"Let go of me you jerk!", a woman shouted while being held by a bearded man.
This woman that is getting held by the bearded man is none other than Laziah, she got kidnapped by two soldiers when she was with Daley.
While Aldo is just woken up inside the woods, Laziah is cleaning herself.
Although Aldo has told her that she should keep the relationship she had with Daley a secret, today she will be accompanying Daley in his hunting.
Since he's only hunting fish, it should be relatively safe to accompany his hunt.
They agreed to meet in the woods near a tree that they usually go to meet with each other behind Aldo's back, but for some reason, Daley decided to pick her up at the Inn.
Laziah was surprised but she doesn't mind,
But their act was caught by Aunt Liv and Uncle that somehow visit her, Aunt Liv told her that Aldo request them to keep a look out on her until he's back.
Daley got scolded by Aunt Liv but they're both having fun,
All of that changed when suddenly two soldiers barged inside the Inn under the gazes of the people inside the Inn and out of nowhere grabbed Laziah forcefully.
Seeing this, of course, Daley would try to help her by arguing with the soldiers.
The situation escalated when the soldiers refused to hand over Laziah and dragged her by the hair, Daley is angered upon seeing this and he unsheathed his blade.
But as soon as he did that, the soldiers unsheathed their swords.
Compared to the two glistening swords of the soldiers, Daley's blade pales in comparison and since he's only trained as a hunter, the soldiers defeat him easily.
It's not even a challenge as the soldiers beat Daley to a pulp in front of the crying Laziah.
Aunt Liv and Uncle can't do anything except watch from the side fearfully, not one of the villagers dares to help Daley against the soldiers.
After beating Daley half-dead, the soldiers then took Laziah away.
That is what happened until now, Laziah is currently inside of a caravan that can hardly fit four people, there's another man beside the bearded man and he seems to be eating something.
Even with the struggle she did, the man that is eating is not at all disturbed.
But the bearded man beside her is clearly annoyed by her,
While holding onto the chain wrapped around Laziah's hand, the bearded man glances at the struggling Laziah in annoyance since she can't stay still from the moment she entered the caravan angrily, "Can you knock it off? You're not going anywhere!"
"Let me go! My brother is an Ego Fighter! You'll be sorry when he finds out about this!", Laziah threatened while glaring at the bearded man.
She's fiercely glaring at the bearded man even though the bearded man is holding a knife.
Upon hearing this, the two men inside the caravan with the caravan suddenly laugh as if they just heard the funniest joke in their lives.
Laziah bit her lips before she tries to open the caravan's door but got pulled back.
The bearded man becomes angry upon seeing her did that, he pulls back Laziah's hair roughly before tilting her head towards him, "If you don't stop struggling, I'm going to hurt you very badly", he whispers threateningly.
But ignoring the bearded man, Laziah knocks her head backward hitting the bearded man's nose.
"Arghh! You fucking bitch!", the bearded man cursed while touching his nose.
Feeling his patience is running out, the bearded man pushes Laziah roughly making her head hit the caravan's wall very hard.
Bam!
Blood flowed down her forehead because of that,
Seeing this, the man that is eating something looks at the bearded man warningly before he reminded, "Don't be too harsh on her, sir Ivor will be angry if he saw her hurt"
"What else do you want me to do? Fucking bitch hit me on my nose", the bearded man complained.
While the two soldiers are arguing, Laziah curls her body before a tear falls down her eye feeling desperate about the situation, 'Save me, brother...'
~
A week has passed,
Aldo is currently swinging a wooden sword in front of an ordinary house that is on somekind of a hill, every direction of the house is filled with trees.
Behind the house is the rock hill that is at least two or three thousand feet high.
Swish!
Swish!
The sound of the wooden sword Aldo is swinging makes a windy noise each time he strikes the air, sweat decorates his entire body as he already been practicing since morning.
Every wound he suffered has basically healed thanks to the Cleric giving him treatment.
After he manages to escape Arkney village thanks to the Cleric.
