3 Days passed after Teras and his friends decided to help the villagers, all of them trained hard for another 3 days to increase their stamina, they ran, they swam, and they lifted up weights, they did everything they could do to surpass the strength of the bandits, but after some day of training they felt like they were spending their time wrongly, nobody can get stronger with only a limited time like theirs, what they needed to do now was not strengthen their bodies but sharpen their battle senses so in the 4th day Teras decided to start with a basic sword training, it was early in the morning when Teras gathered everyone in the open field the village had
"Good morning everyone! You all did well in your strength training so I think is time to move on to sword training, most of you probably know how to fight with a sword so this session of training won't require someone to teach you how to fight, this session will mostly be a tournament like a sword fighting contest between us, we will all fight at least once with each other, if someone doesn't use a sword then they can simply train their bodies or even your mana, but I strongly suggest you learn how to use a single weapon since you are going to need it in the future!"
Teras told them as he stood in a taller part of the field, the villagers felt excited about their little tournament since they didn't get to train like this ever
"Now choose a sparing partner and evenly spread throughout the field so nobody disturbs someone else's fight"
Teras said as he slowly got down from the hill, Teras wanted to see what his friends will do
"I'm guessing that you and Lia will train your mana while we train our sword skill right?"
Teras asked Har, Lia denied his assumption
"Not really, I want to learn how to use a sword for the situations where my lighting powers won't be optional"
Lia said as he walked past Teras
"Looks like I will be alone, but that's alright! I can focus on my earth powers, fighting this bandit leader made me realize that I have to use my power more creatively and not just fight head on"
Har said to Teras, he seemed excited to start
"I see! I hope you grow fast since we are going to need you in this final battle..."
Teras told him with a smile, Har smiled back and walked away from the field, Teras began to focus on his own training, he wanted to find a sparring partner but no one was free, no one except one person, Zak
"Looks like our fight was bound to happen huh?"
Teras asked with a slight smile the friendly yet powerful bartender
"Bound to happen? Not really, it is a mere coincidence!"
Zak told him with a smile as he draw out his blade from the case he was carrying, the sword was slim and beautiful, the sun reflected brightly on it, Rex and his friends were watching over the fight for a cliff near the field, Rex was eager to see the fight between his father and Teras, and he wasn't the only one, all of the villagers stopped their training so they can watch the fight
"It has been years since I got into a fight! I think you are the perfect candidate to experience my power, make sure you don't give up too fast"
Zak told him with a smug, the whole village was thrilled to see what will happen next
"Talking is futile, let's dance with our blades!"
Teras said as he charged at Zak, the beautiful blade of Zak clashed with Teras's blade, Zak seemed to overpower Teras, Teras was slowly falling further and further back, he didn't want to let this continue so Teras threw a kick that made Zak lost balance, Teras then followed with a small explosion on his face, Zak was blinded by the smoke of the explosion and also stunned by its damage, he tried to fall back but Teras didn't let him, he dashed forwards and hook kicked him on the neck, the kick launched Zak to the right side of Teras but before he was launched Zak managed to scratch Teras on his sides, both of them stood still for a moment and glared at each other as they rested before attacking once again, they both swung their blades at each other like their life depended on it, sparks were created left and right and the sound the materials of the swords' made created a proper song for their dance-like battle they had, both the kids and adults were shocked by their speed and strength, Nor Zak or Teras had ever fought like this, the body training they done helped them improve the strength of their body and also their speed, after multiple strikes the 2 of them started to feel tired
"Are you sure you are a bronze-ranked adventurer kid? If yes then I haven't ever seen someone your rank move like that"
Zak told him with a smile, the reason he smiled was very mixed, a part of him smiled because of the excitement he felt but another part laughed out of fear, a fear of an undefeatable force
"Oh, you have not seen anything yet!"
Luck replied with a smug smile, Zak's smile faded away when he heard what Teras said, Teras then released his mana overflow, and at this moment what Teras said was confirmed, Zak immediately raised up his guard but it was meaningless, he was way too tired by all of the strikes he blocked before, Teras's aura once again shined this silver color
'Why can I see his aura? I'm not using my mana vision'
Zak thought as he was watching him, but before he knew it Teras was already in the air, heading straight forward at him, Zak tried to slash Teras but it was unsuccessful, it didn't work because Teras used a mana shield to jump above the slash, and with the movement he had, he got directly above Zak and with a quick punch he ended the fight, Zak felt down, the blade fell out of his hand as his conscious faded and his grip was weakened, Teras rotated in order to fall without injuring himself, everyone was shocked to see what happened, even Cara and Lia that have seen this fighting style by Teras
"You bastard don't you ever touch my dad!"
Rex said as he ran down from the hill he was, he had a wild look on his face
"Don't be mad at him Rex, he will be the one to save us!"
Zak said as he slowly got up from the ground
"What surprised that I didn't fall easily like that?"
Zak asked him with a smile, he noticed that Teras was shocked to see him get up, Teras laughed
"You are the first person I have ever seen get up after a fight like that!"
