Chapter 88: Overcoming In A Moment Of Insperation
As Aker bounced off the wall, he drew his sword back 'I'll feint and give a quick attack low for his leg and then my real attack will go for his left shoulder. After he blocks the left shoulder move, I'll draw my sword down and aim for his side. He will probably move back and at that point I will use a throwing dart to try and cause him some confusion. I'll only use four throwing darts, just enough to force him back a step and that should give me my opening for the killing move. I'll only have a half breath but that should just barely be enough time.'
While Aker was bouncing off the wall, he contemplated his and his opponents' movements. He had a clear strategy, he just needed to focus on executing. His movements needed to be as fast as lightening and he needed to conserve his strength and stamina for this intense fight.
This wasn't like the fights with Vance where the two held back, this tall skinny man's baleful aura couldn't be faked. This was a man that lived in a state of murder and mayhem.
As Akers sword feinted low the man screamed out in pain. The sound only lasted a second as Aker's sword moved up and slid across his neck. The skinny man was staring out and into the depths of darkness unaware of what had just happened. The tall skinny man was standing there preparing to bathe in the blood of a brat who didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth. He watched as the boy seemed to jump at the wall and then nothing. He felt a cold metallic substance run past his leg and then his neck, before he could marvel at how cold the metal was, he felt a warmth running down his chest.
The last sight the baleful and vile eyes took in was his hands covered in blood after removing them from his neck. Following the action of checking what the warm substance he felt was he was already falling over; he would now have to face the vengeful spirits of all the lives he had taken and account for his evil and vile ways.
As Aker looked at the tall skinny man fall over, he was stunned. He had anticipated that his first few attacks would be blocked, and he would have to fight hard to create an opening. As Aker was attacking it seemed that the tall skinny man had not even made a move, as though he didn't even see the attack.
After Aker successfully injured the man's leg in what was supposed to be a feint his first thought was that the man was too conniving, he had plotted so deeply against Aker that he had purposely allowed Aker to injure him in order cause Aker to lower his guard so he could deliver a killing blow.
In order to prevent the man from landing a killing blow on Aker he took the initiative to also try and land a killing blow. By Aker attacking his neck it would force the tall skinny man to abandon his thoughts of trying a sneak attack and force him to protect his neck thus spoiling his carefully thought out plans. As Aker's sword slid past the skinny man's neck Aker was certain that the man didn't have any reaction.
Aker again thought that there must have been some trick. He had attacked both leg and neck and the skinny man had never moved. This was a man that had lost count of the lives he had cut short. He was a man whose battle instincts and killing intent would rival a war tested soldier.
It wasn't until Aker saw the all too familiar scarlet red soaking the tall skinny man's chest that Aker realized it wasn't that the tall skinny man was playing possum with him or a spider laying its web and secretly trapping him. It was that he couldn't even see Aker's movements and he simply wasn't able to fight back at all.
Seeing the light disappear from the tall skinny man's eyes Aker watched as he fell forward, his lifeless body didn't even try to break his fall.
As the man was falling Aker had the overwhelming desire to vomit, from the lowest point of his stomach he could feel himself losing control.
'He was supposed to block me as I feinted. He was supposed to have had an intricate plan to counter my plan and we were supposed to exchange blows, how could he have not fought back at all?'
Just as Aker was ready to slip into a manic fit of self-pity, self-deprecation and loathing a small girls voice smashed his self-destroying thoughts and brought him back from the brink. As Aker looked down the small girl no older than seven or eight was crying while hugging his leg calling out "You saved my mommy.....thank you for saving mommy.....thank you for stopping the bad man....."
The little girls' tears were filled with joy instead of sadness, her tears of happiness were washing away the remanence of the earlier tears of loss, pain, grief and fear. As Aker saw the same action occur from the same girl however with a completely different context, he was hit by a sudden inspiration...
'Just as this little girl crying tears of joy is the same as the same girl cry tears of pain and anguish, life can have more than one meaning. Can't this be applied across multiple thoughts and actions. It could be viewed that while I killed this man, I also saved countless lives, right? That tall skinny man said so himself, he had lost count of the number of lives he had taken. It's not just this girl and her mom that I saved, I saved countless lives in the future as well.....'
As Aker continued to ponder on this his atmosphere began changing a consonance or harmony was begin to exude from him. He was understanding a truth of the universe, a core law of all existence.
'the same is true for Alex. How many have died and will die because of him? It's not that he is protecting or serving any great purpose, he is only serving his and his families selfish desires. How many people will suffer because of that? By taking the lives of these people haven't I gained the gratitude of the countless of people who will be saved because of it, even if they aren't aware that they were saved?'
Unknowingly to Aker he had stumbled onto an untouchable law of the universe. The universe had obvious laws such as gravity, energy, and the elements that could be seen, studied and understood, but there were also those intangible laws whose presence affected us all but were not quantifiable, he had just touched on one of those laws; the law of Karma.
The law of Karma was always in effect and always moving. Like atoms at a molecular level, their every action causes constant and numerous actions to cascade endlessly which in turn caused further actions and movement in a never-ending cycle.
Aker whose mind was contemplating his actions effects on others, the concept that the same action can be both positive and negative depending on its intent and circumstances, was suddenly woken up by the yelling of dozens of men who had just boarded the ship.
"Hey, is that No Conscience Conick laying over there on the ground?" One of the first men to come around the corner took in the scene and yelled out, the anger in his voice made the little girl clinch onto Aker's leg a little tighter.
This devious man whose hand held an ax was agitated as he saw the scene of the tall skinny man lying on the floor. No Conscience Conick got his nickname because he was even considered a brutal killer to the other pirates. He would often toy with his prey; he would give them a false sense of hope pretending to let them go before killing them. From time to time he would slowly torture them by cutting their limbs off one at a time while laughing at them and mocking their misery. He was truly a man without any compassion or the slightest sliver of a conscience.
