Chapter 26: Masters Creed

                        Lloyd quickly charges at Yusuke, as Lloyd swings his sword horizontally as well as vertically, Yusuke easily blocks and evades all of Lloyd’s attacks and swiftly steps next to Lloyd with his sword on Lloyd’s neck.

            “No wonder you got all beat up.” Yusuke says pressing his sword slightly harder at Lloyd’s neck.

            “What?” Lloyd says.

            “Have you forgotten everything I’ve taught you?” Yusuke asks upset.

            “What do you mean? I can still defend myself at least.” Lloyd says backing away from Yusuke’s sword.

            “I believe defending yourself is not enough, you’ve been just relaxing in your normal life, forgetting the things I’ve taught you, just doing nothing, and I’ve noticed you haven’t practiced in a long time.” Yusuke says angrily.

            “Guilty as charged I guess.” Lloyd says.

            “Come on, I want you to really try, a few years back when you were in training here you were outstanding, clearly a genius in combat, right now you look like a shadow of your former self.” Yusuke says.

            “No master, you’re wrong, I do remember everything you taught me, though all the genius stuff is an exaggeration I think, I just haven’t had the chance to be really serious.” Lloyd says scratching under his right ear.

            “Then prove it to me.” Yusuke says readying his sword.

            “Right.” Lloyd nods also readying himself.

            “Hmm…” Yusuke observes Lloyd.

                        Lloyd charges without any hesitation, Lloyd is dead serious about it, he attacks Yusuke with a vertical slash, Yusuke sidesteps and hurries in, but Lloyd kicks him on his stomach, Yusuke steps back. Lloyd then throws his sonic wind attack at him, Yusuke disappears from Lloyd’s view and appears behind him swinging his sword vertically, but Lloyd without looking back blocks with his sword. Lloyd swiftly disappears from Yusuke’s view and appears from above him making a vertical slash, but Yusuke also disappears from Lloyd’s view and appears right next to him. Lloyd still in midair making his vertical slash dashes and evades Yusuke’s slash by a paper-thin margin. They both land of the floor, Yusuke charges towards Lloyd and attacks him, Lloyd evades all of Yusuke’s attacks and counters them, but Yusuke also evades them. Yusuke then backs off and engulfs his sword in flames, Lloyd backs off as well.

            “You’ve proved me wrong, but for how long?” Yusuke asks as he keeps accumulating even more fire on his sword.

                        Lloyd’s wind powers surround his sword.

            “Hm…” Yusuke is surprised to what Lloyd is doing.

                        Yusuke once again charges towards Lloyd, both of them clashes swords against each other, Lloyd’s wind powers make Yusuke’s flames grow even stronger, Lloyd then accumulates wind on his right hand without letting go of his sword with his left and goes in for the hit. Yusuke also charges his hand with fire without letting go of his sword with his other hand, both their hands meet and the same effect as with their swords happen.

            “Your wind is only making my flames even stronger, what are you going to do?” Yusuke asks.

            “Tch.” Lloyd accumulates even more wind and makes Yusuke’s flames burst, they both back off. Yusuke once again charges at Lloyd, only this time Lloyd is standing still, like if he is waiting to be attacked, Yusuke attacks head on, Lloyd blocks everything, and counters calmly, but every slash Lloyd gives a wind blade surges from his sword and begins to slice the floors, ceilings, and walls. Yusuke barely evades the wind blades; it’s hard for him to block Lloyd’s slash as well as the wind blades at the same time.

            “Enough.” Yusuke says backing away from Lloyd.

            “Huh? Did I win?” Lloyd asks.

            “No, I just stopped the fight; I see you really didn’t forget anything I taught you.” Yusuke says content as he sheathes his sword.

            “Of course not, like I said, I was never really serious in any battle in a long time.” Lloyd says also sheathing his sword.

            “I suggest you become serious from now on, I’ve been feeling many strong Spirit Forces. There’s also that problem.” Yusuke mumbles at the end of the sentence.

            “What problem?” Lloyd asks suspiciously.

            “Your terrible Spirit Force sensing.” Yusuke says boldly.

            “Oh, that, yeah.” Lloyd laughs nervously.

            “And it’s not only you; it seems your friends are also on your same page.” Yusuke states.

            “But why is that?” Lloyd asks.

