CHAPTER 9: Slaughtering Time
Alright.
Let me paint the picture.
I was standing in the middle of a goblin magic ambush. Twelve mages, five fireball freaks, five walking freezers, and two mystery slimes and my teammate was frozen mid-panic behind me. Time? Still ticking forward. Goblins? Suspended like ugly statues. System? Finally decided I was worthy of attention.
And here I was.
Sword in one hand. Tutorial screen floating in front of me like the world's most judgmental pop-up ad.
***---***
Welcome, Kaizen Vale.
Primary Ability: Ki [Locked – Not yet Awakened]
Initiating Tutorial: Stage One – Channeling.
Objective: Learn to circulate and activate Ki in a controlled loop through your core meridians.
***---***
"Meridians," I muttered. "Great. Ancient spiritual plumbing."
Another screen appeared next to the first, this one in glowing wireframe. It looked like a human body, probably mine, lined with thin golden pathways running from the head to the hands, down the torso, legs, spine.
So yeah. Energy routes. Classic.
Only one problem.
They were dim.
All of them.
Barely lit at all, like a power grid operating on leftover candlelight.
***---***
Note: Due to untrained spiritual channels and a weak Ki reserve, physical manipulation is currently minimal. Your progress will increase rapidly with intentional circulation and intense physical training enough to break lesser wills.
***---***
"I get it. I'm a broken phone battery. Stop rubbing it in."
Then the next instruction appeared, floating like some smug PowerPoint slide.
***---***
Focus on the point just below your navel. The core. Breathe slowly. Inhale deeply through your nose. Exhale from your diaphragm. Visualize drawing energy from within.
***---***
I sighed. Loudly.
"This is it, huh?" I said aloud to the frozen world. "No training montage. No elderly turtle master slapping me with a stick. Just breathing and hope."
I dropped into a seated position, crossing my legs with the shield still slung over my back and the sword laid across my lap like a paperweight. I closed my eyes.
Tried to breathe.
In through the nose.
Out through the mouth.
I'd done this before. Back in the real world. Meditation apps, anger management, the occasional YouTube rabbit hole titled "Unlock Your Hidden Potential in 9 Minutes!" Spoiler: it never worked.
But this time?
This time, something clicked.
A warmth.
Not external. Not emotional.
Internal.
Like the quiet flicker of a flame at the edge of perception. Somewhere deep, tucked behind the stomach, just above the hips. It pulsed once. Then again. Faint. Hesitant. Like a light trying to remember how to shine.
I focused on it.
Not too hard.
The screen kept pulsing, reminding me to circulate, not squeeze. To feel, not force.
So I pictured it.
Not fire.
Not wind.
Just... pressure. Light. Heat.
I imagined it expanding, moving outward along the gold-wire channels of the meridian map. Slowly, like syrup. It touched the lungs, the chest, the spine. It hit the shoulders, and I felt a weird pop, like a joint cracking inside my arm but without pain.
My body twitched.
Not from nerves. From energy.
And just like that…
I felt it.
Ki.
Not theoretical. Not spiritual nonsense. Real. Raw. Mine.
It didn't explode. It didn't surge. But it moved. It obeyed.
Like liquid light shifting through my veins.
And the moment it reached my hands?
My fingers buzzed.
I opened my eyes, and I could see the faintest shimmer across my palms. Barely visible. Like static electricity mixed with candle glow.
I flexed.
The shimmer followed.
"Oh hell yes," I muttered.
The screen blinked again.
***---***
Congratulations. Basic Ki Circulation Achieved.
You may now passively reinforce your physical strength, reaction speed, and durability by maintaining flow.
Warning: current Ki reserves are minimal. Strain may cause collapse if prolonged.
***---***
"Oh good," I muttered. "So I can punch harder... until I die."
But still. It was something.
I stood up slowly, feeling the difference immediately.
My balance was better. Centered.
The shield didn't weigh me down even more.. My grip on the sword felt tighter, more natural, like the weapon and I had finally agreed to trust each other.
The world was still frozen.
The timer wasn't.
28:27:02... 01... 00...
And I knew this frozen time wasn't going to last forever.
I stepped forward, rolling my shoulders.
The screen didn't vanish yet. A new line of text appeared:
***---***
Do you wish to proceed to Tutorial Stage Two: Basic Manifestation – Externalization of Ki?
Warning: Combat will resume immediately upon acceptance.
***---***
I stared at the message.
I looked back at the line of goblin mages frozen mid-charge, their faces twisted into snarls, orbs lit and pointed right at my head.
Behind them, somewhere not far, was the Chief.
This wasn't training anymore.
This was war.
I cracked my neck. Readied my stance. Exhaled one long breath.
"Let's see what this Ki can really do."
Accept.
I didn't even feel the shift when the world restarted.
It was like a curtain dropped, and chaos walked back on stage.
The stillness shattered instantly, goblins lunging, orbs flaring, voices screeching in that shrill, demonic language of theirs. Fire lit the chamber in violent reds and oranges. Blue frost hissed from raised staffs like liquid nitrogen had a grudge.
And I?
I moved.
And for the first time since waking up in this nightmare, I felt right.
