Completing an Old Tradition

I woke up with a deep gasp.

I felt my back burning as I fell. My mind scrambled as I quickly tried to figure out what happened. Oh god, I blacked out at the worst time possible!

Looking over my shoulder, I could see the magma below rapidly getting closer to me. A rapidly depleting 30 feet of empty air separated me and certain death. It was now or never.

I quickly looked over at the bar in my vision. I saw that the two hits I took were enough to fill that magical bar up to halfway. What the hell, just how hard was I punched?

I flipped in the air, forcing my front to confront the magma. I raised my hand over my head, letting a fourth of the bar drain to power up my next attack.

“Dragon Fire EX!” With a roar, I threw the attack down into the heart of the volcano. Without the ground to stabilize my footing, the sheer force pushing back on me from the attack sent me flying up into the air.

For a second, it felt as if I would rocket out of the volcano and all the way to safety. I knew that wasn’t true though, and prepared my next shot.

At the very apex, my bar drained down to zero.

“Dragon Fire EX!” This time, I threw the attack down and behind me. I flew through the air once more, this time soaring up and towards the volcano wall. The moment I made contact, I latched onto the wall, refusing to let go.

As I hung from the wall, I took a second to catch my breath. The pain in my stomach was subsiding. A quick peek at it showed a nasty bruise forming though. I shivered as I looked at it. I was really lucky we were just using rubber bullets. If that was a real bullet…

I shook the gruesome idea from my head. I wasn’t safe yet. I’d think about the horrible what-ifs when I was in the luxury of safety.

“Time Over.” I muttered to myself. The bar in vision zoomed away, giving me a clear view of the world once more. Looking up, I could see that I would have to scale a sheer vertical wall if I wanted to make it back to the top.

It would eventually turn into a slope I could walk out of, but that wasn’t for at least half a mile. That was a hell of a climb out. Good thing I wasn’t going to climb all that.

I gritted my teeth as I turned to face the opposite wall. My muscles tensed as I prepared to jump. This was the hardest part. If I nailed it, the rest would be smooth sailing.

I kicked off the wall, soaring through the air up and towards the opposite side of the volcano. The second my foot made contact with the wall, I crouched down like a spring and bounded off that wall. That’s right, I was wall jumping like I was a lemon shooting, robot busting hero!

Thankfully now that I was in a rhythm, I could wall jump out of this blindfolded. That gave me the time to muse over what just happened.

I couldn’t believe I had an honest to god flashback to my previous life after blacking out. It’s been about 16 years since that happened. How did I remember it so clearly? Felt like I was reliving it, even to the point the stab woke me up.

It didn’t seem natural at all. But, to be fair, dying and then waking up as a baby in a new world probably wasn’t natural either. Add to that the cult and well, there had to be a reason for all this.

I just didn’t know what.

So there was only one thing I could really do. I’d become strong. Strong enough to defend myself, strong enough to defend others… strong enough to find out why this was all happening.

And today was a major step in my journey.

The sun was rising over the horizon as I took my final leap out of the volcano’s vent. My legs were exhausted, but now was not the time to stop. I forced myself to march forward despite how heavy my body felt.

I planted my foot into the ground as I finally reached the peak. All I could do was throw my head back. From deep within me rushed out a primal yell of victory. It echoed throughout the mountain range, signaling to the world that I emerged from the volcano and forged into a stronger me.

I threw my arms up in the air in victory, basking in the morning sun. This feeling of tired muscles, the exhilaration of overcoming a great trial! It felt amazing, maybe the best feeling I ever experienced! I never got to indulge in this during my former life. God, I was missing out.

Sadly, that final act of triumph sapped away the rest of my stamina. I fell forward, laying face first in the volcanic rock. It was really rough against my bare chest, but I didn’t have the strength to roll over.

All I could do was stare over the edge of the volcano. The entirety of the mountain range seemed to stretch on forever into the horizon. If I squinted, I could make out the edge of my village nestled along the side of the mountain.

I didn’t have to squint to see a beautiful river cutting through the mountains and flowing into a nearby forest right out of a fantasy story. And in an intense clash of genres, by that forest was a dusty plain right out of a western movie.

There were small specks gathered around a section of the plains. The cowboys' lands, where their towns and farms were located. And finally, far in the distance, was a large castle town that technically ruled over the entire area. This strange mishmash of lands made for such an unusual yet exciting view.

All this with the rising sun igniting the sky into a beautiful mix of red and oranges. A view like this really put into perspective just how small yet beautiful the world really was. After I dealt with that cult, I’d definitely head to the lands beyond and see more of this beautiful world.

