In a rundown room, a boy was seen on a bed.

"Little friend......................................... me the blood!!."

There beside him, an old man was sitting while tending to the injured boys wounds.

"................................. going to do it................"

Even thought the boy was out cold, he can hear some words. But he can not make out whole sentences.

"He's young" There was another voice beside the old man's. It was a soothing voice of a woman. It was an odd occurance as there was no one beside the old man in the room.

"...................injurie..... bad.................!! need to do it!!"

After hearing till now the boy lost the little conciousness he had and got lost in the land of dreams.

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"Big brother.... why do you act like this.?"

"I am going to get you...... hahahaha!!"

"How can somebody like you be my brother."

"Why did I become your fiance!!"

"Stop your stupid antics... you are the crown prince."

"Grow up!!.................."

*Gasp*................."huh!!"

The boy named Leo waked up!.... he was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, seeing that he was on the bed in the same tree house, he calmed his breath.

"Just a dream!!.... this was just a dream!"

After calming down, Leo checked his wounds and to his surprise even though he was covered with bandage, he couldn't feel any pain. The old man was not seen inside the room.

After looking around he found the in a cornor the little fox was sitting with a bowl in front of it.

As if noticing the gaze, the little fox got up and seeing that Leo was up shifted the bowl towards him.

"kyun!!...kyu!!" As if saying eat it, the ltiile fox stared towards leo with it's big eyes.

Understanding what the fox wanted Leo got up and took the bowl and started eating/drinking the regular mushroom soup.

"Sorry friend... I made you worry" while rubbing his one hand on the fox head, Leo kept drinking his soup.

After finishing his soup, Leo thought of walking out, for some reason he was not tired at all, instead he felt full of energy, his senses were sharper.

'Is this one of those things ............. Getting stronger after deathly situation?'

Taking the little fox in his hand he got out of the room only to find the old man cutting the wood.

"I would have defeated it, if you would had allowed me to take my sword with me!!"

The old man didn't replied..... he only looked toward Leo for a moment before continuing his chore.

"Old man!! at least don't ignore me... it was not my mistake that a thing like that showed up during my hunt."

"Go and ...... briing the water." The voice of the old man was shrilly than usual. Even though he was chopping wood like nothing. anybody would be able to tell that the condition of Daikran was not good at all.

Noticing the old man's condition, Leo got worried and got over to Daikran while taking away the axe.

"Geezer!! what are you doing.... you don't look so good!! did you strain yourself to kill that thing?"

After sitting on the ground the old man while looking towards the ground." Nothing to worry... I just forced my old bones to do something I shouldn't have!!............ you go and start your training after bringing some water... I will go rest for a while."

Daikran got up and went into the room, when all this was happening the little fox didn't say anything as if understanding the reason.

While seeing the figure of the old man disappearing in the gate, Leo got depressed.

'Because of me!! he forced himself..... If I was stronger this didn't have happened' Leo was starting to blame himself.

'If I was a bit stronger... those men wouldn't have died to protect me.'

'If I was a bit stronger.. I wouldn't be forced by some petty banditss inside this forest.'

'If I was a bit stronger... the old man wouldn't have strained himself to save me.'

'If I was stronger.... I could get out of this forest with the old man easily'

He was only a 14yr old boy..... he didn't know if it was possible to get out of this forest, but having hope for something wouldn't be bad.

"I don't deserve to rest....." while removing his bandages in anger of his weakness Leo moved towards the old tree.

in his hurry he forgot to notice the big cross shaped scar on his chest.

Entering the room he fond the old man sleeping on the bed. He looked around , as if searching for something.

'A weapon.... a powerful weapon!! geezer definitely was a monster when he was young.... he definitely had a weapon.'

The little fox understanding the thoughts of Leo got under the bed on which Daikran was sleeping and dragged out waht looked like a scabbered with a old looking sword attached to it.

'This is a sword?'

The weapon didn't look like an average sword... it was not a great sword... claymore.... dagger etc.

After taking the sword up... Leo felt that it was very light considering it's size.

"Wait a minute.... "

Remembering something, Leo ran out of the tree house with the little fox in tow. He didn't notice that all this time the old man was awake and just pretending to sleep.

***************************************

"This is a katana!!.....a real katana!!..... the old man comes from east??... he didn't looked like it"

Katana was a common weapon in the eastern countries Leo had heard stories of warriors wielding Katanas fighting off dragons and hunting demon kings, Leo's family even had a Katana in his home..... there were various variations in Katanas.... but being a small kid, he didn't knew what the long short katana in his had can be signified as.

