Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

The flickering light from the gaps of the leaves announced the dawn of a new day. It's the seventh day of the Trial. Wrik adapted quite well to this new life, though it was difficult, after some success, it filled him with self-satisfaction. It had been a long time since he felt satisfied with something.

The previous night was quite busy for all of them, especially for Anton and Davin. Anton, in his unusual way of revenge, killed dozens of the goblins. While Davin started slow but after being taunted by Anton; he rose to the challenge. He almost went berserk in the later period of the night, breaking off the formation and soloing the battles.

The time they finished, his whole body was soaking in blood—though most of them were from goblins, his injuries weren't any less. Well, he did learn a lesson, but it appeared to set aside some of his frustrations.

They had killed about two hundred goblins yesterday, the numbers of the elite among them were just below two dozens. Toni single-handedly killed over one-third of the numbers, then Evan and Davin, while Tanya showed her impressive control a few times as well. But she was quiet most of the time.

Wrik was not as wild as Davin or Anton with his injury. He put in a good effort in not flaring up the wound as much as possible throughout the night. Though it caused problems occasionally. Apart from that, he thoroughly practised Mana application while squabbling with the goblins, making him lower in the list with the kills. Still, his practice was not in vain, he was sure discharge was not that far away from him. There's barely a thin line separating him from having control of it.

But the one with the bad track yesterday was the kid Lan. He cried out in the middle of the battle throwing his weapons. Well, they couldn't blame him for that, he's just a kid. At last, Lillian calmed him down with a lot of effort. The others were helpless in this case; it's a hard place to be for a kid. Moreover, they have more on their plate to deal with rather than fretting over someone else.

There were over a hundred goblins remaining; though it's not an immediate threat, it's still something they have to finish. After all the hard work the previous night, they voted to have a few hours of good rest before making another move on the goblins. Nobody objected to that, as they were fatigued.

Honestly, their performance yesterday already astonished Wrik. He thought it would take them at least two days to do what they achieved in a single night. Maybe everyone was holding themselves back in this foreign place. But as yesterday's battle progressed, they loosened up the string that held them back.

Anton was the catalyst of this: he aggressively started the battle, holding nothing back with his newfound cool abilities. Moreover, his cocky tongue and show-offs pissed most of them off, especially Davin.

Davin, being a youth with hot blood, didn't back down. Then they competed in putting down the goblins. Even Evan joined up with them after discussing a little with his two colleagues. Evan seemed a bit embarrassed about the kid, so he worked as much himself as he could.

They all had been resting after the tiring killing. Wrik took a nap for about two-and-a-half hours to rest his nerves and body before starting the daily meditation.

Meditation had some effect on calming the mind, though it was not proper to call recreation, as he needed some mental power in meditating. But he still continued it every day, as he liked the feeling of being lost in his world of imagination.

The sun has not fully risen yet, it's still quite dark. Wrik rose from his meditative positions. His legs were almost numb from sitting cross-legged for hours. He sucked in the fresh air as he looked around if he could detect anything. The others were still resting apart from Tanya, who was sitting cross-legged across from him. She spent more time on meditation than him, even though she was quite adept at it. A diligent little lady.

Without much to do, Wrik started to stretch his limbs as the muscles were cramped up. They made cranking noises in the deep stillness. The good thing was that the wound had almost closed up and he could move more freely now.

He picked up his sword and started practising the general Kata that he had learned a decade ago. He followed the simplest way of the sword, not anything fancy like Davin or Evan. Then he practised his stances with the Kata. Most of his stances were defensive, as his tutor taught him when he was a kid. He was so immersed in the practice that he didn't notice the diligent young lady was watching him after finishing her meditation.

But his practice didn't last long as he heard a large cry.

"Hurry up! Get up everyone, the goblins are coming, altogether." Evan, who was working as the night guard, shouted, running in. "Hurry up! Get ready for combat."

Wrik was quite annoyed; they had all been relaxing for a few hours and it's the goblins again. They don't rest, do they?

"How many of them?" Tanya asked. She was mostly battle prepared. She gave a small nod to him.

"There were hundreds of them and someone was also leading them here."

"Did they elect a new chief or something?"

"No, it was a female goblin, it should be a priest or shaman." Evan denied.

Chief or no chief, it would be quite a facade up against over a hundred goblins at the same time. Especially in this hour when they couldn't see much and most of them were tired.

"Alright, go wake Ton and the others." Wrik breathed in. He looked towards Tanya, who was still void of expression. Maybe a bit stern. It's the face when she pondered over something. She didn't say or ask anything, walked forward holding her staff; without questioning he followed her as well.

"Can you see them?" Tanya opened her little mouth after covering a few distances. She was implying to him to use his ability without saying that exactly. But he complied with her, as knowing where the enemy coming from was the basics. Besides, he was grateful to her for helping him.

He triggered his innate ability as the silver hue appeared in his eyes. His perception, sights and other senses doubled instantly when the hue condensed into a silver ring around the pupils. He expanded his visions to the fronts and sides and noticed some disturbance with bleak silhouettes advancing. Even his other senses picked up the disturbance.

"I don't see much but I felt the tremor of them coming," he told her as all he could see were the blurry silhouettes through the [Eye of Insights]. "Ton would be able to judge better of the positions."

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Hello, folks.

The first part is almost wrapped up. I used more words than I plan and made some changes to the outline but I'm satisfied with it. I hope you're enjoying it as well.

Peace.