Deja Vu.

A Word to describe a feeling of having already experienced the present situation. Usually only used in the sense of feeling when one only thought that the situation already happened once.

But sometimes, history repeats itself in different ways.

"Wait wha-!!!"

BOOM

'SHIT!'

Why! Did I perhaps anger you in my past life? What did I do to make you throw me across the forest that hard? And this time, it’s even stronger than before! I spun around midflight while getting hit by the branches of the trees in the forest. I only had my weapon like body to thank that there were no scratches from the branches but it hurt like hell whenever I broke through some trees.

And why does this take so long even though I’m flying as fast as last time? Alright, Laith! Think! If space is distorted in a way for more area, then either I’m inside an endless loop or the area was broken in space, making it longer. Either way, waiting for an awful landing is not a good option for me.

‘Alright! The moment the next tree I’ll crash into comes to sight, I have to use a flash step… There! One… Two… Three!’

The moment the tree came into my sight, I spun around trying to make my legs point towards the tree. And the moment I felt any kind of resistance, I pushed away with a strong force. I didn’t care about making it silent and controlled. The old man most likely already knows where I am.

Breaking the tree with my push, I landed a bit before it, sliding a bit on the ground because of all the momentum I held. My legs hurt! But at least I am safe. And the moment I thought so far, inevitably, I let out a sigh while looking back at the direction I was flying from.

“Are you kidding me? Not even a path of devastation left? I can’t even tell if it was a loop or the expansion of space… this old man!”

There was nothing but trees. No broken trees that were snapped into two by a human-sized bullet, no rocks falling from the sky because of the excess might of that said bullet, no opened up earth that could be called a valley. Just pure Silence. Just like a normal forest. But no sound at all made me tense up more than ever. And to make it even worse, my priority was to circulate my Will properly.

The thing here is that I had to concentrate on my Will circulation. But in a survival situation, that may also lead to death. There were two kinds of death for me here though. Death by the old man and by the old man. Even if he said one of them wouldn’t be as bad as the other, I still believed that the old man wasn’t going to hold back in either of them.

Thinking thus far made only the grip on my blade the more desperate. Most of the time, it helped me to calm down but right now I just need assurance. I need to know that I can handle the normal challenges as long as I have Keyser in my hand and can channel Will through it without disturbing my circulation.

'Alright calm down. No more torture. No more torture. No more torture is going to happen…'

I tried to lie to myself, thinking I could suppress my incoming panic attack resulting from the PTSD the old man gave me. 200+ days of pure torture. I’m grateful that he made me his disciple but if I ever have a disciple, I know what not to do. That fucker tortured the living shit out of me with the pretence of stimulation of the body will be much faster and more efficient. Not to mention doing all this with a wide smile on his face.

Have some decency and don’t make your disciple hate you! Remembering all this made me feel a shiver down my spine. And the last words of the old man didn’t make my memories any better

'I'll give you normal challenges but the moment you stop circulating your Will is when I'll beat you so hard you will never want to experience it again!'

This is bad.

Like really bad!

Because right now, I was in no state of doing any challenges by the old man while concentrating on my circulation. I know it needs to be like breathing but still!

The old man never had normal challenges. Swimming in -30 C° water for four hours, jumping from cliff to cliff or swinging through a parkour course where the floor is truly lava. This! This was the level of the old man’s normal. So only thinking about what I have to dodge now all while circulating my Will only lead to headaches…

And it was then that all this frustration build up. My mind was spinning around with the worry of what will happen that I forgot that whatever it is, it will happen. And so, I let my guard down for a moment.

Only one moment.

And a stone fist the size of my own body hit me on my side, making me fly away yet again. But thankfully, my body reacted faster than my body, making me at least guard the hit with both hands on my blade. Spinning in the air, I tried to regain my balance but seeing another huge hand coming towards me from above made me instead spin myself more, hitting Keyser on the side of it.

