Chapter 64 - A Warrior Worth Serving
For the next few minutes, Daniel and the rest of his group observed the fight between the blond young man, and the large asum warrior.
Because of the few injuries he had obtained when defending the children, the young man had gradually lost blood and become weaker. It had reached a point where he was only barely able to avoid the warrior's attacks.
Daniel quietly approached the group of kids and tried to talk to them. He got down on his knees and looked at the only one of them who was watching the fight, a little girl with ponytails which seemed to be six or seven years old.
"Little girl.. Do you know that guy?" Asked Daniel while indicating the blond young man.
The scared little girl looked back at Daniel "He was with them.." she said while looking at the various corpses on the ground.
"Then why is he fighting that asum warrior?" He asked back with a confused tone.
The large eyes of the little girl started to water as she said "They were going to attack us.. But the blond big brother turned against them and defended us.."
With a clear idea of what had happened, Daniel approached Imblen and said "Can you tell me what 'Tu nin vje sid phior.. Krirj tu nin stah yea!' means?"
Imblen looked curiously at Daniel and said "It's phjor, and it means 'I will have no master after I will kill you'." she then looked at the blond young man and said "Did he say it?"
Daniel nodded in confirmation.
"He is the Jer Krigh.." She said with a shocked face.
Imblen's words made the heads of the rest of the group turn towards her in unison. Not a single one of them less shocked than Imblen was.
"What is a Jer Krigh?" Asked Daniel curiously
Imblen looked at Daniel and said "The Dirt Warrior." she then took a slight pause before continuing "A Dirt Warrior is a slave who earned the right to become a warrior and to cultivate."
"Earned the right how exactly?" Asked Daniel.
"It's basically a competition amongst Asum warriors.. Each high ranking warrior captures a single infant to bring back home from a successful raid campaign.. They then train them until they reach the age of ten. Once reached the tenth year of age, they get thrown into an arena, and the one who survives, obtains the title of Jer Krigh.. To symbolize a warrior that came from dirt." Explained Imblen patiently.
Now aware of the reason for the young man's bad karma, Daniel looked at imblen and said "What do you think is happening here?"
"Jer Krigh are warriors, but still slaves. It is possible that the guy rebelled to his master to protect those children.." Promptly responded Imblen. Daniel had learned before that, amongst the group, Imblen was the one whose house was the closest to the asum's territory. In fact, her city was attacked by asum's raiding parties more than once before. Luckily, her city had very powerful warriors and mages which made every attempt of raiding it a complete failure.
A doubt started to form in Daniel's mind as he asked her "Couldn't he be trying to kill his master to earn his freedom?"
Before Daniel could ponder on this theory, Imblen quickly refuted it by saying "Definitely not. It's impossible for an asum's slave to regain his or her freedom. They are considered spoil of war, they would be willing to free one of their slaves just like they would be willing to go back to the city they pillaged, and give back the money they stole"
As Daniel and Imblen discussed the young man's motives, the battle amongst him and the large asum warrior was about to come to an end.
His body was covered in cuts and blood, and he was now barely able to avoid the attacks. A heavy punch to the chest finally brought him to the ground, and it didn't seem like he would be able to get back up anytime soon.
The large asum warrior started to laugh at him, as the only injury he had received was a shallow cut on his forearm. He then slowly walked towards the blonde young man and said "Ni dra yea stjom.. He he he"
"As dirt you die.." Said Imblen with a feeble voice.
*piing piing*
The sound of two throwing knives suddenly hitting the two asum warrior's blades could be heard resound in the air.
Once Daniel had heard Imblen's words, without thinking, he had thrown the knives to attract the warrior's attention.
Luckily, it worked.
The asum warrior turned towards him while still holding his two enormous blades.
Daniel was standing at the head of his group. He looked directly looked at the yellow eyes of the asum warriors, and before saying anything, a second sword appeared in his free hand.
A large smile grew on the asum warrior's face. He then started to walk towards him.
While the two walked towards each other, Ligart looked at Alis and Heimart and said "Shouldn't we help?"
Just as the two were about to agree with him, Imblen stopped them and said "Wait.. Let's see if he can make it on his own first.. Because if he can.." she then let the sentence die in her mouth.
One of the skills Daniel had practiced during the past couple of months, was 'Dual Sword Wielding'. So he decided to test his proficiency in a battle against a dual blade wielder.
The two carefully looked at each other.
To the asum warrior, Daniel looked like a fourteen years old rank 4 martial cultivator. But from the strength he had felt from the throwing knives, he knew that his cultivation was much higher than that.
As the current owner of the Jer Krigh, the least that could be said about this asum warrior, was that he was great at recognizing talents. After all, it was his slave that at ten years old had reached the late third rank and had won the right to be the Jer Krigh.
