Arman didn't talk much and followed the old man silently. As they kept on walking, Arman found himself at the doorsteps of an old lonely hut. The old man opened, the door and let Arman in. "Make yourself comfortable." He said. "I'll go and make arrangements for you." The Flame King appeared with his jaw dropped. "For real?" He asked. Arman pridefully flaunted his collar . The Flame king still couldn't understand. "Did they really say that they are ready to give away their secrets." "You won't understand, the old man readily agreed to us because I'm so handsome, strong, so everyone trusts me." Arman continued with his 'show off' .
The Flame King started finding Arman annoying. He snorted "Stop Already and go on a with training."
"Okay okay."
[Welcome]
[Name undefined.]
[Grade: Undefined]
[Phase Pre-assimilation Stage]
[As you haven't fully assimilated with your power's yet, So you can't fully access them. Once it is confirmed that your ability to cope with the powers, is increased, the assimilation will progress.]
[Current progress : 28.79%]
A few hours later.....
[Current Progress 29.68%]
"I can see that the stronger increase I become the harder it becomes to increase my strength." The Flame King nodded in agreement. He then said.
"Talk less and work more."
As Arman was performing squats, he heard a knock on the door. "Go, check it." Said the Flame king.
Arman held the Aldrop handle and moved it a little to unlock the door.
The moment he opened the door, someone kicked Arman. Arman quickly dodged it by doing a back flip. Another punch came prepared in no time. As Arman had performed a back flip to dodge the kick, he still was in the mid-air. So there was no chance he could block or dodge the attack.
He was about get hit. But, someone stopped the punch with his hand. It was the same old man. He looked at the girl angrily. "What are you doing here?" He asked. The girl had covered herself from top to bottom, using a cloack which had a hood. Niether her face and hair were visible, nor her body. She snorted and left. Arman had his Jaws dropped.
'This old gramps is really very powerful.' "Follow me." Said the old man. And Arman did so. And Eveline, at a distance, pretending to be buying something from a shop, also made her move.
After walking a distance, they saw a building. It was the only building in the tribe made of stone and was probably the largest one in the entire tribe.
Arman entered it and saw that there were many seats in it, with the center elevated. This, probably was a council hall.
And in no time, other people also started rushing inside.
They all were surprised to see outsiders. And many of them were more angry, than being surprised.
One of them didn't tolerate any outsiders inside, he thumped the table infront of him heavily.
"Enough is enough! What are two outsiders doing in our tribe's council hall?"
The man said, pointing towards Arman, and the girl who broke in to beat Arman.
The old man, gave a faint laughter, and said as if surrendering to that man.
"Alright."
He then said to Arman and that girl.
"You two, wait outside."
Arman sighed, and stood up from the chair he was sitting on.
As he walked allong the narrow path, he found the girl walking next to him.
Arman kept ignoring the Flame king's advice of killing this girl.
After coming out, Arman came near the girl to start a conversation with her.
"Excuse me, do I know you?" He asked.
She replied. "No."
"Have I ever offended you?"
"No."
"Then why did you try to kill me?"
"I can't tell it to you."
"Okay."
Arman stepped back and returned to his position.
As he knew that it would take an eternity for those inside to finish their discussion, he continued with his squats.
After squats, he did his push-ups.
And then Curl-Ups.
Crunches, and reverse crunches followed by planks came next.
And with this, an hour passed by.
Arman had finished his training and was completely exhausted.
But the ones inside the council hall didn't come out.
Just like this, after two full hours, the clock hit twenty past five.
People started pouring out of the building.
Arman then searched for the old man in the crowd. And he finally spotted him.
Arman and the girl ran towards the old man.
"What happened, grandpa?" Asked Arman.
"Those idiots!" He was saying something, but he stopped. Maybe because it was no use mentioning it to make these hopeful teenagers sad.
"I have grown old and attained senescence, therefore I cannot lift the burden."
"Say it clearly, sir." The girl asked anxiously.
"Back then, I could defeat Duncan's followers, but I didn't. And now I want to do so, but am not permitted to do the job. What should I do now?"
"So, did they decline it." The girl asked.
The old man nodded.
Arman didn't understand.
"What did they decline?"
"My proposal of attacking the Duncan temple." The old man sighed, and then continued his words.
"Our tribe guards a secret which counters Duncan's powers. And I proposed that we would give you two a part of it and attack Duncan's temple. But just let it be."
The old man walked forward.
Arman saw him disappear from the range of his eyes. And he also saw his hopes dissipating.
At night.
Arman was sitting on the bench. He had lost all of his hopes. The Flame king too was disappointed.
Not only did they didn't achieve their goal, they even lost one out of their three days.
Arman sighed. "Is there no other way?"
He asked.
The Flame King made a gesture meaning to say that he needed some time to think. But this this day wasn't wasted completely.
Arman's assimilation progressed to 31%. What disturbed Arman that he couldn't learn the way to supply fire to the sword while holding in that position. And then, Arman heard a knock on his door again. This time, Arman was very cautious. He carefully opened the door and quickly moved to a side." "Worry not, It's me."