Teras said as he stretched, he wanted to get ready for the next fight but before he left he wanted to demonstrate something, he raised up his hand and created a powerful explosion, nobody believed their eyes, they had never seen anyone create an explosion with their bare hands
'So I had no chance of winning from the start, huh?'
Zak thought as he watched the explosion
"What are you all doing? We have to train! Don't just stand there"
Teras schooled them, the fight then progressed, and everyone fought for hours, Zak was the first to give up on today's training since he was way too tired, it has been long since he had retired so consuming this much energy was exhausting for him, after all the training most of the people headed to the river, even Lia and Cara left, Har was about to join them too, as for Teras, he had other plans, he joined Zak, Zak was laying down on the cliff looking at the sky, Teras laid beside him
"Tiring isn't it?"
Zak asked the tired Teras
"Not really, but I do get more anxious as the days pass, I just can't live under the impression that I'm hunted, you know Orion is the consolation that symbolizes a hunter, that's the reason I chose this name for our party! I wanted to become a hunter, but I don't plan on hunting someone, I use this title more as a motivation for me, that's right! I'm hunting my dream, a dream to learn about myself"
Teras said as he was looking at the sky, it was the first time he shared the deeper meaning of this name with others
"Do you really think we are the prey? This may be the case for now but after the training, I'm sure the roles will swap"
"Don't be delusional! Right now we are nothing but slaves to them, or even their play toy if you like a light nickname, to call us something else is wrong"
Zak was pissed at what Teras said, but he still remained calm
"Slaves? Do you even know the meaning of this word? A slave is someone bonded to their master, a master can be a person or even a mental thing, a slave is someone that can't deny orders, someone that won't think for themselves, someone with no will to live, and the only thing that pushes them forwards is the pressure from others, or the pleasure of accomplishing something that brings them joy, that only if we talk about a mental slave, that's what a slave is!"
Zak said as he got up with a look chained to the sky, his blue eyes were reflecting the clouds in the sky like a clean lake, suddenly a boy appeared in front of Teras, it was hard to identify the environment around him but the image of the boy was very clean, the boy seemed to be angry
"How dare you do this to him! He gave you everything! I swear I will make your life a living hell from now on, you hear me you bastard, you were once a slave and he freed you, but be assured that you are going to leave this world as a slave, because deep inside you know that you were always a slave"
This time Teras didn't pass out or sleep, his vision was clear too, a simple flash of memory came back to him, and an unpleasant one too
"Are you alright kid, you look quite gloomy, maybe you too have to go to wash yourself in the river"
Zak said as he got up, he then left the confused Teras behind
'What the hell was that? I was a slave too? Did I hide inside this big tree in order to get away?'
Teras thought but it didn't make too much sense to him, there were way too many questions unanswered about what he saw that he couldn't determine anything about his past but there is one thing he was sure of, he was a slave
'I can't sit around all day! I have to go for a bath and quickly get some time of sleep, or else I won't have energy for our afternoon training'
Teras thought as he got up, he enhanced himself with mana and ran to the river, on his way he encountered a little friend of his, it was Rex, he was holding a small dagger
"I'm not going to let what you did to my father slide by like this, I'm not naïve like my father!"
he said as he shakenly pointed the dagger at Teras
"I can't possibly understand how you feel but I can tell it is not good so I apologize for all the things I did!"
Teras said as he slightly bowed his head, Rex was surprised by his reaction
"What are you doing? Draw your sword and fight me like a man!"
Rex yelled with aggression, but Teras didn't cooperate
"I won't fight you kid! But if you want to do this, then be my guest!"
Teras said as he started walking to the river, Rex had enough, he charged at Teras with a loud yell, but he was stopped but non-other than Zak
"What are you doing to him, Rex!"
He yelled at him in an aggressive tone
"Let me go, Father! If you can't do it then I will! I can't let him disrespect you like that in front of the village like this"
Rex yelled back at him, Zak slapped him strong enough to make him drop the dagger
"THIS MAN IS RISKING HIS LIFE TO SAVE YOU AND ME, STOP TREATING THIS AS ONE OF YOUR STUPID GAMES! YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL HE EVEN TRIED IN THE FIRST HAND, NOT ATTACK HIM!"
Zak yelled at him the voice that echoed all around the village, Teras froze up when he saw Zak hit his kid
"I'm sorry Dad! You are right I just can't see you lose! You are simply the strongest, you can't possibly lose to someone like him"
Rex said as he was sobbing, Zak hugged him
"It's alright Rex! At least you realized that you were wrong!"
Zak said as he began to heal his wound, as he was healing him he could see something with the side of his eye, something disturbing
"What are you doing?"
Zak asked Teras, he was confused
"Huh?"
Teras made a sound of confusion but when he looked at himself he realized what Zak meant, he was standing up and he was gripping his sword with such an extreme force that it made his veins pop out of his body abnormally
"I'm sorry I don't know what happened"
Teras said, he then placed his sword back in its case and ran to the river, without exchanging any more words with Zak
"What a weird guy!"
Zak exclaimed as he saw Teras run to the river