The kid had kept the front guard busy for as long as he could with his abnormal amulet antics before finally having to throw Ares under the bus.
The guards, or what was left of them anyway, finally turned around to see three dead bodies piled up in a corner and Ares wielding a dagger dyed blood-red.
“Good job.” Ares gave the kid a thumbs up for distracting the guards for as long as he had. Ares wasn’t annoyed that attention had been called to him because he was aware the kid had no other options left. Besides, there were only three guards left now and he was feeling confident he could handle the two 6th stage guards before moving onto the 7th stage guard. Of course, the guards weren’t going to make it easy for him though, he was going to have to work hard for this win.
“ARES, you bastard. If you’re here I won’t ask what happened to that fucker Farro. KILL HIM!” All three guards took out their swords and spread out with the 7th stage guard to the left of Ares, one guard to the right and one directly in front.
Seriously? How well trained are these dogs of the Chen Clan that they even used battle formations against a slave? Ares kissed his teeth.
They weren’t underestimating him at all. The 7th stage guard moved first and slashed horizontally at Ares’ calves. Slaves had no real physical strength but the guard knew they could run well so he tried to attack Ares’ legs first and put them out of commission.
Ares jumped over the sword and ignored him completely, running towards the front guard while hanging far enough left to keep out of range of the right guard. The middle guard swung at Ares’ neck but Ares slid down low onto the floor, under the sword, and lodged his dagger into the guard’s ankle. Using the momentum from his slide and the dagger anchored in the guard, Ares swerved behind the guard.
The guard panicked and blindly swung behind him only to find nothing there. Ares had already run around his other side and disappeared completely.
Although Ares could have stabbed him in the back and killed him first, why waste this opportunity?
The guard on the right had finally caught up to Ares just as he’d stabbed the front guard in the ankle. Unfortunately, he was far too close to react after Ares slid behind the front guard before circling around and lunging at his neck. Ares had used the front guard to obscure vision before taking out the other on the right side.
The right guard was the first to fall and the front guard had lost most of his mobility thanks to injury on his ankle. He also had a gash on the side of his stomach that Ares left him with as he ran around his flank. A parting gift of sorts. This was a much better decision and outcome than just killing the front guard and then having to deal with two healthy guards afterwards.
Ares and the two guards slowly circled around, sizing each other up for a gap in their defence, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“How?” Ares and the two guards were dumbfounded when the injured guard’s sword vanished from his hands. The guard stood still, completely stupefied to the point he didn’t even see the dagger Ares threw at his neck that cleanly pierced a lung.
The last 7th stage guard kissed his teeth and looked over at the pretty-boy inspecting the brand-new sword in his hands. “I don’t know how the fuck you stole his sword from all the way over there, and I don’t know how you stole the amulet from my pocket earlier, but rest assured, after I kill this damnable slave, you’re next.”
“Hey, mind if I borrow that?” Ares turned to the kid and asked for the sword. The only other weapons ‘available’ were next to the corpses that the 7th stage guard had shrewdly moved closer to. The three guards he assassinated earlier unfortunately didn’t have any weapons as they played more of a supportive role with long distance attacks and healing magic, hence why they stood the furthest back.
The little kid shrugged his shoulders. “Sure, but I won’t be able to steal a weapon again now that he’s keeping an eye out for it.”
Ares caught the sword that was thrown to him and was immediately displeased with its weight. Ares preferred lighter weapons that didn’t hamper his speed, and this particular sword definitely wasn’t preferable; but, no matter how much he wished he had a rapier or a dagger in his hand, it wasn’t going to change the present situation. He was reminded of a saying one of his fellow slaves liked repeating to himself when things got rough, make ‘make do’ do.
“Water Bullet!”
Swish
While Ares was focused on the sword, the guard flung out a magical Water Bullet. Ares was still paying enough attention to dodge it, but he had to drop the sword in order to move swiftly enough. The bullet crashed into the stone wall behind him, leaving a small crack in it. Presumably, the other guards hadn’t used magic because they were worried about friendly-fire but, now that they were dead, the last guard had no such scruples.
The meridian conversion realm allows for the conversion of mana into magic, but grants no benefits to physical strength, so it essentially provides no benefits if you aren’t using magic. If any of the guards had taken the unfettering flesh realm path first, and focused on physical benefits and the raising of strength, then Ares probably would have been in serious trouble right about now.
