Chapter 12: Zax Is Back

When Dureil did not receive confirmation of his second son's operation at the time he agreed to contact him, an ominous feeling filled his heart.

Early morning, before leaving to the family head's estate, he first contacted his second son's operative in the Basement Floor only to discover that not one of the hired assassins returned to confirm the deaths of any of the targets.

Worried that his fears might have realized, Dureil immediately summoned his eldest and fourth sons and left to the family head's estate.

Two hours later. The estate of the Derneldar's family head.

A council of seventeen individuals converged in the gathering hall. The most important members of the Derneldar family that were on sight sat contemplating how to deal with Dureil and his sixth son and the trouble he caused. Among them, at the seat with the highest position sat a man with well-built frame, blood red hair and dark eyes, the family head of the Derneldar family, Dinar Derneldar.

After a long hour of discussions, the members of the Derneldar family made their decisions of how to deal with the situation.

The council knew from Mejar's operative that the targets Mejar sent to the Basement Floor were the six names Dureil's third son gave him. The two remaining names that Binjo added were possibly the ones Mejar targeted himself. However, the council did not have time to investigate the background of Anet and the other girl, or rather, were more occupied with the question of how to deal with two capable Core Masters that seems to even have connection in the Basement Floor – otherwise, how could they have ruined the nightly operation? The two girls and the other six names were not the council's concern at the moment.

To deal with two Core Masters who might be at the Advanced phase of the first level, the first decision the council made was to involve the family founder. While the council dispatched someone to inform the founder they made their second decision, transferring the sum and Mist Essence Amplifier to Eden Formation to maintain their critical relationship. The council believed that the assassination failed because they were left to outsiders to carry out. By dealing with the eight names personally, Eden Formation's school principal will not be able to claim that Binjo's victim was a student, thus, she would have to return the Mist Essence Amplifier. As for the money ... there was a way to earn it back, fast and with interest, but that course of action the council left for the founder to decide, along with what to do with Dureil and his sixth son.

Lastly the council decided to lay a trap for the two Core Masters. To the outside, the family will act as if it scattered its forces to look for the two Core Master, while in actuality it will assemble their most skilled men, hopefully along with the help of the founder, in the large family head's estate and wait for the two Core Masters to have no choice but come to them if they want to kill Binjo.

...

WHOOSH!

A young, vigorous figure cut through the air like a strong whirlwind.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Every single time a fist or kick were thrown an explosive sound accompanied them.

WHOOSH!

The figure ascended thirty, fifty, ninety, one hundred and thirty meters above the ground.

BOOM!

The figure nudged its foot and the explosive force sent it like an arrow tens of meters to the west.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Constant explosions resonated in the first Savage Cave as Zax traversed it through the air.

Three days, in just three days Zax had managed to grow back his left arm completely. In truth, the process of accelerating one's growth of a limb was more arduous than Zax gave it credit before he recklessly started eating the staggering amount of unripe Blood Red Grapes for their energy. The abundant vitality was not a sentient being and so Zax was responsible on where it goes, otherwise it would simply spread inside his body. By directing all his body's functions into healing, his grasp on the vitality tightened and most of it was properly put to use. But the rest, thirty to forty percent of the revitalizing energy, slipped beyond his control and created an imbalance in his vitals that felt like a superior expert bombarding his insides. That was one obstacle Zax encountered when he rushed the healing of his left arm.

The second obstacle was nearly making the mistake of counting on his body alone to be in charge of the healing process. Since Zax pushed his body to heal in a speed greater than what it was currently able to endure, a lot of stress was put on his body. The results were a distorted growth of Zax's left arm. Luckily, Zax noticed it early and cut off the deformed piece of his arm that was still in its initial stage of growth. Afterwards, along with his body's functions, Zax concentrated all of his mental attention on the healing process and this, to some degree, alleviated a significant portion of the stress.

The instant he felt the comfortable sensation of the newly healed limb, Zax ceased sitting on his bottom and right away began to experiment with the Kinetic Force according to his newfound understanding of it.

Half a day later, Zax felt immense power surge in his body as kinetic energy converged, became Kinetic Force and exploded out of his body. Zax was enthusiastic with his achievements. The Kinetic Force he released was on par with the one he mustered to break Don's defensive formation and the feedback, in comparison, was negligible.

With a day and a half before the five days limit he set for himself, Zax decided that his current control of the Kinetic Force is not satisfying. He could utilize it to fight, but it still forced him to expend a lot of energy. Thus, Zax made his mind to spend the next day and a half practicing the bodily maneuvers. Eating the unripe Blood Red Grape, this was his best opportunity to attempt a breakthrough for the Intermediate phase of the Intermediate phase of the bodily maneuvers.

The next day and a half Zax flashed across the grove as if he was possessed. He no longer dispersed the Kinetic Force when it converged from the kinetic energy during his execution of the six sequences. Zax attempted to release the Kinetic Force in each of the six hundred and fifty bodily maneuvers. That aggressive way of practice was very laborious and demanding, but eventually it paid off.

With just a few hours before the end of the fifth day, Zax broken through the Intermediate phase of the Intermediate phase of the bodily maneuvers and even nearly completed the third sequences.

With the remaining hours Zax pushed himself to find out the changes in his utilization for the Kinetic Force now that he made a breakthrough. His biggest surprise was that he now could mellow the explosiveness of the Kinetic Force in his body and released it from his outermost layer of skin, a feat which enabled to create a short instance of repealing force that could push his body to any direction and immensely increase his speed. On the other hand, it was extremely difficult to maneuver. By releasing the repealing force from his feet, Zax found that he could constantly stay above ground in a manner which looked more like air walking than flying.

By the time the last hour was nearing its end, Zax jumped to the sky of the first Savage Cave and headed back to Kingdom Earth.

"Awesome! Too awesome! Hahaha!" Zax was overjoyed with his accomplishments.

BOOM!

He massively landed near the entrance of the tunnel to the first Savage Cave. With his feet touching the ground, his body was better balanced, a sensation which made him feel that he could move even faster.

"Anet..." He murmured her name.

CRACK!

The sound reverberated in his sea of consciousness. The dam that kept his rage, hatred, killing intent and vengeful spirit at bay for him to concentrate on his training, began to crack.

A vicious light flickered in Zax eyes.

"Derneldar... !"

...

'Eden Formation'.

After getting back to Kingdom Earth, Zax continued heading for the number one Martial school in El-Eden. Other than Eden Formation, he did not know where he could find Binjo. As for his big brother ... he will beat his whereabouts from Binjo before killing him.

The two golden harps that made the school gate were closed like in his previous visit, but the students on watch were a different bunch.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! What do you think that you are doing, kid! No entry in these hours... !" A tall girl with long ponytail intended to rebuke Zax as he came close to touching and opening the gate, yet when he directed his frosting glare at her, the tall girl felt as if her whole body was being pierced by needles.