Chapter 9

As the ruddy glow of day changed into the star-filled night Jason listened to the nightlife. He noticed the sound of night wasn't that different from Earth's. He could hear crickets and even spotted a few lightning bugs flitting between trees. He thought it odd two entirely different planets had some similar animals. He thought about that for a while then looked to the sky full of stars and the moons.

He still couldn't get used to there being two moons in the night sky. They felt dreamlike and unreal hanging in the sky as they did. They drove home the fact this wasn't Earth.

Jason wondered if he was in a coma and this was all a dream. He thought he might just suddenly wake up. He thought about the pain the shackles had given him. That pain felt VERY real. How could that have been a dream? He knew he had to accept it.

He looked back down from the starry night sky and over at his companions. All of them had fallen asleep at this point.

Prisha had fallen asleep leaning against a bar. She had a look of irritation on her face, seemingly not comfortable leaning against the metal. She had fallen asleep shortly after the meal.

Angela was curled into the fetal position. She still showed her true feeling in her sleep. The young girl may have seemed to come alive at the thought of escape, but in her sleep she couldn't hide her true feelings. The pretty young lass had fear etched into her face as she slept.

Samire had his back to Jason and lay on his side. He was on the other side of the cage and Jason could see the rise and fall of his breathing. Jason's night vision was better than most now, but he could still only see such detail up to 10 feet away.

The fires had died down leaving only a few embers. The camp was mostly dark.

Jason noticed a few shadows moving at the edge in the clearing. Night watch no doubt. He thought as he continued watching. He wanted to understand their habits better. He would need the info soon.

As night dragged on and Jason thought he found a pattern and noticed their shifts he came to the conclusion it would be hard to break out of this camp unnoticed.

It might become a chase. But how are we supposed to outrun them? He didn't want to think about it but he had. He didn't have much hope in their escape plan. He looked at Angela and Prisha. He remembered Angela having trouble keeping up on the hour walk from where they came to this world.

He also looked at Prisha's feet. She had removed her "shoes" to relieve her pain. Her feet had multiple bruised areas and blisters. He thought about her running in those shoes from these men. He didn't want to think about it.

He gave up thinking about their situation for now. They had to try. There was nothing to lose.

He closed his eyes and resumed meditation. Meditation was the way to increase his cultivation speed and he had to master it. He was much better off now with the techniques from his inheritance etched into his mind, but he needed practice.

He dove into that inner world and began operating the Dragon's breath technique.

In truth, Dragon's Breath was always working. Even while doing something else, the technique drew in qi and natural power slowly polishing and growing his fire core and adding purified qi to his dantian. It was just slow. Meditation accelerated that process.

While meditating he could also contemplate on his soul and mind. Slowly polishing the two as well. The soul was an important part of the human cultivator. Without its power he would have trouble controlling the qi he drew into his body. He wouldn't able to use the power like an extension of himself. He would also have trouble gathering qi and natural power quickly and integrating it into the core, dantian and the stream that coursed through his body.

He was in a world all his own. Outside influence did not distract him anymore. He did his best to use the Dragon's breath technique to its utmost. He drew qi and natural power in faster. Slowly but surely the process picked up speed. Hours crept by.

He could still tell he was falling short of perfection and by a large margin. The speed should be much greater than this. The stream was moving much faster now but the information he had in his head told him Dragon's Breath was much greater than this. As he operated Dragon's Breath he found it much harder to control as he sped things up.

He continued increasing the speed anyways. The stream was like a path of shooting stars and light in his mind's eye. It snaked around his body following odd paths. The paths were all predetermined by the dragon's breath technique and Jason guided the stream along those paths.

Faster and faster. Qi and natural energy flowed in at an ever-increasing pace.

He watched in delight as his core formed faster. He had reached 15 percent completion. His punches and kicks could now carry some natural force. He could send some of his qi through the still not finished core and incorporate that energy into his strikes.

He could start a fire with nothing but his hands right now. That wasn't impressive but what if he used that power while punching someone's face. The burns would be pretty horrible. Not to mention the force of his punch. The qi and fire energy would make his punches and kicks truly dangerous.

The amount of fire element he could use much was not much though. The core was still fragile. Not much energy had accumulated in It. Forcing too much qi through it could damage it. Damaging the core could set him back. He would have to start reforming a new core. If he passed FAR too much through he could actually permanently be unable to form that core. Without all of his mortal cores he would never be able to even begin forming his dan cores.

As Jason marvelled at his increased speed in forming the core and his intake of qi he suddenly felt pain in his chest. It was a sharp pain.

He stopped pushing the dragon's breath so hard and immediately slowed down, coming to a slow steady and natural pace.

