1 My Master Wants To Kill Me

I am woken up to the sound of leaves and branches breaking. As I raise my body from the bedroll lying on the ground that I was quite happily sleeping in, I release my colorless aura as a reflex to the feint patter of approaching footsteps. As my eyes only took a few seconds to adjust to the light of the morning, I could see the three silhouettes heading towards me from the direction of a lesser used road in these woods.

I brushed the dirt out of my long, wavy blonde hair as I thought about how annoying this is. Scratching the short five o'clock shadow beard I had on my entire face, I felt a small anger rise up in me. While I started to stretch my fair, muscular build, my six foot body started slightly flexing with irritation. I thought to myself with bit of sarcasm and a bit of truth, "Azoth, the day you met your master was the best and worst day of your life."

This is the third damn time this month that my training has been interrupted by various members of theif groups or violent adventurers. My master insisted that I train in these woods, Beast Trees, for two reasons. One, the beasts in these woods had small amounts of aura which made them a great training resource, assuming they didn't kill you.

I don't mind fighting the beasts. My first time out here I was almost killed by them countless times, but now, stronger than I was then, I look forward to these fights as the training results are very good. They are also a wonderful resource to sharpen ones senses.

Which brings me back to reason number two as to why my master insists that I train here. My sharp senses picking up on the three auras drawing ever more near is his damn reason number two. The road that goes through Beast Trees is a road usually only used by theives and criminals. My master stated that fighting or evading these people would be a priceless training in real combat for me and that I should look forward to the prospect. I see it more as an annoyance and as an interruption to my training.

As the three people are closing the gap between myself and them, surely seeing me, I assess thier individual auras. By this I mean that I use my high senses and even higher perception to attempt to decide how strong they are. Once I realize that they are more than likely low-level adventurers, I calmly start breaking down my camp as I do not feel too worried about the approaching enemies.

I roll up my bedroll and tie it to the straps on my pack. I grab the black, hooded cowl that is dawned on top of a cape-like cloak that my master had given me for my 18th birthday off of the tree branch that I had set it on and lazily fashioned it onto myself.

Finally, with the three enemies within range of my camp, I see that they are all ugly brutes. Upon stepping within fifteen feet of me, the smallest of the three started assessing me and my belongings. "What's in the pack, bug?" Already annoyed by the men, I simply stared not even worrying about a response to his question. "Quiet and mysterious prick aren't you?" One of the bigger guys asked me while picking at his teeth with a twig.

Still looking at the littlest guy of the three, already knowing he was most likely the leader of this little group and the strongest, I set my pack down next to the base of a tree and faced the three. Seeing my demeanor, the little guy smiled with one corner of his mouth. "Very well. Gab, Sholl, show this worm what happens when useless people don't pay us any kindness when we tell them to hand over their loot."

The two men started walking forward, grinning while cracking their knuckles. One after the other they released their auras while drawing nearer. The man on the left, Gab, had a dull and grimy orange aura and the man on the right, Sholl had an even more dull brown aura. One did not need strong perception to realize that they were both of weak aura, a result of not much training and possessed minimum power.

Even though my aura was still colorless, as I have yet to have my aura tested, I knew I could still take these two with little effort.

The moment I released my colorless aura to its fullest, the two men laughed boastly, and drew their weapons. Gab dawned a spear that had one of the sides of the blade of the spear serrated with many teeth. Sholl pulled out a hammer that had a large flat surface for striking and a tip on the back that would be effective for stabbing ones body. I had a sword at my side but refrained from drawing it. If master wanted me to get the best results from his muderous training, I would have to test my limmits and risk my life.

Master did warn that if I ever felt that I could not challange someone I came across, that I should do my best to evade and escape them as this would be great training as well. I practiced plenty of evasion and escaping in the first few weeks of my training by running from the various beasts in these woods trying to kill me. However, I refused to run from any man that standed before me. My pride just wouldn't let me.

With my colorless aura emanating from my body, I focused it into my fists, ready to face the two. Aura can work many different ways but the most basic and common is to use it to both strengthen the body, and to increase attack strength by focusing your aura to the point of your attack. Still not saying a word, I stared as the two men reached a striking distance of me. At the same time, they raised and brought down their weapons with a giants strength.

Both weapons slammed into the ground creating a dust cloud of dirt and leaves as their target had somehow vanished. Looking dumbly at the cloud in front of them, it was far too late when Gab and Sholl finally sensed an attack from behind them. With great speed, I put one foot in the dirt and leaped at sholl, closing the distance between him and me in a fraction of a second. I slammed my fist into his face, sending fragments of his aura and teeth flying in the air. Before Sholl even hit the ground, I jumped into the air and swung in a circle to deliver a backwards fist to the back of Gabs head. This sent him flying a fair distance as he crashed into a patch of bushes, knocked out from the impact.

Turning around to face the smaller man that had ordered the other two to attack me, I brushed the dirt off of my cloak and started slowly walking towards him. With a good degree of fear in his eyes, he couldn't believe what he had seen. "How could somebody who's aura is still colorless and smells of mothers milk move so fast? Let alone defeat my men with a single strike?" It was clear the man was afraid as his face had gone pale and you could see a slight shiver in his legs.

The man had a point, though. Most people could not start getting very strong until thier aura had been tested and fully released. However, my master was no normal person and he had trained me to the point that I almost died more than a few times. With the results of his training, I was on par with those that had already had their auras tested and had a mid-low level aura. This did not spell good news for the man in front of me.

Feeling pissed off for being woken up by these thoughtless people, I looked at the man in front of me with cold, still blue eyes. The man let out a cry that escaped without his will. "Please, just let me walk away. I won't cause you anymore trouble." With the corner of my mouth slightly twithching upward, I decided it was time for the man to have his lesson for waking me up on the last day of my training and causing me to be in a bad mood when I am supposed to return to my master after almost two years.

With a smile, I again focused my aura into my fists. The man dropped the broad looking sword that he had drawn at some point during my exchange with Gab and Sholl and turned to run away. I gave him a silent five count to let the fear really set in before I used my great speed to reach him and brought down both of my hands onto the points in between his shoulders and neck. With that, the man whos name I never got slammed into the ground with a loud thud.

I walked back to the tree where I had set my pack and reached for it. Stopping myself, I decided to sit down and medidtate for a short while as these men had really put a damper on my mood. Knowing that they would not be waking up anytime soon, I took my time to meditate and calm myself. This revitalized my aura, as well as calmed my sould. Feeling much better, I stood up, brushed off my pants, and grabbed my pack. Securing it around my shoulders, I started to head in the direction of my masters house. Stopping once more, I couldn't help but smile as I turned around to leave the motionless men with one final remark. "My master might possibly be trying to kill me with this training, but you three were nothing more than a quick morning workout. Next time, fight harder so as to not dissappoint my master's wish for muderous training." With that, I adjusted the weight of my pack and started towards my masters house.