《Become Immortal》


 Chapter 1

    <u>Chapter 1</u>


    A bird was flying through the streets, which were densely packed with humans. The bird didn¡¯t really like flying through towns as they were full of dirt and loud noises. If it weren¡¯t for the lack of food in the nearby hills and forests, it would¡¯ve never come to this place.


    The bird was flying as fast as it could, so that it could leave for the hills sooner.


    Suddenly some figures on the ground threw something into the air. The bird, who was concentrating on flying didn¡¯t see the object fast enough and directly clashed with it, causing a loud crashing noise and countless sharp shards of glass flying in every direction. The bird chirped loudly and desperately tried to maintain the height of its flight. With its last struggles it flew with its bloody body through some more streets until it ultimately didn¡¯t have the strength anymore and collapsed against a window, which made a slight dull sound.


    Behind the window, in a shabby looking hotel room, a tall muscular man was sitting on the ground in a meditative position, with crossed legs and folded arms in front of his bare upper body. The man was really young, at most 20 years old, with a muscular body. Long black hair grew on his head and was bound with a wooden dragon into a braid. But the most eye-catching on the body of the man was a giant tattoo, which covered almost all of his back and half of his upper body. It was an unbelievably detailed looking Chinese Dragon, with countless sharp fangs, claws and scales. It looked like it was alive, as if it could jump out of the body of the man and devour the world.


    A dull sound came from the window. Slowly the closed eyes of the man opened and revealed dark black eyes, which exuded a mysterious charm. He exhaled loudly and after checking a digital clock, which was standing right in front of him on a table, he stood up.


    ¡°It¡¯s time.¡± He said to himself, almost whispering. The young man walked to a small cabinet in the corner of the room. He opened it, took out a black jacket with long sleeves and a big metallic box. Carefully he took off the cover from the box and two one handed Skandian axes were revealed. They were forged out of a strange black looking metal and fully carved in mysterious runic symbols mixed with Chinese characters and mythic beings, such as chimeras and hydras.


    After a brief hesitation he reached into the box and carefully, almost as if the axes could shatter, he took them out of it. A strange glimmer flashed in his eyes as he observed the blades. Excitement, regret, love and pain. It was almost as if the axes were two girls which, instead of answering his courting, found out their lesbian sexuality and declared love for each other. With a low sigh, the man turned around, put the axes on a table und pulled the black jacket over his upper body. Lastly he took something out of the box, which couldn¡¯t be seen before.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    It was a mask, looking like a dragons face. The man put the mask on his head, grabbed the two beautiful axes and made his way to the door.


    A moment and a few floors later, a door in a shabby street opened. The street was filled with garbage and some drunks were slowly tumbling in the opposite direction from the door, occasionally shouting a few curses.


    The masked man didn¡¯t even look at the alcoholics and directly turned to the left walking into a small corner of the alley. With a few fast punches a part of the wall crumbled and gave way to another alley. This alley was almost completely empty except for a suspicious looking black van with darkened windows.


    The man walked towards the car, neither slow nor fast. It seemed like it was perfectly normal for him that a strange black van was parked behind his house.


    He reached the van and opened the back door.


    ¡°Dragon!¡±


    ¡±Finally!¡±


    ¡°Did you fall asleep meditating again?¡±


    He was directly greeted by three different voices. Inside the back of the van there were sitting three men, looking almost the same as the one who opened the door. The only differences in the dark were the masks. Each of the men wore a different mask. Dragon, Tiger, Hawk, Turtle.


    ¡°Brothers, you know how it is¡­my meditative state cannot easily be disturbed.¡±


    Dragon said and looked towards the front seats. ¡°Snake¡¯s not here yet?¡± he asked and stepped into the car.


    ¡°I was here before all of you¡­remember? I got kicked out of my hotel a few days ago.¡± An annoyed voice came from the driver seat and a man looked around its corner. This man was wearing a snake mask.


    ¡°Ah¡­sorry I totally forgot¡­.well brother you shouldn¡¯t have played with the owner¡¯s daughter so openly.¡± Dragon said with a light smirk.


    ¡°Yeah right¡­¡± Snake mumbled annoyed and turned around again.


    ¡°Hehe¡­I heard that the hotel owner hired a few guys from the Ling Teng-Gang to deal with you. You need help?¡± said Turtle while laughing.


    ¡°If he can¡¯t even settle those small things himself, then what the hell does he have to do with us.¡± Hawk said slowly.


    ¡°Could you shut your mouths?!?¡± Snake turned around again and angrily glared at the four guys in the back: ¡°All of you.¡± He said with pressure in his voice as he saw Tiger opening his mouth to throw his comment into the discussion.


    Tiger closed his mouth with a clap sound and decided to watch Snake with a mocking gaze.


    ¡°I really hate all of you! Where is the compassion? The empathy? Was I drunk when I agreed to be your brother?¡± Snake said with a mournful voice and acted like he wiped some tears from the cheeks of his mask.


    ¡°Stop acting, I told you its disgustin¡­!¡± Turtle directly started to rage but was immediately interrupted by a loud cough. All four shifted their gaze onto Dragon again, who was quietly sitting at the end of the van.


    ¡°You guys done yet, or should I hire a daycare for you?¡± he said half sarcastic, half serious. They knew each other for a long time already, since they started training martial arts. He knew that those brothers of him would probably never change again in their lifetime, but he also knew deep inside his heart, that he liked his brothers the way they were. And he knew for a fact that they felt the same towards each other and him. Even though they were not blood related, they grew to become the brothers they were now, through hard years of training and a lot of life and death situations.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go. Those guys won¡¯t kill themselves.¡± He said and motioned Snake with his hand to start driving.


    ¡°That¡¯s right Snake, start driving¡­It¡¯s a great night to spill some blood¡± Tiger growled and a crazed spark started shining in his eyes. Turtle and Hawk nodded too and Snake finally turned around, grumpily muttering curses under his breath. He turned the key, started the car and slowly rolled down the alley onto a bigger street. He turned right and soon became faster.

 Chapter 2

    <u>Chapter 2</u>


    Dragon leaned back and started thinking again. He had a bad feeling. He just didn¡¯t know why. It couldn¡¯t be because of his brothers, as they had trained together since they were eight. For ten whole years they sparred against each other, compared their self created techniques and tried to surpass one another. Eventually they realized that all of them were the strongest in a certain area, except for Dragon, who was strong in every area. He was almost as strong as Tiger, almost as fast as Hawk, almost as agile as Snake and he could take almost as many punches as Turtle, so they decided to make him the leader, as he united the strength of them all. At some point they couldn¡¯t advance in their martial arts anymore, they hit a bottleneck. It was like an invisible wall which blocked their way to enlightenment. This changed everything, as all of them were martial arts fanatics. The only thing equally important to martial arts were woman, but since all of them deeply believed in true love, they never really did anything else than play with woman. So they decided to try to gain enlightenment by killing people, as they had read about this way in an old script from their dojo. Dragon sighed. They were killing gang members for almost two years now and none of them felt an increase in their power, nor any form of enlightenment.


    ¡®Well at least we kill the trash of society¡¯ he thought and turned to look at his brothers which, similar to him, were deep in thought. He decided to lightly meditate until they reached their destination and closed his eyes.


    Two hours later, the van rolled onto an abandoned courtyard, which bordered to their target zone. Dragon opened his eyes looked at his brothers and took some sheets of paper out of the pocket of his jacket.


    ¡°This is the area. Our targets should be in this big building, but some of them could be inside the smaller buildings or the surrounding trenches¡± he said as he spread a map on his legs, pointing several things out.


    ¡°Snake what¡¯s the enemies strength and how are they armed?¡± he asked right after and looked towards the man with the Snake mask.


    ¡°Was fairly easy to find that out, which kind of surprised me, as there are some big underground figures residing in that building.¡± He said with a low voice:Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°They have about sixty people, all of them are armed and I didn¡¯t find any martial artists. They are armed with standard military rifles from Germany, some Ak¡¯s from Russia and I saw a few people with Drag¡¯s.¡± Snake concluded.


    Dragon slowly nodded his head and looked towards Hawk. ¡°You got the Drag¡¯s?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Who do you think I am?!¡± Hawk asked in a shocked voice, but right afterwards he became serious: ¡°No problem for me, bro¡± and pulled out two long and slender curved daggers, forged out of a similar metal as Dragon¡¯s axes.


    ¡°I swear to god¡­If I have to pull some bullets out of my back again, cause you ¡®overlooked¡¯ someone, then I will personally drill them into your body!¡± Turtle said while glaring angrily at Hawk, who in turn just shrugged his shoulders.


    ¡°Not my fault that you are big¡­and to your information that lone sniper was totally hiding under my radar, he must¡¯ve known me!¡± Hawk said righteously.


    Turtle gasped: ¡°You know what¡­-¡°


    ¡°Enough! Turtle has the distraction been taken care of?¡± Dragon directly interrupted that conversation and looked towards the biggest man in the truck, who was wearing a turtle mask.


    ¡°Of course brother, who do you think I am?!¡± Turtle answered with exactly the same words Hawk used before, who in turn became huge eyes as he looked at Turtle. ¡°Oi, Oi¡­¡¯big¡¯ Turtle, are you sure that you distraction isn¡¯t the same useless crap we had in Algeria? I mean why did you think it would be a good idea to hire some prostitutes to distract the police??!¡± he said mockingly and Snake quietly laughed in the background.


    ¡°ENOUGH!¡± Tiger growled loudly which shocked the three disputing brothers and they quickly turned around to look at him. ¡°I do not have enough patience to put up with your constant useless discussions today so cut it out, or I will make sure that each of you three gets to feel my fists!¡± he said with a clear threat in his voice and slowly rubbed his fists, which were armed with black metal brass knuckles.


    ¡°You will have to catch me first though¡­¡± Hawk whispered under his breath, but directly panicked as one of Tigers fists flashed in front of his face without warning.


    ¡°Hey holy shit bro!!¡± he complained loudly.


    ¡°I. SAID. ENOUGH.¡± Dragon growled loudly and the other four saw him drawing his axes out of the loops on the sides of his black pants.


    ¡°Alright, alright!!¡± all of them quickly said and looked towards Dragon.


    Dragon looked each of his brothers in the eyes and said: ¡°I have a bad feeling, so I want you to take this seriously, even though it looks like a piece of cake! You understand me?!¡±


    ¡°Yes bro!¡± all of them agreed with a serious gaze.


    ¡°Turtle! Start the distraction!¡± Dragon said seriously.


    ¡°Already started five minutes ago¡± Turtle said with a look to his watch.


    Dragon looked another time deep into the eyes of each of his brothers and opened the door.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± he said and ran towards the target zone.

 Chapter 3

    <u>Chapter 3</u>


    They didn¡¯t have to run for long, as after a few minutes houses appeared in front of them. He turned around and made a hand sign towards Hawk. Hawk directly vanished into the bushes to take care of the Dragunov-Snipers. Dragon turned towards the houses again and started watching the buildings. Occasionally some people with weapons would walk from house to house, probably patrols. Aside from that there were suspiciously few enemies, which raised the bad feeling Dragon had.


    They patiently waited and after short five minutes Hawk appeared besides them, his curved daggers were dripping with blood.


    Dragon looked at him shortly, nodded and gave the hand sign for ¡®silent attack¡¯.


    Right afterwards all five of them vanished as they sneaked towards the houses as fast as they could. No sound was heard, no tracks. It was like they were panthers in the night, hunting for their prey.


    The first to reach the houses was naturally Hawk and luckily two armed guards walked right past him. With four slashes, too fast for the normal human eye, the two guards grabbed their throats and chests in panic as blood gushed out between their fingers. They dropped to the ground and struggled almost soundlessly as their vocal cords and lungs were pierced accurately. Soon after both of the guards died Hawk, who already shifted his position, stabbed to more patrol groups. Meanwhile Dragon, Tiger, Snake and Turtle, were steadily sneaking closer to the big building, as all the guards around them were taken care of. A few moments later they met up and shortly waited for Hawk, who appeared a short breath later. Dragon looked at them and counted down with his hand. He took four fingers off the metal handle of one of his axes and let them fall onto the handle again one after the other.


    ¡®Four¡¯


    ¡®Three¡¯


    ¡®Two¡¯


    ¡®One¡¯


    ¡®BANG¡¯ ¡®CRASH¡¯ Tiger and Turtle directly ran through the closed door, as if it was paper and the other three jumped through nearby windows.


    They directly stood in a five man formation after they got inside and looked around, ready to fight. But¡­there was nothing. It was an empty hall. The whole building was just this hall, stuffed with old crates on the sides, dust everywhere.


    ¡°What the hell¡­¡± Snake said as he looked around searching for movements.


    There was nothing.


    Dragon suddenly felt the bad feeling grow stronger rapidly and he saw flying objects with smoke coming from their ends flying through the open doors and windows.


    ¡°IT¡¯S A TRA-¡­¡± he shouted but he was interrupted in the middle of the sentence as the flying objects, which in fact were RPG-Anti Vehicle Rockets, hit the ground and exploded in a giant fireball, enveloping him and his four brothers. Additionally to the rockets explosions the floors were suddenly exploding as well, as explosives which were placed there before got activated.


    It was a deadly trap. No one could escape an inferno as big as this, even if one was one of the best martial arts experts on planet earth.


    That truth applied to Dragon and his five brothers too, as they got smashed into pieces, and burned half alive.


    ¡®Should¡¯ve realized it earlier¡­I am sorry brothers¡¯ then his brain too melted into nothingness.


    Darkness. Endless darkness. Dragon felt nothing. It was like he was not there, even though he was there.


    ¡®Is this hell¡­¡¯ he thought as he tried to turn his body around to look in a different direction. He couldn¡¯t. Suddenly he heard something. The sounds came from underneath him. He slowly tried to look down and was immediately terrified. A chain was stabbed into his chest. That wasn¡¯t the most shocking thing as something was connected to the chain. Dragon looked further down and discovered to his astonishment, that there was something similar to a human hanging on the other side of the chain. One couldn¡¯t really see who this human was, but he kind of had a familiar feeling as he observed the lifeless burned body, with countless deep wounds.


    ¡®Where am I¡­.am I alive? No, no one can possibly survive something like this. I was careless!¡¯ he thought and suddenly he felt a lot of pain inside his heart.


    ¡®I¡¯ve let you down¡­¡¯ he thought in a pained voice. One after the other the four faces of his brothers flowed through his mind, in an endless circle. Slowly something wet started to gather in his eyes, rolling down his cheeks, dropping on the chain on his chest. Dragon didn¡¯t even realize that he was crying as he was overcome by grief. Without a warning a loud ¡®BANG¡¯ came from the chain and with a jerk the chain got severed by tears of blood. One half of it was still stuck inside of his chest but the half with the burned corpse vanished into the darkness.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Suddenly he heard voices in his head:


    ¡®DRAGON¡¯ ¡®DRAGON¡¯ ¡®DRAGON¡¯ ¡®DRAGON¡¯ ¡®DRAGON¡¯


    That shook him out of his grieving state. He knew these voices. His name was said by four voices, all of them completely different, yet similar.


    ¡°TIGER, HAWK, SNAKE, TURTLE!!!!!!¡± Dragon shouted as loud as he could, almost rupturing his hearing. ¡®Wait¡­why¡­how do I feel pain¡­how can I think- Wait nevermind! The most important thing right now is the possibility of them being here!!!¡¯ He looked down again and to his surprise the chain, which was tied to the corpse before, was severed in half and a bloody liquid stuck on the severed end. Dragon tried to move. ¡®Yes! I can move!!¡¯ he thought excited and all his grief was replaced by hope. He leapt into the darkness and tried to find the source of the voices in the endless darkness. Dragon didn¡¯t know how long he flew through this endless darkness, as there was no way to measure the time and his hopes were slowly starting to drop as:


    ¡®DRAGON¡¯ ¡®DRAGON¡¯ ¡®DRAGON¡¯ ¡®DRAGON¡¯ ¡®DRAGON¡¯


    The voices sounded out again. They were nearby now. Dragon tried to increase his pace as he made strange swimming moves to part the darkness and suddenly he directly slammed into something. He looked up and saw that he collided with four corpses, each of the corpses had a silvery chain coming out of the chest. Dragon rejoiced and quickly followed the chains upwards.


    Soon he found what he hoped for and he started laughing loudly. In front of his eyes there were four white, almost transparent men floating in the darkness with silvery chains attached to their chests.


    ¡°TIGER! HAWK! SNAKE! TURTLE!¡± he shouted and quickly flew over to them. His eyes were slightly wet again, but this time out of joy instead of grief.


    He was not alone. His brothers were with him and he was with them.


    ¡°DRAGON!!¡± the four men shouted and they too had tears in their eyes as they had thought they would never see him again. They tried to move towards him, but were stopped by the weight of the corpses attached to them.


    ¡°We cannot move. The corpses are binding us! Can you do something about that?¡± Snake said with an urgent voice. Dragon instantly got an idea and held the end of his chain, which was still slightly bloody against Turtle¡¯s chain. With a loud ¡®CLING¡¯ the chain got severed and the corpse vanished. Turtle was free. Overjoyed that his idea worked in this strange world, which defied all common sense he directly severed the chains from the other three brothers. Soon all three of them were free and they watched the last corpse fall into the dark endless abyss.


    Dragon turned around to them looked them into the eyes with a serious and pained gaze and said earnestly: ¡°I have let you down brothers! I am endlessly sorry for your deaths! I will atone for my sins in Hell¡± he bowed deeply before them after he said that, trying not to look up into their eyes as he didn¡¯t want to see the pain in their gazes. Suddenly he felt something on his shoulder. He looked up and saw the serious gazes of his brothers.


    ¡°We¡¯ve let you down as well!¡± Tiger said with grief in his voice ¡°So let us go together towards whatever will happen to us as we are brothers beyond death! And besides¡­we talk, hear, feel pain, hope, happiness, so how are we dead?¡± Dragon and the other three looked astounded at Tigers face. He had never talked that much before. They looked at each other again and, out of relief, started laughing together.


    ¡°Well said Bro Tiger! Brothers beyond Death! As long as we are together we can smash everything apart!¡± Turtle said with a confident voice.


    ¡°Yeah¡­well except maybe for RPG¡¯s¡± Hawk said jokingly, which earned him an annoyed look from Turtle and laughter from the other three.


    ¡°Well¡­that¡¯s all good, but¡­does someone know where the hell we are?¡± Snake asked and looked around.


