֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
"You asked for me?" Commander Ganer kicked down a subordinate that was tied up in front of him.
"Oh? You don't appreciate visitors?" Kimen kicked the subordinate with a little more force and sent him sailing into the wall.
The captive subordinate coughed up blood and passed out.
"You're no fun. You always do something like this, what is it this time?" Ganer had a liking for his apprentice but the there was a problem with his brutality, it was never kept in check. "I was just interrogating him, explain why you want to come and spoil what little enjoyment I get in the City."
Kimen was a bloodthirsty fool, he was never satisfied with the result of his battles. He saw the blood pooling on the floor and like a child, he sprouted a grin from ear to ear.
"Speaking of fun." Kimen paced around in the prisoners blood and stamped his feet to splash. "I heard from a little birdy that there's a new guy who became a core disciple by destroying the training grounds. He sounds like a lot of fun."
Kimen bent down and saw that the prisoner was still breathing and started to kick him repeatedly.
"Seems like you're information channels aren't so bad after all, Hayon gave me a visit earlier. The Blimare Heritage Sect Elders will never see it coming." Ganer smiled and drifted into the darkness, vanishing from the space.
"Why did he leave?" Kimen splashed around and then wipes his feet across the man's chest. "Hmmph, you're no fun."
Stringing the prisoner to the wall, Kimen found a prod and started to shove it into open wounds along his shoulder and twist.
The Prisoner woke up screaming in pain.
"Since you're awake again, tell me what you know of the new arrival. I heard you were there at the training grounds." Kimen twist the iron rod in further.
"I don't know him." He coughed up more blood and his head hung like he was about to die. "He's more powerful than we expected." Coughing some more, he heaved and began to shake for a second.
A moment later, his heart stopped. The prisoner was dead.
"The help is never any fun." Kimen dropped the Iron into the pool of blood on the floor and sat down on the bench. "Well, I guess I should go find him." He kicked his feet and leaned back to look out of the window. "I wonder where he is right now.."
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Isek sat in a lotus position and observed the Training Grounds. He did his best not to attract attention but he was instantly surrounded. When he flexed his aura and flung a few clingy observers away, the rest began to scatter like roaches or return to their training.
The Tile that the Patriarch had given him was an isolation formation if he activated it but Isek was busy.
As long as he remained unremarkable, no one would bother him because of this, he had been able to watch for more than half of the morning.
[Scanning Complete]
[3145 different energy patterns recorded.]
[861 techniques observed.]
[Archiving]
"System, overlay energy pathways and trace most shared route on record. Route to HUD and name, Technique Day 1." Isek found a clear space on the other side of the training ground, it was still a place where primarily juniors would practice but it was also the official fighting grounds for the Sect.
Grudges and disagreements were often solved there, rather than in the streets.
Isek saw an arena not too far from the center that had a fight that was still ongoing. A man was using a green energy and the other had a type of machine. The blade at the end of the machine twirled quickly and no matter what was thrown in front of it, it cut it down. Piles of dead roots and branches, plants and vines littered the arena.
"Hey, you're that guy from the other day." Someone came up and recognized Isek from his previous performance.
Ignoring the question, Isek asked, "Who are they?"
"Masters Green and Likmire"
The bubble gurgled when master green threw master Likmire into the shield wall, his weapon was strumming against the side and the shield was giving way, slowly.
It popped.
"Alright, you win this round." Likmire surrendered and Master Green called back the vines.
The Vines detached and fell like dead leaves on the arena floor. Master Green stored them all away into a storage ring to clean things up and the two of them shook hands afterward.
Stats from the fight and the Systems discoveries rolled down the HUD.
"System, Analyze and Compare to what we have on record, I'd like to build a scaling system and understand why their power is so much greater." Isek could tell that the energy levels were higher and that the patterns of attack were widely different that the usual. Among the recorded attack methods, there truly was nothing that seemed even close.
[Calculating]
[Analysis Complete]
[Energy Metafunction levels of Targets exceed 1.%]
'So that's it.' Isek was bust thinking to himself when the system was already coming up with projected milestones for even higher realms of cultivation. From 0.001% onward, there was no way that a bottleneck would fail to appear. There was enough data gathered to even make an estimated guess but it was very vague. Each percent up to 10% was marked in quarters, they could be moved later on but it was better to try than not. Isek figured that if the two fighters below could use 1% of the energy metafunction, they were likely guardians of the Sect or at least, the minimum level required for battles outside of the Sect.