Jason knew what the pain meant. He was sick with worry. It was him rushing too much. He had deviated the stream from its path. He hadn't meant to do it, but the speed of the stream had increased far too much. His concentration had slipped and his soul had trouble controlling the power.

In a way, his qi had picked up inertia and power as its speed increased. Jason noticed an increase in power when this happened, but he felt his control of that power slip. The stream deviated and the qi stream passed through a part of his chest it was not supposed to.

Jason used his spirit sense to investigate the damage when he got the stream back under control. It was as if the cells had aged. They seemed withered. He understood. The had bathed in too mucj qi and had been fried with pure life force. He felt a cold sweat.

This could have been worse. I need to be damn carefull!

He was very lucky. He had only deviated slightly and the damage would heal quickly. He knew that cultivators could kill themselves with their own power, but he had charged ahead anyway. The thought scared him. He knew it was a possibility but he didn't think it could happen to him. Not so soon.

Jason thought about it and realised where he went wrong.

Thought you were a genius huh? Thought you were some badass right? Well you're not. You're just a normal guy. You're the dumbass who got caught by slavers. Don't overreach yourself fool.

Jason wanted to kick himself. He was getting sloppy. He was rushing and he was being stupid.

He opened his eyes eyes and looked back up at the start sky. Resolve filled his eyes and he lowered his head. He closed his eyes once again and resumed operating Dragon's breath.

This time he took a moderate speed. He actually noticed that the purity of the qi added to his dantain was better now. He once again wanted to kick himself. He had been rushing so much he had even got sloppy purifying the qi. His qi stream had picked up impurities.

Jason would have to spend extra time purifying his stream. It would slow him down.

There was nothing he could do about it. He treated it as a lesson learned and began slowly purifying the stream and dantian. The process took half the night and wasted much time, but he was happy to finally have an almost pristine and pure dantian and qi stream.

The impurities left were the ones he was too unskilled to remove just yet and where not because of his blunder. He couldn't perfectly clean the qi he pulled in currently. He had to practice the dragon's breath more and master it. He also needed to work on his soul's ability to controll qi and natural power.

After he had finished cleaning up his own mistake and begun operating the dragon's breath without distraction for a few hours he felt a hand on his shoulder shaking him.

Jason opened his eyes and found himself face to face with Samire. He smiled and held out bread and water to Jason.

"You meditate a lot.... That is what you're doing right?" Samire asked with an odd look on his face.

Jason nodded. "My grandfather taught me. It's pretty effective at calming the mind and resting the body."

Samire pointed to the camp and noted "They are preparing to set out on the road. I wonder how they handle the cages."

Samire's answer came shortly. The group was ordered from the cage and then one of the bandits touched a part of the cage. To the shock of the small group the cage started folding in on itself. The effect was eerie.

The group was brought to a carriage with an open top and told to board. In between the two rows of seats there was a bar. When getting on the carriage the chains of their shackles were passed around it. The bar was then locked and secured. Unless they could destroy the bar or remove their hand there would be no escape.

The carriage bumped along all day. It only stopped for lunch where the bandits simply started a fire on the side of the road to heat food and left their prisoners on the carriage. Bread was thrown to the prisoners to eat with another waterskin.

Jason quickly ate and closed his eyes to meditate again. He had not time. He only had one day to cultivate. He hoped he could form another 5 percent of his fire core today. If he could do that his confidence in escaping would increase. It was distracting to bump along the road like they where but at least it was better than nothing.

As the day passed Jason avoided talking and doing much of anything besides meditating and internalizing a martial art his inheritance contained. It was one that could be trained at his current low level. He wouldn't be able to use most of its mystical power just yet but the basics of the martial art didn't require large amounts of power.

Dragon's Fist was a tricky martial art. Its strikes were tyrannical and fierce, seeming like meteors at times. Or the strikes could be like a serpent and they would wrap around and strike at odd locations and angles.

The most fearsome part of the martial arts technique is the hidden claw.

As he currently was, using the claw was dangerous. His body was not very strong yet. The stress of using the claw portion of the martial art "dragon's fist" was too much for the joints in his hand.

All of the power and force of the strike would be concentrated on his fingers and that was too much. He might break or shatter his figures as they currently were. He needed to wash his bones more before trying. He needed to train his body.

As day turned to night the carriages came to a stop and the bandits began setting up camp. The slaves were put in cages again and the camp calmed for the night. These bandits seemed very experienced at setting up and breaking camp.

After another meal, the camp began preparation for night watch shifts and sleep.

Everyone looked at Angela and then their gazes looked to Darek who sat 15 feet away at a dying fire with a few bandits drinking. The man had a way with buttering people up Jason had to admit to himself. He watched as Darek slapped another man on the back and shook with low laughter.

Jason hated the big man. He had been a problem from the very beginning. The big man was arrogant and aggressive.

