Pa! Pa! Pa! PA!

In the training yard of the Deva tribe’s village, early in the morning the warriors awaken to train while others leave to hunt. At the moment one of the commanders was sparring. Opposite him was a figure new to the tribe. Asur was smiling as faint sweat covered his exposed chest.

The commander was huffing while sweat covered his body under the unrelentless staff work of the young man which he never saw before.

Asur was using a rare staff martial arts he learned when he played a monk once. Monks are tank based classes which use either staff or fists.

That said, his control of his bloodline power was much weaker than the common hunters and his staff was near breaking point.

“Bloodline power is really incredibly.” Asur said as he looked at the staff which was riddled with cracks.

The warriors watching gulped their saliva as they saw this. Asur’s movements were too nimble and his strikes were too precise. Although his power was weak due to his control, every time he hit, if the attack doesn’t hit where it hurts, he would hold back but when he attacks, he strikes weak points made to sting.

The commander had bruises over his chest and arms because of this. If Asur had battled like the common warriors who used brute force, the staff would have long snapped but weather it was defense or offense, his control was incredible and he blocked the attacks by guiding the force of the incoming energy instead of taking it head on.

“Incredible.” a cold voice said.

Asur turned to look and found Baal.

“Such a strong fighter, doesn’t everyone agree that he should join the hunters and learn the hunters ways?” Baal said.

“Although my skills are good, i can’t hunt without learning to control my bloodline power. I don’t plan to hunt for a while.” Asur said.

“Warriors must be fearless, only in the heat of battle will your bloodline power truly awaken. Isn’t that right war chief?” he asked looking at the side wall.

Watching from there, the war chief which found Asur was there.

“Although it is true, it is only when someone actually has control. If he can’t control it, it will not awaken.” he replied different from what Baal wanted.

“From what i felt, he had some control of bloodline power. The degree is similar to what I had when I first went on a hunt and had my warrior’s initiation.” Baal said.

The persistence was strange and it made the war chief narrow his eyes. It’s been close to three days since the coming of age ceremony and since then, Baal has been increasingly colder towards Asur. This has happened many times of course and anyone who knew this boy knew he was up to no good.

“I do not feel the same.” he said.

“Yes but that is because your bloodline purity is not as dense as mine and so my senses are sharper.” Baal said narrowing his eyes.

After his body recovered, he found his strength had surpassed the war chief. Although he was not given the same title, he even looked down on his own father now because only his mother had equal blood to himself. Of course, Asur was an exception because he appeared with four asura markings but he has been here for too little time and not everyone knew him besides knowing he made good weapons.

“Sensing the ability and flow of Bloodline power has nothing to do with purity.” The war chief said as he stood up straight and walked over to Baal. He was not fond of the boy’s cockiness.

“You don’t have two solid asura marks so how do you know?” Baal said and took out a scroll and tossed it to Asur.

“This is from my father, he has agreed that you are strong enough, when combining your body strength and the burst of power from your bloodline power, that you can easily hunt. It shows you a region to go hunt. You must bring five beasts to prove your strength.” Baal said.

“Five! This is madness!” the war chief said.

“My mother said he has great strength in him so he can obviously hunt it all ‘alone’. If he can’t, then it just means he isn’t cut out to be a hunter and will probably even be punished for not keeping up with my father’s orders.” Baal said.

Every warrior scowled but Asur just opened the scroll and there was a poorly drawn map with some features and details. The region he had to go is northward where the forest thins out into grasslands in 6 kilometers from here. The village seemed to be at the edge of the forest which grew denser the more south it got. There were also warnings of dangerous beasts nests that the villagers found and several black points.

“What are these black points?” Asur asked.

“Villages, the black ones are tribes of other people and the ones in red are villages our people branched out in.” the war chief said while glaring at Baal.

The map had three red dots, one of which was deeper into the forest along a dangerous zone.

“Okay, if it’s to hunt then i don’t see a problem, i was getting bored.” he said and rolled up the rare parchmen and turned to the wall where weapons were stored.

He picked up a specific quiver which had very straight and nice arrows with undamaged feathers and very sharp stone tips. Then he grabbed a leather sash and then a well made spear and put it in that sash on his back before picking up the last weapon, a composite bow. Different from the curved longbow of the tribe, he made the W shaped composite bow because it's smaller but stronger.

He took the arm guard and strapped it on. “War chief, i shall return soon. Oh right, is there a time limit?” Asur asked.

“Until tomorrow when the sun reaches its peak.” Baal said.

