The World We Do Not Know - 193 True Strength

Gus had his whole body trembling in fear, Ares was nothing like how he was until now. To Gus, Ares seemed like a cold-blooded killer with a different type of personality. It was as if there were two individuals living inside the body of Ares.

*”Is this how Ares carried the soldiers and still be able to stand in a stable state even after being hurt badly and even after he was unconscious?”* Gus starts to imagine the monster strength of Ares.

Ares distanced himself from Gus by jumping 7 feet backwards, he even took his waster sword from Gus and clenched it near his waist, as if he sheathed it into his imaginary scabbard. He stood tall with his right foot stretched forward and left foot, fixed behind him. There isn’t much gap between his feet nor is there any form of stance in the way he stands holding the sword.

Ares seemed like still water, without showing any movement and just waiting for Gus to come at him again.

“Come at me” Ares invited Gus to take another shot at him.

Gus is really fearful of Ares, now that he saw how fast Ares is. So he decided to play safe and took a defensive stance. He held the wooden sword with two hands tightly across his chest in a crossing manner.

*”He won’t be inside my defence easily with this”* Gus tried to reassure himself while slowly taking short steps towards Ares, calculating every move carefully.

“Hmm, seems like you learned a little, but since you won’t be coming….” Ares suddenly disappeared again while he was conversing with Gus.

“I have to come for your head then,” Ares said with a voice that echoed in Gus’s head.

*”Huh? What? Ares? But how? My defence form is clearly on point. I had anticipated his move and yet… Why is he….”* Gus speculates to himself, panicking as his own waster is on his neck and the handle side of Ares’s waster is pressing against Gus’s stick from the front. Ares is not inside his defence but outside this time.

Ares didn’t disappear, he rushed towards Gus while leaning forward. His elbows almost touched the ground, in a very rapid speed avoiding the eyesight of Gus, almost like he misdirected Gus’s eyes. He approached him while dashing from below Gus’s waist-level, where Gus’s eyes can’t see. As he approached Gus, Ares acted like he drew out his sword from the imaginary scabbard and slashed from downwards to upwards onto the tip of the stick that Gus is holding.

Gus held his sword tightly, expecting to stop any kinds of attacks with the middle and strong part of his waster. Little did he imagine a powerful slash on the tip of his sword.

And before Gus could realise what was happening, his sword is not in his control. The sword is turning around along with his wrists due to the slash on the tip. As the Gus’s waster is in line with his neck, Ares quickly sheathed his sword and thrusted the handle in the middle of Gus’s sword ,which is impossible to push back due to his uneven grip on the waster. Gus ended up hitting himself on his neck with his own waster.

This is what we call trick shots in normal sports.

“You would have been dead if we were holding real swords, a hilarious death by your own sword” Ares made Gus realize how low he in, in the area of strength and techniques.

Gus gritted his teeth in disbelief, as tears roll off his eyes to his weakness.

“Um Ares, I bought Masamune” Alex who just got here suddenly says with an awkward face as he doesn’t know what took place here, but Gus and Ares seemed so serious.

As Gus watches with curiosity. Alex throws a shiny katana sheathed inside a scabbard towards Ares.

“This, Fukitsuna Masamune (translates to – Unholy Sword) is a katana. A real sword.” Ares told Gus as he drew and displayed his sword in front of Gus.

Fukitsuna meaning Unholy (not evil), was crafted by the last bloodline of Masamune family and hence got the name Fukitsuna Masamune, resembling a Japanese Katana.

“Th-that’s a real sword,” Gus said as his eyes got wide in disbelief, but with admiration.

“This is not just a sword. This is a Katana, katanas have curved blades and were once used by samurai’s. Ares explained to Gus.

“Gus! I want to teach you the sword art that was passed down to me by my father.” Ares said excitedly, In a friendly tone to Gus.

Alex and Gus could not process what Ares has just said.

“Ar-Ares! Are you for real? You are not supposed to do that.” Alex warned Ares after realizing what Ares had said.

“I’m not allowed to pass down my art taught to me by my father which was taught to him by his ancestors? On the mainland, I’m not allowed to, but if it’s this village it can be passed down and live on forever. Keep this a secret for me, Alex. Pass me the enhancers and leave. I will come by dinner time with Gus.” Ares said with determination on his face.

Alex handed two stones in a small black box with transparent glass which looks like a jewellery box and left with a disapproving look on his face. For Alex, Ares is a genius with swords, there is no one in the mainland that can rival Ares. And he chose to pass down such a golden skill to a village boy? He thought with an unpleasant look on his face.

“Gus, the sword art I’m taught is “Unholy sword”. As the name suggests, it’s purely to kill the people who stand in front of you.”

