10 YEARS AGO, 10450, SUMMER MONTH 1, DAY 25, YEAR 10450 SAMURAI COUNTRY NAGASUKE
Jin, Gejiro and Karin found him with blood on his body with the boy mediating beside the ruined Warthog.
He had started with the armadillo and rhino at first but he had been eating Epic Beast meat over their trip and his body had long acclimatized to the nutrients gotten from such, even though impurities were expelled and his body still shivered like an epileptic for the first moments.
So, he had made a meal out of all of them in the end.
He too was surprised at his appetite as maybe it was because he was bloodied before and now felt like he was bursting with energy to spare.
Still, though it was not as much as the first time he ate Unawakened Beast meat, he did feel energy even though it was not as much as the first time.
Thus, in the middle of the gathering, there he was all messy with life liquid and their corpses strewn about him.
The trio of Oniga witnessed him swallowing the last organ and Karin stared in captivate disgust, Jin with scholarly interest like he was staring at a new specie and Gejiro slightly shook literally like he was tried to rid himself of the picture both mentally and physically.
Like him, they too had life liquid over their bodies but his seemed more intentional.
All slick in bright and dark, dripping red but also wet and looking refreshed from the meat he just ate, he stared at them innocently.
“How was it?” They did not answer.
“You look safe so I think it went well.” Still not hearing a reply, he raised his weapon high.
“Too bad you don’t have a buddy like me, though.”
***
“You ran away to…
Fight?” Skrylla Yokuta had not been able to speak, so far.
It had been question after question.
“And do you know that you could have been chased?”
He tried to speak yet again.
“For what?
For glory?
”
Now, he frowned.
“What was going through your head?
”
Jin, Karin and Gejiro had told him to tell her that he ran away because he was afraid.
And in his flight he was chased.
Unto which point, he had to fight back.
But now, he was getting angry; why was she angry?
Everyone was safe, all their injuries had been healed.
In fact, they were cultivators which meant their healing factor was above his.
So, why was he the one getting shouted on?
He glanced to see Karin roasting what they had caught after getting the valuables from their corpses.
Jin was mock-laughing at him and Gejiro was frowning.
He looked back at her and she was still not done.
“You will have to make your own food this night.
Oh, yes.
From the same pride you want to prove, go make yourself your own food, then.”
Skrylla Yokuta sulked as he did all he had to, and Jin made a point to laugh whenever he messed things up, like how it took so long to start a fire, or how he remembered that he would have to ask the Mistress for water.
“Hey, buddy I need help.” Its silence was especially loud as he was in a foul mood himself.
Anyways, his body was felt very content, so his gloom dropped by a notch.
Gejiro, on his own part made sure to fix him with a glare, Skrylla Yokuta thought it was him trying to prove a point until it became creepy.
“Yeah, buddy that one’s weird.
Let us take our paths around him.”
Karin was the most helpful, she had decided to give him water that he needed.
Helping to activate the Potent Artifacts, he got hot water and boiled it.
He then took whatever was left over from his spoils of the battle and ate remnants of flesh, organs and whatever could be boiled.
For the scales of the armadillo, the horn and hooves of the Warthog and the exoskeleton of the Rhino, including its horn too, he kept those to sell when he got to their destination.
Karin had also helped with spices.
So, after boiling everything, removing excess hairs with the help of hot water, then separating organs from flesh and cooking the ones he desired.
He finally had his meal, long after the Mistress had scowled and grumbled herself to sleep.
“Hey, you really did a number.”
“I know, my buddy saved the day.
Really, he was spectacular!” One of those words he had heard from his mother on a day they were traveling to the mountains.
“I think it was stupid.” Skrylla Yokuta was not surprised at Gejiro’s attitude.
“You had no reason to leave the pack.
If you had just stayed everything would have been solved.”
“Buddy, this one’s a downer.” Skrylla Yokuta turned to his other friends.
“Do you think I will be forgiven tomorrow?”
“By him?” Jin arced his brow towards Gejiro.
“Screw him!”
“Of course not.
Even my buddy knows he is only useful for Regimen.”
“Oh, her?” Karin giggled at Gejiro’s arced brow as the other boy was already used to the jabs.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“She worries a lot.”
Karin did not say it out loud but she placed a hand on his shoulder to show that she agreed with him.
