"What's the matter, young boy? Weren't you going to give me hell or something?"The Magistrate kicked some dirt into Josiah's face."Say… What is your name?""Josiah.""I see. So you are 'the' Josiah. No wonder the prodigy farmboy could take one of my soldiers. I want you in my army, little one. We are going to do wonders to someone as talented as you.""N… No…""No…?""This… This fight is not over yet!"Josiah lifted his body out of the grass with the last ounce of strength he had, with what appeared to be a last desperate surprise swing. It actually caught The Magistrate by surprise. He reacted slowly and the swing managed to hit the armor on his chest, causing his body to get bounced a bit back.'Such strength for a young boy. This strength probably comes from the level of his sword' He thought.He watched as Josiah took the opportunity to stand barely once again."You are resilient. I'll give you that. No matter. We just do this again."The Magistrate invoked his weapon to the air
Summer had blessed Couche once again with the pleasant breeze and the giant shiny sun in the sky, helping the crops growing larger and larger in the farmsteads. The smell of fresh grass helped people stay motivated.During three long years, Josiah struggled every day training his wielding skill and battle endurance. He also trained the level of the weapons he had, alternating in sparring with the servant and venturing in the woods to find creatures to strengthen the blood abilities of the weapons he owned.With a lot of responsibilities an adult man can only train so much, but being a kid with a lot of free time, Josiah devoted almost all of his to perfect his combat-related abilities. In a perfect mix of bloodborn talent, knowledge from another world, and perseverance; he was approaching the level of adults when it came to weapon-wielding. "This sword. My mother left it to me when I was born. It's the only thing I have from her. It's now at level 16. Thomas said I'm leveling it up ul
Josiah was carrying four weapons: his favorite sword that Mirild gave him; the level 14 dagger; the short rapier The Magistrate handed him, now almost level 12, and he carried a short level 6 ax on his belt, in case everything else failed.The rapier had the interesting property of accelerating one's bloodstream. Josiah could confirm that by the times he used it against creatures over the years, it always made him feel warmer and hot-headed. In a sense, it could be used to enhance his bloodbound properties with his other weapons. After all, the good blood condition was essential for a good usage of that kind of things."Now I know why people always carry a factory of blades together with them whenever they are going to the battlefield..." He commented as he struggled his path climbing the western mountains. That amount of steel was already starting to get to him."Uff, I'm beaten. I should find a place to rest before I continue…" He said as he was under the scalding sun, after a long c
The massive body of the vurdum occupied almost all of his peripheral sight at that angle, standing straight to him while he had his back to the barricade of tree trunks.'I need to force it to make a big leap and fall itself on the hole it carved.' Josiah thought.He tried a sudden movement. But the beast's eyes just looked at his body, as it kept approaching slowly.The vurdum got close enough and clawed with one of his frontal legs. Josiah tried using the sword to try and parry the arm like it was a gigantic sword. But the animal managed to swipe the arm back just in time.The animal tried helping with the other arm. It knew Josiah wouldn't be able to handle both.Josiah unleashed a random wave of attacks in a desperate manner. With the dagger. With the sword. He didn't even know where he was aiming at."Go away, you piece of sh*!"But the animal would always block the distance bloodbound attacks with the bracelet and resume tormenting Josiah with its claws.'What the hell? Why won't
"You spoiled little brat! Young master, sometimes you just act too carelessly!""Give me a break, Thomas. It's bad enough that I have to lay here and feed on those bitter potions. Don't they have anything better-flavored?""Flavored ones are expensive. And to be honest, the worse they taste the more you are going to act carefully on the future so that you're not going to be forced to taste them again.""Hey, Thomas… How do you expect me to get strong enough to avenge Mirild if I don't get into fights myself?"The old servant couldn't think of a proper answer.'Good. The guy calmed down a bit.' Josiah thought.Josiah was laying in his bed. For the next few days after the fight against the vurdum, Josiah could not move due to the wounds in his chest, especially the one made by the stabbing. Thomas had to take care of him for those days. The potions of that world were far more effective than medicine of his own world, but not even those made instantaneous effects for wounds of that calibe
'Not surprising... I was actually waiting for something like this. Every world is the same… That's why I brought my other weapons with me.'"Stay away! I'll beat you all!" Josiah shouted.The gang laughed even harder.Josiah couldn't blame them. In their view, he was a mere eight-year-old boy shouting desperately with an offended baby voice.'It's time to see if my training amounted to anything…' Josiah thought."Oh, look at him! He has a swoord! Uoooh!" One of the guys with a big curly ball for the hair mocked. "Let me at him."'This guy isn't armed… Or maybe he has a weapon in his pocket that does the effect hidden within, like my rapier…' Josiah considered in a serious expression.The man was less serious about it. He approached and tried to disarm Josiah:"Here. This is dangerous for a baby to hold."The guy wasn't exactly a complete inexperienced bully, the move he made to disarm Josiah before he acted first was a move Thomas had taught him when they were beginning to train. He sa