    Nothing but darkness.


    ¡°I can¡¯t see anything¡± Turtle complained and almost jumped back at the glares he received from the others for stating the obvious.


    ¡°We certainly aren¡¯t dead, which means we are alive?¡± Hawk asked and looked at the others.


    ¡°Not necessarily. Haven¡¯t we read the old scriptures of our dojo?¡± Dragon asked.


    ¡°Yes of course! The words in the scriptures stated that the soul of a martial artist gets strengthened simultaneously with physical training and age. We are only twenty now, but we matured through killing and taking care of our lives. Also we should have reached the pinnacle of martial arts on earth.¡± Dragon said excited. That would explain certain things.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be possible for our souls to live on, if our bodies get destroyed?¡±


    He continued and his excitement rose.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that also mean¡­there are other worlds except of earth?!¡± Snake shouted shocked.


    As soon as they realized this, a bright grin spread on the faces of the five brothers. They could find a world to train martial arts to a higher realm!


    It was like a dream come true for them, as they always were exceptional geniuses, which learned everything in a lot less time than other martial arts experts. That was the reason for them being on the pinnacle of martial arts on earth with only ten years of training and two years of killing criminals.


    ¡°The question is¡­how do we get into another world? And even more important where and how should we train without bodies?!¡± Hawk asked.


    Dragon frowned. These were good questions. He tried to think of an idea, but it seemed like there was a blockade in his head again, similar to the barrier in martial arts.


    ¡°What if we just¡­well¡­think of entering another world? And for the body part, can¡¯t we look for a solution when we have found a world?¡± Turtle said seriously.


    Everyone just watched him speechlessly.


    ¡°Well¡­nevermind¡­it was just an idea guys¡­continue thinking¡­phew¡± Turtle whispered.


    ¡°No Turtle that¡¯s actually not a bad idea, considering that we have nothing in here, except for the chains and us. I think we should just try it¡­I mean we are already dead anyway¡­¡± Dragon said and looked at his brothers.


    ¡°How about it?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m in¡± Snake and Hawk said at the same time.


    ¡°¡­in¡± was the only sound heard from Tiger.


    ¡°Well I am obviously in, as it was my idea!¡± Turtle said proudly.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s do it. Think of getting into a completely different galaxy. A galaxy perfect for martial arts. Perfect for us brothers to become great!¡± Dragon said enthusiastically and closed his eyes while thinking hard about a perfect galaxy for them. His brothers were doing the same.


    Minutes passed. Nothing happened.


    After a long time Turtle slowly opened his eyes and awkwardly said: ¡°Well that didn¡¯t work¡­¡±


    Exactly that moment, out of nowhere a giant swirl appeared underneath the five brothers. Uncountable amounts of stars glittered in the swirl, which rotated endlessly. With a sound, strangely similar to the rustling of leaves in the wind, the spiral instantly sucked the five brothers into its galaxy.


    The endless darkness was empty again.

 Chapter 4

    <u>Chapter 4</u>


    Dragon couldn¡¯t believe his eyes as he flew in lightning speed through countless galaxies, past giant planets and monsters as big as the former, floating in the airless space. It was an unbelievable and at the same time terrifying sight. Tiger, Hawk, Snake and Turtle experienced the exact same things as they were flying shoulder to shoulder.


    After a short moment the five brothers became faster, faster and faster until they couldn¡¯t see anything except for their own hands.


    Suddenly, without any signs or warnings they stopped abruptly. Under their confused and amazed gazes a giant planet was visible.


    The planet was countless times bigger than earth, one could say it was as big as the complete Sol-System, which the brothers came from, but even that may be an understatement. It was the biggest thing Dragon had ever seen. He felt like he could wander through this world for his whole life, without seeing something twice. It was an amazing and absolutely exciting feeling and as he looked at his brothers he could see the same excitement in their eyes. Dragon had just opened his mouth to tell the others how he felt as, again without a warning he was shot towards the surface of the planet.


    ¡®I always hated carousels!¡¯ Dragon thought as in his mind alarm bells were ringing endlessly. Besides him the other four flew in high speed towards the planet, obviously thinking similar thoughts.


    With an electric sound, which strangely reminded him of electric razors, the five brothers shot through the outer atmosphere, then the inner atmosphere , then the clouds and finally they were as high as the mountains. For them it felt like seconds, but in reality the people of this world on this day saw five different colored meteorites striking down from the universe towards their planet. Unknown to them, a lot of monstrous beings of which the brothers couldn¡¯t even dream of, were noticing the arrival of the ¡®meteorites¡¯ and decided to travel to the impact point.


    Meanwhile Dragon and the others came closer and closer to the ground.


    Underneath him Dragon could see a giant city, formed like a hexagon, with blue and black roofs. The ground came closer and closer, they already thought they would just directly crash into it, but suddenly they abruptly stopped again. They stopped a few centimeters over the ground, floating. Around them was a dirty alley, filled with garbage and rats. Brown, dirty snow was lying around in big patches everywhere. Dragon looked into the sky. It was night and far away in the sky, he could see countless stars. Much more stars than on earth.


    Unexpectedly a voice traveled to his ears and as he turned around he discovered what the four other brothers had discovered directly. In front of them, on the ground were five boys. They were very weak, thin and overall were simply dying. The noise came from a comparably muscular boy, who was at most five years old. He tried to embrace the other four boys, to give them their warmth, to prevent them from dying. As Dragon saw this boy, he saw himself. He would do the same for his brothers. Everytime, everywhere. Sadly it was obvious that none of the five young children would live to see the day. They were just too weak.


    ¡°Brothers! Brothers! We have to become strong! We have to become the strongest, find a loving wife, have kids and finally become immortal!¡±


    The boy said with a hardly understandable voice because he shivered way too much.


    The other boys nodded seemingly with the last strength they could muster and hope strongly filled their eyes. Dragon and his brothers looked at the boys with tears in their eyes as they knew that they would never achieve their dreams.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Become Immortal!¡± the boy said weakly, but his eyes remained hopeful, as if he could already see himself flying through the skies, killing monsters, finding treasures. With these words the boy breathed his last breath and he too, as the last of the five orphan brothers died to the cold and hunger.


    Tears streamed down the faces of Dragon, Tiger, Hawk, Snake and Turtle. Pain filled their hearts, unbelievable pain. This was just too brutal. They had seen almost everything in their old lives, but something like five boys succumbing to cold and hunger with the same strong brotherhood as them and such strong hope just crushed their hardened hearts.


    ¡°We will fulfill your dreams brothers as you are now the same kind as us. We will remember you for the rest of our lives. We are you and you are us. Our dreams are the similar and so we will live them for you!¡± Dragon said solemnly with tears still streaking down his face.


    The other four brothers solemnly repeated the verse as it were just the right words to express their feelings and at the same time send them on their way.


    This will forever be one of the saddest moments in their entire lives.


    After a few minutes of complete silence, with snowflakes falling on the cold bodies of the boys, Dragon decided to say something.


    ¡°Brothers¡­¡± his voice was hoarse ¡°Brothers, even though we only believe in us and not in something like god¡­or destiny, this must have something to do with a higher power! These boys are us. They don¡¯t look like us, they are not as old as us, but one thing is true¡­they are us!¡± With these words his soul slowly floated towards the boy who spoke earlier, the leader and touched his chest with determination. Slowly a silvery glowing chain floated out of the boy¡¯s chest, closing in on his severed end of the chain.


    ¡°I think this is our chance at a new life and at the same time the only possibility to fulfill our oath. We will fulfill the dreams of our brothers!¡± Dragon said and his voice was certain. The four other brothers looked at the determined eyes of their leader and, without much hesitation, did the same as Dragon.


    Tiger touched the chest of a boy with scars and wounds all over his arms, a boy which looked like he was able to fight when he was still alive.


    Hawk touched the chest of the smallest boy, who looked weak on the first look, but had great potential for speed.


    Snake touched the chest of the most common looking boy. He was average overall. Average body, average hair, average height.


    Lastly Turtle touched the chest of a boy who looked a little bit out of place next to his four skinny brothers, as he was kind of plump.


    As soon as all of them had touched the chests of the five boys the chains started to appear on them as well.


    Dragon looked into the eyes of his brothers, which were similarly looking into his:


    ¡°Together¡­¡± he whispered and simultaneously with his brothers he pressed the severed end of his chain against the half of the chain from the boy. Neither he nor his brothers knew what they were doing, but it felt right and so they continued.


    A blinding flash, which bathed the whole alley in ghostly white light and the souls of Dragon, Tiger, Hawk, Snake and Turtle vanished, together with the chains, which bound their souls.


    The instant they entered the body of the boy they chose, they lost consciousness and fell into darkness again.


    Unknown to them in the body of each of them a colored energy was generated in the middle of their chests inside of their bodies. Slowly the colored energy, which looked like fog traveled through every vein, every cell, every muscle, all the bones and lastly through the pores and hair.


    Dragon¡¯s body was producing yellow colored energy, a hot, wild aura was exuded from it.


    Tiger¡¯s body was producing red colored energy, which exuded an aura of bloodlust and fights.


    Hawk¡¯s body was producing blue colored energy, which exuded a sharp and yet carefree aura.


    Snake¡¯s body was producing purple colored energy, which exuded an aura of poison and it seemed like shadows were slowly drifting around it.


    Turtle¡¯s body was producing a green colored energy, which looked hard as a diamond, yet exuded the aura of the softest flower.


    With the changes inside of their bodies, the outside of their bodies couldn¡¯t stay the same and the former blond hair of the five turned black, growing several inches longer in an instant. Their skin, which was rosy before, was becoming paler until it looked more like the skin of an Asian human from earth.


    The last change wasn¡¯t visible for the eye of the beholder, as the eyes of the five boys closed in the moment the souls entered their bodies. The eyes, which were ice blue before, were now slowly turning pitch black and forming slightly similar to Asian eyes. Only in the middle, closest to the pupil, the color of the eyes changed into the color of the energy inside of the body of each of them.


    With this the changes inside and outside of the five brothers bodies halted.


    This was a new starting point.


    They had a dream and an oath to fulfill.


    This will be the start of their journey to become Immortal.

 Chapter 5

    <u>Chapter 5</u>


    A loud gasping was heard as five bodies inhaled air at the same time. The fromer cold bodies were now slowly moving as the eyes of the five brothers opened their eyes in their new bodies. Dragon looked around. He saw the same alley, still filled with dirty snow and garbage. He looked to his left and inhaled sharply. There were lying his brothers, but contrary to his expectations they didn¡¯t look like the young boys before they entered their dead bodies. The long blond hair turned black, the rosy skin, which was almost blue before, because of the cold, was now pale. The most shocking thing were the eyes. Instead of the ice-blue ones, those bodies had before, the eyes now were pitch black with a mysterious colour closely around the pupil. Dragon looked at his own body and saw the same skin tone, he swiped his long hair before his eyes and realized that that too, was black. He turned around to his brothers again.


    ¡°Brothers¡­?¡± he asked with a wary voice. ¡°Are you okay?¡± he watched them worried. They had never done something like this before, fusing their souls with the body of someone else. Yes it worked on him, but was there a possibility of them having the same luck?


    ¡°¡­Alright bro¡­¡± the boy with the scars said, revealing his identity as Tiger.


    ¡°Me too¡± said the other three and relief shone in their eyes. What they had done today, not one of them would¡¯ve thought that it was possible. And no one had an explanation for the mysterious things they encounterd. What was the area of endless darkness? Why were the souls of humans chained to a body? How could the universe be this overwhelmingly big? And the most important one: Where were they?Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Dragon slowly stood up, trying to take another look around. There was nothing particularly interesting in this alley, except for a few rats. He slowly walked to the end of the alley, which was connected to a bigger street. Countless poorly dressed and weak human figures walked along the street, none of them looking up. Their eyes were dead. ¡®What is going on in this city?¡¯ he thought and walked back to his brothers.


    ¡°Brothers I think we should separate and search for information regarding this world and this city. As we fell down I could see that this city is shaped in a hexagon, with presumably six districts. I think each of us should go into one of the districts and try to find information. There are a few questions, which we have to know the answer for. The first is: Who rules over this city? The second is: Which age are we in? And thirdly: What is going on with the people here?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by your last question?¡± Turtle asked and the other brothers also looked confused.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know it¡¯s just¡­when I took a look at the street just now, the people were walking around like zombies. Dead eyes, slow movements and all of them had torn clothes. They were also really thin and weak. I have a strange feeling about this.¡± Dragon said with a worried tone.


    ¡°Alright we got you bro¡­I will search in this district, you others should pick another one.¡± Turtle said and started to walk towards the end of the alley.


    ¡°Wait, another thing!¡± Dragon shouted. ¡°Try to grab some clothes for yourselves. It is obviously winter and our clothes are only a little better than rags. We should try to find something warmer.¡±


    ¡°Good point Dragon¡­we¡¯ll look out for it.¡± Snake said, while he also walked towards the street.


    ¡°Good then lets go! We meet each other in this alley again in an hour! Be careful!¡± Dragon said and watched his brothers exit the alley, separate and walked into different directions.


    ¡®I guess I should get going too huh?¡¯ he thought and made his way towards the street.

 Chapter 6

    <u>Chapter 6</u>


    On the street he headed towards the district near the mountains. On his way he saw numerous things that shocked him. The people everywhere were walking around with that lifeless gaze. ¡®If you can call that walking¡­¡¯ he thought as he watched a man slowly pulling himself along a wall. The second thing that shocked him were actual dead bodies. Everywhere were lying dead bodies, sometimes frozen, sometimes bloody and some of the bodies were even eaten by strange doglike creatures with horns instead of ears. It was not that he hadn¡¯t seen any dead bodies before, hell he even killed a lot of people and had seen similar scenes. What shocked him was that nobody even cared about the dead bodies. No one even looked at them as if they didn¡¯t notice anything strange.


    ¡®This city¡­something really bad is going on here¡­!¡¯ Dragon thought and continued walking through the streets. After approximately fifteen minutes Dragon reached the district he set as his target.


    Everything looked the same as in the other districts, except for some people, which were clad in black clothes and hiding their faces behind a black piece of cloth. The black piece of cloth was similar to a scarf, except for the part which covered the lower half of the face.


    ¡®Gangs huh¡­.that explains things¡¯ Dragon thought and anger soared through his body as he saw the muscular and healthy looking men steadily walk through the crowd, occasionally hitting someone.


    It was a good thing that his body was that of a five to six year old as none of the black clothed thugs paid any attention to him.


    ¡®This is like the story of Dracula from earth¡­.except with gangs it seems.¡¯ He thought and tried to calm his anger. He had always hated gangs. Gangs killed countless people, just for fun. They were greedy and they weren¡¯t afraid of anything as long as it was not stronger than the whole gang. That was one of the reasons they decided to hunt gangs on earth, which ended in them being send to this world. ¡®It seems like¡­we will have to clean up again¡­¡¯ he thought and frowned slightly. Killing gang members originally wasn¡¯t on his list of things to do with his new life. ¡®Unfortunately, me and my brothers aren¡¯t strong enough to begin the wipe of the gangs yet¡­we will have to start training soon. For that we should find someplace secure. A place where we can train for a longer period of time without having to worry about food, safety or warmth. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll find something like that in this city¡­the only other choice are the mountains¡¯ Dragon looked towards the giant cliffs and rocks, which were towering over the city. ¡®I will talk with my brothers about these two things when we meet up later¡­I should try to find something warmer to wear¡¯ he thought and started walking again. He walked for nearly twenty minutes without finding an inn, to buy food, a shop for clothes or a merchant at all. This city was dead.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    After five more minutes of finding nothing, he decided to walk back to the meeting point.


    He stepped into a smaller street which seemed like a shortcut and was confronted with two human youths furiously beating a man on the ground.


    The young boys both wore the black clothes, which Dragon identified as gang clothes and the man on the ground, who was several times bigger than the boys was wearing rugs. The two boys were continuously hitting the man¡¯s chest, face, legs and hands, furiously shouting and laughing.


    Dragon frowned disgusted and the anger rose up again. ¡®Those pieces of shit, scum¡­.fucking gangs¡¯ he swore in his mind and an unknown feeling emerged from the depths of his consciousness. He was furious. And together with the fury, there came something else. Something he had never felt before.


    Heat, fire, strength, majestic power, all of this combined would describe the new feeling which was now everywhere inside his body.


    The small yellow ring around his eyes became larger by almost half a centimetre, filling his iris almost completely. Small clouds of steam were floating from his heated, trembling body.


    One of the boys noticed something and turned around. The boy saw Dragon and pushed the other one, who was still beating the man on the ground. The second boy looked up and saw what his friend meant. Both boys started laughing, not noticing anything suspicious on the body of the little boy that was Dragon.


    ¡°Haha you got a problem, piece of shit? Haah?! Is this your daddy?! Ooooh you poor little shit¡­hehe lets beat him too!¡± the larger boy said to the other boy with a mocking tone, who just grinned evilly.

 Chapter 7

    <u>Chapter 7</u>


    As soon as the boy stepped forward, Dragon squinted his raging eyes and rushed forward. He was several times faster, than someone his age could normally move and the other boy didn¡¯t even completely realize what was happening as a foot hit him in the face, cracking his nose.


    Dragon who landed after delivering his flying kick, abruptly turned around, kicking the chin of the boy with the back of his right foot.


    ¡®CRACK¡¯ another loud noise was heard as the boys jaw dislocated, the power of the kick sent him to the ground. Dragon didn¡¯t have time to think about the miraculous strength his weak body normally wasn¡¯t supposed to have and moved as quick as a cat towards the second boy, who was looking dumbfounded at the body of his fainted friend. Two metres before Dragon could reach him the boy realized his mistake and shifted into a defensive stance, both legs sideways, with the right leg in the front and both hands, which were curled into fists crossed in front of his face. Normally this defending stance was enough to defend against normal street fights, but Dragon wasn¡¯t a street fighter. He was someone who was at the peak of martial arts in his old world and even though his body was years away from the power of his old one, the mysterious energy aided him in this moment, strengthening his muscles, bones, organs and skin.


    The boy¡¯s stance was full of holes for Dragons yellow eyes. He shifted into a sidestep, which the boy couldn¡¯t see as he was blocking his sight with his own hands.


    A sharp noise was heard as Dragon¡¯s leg whistled through the air.


