The crowd cheered with savage glee as a fist landed on my opponent's undefended side, knocking his wind out. For a second, I stood there taking in the applause of the crowd while my opponent corrected himself. His face flashed with anger as he charged forward, stepping to the side. I avoided his mad dash before retaliating. I kicked his load-bearing leg, chi infused in my muscles, increasing my speed and power. The kick landed with practiced precision, knocking him to the ground. My lips curled into a smug smile as I spoke.
"That makes two, zero." My words only served to infuriate Xiao further.
I kicked up the sand of the arena into his eyes, blinding him for a single moment. I laughed at his foolishness as I toyed with him, constantly delivering blows across his body, only infuriating him further. His eyes flashed with unrestrained hatred. I started to grow bored of the fight as his reactions grew slower and slower. I swept his leg, throwing him off balance. Taking advantage, I dashed forward, throwing a jab and setting up for a powerful hook that knocked Xiao out of the arena's bounds. The crowd went nuts, chanting my name, 'Zeon, Zeon, Zeon,' they screamed with such fervor. My dreadlocks flowed in the wind, tied neatly into a ponytail behind my head, as my grey-blue eyes scanned the arena. I turned to look at the crowd, raising my hands, I graciously accepted their adoration, only making them cheer louder. The officials announced my dominating victory over the speakers. I had just won the finals for the Gauteng provincials. I expected nothing less, of course.
What could you expect from Zeon Li Whither, the last scion of the legendary Whither line? My family's names reverberated through legends almost as old as the Dynasty itself. My attention was drawn back to the officials when I noticed a worried look on their faces before a city-wide alarm broke out, signaling the opening of a new rift. An attendant brought me my phone, and a message was sent to all the registered gifted in the area to assist with the city's defense. I thanked the attendant as I made my way out of the arena.
The world had changed roughly three thousand years ago when the first rift appeared. Scientists had tried to research what it could be as the military quarantined the area. None of the russian scientists survived when the rift suddenly started spewing out monsters from myth; they tore through the soldiers before wreaking havoc in Moscow. After that, more and more rifts began to appear across the globe, bringing more monsters into our world. But that was when they appeared, the gifted. Chi or mana, whatever you want to call it, returned to our world in greater quantities than what was already present. The chi flowed into people, granting some unimaginable power; they became the last hope of humanity against the monsters that sought to destroy them.
In the early days, the world was in an almost apocalyptic state; there was no order to be found, only chaos. But the gifted united and repelled the rift's assault. They were the ones who established the new world order. Empires rose and fell in that short amount of time; my family had been one of the first gifted. My ancestor Xuan Li Whither was at the forefront of the Southern African defense. We had to defend the Xing dynasty and all its lands. South Africa was one such colony; the other was the ancient desert of Namibia, but they fell to the beasts during the initial chaos. Making it almost uninhabitable to all but the monsters that now roamed its ancient sands. I am getting off track. I need to focus on the task ahead of me. My driver was already waiting for me by the gate. Getting into the car, he drove towards the rift without needing to say anything.
I had already briefed him when I sent the message to come fetch me earlier. While driving towards the rift, I saw how the police vehicles evacuated the citizens, and the military set up a perimeter in the area surrounding the rift. We arrived after twenty minutes, and there was already a gathering of gifted around the rift to repel the initial assault. That is just how rifts worked when they appeared; they spit out a few waves of monsters before going into a state of inactivity until they gathered more monsters for the next assault. If they are not dealt with, then the rift will just continue to spew out monsters forever. The only way to close a rift was to go inside and kill all of the monsters within, thus closing the rift forever. Depending on the strength of the rifts, they would stay open for a while after closing. This brought a whole new opportunity as guilds and Nobles stripped the rifts bare of anything that had value. I opened up my status just to double-check that everything was in order.
[Name: Zeon Li Wither
Age: 18
Race: Human
Gift: Asura's Wrath
class: F]
The status itself was quite simple; it gave only basic information, and the rest you had to figure out for yourself.
