24 IF I KILL THEM THEY CANT KILL ME (1/2)

After the old man had spoken his piece, he stood up and walked to the door. Just before he opened it, he looked back and said, ”Young man, try not to think so much. You have no training, so don't do anything fancy out there. Just keep these words to heart: if you kill them, they can't kill you.”

With these auspicious words, the old man left the room. ”If I kill them, they can't kill me.” Darius wasn't sure why, but these words struck a chord with him, reaching the deepest recesses of his mind. He kept saying them over and over again.

Darius also noticed that the old man said 'them'. In other words, 'them' could be anything. Darius quite liked this mantra. As someone who valued his life above all else, killing others to save his own skin was something he was more than capable of. Unbeknownst to the young man, a vicious glimmer ran through his mind as he thought about the upcoming test. He didn't know it himself, but he was looking forward to the test!

The third exam was similar to the previous one. The duo was dropped in a seemingly random location without any information on what to do. Under such circumstances, it was clear that they only had to dispatch their enemies to pass.

As the heir to the emperor, all Lara had to do was pass three tests, and she would qualify to inherit his position. Then, that would be that, yet the previous night, she had received a notice that three more tests had been added to their schedule. As a budding royal, she had her own information network and a plethora of subordinates, so it wasn't a surprise that she would receive advanced information about the testing schedule; she just hadn't expected the additions to be so difficult, not to mention that the information would come with a caveat.

The last three tests were optional for her but mandatory for Darius. Nevertheless, participation in the fourth test and the later ones came with incredible rewards she found difficult to resist. However, she was in no mood to rejoice the vast possibilities. It was clear that these tests were meant for Darius and that she was just a fortunate bystander.

At first, she had been outraged and humiliated, but after some time had passed, she remembered what Darius had done to those jade sea serpents. Her humiliation quickly turned into plain shock. She couldn't get around how someone as weak as Darius could become so powerful in one day.

”Is this the power of the Indomitable ability?” She murmured as she gazed out onto the grassy plains ahead of her. There was only green waving grass for as far as she could see. Cool winds blew from time to time, swaying the weeds like an orchestra of nature.

Lara only spent a moment to observe her surroundings before quickly turning her attention to Darius who stood right beside her.

The moment she took a look at those limpid eyes, she knew that something about him had changed, but she couldn't put her finger on it. He had zoned out the moment they had arrived, staring into nothingness, but had snapped out of it after a while.

”Welcome back to Earth,” said Lara sarcastically.

Darius laughed shyly and coughed. ”Hello, your Majesty? Or is it your Highness?” Darius asked in a high pitched tone.

”What kind of idiot are you?” mumbled Lara as she slapped her own forehead. She felt aggrieved that such a fool possessed such power while a princess as gifted as she was had to play second fiddle to him. She sighed in resignation and decided to focus on the task at hand. She had attained an Honour level ability, so her foundations were solid. She was confident that given enough time, she would become stronger than Darius. She failed to take into account, however, that Darius would get stronger in time as well.

”Focus, Darius, focus!” Darius kept mumbling to himself in order to soothe his fraught nerves. He tightened his grip on the hammer as he focused on their surroundings. Lara did the same but to no avail. For the first few minutes, nothing happened. After a while, Lara started to lose her patience and decided to explore the area.

”Hey! Where are you going?” asked a nervous Darius. There was something about their surroundings that made his nerves stand on edge. As time went on, he instinctually felt as if he approached the jaws of death. It was an unpleasant feeling, yet he could do nothing about it. Lara's sudden action of walking away did nothing to calm him down. In fact, it made him feel even more nervous because he suspected her next actions would activate the trap.

”I'm going to explore. Standing around doing nothing has done nothing to help our cause,” Lara said in a confident tone. Darius wanted to retort, but he had nothing logical he could say to refute her argument. They hadn't been given any instructions or any objectives, and unlike last time, no spirits attacked them of their own volitions.

