In the evening of the same day.
Unlike Bontu, Edgar didn’t hunt the fish or swim in the pond. He simply floated on the surface, his eyes looking up at the sky. He was trying to constantly and smoothly release the drive from his back to keep himself floated. He could do it normally, but he was trying to use drive to pull this off, and he was succeeding.
“I was wrong. All this while, I’ve been totally thinking in a wrong way,” Edgar thought. “The tiny gaps in the fabric doesn’t really matter. What matters is knowing how you’re affecting things. As long as I’m clear with what I’m doing, the drive does what I ask of it.”
About a minute later, his body started dipping into the water. “A little over three minutes is my current limit.”
Three days later.Edgar was sitting at the bottom of the pond. He slowly released his drive, creating only a minute disturbance, but it was more than enough to alert the nearby fishes; they swam away.Helia was also sitting at the bottom of the pond at a different spot, about twenty meters away from Edgar, but her drive leaked out so smoothly there was no disturbance around her, and fish swam through her drive without a problem whatsoever.Edgar eventually swam to the surface and looked frustrated. “What’s gotten into her? Since yesterday, she’s been copying my moves and showing off that she can do it better.”Helia also came to the surface and observed Edgar.“There she goes again.” He flo
Helia was sitting by the pond, staring at the small waves spreading about on the water surface.“Water and life… What a strange connection they have. No matter how much one fills or purifies, the other still thirsts and pollutes. It’s almost as if living itself is a curse.”At the moment, she could see the glittering reflection of the sun, the fish swimming about, the plants growing underwater, and also the groundwater slowly rising up into the pond. It looked peaceful on the surface, but if one looked closely, there was one type of fish busy eating snails, and another type fighting for territory. There were also those aggressive fish that naturally disrupted the peace in the pond. The proceedings of the pond reminded her of human society in general. People mainly competed or fought for resources. Even if they had resources, they would
In the Great Joint.Fabby was standing outside a room. A beautiful pink-haired girl who lost one of her legs was standing next to her, wearing a sad and angry face.“This is their room, right?” asked Fabby.“Yes, sister. They attacked me out of nowhere and not only stole my evergreat coins but also fed my leg to beasts,” she frustratingly said. She had a mole on her forehead. “I come from a poor family. With the state I’m in, I can’t earn enough to pay a great healer who can make my leg grow. My whole future has been spoiled by these two. Even if I go to the discipline hall, they won’t act. So I’ve come to you. Since you already have bad blood with them, even if you were to hurt them, the discipline hall won’t act. Please bring justice. I beg of you.”
The sun just started slipping below the horizon.“T-Thank you, sister,” Lily approached Fabby and bowed, shed tears and sounded emotional.“You don’t need to thank me,” Fabby could feel the weight in her words and more. “I partly did it myself as well. If there’s anything else I can do for you, then feel free to ask.”“Then please die for me!” A knife appeared in Lily’s hand, and she thrust it straight toward Fabby’s throat. She was too close, and Fabby was utterly stunned. She didn’t even have any time to react.A blurry figure whooshed past Lily, and the next second, she realized that the knife was gone.Fabby, who saw death up close, was still in
On the same night, the cover of darkness increased thanks to the moon and the stars hiding their faces behind floating masses of water.At about a thousand meters high, an owl was flying through the sky. Bontu was sitting on its back. Kane, too, was there, sitting with his hands tied and mouth gagged. And his face was additionally covered up with a bag.“If you had opened your mouth, then we could have avoided this,” Bontu still didn’t give up on hearing a name come out of Kane’s mouth. “It’s still not too late.” He removed the bag off of Kane’s face.Kane’s eyes however showed no change. If anything, they were glowing red as ever.Bontu shook his head and looked ahead. They were heading right into a forest full of ta
“Kane is more than meets the eye.” Bontu looked at Helia for support. “We must find him no matter what.”“Fret not,” Helia replied in an assuring tone. “Kane can’t leave these grounds so easily.”At the same moment, about ninety miles away to the west from where Edgar was.A mysterious man was flying away on a bat at extreme speeds. The upper half of his face was covered by his unmoving hair. He was smiling as he looked at Kane. “Are you still mad that I wasted your arm? Don’t worry. When we get back, I’ll help you grow it back soon enough.”“I said I didn’t need help. Why did you come, Boru?” Kane was sitting cross-legged, looking a bit frustrated. “Did ‘he’
