The ground slipped from below the noble's feet, it was over, he did not really put in a lot of effort, but that was true for everything in his life. He was a low-level noble in the kingdom, which he thought would be greatest thing he will ever get, this too was passed on to him by his parents. Not particularly skilled at anything, he enjoyed gambling, wine and women. He was moderately proficient in cultivation and did the minimum to reach the proficiency of Apprentice with his 'Karmic Power' with tutelage from expert academic professionals. To him life was an endless party with parade of sycophants and women around him, he was corrupt to the extent that he even traded in lives of men and women in underground slave trade rackets. To put it simply, he was what a person devoid of any ambitions, which was fine as long he was not hurting anyone. Today was the probably one of few times he did not get what he wanted. But despite all the vices and he had a lot, he was not dumb, he was not super smart, but he was not dumb either, this was clearly shown when he restrained himself all through the proceeding and was able to cover for the incompetence of his underlings.
He had lost the case and lost his reputation among the poor people in this area as well but no matter he thought and said "Hmph… I don't agree with your conclusion".
"If you don't, then I don't mind going to a higher noble to overthrow your judgement"
"That is if I let you"
"Shing…" came the sound as a dagger appeared in his hand as he grabbed at air. The dagger was entirely yellow as compared to his mother's glowing gold armor. He was ready to pounce at short cloaked figure when Kush replied to him, "ok never mind that, if it is a power struggle you want then a I have an easier less bloody method of concluding our fight"
The noble was taken aback, he thought for sure that the cloaked figure would take this chance to fight it out, considering his demeanor, just to play along he said without taking the dagger back "What do you propose?"
Kush found a flat cement block which was about a foot high he placed his left foot on it leaned on it a little and with axe in his hand he pretended to rest his left hand on his left knee and rested the other end of axe on his shoulder. He stood casually, but he had put the entire weight of his body on the left foot, pretending to have the right foot touch the ground. Standing their "If any of your men or you for that matter are able to even move my feet by an inch, I will stop all interference in this matter"
Noble was taken aback by the gesture, assuming the axe weighed around 30 to a maximum of 40 kilos how would a 5ft man weigh 50 kgs? 60 kgs? This was a no brainer he thought as the asked his men to go ahead to move his foot.
The girl too thinking the same was taken aback, was he trying to push her to the wolves right after saving her, just to live a macho dream of his, this pissed her off but she did not interrupt.
"ufff…" came a sweet voice from the taller cloaked person indicating her irritation from the short cloaked person's shenanigans, but she too was smiling inside the cloak
A guard stepped up to the plate and tried to lift the foot of the shorter cloaked figure, but it did not budge. "HHnnngggg….." he strained himself to the maximum, he turned red, but to no avail.
"Hmph" embarrassed the noble called upon the next person. "HHnnngggg….." he strained himself to the maximum, he turned red, but to no avail.
One by one all the guards and the guard captain himself tried, but no one could even budge it. How could they, the leg right was supporting north of 350 kgs but itself.
The noble realized something was fishy about the whole ordeal and went to try himself at the end, but just as bend down of lift the feet of the cloaked figure, Kush said "If you want to touch someone's feet, it should be the feet of the old woman over there (touching feet is a sign of respect in Indian culture) and ask for forgiveness for all you have put her and her daughter through"
The noble had had it, livid his whole face was turning red from anger as he screamed "AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH..." as conjured his dagger and charged at the Kush's groin, Kush was too weighted down braces and torso weight so he would not have been able to jump out of the way in time so he let the axe pivot on his hands and rotate down on its own accord to due to the heavier end being higher. 'BANG' came the sound as the two collided. Kush used the opportunity to step back a bit, seeing this the noble, started to understand what he felt weird about this guy, the guy was too slow, even when stepped up to the rock or moved across the field to talk to the daughter, it was all done slowly, initially he thought he was just trying to show emphasis and gravitas but he realized, it was just the way he moved, this must be an old man. Thinking this, his confidence increased as he pounced the man faster, Kush was on the defensive, his weights and axe meant he could not anything in a fight. But he had been in more than hundred hopeless situations and come out of them alive, he a battle hardened person, whose fighting experience could never be matched by a slug like Harsh. He used minimum movements to bring the huge axe infront of the dagger which was a little less than foot in length. This was an optimum dagger for assassinations but not for a street fight like this, suddenly he felt the shadow of a tall person behind him, he turned around to see the guard captain with a mace coming right at him, it was unavoidable for him, so