1 Fated Beginnings. #1

Lightning and rain pummeled against the tent as if Lei Gong himself was unleashing his wrath upon the world. Deep in the jungle there was only one tent, everything around the vicinity was being pounded with harsh precipitation. Sleeping inside was a man holding a dull, short knife. There were scars lined across the man's body. If someone were to see them it would only common sense to wonder where they were acquired. However, it did not matter how much you pondered over the topic. Within these scars lied tales upon even more tales. The man's body itself was a book with stories that have never been revealed.

Despite the scars that were in abundance, his facial features were something to behold. He had long hair that reached down to the upper part of his back, and his eyes were as green as grass located in the most well-kept field.

Yet.

Hidden deep within his eyes was something much more complex than you could imagine. Behind the beautiful display was something that could invoke sheer curiosity, it was equivalent to an endless pit which seemed to be inconceivable. One did not have to look into the man's eyes before realizing just how empty he was inside. He was a husk, but there was something about him that told you he was still present, even if it looked the opposite. It makes you wonder what happened to him, just why was he in this tent in the middle of a forest?

Something that could help you answer that question would be to look at the blade he had in his hand.

Cutting something would obviously cause whatever you hit to react, whether it be through a spasm or a fountain of blood. The latter is what occurred in this situation; the skinny dull blade was covered in dry blood. Crimson was the only color present on the blade and even the guard and handle were smothered with it to an absurd degree. Even the very clothes the man wore were in pure shambles. This, however, did not mean that he was dirty with bodily fluid, for he had washed it shortly afterwards.

Now, all he was trying to do was look for food. Whether it be plants, animals, or fungus, it did not matter what he found. He simply picked it up and tossed it into the makeshift pouch he made from an animal's skin a while back.

"I should sand this down some more. The lining is bothering me."

After critiquing his own artisanship, he headed back to hunting. Soon after, the moon appeared, and the sun bid the world farewell. They were almost like two siblings who didn't like being together.

If there was something that the man enjoyed the most, it would be the transition between night and day. Just looking up at the sky made him feel weirdly comfortable, to him, there was something special about this movement. Depending on the person, you could interpret the change in any way you want. To this man, it symbolized time and the way it moves regardless of how much you whine and plead for sun to stay up. You still go to bed at night and wake up in the morning, in fact, it would happen regardless of that.

Admiring the sight and taking in every detail visible to his human eyes. Sometimes, he thought of how convenient it would be to have sharper eyes. All just to view the sky and the magnificent events which transpired in that seemingly infinite space.

This took his mind off everything that happened earlier. Which is what landed him here in the first place. Even so, there was a part of him aching for something. Anything that could make them pay, whether it be with their lives, the man truly did not care. As he was thinking of them, unknowingly, his teeth began to start grinding against each other, unleashing a loud sound which startled the birds sitting in the trees. Once he realized what he was doing, he stopped to regain his composure. Then he understood, there was no coming to terms with the situation. Being stepped on and thrown aside was something he could not take.

"Coming to peace with it all? Just who do you think I am? I've never been an advocate of peace; I can't believe you all had me under the illusion that there was nothing I could do."

The man held his head in his hand, and he guffawed louder than ever before. It lasted for minutes, which stretched for half an hour. By the time he stopped, the moon was nearing it's peak, and the man solidified his resolve.

"Truly regrettable. I hope you all understand what you've just done."

His face returned to the emotionless husk that appeared before, and he ambled back to his tent in order to prepare himself for the trouble he was going to cause.

…

"I've gathered some food and I have an abundance of water in both my pouch and the streams that are located around here. The only thing I'll have to worry about are those enemy installments that weren't wiped out completely during the operation. But it'll be fine even if I do come across them."

Checking his equipment before heading out was something he was always taught; it soon became a habit, rightfully so. The very minute he finished, he looked around and decided to head north. He did not know exactly where he was, but he had a solid idea. Right now, he was in Africa. People did live in this part but not for a few tens of miles, in the area that he was in right now, there were only militias and tribes. Meeting either of them wouldn't be favorable, but he decided that meeting one would be inevitable, so he chose to confront those head on instead of getting surprised later on.

