" One...two...three..." Verner counted as he waited for whatever was in the bushes to attack him, his sword almost drown out completely, and then...
'SLASH!!!'He whipped his sword out and slashed the air, expecting a way bigger target, but it was just a rabbit, it ran between his legs and hopped off into the bushes again. "Phew..." he picked up his basket and hung it on his back "can't believe I was actually afraid of a bunny" he thought. He wiped sweat off his forehead as he continues his journey home, but he began to hear the rustling sounds again, this time a lot more precise. He paused and looked around, drew his sword out completely this time. "Hello...is anybody there?". The forest was silent, only the birds were chirping, but he wasn't going to let his guard down, he was very sure someone was creeping on him. He stood still, holding his sword with both arms, waiting to strike, and that's when he noticed some vines twisting around his legs, but it was too late... 'GBAM!!...GBAM!!', the thick vines picked him up and flung him around the forest like some toy, using him to whip the trees and the ground. "What the hell!!!" he yelled more vines shot out of the ground and tied him up in mid air, but he managed to slice through them with his sword and dropped on the ground. "SHOW YOUR SELF DEVIL!!!" he yelled as he took his battle stance, the vines increasing in number and slowly creeping towards him, then he heard a man laugh behind him. "HAHAHAA!!!...devil?...boy have you ever heard of a devil running around the day?, HAHAHA!!", he laughed really hard and clenched his stomach. "Who are you supposed to be?", Verner asked, slightly confused and angry. "Oh me?, my name is Brogan, I'm a devil hunter just like you, but I'm a major rank, and uhm...who are you?". Brogan asked back, with a childish smile. Verner was stunned, he was looking at a devil hunter Major. "A devil hunter?...like me?...he thinks I'm also a hunter" Verner thought to himself. "Say something already" Brogan said, still looking at Verner. Brogan was just as tall as master Rodric, but a lot beefier in muscles, he wore a dark green robe over his black garment and held a huge sword with a dark metal blade and very rugged edge. "You're just a kid, you seem surprised, how did you even become a hunter?" "Verner, my name is Verner...and uhm... I'm... I'm not a devil hunter...but I'll be, I'll be...very soon" Verner smiled foolishly, his face very sweaty, Brogan looked very confused for some reason. "If you're not a hunter then how did you get hold of such a powerful Qi weapon" Brogan asked using his sword to point at the thunder flash spear. "I came to willow valley while tracking I was a devil, I killed it a few days ago but I'm yet to return home, I sensed thunder Qi radiating from that weapon so I tracked it here hoping to meet the great sentinel hunter Rodric, but you're obviously not him, and you're not a hunter either, so where the hell did you get it from?" "I'm...I'm...""Speak properly!!, you retarded or something?" "No...no sir, it's just that...I'm his disciple, he's training me...so I just...burrowed his sword". Verner was shaking, but he didn't know why, was it fear or excitement, he could tell, he was just shaky. "Hmm...that makes a lot of sense" Brogan put his sword back in it's sheath. "So let me guess, you're a thunder Qi user as well, and you're learning from the greatest, you're one lucky chap" Brogan put a chewing stick in his mouth and scratched his beard. Actually I'm not a thunder Qi user, infact I don't...have any Qi...I'm just..." "WHAT?!!" Brogan's chewing stick fell from his mouth "Wait you're just a regular human who wants to be a devil hunter?" "Yes??...sir?""HAHAHA!!!" Brogan laughed even harder, Verner was very embarrassed. "How's that even possible?, wanna kill yourself huh, I knew you were retarded, HAHAHA!!!" Verner became very angry at this point, he hated when people doubted his potential, because he knew he was capable of doing great things. "I might not have any Qi, I'm not from any of the Element clans, but I have one thing, determination" Brogan stopped laughing "I've trained for years under two different sentinel hunters, Daegan and Rodric, I have no Qi but I have pushed my mortal body far beyond it's limits through exercise and training my body, instincts, reflexes and breathing techniques. I can move, react and punch much harder than any normal human without Qi" he drew out his sword and pointed it at Brogan, "and if you still doubt me, let's face off". Brogan's face changed from confused to gleeful in an instant "He's just a major, he's not a Sentinel like Rodric, I should stand a chance against him" Verner thought. "You said you're Rodric's student, so I don't want to make a mess of you". He dropped his sheathed sword on the ground, took his green robe off as well, then raised both arms and took a boxing pose. Since you are training to be devil hunter, I'm going to fight you like an average devil, not a hunter, since most devils don't use weapons, I'm going to beat the shit out of you with my fists, so you know what it's like to fight a devil, most devils are not as strong as me though, but when this is over my message will be clear". Verner held his sword with both arms and took a battle pose. Brogan looked even more excited; "Once I'm done with you, you'll abandon this dumb dream of yours" "And once we're done, you'll never doubt my potential as a devil hunter" Brogan smirked, Verner stared"Let the battle begin then...".Rodric stood on a hill and looked over the tea plantation, he watched as a few locals picked leaves and put in the baskets hung on their backs, with straw hats to shield their faces from the sun. Rodric owned a large strip of the plantation, and made a lot of money from here. Being one of the Sentinels in the guardian society, Rodric had the luxury of never being sent on missions or to track devils, that was for scouts and majors, sentinels only watched over their home lands, run the business of their respective clans and only get summoned to fight in other lands if a black grade devil or higher emerges. "That kid, I don't even know why I agreed to train him", Rodric rubbed his little purple goatee, his long dark purple hair was covered by his straw hat. "I and Daegan have sold him a dream that will never come true, now he's gonna die young, for nothing" Rodric's face turned very sour, he was deep in thought. "Even if I drop the challenge and force him to shut up I can't protect him
