"This boy is working hard today. Did something happen to him?" an old man asked, looking at his old wife.
The old woman did not answer. Then the old man remembered that Baran was leaving.
"Yes… yes, it has been three years since Baran came here," the old man said in a hoarse voice, trying to get up. "He was just like my son…"
He sighed a little, then raised his head and called out in a voice filled with the warmth of nostalgia and weariness:
"Baran!"
When Baran reached the old man, he said in an exasperated tone:
"What do you want now? Can't you see I'm busy? I'm about to become an existence-level fighter?!!
The old man's eyes widened in shock. He had never imagined that Baran would believe he could reach the level of existence before completing the skill transformation. It was sheer madness… yet in Baran's eyes, he saw a determination unlike any human's.
The old man said hesitantly,
"Yes, yes… you will definitely arrive, but tell me, have you completed your skill transformation?"
"No," Baran replied,
glancing at his hands with slight weariness. "I'm only at about seventy-five percent… Do you think that's enough?"
The old man stared at Baran with worried eyes and asked,
"Did Zalveron say anything else about the skill? Like where to find it or how to activate it?"
Baran sighed deeply and replied in a bored voice,
"I told you, he didn't tell me anything about the skill… all he mentioned was that its name was Black Lightning Dragon."
The old man said to him,
"You must train more to unlock the secrets of the skill…"
Then he suddenly stopped and said,
"Look over there."
Men were running toward them.
While Baran and the old man were in the orchard, a man rushed in, sweating profusely and fear written all over his face. He cried out in a trembling voice:
"Please… help me! He will kill me… he will kill me!"
Baran trembled at the horror of the sight but tried to control himself. He cautiously approached the man and said in a calm yet firm voice:
"Calm down, we will help you, but first, tell us what happened."
The man sat on the ground, leaning on his legs, blood dripping onto the dirt, gasping:
"He… he attacked me… he wanted to kill me…"
The old man looked at Baran and smiled once more, this time with a hint of caution:
"It seems our troubles today have not yet begun."
A youth with sky-blue hair reaching his neck entered the orchard, shimmering under the sun as if holding a mysterious secret. A sword was tied to his waist, and his movements suggested vigilance and sharpness. He approached the injured man, stared at him with cold eyes, then said in a faint but harsh voice: "This man must die."
"What?! Have you lost your mind?!" Baran yelled, and a black spark shot from his feet to the ground. "You want to kill the man right here in my own home?!" He took a step forward, raising his arm to shield the man behind him like a shield of resolve. The air around him began to tremble, as if rage itself had taken a material form.
The sky-haired man didn't move, but he smiled a cold smile, and a dark blue glint reflected in his eyes. "You think you can stop me, boy?" he said in a low voice like the rumble of thunder before a storm.
"Yes, I can prevent you from doing what you want, and crush you if necessary!" Baran said in an angry voice and a look full of contempt, before pointing his hand at the injured man, shouting: "Go to the old man, and don't you dare leave him"
"Are you confident you can break me?" the sky-haired man said in a cold tone, his eyes gleaming with a deadly chill as he stared at Baran.
Baran met his gaze with an explicit challenge, a faint smile gracing his face, as if welcoming the battle that was about to begin.
The boy smiled a confident smile, and in an instant, his body vanished like a flash of lightning piercing the air. He appeared beside Baran without making a sound, as if time itself hadn't noticed his movement.
With a swift fist, he aimed a blow at Baran, but it was weightless, lifeless, like a passing breeze. Baran did not move, no expression of surprise appeared on his face; he merely extended his hand calmly and stopped the punch as if fending off a child trying to touch a flame
Baran did not hesitate for a split second, and with his other hand, he dealt a swift blow to the chest of the boy with sky-blue hair. It was not an ordinary blow; half of his destructive power was unleashed at that moment!
The boy's body slammed into the ground after flying two meters backward, yet a cold smile formed on his face... a smile that resembled only the smile of someone who finds pleasure amidst pain.
The boy said to Baran in a calm yet angry voice: "That's all I have... I'm disappointed."
In an instant, his celestial hair erupted from his head, flying in the air like glowing flames, coiling around him with irresistible force. Baran took a step back, his heart pounding, realizing that this time, the boy had unleashed his full power... and the confrontation was no longer just a test, but a real war.
"Hmm... this is very familiar..." the old man muttered to himself, his eyes fixed on the sky-haired youth, whose locks shimmered like snow, surrounded by a strange tranquility as if the wind itself feared to approach him, and snow gently floated around him on all sides, as if guarding him from the world.
The sky-haired boy began to speak in a quiet but sharp voice: "Oi... what's your name?"
Baran's hair trembled from the intense cold, as the snow swirling around the boy was not just decoration; it seemed to carry an icy influence that stung everything that came near it, making the atmosphere silent and heavy, as if the whole world had stopped to watch this boy.
Baran stammered, "My... my name is Baran."
The sky-haired boy frowned for a moment, as if the name had awakened vague memories within him, then smiled and said, "My name is Narvik, pleased to meet you."
As he finished speaking, ice emanated from every corner of the grove, covering the ground and trees as if imposing a cold silence that settled over the place.
The ice was forming randomly, but its ends were sharp like swords, as if designed to cut through anything in its path. All the pieces of ice shot towards Baran, who stood frozen, absent-minded, unable to move amidst this cold and deadly assault
Baran was about to retreat back to the old man's side, but he remembered the three years of harsh training he had endured with him. His heart filled with anger, and in an instant, all the ice surrounding him shattered.
As the ice broke, a mysterious black lightning appeared; part of it wrapped around Baran like a belt of power, and the other part appeared and disappeared in the air, adding an aura of dread and mystery to the entire place.
Narvik paid no attention to the Black Lightning, merely offering a cold smile and muttering: Just a weakling... what can he do?
In the next moment, his image vanished from the spot like a flash of snow, reappearing beside Baran, as a wave of freezing power erupted from his fist, delivering a violent punch that made the air crack around them.
Narvik did not hesitate for long, he lightly drew his shining sword from his waist, and shouted in a low voice full of anger: "Ice Beam Attack!"
In an instant, a frozen blue glow emanated from his sword, and the attack transformed into a beam of icy energy that pierced the air with lightning speed, forming a mysterious figure of ice glowing blue, rushing towards Baran with enough force to freeze mountains themselves.
Explosionnnnnn