The next morning.There was a ruckus in the mission hall regarding the incident that took place in the forest that was on its north.“Hey, did you hear that a fight took place last night in the Monkey Forest?”“What?”“And the High Elder himself was in action, it seems.”“Eh? Really? Who would dare fight against him?”“No idea. But they must have been powerful as their fight lasted an hour or so.”“No wonder I couldn’t sleep well last night. The rumbling sounds I heard in the sky last night must be because of their fight.” Edgar understood where she was going. “Fine. Since it’s only becoming an outer disciple and not an inner disciple, I will become—”Just then his eyes caught sight of someone walking along the nearby road that was on the other side of half-destroyed rooms, someone in a dark brown cloak with silver designs on it. Every inch of the body, from the head to the toes was covered up pretty well. And the sight of the white wolf mask with red markings froze his expression.He rubbed his eyes and looked again. There was no such figure now. He quickly stood and scuttled toward that road, puzzling his sister. He crossed the rooms and reached the road swiftly and looked around. It was practically desolate. “Am I seeing things?” he scratched his head. “Why did I remember her now?”&lWHIT 126 - THE MAN IN THE GRAY MASK
Edgar woke up, only to find himself in a pool of mud. He could feel that he was being healed by fish that were swimming in the mud and were nibbling at his skin.At first sight, it might look like they were eating him, but they were actually taking away the negative energy from his body, though he was not able to feel that.Edgar tried to grab one of those fishes, but they turned into pure mud, pleasantly surprising him.He looked at Fabby who was sitting in the distance, by the cliff. “What are these fishes, sis?”“Elder Gavin made them with his drive. He said they can suck away impurities from your body and make you stronger,” Fabby explained. “He said even your drive will get smoother and faster afterward. Also, the negative effect the beast cores have on our bodies can also be reversed, or so he said.”“Such a thing is possible with drive?” Edgar was both surprised and doubtful. “These fish are biting me, but I don’t feel any pain.”“Yeah. Just stay there until all those fish are
The eagle brought the siblings to a mountain range and dropped them next to Gavin who was weaving gloves with drive.He wasn’t surprised to see the position the siblings were in.“Here,” Gavin handed the gloves to the eagle, and it put the gloves on its feet and then screeched in happiness.“Haha, you like them, huh,” Gavin smiled. “They are durable as I knit them with my drive. So, don’t lose them.”Scree~!The eagle replied in a confident voice and then began to walk around happily in its new footwear.“They look like gloves, but they should be called socks, I guess?” Gavin wondered. “Ah, well, whatever…”Gavin then looked at the siblings, out of whom only Fabby was still conscious. She was trying to sit up, and it was taking her a while.“You don’t seem to have any external injuries. You are probably tired from using too much energy,” Gavin said. He sent a bullet of energy into her forehead, which didn’t hurt her but went straight into her brain and melted into it. This suddenly ga
“Surfing Strike!’ Edgar’s foot viciously struck Ryu’s face and sent him flying high like a rotating paper fan. Any normal person would have had their head separated from their shoulders from that kick, but Ryu’s neck was flexible as well as sturdy as rubber.Ryu grabbed his head and stopped it from spinning before somersaulting and landing in the distance.“Huh?” Fabby was quite shocked by it. “Why is he not dead? Is he even human?”“His body is a bit special, you see,” Anarga smirked and then looked at Ryu. “But, hey, how could you get hit by that brat like that? You should be glad that there isn’t anyone else around, or it would have brought such shame.”Blood leaked from Ryu’s ruptured upper lip. He licked it and faintly smiled. “It’s been a while since I tasted my own blood.” His eyes turned red.“Oh, crap…” Anarga skipped backward. “You guys brought a disaster on yourself. When he goes into that frenzy mode, he’s unstoppable. Even I wouldn’t dare stand next to him because he can
Anarga squeezed Edgar’s chest down, but when Edgar saw Ryu step toward his sister, he uttered, “Thunder Knight…”The ground beneath them cracked, and the air around them crackled. The very cliff itself vibrated in resonance with Edgar’s heartbeat.Anarga lost her balance just for a second. A double-edged lightning spear appeared in Edgar’s hand, and he thrust it right through her abdomen.She thought it would leave a hole in her, but it didn’t. However, it then electrocuted her to the point her clothes were half-burnt, and she looked like a semi-roasted grizzly bear.Ryu immediately clawed through the middle section of the spear and then took Anarga and jumped a few feet away. “How could you be so careless?”Anarga fell on one of her knees. Blood leaked from both corners of her mouth, even though she tried not to leak any blood.“Does it hurt that much?” Ryu asked.She gave him a glare.“I see…” Ryu then looked at Edgar, who was rising off the ground without the use of his hands, as th