”This is supposed to be a test, one that focuses on combat, yet we were placed in the middle of nowhere. We have to be proactive and gather information if we want to finish the test sooner,” said Lara confidently. As soon as she had finished speaking, she turned her head back and looked at Darius.

What greeted her was the sight of a terrified Darius. His face was pale, and his lips quivered. She wanted to ask what the problem was when she saw him point to the ground beneath her feet. At that very instant, a premonition of death washed over her body, causing chills to run up her spine.

Despite being an extravagant princess, Lara had a plethora of battle experience; she was by no means pampered and protected. She had taken the lives of both spirits and men many a time in order to train herself. She was accustomed to killing intent and bloodlust, so much so that she had developed a keen instinct like any other distinguished warrior would develop after the baptism of a thousand battles.

Many a man could feel the towering shadow of death looming over their heads, but few had the ability to react instantly in order to escape, and Lara was one of those few.

Without even looking down at what Darius was pointing at, she activated her secondary ability, Double Critical. It was an ability that doubled her reaction and movement speed. Using this newfound speed, she leaped from her position and flitted toward Darius's position.

Every ability had a primary and secondary ability. Indomitable was no different. The elder had explained that Indomitable's abilities were a bit special. The first one, Imperishable, made one's mind immune to mental attacks while inciting one's bloodlust and cognitive abilities. The second ability Overdraw increased one's all-around sensory and physical abilities, allowing one to fully use one's innate bodily talents.

Darius was not a fan of the fearlessness side effect of Imperishable, so when they had arrived at their new location, he had only activated Overdraw. The elder had spent quite some time teaching Darius how to use the abilities separately. The elder had warned that Overdraw must be activated from the get-go while Imperishable was something that had to be handled with caution.

As Lara had started walking away, Darius's senses had started tingling, and his ears had started to pick up a vibration from the ground. As the seconds went on, his ears had zeroed in on the ground directly underneath Lara. It had been a shuffling noise akin to one moving large mounds of dirt. His sixth sense had started to scream danger, leading to Darius feeling extreme fear and pointing below his counterpart's feet.

The old Darius would have turned tail and run at that moment, but within that split second, his instincts had changed from 'I need to run away' to 'I need to warn her.' Within that short instant of time, Darius character was revealed: he saw Lara and himself as one entity. It never even occurred to him that he was doing something out of character.

Darius could hear the rumbling of the earth beneath her feet intensify. He wondered whether he would even get a word out before she was attacked by whatever was coming. To his surprise, she reacted immediately and managed to leap away just in time. Within a split second, she was already beside him.

”Fast!” Darius did not have time to marvel more at her speed. It was here that…

Boom!

…

”What did I ever do to deserve this?” Darius screamed as he ran at full throttle away from the monstrosity chasing him. It was a spirit that looked like an earthworm, with its mouth's circumference covered in sharp teeth. This mouth was actually just an opening at the front of the worm while the teeth acted as drills, allowing it to freely move through the earth like a fish swimming in water.

The worm was incredibly thick. Each hole it created through its passing was at least three meters in diameter while it was at least twenty meters long. Its size wasn't the worst part. For the life of him, Darius could not figure out why the worm was chasing him!

At first, it had appeared under Lara, who had swiftly dodged its attack, but then the worm had single-mindedly rushed at Darius, completely ignoring the lass.

Darius cursed his misfortune as he ran for dear life while Lara ran after the duo. Like Darius, she was also confused. From time to time she would catch up to the worm and cut it with her two swords, causing some minor wounds here and there, but her taunting did nothing to sway its actions.

She was well aware that Spirits had the habit of targeting the stronger person first, but that was only if the gap was significant enough, which she did not think was the case here. Spirits had the ability to judge a human's strength with their beast-like intuition. Both Darius and Lara were humans of the first step of power, Courage, but Darius was a two-star Spiritknight while Lara was only a one-star Spiritknight. This difference made Darius the primary mark; thus, for its survival, the worm had designated him as its target since while finishing off Lara, Darius could come in like the old fisherman stalking the oriole.

