Chapter 6

SIK SIK SIK

In the forest, near a slow moving river that was slow as a turtle. Flowing south, taking the form of a snake with unlimited length into the horizon, a bloodied yet toned youth was busy cutting down trees with his magic ‘Water Sword’.

‘Water Sword’ is water magic that is materialised into the shape of a sword, with no hilt or handle as it is replaced by the hand. The sword extended out of his hand to 3 metres, but whenever the youth makes a slicing motion at the trees that were 10 or so metres away from him. Suddenly, the trees split apart and slide downwards, to reveal the exquisite and precise cut that was made by the youth despite the distance with an almost inaudible slice sound coming from the pitiful trees.

The youth is the battered and half-dead Kusan; he was in the middle of getting resources needed to make his small makeshift boat.

After cutting three more thick trees, he stopped and then went to gather them into one spot. Next, he sliced them in half and then took out a bundle of vines that was wrapped around his hips. He acquired the vines when along his journey. He then layered the half trees, with the smooth cut end facing up and the round untouched bark tree facing downwards.

Finally, he expertly wrapped the vines around the trees and after a minute, successfully made a 5 x 5-metre boat. He only made it enough just for him and used the smaller cut up trees to be used as a flag pole with the flag woven by vines. It took him 5 minutes to weave a big 3-metre long flag by 1-metre height using vines. He made the flag in his journey as well; he only did this after he found a sufficient amount of vines to bind his boat together.

With the leftover trees, he turned them into boat paddles, when he realised this he forgot about the paddle holder for a boat and made one for them.

Finished, he tested the boat and its durability before putting his faith into the boat by standing atop the boat as it flowed down the river. The river flowed as calm as the dying sky that was leaving the sky. It was calm and the scene of a river flowing with the sun descending down in the horizon gave the people who saw this gave a sense of tranquility and oneness with Mother Nature. In addition, the melodic song of birds and beasts that were greeting one another that they will be going to sleep, it makes one wonder if this really was a monster den and not a normal forest with docile animals.

After 10 minutes of floating and having encountered no difficulty of any kind, he judged it safe enough although it wasn’t his best handiwork at workmanship in regards to boats; nevertheless he sat down in a lotus position and meditated.

He knew the time before the pain will come gushing down and overtaking his sense will come soon. That is why he prepared himself for the pain by meditating, although it won’t completely nullify the pain his body will experience, it is better than experiencing the full brunt and the meditation will numb the pain to a certain extent depending on how advanced one is in meditation.

He knows that there are people who are so advanced in the way of becoming one with nature or nothingness that even if their hearts are pierced and their body being devoured by fire like a swarm of ants, they will act like nothing has happened or even experiencing such excruciating pain that their body is being wracked with that they will continue whatever they were previously doing.

The state is called by experts as ‘Nature’s State’ but it is most commonly known as a ‘Meditation’ by the ignorant. Many people, regardless of whether one is a mage or warrior train in it. For the inexperienced who just meditate, thinking that by closing their eyes they would advance to the same level as their teacher or instructor. However, for the experienced person, he or she will notice a minuscule scale of improvement in regards to the mental fortitude.

Although minuscule in the scale of improvement, it nevertheless increases the strength of the mental fortitude by leaps and bounds. With the improvement of the mind, comes the stronger power and strain that the mind might come under from a fight, regardless whether one is a mage or a warrior as the mind is crucial to both professions.

The warrior because with a stronger mind, means a faster reaction time and clearer state of thinking when put under pressure and for mages, it lessen the burden when they chant spells, thereby increasing the amount of spells that one can cast as their spells are tied to how strong their mental strength is.

But many people take it for granted; therefore it was easy to find the difference between a real expert and a fake expert by their attitude. This is the reason why real experts are very aloof and detached by any mortal possession and emotions of any kind compared to the common experts, although there are exceptions.

