Chapter X: Bar Brawls

Shizukana Gake, Heian Kingdom, The Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 30, 172 ,328 DE

The Slums, officially called the South Ward, lie in the oldest, southeastern part of Shizukana Gake. They date back to when the city was nothing but a frontier outpost in the middle of the Ferocious Beast controlled forests. The sheer cliffs overlooking the Arekuruu River need no walls for defense. To the west lie the city's utilities. Underground channels use river water to run the water works and the pumping stations for the city's gas pipes. With the gas storage tanks and the rail yard, no one, who can afford to live elsewhere, wants to live in the south end of Shizukana Gake. As a result, it became the poorest section of the city, the Slums.

For a long time, I have known there are a lot of low class bars and taverns in the Slums, but I have not been to any. Because of the pervasive stench of the place, I avoid the Slums. Vorn seems to already be familiar with the area, or he has a natural talent for navigating through this kind of destitute environment.

Following behind Vorn, we wend our way through the area in relative silence. Despite sunset still being several hours away, the streets and alleys of the Slums are already in shadow. Thugs, thieves, pimps, and whores lurk in the shadows. Upon seeing Vorn and myself, they look away, pretending that we are not near them.

Vorn radiates the aura of someone who has killed and killed often. He kept it muted in the Academy, but this is probably his most natural state. Even the most violent murderers in slums would have to consider if they were willing to die, before daring to attack him.

As for me, I put most humans on edge just by existing. The scum in the shadows live as predators and prey. Their harsh lives have left them more attuned to danger than the clan hothouse morons and the commoners trying to keep their heads down. Just seeing me, the scum from the Slums know that I am a more dangerous predator than any of them.

Hoshi, who decided to tag along, looks around with his eyes bugging out of his skull. He could not be more obviously out of place. Luckily for him, most of the predators in the Slums have their natural fear of Vorn and myself. If he were alone, he would have already been mugged and left to die in an alley.

When we reach the door of Vorn's tavern of choice, the stench of stale beer, vomit, and unwashed bodies hits me like a sledge hammer. Few things upset my stomach, but even more so than when we entered the Slums, I wish my senses were as dull as a human's.

I step through the door after Vorn and Hoshi. "What a fucking shithole."

The scum sitting at the rickety tables and around the bar glare at me, but none of them are suicidal enough to start anything. After twenty or so seconds, they look away and go back to their drinks, but the unpleasant odor of their nervousness mixes with the general stench of the place.

Vorn leads the way to a corner table. He and I sit with our backs to the wall, and seemingly oblivious to the potential dangers in the scummy tavern, Hoshi sit with his large round back to the room.

"Barkeep! Moonhowl! The whole jug and three glasses!" Vorn's bellow practically shakes the dust from the rafters and gets the attention of the skinny, shifty, rat-like man behind the bar.

In just a minute, the barkeep arrives at the table. He drops a ceramic jug with a cork in it and three dirty glasses on the table. "Two Nibuban."

Made from silver, one Nibuban is worth enough to feed four to six commoners for as much as three days.

Vorn uncorks the jar, and the strong smell of almost pure alcohol fills the air. I do not particularly like the smell of alcohol, but as strong as the alcohol fumes are, they help to suppress the stench inundating the tavern.

I wrinkle my nose. "What is this stuff?"

Vorn puts filled hundred sixty or so milliliter glasses on the table in front of Hoshi and myself. "Doubly distilled corn alcohol. It has over ninety percent alcohol content. For non-Cultivators, they say just a few glasses will have you howling at the moon. It'll put more hair on your chest than you already have.

"Drink up. The first one to pass out looses."

Seeing Vorn empty his glass, Hoshi follows suit and nearly chokes on the Moonhowl. Coughing and red-faced, he slaps the table, threatening to break it. For all his fat, there is no denying that he is at the peak of Body Tempering.

Taking a sip, I hold the liquid in my mouth for almost ten seconds before swallowing. The foul taste is worse than I expected it to be. I doubt I will acquire the habit of drinking, but empty the rest of the glass. I have a strong natural resistance to drugs and poisons, so I just need to hold out until Vorn passes out and I will be done with this stuff.

"One." Vorn grins at me. His smugness seems to say that he has already won.

"Why did you enroll in the Academy?"

"I should be around for a while. We found some rumors about a woman that might be the one we are looking for. Most likely, I won't be able to make it home in time for the Grand Academies Selection Test. I need to prepare to take it here." While Vorn does not seem to be lying, he is not telling the whole truth. He pours another round of Moonhowl.