Asur nodded before he walked out of the Training yard and headed to tell Adsila what happened and get the few leather armor pieces he had tailored for himself and finally left to hunt.

Asur walked out the gate alone without caring if anyone followed. He took out the map and scoffed out the tribes poor mapping skills and wasting precious paper on something like this.

“Most likely there are several points Baal is using to try and probably push me out of the village. First would be that i can’t catch the necessary number of beasts in the required time and probably the location pointed out has something specific about it.” Asur said and grinned. “If he wants to ruin his tribe, who am i to stop him, as long as i take Adsila with me i don’t care.” he muttered and walked directly towards the place indicated on the map.

Different from before, Asur has much better control of his bloodline power and within his body could almost freely control it. Because of this, he could control the output he improved his senses. He focused on smell, touch and hearing improving them twice as much as his normal hearing. He has experimented to the limit and gauged how well each sense improves depending on how much power he focused.

The sense of touch allows him to feel the air currents around him through his hair, while the other two are more straightforward.

He didn’t hunt near the village since most of the animals were weak or young. He directly ran on the ground, rushing several kilometers without feeling tired. He was like a feline, each step was soft and never left visible tracks. Only if someone tried to follow his scent would they be able to keep up but it would need something equal to a dog to follow.

When he reached the place, he found a grassland with much more dispersed trees. Focusing his eyes he checked all around including the air. All he saw was a giant hawk as big as a man high in the sky and far off in a river when he saw a giant fish jump out.

“This seems to be the place.” He muttered and took his bow and a knife before making a very distinct mark on a nearby tree like he had been doing. Every mark followed the bark and only he knew to tell the difference.

After he marked his trail he turned to the river and began running along the treeline hidden from the hawk. Of course, he didn’t hope to be fully hidden since the eyes of bird of prey could already see several kilometer from the sky on earth, if it was here then there was obviously going to be improvements.

For now he wanted to examine the environment but was surprised when he reached near the river and followed it only a little down. He found an entire herd of massive bulls.

On earth, bulls usually aren’t any bigger than 2 meters, this is already a big one mind you. Their height from feet to back are generally equal to human height. These beasts on the other hand were true monsters. Looking around, there seemed to be a hierarchy. At the center of the herd was a 4 meter tall golden bull and around him were many deep yellow ones which ranged from 3.5 to 3 meters tall. The rest were under 3 meters and had a dull yellow color.

Around the herd were muscular male bulls with shiny horns guarding the herd while the females and calf were freely walking about the middle between the king bull and the guards.

“Hmm, i guess the gatekeeper didn’t lie, these animals are clearly smarter than those on earth.” he muttered to himself while hiding in the trees and bushes.

There was a clear hierarchy between the king, the guards and the common people among the herd. Since the bulls were smart as humans, they also acted differently to the common bull which would run away.

Asur walked on all fours as he hid in the tall grass and reached some very tall trees. It wasn’t any nonsense choice either, using his sense of touch he felt the wind flow to find which way was downwind and then looking at the sun, he choose to have the sun to his back.

Like a monkey, he scaled the tree half way and crouched on the trunk. The thickness of the trunk couldn’t compare to the ancient forest tree but these trees were still several meters thick but these species seem to fight for space so the surrounding trees were mostly dead besides its own kind.

Hiding in the trees, Asur looked around assessing his surroundings and used his enhanced sight to measure all his surroundings and rapidly mapped possible escape routes.

When he finished, he looked at the bulls. Different from earth bulls and bovine, these bulls were much stronger. This much was obvious simply by their size and their intelligence. That said, what was very distinct was their thick bones. The horns were an easy show of how powerful it was but it spurred Asur on because as he looked at those horns he saw something different.

“If I could get those horns, if what i thought is true, how good would they be!?” he thought as he began to look at the closest herd guards.

Close to 200 meters away. A composite bow on earth has a range of around 30 to 55 meters. This is to be able to achieve the effective kill range by arrow speed x kinetic energy transferred. That said, this world had a single variable which changed everything.

He cautiously pulled out an arrow and pulled the bow. He aimed up, the sun at his back blocked the vision of the herd and he aimed at a small opening in the branches. He moved ever so slowly while his hair on his body was standing up feeling the wind. Slowly he turned just slightly the bow and released the arrow.

WOOSH!

The arrow flashed out like lightning but it had a faint dull red glow surrounding it. This glow was spinning like a drill dispersing the wind and giving the arrow a rotation as it flew fast.

BOOOOO!

A pained cry came the next moment and Asur smiled. The arrow had accurately pierced the front legs joint. The arrow was stuck half way through and crippled the joint.

