Chương 60: Under The Master’s Grasp With No Escape! (End of Season 1)

(End of Season 1) The Martial Master took his steps. Each one carried such mighty presence that the air itself seemed to bow. Our mouths hung open like sinkholes. It was beyond impressive, on what the honey glazed man just did. The way he had obliterated Aemilius Tietäjä into nothing but blood dust literally shattered my perception of might. Delusions built up in my mind... how could a man who looked so young achieve such a feat? Was he the strongest man alive on the Orbis Terrarum?

He now stood right before us with a sleek, almost playful smile. Before we could say anything, he kicked his heel into the ground. The earth beneath us erupted upward, launching us into the sky. He jumped after us and grabbed both Galer and me like we were mere pebbles. His strong arms clamped around our torsos, holding us tightly against his sides, as if he was carrying wheelbarrows to a tavern. He looked at Iskatot while still in mid-air.

"Greet the one you serve. I take these two as collateral for dealing with that problem." He nodded his head toward the previous battlefield.

"I can't let that happen!" Iskatot roared, voice cracking with raw emotion. Shadows flared violently around him as his Umbral Dominion surged in response to his fury.

"I serve Herzog Isopetalom! I swore an oath to bring these two back to him alive and safe. Do not depart your authority here... it will not undermine my Herzog's will!" The martial master Hwan Songge only smiled faintly, but gave Iskatot a grave warning. He clapped back on Iskatot empty promise of defiance.

"You can bring me the whole force of your nation and I still would come out on top! Haha! Be glad I don't go right there and create a ruckus for your insolence, young buck!" Even as the words left his mouth, Iskatot attacked. He whipped his sickle-chain forward with all his remaining strength, the flail screaming through the air in a desperate attempt to stop the master from taking us. Hwan Songge didn't even turn his head. He simply released another pulse of overwhelming pressure from his body.

The chain was blasted backward before it could come close. Then, from nowhere, Iskatot's face was kicked by an invisible force. He flew toward the deep ground like a broken doll. We tried to scream for Iskatot´s well being, but no words came out. Desperation clawed at my throat, but the master's iron grip crushed our stomachs so tightly that breathing itself was a brutal struggle. Every attempt to draw air only produced a weak, choked wheeze.

I thrashed wildly, trying to shake free, kicking and twisting with everything I had left, but it was useless. The martial man was beyond us... beyond anything we had ever faced. His arms felt like living steel bands forged from an another world themselves. No amount of struggling, no burst of Heart Flame, no desperate resistance made even the slightest difference to the man, he even ignored us. Then right before journey departure he looked at us seriously.

"Ohh, look the young ones want to speak. But as the Terrarum idiom goes: always heed your elders. I am commanding your bodies as part of my discipleship now. You are coming with me. I was getting bored of my retirement life anyway. To Gongreyo we fly to the far East of our world, lets not waste anymore time." And so he kicked off again. His steps were like a speeding hammer in a forge each one filled with terrifying intensity. We flew so fast our mouths were pulled back by the wind.

The madman's insane speed combined with his tight grip created crushing pressure. Our bodies screamed in pain. Galer and I threw up in the air. The master laughed at our misery like a child who had found new favorite toys to play with at his whims. The Biomes of the world changed too quickly for me to truly appreciate them. Cities blurred past. Mountains rose and fell. Weather shifted from rain to clear skies to snow in moments.

We even saw dragons, which he simply outflew without giving any of them a second glance. Then, out of boredom, he hopped onto a massive mountain surrounded by other smaller mountain peaks. Its peak was thick with mist and fallen snow like I had never seen before. The cold hit my face like a thousand needles, cutting straight to the bone. My lungs should have frozen solid, yet the master's iron grip somehow kept a pocket of warmth inside our bodies with his sheer presence defying even nature itself.

As was looking for something specific, he stopped suddenly for a stupidly small white flower he had spotted from kilometers away in the sky. What kind of eyesight does this man have? The thought hit me like a hammer. One moment we were flying at impossible speeds, the next he was delicately balancing on one foot in mid-air, reaching down with his toes to pluck the fragile bloom with a gentleness that felt completely alien coming from someone who had just erased a monster from existence.

The man held the flower with surprising care." This is a Chrysanthemum Primo Sei. The white leaves are six. It is at its most prime. Let me tell, you kids don't know what good tea is until you smell it right before you…" He looked at us with our damaged faces, our shivering bodies and his expression shifted to clear disappointment, almost paternal frustration.

"Kids these days. This is just -90 degrees and you are already shivering. Only weaklings in this generation. I will have to fix that weak attitude out of you. This Chrysanthemum Primo Sei is one of the greatest yellow herbal teas in all of Asiaticum. Its properties are so salivating for a chaophile (a Tea Sommelier) like myself. We can't stop and ignore such a treasure on the way home, now can we…"

He resumed air-walking, still gripping us like luggage while carrying the flower with utmost care on his right foot's toes. The way he stared at that tiny bloom with an almost perverted level of affection and reverence-made my stomach turn. You would never think this was the same man who had annihilated a monstrous fusion barely forty-two minutes ago.

"Ahhh…" he sighed deeply, eyes half-closed in bliss.

"Just imagining the prime six-leaf taste… The dried flower buds creating a bright yellow herbal tea with such sweet, floral, and herbaceous flavor in one's mouth, it is the staple across Asiaticum for its cooling properties to treat headaches, fevers, and keep a person face young." The perverted madman in the sky now flew somewhat slower, squeezing the flower and us tighter. The cold region fell far behind us. Then a huge Valthorak, as he coined the name, appeared behind him.