Kusan having been training in meditation for 8 years, he still wasn’t at the level of advancement that would make him not feel pain once he enters the state of nothingness. If he had to gauge his strength and how advanced, it would be 10% advanced in regards to his meditation level.

Before he could fully immerse himself into the meditation, he suddenly got hit by a powerful force that not only was he affected, even the river itself that was originally tranquil and peaceful to turn into a raging river as if like a dragon has been rudely woken up by adventurers aiming for its life. With the river, shooting into the sky before it curled up into a river version of a tsunami.

The affect the unknown force that struck Kusan before he could even detect it despite being on full alert was large, he felt like he was struck by a ton weight hammer that smashed all over the entire back part of his body. Since he was already badly injured in the first place, it wasn’t surprising that he naturally spurted out the blood from various part of his body besides his bloodless arm.

Luckily the pill still had 30 minutes of effect time before it expired, so he didn’t experience any pain but he was having a hard time to move his body because it was like his strength in his body was sapped from him like a leech when he was hit by the mysterious force.

After having been tempered through many battles that gave him rich experiences, he didn’t dawdle as he shot the last minute energy that he gathered through his legs, and then exploded it at the sole of his feet. Shooting him through the small rain formed by the river tsunami before it engulfed his make-shift boat that crunched it into splinters.

Kusan landed softly like a grasshopper, and knelt down because of the lack of strength he had. Blood spurted out from various parts of his body, dying the very ground he was in, in blood. His face went even paler by the minute, he didn’t care about that and turned to look behind him, trying to find out who exactly hit him from behind.

What he doesn’t get is why he is even alive in the first place?

Normally, when someone attacks someone from behind, they won’t just stand there and let their target to regain their bearings and follow up on their surprise attack. That is something he would have done, however this was different as he hasn’t encountered any life-threatening attacks besides that powerful attack that struck him faster than he could detect or his body’s instinctive nature to act. For something to hit him and not be able to be picked up by him meant that his opponent was an especially fierce and lethal speed warrior or possibly a lightening mage as they are considered the fastest alongside the light magic in terms of magical speed.

Even then, it wasn’t guaranteed that they could escape his detection unless its either one of the two, a Saint or a late stage 9th ranked. The first would be tossed aside as Saints, deemed killing mortals beneath them unless you somehow angered them like what was written down in history. However, he can toss that aside because he doesn’t remember angering a Saint, and they can never be hired as assassin because mortal possession is beyond them like monetary values and whatnot.

So that leaves only an expert 9th ranked warrior or mage assassin type, since they could be hired but the cost to hire them is an exorbitant amount of money, so much that a small kingdom entire year worth of income would only cover about half the cost to hire them. From this, one can see just how high priced they are and it gives Kusan a better grasp of the real mastermind. Now his suspect of noble pricks he pissed off has been reduced to one, the second crown prince.

He is confident it is second crown prince since he has the wealth to hire 9th ranked assassins or he is using his bodyguards to take care of him. The other nobles that were put out of the equation are powerful nobles, but not enough to hire 9th ranked warrior or mage unless they use their 9th ranked guards but it’ll be noticeable to everyone that they have one less bodyguard for the day and it won’t take a complete genius to link his death to the disappearance of a 9th ranked bodyguard without a legit reason. Unless it’s a joint hire between them but knowing the nobles very nature, he dismissed it as they are a bunch of prideful idiots.

With this in mind, only the second crown prince came into his mind.

‘I see, so the prince thinks he can kill me eh?

Wait till I survive this you little shit, when I come back you’d best prepare your grave shrimp.’

Kusan searched around, after a minute of scanning, he couldn’t find any trace of anything abnormal other than the fact that all the monsters in the vicinity are running towards the outer region of the forest. This puzzled him before he saw the sky acting strange, as if though it was moving like a living being before the ground rumbled below him. Before he could register what exactly is happening, he felt himself being engulfed by an invisible magma that suddenly appeared.

