The Invincible Hero

The first time in his life to actually speak with an immortal cultivator and it was nothing good. He hoped he could form a relationship. Perhaps the immortal would give him some guidance on his path of cultivation. Against his hopes, from his first interaction from his last, he earned the displeasure of this immortal and her fiance.

He tried to go out of his way to accommodate them, but it turned out his actions weren"t appreciated. It wasn"t because he was worried about himself that he had growing anxiety. He worried about his clan, his family and friends, and even the people on the continent of Afrina. If one enraged an immortal couldn"t they just take everyone out? Thinking these thoughts, he couldn"t stop worrying. The more he worried the more anxious he felt and the more anxious he felt the harder his heart beat. The harder his heart beat, the more anxious he became. Pretty soon, he completely lost control of his anxiety and his heart exploded.

There was nothing to be done, Tower called for the servant who found the old master. He was shocked and immediately contacted the Origin Master"s a.s.sistant who was elsewhere when his master died. The a.s.sistant"s name was Jono Fargas and he sat next to the body of his master and wept.

After a while, Jono came to the three men and asked what happened. Tower said they were chatting about the tournament and how he wanted each of them to have a go and challenging at least one person an hour and then he just died. He didn"t bother talking about his "joking," which was the real reason the old man died. He also didn"t say anything about Bwiri who was silent as the grave.

Jono contacted the sect his master was from and they came to collect his body. They checked to see if he was poisoned but only found that for some strange reason his heart exploded. Unknowingly, they released the person directly responsible for the death. Another Origin Master was found to conduct the tournament. Bwiri decided this time she would just let things play out as they should. She also got onto Tower later and told him, "There are Some Things You Just Can"t Joke About."

After this drama played out things got back on track and the seven days of fast elimination began.

The battles began the next morning and the three men were extremely excited. Tower competed in several tournaments over the years. He always came across some interesting opponents. He told the Gun brothers not to get c.o.c.ky. They weren"t the only ones being trained by immortals.

Bwiri reminded all of them not to focus on winning the tournament. Instead, their goal was to learn as much as possible from each battle. A defeat was a good method for learning. It could often prove more helpful than winning. Of course, she still hoped they would win. Although their power levels were too low.

Paneneko was the first of the three who got to battle. He faced a martial artist named Pujanga from Briola County. It turned out that Pujanga was a little faster than Paneneko, but not fast enough to win. His attacks were a little week and Paneneko won fairly easily.

This was the way that the seven days went. Each of the three would go up and within a move or two, they would finish their opponent. Within these seven days, it seems none of the truly strong warriors faced one another.

This was done on purpose. All of the well known top-tier talents was never allowed to face one another in battle. Even though no one knew of the brothers and Tower"s prowess, the Origin Master who died knew of their backing and took that as an indication that they were probably strong.

Tower wasn"t surprised by this, he saw it happen many times. The reason for this was that if they kept most of the big fights for the end they could make more money. Tournaments were always a source of income and an opportunity to discover new talent. There were often surprises. The surprises were unaffiliated or rogue cultivators who might be interested in joining a sect or an army, something.

Tower was approached many times in the past. He left many disappointed people wherever he went. The remaining one hundred contestants were given three days to rest and heal.

For the upcoming contest, there were four seeded positions. The first was the third Imperial Prince Canscino. Prince Canscino was known for being at the peak of the Master Student Realm. The second-seeded fighter was J"wuna from the Panjier Sect. She was the top fighter in the sect. She was at the initial level Master Origin realm.

The third seed was Prince Karretun from the Kingdom of Jek. He was a gifted genius at the Master student Peak realm. The fourth seed was Princess Prinee from the Jabokuk Kingdom

With the four seeded compet.i.tors, the semi-final would consist of ten people. One person would fight twice. The finals would consist of the last two warriors. It wasn"t the fairest set up for whoever had to fight twice, but the organizers couldn"t be bothered to do the math to figure out how to make everything come out even. So what if someone suffered a little. Math was hard.

