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THUMP! 

The heavy sound of a body crashing against the wooden floor.

"Trash! Get the hell out of my way!" Roe, the second yelled at Karh the moment he came out the house to meet him standing by the door.

Karh didn't even bother to pick himself off the ground, knowing that it would simply be a motive for him to turn around and take out his anger on his already weakened body.

His bones ached from old and new bruises that decorated different parts of his body from his face to the soles of his feet but he knew better than to show anything but the blank expression he plastered on his face.

He had long learnt that the pain would only continue if he revealed that it actually existed.

While his father the Carhan(lord) of their territory and his six brothers were daily improving their blade and sword skills, the only thing that improved about him was how quickly his bruises faded, before new ones arrived.

It wasn't like it was entirely his fault that he was born with a tall but slender body, unlike his brothers who seemed to have been endowed with muscles from birth even if they most likely exchanged it for some of their brain cells.

Again, it wasn't his fault that children of the Carhan weren't allowed to use anything but the swords in the innermost sanctuary.

If anyone asked he would have instantly sworn that the predecessors who made such a rule years ago already had it out for him even before he was born.

Swords that were about a quarter of any of his brothers overall weight.

How was he to weild something he couldn't even lift?

Without a sword, he instantly became the trash of Blodisfed.

"Are you really going to remain on the floor. Regardless of how useless you are. You're still a Cui," Karh heard the familiar voice of Kon, his first brother speak to him from the entrance.

As quickly as he could, he scrambled to his feet dusting off the bits of dirt that clung to the cloth around his waist, before going ahead to pat his naked chest.

If to the others he could be a quiet human target for their punches, to Kon he had to go a step further and try to please him especially since he was the only reason he was still alive.

Trying to survive in Blodisfed or any other territory for that matter without a sword was an impossible feat, one that he could only beat because of his status as Cui and because of Kon.

Strength and power was the only thing people listened to and the fact that Kon had it in spades wasn't up for debate.

Even before both of Karh's legs had stabilized fully on the ground, he already had a big accommodating smile on his face, as he turned to look at Kon while making sure to bend his head the way Kon liked him to.

"I didn't want to disgrace you anymore than I'd already done,"

"So you know what being under me means,"

Karh could hear his words and the dry tone with which he said them but all he could see at his eye level was the folds of the wrap tied around Kon's waist.

"Follow…" Kon ordered moving inside and Karh had no choice but to instantly obey moving to slide the door closed as he also stepped in.

Lifting his head to move, he had only just stepped in past the entrance when his eyes landed on Kon's head servant who stood in the center of the room holding a familiar bowl in his hand.

'Not again!' Karh groaned in his mind, yet his legs obediently moved forward even before the instructions were given.

It happened at least once a month and had been happening since the day his father brought up the fact that his presence was becoming a nuisance.

"It's better for me to send you to the afterlife," were Carhan's exact words.

The moment Karh got close enough, the servant handed the small bowl in his hands over to him without so much as offering a bow. 

"It's good that you still remain sensible. I already have five brothers to watch out for, I have no intention of allowing you to be the sixth," Kon said but Karh barely heard as almost all of his attention was focused on the brown coloured mixture in the bowl, the main reason he continued to be trash no matter how much he trained.

The first time it was offered he couldn't afford to reject it with his father's decision to separate his head from his body looming over him. But from the moment he accepted, rejecting was no longer an option.

Kon wouldn't hesitate to kill him if he did.

Aware of Kon's fierce gaze on him, he lifted the bowl and swallowed the content all in one go, raising his face up to ensure that the nasty thing he just took remained in his stomach.

After years, he had quickly learned the consequences of throwing it up.

Time slowly flew, as Kon pulled out a seat and settled down on it in front of him like he usually did long enough to ensure that even if he stepped out to throw up, nothing would change.

Finally right as Karh began to feel the effects, Kon dismissed him.

His legs trembled under him, and already every muscle he moved as he walked brought excruciating pain to him.

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'In eight hours the active effects would all be over…' He mumbled to himself, hunched down in pain yet he walked as quickly as he could, knowing that it was only bound to get worse.

The Carhan's house was the biggest in the territory with large walls surrounding it, even if it wasn't needed since the strongest warriors( Karh's brothers) lived in it.

Karh also lived there at the extreme edge of it on the right which was the direction he quickly dragged himself to before his body gave up on him.

Unluckily for him, even  the day was not in his favor.

As he slowly made his way to the back path where the servants usually used, not at all in the mood to see anyone that would worsen his already pathetic situation when he came across his third and fourth brother dueling in the middle of the road completely oblivious to his presence.

Karh knew better. He knew that the moment he saw them he should have scurried out of there faster than he could count the first three numbers in the numbering system, yet he didn't.

The fight was enthralling. The swords in their hands were long and heavy, each a different color, made from a different ground metal yet they held it like it was nothing but an extension of their arms.

Their movements were incredibly fast and heavy that the ground around them shook a little every time they crossed swords with each other.

Some dust fluttered into Karh's eyes yet he continued staring not wanting to blink lest he miss anything.

Nox was his third brother and Froh was his fourth and from what he could see, they seemed evenly matched. But that was until Froh grabbed the black blade in front of him with both hands growling at the top of his lungs as he moved to separate it into two different thin swords.

Instantly he had the upper hand. Slashing both at the same time in opposite directions in a way that Nox instantly found difficult to counter.

