Chapter 29: Self discovery

A lot of birds could be seen flying towards the north in the morning sky, Chen laid down on a grassy patch and listened to the sounds the crickets and other animals were making. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts, he was rather day dreaming about his short life of luxury after his military service before everything went to shit.

They had been practicing for a few days but there seemed to be no improvement, even Klaus who seemed to have an understanding at first seemed clueless at the moment it was like he had hit a wall and needed a different route to bypass it. Feng who didn't know what else to do decided to give them a day of freedom to see if they could find themselves, since he too couldn't ascertain what was wrong with them.

Chen suspected that he was the reason for the teams lack of progress regarding the chakra control training, he felt that since he was the one with the system the progress of the team would be highly dependent on him. But he was confused as to how to go about the whole issues, his thoughts were all over the place and he knew that he had to calm himself and find peace before he could complete access his chakra.

Bryan squatted in front of the pond and tried skipping stones over the surface of the pond, he was unbothered about the whole ordeal he just wanted to live through the phase and didn't seem to mind that he was the weakest of the lot physically. He noticed that he seemed a little bigger and considerably stronger at the moment compared to his previous situation, he shook his head to clear his mind and resumed skipping stones on the pond surface.

Klaus, prince and Victor walked through the jungle, casually sorting out edi let berries from the poisonous ones and eating them, Klaus was frustrated at the fact that he was at a bottleneck and didn't know how to break through. Prince and Victor didn't seem to notice his mood the we're more concerned about who picked the least poisonous berries, unbeknownst to them, Klaus was leading them back into the centre of the jungle where various dangerous animals made their home,

"Look at those blueberries, let's head over there it might be edible" prince said excitedly

"I think those pear would taste better, we should try it out rather than the berries, we have been eating berries for a while now why not try something different" Victor replied

"Where did Klaus go?" Victor asked

"He probably went doing Klaus stuff, you know how he gets at times forget it he'd be back soon. We should focus on having a taste of all the fruits here first, other's can come later"

Klaus meandered through the thin path in the jungle and tried to evade all the low hanging braches and roots, he looked up and could barely see the sky, the tree branches had covered up the whole sky, he sat down and waited he was sure that soon enough something would come searching for food and he would get the chance to vent his anger. A few minutes later a large bird that looked like an emu came along, it was almost as tall as a fully grown man, it had white feathers on it's wings and the rest of it's feathers were so dark it looked like it absorbed all the light striking it.

On encountering Klaus the bird let out a very unearthly screech and began clawing the ground, klaus sat still watching the bird and trying to guage it's reaction, he was shocked into action when the bird immediately charged at him, the bird was so fast it crossed a distance of over 30 meters in about a second. Klaus rolled away and looked back at the area where he sat previously and saw a hole a few meters deep there.

The bird cawed this time and the sand and grass it had in it's beak fell off, Klaus realized that if he had delayed for a second more his head and entire upper body might have exploded, he now understood the strength the bird had.

Prince and Victor sat down on opposing tree stumps, stuffing themselves full with fruits when they hear the loud screech, prince couldn't help but shudder when he heard it.

"What made that sound" prince asked

"How am I to know, but I think Klaus might be in trouble let's head towards the direction of the sound and check out what the problem is" Victor replied

Prince and Victor abandoned all the fruits they had gathered and began running towards the direction of the sound, they soon got to the area and sawklaus in a confrontation with a very large bird.

"I did know something must have been up when we couldn't find him" Victor whispered in order to avoid attracting the attention of the bird.

Klaus seemed to be unaware of the presence of his friends summoned his knives, as soon as the materialized he charged at the bird with reckless abandon, he cut at every direction his arm could reach but the knives seemed not to be having the desired effect since the bird has very thick feathers. He noticed that although the bird seemed to lack intelligence it managed to protect his head whenever he tried to attack it's head he threw his knives at a tree behind him and they vanished.

He realized that trying to cut or stab at the bird was a futile exercise since it had very thick feathers, he decided on using brute strength, he tightened his calf muscles and charged forward at the bird he threw a punch and he managed to hit the bird on it's breast area, it felt satisfying but he didn't relent and kept the barrage of blows coming. When he felt that he had weakened the bird enough, he charged onceire to land the final blow when suddenly the bird soread it's wings and took flight but instead of escaping it charged at him.

He was a bit shocked since he felt that the bird should have prioritized survive, he looked at his surroundings and let out a smile, he ran towards a tree and used the leverage to leap high up in the air, with this move he had matched the height of the bird and also had the needed momentum to punch the bird out of the air, which he executed perfectly.

The bird crashed to the ground limp and devoid of life, klaus had succeeded but he still felt empty inside.