Emperors War

Aker had changed his set this morning without realizing it, and while he still had some dodge and block moves it was significantly more aggressive than in practices past. If before eighty percent of his sets included dodge attack and block attack, today"s set only included ten to twenty percent dodge attack and block attack while eighty to ninety percent was just attack.

As Aker"s sword was swung, stabbed and slashed it was aiming to incapacitate. Historically Aker would practice finesse type moves that required him to time his block just right so he could counterattack.

Vance who was watching from outside the cell was stunned at Aker"s practice. Vance watched in a type of disbelief that he couldn"t put into words. Every day Vance would sit back and watch in the morning as Aker would move through his sets, and every day he would lament at how Aker approached battles.

A part of him could understand and reason Aker"s approach, it was easy to understand. Aker had only started fighting roughly eight months ago, prior to his first battle he had never even held a weapon much less practiced and prepared. In his first battle he stared death in the eye and blinked, it was only through sheer luck that he was able to walk away.

After being introduced to battle and fights in that manner anyone would be wary and defensive in their approach to fighting. Not only that but he had never had any formal training prior to handling his first weapon. Even to this day Vance had only shown him basic moves and some combinations allowing Aker to form his own battle style. Normally a disciple"s battle style was honed and built through repet.i.tion and practice over countless years. After all that practice, repet.i.tion and correction the disciple would be ready to face their first life and death battle. Aker"s growth started in the complete opposite manner, he faced off in a life and death battle and was building his battle style through life and death battles.

There simply wasn"t time to train Aker in the traditional sense. If he tried to teach Aker through repet.i.tion and correction Aker would long be dead before they could reach a point where his battle style would be capable of surviving through traditional training. In a sense Aker had to grow exactly the way he did. He had to mature and in order to mature he had to survive. To survive he had to be pa.s.sive, he had stay away and draw out the weakness in his enemy.

That"s why as Vance watched Aker today, he was in shock. How could someone"s battle style change completely in only one night? It was only yesterday that Vance stood in this same spot and watched Aker practice defensive move after defensive move in his cell. Today Vance watched as Aker went for killing blow after killing blow.

While Vance had antic.i.p.ated this change in Aker, he had figured that it would take years for him to fully make the transition, what amazing event took place that there could be this kind of change?

"Hhmmm..." Vance cleared his throat in order to let Aker know he was there as he didn"t want to directly interrupt his practice. Aker hearing the sound of Vance knew that it was time to head over to the medical station.

"Good morning master" Aker greeted Vance casually as a child would greet their parent. Both Aker and Vance kept their relationship casual unlike a normal master and disciple relationship. While Vance had begun regarding Aker as his child Aker had begun looking to Vance as a father figure.

"I see your sword has had quite the change since yesterday..." Vance made the open-ended statement with hopes that Aker would fill in the blanks therefore saving Vance the need to ask Aker what had happened.

A smile creeping across his face and a clear confidence and exuberance that didn"t exist in the prior days "Yes, I discovered that I was lacking the proper mindset and that my sword was lacking confidence and trust. Even if I was thrown down here and tossed away, I have still received some benefits. While I have been forced to make certain sacrifices that can never be forgiven, I have found there are certain advantages that I have gleaned from being here in The Pit."

Hearing Aker"s words Vance was floored. He couldn"t help but feel that Aker had grown up significantly in just one night. Bad things happen to good people, in the universe this happens over and over again, countless times every day. There are two types of people when it happens.... those that grow strong from it and those that die to it. History is littered with revenge stories of ant"s being trampled who later came back and stomped on their oppressor, however for every successful revenge story there are countless stories of pitiful deaths and failed attempts.

Aker"s desire for revenge and his mentality to this point is what has allowed him to survive against all odds, but if he is truly going to tear down those that sit up high on their pedestal he was going to have to attack and not just try and survive. This was a lesson that Vance also had to learn, and it is a lesson that all people of vengeance must learn.... that is part of the reason there are so few successful stories of revenge.

How many people who are living in h.e.l.l can find the benefit? How many people who have been stomped on, spit at, and destroyed can find the strength to stand up and press forward?

For Vance it took years. For years his hatred consumed him, and his eyes could not be swayed to see anything but that vengeance and hatred. He was merely a broken sh.e.l.l of himself only fighting and living through instinct initially. Not that he gave up on his revenge and hatred, not by a long shot...No, that hatred and vengeance still burned strong and bright. He was just able to find his strength, the strength that allowed him to push through and persevere.

To Vance who had gone through similar experiences seeing Aker make this jump thrilled his heart and he couldn"t help but beam. He had planned to slowly help Aker adjust his mindset and had already been at it for a while now. Part of the reason he allowed Kara to come and be with Aker was to help him pull out of his defeated and hateful experiences.

