บท 161: Black Edition - Teach me how to fight! (2)
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Mass Release Goal Progress: 80%... [A shout-out to ICEE CREAM for supporting the work as a Patron. Thanks a lot man.]
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A few moments before,
Kai arrived at the fourth location beeping red on the map in his black pupils and paused.
His eyes narrowed, his instincts warning him of a monstrous presence in the line of his sight. There was absolute death there; eradication at its core.
Kai smiled with Calm.
At last, he had found him.
Jin Taejin!
Even Black, with all the powers at his disposal, wasn't sure of taking on the strongest human in this world and coming out unscathed.
Jin Taejin was a man who would come to be known as Stronger than Gods.
No matter how powerful Kai Stormborn had become, he still had a long way to go before contending against in-world Character's ridiculous myths and achievements, while being under the gaze of the Timelines.
"Picking up Emotional Fluctuations…" the Ad Infinitum warned out a beep suddenly.
"Hmm?" Kai pressed his brows.
Black was an Item and, thus, had no Stats of his own, including Perception. He had neither Observation Haki nor Conqueror Haki. One could even say that aside from the six basic senses, Black possessed nothing.
However, Black's source was the same as Kai Stormborn's source, letting them interact, exchange, and use any Concept whatsoever between them.
Then there was Ad Infinitum, which could also exchange any Skill, Title, or Ability automatically with the other Kai and implement them on the field. Not to mention, Emotions Manipulation was one of the sources on which Ad Infinitum had been created, along with Consciousness Manipulation and Telepathy. So, it didn't come as a surprise when the AI picked up emotional fluctuations without any target in Black's sight.
"Am I gonna become an uninvited guest again?" Kai chuckled.
He remembered his sudden appearance at the Butterfly Mansion only a few days ago and shook his head, smiling.
"Let's see… who's our lucky host, shall we?"
Kai put his hands in his jean's pockets and began walking toward the source of the emotional fluctuations, draping everything under a veil of utter and absolute deathly silence in his wake.
*
*
"Of course," Kai replied, going along with the misunderstanding.
It was clear to him now that the man he was looking at was a To-level 9th Floor Contestant, most probably from Order, and the Prime-Protector of Jin Mori.
Kai's Side Mission's Objective was to become Jin Taejin's student. By extension, there should be no Prime-Protector in this entire Timeline anyway.
Interesting, Kai ruminated, smiling. Very interesting.
"Target's mind successfully infiltrated," the Ad Infinitum beeped. "Putting the Sub-AI in Hibernation Mode."
It wasn't like Kai didn't want to just barge into the monk's mind and get all he wanted. He just couldn't… yet.
At this level, all Contestants had gained or developed some safeguards against Legilimency.
Moreover, Kai could tell from the powers showcased by the monk that he was an Inheritor of some Avatar from the Avatar Random World. That meant, in the case, Kai tried to take over the monk's mind, he just might be facing the combined resistance of all preceding Avatars as well.
It will be a bitter fight, Kai thought, observing the Jin Duo along with the monk. I can't afford it without Constant Total Concentration backing me up.
Constant Selfless Breathing was purely Physical, per se. But, for Kai, his Ad Infinitum's infiltration abilities also depended on it.
After losing 10% of his Progress, Kai also lost his Constant Total Concentration. And, according to Death, it would take him another 100 years to regain it.
"Haha!" Kai suddenly laughed.
"Wha… What's so funny?" the monk asked, sweat drops glistening on his bald head.
Kai ignored him, of course.
That's why he was here, no? Learning how to fight was the prime reason. Yes. But it would also let him boost his physical prowess, affecting his Selfless Breathing with the collective battle experience.
If it all worked out as Kai had planned, then he would regain his Constant Total Concentration within his Current Main Mission's Time Limit.
And once he got his Constant back, he would be able to use the… Second Transformation.
"Chaos, what's my equivalent Kill Count in terms of 9th-floor Contestants or above?" the Ad Infinitum asked for Kai.
Kai's Kill Count had undergone a major change along with the increase in Mission's Difficulty from D+ to C+.
Contestants from the 7th to 9th floor had already begun arriving in the Harry Potter World.
Still, Kai didn't want anyone to ruin his plans, especially when he had Death's task and the Order to be worried about.
