Realm of Possibility

“Hey dad! Quick question: did you bury the body?”

“What are you talking about?” James sake as he climbed the flight of stairs. “I didn’t touch that damned body, neither did anyone in this house nor the Extorters.”

“Then where could it be?”

“Don’t ask me. I had my doubts with Paula since she was the one who last talked to him last night after you left.”

“But it was your signature move that was engraved on his chest”

“But I didn’t kill him.”

“Then who did?”

“Arg! Enough of this detective crap! All we know is that the lad is somewhere out there. Go with Paula and look for him. If you find him, let me know.”

Danny suddenly became silent and his face turned grim. He gave James a light bow and moved out of the room.

***

Frank, who had gone to get backup for his comrade Teeg in Thorne village, arrived at a forest and instead of using the more visible path, he entered using a less impenetrable part.

By using certain tree positions, he maneuvered through the woods and finally arrived at a maple tree beyond which the trees looked totally impenetrable.

He touched the old maple tree with his palm and suddenly the entrance to the impenetrable forest got rippled. The image of the squeezed trees changed to a small hill with a cave all surrounded by a pond.

“Good to be home.” Frank told himself as he headed towards the bridge.

“It stinks here. The master won’t be pleased at all.”

Reaching their base, Frank witnessed an incredibly gruesome scene. His comrade lay dead all over covered with blood from deep cuts and severed parts.

The ceiling and the walls of the cave were filled with so much blood that it dripped down without stopping.

Frank was too shocked beyond imagination. He opened his eyes so widely in shock and his mouth wide open, leaving him speechless. Weak in his knees, he dropped down and let out a large amount of vomit.

“What in the world? Who did this?”

“I swear that I’ll end that maniac with my sword!”

“You …..look so ….uncool, ...Frankie!”

Frank looked around and suddenly saw his friend, half of him to be exact, buried by a rock from his tummy downwards to his feet.

“Rein! Oh crap! Rein, don’t worry! I’m going to get you out of here”

“Frankie..., you can ...stop now. Even if I ....get out of here... alive, it would ...be more of a punishment to.... live in ...this state.?”

Frank couldn’t contain himself. He started crying.

“You ...have to look ...for the girl?”

“Which girl?” Frank replied while sobbing.

“Blonde girl! 12 ...years old. I think ...she’s called ...Vicky or something. Just find ...her and ... protect her.”

“Okay! But who did this?”

Rein gave a weak smile.

“No can do. I ...shan’t tell you ...anything.”

“But...”

“What a ...horrible friend ...you are! You talk…. about vengeance….. to someone ...who’s.. going to…. die soon?”

Rein started coughing seriously while spitting blood.

“Rein, don’t talk too much.”

Frank placed his hand within his and gripped it tight.

“You’re right. Hey Rein! Do you remember the guild master’s daughter?”

“Yeah! ….You ….loved her. You…even... brought her….. flowers that ….she was …..allergic to.”

“She hit me badly that day, I remember. What about when you wanted to fight the man that she was going to marry?”

“She said she loved me!”

“Yeah, she did! But you still got beaten up!”

The two of them laughed with sorrow on the dark rainy evening.

“Check the pocket of my ...top. There's a bag of ...money, 20,000 Rubics...silver. Take it to my ...mother in the central ...district outskirts. Her ...name, Morriah.

“Okay, I'll do it. Anything, brother.”

Rein put on a weak smile.

“Thank ...you, brother. For ...everything!”

“Thank you, too, brother!”

The thunder clapped loud, the hail came down hard, the lightning flashed all over, Frank let out a scream as loud as he could, but all he could hear was nothingness, for the grip of his friend had loosened.

“Farewell, Rein!”

***

“Urg! Too sleepy! It’s still dark outside.”

The previous night, Phillip struggled to sleep after talking to Paula. Slightly opening his itchy eyes, he saw a blur beside him looking at him. The face shape looked like that of Danny.

“My body, I can’t move! I feel heavy. Is that Danny?”

“Urg! Back to sleep.”

“No! No! Something’s wrong!”

Phillip, refocusing his sight, saw Danny tying him up tightly with a rope.

“Danny! What the heck are you doing? Why are you tying me up?”

“It seems that he’s up! Paula, make him sleep again?”Danny said while resisting Phillips' struggle.

“But why should we do this?” Paula replied with uncertainty.

“Paula, focus. Whatever you’re thinking about this man won’t help you. Let’s obey for now and when we find a chance, we shall escape this reality. Besides, it’s not that he’s going to die.”

Paula closed her eyes for a moment and then looked towards Phillip with her beautiful eyes filled with sadness.

“I’m sorry, Phillip. You were so nice to me, yet this is how I repay you!”

Paula lifted her arms up and closed her eyes. A cool wind surrounding Phillip was summoned at her command.

“What’s with these people? They invited me in and now they are treating me like a thief.”

Phillip thought as he looked at them with an angry face.

“Oh no! My consciousness is fading. Is it the wind? Arg.. I have to activate my ability.

Phillip invoked his ability silently as they finished tying him up.

