Half an hour ago…

Someone washed ashore an island devoid of any flor and fauna, he felt small stubby fingers of a child paw all over him as if inspecting him, this awoke him from his slumber and just as he opened his eyes he saw a short hairless green man with sharp teeth, sharp claws, sitting on his torso. As if in reflex action Kush punched it to oblivion with a boom right across its face sending it flying almost 12 meters.

“Cough… Cough… Cough… Cough… Cough…” he coughed out water he had taken in while adrift the sea currents

The goblin did not stop after falling and started running towards him with a mangled right side of the face as if being stricken by a hammer.

Kush was still coughing “Cough… Cough… Cough… Cough…”

Just as it was about to reach Kush, the coughing man punched the left side of the goblin backhanded sending it flying 22 meters.

“Pant… Pant… Pant… Pant…” panted Kush as he thought he had killed the beast only to see it running towards him once again and then he used giant hands to grab the goblin by the head and crushed it right between his finger. The braces on him started picking up weight and dragged him to ground, “I swear dad, the day I am able to I am going to punch you…” he controlled mana emission and removed the weights.

Only now did he notice the sounds of clashing around him and ensuing battle between the humans and the goblins. He saw a few cavalrymen and their red armour and made a guess regarding who they were and then saw the goblins and matched them with the description from his memories and understood that the ocean current had dragged him to where the battle was happening. Another goblin launched towards him, but this time Kush simply went for blowing the goblin’s head off but saw a soldier run towards him in a hurry and fend off the goblin.

“Run!!!” He ordered. Kush was surprised and saw there were no places he could run off to so he just shrugged.

“Dumbass!! Can’t you see the situation you are in?? swim northwards” he said using his hands to point in a certain direction and then using his short sword to throw the goblin in the ground. His hits were not killing the goblin. Kush smirked as he saw the guy desperately trying to protect him despite the obvious difference in strength.

“The heck are you still waiting around for drop everything and start swimming…” but before he could shout ‘now’ the goblin managed to pounce him and almost kill him when Kush grabbed the goblin from off of his shoulder by the head and crushed its head between his fingers. The soldier was surprised. He had run up here when he saw the goblin headed this way and saw an unarmoured person and went to save him on instinct. He hadn’t gotten a clear look of Kush initially and his back was facing Kush at all time he was facing the goblin. Kush looked around and asked him, “what’s the status?”

Soldier was flabbergasted and gave him gist of what was happening absentminded when another goblin came their way. This time Kush used his hand and plunged it deep inside the beast’s mouth and pulled it towards him. Threw it to the ground with it, not loosening his grip. It was still in one piece. He was surprised by its resilience. Kush got up, used his legs to push the goblin below his foot and pulled hard and just like that he pulled out the guts of the beast right in front of the soldier who was surprised. The soldier was a good diligent person and had been practicing with his troop of soldiers every day for the past 50 years. This was ridiculous, he was part of one of the strongest units, but even his platoon people needed atleast three members and 15 min to kill one goblin but to this man they were like bugs he was squashing below his feet.

Kush got up and looked for Tanka and it was down by the edge of the beach, he went in to grab it and wrapped the chain around his arm, they coiled all around his arm till his shoulder. He picked up his bag and brought out a form fitting black garment which covered everything from his shoulders to his elbows and the rest of his torso. He then brought out another loose black pants type garment which covered everything below his waist till his ankle. He put on his wooden slippers and wore the gauntlets his mother bought him grabbed his axe and said “lets roll”

“you think that thin fabric will protect you from them?” asked the soldiers

Kush shrugged and said “My mom asked me to wear this in case I get into a fight”

Soldier looked surprised at the answer and asked “Your mom packs your bag for you and tells you what to wear?”

Kush was surprised at the question and asked “yeah why?”

But then winds picked up and waves ceased ebbing and then they heard the large boom which wrecked the land while they were about 2.5 km from the epicentre.

“I am guessing your queen is fighting her uncle over there” Kush asked

“How do you who the beast is?” though a lot of people knew, it was still not common knowledge even to citizens of Bhasmachal, let alone a foreigner.

“Your people and the queen are a chatty bunch” he said this. He then saw the queen on her knees and the monster approaching her.

