Encounter in the forest

Iono slumped down on the floor. He was exhausted.

Yotum had worn her dark veil, when father and son stopped their training.

His father was looking at the night sky with a complicated expression, while Iono was staring at the stars with wonder.

A cold wind blew through the yellow field making Iono's hairband come off and his hair flutter.

Suddenly his father turned to Iono,

"Little monkey, is there something you haven't told me?", he asked.

"I wanted to surprise you, I completed both Bone and Marrow tempering, the trigger was a fight I had with one of the awakened beasts of the forest.", he said while smiling.

His father smiled back at him,

"I'm proud of you, son.", he said.

Iono smiled brightly to his father, but inside he felt like someone was twisting a knife in his heart. He still couldn't get over his parents death. And he didn't know if this was real, or an illusion. If it was real, it means his parents were alive for some reason, but if it's not, it's simply cruel.

His parents death weighted on him so much, because he was the cause of it.

The nickname "Mad Hound", was given to him because he slaughtered demons and gods alike like a crazed canine.

When you slaughter indiscriminately, people are bound to get revenge.

One of the Demon Kings had his whole battalion slaughtered by the Mad Hound and demons are incredibly quick to hold a grudge.

He kidnapped his parents, who were powerless to defend against a God and killed them right in front of his eyes.

It was devastating.

He did this to them.

Iono became crazed and razed the Demon King and his battalion to the ground.

Just like that one of the 75 Demon Kings was erased from existence.

But that didn't matter to Iono, he lost one of the reasons of his existence.

Not long after, he found kyomu, fought with Orca and imprinted it. That's where his memories stop.

Nevertheless, what mattered the most is to become stronger.

Reality or Illusion he still needed to gather strength.

So he stood up and taunted his father.

Yusef laughed and got back up on his feet.

The wind was still blowing, fluttering Iono's dark hair, and making Yusef squint his eyes.

The both got into a battle stance and after a few moments dashed at one another.

-----------------

It was noon. The sun rays light up Iono's room, where he was currently meditating.

He was training his control over Aura-dominated prana. While at the same time absorbing the Aura in the atmosphere in order to further refine his core.

He still couldn't advance it terms of core quality since he still hadn't properly finished the Foundation realm, so he simply refined his core to the outmost limit, before breaking through.

There was a reason it was called the Foundation realm. It meant that one had to build his body to withstand the energy he would later refine. Like building the foundation of a building, he was building the foundation of his future.

Iono still hadn't tapped into mana or mana-dominated prana, which means he was more of a brawler at the moment.

In this whole time he learned more than 10 Weapon arts, 8 daggers arts, 1 bow art, and a scythe art, simply to be able to hide his strength.

He liked dominating people with his strength but he was holding himself back, until he was strong enough to be under the spotlight...

Iono suddenly opened his eyes. Stars and galaxies seemed to be moving around in them.

*Sigh*

"I keep messing up the ratio of the energies. Sometimes its prana, sometimes its Prauna, and other times its just aura. These things on my back keep messing with my absorption. But who would have thought, I'd get another gift? Ophiucus was a much bigger deal than I thought."

Prauna was what Iono called his Aura-dominated prana. It was something he came up with himself, and hoped would catch on.

Iono was ecstatic once again, because he realized that the spikes on his back, the ones he created because of a mistake, turned out to be a treasure.

It seems that the spikes have the ability to absorb energy and distribute it all over the body.

Aura and mana in the atmosphere would be absorbed through the spikes at a speed, much higher than the one that Iono would by simple absorbing it through his pores, and the spikes would light up with a red light.

The catch was that he didn't know what the energy they absorbed was.

Therefore he had to always be focused on the energy that flowed inside his body.

Because the spaces where the Aura and the Mana were stored in the core were separated, when he absorbed energy, it had to be guided to the corresponding space.

If the absorption was too fast though, unless he was entirely focused on it, he could mess up the where he stored the energy, damaging his core.

It was a double-edged sword that could ruin his hard work, but if properly nurtured, it could turn into a hell of a weapon.

Iono got up, put on his clothes and went to eat lunch with his family.

After lunch they chatted a bit before Iono left for some after-lunch exercise.

He dashed through the forest, as if though he was a fish in the sea.

On the way, he met a giant green wolf, an awakened beast of the forest.

It was ferocious, it tried to tear Iono's head off with his fangs, but Iono stabbed his head and chin at the same time, before the wolf managed to reach him.

While dying in his hands, the wolf glared at him with hatred, but Iono simply pulled out his daggers, making the wolf's blood spray all over the place.

There wasn't a change in his expression, even while killing the creature.

The scene resembled a little boy, playing with his ants.

No matter how many he killed, it wouldn't really matter to him.

After half an hour of running around, Iono decided to rest in a clearing.

He looked around him and appreciated the nature that surrounded him.

With his Inheritance, he could see everything around him. From small bugs crawling around, to the energy channels that the trees possessed.

They were also living beings, capable of breathing, so naturally they could control energy, at some level.

Legends talked about trees that awakened and became conscious. It is said that those trees accumulate a lot of knowledge because of their enormous age and are considered sages.

Iono closed his eyes for a moment to tried to listen to his surroundings.

"AHHHHHHHHH! "

But a girlish scream made him flinch and open his eyes.

"What was that!? ", he thought.

He opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings looking for the source of the scream.

With his Inheritance he scanned almost every inch of the forest and finally found it.

A little girl, about his age, was laying on the ground with a terrified expression on her face.

Standing above her, a giant praying mantis, was creepily movings its fangs.

Apparently, the girl was his dinner.

"For f*cks sake, I can't even have a moment of peace, can I?". Iono thought while dashing towards the scene.

The praying mantis raised it's, sharper than a blade, front leg, and tried to decapitate the small girl.

But a shadow blocked its way.

Actually, it didn't just block its way, as it also dismembered it.

Two seconds ago it was thinking of what a delicious dinner it found, and now its front leg was rotating in front of him.

The praying mantis squinted its eyes, and opened its creepy mouth to squeal loudly.

It flapped its wings and with unbelievable speed, dashed in front of Iono.

Its remaining front leg was already next to Iono's neck.

Iono eyes opened widely when he saw the blade on his neck.

"Too fast!", he thought.

He used one of his daggers to block the blow, and prepared the other one for a counter attack.

But before he could, the blow landed on his dagger.

When he felt the strength behind it, he unconsciously left out a, "Shiii-", before he was sent flying.

The blow was so hard, it send him crashing through a couple of trees.

The mantis stared his direction for a second before he turned to the girl once more.

The little girl still hadn't realized what just happened. Everything happened way too fast for her.

She saw the praying mantis approaching her. She wanted to run but had no strength to lift herself up.

She was only 8 years old.

The mantis opened its gross mouth widely and tried to eat the girl alive.

But before it did, it heard a voice. It turned it's head only to see the guy he just blasted away.

"You're dead, you f*cker."

Iono planted his feet on the ground,

"Graduate's Dagger Arts: Reverse Waterfall"

He used both of his daggers to slash upwards will all his strength. He coated his hands, feet and daggers with his Prauna and decapitated the mantis with one swift movement.

The slash was so strong it cut all the branches of the tress that were above them, and created something like a hole in the flora.

It was literally like a waterfall fell on the place.

The head of the mantis flew in the air, where it spun uncontrollably for a few seconds before it rolled on the ground.

Its body fell limp on the ground, right next to the little girl.