Vorn's reason is pure bullshit. As a Crown Prince from the Jewel Kingdoms, he has no need to be a student in a magic technology secondary school. He just needs to take the test, and he should be able to get into the Cultivation College of his choice. The purpose of the secondary schools is too weed out the commoner trash that cannot make the cut. Members of noble clans and Cultivation Sects, who want entry to a Cultivation College, get treated differently.

While watching Vorn pour, Hoshi licks his lips and as soon as his glass is full, he grabs it and drinks down the alcohol.

Vorn and I drink ours, while staring at one another.

"So how does a gaijin have the status to threaten his teachers?"

I smile with half of my mouth. Old Man Jones is an Engineering Grandmaster, and I've been learning from him my entire life. When it comes to Engineering, I know more than anyone but Old Man Jones. The Principal is an obsessive Engineering otaku. You do the math."

Vorn raises his eyebrows. "It wouldn't have anything to do with the City Lord being terrified of even stepping on Jones' shadow?"

I shrug, without saying anything.

Vorn pours another round and we all drink.

While Vorn fishes for information about the Demonic Wildlands, we tip back drinks every few minutes. By the twentieth, Hoshi's face smacks into the table.

I am feeling the effects of the alcohol, but I am far from passing out. Vorn appears to be in the same condition as me. His eyes look glassy, and his body sways as he pours two more drinks. He has an annoyingly high tolerance for alcohol, but surprise lurks in his eyes. He did not expect me to be able to hold out like I am.

Bang!

Before we have a chance to drink, the door of the tavern slams open. A pack of rough-looking men saunters inside. Dressed in leathers, similar to what I wear, they should be a group of Ferocious Beast hunters. It is a dangerous job that attracts dangerous men.

"Toki! Give us saki!"

Toki, the rat-like bartender sets out thirteen small bowls, one for each hunter, and fills them. "Good hunting, Naka?"

The leader, the biggest hunter, grins. "Damn good. We came back with almost double what we expected."

The rest of the Beast hunters laugh. Malice fills the nasty sound, and from the cruelty glinting in their eyes, they were probably not the ones who killed at least half their haul. In the wilderness, some Beast hunters will show respect for other groups, but many others do not hesitate to use violence to claim the spoils of their competition. When you are east of the Kami Kaze Mountains, there are no laws outside the walls of the cities.

Human life is cheap. Inside the cities, humans breed like rats. There are always more people willing to take big risks to get ahead in life. No matter how many Beast hunters die at the hands of Beasts or other hunters, there will always be new ones to take their place.

One of the hunters looks around the common room and seeing my group in the corner, he points in our direction. "Hey, Naka! Gaijin!"

"What!" With a bellow, Naka, the leader spins around and glares at us.

After maybe fifteen seconds, Naka tosses the rest of his Saki down his throat and saunters toward our table.

"Hey, Naka! Don't wreck my place!"

"Don't worry. Th' gaijin'll pay for th' damages. Th' sleeping pig with these gaijin looks like he's got th' money." Naka grins nastily in our direction. With one of his front teeth missing, he has an odd accent to some of his words.

Ginning like a pack of hyenas, the rest of the Beast hunters follow Naka. The smallest of the Beast hunters stands one hundred seventy centimeters, and the biggest, Naka, stands about two hundred ten centimeters. They are all big men for the people east of the Kami Kaze Mountains.

Seven of the Beast hunters are definitely in Qi Condensation, and I am not sure about three more. The rest should be somewhere in the late stages of Body Tempering. By Beast hunter standards, they would be a better than average group for Shizukana Gake.

"This part of town is for real men. What do you gaijin bastards think you're doing here?" Standing with his arms akimbo, Naka glares down at us.

Tilting my chair back, I look at Naka. "You must be real special. This is the first time I've seen an animal that could talk like human trash."

"Bastard!" Raising his hand, Naka stares me in the eye and freezes.

"Go ahead. Start something. I'll finish it and you for good measure." I have killed Beasts and humans alike. If Naka continues bothering me, I will kill him. My gaze hardens with the intent to rip out his throat, and my lips part in a predatory threat.

My eyes are the eyes of a predator, the eyes of a Ferocious Beast. After hunting Beasts for who knows how many years, Naka knows the eyes of a Beast that will kill him, when he sees them. A bead of sweat springs to life at the corner of his eye.

