Mr. Roshida catches Zack Red handedly.
Or he thought so.
"Do you think you can actually hit me?" Mr. Roshida continues his sleep talking.
Zack's soul finally returns to his body.
"Phew! What a weirdo!" he thinks out of relief.
He leaves the house without any trouble and reaches the village gate putting on his dark cloak with its hood off.
"Hope you won't be much angry when I return, Old man."
Without further ado, he finally sets out for Kaizen city.
To reach Kaizen city, it usually takes a day on foot, half a day by cart, and a couple of hours by floating ships(*).
Zack is on the walk. He's crossed quite a lot of distance through the forest in the past couple of hours and luckily still hasn't encountered any dangers despite the fact that its night time. Thus, it's been pretty peaceful so far. But that peace was disrupted, neither by any dangerous beasts nor by any natural dangers but by fellow human beings.
Zack's been sensing some people who were following him for the last half an hour and he finally stops reaching an open space in the forest.
"I know you guys have been following me for some time. So don't you come out already," says Zack in a not chilling yet not soft voice.
In a moment, he finds himself surrounded by a group of people. It's the black spiders. He is surrounded and has nowhere to escape.
"So many people to see me off! Heh, I knew I was popular but looks like I underestimated my fame. " Zack admires himself with the stars of pride shining around him too bright for the bandits to handle.
"Cut the crap!" Genzo shouts at Zack to stop his foolish act. "Boss, that's him! That's the brat from earlier. I'm 100% sure of it," adds he with excitement and a hint of relief. It looks like he's relieved that it didn't turn out to be someone other than the one who beat them.
"Oh, it's you guys," says Zack upon seeing Genzo. "The buffoons from before," he adds.
"Hell yeah, it's us. Who's the boss now, huh?!" says the fat one from before. "Wait a sec, did u just say buff…."
With anger, Bunta punches the fat one in the face before he could finish his sentence.
"Shut up! How could you lose to this weak kid?"
"So, you're that cocky brat, huh?" Bunta asks Zack. "Let me show you, who is the real boss around here,"
Funny but true, Zack had no idea that Bunta was the boss.
"So now I have to fight with a bald head!?" Zack gives a straight face. "Call out your boss already."
Some of the bandits spared no effort to hold in their laughter while some are whispering, "how can he say that so loud"
"Who the heck are you calling bald head? U damn brat!" Bunta roars out. He has been officially pissed off by Zack.
"Wait, sorry, my bad!" Zack apologizes. The sense of superiority calms Bunta's anger for a sec.
"Mr. Shiny egg head suits you more," Continues Zack.
At that moment, his bald head gave off a shine because of the moonlight.
The gang members couldn't hold back their laughter anymore. Most of them burst out in laughter as well as Zack.
"Shut up!" Genzo shouts. Realizing their mistakes, everyone went silent.
"Talking to the boss like that?! You've got some nerve kid!!!" adds he with furiousity.
"Wait... So, he is.... the real deal?" Zack's face turns pale. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!!" he says in his mind.
"I was thinking of going easy on you since you were only a kid," says Bunta Kikuchi. "But, Your arrogance will be your doom today!!"
"It's bad news. Boss's snapped," some random gang member says.
"Okay guys, thank you for your time. Now if you will excuse me, I have some businesses to attend"
Zack tries to walk away casually. But some of the bandit members block his way. The rest of them gathered around creating a space that looked like a fighting ring for Zack and the egg head boss. Zack and Bunta are surrounded by the gang, with them being in the midst.
The gang members start cheering up their boss, "kill him! kill him!"
"C'mon guys! Seriously? You have to drag me into this." Zack acts as if he'd done nothing.
"Stop whining kid! Do you think you can get away after messing with me and my gang? You must be dreaming," Bunta expresses his anger.
"I wanted to avoid trouble as much as possible but since it has come to this, I guess there's no helping it. Let's get this over with," Zack replies as he was taking his cloak off.
Bunta jumped off the surface [stream of water coming out from the bottom surface of both of his feet] using the water to thrust himself up and is currently coming down at Zack with a punch condensed of water Nairuji [condensed water(blue) type energy].
Zack backflips a couple of times and dodges it, he(B) hits the ground.
"Man! that was so cool!
