He still wasn’t fast enough to avoid the massive explosion that rocked the alley as the unstable Power Essence exploded, shattering all four cores at once. The ruptured cores expelled all their Essence at once in a massive burst of force and destruction, tearing the stone walls of the alley to pieces, and shredding the bodies of the two Shah clan members to a bloody pulp.
A wall of force slammed into Roy from behind, sending him tumbling end over end. He could feel the searing heat of the Power Essence, and the pounding of stone shrapnel against his back. He gasped, attempting to pull whatever Essence he could into himself to mitigate the damage, but wasn’t very successful at doing so.
He blasted out of the alley mouth, rolling a few more times before coming to a stop in the center of the road in a smoking, bloody heap. He groaned, barely conscious, as blood poured from over a dozen wounds and broken bones grated painfully against one another. His new robes had been scorched off him, and his back felt blistered and hot.
“Are they dead?” he gasped, forcing himself onto his back so he could witness the devastation first hand.
“I’ll say so,” Geon replied. “Unleashing that much Yellow level Essence in confined space, and while they were off guard, was more than enough to finish them.”
Roy grinned, despite the agony wracking his entire body. He could faintly hear screams as people rushed to see what had happened. Roy could see it clearly. Both buildings had been severely damaged by the blast. Most of it had been contained near the center, where the cores had gone off.
Though he couldn’t see much past the choking dust and blackened stone, he imagined seeing the two bodies of Shah Kenji and Sima lying in twisted, broken heaps. Oddly enough, he didn’t feel even a shred of remorse at just having killed two people. He wondered why that was. Perhaps it was because he felt they’d deserved it, or perhaps it was because he’d resolved himself to this path after killing those crabs…
“Roy, you have to pull in the Power Essence generated by the explosion now!”
It took him a few long moments to understand where that voice was coming from.
“Geon?” he asked.
His voice sounded slurred to him, as though he’d had just a bit too much of the Shah cook’s rice wine.
“You’re dying, Roy! Your body took way too much damage from that explosion, and if you don’t get some Essence into yourself now, you won’t survive for much longer!”
That got Roy’s attention. He hadn’t noticed it until now, but he hadn’t been moving. He’d begun feeling quite cold, and every breath hurt. It took him a few long seconds to get his senses focused on the conflagration of Power Essence that the explosion had created.
He could also sense the Essence of Weakness, as well as a heavy presence of Earth. His breath rattled in his lungs as he forced himself into his cycling technique. Every breath pained him, but with each one, the surrounding Essence pulled closer to his body.
Someone was leaning over him now, pressing something to his chest and shouting for people nearby. He ignored them, focusing only on the Essence gathering in the air above him. It was beautiful, golden, and swirled upward in the shape of a cyclone. His head was propped up, and the lip of a canteen was pushed against his lips. He ignored it, gasping in a breath as the first of the Essence flooded his body.
It wasn’t nearly what he would have gotten by pulling the Essence directly from the cores, but it was enough. He screamed, his back arching as he felt it forcefully pushing the stone shrapnel that had lodged itself in his skin and organs, away from his body. It was excruciating, to the point where he almost stopped cycling and gave up, but he knew that if he stopped, he would die.
The people around him were shouting again, and for some reason, fleeing. A brown and white shape suddenly loomed in his vision, a small pink nose poking at him.
“I called Ferry. Hope you don’t mind,” Geon said.
Roy didn’t mind. He clenched his jaw in pain, as the ferret’s teeth latched into his robes and hoisted him off the ground. He’d pulled as much Essence as he could into himself, and he could feel it cycling throughout his body. The pain was getting to be too much for him, and he could feel consciousness slipping away as Ferry situated him on her back.
He gasped one last time as the last of the stone was pushed from his skin, then blissfully, he passed out.
***
Tonde Irusaru watched as the giant ferret ran from the village, carrying the barely living form of the Power cultivator on its back. He was impressed. After an explosion of that magnitude, he’d expected to see the boy die, especially someone of his weak advancement level. He’d found it strange that a boy his age would only be at 1st Dan White, but what he’d found even stranger, was the way he’d reacted when he’d seen the two Martial Artists, presumably from a rival clan.
He’d gotten a whiff of the boy’s Essence when he’d first entered the village and had decided to investigate. After all, finding anyone on the Path of Power was a rare enough occurrence that it bore investigation. He’d discreetly watched him as he’d purchased some goods - that merchant really had ripped the poor boy off - then as he bought food and supplies.
He’d been about to approach him when the boy had spotted the members of the other clan and had reacted poorly to their presence. Curious as to why he would be avoiding them, Irusaru had decided to wait and see what happened, rather than intervening.
The two clan members had felt him watching immediately, and the boy had made the mistake of running. He’d then watched their confrontation, culminating in the boy using his obtained cores to kill them. He had to give him credit for that one. No one at his level of advancement should have been able to take down two Yellow level Martial Artists, but he’d had just the perfect blend of luck and sheer stupidity to succeed.
Even now, he could feel the boy cycling his Essence to repair the rents in his flesh and the broken bones. It would take him several days to recover, but he would recover nonetheless. Despite himself, Irusaru felt just a little impressed. The boy would merit watching, indeed.
20
Roy pulled the small pot filled with beef stew from the fire, wincing as his body twinged in protest. It had been five days since he’d run from the city, and five days since he’d killed the two members of the Shah clan.
He’d woken up about twenty hours after he’d passed out, to find that Ferry had taken them a good distance from the village, and had hunkered down in a small cave to allow him time to recover. It had taken two more days of cycling before he’d even been able to stand, and an additional day for him to have the strength to begin moving around.
Now he was just sore, as though he’d spent a long day working and his muscles needed time to recover.
His core was almost empty, and he knew that he would have to move on soon. His run-in with the Shah clan had cost him dearly, not only in Essence and money, but in time. He now had five days less to reach 2nd Dan White and would have no choice but to head for The Crater.
“You know, you really should be dead right now. I’m not saying that I’m upset or anything, but your body was in pretty bad shape.”
Roy grimaced, remembering just how close his run-in with the Shah clan had been. It had nearly cost him his life, though Geon was right. He shouldn’t be alive right now. White-Belts didn’t kill Yellow-Belts. It just wasn’t done. Then again, he hadn’t technically been the one to kill them. The four Yellow level cores blowing up in their faces had.