Consequences of Weakness

With a burst of energy, Aurelion shot out of the water, using his Kinetic-Flow Steps to slice through the pond and land on the muddy shore.

"Skulk managed to pressure me, and yet he died in a single strike from that toad, even while injured. This creature must have a Core of at least the rank 3."

A tremendous splash and a low THUMP from behind him confirmed his thoughts. He glanced back to see the massive toad landing where he had just been.

"There's no point in chasing the fantasy of defeating it," he decided instantly.

He stretched his aching muscles, pushing through the fire in his veins, and launched himself forward into the dense treeline.

"My only goal is to get away. After that, I need to mitigate the side effects of this technique and tend to my wounds. If I lose any more blood, I'll lose consciousness." He kept running.

The toad's tongue lashed out again. Aurelion used his movement technique to slide sideways, avoiding the attack.

The tongue slammed into the earth where he had been, sending a geyser of mud and rock into the air. Aurelion spared it a sideways glance.

"Skulk probably died before the toad even swallowed him."

The toad leaped again, a huge, arcing shadow.

Aurelion sensed it coming down on top of him and veered sharply to the right.

The creature landed with a ground shaking sound, and Aurelion immediately started running again.

He saw the toad pull one of its hind legs back, coiling it like a spring.

"Shit,"

Aurelion thought, and in that same instant, the toad kicked.

Aurelion leaped, throwing himself at a nearby tree just as the powerful leg struck it with a deafening crack.

The tree's trunk splintered, groaning as it began to topple over.

Aurelion, now clinging to the bark, stared at the shattered wood with narrowed eyes. "Those legs are strong enough to launch this thing for meters. They're probably more dangerous than its tongue." As the tree fell, he leaped from it, landing on the branch of another.

"I'm slower up in the trees, but at least it's safer than the ground." He began to jump from branch to branch, moving through the trees.

A blur of motion below, and the toad's tongue snapped out, shattering the branch he had just leaped from.

He stumbled, catching himself on another branch and hauling himself up.

As he pulled himself up, he saw the toad, its massive maw wide open, leaping directly at him.

"I know I can't defeat you," he snarled, a feral light in his one eye. "But don't you dare overstep your bounds!"

As the toad soared towards him, he pushed off the branch, jumping upwards to avoid it.

He thrust both hands into the creature's open mouth and unleashed a raw, burst of lightning.

BOOM!

The explosion sent the toad crashing back to the ground with a thunderous roar.

Aurelion was thrown back by the recoil, flying through the smoke and landing hard on the branches of another tree. He scrambled to his feet and continued his frantic escape through the trees.

Below him, the toad, its tongue seared and smoking, writhed on the ground, bellowing in rage and pain.

Aurelion spared a quick glance back. He dropped to the ground, channeled the last drops of his fleeting energy into his legs, and ran with everything he had left.

The toad stopped rubbing its injured tongue against the mud.

It let out another furious roar and, with a series of massive leaps, began to chase after Aurelion again.

Aurelion continued the ran, his muscles screaming in protest. A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

He wiped it away with the back of his hand, glanced at the red smear, and then looked back over his shoulder.

The toad was gaining on him.

Ahead, he saw it. A massive, ancient tree with a wide trunk and thick, sturdy branches.

He sprinted towards it, leaped, and scrambled up its trunk, positioning himself on a broad branch.

Then, drawing water from the air with a flick of his wrist, he drenched the trunk below him. He steadied himself and waited.

With a final, massive leap, the toad landed at the base of the tree. It craned its head back and its huge maw gaping open again.

Aurelion was ready, his knees bent, his back pressed against the wide trunk. The moment the toad's tongue shot out, he leaped sideways to an adjacent branch.

CRACK!

The tongue slammed into the tree with a thunderous impact, shaking the entire tree, but this time, the ancient tree held firm.

Splinters of bark exploded outwards while Aurelion stared at the massive, sticky tongue now plastered to the tree trunk.

"NOW!"

He slammed both of his hands onto the wet bark and channeled his lightning.

The toad was still attached to the tree by its tongue when the raw electricity surged through the wet wood and directly into it.

It convulsed violently for several seconds, a gargled, agonizing roar tearing from its throat, before it managed to rip its tongue free.

Aurelion gave the toad one last look. "That should be enough," he muttered.

With the last of his strength, he leaped into the tangle of branches, running, and finally disappearing from the toad's line of sight.

Aurelion kept running, fueled by pure adrenaline and willpower, an enraged roar echoing from the behind him.

The sounds of the monstrous toad grew more distant, and only then did he allow his sprint to slow to a limping jog.

He needed to find a secure place, somewhere to tend to his wounds and recover from the brutal strain of Limit Breaker technique.

As he pushed through a thicket of ferns, he heard a rustle in the bushes ahead.

His body tensed instantly, his brows furrowing. "More goblins?" he thought, his good eye scanning the shadows.

He glanced back in the direction he came from. "I should have gone back to the toad while I was still able to move." He braced himself for another fight.

