"So, we might need to face powerful warriors to get that herb?" Rudra asked.
"Maybe, therefore we need to be careful in our way, and find the herb much earlier than others," Although Arsh said it quiet simply, Rudra didn't feel something right about this.
Arsh and Rudra followed the trails of a beast, travelling around huge mountains, entering outer mist mountains until night fell. They also had to take frequent brakes for Rudra to be able to cultivate for him to recover quick. Saint Arsh used those moments to cultivate too.
That was when subtle rustles echoed through the nearby leaves. Rudra immediately became alert as there was not even a single breeze of wind. Arsh still sat unhindered, completely lost in his meditative trance, it was clear that he wasn't wavered of whatever was around.
But Rudra suspected it for someone's presence, maybe an assassin, or a thug who had heard them talking and wanted to take them off, the only thing he wasn't sure of was if there was anyone, was it a group of a single individual.
Rudra clutched his hands on the hilt of the sword hanging on his back as he felt goosebumps, and a chill ran down his spine as he felt a presence behind his back. But before he could turn around, Saint Arsh opened his eyes, moving with an incredible speed, he picked up a piece of broken wooden and threw it in the bushes.
SQUELCH
the sharp piece of wood tore through the air as it spiraled through the leaves. It seemed as if it had penetrated through something's muscles. For a while, Rudra was shocked to see Arsh extraordinary speed and explosiveness.
This was a testament of how the difference of a even single rank could hold so much distance in physical fitness of two individuals. Rudra had realized that with his current level, he could not where be on par with Saint Arsh's fitness. The performance he just displayed was astounding.
Though he admired Arsh's speed, he didn't have much time as Suddenly three people emerged out of the bushes with black masks wrapped around their faces, all of them wore ordinary metal armor sets, one of those two had a deep injury near his elbow with blood gashing out of it. He was the one hit by the sharp piece of wood thrown by Arsh.
The three thugs lunged at Rudra and Arsh. Rudra sliced his sword at the injured thug with a sharp shing as the sword cut through the air. The thug pivoted to the side, still the sword left behind a long cut on the thug's left arm cover strap, causing it to fall down.
The thug drew out his sword and slashed it Rudra in a frenzy, Rudra responded in kind, parrying every sword attack with his sword. Somehow finding an opening, Rudra delivered a furious punch square to the thug's face, due to which he staggered back a few steps and tumbled upon a piece of stone in the ground.
As he fell to the ground, Rudra sprinted towards him, but a sudden pain flashed through his thigh, he fell to his knees while clutching his thigh, though, the pain was momentary as it vanished the next second. Rudra glanced around and found that Arsh had already taken care of the other two thugs.
"These things are pretty weak, with one being on edge beginner level, and the other two practitioner level. Yet they came wandering in the mist mountains, they have got some guts, although, it was foolishness to attack us." Arsh said.
"Speak, why did you assault us?" Rudra asked as he laid his sword at the neck of one of the thugs.
"Plea-Please spare us! We didn't know about you, we are just some commoners from a group of thugs roaming in these forest in search of illegal supply transport to rob them." The thug pleaded.
"H-he-he is right, we thought we could get some easy loot that's it." The other thug cried.
"Shall we spare then?" Rudra asked.
"It won't cost us anything…" Arsh took a pause before saying " Go, run away and save your lives!"
"But," Rudra intercepted as stripped one of thugs armor which seemed to be pretty strong and wore it himself as a smile played on his face, "Thanks for your favor."
"You did a mistake by sparing us. We will come back at you two with the rest of our group, our master Black claw will not let you off so easily!" the thugs screamed as they ran away from their sight.
Arsh sighed as he went back onto his boulder " I guess… they were not any thugs but assassins from black mask organization."
"They didn't have the special pattern mask, did they?" Rudra asked in confusion.
"Yeah, I think they were members in name, who are just rookies and didn't get designated recognition from the organization itself as their actual members,"
Black mask organization was a huge powerhouse with nearly several assassins working under them. These assassins were involved in all kinds of illegal works like working as mercenary, conducting assassinations, mass genocides on contract, illegal supply of strictly controlled goods and stuff, bounty hunts and many other things.
In the organization, there were two classes of members, actual members and the members in name. Those who are able to complete a specific task or take down a surging bounty head are granted with a specific mask and cloak from the officials of the organization, considering them as recognized members of the organization onwards.
Such members are able to get double the price upon task completion and even get special resources from the officials of the organization to strive forward in their cultivation. Whereas Member in name had no actual benefit, they are just newbies grinding through the brutal competition for a great achievement to gain the actual member tag.
Rudra carefully sheathed his word and hung it on his back as he thought about it. Arsh's assumptions had some possibilities to be true, although he had never heard the name black claw. He stared at Arsh as doubts raised in his mind that he might know who this guys is.
"Don't you glare at me like that. I am not from this state, he maybe a renowned mercenary here, but I don't know even single thing about him." Arsh said.
Without giving it any further thoughts, Rudra dived back into meditation, absorbing cosmic energy to nourish his chakra. Rudra clearly felt the kundalini surging throughout his body with every pulse of his 1st chakras as it spun while absorbing cosmic energy, and the feeling of reaching a threshold reappeared.
But again, instead of going through the threshold, his kundalini redirected towards his thigh, stimulating through the energy channels near the injury in high concentration, helping him to recover fast, after nearly hours of cultivation, Rudra suddenly heard an old aged voice.
He recognized it was Achray, who was actually talking to him as he had said. "Your thigh injury has almost recovered, the muscles will fill in just a few hours, and your leg will be completely operable in a day,"
"Then it shall follow as you say, right now I am dire need of the favor of my body," Rudra thought as he remembered the moment when the thigh pain caused him to stagger in front of his opponent. By luck the opponent was weak, otherwise he couldn't even think what would have happened if Arsh wasn't with him.
The peace remained for a while before Achraya spoke up once again. "Rudra, remember the Vidyu-agni sanskar?"
"Do I have to go through it again?" Rudra asked.
Acharya remained silent for a sec before "Ha-Ha-ha, you seem to have accustomed to it, since you are ready for it without any hesitation, it think its time to take it on the next level,"