"You got some mouth on you!" Acting like a tough guy, one of Naka's bung boys kicks the leg out from under Hoshi's chair.

After slamming into the floor, Hoshi sits up while rubbing his head. "Hey. What happened?"

Crack!

Before any of the other Beast hunters can react, I spring to my feet and drive a punch into the tough guy's temple. As his legs buckle under him, he slumps to the ground, unconscious. Whether he will live or not, I cannot say, nor do I care. Hoshi may be human, but other than Old Man Jones, he is still the closest thing I have to pack among the humans.

Even for a Great Wolf, pack is important. I have ancestral memories of life among the packs, and the lack of a real pack leaves an emptiness within my Soul.

"Bastard!" Naka's yell brims over with impending violence.

I kick the nearest Beast hunter. My toe sinks into his abdomen, right over his bladder, probably causing internal injuries, and the force of the blow send him flying backward four or five meters. One of the shoddy tables and several chair snap from the impact, and he hits the floor unconscious.

Vorn grabs Naka by the front of his leather shirt and headbutts him smack on the bridge of his nose. "Don't start something you aren't prepared to finish."

"Gaijin bastards! Don't wreck my place!"

Hoshi grabs a money pouch off the belt of the hunter that broke his chair and tosses it at the barkeep. "These assholes are paying for the damages!"

While Vorn repeatedly punches Naka in the face, I land into Naka's bung boys. As a hunter lunges at me with a roundhouse punch I could see coming from ten kilometers out, another one kicks my leg. Ignoring the kick, I slap the punch up and duck under it. My own punch hits the puncher in the floating ribs. I like hitting humans in the floating ribs. If they are not monsters like Vorn, I have a good chance at breaking something. From the way it feels when it hit the hunter in his side, I would say I did break something.

As the hunter grabs at his abdomen and beds over, I catch him with an uppercut, sending him into two more of his bung buddies. A toe kick under the chin stops the kicker from closing with me, and I stomp on the downed hunters. Their bones break under the impact of my heel.

Holding Naka by his leg, Vorn uses him like a club to beat a couple more hunters.

Since I am having too much fun, I do not bother to hide my vicious grin and land into another hunter.

With more than half their number down, three hunters still not in the middle of the melee break and run for the door, but Vorn knocks two down with Naka.

Hoshi grabs a chair and throws it full strength into the back of the one still running. The force of the impact sends the hunter pitching face first into another table, and Hoshi runs over and stomps on the back of his head. Hoshi seems to have a mean steak I never knew about.

While I beat down another hunter, Vorn slams the unconscious Naka into one of the two that he knocked down and kicks the last one between his legs, sending him into the air. The hunter's head bounces off the ceiling, and he falls limply to the ground.

The fight was over too quickly to say the least. After Vorn grabbed Naka and used him for a punching bag, the rest of the hunters seemed to lose all their will to fight. Seeing as Naka should be in the sixth or maybe the seventh stage of Qi Condensation, these losers probably thought Vorn's Cultivation was a lot higher than it is.

As I look around the fallen and unconscious trash, irritation floods through me. Everything ended, just when I was starting to enjoy it. "That was more fun than drinking."

Vorn looks at me, as though he is seeing a madman. "You're a heretic! Drinking and fighting go hand in hand!"

With my vicious grin still in place, I stare at Vorn. "Then let's finish our fight from earlier."

Vorn puts on a grin no less vicious than my own. "How about we go trash a few more taverns? Whoever brings down the most thugs wins."

* * * * *

As we enter a new tavern, the patrons scattered around the common room look at us, and almost immediately, hostility fills their eyes. Most of them look like down on their luck mercenaries or caravan guards. A few of them are in the lower stages of Qi Condensation, but the rest are almost all somewhere in the upper half of Body Tempering.

While armored trains connect the main cities, merchants put together caravans to trade with the walled towns. Men like these sell themselves as guard for those caravans. The pay amounts to shit, but if they lack Cultivation talent and trade skills, it is one of the few ways other than Beast hunting for them to earn a living.

"Why do I feel like we've already done this?" Hoshi's words come out in a voice as sullen as the patrons' faces.

I snort, and displaying a malicious grin, I pitch my voice to carry. "Because we did the same thing not even an hour ago. And the idiots in that tavern got stupid and we stomped their retarded asses."

Soft, disgruntled murmurs fill the air. If it were not for my superhuman senses, I would not be able to understand their word.

"Who do these bastards think they are?"

