Braiten prepared an array of spells to use as he was immobilized. However, he felt a strange inkling that he would be killed the moment the spells activated. Instead, he let the spells remained prepped as the runes circled around him. Braiten stared at the man in front of him with curious eyes. He felt that the man’s characteristics seemed similar to a certain race in his previous world. A race that many people initially misunderstood and were highly discriminated against.

Without being as close as Braiten, no one would have known that the horns that seemed to be on the man’s helmet was actually a part of the man’s head. There was a small space that circled the helmet, indicating that the horns originate from below the helmet. Ornaments would not be so loosely attached.

The second characteristic was the man’s belt. It seemed to be a scaled belt that was loosely hung around the man’s waist, but was in fact the man’s tail. That particular race back in Braiten’s previous world used their tail in a similar way. Wearing scaled armor, their tails were disguised as a belt and allowed for devastating surprise attacks when needed. The tail could also be used nimbly as a flexible shield or as a weapon to make sweeping or stabbing attacks.

Seeing the similar dressing, Braiten felt hope ignited within his heart. If this race was as similar to his previous world as it seems, perhaps this group of Aermagh citizens may live to see another day.

Just as Braiten had finished his conclusions, the man disappeared from his sight as he dashed into the crowd of people. He grabbed someone roughly and dragged him out from the group.

At that moment, qi ignited from the man who was dragged out. It was clear to anyone that he was among the high levels of the advanced cultivation tier. However, none of the civilians were encouraged by the aura of the person who was dragged out. Knowing that this horned man could easily manhandle someone that was so strong meant that none of them had any hope of fighting back.

“L-let go of me! D-do you have any idea of who you are messing with? I am the next heir of the Dark Hands Sect! If you kill me, the sect will hunt you and family until they are all wiped out!” The man screamed in a high pitched voice as he struggled desperately.

The horned man tightened his grip around the struggling man’s neck in reply. A cold glint shone in his eyes.

“Fool who makes empty threats. I will take back what your kind has stolen. Both lives and the object that belongs to my people.”

Talking in a deep voice, the horned man circulated his qi around the martial artist. Soon, there was a glow from the martial artist’s pockets. The horned man took the contents as he tore a hole in the martial artist’s clothing. Then, he broke the martial artist’s neck and tossed the body to the side. The cold glint was still present in the man’s gaze as he turned to face Braiten and the civilians.

Immediately, Braiten started to get worried. Threatening the family of the horned man was equivalent to threatening that entire race. Having lives reaped also meant that he may take it personally as a racial war even if it only concerned the Dark Hands Sect. He had to do something in order not to get killed.

Braiten enchanted himself with strength, multiplying it several times over and was finally able to move. He stood up under the shocked gaze of the horned man. Braiten changed his posture such that he looked like a soldier standing at attention. He balled his left fist and touched the base knuckle of the thumb to his chest. This was a typical salute to the strong among the Daemon race.

“On the honor of my people and my own, I, Braiten, make an oath upon the Heavenly Way that the deceased has no connection to the innocents gathered here. In fact, he has broken our people’s law of involving said innocents. In recognition of this honor, I challenge you, noble Daemon, to a First Blood Duel. Upon recognition of my strength, I plead that you spare these innocents and direct your ire at your true enemy, the Dark Hands Sect,” Braiten solemnly directed his words at the Daemon.

The Daemon’s eyes widened in shock. Obviously unprepared for someone of a different race to be so familiar with his customs and principles.

Daemons respected three principles: honor, integrity and strength. By making an oath to the Heavenly Way with the honor of his people and his own, Braiten is showing honor and integrity. However, Daemons despised those who only used the first two principles because of the dog-eat-dog world that they lived in. Words without power to enforce it is meaningless. Therefore, Braiten included the duel in hopes of having the Daemon recognize his strength despite clearly being weaker.

When the Daemon’s calm returned, he replied, “I accept your oath and duel. Upon my honor, I, Aethelbeorn, make an oath upon the Heavenly Way to uphold your request if I recognize your strength. I’d like to hear how you know of my people’s customs.”

With that, Aethelbeorn took a decent sized stone and spoke again, “We will start when the stone reaches the floor.”

Aethelbeorn threw the stone up and took a stance. The atmosphere turned tense as Braiten did the same. His previously prepared runes had already changed into something that was meant to incapacitate the opponent rather than kill him. Braiten enchanted his body to improve his speed and defenses. Strength was not an issue as Braiten merely needed to parry and wait for an opportunity to strike with his magic.

A short moment later, the stone fell onto the ground between Aethelbeorn and Braiten with a thud. Aethelbeorn dashed at Braiten, as Braiten followed the laws of cycles and flows which he had gained insights into when he had observed the water and air magic runes. Using circular movements to redirect the attacks by Aethelbeorn, Braiten parried each of the blows and circled around Aethelbeorn in an attempt to keep moving into blind spots.

Aethelbeorn had initially thought to hold back when he first struck out, but seeing the skillful manner in which Braiten had parried his blows and winked in and out of his blindspots, his fighting spirit was ignited. Aethelbeorn struck out faster and faster, and his strikes grew more ferocious. Of course, Aethelbeorn still kept a cool head. This was only a First Blood Duel, which implied that killing was prohibited and the loser is the one who has his blood drawn first.

