Zhou and Zion stopped riding after hours inside another forest, to allow the horses to rest and allow them to set up their camp for the night. "Zhou, can you lend me some help with the base? Remember to keep it inside the forest. We have to stay undercover just in case of anything." "Yeah I'll help out, it's the least I can do." Zhou and Zion began to set their camp up, and the horses have at this point fell asleep nearby while being on a leash to a tree. A few hours have passed and Zion heard something like the sound of running and heavy breathing nearby. "Zhou wake up" Zion shook Zhou to wake him up which he did end up waking up. "Huh? What's going on?" Zhou said in a whisper while yawning. "I heard running and sounded like heavy breathing nearby. I want us to both look out for any signs of anyone just in case for the next let's say 30 minutes." Zion replied in a whisper. "Alright then." Zhou said and got up and started to watch as much as he could from within the deep forest of loud animal sounds, creeks from the trees, the cold breeze from the midnight air.
Suddenly, they both were wide awake as they heard a female voice from the distance running and screaming for help. "Please! Someone help! Anyone." As they heard her voice, they both hopped out of the camp and ran towards the voice with their weapons. After a few minutes of running towards the voice, they saw the woman breathing heavily while she was being chased by a group of masked individuals. Zion grabbed his spear off his back and stood in front of the girl and Zhou. "I'll handle them, get her back to camp." Zion said, confidently holding the spear in hand and looking up at the masked group in the trees. Zhou picked the woman up and began to run back to the camp as Zion lifted his spear. A masked member appeared in front of Zion, "Iron Blade Vortex" He shouted while his blade turned into a flame of a vortex almost like a tornado. Zion backed up and avoided the blade. Zion then whispered to himself. "Void cutting art: Vanquish Memories", Afterward a shadow the size of a cloud appeared around all of them and began to constantly strike from all areas covering their bodies in scars, cuts, and even managed to amputate some of their arms off from how deep the cuts were. The only ones managed to semi-resist were a tall man in all black, breathing heavily. "T-that shit, what the hell was that style!" He said while coughing blood while blood was spilling from his entire body slowly. "It was a simple art. That's all it is." Zion replied before speed blitzing the entire group and killing them all besides for one, the only one who managed to survive the Vanquish Memories. "Who are you and why are you after that girl?" Zion asked with his spear up to his neck, ready to finish him at the slightest hint of hostility.
"I-I don't want to die, man… I'm from the "Shadowy Snow" Clan, I'm just doing the job they asked me to do man" He said while coughing more blood up while trying to recover by sitting down. Zion took his spear down, seeing the desperation in this man's eyes for his life. "And why are you chasing her?" Zion asked, looking down at the sorry state of this soldier. "I-I don't know why, okay? I really don't. All I know is that the clan wants her dead, no matter the price, and no matter how." Zion looked up at the sky for a moment before returning to look down at the man. "I believe you're telling me the truth of this incident." The man looked up, "S-so you'll let me l-live, right? I-I have a family waiting for me at home" Zion put his spear back on his back and walked closer to the man. "You don't get into this business unless you're ready to die mid-mission." Zion pulled his rapier out and slit the man's throat open while pouring his dark purple energy into the blade, making it sharper and easier to slice his throat. Zion then carried the corpse over to the camp. "Zhou get her near the fire." Zhou didn't look up and didn't notice the smell over the horse's shit nearby. Zhou put the lady near the fire, laying her down slightly. Zion threw the body into the fire before starting it again, and Zhou noticed it and looked up, "W-what the hell is this? Why the hell do you have a body for the fire?!" Zhou asked, confused and concerned about who his friends are. "Just calm down, it's nothing much, and I don't feel like getting firewood." Zion said with a cold look in his eyes as he sat the corpse and what was left of the wood on fire.
Zhou sighed and just went with it. "So, did you find out why she was being chased?" "Well, apparently she's wanted by the "Shadowy Snow" Clan for some reason… I didn't get much more out of him since he's the only one alive, or well, was alive at the time." They both sat down and laughed together over this incident. Zhou spoke up again, "Well damn, I think we're both a little crazy." "A little? I think we're not ascending to heaven after this one, friend." "Hell, I guess you're right. We might as well make the best of it and get stronger so we can overthrow heaven itself one day." Zhou and Zion looked up towards the sky and saw no stars in sight from the forest. "First we need you to learn some type of martial art, and sword art Zhou" "Yeah… You're right, can you teach me?" Zion looked over and cracked a small smile. "Yeah man, I'll teach you both, and then we can take over the world and heaven itself." They both looked down as the body was burning making the air smell, yet they didn't move, or did anything at all about it. Zion then stood up and made Zhou get to work by working out with what they had around for the rest of the night.