"Let us see if this blade holds up. So far, it has been surprisingly efficient. I wonder how long it will last though."

The man soon stood equipped with one dull knife, his food, water, and his ripped-up clothes which exposed his scars to the world around him.

Now standing with all his items, he analyzed and looked at his surroundings.

"I've never really stopped to look at the scenery around here. Compared to China, this place is quite nice if you were to ignore the conflict. On that topic, there should be a few installments in this direction. Though, it's possible they lied about that as well."

Memories began flooding back into his mind, however, they never reached him. This was completely different from before. Back then he hesitated and ended up on the losing side of the self-inflicted psychological attack,

That outcome would no longer happen.

"Might as well take the gamble."

Resuming his slight jog, he sped up as he jumped over the multiple dropped branches which served as an obstacle. Instead of being a nuisance, it was quite fun in the eyes of the man who took pleasure in avoiding the sticks. Just as he was about to leap over another pile, he spotted something odd on a tree. It was a strategically placed slash which was an obvious indicator that something, or someone was there. A flash of excitement glimmered within the eyes of the man, and he spoke out soon after.

"They are indeed up north. This makes things much simpler for me, now all I must do is set up a plan to take them out and plunder their materials. Suppose they have a few boxes of supplies, that'd be amazing."

Having not eaten something with flavor in a long time, the man was hoping he would find something, anything with a sliver of spice. Salt would be enough to satisfy the cravings which had started to eat and claw at the man from within.

These thoughts quickly subsided once again, and he resumed his hunt.

He climbed up a nearby tree swiftly and soon spotted smoke coming from a fire in the distance. Having analyzed the location of the camp, he made up a plan on the spot and settled on a strategy taught to him by one of his past instructors.

"Take advantage of the weather, time, anything that could help you. No, it is not cowardly. This is called being cunning and knowledgeable. We don't fight to play around; we fight to kill."

His instructions swirled around in his mind, and he finally concluded that he would attack at night.

"They'll never expect a foreigner coming to attack at night, alone. This is truly a perfect situation. From there I'll dominate and end them all swiftly."

Inches, feet, yards, and miles, he thought of how far the camp was from him and he decided that it was quite close at around 1.5 miles at the maximum. Again, he readied himself to run until he could notice the fire that came from the camp. For a regular person, running for this long would break them down faster than they ran. However, we were not talking about a regular person in this situation. If we were then they would not have made it this far in the first place.

The only sound that could be heard afterwards were the rustling of leaves that were being stepped on by a man sprinting at full speed. Dodging, jumping, ducking, leaping. Many movements were performed as he made his way through the forest in order to reach his destination. An old memory of an obstacle course came to his mind and he thought of how fun it was to complete it with his comrades. At least, who he thought were his comrades. Even if now was not the time to think about them, it was difficult. Living with a group of people will bring you closer at some point. Strangers blossomed to friends, and friends blossomed into an unbreakable friendship. In this case, the unbreakable friendship was something fake, a facade, something that was simply not real from the very beginning.

Not one single bit of it.

Either way, it was in the past. There was no use being depressed over something like that. Revenge, however, was a completely different story.

The man was never a good person, in the eyes of society he was a nuisance. So, he joined the army and decided to put his talents to good use, and when he did, he shined like the star he was never meant to be. Getting revenge in this case does not make him any less of a terrible person, for there was nothing for him to lose here. If there was one thing he learned from this experience, was that he never wanted to lose again. He wanted the strength and power to prevent something like this from happening a second time.

It was either that or, die a painful death. And there was no way he would die anytime soon, or at least before he punished or ended the lives of those who betrayed him and left him to be eaten by those demons they were fighting.

The road there would be full of trouble, but that was something he was used to. From the day he was born he was faced with adversity; he was thrown into problems as soon as he understood his unfortunate situation. Despite that, he fought, and fought repeatedly. More blood, tears, and sweat were lost over the course of his life than you could possibly imagine.

