The Cave

The night passes by swiftly.

"Ughh its so bright outside.." groaned Aether as he wakes up by the suns rays in his eyes.

After a long night of sleep, Aether woke up grumbling but refreshed no less. He packed up his tent, put out the fire, quickly fed his horse some grass, and set out to leave.

Just like yesterday Aether was viciously killing many low-level demon beasts, to the point every demon beast in the area knew about the death god reaping their friends and families lives indiscriminately.

-puchi-That was the sound of the death of a baby spark lion when its throat is pierced. (oof that's dark)

"Hehe, this lions fur alone would go for 10 silvers" Aether said while licking his lips in greed thinking about the profit he made just by killing these beasts. He dismembered the corpse and put all the valuable parts in his bag.

Looking at all the furs, bones, tendons, and fangs he's accumulated from the massacre. He couldn't help gulp in excitement seeing all his earnings in one day of travel.

"Ok if I got 200 silver worth of goods, then maybe if I pick up the pace i could get a low-grade spirit stone to rank up in a couple of days" Aether said with a bright warm smile, and added that he is the or if not closest to 'the most handsome male in all the realms, that if any women were here to see this scene they would probably have liquids flowing down their legs by now.

But good things are usually short-lived, as immediately after Aether was smiling his face changed into one of caution.

"ROOARRRR!!!" a thunderous roar rang out as Aether quickly tried to locate where it came from, but in the next instant, an adult spark lion made its way into his view.

Seeing red fur on the ground and the human's blade covered in blood, spark lion let out a roar even greater than the previous one, charged its way towards the human baring its fangs.

Noticing the large killing intent from the beast, Aether couldn't help but frown as he could already tell he killed this female spark lions cub, but regardless of who, if anyone wants to take his life he won't bend his neck so they could take his head.

Aether rushes towards the lion, but within three steps into his advance, the lion is already in front of him, slashing out diagonally to make it harder to block.

"BOOM"

Seeing this, Aether smiles and tries to match the force with a parry.

"CRACK" Aether was flung into the trees behind him, as the one he landed on broke into two. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and tried to stand up but he was quickly met with excruciating pain in his left arm, looking closely you could see bone popping out through his flesh.

In a single exchange one incredibly brief, aether was already seriously injured.

At the moment when blade and claw met, Aether discovered something he didn't see before.

"Rank 5 Beast!!.." Yes, this beast was two levels ahead of Aether, even if he met with a rank 5 human cultivator he wouldn't be that startled, because if those two enemies fought, nine times out of ten the beast would win, thus the current scene happened.

Instantly the beast came rushing again to finish the job, but how could Aether fall for that a second time, so as the beast was about to make contact, Aether lunged and faded, from there, the chase started.

***********************************************************

On top of a tree was a man with a bored expression that looked like it was carved into his face, was sitting down watching this whole scene take place.

"Hmm..that boy is a lot better then what the first elder lets off," Luffy said while still having no interest in helping Aether.

"But..trash is still trash, if he's been stuck at the 3rd level of tempered realm for years, then no matter how good his battle sense is, if he met with a 6th level spark lion his whole arm would've been more than just broken, he probably would've been the lion dinner by now." Said Luffy as he said with a non-caring expression.

"Ughh why are you running..can't you just die so i can go home" Luffy complained while quickly following behind.

***************************************************

Aether is still running, dodging trees, branches, and other beasts, if he knew someone was watching and wishing for his death he would probably cough another two mouthfuls of blood.

Speaking of blood Aether is losing a whole lot of it trying to run, as his minor injuries turned for the worst. A few times the spark lion would charge ahead attempting to end this game of cat and dog but to no avail, every time Aether sense the beast coming he would always change directions causing most strikes to miss while the other ones were parried, while Aethers condition got worse after each assault.

Just when Aether was losing hope, he heard a roar more fierce than the spark lion, it was like a candlelight at the end of a tunnel, and just like what his father said, "reach for it, grab it, and never let it go" he muttered in an inaudible voice. His gaze sharpened as he ran in the direction towards the roar.

In less than ten seconds he was met with a scene that shocked him to the core.

"Woww.." It was simply a paradise, something that should not belong in the forest. Even though he was shocked he never stopped running, because stopping meant death.

His eyes quickly gazed over and saw a nest with a dozen eggs, Aethers eyes brightened in a mysterious, yet a mischievous way that was hard to describe if one seen it in person.

He quickly bolted towards the eggs.

*******************************************

The beast was quickly making its way over to Aether but not hurrying, buts fast enough not to lose him, as it feels that the humans' death is set in stone.

It was then met with a Paradise, an oasis of some sort in the middle of the forest, it was slightly confused as to how such a place can exist here, but it quickly noticed the human was nowhere to be seen, it panicked and in no time at all it quickly made its way to a nest at the centre of the area to see if the human was hiding there.

But to its surprise, all the eggs were destroyed, shattered, down to the last one. Although it has seen this it didn't care as it was looking for its prey.

"SCREECHHHH"

An ear-shattering cry came from the sky as a bronze condor swished through the sky and landed in front of the nest where the spark lion and the shattered bronze condors eggs laid.

The Spark lion was still in a daze before realizing it's been plotted against "but who?!" the lion thought inwardly, then shock could be seen in its eyes as it saw a bamboo shaft sticking out of a pond a few meters away from the nest, with a hand sticking up the middle finger right beside it.

Then it had another thought "THAT DAMN HUMAN!!!".

But before it could explain itself, the bronze condor immediately started sending waves of attacks as it chased the lion out of its territory trying to kill it, the lion used the charging skill it used on Aether, but this time instead of attacking it used it to run away for its life.

"Hehe that boy is good, truly borrowing one's hand to kill"[1] Luffy thought with a rare smile.

****************************************************

In the pond, Aether finally came out of hiding as he notices the two beasts running out of the area.

"Noooooo!!!! My Stuff!!!" A voice of supreme sadness came out of Aethers mouth as he remembered that his 200 silvers worth of goods were dropped when the lion slashed him into the tree earlier.

After about 10 minutes of crying over spilled milk, Aether was finally able to calm himself down using a mantra he picked up in his earlier years, that his father used to chant when his mother beat him up for looking at other women.

He realized that it was getting dark so he goes towards a cave far, far, far away from the nest to make sure he doesn't get attacked during the night.

"Thank God I put the Lightstone in my pocket instead of my bag," Aether said in relief as he channeled some Qi into the small stone, and instantly the cave brightened up. Aether ventured inside the cave only to realize that it was practically endless as he had been walking for the past 2 hours and he realized he was out of food, so the clock was ticking.

Half an hour later he finally reached the end of the cave only to see a dead end.

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, TWO AND a HALF MUTHERFUCKING HOURS AND NOTHING!?!?...the heavens truly want me de-.." but before Aether could finish, something that looks like one of those Formations he sees in books appear at the end of the cave wall.

"What the?" Aether, out of curiosity touched the formation and disappeared.