Heavy Study Session
"Ciemnosc, listen..." Wan Kangzhe held his right hand high, most of it was a skeleton though, and his fingers were making a few 'clack'-ing noises while they tried to hold as harsh as possible the Mortal grade blade within its grasp. Wan Kangzhe's low volume, heroic tone revealed his adamant heroic spirit as he continued in his raspy voice and with his moment of having his legacy passed over to another; who is worthy.
“I wasn’t able to…be the one. But, Ciemnosc…as equal…I will pass this one wish of mine to you… My death would have had come sooner or later, don’t feel guilty.” Wan Kangzhe’s words were fully spoken from his heart, actually genuine, worried for Ciemnosc. While Ciemnosc himself looked around, seeing how his body moved as Wan Kangzhe did all that.
“My sword- no…my blade, it’s yours now. Keep it and… one day, I hope you can achieve my goal…of vengeance.” Wan Kangzhe’s voice seemed to become frail every now and then, but every time it did, it came back to be heard as strong and indomitable as it had always been. “Today, I leave…tomorrow, you give everyone who des-ehg?!”
Grab- PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! SQUASHSHHH~!!
Just as Wan Kangzhe looked at Ciemnosc and the morning lights and the already light blue behind Ciemnosc’s body with his angle from the floor, he saw Ciemnosc’s outlined figure come down. Yet, before the boy could have the tears and so moved face he imagined he would have had. Wan Kangzhe felt nearly his entire face grabbed at.
Subsequently, with Ciemnosc’s right handed index and ring finger almost entering his eye sockets but ‘only’ pushing back those eyeballs and grabbing at the skull from there for a better, lasting grip, he suddenly began banging the whole back of the teenager’s head against the floor - over and over and over and over and over again.
‘You could still talk so much, loud and for so long. That was dangerous!’ Thought Ciemnosc after seeing the spider’s web below Wan Kangzhe’s head. As for the raised up Mortal grade blade, Ciemnosc had slapped the wrist of the hand holding it right before grabbing Wan Kangzhe’s head and smashing it over and over again with brutality against the floor; it ended up stabbing where his remaining left leg and inner thigh were left intact.
His fingers were covered by both blood, brain, and eye matter, and some bits of Wan Kangzhe’s skull that tried to stab into his hand’s skin after being broken off like splinters. Standing up and grabbing to tear a piece of cloth from Wan Kangzhe’s…’body’ by just standing up. Ciemnosc then cleaned his hands and face from all that organ matter before looking down one last time at the ‘kinda cute’ shape of a totally made into jelly-like whole head remaining on the floor right before his feet.
Looking up right after, he saw the countless pairs of thousands of eyes looking at him, wide eyed, somewhat bloodshot, some even tearing up and some with their faces as if their dignity was violated, trampled, and spitted on…several times.
“...” After blinking a few times, Ciemnosc turned around and looked into where the warm brown haired young woman was seated. The blondie was already returning into the stadium and its inner hallways and making her way out of it as well; perhaps.
Step, step, step step step, step step…step.
“Can I get my money now?” Walking up to the referee, Ciemnosc asked. His body was still somewhat in tatters as his clothing left him quite exposed. His young, very young though, beauty was being worshiped, sure, but he was a man that would only give it to his wifeys. Even if he had to first become a man though.
“CIEMNOSC WINS!!” Instead of answering to that, responding like a robot instead, the referee declared the win of none other than Ciemnosc. He was totally ignoring the boy, looking up ahead with his eyes opened almost wider than wide. And when he announced it, it was like a spell to enhance the silence over the whole stadium - not just this floor and much less just the arena around himself.
“...” But on the other hand, having worked around with this job for a couple tens of years, the referee's muscle memory worked on its own as he opened the arena’s floor with his mighty tool, a whistle of a yellow color by sending his Power Energy into it and a cylindrical tube came up from the floor.
