Do You Know How to Train a Dog?

Salquam's POV:

"It's only been three nights since Pulchra was murdered and we're already moving? Isn't the Sect Leader being too hasty?"

"Probably not. Crimes need to be dealt with as soon as possible, and since that traitor isn't giving him over, it's obvious that this is a big hit to the pride of the L'Amour Family. Holes such as that need to be filled as soon as possible. I'm surprised he didn't just have us kill him while he was resting in the Campus Medical Hall."

"K-Kill? Come on Salquam. The Sect leader said to try and capture him. We only have to kill him if necessary, and it won't be necessary... right?"

"Your too skittish Agsus, always have been. At worst, it's just killing a kid, so don't get so timid. I mean, we'll definitely just have to capture him, there is no way he'll put us two at a disadvantage to the point where we have to kill him." I put my hand on my skittish little brother and smiled at him, "If we do have to kill him, I'll do it ok? You do need to work on your commitment though, eventually we'll be doing things worse than just killing one kid."

A giant load of pressure seemed to lift off of his shoulders as I said this, evident by how his shoulders relaxed tremendously compared to before, and he responded, "Thanks. I know that the time will come, but I still don't think it's right. Let's just go in there and capture him. We can let the Elders deal with him after that."

It has always been like this for the two of us. He would be bullied and then I would beat the kids bullying him to the dirt. He got his heart crushed by a very cruel girl, that girl couldn't walk for the next couple weeks. He joined the L'Amour Family via marriage, so I followed him to make sure he didn't get into trouble. Of course he got into trouble, but I was always there to clean up the aftermath. This would be no different.

"I heard that this Quis kid is pretty good at close combat, make sure you stay on guard. We are Stone Class, but it hasn't been unheard of for Dirt Class Cultivators to beat Stone Class ones, so don't let your guard down."

Agsus chuckled a little as he belittled my caution, "Come on brother, you worry too much. That has only been true of those certain individuals even more powerful than the Sect Leader. We're talking Gold Class."

Maybe he was right. I did have some kind of bad feeling about this, but I'm sure it's just my nerves getting to me. This was an order from the Sect Leader himself after all. He couldn't even handle some boars, so how could he beat us? I need to stop overestimating my enemies. I'll just go in there, give him a thrashing, and capture the sucker.

I sighed, letting my nerves free, and murmured, "You're right. It's about that time anyway, so let's get moving."

He nodded at my suggestion and we began our trek to the Campus.

I'll make this quick so we can return and grab a beer in time.

___________________________________________________________________________

I sat crouched in a bush as I observed the dome of silver gas before us. This was where the Sect Leader said the target should be at night. He'll be calmly cultivating, then we'll strike suddenly and quickly, capture him, and finally make a break for it before anyone catches wind of our attack. There wasn't much thought put into a plan, we didn't really need one since it was just a Dirt Class Cultivator and not even one at the peak of Dirt Class.

I turned to Agsus and nodded, he nodded back and we began to crouch while walking slowly inside the silver gas, taking our time to not alert Quis. If we were too loud there was a chance he could make a break for it and get outside help before we could capture him, so we had to be slow.

Eventually, a shadowy figure soon came into view, it was the target. He was cultivating with his eyes closed, probably in a state of meditation. That meant this would be even easier. I formed my hand into different shapes at Agsus saying "pincer attack". He nodded and we split up. I went in front of Quis, and my brother got the back. I put my fingers up and counted down with them "three, two, one-"

Right as my finger went to zero, my attention returned to Quis and I noticed something strange. His eyes were wide open as though they had been open the entire time. I reacted immediately by activating my Wooden Cage Fruit. A cage of wood manifested around Quis, and I took a breath of relief. I'm not sure why, but those eyes of his sent shivers of panic through my entire being. Now that the target was captured I yelled out to Agsus, "Use your Wood Bind Fruit so we can get this over with quickly-"

Just as I was ordering my brother to use his Fruit, I noticed a flicker of fire coming from the wooden cage I trapped Quis in. All of a sudden, the cage bursted into flames, turning into ash not long after. I was stunned, unable to understand the situation. Multiple questions ran through my head. Didn't he cultivate the Firearm Branch, how did he produce fire? But wait, even if he could produce fire, how did he have enough power to destroy my cage? That was a Stone Class Fruit!

I didn't have time to answer any of these questions as I noticed him enclosing on Agsus. Shit, something felt really wrong. While Agsus was probably more powerful than me, he was much weaker mentally. There was no way he would have the ability to react to this change quickly enough. Damn it, I'll just have to kill him then.

I teleported a Wooden Stake Fruit into my stomach and as soon as it digested, I thrusted my fist upward. Right below Quis, a stake of wood shot into the sky. But something completely unexpected happened. He was able to react fast enough and side-stepped the stake easily. And was it just me, or did my stake seem a lot slower than normal?... As my confusion was reaching its peak, in the side of my eye I saw a weird circle inscribed on the ground, "OH SHIT!!" It felt like a bucket of ice water splashed over me, waking me up.

"AGSUS, RUN AWAY!!! HE HAS THIS PLACE SET UP WITH MAGIC CIRCLES!!!"

I tried my hardest to warn Agsus, but it was too late. Quis was already close to him and was about to do what I could only guess was a throat break when a long snake-like piece of wood entangled itself around him, encasing him in wooden binds. A sense of relief washed over my body. That was my brother's Wooden Bind Fruit, so he would be fine now.

I began to walk toward Agsus, exhausted by the intense mental pressure that I just experience, and cheered him on, "Good job Agsus. You really have gotten stronger, to be able to use your Fruit under pressure like that. I really was worried too, this little bastard set up magic circles in this space..." Wait, he set up magic circles, so why was he so easily bound? An incredibly bad feeling bloomed within me as I connected the dots.