Its goal was clearly to get the flower back from its territory. The madman's face twisted in anger at the majestic and terrifying fusion of the fastest falcons and the most powerful eagles imaginable. Standing twice the size of a real imperial skyraptor, this colossal raptor measured roughly 4. 8 meters tall when perched, with a wingspan reaching over 22 meters. Its body combined the sleek, aerodynamic lethality of a falcon with the raw power and majesty of a golden eagle.

The head featured a sharp, hooked beak of polished osmium-black, while its eyes glowed with intense molten yellow. The plumage was a striking mix of deep midnight blue, metallic silver, and burnished gold, with long flowing feathers that shimmered like liquid metal under sunlight. Its talons were enormous, capable of crushing boulders, and its wings could generate devastating shockwaves with cutting wind blades.

Valthorak was five times more powerful than any real-life counterpart, capable of diving at speeds beyond 13, 000 km/h, combat speed at 1, 300 km/h, shattering trees with a single wingbeat, and carrying off fully grown creatures in flight. It was highly intelligent, proud, and not to be underestimated. Ancient stories said Valthorak was the undisputed apex predator of the Snow Mountains in Asiaticum.

Only Dragons, the Emperors of the Sky, challenged a fully grown Valthorak in its domain for the mountainous right to rule. The animal's only weakness was the Chrysanthemum. It hated to see someone else grab it from its own territory. Its proud pride shattered if someone dared to steal its rightful food source. The madman changed his tone instantly. He put the flower between his lips, sealing it shut so he wouldn't gulp it by accident, and now used his legs to run faster again. A new chase had begun.

The Martial Master pushed to even higher speed, from 13, 000 to his outmost maximum of 16, 800 km/h, while carrying us in a tight fashion, successfully shaking off the bird after a minute. Having reached a new speed record. Now the land under us had changed to endless rolling hills. The Martial Master mumbled that in around five hours we would be at his place. We could not really understand him as he still had the flower on his lip and his insane speed hurt our faces more than before. I wished he would just stop.

The pain became almost unbearable to withstand. Hours later we finally saw his home nation: " Gongreyo." First to witness was the huge, gigantic Beakian Mountains not as tall as some we had seen, but impressive in how wide they stretched, serving as a natural border. After 221 kilometers we saw the land of "Gongreyo" itself. Huge trees on hills everywhere the eyes could see. The Martial Master added that those were Montane Coniferous Forests, the natural habitat of Gongreyo and perfect for woodcutting.

After one more hour we finally stood above a tiny island compared to everything we had just witnessed near the land of "Gongreyo." He threw us off sixty meters above ground into the lash sandy field near the ocean. He landed gracefully and said while putting the flower in his pocket with a short perverted grin (looking like he would violate it if he could): After one more hour we finally stood above a tiny island compared to everything we had just witnessed near the land of "Gongreyo."

The vast rolling hills and endless Montane Coniferous Forests of the mainland gave way to this isolated speck of land rising from the ocean. The contrast was jarring even after flying over such immense, majestic terrain, this small island felt almost fragile. A strange mix of relief and fresh dread washed over me. We had just reached the place to land at, but we were still completely at this madman's mercy.

He threw us off sixty meters above ground into the lash sandy field seeming to be the Islands beach near the ocean. The fall was terrifying, as wind rushing past, stomachs dropping, but he landed gracefully right beside us, absorbing the impact like it was nothing. He put the flower in his pocket with a short, perverted grin (looking like he would violate it if he could if it were alive). The expression sent a fresh wave of unease through me.

This was the same man who had casually dominated everything in his path earlier, yet here he was, treating a tiny flower with disturbing affection.

"Welcome to my island that has been in our generations for centuries," he announced proudly." Sasaldo (Snake Killing Island)!" The island's design was 700 square kilometers in size. Rising one hundred and fifty meters straight out of the ocean behind a barrier of treacherous, boat-destroying reefs.

The ancestral training fortress of Sasaldo isolates the 1, 000 farming community of Mayang Village from a hyper-dense forest filled with ancient animals, equipped with a 2-kilometer-deep rift lake where powerful ancient beasts also roam freely.

All beneath a punishing, wind-battered mountain peak that disciples must claw up without support to reach the solitary dojo of my Martial Master of the Striking Sky the Hwando Martial Art, the Hwan Songge's domain. Yours truly. He pointed at himself with his index finger, grinning.

"So my young students, claw up from the beaches. The reef is 129 meters, and then you do it again, climbing up to my dojo with just 421 meters above that ground. I give you only one day. If you fail, I will punish you for failure." Before we could even argue against that madman treating us as captive trainees, he disappeared right before our eyes. Galer finally had time to speak with me. We shared one thing in common in that regard: "That man is a pure personification of madness. He will kill us...

one million percent." The ordeal of climbing this heavily pressured island, where you could feel the gravity being stronger by at least ten times and he wanted us to climb and climb again, also going through an infested forest with ancient animals and swim in a deep Rift Lake… With just one millisecond of eye contact on each other, we had the answer. Yes. We decided to run. We turned our bodies toward the wild ocean, wanting to swim toward the mainland.

From the air above, the honey glazed Martial Master stood watching us, casually eating a bamboo sprout.

"Tsk… how naive my new students are." A sneak grin spread across his face as he prepared to punish us. The moment we touched the water, he landed right before us. The speed was too fast for us to react. We flew backwards toward the dry beach. His presence scared us shitless. He now forced us to wear nothing as punishment, as took all of our belongings with him and leaving us. Completely naked under his careful watch from afar, we climbed the reef.

Fully knowing this man was doing this out of pure torture and nothing else… That day we committed to his training, our lives changed forever without even knowing that! End of Season 1