Anarga’s body went into the rock, causing cracks all around her to spread for over thirty feet.Ryu’s feet were still locked by the earthen boots that Fabby had created, but he forcefully broke through them and whipped his leg at Edgar. “Dragon Knock!”“Ngh!” Edgar raised his left arm and blocked the kick with his forearm.Ryu’s foot forced its way through Edgar’s flame drive and struck his forearm and hit a nerve, sending a jolt of shock through to Edgar’s brain. On top of that, Edgar’s forearm got dislocated near the elbow.Ryu’s kick still sent a gust of energy over into the distance, which ended up blasting away a part of the cliff, shocking Fabby and Edgar.Fabby’s heart shook at that moment because if Edgar hadn’t deflected that kick, he wouldn’t have just got his arm dislocated. It was Edgar’s hunter-like instinct of parrying the kick at the last second was what saved him from experiencing a crushing defeat.Ryu didn’t even use drive. Whether he could even use drive or not, Edg
“Is this the best you can do?” Ryu said disappointedly. “I know you can do better, bald brat.” He treated Edgar as nothing more than a kid because he was much older than him. “Why don’t you show me what you got, or I’ll kill this bald girl.”Edgar, who was bleeding profusely from the chest, felt his soul stirring madly after hearing Ryu’s words.“Don’t listen to him,” Fabby said in a low voice. “We are not their match. Fighting them will only put us at a disadvantage. And there’s no one else here to stop the fight in case things go bad. It doesn’t benefit us in any way no matter how I look at it. Moreover, you are already badly injured.”Fabby’s words made total sense, but there was one thing that she didn’t consider. Edgar just couldn’t digest let alone accept the fact that Anarga Utsav had used her wind attack and pushed Fabby off the cliff. What if Fabby died from that?Edgar utterly disliked Anarga as well as Ryu. He didn’t want them to leave with a sense of victory.“Sis,” Edgar
“AHHH!” The siblings cried out in horror, mostly because of the pure shock value. Their eyes sprang out of the sockets. They totally didn’t expect that the eagle would do such a thing.Edgar was about to use his skill, but Fabby quickly said, “No, wait.”“Huh? Wait for what?” Edgar asked her back as winds viciously whipped at their faces.“Just wait,” she replied. As both of them kept getting closer to the ground, Edgar’s heart raced fast. “Screw this. I’m-” he was saying, but then the eagle suddenly came swooping down and caught both of them when they were about 100ft close to the ground and took them away with him.Edgar and Fabby held onto its talons so they wouldn’t fall.The eagle stopped by another mountain top and acted as if everything was okay.“You think I’ll thank you for saving our asses, you shitty bird!” Fabby punched the eagle hard in the face. “I thought I was going to die! You were the cause for scaring me near to death.”Even Edgar looked angry. His heart jumped in
Coming back to the present.The eagle had no idea who Edgar was, so Fabby had to do all the work except for flying. “Where is he?”She was worried for many reasons.The eagle even flew over the colosseum grounds, and she shouted for him, “Are you there, Eddie?”“Who’s that?” some masters and disciples wondered as she wasn’t clearly visible from below. “How rude of her to be flying over this place when the competition is still going on?”“He’s not here, either,” Fabby told the eagle to keep flying.As she kept looking around, she noticed someone bathing in an open pond. Just when she looked at him, he also looked up. She remembered his face mask. This was the same guy she met in a cave not long ago.Numo was not wearing a shirt right now, and his body was pristine white. It wasn’t muscular, but it still looked athletic and toned. It was very attractive, especially because he was a tall man.“Ahem,” Fabby looked away.After the eagle flew out of his sight, Numo continued rubbing his body
Months turned to years.Even though working in the fields had become a daily habit, so did the body pains. If not feet, then legs; if not legs, then back; if not back, then something else in the body took the turn. And by the time they got home, they were pretty tired, yet they wouldn’t be able to eat what they had produced or found.They were only given a limited amount of food such as corn or grains so they could make soup and live with it. The same plain soup with no vegetables in them whatsoever waited for them every night. And they were not paid anything else for their labor, for they were forced to work for the rest of their lives. There was no contract. Nothing. They were pretty much treated like cattle, or maybe even worse, with the only difference being their ability to talk. No matter how they were treated, they still worked hard, for most of them had reasons, be it their children and families.Fabby had Edgar, and Edgar had Fabby. Everyone had someone else they were willing