            “First, you and your friends are just instinctively feeling Spirit Forces, you don’t really know how to feel it as you must unless someone intentionally releases it. Secondly, it seems you and your friends have been too used to being with that girl, to put it simply with an example. It’s like you have an old smelly pillow you always lay on, you yourself can’t smell it because you’ve been too used to its scent, but let’s say a friend comes by to your room and lays on the pillow he’ll quickly notice it smells.” Yusuke explains.

            “Ohhhh, I get it! Damn, what a strange way of explaining it.” Lloyd comments.

            “If by any chance recently met friend don’t feel her Spirit Force it means he or she doesn’t know how to feel it as well.” Yusuke says. “Don’t feel ashamed though, I was also like you, the Elves showed me how it’s done, since they’re so close to nature and knowledgeable it’s only natural they have a better perception than us.”

            “So, are you going to teach me how to feel it?” Lloyd asks.

            “Yes, I’ll teach you and your friends how to feel Spirit Force properly.” Yusuke nods.

            “Great, let me call them, I’ll be right back.” Lloyd says running out of the chamber to call his friends.

                        Meanwhile, Zero, Luna and the rest of the crew are still on the airship, they are close to their destination, everyone in the airship is relaxed except for Zero.

            “We’re almost there princess.” Neil says.

            “You heard that?” Luna asks Zero.

            “Yeah, I have to get there as fast as I can.” Zero states with a dead serious expression.

                        Zero then looks into the distance where he sees Varrock, he suddenly remembers his past. There was a village, the Kaizer village, Varrock, everyone in the village remembered the name of Kraven like a legend and thought that Zelcius was dead. Somewhere in the village was a little boy with spiky dark blue hair training with what seemed as his older brother, his brother had long dark blue hair, they were both wielding swords. The little boy’s sword seemed lighter than that of his older brothers. The little boy attacked his brother, but his brother would easily evade it and finally countered it making the little boy fall on the ground.

            “It’s no time to be resting in front of your enemy Van.” The older brother said as he pointed his sword at Van.

            “I’m not resting!” Van said annoyed.

            “Heh.” The older brother smirked.

            “You’re so strong Jek, when I grow up I’ll be just as strong as you.” Van said determined.

            “You will, won’t you?” Jek asked as he smiled.

            “Yeah.” Van nodded.

                        A man suddenly appeared and said. “That will be some feat little Van, Jek is the strongest after your late father, Kraven.”

            “He’ll be strong one day, I’m sure of it Ballard.” Jek stated.

            “I think so too, the Axel family is a very talented one.” Ballard commented.

            “Right.” Jek said.

                        They kept training, after a few days of training Van was already getting tired.

            “That’s it for today.” Jek said as he sheathed his sword.

            “What? But I wanna keep going!” Van said.

            “You’re already tired, you’ve been sparring with me day after day, some rest won’t hurt, it’s already getting dark, we’ll keep going tomorrow ok?” Jek asked.

            “Promise?” Van asked.

            “I promise.” Jek said with a grin.

                        A very tired Van headed to his house, he walked to his room and fell on his bed wasted, quickly falling to sleep. After a while sleeping the war alarm used in his village when there was danger began to sound, Van woke up, he walked outside and saw everyone hurrying to get their weapons and yelling. “The demons have entered!”

            “Huh? That’s impossible, that’s never happened here, only a Kaizer can open the gates.” Van said in disbelief.

                        After hearing this Van quickly ran to the temple that was made in honor to his father, he stepped in front of the statue.

            “Give me strength father.” Van said as he reached to take the sword the statue had, his father’s sword and ran off to help the villagers. There was a lot of blood and battles all over, a lot of demon heads could be seen flying all around. The Kaizers had the advantage, obviously because they've been fighting against demons from generation to generation since the beginning of time. They were the best demon slayers ever seen. Van's brother, Jek slew them easily, suddenly Jek found himself surrounded and heard a very familiar voice. “Jek… I see you've grown up, very strong like your father once was.”

                        Zelcius appeared out of the blue and asked. “Remember me?”

                        Jek with a very surprised look said. “I thought you were dead!”

            “Not even close, I'm more alive than ever.” Zelcius said.

                        Jek made a vertical slash at Zelzius, but Zelcius faded in smoke as Jek’s blade ran through him, and all that's heard is his voice from a far whispering to Jek’s ear. Jek filled with rage followed Zelcius out of the village without thinking it could be a trap. The voice of Zelcius stopped deep in the forest; abruptly Jek found himself surrounded by demons, he started slashing and slaying all the demons, but it seemed like there was no end to them, fatigue was already catching up with him and was getting very tired, but he kept up killing demons. He heard Zelcius voice once again. “Behind you!”