Arman heard an elderly voice.
And the old man again.
"Hi there Grandpa. Why are you here so late." Saying so Arman let him in.
And he was surprised to see that the old man was heavily injured.
'Pah!'
The old man spat out hot blood.
Arman laid him on the charpoy.
"What happenned? How did you come to a sorry state like this?"
Asked Arman as he was completely panicked.
'Cough Cough'
"I don't have enough time left. So let me finish my words first." Said the old man.
"Yes, I am listening."
"My son, as I mentioned, is the head of this tribe. He went missing two weeks ago.
And after that this little tribe consisting of about eight villages fell into chaos.
As the Former head, I took the responsibility of this tribe Many people opposed me and are constantly trying to overthrow me from power.
Prominent among them is Himputra You remember the one who sent you outside
the hall, his name is Himputra. I found
something suspicious about him recently. So I went to his home to check it.
There, I saw that some men were coming out of his house. They for sure weren't from our tribe. I followed them.
They went towards the east end of our tribe.
And I saw that they stopped near a building, more likely, a warehouse. I never knew that there was such a building near our tribe.
I waited for some time and once they left, I entered the warehouse....
Few hours ago.
As the old man approached the door, he overheard guards' conversation about some 'plan' "We will do it tomorrow." "Yes, The plan will be successful for sure."
He couldn't listen to what their plan was, but it was sure that some thing big was going to happen. The old man broke the door and entered. He took out two
palm-sized a axes and stabbed them on the head guards. The guards were caught off guard, so they couldn't do anything. The corpses fell to the ground and blood poured out of their bodies.
The old man saw that there were eight more guards inside. He threw some more axes, like before.
And three of them died.
The remaining got alerted.
They quickly ran towards the old man. This time, the old man took a sword which was hidden under his clothes.
He stabbed one in the heart and another on the neck
"Ahhhh!" They screamed in pain.
As for the remaining three, their head was slashed in a single strike. Their heads fell to the ground and blood poured out!! After killing these eight, he continued exploring the warehouse.
And in the basement, he found his son. Tied to a chair, drenched in blood and in an unconcious state. The old man's heart was hit with a sword when he saw his son like this.
He started to cry.
Tears rolling down fell to the ground.
He said with a trembling voice. "My child, don't worry. Now that I have come here, no one can beat you" But he was interrupted by someone wearing a mask. "Ohh, so you managed to reach till here, but this is as far as you go.
The masked man sent his three underlings after the old man.
The old man easily fought back the underlings of the maskedman.
"Is that all you've got?" He asked.
The maskedman gave a sinister laugh.
The underlings stepped back simultaneously and stood next to their Boss.
The maskedman and his underlings worked together.
One underling came and kicked, but the kick was blocked.
But another punch came prepared. That too was dodged.
And then a sword came and cut through his flesh.
And due to this, he got slowed down.
And the combined attacks of the four eventually defeated the old man.
"This is what happened. Himputra abducted my son and now wants to kill me. If you help us, we will help you". And the old man stopped. What happened to him? Check it." Arman said to the Flame King, and the Flame King did so
"Did he die?" Asked Arman.
The Flame King said. "No, he's alive. If he gets enough rest, he might end up living another century. Due to high blood loss he has fainted"
Arman wanted to ask the old man why did he come here, rather than going to his own kinsman.b
Why trust an outsider?
"So, If we help this old man, then we can get the thing that counters Duncan." Arman said to the Flame king.
"But you are not strong enough."
The Flame King warned Arman.
Arman thought for a while.
And after a few seconds of thinking, he got an idea.
He said to the Flame King who was treating the old man. "What if someone came to our help?"
The Flame king then said.
"Things might change, but who will help us?"
And then they heard the sound of people walking.
"Maybe those looking for this old man have come." Said the Flame king.
"But how did they find us?" Asked Arman.
"They might have followed the trail of blood left by the old man. Quick! We got to take him with us."
Arman lifted the old man in his arms and started to run. As he was very fast, he escaped from the situation.
The masked man and his underlings broke into the hut. They found nothing.
And this time, Arman had dressed the old man's injuries. So there was no way that they could follow them.
"By the way Arman, who was the helper you talked about?" Asked the Flame king.
"Didn't you see, that girl, who attacked me in the afternoon, she too came here for something related to the Duncan temple. So we can form an alliance with her. Both in this fight and the Duncan raid." Arman said to the Flame king.
"Are you freakin' nuts!" The Flame king exclaimed.
"Why are you talking like that?" Asked Arman.
"She attacked you, tried to kill you, you don't know her name, you haven't seen her face, nor do you know her strength level, and you want to form an alliance with her?" The Flame king shouted at Arman.
"You have any better ideas?"
"It's like this..."
"Yes, or No?"
"No."
"So shut up and follow me."
***************
The girl, as it was night, was going to her bed.
As she was going to sleep, she was about to take off her cloack.
But then, she sensed someone approaching her.