I managed to dodge that huge bitch slap and landed on my two feet to only see a structure of about 10 metres tall in front of me. It had a humanoid kind of structure with no arms, legs and a neck, only having hands, feet and its head hovering around its main body. Seeing this for the first time made me awestruck even if I already knew what this was.

An ore golem.

Golems were self-sustainable robots created by the power of magic. Golems were first used in the war between races by the elves until the humans could imitate this magic which made having the golem's not an advantage anymore creating only sacrifices on both sides. Golems had grades and these grades were depending on what colour their energy had. Starting from stone, bronze, silver and gold were the stages of a golem that could have been created.

‘They have usually a nucleus or core which is the heart of the golem and sustains the golem with energy. There can not be a golem without a nucleus unless it is not created with conventional ways like sacrifices. And knowing the old man’s principal, he’d never do that even in war.’

Seeing the different kinds of metals fused over its body, I could recognise that it was an ore golem, a mutation of a stone golem with higher physical resistance than a normal stone golem. This made the golem heavier than a normal stone golem but it was worth it since stone golems aren’t used in fast attacks anyway. To be honest it looked like a cartoon character that was made to only destroy with its hands but I knew that whatever the old man made was never inside the norm. Even the speed

But for real… Why is an ore golem here? It was the equivalent of a level 4 [Discipulus] with its physical strength unlike me who had a level 2-3 body only because I was a weapon. My Will and ability are still level 1. That’s a huge difference in power. Since my physical damage is the strongest thing about me, I’d have gone with that but this son of a gun is higher than me.

So I had to use the advantage of intelligence and lack of energy resistance to make it out of here. I ain’t going to fight an ore golem! I need to survive, not commit genocide of every golem I see.

I had three options here. The obvious one would be to outrun it and use traps to make it unable to move, the reckless and stupid one was to fight it upfront and use my Will to make Keyser sharp enough to cut it and the tricky one was to abuse its strength and making it damage itself since it runs on commands and not on intelligence.

I hope…

'I need to know my fights. Diving recklessly will only make my 5 days of survival end right here. The first one is also not clear since I don't know how fast it can catch up to me which leaves me with the last option…'

I was about to make it hit itself like someone would try and hit a fly on their arm, making the golem hit its main body and reveal its core. But while thinking that much, I made a grave mistake. One that haunts me still to this very day.

I stopped to circulate my Will properly.

Only a moment. Just for a tiny moment, some Will leaked. My runes were half-transparent while my muscles tensed very slightly.

If someone would have asked me what one of my greatest regrets in life were, this moment would be it. This stupid, fucked up, childish mistake! This moment would go on and hunt me for years to come, making some of my nightmares scarier than an onslaught of beasts that went for my neck. Because you could throw whatever at me, and I’d still accept that over this monster any time!

I realised that something was off. The golem wasn’t moving, the air was still and the silence was even more prominent. Only then could I hear one audible sound. The cracking of metal. My eyes shot wide while looking at the main body of the golem. I had a bad premonition when looking at it. So I listened to the one instinct that saved me every time. By channelling every ounce of Will I had through my body, I was ready!

Ready to run away! No way in hell I’ll see this to the end when I knew exactly what was about to happen. Step after step, I rushed out of there immediately, not even looking back. Passing almost 100 metres in seconds, I felt like I could outrun whatever was coming at me.

Foolish thinking. Nothing can outrun death. And it was looking at me with a mad smile on his face. I looked back for a moment. Just a moment. To see the body of the golem on the ground with its chest piece broken apart. And the sound of knuckles cracking came towards my ears.

“SHIT!!! NOOOO!!!”

"Hehehe… You done fucked up, my lovely disciple…hehehe… HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

“CRAZY BASTARD!!!”

Tears were already falling down my cheeks as I screamed with every fibre of my being. Maybe this way, I could make him understand that this was already destroying my mentality.

But I should have forgotten that idea… the old man was already crazy enough to think about it, not to mention now stopping.

"NO DON’T! IT WAS ONLY FOR ONE MOMENT!"

