Lured by Potential

A disgusting monster was at the spot with the two dead goblins. Thick white drool hung on both ends of the monster's mouth. Its skin was a rotten black, and a length of about two human skeletons, and a spine that was heavily bent, hanging forward so much that its hands almost grazed the dirt.

Its slitted pupils jumped between the two corpses laying in dark blood. Both goblins had a hole in their head. One of them with a stick hanging off, and one of them had flesh missing from its arm, but the bone was still there.

The creature took a step forward, closed its eyelids, and took a deep sniff. It's head jerked in the direction of a sweet smell, and the only thing that stopped the monster from charging there was a booming aura coming from the exact same place.

Its pupils jumped back to the goblins. It walked over, standing right in front of a goblin, sniffing its green cheek. A bit of the drool fell down on the goblin's still face, that would have been shrieking if it were alive.

***

The scarecrow stood looking at the master, feeling completely surrounded by a single person. It wondered what its next course of action would be. How could it survive? No answers came to mind.

Orwell hadn't made a single sound up until now. It was as if it had fallen asleep, not being able to handle whatever emotions eating a raw arm put it through.

The muscled boy stood barely two meters away with his sword down. He looked at the scarecrow casually and without fear, as if it were a pig within a cage. The scarecrow felt quite disgusted by that notion.

The master walked up to the scarecrow, and stood beside it, like an expert of paintings standing beside a painting and talking about it. The scarecrow wasn't fooled by the master's casual act.

There was movement in the area. A deer stood and grazed. Lots of birds sat on the branches staring. The monsters in the forest had learnt that this was a place to stay away from. Well, all except one monster.

It felt fear, but a strange type of fear that came from an odd place. It wasn't an emotional, not the type of fear that makes you shiver or step away, but rather a logical fear, one that won't the leave the mind alone. And it was, the idea that it could die here, and that its journey to becoming the strongest would stop.

"Setsuru, can you tell what's special about the monster?"

The boy scrunched his eyes. Walked up to the scarecrow, grabbed the scarecrow's arms, gave it a good sniff, lifted and shook it a bit. Pressed his ear against the scarecrow's chest to hear the slight thumping of its heart.

The scarecrow didn't move, because it knew that it had no response to make. Attacking the boy might aggravate the master, and that was not something the scarecrow wished to avoid. For now, it simply had to hope that they would let it go.

But this plan, the only plan it had, disgusted the scarecrow. It was the opposite of what it wanted with its entire being.

"It seems like an ordinary monster, maybe a bit weaker than usual."

"Hmmm," the master said, and in a split second had his sword drawn out, and thrust it forward so that it stopped only a hair's width away from the boy's eyes. The boy fell down on his back in an effort to get away.

"Why did you move?" The master asked.

"What? It would have killed me."

"No, it would not have touched you, but still you moved."

"How was I supposed to know that?"

"Why would I kill you after training you? Thoughts Setsuru, that's how you know. Use your thoughts not your emotions to fight."

"But."

"No buts," the master said, "Now back to the monster. I want you to make the scarecrow act in the same way I have made you act. You are not allowed to touch it."

"Easy," the boy said with confidence.

The boy stood up and looked over at the scarecrow. Setsuru didn't realise it, but the master had disappeared from behind him, and now sat in a tree away from their vision. He watched over the two.

The scarecrow noticed the master's disappearance almost immediately, and grasped how the scenario had changed. It could fight the boy and maybe kill him, but if the master came back it would surely lead to a bad outcome. The safest action here was to run away.

The scarecrow turned and started to run.

"No you don't!" Setsuru said, running past the scarecrow and standing in front of it. He was much faster than the scarecrow. The scarecrow tried again, turnin and running another direction but the boy was there again. The scarecrow stood still letting its stamina regen.

If it killed the boy, then the old man would surely kill it. If it wanted to get out alive, it had to injure the boy, but not kill him, and then run away. That was its only option to survival. It pulled in its arms, and was ready to fight the boy.

