Amidst the clouds of Whitman's mind, he exuded an extremely calm composure that drew one in like the beauty of a calm sea on silent nights.
Since he had a troublesome ability that only worked with the state of his mind, Whitman learned to control himself through breathing techniques.
Breathing practices are very effective in keeping a calm state of mind—one's thoughts are sank into the wave of stillness and the entire mind is brought in one accord with the body. Hence, sharpening the senses beyond normal.
Wham! Whoosh! Pow! Pow! Pow!
Whitman's movement was sleek and smooth, he didn't waste too much footwork and slipped past the man's spear by a hair's breadth every moment it lunged at him.
The man widened his eyes and twirled the spear of his shoulders switching to his right hand.
Bam!
He shot forward like an arrow, destroying the ground he was standing on.
Fuuuu
Whitman kept a steady breath as he took flew backward while facing the man.
He spun his hand forming a circular glow—it looked like the man was about to fall on him with his spear aiming at his eyes.
Wham!
A hole carved into the man's belly and sent him reeling away.
Whitman narrowed his eyes.
'That was too easy.'
If the monster could be easily defeated, then there was no way his party members would have all died to it like that.
Something was off that Whitman wasn't getting.
'How did he defeat them...'
Whitman relaxed his shoulder and stood up, he walked away in the direction of Eric and Rya but before he could complete his second step, his eyes widened–
Whaaam!!
And although he was quick to tilt his entire body to the left, his ear flew off into the air.
He slowly turned back.
'Three?'
He was only dealing with one man but right now, three of them were standing before him. All three of them are in the same attire, looking the same way and holding the same weapon.
'That strike just now...'
It was far stronger than what Whitman felt from just the single one he was fighting. Was their power increased the moment they divided into three?
No, is this even a concept of division of multiplication?
Whish! Whish!
Two of them darted at him in opposing directions, spinning their spears. As they neared him...
"Fajin"
His legs traced a circular motion on the ground, slipping through the edges of their spears and placing his hands on their chest simultaneously.
Bang!
An explosion of air burst out of the back and they were sent hurtling through the air like thrown batons. Whitman would define have loved to take time to rest but the last one had reached in front of him with its spear aiming at his throat.
He was surprised, but his eyes didn't look at it.
He kicked the edge of the spear higher and lunged his hand, grabbing the man's face and smashing it to the ground.
He had just done that but the two he just dealt with were right behind him again with their spears–
"Aahht!!"
Whitman unleashed a wind blast around him that sent all of them away from him.
"Hmm... as expected. You have gotten rusty."
Li Mingwu's voice resounded from up– Whitman traced it and found him standing on the branch of one of the trees, in his hand was the head of a monster that looked like a salamander.
Whitman squinted his eyes.
'That...'
It was the monster that gave him such a difficult time, Li Mingwu had killed it.
Li Mingwu observing his expression raised the head of the monster a bit higher and exchanged his glances between it and Whitman's face.
"Don't tell me, this thing defeated you?"
Whitman frowned, he was ashamed of himself, more because he hated what Li Mingwu was going to say next.
"If it was Jun-Seo, I'm sure he would have managed to hold his ground though. You have an amazing ability but you are consumed with the wrong things. A distracted mind cannot reach the pinnacle of strength."
Whitman bowed his head, "I don't have time for this master."
It has always been like this since he can remember it, Jun-Seo was very good at learning and adapting. In front of Jun-Seo's skills, Whitman often felt intimidated, but he endured until they had learned all that they could from Li Mingwu.
Li Mingwu favored Jun-Seo more, he claimed Jun-Seo was more humble than Whitman and a man of integrity. But that was a lie.
Whitman felt it was favoritism..., no, he knew it was favoritism based on the fact that they are both Asians. And it irritated him.
After coming to America, he met a lot of people and even become stronger, paving the way for himself and becoming the founder of the American Hunters Association.
He was proud of himself, but as long as Li Mingwu was alive he would never be able to reach his full potential, America had gotten to a point where they have enough power to dominate the world ranking.
But they were hiding all of that. And it was because of monsters like Li Mingwu. That's right, Whitman's objective wasn't just Li Mingwu, he was going to find a way to deal with all the unranked hunters.
But would that be easy?
Whooosh!
