"Begin," Kouris barked.

He slowly approached the youth, and they raised their weapons as they met in the middle.

It was a little strange to see that Tantalus had moved to engage. For years, the youth had always waited for him to close the gap and start the fight, knowing he was bound to lose.

Today, Tantalus went on the offensive, catching him off guard slightly as their weapons clashed, and he attempted to parry a blow but failed slightly because of the strength the boy had shown.

He's broken through.

It wasn't a massive surprise, but it was unexpected nonetheless. He was still in the Mortal Realm's fourth tier, and Tantalus had been at the sixth for a while now, his greater age and backing putting him ahead. Now, the boy had broken through to the Mortal Shedding Realm, and he would be more potent.

It was only because he started cultivating earlier than the average that he had kept up with the other villagers. His reverse cycling was slower due to having to work around the constant damage, and that would slowly start to put him behind if he didn't do something about it. He was still thinking of the bigger picture, so he didn't mind much for now, but it was a lingering problem.

That was a significant part of why he planned to leave and strike out to procure better resources and skills. He also needed other cultivation manuals to reference to enhance his technique. The village had several basic cultivation techniques and skills he had read through already, but only one of them provided any insight.

Tantalus gave a subtle, cruel grin as he spotted the surprise in his eyes.

He kicked backwards away from the boy using his leading foot and opened up some distance. The youth didn't follow up and instead circled him like a predator stalking prey with a malicious glint in his eye.

"Are you surprised?" Tantalus asked with a wicked smile.

"That you wouldn't press the advantage when you had the chance? Not really, you've always been an idiot." He replied, hoping to goad the youth into action and succeeded.

Tantalus roared and charged at him, swinging the wooden sword in a horizontal slash.

He stepped back out of the attack and moved to the side when Tantalus changed to a thrust midway, narrowly avoiding the stab aimed at his chest.

Taking advantage of the youth's overextension, he sent the twinblade forward using an underhand thrust, aiming to sink the blade into the boy's stomach.

Tantalus could have moved his sword at that moment to chop for his neck and take the lesser injury, but as expected, he never did, as he was a coward at heart.

Instead, he jumped backwards, avoiding the thrust and hoping to reset the exchange to go again, but he wasn't going to get what he wanted.

Quickly pulling the twinblade back, he threw it like a javelin at the young noble's head as they moved, causing the boy to drive to the side in panic and avoid the thrown weapon.

Because Tantalus was too busy avoiding the throw, the youth didn't have a chance to do anything with his sword that was currently still held out in the thrust position as he retreated backwards.

Taking this moment of distraction, he quickly removed a wooden dagger from his left forearm and held it in his right. Reaching up with his empty hand, he clasped it around the outstretched sword arm and held it there as he sank the fairly sharp dagger point into the fleshy section of the boy's wrist.

Tantalus grunted and dropped his sword, continuing to move backwards whilst shaking the slightly bloody arm.

Just because their bodies were stronger didn't mean the wooden training weapons couldn't penetrate. They had been treated by the skill the twins used to reinforce wood, and whilst they wouldn't do severe damage, they could still injure.

Catching the falling sword with his left, he held both sword and dagger as he closed in on Tantalus, whose face was now one of seething anger and not arrogance.

Somehow, the youth managed to avoid his chasing blows and find his way over to the thrown wooden twinblade, picking it up and putting them in a situation where they had swapped weapons, but this was fine to him.

He had occasionally trained with single-handed and dual daggers, so he wasn't as bothered about using a sword. A twinblade was a far more complicated weapon to use if you had no experience with it. He doubted Tantalus could use it efficiently, having not undergone the strict regime Marcus had put him through over the years.

Deciding to stick with what he knew, he threw the sword away into the distance and removed another dagger. There was no point trying to work around it when he didn't need to, unlike his opponent.

Closing the gap, he began feigning attacks before quickly pulling away. He wanted to cause the youth to slip up when moving the larger weapon around to defend, and although he did a far better job than expected, ultimately, Tantalus messed up.

Faking to the right, he pretended to come in for an attack in that direction before quickly switching to his left and throwing that dagger at the boy's face.

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The chest would have made more sense, but he aimed to knock his opponent off balance, and most people immediately reacted when something was heading right towards their face.

The boy was especially vulnerable to this attack and preferred avoiding pain, usually at the cost of landing a decent blow. He had used this tactic repeatedly to his advantage, and it still worked even now, causing him to shake his head internally.

Tantalus dashed to his right and moved the leading blade to face upwards, hoping to use it to deflect the attack if it didn't miss. This movement caused the rear blade to catch his left leg, which trailed behind him as he moved.

The thrown weapon missed but had provided the opening he had hoped for. Using this chance, he flew forward, grabbed the handle of the twinblade and pulled it towards him with all his might, using it to pull closer and stuck the remaining dagger into the boy's throat.

It wasn't an attempt to kill, although part of him screamed for it as blood ran down Tantalus's neck from where the dagger's point rested under his chin.

The duo remained there, locked in that action as their eyes met, and he saw various emotions cross the boy's face: hatred, humiliation, anger and finally, fear.

