The obsidian stones of the sparring yard were scarred and cracked, bearing the silent testament of three months of absolute, punishing training.
Kenshin stood in the center of the ring, his dark katana and parrying dagger drawn.
The dark, wavy aura of the Blandcourus drifted from the blades like black smoke, curling up his forearms.
He was no longer the frail, traumatized boy who had escaped the subterranean vault.
His muscles were densely packed, his reflexes forged through Horuto’s grueling physical conditioning, and his combat instincts honed by Asami’s merciless, lethal strikes.
Yet, despite his immense progress, Master Brados knew that practice within the safety of the fortress walls was no longer enough.
“Three months have passed since the assassin delivered the warning,” Brados said, his deep, commanding voice carrying across the courtyard.
The elderly Strong Holder stood with his hands resting upon the golden dragon head of his legendary Guandao.
“We have nine months until Amator arrives with his fifty million goblins. But war does not wait for a marked calendar, my students.”
Horuto stood to Brados’s right, his thick jade broadswords strapped securely to his back, the spectral chains linking into his spine.
To the left stood Asami, her long midnight-blue hair tied back, her icy blue eyes sharp and focused.
“Have the border scouts reported movement, Master?” Horuto asked, his glowing olive-green eyes narrowing.
“Not the main army,” Brados replied, his weathered, ancient face looking deeply troubled.
“But Amator is an arrogant commander, not a foolish one. He is already sending his advance scouts—rogue mercenaries, corrupted beasts, and deserters paid in stolen gold—to test our borders and map our defenses.”
Asami’s grip tightened on her double-bladed polearm.
“Where have they breached?”
“The Murkwood Valley, on the far eastern edge of the Underward territory,” Brados explained, stepping forward.
“A coalition of savage scavengers has occupied the outer villages. They are cutting off our supply lines and slaughtering the local guards. I cannot send my main army, for we must hold our formations here for the true invasion.”
Brados looked directly at Kenshin.
“You possess a magical core now, Kenshin. But an aura is useless if you do not know the weight of taking a life to protect another in a true, chaotic battle. The three of you are bound by the Partnership System. Your souls are tethered. You will go to the Murkwood Valley as the Tri-Warriors. Cleanse the border, and show them the strength of the Underward.”
Kenshin sheathed his dark katana and dagger, giving a sharp, respectful nod.
“We will not fail you, Master.”
-Break-
The journey to the Murkwood Valley took two full days on horseback.
The terrain shifted from the craggy, obsidian peaks near the stronghold to dense, twisted forests shrouded in a perpetual, thick gray mist.
As the sun began to dip below the horizon on the second day, the Tri-Warriors dismounted, leaving their horses securely tied in a hidden grove.
They proceeded on foot, utilizing their Gladeon stamina to move swiftly and silently through the dense underbrush.
“Keep your senses sharp,” Asami whispered, moving gracefully ahead of Kenshin.
“The mercenaries in this region use the mist to hide their traps. They coat their arrowheads in paralyzing venoms.”
“I am familiar with venoms,” Kenshin replied softly, the horrific memories of Null’s bone needles and creeping insects flashing briefly in the back of his mind.
He quickly pushed the trauma away, focusing on the dark, wavy trails of the Blandcourus aura pulsing faintly in his chest.
Horuto walked point, his broad shoulders easily pushing through the heavy branches.
“The village is just beyond this ridge. We strike fast, we do not break formation, and we leave no leaders alive to report our tactics back to Amator.”
They crept to the edge of a high, rocky cliff and peered down into the Murkwood Valley.
The village below was a scene of absolute devastation.
Dozens of wooden cottages were burning, casting a sickly orange glow against the gray mist.
Nearly three hundred rogue mercenaries occupied the settlement.
They wore mismatched, rusted armor and wielded heavy iron axes and jagged swords.
In the center of the village square, roughly fifty terrified villagers were corralled into a tight circle, surrounded by heavily armed guards.
