8 Conflict

Sreesh held the soldier's wrist tightly, not letting it move any forward. He felt extremely angry when the soldier had tried to punch Bali. Bali was like a brother to Sreesh and when someone tried to punch him for a simple reason like staring he could not keep it in anymore.

The soldier tried to yank his arm back, out of Sreesh's hand but he couldn't. He tried again a couple times but he couldn't. His companions started laughing and said, "Brother, stop playing around with that kid. We still haven't gotten what we want from this old man."

When the soldier who had tried to punch Bali heard this, he felt embarrassed. He couldn't even get his hand away from a youngster's grip. If his friends knew that he was trying his hardest what would they think of him.

He clenched his other hand into a fist and punched at Sreesh's face. But before it hit, he felt a punch on his gut. He howled in pain and staggered backwards. But Sreesh wasn't done yet. He stepped forward and grabbed him by the hair and smashed his knee on the soldier's face.

The soldier staggered backwards step by step till his back hit the wall. The other soldiers who were laughing suddenly stopped. No sound would come out of their mouth because of the shock. They could not fathom how their brother a bonafide soldier could not even hold his own against a youngster from a backwater rural village. When the soldier who was punched saw the expression on his brothers' faces he was embarrassed. His ego was hurt and he felt angry.

"Die", he shouted as he rushed towards Sreesh.

Sreesh had been feeling full of strength since he had started cultivating. When he found a place to vent the energy inside him he felt his blood boiling. He raised his hands protecting his upper body. He easily dodged the punch. He counterattacked right after, landing a firm punch on the jaw of his foe. The guy went crashing down on the ground.

Sreesh was astounded at his own strength. He felt extremely elated. He had cultivated for a single night and he was so strong. How strong would people who cultivated for their entire life be?

The other soldiers were just as astounded as Sreesh was. From their perspective they saw their fellow soldier, their brother who had fought lots of life and death battles along with them use his full strength to fight against a youngster from a village and get beaten up instead. This made them angry and afraid at the same time.

"How strong is this this kid?", they all thought.

One of the soldiers could not hold back anymore and lunged at Sreesh only to be smacked on the face by a fist from Bali.

When Bali saw Sreesh taking action he became cautious of the other soldiers. Even though he was surprised by Sreesh's strength he did not put his guard down against the soldiers.

When Sreesh saw that the other soldiers were starting to take action he knew that he had to stop revelling on his newfound strength and end the fight soon. He knew that his cousin had been keeping his frustration and anger against the soldiers bottled up inside of him for a long time. He could not let his cousin explode and vent out his anger on the soldiers even if it would be good catharsis for him. He had to finish the fight and deescalate the situation.

Sreesh clenched his fists and punched the man he was fighting right on the temple of his head. The soldier fell on the ground knocked out cold.

He grabbed Bali on the shoulder and stepped back. He glared at the remaining soldiers trying to come up with a plan to keep this matter quiet. He did not want this matter to blow up, not because he was scared but because he did not want the other villagers to be bullied more by the soldiers and pay for his impulsive decision to start a fight.

The staring contest between the soldiers and Sreesh lasted for a few breaths of time after which he looked at the unconscious soldier.

He looked back at one of the remaining soldiers and said, "What are you glaring at? If you want to end up like your friend over there or worse, come at me."

When the soldier heard Sreesh's words he looked at his unconscious friend. Truthfully he was a little scared.

"Where did this freak of a boy come from?", he thought. "Big brother is the strongest out of all of us and he is knocked out unconscious by this kid. We are no match for him."

"Boy this do you think just because you are strong it means you can fight against us soldiers. When the other soldiers find out about the fact that you raised your fists against one of us you will be finished. At best you will die at worst your hands will be chopped off as a warning to all others who dare to fight against us.", he said.

Sreesh got scared when he heard this but he put up a brave front. He said "And how will anyone find out? From you guys? I guess that if you tell anyone else about this you people will be famous in the army. The heroic soldiers who were beaten up by children. How amazing. If you want to really be famous you can tell your army buddies about your adventures where you were beaten up by some children from a backwater village. Go on."

When the soldiers heard this their faces turned ugly. They knew that they could not mention this incident to anyone otherwise they would be shamed where ever they went. They picked up their unconscious friend and left glaring at Sreesh all the while.

Only when they reached quite far from the shop did Sreesh let out his breath and dropped his guard.