As the ax wielding man called out another ten men showed up around the corner, their eyes reflected their murderous intent. In front of them was easy prey, for all of the others behind doors they would have to work for it, so they were especially excited to see Aker, the little girl and the woman on the floor.
Aker who had just woken up had come to a new understanding a moment ago. Whether right or wrong he had come to understand that sometimes to save one innocent person you had to kill another person who wasn't. As the group of spine-chilling pirates were staring down their prey, Aker was putting his final thoughts together on his enlightenment.
'What is innocent? What is guilty? Is a man who kills in the battlefield for his country, his home, for his family guilty? Is the man who only kills one person to gain something for himself less guilty than the man who kills a thousand for others?...'
While Aker's mind was coming to a conclusion he didn't move. His mind needed to come to an answer before he could make his next move. Unless he was capable of understanding what his actions meant he would not be free.
'What could be wrong about saving one little girl who is afraid and crying? How could bringing a smile and tears of joy to her face be wrong?' That was Aker's final concluding thought.
Aker's eye's that were gentle and soft as they stared down at this girl looked up and became cold and merciless. He lightly pulled the small girl off his leg and whispered, "Go and protect your mom and don't look up no matter what."
The little girl ran over and jumped into her mom's embrace, hiding away her head, she would listen to the boy who saved her mommy without question.
As Aker moved the one, two, three, four, five men suddenly hit the ground a hole in their forehead indicated to everyone the reason why.
Before anyone could understand what was happening each of the pirates could see a red line on the neck of the person next to them. Just as everyone was about to point out to the other that their neck had a sudden red line entire group fell over.
Quicker than the eleven pirates had showed up Aker had ended their planned tyranny. Just as he did when fighting magic beasts as Aker moved, he launched five throwing darts in one smooth motion after the other. His movements were faster than the group of men facing him could catch with their eyes.
Because these men were running in straight line at Aker it didn't require him to try and calculate the proper trajectory or account for their movements, he simply had to aim and throw as he would with any magic beast he had fought, this was all thanks to their simplistic movements.
After launching the five-throwing darts he had on him he dashed straight at the men not even trying to mask his movements. Aker who had already completed all five Body Conditioning levels had strength and speed that far surpassed these pirates who had not even started on the path of a magic fighter.
Not only had Aker completed all five levels of Body Conditioning he had exceeded them as he was now absorbing deep into his skin, muscles, organs and bones, something no one had ever even heard of. It wasn't just Aker's Body Conditioning level that made him overwhelmingly stronger than these normal pirates, he also had the benefit of increasing his skills with his Peerless Body.
After previously breaking through to level 10 in his Peerless Body he had nineteen points available for use in his skills. Aker had elected to use them primarily for his comprehension and mana as he surmised that being on the ship away from battle this would allow him the best long-term growth potential.
However, that didn't mean he didn't still allocate some points to agility and strength. Aker desperately wanted to defeat Vance in his practice fights and as such he needed to gain an advantage even if it was minuscule.
If a normal level 5 Body Conditioner was ten times faster and stronger than a normal person then Aker who had already exceeded the five levels of Body Conditioning and had the advantage of his Peerless body was almost double that in strength and agility.
Aker who had only ever fought Cap and Vance didn't have an understanding of his strength in the slightest. He would sometimes feel depressed that he could barely defeat Cap and if he was even the slightest bit careless, she would even defeat him from time to time. Aker who had never defeated Vance felt that no matter how hard he practiced and tried Vance was just unreachable.
In reality Cap was a Source Core fighter at the flame level and based on traditional thinking there should be no chance of Aker being able to defeat her or even last more than a couple of moves. Cap had long ago developed her Source Core and was considered an elite fighter. Aker's ability to defeat Cap was not because she was too weak it was because Aker was obnoxiously strong.
Vance who was at the peak of the Source Core Wood level could advance no further without the right understanding of how to break through to the Nature Core Level. His strenght made him one of the elite fighters in the entire Underground Empire and this whole Eastern outer section of the universe.
Fighting against Cap and Vance how could Aker understand his own strength was from the perspective of a normal person beyond reason. Already his agility was at a level that a magic beast at the Level 1 Intermediate or Expert was not able to keep up with.
It wasn't until Aker fought the tall skinny man that he realized that his understanding of his abilities had been all wrong, he had seriously underestimated his abilities and seriously overestimated theirs.
After he effortlessly cut down the skinny tall man, he knew that these remaining pirates would pose no risk or challenge, it was the reason he elected to rush right in without any considerations.
As Aker finished cutting down all of the pirates who were set to cause mayhem and destruction on this level of the ship Cap's voice rang out from the loud speakers once again "Everyone abandon ship however you can, if you don't get away now.....".
Just as suddenly as Cap's voice called out over the speakers it stopped. Aker who had been looking back at the trail of bodies suddenly dashed off, he was headed to Cap and Vance. Vance had told him that his abilities were demon level, it was time to find out if demon level abilities could save them.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
whos_that
whos_that As I have read these stories over the years I was always left with a thought.....why are people who reincarnated, transported, or whatever else so quick to pick up a weapon? Some stories did start their character out as a reincarnated assassin or former mercenary but most of them do not do that. They are just normal people who find themselves somewhere else and then that day...boom... sword in hand no problems.
While it was something I just accepted and read over, it never felt right to me. I wanted to build a character who as we move through our story has a reason for his decisions. How will he face his problems then overcome them? To me this seems important as the character themselves develops into their own.
Just my thoughts on it, thanks so much for reading along....
Thanks so much for everyone who voted....
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