“Three hundred against three,” Kenshin observed, his dark green eyes scanning the perimeter.
He expected to feel fear, but all he felt was a cold, absolute focus.
“Three hundred undisciplined fools,” Asami corrected, stepping to the edge of the cliff.
The brilliant electric-blue and purple energy of the Plandacorus began to crackle wildly around the jagged edges of her polearm.
“They lack a unified aura. They rely only on numbers.”
Horuto reached over his shoulders, the spectral chains clinking softly as he drew his massive jade broadswords.
The dense stone blades flared with a brilliant, emerald-green Kratognus aura.
“Asami, clear the archers on the watchtowers. Kenshin, you are the shadow. Hunt the stragglers and protect the captive villagers.”
“Understood,” Kenshin whispered, drawing his katana and dagger.
Asami did not say another word.
In the blink of an eye, she vanished into a violent streak of purple lightning.
Horuto bent his knees and launched himself directly off the high cliff, plummeting toward the center of the burning village like a green meteor.
Down in the square, a heavily scarred mercenary captain was shouting orders to his men, preparing to shackle the weeping villagers.
He looked up just as the sky seemed to tear open.
Horuto crashed into the earth with the kinetic force of a falling boulder.
The impact sent a concussive shockwave ripping through the square, shattering the wooden barricades and throwing dozens of mercenaries violently into the air.
Before the dust could even settle, Horuto swung his massive jade swords in a horizontal cross-slash.
Kratognus Wave: Grial!
A massive, glowing green wave of slicing kinetic energy erupted from the jade blades.
It expanded outward, effortlessly cleaving through the mercenaries’ iron shields and splitting the front line entirely in half.
Blood and shattered armor rained across the dirt.
“Ambush! It is the vanguard of the Underward!” the mercenary captain screamed, drawing a heavy broadsword.
“Kill the brute!”
From the wooden watchtowers surrounding the village, the mercenaries’ archers nocked their poisoned arrows.
They never had the chance to fire.
A blur of midnight-blue hair and crackling purple lightning materialized behind the archers.
Asami executed the Violet Phantom Flurry.
Moving at a blurry, hyper-speed, she appeared in multiple spots across the towers simultaneously.
Her double-bladed Guandao sliced through the air, delivering dozens of dismembering, decapitating cuts in a fraction of a second.
The watchtowers fell dead silent, the archers dropping to the wooden floorboards before they even realized they had been struck.
Kenshin hit the ground near the edge of the village, landing gracefully in a low crouch.
The dark, wavy aura of the Blandcourus instantly wrapped around his arms, increasing the density and sharpness of his katana.
He looked toward the center square.
Five heavily armored mercenaries were charging toward the corralled villagers, intending to use them as hostages against Horuto.
Kenshin took a deep breath, funneling his magical core into his legs.
Dark Trail Step.
He dissolved into a plume of black smoke.
The mercenaries blinked in confusion as the boy vanished from their sight.
A fraction of a heartbeat later, Kenshin solidified directly behind the charging soldiers.
He moved with flawless, lethal precision.
Using the Twin-Fang Eclipse, Kenshin brought his parrying dagger up to hook the shaft of a mercenary’s battle-axe, pinning the weapon and creating a split-second opening.
In the same fluid motion, he swept his dark katana in a horizontal arc.
The purple gem on the crossguard flared brilliantly as the blade cleanly severed the armor and flesh of three mercenaries in a single strike.
The remaining two soldiers spun around, swinging their heavy iron swords at Kenshin’s head.
Kenshin did not retreat.
He crossed the katana and dagger in an ‘X’ formation, executing the Abyssal Parry.
The obsidian metal absorbed the brutal kinetic force of the heavy swords.
Instead of pushing Kenshin backward, the absorbed energy was immediately expelled back at the attackers as a blast of purple kinetic lightning.
The shockwave shattered the mercenaries’ wrists and threw them violently through the wall of a burning cottage.
“The boy is a demon! Surround him!” the mercenary captain roared, abandoning Horuto to charge at Kenshin with a dozen of his best fighters.
