What does it mean to be truly strong?

A hero said it is to save the princess.

A father said it is to protect his family.

A young boy said it is to live up to the expectations.

What does strength imply? What is its purpose?

Different people may have a different view on strength. Even for myself.

Strength is something I already abandoned long ago. I used to pursue strength and it was the only thing I have in mind back then. Ironically, when I abandoned it long ago, I felt that I was stronger than before. My idea of strength back then was dragging me down and was doing more harm than good.

After I stopped pursuing strength, my mind and body suddenly felt light. I don’t have to be chained in the never-ending cycle of pursuing strength. For just once, I felt that I really wanted to do something. That I don’t have to be tied down to my family.

However, reality betrayed my newly found life. In this world, strength is everything. The weak don’t have the right to comply. They don’t have the freedom to pursue what they want. Only the strong have the capabilities to hold their dreams. If you don’t have the courage and strength to protect your dreams, reality will kick you down.

In this world, the weak ones are gobbled up. They are used as a stepping stone for the stronger ones to be stronger. In the end, only the strong ones can stand firm and talk about his dreams. Reality is indeed cruel.

***

Two shadows flew at a rapid pace. If one does not react fast enough, he may not see clearly what is going on at the moment. Even more so for normal humans, even if they walk across the land, they may not notice that something is happening right before their own eyes.

I went and attack my eldest brother whenever I got the chance. However, things aren’t exactly going my way. Every attack that I sent towards my brother either gets blocked or dodged. There are also some instances that he counterattacks. After a couple of exchanges, I’m already at a complete disadvantage.

Even with the huge power boost that I received from the dark energy forced on me by the black wolf, I still can’t hold my own towards my eldest brother. He is on a whole new different level. The alpha, my eldest brother, is a genuine strong person. He isn’t like Lance over there that has to rely on connections and schemes to get into where he is right now.

He trains his body a lot, and unlike my parent’s attitude, he isn’t someone who is unjust towards his own family. The only thing I hate about him is that he is too strict and upright on his own virtues and morals.

Compared to me, my eldest brother is worthy of obtaining the title and responsibility of the alpha wolf on the pack.

Knowing that I still went and engage in a head-on fight with him. I want to test the limits of my new power. I can also escape if things get too tough for me to handle. My biggest question I have at the moment is where will I go? Well, things will handle themselves later. For now, I need to focus on this fight first.

The alpha kept pressuring me more and more and I kept dodging. At first, I can still attack for a bit whenever there’s a chance but at the moment, I cannot see an opening that will give me a chance to counterattack. His attacks are also getting more and more vicious as time goes on.

So this is the alpha wolf. The vision I saw earlier suddenly flashed on my mind. The scene where the jet black wolf used its dark energy surrounding its body to harm the opponent and wear him out slowly.

I utilized my dark energy to be denser around my body. I also focused on the area where my brother attacks so even though I do get hit, there will be drawbacks in doing so since there’s a thick layer of dark energy surrounding my body.

Seemingly noticing the subtle changes on my body, my eldest brother stopped attacking and pulled back a few meters away from me. He stopped moving and observed me for a while. I stopped moving as well to recover some stamina.

His senses are sharp as always. He noticed almost immediately after I deployed the dark energy around my body.

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“Relying on something as petty as dark magic. You’ve changed Kane.” After a while, my eldest brother was the first one to speak.

“Petty?” I laughed after hearing those words. “It doesn’t matter if it’s petty. After I destroy the whole world, nothing will question whether this power is petty or not. None of that matters to me anymore.”

“I see.” He further furrowed his brows, deep in thought. “I thought that I could still save you but if the dark energy already infiltrated your body deep enough for you to have those thoughts, then I guess there’s nothing I can do for you anymore other than to stop you with my own hands.”

After speaking those words, a bright light suddenly covered his whole body. The light was so bright that it illuminated the whole area. I unconsciously stepped back a bit and averted my gaze since staring at him directly seems impossible.

“What’s that?” I’m not really sure if he will answer my question. Revealing my your trump card to others isn’t exactly a bright idea.

