Book 1 Chapter 22: Killing Floor

Chapter 22: Killing Floor

Yuki was travelling at a running pace, looking around before he leapt and crawled up a tree a jump at a time. He reached a high branch before peering off into the distance. He could see a castle, with a small village of several 100's of feet across at the base of it. The castle was one massive square stone room, connected to a 200 foot tall tower.

"See that? That is our objective today, the Messenger Hawk that just arrived informed us by letter of a master there we have to assassinate. He amassed that village, and you would think he would do well by them as their lord. Except every single one of them is a slave, and held under a spell from an early age and coaxed to do his bidding. He has the Mind attribute for water…except he had a divergent mutation of blood. Apart from lightning minded vessels who can manipulate the mind, blood manipulators are the other true controller of the body itself, instead of the mind. This is darker, because of being unware of it, their minds are active and they realize every atrocious action they are forced to commit.

He forces the women to become sex slaves, and the men to sometimes kill off their entire families on a whim… He is an evil man. We were dispatched after a caravan group of nobles was ambushed and brought there, where they were tortured to death by their own people. Got it?" Shadow said with lethal killing intent in his voice.

"I do." Yuki said, his eyes turning into the distance towards the tower. He felt a burning itch to run full tilt at it and kill him. But this was also a strategy game Shadow was giving him.

"I'll plant explosives all around the towers base on the far side, since there is a natural cliff, because of the weight it will topple off of it. After that, I will sneak into the tower before I detonate the explosive Spore Spiders. I want to get Intel first on him, before grabbing what things I can before leaving. With the shadow shade plant I acquired, emitting enough of its energy from my spirit plant should suffice enough to not allow detection." Yuki said after pondering.

Yuki had acquired a ShadowShade plant, which would emit a shadow energy that would dim perception on the area, making almost anyone invisible. He had borne a bunch of Entera Energi Apples, before planting the Shadow shade into it. He had acquired as well a Silver Glimmer flower, which congealed the air and distorted it, making an almost invisible field that would distort the area making anyone inside invisible too as long as they weren't standing in front of the flower while someone looked at it. They would disrupt it in that spot and make them be able to be seen.

If they were on the other side, the distorted light from the opposing side would conceal them.

These two were very difficult to combine, so currently Yuki could only consolidate space and have the Shadow Shade plant, the Glimmer Flower and the Burien Spider Spore pod on his Spirit plant.

He looked at the ranger group about 50 feet away from the tree he was up on with Shadow. They currently were in what they called a dead camp, they would sleep in fox holes and would not use a fire and only eat dry rations. Thus the name dead zone, as they would not be found or seen.

Yuki hopped down, and practiced with his teacher movement techniques as well as killing moves.

Yuki had over the course of the past several weeks learned a lot, whether it be: Techniques, terrain information, utilizing terrain, trap creation, alchemy, hand to hand combat and long range weaponry. He could be said an adept at these and had at least the capability of 10% of each of his teachers skills and traits, and that was to say each teacher specifically.

He truly was becoming a jack of all trades, master of none. But also…he was mastering some of the things he was learning. Becoming an unprecedented Jack of all trades, Master of the many!

These were the basic skills though, so he had yet to step into any sort of Advanced level, but was on par with the regular 14 year olds that were trained in these arts and styles when they began this road. Yuki was just a bit near 6 and a half though; this was less than half the age of those that first began this training. They went easier on him for his size, but Yuki was a very intelligent and perceptive person. Over the course of time, they gave him the nickname Shifting Sparrow, as he would change the spirit of his plant when he needed to adapt to a situation. He was small and light like a breeze and thus came the name Sparrow, of Shifting Sparrow.

The group usually called him Little Bird as a moniker in the group, which Yuki didn't mind at all as it meant they accepted him as a little brother.

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Night fell; casting a green glow of the Terra moon, unknown to Yuki far off in the distance by hundreds and hundreds of miles Apollo was fighting to the death on the side of one wolf tribe against another. The light of this moon, shined its rays against the ground reflecting off a small pond several dozen feet wide at the base of the hill they currently resided upon.

Yuki put deep black matte colored clothing on, readying himself as het set down the hill; the Amalgapod was stored in his body. It would be easier to travel without it out. Yuki actually had to learn how to do this as since he awakened it he had kept it alongside him.

