Children of a Lesser God

Laz looked on in interest, hearing what was happening. He had seen this kind of thing in movies before, but to actually watch it play out in front of him was a new experience. After hearing something like that, Laz would expect that people would get angry.

People didn't let him down.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING?"

"YOU GOING TO SELL US OUT?"

"THIS ISN'T WHAT WE SIGNED UP FOR..."

The shouts came back from everywhere and just when the other members at Laz's table were about to yell out, Julia got their attention and made them stop. Laz could tell by her face that she was pissed, but she was still keeping control of herself. He couldn't help but give her a nod of approval about this. Standing out right now was almost asking to be made an example out of and although it hurt, sometimes you had to take the hit for the people you cared about.

That was Julia's mindset at the moment. Get through this and figure out something after, even if it meant leaving town. Her entire guild's lives were at stack and she couldn't afford to act rashly.

At least, this was Laz's guess. In truth, he was mostly right, but there was one thing he hadn't thought of. She was waiting to see what he would do.

Julia didn't know how strong Laz was or what his plans were, but just the fact that he could call over one of the famous four horsemen was enough to show that he had something going for him. As far as Julia was concerned, even if the four girls weren't as strong as a foundation realm infected, they would still be able to kill one due to their ability. So the fact that he could get that kind of help spoke loads about his own ability.

Even if he did nothing, she thought that he would at least help her and her friends to leave safely.

"Now now everyone. Please try to understand. We are doing this for your own good! Every party, group, guild or whatever you want to call yourselves needs to have a strong leader in the event of a crisis. We can't always be there to watch your backs when we aren't working together. So although you all may feel a bit put off by this, the fact is that it is for your own good and protection." Although Damien was speaking with more than a hint of arrogance, what he said did ring true for many of the groups present. In the event of a raid or attack, how would they protect themselves? It wasn't like they were closely linked with each other outside of the council meetings. Although such things hadn't really happened in the past, everyone present knew that the world was changing each day. Who was to say that it couldn't happen?

Fear was ever a potent motivation.

So despite the tone used and the obvious favoritism, it was kind of hard for the weaker groups to continue their protests when faced with logic.

As Laz looked at Julia, he saw that her face was just as agitated as before. She was obviously not buying a word that was being said.

"Now then. Before we begin moving to the next phase of the night, there is a small problem that has popped up. I believe everyone here knows our good friend Greg. As it turns out, Greg has discovered that an outsider has snuck his way in here." With this, Damien pointed his finger over to Julia's table and as though it was set up ahead of time, a spot light that would normally be pointed at the stage suddenly landed on Laz, bring the entire rooms attention to him.

'Ho, ho.... now this is getting fun....' Laz wasn't the least bit disturbed. He had the rather funny idea that he knew where this was going.

"You there." Damien shouted out.

Laz, looking innocent, pointed to himself in an exaggerated manner before turning to look around him. He then turned back towards Damien and pointed to himself again as though he was confused.

While acting, the rest of the table had backed up a bit to be out of the spot light, but seeing Laz act this way, they couldn't help but laugh.

"You. I have never seen you before. With what intentions did you sneak in here with? And who do you work for?" Damien started acting as though he was in charge and was picking out a criminal in the crowd.

Laz couldn't help but play along..

"Uh. Hello. I work for the crab shack as a bus boy. You know, cleaning tables, mopping the floor. Doing dishes sometimes as well. Occasionally taking out the trash. Sometimes I get to keep a portion of the tips left behind too, you know. When the servers are feeling generous. Uh.. let's see..."

"ENOUGH. I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THAT. WHY THE HELL DID YOU SNEAK IN HERE?" There was more that one person who was laughing at Laz's ramblings, especially the ladies. Laz was rather handsome after all, even if he was poor. Damien could tell he was being made fun of.

"Oh? That. Well... to be honest with you, sometimes a man gets a little lonely at night and uh... well... porn just doesn't always do it for you, you know my brother? At times a guy needs a bit of warmth and comfort? So yeah, I just figured that a strip club was the right place to go for that. Spend a few bucks, have a few drinks. Maybe get a ŀap dance or two? Helps a man feel alive..."

"Are you fucking with me right now?" Damien was no longer yelling. In fact, his voice had gone amazing cold at the moment.

