"So, the condition is that you will have to help me out with A robbery, and in exchange, You will get the information about the mystical fruit.", The shopkeeper boy picked up that one iron shilling given by Rudra.
"How do I believe you?", Rudra had a doubt on that boy.
"Fine, you can give the rest of the payment when you get your information okay?", said the shopkeeper boy.
Rudra agreed to this deal and the shopkeeper boy explained, "Alright, a caravan of precious goods is about to pass through the route in the hills near the city, and I need your help to rob it."
"Are you mad, if there are precious goods, there would be powerful guards too, and you expect me to steal something from them?", Rudra argued.
"you don't have to worry, there will be another partner with you who will help you in this mission.", The shopkeeper cleared his plan to Rudra, "Tomorrow night we will meet at the broken tree spot near the hills, ok?"
After listening to this Rudra agrees and then he walks out of the shop. Rudra looks around him and when he doesn't find Jahnvi, he just shrugs his shoulder and walks away. He looked above and when he saw the moon was about to rise, he walked back to the mansion in a hurry.
After a few hours….
It was nighttime when in his room, Rudra opened up the leaf tablet and again went through its contents to refresh his memory. He could practice that mantra but for that technique, one needed strengthened hand muscles and high agility, for which Rudra had to train himself.
Rudra secretly went out of his room into the training ground, Rudra tied the hand strips on his fists and looking at the stone pillar in front of him he began punching it continuously. Rudra punched as fast and hard as he could, causing a few red spots to color the hand strips.
This time, as he had practiced the mantra, he chanted it and tried to punch as fast as possible. As he chanted the mantra he manipulated his kundalini in a specific way for a black line punch and with the energy released he launched his fist.
Although the energy was released through his punch it didn't come out to be that strong, it was still weak, which meant he had to practice more. But just one punch had exhausted him completely. Therefore he sat down on the ground and meditated to restore his kundalini.
Just like this, he kept practicing for the whole night until the sun rose above and Rudra stealthily sneaked back into his room, Rudra untied his hand strips to find the blood and injury marks on his fist which were swollen.
Rudra after circulating his kundalini to recover quickly from his hand injuries, sat in the training ground, looking at the young generation of people fighting in front of him. Last night after the practice he realized that he lacked some real-life combat experiences.
Therefore he was here looking for someone to spar with, but no one was ready to do so.
"Brother!", a cute voice called him.
He turned around to find his sister, Anya, "Mayra told me to inform you that Grandpa is arriving back very soon, we will meet him again."
Vihaan, Grandpa of Rudra, Mayra, and the twins Anya and Kavya. The clan leader always used to stay out of the city roaming the land and only came for nearly a month of duration, then he would disappear again, he liked adventures. In his absence, the clan was mostly operated by the elders or the vice leader.
It was all for his presence for a few days in the clan, or the elders would have already kicked Rudra out of the clan with their authority.
"Okay then, I will go, we have to do preparations!", Anya said as she jumped into the field and ran towards the gate, but then suddenly she bumped into someone.
She was able to balance herself but the guy she collided with fell on the ground. When Rudra saw this he ran to Anya, "Are you fine?!",
Anya just nodded her head, " I am sorry", she apologized to that boy.
That boy, nearly Rudra's age, Samaransh, was on the ninth stage of the beginner level, he stood up and looked at Anya with an irritated face, and then looked at his white dress that had become dirty, and he was annoyed even more.
But since he couldn't do anything to her, because she was on the ninth stage of the beginner level, he decided to beat Rudra. Since in his eyes, Rudra was the weakest he was the best material to dump the anger.
Without saying anything he ran to Rudra and punched him. But Rudra used his reflexes and dodged that incoming punch, he then grabbed Samaransh's hand that he had dodged just now and launched his own fist toward Samaransh.
This was unexpected for Samaransh, as the fist landed on his nose. "Aarghh", Samaransh was forced to take a few steps back. After the training of last night, Rudra's strength had become as much equal to a ninth-stage beginner, he could easily face someone like Samaransh.
Samaransh again fell to the ground, and when he touched his nose, he found blood on his hands, just a single punch, and his nose was bleeding, seeing this a few of his friends laughed at him. Samaransh glared at them as he stood up, now this had become completely intolerable.
He was beaten by the weakest human? He couldn't accept this.
"Your power has increased… how, where did you get this power from?", Samaransh asked with a shocked expression while trying to stop the blood flowing from his nose.
"Try to find out!"
These words triggered Samaransh, he took out his dagger and swung it towards Rudra. But Rudra also dodged once more and grabbed the sharp edge of that dagger. His hand power was so great that Samaransh couldn't move his dagger by even an inch.
