by Aaron Oster
“Why are you still here?” the man asked in his weary voice. “Didn’t you say you would leave me alone?”
“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I need some more fire,” Roy replied.
“I don’t know why you insist on pretending you can’t make your own, but fine, suit yourself. Just don’t bother me again.”
Roy took the burning branch and left, not promising anything.
He settled into a routine over the next few days. Wake up, try and do some form of exercise to stay fit, follow the man as he hunted and collected the Beast Cores, then ask him for fire. The man no longer asked why he wanted fire, simply sighing, shoving a burning stick at him and asking him to leave.
But Roy began to feel a distinct sense of unease, like he was wasting time just waiting around here. He couldn’t really figure out why he felt that way. It wasn’t like he had anywhere to be, or anywhere to go. He was a powerless cripple with no family or home, so in truth, this was likely the best place for him.
The man wasn’t the greatest company, but at least he didn’t attack him simply for being weak. Or treat him badly in any way. He simply wanted to be left alone, though Roy knew he couldn’t exactly honor the man’s wishes. If he wanted to keep on eating, he would have to continuously bug him for fire.
He started to wonder what the man was searching for, because that was undoubtedly what he was doing. Why else would he spend eighteen to twenty hours a day hunting Beasts and removing their Cores, only to leave them there? There was clearly something he was after but what, Roy couldn’t hope to guess.
Despite not knowing why, Roy was secretly glad. With every dead Beast, Roy collected another Core he could hopefully one day sell. He was starting to feel a bit better than he had previously, though he didn’t know why. As the days went on, his body felt stronger and more energized. Even without the use of Essence, he wasn’t having as hard a time following the man when he went hunting and his lame leg started to pain him less.
He began practicing his Martial Combat forms after the first week, finding the will to do so once again. The small bit of fat that he had retained for most of his life began to burn away now that he didn’t incorporate anything other than meat in his diet. And on top of that, he began to feel oddly at peace out here in these woods, his worldly worries seeming to fall away. And, for the first time a long time, Roy began to feel content.
Yes, he’d lost his Martial Arts, but there was absolutely nothing he could do about that. And now that he accepted it, he could move on and find another purpose in life other than the repetitive fighting and cycling.
18
“Why are you still here?”
Roy was started from his meditative trance by the bored-sounding voice of the nameless man. He was surprised because in the month he’d spent here, the man had never once approached him. It had always been the other way around.
His eyes snapped open, and he looked up to see the man standing there, a mixture of curiosity and annoyance in place of his usual bored expression. He stared at the man for a few minutes, uncomprehendingly before asking, “what?”
“You heard me,” the man said with a sigh. “You’ve been hanging around me for over a month already. And I made my position pretty clear. Why, then, are you still here?”
“Because,” Roy replied slowly. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
The man let out a sigh, his expression growing weary once again.
“I honestly can’t tell if you’re telling the truth at this point. You seem to be a walking contradiction. You’ve followed me on almost every hunt and collected all the Beast Cores I’ve left behind. Yet you haven’t used a single one. I’ve seen you practicing forms and meditating, yet never seen you use a technique or cycle. You hobble after me like a cripple, yet you manage to keep up for hours on end.
“I can see the Power Essence clearly flowing through your channels. You continuously eat Beast meat, strengthening your body with their Essence, yet you do not channel it into your Core. Your body is packed with energy, your Core filled to bursting, yet you do nothing.”
The man shook his head, propping his back up against a tree.
“At this point, I’m almost inclined to believe that you're truthful and that you have lost the ability to channel Essence. And the only reason that I can think of is that you have some sort of mental block preventing you from accessing your power. So, I’ve decided to help you overcome that block so you can access your Essence once again.”
Roy stared at the man, dumbfounded by his willingness to help.
“Um. Thank you?” he said, almost as a question.
“Don’t thank me,” the man replied with a snort. “The sooner you can use your Essence, the sooner you can leave. I’ll be back at first light to begin work.”
Ah, now that makes more sense, Roy thought as the man turned and left.
He hadn’t understood why the man would be offering to help him when he’d seemed too selfish and self-centered up until now. But helping him to get him to go was something the man would most definitely do. Not that Roy minded. He didn’t think he’d ever get access to his Essence ever again but if this powerful Martial Artist believed he could help him, Roy wasn’t going to argue.
That night, for the first time in several weeks, Roy wondered how Aika was doing back in that new clan of hers. Was she happy there? And how was Ferry doing? Had she been growing while he’d been sitting around and doing nothing?
Now that he’d had some time to think about it, the entire situation revolving around that seemed kind of fishy to him. Why would he believe some shady construct that an enemy gave him? She’d made sure he watched it, leaving behind a dagger with which to kill himself.
That woman could easily have talked to Aika before visiting him and recorded their conversation, then cobbled together a recording from what she’d said to make it sound as they wanted. He remembered the odd way her voice had crackled in places, oddly distorted. Then again, he had to wonder why they would go through so much trouble simply to get rid of him?
