Scene 4 - A Girl Enraged

Leaning up onto the wall, he started cutting up his jacket with -Night Star-, knotting the clothing in various places around his body to stop the bleeding. Ren didn’t want to escape, only to die from blood loss, which would be too embarrassing of a way to go…

After sitting for a few minutes, Ren got up and started walking using -Night Star- as a walking stick. A few hundred steps later, he found four slimes and six goblins, fighting about ten meters in front of him, trying to kill each other. He watched them go at it for a bit before deciding to kill them. He made this decision carefully since the only way out of here was to go forward; making it so he didn’t have much choice in the matter.

Brandishing -Night Star-, Ren charged forward with anger filling his veins, he felt powerlessness for the first time since cultivating after fighting that girl Karrin. It made him feel weak; he didn’t like that at that moment, he wasn’t in control of his life. He couldn’t wait about for these two forces to be done fighting. He would be in charge of his own life! Never again did he want to feel weak. NEVER AGAIN!

So Ren slaughtered the monsters in front of him, reaping their lives with his blade. His gaze unflinching, as the blood flowed down from the tip of his sword. He collected the six talismans that the monsters corpses dropped; apparently, not all monsters drop talismans. Ren made note of that as he went along his way deeper into the path set before him.

Twisting and turning, Ren came to face another contestant, dressed in robes of royalty. It seemed this noble was broken down in a corner, muttering under his breath. He had lost his mind, it seemed, as the noble suddenly turned around with a deadpan expression in his eyes. The noble held a blood-soaked knife in his hand and charged at Ren ruthlessly, with no regard for his or Ren’s life.

Ren chuckled as he cut off the noble’s hands with a swift sidestep and a downwards swing. Gray blood sprayed as both hands fell to the ground. The boy seemed to feel no pain as he kept staring at Ren with deadpan eyes, muttering nonsense before trying to bite him. With a flash, Ren cleanly severed the poor nobles head from his body.

With a flick of his sword, gray blood spattered the wall; Ren’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. He bent down and searched the body of the youth, only to find a messily tier one potion hidden within his boot.

Ren stood up then and said a prayer, “I wish your soul will be free in the afterlife… May you be stronger in your next life…”

Cultivation is the means to seek immortality, those not strong of heart and resolve are often eaten alive by the powers they seek. This youth never faced his demons, therefore, his soul was corrupted and was turned into a complete madman.

Master Mo had told them on the road to seek power, one must live with thyself and be content with the choices thyself makes. One must strengthen one’s soul to be powerful before trying to reach higher levels of power or be shall be consumed by it.

On the path of becoming an immortal, between sanity and insanity there is a very thin line that separates the two and one must strengthen this line with much care. Only then, can one try reaching the peak of the cultivation world...

After checking the potion, Ren applied it to the most serious places of injury; he didn’t have enough to cover his body entirely, so he had to make do.

|P|A|R|T|Y|)

"And this is how I ended up in such a mess", Ren finished recounting his tale leaving out killing the noble who lost his mind. By now, after recounting his tale, most of his injuries had been healed to an extent that he wouldn’t have problems fighting at full strength.

*smack*

Nena had tears in eyes as she hit Ren on the cheek, making a loud bang, “FOOL! If you had died, how do you think the rest of us would feel! We lost our mother, and I don’t want to lose you as well or anyone else precious to me!”

Crying, Nena kept hitting the still wounded Ren, while he was still in shock over her words.

‘Right… When did I ever feel this prideful to such an extent that I would rather die than be laughed at by my siblings? They love me for who I am, no matter how bad I screw up, we’re in this together and so I must understand my inner demons better!’

Jao just sat there staring blankly at them before stopping Nena from hitting Ren again; after all, he was a wounded man. It was pointless to heal him if all Nena was going to do was wound him again...

Giving each other space for a few minutes, Ren was the first to speak, “I’m sorry Nena… My inner demons got the best of me. It’ll try harder to find inner control from now on; this I promise to you and the rest of our brothers and sisters. You have my word! Now, come here little sister and give your big bro Ren a hug! I’ve missed you…”

Opening his big brotherly arms, a goofy smile spread upon his lips, this was him. A person who liked to practice swordsmanship loved his family and loved to laze around. These were his principles to live his life!

Nena wiped her eyes and ran into Ren’s arms, burying her head in his chest. After a minute, the two broke apart due to Jao’s cough. Both of them just laughed before Nena got serious again, staring at Ren with a very inspired gaze.

Her words were filled with composure and high spirits, “I’ll hold you to that, big bro! Make sure you never forget those words. Now moving on, I think we’re ready to head out to kill some monsters!”

The two youths nodded in agreement and soon left the safety room to face dangers unknown. May they be human or monster alike, they felt confident in their power. Soon, the three found a dozen or so goblins and slimes along the way and started killing them.

Four contestants also tried to jump them and were forced to ‘escape’ when they saw the all powering force of Nena’s greatsword. They gave up their talismans and bags in fear of losing their lives, which the three greatly benefited from. This one encounter gained them many potions.

Ten minutes passed by and suddenly they felt that in front of them a major battle was taking place. Curiously, the three walked forward into the direction of the rumbling of the earth was coming from, which lead them to a very large room.

A few moments passed before a giant 60 foot tall Cyclops with various wounds all over its body came crashing down from the ceiling, in front of the trio. With the beast, a certain girl with no regard of life came down, attacking the beast. She carried a scythe in her hands, along with a heroic air that gave off a terrifying bloodlust.

With a seemingly familiar voice that Ren and Nena had heard before, the crazed girl eyes flickered a dense silver glow. The tall figure dressed in black robes shouted with utter rage in a distorted appearance, “I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU! YOU BASTARD!!!”

The girl was naturally Len Cloudstar.