He treaded down silently, rolling his feet across the ground low and moving forward at a sprint with his body bent. This was a tactic to obscure sound, he had shoes that were made from Iron Main essence, and padded on the bottom with Soft willow leaves. Soft willow leaves when struck by sound would actually dissipate it, as the leaves were in a strange shape that broke sound waves. The iron main essence was known for decreasing vibration; with this his steps were as quite as a whisper.

So he mostly focused on not stepping on things.

Several thousand feet closed in about 25 minute's time, as he was being meticulous in not drawing attention. He moved by small huts that soon became little buildings for the upper classes of the slaves, and were most likely reserved for the sex slaves this lord used. He kept them in good condition for use later, rather than the withering environment of a cold cut hut.

He soon came at the base of the 90 foot tall sturdy cliff face, which was littered with spikes and vine growths of the plants that were indigenous to the area. There weren't many trees in several thousand feet of this place, that's why Yuki's group had been so far away, as to stay in the tree line. He grabbed hold of a vine, climbing steadily up. He may not be a fast runner, but with his size he was nimble and light and climbed the 90 feet in just several minutes.

Once he reached the top, he lifted his hand above and over the cliff, pulling himself up and onto the edge. Looking around as his head swiveled seeing the coast was clear.

He lifted his hand, and a small seed formed in the air before dropping to the ground and expanding until it became the Amalgapod, he touched a pod on it before it bloomed.

This unlocked the Silver glimmer flower which began to shimmer the air around him, congealing his presence with only a slight shimmer in the air. He touched a second flower which bloomed with black petals like a dark rose and emitted a dark aura of shade, which was just larger than the 6 foot glimmer sphere. This shaded the glimmer in the air, and also darkened the spot around it, congealing his presence further. If anyone looked at him now, they would only see a dark shaded spot like that of a corner of a building that was empty and without windows.

'Ready…' He moved step by step closer to the tower, looking up at its massive size, he walked around slowly and blended against the wall with the chameleon suit he wore so that anyone behind him would not see his body as he blended in slightly.

He would have to hold his breath and be unmoving to be completely invisible, and this used up energy so he used its passive trait to his advantage. Several guards that were not controlled by the lord walked around, with young 15 year old girls in their arms who had struggling fear in their eyes. Their bodies were like zombies as they walked along, unable to control their movements.

Yuki felt a burning desire of righteousness well up in his chest to launch forth and throw blades into their eyes, but he knew that would result in the opposite effect by alerting the lord, and not being able to pull the girls away as even their own bodies were incapable of running away.

He steeled his heart, and slowly pushed forward around the wall edge. The front door of the tower was large and about 10 feet tall with two braziers next to it. The braziers darkened for a second, as if the wind blew them down. They resumed their bright radiance once more, a second after: the door slowly closing between them silently.

Yuki looked around to find a large room with two stair cases, one going down and the other going up in a spiral to a different level. Due to the size, the base of the tower was hundreds of feet wide. He could see after opening the front door, the stones were very thick at about a foot and a half. He had planted and could feel the Spider spores slowly moving around the edge of the tower, directly adjacent to him. He had used up more than half of his energy to create thousands of Spider spores, he left the corpse of man he had killed at the edge of the cliff, which when directed they would feast upon and grow. Creating a large explosion as they centered at three points.

With that set, he turned and slowly crept up the stairs one at a time. He was on high alert, and had his blowgun ready for any movement. Without hesitation he would kill them, using the deadly poison Shadow had given him. He had three types, one was a hallucinogenic type, the second an instant kill poison, and the last dart type he had was one that that contained blood, which he could fill the tip of with his spores. When he chose, the blood inside would go into someone, and he could grow the spiders at will and explode them in their veins.

Yuki reached the second level, and noticed some attendants lolling about like drones. Some were litterly laying prostrate on the floor asleep as their bodies were worn out or had less control over them.

He looked over the room, seeing many desks, a wide library and not much else other than attendants writing upon papers. There wasn't much in this room, he continued up the stair case at an angle with his spirit plant to his side to block their view of him. The staircase went up and over all of the curving rounded library shelves. This room compared to the first was double in height, even having sections on the walls above the stair cases with stairs leading to them. It was about 40 feet tall, the second level was 20 feet to the roof of the room from the cat walk sections.