                        When he turned around, he was suddenly stabbed with a mysterious dark dagger.

            “Ahhhhhhh!!!” Jek yelled in agony and fell on his knees looking toward the sky, light began to come out of his eyes and mouth as lighting began to fall on him from the sky. Meanwhile Van wanted to fight and left with his father’s sword in hand, a demon surprised Van from above trying to kill him, but a woman with a similar hairstyle as Jek sliced it in half, it was Van’s mother, Casilia, she stopped him and took away his sword.

            “What are you doing? You almost got killed!” Casilia asked worried.

            “I want to find brother!” Van said desperately.

            “I’m going to help!” Casilia said.

            “But-!” Van was cut off by her.

            “Hey, don’t forget that the women in this village fight as well.” Casilia said.

                        When they got out it seemed like the Kaizers already killed all the demons, they were celebrating, after a while the Kaizers saw Jek walking towards the gate. The Kaizers swiftly opened the gate to congratulate him for killing Zelcius, unexpectedly Jek began to slay all of the Kaizers, everyone was confused and did not know what to do, not a soul was a match for him, he kept slaughtering all of the Kaizers without hesitation. Van's mother saw this and hid Van behind some bushes nearby and said as she took off an amulet that she had around her neck. “Take this amulet, it will protect you; with this no matter how far apart we are, I will always be with you!”She handed the amulet and ran off towards Jek. “Jek! Stop this massacre! Listen to your mother!”

                        Jek stopped and looked at her; she embraced him and said. “Everything is going to be okay.”

                        A tear flowed out of Jek's eye, he pulled his sword back and stabbed her; she fell on the ground surprised as she asked. “Why?”

                        Jek looked at the sky and yelled in despair. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

                        All of a sudden, Van came out crying and rushing out of his hiding place after seeing everything and got on top of his mother crying even more as he asked Jek. “Why brother, why?”

                        Jek then grabbed Van by his neck and started to strangle him, Jek looked at Van's amulet and turned his view at his dead mother on the ground, he let go of Van and made a sad expression, he fell on his knees yelling even more. “Ahhhhh!”

                        Zelcius abruptly appeared and is about to kill Van, but Jek got in the way and said. “No! I will do it my Lord.”

                        He walked toward Van, Van was scared, Jek suddenly sliced Van's chest with a diagonal slash making Van fly away by the impact and landed in between some bushes, Jek and Zelcius left, Zelcius laughing very wickedly. “Hahahaha!”

                        The next day, it was morning and raining, an exile Kaizer came by after he noticed everyone’s Spirit Force vanished, this man saw everyone was dead. He suddenly heard someone cough and some pieces of wood moved, the man walked to where he heard this and found Van seriously wounded by Jek's attack and noticed Jek let him live on purpose.

            “Are you okay?” The man asked helping the boy.

                        Van coughed again and asked. “Who are you?”

            “Drake.” He replied.

                        Van all of a sudden fainted and Drake took him back to his shack, after Van got up, he noticed he was all patched up.

            “Feeling better?” Drake asked as he used a stone to sharpen his sword.

            “Yeah…” Van nodded and made a sad expression after remembering what happened to everyone.

            “What happened? Do you remember anything?” Drake asked.

            “I do, Zelcius returned with demons and somehow made Jek kill everyone.” Van answered.

            “How is it possible? Kraven killed him!” Drake said with widened eyes.

            “…… I want to avenge everyone; I want to become stronger than anyone…” Van said with a lowered head.

            “Humph… I owe your father, he would have liked for me to train you.” Drake said.

            “You know my dad, how?” Van asked warily.

            “He was my best friend.” Drake responded.

            “Really?” Van asked surprised.

            “Yes, so from now on, I will be your master. Your name from now on will not be Van Axel anymore, he died that day your village was killed, from now on, you have zero past, zero future, zero family, and that is why your name shall be Zero, your training starts tomorrow.” Drake says seriously.

            “Ok… master.” Zero replied.

                        The day after, in Drake’s cabin, Zero was outside with his fists clenched trying to use his lightning powers, Drake was observing him as he did.

            “I’m still wondering why Kraven’s boy still can’t use his lightning elemental powers, he must’ve trained with Jek… he must be a slow learner.” Drake thinks to himself.

                        Zero kept trying very hard, Drake then said. “It’ll be easier if you awaken them using your emotions.”

            “Emotions?” Zero asked.

            “Yes, remember how Zelcius slaughtered everyone.” Drake answered.

