?" Celine looked confused.
Garen stood up. "That's all I wanted to ask. I don't know what happened between you and that little guy and I don't care. However, if you want me to stay with you and protect you, you should at least pay me."
"I already prepared something for you." Celine sneered. She took a black scroll out of her pocket and threw it toward Garen.
Pah!
Garen carefully caught the scroll and looked at it. There were several tiny words printed on the surface of the scroll: "Essence Locking Technique."
"That's the payment."
Garen stared at her for a second, turned back, and left with the scroll. He returned to the courtyard and finished his dinner before receiving Su Lin's message.
He quickly headed to the meeting room inside the manor. Garen had promised Su Lin that he would help to fight against Duskdune Shura, so he would not leave the manor before it was done.
Most of the others had already sat down in their seats by the time Garen entered the meeting room. Yoda, the Eight-Arm Dragon King, was not here and his seat was taken by a tall slim blonde lady wearing a tight black leather suit. Garen could see that her breasts were covered by black bandages through her open collar. The lady was not wearing underwear and was quite alluring.
"Let me make an introduction. This is Miss Mayer Iriland, an international police officer, " Su Lin said after standing up. "She's here for Duskdune Shura as well."
"She's trying to track down Duskdune Shura?" Everyone in the room looked surprised. Duskdune Shura could easily escape when surrounded by many special agents, yet Mayer was trying to track him down alone. They thought that Mayer must be someone special.
The two generals, Su Lin, and Aris all stared at the lady. Her face was not that attractive, she showed absolutely no expression, and it seemed like she did not want to spend too much time with strangers.
"It seems like I'm late. I think everyone here has already heard about how strong Duskdune Shura is, so I'm not going to go over that again. Based on a telegraph I obtained from Kandivella, at the borders of the Yalu Confederation, Duskdune Shura has already arrived at the ruins of Kandivella." She gave everyone in the room a cold look.
"Everyone, as an officer of the international police, I hope you can follow my orders so we can catch Duskdune Shura together. I heard that there is someone here that can fight against Duskdune Shura one on one. Please stand up."
The others immediately began to stare at Garen. Garen scrunched his eyebrows. Although he was not happy, he still stood up.
"Try your best to slow down Duskdune Shura and create space for my people. Follow my orders when we start the mission," Mayer said in a calm tone.
"Wait," Garen stopped her, "my sole purpose is to protect my friends. I don't care about other things."
"Please notice that I am not asking. I'm giving you an order and you have no right to disobey it." Mayer furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm an officer from the international police and I have the authority to give orders. You can sit down for now."
"Orders?" Garen sneered. "Who the hell are you?"
The two generals had bitter smiles on their face. While Su Lin and Aris sat by the side, they also did not know how to deal with such a situation. Su Lin was trying to ask Garen to calm down by signaling with his eyes.
Mayer's expression did not change and it seemed like she had already expected a situation like this.
"Mr. Garen." She took out a pile of information sheets and put them down on the table.
"These are the records of the murders you have committed since you debuted. You killed about 35 people, directly or indirectly. You can choose not to follow my order. and I'm willing to shoot you to death for all the murders you committed.
"Are you threatening me?" Garen narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not. Actually, I'm giving you a chance." Mayer stared at Garen calmly. "Follow my order or die. Your choice."
"I choose to kill you!" Garen grinned and pulled the door off the wall.
BOOM!
The door was about two meters tall and it flew toward Mayer while spinning like a fan blade. Garen's aim was accurate and the door did not hit anyone else.
CRACK!
Mayer used a high kick and easily smashed apart the entire door. She quickly turned and did a side front snap kick toward Garen's head.
Her long leg drew an arc in the air and a silver blade popped out from the bottom of her high heel. She aimed at Garen's temple.
Strangely, Mayer's side front snap kick was vibrating intensely, as if she could change the direction of the kick at any time she wanted.
Su Lin held Aris's arm and retreated with her. He knew how strong Miss Mayer and Garen were. Although Su Lin was a great Martial Artist himself, he still did not want to get involved in this.
BAM!
Garen hit Mayer's dagger with his palm. The dagger broke and pierced the ceiling.
BAM BAM BAM BAM!!
The two kept trading hits, with Mayer using an array of different kicks with her slim legs. Garen blocked most of her attacks but was still hit in the chest several times. Mayer was much faster than him.
They already left the meeting room and the fight had moved into the hallway. The guards did not know what to do and decided to stay away from the two combatants.
