Desperately and with every fiber of my being aching for sustenance, I clambered up the rocky edge with bleeding, calloused hands. Darius appeared in my vision suddenly and offered me a hand. I grabbed it, and he helped me make my way to our training house. Struggling, I limped inside with him supporting me until I collapsed onto my bed. Worry was plainly visible on his face as he ran off in search of something that could help treat my many injuries.

Groaning in pain, I examined the damage done to my body—from small bruises to deep gashes that looked like they'd never stop oozing blood. Lying back down on the pillow, I recalled the fight in my mind: the glaive user had been incredibly powerful and had nearly killed me multiple times. My death would've been a certainty if not for my desire to grow stronger. After a hard-fought battle that involved us both showing off our best techniques, the last thing I remembered was blacking out and losing—or the demon taking over my body.

This theory seemed the most realistic as if my body had been unconscious I would've already been in my hunters clutches but I wasn't. The demon theory held strong when after scanning through my body I noticed that there were far more wounds than before. Although there wasn't much evidence of it, I suspected that the demon had used some of its power which I had unlocked through my inner paths and forced the glaive user to give it their all or die. Since it was this weird demons power originally I suspected that it could use them much better than I could and had managed to kill the warrior. However, I would have to ask Darius about it when he returned. I hoped that he'd return soon my innate energy healing factor wouldn't be enough to heal so many injuries.

. . .

In a large battle arena, two figures in motion clashed their weapons as the crowds cheered from the stands. It was clear this fight was significant; the victor would be accepted into the group of one hundred warriors that were designated to capture the wanted boy. The cloaked figure wielding a scythe swung towards the woman with deadly intent, however, her two short swords blocked it in time. As they both took a step back, determination shone through their eyes - this duel would have an end.

With a clash of energy, they raced forward again. Suddenly, heads rolled on the stone ground, faces still contorted in raging expressions frozen in time.

"It's been long enough!" called out the first in command from his seat, finger raised and pointing at the arena. "We shall only move forward with ninety-nine warriors!" He then exchanged a quick nod with the Shogun before sitting back down.

. . .

'Tchh' I groaned in pain as Darius applied ointment to my bruises. "You fought for hours; you should've known injuries like these would've been inevitable," he chuckled, "Even an idiot would know that".

"I know," I muttered ", just wanted to make sure that you'd be safe."

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"No," he replied vehemently, "some things are worth fighting for."

My fists clenched at his words: "As your brother in everything but blood, it is my duty to protect you—it's my fault your family was killed. Had I not had this bounty on my head, they'd still be alive!"

He paused what he was doing and responded guiltily, "I see...You need to rest now".

"No," I said resolutely.

"What do you mean?" Darius asked worriedly.

"I must fulfill my promise and atleast teach you the basics on how to use your innate energy properly," I groaned as I sat up.

. . .

Watching Darius activate his inner power in moments made me realize something had changed about it; the color and feel were different. Making a mental note to ask him about this later, I began teaching him how to use his energy to its full potential in combat rather than concentrating on the difficult techniques as well as molding his energy around him..

. . .

Creating small balls of light from the little energy left in my fingertips—the other three were damaged from the fight—I spoke with a smile: "What I want you to do now is use your power either to dodge or deflect my energy blasts."

Gulping, Darius tensed his body and took in some air to draw on his inner strength. As I grinned, I fired off two shots at once – even though he was my brother, I wouldn't take it easy on him. After examining the results of my first barrage, I smirked; Darius had a great swordsmanship skill, but an even more impressive ability to control his energy. If he was consistently trained for three years, he could reach a really high level.

He narrowly avoided the first energy volley – his leg failed to move away fast enough and so he was thrown backward towards the hard ground.

"Shiiiiittt!", came Darius' panicked cry as shock flooded his eyes from afar.

. . .

Once he let out some curses and made better attempts at dodging and deflecting my balls of energy, I increased the speed and power of them by compressing the energy into smaller bolts of energy. With a smirk, I shot the tiny shot of energy at an exhausted Darius whose energy reserves were almost empty (for some reason, he had an above average pool). The compressed bolt just barely skimmed by a wide-eyed Darius, whose heartbeat could be heard from where I was standing. Frantically, Darius tried to spin away from the energy ball and create a shield around him with his own energy…but it was too late. The small projectile hit his side, creating a crater in its wake.

Laughing, I slowly made my way towards Darius with a plain sword (he had gathered swords from the barren battleground). When I was close enough to see him, I joked, "You need to be aware of your surroundings, you know?"

He scowled and clutched his stomach as he stood up. "Yeah, but I thought you'd have more humanity than to use such strength against a novice in innate energy arts," he said.

"Haha. Maybe I should have held back," I laughed.

"Think so?" His eyebrow twitched as he finished getting onto his feet. "You don't want to strain your innate energy pathways, do you? Overusing them could damage them forever." He grinned slyly. "I read about it in a book I found."

"You're not wrong I guess" was my reply, "But since your worry over me is inevetable we can try another training technique," I jocked.

. . .

"So all I need to do is just activate my energy and keep it circulating around me for around 10 minutes not stop?" Darius asked with interest.

"That's right. This exercise should help you maintain your energy flow all the time; once you get better at it, I'll start throwing things at you while you take them on to test your energy endurance. If that doesn't work out, we'll try other methods."

"Okay then; if that's what you say," Darius said tiredly.

With instructions on what to do ringing in my ears, I walked away from the shack and thought of having a meal followed by some meditation. Not for the energy control this time, but because it would calm me down after such an intense fight where I had pushed myself beyond my limits. Going inside the shack, I began eating whatever we had gotten from the village nearby. After a satisfying meal and gulping down what felt like a sea of water, I took my mat outside and set up to meditate in front of the shack. Sitting down, I got into my meditation pose and started breathing in and out with a composed expression on my face.

But as I did so, a single tear escaped my eye and fell onto the swaying grass that was enjoying the calm breeze.