As they approached the medic station where Kara was already waiting Vance was still walking with a bounce in his step as he was proud of his little protege"s major growth.

"Good morning Little Kara" Aker called out as he gave a slight wave.

Seeing and hearing Aker, Kara"s face lit up as she raised her head from her book, "Good morning Big Brother." After over half a year Kara had dropped the "Aker" from Big Brother as they called each other casually. When they were in front of the patients, she would always call him "Big Brother Aker" but when it was just the two of them, she preferred to call him that way.

Aker and Kara chatted for a few minutes as Aker wanted to find out about her evening while Kara wanted to find out about how Aker"s practice and sleep went. Kara had tried to get Aker something soft to sleep on but the person who managed the prison cells couldn"t be bribed to allow it. He was afraid that the other prisoners would riot to the point that he would be discovered so Kara always felt bad that Aker had to sleep on the hard floor.

As the two of them talked a sickly tall woman in her early thirties with long blond hair walked up to the medic station. Normally they wouldn"t accept any patients for another twenty minutes unless they were coming in from the arena which no matter what had priority.

Aker seeing the woman could instantly tell her problem. Her fingertips had a slight black tint to them, and her hair had started thinning. As she got close enough, he could see the tinge of yellow in her eye and he knew instantly that she was poisoned.

"I heard that between you and that Dr. Life & Death you all could cure just about anything." The slow and strained words came out of her mouth. It was obviously painful for her to talk. There was a slight hoa.r.s.eness in her voice as if though she was drying out. She instantly recognized the "Little Life Doctor", how many small kids could be working in the medic station of The Pit?

"I don"t think that"s true, but we have had some success.... but more importantly was it two weeks ago that you got bit by the Slavik Ghost Head?"

The woman"s eyes widened, and her head slightly shook. Hearing Aker"s words were like a lightning bolt striking on a clear day. She had been bit by a Slavik Ghost Head which is a particularly d.a.m.ning snake that is specific to a lone planet in this section of the universe. Because of that no one bothered to carry an antidote to the poison and so if you were bit by it you were sure to become a ghost which is how it got its name.

Drying out the Slavik Ghost Head and then grounding it down into a powder it could be used as a catalyst in several potions and pills making it very valuable.

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Not only did he know that she had been bit by the Slavik Ghost Head he also knew that it had been two weeks ago that it happened. She had seen countless doctors in the last couple of weeks and none of them had even heard of the Slavik Ghost Head much less how to treat it.

"It shouldn"t be too surprising that I know about the poisonous bite of the Slavik Ghost Head, Teacher has a book on rare and exotic poisons which also included the Slavik Ghost Head snake as well as how to make the antidote."

As Aker was talking, he was walking over to the medicine cabinets. There wasn"t a lot of different medicines in the medicine cabinet since no one cared if the prisoners lived or died. They only tried to patch them up to keep them fighting, their actual health mattered very little.

"Luckily the Slavik Ghost Head doesn"t require any type of exotic herbs and medicines otherwise I wouldn"t be able to help you. Everything you need for the cure is the most common of the common ingredients, it"s just understanding the mixture. For example, too much Satyr Sh.e.l.l or Cinder Barberry and it would remove the effectiveness of the Qilin Stalk which would make it completely ineffective and have the exact opposite effect."

As Aker spoke, he was mixing the ingredients, carefully measuring it all out and double checking everything. Once he had measured and checked he would hand it over to Kara who would begin mixing it together just the way Aker had shown her.

After three- or four-minutes Aker took the bowl full of ingredients and handed to the lady "Here drink up."

The woman who hadn"t said a word the entire time took the bowl and drank down the substance. Upon hitting her throat, she immediately began vomiting. Just as she leaned forward to vomit Aker was standing with a big metal tray in front of her. Without any thought she threw up into the tray repeatedly to the point that her stomach felt as if though it was going to collapse.

Initially when she started spewing it was a dark black that had the appearance of a slime. As she threw up more the black slime began looking just like someone who had too much to drink that night.

After over ten minutes of heaving over and over the lady put down the tray exhausted, however she could feel that the poison had left her body. She looked down at her fingers and saw that the black fingertips now looked normal. She ran over to a mirror and the yellow tinge in her eyes had faded and was now just barely visible.

She turned and looked back at Aker her face full of grat.i.tude and appreciation but before she could talk she felt her head start swimming and the room started spinning.

Before she pa.s.sed out Aker helped push her to one of the medic beds and quickly checked her head for a fever.

"You"ll have to sweat out the rest, but you"ll be fine now, forget about everything else and just get some rest" were the last words the woman heard before she drifted off to lala land.