Kayden looked up at the sky seeing the clouds disperse and he knew one solid fact, he was lying on the ground stark naked.
"Shit"
He had also found another gripping fact, his total immunity to lightning, he had never expected it, anyone could be attacked by any element, even the one you were primarily brought up in as the base for your cultivation, he had never heard of a case where one had total and complete immunity to an element.
Yet here he was, completely unscathed by that attack, he smiled at himself as he covered his eyes with his right arm, the tears swelled up but he pushed them down, he had survived, he escaped death.
Kayden heard footsteps walking towards him and turned to see who it was, Tharros looked at Kayden, his jaw slack and eyes wide with surprise.
"By the gods, boy you actually survived that?" Tarros asked, genuinely surprised, he hadn't met a single human who survived that attack of his, and yet here was an underaged pale-looking boy, lying naked at the core of his attack
"Why didn't you tell me you were going to attack like that, I would have done things differently," Kayden said while sitting up, anger slowly seeping into his voice, he calmed himself down but he hated being used by anyone.
"I didn't know I was going to kid, I told you to protect me so I could cultivate and heal my leg injury," he said pointing at the place where the deep gash as been, now it was just a flesh scar on his thigh.
Kayden saw this and calmed down, he took in deep breaths "Then how did you make that attack? It was... Powerful" he said sheepishly.
Tharros smiled at himself proudly, "Of course it was, it's one of my ultimate attacks, unfortunately, the one that took Gut's body escaped, I've been looking for that one" he said with spite.
"Can you teach me?" Kayden asked with as humble expression as he could, Tharros smiled "Kid, everyone learns stuff like this at the academy, I'm sure you know why the lethality of attacks differs from person to person"
"Because of the soul essence and intent" Kayden answered, Tharros nodded, "Exactly, at the beginning of the fight I hadn't used much soul essence to begin with which was why I was able to put in just enough essence into that attack to kill them off," he said pointing at the ground where the melted rocks had begun to cool down slowly.
Tharros pulled off his coat and threw it at Kayden, "Come on kid, we've found what we were looking for, let's head out and back to the clan " he said as he turned around.
"Wait, what about our fallen comrades, don't you think we should look for them?" he asked brimming with ignorance.
"Fallen?" Tharros asked, then he understood and began chuckling, "No boy, it seems I forgot to tell you but on my missions, I prioritize the lives of my comrades over to mine so if the mission gets too dangerous, It's an order for them to pack up and run away, reporting back to the clan no matter what," he said before walking off
Kayden quickly stood up and donned the cloak given to him, it was thick and furry and smelled of hard work and sweat, he began following after Tharros, watching where he stepped, careful not to step on a melting rock, he didn't want to be carried with his ass flapping in the wind.
"So they're headed back to the clan?" Kayden asked after he caught up with Tharros, the man thought for a bit, "Well you see I'm not exactly sure, those men haven't ever been the type to run back when I said so" he said walking
Unsure how he should say it, Kayden spoke, "I saw some of your men die today, I'm sorry I couldn't protect them, I was too scared to move or do something back then until I had someone to protect," he said looking at Tharros.
The man scratched his head before looking at Kayden, "How do I say this kid, when we go to missions or wars, we do so knowing that one of us may never return, we have accepted that because we have seen death face to face too many times to doubt it, it's the code we live by" Tharros said
"Before death, life reigns supreme," Tharros saidÂ
"Beyond death, life is sought anew" Kayden finished.
"Now let's go find those brats that abandoned me while I bled to death," he said with a wide grin on his face, Kayden followed after him feeling greatly uncomfortable, the wind currents did wonders to him as he walked naked under the coat.
"Also, tell no one except the master about your invulnerability to lightning, no one else must hear about this," he said in a low tone, Kayden was about to ask why when Thane and two other warriors jumped down from a tree in the distance.
Thane tackled him into a tight hug, unfortunately, the coat went off a little higher than it should have and they both fell to the ground, "I thought you were dead" Thane said holding Kayden as tightly as he could
"I also did too, Captain saved me in the most unexpected ways" he replied, Thane looked at Kayden only for the first time and stepped back in shock.
"Where are your clothes" Thane asked, Kayden didn't know how to respond, he remembered what Tharros had just told him and didn't know how else to tell Thane.
"I hugged a naked man, a naked man," he said shivering, Kayden smiled as he watched his friend fool about, he was still the same Thane even after what they had just been through
The rest of the members came out, Kayden did a head count and realized that there were three missing, three never to be seen again yet the men seemed unfazed, they laughed as they reunited with their captain.
All except one, he squatted on the ground and kept mumbling words to himself, Tharros asked "What's with him? Did he hit his head or something?"
"No Captain, he's been like that ever since we began to fight those things and he's been mumbling one single word over and over again" one of the soldiers responded.
Kayden walked closer to the man, just close enough to hear what he had been saying over and over again.
"Fluxxara"