Ever since Shaar destroyed his own tent, he had to move away from his original location. Casually looking for an excuse, he moved to the edge of the camp and set up a tent on a hillside alone.
Ever since the army left, there were not many people left in the camp and, with his status as a Praetorian Guard, other people didn’t bother him about it.
However, both Sarbar and Kato realized Shaar’s strange behaviour.
For last three days, Shaar disappeared without any trace and only came back at night for dinner. Whenever he returned, his face and body were covered with scars and sometimes his hair was also a mess, while his face seemed to be scratched by something. He was always covered with bloodstains; there were even times when his face was full of dirt as if he just crawled out of some mud hill.
Usually when eating a meal, this fellow had the biggest appetite and he ate even more than Sarbar. However for these past few days, whenever Shaar ate a meal, his hands shook so much that he couldn’t even hold the soup spoon. While eating the meal, his face showed an expression full of pain and it seemed to suffer from an enormous pain. While walking, his body would wiggle around as if all the bones in his body was about to fall apart. Once, when Kato accidentally patted Shaar during dinner, this guy issued a scream similar to a pig being slaughtered and he nearly threw his plate on Kato’s face.
His two companions were both somewhat worried about this fellow.
“Hey, are you slipping out to look for some women?” Looking at Shaar’s bloody scratched face, Kato smiled with his shifty-eyes.
“What I see is that someone is searching for a fight with you, right?! Fuck! Who dares to hit one of us the Praetorian Guards?! I will go together with you and take care of them!” Sarbar was so enraged that he pounded the table.
Shaar’s whole body was trembling even tears could be seen in his eyes. He clenched his teeth and replied:”No ……I, I wasn’t careful and fell……”
(Damn, it really hurts……)
Shaar was suffering, but he couldn’t tell anyone about it. In the past three days, he was learning that cursed Dragon Knight combat technique with female dragon Dora. However, it was pure torture!
The Dragon Knight combat techniques that Dora taught him weren’t a lot and there were only three types for the moment.Dora was claiming that she only knew that much – of course, Shaar was suspecting that this sly female dragon was still hiding things.
The ancient Dragon Knights were an extremely strong fighting force and they had already reached the pinnacle of their battle ki. However, where did Shaar learn about battle ki? Nonetheless, Dora actually knew a little about the battle ki of human, but even after learning the method to detect his battle ki from Dora, Shaar still couldn’t detect it at all. Dora immediately determined that Shaar didn’t had any talent to practice battle ki – in other words, this dragon didn’t think that Shaar could become a warrior.
How could this statement not make Shaar extremely unhappy? (After a very long time, Shaar finally understood that he was getting played by this sly female dragon.)
What was there to joke about? This uncle didn’t had the talents to practice martial arts? On Primal Wildfire or at the battlefields, there were at least a few dozen warriors who died in my hands! Battle ki? What is so great about battle ki? The enemy who could use battle ki, I have killed a dozen of them!
Exactly at that time, this determined hillbilly suddenly had inspiration from his own unyielding spirit. Battle ki, wasn’t battle ki just a type of power?
This uncle couldn’t use battle ki, but I could use something else.
Very naturally, the first thing he thought of was the strongest power he currently possessed: Crimson rage ki.
After his previous training, he already began to grasp how to initiate the crimson rage ki. Simply said, when running at a powerful enemy, he had to cover himself with a powerful battle spirit, killing intent and extreme external pressure from his surroundings. Then these mind stimulating senses would be transferred to the pendant and touch the soul imprint in there.
Whenever it happened, Shaar could feel his whole body being washed over by an awe-inspiring cold feeling – this feeling was like being thrown into an ice-cold lake during a freezing winter and at that moment, his mind would be filled with endless killing intent. A power from some unknown source would suddenly burst out. Even Shaar himself didn’t know where this kind of power came from, but right now, he thought too much about it.
The only drawback was, in order to control his conscious and stopping it from going berserk, he had to go all out in order to suppress the urge to kill in his mind. Right now he could keep control of his mind, but the crimson rage ki eruption was much smaller compared to the outburst from before.
At the beginning, Shaar tried the controlled outburst of crimson rage ki a few times and in the end, he discovered that at maximum it could only reach about three steps away. Moreover, within these three steps, it’s normal invincible defense ignoring power was also weakened. When he used his fire pitchfork, he could easily cut a hard wooden stake without the slightest noise.
Even against much harder objects, such as a metal shields or armors, he could still cut them without any problem. However, the penetrating power was much slower than before unlike the time when he wielded his fire pitchfork while cutting down everything in his path, no matter how many people stood in front of him!
He tested his current power and learned that he could easily cut three shield in a row, but if there was a forth, his fire pitchfork would get stuck inside the shield and he couldn’t break it with his power.
“This kind of level is the same as entering the medium-ranked battle ki realm for human warriors.” This was Dora’s evaluation.
Uh……then it could only be counted as battle ki.
