He was already gone, but Jeff cradled him in his arms. For the first and last time he spoke every thought in his mind. He was the only one to mourn at his funeral."You know what that thing did to him, it broke him." Jeff muttered.
"It didn"t break him Jeff, neither did you... he was already broken." Guru said as he stood up to dust himself off.
"Do you think this kid will turn out so differently?" Jeff spat.
"He already has," Guru replied without hesitation.
"... I guess that"s true.." Jeff nodded, "But what has that got to do with me? You"ve brought him to meet me which is more than I can say for any of your new students, so... spill."
Guru scratched his beard a little, "Well I was hoping you"d teach him as well."
Jeff stared at him, frozen in his own world. Guru waved his hands in front of Jeff"s face, "Uh h.e.l.lo?.." after not getting a response he decided to leave the room. Just as he closed the door a scream rang out from in the room. "WHATT!!!"
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"So give it to me straight, how many people have we lost?" Jyaha asked, he"d already heard enough reports the whole day and decided to retreat to his room, telling his aid to just tell him the news once the had a complete number.
His aid just kept his eyes on the page, several times he had slightly parted his lips to give an answer but decided to close it again mid way.
Crash!! a chalice was thrown at him who just barely raised his hands to shield his face from the item and the spray of liquid. "Out with it then!!"
"We sent about... 180 men... and..."
"And...?"
"123 confirmed dead, the rest are either unrecognizable or AWOL."
As he said those words he"d already raised his clip board to block and incoming knife which stopped right as it tapped his nose, drawing a single drop of blood which ran down his chin.
"Get out!!" Jyaha screamed before launching several other items at his poor fleeing underling.
"D%&n him!! I guess we have to take everything a notch higher."
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On the other hand Eyisha was completely powerless on her couch, there was no longer a fight left in her. In one fell swoop she"d lost almost all of her covert operatives and her strongest defense line had gone missing in action.
She could only look up and stare at a portrait of her family. Her father and proud brother"s standing next to their beloved sister and daughter. They"d always loved her and her talent, telling everyone that she was born a genius. Only now did that word feel like a mockery in her heart.
Wasn"t she doing this for her kingdom? for her people? Why was it that even when she put her hands on the darker side of the world that she"d never wanted to touch, when she decided to set aside her own conscience to put her priorities forward that she still became so miserable.
The words of Chora rang out in her mind, "...even if she is doing it for the people, she"s got the nicest spot to do it from while the rest of them are tearing the world apart trying to reach it."
"What am I supposed to do... Father... Brothers..." she said softly alone in her room with only a little light filtering in, it made her feel better cause then no one could see her eyes glisten in the dark.
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The cause for all of the current turmoil was in a weird position right now, he had one hand holding him up from the ground while his one leg was bent forward while his other leg was straightened all the way to the back as far is he could go.
On the bent leg a crystal ball was shaking from the slight vibrations of his body as it teetered on his toes, just a slight gust away from falling. "Are you sure this is right?" Zhao Wei gasped. He found it was a lot more difficult to try and speak while he was upside down, he could fight easily, but to produce words normally was beyond him.
On his left, Thirteen was propping up her chin with her tail which bent upwards for her to hug her hands round. "Well it"s sort of a training made for us Naga, so I"m not sure how exactly it"s supposed to look like for humans."
He opened his eyes to glare at her, they were turning bloodshot from the blood rushing into his head. "You couldn"t have told me this about 2 hours ago!?"
He was finding difficulty finding physical training that could push his body to the limit, his physical body had gone far beyond what a normal person could do. At this point even if he spent the whole day doing weighted push ups from day till night and even day again there was little chance of him being tired.
Of course his own body contained Tantra and mana which had also somewhat reinforced it the last time but he felt like he still needed to do some form of physical training despite it. Also, his body was changing. With the constant Tantra meditation from the second method Guru gave him, his bones had become ridiculously flexible, but at the same time, when he extended himself to his full capabilities, he found that he could exert no strength there.
He felt it in his fight with Thirteen, although he"d used his flexible body to be able to kick her he knew that most of the damage came from his weight rushing into her, the impact from the blow was little to say the least, just extremely jarring.