There was never a time when he lived peacefully, but that was fine. Truthfully, there was nothing else he found pleasure in. Putting energy into fighting something head on fulfilled him completely. Every fiber of his being felt joy when someone threatened him. For this reason, never in his life did he think of himself as normal.

But he wouldn't have it any other way.

…

A few ten minutes after he first spotted the camp, he found more traces which eventually led to the camp itself. Once he realized he finally arrived, he climbed the hills nearby and set up his tent to wait until night fell once again. Lying next to his "bed" was the same dull knife he had had since the beginning. Since he would be fighting in a few hours, he made sure to rest up the most he could. Fighting is something he hadn't done in a while, so he wanted to be in an acceptable condition.

"Enjoying this should be easy. The last time I prepared like this was when we planned to infiltrate that one militia. We actually managed to gain the upper hand, at least until that happened."

Recalling that unfortunate happening made him regret doing so. His plan was to sleep the most he could, but he could easily mess that up by overthinking.

"I'll get my revenge soon, there's no point regretting any of what happened back then at this point. Especially when I'll be fighting soon."

A few minutes passed, and he finally nodded off.

His hand still gripping the blade firmly.

…

Night finally came. The birds stood silent, and the wind flowed slowly. Along with the inactive animals, were the inactive men who were sleeping in their beds without a worry in the world. Those who were awake were held on by a string, even so, they felt tired to some extent. Anyone would be after going through what they had to. Their boss discovered a strange cave that he ordered them to investigate. Little did he know how rigorous a task that was. Overall, everyone in the camp was exhausted tremendously.

So much so, no one would be expecting someone to attack them whatsoever.

Their expectations would soon be destroyed by some strange man who appeared to be overlooking their camp with visible joy within his eyes and a wry smile.

"They're lacking in almost everything. If anything, they have a bunch of lazy soldiers. Well, that's fine, information and food is all I want anyway. Let us start the fun then shall we."

And with that, the battle finally began.

The man leaped from his tree and made way to his first victim. The camp itself was circular with one entrance, that said entrance was guarded by two people. One was taking a nap and the other was standing guard.

"It seems they're taking turns."

Once he made sure of his inference, he made his move. He made a sound with a nearby rock and lured the guard over to a random bush. When the guard walked over and saw nothing, paranoia flooded his mind and broke his mentality. He then ran over to his post where the second guard was resting. When he reached it, he opened the door hurriedly and yelled.

"There might be someone outside-!"

His words did not finish because the guard whom he wanted to alert was already down on the ground. Surrounded by a large pool of fresh blood was the man who he considered a friend.

Behind him was an Asian man looking over the corpse with a look of disdain and a dull camp knife.

"You came a little too fast. Well, that's fine, lets hurry this up."

Words could not leave his mouth. The man who they were warned of the most during their first debriefing session was standing right in front of him. Just one look into his eyes made him fear everything about him. They were so beautiful, but to anyone with combat experience, there was nothing more feared than the eyes of a murderer that looked divine. This is the very moment the guard realized why they were warned to never initiate combat with this man.

He was simply a monster. Truer words were never spoken.

When he came to his senses, he realized the situation his camp was in. If he was here, then where was his team? Those thoughts never finished because a flying knife pierced the wind, and then his forehead. By the time it reached him, the guard did not have time to process what happened and died unaware of just how he lost his life.

"Disappointing. Onto the next one."

The man hid the bodies and cleaned up the most he could before leaving the room. There was no information or food in there so there was no point in staying any longer.

While looking over the camp, he made sure to memorize the layout, which was quite simple. After entering you would be greeted with a guard post and 4 small housing units lined in a row. Living in one of these housing units were around 3 people. Behind these units were the tents that contained their information and supplies.

Their weapons were in an even smaller cabin located to the right of the units. When the man noticed, he produced a faster way to end the lives of everyone here in one fell swoop.

Firstly, he would hide all the weapons and take some of the small daggers that were inside. Afterwards, he would wake up the units all at once and have them meet up to find the source of the sound. Once they did, he would reveal himself and take them out group by group.