            “I’ll try.” Zero said as he kept trying to unleash his power.

            “Remember, because of him, your father, your mother and all the villagers died, I would assume he already disposed of Jek.” Drake said in an angry voice.

            “Ahh!” Zero yelled as he kept trying to awake his power.

            “If we don’t do something about it, he’s going to kill me, you and everything you hold precious, let it all out, it’s okay to feel rage and desires of retribution.” Drake says.

            “Aaahhhhhh!” Zero kept yelling, sparkes began to flicker around him.

            “You’re doing it Zero, let it out, let it all out.” Drake yells.

            “Ahhhhh!” Zero yelled as a huge burst of electricity exploded out of him.

                        Drake smiled as Zero saw electricity spark all over his body.

            “I did it!”

            “Took you a few days, but you made it, that’s your first step, now, time for some swordplay.” Drake said as he brandished his longsword.

                        Zero looked around for a weapon, Drake unsheathed a second longsword and tossed it to Zero, Zero caught it and got ready. Both trained for months, until Zero one day was out hunting demons with the same longsword, he was dressed with a small black cloak and brown leather boots. Zero sniffed around the woods of Varrock until suddenly a Minotaur attacked him from behind, Zero was able to evade by jumping high up in midair, he then attacked the Minotaur, the Minotaur then blocked Zero’s sword with his horns and rammed him against a tree ready to kill him, Zero struggled to escape, but to no avail.

            “Ugghhh… Get off me!” Zero shouted.

                        The Minotaur pressed on, until all of a sudden it was sliced in half, Zero looked around and saw no one, he then heard Drake’s voice from above on the tree. “Looking for someone?”

            “Master!” Zero said shocked.

            “I should’ve known it was too soon for you, as punishment of failing such a simple task you’re going to carry a sword much heavier than that one and hunt again.” Drake said.

            “Ahh man!” Zero said.

            “And just for that, no dinner today if you can’t hunt your own.” Drake said.

            “Me and my big mouth!” Zero said pissed off.

                        Night fell; Drake was outside sitting in front of a bonfire with a some roasted squirrels on a few sticks, he was eating while Zero stared at him with nothing to eat.

            “What? You’re hungry?” Drake asked.

                        Zero nodded, Drake grinned and said.

            “How about this, you beat me in an arm wrestling game and I let you eat a whole squirrel, nice deal right?” Drake said.

            “But that’s impossible; I can’t even beat you in a staring contest, let alone an arm wrestling one.” Zero said.

            “Then I guess you’re not that hungry.” Drake kept eating as he took some sips of water from a container.

            “……” Zero looked down as his stomach growled loudly.

            “Hahaha, I’m going to get more water from my house, you stay here and watch my squirrels, make sure no animal eats them.” Drake said as he got up and wen’t to his house.

                        Zero stared at the tasty squirrels, his stomach growled yet again, he kept his hands to himself and waited for his master’s return. Drake came back with more water inside his container and said. “Thanks for keeping an eye on them, as a reward I’ll give you two of these squirrels.”

                        Zero immediately took them and began eating like if he’s never eaten before.

            “Whoa! Take it easy, the squirrels aren’t going to leave you know, you might choke on them, hahaha.” Drake laughed. “Next time, you better get your own food; I won’t be as merciful as today.”

            “Yes sir!” Zero said with his mouth full.

                        Back to the present, Zero smiles slightly as Neil runs in a rush towards Luna and says. “Umm, princess.”

            “What?” Luna asks annoyed.

            “It’s getting cloudy, looks like it’s going to rain hard.” Neil comments.

            “So?” Luna asks crossing her arms.

            “We’ll have to drop you off in a few minutes; we don’t want to jeopardize the airship.” Neil replied hesitantly.

            “You good for nothings.” Luna says shaking her head.

            “It’s alright, I’ll get off here.” Zero says standing up from a chair.

            “Wait a damn minute, you’re not going alone, I’m going with you.” Luna says furiously.

            “No, it might be dangerous, remember that Zelcius said he sent a demon.” Zero says.

            “It’s even more dangerous if you go alone, I don’t want you out of my sight until you help me!” Luna says determined.

                        Zero sighs and says. “Ok, hurry up.”

                        Luna and Zero quickly get off the airship, Zero starts running through some woods, Luna follows behind him, it suddenly begins to rain hard. Zero sees some smoke from above the forest, he keeps running and sees some fire from a distance. They keep running until they find a shack that is still on fire, Zero stops for a moment and stares at the shack, he suddenly sniffs.