The third level was about the same size at 30 feet, and actually had buildings lining the walls like a small village spread out. There was buildings that went to the roof, and some that were only ten feet tall, regardless, there was no walls of the castle because there was a building filling every spot without a gap, there was buildings in the center as there was 100 feet across the diameter of the tower, some buildings were 10 by ten, with one being 15 by 25. This created alley ways, and a maze like structure. Yuki pondered, and walked forward through it, being careful to make no sound, as well as keep his spirit close to obscure him.

He investigated the buildings, finding sleeping guards, older women asleep on the floors next to them with the men's feet pressed against them like night stools.

'disgusting filth' Yuki knew the guards were marked with blood seals, but also choose to be here because of the tyrant power they were given, keeping them loyal to the lord as they could splurge their dark desires. The man outside alone that he killed had actually came from here, and was most likely the son of the lord here. The lord had yet to know of that event, or even that Yuki the person who killed him was to kill his father as well.

He heard a commotion behind him, as the guards who were with the 15 year old girls came walking up the stairs, Yuki quickly moved to a dark alley way and crouched down sucking in a long breath and holding it. He turned invisible with the suit, and his spirit created a pure shade that was impossible to know his presence while within it. He watched with his eyes slowly as they took the girls to a small 10 by 10 building. He could hear clothes ripping, and the burning feeling in his heart grew even deeper.

'no!' Yuki shouted in his heart, he was a very meticulous person, but unlike his patrons was young so the experience of steeling ones heart was difficult. He slowly crept forward to the rooms, and lifted his blowgun, as a man was spreading the girls legs, her eyes were crying in fear. He shot a dart out and it struck the mans neck, who couldn't yelp as it was a long needle that went through his trachea. The poison broke inside flowing into his jugular, before he collapsed upon the girl who couldn't move her legs. She only looked with her eyes without her head moving but saw nothing. She felt the heart of the man in front on top of her stop. His breathing stagnate.

Yuki did this three more times, before slowly closing the doors of the rooms. As it was night, the men shouldn't be called for or asked for to attend to anything.

Yuki turned, between the three rooms, lay down a mimic plant that gave out the sound of men snoring. This was to obscure any chance of people thinking the rooms were empty or for use, as guards were inside of it.

He tread to the stairs, finding that the buildings had furnishing, and a bed but no chests meant this was completely for just sleeping and vile acts. He went up to the 4th level, since the first floor was 10 feet tall, the second level 40, and the third floor 30, he was over 80 feet up now and less than halfway to the top.

The 4th floor, was actually….filled with cages…Filled with many different girls of different ages, and even young men and old women. This must be where they keep prisoners, as well as new women yet to be blood sealed. Yuki walked around slowly, all the people with not even the energy to lift their heads as they were starved purposefully.

He raised his hand, and swiped it against a pod on a branch from the Amalgapod. His hand blurred and threw out a spider spore to each of the locks on a cage around the room. He would blow these, right before he blew the one at the bottom. He placed Entera Enurugi apples through the bars of the cages, the eyes of the people looking as an arm came out of the air and placed food before them like a divine god granting them hope. They slowly grabbed at the apples, taking a bite as they passed it around slowly as their arms were beyond weak. The strongest insides the cages would help to feed those around them, before taking the last bite themselves and eating what was left of the core.

The eyes of everyone present shone, energy surging into their bodies as their eyes lit up full of spirit.

Yuki hushed his voice but it was still heard by everyone present, "Wait for the blow, and then you shall know" He mused himself with this Rhyme, but it really did fit the situation. They all nodded their heads, before laying back down acting as if nothing happened.

Yuki tread up the stairs, finally arriving at the 100 foot up 5th level. This was a room filled with food, as well as different places with fires for cooking, and a large gathering table. This room was a bit smaller than the level below it, with only about 80 feet across as the tower tapered a bit rising up.

He didn't find anything useful here, or anybody as no food was needed to be cooked. The sixth level was actually a room with boxes stacked everywhere, Yuki propped open a box only to find food goods, clothes of varying worth, and different material. He knew something might be in here, but as he looked he found just a maze of boxes with listings at the end of the rows to show what they contained.

