The burden of power
The question from before. 'Was that stance used before' didn't last for long and was quickly answered.
"The blade alignment could be observed at the angle of the cross, the blade is neither vertical nor horizontal but slightly diagonal, the natural position achieved by cutting upward. In this position, the short edge aims not upward or downward but toward the fighter, while the thumb is under the blade, not on top of it. The hilt is held just in front of beside or the head at temple level but maybe also held just above it. Also, the Ox guard is not a "hanging point" or hanging guard position. The Ox position, although not as stable as others, protects well, allowing a direct threat with its straight thrust, turn to cut diagonally downward, or pull back to cut from underneath. As stated before, since this is the very style that was the base of my own one it's called the Ox guard. I really remember exactly how it is and will ever be while using it." So he also saw it before… His master taught him what I created myself without learning it, what a coincidence. "But it's really great that you were able to get the hang of it on your own. No help from me or anything, you just manifested that out of thin air, you may really be onto something." He looked at me with curious eyes, drilling into my own.
"What a shame…" I said while staring to the ground but without a sad expression, I don't know why I did it but I wanted to make him feel a little bad because of the explanation. It feels weird repeating why I did that in my own mind but it really is the thing I did.
"You shouldn't be upset! I told you that it's great, you've recreated it without anyone's help. Well, not counting Bog of course." Of course, it makes sense. But I don't know why I felt as if it was never invented, a very weird thing, overpraising myself.
"Oh, Estel. I forgot about that, your shirt is completely shredded. Let me make you a new shirt from the boar's skin." Marcus nodded while taking the knife. A big chunk of skin in his hands, he went through it with his hands and found a spot exactly in the middle. He made a hole in the size of a head in the middle of the big skin sheet. "Do we have two needles or something?" He asked all of us sitting in the cave.
"We can take the frozen grass, it will probably have the same effect." Matthew burst out laughing but no one followed. "Oh, come on…" He added right afterward, the dwarf was annoyed that no one has laughed at any of his jokes from now and from before.
"Can you get me two strains?" He asked and Finn was the first one to go and take two small strings of frozen grass. Took them inside and gave them to Marcus. The hunter made a hole in two places in the edges got poked and he then put them through. He took those grains and heated them a little bit, it unfroze, it was wiggly and it once again became fresh. Then connected the two holes in pair of twos, took one of the strains, tied them together, and gave it to Estel.
"It will break," Estel answered while wearing it.
"It won't break, this specific grass when unfrozen, would become almost like a rope. Very hard to break or untie when tied very tightly. Don't worry, I know what I am talking about." He finished talking and Estel wore the 'shirt'. It looked more like a carpet than a shirt actually. But still, it would provide the cover, cover from the cold blizzard outside.
"This looks like a carpet." Matthew almost barked annoyed, he was very maliciously looking at Finn. It felt really out of place as they didn't seem so negative to each other. Well, he said something like that in the nightmare with those spiders.
"Shut up. Maybe it does but it doesn't mean it looks bad." Marcus answered back to him with an annoyed face, really annoyed face. "I don't have a needle and a string. If I had it, maybe it wouldn't look like this and more like a real shirt!" The demon almost screamed from irritation.
"Oh, I hit a nerve?" Matthew answered once more. Seemed incredibly curious and really wanted to make him annoyed. I didn't expect that but Marcus really cares if someone tells him that he did something wrong, very unexpectable.
"Don't go behind that line! You will really regret it!" He screamed this time and both of them just jumped up from their sitting positions, faced each other from up close, and growled against each other.
"You dare?!" The dwarf wasn't even facing him, he was closer to his waist and had to look upwards to even see Marcus's pissed off face.
"Do you dare?! Your small white goblin!" They were screaming at each other at this point. A hard thing to understand really, in this place at this time to cream at each other from irritation or at this point, sheer hatred.
"Pink mother fucker!" The dwarf was about to punch him but the superhuman or rather elf stopped him in the middle with a movement so quick that it was impossible to see and completely soundless.
"Stop. Don't fight if there is no real reason for you to do so. It's just a shirt and you didn't have to comment on how it looks, both of you are at fault." He said and both of them looked at him completely scared. How did he get there so fast? How powerful can he be? Did something happen to him when he did that crazy thing?
"O-Okay…" They both answered at the same time completely scared of the elf, the weird Estel. The side of him that they probably also never seen. They sat down and just looked at the fire with genuine dread and their heads being a fountain for sweat. Estel, still standing there, looked at his palm. Scared, is he afraid of his own power? Or something different.
"Sorry…" He added but they still were too scared to respond. I was also afraid, the same goes for Finn, but Bog was unfazed. Did he see people or anyone doing something like that? Is it normal for him? A man, so quick that you can't see him and soundless almost like an experienced assassin.
"Don't worry." Bog said out of nowhere to the man who seemed to be too strong to be understood. "I know how it is… When you are feared because you are a little different. I was feared a lot because I am a lot larger and my skin's color. I was a lot stronger than other children of my age, larger and just different. They were always scared…" He added and that made all of us feel his pain as more of his story has been unveiled.
"It's not just that… Something, different…" He looked at the big man, tired, afraid, but not fazed by what was said and what was happening around him. "I am not actually different. I am just… More. I don't even know why I got this strong. Something with the pain of being here, maybe this is my last resort?" He said and literally fell on his ass from exhaustion, literally nothing else. That punch must've had a lot of force behind it. Much more than a normal punch, infused with hatred.
"Don't say that." Matthew overcame his fear after what Estel said. Last resort? Does he mean that he would die in no time? Or something… Else? "You won't die. How can you die because of nothing? You are the strongest one here, why would you die?" He asked the elf but no answers met his ears. The elf just looked at the dwarf with a sorrowful look, a painful and sad one.
"No man can win death." The elf really has thought about dying. Now or in the near future… I don't want him to die, the second person to see something inside me. Someone that helped me start, obtain power, train me. Make me someone more than just a fodder of words that could never meet the goal. I don't want this kind of person dead, in front of me, behind me, or anywhere. I want him to stay there, to be alive.
"That is true, but you need to be in that battle at first." Marcus joined the conversation as well. He saw Matthew overtaking his body from the negative emotion of fear, once again they united and didn't want to see him dead. Just like me, but I can't say anything. I feel like sinking, ever since Estel said those words. I felt like going underneath a great mountain of sand, the pressure that could just squish me to death…
"Do everything to survive…" I whispered out to the outside world instead of talking to myself.
He looked at me, now also afraid of himself. Of his mind...