Lara knew that Darius had received two Dantians in the Knighting ceremony, but she believed that he, like most people, could only absorb one Dantian, so she was unaware of his current greater level of power that justified the Spirit's decisions.

Thanks to Overdraw, Darius was incredibly fast. That coupled with his incredible desire to live allowed him to pull out quite a bit of his body's full potential strength. Multiple times did the worm come close to consuming him, only for him to accelerate and dodge it just in time. Along with Darius's mysterious ability to sense the worm's presence underground, Darius had managed to survive his desperate flight. Lara could not understand how he was doing it. After all, he was merely a country hick with some noble blood in his veins, yet as time went on, Darius's identity had become ever more of an enigma to this arrogant princess.

Boom!

Darius narrowly dodged the worm's materializing from the earth by rolling forward. ”This thing is getting closer!” Darius started to get nervous because his chances of survival seemed slim.

Attack? Of course, the notion had briefly entered his mind, but his cowardice would not allow it. Unlike Lara, he was no seasoned warrior after all. Why, just a few days ago, he had never even been in any lethal battles of any sort. While screaming, he would look back from time to time, only to despair upon observing Lara's futile attempts at injuring the creature.

His cowardice overshadowed his logic, and he completely forgot that he was far stronger than she was, neglecting the fact that he had wiped out the Jade Sea Serpent by himself.

From time to time, a burning sensation, akin to a searing heat, would flow from the hammer to his hand. This was the hammer trying to activate the primary ability of Indomitable: Imperishable! Yet, Darius would have none of it. As far as he was concerned, running away was the only way to survive, so using the experience he had gained from the elder the previous night, he completely suppressed Indomitable, keeping only Overdraw active.

Lara was faster than Darius, so it was quite easy for her to catch up to him. She stayed a few meters away for good measure and yelled, ”I have a plan to kill this worm, but for it to work, I'm going to need your help!”

Darius looked sideways for a split second in order to reply, but his feet immediately tripped on a rock. At this point, the worm underground shot upward. It had felt the vibrations from aboveground indicating Darius's perilous situation. It accelerated with intense vigor, seeing this as its only chance to get rid of its prickly enemy. Darius cursed as he fell to the ground. All he could do was brace himself and roll up. His concentration had lapsed, and now, all he could think of was how he was about to die.

”Look out!” yelled Lara as she saw him fall in the most unfashionable way possible. She had no doubt that the worm would take this opportunity to strike. She wanted to help, but Darius was in no way important enough to her for her to risk her life, not to mention that she was anyway too far to do anything measurable. Considering what little damage she had caused the creature, she felt a pang of powerlessness overcome her at this instant.

Darius's lapse of concentration, fortunately, occurred when the heat was once more conducting from the hammer. Before he could react, the heat flowed into his arm and spread through his whole body.

”Oh no!” Darius screamed inwardly, but it was too late. The bloodlust was already getting to his head. He felt his blood boiling as an intense rage washed over his heart. At the same time, a powerful clarity stilled his mind. He clenched his teeth while his eyes instantly became bloodshot. From the center of his body, he felt the power of Overdraw increase along with his sudden emotional stability.

Overdraw was designed to work best with Imperishable, so the effects of Indomitable could only truly display themselves when both the primary and secondary abilities worked in tandem. The worm rose up, about to swallow Darius and a whole pile of earth along with him, when the young man swiftly reacted instead of falling into a lapse of panic like the creature expected.

Using his free hand, he slapped the ground, using the opposing force to propel himself sideways. There was a loud noise from the impact, indicating the true strength applied by the young man.

Darius was propelled ten meters within an instant, shocking the observing Lara. The worm roared in triumph, only to realize that it had solely swallowed a chunk of earth. It squealed in anger and violently shook. The squeal was loud enough to make Lara wish she could cover her ears as she rapidly backed away. Nevertheless, her years of combat training allowed her to resist despite the grimace she wore.