“So,” Jin looked at Skrylla Yokuta.
“Did you kill an Epic Beast?”
“I know right?” His smile appeared on his face as if it had always been there.
“Crazy.”
“Wait, lets clarify something.” Karin added, “It was almost an Epic Beast.”
“Don’t lie to my buddy.”
“I’m serious, what you fought was a Night Rank Unawakened Animal.
It was not a full Epic Beast.”
Skrylla Yokuta nodded and tried scaling then out loud.
“That would mean the Owl was Morning Rank, the Bat was Noon Rank.
However, even though the Armadillo and the Warthog where Late Stage there was a difference.”
Jin paused, “you fought another Night Rank before the Warthog?”
“Well, she said it was not an Epic Beast so,” he shrugged.
“Maybe it was on the cusp of reaching the Midnight Stage.”
He paused and then smiled again, lifting up his sword as it never really left his side.
Gejiro lay down immediately beside them as he could not go from admonishing him to suddenly being curious about his battle, stubbornly feigning sleep.
“Funny enough, if I had been given enough time from the beginning, the battle might not have dragged out as long.”
Jin blinked, “what do you mean?”
“My Sword Wind…” Skrylla Yokuta eyed Gejiro who was faking sleep and then motioned to Karin and Jin who were listening to him in honesty.
After they moved to another location, he began speaking again.
“My Sword Wind takes a while to charge.” He remembered the battle.
“When I started, it took about a minute to build it up, but now the first fraction takes about 1.5 seconds to charge, the second 1, and in that fashion.
To me it sounded impressive at first, but in battle, I was asking for when the numbers will finish counting down.
And hon…”
He eyed Gejiro who had ‘rolled in his sleep’ over to where they were and he once again picked another location to speak, going there.
“And honestly, I can’t wait for Sword Surge so that the gathering of the Transformed Sword Wind can be more immediate, plus it will be all over my body by then.”
“So, yours takes a while to start?”
“Yeah.”
“Kind of like… wrapping a clothing round a bundle.”
“That does not sound conventional or appropriate for battle.
“I know, that is why I cannot wait to get to the Surge stages so that I can instantly have it almost instantaneous and a more spread out.”
He saw Gejiro near him again and he snorted this time but did not change location.
“The Sword Wind, I cannot wait to instantly call it.
Then, at that point I can begin Sword Surge.”
“Is your breathing technique to the Surge Phase something you can share.”
“Of course,” his mother had told him about this when they had been growing up, so he knew better than to say what was required.
But, letting them know of this information did not even affect his own reason for keeping the vitals parts of his Breathing Technique as a secret.
“At first, I had to get used to concentrating the External Chi from all the parts of my body and unto the blade itself.”
They watched in surprise that he shared his breathing technique so easily.
Even without his own level of caution these past few months, Breathing Techniques were things that have started wars.
“Then, when I do it repeatedly until the Sword it totally and thoroughly encased with it, that is the complete Sword Wind.”
“So, it is like compressed Sword Wind, over and over again?” The boy did not seem to mind, so Jin was not going be polite.
“Yes, on and on.”
Karin joined in as it was rare for another to share their technique, “So, how would you break to Sword Surge?”
“That?
When I use the Sword Wind on the book, I can barely see the remaining pages but this is what I can sum up from the few pages that show themselves.
He paused as he wanted to explain it well.
“At the point where I can instantly call the fully compressed Sword Wind, then I build it around my body but I cannot add or subtract to it at this point.
It is like I allow the Sword Wind to coat my entire form.”
He let out a breath.
“At least that is how to enter it and not develop it.”
Gejiro had been wanting to know too, especially since Skrylla Yokuta had revealed that he only began practicing his breathing technique about 3 months ago.
“So, we can surmise that the Sword Surge stages build on that process repetitively.” Also for the fact that the boy’s progress was almost inhuman and absolutely unheard of.
“Pretty much.”
“Are you not angry at him anymore.”
“Hey, he pissed off the Mistress.
So, I was mad.” Gejiro eyed him, “I do not dislike him, I just dislike what he did.”
Jin laughed and pointed to Gejiro.
“You sound like a father.”
His friend threw a rock at him and Karin agreed with Jin.
“True, So True.”
“I hate mine,” Skrylla Yokuta threw a larger rock.