Using powerful Martial Techniques carry with them an element of risk, if you cannot properly control the technique that you are using you can be injured by the Mana that the technique uses which can have a variety of consequences. These effects can be partially lessened by using a Body Strengthening technique, especially if the technique that you are trying to use is of the same Elemental Affinity as your Body Strengthening technique, but it is nearly impossible to remove these dangers.

­Excerpt from Telram’s notes on Martial Techniques.

Telram grimaced as the Mana gathered in and around his arm, he hadn’t tested this technique, which combined parts of both his Resonance Palm and Dissonance techniques, but he did know that it was going to be extremely powerful.

Already he could feel the chaotically vibrating Mana beginning to tear the soft tissues of his arm apart. This was why he had yet to so much as attempt this technique up until now, even with his toughened body he knew that using this technique would probably injure him very badly however with the puppets that had been causing havoc in the city being defeated it was only a matter of time before the tables turned.

Jai leapt on one of the cultivators’ back and ripped into his shoulder with his powerful causing the older man to scream in pain. The tiger might have had a much lower cultivation level but by waiting until his targets let their guard down when they were attacking the puppets that had been reprogrammed to fight them or defending against the attacks, he could still deal some damage before leaping away, especially if the cultivator didn’t have a Body Strengthening technique.

As he leapt away, he sensed the massive amount of Mana that his friend was gathering and turned to look at him in shock, his friend had talked to him about the way his techniques worked before so he understood what Telram was doing could do to his body. What the tiger couldn’t understand however, was why he was insisting on doing something so dangerous when it would be easier to run now.

As Telram gathered Mana for his technique hid Dissonance technique was also drawn in, allowing the cultivators fighting the puppets to fight easier and several puppets fell to their attacks in seconds before two of them turned and charged towards the powerfully built young man only to be intercepted by two figures, a middle aged woman and an old man with a long beard.

“Fergus!?” Telram exclaimed upon seeing the older man, he hadn’t expected that Fergus would be able to prepare to escape the city so quickly, but he was nonetheless happy to see the old man.

“What’re you doing boy?” The woman asked as she punched her opponent so hard, he flew back ten metres and embedded himself in the wall of a nearby building making Telram gape in surprise at her ridiculous strength. “If you use a technique like that with your strength you could kill yourself!”

“You think I’m stupid enough to use a technique that will kill me?” Telram snarled glaring down the street towards the centre of town where the sounds of fighting had quietened down. “I’m the one who created these techniques, I know what I’m capable of!”

“If you say so kid,” the woman grumbled angrily as she engaged the next cultivator making Telram roll his eyes in exasperation.

At this revelation Fergus froze in surprise allowing his opponent to get in a lucky hit that pushed him several metres back. The old man gritted his teeth in realisation, he had thought something was odd about the argument between Gerry and Telram but he had assumed that it had just been that they had been acting the argument out he hadn’t even considered the possibility that Telram had been the one to create the techniques that he had been pretending to teach them. If the boy was capable of that sort of thing at his cultivation level then Fergus could barely imagine what he would be capable of when he got stronger and a smile crossed his face as he realised that this was why Gerry had taken him as his apprentice, even though he had sworn never to take another one after what had happened to Lily.

“So that’s what’s going on old friend?” Fergus muttered as fire erupted around his legs making the other cultivator back away in surprise. Fergus’ form disappeared in front of the shocked cultivators’ eyes as the old man moved with incredible speed, one of his flaming legs smashing into the back of his head followed by another to his back that launched the old man into another cultivator who was engaging one of the puppets.

Jai watched in awe as the old leapt from target to target his burning legs scything out and accurately striking at the weak points in the cultivators’ guards. On the other hand, the woman who had appeared with him had a very different fighting style using rock covered fists to deliver massively powerful blows that allowed her to fight three of the cultivators at once while the remaining puppets pummelled them from a distance. The woman didn’t look impressed at Telram’s words but kept her mouth shut and continued to attack, if Fergus whom she knew understood the techniques Telram was using much better than her was willing to let him use the technique that he was preparing to use then she couldn’t disagree with his decision.

