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The Right to Leave

3 Weeks Ago

I stood by this man.

He sat still in his slouched position as I asked for what I was aware would be the last time.

"May I leave this place?"

My voice was flat and unexpecting.

He gave a response that shook my very core. My eyes widened and I took a step back in shock.

"Earn the right and you may."

My mind was steaming and my thoughts could barely be heard in that moment.

"W-what is the thing I must do to earn such a ...right?"

My quivering voice only lit up the curving smile on my face as it twitched and grew.

My Guardian gave me the same look that I had often received over a decade.

"You must defeat the Guardian of the land."

Oh. So him.

In that instant.

It felt as though my hopes had been sucked out of me. Placed in the cold winter air and left there.

Left to die out and melt with the coming spring.

Defeat that man?

My thoughts bombarded my mind but I did my best to stay strong.

I had grown well over the past years, gaining a firm and heavy hold over my power. I had tricks up my sleeve even a man such as he wouldn't expect.

But... defeating that man?

The same man who could create flaming infernos in an instant. The same man who could defeat someone around the King Level with one short exchange?

The man who had mastered most of my techniques to degrees that I had never even glanced upon.

My mind and confidence shook to ugly extremities.

No.

I can't win.

But maybe? He doesn't seem to be physically strong if I use my sword and rush at him-.

No. He knows the lotus step. I can't catch him anytime soon it would seem.

I don't know why but during the splutter and splashes in my mind, my mouth opened on its own.

"Fine. I'll-I'll accept such an offer."

My voice trembled at the end. Acknowledging the abhorrent claim that had just been produced by my mouth.

He merely nodded his head to this statement.

Even he didn't suspect I had the smallest chance at victory, it would seem.

I tried desperately in those 3 weeks.

To become stronger. Smarter. Faster.

Everything that he was.

I created a Thundercrash Lance in a mere 8.5 seconds. A feat that far outclassed all others.

I managed to maintain an extreme Materialization barrier for 25 seconds.

Feats that outclassed all past examples soon appeared in my hands.

But my hands still held power far from his.

I one-upped my previous control of the metamorphosis on my back.

Piercing straight through a dark-oak tree in a second.

But it was far too slow for a fight of this caliber.

I ate meals in silence. Avoided eye contact as I spent the last days training far harsher than before.

I prepare myself mentally and improve my reaction speed.

I keep my emotions down and heavy.

I swing my sword in unimaginable ways. Hoping it may somehow payoff.

I stand in the middle of a snow-wrought field.

Right in front of a man who I do not want to fight.

His hair is long,crisp and aged.

His eyes are sharp,golden and ancient.

His gowns have not changed since a decade before.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

His staff still stands by his side. Patiently waiting for its awakening.

I stand before him meekly.

My hair has been pushed to the sides so I can maintain a clear vision. A few strands lay over my forehead.

My face is sweaty, despite the frightful cold.

The winter wind pushes gently at our backs, inciting a fight.

I raise my right hand so that I can feel the winter air ever so more.

This is how I shall escape this unending white.

This is how I shall earn my name.

This is how I shall grow.

This. This is it.

I watch carefully as our breaths are faint in the winter landscape.

The silver sky has grown a steel-like grey within its gaps.

The ground has begun to ever so slowly fall.

He launches a small fireball into the air.

Genius-cast. A warning of the spells to come.

Its size is mockable but it possesses considerable power.

It slowly turns as it reaches a height of around a tall tree.

A small whistle is heard as it descends rapidly.

My tongue curls instinctively.

Boom.

A big white explosion fulminates.

I can't see anything but my two hands and the endless white.

I had drawn my sword and had already prepared a lotus step.

Too late.

A mysterious blast propels me backwards.

Not only does it almost destroy my body, but every aspect and sinu in my body is also in a constant state of painful torture in the short contact period.

Is this how it feels?

Whilst I fly backward, I use my mind which has become somewhat of a haven in this period.

I prepare 6 sources of world energy.

I can't even hold them back, for if I do.

His much more powerful blast will crush my skull.

I send them right away, the two blasts collide.

The air in this battlefield splits. Though we cannot see we feel and hear it.

I lose the exchange but it doesn't matter.

I used the lotus step I had previously stored and appear right through the snow.

His figure stands just before me.

Raising my sword I slash downwards. My sword densely coated in world energy.

Slow.

The snow from where he had stood suddenly burst upwards.

He had gone.

I soon felt a cold impact in the center of my back.

I was blasted forward with incredible force.

This guy wasn't going serious, was h?

I did a sideways roll and barely brought my head up to see the man beating me down.

My eyes shone with fear as I met his figure.

My half-knelt body soon rose.

