“Splash” came the noise of something dropping in water.

People were still stuck in there in their shocked state. The first one span out of it was the mother as she pulled her fists up, this caused a huge fore arm to form in the ocean and in its fist was a one armed human 5 ft in height. The arm came along with the human to the center of a massive 700 m hemisphere where stood the mother on the surface of water, it slowly started to lower as if dissipating in the ocean water and once fist was at the height of the mother it opened up with the boy unconscious on top of the palm. She did an immediate inspection of his body and found a split in muscle originating from the base of his palm all the way to the shoulder and from here the split became narrower as it went along the back to his laterals. She stifled a cry, cause she knew this was not the worst her son had borne. The visible healing had stopped, in his hand was his trusted axe, “the mighty Tanka he calls it ‘huhu’. My baby, sorry you have such a rough fate”. She used her mana to inspect her child’s mana vein and saw 26 of his veins were now active. A ridiculous number, some people even in their lifetime aren’t able to achieve opening of so many of their veins. His Mula and Svadhi Chakra were now open, in a boy who is barely 7 years in age, the impossible had now been achieved. Something which has never happened before and which will never happen again “unless you are reborn my baby”. She used her thumb to caress the boy’s cheeks; involuntarily as if on cue a smile appeared on the boy’s face.

“When I found him on top of that cliff he was crying for food; I carried him and Rhodos with me. At the time the ‘fury of ocean’ had almost killed me so injury prevented me from moving at all” while Sagar was saying all this from behind her, she sat down on the surface of water and placed the head of her son in her lap and caressed his hair. “at the time I could not find any inhabitable place and no milk to feed him” by now Rhodos and Parth too were standing in earshot on land. Sagar continued “I could not believe my eyes so I did not tell anyone but, at that time the Hero Krishna came with an incarnation of Bhoomi wherein she was a cow. He was the most beautiful entity there was, his dark skin stood out against the background, at first I did not recognize who they were. In his hand was the legendary flute and he was dressed in his popularly represented yellow cow herder garb. It made me want to worship him. Bhoomi herself fed him his first sip of milk and then Krishna called him master.” Hearing this every one of them was shocked. Rhodos and Alicia partially knew the mystery behind his birth but to Parth all of this sounded like the birth of a mythological god or something. “Master of The HERO KRISHNA, the fuck is the old man thinking. Doesn’t he know that even among the Heroes the Hero Krishna was probably second to none” and he then said endurance is the strongest characteristic of this universe. Parth then said slowly “This old man really is crazy, how the fuck will endurance be the strongest power. If that is true, then all of us are dumbasses struggling over nothing” to which Rhodos who was next to him said “Young master Kush, only has endurance and no Karmic power” Parth’s eyes opened so wide that they were struggling to pop out of their sockets. Then what is that axe. Rhodos wasn’t sure whether she should reveal the mountain to Parth so she kept quiet and only said “Master gave it to young master”.

The wind still hadn’t settled and waves were washing over them, Rhodos was entirely wet, slowly a drop of water went from side of temple down her cheek. Moved slowly there, as if a drop of tear trickling down from her eyes. She looked the prettiest ever yet, Parth who saw her at his moment was stunned even more by her beauty, it was like she was the celestial goddess descended to bless us all. The tear with that expression on her face showed her concern for the boy. He recalled how his skin was obliterated and repaired countless no. of time in that short instant of contact even with his eyes gifted to him by Gaandiva it was still difficult to follow. Oh the horror, he thought of moment in which a person’s hand was skinned alive and repaired countless no. of time bone breaking and repairing thousands of times.

