First Battle

It was midnight. At this time of the day, most of the people in an average populated town were asleep. The streets were very cold, empty and silent. It was so silent that even a dog’s barks couldn’t be heard. But weirdly enough, a weapon shop still has its light on. Inside the weapon shop, a burly middle-aged man was polishing his one of his swords with a serious expression. He, then looked at the weapon he picked up in the morning. It was very dirty and rusty. He was debating on whether he should throw the weapon. He finally decided that he would throw it tomorrow morning.

Casade Town, South of Alzemann Kingdom

In a certain cart, two black haired boys could seen sleeping soundly on the cart. The cart driver was driving leisurely when one of the black haired boy woke up and asked,”Are we there yet?”

The cart driver replied,”Yeah. Very near. Do you have your identity passes?”

“Identity passes? But we are Heroes, right?”, Xie asked while Ren was still asleep.

“Heroes?! Do you have any evidence?”, the cart driver asked. He wasn’t being rude. He just asked it because it was natural to ask. After all, there are many scammers present who are faking as Heroes.

“Evidence? We do have a card. Will this work?”, Xie asked while showing a card printed in gold. Before leaving the palace, Xie and Ren were given these cards.

The cart driver looked closely at the card and said,” Forgive me if I was being rude. Where would you like to travel after reaching Casade Town?”

“Eh? Just reaching the Casade Town is more than enough?”

The cart driver smiled at Xie and said,”It’s not a big trouble for me even to tour you Heroes to this whole Alzemann Kingdom. But it’s a huge trouble for me if the Demon King destroys this huge kingdom.”

Xie understood what the cart driver was intending to say. Although, the Heroes get certain privileges across the whole world, they have their own insecurities and dangers. For this, the civilians will try their best to help them. Xie was surprised to see this kind of mentality among citizens.

“Then, I won’t hold back. Is there any good weapon shop in the town?”, Xie asked. After leaving the palace, Xie decided that he himself would train Ren. And for Ren to get strong, he needed to get a weapon. Though, learning magic is an alternative. Xie was against it.

After half an hour, the cart stood beside a weapon shop. Xie and Ren get off the cart.

“Take your time, I will wait for you.”, the cart driver said.

Ren and Xie nodded after which they entered the shop. Though, they decided that they will get a weapon. They didn’t decide on ‘weapon’.

“Welcome, customers! What weapon do you want?”, a blonde haired girl greeted us.

“Uhh...which weapon do you want?”, Xie asked Ren.

“What are my choices?”, Ren asked back.

“Hwando, Liuyedao, Sabre, Talwar, Katana, Spear, Small sword, Ruler, Haladie, Zweihaender, Sho-”, Xie was cut off.

“Stop! Which one is recommended for me?”, Ren asked. Beside them, the blonde haired girl was smiling awkwardly.

“Spear and longbow”, Xie said seriously.

“Reasons?”, Ren asked curiously.

“Spear has both offense and defense and longbows can be lethal weapons depending on its use.”

“Then, spear. Though, I wanted a cool sword.”, Ren replied.

“Can you show us the best spears you have?”, Xie said as he turned to the blond haired girl. Xie and Ren didn’t worry about the price of the spear because they were given enough coins from the palace.

“Please come this way.” They followed the girl and soon got to the 2nd floor where spears were kept for sale.

“These are our best spears. If you finish selecting a spear, go to the man sitting there”, the blonde haired girl said as she pointed to a middle aged man who was polishing a spear.

Xie nodded after which the girl left. Xie was looking for a suitable spear for Ren while Ren was looking a spear which looked cool.

“What kind of spear do you want, child?”, the middle aged man asked.

“I want a spear which is light but not fragile, hard at its edges but sharp, long but not beyond my height.”, Xie replied seriously.

“I see. Let me look for it.”, the middle aged man said as he got up from his chair with the spear he was polishing in his hand.

Xie’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the spear in the man’s hand. The spear perfectly matched his criterion but it’s very rusty and dirty. So dirty, that more than ninety percent of the spear was painted in brown.

“Can I see the spear for a moment?”, Xie asked.

“Ah...it’s rusted. I can get you a better one.”, the middle aged said as he handed over the spear to Xie.

!!

“This…”, Xie eyes narrowed, He noticed that the letter ‘W’ was printed in the handle of the spear.

“Sir, I want to buy this one.”, Xie said. The middle aged man as well Ren was shocked at him.

“Broth-”, Ren was about to refute when Xie said, “This spear is the best you can get. I will explain everything later.”

Ren obediently nodded his head.

“Are you sure?”, the middle aged man said.

“Yes. What is its price?”, Xie asked.

“I haven’t decided on its price since I was about to throw this spear today. But it seems like this spear got its owner. You can take it for free.”, the man said as he smiled.