    ¡®CRACK¡¯ the foot hit the lower ribs on the right side of the boy¡¯s chest, breaking them instantly and throwing him out of his stance. As soon as the blocking hands were down Dragon sidestepped into the broken defence of the boy, grabbed his head and with another ¡®CRACK¡¯ noise hit his own head against the nose of the boy. There was no wound on the forehead of Dragon, but the boy wasn¡¯t as lucky as him. Blood sprayed out of the shattered nose, instantly covering Dragon¡¯s face. Dragon, who was ready to give the boy another hit, suddenly discovered that the boy was already unconscious from the pain of his broken ribs and nose. Dragon pushed the boy to the side and with a loud ¡®THUD¡¯ the body hit the snow covered ground. Slowly the feeling of power caused by the mysterious energy, subsided and Dragon felt really tired. It was like back in the days of his training, when he ran for five hours straight through mountain areas, carrying several kilos of weight in stone.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡®Fuck¡­I will have to do that again¡­why couldn¡¯t we find the bodies of five peak strength martial artists to take over¡¯ he grumbled inwardly. ¡®This energy¡­is really powerful. I felt like I could lift a mountain with my bare hands¡­dangerous¡­its like I am on drugs when this energy is activated in my body, clouding my mind and making decisions difficult. I should find out more about this, before I consider to use it again¡­too dangerous¡­!¡¯ he thought and envisioned himself, while under the influence of the strange power, fighting a gigantic terrible monster with countless teeth and claws. ¡®This energy makes me careless and my decision making is partially suppressed. If I cannot control it, it is too dangerous to use! I will talk with my brothers about this, but first¡­lets get some clothes¡¯ Dragon thought and squinted his eyes towards the boy he knocked down first. He walked towards him and observed him carefully. After the use of the strange energy his body was weaker than before, he didn¡¯t want to take the risk of getting surprised. Fortunately the boy was unconscious, so he moved next to him and started stripping his clothes. A few moments later Dragon looked exactly like one of the junior members of the gang. A black jacket with small, fake golden embroideries in it, black undershirt out of a warm but somewhat heavy material, black pants, held by a dark brown leather belt with two pockets and dark brown leather boots. He also had the scarf curled around his neck, which could cover his face. He was satisfied with his appearance, except for the unfamiliar body of a five to six year old. It was already getting late, so he decided to head back immediately, after washing his face with a little bit of snow. On his way back he avoided crowded streets as often as possible and fortunately none of the real gang members detected him.


    After more or less twenty minutes he stepped into the alley in which they separated.


    He was greeted by four people with black hair, pale skin and pitch black eyes. All four brothers were there. Tiger wore similar clothes to dragon except for the embroidery, which was red on his jacket. Snake was wearing plain brown clothes, which looked sturdy and warm, but didn¡¯t stand out. Hawk and Turtle wore normal black clothes, without any embroidery. They all looked at Dragon expectantly, waiting for him to start talking.

 Chapter 8

    <u>Chapter 8</u>


    ¡°Brothers! I see that you have found clothes, good¡­we will need them. Lets start comparing our information: I have found out that the district I searched in was controlled by a gang. I don¡¯t know how many of them are there and I don¡¯t know the strength of the real members, but I knocked down two pieces of shit, which were fairly weak. They are wearing the clothes I am wearing, with possible differences in the embroidery of the elder members. Also, during the fight my body was filled with a strange energy, which gave me strength, otherwise I wouldn¡¯t have been able to beat the two young gang members, as they were roughly five years older than me. But I have to warn you, while this energy is amazing and has great potential, we cannot control it yet, and it is really dangerous to use. We get careless and overestimate our power while using it and our mind gets clouded. Only use it during an emergency until we have found a way to control it! The last thing I found out is that we have to start training immediately, as we are far to weak even for wiping the gangs, let alone travel in this world! The only place I found where we can train in peace would be the mountains, as we can find a secluded and safe place there. I propose to head there immediately after this discussion. That was all I found out, Tiger your turn!¡± Dragon said in a fast and steady manner.


    ¡°Well¡­I basically found the same as you, but the gang in my district was a little different. I experienced the strange energy you were talking about as I fought three members of this gang and I agree to be careful with it. Lastly I have the same opinion as you concerning our training. That¡¯s all.¡± Tiger said in a steady voice.


    ¡°Hawk ?¡± Dragon asked and looked towards his smallest brother.


    ¡°I agree with both of you in both matters. The only difference I experienced is the gang. I believe every district has a different gang ruling over it. Snake ?¡± Hawk said shortly.


    ¡°I have the same believe as you as my gang was wearing completely purple clothes. I haven¡¯t fought with anyone yet, so I can¡¯t say anything regarding the strange energy, but I agree to start training as soon as possible.¡± Snake said and looked towards Turtle afterwards.


    ¡°I have some information regarding the sixth district. The district is called Rich, which basically means that all the rich people and government officials are living there. Apparently they never leave their district and surprisingly they gathered all of their soldiers inside of it. They have given the gangs an unobstructed authority over the various other districts. Not even the gates are manned by them, but gang members. This city is the most corrupt I have ever seen, and if it weren¡¯t for me wanting to safe the poor normal citizens I would¡¯ve burned this city to the ground. I also didn¡¯t fight, but I trust in your judgement Dragon. Oh¡­and I want to train as soon as possible to correct this damned corrupt place!¡± Turtle said with an angered voice.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Dragon looked at his brothers and exhaled slowly: ¡°It seems like we really are brothers as all of us thought of dealing with these detestable gangs. And we all came to the same conclusion: We are still too weak. We don¡¯t know much about this- hell we don¡¯t know anything about this world, but I believe it is completely different compared to the things we know. And I believe that we are not the only ones who have that energy inside our bodies, nor are we the only martial arts experts. All of you have seen how big this planet is, its unbelievable how many things could be here for us to discover. But we have to remember: With new things comes new danger! We are not the only ones strong on this planet, actually we are not even strong at all at this point so let¡¯s go towards the mountains and find a place to train!!¡±


    Dragon looked each of his brothers in the eyes as he said that and he saw the realization in their eyes as they listened to him. They weren¡¯t anything great on this planet, at least not now and to change that they had to train, possibly harder than they ever had before. All of them nodded and together they made their way towards the district closest to the mountains. They safely passed through the gate towards the mountains, as there were no guards protecting it. As they passed the gate, they heard the noises of a party coming from the gate rooms.


    ¡®The gang members responsible for protecting this district are obviously incompetent fools¡­they are drinking instead of guarding¡­that will be there downfall one day¡­!¡¯ Dragon thought and shot an angry glare towards the small windows in the wall.


    The five brothers steadily and fast walked towards the mountains. Unfortunately, because of their low condition and the unsteady ground they had to pause a lot of times before they could move again. All of them were continuously cursing their frail bodies. Not that it helped, but they felt somewhat better.


    After a few hours the darkness of the night started to fade and they turned around to watch the sunrise. Regardless which world, the sunrise will always be one of the most beautiful and relaxing things to witness. The five brothers all watched the sun rise, all of them deep in thought. This was a new world, a new chance for them to shine and with the addition of the strange energy, countless new possibilities opened up before their inner eyes. What if they learned to control this energy? What would they be able to do with it? Integrate it into their martial arts techniques? Invent new ones? Maybe they would even be able to fly like birds or walk on water?


    Endless possibilities.


    Dragon looked up and saw his brothers looking at each other. Dragon smiled knowingly. He knew that his brothers had the same train of thoughts in this matter. Dragon turned around and continued walking up the mountain, his brothers following behind him. The sun shone on their backs, letting them feel warm.

 Chapter 9

    <u>Chapter 9</u>


    <u></u>


    Dragon and his brothers continued walking through the mountains, climbing over rocks and stepping over dead trees. They had to pause countless times and when finally were on somewhat even ground they all fell to the ground, panting heavily.


    ¡°Shit¡­I really despise my own body of being this weak¡­!¡± Hawk said through his teeth while breathing rapidly.


    ¡°Me too¡­but we will start to train as soon as we find some place save! We just have to continue walking until we are there! It shouldn¡¯t take that long¡± Dragon said with a confident voice and stood up again.


    He extended a hand towards Hawk, which the brother gratefully took and pulled him up.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go guys..!¡± Dragon said and walked at the front towards another, higher mountain.


    They moved like this for almost the whole day and still¡­they didn¡¯t find a place that suited their needs. It was like they were cursed, as their stamina was already running low. They could, at most, travel for two more hours.


    Suddenly, out of no where, the whole area they were walking through was filled with fog. Instantly all sounds perished, you couldn¡¯t even hear yourself breathing. Dragon signalled to stop and took off his scarf. The others, who understood his intentions, did the same. They ripped their scarfs in half, knotting them together to create a rope.


    Dragon bound one end of the rope to the back of his belt, gave the rope to Tiger, who put it between his side and his belt. Then Tiger gave the rope to Hawk, who did the same, and so on until the rope was picked up by Turtle who bound it to the front of his belt.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Like this they built a chain, which made it very difficult, if not impossible to lose each other. Dragon signalled again and they started moving forward.


    They didn¡¯t go into a special direction, as they couldn¡¯t orientate themselves at all, which made it even more difficult not to fall or bump against rocks.


    Somehow they made it through the thickest fog and they arrived on a clearing.


    The fog was still everywhere and the sounds were missing, but they could at least hear their breathing again, which let them sigh in relief.


    It was not that they were afraid of the fog, it was just that the feeling of being deaf and almost blind wasn¡¯t very pleasant, but rather oppressive.


    ¡°Where the hell did that come from?!¡± Snake asked with a low voice, as if he had the fear of waking someone up.


    Or something.


    The others didn¡¯t give him an answer and just shook their head helplessly.


    Dragon was just opening his mouth to tell them his theory, as he was interrupted by a sound.


    It was the sound of howling wind and an unidentifiable rumbling sound.


    All of a sudden, big black shadows appeared in the fog, slowly moving near the edge of the clearing. The five brothers all became big eyes out of shock and Turtles mouth stood open.


    What was going on here?


    What were these creatures?


    Were they hostile?


    Would they be able to fight them?


    Should they flee?


    All those questions shot through the minds of the five martial brothers as they saw more and more shadows moving near the clearing.


    They appeared, one after the other, with howling and rumbling, then they vanished into the fog again.


    It was like they were ghosts. But that wasn¡¯t possible, was it?


    Dragon wasn¡¯t really sure about it and thus wasn¡¯t eager to try it out. And even if they were ghosts¡­who said they couldn¡¯t kill him and his brothers?


    Soon he discovered that the black shadows in the fog, never stepped into the clearing, not even a little bit.


    ¡®Seems like this is kind of a protected area¡­or something like that?¡¯ Dragon thought and signalled his brothers to follow him.


    He walked towards the other end of the clearing, carefully trying to move as silent as possible.


    Soon they reached the opposite end of where they came from and to their surprise, the clearing shifted. With a quit whistling sound the whole clearing behind them was engulfed by fog and the fog in front of them changed into an area similar to the clearing before.


    The only differences were the things lying on the ground, as the rocks, braches, leaves and patches of grass were now in a complete different order.


    ¡®This¡­I don¡¯t think that we are walking in circles, but¡­why¡­how is the clearing shifting itself? And why can the black shadows not enter into it at all?¡¯


    Dragon thought and a deep frown appeared on his face. He felt like someone was playing with him. He didn¡¯t like that feeling at all.

 Chapter 10

    <u>Chapter 10</u>


    <u></u>


    He decided to risk it once again and walked with steady steps towards the end of the second clearing.


    As soon as he and his brothers, who followed him, reached it the clearing shifted again, appearing in front of them.


    Dragon frowned even more. ¡®If you want to play with me¡­alright I will play!!¡± he thought and made a few signals with his hands towards his brothers.


    They were also quite annoyed by the strange things happening around them and nodded with a grin as soon as they saw the signs. The signs were two fingers crossed and the second hand was chopping down on the cross.


    Its meaning was: ¡®Break through¡¯


    With a low shout, without even thinking about the possibility of alerting the black shadows Dragon broke into a sprint, the fastest he could do with his weak and exhausted body, directly followed by his brothers.


    They ran to the other end of the clearing and jumped into the fog, but were immediately greeted by the sight of another clearing, while the clearing behind them disappeared into the fog without a sound. The five brothers didn¡¯t stop and continued running, using every last bit of their strength and stamina.


    They broke through another wall of fog and again landed in a clearing, but that didn¡¯t discourage them as they had realized something. The appearance of the new clearing was a little bit slower than before. Apparently the fog didn¡¯t have an unlimited amount of energy.


    This realization let Dragons eyes lit up with a strange light and he ran even faster. His brothers followed suit and they broke through another clearing.


    This time it took two seconds for the fog to disappear and the clearing to appear.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The five brothers were running with pure willpower, their strength was long gone, but they kept going.


    Another wall of fog was broken through, the time gap expanded to five seconds.


    In these five seconds Dragon saw something in the fog in front of him.


    It looked like an entrance to a cave. Soft light was emitted from the opening, which lighted up the surrounding fog.


    ¡®Have to be faster¡­faster¡­.faster¡¯ Dragon thought and something ignited deep inside of his body.


    ¡°FAAAASTEEER!!!¡± he roared and a majestic aura rose around him, invisible to the eye, but the other brothers could feel it. And they understood. They felt into their inner self and tried to activate the mysterious energy.


    ¡®Strength¡­STRENGTH¡­.GIVE!¡¯ Tiger roared in his mind and the red energy surprisingly responded, filling him with power and he directly followed behind the running Dragon with a roar.


    ¡®Please give me power, whatever you are¡­please!¡¯ Hawk thought and the blue energy responded. He too ran after his two brothers with a fiery glint in his blue glowing eyes.


    ¡®¡­¡¯ Snake just felt into his mind and after some moments the energy seemed to understand and activated, giving him seemingly unlimited stamina.


    ¡®Please Mr. Energy, as you can see my brothers are leaving me in the dust, so¡­ it would be really convenient if you could gift me the same amount of power for this moment. Even though I know that its not my right to ask this of you, but you have to see the bigger picture: If I die here you die too, don¡¯t you? So lets make a pact¡­.¡¯ Turtle thought and kept on talking, talking and talking. The mysterious energy had already activated after he thought the first word, but he didn¡¯t realize as he was too busy acting. Suddenly a spike of energy stabbed into his mind, letting him jump in shock.


    ¡°WHAT THE FUCK?!¡± he screamed and started running behind his brothers, not realizing what had just happened. His mind was repeating one word over and over again in panic: ¡®SHIT-SHIT-SHIT-SHIT-SHIT¡¯


    As soon as all of the brothers were supported by their energy their speed became faster and faster, with every clearing they would gain at least five seconds.


    And finally after more or less ten clearings, which they passed madly sprinting and with occasional roars, they managed to gain a fifty second head start.


    They mobilized their last strength, and even the energy, which had become quite dark flared up in colour, giving them an extra boost.


    All five brothers, while continuously roaring, ran faster than they ever had before, reaching the entrance, which was a 500 metre distance from the clearing, in 47, 9 seconds. (WN: USAAAIN BOOOLT!!!....sorry)


    With a loud roar all of them jumped through the entrance in the exact moment the last clearing slowly started to vanish and the new one appeared and landed onto a grassland.


    That was the last they saw before they lost consciousness because of the overuse of their bodies and energy.

 Chapter 11

    <u>Chapter 11</u>


    <u></u>


    They were unconscious for three whole days and when they woke up their entire bodies were bruised and they felt like every bone in their body was broken.


    Dragon weakly opened his eyes, trying to observe the surroundings, but his sight was blurry and he couldn¡¯t really discern anything.


    The only thing he noticed was that they were no longer surrounded by snow, rocks and dead trees. Even more importantly, the fog was gone, together with the mysterious black shadows inside of it. He and his brothers were lying on a grassy ground, directly in front of him even blossomed a flower.


    ¡®What¡­the hell?!¡¯ Dragon thought and tried to sit up. After the third try, his tattered and aching body finally sat up and his blurry vision cleared up.


    They were inside of a valley, roughly as big as a football field of his old world.


    He turned around towards his brothers, who also struggled to get up.


    ¡°You look¡­horrible!¡± Turtle said with a pained voice as he looked towards Dragon: ¡°Heh¡­but we did it¡­we are alive!¡±


    Dragon grinned at him and nodded his head.


    ¡°All of us don¡¯t really look good right now, but¡­haha we did it!!¡± Hawk said with a little unbelieving, but triumphant voice.


    ¡°Look who¡¯s here¡­.Mr. Obvious strikes again..¡± Turtle said with a mocking tone.


    ¡°Oi, fuck you too¡­didn¡¯t you say the same just now?!¡± Hawk said enraged and his eyes turned into slits as he looked at Turtle.


    ¡°So what if I did? Aren¡¯t you just imitating me then? How courageous¡­heh!¡± Turtle said and his mocking gaze intensified.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    ¡°Grrr..eat, just you wait¡­I will get you back for this¡­I promise you...I have the memory of an elephant!! I never forget!...hah just you wait when it comes to training¡­no mercy for the fatty!¡± Hawk said with a deep growling in his young voice, trembling with rage.


    ¡°OI- WHO¡¯S A FATTY?!¡± Turtle was directly enraged as well and tried to move towards Hawk to hit him, which ended only in him pitifully falling to the ground with a dull sound.


    ¡°Hah! See you are the fat-..¡± Hawk started laughing as he was disrupted by Dragon:


    ¡°ENOUGH! Why do the both of you always act like you are small kids?! Can¡¯t you act more like your age?!¡± he asked angered.


    ¡°Well, technically we are only five or six years old¡­¡± Snake said slowly, seemingly deep into his own thoughts. Suddenly something hit his forehead and a sharp pain spread through his head as Dragon, who was sitting next to him, had flicked him with his finger.


    He looked up and almost fell backwards as he saw the murderous gaze Dragon was watching him with.


    ¡°I¡¯m just say-¡­¡± he said quietly but immediately he was flicked again and gasped in pain.


    ¡°There are some more important things to discuss right now¡­keep your bullshit for later. First of all I want to say something about the strange fog we encountered back there!¡± Dragon said and pointed towards the entrance of the valley, which was now behind them. Some clouds of fog were drifting around and in front of the entrance, but something seemed to block the fog from coming into this area. ¡°I think that it is something similar to a Fata Morgana in the deserts of the earth, a hallucination. I have no other explanation for the strange things that happened in there and, most importantly, for the strange black shadows.¡± He continued and looked at his brothers who were nodding their heads in approval.


