Ben landed on top of an SUV, crashing all the windows from his impact. It took Ben a moment before he can reopen his eyes. He had to shake his head to drop the pieces of glass in his hair. 

He felt the incoming attack and his body was already reacting. He crossed his arm over his head and Ki shield surrounded him. Multiple invisible impacts hit his shield but the shield kept its integrity. 

He drop the shield and shouted to no one in particular. “Hah! You call that ki blast?! Why I barely-“

Another SUV fell from the sky directly toward his prawn body. Ben rolled to the side just as the SUV fell over his SUV and created an SUV sandwiched. 

Ben fell to the dirty ground below, coughing from all the smoke. “Don’t you think that’s a bit excessive,” Ben said. 

Another SUV fell on top of him. By the Buddha’s name, it was loud. More glass shattered everywhere and sparks flew out in every direction. More car alarms started blaring and people slowly walk over toward the source of the commotion, like moths going to fire. 

Jenna drops from the sky and landed lightly on her feet. She started walking towards Ben, when the SUV on top of ben whoosh pass the other direction, hitting two parked cars. 

There Ben stood, His eyes glowing white while an enormous amount of Ki enveloped his body. The ground underneath him started shaking, like a volcano barely controlled. And when he finally stared at her, she hesitated from the very sheer will pressing down on her.

“Oww!” Ben said flatly towards her. “That. Hurts.”

Jenna’s eyes started blazing as well. She walked closer and closer, despite the massive ki that would force a lesser man back a long time ago. “You threw me away like a used dirty ragdoll and now you have the nerve to come and ask for my help?! Your arrogance knows no bound!”

Her own ki burst out of her, challenging Ben’s ki that dominates the entire parking lot. “Calm yourself,” Ben said, his words almost out wordly as raw ki even charge his voice. “Your actions are not becoming of a Noble Ki warrior.”

Jenna vanished before Ben’s eyes. But Ben didn’t need it since he can track the young woman through the ki that surrounds them. 

He raised his left hand to defend himself from the sudden blow from Jenna’s kick as she reappeared behind him. She twisted her body until her arms grabbed the cemented ground and used her kick to deliver uncountable blows with her feet. “I have not been a shul-altana for years! Thanks to you!”

Ben easily block and sway away from the incoming attacks since the pattern and stance and forms are all so familiar to him, that he barely needed his ki to stop it. But when he felt the killing blows, he started disrupting the attack, taking Jenna off her attack sequence. 

When Ben felt her restart, his arm whipped out and his own ki blast pushed the young woman twenty feet away. 

“Enough!” Ben said seriously, and Jenna felt the unbelievable and overwhelming amount of Ki that poured out of Ben. This is the reason why he is considered the strongest. The chosen one. 

The batoh.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

For a moment, Jenna feared for her life. But then she gritted her teeth and forced herself to make a step toward the man. 

Ben watched her with his dark sad eyes. It was then that he realize how much he had hurt this young woman as she made that determined first  step. “I never asked you to leave the village with me,” Ben said, almost sadly. “It was the right decision for me, but not to you.” 

“But I did leave the village! For you!” She screamed suddenly. “I turned my back to the shul-altana, to my family and to everything I know because of you.”

“……”

“And the first thing you did when we reach the new world is to throw me away! What kind of person do that!?”

A person who loves you, Ben thought bitterly. “Playing Basketball is my dream, not yours. I find my Wa playing it in the court of spectators, but you don’t. Your Wa is elsewhere. You would have been miserable if you join me.”

“It is not your decision to make!”

“Actually, it is,” Ben said firmly, walking closer to the hurt woman. “For you would have followed me to the gates of hell if I ask you too.”

“…..”

“By cutting you off, you had the chance to pick up the pieces of your shattered life. Something you could not possibly do when you are with me,” Ben said, more gently. “Look at yourself. You are now an agent of the law in this new world. You did that all by yourself, without anyone’s help.”

Jenna did not say anything for a long while then abruptly she asked, “What do you want from me?”

Ben scratch his head sheepishly. Unconsciously his ki powers subsided gradually, something Jenna notice but not Ben. “I’ve recently made progress with my own dream. I am now playing semi-regularly in the NBA.”

“So what?”

Ben cringed. I guess I deserve that, He thought sadly.

“I’ve been recently given a new contract and I don’t want to mess it up,” Ben said, deciding to be completely truthful and lay everything on the line. Jenna, at least, deserves that. “I may be a lot of things, but a lawyer I’m not. And … well, you are the only one I trust in this new world. So, … I’m asking for your help.”

Jenna stared at him. Her instinct told her to just scream at him to go to hell and proceed to kick his ass. Not that she believe she can do so. But… this is Ben. Her childhood friend, her first love. Her Ubbah.

He’s right, Jenna thought bitterly. Even now, one word from him and I would follow him to the gates of hell.

She sighed. All fight has gone from her system. “What the hell,” she said helplessly. “my firm needed all the client we can get anyway.”

“So you’ll help me?” Ben asked incredulously. 

She turned away. “Come to my office early tomorrow and bring your damn contract,” she said as she walks away from the carnage they made in the parking lot.