An Overwhelming Opponent

A surge of adrenaline coursed through Kantan at the Soul Warrior's words, sweat beginning to form on his palms. The man's grip felt like it was breaking skin with the sheer amount of force. With a jerk of his arm Kantan felt himself spin awkwardly, tripping over his feet into the wall of the alleyway. He managed to catch himself and prevent a fall to the ground, but the sudden motion left him unbalanced.

"I'm not sure what she sees in someone as unimportant as you." Pressure flared up around him and a feeling of heavyness overcame him, the weight of it trying to crush Kantan into the ground. He tried to focus on the words the man had said, but it seemed like giberrish through the adrenaline. His instincts screamed that he was in danger, but everything was moving faster than he could process. Suddenly Kantan felt himself jerk upwards into the air, the pain following a moment later as his body processed what had happened to him. As Kantan had moved to right himself the warrior's foot connected with his stomach, forcing all of the air out of his lungs. He landed hard and awkward, feeling his wrist twist sharply under his own weight.

Pain flared up in his wrist and stomach, each different in their own right. His wrist bore the sharp and pulsing pain of a broken bone, while his stomach pulsed with a deep dull throb. Kantan tried to collect himself but his instincts were screaming at him while adrenaline pumped into his veins. He tried to get a breath in but his diaphragm refused to cooperate with him, flaring panic in his mind.

The pain cleared his head of the fuzziness, and through sheer will he forced himself to take a breath. He tried to roll away from his attacker, but the pain also affected his movements. It made him clumsy, and all he could think about was how to escape the next attack. He thought about screaming, but he knew that his attacker was fast enough to silence him. He needed a way to survive without incentivizing the man to be more aggressive.

Kantan was formulating a plan when the man spoke up, interrupting his thoughts. "Oh well," the man sighed with simple resignation. Kantan could see the wry smirk plastered on the warrior's face. "you won't be much of an obstacle if you can't awaken your core. Once Lyra sees that you wont amount to anything she'll come to understand that we are meant to be together." The realization dropped his stomach, and his heart beat almost seemed to freeze. This must have been the man Lyra turned down recently, the one who was at the Stone Soul. Kantan racked his brain for a solution on how to escape, if he could find another town guard he could get help.

This was not an enemy he could handle, his grandfather's words resounding in his head. "A smart cultivator takes risks in his quest for immortality, while a wise cultivator knows when to retreat in the face of overwhelming odds." Kantan began to limp away from the man, using his uninjured arm to support himself against the wall. He only made it a foot or two toward the main road before a chuckle escaped from his assailant that accompanied another pulse of chi made him feel heavier. Kantan was pushed into the ground unable to lift his head against the pressure. Now that he was not caught off guard when the chi hit him, he could also see the waves of air that were holding him down, sending bits of dirt flying away from him.

"Don't worry this will only hurt for a moment, maybe. You see the neat thing about unawoken are that they do have cores, dormant though they may be. The trials expose you to an abundance of essence and danger, forcing you to draw on your core to survive." The warrior placed a foot on Kantan's back, the pressure disappearing. "With the right application of a significant amount of chi, you can shatter another person's core entirely."

Kantan began to claw at the ground, trying to get out from under the warrior's boot, but he stood no chance. At the stone soul rank, all of his strength was super human with all of his chi to spare. After a moment of struggling the pressure on his back promptly vanished, only to be replaced by a hand around the back of his neck. He was lifted off the ground as if he weighed nothing to the man, and shoved against the alley wall facing his assailant.

"Why are you doing this!" Kantan forced his words out through clenched teeth, his windpipe partially crushed against the man's grip. "Lyra and I are not together, shes never even expressed interest in me." His vision was starting to dim slightly, the lack of oxygen getting to him. He kicked at the warrior weakly, lacking any leverage to land a solid blow. Each kick failed to even move the man, his empowered form giving no ground to Kantan's attacks.

"You may not be together now, but you represent the largest threat to my marrying her. Once she hears that I saw you enter the dungeon early instead of going to meet her tonight, I am sure she will forget about you." Dread sank into Kantan like iron in water his efforts to struggle increasing despite the encroaching darkness in his consciousness. "That said, I can't have you awakening that core of your's and surviving inside the dungeon. If she found out what I did here, I would lose her completely."

The assailants fingers clamped down completely, cutting off all of Kantan's air supply. With a swift movement that he struggled to process, the warrior slammed his open palm against Kantan's upper stomach. Searing fire coursed through every part of his body, the pain consuming every thought in his mind. He vaguely recognized his body violently thrashing against the warrior's grip, but he couldn't scream with his windpipe blocked as it was. The fire lasted for what felt like eternity before the lack of oxygen and the pain forced the dark blanket of unconsciousness over him.

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Something jostled him causing pain to flare up in his chest. Kantan tried to open his eyes only to find himself being carried, his arms and legs feeling like they were made of iron. He tried to free himself, but his body wouldn't react to his commands. Soon again the pain flared up throughout his body and he fell back into the folds of unconsciousness.

This happened multiple times, but during one of them he was a bit more lucid. He could tell that he was in some type of sack, being carried over someone's shoulder. His limbs tingled in protest to the uncomfortable position he was in, but the voices around him distracted him whole heartedly.

"I can't let you back into the dungeon after you've had your run for the day, especially when you aren't with your party." The voice was higher, borderline feminine even, but something told him the speaker was male.

"I told you Eramir, I am delivering these goods to the dungeon to be absorbed. I was directly given this by the chief to be taken in. You know im not stupid enough to trying and delve through the dungeon without a group." Kantan tried to move or make some noise to alert the other man, but each time he tried pain would flair up through his whole body. The more he struggled internally, the more he realized that there were two types of pain. One felt like he had been cooked from the inside, while the other felt more like static electricity. Any time he tried to move a part of his body, the electricity would course through him and stop him.

He was just about to lose hope when he felt a moment of euphoria that seemed to ease the pain. Kantan could feel a wave of blood course through him like a high tide, and with it the pain dulled slightly. As the pain dulled, so did the electricity and his uninjured hand shifted ever so slightly. Hope blossomed in Kantan for a moment before suddenly everything went black.