Chapter 4: Days of training

A training dungeon in dragonking castle, Earth 2018, Vamon 1019 AD.

The sound of clashing blades could be heard within the quiet large training room within the 17th dungeon. Every son or daughter had a dungeon complex to himself but depending on your standing the size and comfort differed. Asura had only a very small dungeon with the room he lived in a toilet a room for his teacher and his nanny and the big training room. Asura never complained. Every time his master asked him if he is lacking he would quietly answer: “As long as i can cultivate in darkness and train to my hearts content that is enough for survival.”

And true to his word the boy was everything his master could hope for. After five years of careful fostering his pupil had exceeded all of his expectations. Asura was like a sponge drinking in all of his knowledge and experience. His Shadowarts cultivation as well was astounding. It seems Asura learned unconsciously how to use his immense magic power to accelerate his cultivation speed. He was now five years old but had allready cultivated to the 5th rank of the Shadowarts.

You have to know cultivating Shadowarts is a long and difficult process. You sit in absolute darkness and atune your being to the darkness. By doing so the darkness accepts you as its own and starts to share its power with you. Similar to magic everyone had a certain amount of Shadowpower he or she could hold at once and by cultivating it you could increase that amount.

Everyone has so called Power vessels. Those power vessels go throughout the entire body similar to the nervous system. Next to the heart are nine so called power cores. Eight cores around the heart and one above. The eight cores represent the seven elements and it is those cores that are refined using elemental energy. The last core though is refined using the Shadow power. The system for all eight is the same: On the first level you activate the core it starts to give of power that you can use, on the second level a gaseous form of the element is formed within the core supplying the power vessels within with elemental energy/shadow power to use, every time enough power is gathered within the core, it gets purified on step further.

That is an extremely difficult process where you have to meditate in order to gain an understanding of your body and purify your energy by constantly rotating it through your power vessels. The biggest hurdles there are from rank 5 to rank 6 and from rank 9 to rank 10. That is because the form of the power changes state. When you reach level 5 you purify your energy into a liquid form that is tens of times more potent than the gaseous form from before. It is said that reaching rank 10 requires the purification of the liquid into a solid and that solid core would than permanently supply one with the surrounding elemental energy.

It is a legendary state that has not yet been reached by anybody with any of the cores. One would then be the true master of his element, freely being able to wield it. So what did rank 5 imply? At the age of 6 it means that Asura already cultivated to the point where he only needed to liquify his shadow power in order to advance. His power would than definitely not loose to ordinary fighters of the 7th rank! There is no distinction between mages and warriors because everyone uses magic on way or another therefore everyone is referred to as a fighter.

Long range, close range, etc. But Asura was training in the shadowarts. As long as there were shadows Asura had the advantage: Speed, accuracy, reflexes everything was trained to the limit. Combined with his superb understanding of his Shadowarts he was a deadly foe. And he was only six years old! Shadowarts are very different from the normal magic. They are anti magic! Shadowarts are specifically designed to battle against magic users which includes almost every fighter. At the moment Asura has mastered the five Basic skills that complete the basic first set of skills. Each skill corresponded with a rank up because every skill uses up more shadowpower and therefore needs a higher rank to be used. By mastering the first five skills Asura stepped from beginner Shadowdancer level to the intermediate Shadowdancer level.

Six years old what a prodigy Ka’ahn was incredibly proud of his pupil. While watching his pupil facing four mercenaries at the same time he thought back the past five years. The first thing Asura asked after he spoke to him all those years ago was to get him someone he can kill. With a serious face he explained: “I know this might sound heartless, but… i need to know and i need to be able to if i am to get thourgh this, no if we are to get through this. Therefore the earlier the better. But..” The infant looked at him and he looked vulnerable for the first time: “Try to make it someone who deserves it please..”