“Here you go, sir.” Taking the Supreme grade Powerful Stones, 34 in total, and treating them like utter shit, he gave them to Ciemnosc without realizing anything. Ciemnosc took them, not needing to count them the normal way with his exquisite eyesight, and nodded at the nice referee, before stepping out of the arena and making his way towards an also stunned all brown beauty.
Thuddy.
Planting his bum on the seat to her left, where it was a bit cold and he felt comfy because of it Ciemnosc looked at the young woman, noticing that she was still glaring at the arena a bit mindlessly like everyone else. He made a little smirk on the left corner of his mouth before sending his right index and middle finger to grab her chin and slowly turn her head towards him.
“Eyeyeyey, I know I’m so irresistible already. You don’t have to show it so obviously~.” Those black eyes looked at his face before waking up a little and darting into his darkest eyes, becoming absorbed, and devoured by them. Their faces were quite some inches away from each other. And with Ciemnosc looking at her ‘waking up’, he smiled widely and presented his right hand towards her in a demeanor that clearly indicated he was expecting a handshake.
“...” Smiling back at him at last and her natural face becoming alive once more as if suddenly losing sleep, the young woman looked enchantingly natural, to say the least. And with her teeth showing, she closed in her face to his, only a few inches remaining before whispering softly as if telling a huge secret. “Valeria…nice to meet you, Little Ciemnosc. My Master is Elder Tin. And considering your teacher is Elder Apegos, we may get to see each other more in these times, they are peaceful after all.”
“Mn, Valeria. Pretty cute, eh. Wanna hang out?” Ciemnosc spoke and asked, a tone that was cute and sweet returning to him, giving Valeria quite a few ‘wheelies’ inside her head. But, shaking off those little thoughts of feeling reality become doubtful, she then pointed with her left index finger to the arena and also gestured towards it with her chin.
“One moment though, I’m still having to fill my quota of beating someone stronger than me today. Wanna watch?” Valeria ended her words by tilting her head and asking Ciemnosc, appearing really cute despite her seemingly powerful self. Ciemnosc’s eyebrows jumped as he nodded, saying nothing but demonstrating he wanted to see her show off her prowess.
“Pheeew~, okay. Just give me a minute. There’s always someone wanting to defeat me.” Valeria said before standing up, patting her legs which were seated for about an hour and a half, and then moved towards the arena while the crowd was now ‘awake’ but still silent.
‘Sigh, so quiet. I like it better, I only need a good pillow, and then, sigh~~...’ While Ciemnosc thought so, Valeria arrived before the referee, who nodded at her before taking his leave. Whereas right after the previous referee left, another new one appeared with a long robe that read ‘Elder’ on the back of such; he took the role of referee as he even had the yellow whistle as well as some clothes that a referee would also wear.
Afterwards, Valeria waited for no more than 15 seconds before a regular height, the handsome, brave, and fit but thin young man appeared, claiming to win her heart the moment he won this battle. Not having any reaction, Valeria took out a ruler that…looked more like a dagger version of a ruler
The blade itself was no longer than 39 centimeters and had a width of about 8 centimeters, and was of a black color, the hilt was rather small compared to it with some of the blade being covered by it, yet the handle itself was at the middle of the lower extreme of the ruler. She wielded it with her left hand and looked at Ciemnosc before waving her right hand with a smile, which Ciemnosc could see the young man fuming deep inside in return.
Stolen story; please report.
The ‘small’ ruler though, its blade was 2 inches thick, and when it was shown by Valeria, the young man became visibly apprehensive while the crowd became very excited on the other hand. Ciemnosc simply looked on after throwing his hands behind his back and leaning backwards on a couple of sets behind him and to his sides. Ready to watch the show, not knowing it was going to be short.
In the next few seconds, the young man took out a couple of huge fist-claws that were the size of his own torso. Wearing them with his and wrists only though, the forearm-length claws were scary enough without the young man trying anything, so when he dashed at Valeria, it became pretty scary to just see, let alone being the one fighting - especially with the young man’s cultivation being at the 9th stage of the Spirit Gathering Realm, while Valeria was at the 8th stage.
