After leaving Amasu town on the east side of the continent Kenos and Doza road to the east, adjacent to the main trail. The two felt a new sense of bravado equipped in their new gear.
Kenos stood on their wagon aiming his bow to the sky as Doza guided Noir by her reigns
"3 o'clock" yelled Doza,
Following his instructions, Kenos releases an arrow from his drawstring piercing the speedy bird's chest.
"How the hell can you even sense them from so far, the Zen they give off is near non-existent", said Kenos grabbing another arrow.
Doza chuckles," Keyword near. Just because it's faint doesn't mean it can't be traced, it just takes a little more fine-tuning."
Doza's body tenses, "Look alive Ken a whole flock coming our way, you take enough of them out we could sell to the next town we hit."
Kenos looks to the distance and sure enough, the flock of birds could be seen coming in. "The ring the old man gave us came in real handy. "I have all this space to move around on the wagon thanks to the ability tied to its stone,'' said Kenos positioning himself.
Doza moves it out of Kenoses' line of sight, "Try that technique".
"You sure", questioned Kenos.
"You'll never get it if you keep being a wuss about it", answered Doza.
Kenos draws his bow taking a deep breath and channeling his Zen. "Build up then release", he tells himself.
After transferring the Zen he accumulated into his arrow. Doza watches cautiously as the arrow Kenos had aimed towards the flock began to electrify.
Letting go of the drawstring, the arrow explodes in Kenoses' face knocking him off the still moving wagon.
Doza dies of laughter stopping the cart pulling Noir's reins. "Looked like you almost had it this time."
Kenos picks himself up from the dirt, "this is starting to get really annoying, I'm building up my Zen and releasing it just like you told me, I don't understand what I'm doing wrong."
Doza hops off the wagon and grabs Kenoses' bow. "Lightning is a very fickle thing, so unruly it's not something the weak can tame. He aims the bow at the flock of birds that previously passed. "But if you endure and tame it'." A massive arrow of Condensed lightning appears on the bow's drawstring, the rest will come naturally."
The arrow flies through the sky letting out a loud screech as it cut through the air, when the arrow finally catches up to the flock of birds it disperses taking every bird out with a burst of electricity.
Kenos hid his astonishment walking up to Doza swiftly grabbing his bow back, "show off."
Doza laughs, tossing him the spatial ring, "get the food kid."
(In an undisclosed location)
*Bzzt*
An image of a guard stationed at the front gates appears on a holographic screen in a dimly lit room.
"Hey boss, I got this lady claiming to be from Cassan's camp at the entrance." said the guard.
"Well, does she look like one of his whore's", asked the man known as Boss.
The guard located who was located in front of the hideout sizes her up. " Is that kid supposed to be yours", he chuckled, rubbing his hands together.
The child cowers hides behind her mother in fear.
Scrunching her face in disgust the mother speaks up, "That child is my daughter you sick fuck, and no I'm not one of Cassan's little whores. I came to give the boss Information."
The guard relays the message to his boss.
"If her marking checks out, send her in, he responds. Cassan better have a good reason to be ignoring my calls."
The mother and her daughter walk into a dark room filled with blunt smoke.
"So are you here to explain why that idiot Cassan's been ignoring me," asked the man with an annoyed tone "Or are you just his attempt at an apology. I'd expect much more of someone I bestowed the title OG upon, and allowed to lead a small battalion".
The mother gulps standing in front of Boss with her daughter. "We returned from our mission to see that Cassan and the battalion had been annihilated, sir."
The boss ashes his thick cigar, "you telling me Cassan and his battalion are dead! That fool, he died before completing the mission." The other gang heads would make a mockery of me if they found this out?
His annoyed face quickly turned into one of anger. "Did you see who was responsible for all of this?"
"No", replied the mother. "I and the squadron I was assigned to ran into two young men and tried to ambush them.
