Requiem Of A Failed Hero

Raith shifted his arms to the right as he belatedly realized the monk had reached him. He knew that the defense would do little but still...

Raith helplessly watched himself tumbled across the distance as he was whamed by the monk's kick. He rolled, breaking rocks he collided with until he came to a stop on the ground.

His face was very bruised and blood clots formed on different part of his face. It stung all over.

[Are you fine?]

'You're in me what do you think?'

[You are in a bad state]

'Can I even win this?'

[We must]

Raith slumped to the ground as he tried to stand up. He rolled over, his face to the sky.

'Maybe it is time to accept what is Sage. Maybe my biggest problem was thinking I could be better without the darkness within me. Maybe, that darkness is a part of me?'

[That darkness is one that adopted, it is not a part of you. It ridded you of everything that you could be]

'I thought by abandoning the abyss, I would begin to seek what is truly mine. My strength would be truly mine, my failures would truly carve my path and not some underhanded method a primordial uses to make me a stronger pawn. I thought wrong... was I naive? Was I foolish? Was I being delusional?'

[...]

Raith slowly released a sigh, he seemed to be going through excruciating pain even as he tried to let out that heavy breath.

'I feel like giving up...'

[No, you can't. I didn't come all the way here just for you to...]

[Giving up is lame. You want to make a change in your life without the help of a powerful primordial, surely you didn't think it would come easy]

[A particular standard has been set by the power the primordial of darkness made you wield. It is quite understandable that no matter what level of strength you achieve as long as it is not up to that standard, you'd never be content. You'll always feel lame.]

[But there is no shame in accepting that you're weak, the true shame is giving up, staying weak]

[Together, we will forge you to become a stronger player. Become a haven of power that will move the world through leaps and bounds]

[And for that to happen you have to accept your state. And a resolution to move forward is something you must have]

'Your words sounds so nice...'

[Acknowledged your struggle, start again, rise with the darkness, but not as its captive, but as the one who tamed it.]

Serene silence ensued Raith's consciousness after Sage said those words. His brows furrowed together. Despite the pain that stung his whole body, he clenched his hand, crushing the stone that entered his grasp.

Then he stood up slowly, strained? Yes. But he stood up anyway.

The monk all the while patiently waited for him to stand back up. That stoney face of it was already cracking. It showed the effect of Raith's domain on it.

"I probably won't be able to move much. But still..."

[We will fight yes?]

"Oh sure we will"

Raith leaned his upper body forward, materializing two swords into his back-stretched hand.

Wham!

A blur of motion. He zipped across the distance, arching his swords at the monk first from the left. The monk blocked. Then from the right, his movement was smooth and fluid.

Even though the monk blocked perfectly Raith did not stop his onslaught, he pressed on, spinning and spurring sword slashes at the monk. Each strike produced a deafening clang.

What started as a smooth motion continued and in time transitioned into a deftly lock exchange of swords against fist, that created a cacophony of sparks.

The monk's movement was sharp, fast and almost unseen, each time becoming a blur and those blur so swift almost blending with the air. Some even managed to slip past Raith defenses. Cutting a thin wound across his injured face and body.

But Raith was still holding well still. He minded not the strikes that got past and immediately pushed for his to make it through. The monk's stone body made that almost impossible but it wasn't as durable as before.

Cracks appeared on it. The wind whoozed and whirled around the two as the continued, their strikes were so fast that it was disappearing and appearing. They continued still–with the maddening onslaught, none of them seem like they were going to give up.

Raith's sword screamed through the air each time he arched it from behind, curving his strikes through uncanny directions and stubbornly seeking out a path to destroy the detestable enemy in front of him.

His eyes were locked on the monk's movement, from hand to leg to subtle shift in its body, even down to head movement. Raith let nothing pass by him and with godeyes–it was bearably doable.

Although at the cost of increased injurious as the monk pushed even harder, the number of strikes that slapped Raith's chest began to increase, each one threatened to throw him away but the farthest Raith would move was two steps backward.

Immediately he would launch himself forward like an arrow let on chase loose and bring his sword down on the monster in the most idealistic way.

It was not the best of sword path but Raith's decision was purely guided by his experience from using all those sword strikes–that he now had no access to because Bal was gone.

Thinking about it made him even more angry. Raith lunged the sword on his to the monster's head, as it blocked. Raith spun opposite directions into the air and hacked a slash down on the monster's neck. All this before a second ticked.

The monk stumbled three steps backward, the sword had managed to the stone around its neck area but didn't go too deep. Blood dripped from where it stopped.

The stone on the monk body began to crack and fall off, revealing the monster's facial features.

It was just like any man that Raith had come across. Oozing the presence of a dignified monk all over. It's brown loose-fitting robe sitting modestly across its chest to his shoulder and back.

The monster opened its eyes finally, black sclera and purple eyeball gazed at Raith. Three pairs of black dot on its bald head.

The monk furrowed its brow, bringing out harsh lines of anger on its forehead.

"He's mad"

[Even I can tell that much]

[Things will probably get tougher from here]

'Ah, my body is paining me all over. Don't you think that is the least I want to hear right now'

[You have no choice]

'I'll probably die from the small wounds all over my body before this monk monster kills me'

[There is something to note also]

Sensing the change in Sage's voice. Ayo arched a brow.

"What is it?"

[This gate is being influenced]

'What exactly does that mean?'

[To be exact, while analyzing the gate, I found a number of oddities]

[Those oddities, I will save the details for later but they insinuate that someone has named this monster]

Raith raised his head to the monk. As Sage had said, the part of the monk which was not visible before was now visible. And it wrote in runes:

URUSH

- Named Stone Golem.

That was the only information about the monster he could see. He couldn't even see the attack power or the defense power.

"I suppose this speaks big trouble. Was the stone on its body masking its name or what?"

[If I am to correct. The stone on its body was masking its power in total]

[Like a covering preventing it from wilding out]

"And now that its out?"

[All Hell will let loose]

"Just kill me..."

Raith's face downturned like he was going to cry any moment from now.

[HOLD FAST. ITS COMING]

WHAM!

Sage's warning had not even breathe when the monster whizzed to Raith's front. Bulldozed a punch into his solar plexus, raising him up, it pulled another punch and rammed it into his chest causing him to lunge into the sky completely.

Then flew higher than him in a second and slammed right back on him—crashing him into the ground.

The monk cocked its head left and right and clenched its fist tightly. Then it bent down and grabbed Raith up by his hair.

Raising him to its face...

"It was you..."

Raith was shocked, sure he didn't hear it wrong. A voice just came out of the monk and its mouth did not open... to be exact, the voice came from it eyes.

'There's a voice coming from its eyes?'

The eyeballs on its left eye was different from that on its right. It had a pupil in form of a sigil, almost like a U but both pointed edge faced opposite directions and another linear stroke was crossed down the bottom line.

[That is it. The link]

"You were the one that killed my first toy. It was you"