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Deep in the Barren Forest, the thick veil of winter increased the density of mist in the air even as cold dew softly fell on the ground of this forest.

Winter was a time of the year that beasts here didn\'t enjoy.

The cries of birds of prey filled the air even as their prey cowered in their hiding. With the soft growls of hungry predators, the shaky whimpering of freezing prey, and the rigid dancing of the cold trees, life echoed in this forest.

Hidden inside this cold forest alongside the beasts were some humans.

After the fall of the Pugilist Academy, Dragon Shelter already became a shadow of its former self. Chaos befell this once glorious shelter.

It was not unheard of to have 2 shelters with the same name since the headquarters of the Hunter Union in the North was also called the Dragon Shelter but in different continents, the West already became a shadow of its former self.

The freezing winter only accelerated the crime rate and chaos.

Different humans in search for safe harbor ventured into the dangerous Barren Forest where most of them became food for the hungry beasts.

Only a select few could survive.

Those that survived the encounters came out of them stronger. Clown\'s ideology may be an extreme one, but after a week of it, the weak were slowly weeded out, leaving only the strong that had the potential to evolve.

At a hidden corner of the Barren Forest…

Crack! Crack!

The fire made crackling sounds as the wood slowly burned, fueling its flames.

Built around the burning fire was a temporary camp. Mostly made up of temporary tents that could be dislodged in an instant in the case of an emergency, this was a very mobile camp of remnants from the Dragon Shelter.

Their identity was more special because they were led by Christensen.

After the events of the Dragon Shelter in the North, Christensen escaped all the chaos but he was interrupted by Brutus\' sudden emergency contact.

By transmitting his thoughts through their telepathic connection, Christensen knew that something was wrong. He opened the bridge to the beast plane only to see Brutus with Akela and Bran.

Through their telepathic connection with their master, Akela and Bran had a recollection of everything that happened to Legolas and Blade.

Apparently, after it happened, with no way to access Planet Darvis without their master, both beasts sought out Brutus.

When they relayed the truth to Christensen, for a long time, he was stunned.

\'Master was captured?\' The thought felt difficult for him to comprehend.

For a few seconds after he heard it, he was horrified.

Like Blade, Christensen already held his master at such an esteemed state in his mind like he was invincible. With this bitter truth, Christensen received a brutal wake-up call that his master was still human.

Another factor that helped was that no matter how much competence Legolas showed, he never tried to portray himself to his students as a god.

Christensen didn\'t panic, the first thing that came to his mind was a question.

\'If it was master in my place, what would he do?\' Instantly after Christensen asked this question, he arrived at an answer.

Without hesitation, he went to work.

"Follow me!" He called both Akela and Bran along.

On returning to Planet Darvis, the first thing that he did was to go out in search of the remnants of the Pugilist Academy. Before leaving, Legolas detailed his plans out to him and was why he went after the remnants.

After 2 days of searching, he found Frost Crane and Afro Pugilist.

Both warriors succeeded in saving and keeping the survivors of the Pugilist Academy alive. On locating them, Christensen took over their safety, he took over while patiently waiting for his junior apprentice brother\'s return.

For over 5 days, Christensen patiently waited without receiving any news or clues from Blade. This morning though, Brutus took the initiative to meet him.

"It\'s faint but I think I just got a scent similar to Blade\'s…"

"Lead me there!" Christensen didn\'t even let the Shadow Hound to finish.

After 30 minutes of searching alongside the Shadow Hound, Christensen finally found him, he found Blade wandering through the forest like a mad man.

"…" The sight of him shocked Christensen.

Blade looked like someone who had gone through a lot.

Not only was his black hair dirty and rough, he had injuries at various parts of his body, his clothes were mostly torn, and his eyes were unfocused, he looked haggard and lost. Blade was a shadow of his former self.

"…" Christensen was speechless for over a minute.

When he recovered his bearing, his eyes turned watery.

"Blade…"

He no longer hesitated, he rushed out to hug his brother.

Shing!

"Holy…!"

"Wait, it\'s me…! Christensen!"

Blade staggered as he looked up at the familiar face. "Oh, it\'s you…!"

He could not finish his sentence, he collapsed and fainted. Before he could fall down on the cold ground, Christensen caught him.

…

Blink!

Blade opened his eyes to feel warmth all around his body.

Without even needing to rely on his vision, he already knew where he was. His strong instincts as a Pugilist enabled him to detect his immediate surroundings as soon as he woke up, he let his eyes acclimatize to the afternoon light.

A few seconds later, he looked down and noticed a thick blanket covering him which explained the warmth. Poseidon\'s Fury was at his side.

Something else that he noticed was a familiar snout sniffing him.