But there was no room for thinking. Valeria only used her left hand to slam each claw attack and whole fist-claw away, making the young man pained and grimace at the feeling of his hands breaking despite wearing thick armor besides his hands becoming weapons too.
Valeria continued to give the young man a bunch of broken bones for over the next few seconds when the young man finally acted differently and had his claw-fists be covered in a raging white light which left trails of it when they moved yet again.
This time, Valeria was pressed attack after attack. She was being assaulted more and more heavily as time went on, and the hands of the young man were now neatly protected. Valeria, on the other hand, began sweating as she showed signs of exerting more and more strength.
But while the young man was becoming ecstatic, Valeria suddenly imploded with Power Energy. Her hair fluttered valiantly, and her semi tight uniform— at the same level as Ciemnosc but much more stylish and attractive —seemed to ooze off an incredible aura with Valeria throwing her left handed dagger-ruler out in what looked to be a desperate move but which had the young man’s eyes almost popping out of his eyes.
Then, despite the fact that Valeria left herself weaponless and vulnerable, defenseless against any attack from the young man, the latter chose to run away to Valeria’s back. Not to attack her even more vulnerable backside nor to position himself better behind her, he directly ran away for more than 20 meters before finally stopping.
As for Valeria, she suddenly jerked her left hand backwards as if she was holding something, and it was only then that the crowd saw once more the small and thin chain attached to the dagger-ruler’s handle as it suddenly shot off towards her back!
Right after, the chains disappeared once more with the young man panicked to cover his face and heart before rushing to his left. However, right at that moment, Valeria jerked her left hand to her back once more, and a thin and small chain covered by a dark orange, strong resplendent light appeared to have already surrounded the young man!
The young man had no other choice than to jump as high as he could and then dive down towards Valeria. ut the chains latched towards him still, not letting him jump even 1 miserable meter before being dragged back down no matter how speedy or powerfully he had quickened his steps and struggled free from the chains. Before his back touched the ground, in less than half a second after being caught. He surrendered.
The only thing remaining in the surroundings of the arena, amidst the cheers, was that of the young man’s body slamming heavily against the floor. His eyes open but crossed in a very ugly way, unconscious and almost getting crippled.
“...Let’s go hang out, then.” While Ciemnosc greeted her with a pair of light and hearty snorts from his nostrils and an appreciating smile. Hearing her words, he nodded and stood up, his head pensive all the way until they went outside the stadium; having seemingly recognized the entire Spirit Gathering Realm’s cultivation base and able to detect it with a much better ‘sensation’ other than ‘stronger and less strong’ or ‘weaker’; and that was completely specific.
Meanwhile, he was also having even crazier thoughts, his little head seemingly beginning to assess what the other realms of cultivation were like, not needing to see them fight to assess their current cultivation base anymore.
. . .
Valeria and Ciemnosc walked down the streets towards a simple but silent and even empty little park a few tens of meters away from the nearest street road. Walking side by side, the darkness of the coming night was enveloping them swiftly as they chose a spot and went over to it to lay down and look at the sky.
After the early morning spent in the stadium, the pair of boys and young women went around to wherever they wanted around the whole sect’s territory. Valeria had her own vehicle, a motorcycle that was even faster than the fastest car, and even more flexible as well as capable of flying for a few minutes without needing to be at the Conflagrate Realm at a high speed but with the consumption of Inferior grade Powerful Stones though.
The entire day, after knowing of Ciemnosc and him directly speaking to her of many matters, some in which he mentioned his ignorance of the actual world of cultivation; Valeria hence decided to bring this pretty, little boy around and show him every place he’d need to know of.
Libraries, where Ciemnosc met for the first time the fabulous, enigmatic, and tasty sight of so many books lying around, stupidly waiting for him to come and take them all! With his earnings today, Ciemnosc bought lots and lots and lots of them that he ended up barely having enough space for all those he wanted to go through first.