"It's the most efficient one I've produced. Let us put it into effect then."

There was a high tree next to the camp and he decided to hide up there after waking them all up to begin with. To set up his plan he threw all the weapons and explosives in the nearby stream, but not before grabbing one of the pistols inside. He then shot a blank into the air in order to wake everyone in the camp up.

"What was that!"

"Did someone just shoot!?"

"Are you all sure it wasn't an accident?"

One by one, more of the guards woke up and flooded the middle of the camp frantically. Not one of them noticed the Asian man who was crouching on top of a tree branch which hung above their camp slightly.

"Wait, where are the weapons?! They're all gone!"

As expected by the man, the crowd quickly noticed the loss of their weapons, solidifying the fact that there is a hostile entity in the camp.

'They'll now go alert their superiors. With their presence everyone here will become lax, and that's when I'll strike.'

"Chief! All of our weapons are gone, every gun, dagger, and explosive were taken. The guards that were standing guard are also both dead. Someone used a dagger to kill them both quickly, they didn't show signs of struggle, so there was obviously a major skill difference."

Having heard all the commotion, the Chief hurried over and made sure to calm everyone down before something terrible happened.

"I see, well get everyone ready."

Their Chief told them to get ready, but they were not sure why. Everyone had believed that they were only here to steal their offensive equipment considering the way they executed their plans.

"Why, sir?"

"What do you mean why? They'll be coming soon that's why!"

Seeing the Chief frustrated made his subordinates understand the situation even more. Their boss told them how important it was to analyze this cave, so much so, that any obstruction was something he did not want to happen.

"Damn it, why did someone have to come now? We were almost done looking into that cave too, it was only a matter of time before we finished."

Anxiousness was apparent in the face of the Chief; he was darting his eyes back and forth due to paranoia settling in. Noticing this, his subordinates went to look for the source of the noise, they knew it was a gunshot, but they did not know where it was from. They decided to split up into four teams comprised of three guards per team. Each team checked a different area, and they were to meet back in the middle of the camp in around thirty minutes. The Chief would be waiting in the middle along with one of his advisors.

"They're splitting up I see; well, this makes everything a bit easier. Getting rid of all of them at the same time is pretty unrealistic."

The man quickly adapted to the new situation and made his move towards the north most team which was looking for him. Luckily, it was right below him so there was no need to sneak around. What he saw when he looked down were three people who all looked to be quite muscular. They were not lacking when it came to muscle in any way whatsoever. Along with analyzing their statures, he also overheard some of their conversation.

"The Chief is overreacting. Even if there are people inside, they aren't getting rid of all of us together. It would not even matter if they were split up. This is all unnecessary, we need some sleep."

"Shut up. We do as the Chief says with no complaints, and haven't you heard? The Boss really wants us to investigate this cave, from what I heard there is something inside. No one knows what except for some of his partners, but what I do know is that we're lucky to be looking for it."

"...I guess you have a point."

Two of the soldiers seemed to be arguing about something, but one quickly backed down. Unbeknownst to them, there was someone other than their team listening to every word they said.

'Why are they so obsessed over this cave? Hopefully, I'll find something pertaining to it soon. Even if it isn't worth anything to me, it might serve as a good hidden card.'

Once he acquired some useful information, he waited for them to turn around and leaped down silently. Not only that, but he unsheathed his dagger in one motion and crouched over to the group. Since though they were talking about meaningless topics, the man moved to end it quickly. He made sure not to forget about the other groups that were looking for him.

A loud thump came right afterwards. In just one swing of his dull dagger, the man took off the head of one of the soldiers speaking to his group. During the few seconds that occurred after, there was a pin-drop silence. There was one who broke out of his astonishment and saw the Asian man making his way towards him. Like his first victim, he too was not able to let out even a grunt.

That made two.

By the time he took the lives of their two comrades, the last one left understood the situation and readied his fists for battle. As if becoming a well-oiled machine, he moved in harmony. Launching punches, kicks, and palm attacks they all aimed for a vital spot, however, it did not take long for the Asian man to recognize his moves and easily deflect them all.