The law of cycles was unique and provided a very strange fighting style that Braiten had taken a liking to during his hundred years of wandering. Understanding just a part of it allowed Braiten grow a level in cultivation ever since his cultivation of > slowed down. The concept behind the law of cycles is cycles have no beginnings and therefore have no end. Incorporating it into fights, Braiten has achieved seamless offense and defense as he cycled through his repertoire of basic attacks and defensive movements.

Many blows were exchanged as the fight dragged on for minutes. Braiten’s stamina was still far from hitting rock bottom, but the concentration needed to defend himself and counterattack at every opening that he could was taxing on his mind. The fight felt like hours to him.

Seeing Braiten hang on for so long, Aethelbeorn was delighted. However, he also knew that Braiten was probably at his limits. Braiten was attacking less and less as Aethelbeorn sped up bit by bit. Deciding to end the duel, Aethelbeorn wound up for an attack that he judged strong enough to break Braiten’s defenses and score first blood.

As Braiten saw Aethelbeorn wind up, he knew that his chance had come. Able to utilized the prepared magic runes at last, he immediately squatted down and slammed his palm against the ground. Those moves were not just theatrics, but also served to distract Aethelbeorn momentarily.

When Aethelbeorn saw Braiten squat and slap his palm on the ground, he hesitated. Suddenly, walls of earth surrounded him. Roots of surrounding plants thickened, extended and grabbed onto his legs with surprising force. Electricity flowed through the ground and further immobilized his legs by numbing them. It was then that a cloud of water appeared above Aethelbeorn and lighting struck out from it.

The civilians watching the entire duel were mesmerized by the fight between true experts despite the fear of death hanging above them. When they saw Braiten lift the earth, and heard and felt the rumble of thunder, they felt puzzled as to what was happening within. Ten seconds had passed and they thought that everything was over.

Just as the civilians were about to sigh with relief, a fearsome aura of qi burst out from the earth walls. Cracks began to appear on the walls of earth and a thickly qi clad Aethelbeorn burst out from his earthen confines. Aethelbeorn, once again, dashed towards Braiten who had taken his distance the moment cracks had appeared.

However, contrary to everyone’s expectations, Aethelbeorn did not attack Braiten. Instead, he slapped Braiten’s shoulder and burst out laughing.

“Brilliant! Such unique skills and martial ability! I recognize your strength, youngling. Not only did you manage to force me to use my qi to its utmost to defend myself, you even managed to injure me slightly,” Aethelbeorn bellowed out as he laughed heartily.

“There’s no need to explain yourself about knowing my people’s culture. You have shown it through your actions in the fight. That final strike of yours was carefully controlled to only produce enough power to lock my muscles up and cause pain. It didn’t possess the power to cause serious harm or to kill. Carrying yourself well, fighting with dignity and not losing yourself to battle lust, you are definitely a friend of my people,” Aethelbeorn added as he calmed down.

With that done, he gave patted Braiten on the shoulder once more, and jumped onto one of his harpies. Then, he commanded it to fly off in search of the Dark Hands Sect.

It was only until the harpies disappeared into the distance that the citizens of Aermagh finally breathe a sigh of relief. The few minutes that the fight lasted left them on tenterhooks. Now that both monster and horned man was gone, they could finally relax.

All of a sudden, the group of people heard a thud happen next to them. It was Braiten. He had gone past the limits of his mental state to pull off that final attack. With everything over, he had finally let himself conk out on the spot. The citizens of Aermagh would definitely bring him to safety. Unconsciously, Braiten’s breathing followed the method of >. A trace amount of qi and mana gathered around his body and was slowly absorbed, nourishing Braiten in his exhausted state.

In the distance, a desperate group of guild members rushed up to the civilians from the direction of Aermagh. Seeing the residents of Aermagh safe, apart from a fainted Braiten and a dead member of the Dark Hands Sect, they felt alleviated from all their worries. Aermagh’s citizens gave a quick recount of what had happened, which shocked the guild members entirely. The leader of the party of guild members told the citizens not to speak a word of this to anyone and brought the citizens back to Aermagh, as the battle was over.

***

The next day, Braiten awoke. He sat up and saw some basic nursing tools next to the bed he was on. Knowing that he was safe and sound, he began to reflect.

If his guess were wrong…

If he did not have insights into some heavenly laws…

If he had not attained finer control over his magic…

Many if’s circled around Braiten’s mind. Memories of his past life also flitted through his mind. All of this pointed to one conclusion for him: he needed to be stronger. Much, much stronger.

===

Author’s notes:

Braiten thought that being a minor power allowed him to establish a good foundation and follow through with his goals. This was a painful lesson for him. He used his smarts and a great deal of luck more so than his strength to handle this situation.

Two more reviews have been submitted that are 2.5 stars and 3 stars each. None of the reviews have mentioned anything about what went wrong with the fiction. Those who like this fiction, if you would kindly leave a positive review when you think this fiction has progressed enough, it would be much appreciated. I now see why many new authors complain about jealous authors and trolls over on this site.

I think I should also put a counter here for reviews/ratings just for you readers to see for fun. Reviews as of this chapter: 8. Rating as of this chapter: 4.19. Latest review stars: 3 and 2.5.

You guys can’t believe the angst I am feeling when I keep asking myself, “where did I go wrong?”