He instinctively screamed but it was soundless, or he couldn’t hear it. He couldn’t do anything but screamed, no matter how high his pain resistance was or the pain dampener pill, it was nothing like ever before. His body tissue was peeling off him before it was completely ripped off and disintegrated into nothing, revealing the under laying veins and red muscles all over his body. This action gave him a searing hot feeling of being burned alive that made the 6th ranked fireball look like a small raindrop compared to how much pain it brings in comparison.

His bloodless arm rapidly dissolved and before he knew it, it was gone. His mind was already occupied by the searing magma pain that he didn’t notice not only his arm disappeared but his legs also dissolved into nothing while he was hovering there.

He couldn’t even think that was how bad the pain was before blackness blanketed his entire vision.

++++++++++++++++++++

The surviving Saints, along with Kenji and Kelly facing off. Both shook hands and as if by tacit understanding between the two, flew away along with their surviving Saints with the green robed following behind Kenji while the ones in normal tattered attires following behind Kelly, with Kenji flying in the direction of his Dojo and Kelly flying in the direction that would lead her towards the centre of the forest.

The air above the Saints were dominated by gloomy atmosphere, it was so dense in the gloominess that even a happy-go-lucky person couldn’t help but be gloomy if he even took a single glance at the flying Saints.

“We finally avenged our loved ones.”

One brave soul spoke out, trying to dispel the gloominess.

“Yes but what now?”

Another asked he couldn’t help but retort harshly despite the seemingly harmless gesture the brave Saint made.

Excluding Kenji all of the surviving Saints and those who are dead, only trained intensely to reach the Saint rank because of an incident that happened 300 years ago. All of it was instigated by the very skeleton that they have finally slain. The incident was so bad that it caused the deaths of millions upon millions of death, which included many relatives of the Saints.

Having trained so hard just for today, the day they could slay him with a belly full of vengeance. Ready to unleash their 300 year old vengeance upon him but most felt helpless before him, despite reaching the Saint rank, none could even get close to him except two people, Kenji and Kelly who are considered two of the most powerful beings in the Saint world.

It was like training to win against a giant lizard but it turned out it was an actual dragon that was hundreds of times stronger than it previously were assumed. It frustrated them that despite their training they could do nothing before the very person they all wanted to exact their vengeance on, considering he only unleashed a spell to deal with them and this not only insulted them but also awoke them to the reality of how vast their power difference was.

They were all conflicted between victory and helplessness; victory because their hated enemy is finally dead and helpless because of how weak they really were, this was the source of their gloom.

Kenji as if knowing what his disciples are going through and the fact that he knew about their vengeance decided to speak up before the depression fully set into them or else it will destroy all his effort of cultivating these disciples to advance further than even himself.

For seeing a disciple to surpass the teacher is one of the teacher’s greatest enjoyments in knowing that they have found a priceless gem.

“My disciples.”

Every single disciple that had thoughts of escalating the small conversation beyond what it should, went quiet upon hearing their Master speak, even the ones that were sinking ever deeper in depression couldn’t help but temporally awoke from stupor and look at their Master.

“Many of you have experienced pain beyond anything, the only ones who can imagine such pain is only us, including me.

Not many know but I was also a casualty of that war centuries ago. Many thought I was just a powerful person who didn’t know the pain you all had contained within yourself. But did any every think on why I was there when you needed someone powerful to rely on?

I know some of you harboured thoughts that I was actually in league with him and secretly thought about assassinating me the moment I turned on you, aren’t I right?”

Kenji swept the 1,241 survivors with a piercing gaze, some flinch under his watch, clearly showing that they were one of them and this didn’t escape the keen watches of other nearby Saints who weren’t guilty of such action.

“What! Brother you actually thought Master was a treacherous bastard.

Just how low do you think of Master!”

Although the one yelling at the one that involuntarily flinched under Kenji gaze, both were closer to each other like blood brothers but one couldn’t believe his brother doubted who has weathered through centuries just to train them up for the task of killing there one and only enemy.