In the meanwhile, Valeria placed her hands behind her lower back, against her bum even, watching Ciemnosc pick every single detailed book about the most basic knowledge of all, which has been solidified after hundreds of thousands of years of glory, experimentation, mutation and of history repeating itself.
It went from vocations for cultivators to the life of ordinary people and their most obvious yet extensive and detailed needs, and requirements for life as well as their own little wars in between - fighting for kingdoms, territory, and resources that are way too worthless for even a Spiritual Ligament Realm 1st stage cultivator.
From even military matters, like the way many wars were fought as they were being recorded and retold once again afterwards, to how they had evolved and the use of ‘it all’ that has led to what the last few wars have been fought like.
There were strategies, tactics and thoughts, and philosophies from the most renowned generals of the world as well as from those which were from all military personnel which became like an unwritten rule to acknowledge. Most basic logistics, infrastructure, and little things such as keeping one’s army clean and joint in many different ways throughout all times.
It was new for Ciemnosc. Never did he hear about even the word ‘military’, despite hearing a lot about wars, commanders, failures, death, victory, glory, soldiers, crimes, and even honor of the people.
And for Ciemnosc, to find something brand new was already beyond the best. But to Valeria, who saw this little boy from a village have these reactions and yet knowing what he was already capable of and was now even presenting her such a knowledge-hungry demeanor - only she knew how badly she wanted to see how high could this little, cute and sweet boy reach; if she could even, at the very least.
Besides many libraries, each has some books that other libraries didn’t have, rather rare and unique. They also went through scientific laboratories, zoos where one could not only see Creatures too but also be able to buy them or even learn to rear them and take care of them. Also being taught how to learn a Creature’s habits, diet, preferences, and each Creature’s— not species or subspecies of such —nature to deal with and pacify them better.
Of course, most cultivators bought them for bets. And seeing them get killed with one another, they could just hire someone or buy things to keep their pets growing unnaturally stronger and tougher for the sake of winning material and fame.
The rest of the cultivators would buy them to eat, to make food out of them; which Ciemnosc didn’t criticize, they were so damn fulfilling of one’s belly. Especially when one— though only Ciemnosc would think like so —killed them slowly and let those Creatures melt their Spirit Heart-Link to sweeten, enhance flavor or even make bitter, bittersweet or/and spicy their bodies overall.
Because even horns were delicious, and bones could be used to make quite a few useful tools of all kinds.
Lastly, they were now here in this little park where they were a bit ‘far away’ from all the modernized mini-city of a sect’s territory with the bountiful trees covering one’s naked eye from it all on the other side.
“Aah, Ciemnosc. How was it for you today?” Licking her light, whitish blue never-melting ice popsicle, Valeria looked at the sky on Ciemnosc’s left, her warm brown hair sprawled on the grass and her small body breathing up and down, her small chest and other proportions beautifying as Ciemnosc visualized them in tranquility without her noticing a thing.
“Oh, I’m very thankful. Big sis Valeria is the first one to not leave me right away or usher me away instead, right after meeting them. Yup.” Sucking on his own, red popsicle that the more he took a bite from it, the more it looked like blood and bled, Ciemnosc said honestly, his darkest eyes traveling through the starless night sky with passion.
“Oohm, am I really the only one?” Valeria asked, her body moving closer to his with her head almost over his left, broad shoulder but lacking manly scent. She twisted her neck a little to end up ‘leaning’ over his left shoulder afterwards.
“Mn, ever since I entered the sect I meant. For example, my backer, my brand new teacher…mhm!” Without a care, Ciemnosc answered, to which Valeria stopped suckling on her yummy icy candy and looked at the sky with a frown. “Did Grand Elder Jing Zhu run away from you, then? Aah~, but I think she was forced to-”
“Mn, oh, I know.” Ciemnosc patted her right hand with his left hand. He then looked at her a little low with her head ‘leaning’ over his shoulder and their faces fearlessly meeting each other. His voice became much quieter yet with a devilish charm and playfulness to it. “I know.”
…