“It doesn’t have defensive blocks or any particular stances. Everything this art focuses is pure animal instinct and to land a blow without hesitation. But you should remember; when we draw the sword out and lands a blow, it is instant death.”

“You are only going to target vital points, be swift, search for loops in the opponent’s stance and take him out. All of this should happen when you rush to make a move. I really want this skill to be passed down in the future. I can only teach this to you, as I consider you my brother, who has exchanged blows with me. Would you accept this? You can choose not to if you don’t want to.” Ares asked Gus for his opinion.

“Even though it is an art that is used to kill people, I want to become strong like you Ares. I want to be able to protect what I cherish, especially people who are close to me. I swear I will learn this skill and will never use it for personal grudges. I will use it to fight only for what I want to protect.” Gus honestly replied to Ares who had waited patiently for an answer from Gus.

Ares seems to be in deep thought for a second. He then grabs a stone out of his pocket. The stone which was handed to him by Alex was a small 6mm red stone that looked like a Garnet.

He inserted it inside the handle of his sword on one side. As soon as the stone is immersed and merged with the sword, the ridges of the blade suddenly start to shine as if Ares had activated the stone, just like Yang’s gloves. A red mist-like aura slowly started to spread and flow on the ridge of the blade fiercely.

Ares then swung his arm normally, his swing is fast yet looked like he is getting the dust off his sword but the amount of power and strong gusts released from that one swing is incomparable. The clouds above him were separated. It looked as though the heavens were slashed into two.

Gus stood in disbelief as he stared at the sky.

“This is the weapon of the mainland. The destructive force from the elemental stones.” Ares explained to Gus about the stones calmly.

“There, heh heh, you can do this too. Let’s start training.” Ares urged Gus, who could barely comprehend what had just happened.  He wanted Gus to start his training, without even considering the shock on poor Gus’s face.

Gus too knew that he can’t dwell on this event, so he listened to Ares and they started off their training, from the basics of the unholy sword arts, since they only have a limited amount of 5 days time.

After training until the sun had set, Ares and Gus head towards home. Gus seemed exhausted and tired, whereas Ares looks like he just did a simple exercise with his sword.

“Welcome back! What would you like to do Ares? Take a shower? Grab your bed and go to sleep? or maybe – take – me for yourself” Tanya says in an appealing seductive voice.

“Tanya dammittt!!! Can’t you just be quiet for a minute when Ares is back?! Ares, you are the one who made Tanya act that way..” Albert cries while grabbing and squeezing the neck of Alex who was standing right next to him.

“No thank you, we were hungry. What’s for dinner?” Ares asks.

“Ohhh, yes, dinner… No wonder I have felt hungry for a while” Alex says with an awkward and happy face, smiling brightly. Even though Albert is squeezing his neck, he acted like nothing happened to him, while making the most innocent face in the world, screaming *please save me from this pervert* inside his head.

“Ahhh yes, dinner….. But Ares, none of us can cook. If you are hungry you can take my body as dinner and be rough, hard and so…” Tanya says as she leans forward to Ares with a smirk on her face.

“Huh??? Dinner is not done yet? I’m so hungry dinosaurs are running inside my stomach. Ahhhh, mom and dad, I guess I will come to you guys soon. I’m dying because of these soldiers.” Gus suddenly becomes a drama Queen, while falling on the ground holding his stomach like a little kid who didn’t know any better. Everyone in Gus’s house knows that only he can cook and he just wanted to avoid getting asked to take the responsibility of cooking.

*”You can’t expect me to cook after a long training my body is sore, you shit heads. Which soldier cannot cook? Are you guys even soldiers dammiitttt!!”* Gus thought to himself angrily and he becomes more frustrated by this bunch of useless soldiers.

“It’s alright guys. Yang and I made the preparations. We asked Miss Rissa to help us with dinner, we’re going to go to her house for dinner” Albert said with a poker face, while not noticing blood dripping from his nose, as he imagined a picture of Rissa in his head.

Yang and Albert both had plotted for this plan. Yang wanted to see Tisha again and Albert was planning to see Rissa, to hitch a hike on her.

Ares and the rest visit Rissa’s house as planned and eat the dinner with lots of talks, jokes and songs with good wine like they are having a party.

And after everyone is done with their dinner Ares, Albert and Rissa passed out due to drinking alcohols, Gus passed out due to the exhaustion and so does everyone else as they sleep soundly. Yang was the only one that was really sober, he comes out of Rissa’s house to sit on a hill and stare at the black, starry night sky that lit up like a lamp. He sits on the stone, breathing in the fresh air that he hasn’t been able because of the continuous war happening in the mainland.

“Do you – um, do you like watching the night sky?” Tisha suddenly emerged from behind and asked Yang with an innocent smile. She crouched beside him, wearing a long sky blue coloured gown with a lace yoke around the neckline.