Before, when I'd tried to use Ki on my own, back during that quiet moment in the cave, I felt something. A flicker. A trace. But it was vague. Slippery. Like trying to flex a phantom limb I'd never owned.
I knew what it should've been. I'd watched enough anime. Read enough manuals. Heard the fantasy-nerd breakdowns. It's energy. It's breath. It's life. Yeah, yeah. I got the theory.
But without the system?
It was like trying to bend dried cement with a spoon.
Now?
Now it flowed.
The system's visualization, those glowing meridian lines, the warm pulse in my core that changed everything.
It turned confusion into direction. Resistance into movement.
Cement into liquid fire.
And the moment I moved, really moved, I knew the difference wasn't small.
It was everything.
I dashed forward and the goblins reacted just a second too slow.
One of the fire mages released his spell. A red orb shot forward like a bullet made of sun. I saw it coming, not in slow motion, not in freeze-frame, but in clarity.
My body responded before I told it to.
I dropped into a side roll, planted a foot against the wall, and launched myself back across the chamber in a zigzag.
"Holy shit," I muttered.
My momentum didn't just carry, it surged. Like my whole body was tuned for this. No more drag. No more stiffness. The Ki wrapped around my limbs like armor and springwire.
The first goblin was still lowering his staff when I reached him.
I didn't aim for finesse. Not yet.
I swung the iron sword in a clean, rising arc, Ki surging down my arm, not as light, but as pressure. The blade connected with the goblin's staff and shattered it.
Not just cracked. Exploded.
Splinters of cursed wood and red crystal burst apart like shrapnel. The goblin shrieked, clutching its face, and I drove my shoulder into its chest, lifting it off the ground and slamming it into the wall hard enough to crack the stone.
One down.
A cold blast hit me in the back, freezing wind that should've locked my joints or knocked me flat.
But it didn't.
The Ki burned in my veins, countering the frost, keeping me fluid even as frost traced up my shoulder.
Still hurt. But it didn't stop me.
I spun around and threw one of my bronze swords, gripped it by the blade, hurled it like a spear.
It punched through a blue orb staff, straight into the chest of the next goblin.
Two down.
I didn't even slow.
The rest started fanning out, trying to box me in.
Big mistake.
I surged forward, leading with my shield this time, and rammed into one of the green orb mages. The impact cracked bone, mine or his, I wasn't sure and he collapsed in a tangle of limbs and robes.
Whatever the green orb was for, I didn't want to find out.
I grabbed it.
Just ripped the staff from his hand as he screeched beneath me.
"Thanks for the donation," I muttered, stepping back just in time for another fire blast to slam where I'd been.
Three more mages raised their staffs.
I dropped the shield.
Switched to dual blades, both iron now.
The Ki surged again, syncing with my movement. I could feel it pouring down my spine, into my legs. My body adjusted, posture correcting on instinct, momentum shifting naturally like I'd trained for years.
I closed the distance.
One step, two, then a burst of movement that carried me through the next goblin, my blade carving across his chest in a diagonal line.
Blood sprayed my face. I didn't flinch.
Another swung at me, staff aimed low. I ducked, kicked his leg out, and drove my blade into his throat.
Another. Another.
It was chaos. Controlled, precise chaos.
And I was dancing in the center of it.
I took hits, sure. A frost shard scraped my ribs. A fireball grazed my leg. One of them clipped me with a staff across the back but the Ki dulled the worst of it, kept my body from breaking down.
My muscles ached, but they obeyed.
My hands bled, but they held on.
And slowly, steadily…
They fell.
One by one.
Crushed. Slashed. Broken.
Until only two remained, one red orb, one green.
I grinned under my breath.
"Last chance."
They didn't take it.
They screamed something guttural and raised their staffs again.
I charged.
The first died with a sword through his gut.
The second tried to backpedal, but I caught him by the wrist, yanked the staff from his hand, and slammed it into his skull with his own weapon.
Silence followed.
Broken breathing.
Mine.
Rordan gasped behind me, finally breathing again as the time-freeze finally caught up to him. His eyes widened at the scene, at the blood, the corpses, the cracked floor, the scattered orbs and shattered staffs.
He said something, but I barely heard it.
Because I was still holding the last staff.
And my vision pulsed again.
***---***
Tutorial Stage Two Complete.
Ki successfully channeled and externalized through motion.
You may now unlock Basic Ki Techniques. Would you like to proceed to Tutorial Stage Three: Combat Application – Skill Formation?
***---***
I stood there, surrounded by bodies, still catching my breath.
Ki buzzed through my limbs.
And all I could think was…
Hell. Yes.
The chamber was a goddamn mess.
Blood soaked the stone like someone had painted it in broad, desperate strokes. Goblin corpses twitched and leaked across the floor, their staffs cracked and useless, their eyes frozen in expressions of surprise and panic.
And in the center of it all, I stood breathing, sword lowered, body bruised but alive. No, more than alive. I felt like I'd cracked some code, like my body had been waiting its entire life for this moment.
The system's prompt still floated in front of me, clean and smug:
I stared at the screen for a moment.
A "technique."
