Painful memories

"Don't take back your words! " Tom warned

"Don't think too highly of yourself" Arthur smiled

Both of them stood face to face against each other.

"Let's start" Arthur made shinobi kumite hand sign and a confused Tom tried to replicate it .

"Begin! " Arthur shouted

Tom immediately pulled out his sword and lunge it into the ground, "Ocean torrent! " he shouted and his qi gushed into his sword and immediately huge waves of water started gushing out from below creating a tiny tsunami that was roaring towards Arthur.

"Fire style: Fireball jutsu: an enormous fireball clashed with the tsunami and instantly vaporized it, creating a heavy mist that surrounded both of them. The fireball still continued flying towards Tom although a bit weaker due to the previous clash

'It's coming' Tom thought while looking at the fireball that was flying towards him, " If ocean torrent can't stop it then... " He pulled out his sword from the ground and imbued it with his

qi, the sword started glowing with golden light "This should do the job" Tom smirked, "Tidal slash!"

On the other side , Arthur suddenly felt the air becoming sharper, a golden light burst through the mist causing him to cover his eyes with his hands. "Sharingan" Arthur immediately activated his sharingan and he narrowly dodged a sword beam.

The sword beam left 5 m deep cut inside the ground.

"Quite formidable" Arthur commented "But too slow to reach me" he added smirking

"Are you sure about that? " Tom replied while multiple golden lights lit up dispersing the mist

"Water manipulation: Multi golden beams! " Tom shouted and aimed his sword towards Arthur.

Numerous sword beams rushed towards Arthur while leaving deep cuts on the ground

Arthur's 2 tomoe sharingan spun and he jumped up while dodging all the light beams.

"It isn't over yet! " Tom shouted and the sword beams changed trajectory and followed Arthur like a heat seeking missile.

Arthur tracked all of the light beams with his sharingan and easily evaded them mid air but the beams changed their trajectory again and encircled Arthur.

*Booom* the beams exploded

"You shouldn't have taken me lightly" Tom commented while sheathing his sword but a cold sword touched his back

"Don't be too hasty warrior" Arthur replied while pointing his sword towards Tom's back.

He was clueless as how Arthur appeared behind him 'Illusion? when did he cast it!? '

"You lost the moment you looked into my eyes"

"What?" Tom asked while his back drenched in cold sweat. He was clueless as how Arthur appeared behind him 'Illusion? when did he cast it!? '

"You couldn't even put up a fight against me, someone who is only at the 9th level of foundation establishment realm yet you want to kill an innate realm expert? " Arthur said while sheathing his sword back, " Learn to differentiate between courage and recklessness, if you die now than what will you say to your brother when you meet him? "

"I... " Tom stuttered

"We are leaving tomorrow morning" Arthur left without turning back. Both of them entered the cave and after eating dinner, they slept

.....

Late at night

Tom's dream

"Carlos! " Tom shouted as the Black bone impaled the carriage.

"Look out! " Li pushed Tom down, narrowly escaping a bone spear

A black figure descended near them, It had red eyes, green hair and a pale skin, his face partially covered with dirty bandages, wearing a black cloak and a mouth full of razor sharp teeths.

"You look quite skilled" The figure pointed towards Li with its long and slender fingers, the finger nail were black in color and looked a bit rotting.

"Get ready everyone! formation 3! " the captain shouted and everyone surrounded the figure.

"You ants can't defeat me" the figure smiled menacingly

"We can't but the rest of our crew and our lord will soon be here! " the captain reassured his teammates and himself

"Oh, you sure? cause to me, they seemed to be in quite a pickle" The figure tilted his face and laughed

The captain turned his head and he could see multiple black figures surrounding their escort agency.

"Help will not come so easily" the figure responded with a hoarse voice

Dream end

....

Early Morning

"Wake up tom" arthur said while checking the map.

Tom woke up with a bit of difficulty and he just sit there silently

"What happened? " Arthur asked and after a brief moment of silence, Tom replied "Nothing" and he smiled

"Let's get going then" Arthur didn't think much and urged Tom to start moving.

