Tsugi was practicing swinging a staff when Sir Gorou entered the training area.

"Come here." Sir Gorou set down his armor and sat on the floor, crossing his legs.

"Yes sir." Tsugi placed the staff back and sat in front of Sir Gorou.

"I'm going to teach you a skill that will help you in assassinations."

'A skill?' Tsugi's eyes widened from excitement. What kind of skill would it be? Will Sir Gorou finally teach him instead of just beating him to pulp at every chance he gets? Or is this another one of his mind games that he enjoys to play on Tsugi?

"In order for this to work, you need to be able to control your emotions, the smallest ripple will ruin the effect, and if they are skilled fighters they will shatter your realm and it will all be for naught. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

"If done right, you will be able to control the situation to your will. Even the most skilled fighters will have a hard time, and that is only 'if' you can perfect it. With that said, it is not going to work on everyone, but if you are able to control every variable, it will make it that much harder for them to break out of it.

In order for you to even begin, you need to understand the person, inside and out. Know everything there is to know about them. What makes them tick, what drives them, what do they fear, family, friends, how they look, smell everything.

That means you need to watch them and study them for a long time. This one takes a long time to plan and process. Even the place that you choose for the assassination must be perfect. Especially if it's a place that is familiar to them. One wrong placement of something will alert them.

If even one of those is off, it may be the key for them to break free. Now, what I am about to teach you is hallucination magic. It takes an enormous amount of energy. If you're not careful, and they break free, you are now vulnerable. If you can perfect this skill, it will work almost every single time, but make a mistake and it may very well be your last. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

"The deeper you understand them, the more you know, the more details you can put into it and that makes it much harder for them to break it. Something as little as a leaf color, or a piece of grass could make or break it.

Essentially, it's a work of art. The better you paint the world and build it, the harder it is for the person to realize it's fake. Do you think you know yourself and your world well enough to notice if something is amiss?"

Tsugi has never really thought about it. He actually tried his best to avoid thinking about reality. If anything, he wanted to disappear into his books and live in their world. Any world is better than his world.

Why would anyone want to keep their mind in a world full of pain and horror? If anyone had the chance, wouldn't they rather choose a path that'll never lead them there? If this skill is used on him, would he notice since he never pays attention to this horrid place anyways? If he never notices, would that mean he will never come back to this place?

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The thought gave him a brief moment of excitement. If he can perfect this magic, could he perform it on himself?

"I don't know, sir."

"Well, let's test it out then. I'm going to use it on you. I will leave a loophole, so you try to find the loop hole and come out of it. Once you realize what the loophole is, you will automatically be able to crack it. Let's see how long it takes you."

"Yes sir." Tsugi sat up straight and waited patiently.

Sir Gorou closed his eyes and breathed.

Without warning, he launched a punch into Tsugi and the fight commenced. They fought all through the room, as Sir Gorou launched lightning fast fists into Tsugi over and over again.

'What kind of skill is this? It's just exactly like how it's always been! Just another beating!' Tsugi continued to fight Sir Gorou.

His punches were much harder than ever before, and so much faster. Tsugi had a hard time even thinking about going on the offensive. He's just been defending and dodging the whole time. Sir Gorou just got faster and faster. Tsugi barely dodged as Sir Gorou's fist punched a hole into the dark blood red wall where Tsugi's face was, just a millisecond before. Debris flew and hit Tsugi in the face causing cuts and scrapes.

Tsugi managed to retrieve a weapon, but like before it was of no use. Sir Gorou was able to shatter the steel blade with a powerful punch, sending glittering flakes of metal flying and embedded into Tsugi's skin.

'With skills like this, why did he even bother to use a sword let alone carry it with him?' Tsugi continued to pick up and try all sorts of weapons, but to no avail. Sir Gorou just continues to crush the weapons into smithereens.

Tsugi picked up the debris and chucked them at Sir Gorou, but he just flicked them away with his fingers. How in the world was he supposed to beat his father? He didn't understand what the point of this was. He just continued to dodge and block as he tried to think of a plan.

He was beginning to waver and started to believe it was useless. This was surely just another excuse for a beating. Sir Gorou loved playing mind games after all. It was his specialty to crush Tsugi's spirits, especially when Tsugi starts to feel comfortable and content, Sir Gorou reminds him of how easily he can be crushed between Sir Gorou's fingers.

Sir Gorou lands a back hand to Tsugi's face sending an ear splitting ring through his head. Disoriented, he staggered on to his feet, blood dripping from his ear down his neck. He could taste blood in his mouth and smell iron in his nose.

The disoriented double vision of Sir Gorou approached with another kick, but he didn't know which foot was the real one. He blocked the wrong one and flew across the room slamming into a pillar and cracked it. The ceiling above him cracked and little pieces crumbled on top of Tsugi.

Sir Gorou stood over Tsugi and landed blow after blow, burying Tsugi further down into the ground. Chunks of stone fell down from the ceiling with each explosive punch. Tsugi managed to escape and was finally able to stand back up as he darted around the room avoiding Sir Gorou's attacks.

'What can I do? How will I stop him? Am I just supposed to survive until he gets tired? Until morning?' Unsure what to do he just continued to run. Sir Gorou was able to predict Tsugi's movements and hurled a kick right in front of Tsugi, sending him into a spin through the air, following up with a punch to the face. Blood dripped from Tsugi's left eye, he could no longer see out of it.

With a part of his vision now obscured, he took more blows than he did before. His reflexes slowed with his depleting stamina. Unable to see, he felt a giant hand grab his arm.

"AAAHHH!" Like breaking a twig, the loud crack sent excruciating pain through Tsugi. Sir Gorou swung him through the air by the broken arm and chucked him across the room. Tsugi slammed into the opposite wall sending dirt and dust flying into a cloud.

He weakly pushed himself off the floor as debris fell from his body and dropped to the floor, sending small echoes through the giant room. All was quiet, except for the sound of his breathing and the approaching footsteps of his father.

Tsugi panted from exhaustion. The training room was a mess: holes punched into the stone dark blood red walls; weapons scattered; and Tsugi's arm twinged in pain, broken in two places. He felt a warm liquid roll down his arm as it dripped onto the stone floor. With one eye swollen shut, he looked down at the sharp white bone protruding out of his forearm.

Sir Gorou slowly approached, his aura was deadly, it made Tsugi's skin crawl and he wanted to run. Intense fear started to creep up on him again.

'NO!' Tsugi fought it and pushed it away. He will never succumb to that again. He can't.

He launched himself forward, swinging his fist at Sir Gorou. Only when his fist made contact did he notice, his thumb was missing.