He pulled out another arrow and launched it while the bull thrashed about.

Pa!

The arrow hit his chest but amazingly the arrow head barely penetrated.

At that moment the surrounding bulls surged over and blocked the view.

Asur pulled another arrow and kept watching. The crowd of bulls became frantic but a loud bellow from the golden bull made them spread out. They didn’t run and instead they began to search for who was the cause. Asur was close to 20 meters into the air hidden by leaves and branches as well as being downwind. Even if they followed the direction of the arrow came from by looking at the arrows themselves, it would be hard to find him since he had rubbed many leaves on his armor to hide his scent.

He watched as the bulls helped up the crippled guard bull. Its eyes were red and held a helplessness in them as it cried. That said, Asur was never one to be merciful unless he needed to. As it was a battle of survival he quietly pulled the arrow and just as the bull turned and arrow whistled out. The speed was too fast to react as the arrow plunged into its large eye straight into the brain.

It bellowed before its body collapsed. A lot of blood gushed out and its body began to twitch until it breathed its last breath.

BOOO!

The golden bull roared in anger. Without being able to guess what was going on it bellowed and turned away. The herd began to move away from this dangerous spot but with a snort some strong yellow bulls remained.

The herd left and those bulls began to dig.

WOOSH!

Its ears perked up and it lifted its head only for an arrow to hit where it was but the next moment another just behind it came and stabbed right into the ear. The bull bellowed and turned towards the trees but it was almost like Asur could see the future as a faint glowing red arrow appeared at just the place where the head of the bull positioned itself like it was putting itself in the line of fire and the arrow stabbed into the eye of the bull.

Thick red blood gushed out of the ear and eye. The pain it was in made it want to pull out the arrows and it went mad trying to remove it making its intelligence useless and nothing more than an animal in pain.

The others were fearful and suddenly turned and ran after the herd.

Asur pulled one more arrow and after aiming shot it and it hit right into the other eye putting the poor bull out of its misery.

Asur wasn’t in a hurry because he didn’t know if there were any schemes such as waiting for the culprit to appear before stampeding.

As expected, after a short while, the golden bull stormed back towards the area and only found the two dead bulls.

It sniffed the arrows before bellowing and this time leaving for real. It did not want to remain here where there was a silent killer. Even it didn’t feel safe so it brought away its herd.

After five long minutes, Asur jumped down and smiled.

“Two high quality wild bulls. I wonder how long i can eat for with this?” he thought. He grabbed the smaller of the two by the back leg and removed the arrow, the feathers were damaged but one can never have too many arrows but the ones shot into the head broke. The same for the other one.

A common bull on earth each weight 1 ton at full adult size. These much larger ones weighed more than double. The smaller of the two were over 2 tons and the larger one were over 3 tons.

Asur obviously could not pull them nearly 8 kilometers as they were. The number of beasts that would attack him would be crazy. The common way to hunt is one beast at a time. To kill two would need a hunting party but he was alone. He was forced to pull them near the trees.

He began to jump around and found many strong vines and spent the better part of 2 hours making a very thick rope and tied it around the bulls legs and then slit their throats and under their front leg pits to cut the arteries and used the vine ropes to hang them and bleed them out.

He could do nothing about the blood, which the tribe seem to see as a source of power. Though he couldn’t say it wasn’t wrong. Still, he had nothing he could go by to carry it.

“Ah…” He suddenly remembered something and raised his brow as he looked at the two bulls. “I just remembered that bovine are sacred in Hindu.” he said.

After thinking a bit he shrugged and the fact that he was sent here was probably because of these bulls which could be a sacred beast to the Asura race. He didn’t really care.

As he was waiting, he felt his Asura mark heat up when he got near the blood pool under the bulls. Curious, Asur placed his hand on the blood and suddenly a tingly feeling ran down his back and the blood began to creep up his arm and was slowly sucked into the Asura mark. His blood began to heat up as he felt his bloodline power slowly increase and thicken. It eventually got so hot he pulled his hands off the blood and he looked as the blood flowed into his mark which had an eerie red glow.

The heat slowly spread through his veins causing his body to feel a burning and soon the other asura marks lit up and seemed to absorb the excess energy for a while until it was all absorbed and stored. Then it began to spread safely through his body.

He breathed heavily as he looked at his hands. The marks were a deeper shade of red and released a glow but as he moved the bloodline power through his veins, he felt much stronger. He held his spear and slowly a faint red glow covered it.