The Cleric that he now knows as Diane brought him to this house that she made a couple of years back, she said that he will need to live here until he's ready.
Many beasts roam these woods but Diane has already created protection for him.
It's not actual protection that will be able to protect him from the beasts, but she creates a border where she puts flowers of the same type that Aldo has never seen before.
Although Aldo is a bit skeptical, Diane told him that this will fend the beasts away.
Basically, for every beast that wanted to go uphill towards the house, the scent from the flower will annoy them and they will turn back.
Aldo already stayed here for a week now, but Diane didn't stay with him.
She got a job to do as a Cleric in Arkney Village, and she can't abandon it fully, or else her organization will punish her for abandoning her duty.
Because of that, Aldo is left alone here training all alone.
Putting every inch of his strength into each swing saps his endurance quickly, Aldo's breathing becomes heavy but even on the brink of collapse he still kept going.
The faster he can get stronger, the sooner he can save Laziah.
"Hahh!", Aldo swings the wooden sword one last time before stopping in his stance, the wooden sword didn't even tremble to show the fine swing he has done.
But just a moment after that, he falls to the ground with heavy breaths.
Every muscle on his body is hurting from all the swinging he had, he needs to be this exhausted just to put his body in a perfect condition to tap his Ego Beasts power.
Diane accompany him for a day and she taught Aldo how to practice.
Aside from swinging and thrusting a wooden sword to familiarize himself and being comfortable holding a sword, Diane also created a dummy made of tree trunks just for him.
It's kind of weird since the dummy she made is especially sturdy,
This dummy is used for training his punch and kicks, Diane force Aldo to train beyond human capabilities to the point that he feels like dying a couple of times.
But with Laziah on his mind, he perseveres through the training.
She said that it's necessary to train until this state for what she called a Fledgling Ego Fighter, which is basically a new Ego Fighter like Aldo.
During the last couple of days, Diane also explained to him about Ego Fighter.
From what Aldo can grasp about the Ego Fighter world, an Ego Fighter is divided into seven circles by their mastery over their Ego Beast.
The first circle is where an Ego Fighter can tap onto the Ego Beast's power.
After successfully tapping on the Ego Beast's power, an Ego Fighter will find that their entire battle power increased making them reach an inhuman level.
Of course, each Ego Beast will give different kinds of boosts,
Some Ego Beast can substantially increase an Ego Fighter's strength such as destroying a boulder with a punch, some can make them as fast as an agile cat, and some even find that their skin becomes toughened that can even block a blade directly thrusting at them.
Everything depends on the Ego Beast they're associated with,
The Ego Beast plays a crucial role in an Ego Fighter's power, which is why a higher-tier Ego Beast can make an even stronger Ego Fighter.
Just to put into a perspective,
An Ego Fighter with a lower-tier Ego Beast upon reaching the first circle will be able to crush a human-size boulder with a punch, but an Ego Fighter with a middle-tier Ego Beast will be able to destroy a house-size boulder with a punch upon reaching the first circle.
It becomes clear why an Ego Fighter with a higher-tiered Ego Beast is revered more.
For the second circle, an Ego Fighter will now evolve into an Ego Knight where they can summon their Ego Beast in a form of a weapon or armor of their choosing.
This not only enhances an Ego Fighter's battle prowess but also gives an additional buff.
Diane explained to Aldo about the ranks of an Ego Fighter just until the second circle, he only need to focus on reaching the second circle first if he wanted to have any chance of protecting himself from Lord Arter's soldiers.
Knowing this, Aldo deducts that Ivor is in the first circle.
From the blue hue he emitted, it's clear that Ivor has already tapped onto his Ego Beast's power.
But when Aldo asks Diane which circle she's in, she doesn't answer and just kept it a secret which makes Aldo very curious but he can't do a thing if Diane didn't want to tell him.
After resting for a brief minute, Aldo kept training until the sun went down.