Not only them, even the others were shocked at their brothers and sisters who had been through hell and back and the only one to make them feel their lost parental love that, despite not being a real one, was better than feeling neglected until they matured. All the Saints were close as siblings despite not being blood related and some were even in a relationship when they reached a certain age.

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So many were angry at them, not believing how they could doubt their Master who has been there for them from their child days to the day they entered the Saint level, improving the power of the Dojo and to the day where they finally saw their number one enemy they all hated down to their very bones.

One spoke out, who was one of the ones that harboured ill-intent against their Master.

“But it was because it has been 300 years since then and only today was it that we finally managed to kill him for the last time.

I mean, is it really hard to sense him out? With Master’s power—“

A feminine voice cut the man off.

“Master may be powerful but he isn’t omnipotent, the skeleton was stronger than our Master by a league. This is evident by the fact that we needed her to help Master in dealing with him.

It’s like comparing an early stage Saint to a late stage Saint, how do you suppose one can detect him? You are more ignorant than I thought despite being alive for more than 300 years.”

She snorted, clearly conveying the disdain she held towards the man and his band of traitors.

“I—“

The man couldn’t refute the lady’s argument because what she said made perfect sense and somehow that common sense evaded him and his fellow conspirators.

If an enemy detector was a Master and he was being tracked by an amateur who was the hunter, there is no doubt that it would take ages for the amateur to find the Master detector, even then it isn’t guaranteed that he would even be able to find him considering the disparity of experience and level of skills. So it isn’t surprising to know that it took centuries just to find the skeleton who was a very powerful enemy that surpassed even Kenji himself.

With the sudden realisation that their Master was actually weaker than the skeleton, most of them immediately dispelled the thoughts of betraying their Master, however a small pocket of them still harboured ill-intent towards Kenji because their hatred of him has been firmly embedded inside their souls. In short, for them to dispel such notion is akin to them taking their own lives, only time will tell whether this soul deep hatred will either slowly disintegrated into nothing with time or increase further if left unchecked. Despite that, they all remained quiet and followed behind Kenji like children following their parents, with heads hanging down and very vulnerable for their guard is non-existent.

This is something Kenji knew and he had to rid those before they sprout by covert means, even if they are his disciples, that doesn’t mean he will allow a cub that will eventually be a fearsome and untamed tiger still be within his ‘children’. He has seen much more than they have and he has made many hard choices, including killing his own families just so he can live, however that is a story for another time.

Before he could fully map out plans to uproot these ungrateful children of his, he suddenly sensed something familiar up ahead. He couldn’t quite put a finger on it but he knew he should not dismiss this aura up ahead or he had a feeling he would regret it.

With the nagging feeling pervading his mind, along with the unease, he couldn’t help but slow down once he neared the source. He looked down, trees looked like they were pushed back that permanently made them slant at an angle and the side of the river was muddy, showing signs of the river splashing everywhere.

Clearly the after-effect of their battle was far-reaching despite it not being as bad as the centre of the battlefield.

He didn’t care about the scenery and looked at the aura that gave him a nagging feeling despite it being very weak. The disciples behind him saw that he stopped, also stopped and looked at their Master confused.

Many were wondering why he stopped all of a sudden and one person was about to voice the hidden question that they all had, why did he stop for, before he could ask, what happened next made them even more confused.

“KUSAN.”

Kenji immediately rushed towards a greatly deformed body and knelt next to it, besides the legs and arms that were missing, his body was still there and the aura it exuded is weak considering the state it is in. However, its current state was gruesome; it was human yet not human. The aura is human but the appearance of the body wasn’t.

The appearance of the body, besides missing the limbs, is bloody with no skin to hide the muscles and veins of the body. Red blood slowly seeped out from the teared muscles and arteries that are dangling out from where it used to be connected to the limbs. Half the skin and muscles on the face were gone, showing small traces of the skull at the jaw, forehead and cheeks.

