The moon was shining beautifully amongst the magnifying bright stars in the dark night sky. The sounds of owls hooting and crickets chirping could be heard faintly from the woods. These beautiful sounds of nature were not heard by the group of trainees in the academy hall.

The fluorescent lamps lit up the whole hall. A group of trainees were training excellently throughout the whole night. Some were training with various kinds of weaponry and some were bare handed.

Sungjong was training with his roommate, Kim Myungsoo. While Sungjong was holding a sword, Myungsoo used black metal nunchucks. Some of the students were already worn out and laid on the floor about half an hour ago and only a few were still practicing.

As the others chatted away, the hall suddenly turned dark. Every single student in the hall jumped in shock. Some of them held their chest and felt as if their hearts could drop from their original place.

“Don’t worry everyone; it’s just a mere black out,” the Head Student said, “I’ll get to the main switch to figure out what happened.”

The Head Student, Choi Minho, gestured to some of the students to follow and help him find the main switch which was at the end of the hallways. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

~¤~

“That’s it! I’m out!” A majority of the students in the hall shouted, tired of waiting for the electricity and Minho to come back. It had already been half an hour after the group of students, along with Minho, had gone to find the main switch.

As time passed, the hall had been emptied except for two people, Sungjong and Myungsoo. They were still in the hall. Myungsoo was sleeping on Sungjong’s lap soundlessly, tied from all of the training.

Slowly, Sungjong lifted Myungsoo’s head and placed a folded mattress underneath his head, trying effortlessly not to wake him up. Sungjong got up and started to play with his sword.

The bright full moon shone from the windows of the vast hall, making it vaguely visible for people to see in the dark. Sungjong held his sword up and gently hit the scarecrow-shaped target. He tried different stances and tried to find weaknesses of a possible opponent.

Suddenly, the doors of the hall were shut. Sungjong immediately turned around. One by one, the windows closed too. He had no idea what was going on. It could’ve been the gush of the strong wind outside. To his shock, the curtains were drawn shut, causing the hall to become pitch black. Sungjong looked down at the precious stones that hung around his neck.

“I knew it!” He gently exclaimed as the gems started to produce out coloured lights based on each of their colours.

Sungjong, armed with his sword, slowly crept up towards the door. He looked back to find Myungsoo still sleeping before he reached the door. There were thick green vines wrapped around the handles of the door and that caused the doors to be closed tightly. The more Sungjong tried to pry open the doors, the tighter the vines got.

Sungjong raised his sword and tried to cut the vines, but unfortunately his attack was blocked by some plant-made fortress which came from who knows where. Sungjong turned around and tried to find another way out. But as he turned around, a jade green light was hovering in the air. As it came closer, a man appeared with it.

“What do you want, Yang Yoseob?” Sungjong asked coldly as he sent the guy daggers. As he could recall from his father’s notebook, this man was named Yoseob.

“You know that I’m only after one thing, right? These.” He smirked evilly and opened his clenched fist. The gems that Sungjong was wearing were in his hands.

Sungjong immediately rubbed his chest to check his gems. They were gone. *How did he get the gems?* Sungjong thought to himself. He just smiled at the fact that only two of the gems were in his hand.

Sungjong tightened his grip on the handle of his sword and tried to run towards Yoseob, but he couldn’t even lift his feet. He looked down and saw that his feet were locked to the ground by the green vines and roots. It became even tighter the more he tried to move.

“There is no way you are getting out of that,” Yoseob said in triumph, “You’ll just end up like that guy.” He said as pointed towards his back and found Myungsoo was wrapped in vines and roots. Yoseob watched in delight as Myungsoo’s face showed that he was in the utmost pain as the vines tightened around him.

Just as Yoseob was about to turn back, Sungjong suddenly shouted.

“Myungsoo, now!” Sungjong shouted at Myungsoo.

After Sungjong shouted, the vines and roots that wrapped around Myungsoo’s body bursted suddenly. Myungsoo slowly stood up and in his hand was the nunchucks he used for training. Around his neck hung the sapphire he used to possess. The fact that Myungsoo had psychic powers really came in good help right now.

Before the training started Myungsoo had asked Sungjong that he wanted to wear the sapphire during training as he didn’t know about its power of speed before. He wanted to try experience the power from the gem.

Yoseob quickly raised his hands to try and captures Myungsoo, but luckily Myungsoo was too fast for him. The vines that clutched onto Sungjong’s feet broke and Sungjong pounced onto Yoseob. The topaz that was in Yoseob’s hand was now lying on the wooden floor. Sungjong tried to get the topaz, but he was pulled back by a hand made by plants and was thrown to the end of the hall.

