Chapter-9
Prodigal Body
Cover art credits: Evan Luans (@suptlr on discord)
Ha-Jin weaved to dodge an earth-mana infused strike from X and hit him with a liver shot which made barely no difference to X as he used his abundance of mana to guard his side though, faltering for a split second which was used against him. Ha-Jin hit X with a high kick with his flame and mana coated right leg straight to his left temple, this time, X was not able to react to the strike by Ha-Jin and ended up taking the full blunt force offered by Ha-Jin's kick.
Ha-Jin got cocky and tried to jab at X to which X grabbed his arm and wrapped around it, catching him in arm lock, slamming Ha-Jin's body onto the floor and swiftly dislocating his arm before Ha-Jin had the luxury to react. Ha-Jin felt his brain go back to his fight with Ji-Yeong in which Ji-Yeong had relocated his arms. Ha-Jin remembered slightly being able to see the process through his eyes even without them being infused with mana for reasons even he did not know. Ha-Jin carefully managed to pop his arm back into its socket.
"Just give up, you can't win like this, you'll just damage your body, you just learned your mana affinity and you can only use your mana veins to supply non-attribute mana to your body because of your skill!" X yelled at Ha-Jin before sweeping at his legs, making him fall on his side before stomping on his left leg, fracturing it with a loud crack which made Ha-Jin let out a guttural scream.
X grabbed Ha-Jin's left arm and put him back on his feet before grinning at his face before punching him in the stomach, and hard. Ha-Jin coughed up blood before managing to move his leg and sweep at X's unguarded legs, making him fall onto his side alongside him. Ha-Jin had completely disregarded the fact that X was still a child with a child's arrogance, that was a fatal mistake he had made that had almost killed him.
Ha-Jin ripped off what was left of his tattered grey shirt and used it to cover X's face before elbowing him in the face again and again and again. As X was about to grab onto Ha-Jin's neck, he headbutted him hard on the nose, possibly breaking his nose. Ha-Jin then continued his relentless assault before biting X on the neck, not only biting his skin this time but also the muscle before cleanly ripping it off with his teeth. Ha-Jin had failed to notice two hands coming to clap together on his ears.
The palms hit his ears with a loud CLAP before all Ha-Jin could hear was ringing… loud ringing. Losing even one of his senses in this battle was a huge disadvantage for him which would prove to be fatal. X hit him in the same spot he had punched him a minute ago.
Ha-Jin was sent flying onto the ropes of the ring as X wiped the blood off of his nose and picked up the ripped piece of Ha-Jin's shirt, carefully tying it around his neck to stop the bleeding. "What the hell was that?" X thought, looking at the spot where skin and muscle used to be on his neck. "I couldn't use my earth mana to guard my face? What kind of fucking ability is that?"
[Skill: Storm of Mother Nature has been activated]
The notification appeared before X as the ground began to shatter and rise at X's command before they were thrown straight at Ha-Jin. All Ha-Jin could do was watch his impending death.
Ha-Jin's brain suddenly clicked in as he quickly rolled out of the way of one of the large rocks as it created a huge crater on the ring.
"Goddamnit Ha-Jin, think! You're about to die? What should I do? What should I do?!" Ha-Jin thought before an idea clicked into his mind. "That's it!"
X was suspicious of the sudden hopeful look on Ha-Jin's face and shaped a rock into a chair and sat down, carefully observing Ha-Jin's moves.
Ha-Jin's eyes quickly saw the rock approaching him, knowing he couldn't dodge, he punched the rock instead, shattering it and also covering his knuckles in blood.
Ha-Jin saw another rock and slightly punched it, shifting its course and forming a line of rocks to step on.
As Ha-Jin stepped onto the stones, quickly skipping through them and reaching the last one to X's chair. X's eyes widened, as he realised the fire igniting on Ha-Jin's legs.
However, before Ha-Jin could launch himself onto X, his muscles contracted, giving him a cramp all over his body. His adrenaline had ended, spasms of pain through his body, his fractured leg that he had been forcing to move all along, his slightly fractured arms, his broken ribcage, every injury accrued during the battle was sent to him all at once, causing him to fall from the last stone, almost falling onto X before a spike from the earth appeared, piercing through Ha-Jin's stomach.
Crimson red dripped down the spike made of Mother Nature itself, the thing made to sustain life, used to take the very thing it had been made to sustain.
Ha-Jin had fallen unconscious, his pulse faint as X released the spell, sinking the spike back into the ground, leaving Ha-Jin on the ground, lying in a pool of crimson.
The crowd erupted into a burst of cheers and spectators chanting X's name, treating him as if he were some kind of hero who had just saved the entire earth from extinction.
Before Ha-Jin could bleed to death, his body suddenly disappeared from the ring with no trace of the body, only the pool of blood where the body had been just a second before.
The spectators booed, they had wanted to see the boy bleed out to death and suffer for treating them like shit, even though they had deserved to be treated like shit.
The spectators booed louder as even X ran away to somewhere with a scowl on his face, supposedly looking for something— no, someone.
X finally arrived in the equipment area, his gaze meeting a man in dark blue jeans and a navy blue T-shirt and a leather jacket in front of him. His blonde hair flowed smoothly in the still air of the Arena's equipment area. He was healing Ha-Jin's wounds, keeping him from dying.
"What did I tell you about going too far?!" Jae-Woo yelled at X, not daring to tear his gaze away from Ha-Jin's body, fearing he might die.
"You said he wouldn't stand a chance! What was that power?! I couldn't use my attribute!" X retorted, though he quickly looked back onto the ground as Jae-Woo exerted barely any of his mana.
"It doesn't give you a reason to go this far!" Jae-Woo yelled again as he sighed and finally looked at X. "Be careful next time, Alexander." Jae-Woo said, this time, his voice was calm. He was mad, but not mad enough to abandon Alexander who had grown up to be almost like his own child.
"Yes, Sir" Alexander said as Ha-Jin's eyes fluttered open. He quickly got up and lunged at Alexander, holding a fist over his face when Jae-Woo stopped him.
"Stop, he is my disciple, I sent him for you to grow." Jae-Woo said calmly. Ha-Jin looked back at Jae-Woo with a scowl.
"This is what growing means for you?! Almost killing me?! I thought you said you wanted to train me, not kill me!" Ha-Jin yelled at Jae-Woo, grabbing him by the collar.
Jae-Woo casually brushed his hand off his collar. "I didn't mean to have you almost killed, X did it out of fear, instinct" Jae-Woo said, his stoic expression remained.
Ha-Jin wanted to argue but the way Jae-Woo spoke was way too charming, and the look in his eyes didn't dare suggest that he was lying about it.
Ha-Jin suddenly remembered the pain, his pain coming in spasms. "Fuck! Stop this, it hurts so bad!" Ha-Jin yelled, grovelling on the ground.
"Just rest for a few days." Jae-Woo said, hitting a spot on Ha-Jin's neck, making him fall unconscious.