"Need something?" Kalthor asked.
The casual and friendly tone didn't fool anyone. Ling Wu wasn't playing along, she stood ten feet away, her posture stiff and her voice cutting through the night.
"Kalthor," she said, "get away from the kid."
Kalthor shook his head, a disappointed chuckle escaping him. "You're making it sound like I'm a danger to him."
"Cut the crap," Ling Wu snapped. "Everybody knows what you are."
"I'm hurt, Ling Wu." Kalthor pressed a hand to his chest, feigning a wound. "The boy is clearly with you, and I just saved his life. Is this how you say thank you?"
"I don't thank people like you."
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
Ling Wu added. "It means I don't want anything to do with a murderer."
A vein throbbed on Kalthor's forehead, his pupils shrinking as the friendly mask finally cracked. "Huh? What did you just call me?"
"I called you what you are," she repeated, her resolve hardening. "A murderer."
"Shut up." Kalthor's smile was gone now, replaced by a sharp anger.
"Oh? Now that someone is here to hear the truth, you want me to be quiet? You don't want the world to know your nature?"
"I said shut up!"
"No," Ling Wu said. "Kazuya has every right to know he's standing next to a cold-hearted killer."
"Give it a rest!" Kalthor roared.
He swung his hand. In an instant, the stone ground shattered as thick vines erupted, shooting toward Ling Wu like spears.
She didn't panic. She stepped back, and in the blink of an eye, she was gone, reappearing ten meters away.
Kazuya took the hint and backed away, putting distance between himself and the fight. He glanced down at his body. The cuts from the shadows were gone, stitched shut by his own unnatural body. His clothes, however, were a loss.
My body's fine, but the shirt is trash, Kazuya thought as he watched Kalthor. I don't know if that guy saw my wounds healing though.
Kalthor raised his right hand. He wore five rings, each connected by a silver chain to a metal bracelet.
"Begone!"
His voice had a rippling and distorted quality, like a chant vibrating through air.
More vines surged from the earth, thrashing wildly at Ling Wu. She moved like a ghost, appearing and disappearing, never staying in one spot long enough for the plants to hit her. The place was quickly becoming a ruin of upturned earth.
Kazuya watched from the shadows, his mind working. Kalthor's powers are tied to nature. The grass, the vines, the roses... he uses them to bind and exorcise, but they have a clear offensive side too. He isn't to be underestimated.
Then he looked at Ling Wu. But what is she doing? She hasn't attacked once. She's just dodging, flickering from place to place. Is it teleportation? Spatial manipulation? It's hard to tell.
In the center of the chaos, Ling Wu grit her teeth. Kalthor was fully enraged now. She knew she could take him, but Ling Wu was playing it safe. She was staying unscathed while keeping her true abilities hidden.
Kalthor has lost it, she thought. He's in a blind rage. I can beat him, but I don't want him to see everything I can do, that would be a mistake
She didn't regret provoking him, the truth needed to be said, but she didn't want to show her full hand either.
If I take Kazuya and run now, he'll just follow us and wreck the city. Even if he calms down, he'll hold a grudge and wait for a moment to sneak attack me later. Forget it. The only way to subdue him is to end this quickly.
She stopped moving for a second, and the vines closed in from all sides.
"Die!" Kalthor roared.
Fwoosh.
Ling Wu vanished just as a cluster of vines slammed into the spot where she had been standing, leaving a crater in the dirt. She reappeared ten meters closer. Kalthor swung again, his face twisted in a snarl, but she flickered again.
She kept appearing and disappearing with such speed that it looked like she was moving in frames.
Before he could even shout another curse, she was face-to-face with him.
"You bi—"
Bam.
Ling Wu's fist smashed into his face before he could finish the word. His head snapped back, his eyes going unfocused. Just as he tried to blink the stars away, she hit him again.
Bam. Bam. Bam.
It was a rain of instantaneous strikes. Her fists crashed into Kalthor over and over, every punch landing squarely on his face. His nose shattered, blood spraying across his clothes. His teeth broke, and one of his eyes swelled shut within seconds.
After a brutal barrage, Ling Wu stopped. Kalthor's eyes had rolled back into his head. His body stayed upright for one more second, swaying, before he crashed face-first into the dirt.
Ling Wu stood over him, her knuckles bruised and bloodied, but otherwise unscathed.
Kazuya felt a rare spark of genuine shock. He knew she was strong, but this was different from what he thought.
She's too powerful, he thought. She could be Class 5... no, maybe even Class 4.
He had never met anyone above Class 6 before. He thought of the spider-faced beast in the forest, the monster that had killed him.
If she were there, could she beat that thing? He shook the thought away, he didn't know enough about the scale of power in this world yet.
Kazuya approached her. Ling Wu noticed him and wiped her hands, her smile returning. "Kazuya? You aren't hurt, are you?"
He shook his head and looked at the heap that used to be Kalthor. "Who is he?"
Ling Wu's smile dimmed. "When I was nine, my clan was wiped out. I ended up in this city, Irienard, as an orphan. Shortly after I arrived, Kalthor, who was about my age, got involved in an incident."
Kazuya listened.
"He had a fight with some adults," she continued. "He gave them severe injuries and even killed one. He was captured and sent to a facility where they taught and nurtured him carefully before they finally released him a few years ago."
Kazuya frowned. "How does a child do that to grown men?"
"He grasped ritual arts," she replied.
"Ritual arts?"
