Jealousy

"Oh it's baldy!" Reiji shouts as he recognizes one of the five, taunting him.

"Who are you calling baldy, brat?" The bald adventurer barks back, stepping forward.

Seeing the adventurers, Souma speaks up, his voice ice cold. “What do you want?”

“Oh we’re just here to congratulate the brand new gold rank party. This doesn’t concern you Orphans.” The tallest one with a scar running down the side of his face spat out those words, emphasizing the word Orphans. His eyes filled with hatred and envy, his hands rubbing the hilt of the great axe on his back.

The whole party was like baldy, all five of them humans, wearing armor and weapons that looked too good to be used by them, their qualities outshining the user, giving off a false impression.

“Hmph. You can shove your false praises. Any idiot can tell you guys are here to pick a fight.” Reiji snorts, annoyed at the idiots infront of him.

“I see Jace was right, you are an arrogant swine.” The mage of the party answered, as he patted baldy by his side.

“Is that his name? I don’t know… he looks more like baldy than a jace.” Reiji continues taunting him.

“I’ll cut out your tongue brat!” Baldy shouts, his bald head turning the same shade as a tomato, his hands moving to the hilt of the sword on his back.

“Incase you forgot, threats only work on people who are weaker. In your case, not even a goblin would be scared of you.” Reiji snorts, laughing at the adventurers before him.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Baldy charges forward, his sword raised overhead, only to be stopped by the thick arm of the leader infront of him.

“Enough Jace!” His gaze never wanders away from the three infront of him. “You guys are certainly stronger than us individually, but do you really think you’re that special? Just because Xenon pays extra attention to you?”

Despite talking politely, the emphasis on the words, display the venom hidden behind his calm demeanor.

“So? There might be stronger people out there, but you guys aren’t even worthy of our full strength.” The smirk plastered on Reiji’s face, causes the brows of the five adventurers to twitch aggressively.

“You’ve only been here two months, yet you’re already a gold rank. Xenon’s even bending the rules to help you. What did you do? Bribe him with coins? Some nobles backing you?” 

Another of the adventurers chime in, their eyes locking on to Nraltia since they first appeared. “Or maybe you’re bribing him with rabbit flesh?”

Clenching her fist, Nraltia fights back “Dirty thoughts befitting rats. Maybe instead of whining about it, you should have spent time proving yourselves instead.”

“Watch your mouth, outsider. You don’t belong here, none of you do. You’re all just dregs playing as heroes. You’re nothing but-” 

The tall leader words cut short, as he slides backwards, interrupted by a kick from Reiji, his axe and arms shaking from the impact. 

Using Blitz, Reiji appears in between the other four adventurers slamming his fist into Baldy and the mage, knocking them backwards. The remaining two, an archer and thief, immediately move into action, one of them leaping backwards, arrows notch against his bow, the other his daggers rushing at Reiji.

A shadow swoops in, Souma appears from the archer’s shadow, his swords flashing through the air, one blade cutting the bow string, the other leveled at his throat. 

The thief’s daggers never reached Reiji, a silver flash intercepted, thrusting at his dagger and his chest, the blunt end knocking him backwards, sliding into Baldy.

“You’re right about one thing, we are stronger than you fools.” His voice rings out coldly, as he cracks his knuckles. “So did you idiots come here to receive a beating?”

Nraltia chimes in, her voice sweet and bright. “It won’t be life threatening, but you’ll probably wish it was.”

“Hmph. Did you really think we’d come here without a plan?” The tall man smiles, before whistling loudly, drawing out a crowd of armed knights each wearing the sigil of the Holy Saintess Order. The knights outnumbered the Trio ten to one.

“We meet again.” One of the knights step forward, his bare head recognizable. 

“… Who are you again?” Reiji ask, tilting his head.

“He’s the leader of the knights, the lieutenant from the fight in the Grand Market.”  Elnyra answers Reiji’s question.

Coughing, the lieutenant ignores Reiji’s question. “We’ve come to apprehend you heretics. You may have escaped us the past month, but your luck ends tonight.”

“Why is it always saintess this, heretics that… don’t these other worlders have any creativity?” Reiji grumbles to himself. 

“See? Just like we told you.” Baldy smirks, pointing at Reiji and his friends. “Get them!”

With those words, both sides charge at each other. The newly formed Crimson Crow vs Baldy’s group and 30 Saintess Knights.

“Just remember, you asked for this.” The words leave his mouth, before he disappears from view.

Reappearing besides the Lieutenant, Reiji ignites his black and white Ki, unleashing a Howling Storm at his pristine breastplate, cracking it as the Lieutenant flys backwards, knocking over his men.

“I’m not the same person from the markets.” 

Rushing into the remaining knights, Reiji unleashes a barrage of attacks, Ki covered fist and skills flying in all direction, each strike staggering or knocking down a Knight. 

A flash of azure lightning streaks pass, zig zagging between the knights, striking the gaps of their armor, each slash increasing the fallen body count.

Bright spells, lightning ice, and fire, blast into the knights, each spell causing multiple knights to fall, screaming from pain. The torrent of spells were unending, one after another, like a conductor orchestrating a ensemble of instrument’s in an symphonic orchestra.

In the markets, they were barely able to hold on against these knights, but after the intense training, endured the past month, it was a completely different story, not to mention the addition of Souma to their battle force. 

By the time the Lieutenant regained his strength to stand back up, more than half of the knights had already fallen, leaving just the 5 silver rank adventurers and a equally small number of knights standing.