"Brutus…" He instinctively said before pushing the snout aside.

"Don\'t move too much, you\'re still weak". Christensen conveniently said as he stirred the herbal medicine in the cauldron to perfectly sync with the heat.

A few minutes later, he brought down the medicine to feed his junior apprentice brother. Christensen learned more from his master than just being a Master Summoner, and this was one of the things that he learned.

Blade looked up at the familiar face before taking the cup to drink. After drinking, he turned to face another side before taking a deep breath.

Christensen sat down beside him. "What happened…?"

As soon as he asked, he regretted it because from this angle, he was able to see the tears that were already flowing down Blade\'s eyes. This was his first time seeing his junior apprentice brother so vulnerable before him.

Christensen was lost for what to say. "It\'s ok if you can\'t…"

"No". Blade wiped his tears then he turned to look at him. "I\'ll tell you everything". And he did.

After 9 minutes of a sad but reasonably epic narration, both students kept quiet. Christensen was especially more solemn as he went through the last moments of his master before he fell into the hands of the enemies.

In an instant, memories flooded his head.

He remembered the first day that he met his master, in his little 15-year old form. Then, when Mr. Damien introduced him, he thought the boy was silly, he never expected even in his wildest dreams for this boy to become his master.

His memories flashed to his training with his master in the island after his blunders in Palm Island. From there, they flashed to all the times that his master stayed reliable, intervening to save him out of trouble and death.

He remembered when his master took Blade in, he remembered how jealous he somehow felt inside at first and now he felt it was funny.

He remembered all the happy moments with his master.

Without him knowing, tears were already flowing down his eyes.

"What do you think…?"

"Happened to him?" Blade completed the question.

Christensen nodded.

"I don\'t know, but knowing how ruthless they can be, my best guess is that he\'s either dead or he already turned into one of Clown\'s test subjects".

Christensen closed his eyes for a few minutes to calm his head as a lot of things went through his mind.

"You said they took him in alive". He narrowed his eyes.

"I think there\'s a high chance that he\'s still alive, at 16 years of age, Master is too much of an anomaly for a scientist like the Clown to ignore".

His eyes flashed as he turned to face Blade. "We can save him!"

Blade\'s reaction showed that he was not as optimistic as him. "We can\'t fight the Clown Society Chris, we simply don\'t have the power".

As he said this, Blade felt even more sad as he clenched his fists.

Christensen didn\'t seem to listen to him though, his eyes flashed like he just got a hint. "What were his last words again?"

Blade turned to look at him.

"Tell me, please".

Blade sighed. "Don\'t make my last stand useless you fool, escape and tell the heroics of how I faced 6 powerful assassins alone, also tell him to check for \'Hell\'".

Instantly after the last part, Christensen\'s eyes lit up. "Hell? That\'s it!"

"What?"

"I think that\'s it, in our last hideout while staging as the Monster Triad Assassin unit, while you focused on training, I stayed close to master".

"I saw him writing some information that he said he\'ll sell to the main organizations when they are ready to trade, and one of the subject names started with Hell…, I think".

Blade narrowed his eyes. "What are you trying to say?"

"That Master left us a clue…, a clue that\'ll potentially help us save him".

"…" Blade looked at his senior apprentice brother.

He looked down. "You think you can pull it off?"

"There\'s a high chance…"

"I no longer want to bank on chances". Surprisingly, Blade\'s voice was calmer as he said this, his brain seemed to have gained more clarity.

He looked up at his senior apprentice brother. "My whole life, I\'ve tried to live by the template of those better than me since I thought it was the template of success, I\'ve always tried to be the good boy, the good Blade…"

He clenched his fists. "The good son, the good student".

"Where have that gotten me? Nowhere".

"I lost my tribe and my mom while being too weak to do anything".

"I lost my master while still being too weak to do anything".

"Chris, I\'m tired of not doing anything".

"I\'m tired of being the only survivor". His eyes now shone with much more conviction. "After meeting you, my brain cleared up a lot and I\'ve made my choice the same way that you\'ve made a choice that you think is best for you".

"I want to embrace my nickname, I am Blade".

"I want to be the Blade that will cut through everything, I no longer want to stay passive, that was my problem, I was never a passive warrior".

"But…"

"I\'ve made up my mind".

Blade stood up. "My life goal is hunting the Clown Society".

"I will do it, I\'ll no longer stay passive".

"If the price for this decision is my life, I\'ll gladly take it rather than keep on being the survivor and living like a zombie".

Blade didn\'t allow Christensen to talk any further.

He grabbed Poseidon\'s Fury and walked deeper into the Barren Forest.

*****

For the beast illustrations, go to my discord server through this link https://discord.gg/UX4JpdGN