After distancing himself from the tree, Leo removed the sword from it's scabbered.

The Katana looked dark... as if all the light was sucked in it giving it a very sinister look, on the handle there was some odd words were written that Leo cannot understand.

"Little friend show me the way!!"

Loosing himself in the beauty of the sword, Leo ordered the little fox.

"Kyun!!"

After nodding with it's big eyes.. the little fox starting walking in a single direction.

While still glaring at the Katana, Leo got a creepy smile on his face that even he wasn't aware of.

This time it didn't take time for him to reach the place filled with undeads... there were atleast 20 undeads walking like they had lost something important to them.

"Thank you!!"

After getting in their vicinity and noticing the amount of the undeads. The creepy smile on Leo's face got even big.

"COME YOU ROTTEN PIECES OF MEAT!!!!" Leo shouted with all his might attracting the attention of all the undeads in the surrounding.

This time he didn't waited for the undead to come close to him.... he ran towards them while pointing the katana in the front with both his hand.

When he got close to the first undead... he quickly slashed at the head ... severing it in one go...

He didn't wait around. Kicking of the gorund he junped toward the undead on his side wile punching it with all his might.

The katana was not big, it was easy to carry it with one hand, as the udead fall down on the ground, in a vary swift manner, Leo slashed towards it's neck.

He was not showing the barbaric techniques he used when he first fought the undeads. AS now all his slashes and stabs were on point without using any magic.

While jumping and rolling on the ground... he got close to the undeads one by one and killed them off with one slash. He didn't even gave the undeads a chance to fight back. He kept changing directions and killing one undead after another.

No one was able to say he was the same prince 2 yrs ago or even 1 month ago when he came to hunt for ears.

He started to make an odd habbit of not getting any of the dark blood on his body... even after cutting and slicing so much.. there was not a drop of blood on the sword. the Katana looked like it was drinking on the blood and pulsating with every kill.

Leo didn't notice the odd behaviour of the Katana, he immersed himself in killing.

When he killed off all the undeads in the vicinity.

"More!!......Kyubi!! birng me to them!!"

Ordering the little fox again, Leo started moving forward. The lite fox somewhat scared followed Leo's order and started showing him the way.

After some more time.. Leo found himself surrounded by skeletons with weapons in their hands... it was already dark and dangerous undead come out at this time... but it didn't mattered to Leo!!.

Not waiting for the skeleton soldiers to act.

"oh great light!!.. bless my sword with your blessings" the dark sword had a white hue shining on it, he enhanced it with holy magic.

He ran toward the group closest to him and slashed it... to his surprise the skeleton soldier parryed his strike.

"So you got some fight in you!!"

Not taking back his sword.. Leo jumped and striked with all his might on the skeleton's sword which resulted in the sword and body of the skeleton to be dissected in two.

*Swip!!...*Swish *Puchi!!

from the groups back 3 skeletons archers shot arrowrs in succession, out of which on hit right on Leo's leg.

Felling a bit pain , Leo broke the Arrow in his leg and again started to fight madly with the skeletons.

If they stabbed 3 times.. then Leo striked 15 times.... in each exchange he was able to come out victorious... but also sustaining some injuries.

WHen he whittled down the numbers of skeleton to 0... There were a lot of cuts and arrows on his back and chest.

"More!!.....MORE KYUBI!!"

Leo ordered the small fox again!! The small fox was already worried and hearing 'More' again made it more scared.

"More my ass!!"

Striking with the back of his hand on Leo's neck, made Leo loose conciousness.

"Stupid fatty" holding the falling body Daikran took the sword from Leo's hand.

Leo's expression was in pain... it looked like he wanted to hunt more.

"You are not ready for this cursed thing right now... wait and until you are older!!"

Throwing Leo's body on his shoulder and taking the little fox in his hand... Daikran moved towards his house..

***************************************

"Henrich!! I will kill that bastard myself....!! he took away my son"

The death of the prince and the reason of death was not a secret anymore in the royal family. SO similarly the Queen-come-adventurer Angelica wanted to hunt the culprit herself!!.

"I already knew you couldn't be stopped!! so you are going to lead the army to raid his dukedom!!.. there are soldiers from the empire their too.. so it's better to have you as a fighting force"

Not saying anything else the King got back to his job and similarly the anger in the queen eyes simmered down.

***************************

In a faraway palace.

A man with his family was eating dinner. He had a grave expression on his face but to not make his family worried, acted like nothing was wrong.

"Father I learned the fire spells at elementry level!!."

While smiling, the man cheered his daughter.

He looked towards his family and the man standing in the cornor of the room.

'Well this is what I get!!'