Darius seemed unfazed as he slowly stood into a steady stance. He had a deadpan expression as he calmly observed the wiggling worm with his bloodshot eyes. He tightened his grip on his hammer as a plan of action quickly formed in his mind. As he was strategizing, the elder's words from this morning echoed in his mind, ”Kill them before they kill you!”

…

The basic premise seemed simple enough: kill your opponent before they killed you, yet the truth was that actually fulfilling the idea was far from simple.

”Princess, throw me one of your swords! Hurry!” Darius bellowed as he readied himself. Lara heard the boy as she had put down her hands, exposing her ears once again. The worm had stopped squirming and now prepared to retreat underground once more.

Lara questioned Darius's motives, but a glare from the later completely subdued the former. Any doubts she had about his actions disappeared as she looked into his bloodshot eyes. His Indomitable skill was in full swing, visible from the bloodlust he oozed, yet the young man seemed eerily calm. He seemed extremely relaxed as if he were in his own backyard. Were it not for his feral grin or red eyes, she would have thought him to be in a normal state of mind.

The stark contrast between his general appearance and countenance overwhelmed Lara. Before she knew it, she had already thrown her sword to the young man.

She was shocked by her own actions. After all, two swords were always better than one. By giving him one of her swords, she weakened her own battle strength, not to mention that the worm could attack her at any moment. After all, there was no guarantee that it would continue its sole pursuit of Darius. Despite her logical reservations, the young woman had unconsciously thrown Darius her sword without hesitation.

As the sword was in mid-flight, Darius ran toward it. His keen intuition and senses were keeping track of the worm's whereabouts underground. It was a simple-minded creature, thus its attack patterns were rather easy to read. Darius snorted as he ran to the sword. Just as he was about to reach it, the worm burst up from the ground!

Darius was expecting this, so he nimbly circled the creature, arriving quickly by its side.

Boom!

With a swing of his hammer, he smashed whatever portion that had come up straight into the ground. Except he didn't retrieve his hammer. The worm's top half remained embedded in the ground with the hammer above it.

Thanks to the hammer's special enchantment, only special means could be used to lift this. Darius knew this from experience, and the elder had given him even more information regarding this. The elder had said that this fact had applications for battle, and Darius was using one of them.

Since he had the worm pinned, Darius quickly turned and lept into the sky. By the time he had landed, he had Lara's sword in hand.

He slowly made his way to the worm's head. It wriggled and tried and much as it could to get out of its predicament but it was all in vain. Lara was not sure how he had done it, but he had somehow managed to incapacitate the worm.

”His strength is indeed nothing to scoff at.” Thought Lara as she walked toward Darius. She marveled at the sheer force of the blow, in which he had blasted the worm into the ground. Plenty of earth had scattered while the worm's upper body was entrenched into the ground. Lara could not help but wonder where all that strength came from.

Granted, Indomitable boosted one's physical abilities, but it could only bring out what was already there.

The human brain limited the amount of strength one could use from their own body. Overdraw removed those limiters while drawing on the body's vitality, converting it into raw power.

”Just what kind of foundation does this boy have? How much training did he have to go through to achieve such monstrous strength?”

In this day and age, there were plenty of people born with unique talents. One of them being inborn strength. Those with inborn strength would have the strength of a tiger at the tender age of ten. By the time they reached adulthood, they could even match the strength of an elephant! Without any training!

Their bodies would naturally be incredibly large and muscular as a result. Yet Darius was nothing like that. His build and size seemed normal. He was quite fit, but it was hard for her to see how muscular he was as she had only seen him fully clothed.