"HAHAHA!! HERE I COME, DISCIPLE! NEXT TIME TRY TO FOCUS MORE ON YOUR TASK THAN ON YOUR FEELINGS, BOY!! ORA!!!"

BOOM

“ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!!”

The first punch made me almost faint, yet the old man continued with as many as possible. I wished that maybe the injury would make him stop so he won’t hit me more but that bastard used some way to heal me back to normal every time he hit me, making me only feel pain yet never injured. This was a psychological pain I wish not to talk about anymore. It made me realise how evil a ‘good’ person can be when blinded by the faith of training their disciple or other emotions like love or sadness.

But that didn’T mean jackshit at the moment as it felt like thousands of thousands of punches were landing on every part of my body. If I had to guess, in a second the old man punched every area of my body once.

Seeing the runes on my body shine again with a strong light did I realise what is happening. My body… was breaking down apart and back together like in the dream. And just like in the dream, my screams would be the loudest ever.

“AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!”

“HAHAHAHAHAHA! COME ON, BOY! HANG IN THERE FOR JUST ONE MORE MINUTE!”

What! One more minute? Hasn’t it been already five years? Wait… what was I doing again? My mind blanked out more and more. And the only thoughts I had were doubts now.

What is happening right now?

Doesn’t matter.

Nothing matters.

What is life?

An unfair time where you live with different treatment than others.

What is unfair?

A situation where you are in a disadvantageous position than most people.

Why is it unfair?

Because not everyone got a gorilla-like master ready to beat the living shit out of you with pleasure!

If you didn’t catch that, let me say it one more time.

BECAUSE NO ONE HAS A MASTER LIKE THIS FUCKING BASTARD THAT’S READY TO BEAT THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF YOU WHILE LAUGHING LIKE A MANIAC!!!

I could feel every cell of my body scream to swing that blade. I could feel every cell of my body screaming at me to do something against this unstoppable calamity that’s the old man. But whatever I tried to do to stop him, he reversed it and went twice as hard as before.

Hey, look! The old man looks like he is having fun! Is it fun to turn a human into literal mush? Maybe I should try that as well… maybe I’ll have some fun as well once in my life.

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!!"

After beating me down like a punching bag, the old man started to talk again after stopping his punches.

God? Is that you? Have you shown mercy to your lowly subject after getting tortured by the devil? Argh! Who am I kidding! If there was a god, he may as well be scared of the old man since that monster won’t even be blinking before he decides to beat god up as well.

"You should be able to understand that I'll be around to see if you are using your circulation all the time. You should be moving after I'm done talking. And you better try to find yourself something to eat. Cause right now I probably scared away all animals with my punches brighter than sunlight. Now hope you'll stay alive, my dear disciple…hihihihi…"

And just like that, the old man vanished into nothing, leaving nothing but that laughter in my ears. That one laughter that made my blood boil now.

Akira started to vanish when he said the last thing and his laugh was the only thing remaining in this place before vanishing as well.

'I can move physically but mentally I'm unable to do SHIT! WHO GETS THE IDEA TO DO THIS TO HIS DISCIPLES TO JUST HELP SOMEONE GET RID OF THEIR BAD HABITS!! THIS FUCKING ARSE EATING MOTHERF-'

I continued to curse the old man in my mind while starting the circulation again for a good 10 minutes. I stoop up with all my strength. Not like I was injured but my mental power hit a new all-time low after getting beat down like that. I felt like I was on a path going straight to the afterlife only to fight a losing war against demons and angels.

I looked around and saw that the sun was already about to set. I wasted so much time and now I didn’t have a source of water and food. Having a lot of energy and being able to use it has its disadvantages as well. Like needing to be nourished properly for Will to generate back, filling the vessel of a person. It wasn’t the crazy amount like eating a whole family reunion day’s amount but more like just three times the amount I used to eat. And this meant that I had to hunt something bigger than a small rabbit.

Alright! Let’s start this shitty survival training then!