They all lunged again–
This time, before they could get to Whitman, Li Mingwu appeared in front of them, sidestepping with an amazing water flow, narrowly avoiding the spear's deadly tip.
With a swift hand movement, he countered, using the momentum to launch a powerful strike at the man's side.
But before the man could fly away from the impact of his attack, Li Mingwu held him back by the wrist and threw him to block the way of the other one.
While the third one had already closed with amazing speed, Li Mingwu was indifferent.
Whoosh
Li Mingwu stepped aside again but this time it was as though his body was dissolving, the spear sliced through the air leaving the strange monster in confusion.
It was clear in the way that they responded to their stimulus‐even though they seemed like an advanced existence, they were clueless about a lot of things.
But were quick to adapt.
As Li Mingwu appeared behind the man the monster swiftly twirled his waist, swinging his spear to take off the old man's head.
That shocked Li Mingwu quite a bit, he had to use his hand.
With a raise of his hand, he blocked the spear and in fact shattered it with his overwhelming magic power unleashed at that focal point.
He was about to lunge a palm strike into the chest of the man when he suddenly collapsed and died. Li Mingwu was left dumbfounded.
Then he looked at the spear and realized.
'The real monsters are the spears. How?'
He looked at Whitman who was keeping the other two in check but was struggling to land a defeating blow as they were too fast and were even getting used to his pattern.
"Move..."
Whitman suddenly found himself standing where Li Mingwu was and Li Mingwu was in the middle of the other two. He frowned.
'We exchanged locations?'
He hadn't seen Li Mingwu use that kind of skill, was it developed recently?
The second man feinted before aiming at Li Mingwu's abdomen. However, Li Mingwu was flow was smooth and boundless, his body ripped as he deftly swayed away.
He grabbed the spear with his left arm and with a delicate twist he shattered everything, sending a surge of energy through his touch that destroyed the man's body along with the spears.
Before the third one could jump in, Li Mingwu closed the distance and swept an arc with his hand, generating a powerful gust of wind that knocked the man off balance. As he stumbled, Li Mingwu's third eye slightly opened–
As his index finger made contact with the man's head everything crumbled to dust. Both the man and his spear.
Whitman was once again reminded of how horrifying his master is.
At this moment, he began to doubt if his plan was going to work, what Li Mingwu displayed right now was just child's play, he moved like he wasn't even serious with the whole thing.
Whitman gulped and muttered shyly. "Mas...ter"
The old man paused in front of him and shook his head, "The spear is the weakness. How could you not have figured that out."
Whitman frowned, he was sick and tired of this man nagging at him with every chance he gets. His resolve to take Li Mingwu down got strengthened again.
'I will make sure this place is your graveyard, even if I have to die to make it possible. I will do it' Whitman swore.
—
South Korea.
Adjusting to this new atmosphere for Raith had been sought of awkward. The way the people looked at him made him doubt of they knew what they were doing.
Even though all that he did was in his own best interest, they all saw it as a feat befitting of a thorough hero.
Now all this did not sit well with Raith, especially this guy.
"I would like for you to take me in as your disciple," Draear said, he was on his knee and he was very serious about it.
After the archons took their dust from all the heroes, he lost his ability to summon the twin dragons. But there was still something in him that clouded his mind.
And because of that Draear had decided to humble himself before the only one he deemed worthy enough to teach him.
Elves were very proud people and everyone disgusted them and they were well known for their tendency to look down on everyone.
They were not to be blamed, even in Therut, when dust was distributed to every man and made them heroes, elves turned out to be able to contain more dust hence making strong heroes out of them.
They are a group of beings that were birthed from the origin of the world. More than other beings they had a closer existential nature to it, almost as if they could connect with its essence.
It gave them an edge over any source of power over other races, especially magic.
Even though the elves in Therut discovered magic, they had not fully understood its capacity and its connection to them. What Draear was feeling right now was a closer feeling to that.
But for him, it was an uncharted territory and the only person he felt was worthy enough to teach him was this arrogant man sitting before him and looking at him like he was a piece of shit.
Draear had no way of knowing if Raith was truly aware of what it was he was feeling but one of the arrogance of an elf was that once they deemed someone worthy—even if the person is the dumbest man alive to others, nothing can change their view of the person.
Draear was determined to learn from Raith no matter what.
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