After taking a breath, Cole says, “You know you’re really messing up my plan here, after all that effort I made to make sure you, Orb, and Maple were left alone, you come and do this, YOU FUCKING IDIOT.”
“COLE, ANSWER MY QUESTION!”
“Ok then, for money, simply as that, everything from the village will all fetch a high price, there is your answer.”
Enraged, Sequoia says, “So you destroyed our village for money.”
“Basically.”
“Even after everything we did for you, this is how you repay us, by destroying our village and selling us off. I swear, even if God forgives this transgression, I will not.”
“That’s your fault for not sticking to your principles.”
“What.”
“You believe the outside world is dangerous, yet you decided to curve your principles to look after Orb and me. You invited danger into this village. No one else, all my actions here are your fault and yours alone.
You wouldn’t know this since you don’t cook, but it was rather easy to put lots of different types of drugs into the food: muscle relaxants and anaesthetics did the job on everyone. The food smell even covered up most of the drug smell. All this I could do because you didn’t stick to your principles. This is no one’s fault but your Sequoia.”
Sequoia enraged charges at me.
Well, you killing me right now would quite literally be the definition of justice, so I shouldn’t complain about that, but I still have things to do. So as Sequoia’s fist comes towards me, I catch it, but he then spins his body and kicks me right in the neck, saying.
“That should settle it.”
“Don’t know about that?” I say in response as I throw his body away.
As Sequoia lands, he is dumbfounded about how I was unaffected by his kick. As he tries to assess what happened, he hears me say.
“If you’re wondering how I am still alive, it is spirit arts.”
“Spirit arts?”
“It is the use of Spirit energy produced by the soul to strengthen one’s body. So, to put it simply, right now, you can’t beat me Sequoia.”
Φ His body is so hard my attacks won't phase him. What am I supposed to do? No Sequoia, there is too much riding on this, it doesn’t matter how much stronger he has become you can still win, every opponent has a weak point. So, I come in close to attack him.
Φ It seems my bluff didn’t detract him; I was hoping to break his spirit since he is still using spirit energy although an unconscious variation. The people of this village have trained to such an extent that they can use it without any formal training, so I got to crush Sequoia fast, before he figures something out, him giving up would have been preferred though.
So, using spirit energy to move as quickly as possible, I dash towards him and punch at full force, but he moves back in time as my fist crashes into the ground, so I run forward and come at him with all my power and speed, but using my body weight against me he deflects all my blows.
Is he mad? If his precision is off even a little, I will crush him. Still, all those parries should be taking a lot of focus and stamina. I should throw in something he doesn’t expect, so I use all my strength to smash the ground beneath me, throwing Sequoia off his balance and giving me an opening. Hence, I punch him trying to make an impact, but when my arm reaches him, he grabs it and then uses it to jump behind me.
Like me, people who intend to use spirit energy can sense others’ spirit energy regardless of whether the person using it can consciously control it or not.
So as Sequoia is behind me, I don’t even need to turn around to know he is going to kick me on the back of the head, so I send all my spiritual energy to the point he is going to strike me, negating all damage it would cause.
Sequoia then moves back, but giving him no time to get a foothold, I dash forward and keep up the attacks. This is good Sequoia is struggling to stop my attacks, while I can quickly stop his by reading his spirit energy. If this goes on, I will eventually be able to put a stop to him.
So, as we continue to go back and forth, I see that Sequoia spirit energy has ceased. He must of reach his limit, so I strike. Still, he barely dodges while countering with a kick to my temple, right before the blow lands he starts using spirit energy, so I immediately send spirit energy to my head. Still, I feel his fist in my stomach, which he infused with spiritual energy at the moment of impact. The blow sends me flying back.
I can't read his movements if he only uses spirit energy at the moment of impact. Even when drugged, I still am having so much trouble, “What the hell is wrong with you, is there even a need to be strong while living in this village.”
Sequoia continued his assault, not answering my question, hitting me in weak spots across my entire body. If this goes on, I am going to lose. I didn’t want to do this, but I had no choice.
“Your wife was curable”, Sequoia ignoring my words, he continues his attack. “The purple grip was the name of the disease that ran rampant in this village. It ran rampant in the outside world, but a cure was found, so Maple’s blame was correct. Your wife could be saved.” His movement got slightly more aggressive.
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My words are affecting him “Sequoia, the cure for it can be made with plants around the village and forest. Isn’t it that hilarious that the way to save your wife was in your backyard, but you were too stupid and killed her instead.” My words cause Sequoia to stop in motion if only slightly; this is my opening, so I strike him with all I got.
-Break-
Φ I should almost be at Sequoia now that his scent is getting stronger. I hope he is all right since his body isn’t at full strength. As I think this, I feel a rustling on my back; it seems Maple is waking up.
As she awakes, she looks down at me and says, “Good morning, Orb.”
“Good morning, Maple.”
“Hey, where are we?”
“Currently in the forest.”
“Why?”
“Oh, because everyone in the village has been kidnapped, and everything else has been stolen.” I say with a bright smile.
“I see. WAIT REALLY? Did they take Willow!”
“Yes, to my knowledge, except me, you and Sequoia, everyone else was taken.”
“This is bad. We must get them back,” she says while pulling my hair.
“I know that’s why we’re going to meet up with your dad and formulate a plan to get them. We must act fast since I don’t know how much ground they have covered.”