…
[
The equivalent number of Order's Contestants are:
1. 9th Floor - 20 [Low or Mid-level Contestants]
2. 9th Floor - 10 [High-level Contestants]
3. 9th Floor - 3 [Top-level Contestants]
4. 10th Floor - 1 [Mid-level Contestant]
Note: The following points roughly constitute a 9th Floor's Top-Level existence -
1. Attribute Points - 10% higher than Total Attribute Points possible as per Quota
2. Inheritances - 1 Timeline's prime Inheritance or more
3. B- Skills (or equivalent power) - 2 or more
4. Standalone Titles - 2 or more
5. Equippable Titles - 6 or more
6. Abilities - 3 or more
7. Guard Mission - 1 Main Character or more
]
…
"What's your name?" Kai asked, not unkindly.
The monk didn't need to answer.
He was a storming Top-level Contestant!
Why must he answer anymore?!
He was the strongest existence in this Timeline among the Contestants!!!
So when the bald man looked up to reprimand the junior… his gaze again fell into the abyss called… Calm.
It… It wouldn't be so bad if we just talked… the monk thought, falling and falling into the abyss.
Immediately, his shoulders relaxed as if there was an immense weight on his shoulders that had vanished.
"Monk Hori," he answered. "What's yours?"
"Arlen," Kai replied, nodding back with a smile. "You won't mind if I go to them, right? He's expecting me."
"Of course not," Monk Hori said, resuming his meditating posture. Suddenly, he realized the oddity of Arlen's words. "Huh? Go to them? Go where… Wait!"
Too late.
With his hands still in his pockets, Kai walked out of the shadows of the trees and stepped toward the Characters.
…
Jin Taejin was still laughing, teaching the baby Jin Mori leg movements. The 5-year-old replicated the moves with his all, letting out cute shouts.
It was then Kai came out of the forest and stopped some 10-12 meters away from them.
"You should have never come out," Jin Taejin said, smiling. He was dressed in a slick and sweaty military t-shirt and baggy military pants. His feet were bare, and there was white mixed in his black hair and beard.
Kai smiled back. "And miss the fun?"
Jin Taejin looked at Kai's smile and then began looking him up and down. "What are you?"
Kai took his hands out of his pockets. "A demon."
"Haha! That's obvious," Jin Taejin said, laughing. "I meant… What are you… without your swords?"
Kai's eyes lit up like the littered stars on a new moon night.
As if answering, Kai's arms twisted, his flesh and bones squirming and twisting inhumanely. In a fraction of a second, the part of his arms under the elbows elongated to become two curved swords, their length reaching to his knees.
Jin Taejin's lips twitched. When he looked into Kai's eyes this time, there was only disdain. "Charyeok?"
Kai frowned. "Don't insult me…"
Jin Taejin's brows rose. "Oh?!" He took a furtive look at the baby Jin Mori, who was holding his pants now, and then looked back at Kai. "Who sent you?"
"No one," Kai answered. He too looked at Jin Mori once, and then back at the old man. "I have been searching for you."
Jin Taejin's smile broadened. "You want a fight…"
Kai felt it then. Beeps of Ad Infinitum deafened the mind as the strongest human awakened his battle lust.
"I want…" Kai said with Calm. "… I want to learn how to fight."
Jin Taejin tossed the black-haired demon's words back and forth in his mind. "Go home," he told Jin Mori. "Wait for me."
"Grandpa…" the baby cried, his eye mask slipping down from his forehead.
The old man adjusted the eye mask, ruffled Jin Mori's hair, and said, "Go. I will be back soon."
When the child had gone to the hut in the distance, Jin Taejin looked at Kai. "Haven't done anything in life but swing those things around, right?" he jested, laughing, cracking his knuckles.
Kai looked at the flesh swords and smiled back. "Exactly."
"How about this?" Jin Taejin said, stepping toward Kai. "Last one round with me. If you survive, then I will think about it. If you die… then that's that, no?"
Kai knew a killer when he looked at one.
The enormous sense of utterly destroying his enemy right here and now, bubbling in Jin Taejin's heart, wasn't even hidden.
"Of course," Kai said, breathing out.
Hissssssssss!
Blood Flames hissed out of Kai's mouth, covering his entire body in a skin-tight coating of blood from head to toe.
And as the swords were Kai's flesh, they got covered under the Reiatsu as well.
"Haha! You keep making it all more fun!" Jin Taejin roared out a laugh. "Well… here I come…"
Booom!
Ground shattered under the feet of both Kai and Jin Taejin as they charged at each other.
Like a red wraith, Kai appeared behind the old man and hacked, the very air screeching as the flesh sword cut through it.
Jin Taejin, with his face still forward, lifted his left leg and spun, his speed a blur.
Before the sword could lend, the toe of Jin Taejin's leg touched its flat surface and deviated its path. The spin also made Jin Taejin face Kai, their eyes matching, their gazes smiling.
