All the Cutaina tribe members looked shocked. However, to Damien’s surprise, as he was making his way away from them, a barrier appeared in his path, preventing him from leaving.

  Putting his hand against it, Damien moved it along its surface. The barrier had been completely invisible until he had gotten close enough, greatly surprising him as this was the first time he had encountered such an ability. ‘How am I going to get out of here? I don’t have time to fight them,’ Damien thought to himself in contemplation.

  Looking back at the tribe members, their looks of shock were replaced with calm expressions. The old sage had informed them that he had deployed his barrier ahead of time and that there was no way for the man to have gotten out.

  Looking at the woman next to him the old sage began to speak, “Chefitan what do you want us to do? I am sure you noticed but that man is too strong for us to take on even if we all attack him at once… perhaps we should let him go instead of having our tribe die in vain.”

  The woman’s face turned stern at his words, while she understood where he was coming from she also greatly valued the tribe's rules and the words of their ancestors, but no matter how she looked at it there was no way to force the man to follow her wishes and he was obviously not going to allow them to kill him.

  Letting out a sigh the woman looked at the members of her tribe one by one, all of them had looks of absolute trust showing that they would follow her words regardless of their outcome. Seeing this the woman smiled brightly, “Everyone listen up, the man we had just confronted is several times stronger than myself meaning if we choose to fight him we are sure to lose our lives so with that in mind I want to ask all of you here a question.”

  “Please speak chieftain, no matter what choice you make we will follow you without question.” said one man before taking a knee. This scene repeated itself for all of the members including the old sage to her left.

  Her heart trembled watching this, while she knew they trusted her seeing them willing to lay down their lives even when she told them they had no chance of winning truly made her proud. “Since you all have shown your willingness to follow my choices then I say-”

  “Impressive.”

  Before she could finish her sentence a man’s voice sounded out from behind her making her jump forward before turning her head with a wary look. Seeing who it was surprise colored her face once more, “Why did you come back?”

  Damien chuckled hearing this, the woman knew why he returned yet asked the question anyway. “Look, I don’t want to kill everyone here so if you could kindly open the barrier and allow me to leave that would be great.”

  Seeing the smile on his face as he said those words many of the tribal warriors began to develop cold sweat on their backs. After a few moments of silence, the chieftain finally spoke out. “How about this… you help us with something and I will open the barrier for you?” she said trying her best to put on a strong front.

  “....” An annoyed look slowly revealed itself on Damien’s face before he let out a scoff, “I don’t think you understand the situation” Suddenly an aura began to radiate from Damien’s body applying insane amounts of pressure to the tribal members making many of them fall onto their hands and keens gasping for air.

  “If I wanted to I could have killed every single one of you here within seconds, so please tell me. Why would I listen to a single word you are saying let alone bother to listen to a request of yours? Hmmm? Please give me a good reason and perhaps I will listen to you, otherwise open the fucking barrier.”

  ‘Chifetan maybe we should let the man go if we keep annoying him he is likely to kill us.’ he was using his ability to communicate his thoughts directly to her hoping his words would convince her to let the man go.

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  Unfortunately, it seemed the woman was not going to back down as her face became even more determined upon hearing Damien’s threat. “Look sir I understand that you are stronger than us and can easily wipe us out but as the chieftain of this tribe I must take this chance.”

  Interest along with respect appeared on Damien’s face hearing the woman’s words, if she was willing to risk her life over this then it had to be important. “You have gained my interest.”

  Hearing this she lightly smiled before beginning to explain the reason for her actions, “The reason I have been trying so hard to get you to join our tribe is because currently we face the real possibility of losing everything… you see we are not the only tribe in the area, in reality, we are the weakest of the bunch.”

  Her expression turned sour as she began to speak about her tribe's situation their tribe had to give offerings every three months to the tribe above them so that they would be protected from beings that they otherwise could not deal with. However the tribes that needed protection often are exploited in many ways including having to hand over the talented women and children of their tribe forcing them to forever stagnate at the bottom.

  Listening to all of this Damien began to understand the reason for the woman's actions and even felt some pity for the tribe before him. That was not the worst of it though as upon hearing the woman’s next words Damine’s expression turned to one of disgust and anger.

  “The main reason for me asking you for help however is that the chieftain of the tribe protecting wishes for his son to marry me and if I can’t find a man stronger than his son to take my hand before that then the chieftain will force me to marry his son regardless of my wishes.”

  Damien hated many things and something at the top of his list was forcing things upon people especially things like marriage or sex. “I agree to help you,” he said without hesitation making the woman completely shocked.

  “You agree? Just like that?” she asked unable to believe his words.

  “Yes I agree to help you, however, let me remind you, I am not joining your tribe nor am I going to become your “habatu” I am only helping you because I despise it when someone tries to force their will onto others, it's as simple as that. Understood?”

  The woman shook her head at his words showing that she heard him loud and clear, “Now can we do this as soon as possible or is there some set date? I am on a time crunch here as I have somewhere I need to be within the next few weeks.”

  “Oh right, well I was planning to invite you back to the tribe and have a feast but if you want to get it over with as fast as possible then I see no issue, however, It’s totally up to the chieftain of the tribe protecting us. Should he choose not to do it today there is little I can do to change his mind.”

  “Don’t worry about that and just prepare things oh also what is your name by the way? Calling you chieftain feels weird to me.”

  A slight blush appeared on her face upon hearing his words, “My name is Aponi” she said before swiftly walking away making Damien feel puzzled at her actions, looking over at the old sage he saw the man giving him a funny look.

  “You have no idea what it means to ask a woman what her name is in our culture to you? He said with a mischievous grin.”

  Damien immediately got a bad feeling and hesitantly said, “Uhhh no?”

  The old sage began to laugh loudly to the point tears were rolling down his cheeks, “I’m sorry it’s been a while since I’ve had such a good laugh. What you just did was confess your love for her.”

  Putting his hand against his head Damien felt like he was going to get a headache, “What kind of weird fucking customs do you guys have?” he said with exasperation.

  “Don’t worry boyo she knows that you did not understand the meaning behind your words. Just be more careful in the future I would not want you to accidentally ask to bed her.”

  Damien felt relief and slight chills upon hearing the second part of the old sage's sentence. ‘I should be careful of what I say around tribes in the future.’ he said to himself wanting to make sure it did not happen again.

  Suddenly the woman reappeared with a grim expression, “The chieftain agreed to let the fight happen today.”

  “Good but why does your face look so grim?” Damien asked while getting a bad feeling.

  “Well, there was something I forgot to tell you… To convince the chieftain of the other tribe that you are worthy of me you will have to dress up like a member of our tribe…”

  The old sage began to laugh loudly once more upon seeing Damien’s face, “This is going to be fun.” he said aloud clearly enjoying the thought of Damien dressing up as a member of his tribe.

  Turning his head in the direction of the old man Damien showed a menacing smile, “Old man the next time you laugh I am going to cut out your tongue.”