At the same time, he looked at Daniel as seriously as he would have looked at his slave if he hadn't been tired and injured from the previous fights.
The edges of the warrior's blades suddenly lit of a light yellow color, as he prepared himself for battle. The same happened to Daniel's swords when a pale blue light shone on their edges and prolonged the blade's length.
Daniel moved first, throwing himself at the asum warrior and making their weapons clash violently.
*Cliiing*
The asum warrior confirmed Daniel's battle prowess at this very moment. He now knew that, not only was Daniel a late fifth rank, but he also possessed a perfect body.
He couldn't help but think that, had he taken this young man at his infant stage instead of the blond young man, he could have been the prideful owner of the most powerful Jer Krigh in history.
He was more than aware of what it took for someone to achieve a perfect body, as for the asum race, a perfect body was much more important than it was for humans.
The asum warrior immediately pushed Daniel away, and as the two weapons separated, he slashed with his blade in the attempt of cut Daniel in half.
Daniel promptly avoided the attack, and at the same time, summoned twenty tiny wind blades that roamed in the air around the asum warrior, and attacked him from all sides.
The wind blades were invisible, and only a spiritual cultivator or a high ranking martial cultivator could notice them.
Unfortunately, just as Daniel had guessed when he observed the fight between him and the blond young man, the asum warrior was at the sixth rank of martial cultivation, and therefore, he was able to see the wind blades thanks to his surrounding awareness.
The asum warrior felt immediately disappointed about the fact that his adversary would allow a spiritual cultivator to aid him in a one on one battle. But after a few more exchanges, he started to feel that something was amiss.
The wind blades and Daniel's movements were too well synchronized.. A spiritual cultivator's reactions would be a lot slower than a martial cultivator.
A spiritual cultivator would oppress a martial cultivator not only by attacking him from the distance, but also overwhelming him with many instantaneous attacks.
The appearance of a hundred stone spikes was much more plausible than twenty singularly controlled wind blades. A spiritual cultivator shouldn't have the reflexes to be able to do that.
For two long minutes Daniel attacked, avoided, and disappeared from the warriors sight just to reappear behind his back, sending one or more attacks. At the same time, whenever the asum warrior would be forced to protect himself from Daniel's attacks, a wind blade would open a shallow gash on his body.
Utterly confused, the asum warrior couldn't help but become enraged and act rashly. After losing a large amount of blood due to the many cuts all over his body, the asum warrior entered a crazed state and went into the offensive.
One slash after the other, Daniel was forced to avoid or parry.
One particularly strong attack forced him to lose his balance and take a step back. At that point, the asum warrior dropped one of his blades and grabbed Daniel's wrist.
His intention was to cut Daniel's arm right off, but the moment he touched Daniel's body and felt the powerful spiritual essence within, a shocked expression grew on his face.
He immediately let go of Daniel, and while looking at him with stupor, he said "Yea thu shia mjelgi napatfir!!" After he finished talking, a sudden realization filled his mind, changing his face from one of shock, into one of urgency.
After picking up his blade, he turned around and tried to leave, but before he could do that, tens of ice spikes charged with electricity attacked him from ten different directions.
He was more than prepared for the attack, but as he was about to deflect the last of these electrified spikes, the spike disappeared, leaving a path for a fire ball to explode in his face, blinding him momentarily.
Taken by surprise, two newly formed ice spikes pierced right into his shoulders.
The asum warrior, now laying on the ground and on the brink of death, took something out of the spatial bag that hung from his waist.
A small bead rolled on the stone ground as the large asum warrior lifted his arm in an attempt to smash it. But and as he was about to let his arm plummet on the ground, a guillotine-like blade cut his right arm clean off his shoulder.
The asum warrior looked at Daniel hatefully one last time, before a lightning fast slash cut halfway through his neck, killing him.
Daniel picked up the spatial bag and put the small bead back into it. He then walked towards the children with the intent of taking them to safety.
Once again, he kneeled before the group of crying children, but as he was about to say something reassuring to them, he felt the blond young man approach from behind.
He rose back to his feet and turned to look at the young man. His demeanor was as prideful as it was before, but now he looked significantly weakened.
The blond young man had observed the scene carefully. After the death of his master by the hand of a person younger than he was, he approached him and said "J krigh nieba phinnua.." He then kneeled politely in front of him.
Imblen and the rest had approached just in time to hear the young man's words.
They all looked at Daniel with bright smiles on their faces.
Daniel looked at Imblen and asked "What did he say?"
"He said that you are 'A warrior worth serving'.. That means that he recognizes you as his.. I wouldn't say master.. More like a savior to whom he owes an eternal debt." She said cheerfully.
Daniel looked back at the blond young man with dubious eyes.
Noticing Daniel's expression, the young man said "Warrior.. Serve.."