„Come here Alex!"
Two 10 year old kids stood opposite to each other in a huge garden. They were a boy and a girl, resembling Alex and Alexandra.
The garden is surrounded by huge stone walls and has a small pond in it. It just looks very expensive which is further enhanced by the giant mansion towering behind the kids.
The girl can be seen holding a ball, smiling and laughing. The boy on the other hand has a rather distressed look on his face and seems to be in a bit of pain.
If you could see through his shirt you would be able to spot several dark blue bruises on his back.
Whilst playing with the ball, the boy and girl move further towards a small fenced plot that is planted with different spiritual herbs.
„Watch out Alexandra, you know how angry dad gets when we get too close to his plants." His voice contained a hint of anxiety that he couldn't really mask.
After those words the face of his sister visibly dimmed down as well and you could no longer see the joy and spark her eyes held just seconds ago.
At this moment an older boy came out of the door of the mansion entering the garden, heading straight towards Alex.
His facial expression spoke of bad intention and he looked at Alex with a hateful expression.
Suddenly the smaller boy turned around. Upon seeing the older boy his eyes were filled with anxiety.
„What do you want Alexej?" his tone filled with repressed anger and aggression.
„You will find out soon enough little shit." Alexej said with glee in his voice.
He suddenly changed his course, moving towards the spiritual plants.
„NO STOP DONT DO IT" Alex screamed and tried to stop him but the older boy just continued moving.
Upon entering the field he headed towards a plant glowing bright and radiating spiritual energy. It looked extremely expensive. Upon standing before it, he harvested it and put it into his mouth.
Afterwards he sat crosslegged, seemingly cultivating. After 10 minutes he suddenly stood up.
„FATHER!"
An angry looking man walked out of the mansion. He had a huge build filled with scars and seemed to be drunk, since he wasn't able to walk in a straight line.
„You better have a good reason to get me out here. Otherwise you will regret it."
The older boy looked at Alex with a devious smirk before saying „Alex hit the Yellow Light fruit whilst playing with the ball. To get rid of the evidence he threw it away but luckily I caught him."
The face of man instantly contorted in anger before screaming at the young Alex „HOW DARE YOU DESTROY THE FRUIT AND TRY TO LIE TO ME. THAT FRUIT IS WORTH MORE THAN YOUR MEASLY LIFE."
Alex' eyes widened in fear and he stuttered, trying to defend himself.
„B-but Father it w-was Alexej who…"
„NO MORE LYING TO ME. YOU WILL NOT TALK BACK TO ME IN MY HOUSE!"
The man pulled back his arm, ready to hit Alex who fell on his back at the same time.
{BAM}
Kael's hand hit the paw of the bear. The impact made both of them retreat. Kael staggered backwards for 15 meters whilst the bear only had to retreat for 5.
„SNAP OUT OF IT ALEX! What is going on, you couldn't even react" Alexandra screamed at her brother.
„I- I just remembered…" Alex tried to explain himself but couldn't find the right words.
„Don't worry about it, try to calm yourself and help out as soon as you're ready, I will fight him for now." Kael tries to comfort him. He was confident in taking down the bear as well.
In the exchange right now he only used his bodily strength without his Explosive Fist technique. If he used all his strength he should probably be able to win easily.
The bear was only in the first stage of the Energy Gathering realm. Kael, who had an estimated combat strength of the 2nd stage, even before bringing his techniques to Mastery, should definitely be able to beat him.
Still there was a certain risk since beasts where usually one or two levels stronger than humans in the same realm. They had a large advantage due to their natural bodily strength, especially in the early realms.
„Alexandra, Lexa, watch my back and try to draw his aggro from time to time, I got this."
With those words Kael engaged the bear once again. Exchanging a few hits between his fists and the bears paws.
After about 10 punches Kael finally got bored of pulling his punches and started to use his movement technique. Activating the quick gale technique, his speed and flexibility increased by almost two times.
He was now easily able to dodge the bear and sometimes got a free hit on it's belly or back.
Alexandra and Lexa, who were both only in the early stages of bronze refinement were mostly useless. Alexandra was at most able to occasionally hit an arrow but those didn't even penetrate the bears defense. Lexa was even more useless.
Sadly Kael's punches still didn't have any real effect either. At least without him activating his fist techniques. But since he wanted to have a certain surprise factor when using them for the first time, he still waited for the right moment.
„Alexandra, try to hit him in on of his eyes or at least a vulnerable area in the face!"
Having said that he focused back on mostly dodging the bear, waiting for the right opportunity. Finally, after about a minute of repeatedly testing his movement technique, Alexandra finally fired a useful arrow.
It headed straight for the bears right eye, threatening to pierce it if the bear isn't able to defend in time. To prevent such a fate, the bear pulled up its paws, deflecting the arrow.
But this was exactly what Kael was waiting for. Activating Quick Gale Technique to the maximum, he ran straight for the bears unprotected stomach. On the way he gathered all his energy in his right fist ready to punch out at any moment.
Right when the arrow hit the bears paw, Kael's fist also hit its stomach with a power that was about 3 times stronger than his previous hits. The force instantly dealed severe internal damage to the bear, effectively reducing its power.
The rest of the fight was relatively easy. Kael only had to make sure that he was still not hit by any of the bears attacks, whilst attacking with an explosive punch of his own whenever he saw the opportunity.
In this way the fight dragged out for another 5 minutes before the bear finally collapsed due to its severe injuries.
Kael simply turned around to his team without giving any further attention to the bear.
„That was an intense fight. Thanks for your help Alexandra, your arrow really made the fight way easier."
„Yeah. No worries, it's my job and i'm glad I could at least be of some help. Other than my idiot brother over the…"
„NOO, WATCH OUT LEXA" Alex suddenly screamed, running towards his girlfriend as fast as he can, but it was already too late.
{SPLAT}
An earth spike pierced through Lexa's chest, impaling and destroying her heart in the process.
Both Kael and Alexandra were frozen in place, but Alex was driven by rage. He rushed towards the bear and stabbed his sword into its head, before breaking down crying.
„It's all my fault, if only I wasn't so weak! If only I hadn't frozen in place. If only I had reacted earlier."
„My brother was right I will never amount to anything."
Kael and Alexandra still stood rooted where they used to be, not knowing what to say.
„Sigh, let's just go to the base and bring her body back. It's not any of our fault. There is nothing that can be done." Alexandra finally broke the silence, that was only filled by Alex' sobbing.
„You just take the body Kael. After saving my brother's life that's the least we can do to pay you back."
Kael didn't really know what to say. On one hand he wanted to say that he would give them their fair share, but then he would have to ask them if they want to only split through three now or still take Lexa's part.
Since this was considered somewhat inappropriate in the current situation he just accepted the gift with a hesitant nod.
„Let's head back then. We still need to question the stationed sect members on why a 1st stage energy refinement beast was so close to the base." Alex stated.
Alexandra tried to reassure him that it was not his fault. No one could have known that such a strong beast was this far out.
„By the way, how did the bear even gain the ability to conjure earth spikes? It didn't use them in the whole fight before." Kael suddenly remembered that this didn't seem to make any sense. Why would the bear only use his lifesaving ability when he's basically dead already.
„This can sometimes be the case in both humans and beasts. Awakening their latent potential to give them a boost right on the brink of death."
„The bear probably had a small percentage of earth bear bloodline, a bear with an affinity to earth. It awakened this bloodline right before it died, that's why it was able to conjure the earth spike."