minimize the damage he jumped, whatever he could with the weights on, to his right and tried to use his left arm to take the brunt of the hit from the mace as it was swung from the left to the right 'BAM' came the hit, as he dropped to the ground in a 'Thud'. Hit, he had been hit and that too hard and it hurt, hurt like hell, any person would have screamed by this point, but Kush did not want give the opponents the satisfaction. he could not get up too quickly, like he did during his training, so he swung his shoulder to let the axe hit the noble which he tried to parry with his dagger, though a human slug dung, he had fought a couple of times and practiced in mock fights hundreds of time. He had met people with characteristic of strength a few time and some were even known professionals not the dumbass guards he had with him, but the momentum of the axe was different. It was like, once it started, it was out for blood and would not stop. What the noble did not know was the axe was not moving even at half its speed due to the hit he just sustained and the weights, when the weapons clashed the dagger stayed strong and resilient blocking the momentum of the axe, but it finally gave in as the axe hit noble in his forearm which he put infront of him. Kush thinking the hit should slow down the noble for a bit turned his attention to the guard captain, as he continued the swing which hurt the noble to go after the guard captain and parry his mace. The thing was the hit to the guard captain felt weird. It did not feel like what he feels when cutting and severing a limb of a beast, but it was not an unfamiliar feeling as well. It then struck him. As the guard captain was sent back by the parry he felt a sharp feeling of pain in his thighs as the knife went straight through it and almost cut through his right femur (thigh bone). As Harsh (the noble) pulled back the knife, blood spurted from the place where the dagger was stabbed in his thigh. Harsh had a small cut on his forearm despite the mighty blow from the axe, Harsh smiled snidely, knowing full well that the fight had concluded and now it time for Kush to be stunned by the turn of events, but them he remembered the lessons on characteristic power of toughness, similar to iron wall wolf and countless other beast he had fought before.
At a distance of 10 km from the location Alicia was watching this, her fist close, her forearm lifted as if to punch a hole through someone, she about to jump in to fray when she was held back by a large hand. "Give him a chance, he atleast deserves some of our trust" Sagar said.
Copious amount of blood was spurting from his thighs painting the cement flooring of the society red, unflinching still he turned on the ground to dodge the mace. The cloak on his face came off showing the face of young boy. This stunned everybody standing there and stopped Harsh's attack for a second, all his perceptions were broken by this boy, who seemed to be barely 10 years in age, too tall for his age perhaps but how did he pull everything off like he did in the argument before and more than that how the heck is able to move that hulking piece of rock, he had heard of people who used weird methods to empower their body using mana, this was just ridiculous. Kush used this second to move back a little when another guard came at him with a sword aimed at his stomach in full swing bring the sword down in an arc. Kush dropped the axe on his body such that it came below the sword, but now he had pinned himself with axe, finding it difficult to drag slide back even more, he lifted his axe a little swung his entire torso getting the man behind him below his shin and came a sickening feeling in his hand he felt plenty of time. The feeling of having cut right through a living being. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA......…" came a scream as the as people in vicinity were shocked out of their minds. First the girl was trapped, then came a savior for her, then a fight broke out, then the savior was almost done for, then he turns out to be a barely 10-year-old boy and then out of nowhere he had taken care of one of the seventeen guards. But they still thought that he was done for, they bowed their heads pitying the young and strong warrior but did not come out to help and just chalked it up to his inexperience.
"He should have just let it pass, now along with the girl, even he is done for" one man said
"Heh, dumbass is now going to get his ass kicked" said another
"Had been in his place I would have used a sword instead of axe and would have gone…" some tried saying something when he got smacked across his head by another who replied "Who is holding you back? Go!!" he said as he nudged the man towards the fight.
"Heh" laughed a few people listening to the two interact, but voices were soft trying not to call for attention of the noble in their direction. As they were discussing the guy who had his legs cut off dropped his weapon and they slid across the floor cause of the momentum and came to a stop in front a pair of beautiful feet, fair to the extreme, as person with a leg fetish would have licked it all over. They stood still unmoving while their owner kept on looking at the eyes of the boy ridiculously tall boy for his age, they had not given up. While all of this was happening Harsh kept an eye on the other cloaked figure, trying to figure out why the other did not yet interfere. This looks like he's done for, looks like they were just acquaintances and this horny kid seeing a pretty lady just stood up to help her.