'He's mixed together Karate and Taekwondo. Not to mention he seems to be well versed in it as well, quite impressive. It'd be effective if I were someone different.'

Each move the man made countered theirs to the absolute core. They had not landed one move on the man since he started to defend himself.

Just who did they provoke?

"Who are you-!"

Shocked, the last soldier started to ease off. Deep down he knew he would lose. All that was left was to warn everyone else, luckily, he had a way to do so.

Realizing what he was going to do, the man attempted to stop him from firing it.

In the split-second he used to swing his dagger, the flare was already fired.

"Damn it!"

Frustrated at the fact he became careless, he looked over and saw the crowds of men who had spotted him.

"There's no use being patient about this I see. What was I thinking? All that matters is whether or not I get out of here alive."

Finally, the battle that determined the winner of it all was steadily approaching. Despite him insulting the fact he moved carelessly, deep inside, he was enjoying every second of it. Not caring to hide his excitement, he stopped tensing his face and let out a wry smile like the one from before. Step by step, he walked over to the crowd while increasing his speed every time he inched closer. At some point, he reached a sprint and jumped into the crowd with his dagger out.

"...How is this even possible?"

Those watching were mesmerized, their target was jumping over 9 feet into the air. It was understandable to be surprised at that one fact. Their Chief on the other hand, understood the situation they were in faster than anyone else.

The long and luscious hair, the muscular and lean build, the eyes, and those dreaded scars. Every one of his traits was easily recognizable by someone who looked hard enough.

"It..it's him."

All it took was one look at the Asian man who leaped into the air in order to understand.

The air around him froze, all he could feel was gut-wrenching fear. Hyperventilating was all that was left.

Quickly, he looked for a way out, but could not see anything due to his subordinates crowding around him. Curious as to how much progress the Asian man made, he looked behind him slowly.

Corpses, upon corpses were laid out on the floor as a man stepped on and over them, swinging his dagger back and forth, vertically and horizontally. It closely resembled a dance of some kind. His movements were elegant and seemed to move with the very wind around him all. Some of his moves couldn't even be seen.

'This must be the infamous Butterfly Dance. It truly is a wonderful sight.'

More of his men fell, but he still stood there in shock. There was truly nothing he could do but stand there mindlessly. At the very least, he should try and take in the moves of a true master.

A man amongst men.

A legend in the battlefield.

Even if he were to stand there and slow down time itself, he still would not have the ability to understand the movements being performed. It was beyond being a well-oiled machine, he was like an advanced AI doing the simplest of moves, but doing them in the most effective way possible.

Part of him wondered just what it took for him to get to this point of proficiency. What did he go through for him to be able to end the lives of people and not bat a single eyelash? Those with a shred of morality would think of life as sacred.

But to this man, it was nothing more than a candle waiting to be blown out by an external force.

'To think someone like this existed. Those stories were all true, no one believed them, but it was real. Would someone like this still be considered human?'

Witnessing his power firsthand, the only question in his mind was whether this man was a part of humanity. Being able to kill requires someone mentally strong enough to handle it. Even so, they'd avoid killing when it wouldn't be necessary.

That's what a normal person would be like at least, but this man shattered those thoughts in his mind when he ran over and swung his nimble blade, aiming right for the arteries located in their neck.

Large pools of bodily fluids followed the man wherever he went to the point even his shoes were dyed in the scarlet color of blood. Then finally, when there was only the Chief left, he ended it quicker than it began. He was never one to stretch out a battle longer than needed.

"Hmm. It certainly wasn't the most exciting thing in the world, though, it woke my muscles up quite a bit. Now all that's left is to take this camp off the grid and steal some of their information. If I find something about that cave, I'll go visit it."

The Cave.

Something is indeed inside of this cave. They've been waiting for someone, anyone to come and free them, whether someone would, was the grand question they've pondered over so many times. So many lonely years, decades, centuries, and millennium.

Time passed so slowly for them; all they wanted was someone to come for them.