Kurt

Wind rustling our clothes, high in the Osberg sky, my master bolted trough the skies to his home with me looped in his tether of mana and his wife asleep in his weary arms. We saw no smoke stack but Tarion rushed anyway. My ears hear the stomp of guard boots on the courtyard gravel. Many men are in a hurry.

“Kurt!” Tarion said in the loud wind. “Where!?”

“Underground!” Lands above… “Umbra quarters!” I was tugged by Tarion striding in the sky with all the strength he had left. The tether which connected us faded.

“Tarion.” I held my arms out. “She will be safe.”

He turned back. A tired sigh came from his mouth and in the air, he twisted to give Vanessa over to my protection.

“I forget that I have someone worthy by my side. I have been alone too long.” The moment the duchess’s weight fell on my forearms. The tether vanished. And so did Tarion.

Tarion

Tables on which many umbra ate, the beds many laid in, were smashed as the intruder looked for what information. Maps and plans were torched by fire. Through the Umbra tunnel that my family had kept hidden, everything desecrated, and ransacked like its history meant nothing at all. Fortunately, my brother kept the tunnel’s residents busy in the field or there would be a bloodbath.

“Davis,” Kellen said as we walked a flight of stairs. “Where?”

“T-The long tunnel on the left upstairs. Lord, the Duchess.”

A glare from the cursed man shut the snivelling man's mouth shut. “Patience.”

I looked down, still conscious. I need an opportunity. I hadn’t shown all I had.

Patience.

More walking, following Davis’ directions, we arrived at the promised location.

“The training hall…?” Chrystal lights the circular cave with a blueish light.

“Bloody hell…” Kellen, walking to the middle of the training circle, stared around with wonder.

“All these years. The searching. And you bathe in its light... No clue as to what you train under. Hehe- HAHAHAHA. Father is going to be so pissed.”

His mood flipped in a snap and he pointed at the obsidian monument that names our household’s members were carved into after their untimely demise. “Liuen. A job is open and you are just the woman for the job. Dig it up.”

Zhi crossed her elderly yet strong arms.

“Di-”

Her left arm blurred. A blast of qi lit the room for a moment before hitting the base of the monument. A hole was dug from her qi but the black monument seemed much deeper into the stone than I thought. The Obsidian suffered not one chip or scratch.

“Fellas, I have opened it…What's going on?” A lady’s voice from the stairs coming from the manor. “Lord Joshua… Who?” June. Fuck sake!

“Get away!!”

A liuen in guard uniform sprung into action with a fist imbued with Qi.

I became lightning. Hand on the back of the liuen’s jacket, I yank the fucker away. His fist missed but June was blown away to the steps by the breeze of his strike. The liuen’s right fist backhanded me and training made me slip under. My left found its way deep into his ribs. Lightning charred the Liuen’s insides. A few Guards. Real Osberg ran past with their sword and a clash of steel began.

As the attacker fell blackened, it dawned on me how much I fucked it up. I had given up my chance. I turned back at an uncaring face.

“Your brother got you back on track but see the Wolfburn talent in you.” Kellen turned to Zhi. “Try harder.”

“Tsk. Youngsters.Asking an old lady..." She trailed off her mumbling as she closed her eyes. Sucking in breath, the lights seemed to flicker. Her palms push the air and it rumbles. A sphere of white gaseous light swirled from her hands.

“Stand back, shields up. In this enclosed place, you could get hurt.” Every second it grew, the more it grew, the more seat beaded on my master face.

I pick June up. I see the door to the manor up the stairs. I see my brother's men fighting for their lives. Their lives were snuffed out too easily by Kellen's mist.

Charles. Them dastardly cursed tentacles still curled around him. I must get him free. I erected a shield of mana around me and June. “Stay by me. I didn’t practice this much.” The sphere of qi grew to the size of a head.

A flash of light blinds all. Chunks of rock pelted my shield. The noise disturbed my concentration while I gritted hard with my teeth, repairing each crash. Silence and the mana smashed with a fist caving my stomach inward.

“Joshua!” Cirleless June tried to hit away the liuen but another grabbed her arm and with a chop, she fell asleep.

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“JUNE! I’LL KILL YOU!” Left arm under an elbow and right hand on the forearm, I snapped bones. A lieun howled and lightning discharged from my palm to their chest. I became lightning.

“LET HER GO!!” My lightning hand reached for my enemy and a cursed one caught it. Left right up down. Strikes I couldn't see punched my head in all directions. A pull to the ground caused the beating to end. Kellen glowered above with June carried on an intruder's shoulders. Another hostage…

“Have you learnt yet?”

I spit from a leaking and swollen face. “You know me, Uncle. I don’t learn shit!” I buzzed with power. A flame lit by brother kept burning and now was set ablaze.

A bullet of a mana bounce of a Kellen cursed imbued face. “That the spirit!”

If my jaw didn't hurt like like seven hells, I would be screaming for joy.

