The next week went by rather quickly, it was mainly training in the morning with Vince, then he would rest till night came after which he would train with the new instructor that Vince appointed for him, the man acted as if he was doing a favor to Vince by training Shun even though he was supposedly a “Hero”

‘More and more people are thinking that I’m useless, even the guards at the walls are treating me badly the past couple of days, news that I only hold an epic and a rare must have spread, the time to leave is coming closer than I thought’

Thud! “Stop having yer thoughts wander and focus! If ya so much as give yer enemy an instant of opportunity ya can kiss yer life bye bye”

Vince’s chop hit him on the elbow where it hurts the most, but he was already dulled to such pain, furthermore he let the chop go in as even Vince doing his absolute best in remaining hidden could be detected by Shun, he only lost out to combat proficiency, which he was closing on pretty quickly

‘If only I had a good explanation to improving my sensory skills, I would not have to keep doing this every morning’

Even so it was indeed good practice for him, his normal teenager body already showed lines of abs along his abdomen and biceps though his figure was still on the lean side, this was all the blood pool’s doing

“Haah let’s stop here, ya seem out of it today anyway, I bet ya in a few weeks I’d run out of things to teach ya, now be off to the walls, I have something to do anyway”

Vince headed out of the forest in the direction of the city, he made it sound as if it was a shopping trip but Shun knew what was really going on

‘If Catherin didn’t tell me about the intruders I would have thought he really was just shopping with how casual his attitude is’

Two days ago some spies made their way into the capital of Avihal, and it wasn’t just a normal infiltration, if that was all then it would be fine to send out the guards to surround the castle until they were rooted out, but it was an insider job so now they had to make a city wide search while they watched their backs

“Meh, ain’t my business”

Shrugging he leaned on one of trees to take a small nap, the wind blowing in the forest made quite the pleasant sensation resulting in him fast falling asleep

…..

Shake shake, shake shake

Minutes after him falling asleep the bushes around started shaking, dull footsteps sounded while two hushed voices were heard

“Do we have to be so careful with a mere kid?”

“I know what you’re thinking, he’s a stupid kid that only just gained an epic rank skill, you would be totally right if this was anyone else but this kid’s skill is Soul Rend”

“Sss, Soul Rend? If that’s the skill then even I don’t want to mess with him, the soul is not something anyone can mess with”

“I know right? Those Avihal’s don’t know what they’re doing at all, not only is this skill powerful early on, it only gets more powerful in the later stages!”

“Shh brother we might wake him up”

“Ah right I’m just so excited, if we are able to recruited him into our ranks we might have a good chance at winning the upcoming war, well let’s just abduct him and get done with it, sticking too close to the castle makes me edgy”

“Oh before you two start can I ask one thing?”

“What is it” “What brother?”

“Can you tell me which kingdom you’re from?”

The two finely noticed the person behind turning in haste to meet him, only one of them was afforded the opportunity as the older looking one was hit with an invisible wall, almost falling to the ground

“You! How? When!?”

The younger brother took swift action by jumping away and asked those questions

“Oh don’t mind me, I’m was just curios where you came from, after all if you’re here to invite me into another kingdom I should at least know what I’m in for”

“Heh, if you really only intended to talk you wouldn’t have hit me with that Soul Rend”

Shun smirked at the older brother’s comment while he looked them over once again

The big man that had jumped away was seemingly the younger brother, he had two sabers at his hips, his jump just now covered quite the distance meaning he either had a really strong physic or a skill related to jumping

The other brother was quite the lean figure, he had nothing like a weapon on him nor did he wear any armor, he was practically defenseless if not for the neckless he was wearing, which Shun was quite sure was what blocked his attack as he saw it shine brightly when the wave had hit him

“It was just a small test; it’s not like I hit you with full force now did I? plus I could have killed you if I wanted to anyway”

“You!”

“Be quite little bro, let me handle this”

The big brother stared at Shun for a while before he carefully phrased his words

“It is true that you could have killed us with a sneak attack, so I shall give you the benefit of doubt, now tell me what are you after?”

“Let’s speak honestly here shall we? The kingdom wants to use me as a war asset and then dispose of me, I’m not one to remain on the chopping board so I want to get out,”

“Perfect than all you have to do is come with us-“

“I said shut it little bro!”

After shutting his little brother up again he glared toward Shun

“But?”

“Ahh yes, But! How do I know your kingdom wont treat me any differently? So I need a guarantee”

“No”

“Huh?”

