“Man! How much further is this place?” Leon grumbled as the three young men were approaching a fork in the road.

“Any idea, Onko?” Seth asked their new addition.

“Beats me,” Onko shrugged. “I haven’t traveled from Nagaboro territory. Only the elite warriors of my tribe are permitted to travel beyond our borders.”

“That’s fair,” Seth gave an affectionate smile. “Why don’t we hold up here a moment and I’ll check the map to see if I can figure out where we are?”

“Whatever,” Leon shrugged as they stopped and took a seat off to the side of the road.

Seth retrieved the map from his expanse bag and used his index finger to trace around the surface of the map. “Hmm… if I’m not mistaken, it looks like we’re about an equal distance from both Shisang and Zoawara, depending on which road we take up ahead.”

“What if we split up? You go one way, I’ll go the other and that way we can cover more ground and get back to the Sanctuary sooner?” Leon suggested.

“No way! Do you really think it’s the best idea to split up in a totally unfamiliar land to find a couple people who we’ve never even heard of?” Seth chastised his companion.

“I agree with Seth,” Onko chimed in. “The Raijin Clan has been attacking different villages around the area more than ever. Their warriors are fierce and ruthless. I think it would be best if we all stayed together.”

“Hmph, it figures that you’d turn out to be nothing but a chicken, Oinko,” Leon teased and stood up, brushing the dust from the back of his robes. “Fine, I’ll just go on my own,” he said as he began to take the road that led to Shisang.

“Ugh, Leon!” Seth called out, but received nothing but the cold shoulder from Leon as he continued walking.

“He sure is stubborn, huh?” Onko frowned.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Seth sighed and rolled his eyes. “Would you mind going with him and watching his back?”

Onko blinked and pointed to himself, “you want me to go with him? But what about you?”

“I’ll be fine,” Seth reassured the younger Guardian recruit. “Between you and me, I am much stronger than Leon is. I’ve practically mastered the Spirit Burst technique already.”

“Spirit Burst? Wait, does that mean that you’re at the Spirit Builder level of Cultivation?” Onko’s eyes grew wide.

“That’s right,” Seth nodded and lowered his head humbly. “But please, don’t let Leon know. He would be so pissed if he knew that I surpassed him.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything,” Onko swore. “I’ll go and catch up with him now, but I need to let you know that I haven’t even learned to start Cultivating yet. I do have something though…” the boy said and produced what looked to be the handle of a club from his ordinary bag and held it up.

“A… baton?” Seth guessed, squinting at the handle.

Onko smirked smugly and gripped the handle tight as the full length of a club, similar to the ones that the elders of the Nagaboro Clan wielded. “No. This is Skull-Shatter, a Spirit Essence infused relic that has been passed down in my clan for hundreds of years. It anyone tries to mess with Leon, I’ll bash their brains in!”

“Woah…” Seth blinked and nodded once more. “Alright then, you guys be safe.”

“You too,” Onko forced a smile, although could not totally withhold a worried expression. He then relaxed his hand on the kanabō and shrunk back down to just being the handle, which he placed back inside of his bag and jogged after Leon in order to catch up.

Seth, meanwhile, took the other road which led to the Zoawara Tribe.

Once Leon realized that someone was trying to catch up with him, he turned to see that it was just Onko, already out of breath from the light jog that he had done to reach Leon.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What do you want?” Leon scowled at the younger recruit.

“Well, I, uhh,” Onko fumbled with his words.

Leon came to a complete stop and turned to face him, “well?”

“Well, Seth went to Zoawara, and I uh, I always wanted to see Shisang! Yeah, so that’s why I want to come with you! I heard it’s not like a regular village, but a whole city! With walls and stuff!” Onko became more enthusiastic about the idea of visiting Shisang the more that he spoke about it.

“Hmph,” Leon frowned and started walking the path once more. “Just stay out of my way.”

“No problem, no problem!” Onko waved his hands in front of him and remained silent as he followed behind Leon.

After a half hour or so on the road to Shisang, Leon began to felt less rigid and turned to look at his new companion. “What’s this place supposed to be like, anyway?”

Onko brightened up the moment that he was acknowledged. “Uh, well, like I said- it’s a big city with walls and stuff. There’s apparently all kinds of different shops and vendors that are supposed to have all sorts of delicious foods. I hear they have over ten varieties of fish, four different kinds of meats. Cakes. Pastries. Pies! Mmm…”

“Do you only ever think about food?” Leon narrowed his eyes at Onko.