At this time Telram was experiencing extreme pain from the vibrating Mana tearing his arm apart from inside and out but he didn’t stop gathering more and more Mana from both the world around him and his Mana Core, using his Soul Energy in this way was something that he had only learned recently and was essentially the same as meditating, the only difference was when he used this technique if something went wrong his Mana Core would be instantly crippled leaving him in as bad or worse state as his mother which was why he had been trying not to use it.

“Do you have enough Mana for this technique to be effective?” Fergus asked as he came to a halt next to the younger man.

“I don’t know,” Telram admitted quietly before gasping in surprise as Fergus placed a hand on his shoulder and started channelling more Mana into his body which he quickly used to increase the power of the technique he was preparing, feeling sweat pour down his brow as he did so.

Just as he thought he was going to reach his limit he saw the first of the guards rushing down the street towards them and gritted his teeth in preparation for what he was about to do. By now the amount of Mana that he had gathered around its arm had seemingly increased the limbs size thrice over and it glowed with a bright light due to the energy surrounding it. The chaotic vibration seemed to slow as it reached a certain frequency and as this happened, he shrugged Fergus’ arm from his shoulder and ran towards the oncoming guards causing everyone to come to a surprised halt as they watched the young man run forwards dragging his glowing right arm behind him.

Telram could see his own enraged face reflected in the eyes of the guards as he approached them, he felt a moment of guilt for what he was about to do to them, but this soon passed as he saw that some of them were carrying bloodied weapons and was replaced with a burning rage. The reason for this was of course that according to Telram’s plan the only things that these people should’ve been fighting were the wooden puppets that had been sent to fight them, so if they had blood on their weapons then something had gone seriously wrong and they had either fought with people who had decided to side with Fergus or the situation could be even worse than that even to the point that they had killed citizens in the chaos that his plan had caused.

The glowing energy surrounding his arm grew even further in size and Telram screamed in pain as the Mana tore the bones of his arm apart, this was the price he had to pay for using this technique which used Mana vibrating at a frequency that had been specifically chosen for its ability to destroy the human body, even his strengthened body wasn’t able to stand up to this sort of force so when he slammed his hand forwards striking the first rank of guards they died instantly as their bones shattered like glass and their organs ruptured and the shockwave spread outwards ripping through the ranks of the guards in an instant as Telram collapsed to the ground, his arm flopping grotesquely by his side.

The middle-aged woman stared in horror at the sight of the destruction that the attack had caused, while the Mana might have been vibrating at a frequency chose for its ability to destroy flesh and bone it didn’t change the fact that a lot of Mana had been used so when the attack had landed the shockwave had also torn up the street sending broken pieces of stone flying until they embedded themselves in the walls of the nearby buildings, it was hard for her to believe that Telram’s attack had been powerful enough to do this much damage and even harder to believe that using the attack hadn’t killed him but she could see that he was still breathing.

While his partner was thinking this Fergus made his move appearing at the young man’s side in a flash and slinging him over his shoulder before dashing back towards her and Jai.

“Diane!” Fergus shouted. “We’ve got to get out of here now!”

“Right!” The woman replied shaking her head to recover from the horror that she had just witnessed before striking out at two of the nearby cultivators while they were still distracted. “Tiger! I’ll hold them off for a bit, so you need to get a head start!”

Jai who had frozen at the sight of what had happened to his friend jerked in surprise at her words before nodding and running through the hole in the wall that they had created earlier, while he didn’t like the idea of abandoning Telram having seen her an Fergus fight he knew that she was right, they were more than capable of catching up with him even with Fergus carrying an unconscious Telram whereas if he didn’t get a head start it would be easy for anyone following them would easily catch up.

“You too Fergus, get that kid out of here,” Diane said calmly as she blocked a swinging sword with a quickly created shield of rock that covered her arm before kicking the unfortunate man away. Some of the other remaining cultivators were running towards the guards in the hopes of saving those still alive and Diane didn’t make any moves to stop them.

Fergus nodded and chased after the fleeing Jai catching up to him in seconds.

