Requiem Of A Failed Hero

Silence reigned for a few minutes. Raith did not say anything to what the asura had just spilled. Then after another few minutes, he finally spoke.

"That's nonsense, that's just absolute nonsense. Jumping is not the issue. You want me to jump into a darkness where I have no idea what the hell is there."

Thard - Harl cracked his neck, tilting his head left then right.

Raith didn't mind intimidating gesture. Raith was at this juncture where he felt,

'Let him just do whatever he wants. I don't even care any more. If he will kill me, he could as well just do it anyway. There's no way I will jump into that thing'

He frowned looking at the deep darkness. He couldn't still see it, his sight adapted well with darkness but he couldn't tell how deep the ditch he was hanging towards was.

'Fuck, he just goes ahead and do whatever he likes. First, he made a pile of good for nothing bros kidnap me and tie me up. Now he's saying shit like I have to jump down?'

The unambiguous disobedient he felt could vividly be seen on offensive face if the darkness was a little bit brighter.

Suddenly, Raith felt his entire weight pulled down slightly. More like the rope couldn't bear it any more and he was on the verge of tear off completely, dropping forward a little.

"Hey hey hey… this is not in any way. Didn't we come here to find a criminal? Why am I the one being treated like a criminal?!" Raith shouted, his tone carrying urgency and a little hint of fear.

"You asked to be trained. I want to teach you the fundamentals of Neofut. But it won't work unless you defeat yourself."

And there goes the garbage the asura was bound to spill. 'Defeat yourself'? Damn man, what had he been trying to do all this while?!

"Every single day, hour? Or years goddamn who knows, it has been me defeating myself bro. You don't know anything! What do you know when you seem to be enjoying this so much!!"

"Oh trust me well, I am enjoying it." The asura intoned with a creepy smile. Not that Raith could see it.

The rope slightly dropped lower again. At this point, he was on the verge of breaking away.

"I particularly chose to go after this bounty because of the creature that dwells in this cave. There is another bounty on it. Of course, this bounty was submitted by some random god who needed its core. But it's a perfect creature to train you with."

Raith narrowed his eyes.

'Damn me! So there is something there after all'

The asura continued:

"It's extremely rare, maybe one of the very two that are left in the whole cosmos."

"Yea thanks, am I supposed to feel a little relieved from that." Raith remarked rudely.

"Whatever happens to you does not matter anyway."

The asura paused, hesitated and went on:

"The creature is called Dreadsoul. A very unique and sought after creature, you'd be doing yourself a lot of good not to underestimate it. If you don't survive in the first few seconds of meeting it. That might be the end of your journey."

The rope snapped as the asura stopped talking. And before Raith could even gather his thoughts, he was already pummeling downwards into the darkness.

However, what happened next was not something he expected.

"The Neofut consists of several footworks. All of them are interwoven into each other and they complete themselves. Firstly you must learn that it is important to have your leg in the right places, even when it seems like you have been left helpless and in the control of gravity, never lose the power of your legs."

Raith looked to his side, Thard - Harl was clearly not falling with him, so why could he hear his voice so clearly.

"I believe you will find it easier to control your legs, all these days of endless drills are for moments like this. Ignore every other struggle in your body and focus on your legs. You are intelligent, you figure out the rest."

Raith frowned slightly. He hated to admit it, but the asura was damn right. He was very intelligent.

Although, the explanations Thard - Harl gave were vague, very vague but Raith had a guess, he had an idea what this is.

Thard - Harl speaks of a concept that insists that all things start from the feet, below, small, it was all to insinuate one thing —which was one of the stupidest thing Raith had ever heard or perhaps thought of in a very long while.

He almost wasn't sure this was it. But no, it had to be it. There was something about this speculation of his that felt right from Thard - Harl's explanation. He didn't know how to better put it.

Intuition maybe?

'Think with the feet.'

It was dumb and unthinkable but that Thard - Harl implied that he submitted himself to the impulses of his feet. Now, does the feet even have an impulse. Naturally no!

But his legs had gone through months, perhaps years of ceaseless drills. In order words, Thard - Harl knew what he was doing with those drills. If Raith would be learning the martial arts of the asura, his body needed to honed to a point of self awareness.

And currently, all Raith needed to do was awakened that self awareness. With all the training he had done, what would happen if he decided to push the weight of balance onto his legs.

Both literally and figuratively.

That is he is shifting all weight whatsoever downwards, which was a pretty tricky thing to do but in that manner he is also putting down all responsibility of saving this body from the brain and tasking it to the feet. Quite dumb.

But for a body that had gone through ceaseless training, this act was bound to awaken the highest point of reflex that one can touch.

Raith shut his eyes tight and stopped thinking about falling on the floor and shattering his head against the ground. Instead he moved all senses whatsoever to his feet, paying attention to that place alone.

With his senses sharpened from a better body, it was a bit hard to focus on just one thing, the dumbest of thing. The wildness and how wrong his idea could be plagued him for a few seconds but Raith kept his focus intact.

He emptied his mind and for once freed himself from any thoughts whatsoever, whether good or bad. Even though he was falling down and could die a moment later, he tried not to care at all.

Falling asleep slowly.