"Course not. Why else would a hot blooded young man come to a place like this? For the food? That's the real bullshit if you know what I mean. Who goes to a strip club for the food? Nah bro. I figured I could spend some money and have a beautiful woman accompany me for the night... You know? Like that one sitting next to you who keeps doing shots off the other girls boobs. Yeah, her..."

As Laz pointed at Remi, much to the stupefied amazement of the foundational realms sitting in the middle of the room, Damien's face seemed to freeze for a second before he relaxed. He finally felt like this guy that Greg wanted to kill was just an idiot.

'Of all the people in here, you decided to go provoke her. Maybe no one else in here knows who's in charge now, but we do. And you just pointed her out as though she was a call girl. Have a good journey to the other side my idiot friend.'

Damien was going to use Laz to establish his dominance, but now there was no need to.

"Who? Me?" Remi seemed to not understand what had happened at first as she looked over at Laz who was looking back at her. She hadn't been paying attention in the slightest. Instead, she turned back to the topless girl on her ŀap with a questioning gaze.

"He seems to think you're one of us miss," The girl replied while laughing, thinking that the girl she was sitting on was joking around.

Sadly for her, Remi didn't have that sense of humor.

As she understood what was going on, she quickly stood up, causing the girl in her ŀap to drop on the floor and shatter the glass that was in her hands when she tried to catch herself. The girl let out a loud scream as the glass shards penetrated her hand and caused her to bleed. Just as she was about to get up and run into the back while screaming, Remi kicked the girl hard in the stomach, causing her to fly out from the center of the room and crash into an unoccupied table.

She no longer made a sound.

"You were talking to me?" Remi said, walking towards Laz's table with a surprised look on her face.

"You all might want to back away," Laz said quietly as he took a sip.

With a slight gesture from Julia, everyone got their drinks and got up, moving away from the spot lit table.

As Remi made her way over while pointing at herself and looking at Laz like she wanted to kill him, Laz just leaned back in his chair and took a drink. Although he was a bit surprised that she was already mid stage of the foundation realm, a bit higher than he expected, he wasn't worried. Although he didn't know how she cultivated, he could tell that she was currently like an empty water bottle. There was almost no weight to her power.

Laz, on the other hand, was like a gushing fountain of energy, able to overflow at anytime despite his recent breakthrough. It all came down to the strength of the foundation set up and the amount of time you used to build it. Rushing was never the right way, in life or in cultivation.

Remi got to the table, reached down with one hand and despite her small figure and frame, she sent the table flying off towards the wall, making it explode in a shower of splinters. It was everyone else's luck that they hadn't been sitting over at that one spot. Or maybe it was intentional?

"So you want this Remi to spend the night with you? Comforting you? Laughing like a little sŀut at all of your stupid jokes while you grab all of Remi's most sensitive areas? Is that what you want little boy?" Remi put a foot up on the chair next to Laz, taking on a very gangster like position like one would see in a movie.

Laz finally felt something from this strange young woman.

'She's fucking nuts...'

"Actually... you know what? I changed my mind. Maybe it's better if I find someone... a little more down to earth?"

'Any man dumb enough to sleep with you would wake up without a dick the next day...'

Laz felt like he brought a head ache to himself by trying to act like a jackass.

"OH? SO NOW REMI ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH?"

'Oh fuck me and my fucking mouth...'

"Nevermind. I'm not going to waste my time..."

"SO REMI IS A WASTE OF TIME NOW???"

Laz wasn't sure what it was that had actually set her off, but as soon as she finished asking her last question, this crazy girl named Remi launched an attack at Laz, bring her fist down in a chopping motion. Laz was confused at first since she was too far away to reach him, but then had a bad feeling.

A blade of light spiraled out of her hand, hitting the chair that Laz had just jumped out of and slicing it in half along with a portion of the floor.

"Da hell?" Laz backed off, giving him and her some space.

Seeing that her attack missed, Remi stood there confused for a second before she turned around without saying a word.

She walked back to where she had previously been sitting in the center area, grabbed an unattached girl and sat back down with her in her ŀap. The girl looked frightened as hell, but didn't dare to make a sound.

Just as the entire room was silent enough to hear a drop of water hit the ground, Remi's voice came out again.

"Kill him..."

'WHAT THE IN ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW?'

Laz's brain felt fried.