However, Shaar could clearly feel that after each use of crimson rage ki, after extending the duration was getting a bit longer, his body strength would run out when it stopped. It was not only that his bodily strength was exhausted; he would be covered in sweat and he could not even move a finger. Even his mind would start feel very tired as if didn’t not slept for three days and three nights. Moreover, his consciousness would start to get fuzzy.
It seemed like the crimson rage ki was not only using physical strength, but mental strength as well.
It was clear that this cost of rage ki right now was much higher than battle ki……
Shaar was quite upset after remembering how the previous crimson rage ki eruption had such a power that could disregard all defenses. It didn’t matter if his enemy was a man or a god; it seemed that it could cut through everything – only that power could fit this uncle’s style.
Nevertheless, Dora only needed one word to calm down Shaar’s mind.
“When you go berserk, your power is unrivalled. However, your attacks are not self-conscious and everything within your range will be attacked! At the battlefield, there will be some companions around you all the time; will you kill them together with the enemy?”
“……I understand!”
Shaar had no choice but to agree.
The weakened crimson rage ki was not the real issue, the issue was……when learning those Dragon Knight combat techniques, his real suffering began!
The Dragon Knight combat techniques used a mysterious method which forced out all the power within the body in an instant! Each time he used it, the power of the whole body would suddenly build up and this power felt about ten times stronger than his crimson rage ki. When Shaar experiences this intense build up coming up, he could clearly feel each muscle, every vein and every nerve would suddenly stretch several times! During that time, the intensive expanding would force his body to shudder uncontrollably and he had no way to suppress it. It was so strong that even his heart would suddenly stop beating!
Simultaneously, it also put him into a state of auditory hallucinations and for him, it seemed as if everything around him would slow down and distorted. The wind, the birds, the soldiers who were drilling in the distance, each sound would be stretched and distorted in his ear. And finally, it was as if the space would deform and stretch so much that only a dot could be seen!
(TL: Maybe he just ate the wrong kind of mushrooms…)
A dot!!
Raising his hand, he stabbed his fire pitchfork towards that dot……
(Bang!!)
The crack of thunder resounded in Shaar’s ears and the sound penetrated his consciousness. This shock instantaneously sobered Shaar as all the illusions vanished and started reversing the swelling on his body. The bloated sensation from before was quickly receding! The shrinking of his body made him feel like his blood was flowing backwards! His heart was beating so crazily fast that it almost burst…
As his fire pitchfork stabbed the spot, a small red light could be seen, quickly transforming into a hair thin strand of red before shooting out……
All of the power instantaneously accumulated in front of the tines, and gushed out. The power was so intense and extreme, that Shaar was being pulled forwards it involuntarily. Shaar couldn’t resist this power anymore, as he was being forcefully pulled by that power!
The suction force was so strong that it had launched him into a big tree with just a few huge steps. The thin red line silently cut into the bark, and even penetrated deeply into the tree trunk! The wood violently exploded into thin splinters while flying towards Shaar. They grazed his face, leaving behind several bloody lines across his body.
After taking a closer look, a hole the size of his pinky could be seen on the tall tree. Further beyond, a tree that was standing several steps behind was also pierced, and also the one behind that one…….
All of the objects standing in 30 meter line were pierced! Six big trees, two table sized rocks, all of those all had holes the sizes of a pinky through them!!
After quickly inspecting the effect of this power, Shaar became extremely shocked after seeing the result!!
However, before he had a chance to recover from his shock, Shaar suddenly started shrieked in agony, and dropped to the ground while shouting, “This pain!!!!”
From the numerous pores on his body, beads of blood oozed out all of a sudden! In broad daylight, countless tiny cuts suddenly appeared on Shaar’s biceps as his skin opened and blood was trickled down like a stream flowing down a mountain. Furthermore, the bones on his body began to make creaking sounds – At that moment, an extreme anxiety flashed in Shaar’s mind as he feared that all the bones in his body were going to break!
This pain continued for about a half hour, before he forcefully crawled up from the ground. Nonetheless, his whole body ached, and even the gentlest touch felt like he getting pierced by countless sharp needles! Even when he was walking slowly, the soles of his feet were in so much pain that he could barely stand.
After practicing it for the first time, it took him about two hours before he was able to restore a bit of strength. However, the first thing he did after recovering a little was to burst out, in wild laughter mixed with cries of pain. This discovery casted some questions in his heart.
“Hey Dora, I heard that a high-ranked human warrior could use his battle ki to wound someone from afar. However, even they couldn’t probably reach 30 meters right?”
“Humph! As if The Dragon Knight combat techniques could be compared to the battle ki that you humans are currently using! Yes, battle ki can be sent out to injure someone from a distance; however, the condensation technique of that power is simplified. With this Dragon Knight combat technique, you can focus all of your power at one little point to avoid wasting your energy endlessly! It concentrates all of your power to the strongest point!! Therefore, this skill is called ……Dragon Thorn!”
Dragon Thorn!!
Fuck! This skill was too fucking strong!
But ……but it also hurt like crazy to activate it!!!