I put my hands forward.

Despite the pain that had been stimulated by his light push and the trail left from my little tumble I had to defend right away.

His right-hand draws forward.

Instantly, as if watching a plant grow up in 500X speed a blazing fervent fireball is before me.

It's incomparable to anything I've seen before.

Its flames travel backward. It threatens to destroy all as it wakes.

It is of a natural orange. He did this with just a basic fireball spell?

As this seemingly scaled-up fireball is completed in barely a second I can only pray that I survive.

My mind working and keeping up at rapid speeds takes the only option I have available.

If I run his numerous stores of world energy will surely take me out.

I'm like a king being checked.

So I protect myself with the only option I have available.

As my hands vibrate intensely, layers of Materialization form before me.

Materialization: Extreme.

I hold together with all that I have, 16 layers.

They form a bottomless triangle as I wait for his attack.

His eyebrows raise slightly upon this sight.

Nevertheless, his attack prowls backwards.

It roars so loud that my barriers shake.

His attack actuates swiftly.

The sound takes a second to register as a shockwave blasts throughout the field.

Boom.

His gigantic fireball levies into my barriers.

Boom.

3 barriers are cracked upon its mere presence. Destroyed with the tiniest amount of contact.

Boom.

5 barriers are broken through as his attack powers up mid-sprint.

I have 8 left.

Boom.

7 left.

Boom. 5 left.

Boom. 4 left.

His attack finally starts to settle.

But as it descends into my barriers it makes sure to make its death worth its while.

Boom.

The colossus fireball of blazing infernos and ravaging beasts finally collapses onto my last barrier.

A small shockwave ensues, causing smoke to spread from its small dense area.

My hair blows backwards and my eyes show too much concern.

Even I don't think I win this battle.

My barrier, barely standing up protects me from the swarming crowds of smoke that breeze past me on my left and right.

I cannot see anything.

It seems as though blood-spillt minutes have passed however the reality is that not even 20 seconds have gone by.

Scorching embers land on my skin.

My body rattles under the pain but I must keep this last barrier up.

As I see his hand begin to rose.

Another ravenous beast of flames emerges instantly.

He isn't tired or affected at all.

I don't dare move. Afraid he has trapped me with an invisible armada of world-energy.

I can feel it.

Whenever I try to grasp world energy, it is not there.

It has been stolen.

He owns the battlefield as of now.

Desperately, aware that my last barrier stands no chance against another of his genius-wrought attacks I throw my blade.

The blade glows a fluorscent orange.

World energy increases its prowess.

The throw is surprisingly good for me.

I use the last thin stream of world energy I had to make it silently crash towards him. I prayed that this ditch-dong plan would somehow make its way to victory.

His left hand is full with the attack he was manifesting.

His right hand held his staff.

It's over.

Right?

No boom ensues.

His figure, like a specter moves behind my blade.

His right hand moved from behind his back, grasping the hilt of my red-hot blade.

As he swings it upon my neck, it loses its beastly prowess.

All that remains is a numb and cold red tinge that also soon vanishes.

It takes a second for the situation to catch up to me.

Boom.

His previous attack falls to the ground. He had let it fall for a quick victory.

Embers blasted my way.

The small barrier I had been maintaining wasn't even utilized.

He slid my own blade through its cracks and almost through my neck.

I was panting. Shamefully.

It had not been more than 25 seconds.

And I was tired. Defeated.

And ruined.

But more importantly, what was that speed?

That reaction-time?

That power?

He hadn't even gained the smallest droplet of sweat among his brow.

Rather it was drier than the time he had read his 'worst book.'

He wasn't disappointed, rather just accepting.

He seemed to have known the result from the start.

As did I however, there was still the smallest spark that could've been lit.

Right?

My monologue ends as a strange feeling fills my veins.

I lost.

It's cold, unnatrual and disturbing.

It makes my bones wince and my senses dull.

I won't ever have a name.

I'll never go outside.

I'll never see the greater goods.

For I lost without even scratching him.

His weakest attack destroyed my strongest defense in an instance.

I had lost to the msot basic spell.

A fireball.

A monstrous fireball no doubt, but a fireball.

He let me lie in the snow.

To wallow in my failures.

And then a crack emerged in my honourable self.

I don't need his permission to leave.

I just need the one who understands me perfectly.

Me.

And so a side of me far darker than even the ravine that I had fallen upon emerged from my tired spirit.

A side that would bloody the rest of my tale.

A side that had been waiting for a while.

And a side that had been given its chance.

I was going to run away.

Screw honor.

Screw rights of passage.

I will lead my own tale.

Make my own name.

And they most certainly, will not be stopping me.

Not anytime soon atleast.