100 To Die (2/2)

Old Thane's eyes widened for the first time as his cracked into Azhar's skull.

A resounding impact blew through the air as Azhar hurtled backwards, his body flipping several times as it unceremoniously slammed onto the forest floor.

Old Thane looked at his hand in surprise. His pinky was broken, jutting sideways in an unnatural angle.

Azhar had never intended to try and seriously damage Old Thane – that was simply an impossibility. From the start, he had determined his realistic chances and aimed to break a single finger, but even that seemed a far off dream. He could not rely on the strength of his finger: a finger that had never been conditioned to fight in close quarters.

No, not even his full fist would have been able to deal any real damage to Old Thane's hardened fist. To have any chance of chipping Old Thane's durable bones, Azhar needed to hit them with something equally hard.

His skull.

And why had Old Thane not simply reacted to this?

Surprise.

Li knew this because surprise was what he felt also.

The surprise came from the fact that though both Old Thane and Li had warned Azhar over and over that this was training meant to push him to the brink of death again and again, they had always been making sure, at some level, to hold back and not kill the ranger.

They did not expect that the ranger was willing to throw his entire life away and use his skull, risking immediate brain death untreatable by anything barring resurrection magic that nobody in this world knew Li could use, to accomplish something as middling as breaking a pinky.

”Lad!” shouted Old Thane. ”The boy!”

Li immediately healed Azhar, not even wasting the time to wave his hand as he willed his spell into existence.

Old Thane rushed to Azhar's side, kneeling down as he took ranger in his arms. Where just before his club-like hands had beat Azhar down, now they gently felt around the ranger's face, feeling for signs of significant damage.

Azhar's eyes had rolled into his head and blood streamed form his nose. Before, there must have been a massive dent in his skull that surely would have mashed some of his brain. But thankfully, the ranger still breathed, his brain damage instantly healed by Li before it could worsen into death.

And it was sheerly by virtue of Old Thane's own superhuman reactions that Azhar even remained alive. In a timeframe spanning perhaps a tenth of a second, right when Azhar's skull came into contact with Old Thane's hand, the old man had overcome his surprise and relaxed the muscles in his fist, making the impact much softer for Azhar.

”He'll be fine,” said Li as he made sure that Azhar's breathing was regular and rhythmic.

”Aye, lad, that he will,” said Old Thane as he strung Azhar along his back, carrying the ranger. ”And that will end this training.”

As he ended that sentence, Old Thane began to age, little black shards of demonic power escaping from his body, dispersing into sooty particles.

”How I missed the spryness of youth,” laughed Old Thane as his back started to hunch again, his muscles deflating. His white mane of hair began to fall, carrying away in the breeze like dandelion seeds. ”But there is a reason I buried that savagery. How Aine would have scolded me for turning my back on the civilization she taught me with such dear effort.”

”I'm sure she would've approved letting you cut loose once in a while,” said Li. ”So, training's over? Planning on doing a repeat session?”

Old Thane shook his head. ”Nay, lad. I could never have taught him technique. But I have planted the seeds of the mindset I wished him to grow, and there is nothing more I can do for him.”