“Oh no” screamed the soldier as he heard the wind wash by his ear and then saw the figure of the man from before in the air after a small run up. With the bag in his hands…

After the rescue. Right now at the queen’s location…

She was on the ground all covered in sand silt and clay and blood. Her legs bent at her knees, the massive breasts on her chest covered in blood, her nipples puckered up from the adrenaline rushing through her body, her hair in dishevels, her eyes devoid of all the regal intensity she possessed before, no… more like they looked like she was dead on the inside. There were wounds all over her body and her mana veins had developed ruptures. She was incapable of any fight now, even with best of elixirs. She lost all hope, she didn’t care when a man who was a stranger to her until a couple of days ago, saw her in all her nakedness. She didn’t move even when he handed her a couple of dhotis to cover herself up. She just lied there, if her chest didn’t move people would think that she died. By now Marcus had reached her.

“Hey old man!! You here too? How are you? You seemed pretty down the last time I saw you.”

Marcus recognised the kid from the beach but ignored him and looked at what looked like Sylvia’s corpse.

“Oh no what happened??” exclaimed Marcus

“Don’t worry, she not dead. Injured but not dead” said Kush which Marcus immediately confirmed. He then pulled out a bottle from his satchel and fed the contents to Sylvia and the wound on her body started healing and colour started returning to her pale face. Kush was surprised by contents and exclaimed “What the heck is that?”

Marcus again ignored him. These elixirs were common knowledge, though not everybody had the one with same quality, but most common families had access to ones with poorer qualities. He didn’t have time to spend on the person who was fooling around.

Tara then reached the location, covered in blood, she had let go of the armour for mobility and was dressed in a form fitting undergarment one wears below their armour and she… was looking good. She was surprised on seeing Kush as well but didn’t initiate conversation and kneeled down next to the queen inspecting her injuries.

Kush understood the gravity of the situation but was ticked off no less so he turned around and said, “Alright I am going to test out that bastard, you guys take care of her and my luggage” and launched in air covering the 500 m between him and Brutus in less than a second.

Tara screamed “Wait…”

But Kush had already reached Brutus and by now a couple of goblins were heading their way and Marcus and Sylvie were in no way capable of protecting themselves…

The two were now facing each other. “You know as far as bastards go…” as Kush was saying something but before he could complete Brutus punched at him with more force than he did for any of the punches on Gloria. Kush was not perturbed by the abrupt attack coupled with the fact that Brutus was slow as a turtle he brought his axe in front of him and a large bang erupted from the collision…

‘Bang'

Kush didn’t back up even a single step, Marcus was half expecting the youngling to die and so was Tara. They turned around and saw the two standing there neither one letting up. Brutus then used his other hand to punch Kush in the gut, Kush side stepped the massive fist and swung his axe sideways. The attack hit Brutus and sent him flying, 1 km into the sea water.

Everyone from Augustus to Brachios to Marcus to the two ministers to Tara to the nearby soldiers were stunned by the proceedings. They were not armatures and knew that Kush did not use any mana in the previous attack which sent Brutus flying through air. Even Sylvia broke off from the brief shock state when she heard the man attack. None of them knew the man’s origins, powers or anything so they forgot something very important for a few moments… and then it occurred to him… how did his weapon manage to block Brutus’s punches and how did his attack hit Brutus.

Brutus had initially believed the man to be some punk Julie had hired to fight alongside her but now when he saw the claw on his right hands index finger he realised, this was not some punk and decided to kill him swiftly. He made a slow trod to him and punched him guts. This was a brand new territory for Kush, never in a fight did he have to fight someone physically stronger and slower than him, Kush dodged the punch and cracked the monster in the abdomen once again ‘SLAM’ throwing him out of the island, this happened dozens of times. It seemed as if he was destroying Brutus at each step but he knew this was Brutus’s strategy for everybody, wear them out and kill them, but Brutus did not know he was facing the king of reps. After a few dozen more times Brutus got annoyed and punched hard at Kush’s right (surprise surprise), trying to keep the punch short, cause he realised Kush too was on the slower side of things but he under-estimated the boy.

Kush ducked below and smacked the bastard between his leg launching him up. It is said that some habits are hard to die no matter how hard you try. Brutus had been in a lot of fights for the past 12 years, fought the strongest Bhasmachal had to offer, but no one had targeted him in his non-existent balls, figured it was of no impact cause like the rest of his body it must bullet proof too. But reflex actions are not rational, sometimes you let go of the rope you cling to save your life just cause you think you saw a snake and so did Brutus. He brought his hands back from the punch to protect something he forgot he didn’t have, but slow as he was ‘BAM’ came the sound as Brutus was sent flying and for a moment felt that phantom of pain of the worst possible injury to a man. But it vanished in a fraction of a second the realization hit him. For some reason it pissed him off… pissed him off a lot…

“kid what’s your name?” he asked

“Kush… Kush Sagar Samudraputra” replied Kush

“How old are you?” asked Brutus

“I am 14” The response surprised everyone present no one among the people present had expected someone this strong to be so young. They had heard of such people, but this was the first time for all of them to see one… for all except for a couple.