"Thunder Flash Spear... RELEASE!!!"In a split second, Brogan's saw a flash of lightning blitz past him, then Verner appeared behind him, taking the exact same stance he did before the flash attack. "What is this, I can't move my body, how did he pull this off?". Brogan thought, he tried harder to move but couldn't. "Everything...the world seems to be in slow motion, including my body", he noticed a bug that was flying past him, except that it was frozen in mid air. "I only saw a flash of lightning and the boy just disappeared, if my theory is correct, and what I've heard is true, then..." "After lightning...comes the thunder"'GBOOMM!!!' A roaring thunder sound exploded through the air and a massive slash opened on his chest, the rocks that coated his arms broke into pieces at the same time. The thunder flash, an attack so fast his body didn't even sense that it had been cut, and this brat with no Qi just pulled it off. "Did I just...lose?" he asked himself as he collapsed to h
The sun slowly faded away in the evening sky, the night drew nearer and nearer, with it's devils that dance under the moon and stars, and eat any human that they come across. Rodric walked back home, he walked through the same path he followed in the morning, the path he followed every day, he scoffed when he came across the traps Verner set earlier in the morning. "I wonder what he's up to" Rodric said as he continued to walk home, feeling a little uneasy, a little guilty. "It's part of the training...it's part of the training" he repeated, trying to make himself feel less guilty, even though he knew he wasn't supposed to be. He arrived at his house, it was very quiet, unusually quiet, "aren't the boys home?" he started feeling uneasy again, but then... "Honey...you're home" Amah came out of the door, combing her long black hair, she leaned for a kiss but he didn't respond. "Why are the boys so quiet?""The ate a little too much this afternoon, so they fell asleep early" "Where's
Pine grove valley, 3 nights ago. The half moon in the night sky was shining brighly over the little village. Most families had already locked their doors and shut themselves off for the night as they heard rumors of a devil in the mountains. Their only source of confidence was that a sentinel hunter lived in willow valley which was a few kilometers away, probably why only a few devils dared to come close to the village, but that wasn't enough. Tito, a man was riding on his bicycle through the forest path with his 9 year old daughter seated at his front, he elongated the bike saddle so both of them could sit properly, they were coming back home after a good day at the market and the sun had set just an hour ago. "Dad I'm scared..." the girl said."It's ok Nina...nothing will happen, we're just a little late, we'll be home any minute from now" he comforted his daughter. He was terrified too, the nights these days were so quiet because everyone got into their homes as soon as the sun
Pine grove valley, Current day; Pine grove valley was another settlement of people within the Green crest mountain range, the largest and longest mountain group of mountains in the Celestra Empire and the whole world as it spanned almost Ten thousand kilometers. The mountains in this range had valleys in between them filled with lush green forests and scattered human villages. Sun flower village, willow valley and pine grove valley were all in this mountain range, but Sunflower village was in the far east and willow valley and pine grove were far west. Rodric and Verner got to village in the pine grove valley at night. The sun had just set and the streets were gradually emptying. Lamp lights lined the roads to help people see, but they also made the streets look very pretty at night. Rodric and Verner stood on the roof of a building and watched the locals move around. Rodric seemed to be deep in thought, Verner just stared at him cluelessly. "So uhm...what do we do now?"Rodric ru
"Uhm...uhmph...this thing tastes so good" Verner rushed his noodles into his mouth, digging through the dish with his chop sticks and gobbling them up like some hungry bear. "They call me the father of the sticks, I'm the best chef in the mountains" the chef replied, slicing two knives together with a devious smile on his face, Verner just kept eating, he could'nt care less about what was going on around him. "You don't look like you're from here, are you a traveller?" "Uhm..yes...sir?" Verner replied, his voice heavily muffled by the food in his mouth, the chef just kept watching him slurp his bowl of noodles. "So what brings you here young traveller?" "Uhm...I'm just uh...exploring, I'm exploring the mountains". The chef smile grew bigger "then you've come to the right place,enjoy the meal my boy, if you need anything just call me" "Sure, sure" Verner kept slurping up his noodles, the chef wiped his hands on a towel and hung it over his shoulder before going into the sto
Water Clan headquarters, 5 years ago; 'BAM!! WHACK!! BAM! BAM!!' 10 year old Verner kept on lashing his wooden sword on an oddly shaped mannequin made of wood and cloth. He was in an open field behind the massive dojo that was in the Water clan headquarter. "Take that you monster!!" Verner yelled as he kept whipping the mannequin, doing all sorts of skills and acrobatics as he hopped around beating it with his wooden sword. He beat it so much that the cloth which wrapped it up tore apart and all the hay stacked in it poured to the ground. Verner was the one that crafted this mannequin himself. "What are you doing boy?"Verner turned around and saw master Daegan standing behind him. He wore his signature green and blue robe that was very long over his black garment, a white belt tied on his waist held his massive sword with the sea weed quillon. His left arm was gone and he held a stick in his right arm, his face still had deep scars from the battle that night. "I'm practicing
"Thunder Flash Spear... RELEASE!!!"Gustor and Litira only saw a flash of lightning and all of a sudden they couldn't move, much to their confusion "What the hell?..."'GBOOMM!!!' A roaring thunder sound exploded through the air as the two devils watched all their limbs get slashed off their bodies, completely stunned by the immense power of the weapon this kid possessed. Verner had the same stance as he did before the attack, almost like he didn't move at all. "That's two now, just one left" he thought to himself as he remembered Rodric's words about the limits of this basically overpowered ability. He stood up and looked around to see how much damage he had done, only to hear Litira laughing deviously. "You're one dumb devil hunter aren't you?" Verner was terrified as he watched the devils he had just dismantled slowly grow their limbs back like nothing happened. "The only way to kill a devil is to cut off it's head or destroy it's heart...my, I can't believe I'm telling yo