While these thoughts were swirling in Lara's mind, Darius had already reached the head of the worm. He used the sword to tap the creatures hard carapace as if to test something. It only left a small dent, but it was enough to confirm what he was thinking. By this point, Lara was nearby. She saw his actions and saw the dent. The tap was slow and casual, but the dent caused was similar to one of her full strength blows, as the dent it caused was only slightly smaller than the ones she had caused on the creature. While Lara was marveling at the young man's strength, the worm decided to shriek once more.

The noise was quite deafening, causing Lara to once more cover her ears and back away. Darius seemed unaffected as he simply took a few simple steps. Once he had chosen his spot, he relaxed his shoulders and gripped the sword with both hands.

He closed his eyes and calmed down for a moment, in an attempt to ready himself. When Lara finally reached a comfortable distance, she removed her hands from her ears and focused Darius. The screech from the worm was still uncomfortable, even from almost 100 meters away, but Lara bore with it. She put all her attention on Darius, as his recent actions caught her attention.

”Don't tell me he wants to cut it?”

Lara found the notion absurd. As far as she was concerned, he was strong but not that strong. However, Darius couldn't care less about her thoughts. He opened his eyes and raised the sword above his head.

He stepped forward and struck down.

Swoosh!

Lara rubbed her eyes in confusion because she could have sworn that the sword and Darius's arms had disappeared for a moment before they had appeared once more thrust into the ground, but that was not what shocked her; the shrieking had stopped. Since she was standing at the side, she could not see clearly, but the sword seemed to be submerged in the worm. This and the silence could only mean one thing. The worm was dead!

…

”The heavens have eyes! They have not abandoned my family!”

The Emperor stood up and roared with laughter. James and Peter, Lionel's two older brothers, had wry smiles on their faces, while Lionel's face was deathly pale. The third test had ended, and the results had been spectacular.

Darius had once again single-handedly dealt with a spirit in a most spectacular fashion. The Emperor had a smug grin as he returned to his seat.

”Lionel, my son, accept your fate! Haha!” The Emperor's laughter was like the sound of death creeping closer and closer for Lionel.

'My life of luxury! Gone!'

Lionel did the best he could to prevent himself from wailing in misery, lest he lost even more face. Rarely did his plans end up blowing up in his face especially in such a spectacular fashion. Thanks to Darius's efforts, he was now in the running for Emperor directly in competition with his sister. His sister was still the favorite by a long shot, but this result forced him to act the part of a prince.

Gone were the days he could fool about. Gone were the nights he could disappear where and when he pleased. Gone were the days he could come up with random excuses for skipping training…

As Lara and Lionel were twins, their talents were not far apart. In fact, Lionel knew quite well that he could best his sister in terms of talent for battle, even at that very moment despite his consistent skipping of practice. He just did not want it to be revealed. In truth, Lionel was already a Spiritknight. He had chosen to find himself his own Dantian in an attempt to convince his father that he was not qualified for the test and thus have the Emperor help him find a substitute. Under normal circumstances, becoming a Spiritknight before the test disqualified one, but the Emperor would have none of that. He had forced Lionel to swallow a pill that temporarily made one a normal human again, much to the latter's chagrin.

Lionel was neither a coward nor was he untalented, but he had managed to fool his family into believing otherwise. Now, his years of effort had been thrown down the train by an unassuming hick from the countryside. Now, he had to reveal his true talents. If not, his life would become even harder, and the reason for that was sitting right next to him.

Contrary to what most might think, the one most unhappy at the current turn of events was not Lionel, but his eldest brother James!

James was eyeing his father's throne, and he had already secured Peter's support. Lara, however, was like the sun, melting any chance he had of seizing power. James had come up with many schemes to take her life, but he would only act once she became a Spiritknight. As a Spiritknight, she would be thrust in many a battle, willingly or not. Not to mention that she was anyway a battle maniac and would probably actively seek out these perilous encounters. There would no doubt be plenty of opportunities to get rid of her in the near future.

Lionel was a wastrel, so James had not seen him as a threat… until now.