Sungjong coughed out thick blood as his back hit the wall, hard. He tried to get up, but failed and out.

Myungsoo rushed towards Sungjong and gently slapped his cheeks in an effort to try and wake him up.

Yoseob took the topaz that was on the floor and flew out of the hall through the window in an attempt to run away.

After cautiously placing Sungjong on the mattress, Myungsoo used the sapphire’s power of speed to catch Yoseob who had run away to where he believed was the lake.

In a second, Myungsoo had already reached the lake. He turned to his left and right in search of Yoseob. With his natural psychic powers, he easily scanned the whole perimeter of the lake and everything around it to try and find Yoseob.

“I know you’re there, Mr. Timid!” Myungsoo shouted towards a big hollow tree that was located at the north of the lake.

Suddenly a huge vine hit him in the stomach, causing him to lose balance and fall into the deep lake. Myungsoo held his breath and tried to swim to the surface as his vision slowly became blurry.

“One,” a voice shouted from above as a big thick vine grabbed onto Myungsoo’s body and lifted him to come face to face with Yoseob, “Don’t call me timid. Two,” the vine smashed Myungsoo to the ground, “Where is the sapphire?!” Yoseob roared demandingly and lifted Myungsoo by his neck.

Myungsoo spat blood onto Yoseob and panted pretty heavily, half-conscious from the blow that striked him before.

Yoseob, angered by that action, immediately slammed him to the ground. In his other hand was a burning fire, ready to hit Myungsoo.

“Tell me where the sapphire is before I kill and burn you!” He warned and demanded as he slammed Myungsoo’s head even deeper into the ground with the fire in his hand getting bigger by the second. For a baby-faced guy like him, his voice was sure loud and he was one hot-tempered guy.

“I’m not going to tell you.” Myungsoo answered bluntly and kneed Yoseob’s stomach before getting up.

Yoseob clutched his stomach and glared at Myungsoo. Myungsoo was lifting the rocks with his mind and Yoseob was producing fireballs in his hands.

“This is my last warning. Where is the sapphire?!” Yoseob demanded angrily, “I know that it’s with you right now!”

“I’m not going to tell you.” Myungsoo said again and smirked. He immediately attacked him with the rocks that he lifted. Yoseob dodged all of the attacks skilfully and started to throw the fireballs at Myungsoo.

~¤~

Sungjong slowly fluttered his eyes open. It was dark. It took him a second to realize that he was still in the hall.

“Myungsoo!” He shouted, realizing the fact that there was no one in the hall. He immediately took his sword and ran out of the hall.

Throughout the way he was running, bodies of unconscious students were lying all over the hallways. They had been attacked by Yoseob. Sungjong increased his pace and ran out.

Sungjong arrived to see Myungsoo and Yoseob fighting away their lives. He was now panting heavily from all the running from the academy.

Myungsoo and Yoseob were now at their critical states with parts of their body burned and bruised from all the fighting. Myungsoo was pinned to the ground with Yoseob on top of him.

Just before Yoseob could do anything, Sungjong had pulled him back and pointed his sword at his neck. His face showed anger and hatred towards the boy who was now trapped by his sword. Sungjong didn’t know why he really hated this guy in front of him and felt like he had seen him somewhere before.

Yoseob looked at Sungjong with widened eyes and looked back at Myungsoo. At this rate, he would never get the gem. Yoseob immediately attacked the both of them with vines and flew away.

Sungjong and Myungsoo looked at each other. Now they were left with only one gem. They had to get the gems from Yoseob as soon as possible.

~¤~

“Gi Kwang, I only got two of the gems.” Yoseob said as he panted heavily.

A good looking guy turned around and faced his little step-brother. He grabbed onto his collar and gritted his teeth.

“You know those two gems are not enough!” I need all of their gems so that I can kill him!” Gi Kwang shouted and threw Yoseob to the ground, leaving him.

Gi Kwang headed towards his room and slammed the door. He was absolutely furious about the fact that Sungjong could still be alive after all these years. He wanted to kill him when he had the chance, but every time he tried to kill him, Sungjong would be in a public place. He was one of the most wanted criminals in the land. If he killed Sungjong, he’d just go to jail, plus the fact that he wasn’t a contestant of the quest.

So, to avoid him from being behind bars, he had asked his step-brother, Yang Yoseob, who was chosen as a contestant for the quest to kill him. He had to finish what his father had started, killing the Lee generation.

“You are going down, Lee Sungjong, even if it is the last I’ll do.” Gi Kwang gritted his teeth and punched the wall beside him.