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha this is the age you stick to your mother teats, the fuck are you doing here on the battlefield kid?”

“My father asked me to go for some errand to Kashi. I simply got washed up here by the waves by accident”

Everybody thought he was hired by the queen to fight Brutus, but their hopes sunk further when they heard he was just passer-by.

“Then why fight here??”

“Cause I saw a person fight tooth and nail for her friend. I respect that and also cause of something my father said”

Kush was taken aback, “Why wasn’t the person in front of him asking?”

Brutus still adamant on not asking causing the atmosphere of silence to continue for a few ten seconds till it became too awkward. Brutus gritted his teeth and finally asked>

“What?”

“A hero always protects those in need”

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha” Brutus laughed his guts off, “Man I would like to meet this father of yours. Tricking a kid into fantasies like heroes and villains. Hahahahaha seriously what was he thinking teaching a kid such things. Hahaha kid at best you are just average in this whole world. Haha the fuck are you going to achieve with that measly little strength of yours anyway”

“Right now, you are right, I am weak. So weak that my father, mother don’t even have to stand up to take me on… Rhodos and Gauri managed to beat me in a few minutes. Gauri started training a decade after me, but…” Kush paused and dropped his axe on the ground and used his index finger to point skywards and said “I am going to be the strongest there is”

Brutus arched his right eyebrow upwards and then said “Heh you say that as if you have put me in past tense. Enough with the nonsense”

Brutus then punched…

People in the Bhasmachal war analytics department were a bit surprised today. As per their analysis, Brutus got stronger proportionate to the no. of the people those goblins killed; not how many Brutus killed, not even the combined kill but no. of people the goblins killed, by that logic considering a simple proportionate relationship between the kills and his strength Brutus should have been atleast twice as strong when he fought Julius. Though Julius was not able to bring out Brutus’s entire strength, but it was known fact that Brutus was already plenty strong. Then why was it that he seemed so weak today. In his fight against people with docent level powers he fought them for so long dragging the current battle out this long. Was he really this weak? Was there a cap on his power? Did the queen make a mistake by not attacking him for all these years and losing out on the chance of killing him by hiring mercenary guilds? All their questions were about to be answered and the answer was such that it would send people in a downward spiral…

Kush saw the incoming punch and knew… knew this was strong… stronger than anything he had ever faced and the reaction on his face was not one of fear… it was an instinctual reaction passed down to him from his Father and his Mother. It was a smile extending from his ear to ear showing all 32 of his clean white teeth coupled with the swinging of his axe meeting the incoming punch and…

‘KABOOM’

Came the sound when the titans collided. A spherical shockwave 300 m in radius was formed from the point of collision pushing everything away, air, earth, water, skin, muscle, bone, metal, everything was pushed away from the point of impact and from this point originated the wind in the atmosphere and waves in the ocean that were felt all the way upto the capital city about 20 km away. A lot of the Soldiers and goblin in the battle field were blown away since they did not anchor themselves in time, this way no longer a battle they could participate in.

Right after the impact something flew out of the shockwave flying to God knows where. It took close to fifteen minutes for the view to get cleared.

Silence filled the battlefield as the, even the goblins trembled. For the first time the instinct of fear took over their zombie esque lust for hunger, cause from the huge 300 m deep crater they could feel a menacing mood. Across the fingers of the left hand of the green monster a horizontal gash a centimetre in depth and parallel to his knuckles was formed. Even the webbing between his finger had been damaged.

Kush had fallen in the sea from that collision about 12 km away. In his hand was his trusted Tanka. It was not visible on the surface cause of the battle suit he was wearing but, there was a deep gash which extended from the knuckle of his middle finger all the way to his shoulder then to across his back to his right hip. The gash would have split open and he would have bleed out entirely, if not for the suit he was wearing.

But the worst expression was on Sylvia and Marcus’s faces cause it was now that they realized that…

In this war…

They never really stood a chance at all…