"Die, worthless thrash!!"
Donatello screams in rage, the torrential fire envelops him in its embrace, even though the Qi is hurting your brother his insanity leads him to ignore the surroundings.
No one will save you, there is no one to help you.
But you will help yourself.
Steeling your confidence, you try to use your [Panic Time] once again, it stings so bad, but you pull through, right now there is no room for hesitation. This time the [Panic Time] is pulsating constantly and the flow of things has a weird and chaotic rhythm, forcefully enduring the attack certainly led it to be less powerful than it should be.
Donatello just pounces at you in a very hastened manner, the rhythm just now started to fluctuate at normal speed, so you can't really compete with your brother, his thin muscles are expanding themselves and his skin is totally red from the exertion.
"Brother, it is not too late to stop!" you shout trying to divert his attention, except that you can't help but to spat what is really in your head.
It doesn't work, the purple haired prince just tries to jab at your chin, imitating your stance when you did the same thing. In the end it is really predictable, his pettiness and will to humiliate you is leaving him totally open, even more than before when he was a bit composed.
Just when you step aside the flow of time slows one more time, looking at him eye-to-eye you notice madness, rage and pride. Is he the same brother that is always so haughty and cold? Even if he is directing his wrath at you, you praise his will; he is your family, yet he hurts you; he is your brother, yet he treats you worse than stranger.
You shouldn't have any mercy toward Donatello, yet you want to save him. He is hurting himself, you got to stop him before it is permanent.
You try to remember those Martial Arts classes that your father imposed unto you, you really enjoyed them until they stopped because you would only waste the time of your instructor. Yet you poured hours and hours to the same set of basic punches and kicks.
There is one particular that is seeped into your bones, a dash to the side with both of your feet stuck to ground, you only have to slide your right or left foot in an arc, this quick evasion opens some paths to counter attack at close ranges.
Even then, in the path of cultivation this is a really weak evasion, there are a lot of attacks of techniques that include an aura or quick projectiles, closing yourself to the enemy this much is like inviting your foe to attack you.
"Cease this nonsense in this instant!" the king stands up trying to stop the fight.
"My king, you must let them fight" Ferdinand nods to some knights that were waiting at the side, signalizing them to block the king's path.
"What are you doing Sir Ferdinand?" your father's complexion worsens immediately, letting his aura flow in its fullest.
"I am just doing my job" Ferdinand doesn't bat an eye, bowing in sign of 'respect'.
"What are you talking about!? I entrusted you with the security of my children, yet you are letting them fight each other to their deaths!" Maximilian flew into a rage, grabbing the hilt of his sword warily.
"Yes, I was; but at the same time I am a knight of the kingdom. The Prince Donatello stole from the royal treasury, and the Prince Exerux accepted a challenge; one has to suffer the consequences from his foolish actions and…" he turns at you with a smile "Can't you see the determination of a man trying to save his brother? He is a good seed, and he must be shaped correctly"
"You are trying to use my son as a stepping stone?!" the king retorts with anger.
"Yes, I am. But haven't you done the same, my king?" Ferdinand frowns at the ruler, without a single ounce of fear on his countenance.
"This is insubordination!"
"As you can see, my king, everyone here wants this fight to follow through" Ferdinand just steps back, as the nobles agree with him.
You can digest their conversation because now the time flow is unbearable right now, is so slow that you feel like if you were moving in mud. You are pretty mad at Ferdinand, using both of you as pawns, but you are even more mad at the nobles that constantly oppress your family to their whims, only because your family is not strong enough.
The dash goes through, leaving Donatello's back exposed to you, you are not proficient at fighting, yet you know that this is your change. You hit his back with your elbow, it is a critical hit as he spats some blood from his mouth. Yet you burned your skin when you attacked him, his heat is so high that even hitting him damages you, it would be different if you knew how to control Qi, this way you could have protected yourself with it.
"Yooooooooou!" with a mouthful of blood your brother curses at you in a frenzy.
Disregarding his own injuries, he then punches at your guts with all of his strength. You were quite surprised because your own hit had a lot of power, it even surprised you when you saw that you almost broke his spine.
"Kuu…" you pull back in pain, trying to keep your breath.
Pain, so much pain, it doesn't end just with the pain of being punched, no, the fire propagates inside you, burning your muscles and a part of your organs; you even believe if it were not that X made your body extra strong you would have died from only that punch.
"Bro… ther" you only manage to contain the blood in your mouth and stagger a bit back.
He just answers with a big grin that transforms into a face of surprise.
"Take… my hit!!" you decide to end this.