    ¡°Next thing is this valley. As soon as we are recovered enough to walk around we have to search this valley for possible dangerous things! Even though I have a feeling that this place is save, its still better to be extra careful. Until then we should try to observe the valley from here. And no more bullshit for now, understood?!¡± Dragon said and the last sentence was voiced in a sharp tone towards Turtle, Hawk and Snake, who were acting like they didn¡¯t know what he was talking about and avoided his sharp gaze.


    ¡°These trees are strange¡­¡± Tiger suddenly said and pointed towards a small forest in the back of the valley.


    The others, too, looked towards the forest and discovered what Tiger thought was strange. The trunks of the tree were perfectly white, without any impurities or scratches, at least out of this distance. The next strange things were the leaves of the trees, which looked oddly thick and were blood red. There were roughly thirty to forty thin, but high trees standing there, with thousands of the strange leaves. The forest somewhat looked like a group of holy beings, bathed in blood, which gave Dragon a spooky feeling.


    ¡°You are right¡­those trees are strange as hell...literally!¡± Turtle said and frowned. Dragon looked another time at the trees and then decided to try to stand up.


    ¡°Tiger¡­lets help each other stand up¡­¡± Dragon said and looked towards his silent brother. Tiger understood and together, while leaning against each other, they stood up. Snake and Hawk did the same thing and helped Turtle afterwards.


    Suddenly Dragon lifted his hand:


    ¡°Do you hear that?!¡± he asked and the others became silent instantly, trying to hear something.


    And really, there was a distant sound of splashing water. All of them abruptly realized that they were almost dying of thirst.


    ¡°Lets go towards that sound, support each other¡± Dragon said and he and Tiger stepped towards the sound both heavily leaning against each other. The other three followed slightly slower.


    <u></u>

 Chapter 12

    <u>Chapter 12</u>


    <u></u>


    It took them almost ten minutes to reach the forest on the other side of the small valley. That was only because Turtle fell down four times, as he couldn¡¯t heavily lean on someone, which lead him to constantly spit out curses under his breath, as he dragged his sore body over the beautiful grasslands.


    As they went into the small forest they felt, contrary to their expectations, the vanishing of the spooky feeling. A new feeling filled them, one of vigour.


    ¡®This strange fragrance is causing this feeling, as we inhale it¡­¡¯ Dragon thought interested. He was not alarmed as he had never met a poison which would let him feel vigorous before killing him.


    On the other side¡­there was a first for everything. So he decided to carefully breath in and out as to let as little fragrance as possible into his lungs.


    Turned out that was a pretty bad idea, as his sore body collapsed without of the help of the fragrance. He immediately gasped for more air.


    ¡®This is pretty strange, but¡­well as long as it doesn¡¯t kill me¡¯ Dragon thought and stood up again.


    ¡°Quit laughing!¡± he said annoyed as he heard the muffled sounds of restrained laughter behind him. He turned around, but whoever laughed had wisely put-on his pokerface. Dragon could only grumble and started walking towards the sounds of splashing water again.


    It didn¡¯t take them long to arrive at a beautiful pond, filled with blue, but opaque water and a small fountain, which was happily splashing water out of the stone wall into the pond.


    Strangely the water of the pond was an opaque blue, but the spring water was crystal clear, as pure as a polished diamond. But that was of no concern at the moment as the five brothers were immersed in the strange magical feeling of this place. It was the first place they ever felt peaceful. They felt like they could drop their guard around here, that no one and nothing could hurt them.


    They were immersed in this feeling for an unknown amount of time and as they woke up from it, they were astounded to see that they were sitting in a meditative pose on the ground, spread around the pond.


    Each of the brothers was sitting on a smooth stone plate, which looked like nothing special.


    It felt right to sit on the stones, around the pond, peacefully meditating, so they wanted to continue, but Dragon remembered the pressing task they had at hand: They had to search the whole valley for possible dangers. The peaceful feeling could be a trap to lure them into meditation, so that a predator could sneak up to them and devour them.


    ¡®Wait¡­we are five or six year old kids anyway¡­.what difference makes it for a predator¡­¡¯ Dragon thought grimly ¡®Still¡­its better to be cautious!¡¯


    With this thought he stood up and made his way towards the stone wall.


    He then walked, with one hand on the stone wall, from the pond, through the forest, over the grasslands, to the entrance of the valley. Then he did the same on the other side back towards the pond. He didn¡¯t find anything suspicious, not even a single crack in the wall.


    ¡®Strange¡­strange¡­it seems like this valley is made by intelligent beings, but¡­how can that be?! Not even the things on the technologic pinnacle in our old world could possibly create a valley looking this natural. The only strange thing is the wall. I guess it¡¯s a wonder of nature?¡¯ Dragon thought and decided not to think anymore about it, as it wouldn¡¯t help him right now.


    As he reached the pond he saw that his four brothers were peacefully meditating on the same positions when he left them. It didn¡¯t seem like they would wake up soon, so he decided to care about the two most important things himself.


    First water: That was easy as there was a pond and a spring directly in front of him.


    ¡®I don¡¯t want to drink that blue water though¡­it doesn¡¯t really look like its supposed to be drank¡­hmm lets try the spring water¡¯ Dragon thought and stepped next to the spring.


    Out of habit, he sniffed at the water, searching for possible poison.


    A unbelievably rich smell of purity slammed into his nostrils, stunning him for a short moment.


    ¡®What the hell is that water¡­? Is that even water? Maybe it¡¯s the sweat of angels or something?! What the fuck?¡¯ Dragon thought shocked and after a short moment of considering possible dangers he formed his hands into a bowl, put them under the splashing water, lifted them up to his mouth and took a sip.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡®¡­.¡¯


    His whole mind went blank. It was like a nuke blew up in his head, which destroyed every thought and Dragon just stood there dumbly looking at the stone wall.


    After an unknown amount of time Dragon slowly came back to his senses.


    ¡°Holy¡­shit! WHAT KIND OF DRUG IS THIS?!¡± he shouted completely mind blown. (WN: LITERALLY! ...sorry¡­again. I¡¯m writing for eight hours already, cause I want to have some chapters produced before I have to work next week¡­its 04:00 am right now¡­still a lot to write)


    His shout instantly woke up Tiger, Hawk, Snake and Turtle who had saliva drooping from their mouths and a dreamy glint in their eyes. After a few moments of dreaming they realized why they woke up.


    In front of them, Dragon was standing with his hands stretched into the air, staring into the splashing water of the spring like it was the most beautiful woman he had ever met.


    ¡°Oi brother..brother¡­BROTHER!¡± Turtle tried to get Dragons attention, but ultimately failed.


    So he stood up and walked next to Dragon, who was still immersed in his thoughts. What Turtle hated the most was being ignored, so he put his mouth softly next to Dragons right ear¡­AND ROARED: ¡°DRAGOOOOOOON!!¡±


    Dragon jumped backwards in fright, and a shocked and pained expression was seen on his face. He stumbled and fell into the opaque blue pond with a loud scream, his right ear ringing endlessly.


    ¡®SPLASH¡¯ a small amount of water splashed onto the other brothers.


    ¡°Oh shit¡­!¡± Turtle said slowly as he realized what had just happened, then he started laughing loudly.


    Dragon surfaced from the pond, completely soaked and with still ringing ears.


    His face was distorted into a terrible grimace and he looked at Turtle with a murderous gaze.


    As the other brothers saw his face, they too couldn¡¯t help but laugh loudly and after a short moment of trying to maintain his grimace, Dragon laughed with them. That was the first time they were laughing for real, since they had come into this world.


    It was a special moment.


    They laughed for almost two minutes straight, without stopping, then as they were slowly calming down Turtle opened his mouth:


    ¡°Haaaah that was refreshing! I am really sorry about that, bro, but you know how I react at being ignored¡­what exactly happened to you that you didn¡¯t hear my calls?¡± he asked and sent a somewhat pleading look towards Dragon.


    ¡°Yeah I would like to know that too¡­¡± Snake said and observed Dragon carefully ¡°Did you find something?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Tiger was trying to breath, but was interrupted by outbreaks of laughter, so he didn¡¯t say anything and Hawk was staring interested at Dragon.


    ¡°Yes I indeed found something, and I swear to god, even though I don¡¯t believe in him, this will blow your mind!¡± Dragon said with shining eyes (WN: again¡­hah :D I don¡¯t know why but I somehow have to laugh a this ¡®blow my/your mind¡¯ sentences¡­every time¡­quite annoying^^)


    He pointed towards the spring. ¡°Try it!¡± he said.


    Turtle, who was already standing near the spring didn¡¯t think twice and took a sip of the crystal clear spring water.


    As soon as he tasted the water, the mimic of his face instantly blanked and he foolishly stared at the water, similar to Dragon before.


    Dragon could almost hear Turtle¡¯s mind being blown to pieces and a knowing smile appeared on his face. (WN: I¡¯m sorry¡­:D)


    Tiger, Hawk and Snake looked astounded from the blank face of Turtle to the knowing smile of Dragon and decided they had to try for themselves.


    They hurriedly rushed towards the spring, trying to be the first to take a sip and soon three more soundless ¡®boom¡¯ sounds happened (WN: I just can¡¯t¡­.stop¡­help :D)


    Dragon, who realized that he was still standing in the pond hurriedly jumped out of it.


    ¡®Huh..?!¡¯


    He realized that his former totally exhausted and sore body, which was painful all over was now completely fine, as if he never stepped over the boundaries of his body. He felt even more energized than before.


    ¡®That water¡­should be the source¡­holy shit this is amazing¡­we can train ten times as hard with this¡­what is this?! Disneyland for martial artists?!¡¯ he thought astounded and excitement filled his eyes.


    ¡°The only problem is¡­what is there to eat?!¡± he murmured observing his surroundings, seemingly not even realizing his wet clothes.


    Without proper nutrition, even if they trained a hundred times as hard as on earth, there would be close to no results and they would quite possibly die early.


    ¡®I already walked through the whole valley¡­no berries, no mushrooms, nothing¡­except for the trees¡­but we can¡¯t possibly eat woo-¡­WAIT?!¡¯ Dragon thought and an idea suddenly took form in his mind.


    He ran towards the nearest tree and started to climb it. It wasn¡¯t easy with his weak body, but after a minute or so, he was at the same height as the lowest leaves.


    ¡®As I thought!¡¯ Dragon thought excited as he grabbed one of the leaves and sniffed on the surface of it. The strong vigorous fragrance came from these leaves. Now he had to gamble¡­if they were eatable, then everything was settled and they would have the best training ground possible, but¡­if not he could get poisoned in a light case and worst case he would die. Light or worst case, either way he or the others would have to leave this valley to hunt animals for food, or search for eatable plants. Then again if they weren¡¯t strong enough¡­how could they hunt?!


    ¡®If I am wrong¡­then we all will probably die, either of hunger or wild beasts¡­¡¯


    Dragon thought and looked towards his four brothers, who were still standing around, mind blown. (WN: GRAH! WHY!)


    ¡°Brothers¡­pray with me!¡± he murmured and slowly put the leaf in front of his mouth. He inhaled sharply then he directly put the small leaf into his mouth, chewed a few times and swallowed it.


    At first nothing happened, he didn¡¯t even taste anything.


    Then, all of a sudden, a fiery feeling spread from his stomach through his whole body. A really sharp taste filled his mouth and he coughed a lot, tears streaming down his cheeks.


    ¡°What¡­the¡­.hell¡­.!¡± he said while coughing and he grabbed his throat with his hands, trying to ease the pain, which obviously didn¡¯t work. After a few moments the sharp taste disappeared completely and he stopped coughing and choking himself.


    ¡®That was the most awful thing I¡¯ve ever done¡­holy shit!¡¯ Dragon thought and rubbed his throat.


    ¡®But, I am not dead and I also don¡¯t feel ill or weak, on the contrary I feel refreshed and full, as if I had eaten a whole chicken on my own¡¯ he continued thinking: ¡®So it turns out its indeed eatable, what a relief¡­even though I almost choked myself to death because of the taste¡­anyways that are brilliant news!¡¯


    Dragon looked up and plucked a few more leafs, to let his brothers taste them too. Of course, only out of concern. Of course!


    After he plucked nine leaves he climbed down from the tree and walked to his brothers who were still (WN:¡­¡­¡­) mind blown.


    He sat down on his stone plate and waited patiently.


    <u></u>

 Chapter 13

    <u>Chapter 13</u>


    <u></u>


    Dragon didn¡¯t have to wait for long, as Turtle tried the spring water a minute before the others. He watched the realization on Turtles face for some time, until Turtle turned around and looked at him.


    Dragon could see the great excitement in the eyes of his brother.


    ¡°Dragon bro¡­do you know what¡­that means?!¡± Turtle asked with a low but happy voice. ¡°We can train several times harder, which in turn means we can have a better foundation for our techniques!!¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right! Another thing is, that we originally couldn¡¯t have trained our current bodies hardly for some time, because they are only those of five year olds. A lot of the muscles and bones are still soft, thus hard training would normally result in injuries. It¡¯s a completely different case with the spring water though!¡±


    Dragon said while nodding.


    ¡°That¡¯s right! Holy shit¡­this is amazing I wish we would¡¯ve gotten that water in our old world¡­countless sleepless nights could¡¯ve been avoided¡­¡± Turtle sighed and looked at the blood red leaves, which were lying in front of Dragon¡¯s folded legs.


    ¡°Those leafs are our nutritions, come try two of them¡± Dragon said as he noticed Turtle¡¯s questioning gaze. He held two of the leaves towards Turtle and shook them lightly.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry they¡¯re not poisonous, I already ate them¡± he said enticingly.


    Turtle shortly looked at Dragon suspiciously, seemingly remembering that he more or less pushed Dragon into the pond and contemplating if his brother was unforgiving to this extent. In the end he decided to trust Dragon, walked to him, took the two small leaves and directly put them into his mouth. He chewed shortly, didn¡¯t taste anything and just swallowed the chewed leaves into his stomach.


    Suddenly Turtle¡¯s eyes turned as round as the moon and drool started to float out of his mouth. Dragon who had expectantly watched his brother, in anticipation of his brother living through the same misery he himself had survived already, was startled speechless. This didn¡¯t look like Turtle was in pain, but more like his mouth was playing with a certain part of a woman¡¯s body.


    ¡°Holy shit, don¡¯t tell me his leaves taste like that?! First of all that is utterly disgusting¡­really!(WN: Suuuure¡­) And secondly why the hell couldn¡¯t I get a taste like that?! Still better than the taste of all the sharp tasting things in existence mixed together¡­¡± Dragon said startled and extremely angry. He was feeling wronged. What did he do to deserve the taste he hated the most?!


    Turtle came back to reality, looked at Dragon and suddenly a broad grin spread on his face.


    ¡°Bro¡­that¡¯s some amazing stuff!! And I¡¯m not only talking about the amazing capability of filling my stomach with just two leaves¡­¡± Turtle said and he winked at Dragon, still smiling.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡°What¡­did your leaf ¡­taste like then¡­?!¡± Dragon carefully asked, already expecting the answer he had thought of before.


    ¡°Well of course it¡¯s the sweet taste of¡­¡± Turtle started talking, but stopped suddenly with a dreamy gaze.


    ¡°..of ?!¡± Dragon asked impatiently and a little angry ¡°Of what ?!¡±


    ¡°¡­lollipops!¡± Turtle said and a delightful smile filled his face once again.


    ¡®DONG¡¯


    ¡°AAAH HEY?! What¡¯s wrong with you?!¡± Turtle screamed and touched his head, which was, out of no where, hit by a stone.


    ¡°Just shut up¡­!¡± Dragon said with a threatening gaze and Turtle grumpily turned around while rubbing the wounded spot on his head. He really didn¡¯t understand what was up with Dragon today.


    Fortunately, before one of them could once again start a discussion again, the other three brothers slowly came back into reality.


    They were instantly turning around, looking at Dragon and Turtle. The same excitement was seen in their eyes, which Dragon and Turtle also felt before.


    As they looked at their two other brothers, they were startled to see Dragons frosted face and Turtle rubbing the side of his head, occasionally mumbling curses and shooting glances at Dragon.


    ¡®What happened here?¡¯ All of three thought and looked questioningly at Dragon.


    Dragon, confronted by three confused gazes was immediately even more annoyed.


    He looked at them, pointed at the leaves and said with a cold voice:


    ¡°Those will be our nutritions for the whole time we train here¡­taste them!¡±


    Then Dragon shut his mouth and continued to watch the three brothers, until they each took one of the leaves and put it in their mouths.


    They chewed, swallowed and instantly different expressions appeared on the faces of the three.


    Tiger¡¯s face had a pleasant smile, similar to Turtle¡¯s but not as lecherous, on his face and repeatedly licked his lips. Dragon guessed that he probably tasted the taste of steak or something similar, as Tiger would only lick his lips at those things.


    Snakes face was distorted and he looked like he needed to use a toilet really badly, which gave Dragon a little better feeling.


    Lastly Hawks face was expressionless. Dragon had no idea what taste this guy got.


    ¡°Well, well, well¡­this should be enough all of us have familiarized us with the taste of the leaves and, in case you didn¡¯t already realize, yes the leaves taste different for each of us. My flavour is something like chilli¡­which really annoyed me. Turtle¡¯s flavour is¡­lollipops¡­what are yours?¡± Dragon said in an questioning tone.


    ¡°Steak¡­¡± Tiger said and licked his lips again.


    ¡®As expected¡­¡¯ Dragon thought and shifted his gaze towards Snake.


    ¡°The most sour thing I have ever tasted¡­it is disgusting¡­¡± Snake said with a frown.


    Dragon smiled lightly and was more or less content with his flavour as his taste buds would, after time, turn numb towards the sharp flavour. It was another story with sour flavours. Then he looked towards Hawk, who was expressionless before.


    ¡°I¡­I¡­-¡° he stuttered and his ears turned red ¡° I¡­my leaves taste like a woman¡¯s¡­priva-¡° he couldn¡¯t talk to the end as Dragon rushed forward and pushed him into the pond, accompanied by the disbelieving exclamations of the other brothers.


    What kind of luck was this?! (WN: I think I write my characters too lecherous¡­I assure you that I am not horny or anything¡­its just that I kind of have to implement running gags for later uses :D Hope you don¡¯t mind that much¡­)


    The four other brothers couldn¡¯t believe what they just heard. As Hawk swam back to the surface of the pond the others expressed their disapproval.