The answer came to him a moment later. They wanted Aika, the woman who’d come had made that much clear. If they got a recording of him killing himself, or better yet, running away, they might use that to persuade her to stay with them. That was why they’d left the door open rather than have guards dump him into the wilds themselves. This way, it would appear as though he were abandoning her.
He sighed, realizing he’d been played for a fool and turned onto his back, staring up at the luminescent trees above. He wasn’t angry as he’d expected to be. His time spent here had tempered most of that, allowing him to think with far more clarity than he had previously. Getting angry would do him no good. It would simply waste his energy.
He needed to listen to the man when he came back tomorrow and hopefully find some way of accessing his Essence once again. If it really was just a mental block, then he had to find a way around it.
A small smile touched his lips as he drifted off, thinking that it would be nice to hear Geon’s voice once again. It had been far too long since he’d heard the Dungeon’s mockery in his head, and he looked forward to speaking with him once more.
***
Aika sat in her small cell, her legs folded up beneath her as she cycled the abundant Light Essence from her surroundings. She’d been stuck here for an entire month already, enduring the daily ministrations of the Itachi clan as they tried to ‘convince’ her to join.
They’d done everything they could, starting with an illusory recording of Roy abandoning her and running into the forest. She already knew that they’d turned him out to die, so the recording did nothing to sway her. She desperately hoped that he had somehow managed to survive.
Knowing him, if he had, he would be doing everything he could to get her out of here. But, guarded by powerful Martial Artists as she was, he wouldn’t be able to do much. That was why she had determined to break free on her own. If she couldn’t save herself, no one would. This was wh
y, whenever the Itachi clan’s torturers weren’t spending quality time with her, she cultivated.
They hurt her badly every day, trying to break her. However, they always healed her before starting a new session. She’d learned to deal with the pain, and by now, it barely affected her. She wouldn’t lie and say it hadn’t been terrible in the beginning.
Since she’d gained her Core Body, she hadn’t felt much discomfort, but the twisted torturer knew just what to do to inflict the maximum amount of pain.
They no longer bothered leaving a guard, as she wouldn’t run. She had tried a few times, but each time she’d been caught before she even made it to the boundary. Eventually, she’d simply stopped trying.
Those escape attempts had made one thing very clear to her. Essence would not be enough to aid her escape. To get away from this place, she needed Qi. Light was the fastest Essence type there was, so if she could use a Qi movement technique, no one but the Blue-Belt, Joan, would be able to catch her.
She’d had a breakthrough earlier that day, moving up to 1st Dan Green, and it gave her a little more insight into turning her Essence to Qi. It was a far more involved process than she could have guessed, and she was stuck figuring it out all on her own. Had she been back in the clan, she could have asked another Light user for advice, but here, locked up in a cage, she was all on her own.
Still, she was confident in her own abilities and knew it was only a matter of time. The only question was if she would figure out to do so before Joan grew too impatient and simply had her killed. The woman visited twice a week and tried to cajole her into joining. Her last visit had confirmed that she was beginning to lose her patience and would soon offer her an ultimatum.
And that was not to mention her worry for her friend. Roy, if he was still alive, was out there all alone and likely fighting for his life every day. He would be growing stronger but not strong enough to put up much of a fight against these Itachi scum. She had to work faster to find the solution that had thus far been eluding her.
Just a bit more, and she would find her way out. She was sure of it!
***
“And how many are injured?” Tonde Kaeru asked, looking up from the scroll with the names of the deceased.
“Just over twelve hundred at last count,” Chui said.
Kaeru was sitting at the head of a table in their official meeting room. In attendance were the three remaining Grandmasters, his sister, and several of the clan elders who’d earned the right to be here.
“How many of those will be ready for the next battle?” he asked, rubbing at his temples.
“Maybe three hundred. Perhaps four, if we push our resources.”
Hato answered this question, looking troubled. Kaeru couldn’t blame her. The war was dragging on far longer than anyone could have predicted. They’d already lost well over two thousand of their Martial Artists, and more were lost each day.
There had been several large-scale battles since that first one, but it looked as though the Beast King wasn’t going to back down anytime soon. Though they’d suffered far greater losses than the Tonde, they still vastly outnumbered them and could continuously supply fresh fighters while the Tonde had to continue fighting to exhaustion.
This was not at all ideal. Tired fighters made mistakes, and mistakes often led to casualties.
“How are we looking on the search for Irusaru?” he asked, changing the subject.
Though he was only one man, a single Grandmaster could tip the balance of this war and give them the edge they needed. Kaeru had approved a search for the old man, though he doubted they’d have much luck. If he didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t. And for all he knew, Irusaru could be as far as the Windblight, though he couldn’t possibly guess as to what the man would want there.
“No sign yet,” elder Koi said, bowing his head. “Though we have gone to great pains to track him, I’m afraid we have failed in that regard.”
