Intercept

The Gilasaurus looked in the direction that William had pointed to. Immediately, it locked onto the only hostile entity in it's vision- the female Gao swordsman.

Interestingly, it didn't move to attack her. Instead, it tread diagonally, positioning itself between it's target and it's summoner. Seeing that the problem was solved, William nodded in it's direction.

"He's all yours." William said, releasing control of his body. Since he had gotten his revenge, it was naturally time for Zhang Chun Wu to get his.

Zhang Chun Wu nodded, then continued forwards, spear in hand.

Seeing Zhang Chun Wu approach, Gao Xue began to panic, struggling to get onto his feet. Grabbing onto a nearby pole, he momentarily righted himself. However, the mess that he had created earlier from the terror that had struck him was still present. As he to attempted to take a step backwards, the wet floor caused his foot to slip, tumbling him to the ground yet again.

"No, nono, get away from me!" Gao Xue cried as he saw a shadow approach. He tried to right himself one more time, but his legs now refused to listen to him.

Silently looming over the trembling Gao Xue, Zhang Chun Wu frowned.

A moment later, his arm flashed, and a loud crack rang through the air. Gao Xue immediately crumpled to the ground, struck by the flat side of Zhang Chun Wu's spear. His head crashed onto the hard concrete floor, the impact knocking him unconscious.

"This… should be enough, right?" William tentatively asked. He could have sworn a tooth had just flown out of Gao Xue's mouth just now.

"Mm." A quiet but firm reply confirmed Zhang Chun Wu's intentions. Perhaps his rage had been drained by the intense brawl, so he had not been as brutal towards Gao Xue as he had been to Li Tai Shan a few days ago.

William watched as Zhang Chun Wu half-turned around, when suddenly he stopped in his tracks, seemingly having recalled something. Zhang Chun Wu quickly turned around, and then under William's wide eyes, stabbed the unconscious Gao Xue's limbs twice each. A stream of blood erupted from each of Gao Xue's arms, shocking him awake.

"AAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!"

Gao Xue's cry echoed through the market, momentarily stopping the nearby fighting.

Seeing the sight before him, Zhang Chun Wu's face grew pale. Stepping back from the screaming Gao Xue, he momentarily managed to recompose himself.

"What was that for?!" Although Zhang Chun Wu, who had seen similar battles, quickly calmed down, William, who had never experienced a fight before, could not remain tranquil.

Frowning, Zhang Chun Wu remained silent for a moment, before he spoke. "I… If Gao Xue can't join the Five Elements selection process, then the Gao family won't have any reason to ally with the Zhou and Wu families. He'll probably recover, but not before the selection day." In fact, Zhang Chun Wu knew he had gone slightly overboard this time as soon as the blood started pouring out of Gao Xue's wounds, but he felt fully justified in cutting off an arm of the enemy alliance to give themselves a better fighting chance later.

Of course, he felt like William, who seemed to care excessively about human well-being, would probably not like what he had done to Gao Xue, but Zhang Chun Wu knew that the other being in his mind would probably agree with the tactical side of his actions.

William however, reacted slightly differently than Zhang Chun Wu expected. "Are you stupid? You think the Gao family will just decide not to fight us anymore after you crippled their only candidate? You've just given them a better reason to go all out!"

Before Zhang Chun Wu could respond, a loud cry suddenly rang out. "Gao Xue!" Turning towards the sound, his heart jumped. In the distance, a woman who looked to be in her thirties had arrived, along with several other individuals. On their clothes bore the letter 'Gao'. Upon seeing the bloody Gao Xue, she dropped to her knees, the woman checked to see if her son was alive.

A moment later, a look of relief appeared on her face, before she suddenly turned to stare at Zhang Chun Wu.

Seeing her fierce eyes, Zhang Chun Wu took a step back, bracing himself.

"Ah shit," William spoke from within. When Zhang Chun Wu had stabbed Gao Xue, the Zhou clan juniors that were attacking the Koumori Dragon had stopped. As no one new had been attacking him, the system hadn't accelerated his turn cooldown, and William hadn't drawn a single defensive card yet.

Slowly stepping towards him, the woman spoke with fire in her eyes, "Did you do this to Xue'er?" as she walked, several black sabers manifested behind her back, pointing towards Zhang Chun Wu.

In response, the latter narrowed his eyes.

"I see that Gao Xue still has a mother to care for him. It seems that he feels entitled to make fun of what others lack that he is blessed with." His clear voice responded. Although the Gao clan held the tactical a advantage, Zhang Chun Wu intended to occupy the moral high ground.

"Hmph, since you miss your mother so much, why don't I send you off to meet her?" Flinging her arms towards Zhang Chun Wu, three of the six blades shot towards his face.