“It’s holy magic. It’s specifically used to counter dark magic like yours.” I see. So he knew how to deal with this kind of situations. Is holy magic that common? Up until now, I haven’t had the slightest idea that it exists. Maybe because he is the alpha wolf that he knows this kind of magic.

Seeing that his holy magic is much stronger than my dark energy. I started having thoughts of escaping. However, escaping from my eldest brother, the alpha wolf, isn’t something easy to do. It would be just as hard as defeating him in the battle itself. However, seeing that he has magic that can counter my own magic, winning against him is deemed impossible.

There’s a chance on escaping, however, but it will be hard. Things will not go the same as the vision since my eldest brother obviously isn’t worn out unlike the opponent on the vision. Escaping an alpha wolf covered with anti-dark magic will be tough.

Seeing hesitation in my actions, my eldest brother started to attack. I quickly dodge the attack knowing that even a scratch will be fatal especially if holy magic is involved. Taking advantage of the difference in the type of magic, my eldest brother attacked more fiercely and quicker giving me a huge pressure.

I focused my whole attention to dodging the attacks and observing his movements, looking for an opening I can use to make a run for it. Unfortunately, this guy isn’t the alpha wolf for nothing. He didn’t leave me any openings that I can take advantage of. He also attacked quicker to build the pressure up making it harder for me to dodge. And he doesn’t seem to be wearing out so I’m guessing that he can keep this up for a good while.

My stamina is starting to reach its limit. I also started to take hits from my eldest brother attacks. Each hit was hard and it also dissipates the dark energy around my body. As time went on, I’m starting to have a hard time moving my body. Maybe being hit with holy energy can affect my body more than what I anticipated it to be.

“I should be ending this. I’m sorry that I cannot save you anymore, little brother.” My eldest brother said that as he increases his speed of attacks. This time, I cannot dodge his attacks anymore. I can only defend, hoping that it will make his attacks less effective.

Each attack was hard and it penetrates my defenses easily. I gritted my teeth and received the attacks one after another. I can taste the blood on my mouth right now. It was a painful experience. Still, I didn’t give up, I keep pulling away from him even knowing that it’s useless. There may come a time that he would put his guard down and that maybe my chance to escape.

I collapsed on the ground. My whole body was in pain and I cannot move my body anymore. I refuse to accept that this is the end but my body isn’t listening to me anymore.

“You are one tough creature. It took a while for the holy magic to take effect on you. The dark energy inside you was deeper than I thought. I guess it’s not surprising seeing you in that state.” My eldest brother looked down on me on the ground. I glared back at him, refusing to accept that he defeated me already.

Seeing my glare, my eldest brother snorted. “Hmp, even if you stare at me like that, it won’t change anything. This will be your last stop Kane, I cannot have you in the family seeing you corrupted with dark energy.”

I forced my body to move but it betrayed my expectations. Maybe it’s just as he said, holy energy is already restricting my movements from the inside. I don’t want it to end like this. All the talk earlier, dying aside, my pride will be utterly shattered in pieces. While lamenting at my own weakness, I suddenly heard a voice from afar.

“Master!!” I managed to squeeze a little bit of strength to turn my head towards the source of the voice. It was Bel. She was slowly crawling towards me. She was obviously injured but she kept dragging her injured body towards me.

“The head maid’s daughter, stay out of this since you are innocent, I don’t want to harm you. You are better of staying at the sidelines, I’ll finish this quickly.”

“NO!!” Bel screamed and crawled towards the side of my body. The throbbing pain on my head reappeared seeing Bel.

“Stay away from me!” I shunned her away. I feel like this girl is dangerous. She makes me feel something unknown. My head always hurt whenever she is near.

“Master, where is Master? What have you done to him?” I didn’t reply since my head is madly throbbing and I cannot push her away since I cannot move my body anymore. She kept shaking me, begging me for answers while crying.

Stop it. My head hurts. I cannot bear this anymore.

“I see. If you wish to die by his side then so be it.” Seeing him raised his arms to launch an attack towards both of us, I felt uneasy inside. My rage plummeted. Pride? I don’t care about that anymore. Since when did I care about what they think?

‘I don’t want him to hurt Bel.’ That was the voice inside of me said.

And I answered that voice. I transformed back into my wolf form. This time, I was a jet black wolf.