Like the real deal.
The classics ran through my head, blasts, punches, some sort of fancy Dragon Ball scream-and-wave move. Hell, I could probably throw a Kamehameha if I yelled loud enough.
But my brain cut through the noise with something sharper. Smarter.
Not power.
Speed.
Because power hadn't been the problem.
Not here. Not anymore.
I'd taken down the mages. Crushed through enchanted robes and bone-armored maniacs. Split staffs like kindling and still had enough gas left to joke about it.
But the next wave?
That would be numbers. Pure, smothering volume. Goblins stacked on goblins. Shields and swords. Formation. Pressure.
If I wanted to survive that, I didn't need to hit harder.
I needed to move faster.
***---***
Selected Skill Path: Speed.
Forming Base Technique: Acceleration Loop.
Description:
Through controlled Ki circulation, enhance neural responsiveness, muscular reflexes, and kinetic output for short bursts of rapid movement.
Warning: Prolonged use will fatigue core reserves. Recommended for precision use.
Activate Skill?
***---***
"Activate," I whispered.
And the moment I did, something inside me flared.
The Ki that had flowed like heat before now surged like a shot of adrenaline straight to the spine. My legs buzzed with pressure, like coiled springs winding tighter and tighter. I staggered once, unprepared for the lurch in momentum.
And then…
I moved.
Faster than I ever had.
Faster than I'd even thought possible.
It wasn't teleportation. Not some anime-style flicker or vanish trick.
It was pure, refined velocity.
I blitzed across the chamber in a blur, my boots barely touching stone, the world whipping past like a painting in motion. For a heartbeat, I felt friction fighting to keep up with me and losing.
I skidded to a stop on the far side of the chamber, eyes wide.
"Holy shit," I breathed.
And then they came.
The guards.
Dozens of them, at least thirty, maybe more, spilling in from two adjoining tunnels like an avalanche of iron and green muscle. All fully armored, like the two I'd fought back at the prison. Heavy plates. Steel blades. Shields strapped tight to their arms. Discipline. Formations. Real threats.
And they came without hesitation.
I turned to Rordan, who had just caught up behind me, mouth hanging open.
I barked the order: "Twos and threes! I cut, you finish!"
He nodded, too stunned to argue.
The first two came at me in sync, blades raised high.
I activated Acceleration Loop again and slipped between them like a whisper. I slashed one across the hamstring, twisted mid-slide, and raked the other across the back of the neck where the armor thinned.
Both stumbled.
Rordan came up behind, drove his sword through one's chest while kicking the other into the wall, finishing it with a clean thrust to the throat.
Three more charged. I was already moving.
Step, dodge, pivot, slash. I caught one beneath the chin, flipped the hilt in my hand, and drove the pommel into the visor of the second. The third swung hard, I ducked low, swiped his legs out, then stomped his chest with a crack that echoed.
"Next two!" I shouted.
And Rordan moved.
He was sloppy. Hesitant. But he listened.
He moved where I pointed. Struck when I staggered them. Backstabbed when I broke their lines. Like a squire paired with a one-man hurricane.
Another group. I rushed them head-on, shield-first, acceleration flaring, forcing them to brace.
Big mistake.
I jumped. Came down hard with a downward cleave that split one's shield and buried my blade into his collar. Ripped it free. Twisted. Spun.
Another came at me from behind.
Too slow.
My heel met his face mid-turn.
Blood sprayed. Teeth clattered against stone.
Ki flooded my legs again, and I dashed to the left, catching a blade on my shoulder, but ignoring the pain as I rammed another guard full-body into the wall. His armor crunched like a crushed tin can.
Two more down.
Five.
Eight.
Twelve.
They kept coming but now with hesitation.
Fear in their beady little eyes.
"Kaizen!" Rordan shouted. "Left!"
I turned just in time, caught a goblin blade mid-swing with mine, locked it, twisted hard. Steel shrieked. I headbutted the bastard and felt my helmet dent inward slightly but it didn't matter. The goblin dropped.
Twenty dead.
Thirty?
It didn't matter anymore.
Because when I finally paused, panting, bloodied, Ki buzzing like a live wire through my limbs, I realized we'd cleared the chamber.
The last goblin wheezed beneath Rordan's sword, twitching once before going still.
I stood in the center of the carnage.
Breathing heavy.
Chest rising and falling like a war drum.
Blood soaked my arms, my armor, my face. My shoulder screamed with every breath. My ribs ached. My hands throbbed from overuse.
But I was standing.
Still standing.
And the goblins?
Gone.
I looked to Rordan.
He slumped against the wall, blood-spattered and wide-eyed. Not unharmed, but alive.
"Status?" I asked.
"I'm… I'm good," he said, voice shaking.
"Then get ready."
He blinked. "For what?"
I turned my head.
And through the archway, standing alone in the glow of crystal torches, he came.
The Chief.
Bigger than before. Cleaner now. No women. No distractions. Just a cloak of hides, a massive rusted axe in one hand, and a look in his glowing red eyes that said:
You killed my children.
I exhaled slowly.
"Because now," I muttered, tightening my grip on the sword, "there's only one left."