"Die!" he screamed and from the killing aura around him Karh knew he meant every word.

Killing wasn't a sin or a crime. It simply meant that the person you killed was too weak to defend the life he had been given.

Nox's expression was grave, as small injuries slowly began to pile up on his body, and he realized that he was slowly being chipped at just until Froh saw an opportunity to finally take his life.

Nox from the beginning hadn't been sparing with his brother to defeat him but to kill him only to find out that he had grown much better since they last fought.

Still, Nox knew that defeat wasn't an option and the only thing that could happen was a draw or a win.

"GraHHH!" he roared, thrusting his sword forward right at the sword in Froh's right arm, using every inch of his energy to parry it in a way that would ensure that it would affect his opponent's right arm, even at the cost of being unable to avoid the one on his left.

"..." the soft whiff of blood dyed the air around him, as Nox looked down to see a deep cut in his left shoulder, one he would have ignored if not that Froh also chose that moment not to attack.

Nox was too distracted to notice but from where he stood watching, Karh wasn't and he noted how heavily the sword in Froh's right hand trembled as he moved to attach both swords back into one.

"The day isn't bright enough for me to use all my energy to fight you so…" but Froh had only just begun speaking when Nox directed his attention to his right just in time to fix his eyes on Karh who had unluckily chosen that exact time to finally hurry off.

"YOU BASTARD! Were you standing there and watching?" Nox screamed, but Karh had already long decided to flee the moment they separated so even before he began yelling he was already hurrying off albeit in a completely different direction than the one he had previously chosen.

Karh didn't hear Froh's voice but the glare he saw directed at him was enough for Karh to see how pissed he was even if it seemed like Froh couldn't find a reason to waste his spit on him.

With the entertaining scene gone, Karh's weakness came back in full and the urge to throw up fell upon him with full force, yet no matter how long he paused and heaved on the road, nothing came out.

'The faster I get to my house, the quicker I'll be able to close my eyes and rest.'

But the thought had only crossed his mind when he felt someone approaching from the side. He paused to look only to instantly regret it. The familiar fear he felt towards all his brothers rising like a tide until it was all he felt at that very moment.

While all his brothers treated him as trash, his sixth brother- Drue, treated him like a ghost. Like someone that existed but so close to death that he wasn't even worth a speck of his energy.

And Karh would be lying if he said he didn't like it that way, especially since out of all his brothers, Drue was the most ruthless and cruel even to his women.

'Pass like you normally do. Pass like you normally do. Pass like you do…' Karh muttered to himself, aware that the day Drue's footsteps stopped to look squarely at him was the day he would suffer a fate worse than death.

He released a deep breath of relief, one he wasn't even aware he held until Drue had passed before Karh began walking again, the pain three times worse than when he left Kon's home.

Karh walked, clenching his fists tightly against the searing pain he felt in his stomach, which somehow felt many times worse than it usually did.

Still he continued walking again after a short break, but he had only just looked up into the distance when he instantly became convinced that the day somehow went out of its way to make his life more miserable, as he spotted his fifth brother walking towards him.

'Don't look pissed. Don't look angry. Take it…Take it like a man that you are. You can do it today as well…Please Karh,' Karh gritted his teeth hard, as he began to recite those familiar words in his mind, as he watched his fifth brother close the distance between them as Karh stood as stiff as a statue.

Unlike the other days when his brain was in tip top shape, Karh could feel the pain begin to affect his logic, which was the last thing he wanted when dealing with Rurt.

"Wow, isn't today my lucky day?" Karh heard Rurt coo and the gag reflex in his throat came back with full force as he felt him tower over him like they all did, more in size than in height.

"Baby…you don't look that well," 

But Karh had only just heard him open his mouth to speak when he felt his thick hard fingers land on his back, moving lower with each second that ticked by.

Usually Karh knew better than to speak back when his brothers spoke to him, especially for Rurt yet the lower his hands wandered, the more unbearable the pain and discomfort became.

"Please not…" he wheezed out but he had only just begun to speak when he jerked in fright as he felt Rurt's hand land against his butt cheek, slapping it heavily through the wrap he wore around his waist before going ahead to squeeze it.

Without concern for whatever he was about to say, he went ahead to do the same to his left butt cheek and it was all Karh could do not to push him off, claw at him and punch him to the ground.

But Karh knew that all he could do was imagine such scenarios until Rurt was done fondling the mess of a body he had.

He tried to hide it and pretend like touching him was all in a bid of power but Karh knew that it wasn't and deep in his eyes was something more.

"You look like you're about to drop so I'm guessing Ron fed you that bloody soup. Get out of my sight now before I change my mind!" he snarled in anger as he watched Karh's legs quiver, his torso bent in a way that showed that he was about to vomit and fall to the ground.

He didn't have to be told twice, bowing his head and body more from pain than anything else, he shuffled away as quickly as he could.

'As long as I don't meet my father waiting for me at home, nothing worse can happen today' Karh mumbled to himself as he stood in front of his house about to enter, only for his gaze to wander to his right where a red light twinkled and slowly descended in the distance just outside the side gate of the Carhan's home, where his small room was.

His first impulse was to ignore it.

I have bigger problems than what appears be a falling red star.

Yet, for some reason he couldn't take his eye off it, as he felt the pain in his stomach dwindle just by staring at it.

The next thing he knew, he found himself leaving through the side gate, and walking towards the strange and slowly descending light.