“Then, I will do as you wish.”, Xie smiled and soon after Ren and Xie bid goodbye to the man.

Getting out of the shop, they saw the cart stood at its place. The cart driver seeing them asked,”Where is your next destination, Heroes?”

“Is there any isolated field nearby? Even a forest would work.”, Xie replied as he and Ren get to the cart.

“There is a nearby forest but I can’t enter the forest. I will wait for you at this town.”, the cart driver said.

“Hm? Then, please take us there.”, Xie said.

“Here you go.”, the cart driver said as he started driving.

Inside the cart, Ren asked a serious question,”Is this some kind of divine spear?”

“No. It’s normal.”, Xie replied seriously.

“...”

Ren was about to go mad when Xie added,”But it has been used by a divine person.”

“Woah! Then, why did you its normal?”, Ren asked after heaving a sigh of relief.

“Because it is. This is one of the thousands of spears used by the 28th War God from the Yang family.”, Xie replied lazily.

“Huh? War God? Yang Family? Who are those?”, Ren asked with a confused face.

“You won’t understand even if I tell you. The point is that this spear might have the War God’s soul remains. And I think you have read enough wuxia novels to know what soul remains means, right?”, Xie said while smirking.

“Soul remains?!!...Indeed…”, Ren said with a excited face.

While the two of them were conversing, they reached the forest entrance. They get off from the cart and started walking inside the forest. After few minutes, they finally found a place suitable for training. Without wasting anymore time, Xie said,”Look closely”. Ren nodded.

Xie went near a huge tree, took a stance, pushed the spear through his left hand with his right hand until his hands met.

Creak!

A small hole could be seen in the bark of the tree. Xie turned to Ren who was seriously looking and said,”You have to this. This is a basic long strike.”

“Huh? That’s boring! What about the mighty spear dance?”, Ren complained.

“Ren...if you are thinking that you will turn super OP after I teach you something ‘cool’, then you better forget about becoming strong. You have to grow by yourself. Oh..and I forgot to mention one thing. I have some business to do. So, you have to train here by yourself.”

Ren was stumped at his words. “B-but how will I survive here?!”, Ren asked with a loud voice.

“There are beasts around.”, Xie said.

“Huh? That makes my survival chance less than zero!”

“What? Can you not cook?”

“Cook what?”

“Beasts. What else?”

“...”

“Anyways, goodbye. I will be waiting for you at the Heroes’ Festival.”, Xie said as he disappeared in air.

*Ren’s POV*

Fu*k you!! How am I supposed to survive in this forest??! Should I go back? Yes, of course. Do I even need ask that? But what about my training? Nah, let it be. There are other places I can train.

I picked up my bag and took the spear in my hand. I looked at the spear and wondered,’ Is this really a spear used by a divine person?’ But that’s none of my concern right now. While I was heading back to the entrance of the forest, I heard a scream,” AHHHH!!”

Eh? That sounds like a little girl. I cautiously walked at the direction of the scream and saw a girl of not more than five years old hugging the bark of a tree while a wolf-like beast slowly walked towards her. Seeing it, I quickly hid behind the bushes.

Heh…I am scared…..Although, I trained my body, I am still far away even from an unranked knight. And why is this scene happening in front of me…? I am not a protagonist neither a sidekick. I am just a common man who has his priorities first. Should I escape while I still have time? B-but what is this feeling…? I don’t believe that its guilt….No! Its not guilt! Rather, a huge burden of responsibilities…..I laughed dryly at my own thinking….While, I was having such thoughts, the spear I was carrying fell from my hands.

Thump!

The sound of the spear falling was crystal clear. The wolf-like beast’s eyes were now fixed at my direction. Then, the beast started walking at my direction. My heart skipped a beat at the first step the beast took while walking in my direction. My face became white and sweaty from the thought that my death is near…..Heh….what should I do?....Running won’t help since I’m not as agile as the beast….and forget about fighting……My skin will be ripped off the moment I get up….Will I die just like this….? Or should I fight to my death…? Forget it….either way, I’m gonna die….. The distance between the beast and me was less than half meter. But as I was hiding behind a thick bush, the beast still can’t see me. Hahaha….You can’t see me…..The beast then took one more step. I closed my eyes as I accepted my death….

But just as the beast was about to take one more step, a small stone hit his head. The wolf looked back. There stood the girl with tears in her eyes, gritting her white teeth and stood there shaking….

“E-eat me if you can. Do-don’t bully others!”, the little girl shouted with tears in her eyes.