Even breathing becomes hard after Aldo did the training according to Diane, his legs and fists are hurting from punching the dummy and his muscles are sore from swinging the wooden sword.
'Why do I have to train a sword... I prefer a knife or a dagger', Aldo thought in annoyance.
Diane forced him to wield a sword, she said that he need to grasp the fundamental of a sword which contains the basics of every other weapon except for long-range weapons.
It's the basics of all melee weapons, but also the hardest to master.
After resting for a moment, Aldo got up from the ground before he pulls the edge of his shirt to smell it, 'Ugh... I need to clean myself', he thought before deciding to end today's training.
'Today is the day, right? I'll go wash up before Diane came', Aldo thought.
Since Diane is about to come in a moment, Aldo puts the wooden sword just in front of the house on a wooden chair before he went into the woods heading to a waterfall that is not far from the house.
Yesterday after inspecting Aldo's training,
Diane finally decided to teach Aldo how to reach the first circle since his body is already starting to be in a good condition due to the training.
This brings Aldo's hopes up, but she quickly denied it.
She said that even though she will teach Aldo how to reach the first circle and become a full-fledged Ego Fighter, this method will need continuous hard training.
Although it's only reaching the first circle, some Ego Fighters stuck in this stage for years.
The news pummeled Aldo's spirit to the ground since he didn't expect that even reaching the first circle is that hard, but still, he's determined to become stronger just for Laziah.
'Wait for me sister, I will definitely save you!', Aldo thought while cleaning his body hurriedly.
Since Diane has already lived here for a couple of years, necessities such as food, water, and other things can be gained through natural sources just like this waterfall to bathe.
This waterfall is not that big, in fact, it's more like a pond.
Every corner of the waterfall is surrounded by the same flowers that Diane used as a beast repellent, thus no beast wanders near enough to the waterfall.
But just as Aldo finished his bathing and got out of the water,
SWOOSH!
Aldo sensed heat coming from his back, he glanced back before his eyes widen seeing a fireball heading towards him that comes out of nowhere.
His instincts kick in as he dodges the fireball by ducking to the ground,
The fireball missed him by a hair's length before hitting a tree behind him, Aldo is still dazed by the sudden fireball before he looks at where the fireball came from.
Roar!!
Grahh!"
'Are they fighting? Damn animal, you almost hit me!', Aldo grumbles in his head.
It seems there is a fight going on between two beasts, and one of the beasts' attacks which is the fireball strayed in his direction almost hitting him.
The tree behind him is on fire, but the tree is not some regular tree.
Even if one of the trees is in fire, the fire will not spread to the other trees as these trees are not just some regular normal trees.
If the fire can spread, then these woods will be gone from the start.
But just as Aldo wants to scurry back, "Harghhk!"
Out of nowhere, Aldo finds himself breathing hard falling to the ground as he can feel something is wrong with his body.
His eyes widen when a glimpse of vision appears in his head that he knew he never had.
'What is this memory? No, it can't be a memory', Aldo thought in confusion.
The vision or foreign memory that is flashing inside his head is a place engulfed by a roaring fire, everything is red, and everything is burning in flames.
Nothing can be seen except for fire,
Aldo looks around the place before he stopped when he feels the fire is staring at him back.
It's a weird feeling that he can't explain with words, fire doesn't have eyes so it can't look at him, but somehow the fire around this fiery place is looking straight at him.
He can feel it...
His entire being can sense it...
Something sinister...
Something that he can't understand is staring at him back...
It's trying to get inside his body...
Nothing can be done...
The fire is already inside of him, breaking in without him having control of it.
The fire scares him...
Aldo's body is slowly getting drowned by a sea of fire that is revolving around him as if he were a magnet for fire, this doesn't only happen in this memory, but it's also happening to him right now, the current him.
With his eyes engulfed in fire, Aldo's body started to be burned by an unknown fire.
It's splashing to the surroundings as if it has a consciousness of its own, but a person arrives at the scene and saw this happening, "Aldo!"