Zeon got out of the car and joined the other gifted, creating a line of defense in front of the rift. The incursion would begin at any moment. Looking around, I did not see any familiar faces, so instead I prepared myself. I got into my fighting stance, spread out my feet shoulder-width apart, bent my knees, and lifted my hands to my face. My rank F ability allowed me to make my soul tangible, transforming it into an extension of my fists. The perfect skill for a martial artist like me, the thought made me smirk. Channeling chi into my limbs, I felt them become strengthened and more robust. The rift itself looked like a white tear in reality, pulsating with energy. The color of a rift was an indicator of its strength; white meant that it was only F rank. The rift started to grow larger and larger, signaling that the incursion was about to begin. There were three lines of defense. The first consisted of powerful melee fighters who had experience in closing rifts. I found myself in the second row, filled with various fighters who had not entered a rift yet. While the last line was filled with archers and mages, making up the ranged fighters.
While waiting for the monsters to exit the rift, I felt my chest tighten. This is the first incursion that I have had the privilege to take part in. I only turned 18 three weeks ago, and by law, I am now capable of entering the rifts so that my own legend may begin. I ruthlessly crushed the worry budding in my chest. I am a Whither, and we fear nothing, not even death. My lips curled upward into a smirk as I watched the incursion truly begin. Strange blue bipedal creatures charged out of the rift. Sconcers, I sneered, these bastards are tricky; their claws were poisoned, so I could not afford to get hit. As a hand-to-hand combatant, that will be difficult. The smirk never left my lips, not even when the monsters reached the first line of defence. The veterans held their own against the blue beasts; they were weak after all.
I watched as the fight raged on and started to get annoyed. How long do I have to wait for these sobs to get tired so I can finally have some fun? My impatience started to get the best of me while I waited. Fuck it. My feet moved of their own volition, my battle instincts kicked in as chi channeled through my meridians and into my muscles. My speed doubled as I charged into the fray, and I dashed forward, my gift activated. There was no visible sign that my gift was active, but that was expected, considering it stemmed from the soul. Only those with a gift related to the soul would even notice it, and those gifts were rare. My fist crashed into a sconcer's face, from the outside it looked like I never touched it, yet it was flung backwards. This was my gift; my soul could become physical and strike my enemies without having to make contact. Without wasting my advantage, I capitalized on my strike, delivering an axe kick that crushed the creature's windpipe. This is what they have been struggling with? These creatures were so weak that it was laughable, hmph, how pathetic. Two sconcers approached me. Seeing this, I channeled more chi into my body and delivered strikes capable of crushing stone. The first was an uppercut that crushed the closest creature's jaw. Dashing forward, I did a side kick to the second creature's ribs, hearing a distinct crack.
It seems I really overestimated their capabilities, no matter I can finish this quickly in time for supper. My moment of distraction cost me dearly, the sconcer whose ribs I had broken had gotten up and clawed my perfect face. "You worm!" I shouted, full of venom, as my eyes glowed the distinctive light blue of soul magic as I activated my gift in full. Now I was completely surrounded with my gift instead of just my fists, serving as both a weapon and armour at the same time. The creature never stood a chance. My empowered fist grabbed it by the head and crushed it, grey matter, blood, and bones splattered across my expensive training clothes. I felt dizzy from the poison. By channeling more mana into my wound, I was capable of overpowering the small amount of poison in my system. If it had been a bigger wound, I would have been in trouble. With seething anger, I helped the other gifted annihilate the remainder of the enemies. I stood there with a content smile on my face as I looked at what I had just accomplished, but of course, someone had to ruin it. One of the veterans had the nerve to grab my arm.
"Who told you to intervene? You could have gotten killed!" He shouted at me, causing a vein on my head to bulge. Smacking away his harm, I responded with great impunity.
"Mind your tongue." My eyes were cold and narrowed, promising pain if he dared to resist.