Tarion

Rock and debris are everywhere. My men fight theirs. Traces of a strange mask on their face. Murim shapeshift disguises? In my guard uniform. Were they travelling with Kellen the entire way? The clothes fit them well. Had enough time to tailor them. Embedded deep. Are there more? Another time. June, Joshua captured. Charles... gravely injured and captured. Hostages? Why. I looked into the hole. Zhi kneeled exhausted. Monument carried out by qi users. Most are in the Body stage of cultivation.

Kellen pointed at me a new black arm with a smirk. “Attack.”

Like mice under the light, they ran a full sprint. My men charged forward with swords blazing with mana. A Greatsword materialised in my hand and with the tip down, blocked a hard fist of condensed qi. It shook the steel like a drill, vibrating me to my core and causing injuries to hurt again. Another fist came, and my left swooped like a swallow diverting away. Kick to the tip and the greatsword pushed the Qi user’s punch away and then slicing them in two. As it reached the brain, another mana-infused kick to the blade forced the blade to the left and cut down the second attacker by the temple. Mana flew at my head, weaved, and bobbed past more. With one more weave, I lunged through a chest and mana exploded from my blade leaving human remain on the training floor.

Where is he? I looked at the long, ebony monument laying on the floor, chiselled with thousands of name.

Fuck.

FUCK

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

How did they know?!

Another liuen fell to my blade and I noticed a slim man struggling to hold a sickly old witch. “DAVIS! WHEN I GET MY HAND YOU-” I ran into a great shit of fuzzy black. My men slash and stab with all their mana but it doesn’t fall.

“You are concerned about the wrong things.” A flash of blue and turn to see a monument, the culmination of my family history. What we had struggled to safeguard. It disappears in a band of gold with glowing runes.

“Goddamit.” I beat my sword on the shield like a frothing beast.

“I must congratulate you on your victory. Young duke. Surviving a mage’s attack. What genius. It makes me…happy to know the one who killed my brothers is so capable. Makes his death matter more.”

I sliced up behind me and a liuens head split. “KELLEN! COME HERE STAVE OFF YOUR MINIONS AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN.” Davis, holding the witch, grinned as he neared the Wolfburn. Kellen chuckled as black mist wrapped around my brother and Charles.

“Why?” He chuckled while in remembrance. “I understand her words.” He said to himself. “Yes, I will wait. Time makes justice sweeter.”

With a click of his fingers, his group of intruders move through the shield and fall in line around him. Out of a sack, Kellen retrieved two rune-scribbled parchments. They glow softly.

“I am offering you a reprieve. Exhausted and injured from your battle, it would hardly be a battle between men. Well, healthy men.”

“Come…and FIGHT!” my sword felt heavy like on my first day. Legs wobbled as I picked it up for a slash. My tired eyes see his mist tightened around my brother's and Charles's necks. I sank to my knees.

“Good.” He breathed in deep with a joyful smile. “It feels good. Is that how it felt when you cut my brother down? So much control.” One rune parchment burst into fire.

“What…” I tried to stand with my sword. “What did you do!?”

“The original plan,” Kellen spoke with an upbeat tone. “Explosions using a black powder invented in the Far East. Black shade, Desaw, heath, Mistide, Oakley. Mouve. All in flames. It was meant to distract you. But now it's to punish you. You have sowed too much to not reap the consequences.”

“AND ALL THOSE INNOCENTS! MUST THEY SUFFER?!”

“Yes. Because of you.”

My heart beat heavy. Like a powerful, heavy drum it beat in my chest. Kellen’s smile slowly descends.

“Those Greystone eyes…” Kellen held up his new arm charged with cursed electric power.

“Sir!” A Liuen shouted. “The plan! More guards will come!”

Balancing myself on my blade, I shout. “Kill me now when you have the chance! You won't have another like it.” I said. Head ringing. Stinging was all I felt between my ears. Come forward so I can use all my strength to rip your head off.

My taunting proved useless as Kellen brought down his arm with pursed lips. Explosions shake the dust from the ceiling from outside. Anger filled my soul but my mind saw to the future. Wind on my lips and with the last of my mana. I whispered to a friend.

“From within.”

The second rune parchment glowed bright. And a sphere of impossibility covered all intruders including the captured.

“Brother!”

With a weak nod and smile I bid my brother goodbye but not a long one.

“I will get you all back! I promise of my name! On my pride!”

“Don't take so long! Viodens are so rude, haha!” My brother's eyes tearedup as Kellen’s mist covered his mouth.

“Kellen. It ends in Maise.”

“...I am waiting.”

And with a pop, They were gone. I struggled with my sword. A slip and Zhi caught me and pulled up to stand.

Zhi…

“I'm…”

“I know…I know…”

Softly breathing, colour came back to Zhi’s skin.

“Haven’t done that in a while. So…what did they take?”

“A treasure trove of Mana Crystal. The last of them in the world.”

I asked Zhi while she was frozen from the shock of what she just heard.

"I took... I took several pills to travel here. How much more can I take?”

Zhi looked away with resignation on her face. She knew she could not convince me otherwise.

“When your gut stings like wasps, come straight to me.” She tried to smile. “We messed up bad, Huh?”

Several of Charles's stamina and man pills flash from my inventory in my trembling hand. I swallow. Pills and failure.

“More than we can understand.” Circles turned in my heart. “But our people come first. Guards! Move out!”