But what emerged from the brush was not a goblin.

It was a lizardman, its scales a dull, earthy brown. It wasn't as large as the ones he had seen in the city, but based on the intricate pattern of the crest on its head, knowledge he'd picked up from Roric's lessons Aurelion estimated it to be around fifteen years of age.

Immediately after, four more lizardmen stepped out from the surrounding foliage.

Four of them wore armor made of tough leather and fur, their hands resting on the hilts of crude spears. One of them was slender, his scales a smooth, vibrant blue, looking noticeably weaker than the others.

Aurelion's mind raced. "Lizardmen?" he thought, his gaze sweeping over the silent group. "But Roric told me no one comes to this swamp."

The lizardman at the front, the one with the imposing crest, studied Aurelion from head to toe, his reptilian eyes lingering on the fresh wounds.

"An Elf child," he hissed, his voice was a dry reptilian like. "What is your business in this swamp?"

Aurelion kept his defensive stance. "I had some business to settle with a few goblins," he said, then his own gaze swept over their party one by one. "The real question is, what is your business in this swamp?"

"We are here to hunt," the leader replied, his expression unreadable. "We are looking for a creature named The Gulper. Have you seen it?"

Aurelion looked at the lizardmen with suspicion. "The Gulper?"

"Did you not understand my ques—" the leader began, his tone growing impatient.

A cough interrupted him. The blue scaled female stepped forward slightly, her voice a stark contrast to his, soft and polite.

"My name is Zura, and this is our leader, Rokar. We are hunting a large toad monster called The Gulper. We heard a great roar from this direction." Her eyes fell to the gashes on Aurelion's arm and leg, and the bloody bandage over his face. "If you've seen this creature, could you tell us where it is?"

Aurelion couldn't make sense of it. A group of lizardmen appearing out of nowhere, wanting to hunt the very monster that was just chasing him, but he decided not to question his good fortune.

He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, back towards the depths of the swamp. "I angered it," he said simply. "If you go that way, you'll find it for sure."

Rokar grunted and took a step forward, leading his party past Aurelion. The young Elf remained still, every muscle he have gets more tense, as they walked by.

Last in the line, Zura paused, turning to look at Aurelion. He met her gaze.

"Your wounds look severe," she said. "Do you want me to take a look?"

Before Aurelion could even form a reply, Rokar's harsh voice cut through the air. "We've been hunting this creature for days, Zura. Stop dawdling!"

"This swamp is full of wild beasts, Rokar," Zura retorted, "We should help each other."

During their exchange, Aurelion continued to hold his stance, but the side effects of Limit Breaker were intensifying. His head began to spin from the blood loss.

"I don't know what this Elf child is doing here, and I don't care," Rokar snapped. "That is not our concern. We have our own mission."

"But to leave him like th—" Zura started.

"I don't need help," Aurelion interjected, his voice sharp and dismissive. "Go."

"You heard him," Rokar said. "Let's go, Zura."

Zura gave Aurelion one last look, then turned and followed her leader.

As the group began to walk away, Aurelion took a single step forward to continue on his own path.

And his world went black.

He collapsed, unconscious, into the murky land of the swamp.

The Void…

The pain in his body vanished. His thoughts faded. The blood, the sweat, the mud, all disappeared.

This was the home that had housed his soul for an eternity.

He had returned once more, but this time, not by his own will.

Cold, meaningless, an infinite expanse. And in the center of all this emptiness, his spirit was alone again.

He had always relished this solitude. Here, in this isolated stretch of time, his mind was both eroded by the nothingness and, in turn, repaired and evolved by it.

He had become someone entirely different without even realizing it. He was aware of this transformation, but he didn't care. Because as long as he wasn't weak like before, nothing else mattered.

He loved the Void because it had scoured away everything he considered a weakness and strengthened all that remained.

Everything had a price, and he was more than content to pay it.

"I've grown so much with Roric's training these past two years, but…" his consciousness echoed in the silence, "it's still not enough. Not in terms of power, perhaps, but mentally. I fell into those goblins' trap, and because of that, I was drawn into events beyond my control."

"Maybe someone else in my place would have returned here far sooner, but are my standards really that low?"

"What does it matter what someone else would do? What do their thoughts matter? All that matters are my own actions and their consequences. And once again, I have failed."

For a moment, he floated in silence, thinking of nothing, simply releasing himself to the embrace of the Void. Then, a new thought, sharp and clear, cut through the quiet.

"Mistakes… They are not mistakes as long as you learn from them."

"I will not give up! The next time, I will be stronger than I am now!"

"WEAKNESS MUST BE DESTROYED! POWER MUST EVOLVE!"

"What you've lived through, the past, it doesn't matter. I stopped feeling regret a long time ago."

"...Never… be weak… again…"

"This time, I will keep that promise."

As the vow settled, the nothingness around him began to recede. The oppressive darkness dissolved, and a brilliant white light started to bloom in its place.