The veteran did not respond kindly to my words, and a punch landed on my gut, knocking my wind out. The blow was powerful. I could feel my ribs creaking from the pressure. Who the hell does this bastard think he is, I snarled at his insolence. He gave me a snide smirk as he walked away. I narrowed my eyes. You never turn your back on an enemy. My body exploded with power, charging my muscles to their maximum. My fist was aimed directly at his undefended head. It would have been a killing blow, but someone appeared in front of me in a flash, catching my fist in the palm of his hand as if it were the attack of an impudent child. Not the attack of a talented cultivator, the man was young, his black hair and narrow eyes marked him as a native of the Xing Dynasty.
"What is the meaning of this?" The man asked calmly, his face never changing from its indifference. "Do you intend to kill a gifted? Or was that just stupidity?" He raised a brow as he asked the question.
"If a 'gifted' can't even survive a single punch, then maybe he isn't worthy to be one." I retorted with a shrug of annoyance. He looked at me, surprised, clearly not expecting my answer. He just sighed while shaking his head, muttering something about the youth. That made no sense. He was hardly a few years older than me, so what is he talking about the ignorance of youth for?
I was quickly tiring of this conversation, taking my fist out of his hand, I just turned around and left for the rift. People tried to stop me as a crowd had formed watching our interaction, but they had no right to stop a gifted if he wanted to face a rift.
—
Wu Qi just watched as his arrogant peer walked into the rift, huffing in frustration. He released a bellowing laugh. Maybe my banishment would not be that bad after all. I can have a lot of fun humbling this prideful youth. A smile graced his delicate lips as he turned to leave; his driver was already waiting for him. He was a scion of the Qi family after all, so only the best would do. Thanking his driver for waiting on him, they left.
—
"Why did you get back up, Zee? What, you haven't had enough yet?" The voice of my elder brother was as condescending as ever.
He grabbed me by my hair as he dragged me across the training hall of the Whither family. I struggled as I tried to resist, but it was useless. Malach had always been more talented than I. He threw me against the wall, my head thudded against the concrete, before he started playing his little game, and he beat me mercilessly. I tasted iron as his punch split my lip open. No matter how much I fought back, I would always lose, so at one point, I had just given up. I learned that if you don't fight back, the beating will not be so bad. It was safe to say that I had given up. What was the point anyway? To preserve my pride? What pride? In the beginning, I went to my parents, but they just told me that if I was too weak to stand up against him, then I was undeserving of the family name. That betrayal hurt more than anything. They told me a lion that can't bear its fangs deserves to be eaten. And in that moment, I realized my parents weren't my shield; they were just the spectators of my brother's rise.
"Come now, little brother, is that all you can do? Cry and wait for it to end, pathetic." Malach spat with venom.
I did not even notice when the beating stopped. I was curled up in a fetal position, lying in a puddle of my own tears and saliva. I heard the sound of boots walking away growing softer the further they went. New bruises would mark my body tomorrow. More tears flowed out of my eyes. I just want it all to end.
—
The rift warped more than space. It clawed at my mind, pulling old memories like splinters from skin. My fists trembled, not from fear, but rage, as Malach's voice echoed in the dark. I was extremely pissed. My chi-infused fist slammed into the stone wall of the cave, making cracks on impact. Why was I reminded of this now? I snarled at the memory. I am not that weak anymore. Damn that bastard for making a fool out of me. But no matter how I tried to remain angry, I couldn't. They were dead, they were all dead. There was no one to exact revenge upon and no one to prove wrong. Sometimes I wondered what the point of all this was. At the edge of my vision, I saw Malach's smiling face as he reveled in my anger, my weakness. He was nothing more than a figment of my imagination, a revenant here to haunt me. A silent reminder of my weakness, I tried to ignore him as I always did when he appeared.
Sighing, I turned to look at my surroundings. I was in a cave, the air was humid with the stench of rotting flesh, a putrid smell that burned the nostrils. Hmm, makes sense. Sconcers were subterranean creatures. The stone underneath my feet was cold and uneven as I walked further inside the rift. When my thoughts cleared, I realized how stupid it was to enter a rift alone, but my pride would not allow me to return with my head hung low in shame. I walked through the damp cave with confidence, energy coursing through my veins, ready for any attack. This was just an F rank rift. If I fear this, then I will never achieve greatness.
