CHAPTER 5-BRIK

3 months later.

X stood in a familiar stance, hatchet near his back, knees bent. He whispered

'Fire escape'

Then he disappeared, turning into a stream of blazing flames that flew in the air with extreme speed, rushing towards the muscular man with red hair. The flame solidified into X once again, then he swung a hatchet really fast, towards the man's back. The knight, Ken placed his sword on his shoulder, blade facing towards X. The hatchet collided with the sword, sparks flying in the air. Ken then used his sword as a lever, his shoulder the fulcrum. Pulling down on the hilt, he sent X's hatchet flying, clattering on the ground.

Just then, a sword swung quickly, toward Ken, who sidestepped the attack with ease, before grabbing the sword with his bare hand, covered in flames. The heat of the fire knight's attack caused small blisters in Briks fist, and he dropped the sword. Ken then extinguished his hand, before punching the weaponless Brik in the gut. Just then, another stream of flames came flashing, and this time, only the hatchet shot out of the moving jet of fire, aimed for Ken's neck. Blocking the attack, he grabbed X's collar just as he transformed back into a kid. Caught unexpectedly, X was defenseless, and as he hung on his collar, he heard a scream of anger. Ken let him go and turned just in time to get punched in the face by Brik.

'Ow. That hurt, kid.'

'Sorry, I just got angry after none of my attacks hurt you.'

'Your punch hurt a lot. I think it would be better if you just stuck to it. I have been telling this to you for the past two months, but of course, you do not listen, do you?'

'Fine.'

Uncle Ken then left, returning to the wooden mansion where all three of them lived. Since Uncle Ken had decided to stay here and train Brik, X thought he would have to find another place to live, but there were a couple of other guest rooms in Brik's mansion. As they walked in, X and Brik joked about how the both of them were utterly useless against Uncle Ken. 

'At least you can turn into fire. And every other knight I know also has some ability. But I only have terrible swordsmanship and a short temper.'

'Your punches are pretty strong. Just give up on the sword, and get punching. I know that you used the sword to resemble Uncle Ken but do your own thing. As for lack of powers, you are really strong. I told you, my Grandfather was a Stage 3 knight, but he had no powers. Just raw strength.'

'Yeah, but still. You look really cool, you know. '

Brik started to imitate X's voice, and despite his best efforts, it did not work

'I can turn into fire. Fire Escape. '

He made motions with his hands to indicate how X looked while he used Fire escape, and Brik was so hilarious, that X almost died from laughter. They went into the mansion, and X went to his room to change his burnt, smoky tunic. Brik went to his own room, no longer depressed due to his lack of powers.

While changing, X thought about how he had become so close with Brik over the past 3 months. He was never a person who liked to be around people and Brik was just the opposite, friendly and extroverted. When his Grandmother told X that Brik had no friends, he was truly shocked. But now he understood. Brik had a nasty temper. But even so, X had never been so comfortable with someone, except maybe his Grandfather. And since today was the first day of the week, they would be going on an excursion with Uncle Ken to an area where Stage 1 demons were known to roam, and hopefully, they would find a few demons to fight. 

Two weeks ago, they had found a trio of Stage 1 demons and had shown them the practice they had done. Uncle Ken stood behind after killing one of the demons, watching X and Brik fight against the other two. In the end, X had killed a demon, while Uncle Ken had to step in and help Brik.

X walked out of his room and went to the dining room. Calling it a room was a mistake, it was more than three times longer than X's hut in the village, and twice as wide. Brightly lit by torches, a long wooden table was set in the middle, with carvings of bones all over the sides. Brik had once told him that these bones were here because their surname, Ossibus, meant bone. 

Brik was sitting, and so was his Grandmother and Uncle Ken. X sat down, tight next to Brik, and they joked for a while, while eating lunch. After lunch, X and Brik went out to the training dummy, where they first met, since X was still fascinated by the city and its training facilities. Uncle Ken settled down for a nap and Brik's Grandmother was making food for the excursion. After a few hours, X and Brik returned, laughing like they had gone mad. Their laughter woke up the sleeping knight, who scolded them for it. After redressing, and equipping themselves with all their weapons, they set out on the tour. Then Brik remembered that he had not taken their food, so he went back, grabbed their pack, and returned. They then went out of the massive gates, and chatted with the guards for a while about the latest demon sightings, hoping to get any idea about whether there were any demons they could potentially fight. Unfortunately, the answer was a no, but they still went ahead with the excursion. After all, there were still two more months till the exam.

They walked through the fields, which looked much worse after harvest. In a few weeks, the farmers in the nearby villages would sow the seeds for next year's harvest, and till then the ground would not have any ripe, golden-brown wheat stalks rising from it. Even the young green shoots were not here.

As they walked, they kept a careful eye on the surroundings, wishing for a demon to fight. However, there were no demons. They kept going, and after a while, reached their destination. A small depression was there in the ground, about 20 meters deep. Within it was an abandoned village, which was part of the old demon nest. Even now, a few of the weakest demons, who had survived the battle by hiding, roamed this village, and the damage done to it was irreparable. While some of the small houses in the area still stood, most of them had been destroyed, and the ones that remained were charred by the flames of war. Even the ground itself had turned barren, and there were cracks across the village so large in both size and number, that it would be impossible to rebuild the area. And most importantly, there were no survivors.

Since demons frequent the area, the members of the tower left these places as it was, to capture the demons for different purposes. Some rumors were going around that the weakest demons captured here would be used to test the applicants to the Royal Academy, which would mean that they had to slay demons during the exam. So they would have to practice heavily for it. They waited for demons to appear, weapons in hand.

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In a small forest, somewhat close to the destroyed village where X, Brik, and Uncle Ken were, a large tree was dented. Dented so much that it formed a platform to sit on, similar to a throne. There was barely any light that came through the leaves, unnaturally less amounts of it. On the makeshift throne, a man sat. Very, very muscular, only a part of his face was visible in the darkness, resting upon his palm. He had a sharp jawline, and teeth that were serrated, all canines. He spoke with a deep voice

'I think I have seen that kid somewhere. The blonde kid, I mean. I don't know why, but I feel a sense of power from him. What do you think?'

From above the man, the sound of footsteps was heard. But they were not normal footsteps, it was more like someone was stabbing silk with a dagger really hard, but the string did not tear. Cobwebs fell down, and as they did, slightly more light entered, though the small amount barely made any difference. The voice of a woman was heard, soft and soothing, but also commanding. 

'I do not know, but I do think it would be better to kill off every threat immediately. Who knows, he might kill Master in the future. But of course, it is all up to you, leader'

'Should I go? A single fist should be enough to get rid of all three of them. No one will know.'

The man sounded extremely angry, but the woman was unfaced. The man shifted out of his comfortable position, and his muscular shadow got even more muscular. The woman spoke calmly, 

'Yes, no one will know. Except for Master. If our Master, His Majesty were to find out about this, we would not be able to stay hidden from him. So, send the others, 3 of them should be enough, then let's move East. It would just be a random attack, like the nest building in the past. We wouldn't be connected.'

'But they are weak. Terribly so.'

'It's fine. Should be enough, leader. Send them, then let's go.'

The man nodded, then returned to his previous position, head in his palm.

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X was watching the area with great attention, while Brik joked about. Suddenly, he felt something moving in the distance. Rushing towards them. He was about to alert them, when Uncle Ken suddenly appeared in front of them, moving with his full speed, flames billowing from his arms.

' Run away! Quick!'

' Why, uncle?'

Brik did not seem to feel something coming towards them. 

'Stage 2 demons. Three of them.'