The golden light was illuminating the dark forest and two figures were running from tree to tree, Arthur had activated his sharingan trying his best to avoid monster encounters

"If we continue at this pace then we will reach the nearest city within 1 week" Arthur said while checking the map. "What do you think Tom? " Arthur asked but was met with silence

"Tom? " Arthur asked again and turned back,

Tom was closely following behind him but his eyes were lost deep in thought

"Tom! " Arthur shouted which pulled Tom out of his trance.

"Yes? " Tom asked

"Focus, we are inside the forest now and the holy lake is miles behind us, we have to remain vigilant from monster attacks" Arthur warned

"Yes! " Tom replied but his mind was constantly flooded by his previous dream.

'Who were they? ' Tom was lost in his thought when he heard Arthur shouting.

"Tom behind you! " Tom turned his head back and he could see a 6 foot tall grey wolf jumping towards him

"Golden barrier" Tom shouted and created his ocean barrier which was now enhanced with holy attribute, the grey wolve also responded by charging his air cannon point blank at Tom's face

"Shit" Tom cursed as even if he stopped that attack, the recoil will still severely harm him

"GODLIKE SPEED! " Arthur shouted as a bolt of lightning passed through the wolf and beheaded him

*Thump* the head fell to the ground and the body soon followed

'This is probably the same wolf.... ' Arthur looked at the gigantic wolf corpse and complicated emotions filled his eyes, remembering his first night in this world and how one of these wolf tried to kill him. He was so powerless back then but now, it couldn't even put up a proper fight.

'I am not like before.. ' Arthur sighed, a part of him was full of joy with his new found powers while the other part was saddened that he was changing. His morals, dreams and aspirations were no longer the same, he knew that the Arthur of the past was slowly vanishing.

"I can only embraced these changes... " he whispered

"Arthur? " Tom asked in concern since Arthur wasn't replying for a while

"Yes? " Arthur replied while he broke free from his thoughts

"We should quickly find a resting spot, the sun is setting" Tom said

Arthur nodded and soon they found an abandoned cave near a small hill.

...

Inside the cave

Arthur was eating a dried meat as setting up a fire will attract the nearby monsters

Tom on the other hand just held his food in his hand while he was lost in his own thoughts

"What happened? " Arthur tapped Tom's shoulder and asked

After a brief silent, Tom replied "I don't want to sleep? "

"Why? " Arthur asked

"My dreams are haunting me.. every time I dream, I remember a part of my memories and if I sleep today then I will be seeing something that I don't want to see.. " Tom replied while his body shook a bit

"Can you tell me in more details? " Arthur asked, forgetting a trauma was the best solution but Tom wasn't able to simply forget about it, that's why Arthur decided to hear him out to ease his burden as sharing lessens pain.

Tom looked into Arthur's eyes and narrated his dreams, what he saw and what he was feeling.

"It feels like I am betraying myself by running away from it... " Tom replied in a strange tone

"Tom.. " Arthur wanted to comfort him but Tom interrupted him by shaking his head

"I am alright now thanks to this talk, thank you for hearing me out. The burden inside my heart has lessened quite a bit" Tom replied while laying down and closing his eyes.

"Good night" Arthur said to which Tom replied with a nod

.....

Dream

" Ezra ! what are you doing! snap out of it! " Li slapped Tom who was blankly staring at the broken carriage

"But... " Tom or rather Ezra replied with tears in his eyes "But carlos... "

"Snap out it" Li shouted "We are in the midst of a battle right now! " Li pointed towards the captain and the rest of the crew who were desperately fighting against the cloaked figure

"We will all die if we don't fight together!" Li shouted and joined the battle. Seeing that, Ezra also joined his teammates

"I will kill you bastard" Li shouted while thrusting his massive spear which was easily blocked by the figure "Is that what you call a spear thrust? " the figure mocked li.

"You bastard! " Li cursed.

"Let me show you what spear thrust really looks like" the figure laughed while multiple black bones shot out from his rib impaling 2 of Ezra teammates, one being the talkative brown haired fellow.

"Nooo! " Ezra shouted but the figure suddenly vanished and appeared behind him. "Now it's your turn! " the figure thrust his hand towards Ezra's abdomen

*Plunge*

*spurt*

*plop... plop.... plop*

it was the sound of impaling and blood but it wasn't Ezra's...

Ezra turned back and saw a hand impaling through li's chest.

*plop... plop... *

the blood dripped down from li's chest.

*spurt* li vomited out blood on Ezra's face and weakly said "Run... "