The first foes to appear before me were just two weak sconcers on the outskirts of the rift. This time, I did not hold back as I delivered two full-power punches to their head. My fist never made contact, but my soul popped their heads like overgrown pimples. An amusing sight to see, honestly, the only dangerous thing about these creatures was their poisonous claws, but they were too slow to even touch me. At one point, I lost my composure and a sconcer managed to deliver a deep cut into my thigh, he died screaming for that insolence. I had to stop the poison by overflowing the area with chi, draining half my supply in a single go.
I killed every single sconcer that got in my way. This was no easy task, as they were pack hunters. Sometimes I would come across packs of up to five of the beasts, all of them charging me at once. I hunted them as a release for my pent-up frustration, and it was starting to work. Considering that it was an F-ranked rift, there would be no boss monster, so all I had to do was kill the rift's inhabitants, and the rift would close itself. It took me five hours to kill them all, leaving me bone-tired at the end, but I managed it. There was barely any mana left in my system when the rift finally closed. The rift sent out a pulse of energy, and part of it flowed into my core before the rift kicked me out. The energy that flowed into my core would build up until it raised my classification from F rank and upward.
I fell on my ass outside of the rift. I saw the surprised faces of other gifted people as they had not expected me to complete it. But what did they know? I am a Whither, this is what I was bred for.
Covered in blood, guts, and gore, I made my way to the car where my driver was waiting for me. I felt gross and sticky as the blood began to dry on my clothes, the smell of iron assaulting my nose. The crowd made way as I walked, deciding not to bother me. The fact that I could solo a rift, even if it was only rank F, was still impressive in their eyes. Damn commoners, they would not know true power if it smacked them in the face. I still remember the feats my brother had accomplished before his passing; compared to him, I was but a frog in a well. He was a universal genius, recognized by the elite even within the Xing Dynasty, and here I was just a slightly talented fighter from a broken home. I got into the car. Dirtying the seats as I sat down.
"Where to next, young master?" Elijah was as formal as ever as he asked the question.
"Just take me home, I have had enough of this day already," I spoke, too tired to care about courtesy.
The drive home went by quickly. I was too lost in my thoughts to notice we had arrived until Elijah opened my door so that I could get out. Nodding at him, I just walked in. This was all that was left of my once great family, a single manor that was once our vacation home. My guardian had sold everything else, and by the time I was eighteen, this was all that was left. I did not even look at the few remaining servants as I walked towards the training hall. I could not afford to stop improving lest I fall behind my enemies. A silent voice at the back of my mind whispered, 'What enemies, you are too irrelevant in their eyes.' I ignored it as I started my workout. First, I did some cardio to get my blood pumping before moving on to more strenuous activities. Even though I was tired, my body was begging for rest, I still did my training to the fullest. Every punch against the bag brought Malach's face, making me angrier by the second, every push-up brought whispers of my weakness, and it was pushing me over the edge. This was my curse, because of my lack of talent, I had to work twice as hard as my peers. They only saw the results of it and labeled me a peerless talent; if only they knew how I broke my body to achieve this. They called me a Whither, heir of monsters and men, but when I looked at myself in the mirror, all I saw was Malach's shadow.
Damnit! I was finally making progress in moving on with my life, but now all that progress was flushed down the drain. It was still not enough; the appearance of that strong young man pissed me off beyond anything. I worked so hard, and he still blocked my strongest attack like it was nothing. At least I won't ever have to see the bastard again, or so I thought. After cleaning up in a hot bath, I went to sleep early in preparation for the school day tomorrow; the weekend was over, so I had to focus once more. The next morning, I got dressed and left for school, the Hiadzaou Imperial Academy, the greatest school in the province. Where I was the top student, I entered the school hearing whispers of a new student while I was making my way to class. A few people greeted me in passing, but I did not focus on them.