Ares begrudgingly picked up the heavy sword and closed the gap to avoid having to deal with a barrage of Water Bullets. When he was close enough, he swung down vertically from head to toe. He wasn’t expecting to kill the guard with such a lazy, obvious, attack but it did force the guard to take a step back to avoid it. That one step back was enough space for Ares to ditch the sword and manoeuvre over to the dagger he’d thrown previously which was still lodged inside the guard’s dead body. Ares yanked it out of the corpse’s throat and brought with it a spurt of blood as he rolled to avoid a strike from the guard who chased him, but the guard was persistent and refused to let up his offensive. Ares was forced back continually out of the guard’s sword range while also having to keep an eye out for stray Water Bullets. Ares wasn’t confident he could keep this up for long and he didn’t want to regardless. If he stayed here too much longer, although the guard’s mana would finally dry out, he was worried he might be found by other guards before he could win a drawn out fight. Eventually Ares made the decision to take an injury to forcefully expose an opening but, first, he had to wait for a specific attack pattern the guard had already displayed once as he was chasing Ares around.
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It didn’t take too long for the guard to raise his sword with one hand and swing vertically downward in a similar fashion to Ares’ first sword attack. The major difference between the two attacks though was that the guard kept his other hand in reserve to fire a Water Bullet after the swing. A 1-2 combo that left no room for counterattacking and solid overall strategy against anyone who wasn’t suicidal.
As the sword descended, Ares raised his dagger, not to block it, but to parry it by expertly guiding it to the side. As the sword fell heavily to the ground with a dull thud, Ares took a step in towards the guard who then raised his empty right hand to shoot a Water Bullet. Ares twisted his body so that his non-dominant left arm would take the brunt of the impact.
“Water Bullet!”
Crack
Ares grimaced and groaned as his arm broke, echoing through the night, but he ignored the pain and fully closed the distance. He knew if he tried to cut the guard’s neck, the guard would have enough time to dodge the dagger, so Ares decided to try something a little riskier. No risk, no reward.
The guard had already begun leaning his neck back in anticipation of what he perceived to be the biggest immediate threat to his life, but almost hurled when he took a surprise dagger to the gut and a kick to the groin. Although the guard instinctively wanted to lean forward and hunch over, he had already leant too far back causing him to almost trip over. The guard raised his foot to try and re-position and stabilise himself by stumbling backward, but that was exactly what Ares was waiting for.
Ares propelled himself at an incredible speed by gripping the dagger firmly and simultaneously pulling himself forward and dislodging the weapon.Utilising the momentum, he slid under the guard’s raised foot with his back scraping against the floor and his feathered cape dragging along behind him. The guard’s foot eventually slammed back down onto the earth, catching onto the tail-end of Ares’ cape. The cape itself was a personal treasure and didn’t function exactly like a normal cape, the most obvious difference was that it was attached to Ares’ spine. Although he could effortlessly detach it whenever he wanted, he forced it to stay on. As the guard’s foot held the cape in place, Ares'' momentum came to a sudden halt when the cape was stretched to its limit which caused immense pain in his back. That sudden jolt, however, was enough to slightly raise Ares of the ground and spin him around to face the guards back. Ares bent his knees, landed softly, and ran up behind the guard who just barely had enough time to stabilise himself. Unfortunately for the guard, it wasn’t enough time to also defend himself however, as Ares slit his throat from behind in a single, fluid motion.
Clap Clap Clap
The little thief’s clapping reminded Ares of his time as a slave fighting in the pits, but he wasn’t petty enough to associate the thief with that and get annoyed at him.
“That was cool, I’m pretty useless in a fight, so thanks for the help.” The thief gave Ares a thumbs up just as Ares had done to him earlier.
“No problem, if anything I should be thanking you for making my life easier. Do you have anywhere to go back to?” Ares spoke as he arched his body left and right, clicking the bones in his achy back.
“Nope, you?”
“Nope. I’m going to live on the streets for a couple years. It won’t exactly be pleasant, but do you wanna come with me? I can teach you how to fight and you can help out by stealing food. If we train for long enough, we can eventually join a sect and turn our lives around. It’s gotta be better than doing nothing.” Ares was really interested in this kid’s magic as he’d never seen anything like it. Ares also figured it would be mutually beneficial to help one another out considering they were in a similar situation and could bring different things to the table.
“Alright, you can’t be any worse than the people I used to live with. You’re going to have to teach me from the beginning though. I never really learnt anything or listened to my parents when they tried teaching me about cultivation,” the kid agreed in a half-hearted manner as if nothing really mattered to him.
“In that case, we’ve overstayed our welcome. Let’s leave this place before more guards arrive.”