"It's the path for people without a Foci," Ling Wu explained. "Instead of being born with power, you use ritual arts to reach the same heights. It's complicated, it uses offerings, sacrifices, chants, incantations, drawings... all kinds of things."
She paused, looking at the unconscious man. "There are strengths and weaknesses to every type. Chants and incantations are usually used for support or healing outside of battle because they take time. A strong ability needs a long incantation, which is inconvenient when someone is trying to kill you. Plus, if you mess up the words, you can hurt yourself."
Kazuya was intrigued. If he didn't have a Foci anymore, ritual arts might be his only path to real power.
"But didn't Kalthor use chants while he was fighting you? They didn't seem weak."
"He has a rare talent for it," Ling Wu admitted. "Most people have zero affinity. Kalthor is highly proficient, but he's arrogant. His ego is the only thing keeping him from being truly terrifying."
She suddenly reached out and ruffled Kazuya's hair. "Also, I'm your master, yet you dared to leave the house without permission and come all the way here on your own. What would have happened if Kalthor wasn't here to save you?"
Kazuya opened his mouth to argue, then stopped. It took him a long moment to find an answer. "I couldn't sleep."
"So you decided to come to a ruined mansion at night?"
Kazuya just nodded. His expression was flat, giving her nothing to work with. "Sigh, this is the last time. In the future, you ask me before you do anything on your own, including leaving the house, understood?"
Kazuya wanted to deny her, but he remembered their deal, total obedience. For some reason, even though he would break a promise to anyone else if it benefited him, he didn't want to break his word to her.
"Fine."
"Good. Now let's go, you need a new shirt and actual sleep."
"What about him?" Kazuya pointed at Kalthor. "Are you just going to leave him here?"
"Yeah," she said, not even looking back. "It's about time he learned a lesson."
...
The next week was a blur of repetition. Kazuya trained harder than any normal human could, pushing his muscles to the breaking point and letting his regeneration bridge the gap. Kalthor was nowhere to be seen, it seemed the crushing defeat had been enough to keep him in hiding.
One morning, in the mansion courtyard, Ling Wu was sitting on a boulder, her head tilted back as if she were staring at the sky. She heard footsteps and turned.
"Took you long enough," she grumbled.
Kazuya walked through the rubble wearing his new gear: a tight black shirt that showed his lean build, durable black pants, and comfortable leather shoes.
In his hand, he carried a bag.
"If you wanted steamed buns that badly, you should have bought them yourself," Kazuya said, tossing the bag to her.
Ling Wu caught it, the scent of the food making her mouth water instantly. "I couldn't! I was busy, and they were on sale. I couldn't miss the discount, so I had to send you."
"Whatever. Let's start the training."
Ling Wu was already stuffing a bun into her mouth, nearly choking as she tried to swallow it. "Can't you let a maiden eat in peace? You're unbelievable."
Kazuya rolled his eyes and sat on the ground cross-legged, resting his chin on his hand. He just watched her eat.
"You're annoying, you know that?" she said, wiping her mouth with a handkerchief.
Kazuya didn't answer. Ling Wu hopped off the boulder and gestured with her hand. "Fine. Come. You're getting the rough treatment today."
Kazuya didn't wait. He rushed her, throwing a punch that she dodged with insulting ease. She countered with a blow to his chest that knocked the wind out of him.
"Ugh." Kazuya stumbled back.
Ling Wu rushed him before he could recover. She threw a punch, he twisted to evade it, but she was already ahead of him.
Bam!
Her knee connected with his face. He hit the ground hard.
Kazuya scrambled up and rushed her again, throwing everything he had, kicks, punches, feints, but he was sloppy compared to her. Every time he moved, she was already there, deflecting his strike and delivering a punishing counter.
She's operating at this level with just physical strength and basic technique, Kazuya realized, gritting his teeth. And I'm using everything I have just to barely keep up.
He tried a low kick to her side, but she caught his leg in mid-air. Kazuya tried to pull free, but she was faster, sweeping his other leg and sending him flat on his back.
He groaned, struggling to draw air back into his lungs. When he looked up, he saw that Ling Wu wasn't smiling. In that moment, she looked more terrifying than she had when she was beating Kalthor.
She sighed, then turned back to her boulder to finish her buns. Kazuya stayed on the ground, breathing hard, realizing he had learned a very important lesson: don't annoy Ling Wu when she's hungry.
...
At the same time, two men arrived at the city.
One was a tall man with messy dark blue hair. A mask covered the lower half of his face, and a hood was pulled over his head. His eyes looked hollow, as if he hadn't slept in weeks. He moved with a heavy, monotone fatigue.
The other was slightly shorter, with blond hair and sharp blue eyes. He had a calm, almost bored expression.
As they walked into the city, the blond one let out a long sigh. "Sigh. What a completely useless, meaningless, worthless, futile effort we're doing. Coming all the way here to buy supplies for that crazy guy is extremely unsatisfying for me."
The blue-haired man spoke, his voice sounding completely drained. "Complaining changes nothing. Let's get the goods and leave."
"Then how am I supposed to express my emotions?" the blond one asked, shrugging. "To show the world that I'm wronged?"
The blue-haired man didn't answer his partner. He simply ignored the question. "Keep your guard up," he added. "I've heard there are some remarkable people in this city."
The blond one scoffed: "Hmph. I find it hard to believe there's anyone as remarkable, amazing, astonishing, astounding as me."
He smiled a strange smile, one that had a hint of arrogance and danger.