"What are you doing leave my dagger!", looking at Rudra's action Samaransh began to panic.
The dagger's sharp edge cut Rudra's skin and a lot of blood began to flow from his hands, yet he was not ready to let go of that dagger. Rudra then hits on Samaransh's wrist and snatches that dagger from him.
"Thanks for your precious dagger!", Rudra smiled as he looked at the sharpness of the dagger.
Rudra then swung that dagger towards Samaransh, and when the dagger enclosed him enough to leave a severe cut and Samaransh couldn't dodge it someone's loud sound halted them, "Stop!"
Rudra looked around him to find the source of that sound, It was a tall muscular man.
"Boss! Boss!", screaming the same word again and again Samaransh ran towards that man.
Approaching him Samaransh complained, "Boss, that loser dared to hit me, he even snatched my dagger!"
"Kamlaan!!", Rudra murmured as he recognized that man.
"such an embarrassment, you lost to him.", said Kamlaan with disgrace for Samaransh in his voice.
Samaransh didn't say anything as he knew Kamlaan's anger issues, he would burst up on him.
Kamlaan said, "Now, Rudra return my teammate's dagger and apologize to him."
"What if I don't?"
"Then you have a wish for your limbs to be broken!", Kamlaan Rushed towards Rudra.
Rudra just stood there, not even an attempt to dodge, as if he was ready for this.
"Has Rudra gone mad? He really thinks he can take Kamlaan's blow?", a guy said.
"There is no need for this nonsense!", another voice halted them.
All of them looked at the person standing at the entrance of the field with his teammates.
"Huh, it's Sourav, one of the most powerful among the youth after Mayra."
That guy entered the field and he said, "Kamlaan, why make it a fuss when Samaransh is guilty?"
"What are you trying to imply", Kamlaan had a confused expression.
"Ha ha, Anya apologized to Samaransh for her mistake, but yet Samaransh to dump his anger decided to beat Rudra, what Rudra did was self-defense, Samaransh should apologize to him and compensate as well, whereas Rudra will return his dagger.", Sourav explained his offer.
"But what about settling our score?", it clearly seemed that Kamlaan didn't want to agree with Sourav's offer.
"You guys can also settle your scores in a fair and square match during an authorized duel between you two."
Listening to Sourav's words Kamlaan was now not able to decide what to do. He then looked towards Rudra, and then he looked towards Sourav. When his eyes met with Sourav's, he noticed Sourav nodded his head, giving him a signal to agree.
Kamlaan took a deep breath, agreeing to Sourav's offer he said, "Fine, we will fight back in a duel!", taking out three iron shillings he threw it towards Rudra.
Grabbing those coins Rudra also threw the dagger back to Samaransh. Samaransh grabbed that dagger in the air and looked around him to see that Kamlaan had already gone away. Samaransh gestured for his teammates to follow Kamlaan along with him, and they all went behind him.
Rudra was confused that senior Sourav who always sought to bully him saved him today, Rudra stared at Sourav when Sourav walked close to him and he whispered to Rudra, "Thank your grandpa Rudra, but next time, I won't spare you!"
As Rudra heard this he understood what was the matter, Sourav's behavior towards him was because Vihaan was about to arrive in a few days. He stared at Sourav who just walked away and then he too went back to his room, and when he unwrapped his hand strips, all the marks of previous injuries were still visible, and a very fresh cut mark, through which the blood would not stop flowing out.
But then someone knocked on his door, Rudra went to the door and opened it to find the figure of his elder sister. Mayra stared right into his eyes, but as soon as her sight fell on Rudra's right hand she grabbed them, "It's such a severe cut, the blood flow wouldn't stop!"
"Why didn't you come to me if you had such an injury, who did this to you?", Mayra dragged Rudra to her room.
In her room, she properly washed Rudra's injuries and then treated them, and now Rudra's hands were covered in bandages. Mayra kept asking who did this but Rudra wouldn't tell, irritated when she asked loudly, "Nothing, I just fell off on the muddy road of the nearby hills.", Rudra replied.
Mayra frowned a bit but then she nodded and sent Rudra back to his room, while walking back Rudra thought, 'She sometimes acts very strict, and sometimes cares for me! It feels weird.'
Here, below a tree near the mansion stood two boys talking to each other, "Sourav, why did you stop me? I would have broken his limbs!"
"Shut up! fool! Leader Vihaan is arriving today, if anything happens, we will be the targeted ones, we can't hurt him for this one month until the leader is here.", Sourav explained.
"So, what now?"
"Just wait, I have a plan, after one month we will end it once and for all."