But, is that all you've got?"
"Don't get too cocky because of being lucky once you brat! You've seen only the tip of an iceberg," replies Bunta. Zack's funny behavior triggers more of his anger,
"Just to let you know Mr. Boss, When are angry, your head looks like a tomato."
More veins appear in Bunta's head.
"Now you've done it kid!!" he yells. "One mores' blood will be spilled in my turf tonight."
***
Nairuji, the origin of everything, the physical form of primal energy, is an existence that resides within every living being, including humans. Humans have learned to use it directly in battle as the fuel for the skills that they can use the elements with.
Based on the usage of Nairuji, Battle skills are categorized into two sections, Genten and shiten.
Genten refers to Martial arts, pure physical strengths, and skills without the usage of Nairuji.
On the other hand, Shiten refers to skills that use Nairuji to monopolize the power of elements.
These are the basic categories of battle skills.
***
Bunta is furious at Zack.
"Now you've done it kid!!" he yells. "One mores' blood will be spilled in my turf tonight."
Zack makes a stance, preparing for the opponent's attack.
Bunta moves, running towards Zack at full speed like a shark in the ocean.
Zack goes around swiftly instead of heading straight, jumps, and lands on Bunta with a downward punch. Bunta accelerates at the last moment and evades it. The punch makes a hole in the ground with its outer parts cracking in cubic shapes.
As Zack doesn't know how to use shiten yet and focuses solely on improving his skills and physic, each of his normal punches has a few times more strength behind them than an average Majutsu Vessel.
Evading successfully, Bunta instantly releases a shiten skill, flow of water in midair suddenly taking the shape of a curved sword slash pointed at Zack [aqua slash]. He releases multiple of them in the blink of an eye. Zack saw that coming, he jumps away to dodge them and makes some distance in-between.
They both come at each other again, head to head this time. Zack slides under Bunta and kicks his balls while sliding.
Bunta screams like a baby at a high pitch pressing his thighs together.
Right after, Zack turns and grabs Bunta's jacket, then pulls and slams him to the ground.
He passes out.
The rest of the gang got shocked to see their boss pass out.
Zack wipes out the sweat from his forehead.
"Phew!! That was a narrow escape...It's finally over," he says to himself.
The Black Spider gang finally gulped the fact that their boss passed out.
The gang members are all traumatized and suffering from confusion.
But Genzo isn't the one to give up. "Kill him!" he shouts. He wanted revenge no matter what. But, alas! All of them have mediocre strength at best and they are not even Majutsu Vessels.
"Man! Not again!" Zack found it a nuisance since he had to go.
Everyone attacks him and he's fighting back.
Block, elbow strike, upper strike, dodge, punch (saliva comes out from the one who got punched) followed by a jump spin hook kick.
A couple of them get flying in the air because of the kick.
Zack finds an opening out of the crowd. Using this chance, he escapes the crowd.
Naturally, the gang starts chasing him. Zack tries to convince them to stop as he keeps on the run.
"Guys, didn't I just beat your boss there? Shouldn't you be the ones scared and run away from me?"
Though it didn't make any sense, to some of the bandit members in the front, it did. I suppose they are what we call the ideal examples of stupidity.
Hearing those words, one of the fronts who were chasing Zack stops for a moment. Following his actions, the others stop as well.
"That makes sense! Why are we chasing him?!" says he.
Some of the others from behind shout saying, "Yes! Yes!"
And some seemed confused. But Genzo wasn't as stupid as he seemed.
He saw through what Zack was trying to do.
[TN: Even a stupid person can see through that easily. The others were just stupid to an unimaginable extent.]
"You dumbasses! Can't you see he's running from us because he's scared? Hurry up and kill him!" Bunta angrily scolds others.
The chase continues.
"Listen, you son of a bitch!! We are going after that old geezer after dealing with you! You can run all you want but in reality, you can't escape from us!" Bunta shouts.
Hearing that, Zack stops. Something about him feels off. The goons stop behind him as well.
Zack gives them a calm yet cold gaze with a chilling aura. The air around them changes, giving off a shivering chill.
"It's not like he can ever be defeated by you losers! But, I hate those who even think of hurting him!" says he in a cold tone.