“Unravel!”

***

“Hah… it’s quite laughable? I wonder why I chose to ignore the coachman’s advice.”

Within the fields of corn was the young lad, lying on his back as the rain made him wetter that he already was.

“Why is it even raining? It showed that it would be sunny the whole day? Anyway, having woken up, I need to leave this horrifying place at once.”

Phillip got up steadily while staggering a bit and then started moving slowly towards the edge of the corn field.

After a while, Phillip managed to reach the edge of the farm. Hardly had he stepped out of the farm when a high pitched voice called out his name.

“Phillip!!”

Looking towards the direction of the source, Phillip saw Paula and Danny heading towards him. Immediately, Phillip folded his hands into fists and placed them close to his face while widening his leg span.

Danny, cautious of Phillip’s actions, gets in front of Paula and stops her with his hand.

“What? You now see him as an enemy?” Paula asked.

“No, but I see him as a person who means nothing in our lives. We have to be care—”

Suddenly, Danny stopped talking and removed his arm away from Paula.

“Danny? Wait, don't tell me, that geezer did it again! Danny, stop!”

Without hesitating, Danny dashed towards Phillip.

Phillip lowered his arms to get a better visual of the attack.

“Should I block? Or parry?” Phillip asked himself. “If I have a chance to parry then let’s do it. It’s a good way to measure the strength of your opponent and then devise a plan of action.”

Danny brought a powerful right hook. Phillip stepped back and used his left hand to parry the attack to his right.

Powerful was an understatement.

“That attack wasn’t normal. If I had tanked it, it would have broken the bones in my arm.”

Without delay, Danny recovered from his opponent's parry and stepped back while jumping.

He then brought a couple of jabs and a hook as Phillip easily slipped out of their trajectories. Danny ended the combo with a right hook like before, overflowing with strength.

Phillip managed to dodge towards Danny's right so that he could launch a counter to his ribs, but he had clearly underestimated his opponent’s strength.

Just the shock wave of the punch managed to lift him off of the ground, launching him towards the stem of a tree. Before he could reach, Phillip made a couple of twists in the air and a somersault to land safely onto the ground.

“This strength isn’t normal.” Phillip thought as he went back into his stance. “But at least now I’ve found out his strength, I’ll handle it for the next round.”

“Danny! Stop playing with your enemy. Bring him in dead or alive.”

Looking to where the voice was coming from, there stood James, carrying a thin bladed rapier with a shiny silvery color and a black hilt.

“Mr. Cott! No, Cott, why are you doing this?

“You’ve got bad luck son. You would have been alive if you’d gone with the Extorters but you just decided to frame me for killing you. I don’t know what you know about me but dead men tell no tales.”

James looked towards Danny.

“Finish him!”

Danny approached more dangerously than before towards Phillip.

He launched two jabs and a hook like before. Phillip moved like before two avoid the impact, but every time his fist passed near his ear, it would partially deafen him while hearing a ringing sound.

Phillip, anticipating a cross from his right, got ready to lower himself and launch a counter attack.

To his surprise, Danny changed the pattern by bringing a solid right uppercut towards his chin.

“Crap!!”

Phillip suddenly crossed his arms in front of him to brace for impact as it was the only thing left to do. Danny brought the lethal strike, while aiming for his chin, that sent him flying towards the forest.

“You’re still soft. I can’t believe you’re not using even half of your energy. Well that shows that he didn’t deserve to face off with you at all.” James told Danny.

Paula couldn’t say anything as she already knew the obvious outcome.

“Did I hear that right?”

“Huh!” James pondered.”Who said that?”

Looking towards the forest, Phillip moved out of some bushes into the open, having a small scratch on the side of his head from where blood flowed down to his cheeks.

“All that and having only a scratch, what in the world are you?”

Phillip, ignoring James, spoke to Danny, “Don’t hold back when we fight. I too won’t hold back. So let’s make a bet. I’ll join you if I lose and if I win, you two will join me and will help me to have James murdered.”

“Keep on dreaming young lad. If you didn’t know, Danny is under my command. He can’t kill his master.”

“Deal!” Danny surprisingly agreed to the deal.

“What? Danny I command you, let me have his head!”

“N..no”

“My command is absolute, Danny.”

Danny suddenly stopped his struggle and looked at Phillip with a murderous intent.

“Come!”

Phillip summoned him upfront.

Both shouting, they ran towards each other.

Danny brought a punch with incredible momentum from the motion. Before impact, Phillip made a huge leap into the air, jumping above Danny, leaving an explosion of force where his punch was headed.

Before Danny could recover, Phillip folded his hands into a fist surrounded by sparks of flames, rotated himself a number of times to increase his momentum and finally hit Danny on the left side of his face, bringing him down on his belly.

“W..what!!”

James could only spout so little after witnessing the amazing scene.

Danny, with a slight burn near his ear, rose to his feet and faced Phillip again.

“This will be a long match!” Phillip said as he stared in wonder.

“So let’s end it fast!” Danny replied in a coarser voice.

“Might of Odin!”

“Realm of Possibility!”