Third POV

Certainty.

Yes Certainty, this was the Kobold Leader’s opponent.

A sense that animals had which could foretell disaster: earthquakes, tsunamis, eruptions.

And disasters spelled death.

Therefore a sense that could foretell death.

And now before this Kobold, this sense was provoked stronger than ever.

The small human being in front of him spelled death, that’s all it knew.

And the cause was… this small human boy?

No it was Certainty.

This boy represented certain victory.

As time moves all the permutations and deviation that can occur causes the future to split into a countless possibilities.

Taking for example this scenario: an elementary Impact user and a Kobold Leader, if they fought either could win.

Various factors, thoughts could change, actions may differ, their exchange could end in mutual destruction, they could chose to stare down until reinforcements come to aid the human, the Kobold Leader could chose take action instantly catching the boy off guard killing him.

All of these possibilities can happen, it is uncertain which would occur, some have a higher chance of occurring than others, the possibility that fight would occur covers 99.9999% of the possibilities available.

But other possibilities exist as well, such as a fight never occurring; the Kobold, wary of what had happen that lead it here, may back off, and the boy chooses not to follow, and the Kobold will make the decision to leave.

A possibility that may have existed, and may have occurred… is now extinguished.

The boy is certainty; his vision grants him certain victory as long as the possibility of victory exists.

As long as the boy follows the golden path, all other possibilities cease to exist, and only the future where the boy has obtained victory will come will become reality.

Of course should the boy not follow the golden path, then the possibilities for a different outcome will once again exist.

But why would the boy chose not to take the certain path of survival?

The greatest fear of the living is the unknown; an unknown future is the most frightening thing.

“What will happen to me?“

“Will I be able to do _____?”

“If I do ____ will ____ happen?“

The fear of not knowing is terrifying.

If it was possible to know for certain the outcome to an event, would not all fears disappear?

Once you know the ending there is less tension.

So why would you chose the choice of not knowing whether or not you would die today, over the knowledge that you Certainly not die today?

“I would choose not to know because whatever happens to me happens to me, I will live every day to the fullest!”

Pretty words, but they are stupid too.

Could you not live every day to the fullest as well, even if you knew for sure that you wouldn’t die today?

What’s the difference?

Is filling live with the excitement of life and death, the ability to feel adrenaline your blood that much more satisfying than knowing that you could come back to your friends and family, to your normal habits, to your games and TV shows, to the daily updates of your subscribed YouTube channels?

Haven’t you ever experienced that dark and hollow sensation ruminating the concept of death?

What if you knew the exact moment you would die, or if you could with certainty postpone your own death to a later date?

Wouldn’t you chose to know for certain when and how these events would occur?

Well regardless of whatever you think.

In this scenario if you faced a bigger opponent, who you were almost certain would be making an attempt to take your life.

Would you choose the uncertainty of knowing whether or not you would die in this event, or would you choose the certainty that you would live through this event?

This boy chose the latter, he didn’t want to take the risk of possibly dying while still so young, and with plans of his own that he wished to accomplish.

He has made his choice.

The future is set.

The victor is the boy, and Kobold leader will die.

There is no room for deviation, the outcome is certain.

The Kobold Leader doesn’t know the reason why, but knows that if he fights here he will die.

Kobolds don’t hold that much intelligence themselves, but those with a sliver of knowledge will become the leader.

Not because they are stronger, but because they can understand circumstances more so then others.

A good leader will allow its pack to survive; hunting in packs the leader will make the call whether or not to hunt a target, and because of this they can ensure that their pack will not attack something that could kill them all.

More so than any case in the past this Kobold leader feels that it will die if it fights this human.

But at the same time it cannot run.

With its sliver of intelligence it has recognized a pattern of humans.

Humans will hunt until the kill the leader, if they cannot kill the leader they will continue to hunt until they do.

Knowing this if he ran then the humans would continue to hunt, and could possibly they could find their hoard.

If that happens they will all die, everyone he knows, his pack, his mate, his children, they will all die.

He is an Alpha, he is a leader, he will protect everything he owns, because it is his.

It is everything he has; he will not risk losing all of it.

Therefore he can only fight and die, and allow this most dangerous of humans to finish its hunt, so that possibility of his hoard being found doesl not occur.

This is the only thing he can do, this is the extent of his knowledge.

Now he will fight.

Now he will die.

Now he will protect his hoard.

The boy takes a leap back and starts his incantation.

The Kobold Leader follows and closes the gap.

“’Tis the end, the last day of my life,

On this day may my life, scar this world!

Two strikes, two arms, ruined to dust the strongest things in this world no longer mean anything.

For my life is over this day these two arms shall sunder this land no matter the cost!”

The boy finished the elementary incantation of the Impact style.

His sword sheathe in mana for two strikes his will have the power to annihilate.

A six year old boy’s power for these two strikes will have the strength to shatter rock, and destroy life.

For in two strikes all his mana will be expended.

This is the most elementary of incantations for the Impact school, gathering all of one’s mana into their blade for two strikes to defeat their opponent.

While not the most sophisticated of uses, it is allows for an Impact practitioner to make use of their foundations to deal with unskilled opponents physically stronger than themselves.

The boy now has his means to defeat the Kobold Leader.

The Kobold Leader has his own thoughts; he knows that the humans can kill with one strike, but they can also die in one strike.

No matter how hopeless the Kobold Leader feels, he believes that as long as he can hit the human he will survive.

The incantation is complete; the Kobold Leader is charging the boy.

The Kobold Leader knows better than to charge in a straight line, he jumps to a nearby tree and kicks off that tree onto another behind the boy.

“He can’t see, I can close gap before he turns around, I can kill him”

These were the Kobold Leader’s thoughts.

Kicking off the tree the Kobold Leader with his club overhead smashes down towards the boy with its club.

But it’s pointless the future is determined.

As long as the boy follows the golden path, victory is certain.

The boy takes big back step while keeping his head low.

*BOOM*

The boy is now a meter behind his previous position and the Kobold Leader is now where he was, his club embedded into the ground.

The boy takes this chance to lower his stance, and explodes forward with a thrust into the Kobold Leader.

The attacked connected.

Mana converted into destructive energy, impacts the Kobold Leader’s back breaking his spine in half.

The boy takes another step forward and with it takes another stance, with his sword high above his head.

And he brings it down to end the fight.

A guillotine slash descends to decapitate his opponent.

Once the world has aligned with vision that the boy’s eye see the world continues.

The world continues without certainty, where anything can occur.

MC’s POV

Fuck I’m alive.

God damn it fighting is hard.

My whole body is aching from the recoil of those two attacks.

Thanks ye lords for the rhythm game, otherwise that battle could have been the end of me.

OK now how do I find everyone else?

I’m dead tired.

Ahh they sky is pretty white too.

Why is this place so white and cold?

Let’s add something else on this list of goals in this world.

Let’s find a nice summer get away, somewhere warm…

Yeah that sounds good~

*BANG*

Oh that looks like a flare, guess that’s Elf bro.

Ok, proof of victory is the club?

I wonder if there was anything else, might as well bring the head too.

Ughh, how gruesome.

Reminds me of if slaughter houses have glass walls, PETA would be on my ass right now.

Whatever, I just wanna go sleep.