Donatello is falling slowly as the flames on his fist fade away, the blaze that is burning your shirt is still searing your body but you don't care about that anymore. Without giving him any room for a breathing you charge your other fist with strength to punch his face with all of you got.
Your body is strong, really strong, even stronger than the body of the ones with cultivation at the Qi stage. Yet you didn't want to humiliate him any further, he has been defeated once and once again, even if it weren't by a thrash like you it must be so frustrating.
"I forgive you" you whisper as you finish with a shout full of vigor.
You can feel his jaw cracking as his cheek gets distorted by the lethal blow to the face, the [Panic Time] is fading away little by little but you can see in slow motion how he is falling in a very amusing manner. You blew two of his teeth with that punch and snots are coming out of his nose, his eyes are completely white because he passed away from the shock.
"…"
The hall falls into silence from the unexpected outcome. You want to put out the flames from your body but you have barely any strength, you fall to your knees when you prevent your fall with one of your arms.
"Haaa… haaa…" you pant with your face full of sweat, trying to maintain your consciousness.
And it hits you like a bull, waves of searing pain come into your brain; it is so much that you only can let yourself fall onto the floor as you wail in desperation, it feels like if needles were prickling your brain, no, as if needles were being removed from your brain and a liquid started to flow around all of it. In fact, you feel liquid flowing in all of your body, you look to your burned hand only to see that it is slowly, but visibly, healing itself.
'What is this?' you think to yourself as a commotion breaks down in the hall.
Someone puts out the flames from you and forces you to swallow a pill, it is sweet. Your injuries now are healing in a shocking speed, but you are quite glad with the hands that are holding you.
"Fa…ther?" you whisper opening your eyes only to see a slightly chubby and bald man smiling at you.
"No, I'm not your father" he shakes his head in a cheerful manner.
"Sage Bai, what are you doing to my sons?" you look up to see your father pointing a sword to your savior.
"Hmp" the bald man snorts and lets you go.
You stagger in your feet but manage to keep yourself in the ground, you smile relieved that your injuries didn't come to a worst. Paying attention to the man you don't notice that your father is trembling in fear.
"He…" the bald man lifts his hand and you brother floats in the air "He received quite a bit of damage" he whispers to himself and starts caressing the chest of Donatello.
A rainbow light comes out of his hand and you see how the wild Qi flames start to recede slowly, they look as if they were afraid of the Qi belonging to that mysterious sage.
"He will be fine, I managed to stop any further damage and I reconnected his thorned meridians. But all of the external injuries will be under your account" the sage announce without looking at your dad at all.
You sigh in relief; you didn't go overboard after all… you feel like crying from joy that your brother didn't became a cripple.
"Sage Xiao Bai! Thank you very much" your father bows in gratitude, looking stern.
"Don't mind me, in fact. I want to have a favor back, and this favor that I ask must be respected by your Mistress, king Greydarth"
"Anything you want, Sage Xiao Bai" your father bites his lips in anxiousness.
"Spare the kid. Both of them, the laws that you have led to a loophole that sir Ferdinand pulled through. This wasn't an official duel because it was in the Royal Hall and not in the official arena" the bald man chuckles and pulls over his cloak so he can hide in the shadows, not saying any more words.
"Sir Ferdinand!!!!" your father screams in rage as he pulls out his sword "You must be the mastermind behind the scenes! Answer me, did you betrayed the kingdom!?"
The silver haired man keeps his composure and just kneels to the floor.
"Reporting to the king, if things came to worst I would have stopped Exerux from dying, then I would have sent him to the barracks as a punishment. Why? Because the royal family is weak" he looks at the king's eyes "The Second Prince indulged himself in his grudges, the Third Prince can't survive after humiliating his brother so this was a form of protection; a punishment and a protection. That is what I wanted"
The king tries to contains his rage, even if he wants to kill Sir Ferdinand he is powerless, his father is the third most powerful cultivator in the kingdom, married to the fourth most powerful one. His words are full of sincerity, yet the content is so rotten and full of treachery.
"You will be sentenced to a full year in prison" in the end the king relents to the lightest punishment he wants.
"Yes, my king" Ferdinand bows once more as he signalizes the knights to cuff him and lead him to the dungeon.
Only this gesture speaks about the knight's influence in the military. Your family has so little control in the politics that it became a joke.
"Exerux Greydarth…" your father calls your name.
"Yes, father" you only answer back without any particular feelings.
You stopped trying to look for his approval a long time ago, even now you don't want any of that.
"Did you told us the truth about how you were blessed?" he just changes the subject without sparing a glance to the fainted Donatello.
"Yes, father" you nod with a smile.