Paneneko was feeling restless with the real tournament starting the next day. Taking a walk in the city, Paneneko found a wonderful restaurant. When was the last time he had good food? Going into the restaurant, Paneneko found a chair on the first level near a window. He always enjoyed sitting next to a window.

Ordering a few dishes and a local bear, Paneneko looked out the window at all the busy people rushing around. The sight of a young man and woman arguing in the street caught his eye. If he wanted to he would be able to hear what they were saying, but he realized it was none of his business.

The woman slapped something out of the man"s hand and turned to come into the same restaurant Paneneko was in currently. Watching the woman fly through the door and head up to the second floor, Paneneko was a little curious who she was.

Looking back outside, Paneneko noticed the man she argued with moving back and forth unsure what to do. Finally, he shrugged his shoulders and came into the restaurant. Looking around the room, the man noticed Paneneko sitting near the window.

"Did you enjoy the show," he asked.

"What was there to enjoy?" Paneneko responded. At first, it looked like the man was going to erupt in anger, but then he let out a sigh of air.

"I"m sorry, you have nothing to do with this. I was just looking for someone to take out my grief on," the man said apologetically to Paneneko.

"I understand," said Paneneko.

"Have a seat, I"m Paneneko," he said.

"Aerun Muenkeh," the man said with a bow.

"Lady problems?" Paneneko asked?

"Yeah, it"s not a secret, we were engaged to be married but she suddenly called it off," Aerun said.

"I"m sorry to hear that, did she say why?" asked Paneneko.

"Not at first, I thought I did something wrong. I bought her a present and was trying to make up with her. It turns out, the break up wasn"t my fault. Not anything I could control at least." Aerun said.

"So what was the problem?" asked Paneneko.

"You heard of this fighting compet.i.tion?"

"Yeah," responded Paneneko.

"One of the guys in the compet.i.tion, Bilk, he"s from some other county in the kingdom, but he came for the contest. He"s a fighter, a young master of some clan. He took a liking to my fiance. She claimed she broke things off with me because she fell for this Bilk guy. I know better, she broke things off because he probably threatened to hurt me. I know she loves me, we really have a connection, you know?"

"Yeah," said Paneneko.

"So what"s your plan?" asked Paneneko.

"What can I do Suri, my girl told me to go away she didn"t want anything more to do with me. I even told her I could beat the guy up if I needed to. Of course, she didn"t believe me." Aerun said.

"You can fight?" Paneneko asked surprised.

"Yeah, I just don"t go around telling everyone. I didn"t even bother with the contest, I"m just not into that stuff. But Suri thinks that just because this guy made it into the top one hundred of the contest it means he"s way stronger than me. These things don"t prove how strong you are, at best it"s just practice." he said.

"True, but I"m surprised you don"t pursue this matter further," Paneneko said.

"She said she doesn"t want me to," responded Aerun.

"No, she doesn"t want you to get yourself hurt or killed. If you can keep that from happening I"m sure she"ll be really happy that you didn"t let it go," said Paneneko.

"Really?" asked Aerun.

"Sure, the guy"s probably upstairs, just take him out and I"m sure everything will be fine!" Paneneko encouraged him.

"You know, I think you"re right!" Aerun stood up with a fire in his eyes.

"Of course I"m right, I"ll come with you!" Paneneko also said.

"No brother, I appreciate it, but I"ll take care of this," Aerun said with determination in his eyes.

"Okay, just holler if you need help, I"m also in the top one hundred of the compet.i.tion," said Paneneko.

Aerun didn"t seem to hear him. He was totally in the zone marching upstairs to face the situation.

After a couple of minutes, Paneneko heard a girl scream from upstairs a scuffle and then someone flew through the wall on the second floor and landed in front of Paneneko. It was Aerun!

Aerun looked up at Paneneko in pain and said:

"He punches really hard."