Kenshin stood his ground, spinning his katana at immense speed.
He drew a perfect, dark circle of Blandcourus energy in the air.
Void Cleave.
He unleashed the absolute anti-energy slash forward.
The dark circle expanded, tearing through the charging mercenaries and slicing their heavy weapons and iron breastplates entirely in half. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Seeing Kenshin completely surrounded, Horuto threw one of his heavy jade swords far to the right, bypassing the enemy’s guard.
With a violent, primal yank of his spinal chain, Horuto caused the heavy blade to snap backward.
Twin Boomerang Severance.
The heavy jade sword curved violently, stabbing three mercenaries through the back before returning perfectly to Horuto’s grip.
“Do not break your rhythm, Kenshin!” Asami shouted from above.
She leaped from the watchtower, slamming the lower blade of her Guandao directly into the earth near the villagers.
Aegis of the Violet Dome.
A massive, durable purple energy shield erupted over the captives, protecting the innocent villagers from the rain of debris and stray arrows.
The battle lasted less than ten minutes.
The sheer synergy of the Tri-Warriors was absolute.
Bound by the Partnership System, their souls were tethered in perfect trust.
They did not need to speak to coordinate their strikes.
Where Horuto crushed the enemy’s defensive lines, Asami eliminated their ranged support, and Kenshin severed their flanks with blinding, shadowy precision.
The mercenary captain, bleeding heavily from a deep gash on his shoulder, backed away in sheer terror.
His entire coalition of three hundred men lay dead or dying in the mud.
“You… you are monsters…” the captain stammered, dropping his broadsword and falling to his knees.
Horuto walked slowly toward the captain, his heavy jade swords resting against the dirt.
The green Kratognus aura illuminated his cold, olive-green eyes.
“Who paid you to cross the borders of the Underward? Speak, and I will grant you a swift death.”
The captain trembled, looking between Horuto’s massive blades and Kenshin’s dark katana.
“We… we were hired! A man cloaked in shadows… he gave us gold! He told us to burn the villages… to draw out the disciples of Brados!”
Kenshin’s dark green eyes narrowed.
He stepped forward, the dark trails of his aura curling around his boots.
“A man in shadows? What did he look like?”
“He was tall… gaunt…” the captain coughed, spitting blood into the dirt.
“He had hair of black and deep slate gray… streaked with silver. And his eyes… his eyes burned like fiery amber gold!”
Horuto and Asami exchanged a sharp, chilling glance.
“Amator,” Asami whispered, the purple lightning fading from her polearm.
“Amator is supposed to be a year away,” Kenshin said, his heart pounding a heavy rhythm against his ribs.
“Why is a Strong Holder secretly meeting with low-tier mercenaries?”
Horuto stepped forward and swiftly brought the hilt of his jade sword down on the back of the captain’s head, knocking the man unconscious.
“Amator is not just a brute; he is a commander,” Horuto said, looking down at the unconscious mercenary.
“He is using these rogue factions to bleed our borders. By forcing us to constantly deploy and fight these minor skirmishes, he is draining our stamina, our magical reserves, and our resources before the true invasion even begins.”
Asami dispelled the purple dome protecting the villagers.
The captives rushed forward, falling to their knees to thank their saviors.
“Master Brados was right,” Asami noted, her icy blue eyes scanning the burning ruins of the Murkwood Valley.
“The war has already begun. Amator is testing us.”
Kenshin sheathed his weapons, the dark-purple gem on his katana dimming.
He looked out into the thick, gray mist of the forest.
The physical victory was absolute, but the chilling realization settled heavily in his chest.
They had three hundred and sixty days left.
Three hundred and sixty days of non-stop battles, skirmishes, and border defenses.
Every day would be a fight for survival, a grueling test to force their auras to evolve.
Deep within the darkest recesses of his mind, the Shadow entity remained completely silent, watching his host take his first true steps into the river of blood.
The year of survival had officially begun.