Josiah felt some strange energy coming from the man in front of him. It wasn't anything that could be felt physically, but the aura he passed was different from the other ones'. He started feeling insecure.'Better wait and see what this guy can do.'Josiah was wielding his sword on both hands, carrying a very serious expression. Moving step by step closer to his enemy.On the other hand, the man only had that pocket knife in his hand, and he wasn't even carrying it properly. He looked bored, seeing Josiah act cautiously like that."Come on, boy. Either you give me the stuff or just charge in, already. I don't have the whole day, you know…"Setting reason aside, Josiah got baited and gave in to the advice.Suppressing a useless "hah" he swung his blade at the standing man. When he was close enough, the bully moved the pocket knife to the side and his sword followed the movement, escaping Josiah's hand and falling on the floor.Josiah wanted to back off, but he was too close and his acc
Josiah got back home from Rimrid with a stash of brand new goldies and a big offer to think about."Hey, Thomas." He greeted the old man, as he went to his room, to set his belongings in place."Hi. How much did you get?""Four…""Told you? My evaluations are on point.""I got on this fight...""Oh, not again.""I won.""You shouldn't show off in public like that. We don't want people coming after you, young master.""And then some guy offered me a position at his school.""What!?"Josiah came back from his room to talk to Thomas in the kitchen."They said the Blood University of the town is performing a selection of potential students. He said I got some potential… But I'm eight…""That's great! Who is the guy? What did you say?""I… Don't know. He gave me this…" Josiah handled the paper to Thomas. "There's a lot to think about. For starters, I'm eight…""And what does your age have to do with all of that?"Josiah opened his mouth then closed again.'What? There is no age restriction
"Lenny!" Josiah shouted, seeing her being knocked unconscious on the floor. 'Damn it! Is she all right?' Josiah started getting worried. He had just freed himself from the flaming piece of armor.The whole scenery was now lit on due to the flames of the two balls the magician released out from nowhere, and also the last attack, which was some sort of energy wave."Hah! You kids are no match for this power. Come on. It's only me and you now, little brat."'This is not good,' Josiah thought. 'Lenny is already out and we don't even know everything he can do. Not only that I am also stuck inside this hole and can't seem to be able to climb back. He could finish soldier Ray on his own, which means without Lenny to distract him it's going to be very hard to fight him one-on-one. What should I do…?'The magician seemed to be expecting Josiah to charge in, with a malicious smile on his face. The last attack made his face now clear to be seen. He was an older man, with his pale face full of wr
Fingers were snapped.The complete darkness was turned into an enlightened environment. Josiah's eyes went out of focus for a second. He could now catch the barren walls and the surroundings with his eyes. The light source was unclear, but it illuminated everything with a weak, yellow light. Over the ground, there were a lot of unknown objects scattered over. Dolls, metal tools, jewelry, curtains… The purpose of everything was mysterious. And to his left, Josiah could catch the silhouette of the owner of the voice of who directed to them a while ago: a short man on a dark blue robe, covering his head with a hood. The man didn't look very physically strong. He seemed weaker than the people he was used to sparring with inside the army. Josiah couldn't see his face because the light source seemed to come straight from behind him, rendering his face pitch black."You…""Witness the power of magic!"The man extended his hands to Josiah and a huge mass of fire came towards him. A concentra
"You said what!? Soldier Ray? How? What happened?" Major Clockburn asked holding the messenger on the shoulders."I don't know! One minute he was following me for the interview, then when I called he wasn't there anymore. I searched everywhere, but…""It's the same thing that happened to the villagers..." Clockburn observed. "Change of plans. Everyone! We are going to divide and search for Ray. Each of you… Grab a tracking bracelet inside the vehicles!"A tracking bracelet was made with a bond of blood between two holders. It worked similar to Watt's bloodbound power, two people bonded to use the power: the holder and the vessel. They both cut a small drip on the wrist. The vessel wears the bracelet around his wrist and the blood of the holder reacts whenever he points his wrist in the direction of the vessel.Major Clockburn was the holder of several bracelets inside the carriages. This way he could track the soldiers of his squad.Too bad the soldiers weren't using the bracelet after