“The kid’s really done it now,” the old man remarked to Jai as they ran. The old man knew that the tiger was even more intelligent than most contracted Mana Beasts from the way it had been acting during the fight so while it felt a little odd to be talking to him he knew that Jai would understand what he was saying “Not only is his arm messed up but after killing that many guards there’s no way that Irian is just going to forget about him. Even if we manage to get away in the chaos, he’s going to be hunted his whole life.”

Jai grumbled to himself as he ran along, he knew that Fergus was right but he also knew that their plan was well thought out and it would be hard for Irian to find them where they were going, at least so long as they managed to get away safely now, turning towards the area that they had left some supplies before the evaluation the tiger increased his pace to the absolute maximum as the bemused Fergus followed him.

Meanwhile back in Palamar Diane had decided that now was the time to follow the other three, something that was only reinforced when she sensed a tremendously powerful cultivator approaching. Knowing it must be Irian she turned and ran without so much as a glance back over her shoulder, she and Fergus may have been hiding their true strength but even if they both worked together, she knew that they wouldn’t even last so much as a second against the Lord of Palamar City.

Jai glanced to his right at Fergus as he led the way towards the forest where he and Telram had so often been taken hunting by Aran, moving smoothly through the trees leaving barely a mark where he tread. To Jai and Telram this forest was like their back yard and they knew how to move through it without leaving tracks for the guards, who were far less used to the forest to follow.

Fergus, however had no such capability and Jai looked back in irritation as he heard the older man stumble knowing that he had just left a scuff on the root that he had just tripped over.

“Sorry,” the old man muttered. “I’m just not really good at this sort of thing.”

While Fergus was both fast and a good combatant if he had to name one weakness of his it would be his lack of stealth techniques, so he was surprised when Jai came to a halt and craned his head back deliberately looking at his own back then at Telram.

“Do you want me to give him to you?” Fergus asked. If he wasn’t carrying the surprisingly heavy young man, then it would make it easier for him to follow the tiger without making too much of an obvious trail to follow. It was actually ridiculous how heavy Telram was, Fergus knew that he used a body strengthening technique, but Fergus had never encountered one that had such a large effect on the cultivator, or at least not one that someone that was at Telram’s cultivation level could learn and made a note to ask him about it when he woke up.

Feeling his friend’s weight being placed on his back Jai waited impatiently for the old man to move him into a position where Jai could walk without jostling him off then walked a few steps forwards before glancing backwards at Fergus and stepped backwards making sure to step in exactly the same spaces he had before then walk forwards again watching Fergus the whole time.

“And now you want me to step where you do?” Fergus asked and Jai nodded in reply. “I see, very well, let’s keep moving then and I shall do my best.”

Jai nodded and continued deeper into the forest, he didn’t know if Diane would be able to find them if they did this, but he was more worried about getting safely away from the city so that they could see to Telram’s injuries.

Soon they found themselves in a clearing where Jai stopped and started digging at the base of one of the trees, eventually uncovering a sack that Fergus removed from the hole, a glance inside revealed that the sack was filled with supplies including bandages and he quickly took Telram off Jai’s back and put him on the ground, accidentally letting Telram’s arm hit the ground as he did so causing the young man to jerk upright with a strangled gasp of pain.

“Where are we?” he rasped looking around blearily until his eyes focussed on Fergus and Jai who were both looking at him worriedly. “Did we get away?”

“We made it to the forest,” Fergus replied quietly. “But Telram your arm, I don’t know if we can save it.”

Hearing this Telram looked down at his wounded appendage and grimaced. His arm was an ugly swollen purple mess from the ruined veins and torn muscles, and he knew that the bones were in even worse shape, but he knew that his body would still try to recover from the damage even if by doing so it ended up making things worse

“Pass me one of the knives from the sack,” Telram said. “Grab some more bandages too.”

“Uh, sure I suppose but why?”

“There’s a lot of blood building up underneath my skin, so I need to cut my arm to release some of the pressure, if I don’t the injury’s just going to get worse,” Telram replied calmly. “The bandage is to cut off any further blood supply to the arm so that I don’t die of blood loss.”

Fergus had never heard of someone attempting something like this but seeing the determined look on Telram’s face he decided to do as the young man said.