I feel Maple shaking on my back. “Don’t worry, we will get everyone back flat, including your husband.”
“I am not worried, and what do you mean by that Orb,” she says as she pulls my cheeks.
I pick up on something “Maple; I think where almost there, Sequoia should be just down here,” after saying this, I start jumping lower and lower on each tree till I eventually see the bottom with Sequoia standing up.
“DAD, WE HAVE ARRIVED!”
But Sequoia didn’t respond to Maples’s words. He just fell from his standing position to the ground, and in front of him, we saw Cole.
When Cole sees us, he covers his face with his hand and then violently scratches his head. He then looks up and screams, “IS IT FUN TO PLAY WITH ME LIKE THIS?” He then kicks Sequoia’s body over to us I catch it.
“Sequoia are you ok?” is what I say, but looking down at his body, I see a significant dent in his chest where blood is leaking from.
“Dad comes on, wake up,” Maple says as she shakes his body.
“Don’t waste your breath. I crushed his heart with the last blow.”
“You what,” I say, shaken by his words.
“DAD, WAKE UP,” Maple says as she violently shakes his body while crying “no, no, no, no, dad, comes on, please don’t leave me.”
“Don’t worry; you will meet him soon, after all that effort I went to save the people who saved my life, this is how it turns out comical, isn’t it.”
Enraged by his words, I lunge toward him using my legacy on my legs and hands. I cut his check as he dodges to the left. After landing, I change my direction and come at him again, but he moves backwards. Using my hand after missing my last attack, I redirect my body into the air above him, then I move my body in a circular motion and land another cut on him with my foot.
Φ Orb doesn’t use any spirit energy. That speed and strength are purely physical, so I can’t read his movement. This shouldn’t be possible. He ate lots of food yesterday. He should still feel the effect, wait his body has taken on properties similar to his legacy. He probably has some sort of poison resistance . I have no choice but to resort to the same tactics.
“You’re probably wondering how a person like me beat Sequoia. Well, it was simple. All it had to do was tell him that he could have cured his wife with plants, for around the village, it stopped him right in his tracks. You should have seen the face he made.”
Orb becomes even angrier as he is about to attack me. Yes, but I need him to become irrational to land a killing blow. So, as he is about to come at me, Orb stops himself and turns off his legacy.
“Why are you doing this, Cole?”
Huh, is he really “Right now I am trying to kill you, and you think this is a good time to ask me questions? You are strange, but I guess I will humour you, for money short and simple.”
“Over this last year, I have kept an extremely close eye on you to ensure you were not a bad person. I was spying on you multiple times without you knowing. Nothing I had seen then suggested you were this horrible, so tell me, why are you doing this.”
“The reason you can’t accept my action is your hubris, yo-”
“COLE!” Orb shouts, cutting me off. “If there is one thing I can take pride in, it is that I am rather good at reading people, so I can say with all my heart you didn’t do this for any evil reason, so please tell me what’s wrong and if I can help.”
“You want to help even though I killed Sequoia?”
“Yes, but I plan to punish you severely for that.”
Relaxing my body and looking Orb straight in the eye, I say, “How are you going to do that? Please tell me what can you do for me.”
Orb has a shocked expression, but I continue, “You have no power, no money. Nothing, you can do nothing since you lack those things, the only thing you have is borrowed power. Despite my living in the village for a year, you never truly saw the person I was.
You would be shocked at the horrific things I have done to people. You were unable to stop my plan, unable to save Sequoia, and will be unable to stop me from killing you and Maple. You are worthless, and due to that fact, anything you try will fail. So, if you wanted to have any semblance of happiness in your life, you should’ve stayed on that mountain.”
I reinforce my body with spirit energy and rush at Orb. He is still shocked by my words, so he is sloppy and rigid even though he puts his legacy back on, I can still land a blow against him, which knocks him back.
When Orb gets up, he comes at me at full speed, but I dodge. He has moved from sad to angry “Your hair colour gives away your mental state.” I can avoid his attack, and as he comes at me relentlessly, I see an opening as he gets tired and I break his left arm with my leg.
He falls to the ground screaming in pain. As I am about to crush his head, I feel an impact on my back. Turning around, I saw it was Maple. I forgot she could unconsciously use spirit energy. She did that when she carried me.
I see her with tears and say, “So you want to die first.”
“For killing my father, I will never forgive you.”
“Well, to be honest, the blame lies on both of us since you brought me back here while I was wide awake. I could memorise how to get into the village thanks to you.”
Stunned by my words, I used this opening to dash toward her and smack her right on her head, but she uses her hand to guard against my blows in time.
So, I relentless continue my assault, landing minor blow after blow on this girl’s body. I have almost got her done in.
Φ My arm hurts but not as much as the last time I broke it. Maybe it was because my legacy was activated. As I look at Maple getting pummelled, I start running towards them. But eventually, Cole smashes Maple against a tree, and it seems the impact knocks her out, and I see him about to go for the killing blow.
My legs feel too slow to reach max speed; I won’t get there in time. As I see Cole about to strike Maple, a thought runs through my head, I should give up; I will fail again. No Orb, regardless of whether you are worthless or not, it doesn’t matter. Act right now with all you have and think about it later.
Don’t be selfish. This isn’t about you. This is about saving a life. So, as I run, I feel a strange tingle in my right arm, and as I swing that arm towards Cole, ice appears from my legacy and travels in Cole’s direction, freezing most of his body and the trees in his direction.