The experienced soldiers and higher-ranked officers were divided in squads. Each squad had a leader; which needed to be at least a three-star ranked person. The leader gave orders to four commanders which needed to be at least a sergeant, and each commander was in charge of up to a crew of fifteen. Squads were in charge of missions to protect and aid the kingdom. Things that couldn't be done by a crew of recruits. The missions often required dealing with criminals, creatures, or any other thing which required experience in combat.Josiah had spent almost the entire year in the reserve, helping with the affairs, instructing newer teams, improving his sword skills, and getting better on the art of controlling the blood flow. Then, one day on the eleventh month, Josiah's squad was called into the city of Bhule, one of the cities of the kingdom which were located most farther from the capital.The trip took a long day, even if the squad went by carriage instead of marching. After all, th
Lenny was crouching with both her arms and legs on the ground. It was the way she moved when she lived in the forest.Josiah saw her using that form only once and then never faced anyone moving like that before. He had no idea what to expect. In his experience moving in such a way is only bad for a human.'An animal also moves on four feet. If she is confident in her speed this means I should expect her speed to match at least that of an animal.'Lenny began crawling around Josiah, trying to find a weak spot. He swung the sword at her, causing her to stay back. They tested each other for a while and then Josiah got accustomed to her speed.Or at least he thought he got.Lenny charged at him with the speed he assumed she would but she dramatically altered the speed midway, causing Josiah's timed to swing to be a little late. 'What!? She can jump almost like a talpig!'Josiah had to switch his swinging to some plan to defend from her leap. He used a cross-blocking stance to protect his
Everywhere near the low number of buildings was a complete desert, whenever it was close to the dusk. Especially on the abandoned factories near the 40s. The soldiers were under training in the west side, the superiors who didn't work with the soldiers were preparing to move back to the central headquarters, and even the security moved further closer to the gates, as the streets around the 40s were completely devoid of the possibility of being targeted by trespassers since they were in the middle of the complex. At that time the whistling winds were the only visitors in the area. If somebody screamed there, he'd never be heard.Josiah's jacket flapped with the strong wind blowing at his body. He wasn't wearing any armor. He just had his sword; the gift his mother gave him and his dearest weapon. He was holding it pointing the blade down.Tonight was their promised test. They agreed on the rules. In order to prove her worth, Lenny needed to withstand a spar with him for two minutes. Th
The rest of the tournament took place in the afternoon and for Josiah, it was very underwhelming. Reeve didn't ever recover his condition in time so he had to withdraw, thus causing Josiah to be the winner of the tournament for abandonment.The overall results of the tournament were as follows:First Round:A) Josiah vs Greg — Winner: JosiahB) Watt vs Lawrence — Winner: LawrenceC) Ellis vs Douglas — Winner: DouglasD) Teagan vs Daniel — Winner: TeaganE) Quinn vs Reeve — Winner: ReeveF) Brooks vs Dave Johnson — Winner: Dave JohnsonG) Yvonne vs Will — Winner: YvonneH) Kyleigh vs Austin — Winner: AustinSecond Round:1) Josiah vs Lawrence — Winner: Josiah2) Douglas vs Teagan — Winner: Douglas3) Reeve vs Dave Johnson — Winner: Reeve4) Yvonne vs Austin — Winner: YvonneSemifinals:Josiah vs Douglas — Winner: JosiahReeve vs Yvonne — Winner: YvonneAfternoon:Third prize. Reeve vs Douglas — Winner: DouglasFinals. Josiah vs Yvonne — Winner: JosiahJosiah still doesn't know whet
"Lenny?" Josiah almost couldn't keep the low tone as he asked for her, after entering his tent.There was nobody in.'Of course, she wouldn't be here anymore. If anything, she must have left and his somewhere…'Josiah stood silent for a moment so he could hear the instructor and Koda talking to each other outside the tent:"The infiltrator was last seen running to the west.""What's west?""Nothing. The fields proceed to the west up to two thousand miles.""Do you think there's any place to hide?""At this point just running on a random direction is hideout enough.""Do we send a group to…"With the duo walking away, the voices started getting to low to be heard.'Lenny… Where did you go? I hope she doesn't get treated as a deserter or something because of that… I wonder if the team is going to start searching for this so-called infiltrator?'Since there was nothing to do inside the tent, Josiah walked away and went on a quest to finding more information around.'Maybe Watt knows somet
"Next two!" Koda shouted.Reeve and Dave Johnson stepped up to the circle.Josiah was tired of his own fight, but he also wanted to witness that one. It could be that he'd be matched with the promising son of the lieutenant like they said, after all.The two young men were about the same size and had a pretty underdeveloped physique. Someone who didn't know them wouldn't give much to them. They stood still facing each other and waited until the whistling sound marked the beginning of the fight.And it soon started.Of course, Dave Johson knew all about Reeve's weapon. It caused the pain to be transferred to the attacker. With that prior knowledge, he charged in bare-handed, striking for disarming the opponent before he could draw his. Dave had all of his weapons firmly tied to the back and the hands-free. The whole way he carried his armor around was made for building up speed.They were taught how to disarm a man with a knife on the army. Theoretically, it was no big deal.'That's wh