Kaeru simply waved his hand, dismissing the elder’s concern.
“The Kyofu are pushing at our eastern flank, likely trying to break past our forces to attack our cities directly. Grandmaster Porto will take a force of a thousand to head them off. He will be accompanied by three Masters, and we will try and spare a fourth if we can.”
Porto, the youngest Grandmaster in attendance, bowed his head respectfully, though Kaeru noted that Hato looked less than pleased. Their courtship had continued over the last month, though the war had prevented either from sitting down to another meal. He had a feeling the man would be asking his permission to marry her once the fighting was over. Whether he would give his blessing remained to be seen.
“That is all for now,” he continued, eyeing each of those in attendance in turn. “You may all go now. We will reconvene in the morning.”
Everyone in attendance bowed low in their seats, then rose to file out. Kaeru answered a few questions as one elder or another stopped to speak with him on the way out. But finally, it was just him and Hato.
“These meetings are killing me!” Kaeru complained, leaning back in his cushion and slumping against the wall. “Sitting so stiffly and formally for hours on end does horrible things to my back.”
“I’m sure you will survive,” Hato mercilessly shot his complaints down, giving him a cold glare. “Besides, your people are out there dying every day. The least you can do is perform your duties as clan leader, even if you refuse to do anything.”
Kaeru didn’t rise to the bait. He already knew how his sister felt about him not taking a more active role in the war effort, but he’d already explained once why he could not interfere. And once was enough. Seeing that he wasn’t going to reply, Hato snorted and changed the subject.
“So, are you actually going to do some work now, or will you just slack off as always?”
“Why, whatever do you mean?” Kaeru asked, plastering a look of innocence onto his face. “I never slack off!”
Hato just shook her head as she stood, already resigning herself to a night doing paperwork. She couldn’t directly contribute to the battle either, not that she didn’t want to. But Kaeru forbade it, and one did not go against the direct orders of the clan leader. Even if the work was technically supposed to be his, she could still contribute in some small way.
“I noticed you seemed overly concerned that I’m sending Porto to stop the enemy from flanking us,” Kaeru said as she was gathering up all the scrolls.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” she smoothly replied.
She was a good liar, but Kaeru could pick out lies a mile away. Even if there were no obvious indicators, like flushed cheeks or an increased heart rate, he could detect the tiny fluctuations in a person’s Essence and make an educated guess. And Hato was far from a master of deceit. She displayed all signs of embarrassment, including flushed cheeks, increased heart rate and quickened breath.
“Right,” Kaeru said, a lazy grin coming to his lips. “I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that you require an escort should you want to meet. It is improper for a courting couple to be alone until there is an official engagement. But since there’s nothing going on, that’s a moot point.”
“Of course,” Hato said, straightening to her full height, her cheeks a dark shade of crimson. “I’ll be going now. Try not to goof off too much. There is still a war going on.”
Then, she left, closing the door behind her with enough force to smash it. Luckily, this was only the meeting room, not his private chambers. It would cost the clan money to replace, but at least it could be taken care of in the morning.
Kaeru rose, stepping through the splintered remains of the sliding door, and headed to his own room. His chair was far more comfortable than those flat mats. He’d never understood the tradition of sitting on the floor, when using a chair was just so much more comfortable. It didn’t take him long to get there, as he decided to speed up his journey by using one of his Movement techniques.
He breezed through the corridors, slipping
around fellow clan members who seemed to be standing still. It wasn’t even one of his faster techniques, but it had been quite some time since anyone had been able to keep up with him. The door to his room slid open and closed, barely making a whisper as he released the technique and flopped back into his cushy armchair, the over-embroidered robe already tossed carelessly into a corner.
Reclining back in the chair, Kaeru threw his feet up, letting out a contented sigh. He allowed himself a full minute of relaxation before he got to work. Contrary to what everyone believed, he was aiding in the war effort, and it was the only sure way he knew he could.
There was a contingency plan. One that he could undertake at any time. And that would be to fight the Beast King one on one. The victor would win the war. However, he could not, as the head of the clan, take such a massive risk. He was powerful, but so was the Beast King.
The only surefire way for him to come out on top was to push for advancement. Unfortunately, gaining a Dan after Red-Belt could be the work of decades or centuries if one did not have a proper understanding of how to do so. And unfortunately for him, he did not. Not yet, anyway.
No one in the history of the Tonde clan had made it to Red-Belt. Until 7th Dan Purple, he’d had a path to follow. Instructions from tutors, knowledge gleaned from reading books and old manuals. But now, he had to forge his own path. It had been quite some time since he’d really pushed to improve himself, seeing as there weren’t many who could challenge him, let alone give him a good sparring match.
But now, with the possibility of a fight against the Beast King, a fellow Supreme, he was starting to become excited. Now all he had to do was have a breakthrough, and then he could confidentially challenge his rival without endangering the clan. He just had to hope the Beast King wouldn’t beat him to it.
19