The bandits burst with anger as they rush forward to attack Zack without realizing the fact that they don't stand a chance.
Zack walks toward them slowly. He throws a punch with greater strength when they were right at the front. The leading ones get knocked in the air by the impact force.
Zack's gesture and facial expression along with the cold look in his eyes are giving off a pretty serious vibe.
The other bandits as well as Genzo were shocked by the display of Zack's strength. He knew that Zack was stronger than him who(G) was already stronger than any average non-Majutsu Vessels since he got pretty beat up the last time. But Genzo had no idea that Zack possessed this much strength.
Even though they were shaken up, they still didn't stop attacking. Zack starts beating them one by one in one vs. many, fist to fist combat. They could match up to neither Zack's speed nor his skills. The later ones pull out some weapons but Zack was still unbeatable.
In the middle of the battle, a sound suddenly comes to the ears.
"Water Disaster!"
Upon realizing what it was, all of the bandits start running for their lives.
Zack is still confused about what is happening. He looks in the direction that the voice came from and saw something he wasn't expecting for.
Bunta stood up. Even though he seems a bit tired, there is a sinister smile on his face.
Out of nowhere, Zack senses a large amount of danger.
A large wave of water, somehow white in color, twice as tall as the trees of the forest appears behind Zack right after, covering a large area.
Bunta uses a shiten skill. It was already a pretty dangerous skill but what made it more dangerous is that Bunta can't control it. It's basically a loose cannon.
[Water disaster is a shiten skill that makes a large wave of water combining smaller turbulent waves. The white color of the wave is because of the bubble created by the constant collision of the turbulent waves. Because of the smaller waves, it is even more dangerous.]
Though it was really fast, dangerous, and covered a large area, Zack could still avoid it easily. And he was about to do so. At that moment, He sees Genzo screaming for help who is about to get caught in it.
"C'mon man! Him again? Why won't he just leave me alone?"
Zack tried but couldn't ignore him. He jumps in there and throws Genzo in the air. But it was too late for him to avoid the wave.
He gets caught in it resulting in him receiving heavy damage because of the heavy first impact of the big wave followed by the constant attack of the smaller turbulent waves inside it
The attack washed away a particular part of the forest. 'Water Disaster' really lives up to its name.
Zack stands up struggling in the pile of broken trees and mud.
Because of all the damage he received, he can barely stand still.
Bunta shows up in Zack's sight. He punches him(Z) on the stomach. Makes him cough blood. But Zack is currently too weak to fight back.
Bunta then uses aqua slash on close range. But Genzo interrupts the process. As a result, the attack power was lessened but Zack still gets a direct hit and the impact force pushes him away.
"Boss, I think that was enough of a lesson for him." He talks in favor of Zack.
"Shut up! You still have the guts to talk like that after those shameful defeats?!"
"But boss….."
"I – told – you – to shut the fuck up!" Bunta replies angrily.
Genzo goes silent after that. Bunta walks to Zack again who's having trouble staying conscious.
"Where's your bold talk now, huh? Where's all that humor now?!!" he starts mocking him.
Zack's literally half-dead now. His senses are starting to weary out.
"The time has come, smelly brat. Send my regards to your parents." Bunta says before the final blow.
Zack's looking at him giving the final blow in slow motion with his blurry vision as if the time was slowed down for him. His life flashes before his eyes.
"So this is how it feels like to die. So it was really a bad idea huh, old man?" Zack thinks in his almost collapsing mind.
"What is that light? So warm and gentle, a feeling I want to cling onto. But! But there are still so many things I want to do! So many people are still waiting for me!"
Everyone's face whom he cares about flashes in his mind.
Mr. Roshida, Kuriya, Mr. Beggins, His friends in the bar, that woman he saved earlier, and so on.
He smiles gently as droplets of tears appear in his eyes, "I guess I don't wanna die yet."
At the moment, a glowing circle with weird patterns that looks like some sort of seal cracks a bit and….
"Rumble!' ** "Boom!"
A bolt of huge lightning falls on Zack as Bunta was delivering the final blow!
"Crash! Rumble! Rumble!" The sky roars and part of the lightning crackles on the ground.
*Floating ship: A high-speed flight vehicle used by the military for heavy transportation and other usages.