It isn't bad to be a bit proud of yourself, right?
He nods in acknowledgement.
"Very well, even if the other didn't saw it. I saw how you practiced every day and night trying to catch up with your peers, with this new blessing you managed to finally pull it through. I can see that you are in the brink of breaking through the Qi Stage. I order you to go to the royal farm and select a Beast so he can become your partner in cultivation" he smiles a bit at you.
The order of the king stirs the noisy nobles once again, but you don't hear any objection. They must have been frightened by the strange man that they called… Sage.
His surname was Xiao, Xiao… Xiao… you vaguely remember that this surname is a pretty important one. 'Eh, who cares. I will remember sooner or later' you dismiss the thought, taking it lightly.
Things are moving so fast, you don't get quite the hint that your father is trying to get rid of you from the hall so he can discuss with the nobles the next course of action, all this farce of you being expelled is, of course, done for.
Feeling accomplished you run to the stables. It is called a 'farm' but it is more like a breeding ground of Beasts, this way you can cater Beasts from their infancy in that way they won't hate humans as much as the wild Beasts do.
You hasten your pace, a Knight follows you so you won't get in any trouble, he looks a bit uncomfortable though.
You try to look once and once again for a partner. X told you that it was not necessary to have a bond with a Beast to cultivate, but you really want to have one as a partner! A friend to fight with and share the good and bad times.
However, you get completely rejected for every and each of them. They just ignore you or threaten you with their fangs. Even the knight is confused by this development because when he gets near of them they treat him in a friendly manner.
You start to get a bit overwhelmed by the circumstances and when you are about to give up… you get pestered by a canine.
Shocker, they come from the family of the wolf-kin, having Electric Type Attribute and green fur they belong to the speed type of Beast. Having a long nose and a pointy hairdo the Shockers looks very aggressive, there is also a yellow string line coming from their temple to their short tails that resembles a thunder.
One of the Shockers started barking at you, calling for your attention. It looks moody yet you feel some kind of connection between both of you. You get closer and closer; the wolf-kin just continues barking but allows you to approach him.
"Can we… have a contract?" you ask him with your head slightly tilted to the side.
The Shocker growls warily but it doesn't outright deny your pledge. Maybe he didn't understand your words but you are sure he is alright with it.
Now there is a problem. Dao. When you make a contract you are blessed with a Dao, you don't choose it, yet you do. Dao also means path, so it reflects the way you live, how you are, what do you like, what do you hate, what do you do, what does impact you, what does bother you, what do you believe on, what do you want to. Anything you can think can become a Dao, from the simplest Dao of Water to the intricate Dao of Self, you can only have one path that you thread onto.
You don't know what path to choose from. There is a lot of things you want, there is a lot of things you like, there is a lot of things you hate, there is a lot of things that bother you.
But you… hope to accomplish all of them. Your family hated you, you were thrash at cultivating, you were bullied and humiliated. But you always held hope in the future, hope that everything would change and you tried once and once again to fulfill that hope.
"Hope…" you whisper "Yes, Hope! I hope for a lot of things. I desire, I want, I greed for…"
You close your eyes and you extend your hand to the level of the Shocker's head, focusing in your hopes and dreams. A mental image of you and the whole royal family getting alones comes into picture.
"I, Exerux Greydarth hereby today that I will become your partner, sheltering you from your enemies, fighting alongside you, relieving your burdens and bringing glory to our path. Little Shocker…" you pause, this is a pledge, its content could be whatever you want but the intent must be a positive one "Will you become my friend?"
You smile at him as the green furred little one barks in confusion. A yin-yang symbol materialize in the air as some kind of web expands from it, the little dots in the symbol then shatter as it represents both of your souls. They spin on themselves as you feel a string coming from your hearth and connecting your consciousness with the Shocker.
Your partner closes its eyes as it approves for the new relationship. The symbol slowly recedes, fading away only leaving a mark in your backhand, it is just a yellow dot representing your bond with the Shocker and its type.
"Nice to meet you little Green!" you smile radiantly patting the Shocker's head. You have finally made a friend.
However, your smile doesn't last too long. Annoyed by being called 'little green' the Shocker bites your hand with great force.
"Hahaha, I don't know how I will call you but I expect that…" you keep blabbering without realizing that you started bleeding from the wound.
You close your eyes still smiling, a tear comes down from your cheek as you finally feel the pain from the bite.
"YOUR SISTER!!!!!!!!" you cry in pain trying to get rid of the green wolf waving furiously your hand, nevertheless the Shockers holds onto you as if his life depended on it.
This day, you became a cultivator.