CHAPTER 36: STRIKE HARDER!

"Strike harder! Don’t just stand there waiting for my command. The monsters won’t be waiting for you when you’re tired, so stand up, tighten your grip on your daggers, and fight," Gray said, dashing toward Kai, who had bent down slightly, gasping for breath.

The long wooden katana sword jolted in the air, slammed the boy’s back, pushing him and crashing him to the ground. Another came moving toward Kai’s head but got blocked and pushed both the sword and Gray with a dual strike, using both the sword and his right foot; parrying the strike and throwing his foot into Gray’s stomach.

"Interesting..." Gray said, stopping at a far distance and brushing his hand across the area at which the boy’s foot slammed.

Then from nowhere, he broke the sword into two, making it look similar to the daggers the boy was holding, and dashed forward again with a strange smile.

Kai smiled, inhaled, and moved his right foot backward, changing his stance into a fist-fighting stance, but still clung tightly to the daggers. And when he thought he had already seen the angle Gray would strike from, his eyes widened in shock, noticing Gray vanishing into the air.

’How!’ Kai thought, turning around hastily, swinging the sword in case of blocking if something reappeared.

For a split second he thought of seeing a shadow sneaking behind him, but saw nothing when he turned. When he gave up searching, a red-hot pain struck him on the shoulder, throwing him, flying and rolling in the air and on the ground.

"How did you do that?" he said, seeing Gray returning into his human form and detaching himself from the shadowy movement.

He tried to strike, but the strike he had received was more than being hit by lightning, so he couldn’t, yet he never loosened the grip on the daggers.

"You’ll know this when you manage to join the group of military people at the headquarters. But I know you’ll go there one day, even if not this life, in the next life, you will," Gray said, moving toward Kai, who kept on trying to raise his hand upward and replicate the stance he did earlier.

"Don’t stress yourself. Do what you need to do instead of doing everything altogether."

He brushed his hand in Kai’s hair, grabbing them and cunningly teasing him of being a lady on the inside.

...

"Will the funeral ceremony be the same as the one the citizens do to their lost loved ones?" Oin asked, leaning on the wall of the hall of men as he watched them exchange bottles of whisky and slam the butts of ladies.

"Hey kid, don’t you know elderly people are here? Come, let us satisfy you with our huge di..ks," one of the men with tattoos all over his shoulders said, pointing his hand at the lady in a skinny night outfit, sitting by the table with a guy in front of her.

"Won’t you go? I won’t force you to stay here with me," Mike said, gazing at Jinx with an unbalanced stare, and licking his lips as his eyes bumped on her boobs.

Though they were lovers on the side, they always acted like siblings on the outside, pushing the other into people’s hands and later sharing the royalties they would receive, and laughed at the person’s sexual strengths.

Although Jinx was the one doing most of that, Mike fancied it a lot and wished to gain an experience of his own rather than just being told of what the elderly soldiers had. Among the elderly soldiers, he always kept on eying one of the full-grown women always working in the control room of the barracks.

"Hey, won’t you guys stop doing that? That’s not the right thing to do," Oin said, moving toward the table they were on, pulling an empty seat from another table, and joining them.

"Guys, have you been hearing the news about the reason behind the massacre?" he said, grabbing one of the sodas, opened it, and began sipping it slowly.

"Are you referring to the one that ended the lives of ten guards and fifty civilians?" Jinx said, turning and positioning herself to properly face Oin, and leaving Mike unattended.

"Yeah, I heard..."

Mike cleared his throat, countering Oin and making both of them turn a surprised expression at him.

"Do you guys remember the operation Senior Corporal Max and Kai led? I think that’s the reason we got attacked in that manner," Oin said, placing the empty soda bottle in the small bin under the table and taking another one.

For the barracks, soda was like oxygen; no one paid for it or even ordered it, it was always available wherever you’d find yourself at.

"Yeah, is it the one they said Kai was the only person who fought all hundred bandits? Were they hundred? I’ve forgotten the number, but is it the same operation?" Mike said, also positioning himself and staring at Oin.

"I also don’t recall the number, but it will be between fifty to a hundred. But wait, why will a group of bandits chase after an entire military and want to kill just one person who everyone knows is strong?" Jinx said, stretching and jolting her gaze slightly at the men signaling her.

"For that boy, not only did I think, I’ve also had this kind of feeling when I’m near him. When I near him, I feel as if something or a group of spirits are chasing after him, because every noisy room becomes extremely quiet when he steps in. And a quiet room also turns completely noiseless, not even wind sound," Mike said, tapping on the table before jolting from his seat and joining the lady he’d always wanted to have an intercourse with, standing at the serving table, nodding and smiling to the waiter.

At the same time, Jinx moved from her seat and also joined the table of four strong men and went out of the noisy room with them. The moment they exited, she rushed back in, came to the table she sat on, took her handbag, and exited again, leaving Oin to enjoy the meal in front of him.