Early in the morning, the lady woke up and felt warm from the fire near her. "W-where am I" she said looking around to see the forest still and then turned her head over to her other side seeing Zhou practice his sword play. Zhou looked behind him and saw her awake. "Zion! She's awake!" "Alright, I'm coming over." Zion walked up from behind the brushes and trees. "Well good morning there miss uh?" Zion said, looking at the girl. "O-oh yes… my apologies, My name is Trinity Astrid, and you two are?" "Zion Flare, and Zhou. So what happened to you? Why were you being chased by the Shadowy Snow Clan?" Trinity looked up in shock, "W-wait, what happened to them? Where are they?" She looked over the place, not seeing any of the masked people nearby. Zion woke up, "Well, look in the fire, and you'll have your answer." Trinity got up slightly, lifting her dark red dress with black robes to get up from the ground, then looked into the fire and sees multiple body remains. "W-what is this…" She said while shaking a little. "Well, I didn't have enough wood last night, and these guy's corpse made perfect wood-like fire, so we used them for the fire." Zion looked down at Trinity while a smile on his face. Zhou put his sword back in his sheath. "So, are we ready to move out for the day, or should we delay some more time?" Trinity looked at them both having a normal conversation and regained her breath after a few moments. Her long silky black hair, skin clear as the ocean, and her gray eyes shined in the sun from overhead. "W-wait, w-what about me? Where do I even go from here?" Zion looked as if he were lost in thought for a moment before replying, "Simple, come with us. We're traveling to Jade currently." Trinity looked down at her dress and over at the horses before looking back at Zion. "I-I uh… I can't ride a horse in this dress…" She said shyly, trying not to blush from embarrassment. Zion thought about it for a moment before taking off his shirt and hands it over to her. "Just use that for now to cover up your body a bit." Trinity looked up and blushed for a moment before taking the shirt. "Turn around. Don't look at all, you assholes." They both turned around and began to talk to each other about their path to Jade, while Trinity walked a little away and changed her dress into the shirt, which took a few minutes to do while keeping her pants on. Trinity walked back over to them in the oversized shirt for her size, "Okay, we can go now, right?" Zion looked over at her before looking back at Zhou and nodding, "Alright, let's go. We already have the entire route planned for today. We're going to take this road all the way down to "Downvill" and before we enter we will go left and go around the entire place, and we should be able to get to Jade within three days." Trinity looked confused and spoke, "Why not go through Downvill? Wouldn't it be quicker to go through a place than have to go around it?" Zion sighed for a moment, "Well it would be good to do that, yes. However, In the current state of Downhill, It's a death trap since only criminals go there. Apparently, most clans don't even want to enter the place." Trinity still looked confused a little, but a lot less than earlier and followed them to the horses. Zion hopped on his horse and undid the leash restraining the horse a little for the night. Zhou did the same with his horse. "So which one you want to ride?" Zhou asked while getting his sword in a good sheath into a good position so it doesn't fall. "Um, I'll ride with Zion if you're good with that?" She looked up at Zion. "Yeah sure, give me your hand." Trinity held out her hand and Zion grabbed it and pulled her onto the horse, helping her as much as he can. "Alright Zhou, are you ready?" "Yeah I'm all good here, just waiting for you." "Alright then, hold on tight." Trinity began to hold on to Zion as both of the horses begin to gallop away down the road that went through the forest.
Hours later they reached Downvill and went left as they had planned, and should reach their next camp spot they planned within two hours if everything went to plan.
Suddenly, Zion shouted at Zhou, "Stop! We need to stop!" Zion slowed his horse down coming to a stop, Zhou heard and did the same thing while turning the horse around a bit and walked back before stopping completely. "What's going on? Why did we stop?" Zhou asked. "There's an aura coming from the direction we're going. Almost as if they knew someone would be coming this way. I'm not sure if I can win against them if we had to fight, either. I say we play it safe and turn around and go the longer route without running in blind and dying like fools." Zion looked behind at Trinity for her thoughts, "I-I uh, why not just continue? It's only one person, right? There's three of us. We can definitely win this." Zion sighed and looked over at Zhou. "Yeah I'm with her on this. Even if we're not as trained as you are. I still believe we can win if we fight together If we must." Zion looked at them both as if they were stupid and just began to gallop towards the originally planned schedule. A few minutes later and they see someone extremely tall and very buffed. He noticed all three of them and looked over immediately with his gazes locked onto Zion. "Oh? Another loser who wants to die. Very well, then, let's play." He smirked and jumped from his carriage he was in, and ran over to them almost instantaneously before throwing a punch at Zion on sight. "GET OFF" Zion yelled at trinity, pushing her off a bit while taking the hit directly and sent flying into the desert.