    ¡°Shit¡­is that even legal?!¡± Snake shouted in disbelieve.


    ¡°Who the hell designed those leaves?! You got a problem?¡± Turtle asked annoyed while looking towards the sky. (WN: Sorry¡­.:D)


    Tiger just glared at the soaked Hawk.


    ¡°Enough¡­its no use discussing over this¡­some are lucky, some are normal and some are the most unlucky persons in this world, but as far as I can say for myself, I wouldn¡¯t want to taste the juice of a woman for a longer time, without any change at all. Remember we will be here for quite a long time¡­and I don¡¯t think the taste will change¡­¡± Dragon said with a stern voice. As the others realized that they calmed down a lot. Dragon¡¯s words were true, even though they were true for every flavour.


    ¡°Let us stop joking around and start designing our training plan, which will help us gain a foundation. Now that we don¡¯t have to worry about, food nor water, we should direct our mind fully on the task of getting stronger. We have a city full of gangs to raid and we have to build a foundation, that can maybe support us towards immortality¡­if that is even achievable. So let¡¯s start!¡± Dragon said and his gaze changed into one of extreme anticipation. The others gaze also changed like Dragon¡¯s and they thought deeply of a fitting training plan.


    All five brothers were martial arts addicts after all¡­


    <u></u>

 Chapter 14

    <u>Chapter 14</u>


    <u></u>


    They discussed for a very long time, considered countless different techniques and training units until they agreed on the most basic.


    This is the plan they created, all of those exercises will be done daily by them:


    First they needed something, which trained a lot of muscles at the same time, but could at the same time be practiced without the help of modern weights and techniques. They had various exercises to select from and at the end they decided on the standard push-ups. At the beginning of their training they would make one set of push-ups, which consists of ten units. After the set they would pause for thirty second and then repeat the set. They were doing that until they couldn¡¯t push their bodies up anymore, which would normally be way too dangerous for their young bodies, but with the help of the spring water and the leaves, their bodies would be able to sustain through this part of the training.


    The second part of the training was picked mutually, as all of them though that it was the best out of the possibilities. It was running. Directly after they finished with the push-ups sessions, drank the water and ate some leaves, they would start running along the walls of the valley, round and round and round, endlessly. They would continue that until they couldn¡¯t stand anymore. Then they would drink the water, eat some leaves and start the next part of the plan.


    Which were sit-ups and squats, endlessly alternating between each other until the person exercising couldn¡¯t go on anymore. Then they would once again drink the refreshing spring water, eat some leaves continue with the next part of the training.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    The fourth part of the training was shadowboxing, which, as always gets repeated until the person exercising would almost collapse. Then the same procedure as always happened.


    The fifth and next to last part of the training were the frog-jumps. At the start they would complete this exercise without any weight, but as soon as their bodies get stronger, they will start to carry stones as weight, to increase the potential.


    The last exercise on their foundation plan was wrestling. They would stand opposite of each other in a marked area and try to push the other out of it.


    That would train the control of their strength as well as improve the footing and movement of the persons exercising. Of course, they would, as always continue until no one can stand anymore and consume the water and leaves afterwards.


    That was the complete training plan they put together, which took them roughly one day, as they discussed about a lot of different things.


    After they finished planning they went to sleep. The next day would symbolize the start of their hellish training, which would continue until the improvements were slowing down.


    The next morning, all five brothers started their training. As mentioned before, push-ups were the first exercise.


    Dragon was able to complete thirteen sets of push-ups, before he collapsed.


    Tiger was slightly better and completed fourteen sets.


    Hawk was with struggles able to complete nine sets.


    Snake steadily completed ten sets before he couldn¡¯t go on anymore.


    Turtle was the most pathetic, as he could, to his own anger, only complete five sets of push-ups.


    The next step in their plan was running, at first without any weight. After the five brothers refreshed themselves with the spring water and leaves, they started the exercise.


    Dragon was able to complete almost six rounds along the wall of the valley.


    Tiger completed six rounds as well.


    Hawk surprisingly had the most stamina and completed eight rounds.


    Snake completed four rounds, as well as Turtle.


    Then they rested, refreshed themselves and continued with the next part of the plan. This continued in an endless cycle.


    Only the nights would be used for resting, as they soaked in the surprisingly warm water of the pond, meditated or just slept.

 Chapter 15

    <u>Chapter 15</u>


    <u></u>


    Meanwhile, in a different part of the world a little girl was happily jumping up and down behind a window.


    The girl seemed to be three years old and she wore expensive looking, white and golden dress. A golden bird was tailored into the back of the dress, which normally would look majestic, but looked just cute on the little jumping girl.


    Her long brown hair was tied into a braid with a gold ring.


    Her overall appearance was beautiful. One could already tell, that this girl would someday grow into a stunning woman.


    The girl¡¯s name was Alayna, named after the golden bird that saved one of her ancestors. She was part of a big and influential clan in this part of the world, the Novenicus-Clan. Her full name was Alayna Bea Novenicus and she was the only daughter of the current leader of the clan.


    But¡­why was the girl jumping up and down a window, just to get a look at something outside of the room? That¡¯s simple. Directly in front of the window was a giant garden, filled with countless beautiful flowers and trees. Birds and bees were flying around endlessly, living their small simple lives.


    All of that wasn¡¯t anything new to the girl. What made her excited was the golden flaming bird, which was sitting in the middle of the garden. It really was a majestic looking creature, but in the eyes of the three year old little girl, the bird was the most beautiful and magical thing she had ever seen.


    She could only think of hugging that fiery bird and thus, her parents ordered the servants to lock her into her room, as the golden fire bird¡¯s feathers and body could only be touched if one had reached a certain rank in cultivation.


    To be precise, one had to reach the rank of King to casually touch the bird without risking injuries.


    Unfortunately the little girl was barely on the lowest rank, which was novice.


    After novice there was Adept, after Adept came Master, after Master General and after General came finally the King rank. There were more ranks after the King-rank, but the little girl didn¡¯t know the names of them. It was enough for her to know that she needed to reach the King-rank to cuddle with the golden bird.


    If you think that the novice-rank is only a little achievement for a three year old girl, you are completely mistaken. It would be great to find a five to six year old boy or girl, who reached the novice rank, but normally only children from eight years upwards would reach this rank. From this you can see that the little girl called Alayna was actually a super rare genius with exceptional comprehension and learning abilities.


    Back to the bird on the lawn, which was, from time to time glancing towards the little girl¡¯s window. If you thought it was only a wild beast you were, once again gravely wrong. The golden bird was as intelligent as a normal human being, if not more. And it actually liked the little girl a lot. In front of the bird stood a somewhat stern looking man with black hair, which was tied into a long braid, just like the one the little girl had, with minor, but important differences, such as an iron ring instead of a golden one. This man had a muscular body and stood firm on the ground, his back straight. He looked to be around thirty years old and his sharp gaze, seemed to be able to see through stone.


    This man was Colain Aro Novenicus and he was the little Alayna¡¯s father.


    ¡°How was the meeting of your tribe?¡± Colain asked the golden bird, without shifting the gaze from the horizon.


    ¡°It was just the normal pointless conversations, with a few news like ¡®This couple got a little babybird¡¯ and ¡®This couple married¡¯ and so on, without any interesting things. Wait, there was this one thing that was more or less interesting. Apparently five different coloured meteorites fell from the sky somewhere in the north. Not that it really mattered¡­¡± the golden bird said and surprisingly revealed itself as a female, with her soothing voice, which was sweet and pleasant to the ear.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Hmph¡­meteorites!¡± was the only thing the man said towards the bird¡¯s statement. Then he turned around, walked back into the house and closed the door. The bird didn¡¯t seem like she was offended by this behaviour and silently spread her wings, jumped into the air and flew away.


    Just like this the years passed and soon it would be little Alayna¡¯s 8th birthday.


    Every year the golden bird would visit the clan-leader¡¯s estate, talk with him and exchange news.


    And every time the little girl would sit or stand at the window, watching the bird with great interest. She had advanced into the Master-rank a short time ago, which meant that she was only two ranks away from her goal, which not only was the original idea of cuddling the golden bird, but got expended throughout the years. Now the girls goal was not only to cuddle the bird, but also to sign a pact with it, which meant that both of them would bind to each other, share life and death. This was her secret, as her father would never allow her to do something as reckless as this.


    Alayna walked along the corridor, which lead to the meeting room. On the way she thought about various things, but most of them were the typical childish thoughts of a normal eight year old girl, such as ¡®Should I ask the cooks for sweets or should I do as mother told me and eat healthy?¡¯. The only strange thing she had on her mind were the different martial arts techniques of her clan, magic incatations, movements and even ways to safely kill a human being. All those things were part of her education and considered normal for a master-rank martial artist, even though it wasn¡¯t normal at all to expect an eight year old girl to kill martial artists of the same rank as her, or kill at all.


    Alayna suddenly woke up from her thoughts and realized that she was standing in front of the door to the meeting room for quite some time already.


    She blushed as she thought of the scolding she always got from her mother, because of her daydreaming. She knocked the door and waited patiently.


    After a few minutes, a deep voice was heard from inside, telling her to come in.


    Alayna opened the door and stepped into the room, which was furnished with a big table and countless bookshelves. At the end of the long table a man with black hair and a golden robe was sitting, exuding a honourable but stern aura. It was Alayna¡¯s father, Colain Aro Novenicus. He observed his daughter as she bowed in front of him.


    ¡°Father..¡± Alayna said with her calm and gentle voice.


    ¡°Rise, my daughter. Look at you, eight years old and already such a beautiful girl! I heard that you recently passed the barrier to the master-rank, I am very proud of you! As such, the gift I prepared for your birthday is not something ordinary. But¡­lets wait for your mother to join us first.¡± Colain said and leaned back on his chair. He signalled his daughter to sit down, then they waited.


    After a few minutes footsteps could be heard from the door and a extraordinarily beautiful woman walked into the room, bowed her head slightly towards Colain and the sat down next to him.


    This woman was Alayna¡¯s mother, Lorelayne Amaris, who originated from the Amaris-clan, which was another influential clan within this Kingdom. She married into the Novenicus-clan after Colain won against her in a duel and after some years she learned to love him.


    ¡°Your mother is present, so I can finally reveal the gift I chose for you to your 8<sup>th</sup> birthday! It is¡­.a spot at the Kingdom¡¯s most prestigious Academy of Martial Arts. The Blue-Feather-Academy! You will be going there tomorrow! Do your best and make me proud!¡± Colain said with a deep voice, expectation shimmering in his eyes.


    Unfortunately his daughter¡¯s reaction wasn¡¯t the same he imagined it to be.


    Instead of being incredibly happy and feeling grateful for her fathers troubles to get her this spot, Alayna¡¯s face twisted in horror and tears stood in her eyes.


    ¡°No I don¡¯t want to leave from here! I can train on my own, I don¡¯t need any help! I don¡¯t want to leave from here!! Father, please!! This isn¡¯t something I want!!!¡± Alayna screamed pitifully and her former calm and gentle voice was now high pitched and filled with fear and resentment.


    ¡°YOU WILL GO THERE!! Do you think I would go through all that trouble to get you a spot and then let you draw away?! It¡¯s not important what you want to do! What¡¯s important is my face! And the face of the clan! And don¡¯t you dare talk back to me again! Did we raise you like this?!¡± Colain shouted enraged and a vein on his head was pulsating.


    ¡°¡­Mother¡­¡± the young girl sobbed and looked at her mother for help.


    She was disappointed, as her mother only smiled at her apologizing, not opening her mouth to stand up for her. This shocked her and she stopped making sobbing noises, only the tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. Her big eyes were without hope and she felt betrayed. At this moment something inside of her broke, as she always was a very sensible girl. At this moment, the part of her, which was a happy little girl, who wanted nothing more than cuddle with a golden bird, eat sweets and live life to the fullest, broke away from her personality and deeply hid itself in her consciousness. The tears stopped and her former gentle face turned into stone. Colain didn¡¯t think anymore about this and just thought it as that she had accepted her fate.


    The next morning a carriage departed from the estate towards the Blue-Feather-Academy, carrying the daughter of the mighty Novenicus-clan.


    <u></u>

 Chapter 16

    <u>Chapter 16</u>


    <u></u>


    Five years had passed in the valley, which was inhabited by Dragon and his brothers.


    They were ten years old now, but their bodies let them appear like fifteen to sixteen year old youths. During the five years they steadily raised the amount of training, until they did every exercise with multiple additional stone weights.


    And the training bore fruit. The five boys looked completely different in comparison to their appearance five years ago. Their long black hair was almost flowing to their knees, even though they often cut the hair with sharpened stones. Their faces had become much more masculine and were no longer the faces of small boys.


    But there were two much more outstanding characteristics that changed on the bodies of the five.


    The first were the obvious muscles, which were all over their body. Their arms were triple the size as five years ago and brimming with power. Their chests and stomachs were trained to the max, as one could hardly miss the outstanding chest musculature or the conspicuous six-pack. Their hips and legs also gained more muscles, the upper legs were almost double the size as their arms.


    The most obvious changes on the bodies of the five however was something entirely different. And that change came in form of drawings on their skin, exactly on the same spots their old bodies were tattooed, before they died.


    Those drawings didn¡¯t form any specific shape yet, but the five brothers could more or less guess which form the drawings would take.


    The drawings appeared after their inner energy started to take a visible form in their heads, which they could observe with their inner eyes. The energy rose with the consummation of the spring water and the leaves in combination with the hellish training no normal human could accomplish.


    It would be a giant coincidence if the drawings wouldn¡¯t form in to the shape of a Dragon on Dragon¡¯s body, a Tiger on Tigers body, a Hawk on Hawk¡¯s body and so on.


    Today was the day the five brothers finally finished their foundation training.


    It was a glorious day for the five and as they looked at each other obvious pride could be seen.


    ¡°We finally did it and completed the foundation training from hell!¡± Dragon said solemnly and gazed at his brothers with a gentle, yet proud smile.


    ¡°Yes!! Now we can start practicing our individual techniques!!¡± Hawk said with an excited look in his eyes.


    That was the truth. After the completion of the foundation training, which the five brothers accomplished like no one else, they could learn their old techniques again. They perfected these techniques specifically for themselves, and even named them. That was the reason the five brothers names were Dragon, Tiger, Hawk, Snake and Turtle as they originally were nameless orphans. They named themselves after their techniques. Thus their names were titles at the same time.


    Dragon¡¯s technique was a modified version of MMA, which focused on the unpredictable movement-and attack pattern. Except, instead of the normal MMA he included various other techniques into his own, such as Dim Mak, the art of winning a fight through hitting various vital points every human body had, or the flying-and round house kicks of the basic martial arts, like the Axe Kick, Roundhouse Kick, Flying Kick, Back Kick and so on. He named this technique


    ¡®The Dying Dragon¡¯ on a poetic evening, thus gaining his name. He was the first of the five brothers that developed his own technique.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Tiger¡¯s technique was a modified version of Muay Thai, which heavily focused on super close combat with his fists and elbows and output of strength. The speciality of his technique was a strange movement technique, which he developed himself. This movement technique makes it possible to lift his feet only to a centimetre above the ground, letting him easily and fast shift his position, while still maintaining a steady foothold. The only downside of his technique was that he traded the attack power of his legs for the movement technique. He named the technique ¡®Heavy Tiger¡¯, earning him his name.


    Hawk¡¯s technique was a modified version of the basic martial art kicks. All the moves (Axe Kick, Back Kick, Front Kick, Push Kick, Roundhouse Kick and Side Kick) were heavily modified by him allowing him to attack in a never ending combination of kicks, all chained together and from every position. This changed the more or less balanced technique into a purely attack based technique, which made him vulnerable. So, to counter the weakness of his technique, Hawk focused on speed. This way he could relentlessly attack and escape in critical moments, transforming him into a demon on the battlefield, able to kill even groups of enemies on his own. This technique was named ¡®Immortal Hawk¡¯ by him, but his brothers and enemies only called him ¡®Crazed Bird¡¯. Thus after they agreed on a compromise and named the technique ¡®Crazed Hawk¡¯, earning Hawk his name.


    Snake practiced a modified version of Dim Mak, the technique revolving around the vital points of the human and animal body. His modifications allowed for the normally not actively practiced technique to become a dangerous and life threatening method to fight. He focused on nimbly whirling around the enemies, searching for openings and as soon as one was found he attacked as fast as lightning. Its only weakness was the need of finding an opening, a weak spot. He happily named this technique ¡®Poisonous Snake¡¯, because of the potential to kill with one strike, just like strong poison and thus earned his name.


    Turtle¡¯s technique wasn¡¯t really a modified technique, but just simply the durability of his body working together with unstoppable force and wrestling. If he grabbed someone that poor guy was doomed. And if he was surrounded by too many enemies he would shield his face with his crossed arms, blocking almost all of the damage from close combat attackers, even if they had swords or other close combat weapons. At some point even bullets could only penetrate a few centimetres into his flesh, which did not really harm him. His weakness was, that his movements were really slow, except for the grabs of his grappling and wrestling moves. As they realized the terrifying potential of this technique they sat together and, after some discussions, named it ¡®Diamond Turtle¡¯.


    This was how Dragon and his four brothers got their names, together with their perfected techniques. At least at that point they were perfect.


    After the five brothers discussed their training they decided that three people would train alone and one would train with Turtle, as he needed to be hit to build up the hardness of his body. At the end they decided that Dragon, Tiger, Hawk and Snake would switch every day, so that everyone could at some days train alone and on one day train together with Turtle. Everyone agreed to this solution and thus they decided to relax for the rest of the day, as they hadn¡¯t really relaxed in a long time and they knew that they wouldn¡¯t relax when they started training their respective techniques.


    So all of them sat together in the small pond, talking and laughing with each other until late into the night. After that they decided to get some sleep and left the pool.


    In this night Dragon was abruptly woken from his sleep and as he observed his surroundings he realized that the blue, normally opaque pond was emitting a strange blue glow.


    He stood up and went towards the pond, only to realize that the water of the pond was crystal clear. That never happened before.


    ¡®Strange¡­wait what¡¯s that?!¡¯ Dragon thought alarmed and gazed concentrated into the depths of the pond. There was a small hole, at the side of the pond, looking like it was drilled with a big drill from earth.