            “Huh?” Zero sees a man on the ground from the distance, Zero can’t believe his eyes, it is his master, Drake. Zero just slowly walks like if he is in disbelief, the rain falls on Zero combining with his tears, and lightning bolts can be seen in the cloudy sky.

            “No, oh no.” Zero says in a low and sad voice.

                        When Zero reaches his master, he picks his head up, looking at the face of his once loved master. Luna looks from a distance, Zero looks up at the cloudy sky, he is filled with rage, his eyes turning completely white as he punches the ground furiously making a large crack in it. He kneels on the ground completely full of sorrow and rage. Luna very worried runs and hugs Zero from behind.

            “He was my only family… He was everything to me…” Zero says in a sad tone of voice.

            “I’m sorry Zero…” Luna says in a sad voice as well.

            “I couldn’t save him, I was too late…” Zero says filled with despair.

            “It’s not your fault!” Luna says.

            “It is my fault…” Zero says in denial.

            “Even if you made it here on time you would’ve probably died along with him.” Luna remarks.

            “……” Zero opens his eyes and calms down a little, when unexpectedly he hears some heavy footsteps coming from the forest. “What’s that?”

            “Huh?” Luna looks towards the forest.

                        Zero sniffs and says. “This scent and Spirit Force, I recognize it, is it him?”

                        Suddenly a knight with a dark black armor carrying a huge sword with an arm that looks like a demons steps out of the darkness of the forest.

            “You… Who are you?” Zero asks.

                        The dark knight remains silent.

            “Who is that?” Luna asks staring at the dark knight.

            “You… you killed my master!” Zero shouts angrily.

                        The dark knight’s eyes shine, his right eye red and left gold, both with slit pupils. He stares at Zero intently, Zero is filled once again with rage and attacks the dark knight; the dark knight despite wearing such a heavy armor evades swiftly and points his huge sword at Zero’s throat as he says. “Pathetic.”

                        The dark knight releases his Spirit Force, the ground seems like it is shaking, everything is getting heavy, and suddenly the ground begins to crack to his immense Spirit Force. Luna falls on her knees as well as Zero.

            “What a strong Spirit Force.” Luna says almost unable to breathe.

            “If you’re trying to taunt me, it’s not working you b*****d!” Zero says as he jumps up and unleashes an Air Raid attack towards the dark knight, but the knight raises his demonic hand and absorbs the electricity.

            “What?” Zero says in disbelief, then attacking head on, the knight keeps on blocking, easily handling Zero and countering.

            “What the hell are you?” Zero asks.

            “Your worst nightmare.” The dark knight replies in a demonic voice.

                        The knight then raises his huge sword and a lightning bolt strikes his sword thus making it shine in electricity. The knight then attacks Zero, Zero blocks all the attacks, but the sparks from the knight’s sword keeps burning Zero, the knight then grabs Zero by his throat and slams him on the ground. Zero tries to slip away, but the knight’s demonic hand is too strong to budge. Abruptly an arrow of Mana Force hits the knight’s arm, the knight lets go of Zero and looks towards Luna, she is holding a fancy detailed golden bow made out of her gold bracelet.

            “It seems like flies are flying around.” The dark knight says.

                        Zero rapidly rolls out from the knight’s feet; the knight then looks at Zero and says. “At least your master was more of a challenge, but he still died miserably calling out your name.”

                        Zero’s expression turns again into rage while the dark knight laughs wickedly. Zero again furiously attacks the knight; the knight just catches Zero’s sword with his demonic hand and says. “Why are you so weak? You can’t even touch me.”

            “Huh?” Zero widens his eyes.

            “And Zelcius had told me you were quite strong, I came out here for nothing.” The dark knight says disappointed.

            “You son of a b***h!” Zero yells.

                        The knight suddenly charges a lot of electricity from his body and electrocutes Zero using Zero’s sword as a current, Zero receives the knight’s full charge and falls on the ground.

            “I wouldn’t waste my time killing a man as weak as you, what a waste of time and energy.” The dark knight comments.

            “Ughhh…” Zero faints as the dark knight leaves, disappearing in the dark forest, Luna hurries to where Zero is.

            “Zero… Are you alright? Zero? Zero!” Luna shouts worried.

Reviews

[Felipe]

so that's why zero wants to kill zelcius, seem a pretty good reason, i would do the same if a d********g killed my family and all, great chap man, love how you make even the strongest in the party have trouble with his powers in his childhood, keep up the good work!