Sagar meanwhile continued “the reason I did not tell you was because I was not sure if I was hallucinating or not. That is also the reason why I stopped you today. If I did not, we probably would be interfering with his fa…”

“If next word out of you is not sorry…” anger in her eyes evident, she turned around to look at him. Her eyes red from stifling her tears. Suddenly all over Bharat the sky split apart, volcanoes started activating with lavas in them boiling over rising up as if response to her command, the water of the ocean started turning to drops and rising in the sky. Starting with the center of the 700m diameter crater, the earth started splitting apart, going towards the mangroves which had nothing to save the city now, they just parted to allow the splitting earth to travel towards the city and the sea which subsided at the start was now once again receding back by 1 km then 10 km. It was like even the oceans were afraid of the anger of the mother.

Sagar knew if he did not stop her here, it would be disastrous to the world. He was a prideful man who believed in his strength so much that he never believed he was ever be wrong. But today he simply said “I am sorry”. The dark thunderous clouds receded once again and the destruction stopped instantaneously.

Rhodos advised Parth to slip out of the way if he values his life, to which Parth complied happily. Alicia willed and the water in the crater took her to the shore and put her and Sagar on the land as they were. “But Alicia listen babe, if he doesn’t get hurt he will not get stronge…”

“BOOM”

A sound greater than any of the ones before came and in the next instant Sagar was sent flying for unknown amount of kilometers, hitting god knows how many obstructions.

This placated her heart a bit as she made her way to the inn with Alicia who was happy in heart about the outcome.

When he woke up after a few days, he was all healed and was on the boat back to their home. He woke up and his stomach rang out “kudududu…” (I don’t know how to right a stomach sound when empty). He came out of bed and realized they were going home and found where his mother was, he sat next to her with his head on her shoulders not saying a word they went home. The only new thing on this journey back home was Gauri who accompanied the family back home as promised.

Next day after reaching home they started the training once again, he started the usual training, but since the Svadhi Chakra point had been opened in his body and the thousands of re-forging of his hands in his fight against Parth. He was super strong compared to his previous self. He could now spin the Tanka with his wrists and play around with it like a circus clown with small knives. He could juggle it, though with one hand it was difficult to balance it.

At the end of the training his gave him braces which weighed a total of 1200 kgs and gave him a hammer, which was 2 m tall. The head of the hammer was 1m by 1m by 1.5 m and weighed around a mighty 250 kgs and asked him to flatten the land around the peak.

The black peak island was not perfectly circular but 20 km diameter circle would be the best way to describe its area, it had a mild slope of 12 degrees all the way to the bottom of the peak (for those who forgot, all of this including the island itself is a single 100000 m high mountain below the water) which was 8 km ahead of him. The bottom of the peak itself was 2 km in radius, this would have been a monumental task just on simple land itself, this is just impossible for a normal man. He said to his father “Dad, you said this rock is indestructible, right?” to which father replied “hmm. I want you give it a try”. Kush gave it a try and went ‘BANG’ with his hammer on the surface of the island, the hammer was a monolith again with no joints and his hands too did not have shockers making him susceptible to vibrations from the hit, it hurt but was still bearable. There was no crack on the shiny surface of the peak. The total weight on his body north of 1500 kgs, just swinging was a monumental work for Kush but the vibration at every hit was like a punishment which damaged incrementally with every hit, in addition. Sagar asked him to stop after going at it for 6 whole hours continuously. There were no cracks on the floor of the peak-island. Kush was sweating all over but nothing he couldn’t endure.

Next his father took him to a circle drawn in the ground. His mother was sitting on the opposite side of it. Sagar brought out a rectangular sheet with a strap made out of unknown leather, it was really thin as thin as a leaf. His father held it like a school bag so that Kush could put the straps on his shoulders. As soon Sagar let go the sheet, Kush felt a tremendous pressure on his spine, thighs, knees, shins and feet. “EEEEENNNGGH…” he uttered trying to stay up. The thin sheet of paper was made from the densest material on Bhoomi: Osmium. That thin sheet of paper weighed 5000 kgs. Barely able to stand-up, his face was all red from the humongous exertion, he was lifting more than 6500 kgs.