The chest area, if whatever hit it had been a little bit more, it would no doubt easily rip through the small thin transparent layer of skin that couldn’t hide the lungs and heart beating erratically, thereby ending the poor soul’s life from its last dying moments.

The deformed human looked like he was skinned alive, but the most surprising thing is that he is actually alive. The body is Kusan, the person Kenji recognised after scrutinising the aura more closely.

Most of the disciples, who saw Kusan’s current state and the fact that he is still alive, made many vomit from such a sight and their train of thought about how much pain Kusan has been through. Others couldn’t help but faint, where a small majority tried hard to stop vomiting before their resistance failed.

Even though the path of attaining Saint was a ruthless path, not one of them were so ruthless and malicious enough to skin and even keep their target alive, this made them pale in comparison of how they deal with their enemies and how the enemy dealt with one of their own.

They do not know who Kusan is but since Kenji addressed the poor soul as such, they figured he is a part of the Dojo because Kenji does not care about anyone weaker than Saint unless they’re from his Dojo.

Kenji is frantic about the state Kusan was currently in, although Kusan has been through many ordeals including near deaths. It was at least manageable and he always made it back one way or another, but this time Kusan was actually so near death’s door that a single touch would automatically send Kusan to the Netherworld.

The reason for his panic despite being experienced and how he didn’t react to the fact that many of his disciples death, is due to the relationship Kusan had with his daughter. Although he is fiercely protective of his daughter like any normal father would, since Kusan showed no interest in her he was conflicted between happiness and anger. Happy at the fact that his daughter would not be ‘corrupted’ whereas the anger is because he couldn’t take it how his daughter, despite being beautiful and openly showing affection didn’t catch his eye.

So if his daughter learned that Kusan died, normally he wouldn’t mind as he wouldn’t get to see his daughter leave him. However, if she learned that not only did Kusan die, he even died under Kenji’s watch, there is no doubt that not only will he be hated, he might even be killed by her, or worst case he kills his daughter and that is something he never wishes to experience ever again.

To see a child that you have cherished so much, only for one certain event to change everything, from a loving child to a child filled with hatred towards you, the parent. And to be killed by your own child is, from a parent’s point of view, the greatest regret as they wished to see their child live blissfully and still love towards one’s parent whom they will never experience, all because they did something wrong.

In addition, to speak about a parent killing their own child is tantamount to committing suicide. Even Kenji was no different as he himself, is a father at heart despite many years of experiencing hell and back and killing his own child is millions of times harder than facing an army of Saint alone.

So without hesitation, he turned around and sent a message through Saint Sense to two of his disciples.

‘You two, heal this boy now.’

The lady and man nodded and chanted a light spell ‘Heal’ on Kusan. With their 300 years of training, along with them being Saint Level, to heal Kusan is but a simple matter to them. If it were anyone below the Saint level then there is a chance that it would fail to save the man’s life. However, it has been some time since Kusan has been injured to this degree and living is already a miracle, and whether healing him will save him will work depends on luck, by reason of the spell only saving his body and not his soul.

Without the soul, Kusan will already be considered dead even if his body was fully healed and so this situation is already a gamble on whether they can save him in time or not.

That is something both light mage knew and the reason for their hesitation and Kenji’s fast reaction to Kusan’s condition.

Kenji calmed down and suddenly he felt the killing intent that he felt from amongst his disciples spike even higher, this is the reason why he brought up the fact that he knew about some traitors were because their hidden killing intent that were directed at him didn’t escape his notice. Despite his disciples being with him for 300 years and learning how to conceal their killing intent, all that hard work is nothing before him because his experience is vaster in terms of hiding and detecting killing intent.

With the spike, Kenji instantly went from a gloomy mood to a panic mood.

It was subtle but under the eyes of his disciples, who harboured ill-intent towards Kenji and having known him for centuries, could pick up the subtle action and with just a thought. The leader of the small band of hidden traitors that were professional enough to not give themselves away when most of the weaker traitors flinched, which made everyone knew who most of the traitors were, spoke through Saint Sense.

