The fearsome creatures that had emerged on this night including werehyenas, giant serpents, and demonic dogs had all been defeated by a little girl. Who would have guessed? The snake charmer had disappeared to god-knows-where and the square jawed woman was nowhere to be seen.
'Maybe they are hiding. All I hafta do is deal with the arrows now.' While counting intervals in her mind, Kia continued to dodge and parry the arrows that shot towards her from the dark. None of them could even get within a meter of her. From her handling of multiple weapons, her downed opponents could understand that she was a weapon master.
What made her a dangerous fighter was not just her mastery of multiple weapons but also her aggression in combat. Since the beginning of the battle, Kia had maintained aggression and persistence in all her attacks – constantly attacking, holding firm, refusing to take step back, and counterattacking with devilish ferocity whenever an opportunity arose.
"It is time to end this." As she dove towards the archer from high in the air like a hawk swooping down on its prey, a blazing red arrow emerged from the darkness startling her.
"This is different from the others! What kind of energy is he infusing in them?"
Before she could think further, the arrow had already arrived in front of Kia. It hit her sending her flying far back and crashing through a small building at the center of the park.
"This is no ordinary arrow! A technique?"
While the arrow had hit her dead center, it was now in her hands. Clearly, even though its speed was frightening, it could not threaten Kia's defence. However, as she held it in her hand, she felt the heat of the arrow which was hot to the touch. This was because this red arrow was named the Blading Arrow. It was an arrow so fast that while travelling through the air, the friction produced heated up the arrow's body causing it to catch fire and glow a bright-red like a shining beacon.
As Kia observed the arrow in her hand, there were others who were despairing.
"How can this be? Monster!"
The statement felt quite ironic coming from the half-hyena half-man beasts.
Just think about it – before the defeated werehyenas could even celebrate about their 'bully' getting hit by the arrow attack they saw her stand up completely fine! How could they bear it?
"Is she, is she maybe an irregular?" One of them could not help but stutter and exclaim in shock.
This was because Kia's battle power reminded them of the Battle Emperors of old. The heroes and legends of the ages: the Dark Heaven Emperor - Rom; the Giant King - Mwindo; the Great Sinner of Mankind – Roiman; the Leader of the Rainbow Warriors also titled the Unity of Heaven and Man – R.A; and the Defiant Blood Throne - Queen Adamu Kisa-Kani.
In fact, the hyena men were not that far off the mark. Kia did actually practice the Battle Emperor Manual as her primary martial arts. Unlike other primary arts that focused on accumulating natural energy in the body, the manual focused on the internal body.
While other meditative martial arts emphasized taking power into the body from an external source or environment, the manual focused on releasing power from within the body itself. It was a case of external vs internal.
However, the manual had extremely strict requirements which many martial artists simply could not fulfill.
First, the practitioner has to practice other gate opening methods to target the illusory gates within their bodies.
Second, at least 8 different body forging methods were a strict requirement just to get past the manual's gateway. This was because stage 1 of the technique which included the first to eighth levels of the manual corresponded to 1- 8 body building tactics.
In the same manner, stage 2 needed 13 physical martial techniques followed by 26 in phase 3 then 52 in the final stage. This was clearly a technique that focused solely on strength accumulation.
Moreover, this was not the only hurdle in practicing the technique. In the first stage, the practitioner only had to master some lesser heaven techniques. As far as Kia understood, lesser heaven techniques corresponded to low level techniques. However, things got progressively harder in each stage. In the second stage, one had to learn 5 fallen heaven arts. In the third and fourth stages, the practitioner had to master abandonment (level) techniques and defiant (level) techniques respectively.
One would ask, why go through all this trouble. The answer lay in the manual's final goal – to produce the Battle Emperor Force only referred to as Ikon.
For Kia, she had practiced the technique to the first stage. After mastering this level, Kia's body possessed Battle Emperor Aura – Aradu.
The levels within the Aura or Aradu stage were:
1. Spark (like lightning)
2. Radiance (like fire)
3. Manifestation (of inner spirit)
4. Atmosphere (like a canvas of space)
Within the Aura stage, Kia was at the 3rd rank, the manifestation of inner spirit. That is to say, she had mastered up to 6 body building tactics!
It was for this reason that her physical strength and defense were so perversely strong. Even though they were just low level techniques aimed at strengthening one's physique and nourishing the body, learning and mastering six of them resulted in tremendous physical changes in a martial artist's body. On top of that, the Battle Emperor Art acted as a catalyst that exponentially boosted the effectiveness of these techniques on Kia's body.
After the Aura stage within the Battle Emperor Manual, the next stage was Battle Emperor Thunder – Toraj. One truly mastered this level by learning the required number of Fallen Heaven techniques.
When the martial artist reached the third stage of the manual, their bodies could produce a unique field termed the Battle Emperor Aurora. This level was also called the Stage of Abandonment where the martial practitioner's body was like a galaxy.
After crossing the third stage, the martial artist's body was finally capable of producing Battle Emperor Force. This was the Defiant Stage – defying everything between heaven and earth. With Battle Emperor Force, even a common-born peasant could possess the vigor and stature of a true emperor.
Facing the elusive archer hiding in the darkness, Kia knew she had to bring everything she had to this battle. From her feet, a burst of concussive force sent her barreling through the rain like a bullet cutting through the wind. This was pure strength-assisted speed. When a javelin-sized, red blazing, arrow flew toward her like a comet, she could only narrowly dodge the attack. However, she could not avoid her clothes and hair getting singed by the arrow's red flames. Nevertheless, the arrows bright red illumination was enough for her to see her attacker in the dark.
Kia could only describe the man as a horror.
This man had burnt pieces of cloth and metal sheets wrapped around his body. Looking at his right arm, the cloth wrapping the arm was burnt to a crisp. The metal sheets were also burning with a deep red color.
As the man nocked another arrow on his giant bow, a flame erupted from underneath the burnt cloth and metallic sheets covering the entire arm in fire. However, this flame was not a singular color. Instead, it alternated from red to green flames.