“Uh, mostly, probably… yes!” Onko chuckled and patted his round belly.

“Ugh,” Leon scoffed and shook his head before looking up towards the horizon, noticing that the sun was beginning to go down. “Man, days here seem to end pretty fast. You think we should set up camp?”

Onko squinted towards the setting sun and then looked back at Leon with confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I mean the sun’s going down, dummy. That means it’s going to get dark and more than likely be less safe,” Leon said in frustration.

“Oh!” Onko chuckled and shook his head. “That’s just the first sun. Look!” he turned around and pointed behind him at a small yellow dot that was beginning to rise.

“Second sun?” Leon asked, confounded. “How many suns does this galaxy have?”

“Only two, I think,” Onko touched his lips as he thought harder about this question. “I have heard that some have as many as five though, now that you mention it.”

“Five? What in the world… how many freakin’ suns does a galaxy need?” Leon tried to wrap his mind around what he was hearing.

Just as he finished saying this, a kunai flew right past Leon’s face and erupted with lightning essence as he hit the ground, causing a miniature explosion.

“Look out!” Leon cried as he pushed Onko out of the way, causing him to just barely miss a kunai that was aimed straight for his head.

“Oh no! It’s the Raijin Clan!” Onko wailed as he frantically reached into his ordinary bag for Skull-Shatter and rolled away from Leon, on to his feet and caused the kanabō to grow. “I wish Seth were here,” he whimpered.

“Well, he’s not. We’re just gonna have to fight them!” Leon scowled and also got to his feet, as he stepped back into Protector’s Fist first form and prepared to fight the attackers.

More kunai shot out from the cover of nearby trees, all aimed for Onko, who seemed to effortlessly knock them all back with one swing of the massive kanabō, causing a couple of them to fly back in the direction that they came from, and a shrill cry rang out from one of their attackers.

“Got one!” Onko shouted in satisfaction.

“Good! Now let’s bring the fight to these pussies!” Leon shouted back as he and Onko charged into the small wooded area where the kunai were coming from.

As the entered the narrow thicket, a few men clothed in all black, with hoods and masks covering their faces dropped down from the trees and charged at the two young men.

“Tsenmai belongs to the Raijin Clan!” one of the masked fiends shouted as he launched at Leon.

“Let’s see about that!” Leon shouted as he rushed at the assassin and sent an essence charged punched to the center of his chest, sending him flying back against a nearby tree.

“These kids are Cultivators!” another cried out as Onko took a step forward and swung his kanabō into the same assassin’s head.

The last of the Raijin assassins attempted to flee in the opposite direction, however Leon used his Spirit Essence and channeled his power to his legs as he leapt swiftly at the retreating assassin and tackled him to the ground.

“What the hell is your problem! You could have killed us!” Leon berated the assassin as he grabbed at his mask and attempted to pull it off.

“Ugh! Get off!” the assassin shouted as he produced a small device and pressed a button, causing a noxious gas to escape from it.

“Ahh! Damn it!” Leon immediately grabbed at his own face and rolled off of the assassin who quickly sprung to his feet.

Onko then charged at the assassin with Skull-Shatter raised above his head, but the Raijin clansmen swiftly dashed away as fast as he could.

“What the hell was that?” Leon’s eyes watered profusely as he choked on whatever kind of gas it was that the assassin had used against him.

“I-I don’t know. We just need to get out of here!” Onko said nervously, as he looked all around him to make sure that the coast was clear.

“How are we gonna get out of here if I can’t see?!” Leon raged.

“Uh, here!” Onko reached into his bag and produced a flask of water and slowly ran it over Leon’s eyes.

Almost instantly, Leon’s vision was restored and the choking feeling left him. “Ugh, thanks… What is that stuff?” Leon asked, pointing to the flask.

“It’s water from Jiangerie Springs. The water has healing properties. That’s why my people drink it,” Onko told him proudly.

“I see why,” Leon cleared his throat and got back on his feet. “Now, let’s hurry to Shisang. Can you run?”

“I’ll do my best!” Onko promised as he caused the kanabō to shrink once more and placed it back in his bag.

“Good. Let’s not waste any time!” Leon said as he started a light jog back towards the road to Shisang.