    The blue glowing light came from this hole.


    Dragon decided to take a look and jumped into the pond, not even caring about his clothes. As soon as his body hit the water a strange scene flashed in front of his eyes.


    An icy desert, the wind was whirling above the desolate lands with a howling sound. Suddenly, directly in front of Dragon¡¯s eyes something rose slowly from underground. It was a tower, fully build out of ice. Then a flash, the pictures vanished and Dragon found himself swimming in the pond.


    The mysterious glowing light was still present and so he dove down and, without thinking too much about it reached into the hole.


    He had to stretch his hind as hard as he could before he finally felt something iin his hand.


    Dragon pulled the hand out of the hole and looked inside. A blue stone was lying on his palm, slowly pulsating with blue light. Mysterious runes were scratched into the surface. Dragon didn¡¯t know what it was and he also didn¡¯t know where he could search for answers about this strange object, thus he simply put the glowing runic stone into the pocket of his belt.


    Fortunately the glowing stopped.


    After this incident he went to bed again and at the next morning he was too excited to finally start training his beloved technique again and thus forgot about the stone temporary.


    On this morning the second half of their long training started, which would continue until all five brothers were on the same level as they were on earth.


    <u></u>


    (WN: So I wrote until 11:00 am on that day, which is kind of fucked up and this is the last chapter of that session, hope its not too obvious that I was tired as hell¡­)

 Chapter 17

    <u>Chapter 17</u>


    <u></u>


    While the five brothers started the second half of their training, in another part of this world, not that far away, a man was running through the streets of a city.


    The city was built out of white stones and the buildings had countless demonic faces and creatures carved in the walls. Even the street was built in the large white stone plates, every plate was carved with various battle scenes, monsters and demons.


    All in all one would say that this city was rich.


    Surprisingly no other human could be seen on the streets in the night, as if the city was dead, no beggars, no thieves, nothing which one would meet in any other city.


    The sounds of the steps of the man running through the streets were echoing back from the walls of the houses and mansions along the way.


    The man was clad in black clothes, with a metal chest-plate and a long blue coat was fluttering behind him. He had long black hair, together with a short black beard and blue eyes. His facial expression was terrible, his eyes were big in shock and he was frowning sharply. The man did not seem to be armed.


    (WN: Which is important¡­^^)


    The man was running through the streets without stopping or looking back, until he reached a crossing. The road to his right was leading up a hill and deeper in the city, the street to his left was leading towards a stable. Both of these ways were not important for the man, as he stopped before a tall, white iron gate, directly in front of him.


    With a deep breath, he somewhat tried to straighten his face and calm down, before he opened the gate and stepped onto the plot of land behind it. Behind the white iron gate was a big garden, filled with all kinds of beautiful flowers and trees. A small stream of water was flowing through the middle of the garden, with a white wooden bridge leading across.


    The man didn¡¯t seem to care about the beautiful sight and rushed directly through the garden, over the bridge and along the small way, until he stopped in front of a big, expensive looking mansion.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    The man breathed in deeply, stepped in front of the white wooden door and knocked loudly.


    Nothing happened, except the sound of the knocking echoing in the room behind the door.


    The man started knocking again, this time with more strength and longer.


    Still nothing.


    The man lifted both of his hands to punch the door with all of his strength, when suddenly the door was abruptly opened up. In the door now stood a young man with long blond hair, intelligent grey eyes and a somewhat lacking build. He was not really handsome, but he definitely had something, which made him look not that bad, even though he didn¡¯t have any muscles or a beautiful face.


    ¡°Mr. Hakin, do you know the time?!¡± the blond young man said and looked, half angry, half asleep at the face of the black haired man.


    ¡°I have bad news, Alec!¡± Hakin said and looked sternly into the eyes of the blond man.


    Alec¡¯s face abruptly turned serious and the sleepy expression vanished completely. He nodded, stepped to the side, let Hakin enter the mansion and they started walking towards the back of the building..


    Behind such a mansions door, one would normally think that the interior would be equally luxurious and considering the obviously rich city, it was even more likely. That wasn¡¯t the case for this mansion. Instead of luxurious furniture, the hall behind the door was completely empty, which was also the reason for the constant echo of all sounds that were made in it. Along the way to the study room, it became obvious that every single room was furnished in the most simple way, nothing was luxurious at all.


    Alec stopped in front of another white door, pushed it open and stepped into the room behind, which was the study room of the house. Normally his father would be here in this room until late night, working on various contracts and lists.


    Alec¡¯s father, Lucian Van Don, was an up-and-coming merchant, who started a few years ago. Even though he didn¡¯t earn enough money, he bought this mansion, with the big garden, all for ¡°appearances sake¡±, as his father always said. Alec was seventeen years old now and over the years, his father was never a particularly good or bad man. He was just there and, at some times he cared about his son, for example as he sent him to a noble school, to learn about the art of articulation and other cultural important things. At least these things were important for a noble, but Alec didn¡¯t really mind as he loved his father. His mother had died early and it was always only his father that was there for him.


    Of course, Lucian Van Don was always travelling and selling his wares, but Alec didn¡¯t mind that. Even more so, he was proud to have an ambitious father like Lucian.


    Alec motioned Hakin to sit down on one of the simple chairs in the room, before he did the same. Then he looked into the eyes of the black haired man.


    ¡°Tell me, what happened?¡± Alec asked.


    ¡°Alec¡­you¡­so you know that your father was travelling with his trade convoy towards the southern parts of this land, the Ermil Kingdom, right?¡± Hakin started to talk and avoided the eyes of the blond man.


    ¡°Yes, of course I know. Father always wanted me to take over his business someday, so I had to learn a lot about trading from him. Why do you ask?¡± Alec said with a confused voice.


    ¡°Its¡­okay¡­its like this: Your father¡­your father was attacked¡­by bandits¡­¡± Hakin said and his voice became quieter with every word, until he was almost whispering.

 Chapter 18

    <u>Chapter 18</u>


    <u></u>


    ¡°WHAT?!¡± Alec shouted and jumped up from his chair.


    ¡°No that¡¯s impossible! He travelled this route for almost six years and it never happened anything! And most importantly: The mercenaries, which are escorting the convoy are warriors of the adept rank, there simply aren¡¯t any bandits that have a comparable fighting strength! Impossible!!¡± Alec said with a serious voice and sat down again.


    ¡°This has to be false information! Tell me Mr. Hakin, where did you hear this?!¡± Alec asked with a questioning gaze.


    ¡°Alec¡­I know it is not easy to believe, but¡­your father really was attacked. And he died¡­I saw his headle- his body myself!¡± Hakin answered and looked into the intelligent grey eyes of the blond man in front of him.


    ¡°Headle- Headless?! HEADLESS?! HE WAS DECAPITATED?!¡± Alec roared and his fist slammed onto the wooden table with a loud sound. As the sound of his fist hitting the table echoed through the room, Alec¡¯s gaze became glassy and his hands slowly fell to the sides of his body. He sat there lifelessly and tried remembering the memories with his father. It was not uncommon for a merchant to die on his way towards his destination, but Alec would¡¯ve never thought that his father would be one of them. This thought had just never occurred in him, as his father was very intelligent and cautious. He taught Alec a lot of things about the art of trading and one of the most important teachings was the need of perfect preparation. A merchant with his convoy had to be able to avoid any trouble on its way. And even if something went different than expected, the good merchant always had several back up plans. All of this was taught to Alec by his father. So how could he be dead?! Yes it had to be a fake body!


    Alec¡¯s gaze turned back to normal and he looked into the eyes of the man in front of him. Hakin was one of the partners of his fathers company, who couldn¡¯t travel with them this time, as his wife had born a child. Alec never had much to do with him, but seeing him deliver such a message to him, he seemed trustworthy.


    ¡°Are you sure its his body?! It could be a fake body, you know that a merchant always has back up plans!¡± Alec asked and a little flame of hope ignited in his heart.


    ¡°No. I am sorry Alec, but the body I saw was, without a doubt, your fathers. And its not only him that¡¯s dead¡­every other member of the convoy is dead too, with¡­their heads¡­¡± Hakin answered and stopped with a frown as if he remembered the moment he arrived on the scene.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Alec¡¯s face distorted into a pained expression as the last glimmer of hope was extinguished. His father was dead. He was dead. Lucian Van Don, the man he believed to have a plan for everything died, just like that. And now he was alone.


    Finally tears started to stream down his cheeks, dropping on the table as he buried his head in his hands. More memories flashed past in his mind:


    The moment his father gifted him his first birthday present, a silvery amulet with an owl carved in it.


    The countless hours of sitting together with his father in this study room, planning the next travel routes.


    His fathers face, when he sent him to the local school, to learn the art of articulation and cultural features, full of pride and expectations.


    He remembered the last words of his father, before he rode away through the city gates with his convoy: ¡®You better have a girl when I¡¯m back¡¯. Such useless words, but now as he remembered the sentence over and over in his head, he heard the different meanings in the sentence and his father¡¯s voice:


    Create a family.


    Continue the lineage.


    Be happy.


    Be reliable.


    Stand on your own legs.


    As Alec remembered the different memories of and with his father the tears were streaming down continuously and his eyes were already red as blood.


    He never once before thought, that losing someone would hurt this much. It wasn¡¯t just his mind that was pained, it was like his heart was slowly pumping lava through his body, his whole body hurt as it never had before.


    After an unknown amount of time his eyes couldn¡¯t produce any more tears, his body was dry. Alec slowly lifted his head from his hands, opened a drawer, grabbed a big bottle and placed it on the table. The bottle was filled with a strange looking black liquid and even with the lid closed, a strong alcoholic scent spread in the room. The liquid in the bottle was called Stinger, or to be precise, Black Stinger and it was one of the most violent alcoholic drinks in this country. It was also really expensive, with the price of one bottle of Black Stinger, one would be able to buy a whole carriage with two horses.


    Alec originally wanted to gift this bottle to his father, for the nights when he remembered his dead wife and he had saved up his money for almost seven years.


    His father will never come back. Alec¡¯s eyes widened on the thought and without thinking twice he opened the bottle. With a swift movement he put the bottle onto his lips, inhaled deeply, and started chugging the black liquid from the bottle.


    The first few gulps were really painful as the incredibly strong alcohol seemed to burn his flesh from the inside, but as Alec kept drinking the pain slowly turned into numbness, until he couldn¡¯t feel anything anymore.


    Alec drank and drank until the bottle was almost empty. He inhaled another time and wanted to put the bottle back to his lips again, but a hand stopped the bottle.


    Alec looked up and saw Hakin, who was holding the bottle with one of his hands.


    ¡°You drinking yourself to death will not change anything either. You have to walk into the steps of your father and continue his way.¡± Hakin said with a stern voice and a serious gaze.


    Alec looked drunkenly into the black haired man¡¯s eyes, looked at the bottle in his hand and, with a silent tear his body slumped towards the table. He lost consciousness.


    Hakin took the bottle out of the hands of Alec and drank the rest of the black liquid in one gulp. Then he stared at the seventeen year old man in front of him with a pondering expression.

 Chapter 19

    <u>Chapter 19</u>


    <u></u>


    From this day onwards the company of Lucian Van Don, was directed by Alec, the formers son. As most of the trade partners of his father were either dead or refused to continue the trading with him, Alec decided that it was time to search for new allies and employees, before he could start sending convoys, like his father did.


    The first partner he gained was obviously Hakin, the man who brought him the horrible news and the only one he believed he could trust at this moment. Hakin was an experienced merchant, with abundant knowledge about the various trading routes. The most important knowledge he had was something entirely different though. His contacts. Hakin had contacts in a lot of cities of this Kingdom and even in some of the cities of other Kingdoms. He also knew a lot about the rivalling companies, which made him an irreplaceable part of the new Van Don-Companies leader circle. Alec directly promoted him to his representative.


    With Hakins help, the next person they wanted to recruit was found quickly. They needed a supplier with sufficient materials and products, who was at the same time reliable. Normally this task would cost them countless days of negotiations and discussions with a lot of different suppliers, but all of this became irrelevant as Hakin directly recommended a supplier company, which was lead by a man named Soltun, who was apparently one of Hakin¡¯s close friends. Soltun specialized in the creation and supply of pottery and beast hides, which was a decent business, even though one wouldn¡¯t become rich over night with this.


    After the integration of Soltun in the leader circle of the Van Don-Company, the next person they needed to recruit was the one responsible for the food supply, as a convoy couldn¡¯t begin travelling at all, without any food. Once again Hakin recommended a man, who was his friend, but Alec didn¡¯t really mind that, as long as he would get his food supplies. The man was called Fedric and he became the fourth member of the Van Don-Company council.


    The last person they needed was the one responsible for hiring members and guards for the convoys, who was also responsible for the discipline in the company, so that no one tried to steal any wares or, even worse, sell information to the rivalling companies. This person was found without Hakin¡¯s help as Alec already knew who he wanted to have for this job. It was an old city guard officer, which was close to retirement and had not that much to do anymore. The other guards were only joking about him and no one took him serious anymore, as he was already old. Alec came to know this old guard, while he waited on the walls of the city for the return of his father¡¯s convoy. He had always waited the whole day on the wall when he was younger, without eating only waiting for the silhouettes of men on horses and carriages in the distance and one day while he was waiting, the old man sat beside him and waited with him. At first Alec thought this old man was crazy and strange, but after a year of meeting on the walls every day, he accepted the old man.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    A few years passed and Alec, who stopped waiting for his father on the walls of the city, still came to visit the old man and talk with him, as they had become good friends over the years and Alec kind of saw him as his grandfather. Now that his father was dead he felt even more like this, as he needed the support of a completely honest person.


    Although he trusted Hakin to some extent, he didn¡¯t know much about him, as the man hadn¡¯t joined his fathers company for that long. That was also one of his father¡¯s teachings: ¡®Never trust too much, it could be used against you¡¯. Unfortunately it was not possible for most humans to stop trusting someone who was always kind to oneself, so betrayals were possible. The only person Alec really trusted of his subordinates was the old man, who carried the name Bark as his suntanned skin was wrinkled, which was looking like the bark of a tree. With the, for his age, muscular body the old man could be somewhat compared to a small tree in human form, which lead to his name.


    With Bark, the Van Don-Companie¡¯s council was complete and they began planning the first travel route, while hiring personnel. The first trade convoy would be sent to the nearest city, the City of Berse. This cost them more as it earned them, but it showed the other merchant companies that the Van Don-Company was not afraid of going out of the city. It also served as a sign for the different customers of this land, big or small, who would receive the news of the moves of the Van Don-Company.


    Alec was busy everyday. He planned, he organized, he discussed with the council members and he learned new things. He didn¡¯t forget about his father, which could be seen in the increasing usage of alcohol of the young man, but Hakin was right as he said that Alec killing himself wouldn¡¯t change anything, but only make matters worse. So Alec tried to cope with the pain of losing his father by jumping straight into any work that was available, if it was his jurisdiction or not. Some days couldn¡¯t go without the usage of intoxicating means though, so Alec was often seen drinking.


    Like this a three years passed and the Van Don-Company was getting more successful. With every completed trade the convoys would bring back money to the white city, which was the place of residence of the Van Don-Company. With the increased amount of wealth, more and better personnel could be hired. Even a Master ranked warrior asked to be hired by Alec¡¯s company and was welcomed with wide arms. The company was flourishing.


    Then, one day Hakin came to Alec with a proposal.

 Chapter 20

    <u>Chapter 20</u>


    <u></u>


    Alec was sitting in his fathers old study room, which was his room now, a bottle of alcohol in his hand and deep in thoughts. The door opened and as Alec looked up he saw Hakin walk into the room, wearing t he same clothes he wore when he delivered the message of his fathers death, only with a few minor changes like the purse full of gold or the three jewel rings on his fingers. He seemed to enjoy the life of a merchant and his wealth was spent entirely for his pleasure. He had left his wife with the little child half a year ago, as he decided that a woman of simple origin wasn¡¯t enough anymore for a man on his position.


    Alec didn¡¯t like the decision of his representative at all, so he sent money to the lone mother and her child every month.


    ¡°What do you want?!¡± Alec asked with a somewhat shaky voice, caused by the alcohol.


    ¡°Alec, I have a proposal to make!¡± Hakin said with a serious gaze and sat down in front of the blond man.


    ¡°What is it..?¡± Alec asked and took another sip out of the bottle.


    ¡°It¡¯s like this: I believe that it isn¡¯t healthy for you sitting here in your fathers study room every day, drinking, thinking about the past¡­¡± Hakin answered with a concerned voice.


    Alec focused his gaze onto the black haired man. Hakin had done a good job in the two years they were working together. And despite the things Alec didn¡¯t approve of on Hakin, like him leaving his wife and child, the excessive partying or the several women he gathered around him, he believed that Hakin was a good man. Some may call him na?ve and that would be true, as Alec basically never left the city and everything he learned was taught to him by other people. Although he had his own opinions towards the different topics, he never really saw the problems itself, only heard of them. Also, the people in his surroundings were always kind and respectful towards him, as he was the leader of a successful trading company. He basically never made his own experiences, like his father did, when he travelled as a young man through the land.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    ¡°What are you trying try to tell me?¡± Alec asked and his somewhat drunken eyes immediately turned clear and serious.


    ¡°I think it would be a good experience for you to travel with the trading convoys! You would broaden your horizon with this and you would also learn more about the world. More importantly our trading partners want to meet you in the different cities, as they are trading with your company for three years now! I believe this is a good reason to leave the white city and at the same time it would stop you from getting swallowed by dark thoughts and alcohol.¡± Hakin said with a similar serious voice and looked at Alec.


    Alec observed the man in front of him sharply and began thinking about the proposal. It was true that he never left the white city before. At first it was because his father told him to do so, but later it became a habit and he was satisfied with his life in the city. Before his father died he spent the time trying to gain some knowledge about the white city. The white city, as it is called now, wasn¡¯t actually built by humans, or at least none of the current inhabitants of the city built it. It was said that the humans one day found this white city while exploring and decided to settle in. Since that day the city was called ¡®The White City¡¯ as apparently the ancient humans who found this city lacked creativity. After several years of searching the only clue he found were the carvings of demonic beast and war scenes everywhere on the cities stones. They seemed to tell a story, but while Alec was still in the middle of collecting and drawing the different plates onto paper sheets, his father died and he became the head of a company. After he became the head he continued to only live inside of the city, as he never had a good enough reason to leave and to be completely honest, he was afraid of the outside world. Even more, since his father died there.