As the blades expanded rapidly in his view, Zhang Chun Wu dashed sideways, attempting to dodge the incoming blades. As he lept sideways, the first two blades shot right past him, missing his face by mere inches, but the last blade managed to lodged itself right into his arm.

The impact of the final blade pushed him back, spiralling him into a nearby wall. As he rammed into solid brick, Zhang Chun Wu coughed out a mouthful of blood. The crash momentarily knocked him out, but William immediately acted, taking back control of the body.

[Detected new hostile entity has entered into combat, beginning draw phase.]

Seeing that it was finally his turn, William quickly grabbed the new card off the top of his deck.

Upon seeing the card he drew, his eyes narrowed. Then he quickly set the card face down. Taking a moment to look at the remaining options he had, William spoke to the approaching woman.

"Hey, don't you think it's a little bit ridiculous to kill someone for injuring your kid?" His seemingly casual voice caught the woman off guard for a moment, before she laughed out loud.

"If I don't kill you right now, do you think your Zhang family will give me another chance?" She sneered. Trying to buy a little more time, William smiled, turning to look her in the eye, before setting a monster in defence position. "Oh? And how are you planning to deal with my families retaliation afterwards? You should know I'm no longer the crippled child I used to be." William asked, ending his turn. Although he didn't think he could kill the woman, William was quite sure that he could give her a nasty surprise with the card he had just set face-down.

The woman narrowed her eyes, preparing to finish Zhang Chun Wu off. But before she could act, another voice cut in.

"Yes, I'm also interested in knowing how you'd plan on running away after killing Chun Wu." From behind the cracked wall, Zhang Wu Dao suddenly stepped out, positioning himself between the two. As he stepped forward, a number of armed men suddenly ran into the marketplace, surrounding the Gao clan members. A few of the guards positioned themselves in front of the Li clan members, preventing the Gao clan from attacking them.

Upon seeing the Zhang Clan reinforcements, the woman's face grew ugly. "Zhang Wu Dao, you shouldn't poke your nose where it doesn't belong!" She snapped.

In response, the third elder of the Zhang clan flashed a smirk. "Oh? And Madam Liang believes I should let your people continue with their little plans after you've deliberately harmed our third master?" He asked inquisitively, "Don't you think your jokes are a little bit too ridiculous?"

Before the woman could reply, a hand quickly moved to cover her mouth. The person who had stepped in looked relatively fair, but was obviously not young. Unlike the other Gao clan members, he had gold stripes embroidered onto the sides of his clothes.

"We admit that we made a mistake with your young master, and we will compensate you for your troubles." the head elder of the Gao clan began, "however, we hope you will not interfere in our family's business with the Li clan. We will compensate you accordingly for this matter as well." At his words, Zhang Wu Dao did not react outwardly, nor did he show any visible emotions.

Instead, he began to stroke his beard methodically, as if he was thinking. Seeing his silence as hesitance, the Gao clan elder smiled. "This is a matter of great importance for not only us, but also the Liang, Ding, Wu, and Zhou families. I'm sure our combined families will be capable of whatever the Zhang family needs.

Upon hearing the clan names that the Gao elder spoke out, a small smile appeared on Zhang Wu Dao's face.

"Out Zhang clan appreciates your sincerity," He began.

"However, I think we'll put our lot in with the clan that doesn't want to kill our young master." Zhang Wu Dao concluded.

A small bead of sweat dripped down Li Hou Jun's face upon hearing Zhang Wu Dao's statement. He was pretty confident that the Zhang clan would have denied the Gao clan's offer, until they brought in another two clans onto the discussion table. The Gao clan elder was essentially threatening the Zhang clan with numbers. Luckily, it appeared that the Zhang clan had no intentions of going back on their words.

"Men, take them away." The third elder of the Zhang clan motioned towards the Li clan before turning around to pick up Zhang Chun Wh under the unseemly visage of the Gao clan members.

Watching the Zhang clan leave with their targets, one of the Zhou clan's members who had been there in the initial ambush turned towards the Gao clan's head elder. "We're not just going to let them get away, right?"

"You can go fight Zhang Wu Dao himself if you're not happy about it!" The elder snapped back, silencing the former. His clan had been sent here by the Wu head elder to make sure nothing unexpected happened while the other members of the alliance held off the Li clan, but who would have expected the Zhang Clan to suddenly appear right as they got to the ambush location?

Still frowning, he grabbed a talisman from inside his pocket, before whispering a few words to it. A moment later, the talisman came to life, fluttering into the sky.

"We're going back." He said, turning around.

Seeing their leader leave, the Wu and Zhou clan members who remained behind looked at each other, before reluctantly following the Gao clan members away from the battlefield.