"You were right…" Jin Taejin said, chuckling. "… You really lack fighting experience."
"Huh?"
"Pull back right now," the Ad Infinitum advised in the fraction of a fraction of a second.
Muscles squirmed, bones roared, and instincts screamed.
The attack arrived before Kai even executed his thoughts, though.
Just as Kai's Observation Haki picked it up, Jin Taejin's right knee came for Kai's chest, hoping to blast it to smithereens.
Instinctively, Kai countered it by raising his left flesh-sword. If the knee landed, it would be sliced in half by the sword first.
The knee never arrived, however.
It was a feint.
Northern ITF Taekwondo - Baekdu!
Who would have thought that the very first attack Jin Taejin used would belong to ITF Taekwondo?
"Pull back…"
Before Ad Infinitum could finish, Jin Taejin's left leg wrapped around Kai's left arm, and pulled it down.
Renewal Taekwondo - Hoe Grab!
Kai knew death was coming unhinged. A surge of power burst out from him, shattering the earth and rippling the space around him, the engines of his Master Telekinesis burning hot.
Jin Taejin… ignored it all.
Renewal Taekwondo…
The first kick landed on Kai's right temple, annihilating the loosely formed inner world in his mind completely.
The second kick landed on Kai's left temple almost at the same time, shattering his skull.
The barest moment of respite…
Kai pulled back, pushing himself off using Telekinesis.
"Don't Pull Back!" the Ad Infinitum roared out a beep.
The third kick landed on the back of his head, even harder than it was meant to. With a soundless pop, Kai's head exploded.
… 3rd Stance Hwechook!!!
…
Thud!
Kai's knees struck the land, his headless body squirting a fountain of blood.
Watching from afar, Monk Hori's jaw dropped, his perfect meditation breaking its rhythm.
Standing over Kai's blood-coated body, like a god, Jin Taejin frowned, the thrill of an equal fight finally vanishing off his face. He was…
… disappointed.
The old man sighed, shook both of his feet and then walked away, leaving the demon's corpse for the flies.
Crack!
Crackkkk!!
Selfless Breathing: First Transformation…
Bolts of yellow lightning snaked throughout the forest. Space rippled. Earth quaked in desperate fear.
Monk Hori's pupils dilated, his ears bleeding.
Every fiber of Jin Taejin's muscles screamed, rubbing like steel wires with each other.
The strongest human spun and saw a headless wraith coming at him, covered in monstrous bloody flames. Moreover, each tongue of those flames was letting out draconic roars.
Yellow lightning cracked, burdening Jin Taejin's shoulders as if he were carrying mountains. The headless body generated a mirage of two heads, the ends of black hair glowing yellow. Six swords flashed, folding the space.
Jin Taejin twisted his body on this right toe, dodging the first two swords.
Time had paused.
The old man gritted his teeth and jumped, a crater appearing under his toe. He dodges the third and fourth swords aimed at his leg.
The fifth sword came for his neck.
Jin Taejin made a fist and punched.
Boooooom!
Sonic Fist!!
A sonic boom echoed… and shattered the mirage. The fifth sword… was a feint.
Jin Taejin's eyes widened.
The sixth sword traced a path from the old man's waist to his right shoulder, blood splattering everywhere.
… Three-Headed Vritra!!
… and… Dragon Dance!!!
…
Jin Taejin held his bleeding shoulder and looked over his shoulder.
Flesh squirmed as a head appeared on the headless body. His short black hair was perfect. His black eyes were a personification of Calm.
Kai smiled gently, his body burning under the sky-high bloody flames, his Reiatsu bending space around him. "Wasn't that fun, Jin Taejin?" he asked, now grinning. "Tell me!" he shouted, along with the roars of dragons. "Wasn't that fun?!!"
The old man let go of his shoulder. "So… that's who you truly are…"
For the first time, perhaps, Jin Taejin smiled, a sense of joy coursing through his veins. His feet itched.
"Yes," Jin Taejin said, acknowledging the demon's existence. "Yes. It was fun, indeed."
...
[
Congratulations Contestant Kai Stormborn
You have gained an Ability
Ability - Elementary Martial Arts (Proficiency: 0%)
…
Analyzing Contestant's Stats…
Compensating for accumulated experience…
…
Congratulations Contestant Kai Stormborn
Your Elementary Martial Arts Ability has leveled up…
Ability - Advanced Martial Arts (Proficiency: 65%)
]
...
And the hellish training under the tutelage of Jin Taejin had finally begun.
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Mini Arc: Demon King - Rise of Kai Stomrbon - Ends!!!
Revamped Fanfic
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