“Well actually, with your current strength, you can display the Dragon Thorn without exhausting all your power. You should have enough power to use it for 2-3 more times; however ……Your body can’t take the side-effects of this strong force at the moment. According to my judgment, if you dare to use it twice, I am afraid your body will receive severe injuries. If you use it three times, your body will collapse, and you might die.”
“…………”
Shaar rested his chin on his chest, deep in thought. When he raised it again, his face usual playful expression was replaced with a grave one.
“In other words, both of my techniques Crimson rage ki and ‘Dragon Thorn’ are unique skills which should only be used when my life’s in danger. After using ‘Dragon Thorn ‘ once, my whole body will be paralyzed for half an hour before I can start moving again and under normal circumstances I can only be used once. On a battlefield, although I can kill the enemy with Dragon Thorn after using it, I am also as good as dead. As for the crimson rage ki, as long as I can control my consciousness and suppress it from going berserk, I should be able to sustain the crimson rage ki for about ……Almost half an hour ……From this point of view, it can only be use during a short fight. However my biggest problem now is that……I still don’t have any techniques that I can use under normal circumstances.”
After Dora heard Shaar’s declaration, she sneered and replied: “Humans are insatiable; there is really no limit to your greed! With your current strength and my Dragonblood strengthening your body, you already surpassed human standard in strength and speed. Under normal circumstances, you are equal to a regular low-ranked warrior. Once you display your crimson rage ki together with your ‘Thousand Men Army Slaughter’, you are comparable to a medium-ranked warrior; moreover it is even more lethal during a group battle. Furthermore, when you unleash the ‘Dragon Thorn ‘, your lethality would instantaneous reach the same level as a high-ranked warrior! Do you know that an ordinary human has to train at least 20 years to climb from a lower-ranked warrior into a high-ranked warrior and this is only if they have an outstanding rare talent! You already progressed so much in one day and it is still insufficient for you?!”
Once hearing this, Shaar couldn’t help but scratch his head while smiling awkwardly. Only after listening Dora’s preaching, his mind could finally ease. He had obtained a power which had the same level as a high-ranked warrior in one day. Although it was a lethal weapon with a short duration time, normally in order to enhance one’s strength one would have to pay a heavy price. Obtaining such an opportunistic power could be considered extremely rare.
Even though Dora’s words were full of mockery, they were still telling the true.
“Alright!” Shaar waved his hand to stop Dora’s preaching and revealed an extremely tenaciously expression on his face: “Let’s continue practicing!!”
In a flash, Shaar practiced for three days while secretly going to the forest on the hillside in order to train his crimson rage ki and ‘Dragon Thorn’. He continued to suffer the torture and every single day. Whenever he returned to his tent, he would fall on his bed and immediately fall asleep.
After getting out of his bed, the bed sheet would be stained with blood every day……
This discovery gave Tatara a somewhat malicious fantasy.
“Huh ……there is blood on the bed sheet? Can it be that this vulgar hillbilly is like a woman and during each month, there are several days where……”
Three days later, Shaar left the military camp and started to wander around the surrounding wooded mountain for half a day. He collected a large bundle of various types of herbal medicines and personally mixed a barrel of medicine juice to soak his body in.
He used get bathe in this since his childhood and the formula was something which the old man left behind. However, the two most important raw materials for this medicine bath were already depleted several years ago. These two types of raw materials couldn’t be found in the mountains of Primal Wildfire anymore. The other raw materials for the medicine could be found in any mountain, but according to the old man, the effectiveness would decrease a lot without the other two herbs.
The main reason for Shaar’s superhuman strength and body was because he was soaked in a smelly medicine every day when he was young. Practising the Dragon Thorn for past few days forced his body to take such a serious damaged that he had no other choice but to start soaking himself in those smelly herbs again.
Now, every time Tatara was washing the bed sheet, he couldn’t help but get even stranger ideas.
“Fuck! After finished bleeding now the bed sheet started smelling ……Could it be that the master still has the habit of wetting his bed with such an age?”
While furiously scrubbing the bed sheet, the magician angrily complained in his mind……
Shaar continued this kind of masochistic training regime for six days and in the morning of the seventh day, just when he was leaving the camp to go to the mountain, something happened. When he arrived at the entrance of the camp, he suddenly saw a soldier on the observation platform blowing the warning horn!
After a loud humming sound, all the soldiers who were on patrol in the camp immediately rushed towards the door of the camp and lined up! The 13th Army was indeed a well-trained bunch and after only a brief moment, a fully equipped battalion officer led a team of soldiers to rush towards the door, before closing it. Immediately afterwards, a large number of soldiers rushed to the stockade wall and prepared their bows while anxious staring at the outside.
One group of soldiers after another were quickly gathering at the front gate after the early warning and their captains were roaring to push them to hasten the formation.
Exactly at this time, an officer who was staring at the distance on observation post yelled out: “Look! It’s our men!! ! It’s, it’s ……It’s a defeated army!!”