We arrived in a town called Tiro, in the east of the First Kingdom. Our goal was to convince the Naiton clan to join our fight. We didn't know if they would accept our offer, but we had to try. Their location was further away than we expected, so we had to buy a horse-drawn carriage.

They were looking for us everywhere and we were walking around with our black cloaks on our heads, our aim was to stay as far away from the eyes as possible. Of course, having a panda with us made this situation a little more difficult.

For a moment I remembered what my uncle had said as we walked. The Epic had almost as much authority as a king. So it was quite normal for us to be searched in most places. Kings couldn't do anything because they feared a great war. Kings most rightly thought of the welfare of their people. It wasn't pleasant to think about, but it was the truth.

After our horse carriage search, we decided to rest for a while. We should have stayed out of sight, at least until the crowd outside had dispersed.

Inside, I asked Babu, "Can I ask you something?"

"Absolutely! What's the problem?" he said.

"When you spoke to Master Yix, I heard about 'Ki' power. A strong man mentioned it but I don't know much. Do you know anything? You were training to control Ki power; how much can you control?"

"Hmmm. Let me think..." He said.

"Ki is life energy. Every living thing has Ki power, but only the Cronus lineage or powerful individuals can fully use it. For Ki control, I trained with my Master for a long time but never fully controlled it," He added. "To control Ki, your mind must be empty. One focus and long meditation. If your willpower is strong, you may achieve what you want."

Lezlie joined our conversation and asked, "What is it like to completely unlock Ki power?"

"If I succeed, my strength will increase tenfold. I could even heal someone with a non-severe wound or illness by touching them with my hand. However, the downside is that it requires an incredible amount of life energy, leaving me exhausted and powerless, or worse. That's why only the strongest can fully harness their Ki."

The prospect of controlling Ki power was exciting. But as with any power, it required hard work to activate. At least that's what Babu told us. Since we were in a restaurant, we decided to order some food to pass the time. Lezlie, Babu, and I were famished, but Hiroshi didn't eat anything. He remained vigilant, scanning the room for any potential trouble. "We need a carriage to climb the mountain," he said calmly. "But we don't know much about this place. We could waste a lot of time trying to find one."

Babu replied, "That may be true, but since we know our destination, it shouldn't be too difficult."

Just then, a man stood up from the table behind us and approached us. He appeared to be a regular villager but seemed eager to speak with us.

"Are you planning on traveling between the mountains?" he asked.

Babu replied, "Yes, but why do you ask?"

"Nothing special. I just thought I could take you there. But why do you want to go, I want to know?"

"We need to speak to the leader of the Naiton Bloodline," I said.

"What subject would you like to talk to him about?" He said.

The man wanted to know, but I wasn't sure how safe it would be to be honest with him either. I just spoke the way I wanted.

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"We have an offer for him that will change the course of the war," I said.

"I see. It will be difficult for you to get there without a horse-drawn carriage. If you need one, just let me know and I can take you."

We exchanged confused glances. We hadn't expected to receive help so suddenly. His offer could be useful, but we weren't sure if we should trust him. In the end, We decided to accept his offer because we were running out of time and this seemed like the best opportunity we had. We reached the carriage easily and set off undetected.

Hiroshi, as always, was cautious. He remained on guard as if the driver might try to trick us. Perhaps he was right to be cautious, but I didn't think the man could be malicious. If he did, we would have noticed it already

As we set off, Hiroshi lit a cigar and said, "I have a question."

To our surprise, the man heard him and replied, "Yes, of course."

"Why are you helping us? We're just strangers who arrived here."

"I know it may seem inappropriate," the man said. "But I saw you trying to conceal your identities. I figured you must be wanted individuals. If Epic is looking for you, it means you are our friend. I thought you couldn't be bad people just wandering around. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. There must be a reason for your visit, right?"

Hiroshi asked, “Your Lineage? So you’re one of those people?”

“Yes, I am. How else would I know the way we were going? That’s why I wanted to help you guys. But I have a question too. You know I'm endangering myself and my lineage by taking you there. So I need to know exactly what you're going to say to the leader.” the man replied.

“We want to put an end to the dominance of the first epic, so we will talk to him,” I said.

The man looked at us with a serious expression and said, “So that’s why. Then I will absolutely help you with this.”

He glanced at the road once more and added, “We’ll be there in two days. I’ll let you know when we arrive. So get some rest while you can.”

Even though it seemed foolish to trust each other so quickly with people we didn’t know, I still didn’t think it was a bad idea. He didn’t look like he was going to attack us and seemed to know where he was going. Even if he did attack us, I was ready just like Hiroshi. So we calmly waited behind the car, surrounded by a beautiful silence and laid down. But that beautiful silence ended with a scream.

The man turned to us and said, “These are Marauders! They’re here to steal!”

“Keep driving, don’t stop. We’ll deal with them,” Hiroshi shouted.

The driver sped up and didn’t care about the looters chasing us. But then the Marauders began to attack and started shooting from all sides. They damaged the car a lot and we were having a hard time inside.

“There are too many of them!” Hiroshi exclaimed as he took out his gun.

As he said they were crowded. They were all chasing the carriage and didn't seem like they were going to stop.

Hiroshi and Lezlie were firing spells and bullets at the looters on the horse from behind the carriage. And a couple of marauders jumped on the carriage while they did that. But Babu climbed on the carriage and he began fighting with sworded and armed looters at the top. He was helping Hiroshi and Lezlie while they were distracted.

Then I saw a marauder trying to attack the driver. He was trying to drive the carriage to a cliff.

So to help him, I quickly ran towards the driver in front of the car, punched the Marauder next to him, and saved him. Then I punched the guy on the horse next to me and made him fall off the horse. Then I jumped and kicked a Marauder on the other horse. Our left side was now half clear. Except for the back.

So as the carriage went on, I jumped on one of the horses and started riding it. I was now punching, kicking the marauders while I was on a horse and threw them off their horses. Others fought just well and in the same way, they were able to stop the Marauders.

Babu was throwing the people he beat on the carriage at the marauders on the horse. This made so many of them fall and hit each other as they were falling. It was hard to dodge them, but I managed to catch up with the carriage a couple of seconds after. And I was searching for something to use, I found a rope in the horse's saddle pocket. It wasn't that useful for a situation like this. But the rope gave me an idea. So I started riding carefully, speeding ahead of everyone. I was now too far away to be seen in their eyes.

Then I immediately threw the end of the rope so that it would wrap one branch of the tree, and I took the other end in my hand and went across the tree. I waited until the carriage passed, and when the carriage passed, I pulled the rope with all my power. Now the rope was stretched all the way down and it created an obstacle for the marauders. They were either going to jump through that carefully or they were going to have a hard time. And just like I planned, they didn't make it. The Marauders got stuck on the rope and fell off their horses, making the remaining marauders knocked out.

When they all fell, I caught up with the others and got back into the carriage safely.