Jason took a second to wonder if Angela could do this. If they were discovered attempting to take the device from Darek the escape plan would end instantly.

He put his worries away as the group all nodded to one another and the plan started. Everyone besides Angela took up sleeping positions and closed their eyes. If everyone in the group was watching like it was a big show Angela would have a hard time convincing Darek something shady wasn't going on.

After they all settled into their spots and began taking the slow rhythmic breaths of the sleeping Angela looked over to Darek and called him over carefully to receive as little attention from the other bandits as she could.

As Darek noticed Angela beckoning to him he stood and approached. There was a wobble to the man's gait and the he smelled like alcohol. Angela fought back a grin at the smell.

"What do you want." Darek said with arrogance. "You want a piece of daddy here?" Darek thought his own words funny and laughed. He was past trying to be seen as the hero anymore.

Angela showed an embarrassed look and lowered her head. She opened her mouth and said in a voice only audible to those very close to her. "Maybe."

Darek stood in place for a second shock evident on his face. Then a slippery smile greased it's way onto his face and he stepped forward.

"Ooohhh is that so? What you couldn't resist any more?" He seemed to be enjoying the exchange but even in his drunk state, he wasn't buying the flip in Angela's behavior. She had not ever shown hostility to him but she was part of this group of people and obviously this group didn't like him. He was drunk but not sloppily so.

Angela showed an expression of being called out on something and then stammered "No. Well yes. No. What I mean is." A blush furiously spread on her face. She was extremely adorable. She knew just what bottoms to push.

Darek was stunned by the look. He stood in place for a full 5 seconds before a smile inched onto his face and he took one long step towards the cage and planted himself nearly against the bars.

He looked Angela up and down before saying "What are you up to girly? You seducing me? Why?"

Angela's blush deepened and she seemed to have trouble speaking the words. She mumbled in a voice barely audible to Darek.

"I need your protection." She seemed ashamed.

Dareks eyes lit with ill-concealed glee. He leaned against the bars with a savage grin on his face.

Angela stepped closer on her side and whispered in a voice noone else could hear besides Darek.

"If I take the leaders deal I will be in a camp full of men. I will be in combat. I'm a woman." She phased and then continued. "I need a man to look after me. The two men here," she gestured to the 2 young men in the cage with her. "Won't be enough to protect me." She seemed desperate.

She lowered her head so that Darek couldn't see her face. Her shoulders shook. She trembled like a kitten. She was absolutely adorable. She seemed weak and powerless. Her hand shook as it reached out and grabbed the edge of his armor.

Darek swallowed back saliva and a foolish grin spread his lips. His posture relaxed even more and he said "So you need a big tough guy to protect you? What do I get in return? I'm sure the job is dangerous. Just think about it. I have to protect you from this camp full of vicious men? Very dangerous. Very dangerous indeed."

His posture was sloppy and his words slurred a few times as he said it. He continued. "I wonder what these men would do to you if they could?"

Angela's shaking intensified. She looked up into Darek's eyes and begged. "Please don't let that happen. I can be useful. I can be good." She pasted herself against him from her side of the bars.

Darek smile was demonic and oddly foolish as well. He reached through the bars and grabbed a handful of Angela's ass. She trembled and seemed to panic for a split second before freezing in place.

"You understand my meaning I'm sure. When you're a good girl I'll treat you well. Noone will harm you as long as I'm protecting you."

Angela fought back the urge to spit on him and smiled at him. She started talking. "So when I join tomorrow you will protect me. I can be good. I can be a good girl. I know what to do. I think."

The two people had been slowly getting closer to each other the entire time. They had started leaning against each other at one point. Darek seemed full of vigour and like a wolf about to pounce. While Angela seemed like a lamb sent for slaughter.

This suited Darek's sensibilities just fine. Darek began to whisper what he considered smooth talk into Angela's ears as his hand which hadn't left her butt, caressed her cheeks.

The fabric of her jeans was thin and tight. She could feel his hands perfectly. She fought back the urge to puke. She was disgusted by this big man. He smelled like sweat and horse shit. His smile was greasy and disgusting, but she had to maintain the facade.

She took a step back after a few minutes of Darek's self-perceived "suave" pick up artistry and said "I have to sleep. Tomorrow morning come and get me. I'll accept the boss's deal. After that I'm your woman. That's the deal. You have to treat me well." She blushed at her own words.

Darek chuckled in a disgusting manner.

"Hehe don't worry I will take very good care of you." He emphasized the word very and chuckled again.

Angela lay in the corner and curled up in a ball.

Darek eyed her plump butt and drooled a bit. After a while he wiped his drool and wandered back to the camp fire.

Back in the cage Angela smiled a wicked little smile as she gripped an object in her hand.

The plan had started in earnest. If they were caught now everything would be over before it began. They had started down the path of no return.