He walked along looking up at the lists, 'Food: dried fruit, dried vegetables, meats, powders, spices.' in chronological order. It was the same for the clothes, which had tapestries, carpets, rugs in it list.

There was a small building with a sleeping guard sat in a chair next to it. Yuki flashed a thin blade, and before the guard even opened its eyes, it pierced through his ear canal and into his brain killing him instantly. He looked no different than before as if he was still sleeping.

Yuki looked over to the door on this small building, to find no list. He felt the man's waist and grasped a key, walking over and placing it into the lock which clicked as it turned. The room was small, and had 3 chests at each corner, he opened the far one with the second of 4 keys on the ring.

As he looked inside, he saw a bunch of crystals, they were all different shapes and sizes. He didn't know what they were for so he just stored the entire chest in his spatial ring.

The second chest was filled with gold ingots, silver bars and copper coins! 'Shadow will shit his pants!' Yuki smiled with an evil grin. He stored the chest into his ring, and looked at the third chest.

If this was that good, then the third shouldn't be too bad right?

He walked over and with the last key, unlocked it, he looked down and actually saw….nothing?

'If the other boxes had stuff why not this one? That can't be true' Yuki just wouldn't believe it, it was unlikely to waste space with an empty case, his curiosity just like his brothers not only made him question things but also look for the deeper meaning and answer. He wrapped his hands around the box, until he felt something click. It was a hidden button carved into the wood that would without a doubt be missed. The chest bottom slid over, and a side of the chest actually slowly fell down as it created a small 8 foot staircase into the stone floor.

'A hidden room! Ah now that makes more sense, empty my ass!' Yuki looked around him, placing the Spirit plant at the top of these stairs to obscure the opened chest.

It was pitch black down here, so he lit a torch which illuminated the 5 by 10 foot room that the stairs came into. There was a chest on the far wall, and also racks of weapons to his left. He pulled the torch over to see the weapons were made of different material, daggers of obsidian, a red colored scythe, and lastly a handle?

He held the handle, weighing it, and placed all three weapons in his ring to be investigated later. He felt the lock on the chest he didn't have a key to it, so the lord must.

Too easy though! He pulled out a lock picking set one of his patron teachers had taught him with on locks he carried. Yuki picked it up fast, and although he wasn't as fast as the teachers who litterly could place there hand on a door knob and turn it, regardless of whether it was locked or not it would just open, it was that fast!

He fiddled for about a breath of time before *clink* the lock opened, he took it off and opened up the chest pulling the torch from the floor and peered in.

There was rubies, diamonds, emeralds, gold plates, rings, crowns, pearl necklaces. This must be what he had taken from the different people he had killed or kidnapped, the gold above must be for trade use, whereas the empty chest leads to this personal vault of acquisitioned items.

He stored the items as he waved his hand, as each piece disappeared, it showed the bottom of the large chest, which had a rod in it at the bottom, it had a large crystal on it with the shaft being deep black.

A scepter? Yuki grabbed it with his hand, turning around and leaving the small room and up the stairs he hit the button and closed the hidden door. He twirled the scepter in his hand, for some reason he felt it pull energy out of his hand as he held it.

This is definitely a magical item, I'll have to find out what kind later on. He stored it in his ring and crept out the door, past the dead guard, locking the door behind him before grabbing and storing a bunch of different food goods, materials, rugs, you name it.

He went to the 7th level which was 20 feet tall, adding on the last two levels which were 15 feet tall each he should be at 150 feet, probably two levels left to go. He looked around, to find chambers all around. The rooms had naked girls in them, maids with their clothes torn off, male servants left standing and asleep in small closet sized rooms, some rooms had torture chambers in them while other rooms had the devices to do so.

He crept up the stairs to the 8th level, this room was actually 40 feet tall, 190 feet up. It had rows of flowers, trees; it looked like a massive garden that was 65 feet across. It had trees growing, artificial light globes, as well as a pond built into the floor covered in grass on top of dirt. This felt like the outdoors and must be for that very purpose. He found no special plants here, as he had a keen eye he would spot any and all of them. They were all natural mortal plants.