[Cultivation Ladder Generated]
[Populating]
Names began to fill up the ladder, everyone from students to teachers was placed on the list, depending on their Metafunction levels. Judging by the Metafunction levels alone was not nearly as accurate as Isek wanted things but it was a distinguished start. Among the Ladder, he placed 5th. There was the patriarch, the two fighters and the creature that had damaged him when he left the cave.
"The Warrior only had a metafunction of 0.011%, which is probably why he died so wretchedly." Isek panned through a stats and details window. Below his name, he saw something he didn't expect.
The Clone was in 52nd place.
"So, He's actually been trying?" Isek laughed, closed the window and scanned the Arena grounds once more on his way back.
Watching the two older fighters had been an eye opener but their fight had ended, even the Systems most powerful scanning methods could only observe so much.
"What do we have here?" Kimen came out of the shadows and flashed directly in front of Isek's face. There was less than an inch before they would bump into each other and Kimen was expecting Isek's reaction.
Isek knew that the one thing that most cultivators were concerned without outside of fighting was their personal image. Things like being bullied could happen everyday, especially when it came to intimidation, so many would turn into victims.
When Kimen flashed in front of him, he didn't slow down, not even for a moment. Kimen felt his face go warm, his eyes rolled backward and he was pushed to the floor unexpectedly.
Isek felt the hostility long before the System had warned him of a hostile enemy nearby. Rather than playing the games of others, the AI had taken the opportunity to bully Kimen himself. When they came within such proximity, Isek opened his mouth and licked the side of Kimen's face, far past his eyeball.
Kimen was absolutely dazed in that moment and in the next, he was laying on the ground and used as a mat. He had come for so many other reasons but in that instant, he had been trampled. Without question, his mind wanted to explode but he had been 'Dealt' with in such a way that his own manhood was being questioned around him.
Rumors instantly began to start and even though the others were afraid of Kimen, they still spoke in whispers.
A few were going around about Isek, why else would one guy lick another in public? But nothing that was said seemed to bother Isek at all, even when those who were whispering had stopped trying to hide their words.
Kimen's blood boiled, a knife appeared in his hands and he flashed again, stepping directly in Isek's path with the knife swinging toward his neck.
Isek blocked the knife hand with his wrist and shoved a palm into Kimen's ribs. There was a breaking noise.
Kimen fell over and made noises like a dying rabbit. Twitching slightly, he turned over his hand and a pill appeared, he swallowed it. Kimen's power levels rose unsteadily and the stone around him broke, flinging smaller bits into the audience and training area around him. "I will never forgive such an insult.. today, you die."
Kimen lunged, his eyes seemed blank like he had no control over his body but a rapid and uncontrolled rise in energy could be felt coming from within his body.
Isek kicked off the ground and avoided the first attack but Kimen also jumped and grabbed onto Isek's foot.
Throwing Isek made Kimen appear to be taking back his honor but those who were watching and whispering could clearly see that Kimen wasn't driving his own attacks, they were wild and brutal just like the beasts and demons.
Kimen opened his mouth and sucked in a lot of air, then a cool blast of air sent ice needles out.
Isek stood there, unphased.
'Che' Clicking his tongue, Kimen yelled, "Fuck.. You!" A sword appeared in his hands and the instant it came out, it started to hum.
"He's reached heart of the sword!" Several Teachers nearby were watching, they held their respective tokens and prepared to stop the fight. Those with the ability to create sword songs were some of the more dangerous of opponents and loose attacks could cause a lot of collateral damage.
Sword beams danced around Kimen while he moved, they orbited him like a sharpened shield.
Isek saw an opening and moved between the sword slashed and kicked Kimen to one side. It was a good move but a calculated one. The sword beam closest to him had a chance to graze him and the damage was not something to ignore.
A deep gash appeared in Isek's arm. He dodged their release and fluttered across the stage with a combination of movement techniques that had just been on display. People watching had no idea how Isek had learned their moves but it was not as shocking as the fight itself. After a few breaths, the blood that came out, stopped.
Isek pulled out his Saber.
Kimen had his sword raised into the sky like he was directing another attack to come from above.
When Isek's saber came out, the swords in the audience began to lightly hum and in the next breath, they were all humming in unison.
"How does Kimen have this sort of power!" The Audience was flabbergasted, to them Kimen was pushing sword intent to it's next platform. After this battle, he would become their icon and so, they couldn't help but praise.
Isek turned his wrist and brought the sharp ridges of the saber to meet a sword bean that came down.
Dust flew in every direction, the stage below was covered and only Kimen stood at the edge, his body was struggling to remain upright but his energy levels were still on the rise.
The Swords in the Audience leapt out of their owners possession and flew into the sky.
High above Isek, they swirled and twisted. Their hum became as one and a blinding light shot down at Isek's position.