The beast howled at her and reversed his direction. I looked at girl while sitting motionlessly. My mind is in complete chaos right now. There was a girl who was more than thrice my age saved my life and will die within a few minutes. Though, fear could be seen in her eyes, she neither ran away nor has any intentions of giving up her life. I broke up…..Hot tears slowly ran down my cold face…..Why is an adult like me crying….? Is it because of fear? Is it because the girl’s bravery and courage exceeds mine? Or is it because of the gratefulness I am feeling towards the girl for saving my life…? No….the reason is simple. It’s because of shame….

I don’t think I can show my face to others if I let the little girl die just like this….If she dies, I will die with her….I bitterly laughed at my own thoughts. I wiped my tears off my face, slapped my cheeks two times, fixed my eyes on the beast that was moving towards the little girl and grabbed the spear with my right hand. I got up from the bushes slowly without any sound. I made my first step. The little girl looked at me with confusion. I held my spear with my left hand, took a deep breath and started walking towards the beast that was right in front of me. The distance between me and the beast closed up from 9 meter to 1.5 meter. The more distance between us closed up, the more petrified I became. Many thoughts came into my mind. Even at this moment, my mind is telling me to run away…..but I couldn’t do so because of the little girl’s eyes. Even though, she was showing me signs to run away, her eyes was telling the opposite. I don’t know if I should become glad at the fact that someone is expecting me to save his/her life.

After the distance between us was one meter, I prepared to attack at the next step. But, suddenly the beast turned around. It was probably due to the shadow and my footsteps. My heart skipped a beat looking at hungry wolf’s face. F*ck! It’s do or die. I took a basic stance. Pointed the spear towards the beast, and pushed it with the help of both the hands. Damn! This won’t work!! The most this can do is a stratch…..While the spear was about to hit the beast, I added all of my mana stored in my dantian onto the spear.

Slash! Rip!

The sound of the slash as well as the beast’s skin’s ripped off skins could be heard. Its skins was peeled off like that of an onion. But my fear didn’t get away. I took a step back with my right leg that and prepared for an attack again. This time, I poured all of my strength. But as it was about the beast’s face, the beast dodged it and backed off. It howled in pain with its blood oozing out and one of its eyes blinded. But this was no time for me to feel proud, I again prepared for an attack.

But again, the beast dodged it by a hair’s breath. However, this time, the beast didn’t give any time for me to prepare. It jumped off in my direction. I am dead. Once the beast is over me, I will die…..The distance between us is now less than one meter. Although, I have enough time to attack, my legs were not in proper stance due to the recovery from the last attack. But even if I can’t attack….I quickly pulled back my spear and aligned it parallel to the position of my left hand and my right left.

The beast, who had already jumped, bit the spear. Defense is the best offense. But it didn’t help much because I was being overpowered by the beast. I balanced my legs by positioning my right leg far away from my left leg. Then, grabbing the spear with my hand, I pulled it out from its mouth. But, it’s no good this time too because I was caught open by the beast with both my hands upwards holding the spear, my body about to with my legs unbalanced. Damn! Seems like even luck isn’t on my side. I am going to die for sure now…..

As my body was falling, I closed my eyes once again….At least, I tried this time. I could rest in peace now….But is this really it….? Although, I repeatedly complained during my fight, I was feeling an emotion which can’t be described in words. It was something I never felt in my whole seventeen years of life. If I remember my expression correctly, my lips were curled up. Heh….why the heck was I smiling….? Even now, my lips were still curled up…..My body suddenly feels hot. It’s as if I was the sun itself…..With these thoughts in mind, I opened my eyes and looked at the beast which was at a distance of 15 cm from me. My eyes, unknowingly, became ferocious. I must kill this damned beast- was the only thought in my kind. But how exactly….? I am about to fall in less than 2 seconds. I don’t think I can dodge the beast in front of me.….Heh….Why am I not scared now….? No, I am still scared….But this unknown feeling exceeds my fear.

As my body was about to hit the ground, I left the spear which was in my left hand, and with my right hand, I touched the ground and rolled right in air with the help of my right hand, and fell on the ground. In short, I dodged. The beast fell right in the ground missing my body. I quickly grabbed the beast’s paws with my legs, sitting on top of it, penetrating the beast’s eyes with my fingers. The eyes are the only part I could damage.

“AHHHHHHHHHH”, the beast howled in agony but didn’t stop digging deep into the eyes. After a while, I got up while the beast was screaming, grabbed the spear and attacked on its torso. The scream stopped abruptly.

Thump!

My body fell on the ground. I d-did it! This was the strongest feeling of accomplishment I have earned till now…..Even though, hot tears again started flowing from my eyes, my lips were still curled up. I was scared…..very scared…..But even so, I defeated a beast all by myself and saved the little girl. I turned and looked at the little girl who seemed to be in a daze and tried to call her out but I couldn’t. I wonder why…..? I’m feeling dizzy…..

”I should probably get some sleep….”, I said in a low voice as I closed my eyes.