9th level....He crept up slowly, peering over the stair edge into a large circular room, a massive bed was at the far end of it, and the ceiling was made completely of thick glass. Yuki looked up to see the stars, as well as the green terra moon that casted light down through the sky ceiling.

He looked around to find women strone on the floor, naked and beaten within an inch of their lives. He slipped an Entera Enurugi apple slice into their mouths. Their eyes moving about as they only felt someone open their mouths and slip something into it.

They felt cool and warm energy go through their body as the bruises slowly disappeared, although they couldn't move their body, eyes across the room began to cry in happiness to the kindness of the nimble god that flew past them. Yuki looked at the massive bed to see it covered in women, he saw a long haired middle aged man in the middle of it laying across the breasts of different women.

Yuki pulled up his blowgun, and blew it. A dart silently flew through the air and landed on the man's neck, which at first looked up in panic only to find his eyes start to blur, he passed out and his mouth started to bleed, several explosions occurred in his neck veins, following down his arms, and across his body. The women moved their eyes down to see the man was bleeding internally as his skin started to darken from blood leaking under the skin.

Veins creeped into his eyes, before finally small golden specks could be seen that grew slightly before exploding his eyes out of his skull.

"Arrogance begets death" Yuki finally said aloud within the room, he snapped his fingers and over a 100 feet below him doors blew open, releasing prisoners. It took several seconds but the women around him began to twitch, as well as the people across the levels. They began to sluff and move their fingers before finally moving their hands. The legs began to slide, as smiles began to twitch and form on faces, they were free!

People began to sluff and pull themselves across the floor to the stairs, it looked like people with broken bones and jelly knees were trying to walk for the first time. Over time, red crimson light began to burst from their foreheads, each time it did the person would pick themselves off the floor and start walking, before running and even some sprinted.

The naked women around Yuki walked over, and one at a time kissed him on the cheek, his face became covered in reds, pinks, greens, blues, and even purple lipstick marks. Each time he would make clothe appear out of the air and hand it to a woman to cover them.

"Thank you little man, you seem young, but when you turn 13 or so come and see these girls and we shall reward you for saving our lives and freeing us!" Some women ran over and stomped on the face of the man, and his dick, they even ran down to the rooms below and grabbed knives before coming up and flaying the man's skin off of him, and even sticking his whole cut off shaft down his throat before dragging him down the stairs. Yuki watched this without feeling as the man had deserved this, women had died because of that very act countless times under that very man's hand.

Over 40 women had kissed Yuki on his cheeks, neck, face, nose, he had marks all over. He searched the room and found deed papers to the land, more gold and some gems. As he walked down the stairs, he had a star struck face with the cheekiest little grin anyone could ever have seen.

He was the last person to leave the large tower, as he exited the front door he saw the pile of bodies of countless guards. Some were even still being dragged and then beheaded by different men that were imprisoned. When they turned and saw Yuki, they waved and cheered, people from the village gained their movement back and started to walk up the big hill cheering for the hero that saved them.

They all saw a young boy, with a bright smile on his face covered in kiss marks and they all began to laugh and hug each other. Crying and bawling their eyes out, some collapsing again in happiness.

Figures flew over the crowd and up the hill and appeared around Yuki, Shadow was looking at his face covered in Kiss marks. "You cheeky little bastard, why did we choose you to come!" all the men in the group laughed, and the women giggled before laughing too.

Shadow stepped forward, "Everyone!" His voiced carried across the crowd. Everyone quieted down, "You have now been given your freedom, do with it what you will! Live a peaceful life, grow with your families, and fight tyranny when it pervades your land!" He reached back for an already waiting Yuki who handed him the deeds, shadow waved them in the air. "This young boy is now your lord! He was the one who gave you your freedom, the strongest of you few shall take over the responsibilities of the land while he becomes the lord!" Shadow looked back at Yuki smiling who had a "whaaaaaaa" come out of his mouth.

Yuki thought for a moment before he hopped up onto a large stone, " AND NO TOWER SHALL STAND HERE OVER US!" He clapped his hands and a massive explosion happened on the other side of the tower. People jumped back, and saw large cracks appear on the massive castle tower. It fell back slowly before going off the cliff and exploding on the ground below.

"Yaaaa!" the crowd cheered!