    Alec unconsciously lifted the alcohol bottle to his mouth before he abruptly stopped his hand. He shifted his pondering gaze from the black haired man to the bottle and realized something.


    He couldn¡¯t continue living his life like that! He would die a lot sooner, if he would continue and to be honest, he didn¡¯t want to die that early.


    His face hardened as he made his decision.


    ¡°You are right Hakin¡­I will move out with the next convoy!¡± Alec said and his gaze was filled with determination. As he said those words something in his mind broke, vanished into nothingness and Alec felt, for the first time of his life, free. He placed the bottle onto the table looked at the black haired man and stood up.


    ¡°I will prepare myself immediately. Send a message to the leader of the next convoy, telling him to wait for me.¡± Alec said and his former somewhat shaky voice suddenly sounded full of strength.

 Chapter 21

    <u>Chapter 21</u>


    <u></u>


    The next day Alec drove on a carriage through the gates of the white city, leaving his home for the first time in his twenty years of life.


    The first destination was the city called Berse. The journey was nothing special for normal people, but for Alec it was something he had never experienced before. He met lots of different people and together they travelled through forests and over rivers. Alec saw, for the first time in his life demonic beasts, as for some reason there were no animals or beasts at all inside of the white city.


    Alec was astounded by the countless different species that roamed through the forests, swam in the beautiful blue rivers or ran over the wide grass lands. There were dangerous ones, small ones, harmless ones, really big ones and totally grotesque ones, such as the Culuma. The Culuma was the strangest thing Alec had ever met before. This species could change its appearance into anything. They could morph into knifes, lids, pots, stones, leaves, everything that wasn¡¯t bigger in size then them. Alec believed that he never even saw the real form of the Culuma and when he asked the leader of the convoy about it, he got the reply that no one did. He didn¡¯t seem like he was impressed by this fact, but for Alec this was a shocking conclusion. He was totally intrigued by those creatures as his fantasy was spinning theories one after the other:


    What if the real form of the Culuma is nothing but magic, maybe they are an illusion?


    What if there real form is that of a slime?


    What if they don¡¯t have a real form and every form they morph into is their real one until they morph again?!


    Alec¡¯s thoughts wouldn¡¯t stop for a minute and it was not only about the Culuma. Alec had seen countless different species now and no one could tell him much about any of them. It was like no one cared at all. Alec couldn¡¯t understand that attitude at all, as he was always a very curious and inquisitive person. He wanted to find out more about the different species.


    So one day, during a rest in a village, he purchased a notice book and from then on he recorded everything he observed of the different demonic beasts, together with every theory his fantasy could muster. Soon the book was filled with countless words and drawings of the different creatures, documenting his observing. When they arrived in Berse, he had to buy two more books, because the one he bought in the village was already full. Afterwards he had to meet with the various big customers and trading partners, which were residing in the city f Berse. That was fine though, because like this Alec learned a lot more about his trading partners and most importantly about humans. After a full week of rest the convoy headed back to the white city, accompanied by Alec, who was eagerly documenting everything he saw. At some point he started to document not only the different species of demonic beasts, but also the surrounding he was travelling through, the people he met and his thoughts. The books he bought were filled quickly, so he waited eagerly to reach the next village, so that he could buy more books. Unfortunately the village they stopped in next, didn¡¯t have any books, not even paper, but considering that it was a really small village, that was normal.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    So Alec had to think of something else to do during the journey, which didn¡¯t take long as he saw the escorting martial artists doing basic training. As he watched them he realized that his body was lacking. He had become a little fat during the three years after his fathers dead and he looked really unhealthy. He walked to the training martial artists and asked them if he could train with them, which surprised them greatly, as they had only seen him sitting on a carriage, observing the surroundings and write into a small book. After a short time of thinking about it they agreed to the proposal of Alec as long as he was satisfied with them only teaching him the basic training methods and fighting techniques, but not the martial arts techniques, which were necessary to use spells. Alec was overjoyed and directly started to train with them, doing his best to keep up with their paste.


    A month later, as they reached the white city, Alec was running alongside the escorting martial artists next to the carriages. His former fat body had completely changed into a fairly muscular shape and the former sick looking appearance he had was replaced by an energetic look and sun tanned skin. He also learned basic fighting techniques, which would be enough to deal with common bandits. Of course only if they were not martial artists.


    Those changes didn¡¯t come for free though as Alec had to endure a full month of heavy training. He had to do push-ups, sit-ups, squats, running, everything one could think of and the martial artists who trained him seemed to enjoy torturing him with more new training methods every time he got the hang of one.


    Alec didn¡¯t know anymore how often he had cursed the martial artists, how often he cursed himself for having such a dumb idea, but after half a month he started to feel the changes in his body. He could keep up with the martial artists for at least five minutes and most of the exercises had become bearable to do.


    After a month he could run alongside the mercenaries for almost half a day, which would normally be impossible to accomplish in one months time, but the hellish training seemed to have been very effective.


    As he reached the city he didn¡¯t even talk with Hakin or any other members of the council, but directly moved out with the next convoy. He wanted to see more and this thirst couldn¡¯t be stilled by sitting in the city. He could imagine why his father was travelling as much as he did. It was one of the most amazing things one could experience in life.


    He travelled for over a year like this and saw countless unbelievable things.


    Some of them were beautiful.


    Some of them were terrifying.


    But every single one of the experiences he made was interesting.


    Someday, a different convoy brought him a message, which asked him to return to the white city, because his decision was needed. So he started travelling back to the place he called home before. He didn¡¯t feel like it was a home anymore, he felt more like it was a prison, because he learned that the world was the most interesting thing in this world and he felt good travelling through forests, mountains, grass lands and over rivers. The world had become his home.

 Chapter 22

    <u>Chapter 22</u>


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    Hakin was waiting on the walls of the city. His former muscular body had decayed and he became fat, his skin was pale white and he looked sick. The amount of jewels on his body had increased, as he now wore a ring on every single one of his fat fingers. He also didn¡¯t wear the metal chest-plate he once wore, but clothes woven out of silk, coloured in red and blue. A normal thinking person would say that Hakin looked like a fat, unsuccessful clown, but because he was a very important person in the city and also known for his brutal outbreaks, no one dared to say anything about his outfit, not even the city guards. Hakin was impatiently walking left and right and his left hand was stroking the beard on his chin.


    Suddenly a single silhouette appeared in the distance. As the silhouette came closer Hakin and the city guards could identify the silhouette as a man.


    The man was tall and a long mane of blond hair was floating on his head and over his back behind him. It didn¡¯t take long for the man to reach the gates, as he was walking fast and steadily. Hakin gasped loudly in shock, as he identified the man walking towards the gate.


    The man was tall and very muscular. He was wearing a thick leather armor, leather armguards and leather boots together with a worn pale blue shirt and black pants under the armor. The man was carrying a big rainproof leather backpack and on the right side of his belt hung a metal club with sharp spikes.


    Even though he was obviously carrying a lot of things in the backpack, as one could tell by the noises from it, the man walked energetically and fast, as if the things he was wearing wouldn¡¯t weight anything.


    This man was Alec Van Don, the owner of the Van Don-Company!


    Even the guards were shocked when they realized who that impressive man was, as they got to know him when he was waiting for his father on the wall.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    The Alec Van Don from then and the one from now were different like night and day, sky and earth, life and death. It was an impressive sight and none of the guards doubted that this man knew how to use the metal club he was carrying.


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    Alec walked towards the city, his backpack filled with supplies and books on his back and his trusted weapon on the side of his belt. He was feeling good, even though he didn¡¯t want to come back here at first, but seeing the impressive white walls of the city again, was bringing back a lot of memories, good and bad. As he came closer he saw an unusual amount of guards on the walls beside the gate together with a somewhat fat, pale skinned man in red and blue cloths, who looked ridiculous. The guards were pointing at him, apparently excited about something and as he stepped in front of the gate he heard some gasps and shocked exclamations.


    He didn¡¯t really mind, because he could remember his former appearance, which was strangely similar to the funny clothed man atop the gate.


    Alec walked through the gate and was greeted by a few guards, which were armed with long spears, watching him wearily, as if they though he would jump at them like a madman in the next moment. Alec shortly thought about scaring them by jumping abruptly in front of them, but as he thought more about it he decided against the idea. He didn¡¯t really want to be pierced by the guard¡¯s spears.


    ¡°What a beautiful day, my friends! How are you guys doing lately?!¡± Alec asked with an enthusiastic voice while grinning widely.


    The guards didn¡¯t seem impressed and they neither lowered their weapons. They became a lot more cautious instead, which confused Alec for a while, until he remembered something.


    ¡°Ah right! I forgot: No weapons allowed! Sorry about that!¡± Alec said with a grin and took out the weapon from his belt with quick and experienced movements. The guards directly readied their weapons and pointed them at him, which greatly shocked Alec. One of the guards even stepped back a little.


    ¡°¡­¡± Alec was speechless, slowly squatted on the ground and placed the weapon down. Then he slowly got up again and watched the guards with disbelieve written all over his face.


    ¡°You know¡­it¡¯s not like I am eager to die so why would I try to attack the whole city on my own?! More importantly: You know me! It¡¯s me Alec! The guy, who always sat on the wall, waiting for his father. Remember?¡± Alec said with a half amused, half annoyed voice.


    <u></u>


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, I can vow for him. He really is Alec, the owner of the Van Don-Company!¡± a voice suddenly said from behind the guards and the fat man clad in ridiculous clothes stepped in front of Alec.


    ¡°Who are yo- Hakin?!¡± Alec said surprised. He looked at the man and was shocked to realize that the former muscular, black haired man had become fat and swapped his armor for fine clothing. He wanted to ask Hakin about it, but before he could say anything, Hakin waved his hand.


    ¡°Follow me! There is an important decision to make!¡± Hakin said, turned around and directly walked in the direction of Alec¡¯s mansion.

 Chapter 23

    <u>Chapter 23</u>


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    Alec walked next to Hakin through the streets, with a pondering expression on his face.


    How could the muscular Hakin, who Alec himself set as his representative, have become such an awful looking person. Alec always knew that Hakin laid too much worth on partying, playing with women, drinking and eating, but he had never stopped his training to keep his body in shape before. It seemed like the rich life was too much to handle for Hakin.


    ¡®It seems like I will have to send him on a journey with the trading convoys this time¡­¡¯ Alec thought and once again looked at his representative. He didn¡¯t like what he saw: Countless jewels, expensive looking necklaces, fine clothes and the stench of sweat, alcohol and other unidentifiable substances.


    ¡®If Hakin had an appearance like this before, I wouldn¡¯t have made him my representative. Even my former self wasn¡¯t that disgusting and looking at it now mine and his body are as different as life and death¡­I will ask him about his changes in appearance as soon as we reach the study room!¡¯ Alec thought and started walking in a faster pace.


    Hakin looked annoyed and with a dark expression at the muscular body of Alec and followed him as fast as he could. After a few steps he already started panting like he had run a marathon two times. (WN: I don¡¯t know how to express this better¡­so just bear with it¡­sorry.)


    After a few minutes Alec reached the white metal gate which lead to his mansion, leaned against the wall and waited patiently for Hakin. It took almost five more minutes until Alec could finally hear the panting of the fat man and another minute before Hakin appeared before the gate.


    ¡°When did this happen?!¡± Alec, who couldn¡¯t wait anymore, asked in a disbelieving tone.


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    ¡°I¡­was¡­.it¡­..just¡­.¡± Hakin tried to answer while panting heavily. Alec was already worrying about the black haired man collapsing on the street, because of overexertion, but fortunately after three more minutes of panting and hasty breathing, Hakin seemed to calm down again.


    ¡°So?!¡± Alec asked and the gaze of his intelligent grey eyes bore into the black haired mans eyes. Hakin felt really uncomfortable, as if Alec would tear him apart the moment he felt like Hakin said something unpleasant or lied.


    ¡°I became like this, because¡­yes! I became like this because of the stress at work, which you left me with and the countless banquets I had to attend in your stead, as a representative. It really isn¡¯t my fault!¡± Hakin said and a sly expression flashed shortly on his face as he pushed the guilt towards Alec.


    Alec didn¡¯t believe one of Hakins words, but decided to act like he understood as he didn¡¯t know what the state of the company was like. He also felt a little bit guilty for leaving all the work to Hakin.


    ¡°Alright¡­well, I don¡¯t blame you, lets get inside so that you can tell me, why I had to come back.¡± Alec said with a sigh, opened the gate and stepped inside.


    The garden was still the same as it was before he left over a year ago and it was still beautiful, but now that Alec had seen real forests, grass lands, rivers and mountains, this small garden paled in comparison. More importantly there was no life at all in this garden. Alec once again thought of the strange phenomenon, that nowhere in this town were any animals, beasts or anything alive except for the humans. Even the horses that were used for pulling the carriages had to be kept outside of the city, leaving the many stables inside of it empty. Alec made the decision to find out one day, how and why no animals, beasts and the likes could enter this city. Unfortunately now wasn¡¯t the right time to begin research, but during the year of travelling he learned something very important: Patience.


    There wasn¡¯t always a new demonic beast, when he wanted to find one.


    It wasn¡¯t possible to sail down the river without learning to be patient.


    And not everyone was as intelligent as him, so he had to learn to be patient and let them come to the same conclusions as himself on their own pace.


    Alec stepped through the door of his mansion and was directly shocked by the sight that was presented to him. The mansion originally was furnished with cheap and practical furniture, because his father wanted it to be like that.


    Now the former almost empty hall was filled with expensive carpets, artfully built and carved wooden furniture stood along the wall and a huge chandelier, apparently made out of silver and filled with countless candles, hung from the ceiling of the hall.


    Alec couldn¡¯t believe his eyes, but Hakin didn¡¯t even seem to mind his shocked expression as he busily walked past the stunned blond man towards the study room in the back of the house. Alec slowly followed the black haired man and discovered uneasy and a little disgusted that every room they passed was filled with expensive furniture like that. In some of the rooms were even lying naked women on beds and on carpets on the ground.


    ¡°What happened here¡­?¡± he mumbled quietly and decided to ask Hakin when they reached the study room.

 Chapter 24

    <u>Chapter 24</u>


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    Hakin stopped in front of the door to the study room, looked shortly at Alec before he swiftly opened the door and stepped into the room.


    There he immediately sat down on a luxurious armchair, which was standing on the position of the former master seat. He motioned Alec to sit down.


    As Alec walked into the room, he almost started to vomit, as he saw the disgustingly expensive furniture and colourful banner in red and blue, hanging from the wall. He was even more disgusted then before, as this was his fathers room and countless old memories had their origin here. After disgust came fury and he abruptly turned around to face the black haired man, who was to Alec¡¯s rage sitting on the place of the master seat in this house.


    ¡°WHAT is going on here?! Have you lost your mind?! Who gave you the permission to change MY house into this¡­this brothel?! Are you sane?!¡±


    Alec shouted and the muscles on his armed bulged. He was never before this angry in his life. What audacity, what courage was this?! In just one year of absence, his trusted subordinate turned this house into a joke, similar looking to an expensive brothel!


    Hakin¡¯s expression darkened and the gaze in his eyes became even more annoyed, before he quickly pulled himself together and made an apologizing expression. The darkness his itself deep in his eyes.


    ¡°I was forced to take the necessary-¡° Hakin answered.


    ¡°FORCED? FORCED!? WHO ON EARTH COULD FORCE YOU TO CHANGE MY HOUSE INTO A BROTHEL?!¡± Alec directly interrupted Hakin with a roar as he couldn¡¯t hold back his rage anymore.


    ¡°Like I said I was-¡° Hakin tried again and the darkness in his eyes increased.


    ¡°WHO WOULD EVEN GET THE IDEA OF FORCING YOU TO CHANGE THE INTERIOR OF MY HOUSE INSTEAD OF YOURS?! DO YOU THINK I¡¯M A LITTLE KID!?¡± Alec interrupted him again and the veins on his neck and forehead were pulsing visibly.


    ¡°I was forced by the circumstances! This house wasn¡¯t able to represent our company, as our customers increased and the people who bought our wares were becoming more influential! There was nothing else I could do.¡± Hakin said as fast as he could to prevent Alec from interrupting him again.


    ¡°If that¡¯s true, then WHY ARE THERE NAKED WOMEN IN THE ROOMS?!¡± Alec asked and his voice turned into a shout again.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°They are part of the image we have! They are very important!¡± Hakin said and the darkness in his eyes increased as he squinted his eyes.


    ¡°But that is of no importance! The most important thing right now is the decision you make concerning an offer we became some time ago!¡± Hakin said fast and lifted both of his arms in a supposedly appeasing manner.


    Alec didn¡¯t believe one of Hakins words, but the last sentence brought him back to reality. Apparently there was something important to discuss, which would really make the topic of changing his houses interior irrelevant. So Alec calmed down, sat in front of the table on a chair and watched Hakin with a questioning gaze.


    ¡°Talk.¡± Alec said with a resolute and stern voice. And Hakin started speaking.


    ¡°A few weeks ago we got a message from one of the bordering kingdoms, precisely speaking, the Kingdom of Ermil. The message was a business proposal with the named kingdom, which would let us increase our income by three to four times. The trip ups in this whole scenario are firstly, the distance to the Ermil Kingdom, which would take us almost three months to reach. Secondly this is the same contract that got your father killed. Third and last is a little strange requirement: For the fulfilment of the contract the owner of the company has to travel there himself. This means, that you will have to travel there with the trading convoy. Even though it is a strange requirement, it is not impossible to do and I already have planned the most optimal route. The only possibly dangerous area on this route is the free mountain area, which is known for the numerous bandit clans and outlaws. That shouldn¡¯t be a problem for you though and I suggest you take most of the higher ranked guards and the discipline elder of our company, Mr. Bark, with you. That would make the journey as save as possible.¡± Hakin said and his voice got more certain with every word and determination shined in his eyes.


    Alec patiently waited for Hakin to finish, while still trying to control the rage from before. This business proposal was really strange. The first strange thing was that his father apparently got the same, or a very similar, kind of deal, which ultimately lead to his death. The second strange thing was that Alec himself had to travel with the trading group, just to complete the deal.


    Alec stopped pondering and looked towards Hakin, who was comfortably sitting on the master seat of the house.