“Could this be why the tribe eats raw meat? If it is, why don’t they just absorb the blood power from beasts like this?” he thought but then realized as his memory flashed. “Right! Their marks are all faded, maybe it's not that they don’t do it but they can’t!” he exclaimed.

Realizing this, he felt very happy to discover this. He used dirt to cover the blood so that he doesn’t react again because his body was very ‘full’ because of the blood as it was.

Soon all the blood finished dripping out so Asur cut the vine ropes and the two bodies collapsed. Before he did anything, he walked to the head and took out a sharp knife and covered it with bloodline power and struck the head at the base.

Ding!

The sound as if metal hitting metal range out. His lips part in a grin as he struck down after controlling the power and focusing it at the edges. After a short while, the four horns were cut out.

“There, now even if I have to abandon the corpses, i can keep these horns.” He muttered.

Next he piled up the two bodies and then began to use vines and bundled them up so that the bodies don’t fall or flail about. When he tried to lift it with brute strength, he found he could barely roll it but when he let the bloodline power, he found he could lift them but he was having some trouble.

Huff!

“Alright, this is training. Very dangerous training.” He said as he fixed his posture with the tied up bulls lifted on his back. He began to trek back through the dangerous forest.

***

With the sun just over the peak, the guards at the village gate were fanning themselves from the heat as they looked out in case something comes as well as to warn when hunters return.

At this moment, they were looking when a body appeared. It was a solo hunter but on his back was an incredible sight. Two massive beasts were tied up as well as a large tiger skin bundled up on the side and each movement made it jingle with some sort of item inside.

When the person got near the guards jaw dropped as he recognized Asur who left this morning. Seeing him return with such a package was amazing but when the guard looked at his body, he noticed cuts and bruises.

“Open the gate and get the healers!” the guard shouted.

Movement starred in the village as healers came out and the gates opened for Asur. He walked in with solid steps and finally dropped the bundle.

Bang!

The ground trembled under the weight of the carcass package. “Finally!” He said and stretched.

Crack! Crack!

His back popped as he stretched. All the men watched him covered in wounds yet not worried.

“Hunter, please come heal your wounds!” the healers said pulling him. He looked down and smiled wryly. He helped remove his own armor showing off the wounds better. Each of them pulsed with red energy which closed the wounds. They washed the wound making him hiss in pain before applying a medical cream. It reacts with the bloodline power and spreads. Strangely, his bloodline power intensified under the medicine and steam actually came from around the wound while blood clots began to appear and cover the wound. Soon it dried and dropped revealing a scar which slowly scarred once more.

All this happened along several minutes but every time the scab fell it took the medicine and it had to be applied again but when they stopped, there was barely any scar left, leaving everyone in awe by this godly healing ability.

“Thanks. I brought two of the five catch that the chief said for me to get. You can call him to confirm it.” He said.

He was just waiting with a smile as one of the hunters ran off. “Since you give me a way out, i will take it. I bet with an idiot like Baal as the son of the chief there have been many more and they live in the other branched villages.” he thought.

Soon the chief walked out and looked at the bundled corpses and looked at Asur. “You hunted both alone?” he asked.

“Yep, it wasn’t hard, the hard part was bringing it back. I was able to get a nice Tiger skin because of that.” Asur said and walked to the side and untied the skin. Inside were all the claws and fangs of the tiger he had butched from it while leaving the body. That said, the skin was nearly 4 meters long making the beast it came from a full adult and a powerful one at that.

“Savage claw!” Someone said making them all hiss.

They looked at the tiger skin in a daze while the chief looked at him with wide eyes. “How did you kill this?” he asked.

“How? I aimed for its weak point.” He said in a matter of fact way.

“Weak point?! The skin and bones are extremely hard, the head is even harder and the eyes are small! What kind of weak point does it have?!” the chief asked.

At this moment, Baal arrived and saw the skin and his pupils shrank.

Asur opened his mouth and pointed to the roof of his mouth. “No matter how strong the outside is, the inside is soft.” He said and pulled out his spear which was stained with blood.

Everyone turned cold as they heard this. No one had the courage to wait in front of the Savage claw’s pounce to aim their spear into its jaws much less have the strength and reaction speed to accomplish this.

At this time, Asur took a claw and used it as a knife and cut the vine which held the bundle together and cutting it, the bundle loosened up and after cutting a few more they all broke down and two large corpses sprawled down.

As the bodies spread out from its bent position, everyone exclaimed and widened their reach. “Golden bull!” someone shouted.

At once the hunters fell down and began to pray.