"Gods! Is Kimen really going to kill him?" Those who had lost their blades were uncertain of the reasons but they could all feel the extreme blood-lust that wicked off of his body. Kimen was going in for the kill and even though it was happening on the arena grounds, neither of them had agreed on the fight.
It looked like Isek was about to die but the light that came down from above crashed into the Saber. A small chip on it's back seemed to self-repair and he cleaved it across arena just once.
The dust dissipated and Kimen was forced to block the remainder with his body, it pushed him back several feet.
"Good, Good. This wouldn't have been worth the trouble if you had died just like that." Kimen bit down on his finger and threw blood at the ground. "Blood Sword."
A dark red blade came out from the ground, it looked like was made of blood and except for the white bone handle, there was nothing else to hold onto. The sword flowed and flickered with the gentlest of breeze. Like a strand of smoke, the blade was thin and ethereal.
[Analysis Complete]
Isek smiled.
"What are you laughing at?" Kimen's body jolted while he spoke like it would burn out in time.
Saying nothing, Isek pulled his hand near his mouth, bit down on his finger and flung it.
Kimen froze. He stared at the ground and started to laugh compulsively. His laughter confused everyone, because in the next moment, an unknown energy swept out and the swords that had remained quiet among the audience, could no longer.
Every sword within the area began to hum. A small, black and green handle emerged from the pool of scattered blood.
There was a form over the hilt like a saber handle, it matched 'the one' in Isek's hands almost exactly but looked like it was made of a composite material.
[Scanning]
Before the System could say another utterance, there was an explosive sound in front of Isek and Kimen was coming down at him from behind with his blood sword in hand.
The distant humming became louder.
The swords of the audience moved like they had been teleported, they stood between Isek and Kimen as he came down. Many of them were destroyed in that very moment and what was left was blown away.
Kimen was smiling, the fight was much more interesting than he thought. Midair, his expression changed.
Isek turned to block the blood sword with his blood saber, spun on his knee to deflect the swing and came down with 'The One' at Kimen's footing.
Kimen pulled back in a reflex but Isek was already there. The blood sword fell from Kimen's grip.
The Handle fell for a few feet, turned into a splash of blood and disappeared.
Commander Ganer, who had been watching shook his head.
Isek pulled the Blood Saber from Kimen's corpse by kicking him off of it. Kimen fell like a dead dog and Ganer appeared in the very next moment.
"Stop." Ganer held out his hand.
"What was his, is now mine. Get your hands off of my property." Isek only said it the once but Ganer gulped heavily.
'Property?' Ganer was hesitant but he couldn't act rashly. It was true that there had been a duel and that it was entirely without question that Isek had no only won but that the instigating party had lost after a surprise ambush. If Isek wanted to contest that the body was rightfully his, it was almost impossible to refute his words on the matter. Had it been outside Sect grounds, the rule would most certainly apply.
Ganer stood up, "This is my disciple. Allow me to bury him."
"If you want to bury him, strip naked and exchange your items for his naked corpse. From what I understand, his body contains many things that I can turn into an elixir." Isek said this coldly, he was not interested in the body but everything that Kimen had on him. The clothes were still in good condition, he was wearing several rings and even a necklace.
Isek walked forward and waved his hand. He stripped the corpse naked and left it on the road for a moment. "So.. are you willing to trade?"
Ganer bit his lip and stood up. He took off his ring and threw a bag over. "This is as much as you'll get. Satisfied?"
Isek wasn't concerned with what it was but even Isek could tell that Commander Ganer had something to do with the encounter, somehow. He stored them away and nodded.
Ganer grabbed his robe top and covered Kimen's corpse in it. Three other disciples came over and picked it up to take it away.
Isek went back to a spot with a good view and continued to watch the arena but instead of cultivating, those who remained could not help themselves, they stood waiting to see what Isek would do next. It was uneventful and after half an hour, he started his way back to his room.
People were discussing what had just happened, it made a lot of sense for Isek to have claimed Kimen's corpse but the way he did it was ruthless. Kimen had become a commodity in less than a second, all because Ganer couldn't wait to retrieve the body.
Isek's extortion was perfectly within his right, to him and even the system it was an equal trade.
[Warning: Hostile Actions Detected]
[Warning: Multiple Threats Detected]
Extrapolated data skimmed in the corner of the HUD but it didn't matter, what was done was done.
Isek dipped into an alley and tried to loose his pursuers. Six figures had been following him from the rooftops and another seven were steadily walking up from behind. They were good at hiding their tracks and it was extremely unlikely that they were locals.
Cornered and surrounded, Isek turned around.