    ¡°What kind of wares do they need?¡± he asked and observed the man sitting in front of him sharply. He was waiting if Hakin would make any mistake, that would expose the business proposal as a trap, but he was disappointed.


    Hakin quickly rummaged through some papers, which were lying on the table until he found what he looked for. He was looking at an ordinary piece of paper, which was tightly packed with words and numbers. He read the things, the Ermil Kingdom needed loudly and at the end he gave Alec the piece of paper, so that he could confirm that Hakin was saying the truth.


    The list of wares the Ermil Kingdom needed was a standard list of things, like any other customer ordered from them, except that the Ermil Kingdom ordered a lot more luxurious wares, which were fairly expensive.


    The list looked legit to Alec and he started pondering again.


    He didn¡¯t care about the monetary reward for the contract, but this business proposal was basically an invitation card to the whole Ermil Kingdom.


    With this he could cross the border without any problems and explore the world further. In this perspective the proposal was a very good chance for Alec to do the things he loved the most, which were travelling, exploring and documenting.


    From another kind of view the implementation of this contract was obviously a very dangerous opportunity, as his father had died on a similar contract.


    Alec asked himself: ¡®Is the gold and the exploration worth the risk?¡¯


    The answer was easy. His greed of new things to explore, paired with his thirst of knowledge and curiosity easily beat the possible risk of being ambushed, attacked or even betrayed. He looked at Hakin and a wide grin spread on his face.


    ¡°Prepare the convoy. We will depart in two days!¡± Alec said and the anger he felt towards Hakin was instantly forgotten. He was like a traveller in the desert, who was dying of thirst, when he suddenly sees an oasis. Like a drug addict, who was in dire need of the next shot¡­

 Chapter 25

    <u>Chapter 25</u>


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    Two days later a large convoy departed from the white city and headed towards the Ermil Kingdom. The convoy was escorted by almost all the available mercenaries and guards the company could gather and the discipline member of the Van Don-Company, Mr. Bark. And at the front of the convoy there was a lone man running. That was Alec, clad in his leather armor and the same old, pale blue shirt and black pants. On his back was the big leather backpack and at the side of his belt hung his trusted weapon, the spiked metal club. The convoy was equipped with the best armors, weapons and carriages the company had in stock and the horses, which were pulling the said carriages, were the best of the whole town. Like this they could travel as fast as possible.


    They travelled for almost a month through the ownerless lands. The various city states, like the white city or the city of Berse never really claimed much of the surrounding land, because it was filled with countless dangerous demonic beasts and groups of outlaws and bandits. It would¡¯ve cost them way too much gold and manpower to occupy and hold the territories around the cities, so all of the city states refused to claim any of the land around them. This made the whole area, with almost twenty different city states, an almost completely lawless land, which was obviously heaven for all the outlaws and bandits.


    Although there were countless dangers like this in the area, it was mostly known for the merchant companies. A normal person would think: ¡®why are there so many merchant companies in this area, isn¡¯t that totally reckless?¡¯ And on the first glance this statement would seem correct, but there was one really good reason for a merchant to build up his company in this area, which was tax-exemption on wares. Then again one would ask themselves: ¡®How can they pay no tax, they are obviously living in the city states?¡¯ Once again they would guess the truth, as some time ago many of the city states demanded high taxes, without actually providing anything than protection inside of the single city.


    That was a huge problem to all the merchants at first, as they lost lots of convoys to bandits, because those couldn¡¯t be defended accordingly. So the merchants complained loudly to the various city state governors and demanded soldiers to protect their convoys. Unfortunately for the city states, none of them had enough soldiers to spare. If they would decide to send soldiers to protect convoys, they wouldn¡¯t have enough soldiers remaining in the city, which would leave them extremely vulnerable, not only for other city states, but also the bandit clans and outlaws. So they decided, after long discussions, that they wouldn¡¯t demand any taxes anymore in exchange for the privilege of having merchant companies inside of their cities. Like this the various city states wouldn¡¯t lose their only source of new people and they could sell their own wares to the merchant companies. The only thing they had to do was protecting the merchant companies while they were residing in their cities.


    So this area was obviously heaven to all merchants, even though it was dangerous. High risk, high reward.


    The month passed relatively fast, as nothing particularly happened. The only interruption was caused by a broken wheel on one of the carriages, which cost the convoy only half a day to fix. During this month Alec mostly ran together with the mercenaries, trained his basic martial arts, which one could barely call techniques and tried to discover new things to document. He didn¡¯t really encounter anything new, but some of the discoveries he made, increased the knowledge about some magic beasts or plants. His martial arts, which were crafted out of several pieces of martial arts techniques he had witnessed during his lone travels, couldn¡¯t really advance, but he became more used to the moves. If an outsider would look at the ¡®martial techniques¡¯ of Alec, he would think that the tall man clad in leather armor was just wildly swinging his club in various directions. Even though, they wouldn¡¯t dare to go near the heavy storm of hard steel. On the other hand, if someone versed in martial arts would take a look at Alec¡¯s ¡®techniques¡¯ he would think¡­the same, except that the actual martial artist could probably easily break through the steel storm produced by Alec¡¯s swings. Apparently, Alec was absolutely untalented in martial arts. No one told him these little details though, because none of them thought that he would have to fight for real. The convoy was escorted by a lot of martial artists and normal guards. And even if he had to fight, they believed that Alec would easily be able to kill normal bandits, as long as they hadn¡¯t reached the novice rank or higher.


    After another half of a month, the convoy drew closer to the free mountain area, which was the only real dangerous point on their route. Bark decided for the convoy to set camp, as they reached a clearing in the forest. The convoys carriages were set at the edges of the clearing, building a circle with the members of the convoy in the middle. Some of the guards and martial artists spread into the surroundings, scouting and guarding the area.


    ¡°Only three bonfires tonight! I don¡¯t want to risk an attack in the first night!¡± Bark shouted and prepared a fireplace in the middle of the camp. After the fireplace was prepared he signalled a few of the members of the convoy, who were responsible for collecting wood, to bring some of it to him. As the wood collector hurriedly followed his command, Bark sat back on the ground, grabbed into a small leather bag and after a short moment of searching around, a tobacco pipe and an even smaller bag came to light. Alec, who sat down next to the old man, could smell a strong exotic odor from the bag. He was already used to this sight, as he knew the old man for quite some time already. The bag contained a strange kind of plant, which if inhaled, would relax the consumer. (WN: Blaze it¡­sorry) Alec himself had tried this kind of plant some time ago, but he didn¡¯t like the feeling at all, as it clouded his discernment. That was one reason, the other was that apparently this strange grassy plant was highly addicting and could actually ruin ones life completely. Alec didn¡¯t want to spend the rest of his life sitting in a house, as he already did that most of the time he had lived until now. He never wanted to be ¡®imprisoned¡¯ again in his lifetime.


    Alec watched the old man light the grassy plant inside of the pipe. Bark inhaled deeply and after some time he exhaled loudly, spreading yellowish smoke in the air. After that the old man¡¯s eyes became glassy and a relaxed expression appeared on his face.


    ¡°What do you think will we be attacked?¡± Alec asked slowly, while looking at the old man with a curious and a little fearful gaze. It was not like he hadn¡¯t fought anyone before, but if a bandit clan would decide to ambush the convoy, it would be a completely new scale of battle. It would be chaotic and nothing like a fight one against one. There was no honor on the battlefield. Who wouldn¡¯t be afraid of facing lots of fierce fighters with nothing to lose in a battle to the death. Even more so when they couldn¡¯t control the battlefield at all, they couldn¡¯t decide to attack the bandits earlier, as they didn¡¯t know where the bandits were. Also the bandits clearly have a huge advantage, as the free mountains were their territory. The convoy could be ambushed at any time from anywhere and they wouldn¡¯t even have time to react. That was the really terrifying part.


    Bark looked at Alec and inhaled another deep breath of yellow smoke.


    ¡°They will definitely attack us. Although I don¡¯t believe that they will do it at the start of the free mountains. That would be really dumb, as the guards of the convoy are still motivated and rested.¡± Bark said with a dark voice and Alec frowned deeply at his words.


    ¡°Why shouldn¡¯t they attack tonight? Wouldn¡¯t that be completely out of our expectations?¡± Alec asked and worry flashed in his eyes.


    ¡°Well, they would certainly surprise us and catch us off guard, but they wouldn¡¯t have a chance of killing us all. My men are trained and experienced, also they are, as I said already, fully rested and motivated. Their mind is still clear. If I were the leader of a bandit clan, I¡¯d wait until the convoy has passed two thirds of the way through their territory before I¡¯d start attacking, as the convoy¡¯s guards would certainly be not as motivated and rested as before. You have to consider the psychological pressure on the mind if you are a guard passing through a from bandits controlled area. The feeling that you can die at every moment is absolutely nerve wrecking and terrifying. That puts a huge strain on the mind of every single member of the convoy and that in turn affects the guard¡¯s health itself, as he will not get enough sleep and be alarmed at every single noise. That would be the perfect moment to attack.¡± Bark said and his glassy gaze immediately became sharp as he mustered the surroundings.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Alec wasn¡¯t completely convinced by the explanation the old man gave him, but somehow his mind calmed down a lot after Bark¡¯s words and he decided to eat something, while still pondering about possible scenarios.


    ¡°Stop thinking further about it, Alec! You should go to sleep.¡± Bark said in a low voice and pointed towards one of the makeshift beds on the side, which were built out of wood and cloth. Alec followed the gaze of the old man, thought shortly about it, nodded and made his way towards the makeshift bed.


    ¡®It doesn¡¯t help if I think about the countless other possibilities and if the old mans words are true, then I should get enough sleep, as long as I can!¡¯ Alec thought, laid down on the bed and closed his eyes. Most of the other convoy members laid down to sleep as well and soon the camp was filled with snores and occasional whispers from the people that were on guard duty.


    The night passed without any interruptions, just like Bark said and the next day the convoy continued on their route towards their destination, the Ermil Kingdom. The travel through the first part of the free mountains continued surprisingly smooth, if one would look from an ignorant point of view. In reality the convoy was tensed to the max and the guards would jump at any small noise.


    Alec was really impressed, because everything until now happened accordingly to Barks words.


    A few uneventful days later the convoy was already deep in the mountain area and the former wide road was becoming increasingly narrow. The road had turned into a pass, which led upwards into the mountains. The road became so narrow that only the carriages had space on the road. The remaining horses of the guards were left behind on the bottom of the mountains, together with some men to wait for their return. The escorting guards were travelling on foot, between the carriages, as there was not enough space for them to walk next to them.


    It was a rather normal day, only occasionally snowflakes would fall from the sky. The temperature was slowly falling with the increasing height and the men began to feel sullen. The nerves of the guards were tense, almost tearing at any moment. Alec was walking next to Bark, who sharply mustered his surroundings with a concerned gaze.


    ¡°What are you worrying about?¡± Alec asked as he too tried to observe the surroundings. He couldn¡¯t see anything but stone, snow and occasionally small trees with giant roots, which stubbornly held onto the stone walls. He couldn¡¯t figure out how these trees were able to live in this environment. It was amazing, especially for a tree, which needed a lot of nutritions to grow and live.


    ¡°This route is becoming more dangerous. At first, travelling through the free mountain area would have been a challenge, but this path worsens the situation. I think it is very likely that-¡° Bark said but was interrupted mid-sentence by a loud shout coming from the front of the convoy.


    ¡°BANDITS!!¡± one of the guards in front of them understood the content of the shout and transmitted it loudly to the other members of the convoy.


    Alec was immediately alarmed. ¡®Bandits? On this small road?¡¯


    He turned towards Bark and saw that the old man deeply frowned.


    ¡°This is bad¡­¡± Bark said and the frown turned deeper. He directly stormed to the front of the convoy, while simultaneously unsheathing his sword.


    Alec could hear screams and shouts form the front of the convoy and fear started to creep into his mind. What were the bandits trying to do? Kill everything form the front to the back until no man was left alive?! No¡­that would be inefficient, as a lot of the bandits would die by using this method as well. Alec¡¯s gaze instantly flew towards the top of the steep wall, which was located right next to the convoy.


    ¡°SHIT!¡± Alec abruptly jumped back while shouting. Just like he thought, the bandits were using their advanced knowledge of this area to their advantage. On the top of the steep wall were standing countless bandits with black wooden bows in their hands, ready to fire at any time.


    ¡°WATCH OUT! ARCHERS! FROM ABOVE!!¡± Alec shouted and tried to cover himself with behind one of the horses that was pulling the carriages. Just as his shout reached the ears of the other members of the convoy in his surroundings, a sharp whistling sound could be heard from behind the convoy and the bandit archers on the top of the steep wall were releasing their arrows with a clacking noise. The arrows flew through the air as fast as lightning with a shrill sound and some of the guards and merchants in the immediate surroundings of Alec instantly got impaled by them. Almost every single one of the guards which got hit, was hit with several arrows, sending them to the ground. Screams filled the air and some of the surviving guards of the convoy readied their bows and boldly returned fire. A few of the bandits on top of the steep wall were shot and fell down towards the carriages with bloodcurling screams and wide opened eyes. Alec, who managed to grab a bow and some arrows from one of the fallen guards, was about to shoot the bandits on the top, to support the surviving guards, when suddenly the back of the convoy was filled with screams and alarmed shouts as well. He turned towards that direction and observed with horror as the guards on the back of the convoy were slaughtered by a group of black and golden clothed warriors. They were obviously martial artists of the advanced rank, as there would occasionally spark fire, lightning or even water around the curved weapons of the black golden clothed attackers.


    ¡°THEY ARE ATTACKING FROM BOTH SIDES! WE HAVE TO REACH THE FRONT AND BREAK THROUGH!! FOLLOW ME!¡± Alec roared dropped the bow, unsheathed his spiked metal club and started running towards the front of the convoy. Arrows were flying towards him from above, hitting the ground, horses and men alike. Most of the guards that heard his shout were on the same way as him, but unfortunately ended as shields for the young man. Alec didn¡¯t even notice that as the adrenalin pumped through his veins. He was running for his life and the sound of arrows hitting, flesh, stone and wood around him was the only thing that filled his ears together with his heartbeat.


    An arrow scratched his right arm just as he managed to jump onto one of the carriages and blood started to flow from the wound, but Alec didn¡¯t have to time to be concerned about that. As soon as the remaining guards behind him saw that he made it out of this danger zone they stopped following him and turned around to return fire again, as they knew that the bandits would now focus on people trying to get to the front.


    Alec jumped down from the carriage and continued running towards the front of the convoy. With the support of the convoy¡¯s guards, which were firing their arrows towards the top of the steep wall, Alec managed to reach the next carriage straight away. He climbed it, ran to the other side and jumped down again. The guards in this section of the convoy were firing their arrows the same way as the guards from before, trying to give cover for the injured guards on the ground, which tried to crawl into safety.


    Suddenly another shrill whistling sound could be heard. As soon as the sound ended, thick, black ropes were thrown down from the steep wall. The convoy¡¯s guards momentarily stopped firing, confused from the bandit¡¯s actions.


    ¡°DON¡¯T STOP FIRING! THEY WILL COME DOWN!¡± a hoarse voice roared from the front of the convoy, alarming the convoy¡¯s guards. In that moment, countless loud roars rang out from the top of the steep wall and numerous bandits jumped down. The first few metres, they were almost free falling, but after that they immediately grabbed the ropes and slid down towards the ground. Their bloodthirsty and crazed roars shook the minds of Alec and the guard, which led to them stepping a step back. The bandits let go of the rope almost three metres above the ground and, as they fell down with roars and screams, unsheathed scary looking one handed axes from their backs. As soon as their feet touched the ground they immediately rushed towards the guards and started swinging their axes with blood shot eyes.


    Alec was directly attacked by one of the rushing bandits and only managed to save his life by raising his metal club as fast as he could. The axe hit the metal club with a loud noise and the bandit was pushed back by his own strength.


    Alec saw his chance at once and with a loud roar he swung his spiked metal club towards the still stumbling bandit it front of him.


    With a terrible crushing sound the bandits face caved in and he was sent flying to the side as Alec used all of his strength in that strike. The young man didn¡¯t have time to be happy about surviving this fight as a new opponent, who looked even fiercer jumped in front of him with a crazy wide grin on his face. The bandit¡¯s teeth were dripping with a blood red liquid and his face was covered in strange symbols. Alec immediately raised his weapon to guard against the opponents attack, but it was no use as his opponent kicked his left leg with a lot of strength, which led to Alec almost falling to the ground. (WN: Guardbreak lol¡­nvm) Alec looked up towards the bandit and discovered terrified that he couldn¡¯t evade the enemies attack in his current position.


    The axe was swishing through the air and hit Alec¡¯s face with a terrifying sound.


    A huge wound was cleaved into his head and blood was spraying everywhere as he slowly fell backwards.


    The surrounding suddenly turned a lot darker and Alec slowly fell over the edge of the mountain pass, into the gorge underneath it.


    The last thing he saw was the laughing bandit with the symbol covered face, after that everything turned dark.

 Short 2 week break until february 20th

    I am very sorry to tell you this, but I will have to take a break from releasing for two weeks.


    There are various reasons for this, but the most important ones would be that I have a lot of work at the moment and my family situation is geting increasingly worse. The third important reason is as followed: You may or may not know that I''m german and I write all of the chapter notes in my language (german). This doesn''t seem like a problem and for the first two weeks it wasn''t, but now I kind of hit a bottleneck in writing. I have my notes for the chapters and am prepared to write on a free day and...the page stays blank as I search for words in my head or just simply stare at the computer screen, thinking about various things. I would name it blackout, if I wouldn''t have the ideas already written on paper, so I can only assume that it stems from the stress with work and family that I am not able to completely concentrate on the chapter or write at all. And as I am personally not satisfied with half assed written chapters this was the conclusion.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    I tried it numerous times, but it never really worked. I even googled it and the internet told me to take a break and concentrate on other things for a short while. As that fits with the work- and family situation at the moment I decided to do it.


    Again I am very sorry, but I can assure you that I will continue this story after the break! I will also use this break to sort out the story I want to experience with you guys and note the things down in german or maybe even english...


    I hope that you understand and wait for my return.


    PS: I really, really hate the current circumstances, just as I started writing something good and people even liked it....but of course the universe has something else in mind. I will be back at february 20th and if I have enough chapters written until then I will release more than one on this day! I sincerley apologize again and hope to see you in two weeks!