The two ran through the quiet streets under the cover of night. Ares began leading the thief to the other side of the city. Getting there would take multiple days but it was worth it to avoid the Chen Clan’s guaranteed incessant searching in the upcoming days. As the journey couldn’t be done in a single day, the two eventually stopped and put themselves up in an alleyway for the night, preparing themselves to get some rest.
“This should be far enough for today. By the way, my name is Ares and I’m 12 years old. What’s your name?” Ares detached his cape and fashioned it into a feather hammock that ran from one wall to the one opposite.
“My name’s Aejaz, I’m 11, soon to be 12. What’s with that cape, it’s really cool. I might even steal it when you’re not paying attention you know?”
Ares lightly chuckled. He knew Aejaz wouldn’t actually steal it, not that he could anyway. “Well, you’re right, it is special. It’s a personal treasure.”
“Personal treasure? What’s that?”
“I really am going to have to explain everything from the beginning, aren’t I?” Ares scratched his head and sighed. It appeared Aejaz really didn’t know anything at all.
“I’ll start teaching you properly after we get some sleep but, for now, I can give you a brief explanation about personal treasures. I assume you know that treasures are items imbued with magic that can do all kinds of funky stuff. Personal treasures choose their owner and become completely attached to them. They can only be used by their owner unless someone else gets the owner’s permission. They become worthless if stolen. This cape is a treasure called the ‘Stygian Zephyr’ and it chose me, therefore, it’s my personal treasure and no one else can ever have it. Most, if not all, personal treasures can be returned to their owners from great distances in one manner or another. In the case of this Zephyr, it can recreate itself if I concentrate and use a bit of energy.” Black feathers began sprouting out of Ares'' back and in a flash his cape reformed itself.
Aejaz looked over at the hammock Ares had made earlier and, sure enough, it was still there. Recreating the cape would just make the old one a useless pile of fancy feathers, but it wouldn’t disappear.
“No-one in their right mind will ever bother trying to steal a personal treasure because it’s always almost impossible or a massive hassle not worth undertaking. If the owner of a personal treasure dies, the treasure will disappear with them. If the treasure was a clan’s signature treasure before choosing a specific owner, it will return to the clan upon death. So, there are only two real ways to steal these types of treasures; one is to kill an entire clan. The other is to find some form of absurdly rare treasure that can separate a personal treasure from their owner while they’re still alive.” Ares made a second hammock and a cover for each of them by repeatedly reforming and detaching the cape.
“What about this amulet? Is this someone’s personal treasure?” Aejaz took out the black amulet he stole from the Chen Clan.
“No. At least not yet anyway. There’s usually no way to tell if a treasure will ever become a personal treasure until it attaches itself to someone. Before it attaches though, anyone can use it, yourself included.”
“Here, take it as thanks for helping me.” Aejaz threw the amulet to Ares.
“No. Thank you, but it’s better if you have it.” Ares threw it back. “First of all, the way you steal things is completely unique and hard to detect. That amulet is perfect for you as you can steal without ever being noticed, with no one the wiser. Second, my cultivation is always going to be slow anyway, there’s no reason to hide it as people will inevitably underestimate me regardless.”
Aejaz raised his eyebrow at that last sentence. “How do you know your cultivation is going to be slow?”
“I’ll explain it, and various other things like magic, tomorrow. Get some rest for now. Oh, and I need to heal this broken arm for about a week before I teach you to fight, so it’ll just be verbal lessons and you practicing by yourself until then.” Ares took out and swallowed a healing pill he stole from Farro’s quarters and hopped into the hammock, covered himself, and went to sleep.
Aejaz followed suit and realised that the hammock was incredibly soft! The feathers were warm and smooth, keeping out the cool night’s fresh breeze.
Maybe these next few years wouldn’t be so uncomfortable after all.
---------------------------------
“Ares and Aejaz, huh.” Elder Zhang had watched the entirety of the fight and followed the two kids until they fell asleep. Although he was curious to find out more about them, he decided it was better not to intervene. He was curious to see just how much they would grow without any external aid by the time they went to join the sect. Hardship breeds competency. The Heaven’s Path Sect was the only one nearby so, as long as they had intentions to join a sect, this probably wouldn’t be the last he would see of them. Still though, Ares had incredible combat aptitude considering he hadn’t even started cultivating yet and that Aejaz kid had one hell of a weird magic. He wanted to do something to ensure they would eventually pay a visit, so he came up with an idea and waited until they were both asleep.
Half an hour later, after doing what he wanted to do, he left. It seems the rumours were true, maybe this really will be a generation of geniuses, Zhang thought. Between these two and Allie, he had seen three in a single night.