Then Sagar instructed “Now enter the circle in front of you”. His legs were sinking in the soil and by now were almost half a centimeter inside, he could not even drag his legs on the ground to move forward. After waiting for a couple of minutes Sagar screamed “Do you want to get stronger not?”. Hearing this mana in form of magical energy came out from his Svadhi Chakra point in droves and strengthen the legs and back even more than before allowing Kush to drive the mud in front of his leg, overcome the massive friction force and drag his forward. Each step was like a prodigiously tough, but Kush definitely wanted to grow stronger. He grit his teeth and moved forward, step by step dragging his feet slower than a kid who doesn’t want to go to school. After six steps, he reached the point nearest to him on the circumference and stood still. As soon as he reached there he experienced it, the sudden loss of strength in his body. His muscles seemed to have fatigued he thought, as his back was bending forwards and knees bending.

“Don’t worry, your muscles are not fatigued, you are experiencing a higher gravity than normal, it is 1.3 times the normal gravity” said Sagar

Continuing he said “What you have to do today is not fall on your butt. Try and maintain an erect posture”

Kush did not even have the leisure to nod at Sagar’s instruction. Just standing there not falling down was difficult.

Sagar then said “Since you are in an immobile posture, try mana absorption in this state”

Kush was bewildered and on hearing. Just concentrating on Sagar’s words were difficult enough, mana absorption at the same time was impossible. Though he could not convey his feelings, Sagar could see his mana veins and could see that he could do it. To which he said, continue like this and when you can give it a try.

Kush couldn’t bear the weight after 16 min so he pushed himself on his back to prevent his lungs from being crushed under the massive weight of the sheet. It was decided to close for today.

After meal Kush was sitting with his father on the beach. They both laid there quiet for some time, Kush wanted to speak his mind “Dad, I am sorry I got the two of you worried”

Sagar did not reply

Kush continued “After the training for so long I thought that I had become really strong, I thought normal people, I would be stronger than them, the fight with the noble Rhodos told you about was sobering. I couldn’t even handle people with Novitiate Karmic power. I just wanted to fight Parth, one who could subdue them so easily, to see if the first fight was a mistake”

Sagar did not reply for a minute thinking this was a critical moment in his training considering these are his insecurities. People carry with them these insecurities all through their life, if he coddles him today then this will prove to be detrimental for him since it will make him dependent on him but if his reply is too stern then he will be driven into a corner. After a couple of minutes, he replied “Son, this is something I am telling from my experience, there will always be a sky above a sky, even if you do become the strongest man in the world, there will be people stronger than you outside the world. This whole thing we are doing is a long journey, if it ever sinks in your mind that the person in front me if weaker than me for sure remember my word and tie it to your consciousness forever cause if not… this is the ultimate truth the Reality of the path of cultivation and strength. If ever in your life comes a time when you believe that your opponent is too weak and you need not try your best to beat him will the first day of the start of your decline. No matter who it is they have had a life were given choices, a fork in their path of life where they might have made a choice different than yours, doesn’t make their choice wrong. If you, an inexperienced fighter, call people weak doesn’t mean your opinion is correct”

Hearing this Kush bowed his head looking at ground, in shame he realized his mistake.

“Guy you were fighting though he looked in his twenties, but that was the power of his cultivation. If you ignored his cultivation, he was atleast 50 years old. You a kid who has only cultivated for half a year should know your limits.”

This put Kush down a lot.

Sagar placed his hand on his head nestling his hair then continued “Though the way you worked hard for in those months even I was rooting for you, remember this kid” he said pointing to his heart “I get the fact that you are insecure about somethings, about the fact that you were born with some deficiencies, seeing you till now I can say for sure you have will power. That, my son is a precious jewel probably lacking in most people, keep it up and… we’ll see where you head off to”

Strength: 1200

Speed: 139

Agility: 127

Regen: 2504

Magic Regen: 5103

Toughness: 703

Skills:

Heavy Swing

2. Dodge