The adults were patient enough to wait. The dungeon has only been around for a week or two. It is nothing compared to their immense lifespan. So they can wait while the youths set themselves straight and determine their leadership system, but Soverick couldn’t wait.
The realm lord is about to become a world god, and the era of conquest is coming. Time is running out for him to achieve what he needs to participate in the conquest with proper standing.
He stayed in the Virut plane for a worthy identity. This situation is as good as any to begin to establish such an identity. He also had a need for the refinement resources in the dungeon which he won’t be able to get with this farce going on.
So Soverick stood up from his seat and began to approach the dais. His movements drew more attention. Any youth here that believes he belongs to the central dais must believe he is above the rest in one way or the other.
One must have either confidence, pride, or arrogance to think that they should have a say in giving out orders. They must have it in loads, and be stupid or wise enough to actually stand up to see to it that they join the leadership.
He didn’t go far before he was blocked by someone. It was a youth from the Ghastorix family. Soverick could tell because their identification token resonated and informed him of the other’s family.
The battle sage monkey had bluish fur. He was bare-chested and wore a light armor that covered only his lower body. His body was toned and buffed like those of a warrior. He wore a red bandana with an inscription of SE on it. He was also carrying a blade. A long weapon with a single sharp edge.
“Do you believe yourself to be worthy of the central dais?” He asked Soverick with a grin.
Soverick remained composed. “What do you think?”
“Answering a question with a question, that’s very rude.”
Soverick retorted. “Blocking someone with a weapon drawn is more than rude.”
He laughed. “You’re witty, that’s good. But it won’t help you up there. Only Strength matters. I am SWIFTESCAPE. Let me give you a suggestion…”
Soverick interrupted him. “I did not ask for your name neither did I ask for your suggestion.”
The battle sage monkey named SWIFTESCAPE maintained his smile. “And yet I am giving it. Consider it goodwill from a family member who wants the best for you.”
“This conversation has gone on long enough. I am done entertaining you. Move now.” Soverick ordered.
“Or what? I have seen a lot of enthusiastic youths like you. They go to the central dais with confidence and come back broken. They shame the family. If you can’t overcome me, how do you plan to overcome them?” SWIFTESCAPE asked.
Soverick felt he should be angry. But he wasn’t angry. He felt amused instead. A child was blocking his road because he thinks he knows better than him. But he made a good point. If Soverick couldn’t overcome him, how does he plan to overcome the others?
The fact that SWIFTESCAPE made a good point didn’t excuse him from the crime of blocking Soverick’s path. If it were another family then Soverick would have taught him a brutal lesson in minding your own business. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to take action. He will just reduce the lesson to something less than brutal.
Soverick began walking forward.
His opponent grinned and readied his weapon. “Good. Action speaks louder than words. Let me see your action.”
Soverick continued onwards.
“Draw your weapon.” SWIFTESCAPE said.
Soverick picked up speed.
“So be it.” His opponent attacked when he realized Soverick had no intention of fighting with a weapon.
It was either confidence or foolhardy. If it is foolhardiness then he was right to stop Soverick here and now. If it’s confidence, then he will test the worth of Soverick’s confidence. Confidence doesn’t move the world and faith can’t move mountains.
SWIFTESCAPE raised his blade and swung diagonally from top right to bottom left. The attack had range and covered more avenues of reaction. The movement was precise and timed to match Soverick’s speed. It would have made contact with Soverick’s if he hadn’t stopped just outside the edge of the blade.
The blade swung close to Soverick’s face and moved past him. Then Soverick burst forward before his opponent could recover his stance. He tapped into his gate of momentum just a little bit. His body became empowered and he moved into the guard of his opponent with a sudden burst of acceleration.
SWIFTESCAPE wasn’t a novice and he wasn’t flustered. He released one hand on his blade and punched Soverick while his blade turned with a twist of the wrist of his other hand. The punch would delay Soverick before his second attack with his blade arrived.