"Ready to fight, nice," the boy said with a bright smile.

He sprung forward, and threw a kick, stopping his feet right in front of the scarecrow's face. The underside was brown with dirt. The scarecrow did not flinch or move, but looked at the foot and its mind wandered with the potential of what it could do. It was staring at death.

The scarecrow lashed out, thrusting its arms out, but jerked away too quickly. Then before the scarecrow could draw back its arms, he lifted the sword high up into the air, almost dramatically, and swung it, in a speed where the sword was still visible.

The scarecrow felt frozen, and stared at the sword coming closer and closer. It couldn't do anything. it could not do anything. This was death, this was a failure to its purpose coming back again.

Then it stopped, just above the scarecrow's head. Death.

The sword swung around, like a snake tying its victim, it almost bended and now it was at the neck of the scarecrow. It could have died, this was death. Then it swung again, bending, increasing in speed, and now on the other side of the scarecrow's neck. Death. The boy changed position, and swung the hilt forward, but stopping in front of the scarecrow's chin.

"Tsk," the boy muttered and jumped back, this challenge was proving harder than the boy originally thought.

The scarecrow's mind was filled with a single word. Death, death, death, death. The notion was intensely uncomfortable, like a centipede crawling into your brain. It looked down at the ground; and then, screeched as loudly as it could, surprising even the boy.

A few birds flew away.

This wasn't going to do, this was not how the strongest ought to act. The scarecrow stared back at the boy with fury. Then something very peculiar happened, it's legs squared up, it slowly turned its torso, and its chin straightened. The boy realized what was happening. The scarecrow was copying his stance!

New skill learnt! Sen-jutsu, tier beginner, level 1/5

The master sitting on top of a branch smiled. This was certainly an unexpected development.

"A monster dares mimic SEN JUTSU!" The boy shouted, blue flames splashing out of him. The flames did not create heat, but they did signify something different with the boys body, a change of sorts.

He leaped forward, but this time with the full intention of killing the scarecrow. Before he reached the scarecrow however, the master stood in front of the scarecrow, backhanded away the boy's palm, tripped him, and mushed his face against the ground. Then the master sat on the boy's back, twisting his legs, and trapped the boy.

"Thank you monster, you have taught my student a valuable lesson and for that I am willing to let you go," the master said, thinking the scarecrow understood the words he had spoken, but it did not, and stood still staring at them.

"It seems you need a bit of motivation," the master said, flicking his fingers, and making the air around the scarecrow shoot it away into the sky and deeper into the forest.

The short flight was a mess. The air blew in the scarecrow's ears, originally sags of cloths sewn into each side of the scarecrow's head. The liquids inside of the scarecrow's body rose and then sank, and the scarecrow felt strange. The scarecrow's mind wasn't working fast enough to figure out the sight it was seeing of the trees becoming smaller, and then bigger.

It would have died, but it did not weigh much, and the branches stopped its fall. Still it face planted on the ground with dirt coming into its nose.

With its face pushed up against dirt, the scarecrow realized what it had to do. Train, just like Setsuru. It stood up. There was no reason to wait. It began repeating some of the moves it saw Setsuru do.

It raised its legs further than it was comfortable doing, and tripped down onto the floor.

***

Back at the spot with the master and the student. Setsuru punched through a tree, breaking it, and letting off some steam. Then he turned to his master, and asked him the question that bothered him.

"Why couldn't I make that monster flinch?"

"Because that monster occupies the space which you are training hard to achieve for even a split second, the state which for us humans, only true masters of the art can occupy," the master said.

"What space?" Setsuru asked.

"The space where it has been completely detached from its emotions and instinctual urges. It was born this way. If you could achieve this state for even a second you'd be able to cut right through the boulder. That is what true focus is capable of."

"But it's weak"

"Yes, that is because true focus does not bolster power but technique, and that monster fought only with power," the master said, and finished the rest in his mind, but now that it has learned the stance of Sen-Jutsu I wonder how high it will reach.