“I said no, you’re coming with us whether you like it or not, so be obedient or else”

The lean figure of the older brother shined with a bronze hue then he launched himself toward Shun, clawing at his head

Shun dogged the sudden attack easily and avoided the follow up kick, then he jumped up barely scrapping by the saber’s edge that came from behind

‘Some sort of animal claw, and a body strengthening technique, plus some saber arts from the little brother, that’s two by one skills, let’s see if I can force them to use the rest’

His improved skill allowed him to sense everything around him so no sneak attack was doable, and his training with the Vince brought him to a decent level of dodging

Thus the two brothers could only helplessly try to hit Shun, but try as they might the only thing they could do was hit empty air

“Raaaagh”

The lean older brother irrupted with a sudden roar that froze Shun in his tracks, all his blood cells seemed to stop for a second, allowing the younger brother to directly aim at his feet

“Huu!” “Ugh”

Two groans rang out within the forest, one belonged to Shun who now had a deep cut that rang to the bones on both his legs, while the younger brother suffered a mild stun when he was hit with Shun’s full force Soul Rend which barely broke a ring the younger brother was wearing and slightly injured his soul

The younger brother didn’t relent though and breathed out some sort of liquid that made Shun’s wounds feel as if their on fire, the pain he was barely holding off assaulted him viscously ensuing a scream from him

“Arghh! Mother ****”

Shun couldn’t tolerate the extreme level of pain he was in and cursed at the man, but he only received a sneer in return

“Heh, you should have run while you could kid, this aint a playground for children who pretend to be heroes, this is real war”

“That’s enough I’ll knock him out for now”

The older brother came forward and tried to get behind the immobile Shun, he then reached in to grab him-

Click “Ga!”

The older brother didn’t even have the time to gasp after he was hit with a wave of Soul Rend without his neckless, Shun had put his all into that Quick Step and pulled it off before attacking

“Brother!”

The younger brother came running toward Shun but he was sent rolling with another wave of Soul Rend, but he seemed like he would get up soon as the wave barely had any effect with how small it was this time

‘Dammit four sizable Soul Rends is my limit; I have to make a run for it’

He urged his feet, if they could be called feet at the moment, to run toward the wall, his blood pool was already doing its best to heal him but there was no way it could cover it back within such a short amount of time, and the corroding liquid wasn’t helping either

‘Dammit, Dammit! I was too arrogant, if only I had hit the with full strength from the beginning, no, if only I had run away when I sensed them nearby…’

Sadly, there were no if’s in this world, he could already hear the sorrowful scream echoing in the distance, he knew he didn’t have much time left

‘Think Shun think, the guy has three skills, Saber Mastery, some liquid skill, and probably a jumping skill, what would be the best method to counter him?’

His thoughts were in a mess and the footsteps that were nearing didn’t help him calm down either, he didn’t have the calm in the storm type of mentality where he could calm down at any given moment, he had no great combat sense either, he was just a boy with too many skills

‘Skills! Yes, if I use my skills…there is a pond near the side road up ahead, if I can get to it and use it to slip him I could reverse this situation!’

He turned to the right and headed to the pond’s direction

“Come here you little bastard! I will rip you flesh apart!”

‘How did he catch up so fast, dammit I won’t make it like this, I have to do something, anything’

His mind swirled while the man got closer and closer, they kept going on until they were already at the edge of the clearing behind the lake but he was already right behind him

“Die!”

The man swung his two sabers at him with the intent to cut him in two

At the same time Shun turned around and aimed both his fists toward the sabers, while his feet magically stepped closer making the two only inches apart

“Double SMASH!”

Flesh and metal collided, but instead of metal cutting through flesh the sabers bent ever so slightly while Shun was sent flying into the side of the pond, the man on the other hand was only knocked to the ground

‘I made it!’

While Shun was flushed with happiness the man hastily got up and ran toward him, craziness apparent on his face

‘I can’t move my legs anymore, that last Quick Step pushed it too far, my fists aren’t useful after that impact, I can only try to deflect his own attack onto himself, if not with my fists then with my arms’

Shun got ready for the upcoming deciding moment, he started focusing in the water close to him, he didn’t know what to do but he would try his darned best regardless

The man got closer and closer, he was just twenty meters apart after a few seconds

‘Come on, just a little more’

Ten meters apart the man swung his sabers up in preparation while he took a large stride and-

Zoom!

“!?”

The man was instantly in front of Shun’s face, it was no jump, nor a charge, but more like a zap, a zap that gave Shun no hope of retaliation, taking away all his plans, struggle, and hope

‘Ahh I miscalculated, if only I could redo this all again…’

That was his final thought as the edge of the saber got closer

Swish

Blood bloomed, and a head rolled onto the ground, with regrets splashed all over it….