"So where is the rest of your squad?" asked the boss. "
They met the same fate as those at the camp", the lady replied. "We were stationed by Gato's bridge where we stole supplies from unexpected travelers. It started pretty routinely, my daughter and I would act as decoys, luring travelers into a false sense of trust so that we could journey with them. After that, we'd relay our locations to the rest of the group, and they'd track and monitor us waiting for the right time to attack.
"That worked fairly well until we ran into that masked man and the child that accompanied him", said the mother gritting her teeth. "I suspected the older one would be a problem but that bubble-blowing fool insisted he could handle it. My daughter and I only survived due to the younger one's naivety."
The boss let out a menacing laugh, "Hahaha, what is your name?"
The mother begins to speak "Clau-"
He immediately cuts her off and pointing to the child "I was speaking to her."
The young child shook witnessing the gaze of the boss. "Cccc...…Cyra" she whispered.
The boss continued piercing Cyra with his eyes. This child's zen seems so pure. But at the same time if you sense it carefully you could tell it's been ruptured and more than halved. And this one she doesn't emit a very powerful aura at all but the talisman around her neck is radiating very dark and powerful energy. Interesting.
"Who were the two travelers," asked the boss, focusing his attention towards the mother.
"I told you all I know, I don't have any more information," said Claudia as she began wincing at the boss's cold and malicious aura.
The boss slowly stands from his chair as the pressure in the room gets even more intense. He's big and bulky body showing through the smoke revealing his dry and grayish complexion "You and Cassan both failed me", he spoke. Therefore you deserve death as well" said the boss coldly as he snapped his fingers, suddenly crushing Claudia's left arm.
Snapping another finger her right leg bent inwards and the mother began wailing in pain.
Cyra was left in complete disarray, How could he Cassan never this cruel. "Mother", she cried as the boss began casually smoking acting like it was just another day for him.
Multiple thoughts ran through Cyra's head as she watched the boss walk up to her mother's tattered body. Crouching over her, he snatches the talisman from her neck laughing maniacally, letting the dark demonic energy of the talisman merge with his creating even more monstrous energy. Until suddenly it began burning up in his hand forcing him to drop it.
Cyra rushes to her mother's side during the confusion. Claudia looked at Cyra with a bright smile and began instructing her what to do with the last of her energy. "Leave this place", she mouthed out.
Cyra began shedding tears as her eyes darted around the room looking for any escape points. Her eyes abruptly locked on to the Talisman as it glided towards her on the floor. Once her eyes met the object she could no longer look away it was as if the talisman was yearning for her to wear it. Her mother reassuring her by shaking her head encouraging her to grab it.
Cyra reaches out scooping it from the grown, the talisman scorching her hand as she picks it up before cooling itself. The dark gemstone at the center began to purify garnering a little color. Her eyes were still attached to the amulet as if no one else was in the room. She quickly slipped it around her neck and could feel her body burning up immediately, however, the pain was not yet unbearable. The fire of the talisman began consuming her until her vision faded to black, and she could feel her body move on its own.
"Where did all of this fire come from?" whispered Cyra as her vision completely left her. The dark red flames completely engulfing her and the room at this point, quickly turning her mother's body to ashes.
The boss quickly raises his hand and the flames around Cyra begin dying down and forcing her down to her knees. "Do you honestly believe you could take me down kid?" he chuckled.
The fire shrouded Cyra lets out a loud wail struggling to get up.
The room instantly fills with guards who overheard the commotion and ran in. Cyra begins panicking at the situation, lunging and flailing everywhere releasing wisps of scorching fire around the room. The wisps engulfed the whole room in flame.
The boss who was completely consumed by it didn't falter for a second releasing a strong wave of Zen killing the flames and dispersing the fire surrounding him. His suit singed and tattered he notices a burn mark on his left arm. The smoke clears, and he can see a majority of the men who came were turned to ash and the child had disappeared.
Boss begins laughing maniacally once again, "my hypothesis was right, the demonic energy the talisman emitted was her other half. I shall make it mine!", he announced to the room.