“Right, I want you to tie the bandage around the top of my arm, as close to the shoulder as possible and pull it as tight as you possibly can,” Telram told Fergus cursing internally as he did so. Due to this world’s nature what he considered traditional first aid wasn’t really something most people knew much about so even though it was all that he could do to stay conscious he had to talk Fergus through tying the tourniquet and then drain his arm himself.

As soon as Fergus had tied the tourniquet, he placed a piece of wood he had picked up from nearby and placed it between his teeth before making four cuts about an inch long and half an inch deep down his arm, or at least that was the plan. Due to his body’s unnatural toughness the cuts ended up deeper and longer than he had anticipated and the iron blade of the knife that he had used ended up looking like it hadn’t been sharpened in months.

Telram had been eerily quiet while he had mutilated his arm and Fergus and Jai had both ended up turning away from the gut churning sight, so they were surprised when Telram asked Fergus to bandage his arm and tie it to his left shoulder to immobilise it.

“Jai, is it alright if I ride you again?” Telram asked. “Now that I’ve done this, I need to take a closer look at my arm using my Inner Vison technique.”

Jai nodded his agreement and knelt down so that Telram could clamber on top of him, once he had made himself comfortable Telram pointed at the sack.

“Feel free to use the paper in there to make a messenger bird so that Diane can follow us, there’s also some Beast Cores in there I want you to throw them as far as you can behind us, try and spread them out a bit.”

“Ok, what are the Cores going to do?” Fergus asked looking at them warily.

“Some of them will explode when a human comes close enough, others produce a weak version of my Dissonance technique that will disrupt any attempt to track us by following the Mana our bodies give off,” Telram replied.

“Don’t worry about the exploding ones,” he said quickly as Fergus leapt backwards away from the sack in surprise. “They’ll only activate after experiencing a hard-enough impact.”

“Maybe lead with that!” Fergus gasped as he recovered from his shock. “What… what should I tell Diane?”

“Well definitely tell her not to follow us into the forest,” Telram replied. “I’m sorry if we had been better organised, we could’ve sorted this all out in advance. I don’t even know if Diane will be able to get away safely.”

Fergus nodded at Telram’s words, he knew that Irian would be more interested in catching him and Jai so he wasn’t too worried about Diane’s ability to get away easier than they could besides if things got too rough Diane had a technique that allowed her to travel quickly underground which few others could replicate.

“Don’t worry about her, just tell me where we’re going,” Fergus replied calmly.

“Alright, we’re going to a village that was recently built in the border lands called Yulis village,” Telram told Fergus who paled slightly at his words. Fergus recognised the name of the village the news that it had been built had only recently reached Palamar City the only problem was that it was in the territory of another noble family.

“Yulis village, but that’s…”

“In Lord Undar’s territory, yes I know,” Telram finished. “That’s why we chose it, not only is it a recently formed village that needs all the population that it can get but it’s also an area that would be difficult for Irian to follow us into. Especially after he lost all of those guards.”

“So that’s why you used that technique.” Fergus muttered under his breath.

“Right, that’s one of the problems with the way we do things in this world,” Telram sighed. “Everyone’s out to gain more power, no matter what they have to do, this is especially obvious when you look at the nobles and so understanding that what do you think will happen when other nobles like Undar learn that a large number of Irian’s guards have been killed or injured?”

“They’ll start to threaten Irian’s borders,” Fergus immediately answered.

At these words Jai nodded slowly finally beginning to understand Telram’s actions, the tiger was certainly intelligent, but he still had difficulties understanding how the human world worked even after all these years.

“Right, well we should get going, we’ve wasted enough time here,” Telram said. “I’m going to be indisposed for a bit while I have a proper look at my arm, so I’ll be counting on you two to keep us safe.”

Fergus and Jai looked at each other and nodded their agreement.

“Alright, I’ll let you know if anything goes wrong,” Fergus said reaching down and picking up the sack of supplies. “You do what you need to do.”

Telram nodded and closed his eyes slipping into a trance as he used his Inner Vision technique, as he did this Fergus started throwing the Beast Cores into the forest behind them as Telram had asked before he and Jai turned and ran out of the clearing.

It was finally time for them to make their way to their next destination where they all hoped the rest of Telram’s family and Diane would be waiting for them. The border village of Yulis!