The only person who had noticed James'd true intentions was Lionel himself. Despite his lazy nature, there was no doubting the boy's cunning nature. Part of the reason he had intended to bow out of the race for the throne was his understanding of his brother's unrelenting avarice.

Lionel was content with not having to look after his own neck. However, he had now no doubt entered James's radar. James was greedy, but it was Peter who was the real problem.

Peter unconditionally followed James. It had been so ever since they were young children. James was more of a warrior while Peter was, much like Lionel himself, more of a schemer, except that he was even more devious.

It was Peter who had discovered the clause that allowed for Lionel to use a substitute. He had informed Lionel, who had taken the hint, and immediately acted on it. Little had Peter know that his discovery would set into motion a chain of events that would rock the entire empire!

Now that he had entered James and Peter's sights, Lionel had no choice but to fight for power in order to better protect himself. If he did not, he would be forced to work under his brothers, which would only make it easier for them to 'take care' of him.

Lionel was lazy, but he was not subservient. If he could not lead a life in luxury, then he would lead a life of power. He would be damned if he had to submit to his older brothers, and they knew that very well.

James had had a sleepless night the day before, but now, his greatest worries had truly cemented in reality. He glanced at his brother who understood the gesture.

Peter looked at Lionel and said, ”Welcome to the fold, brother. We expect much of you.”

Lionel laughed powerlessly and shrank into his seat. He sighed in resignation upon realizing the situation he was in. Nevertheless, Lionel was, after all, Lionel. It only took a few moments, but a plan quickly formed in his mind.

He sat up straight while a regal disposition oozed from him. This change caught the attention of his brothers. James stared at Lionel, obviously challenging him to enter a confrontation.

Peter simply smiled and stared at his younger brother. The message was simple: you are either with us or against us. Lionel took a sideways glance at his brothers; he particularly focused on Peter. For a moment, the atmosphere thickened as the brothers read each other's minds. It was as if sparks flew between the two.

James was displeased about being overlooked by his younger brother, no, enemy, but he shrugged it off. After all, it was merely Lionel. What could he do? All the crafty plans in the world meant nothing in the face of absolute power. After a moment, he continued observing the battle.

Peter did not underestimate Lionel as much as James, but he still did not regard him as a worthy opponent, mimicking James's actions.

The Emperor was no fool; he was well aware of what was happening, but he pretending as if he saw nothing. The wily old fox was definitely up to no good because a subtle grin suffused his face.

Lionel's plan was meticulous, but it required a lot of steps to be taken, and the key was right in front of him. Lionel's eyes zeroed in on Darius's visage on the screen.

”The test has ended. Please rest for a few hours. The second test will begin soon,” An emotionless voice resounded throughout the field.

The test had ended as soon as Darius had taken the worm's life. They were then teleported from the test site to what seemed like a resting room with luxurious chairs and refreshments. It even had boxes packed with medicine that allowed one to heal themselves. Darius was unfamiliar with how to use these, but thankfully, Lara was quick to help.

She felt disgraced that she had been so useless in the previous exam, so the least she could do was help the seemingly lost Darius.

Indomitable's effects had long since subsided since the moment the worm had been slain. Under Lara's instructions, Darius went for medicines that rejuvenated his stamina. Indomitable was known for taking quite the toll on the body. In fact, Lara was amazed that Darius could still stand, only appearing slightly fatigued. As time went on, Darius was becoming less and less human in her eyes.

Each of the boxes were filled with vials containing colourful liquids. The liquid Darius aimed for was sky blue, emanating an odd blue light. Darius opened the vial and sniffed its contents. It had quite a refreshing smell, one that helped him relax. Confident that it was not poison, Darius drank the contents in one gulp. A soothing wave of calm spread over his entire body. Indeed, he was tired, but he was not as tired as Lara believed. He was more distraught than tired.

Darius lazily sat down on a sofa while allowing the medicine to take effect. He thought about the recent events that had occurred to him.

The elder had told Darius an interesting piece of information the night before, information he hadn't trusted until now.