The sounds of leather boots hitting the volcanic ground filled my ears. I ignored it to keep staring at the wonderful view. I sadly couldn’t ignore the boot slipping under my stomach and flipping me on my back.

Staring down at me was the very cowboy who shot me in the gut. His visor once again blocked me from telling exactly what he was looking at, but I could guess he looked at the massive bruise on my stomach before turning his attention to my face.

“You alive there, partner?” He finally spoke up, his tone cool and even.

“Nope, I’m dead. Usually happens when you’re shot in the stomach,” I joked with a wide grin on my face.

“Ah, that’s a damn shame. That means I get your stuff, right?” For the first time all morning, the cowboy smiled.

“Like you could carry any of my stuff, Colt,” I let out a laugh. The cowboy only let out a chuckle in response before he sat down next to me.

“You did really good there, partner,” Colt commented as he watched the sunrise. “Honestly, if you just used your stomach to parry, my goose woulda been cooked,”

“Man, I never even thought about trying that,” Using other parts of my body to parry might make the act easier. It was worth a shot in my eyes. I turned my head, grinning widely. “You should help me train that,”

“What? You want me to shoot you in the gut constantly?” Colt rubbed his chin as he mulled over it. “Maybe later. We both gotta rest up. Today’s the first day of spring, after all,”

That was honestly a good point. We didn’t have too much time to rest before we both got tossed into some hard labor.

The ground suddenly shook. Turning my head, I could see the older cowboy and the oni approaching us. The cowboy’s face was as cool and stoic as a stone wall, while the oni’s was stretched by a wide grin of happiness and self-satisfaction.

The oni stopped in front of me, bending his knees as he stood over me. And then… he spoke.

“Ya did it, kiddo!” His voice was filled with the same sort of excitement as a child being told they were going to a theme park. “You’ve passed the glorious Orphic family tradition, like me and your grandpappy did!” I felt his hand reach down and ruffle my hair affectionately. “You’re a true man now, Rubel.”

I smiled, mimicking his grin. A second passed as the oni’s boisterous laughter echoed throughout the mountain range.

The very next second, the oni’s head snapped back as my fist collided with its cheek. A loud boom rocked the skies as the earth shook from the impact. His mountainous body didn’t move, but that was fine. I lunged forward from my position, tackling him into the volcanic ground.

“You punched me into a volcano! What the hell, Dad?!” I roared as his back hit the ground.

“Why’re you gettin’ so upset?!” The oni shouted back as we rolled around. “You got out alive, didn’t ya?! Ain’t you the one always askin’ me to spar?!”

“I asked you to help me train, not sucker punch me into lava! Man, you are so lame!”

Yeah, so in case the dots haven’t connected yet, this oni was my dad. Not my biological dad, mind you. I am still a full blooded human, he just adopted me when I was young. And this whole duel was his idea.

I should be more surprised that his plan this entire time was to punch me into a volcano, but to be honest, that was exactly the kind of harebrained thing he’d do in the name of training. I was more upset that I didn’t consider the fact that he would punch me into the volcano after I got shot in the gut.

The worst part is, I couldn’t really complain about it. Anything he put me through was something my granddad put him through. And that training made him something absolutely out of this world.

My dad, Elbai Orphic, had the illustrious title of “Strongest in the Realms.”

This was absolutely perfect for me, right? Sure, it is. I get it. But it’s also a complete pain in my ass. Like when people think of training, I’m sure they imagine weighted clothes, standing under waterfalls, learning cool magical techniques from books and practice.

That’s not what happens here.

I get things like “Chasing the mountain goats up the mountain while I, your heavy dad, am tied to your back” and “Move around by slithering on your stomach like a snake” mixed with “Parry this giant boulder I’m throwing at you” and apparently “Let me punch you into a volcano”.

Every day of my life is some grueling regime. There are no time skips, there are no montages, and I don’t even get to leave after my training is done. He’s always right at home ready to spring some surprise lesson on me.

I love him, but you can see why sometimes I really regret telling him I wanna be strong, right?

Make no mistake though, this was all my fault. I was the one that begged to be trained by him. I knew if I ended up even half as strong as him, I could find answers to the cult question. And by now, both my mind and my body were basically used to the strain. The human ability to adapt was truly terrifying.

Our "argument" ended with my dad pinning my head down against the warm rocks. Despite all my training, I just couldn’t beat him yet. Especially not right after the duel.

Before I could start complaining, a soft beeping caught my attention. I blinked as a small screen expanded into my vision. The only thing on the screen was a single message. And yet this single message sent my mind spiraling.

Congratulations! You have passed the tutorial!