And then it started. The day after Ka’ahn brought Asura a death row prisoner. While Ka’ahn held him down, Asura went to the ground stood up and took a knife his teacher gave him earlier. He steadied his gaze and his posture and thrusted the dagger into the prisoners throat. The prisoner twitched a couple of times while he was dying but after a short while it was over. The same moment his victim stopped moving Asura threw up but his gaze was still determined. Never was Ka’ahn so impressed. From there on out it was hellish training. Eating followed by exercise and muscle training, a short break then two hours of lecture about the body of different species their weak points and how to target them. Fighting theory, strategy. 5 hours a day were dedicated to studying, 4 hours strengthening training, 4 hours combat training, 4 hours shadowarts training, 5 hours shadow power cultivating and 2 hours of sleep.

Not really something an ordinary person could endure but Asura was surprising. It seems even though he lacked his fathers tyrannical strength and his mothers magic it seems he got crazy high endurance for it. His smooth slightly scaled skin didn’t look like it but it was as hard as ordinary armor. Asuras growth rate as well was astounding: After 2 years he looked like 5, after 4 years he was more like a 7 year old and now with 6 you would rather think he is 11 or 12. It has been two years since his teacher started to bring Asura real opponent he had to fight to the death.

Ka’ahn would bring in captured mercinaries, demons or humans and would tell them they could leave alive if they are able to kill the boy. But Asura was ruthless and unkillable. When he fought it was with terrible efficiency and accuracy exactly the way Ka’ahn taught him. “Never waste your movement. If you go for the kill go for a sure one shot. Heart, eye to brain, arteries, those basic things are located almost on the same spot for every species. Memorize it. We don’t fight for show, we don’t play around. When we attack we aim to kill. Always use the shortest and surest path available for victory.” Asura was living that philosophy. Every attack was deadly. In the beginning he had problems, he would miss, he would get hurt, he almost died multiple times.

But he always got through always came back over and over. Almost every day he would fight for his life and by now his instincts were frightening. By now his skills combined with the five arts he mastered: Shadow Shield, Shadow cloak, shadow sword, shadow doppelganger and shadow interrupt. A shield that absorbed magic and replenished the user, an ability that lets him hide in the shadows and pass through them unseen, a skill that wraps shadows around your weapon to increase its piercing power and speed, an ability to create shadow illusions to confuse the enemy, and an ability to disrupt enemies using magic. Combined with the deadly two handed, dagger skill called shadowdance even Ka’ahn himself wasn’t sure he could take him anymore.

He focused back on the fight and again could only nod in satisfaction. While he was pondering Asura already dispatched of the first enemy by collecting shadows below his feet and suddenly dashing with astonishing speed towards the opponent. On quick stab into the armpit with one of his two feet long dagger that looked more like short swords on him and the mercenary’s life ended with a stabbed heart. The next moment Asura already vanished and appeared just a breath later behind the second opponent. As his enemy turned around Asura leaned into the swing and stabbed his dagger through the brain from below. And again he vanished. The remaining two were by now standing back to back sweating profoundly. They would have never imagined that this little boy would be this frightening. They first thought they maybe had a chance to escape. How wrong they were. Suddenly Asura appeared above the two fighters and simultaneously stabbed both of them into the neck severing the spinal cord. The entire thing only took about thirty seconds to complete.

Quietly the boy went back to his teacher and said: “Sensei i have finished, please look for stronger opponents from now on the fifth rank is just not sufficient enough anymore.” Ka’ahn had to laugh when he heard the displeasure in his disciples voice. What a thirst for strength! He was very fond of this young boy. “I am not sure yet… level six you don’t know just how much… The strength difference between five and six… it is enormous.” In a very serious manner Ka’ahn told him. He wanted Asura to be stronger sure but he didn’t want to risk his priced pupil. He really started to look at him as his own. But the boy answered in a serious tone: “Sensei, i have to go further, risk more, train more, and just be better. There is no time to waste we can’t be careful! I need to be able to fight against people with higher cultivation.” There was nothing to respond. Ka’ahns face hardened. That was the truth. “Fine. Level six go eat and cultivate. Tomorrow you will have it rough.”

If you want to read ahead: www.elementalworldchaos.wordpress.com but the editing i will be doing here. When i am done with posting all the edited chapters i will update wordpress with the here edited chapters. Anyway enjoy guys.