"Enough, the fights over," Kouris shouted and appeared beside the pair, pushing his dagger away.

"If you two want to kill each other, go do it someplace else."

He knew the instructor wasn't serious, and if she knew what either of them was thinking, she might not have said those words, but it didn't matter either way.

The blood between them had become so bad over the years he was still surprised they let them fight. It was probably done in the hopes they would form a friendship through adversity, and it might have worked on another pair of young men, but it wasn't going to with them.

The rest of his day was over quickly, and it was spent helping in the fields as his penance for destroying the tool shed rather than training. Even though he wasn't happy about having his practice cut short, he knew this was something he would have to deal with as it was his fault.

It took a month of such work before his parents were happy he had repaid his debt to those whose property he had destroyed. Using what little ingredients remained of his collection, he crafted several new talismans in that time, ready for when he went outside the village and into the mountains to train alone.

***

Two months later in Kallipolis.

A dark figure wearing a black face covering walked into a seedy-looking drinking establishment, his eyes like pools of ice. The loud hustle of voices present when he walked in dropped a notch as he entered.

Walking to the bar, he ordered a drink and passed over a large pouch of gold in payment when it arrived.

"I have a pest problem I need some help dealing with." The masked figure stated as he pushed the heavy pouch over that rattled as he did so, causing some nearby patrons to look over in interest.

The long-haired, greasy-looking bartender wearing tattered clothes picked up the money and weighed the bag in his hand.

"How big of a problem are we talking about." He said after some time spent observing the figure before him.

"Mortal Realm, fourth tier." The figure blandly stated.

"Going to cost you more than this."

"That's half, and you get the rest when my problem has been taken care of." The masked man remarked.

"We don't do half-payments here for such services; you pay in full, and we do the job."

"What happens if you fail?"

"Then the cost goes up, and we deal again, or you find someone else to take care of your... pest problem instead." The bartender declared, leaving a short gap before adding the last part.

"Fine, all the details are in this book. I trust you can read?" The masked figure said, his voice

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can find someone around here who can." The scruffy man sarcastically replied as he opened the thin book, scanning through it quickly before closing it.

"We can handle it. Now, if there's nothing else, finish your drink and leave. Nobility doesn't generally do well in this part of the city unattended."

The masked figure's eyes opened wide in surprise, causing the slovenly-looking man behind the bar to present a mouth full of pearly white teeth as a smile.

Seeing the conversation was over, the figure in black didn't so much as glance at his drink, turning to leave and slipping back into the night.

Watching his exit, the man behind the bar picked up the tall mug of ale and book before walking to a rowdy table where three scruffy men sat drinking and yelling.

"A free drink from your betters. Here's your next job, don't screw it up this time or you're out."

He placed the book and drink down and walked away, leaving the loud table silent as the men exchanged glances before a well-built one reached for the drink, starting an argument.

***

*Thud*

Crap.

Thanos rose and ran after his target, an animal similar to a deer he had just missed with a dagger.

Dissipating the illusion of the rock he had been hiding inside, he bolted after the springing animal and caught the elusive beast in the back of the neck on his third try, sending it crashing to the ground dead.

This deer was like the ones back on Earth but with a slight woolly coat that kept it warm in the cold climate, and it also bounced around more, allowing it to move quickly over the uneven terrain. That, along with its sensitive hearing, caused him to miss.

Moving fast, he collected his daggers before arriving at its side and cutting it open at the bottom. Forming gloves across his hands using his Many Forms Mirage skill, he rolled up his sleeve, pulled the insides out and piled them nearby.

Once this was done, he made the gloves vanish, threw the carcass onto his shoulders and moved toward Mysthaven. If any predators in the area picked up the scent of the kill, they would arrive to find a stack of meat and hopefully not track him down.

This was a trick Texon had taught him, as the insides were mostly useless anyway, so it was better to leave them as a distraction. It worked incredibly well if more than one predator turned up, as they would typically fight over the meal, aiding his getaway. A secondary bonus was that it reduced the weight as he returned home. It also allowed the blood to empty faster so he wasn't slowly leaving a trail behind him.

It was at the back end of summer, and the day was nippy with some clouds in the sky, but it didn't look like it was about to rain.

He weaved between a dark green bush and a tree, avoiding leaving any evidence of his passing. A dark cape trailed behind him, the uneven strips at the end brushing the ground ever so slightly and removing his footprints.

The ground was still frosty with it being morning, so there wasn't much to do but smooth over some loose topsoil. This was another trick he had learnt from the woman, and whilst it didn't work on wet ground, it was pretty efficient on snow and hardened Earth.

The only difference was that he didn't use branches to sweep behind him like her, deciding to use his skill to make life easy. If there were a way to make his life more comfortable using the skill, he would use it. Working smarter, not harder, was a core tenant of his.

Rounding another tree, he stepped out into a clearing he usually passed through and stopped dead in his tracks, spotting three strangers sitting nearby on a rocky outcropping about a hundred metres away.

They jumped to their feet at his arrival, turning to face him.

"Is this the one?"