Strange Energy

In a forest where danger lurks around every corner, a man was meditating in absolute silence under a tree.

The man was big, with nearly seven feet tall. He has light-brown skin and is extremely muscular with several scars throughout his body. His red hair, connected with his red beard and mustache, is reminiscent of a lion's mane.

His name is Barolt.

The Sword King.

Barolt was meditating because he found himself in an extremely strange situation. He's dead, he's sure of it, but he's not dead.

He remembers the hand of Zenovia, his former companion, piercing and destroying his heart, and Eric, his apprentice, giving the final blow so that his former companions would not obtain the necessary experience to level up and become even more powerful.

Barolt snorted with a smile on his face, remembering the scene of his apprentice and his companions saving him from Zenovia's attack. It was the first time in his entire life that he had been saved like that.

But he didn't feel bad about being saved. Quite the opposite. Seeing the determined backs of the brats that saved him made him feel relieved, as he knew they would be the next generation of heroes.

That's why he gave his life to Eric, so that he would be even stronger to stop those who betrayed the goddess. He died, and he died with no regrets.

His life was also almost over anyway, with only four months left until he died naturally according to the goddess. Dying a little early to nurture the next generation wasn't a bad deal.

He remembers his last breath, and he remembers death's icy embrace. But then, as if it were all a dream, he opened his eyes once more.

When he opened his eyes, he thought he was at the great feast of warriors, which is his tribe's belief in what the afterlife would be like, but he was wrong.

He felt the familiar Aura on his body.

Aura is one of the four manifestations of a being's vitality. If there is Aura, then there is life.

That's why Barolt is meditating, trying to find an answer as to why he's still alive. And not only that, he could feel it; his body is younger. Not much, but at least twenty years younger.

Unfortunately, Barolt wasn't very good at using his head, and he knew it. After a day of meditating, trying to find an answer, he found nothing.

Feeling irritated, Barolt huffs and opens his eyes, snapping out of his meditation.

The birds that were resting on his broad shoulders and other animals that were close to him as he meditated, immediately fled as if a monster had awakened from its slumber.

Barolt gets up and starts walking in a random direction. In this one day of meditation, even though he discovered nothing about his situation, he discovered other things. For example, strange creatures using what he could only describe as a mixture of Mana and Aura.

He didn't know exactly what it was, but it looked interesting enough to investigate.

Barolt walked calmly through the unknown forest, heading towards the being with the highest concentration of vitality that he had discovered. The forest around Barolt was extremely quiet, as all the animals and creatures could sense the danger that man represented.

He walked for a few hours, and then he found what he was looking for. A few meters from where he stood, a strange group of creatures feasted and danced. The group consisted of dozens of furry humanoid creatures with strange masks and a huge humanoid monster in the middle.

The large humanoid monster was at least three meters tall, and most of its body was protected by thick stone armor. Like the other smaller creatures, it also had a mask, but unlike the smaller creatures, who seemed to wear a mask as a tribal ornament, the giant creature's mask appeared to be part of its face along with two large curved horns just above it.

The smaller creatures were dancing and singing a song that Barolt could only describe as meaningless words, and the large creature was sitting down while eating a large amount of fruit.

Barolt had seen most of the world, and with it most of the monsters; but he has never seen creatures like these before. Without much thought, Barolt walked towards them, and when he got close enough, the creatures immediately became alert.

The smaller creatures looked rather desperate as they chatted in a language completely unfamiliar to Barolt, but it was easy to tell that they were preparing to fight.

The largest humanoid that had the strange energy roared, causing the surrounding earth to shake. His entire body was coated with unfamiliar yellowish energy and his eyes glowed brightly as he looked at Barolt.

Without giving Barolt any time to react, the creatures attacked with poorly made clubs and swords, and the giant creature charged toward him.

Barolt snorted. "Small fries."

Barolt took a step, then disappeared. In the next instant, the smaller humanoid creatures heads exploded like a watermelon, and he appeared in front of the large creature with arms crossed over his chest.

"Show me what you got," Barolt demanded.

He wanted to know exactly what this strange energy was, and the best way for him to get an idea without having to use his head is to feel it with his body.

The big monster, seeing Barolt's contempt look, was enraged. Gathering its energy into its fist, the creature threw a punch toward him.

Barolt didn't move a muscle, and the creature's fist slammed into Barolt's body with a loud crash. The impact of the fist with Barolt's body raised a large cloud of dust, greatly reducing the creature's visibility.

The creature, however, paid no attention to it. The stupid human who tried to challenge him is dead.

That was until he heard a disappointed sigh.

The cloud of dust settled, and he saw the human standing in place, unharmed. The creature tilted its head, confused; the creature then felt a strong pain in the fist it used to punch the human, and upon looking at its hand, it sees that it is gone.

The creature roars to the heavens in pain, and Barolt looks at it in disappointment.

"How weak. I didn't even have to move. Is this strange energy really that weak, or are you the weak one?"

Barolt, without giving the creature time to recover, took a step closer to the creature and punched it in the stomach. The punch was light, but it was enough to make the creature's entire torso explode into several pieces.

The creature fell to the ground, dead without any resistance.

"Hm. It's really weak. Whatever. I need to know where I am and how I got here in the first place. I can have fun later," Barolt muttered.

Not only was he disappointed with the creature's strength, but also because he couldn't understand the strange energy even after feeling it with his body. It was a completely new type of energy for him.

As he mumbled, a girl with golden eyes with long waist-length dark brown hair, kept together with a headband with a large red bow tied in a way that resembles bunny ears, was watching him from afar.

Of course, he knew she was there.