Soverick punched and they met fist for fist. His opponent felt like he had punched an immovable mountain before his world turned upside down. His world didn’t actually turn upside down, he was the one tumbling up and down.
Soverick’s fist had broken SWIFTESCAPE’s arm and struck his chest. There was a sickening sound of flesh bursting and bones snapping as the chest caved in.Then SWIFTESCAPE was thrown for quite a distance, skidding and rolling on the floor all the way till he stopped face down where he lay bleeding.
”That’s good enough a lesson for a family member with good intentions.’ Soverick thought to himself as he adjusted his black battle suit.
He held back. If the lesson was brutal then SWIFTESCAPE would have lost his arm. He is still alive right now and his arm can be healed easily. It was just a broken arm. It is something mortals heal from all the time. Things would have gone differently if SWIFTESCAPE wasn’t a family member.
The quick battle had drawn even more attention. But it was just that, attention. There was a lot of fighting going around recently so it wasn’t special. Their dismissal of his victory didn’t sit well with him though.
Soverick wanted it to be special. He wanted it to be noteworthy, he wasn’t here for less. He couldn’t blame them. For a victory to be special, the stage must be worthy. That means he must find a worthy stage. Then he will be able to draw all the attention to himself. So he resumed his journey to the dais.
He walked by the battered and bruised SWIFTESCAPE and heard him say, “Nice Fight.”
Even injured like so, his opponent could still complement him about the fight. Soverick nodded in acknowledgment. The boy deserved that much. His foundation was solid, he had gotten the basic skills of his weapon down to their nitty gritty. He is also close to reaching the first step of weapon mastery. If he was there then Soverick’s trick of stopping won’t have worked so easily. SWIFTESCAPE would have been able to stop too, but his body is still a slave to momentum. Soverick wasn’t much stronger than his opponent, but he was carrying a lot of momentum even when standing still. So he blew his opponent away.
“This is about right. I should be able to nail it from here.” He said after reaching a calculated distance from the central dais.
He stretched and began to run. This time he put in the full weight of his momentum in his every step. Each strike of his feet on the ground created a boom. The ground was sturdy so it didn’t crack. Instead, it dispersed the force of his feet pounding on it into the surroundings. This process made the air vibrate and vibration creates sound.
So as he ran, it sounded like a behemoth was running or a herd of beasts was stampeding, or a giant was stomping.
His feet went. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
The sound echoed within the hall and drew attention. It wasn’t so loud as to draw everyone’s attention. Only a few thousand in the vicinity heard it and were drawn from their screens and the argument it was showing to the source of the sound instead.
“Not enough. But that will change soon.” Soverick thought in anticipation.
He ran, picked up speed, and he crouched. Then he jumped. This time the sound was like thunder. The surveillance system stopped showing the events of the central dais and instead focused on the spot where Soverick had jumped. People were confused by the abrupt change, they couldn’t see anything noteworthy on the screen. Only the people that had been tracking Soverick earlier knew where he was and these people had their necks craned up. Some of them even had their mouth dropped wide open.
Even the clueless could tell that there must be something interesting up there that a significant group of people are looking at. So more people looked up and they saw him. Then more people looked up. They pointed and some asked, “How did he get up there?”
Still, it wasn’t enough. Not everyone’s attention was on him.
Soverick flew into the sky, he reached the zenith of his jump. Then he began to descend.
“No way.” Someone exclaimed in awe.
Then Soverick smashed into the central dais. The shockwave of the impact smashed into the hundreds of people there. The sound it made was like the culmination of earlier booms. He had dropped on them like a large boulder into water.
By now everyone in the hall, the hundreds of thousands of them had stood up. Those that were close to the central dais were watching it intently, while those that were too far had their eyes glued to those screens. They were all watching and waiting for the result of that stunt. He had finally gotten everyone’s attention. What will he do with it?