"Thanks! I have been training to make sure you wouldn't have to worry about me all the time. And it seemed like it paid off-" He was suddenly cut off as the toothy grin he was wearing was replaced by a bloody hole. His eyes widened as he realized what happened, and his head blew up. Maroon blood and pink brain matter washed over me as the scene in front of me rendered.

"AGSUUSS!!!"

My panic was quickly replaced by anger as I turned to the culprit. He killed my brother... how dare he! I'll kill the bastard! I've been saving this combo for the upcoming fighting tournament, but now I have no choice. I was just too angry to give him any mercy.

I activated almost every Wooden Stake Fruit inside of my Duranian and pushed my fists in what seemed like random directions, but were actually strategically placed to cut off any movement he could take. Tears fell down my face as I clenched my teeth. I wouldn't be surprised if my eyes were bloodshot red.

As I was cutting off every escape route I bellowed at him, "I don't care if my attacks are slightly weakened in here, this will kill you! Taste my combo move fucker!!! WOODEN MAIDEN!!!"

I activated the costly Fruit I got recently. It was an amazing defense type Stone Class Fruit called the Wooden Sphere Fruit. Two wooden hemisphere shells manifested near Quis and just as fast as they manifested, they enclosed Quis, but I wasn't done. I used the Wooden Stake Fruits I saved earlier and activated them inside the wooden sphere that trapped Quis. I could hear squelches of flesh being torn apart with each Fruit I activated. The satisfaction of killing my brother's murderer increased with every stake I sent through him. This kept going until I ran out of Fruits and fell backward.

I was incredibly exhausted.

I had run out of Genesis Liquid long ago. And once you run out of Genesis Liquid, to supply the power Fruits need, you use the very foundation of your Duranian, the land that made it up. I had used up half of my Duranian's land for this. And I would never be able to get that back... but it was alright. It was all worth it since he was dead now.

I blinked my eyes slowly as the adrenalin started to leave my body. But when I opened my eyes, they practically bulged open. There he stood, looking over me with emotionless eyes, his white hair stained red and pink, and his hand outstretched. I opened my mouth and questioned, "How are you ali-", but before I was able to finish my sentence, I saw a flash of silver come out of Quis' hand.

Lights out.

___________________________________________________________________________

I slowly opened my eyes, but even with them open I saw nothing.

"Wh-where am I?" That's a relief. I could hear my own voice at least. I searched my memories, slowly piecing together what happened. That's right, the mission to capture Quis went wrong, and Agsus ended up... yea. But I thought I also died? So is this the afterlife? I thought there would be more harps and heavenly voices singing, but I guess this is more realistic.

I tried moving my body, before realizing that I was stuck in place. Why wasn't I able to move? I was trying to figure this out when a fire sprouted, illuminating the area where I found myself and could observe my surroundings.

This definitely wasn't the afterlife. The walls were made of rough stone. Below me was a beautiful sapphire blue lake. And a piece of dripstone of the many that hung from the ceiling was almost touching me. I looked around a little more and noticed that my body was hanging in mid-air, supported by skinny trunks of wood that were carefully placed just at the points that I needed to move any other parts of my body.

"Oh, you're finally awake."

An unfamiliar voice called out to me, begging my attention. I rested my head back to its normal position and saw the familiar body belonging to this voice standing on the bank of this underground lake. It was Quis. He was holding a torch lit with fire, watching me with his void-like blue eyes. Those eyes would forever be inscribed into my memory, just like the memory of him blowing my brother's head to pieces...

Anger reverberated throughout my body as I yelled at him, "What the hell do you want from me bastard?!" As I said these words I spat in the liquid beneath me, but instead of hearing the sound of water hitting water, I heard the sound of my spit disintegrating in the lake. I felt a sense of worry at this, and my eyes returned to Quis.

He opened his mouth and said calmly, "I don't think you understand your situation. Right now your life and death are held in my hands. And I don't plan on letting you die so easily. So let's begin with a simple question. What's your name?"

So that was what was happening. He was going to try and get information out of me, good luck ass hat. I looked at his face in disgust and scoffed, "You think I'll answer any question you have? Get real. Just send a bolt through my head and kill me." My brother was dead, and I should be dead, so I didn't care anymore.

He smiled wickedly, sending shivers down my spine as he replied to my hiss, "I expected such a response... I have a question, do you know how to train a dog?" What was he saying? A dog? Talk about getting off-topic, he must have a screw loose.

He didn't give enough time for me to respond and instead answered his own question, "There are many ways to train a dog. Some positive, some negative. But I find that it's easier to use a whip."

As he said this I felt a cool breeze on my pinky finger. That's weird. I turned to look at my left hand, only to see blood trickling out of the hole where my finger used to be. Without warning, pain attacked me, "AGH! YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

"And when the whip doesn't work at first, worry not. I find that repetition works wonders."

Bleuge!

I threw up blood as I felt a cold object enter my belly and leave through my back. I looked down and saw blood gushing out of my stomach, next was my right hand. Agony I'd never felt before could be felt throughout my entire body. Agony so powerful that I didn't even have the energy to scream. I couldn't even use a Fruit out of retaliation, I had none remaining.

Then I felt a wave of soothing wonder wash over my body. My hands regrew and the blood stopped pouring out of my stomach. The pain was gone and soon the soothing feeling left me as well. What relief-

Another gush of ache flew through my body as my foot was roughly lobbed off, disintegrating in the water below. This time I had the energy to scream, "AHHHHHHH" It was even more unbearable than before because of the amazing feeling I was feeling just before. My pained eyes looked at Quis only to see that same wayward smile on his face.

It was a smile that belonged to a devil.

"Now let's try this again. What's your name."