"Fucking gaijin!"

"Where's Takamura?"

"Takamura'll kick their fucking asses."

I laugh. "They're waiting for some bitch named Takamura to give them a pair of balls. Let's sit down."

"You're strongest distilled alcohol." Vorn tosses a Nibuban to the barkeep and heads for a corner where three men sit at a table.

"We'll take this table. You don't mind do you?"

After taking one look at Vorn's bruised and bloodied face, the three men get up and move to another table.

Vorn stares at me. "How many did you take down in the last place?"

"I got seven. You got five. Hoshi got one. But five of mine were in Qi Condensation, while only three of yours were."

Hoshi waves his hands back and forth. "Count me out of this. I'm not getting in the middle of a pissing match between freaks like you two."

Vorn frowns. "Naka should count for extra."

Crossing my arms, I return Vorn's frown. "If we count Naka as more than one, the same should apply to all the Qi Condensation Cultivators."

"Okay. Two for each normal Qi Condensation Cultivator and three for Naka."

I smile. "That would give me twelve to your eight."

Vorn pours drinks for all three of us and grins. "Drink up."

The losers in this tavern, right now, do not have the balls to even risk getting caught looking at us sideways. We can only wait for someone with their man-parts still intact to show up and get the fun started.

While waiting, we keep drinking. Vorn keeps questioning me about the Demonic Wildlands east and south of Shizukana Gake. He already knows a lot about Demonic Beasts, more than I do, but he is unfamiliar with the local terrain and what types of Beasts, whether Ferocious or Demonic, are dominant. I use the chance to probe him about the Beasts I am unfamiliar that live north of the Plateau..

While almost two hours pass and we down a lot of alcohol, alone or in small groups, more men enter the tavern, until the place is packed, and the number of men speaking to one another makes it nearly impossible to listen in on any but the loudest conversations. Finally, a big man, with a great sword on his back, walks through the door. At first, I am the only one to notice him. He moves a couple meters past the entry and freezes into absolute stillness, while scanning the patrons. His emotions are so tightly controlled that he does not give off even a hint of what he might be feeling or thinking.

The man is at the absolute peak of Qi Condensation. From the strength of his Mana, a lack of knowledge about techniques probably keeps him from breaking through to the Foundation Establishment realm. Every breakthrough to a new realm is a big step up and a big change for a Cultivator. For every person that breaks through to a new realm, the lack of knowledge about how to do it keeps hundreds or perhaps thousands more trapped in their old realm forever.

The advantages to being in a clan or sect with knowledge and legacies become more and more obvious as Cultivators go higher and higher in their Cultivation.

Vorn is the second one to notice. He glances at the door, as he does every few seconds, then as he notices my eyes fixated on the man, Vorn's head snaps back to stare at the man. Surprise fills Vorn's eye, the one that I can see.

Sensing our eyes on him, the man coldly stares at us. After a few moments, he snorts disdainfully and walks up to the bar.

"Takamura-san!"

"It's Takamura-san!"

"Oi, Takamaura-san, we got some asshole bastards looking down on us! You gotta take care a 'em."

"Get those bastards, Takamura-san!"

With half the tavern's patrons pointing at us, Takamura, the big man with the great sword, looks in our direction again. "You bastards here looking for trouble?"

I grin at Takamura. "Your bitch friends are just upset we aren't interested in bending them over their tables."

"Asshole!"

"Bastard Asshole!"

"Asshole Bastard!"

Most of the trash Cultivators in the bar start shouting insults at me.

Vorn glances at me. "How much is he worth?"

"Let's say five points."

With silent footsteps, Takamura walks over toward our table but stops with a three meter gap still between us. Considering the arrogant expression on his face, he seems more cautious than I would expect him to be. He has enough room to draw and swing his great sword without jamming himself up, but that only assumes he does it before we get out of our chairs.

I release a single soft breath that could be interpreted as a laugh. "Peak of Qi Condensation. But you've been stuck there for a while. How many years is it now?"

Takamura's eyes narrow. "You've been digging into my past?"

I snort softly. "Never heard of you before I walked in the door of this shithole."

Takamura's already narrowed eyes turn into slits. "You've got good eyes. What do you want?"

I switch back to a wide grin. "To drink in peace without dickless assholes like you all bothering me. But losers like you always want your betters to kiss your asses. Too bad you're nothing but annoying trash."

"Bastard!" Despite his shout, Takamura's face shows no signs of anger.

"He's mine!"

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