Zhou and Trinity saw the dust fly as he went flying back from the hardness of the punch, and immediately got on the defensive after they both regained their senses. "W-who the hell are you!" Zhou asked as he raised his sword, dropping his sheath on the ground. "Nobody you weaklings should worry about." It is all he said before almost as if he vanished and appeared in front of Zion again going for another punch, Zion saw the punch coming and gained balance then jumped into the air grabbed his spear. "Blaze art: Phantom Slice" A slice of air was cut and headed straight to the giant and connected yet only left a small cut. Zion grounded himself on the floor before rushing in trying to have the offensive and suddenly a small shadow cloud spread and began to cut the giant all over his body, Yet he used his core to produce enough energy to resist the entire attack before throwing a punch into the sand, kicking up a small dust smokescreen.
"Ah fuck, I can't see him!" Zion said worried while running away making some distance between them both before sensing a kick from above and jumped away before it could connect. "Hahaha, kid, you got some good reflexes and senses. What's your name?" Zion grabbed onto his spear, using it as a shield into the ground to catch himself. "Zion Flare!" He shouted at the man, "Very well, Zion Flare. I like you, you're strong. Now show me more!" He said before throwing another punch at him directly after closing the distance in a short period of time.
Zion barely dodged his attack before dropping his spear and pulling out his rapier using his aura that was covering his body transferring it into the sword "Void cutting art: A Thousand Slices of the Void" Suddenly a hole appeared on all sides of the giant before having black color blades slice him instantly over the course of 30 seconds. The man stood there and tanked it all.
"For I am Atlas Timeson. I shall win every fight, for that is my oath to life." The giant said while increasing his aura even more while covering the sky near them in a dark blue color, covering even the clouds above. Zhou and Trinity looked over at them as they threw punches, kicks, strikes, blow for blow while protecting themselves from each other using aura. It looked fast, yet so fast that it looked slow and almost as if they were dancing with each other on a battlefield of death. Their auras collided with each other, while their movements continued to only get faster as the fight continued. "Flame art: Blazing dragon" Zion thought to himself as his rapier and hand movements got faster dancing around the battlefield as if he had the movements of a dragon and yet as slippery as a snake. Atlas continues to throw punches using aura, slowly increasing his speed and power output per punch.
This fight went on for another 30 minutes of a cat and mouse chase while seldomly fighting each other directly but from a small distance of who can get the last strike or punch. Zhou saw them both getting slower as they both began to breathe more and more heavy. "THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR!" Atlas shouted as he continued to try to pummel Zion into the ground at every given opportunity, but barely missing. Zhou saw an opening, and he took that opportunity and grabbed his sword and ran at the fight, striking Atlas in the gut and slamming his sword as far as he can within his gut. Atlas didn't even notice the sword was there and continued to fight Zion before Zhou ran away, already breathing heavily from just holding his breath not to intake any more dust than he already had. Another 30 minutes passed as the fight was starting to end. They both felt their arms getting weaker, Zion barely even on his feet at this point from exhausting so much energy and aura that he could collapse at any given moment. "D-damn W-why are you even fighting m-me?" Zion said while coughing up some blood. Atlas stood there, breathing heavily. "It's because I always fight whoever is strong, and I deemed you strong enough." Atlas then moved to his side to crack his back before going back into the fight, then the sword from Zhou shifted and cut an organ open. Atlas looked down and saw the blade. "W-what the hell?" He looked over at the other two he left alone earlier sitting down looking over at the fight. "G-god damn…" Zion saw an opportunity and took it instantly to end this fight.
"Void cutting art: Thousand Slices of the void" striking Atlas a thousand times again with holes from space appearing. Atlas, which at this point had no more aura left in him after releasing it all during the fight took all the slices directly and had his leg amputated, and an arm amputated as well. "W-well shit, t-this is where I die, isn't it?" Zion looked down at him, "Y-yeah, it is… However, I'll always remember you. The strongest warrior I've ever fought until this point. "Atlas the oath of Fighting for life." "H-hell yeah I l-like that title, and sorry for attacking, but it was f-fun to fight this to the d-death" Atlas said before Zion saw the light in his eyes disappear while he was standing upright on one leg with his arm and leg still bleeding. Zion began to walk over to his friends before collapsing from using so much aura, dropping his rapier.
Zhou ran over to Zion and picked up him, "Take it easy man. That was… that was astonishing. Just relax for now." Trinity ran over to the battle as well and picked up Zion's spear and rapier and walked back over to the horses, putting the two blades on the ground softly. "T-that was… amazing yet terrifying." Is all the words Trinity could get out of her mouth while in awe yet also shock from how Zion actually won that fight.