Just as all this was going on, three of the guards and the captain had surrounded the boy and were going at him with a sword in three's hand and mace in one's hand. Still on the ground Kush blacked the captain's attack with his axe and turned the handle on his axe to parry the blow of two swordsmen. The three of them had strength as their characteristic and pinned the boy down. Single handedly he was trying and failing miserably to push back against the strength of the three and the last swordsman seeing the boy pinned came down with his sword this time in a piercing fashion, not giving Kush any significant area to parry, seeing impending death looming Kush shifted just a little and took the hit in his left shoulder. He dropped the axe over his body to the right, which caused the three he was parrying lose their balance and fall, the captain fell from the side of head over Kush's body while the other two managed to stop their fall just a little by stepping over the kid to his other side and stepped on his shawl. "AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGG..." screamed the guard captain as he stabbed in his genitals by a black dagger. Kush and used the opportunity to push his hand down which caused the knife to move up on the captain's body, in between his armor till his chest plate, gutting him like a fish. Blood and gore covered the place, Kush took the knife back and used the fact that he was wet to slide a little better across the floor to the boundary wall of the allotment society and while doing so he also pulled his axe with him. The guards were out of their minds with fear, causing them to shake in their boots. They were not fighters, all of them had including the captain had Novitiate Karmic power, one of them did not even have a weapon as a Karmic power he had head gear, all their weapons were white, even the armor they were wearing were leather armor except the captain who wore a chainmail. They had no experience fighting and were mostly used by the noble as an intimidation tactic or for bullying the weak who never really fought back. They did not have any coordination hence did not know when to attack and where to attack from, they were just bootlickers, who enjoyed the noble's leftover food, wine and women. But they were surprised when the shawl like cloth came off the boy now appeared to be one handed, the entire plaza was now filled with more than a thousand people, the one handed body bathed head to toe in blood was crawling towards the wall.
"AAA…" screamed the daughter as she took a step back. She could not believe a person this young and disabled could be this strong. Harsh too was stunned by this site and was calculating things in his mind.
The entire time after the cloak came off of Kush head, Harsh stood aside, observing the whole situation with the other cloaked figure but now he had confirmed that the cloaked figure would not interfere even if he went in for the kill.
Kush grabbed the wall and used its support and put his back to the wall. As he stood up it was clearly visible to all that chain connected Kush to the axe and he had started pulling. Before he could get his axe in hand and go on a rampage again, Harsh acted and went in for the kill, seeing the noble come, Kush smirked and dogged the attack by a hair's breath, he moved to the right a little every time he dodged he moved to the right a little, after three or four times once he confirmed he was in position, he used all the strength in his body to swing the chain such the axe came from behind the noble to Kush, cutting him apart in the process. He had tasted victory in the past against beasts and ate them later to absorb the mana in their body, but the reason he ate it was because the meat tasted heavenly, sweet and soft like cotton candy and filling like potato and rice, no seasoning was need, he just cooked and ate them. Literally the victories tasted sweet, but this victory to him, against an oppressor, against an inhuman pig, against an insect of the gutter, tasted divine. He smiled widely, cause he was sure, sure that he had his man when suddenly the man put his hand on the handle, he could not completely stop the handle but he too used every ounce of power in his body to stop the axe, but the axe slipped from his hand and hit him, but the momentum was negligible compared to its start. Its trajectory drop and it fell on his legs such that not even the sharp end touched his foot on the flat end. It did him no harm other than a little sting, it would have crushed another man's foot but his characteristic toughness saved him. He put his foot on the axe to temporarily stop its movement and used his dagger to stab at the boy's chest, just as the man managed to bring his hand to the axe, Rhodos knew it was over. She was about to trigger her mana when she saw something and stopped. The daughter had stabbed the dagger that the guard whose legs were cut had dropped in the nobles back.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA........" he screamed. Not used to the pain at all he almost winced, but since he was already in position and girl did not manage to go in too deep, he went in for the kill to not miss this opportunity, to finish the dangerous boy. Just as he was about to stab his heart 'Syook…' came a silent arrow as if going in vacuum and pierced the hand of the noble. The entire length of the arrow flew right through except for the fletching of the arrow which pulled his hand along with him, the arrow pierced the ground and noble fell down with his hand stuck to the ground.