‘NOW!’

All 25 Saints disciples swiftly went straight for every single vital part of the human body that would spell death for anyone, at the back of Kenji. This action was swift and deadly, and so the other disciples were too slow to react but even so, none of them thought that they harboured thoughts about killing their Master until they were almost upon Kenji and brought their weapons out. All the disciples who saw this instantly paled and were incensed at how they could do that to their Master.

Just as all the disciples various weapons were a hair’s length away from cutting those vital points on himself, Kenji stopped moving and instantly thousands of small ball of water, the size of a tennis ball, blast from his naked back towards each Saint.

Combined with the Saints swift speed and close proximity with Kenji’s back, and the speed of the water that shot towards them, this made them unable to react to the surprise attack that their Master made, on account that they were supposed to be the one doing the surprise attack.

The water ball is called ‘Moisture’ because it can form water from thin air that is rich with moisture but unseen from the eyes. The way Kenji used it isn’t exactly how it is used but if one learned how to utilise a spell, they could do more than the magic spell was originally supposed to be used as.

Most didn’t even register the fact that they were under a counter-attack while attacking, with only a select few with fast reaction saw the counter-attack but unfortunately it was already too late considering the speed they were going at and the counter-attack is going as well.

So without any resistance from the Saints, the water ball smashed and disappeared directly into their body. Immediately the disciples turned into a mummified and dried version of themselves, it was as if there was no moisture in their body. In the next moment, a large water size version of the human body shot out from the backs of the Saints and without waiting, materialised into a giant blade and swiftly sliced the disciples into small pieces, like a chef dicing up tomatoes.

This all happened in an instant from Kenji’s intentional subtle action of panicking to slicing up his disciples like nothing. His surviving disciples, turned from anger at their traitorous comrades, with some showing dread to a stupefied look. Never would they have thought, he would react faster than the traitorous disciples were but that wasn’t the main reason for their stupor. It was how he dealt with them, without a word, he faced them like he would face an enemy, kill them instantly despite the 300 year old bond he held with them.

Many shuddered at their Master’s merciless action but when they thought deeper, they guessed that their Master has already prepared for such a scenario and for him to make this action is to show them that even if they are his disciples, he isn’t lenient enough to let them off. Even so, they also knew that their Master although appearing cold and ruthless, knew deep down below that exterior he is crying because his disciples are like children to him.

How wrong they could be, Kenji already knew about who were the bad disciples and so, early on cut off his feelings for them. So in the end, he didn’t give a damn about any of the disciples he killed.

With killing all 25 disciples that couldn’t be swayed back into his embrace, Kenji stood up after seeing Kusan has fully regenerated. Although fully healed, the matter about whether Kusan will live is another story and he knew better than to blame his two light mage disciples about their uselessness. He carried Kusan’s body and flew off in the distance with all his disciples in tow except one.

One disciple was left behind; he was entrusted by Kenji to dispose of the traitorous disciples’ body before he leaves.

This disciple is one of Kenji’s most trusted disciples, Kain. Therefore it was his job to do something that will show his loyalty to his Master, he neatly stacked the dead bodies and sighed. He never knew that in his life, he would bury two of his close friends because of their stupidity and died for it. He didn’t have the guts to incinerate them and decided to just bury them deeply into the ground.

He stamped his feet into the ground and a 90 metres deep rectangular hole appeared in front of his feet. He looked at the stacked bodies, the earth rumbled under the bodies before it tipped the bodies into the hole like trash being slid down the rubbish bin before the bodies landed with a faint thud. The hole instantly disappeared just as fast as it appeared and Kain flew away.

‘May peace be with you, my brothers.’

He flew with a melancholy mood but he didn’t dare get angry at his Master, because what his Master did is correct and he flew away into the night sky, under the gaze of the silvery moon that exuded tranquillity.

Little did he realise this would indirectly help someone who would not only shake the world, but also be the…..