At once Asur smiled inwardly as he guessed right. The Asura race followed something similar to hindu religion. It’s unknown when it began but bulls are sacred animals.

In the back, Baal was in shock that Asur could kill not only one but two bulls.

“T-This is a guard and a royal guard!” someone shouted after examining the two intensely.

They drew in a cold breath.

The chief drew close to Asur, “Why!? Why did you kill this of all beasts!?” He asked.

“Why? This was the only beast in the north area your son said I had to hunt in. There were some birds but how can I reach that and i have no way to fish in the unclear waters without facing death from the unknown. All I was left with was this.” He said.

As soon as Baal was mentioned he knew what was up. His big hand struck his own face and pulled down, “Golden bull are a sacred beast to the Asura race, no matter which tribe of Asura, they are all sacred! It is a grave taboo to kill one which would draw disaster upon those who hunt them!” he said.

Hearing these words, Asur summoned the gatekey but contrary to what was being said, his karma had increased by a lot from killing them. He was only at 300 for both before but now his karma was 3,000 good karma and 1,500 bad karma.

“Father, it would be too much to kill him. Just look, he killed the Savage claw.” Baal suddenly said as if he was the voice of reason. “It would be best to simply exile him to the south tribe were the exiles live so that it doesn’t draw disaster to the village.” he said.

The chief snorted, “Shut up!” He said and almost struck his own son for wasting such an amazing hunter.

He rubbed his head.

After thinking for a while, he saw Asur smiling secretly. A cold glare filled his eyes as he looked at the chief… no, feeling his eyes, the chief knew this cold glare was aimed at his son just behind him. He was clear that Asur was far from stupid, he clearly knew this was a setup and wanted to leave, he knew he could leave because his knowledge and experience is too valuable and the village would not kill him, the seer herself would not allow it.

“Take the bodies and burn them before you tell the seer and have her prepare a ritual to ask forgiveness. As for you, Asur… you will be exiled, you and your partner. We will lead you to the exile village.” he said and sighed.

He turned around and glared at his one stupid son before walking inside.

Baal on the other hand didn’t care, he just glared and cunningly grinned at Asur before walking forward, “How does it feel… exile.” He said.

“Liberating… i don’t have to see your stupid face from now on.” Asur said quietly to him.

Baal’s face turned into a scowl, “You can keep smiling but the south will be your deathbed. The south is filled with countless beasts many times more savage than the north, east and west.” He said.

“Good, at least I won't need to hunt as much. Good luck bringing ruin to your village.” he said and walked into the village to talk with Adsila.

Her jaws dropped when she heard the news but gripped her hands and instead of feeling humiliated when people looked at her and Asur, she decided to feel proud. He could solo two golden bulls and a savage claw.

After the ritual where they burned the corpses a hunting party took Asur and Adsila away. He had packed all the tools he owned and made as well as his own weapons.

The way to the south village was quiet.

“Asur, why did you so easily fall for my son’s play?” the chief asked openly.

“It’s a very good excuse to not get targeted by him anymore. You should treat that stupid head of his before a true disaster comes your way.” Asur said equally as open.

The chief could only scowl once more but remained quiet.

Eventually they arrived at the wooden gates of a village. It was worn and large claw marks were all over the walls.

Asur and Adsila took into view the scene. Adsila felt a cold desolate feeling while Asur grinned as he looked at this scene. It was a scene which said that true warriors lived here. As long as the numbers weren’t few then it would only take a short while for him to take command and reorganize this into a proper village. After all he had much experience making nations in the virtual games he had played, all of which requires proper management.

“Open the gates!” the chief asked.

Soon a person, thick killing intent surrounded him, arrived and looked before coldly snorting. “What for?” He asked.

The chief sighed at the treatment. “These two are exiles, they will live here.” He said.

The man’s eyes turned to Asur and Adsila, “What did you do?” He asked.

“It’s Baal’s bullshit.” Asur said.

The man scowled, “Open up but fat man, don’t you dare step inside, you two only.” He said crudely to the chief. It was clear that exiles didn’t see eye to eye with the chief in the least because he sided with his stupid son.

The gates opened slightly and Asur held Adsila’s hand. Before he passed the gate he turned back, “I shall be seeing you chief.” He said and walked in.

The last look sent a chill down the chiefs spine. “Let’s go.” he said not wanting to remain here any longer.

In this form, a major thread of fate was cut off from Asur and the main tribe. A very large amount of bad karma gathered on the chief and Baal while the village was equally unlucky and also began to increase the amount of bad karma by a degree. It was unknown what it would result in though but only time will tell.