"Axe Kick!" Mayer yelled as she raised one of her legs high into the air and kicked down vertically as quick as lightning.
BANG!
"Naive!" Garen grinned, grabbed her leg, and swung her toward the wall.
*BOOM*
Garen suddenly stopped moving and it was almost like time had paused.
He grabbed Mayer's right leg and was about to smash her against the wall.
Mayer held onto a wall lamp tightly with her left leg still planted on the ground. Her face turned pale and she bit her bottom lip hard, but there was still no expression on her face. Mayer was breathing heavily and she had not expected Garen to be so strong.
Garen looked at a head-sized hole in the wall beside him as dust sprinkled down to the ground.
"Old man, what the hell?" He looked at the other end of the hallway.
Yoda, the Eight-Armed Dragon King, wielded a black heavy sniper rifle in his hand and he was aiming at Garen. Yoda's face flushed and he looked furious.
"Let Mayer go. I don't care about the others, but I will f*cking kill you if do anything to her! Don't even try!"
Garen gave Yoda a cold stare. "You really want to die."
A strong aura spread through the hallway as Garen's body started expanding. At this distance, he was sure he could kill them both after taking one hit from Yoda.
"Go away Yoda! I don't want you to help me!" Mayer yelled. It seemed like she was not appreciative of Yoda's support.
"Yoda! Garen! Stop. For the God's sake," Su Lin said suddenly. "Miss Mayer, it's a misunderstanding. Let's calm down. We should work together to fight against Duskdune Shura."
"Alright, calm down everyone." Lenny walked out of the room with her cane. "Miss. Mayer, I understand that the international police has the right to give orders, but Garen is not a part of your system and he doesn't like being ordered to do things for you. You know what, how about we let General Crohn give out orders this time? He knows the situation very well."
Garen released Mayer's right leg. He did not really want to kill her, but he simply disliked her arrogance.
The generals did not want to get involved in this fight. Yoda's presence made him want to kill Mayer and Su Lin immediately stepped in after realizing what Garen was going to do. Su Lin did not want the situation to get worse at the point.
"Cunning old prick," Garen mumbled. Mayer's leg was injured and she was having trouble walking away. She had previously given Garen a hard look the whole time while she was speaking and Garen needed to assert his dominance. Otherwise, Mayer would think he was scared.
Garen did not want to waste time anymore, so he turned back and walked out of the building.
"Garen, wait." He heard someone's voice coming from behind.
Su Lin quickly caught up and put his arm on Garen's shoulder.
"Sorry, there's nothing my father can do at the moment, so we had to let you deal with Mayer. She was always so arrogant and we needed to make sure she did not mess up our plan."
"I understand. Mayer was trying to flaunt her skills by fighting me, but she did not expect me to be so strong. Her combat skills are good and she's a Grandmaster of Combat. She must be strong since she's going after Duskdune Shura." Garen crossed his arms and laid his back against the wall by the exit. "What's her relationship with Yoda?"
"Yoda has been chasing after her for many years…" Su Lin had a bitter smile on his face, "However, Mayer doesn't like him at all. That's all I know about them. She's one of the registered Grandmasters of Combat in the federation. Her kicking techniques and tracking skills are incredible."
"Well…" Garen was speechless.
"You did very well last time and we'd be dead without you. We'll take care of Duskdune Shura later. They already learned how serious the matter was and they will send more people here. There is one more thing. I need you to go to a place with me and we will be finished after that. What do you think?" Su Lin spoke calmly.
"Sure, no problem." Garen did not hesitate.
He owed Su Lin two favors, the one for his sister and one for the time he got surrounded by the enemies on his way back. He had not yet reached the Master Level of his Body Hardening Techniques at that time and he would have taken some serious damage without Su Lin's aid. The government was pursuing him as well and the situation could have become much worse.
These were the reasons why Garen decided to stay with Su Lin first before going to the Southern Sky Holy Fist Gate to obtain the secret techniques. Garen wanted to keep his promises and Su Lin was his friend.
"Let's go. We will drive there." Su Lin patted Garen's back and walked toward the parking lot.
After several seconds, Garen saw Celine appear out of nowhere and she landed on his right shoulder.
"Get off me." He scowled.
"I'll go there too. I need you to protect me," Celine responded in a cute tone, while sitting steadily on Garen's shoulder.
"Fine. Come with us." Su Lin looked at Celine and smiled, "There is no point in hiding it anymore."