67 Chaos in the astral roots

Ku Nam led his team through dark wet corridors hurriedly. Strings of man eating vines whipped at them hungrily. He held a formidable sword in hand as he slashed at any vine that crawled near.

"Brother Nam, looking at how restless they are; we should be really near." Autumn bloom said

"Let's move faster." Ku Nam said, rushing forward.

They reached the doorway soon enough, panting and slightly wounded. Except Ku Nam, who looked completely clean in his white robes. When they stepped through the doorway into a long stone hall, the man eating vines retreated. As fast as they had moved, they were not the only ones to have entered the stone hall. Opposite the long walkway at the middle of the hall, a team of four stepped in almost the same time as they did.

Tension could be felt through the dusty air as the two teams locked gazes. As though a whistle had been blown, the two teams immediately started racing through the walkway towards the platform at the end of the hall.

Ku Nam slowed down, letting his team rush past him. He pulled a lot of his physical strength to his palms and slapped two of them on the back, shooting them passed everyone, towards platform. He spun around so fast, the other team could not tell how he had moved. He faced them with his fingers already making the last of complicated hand seals.

Crackle!

Lightening crashed from the ceilings into the hall, striking everything within a twenty foot radius around him. Everyone, including his remaining team mates were struck stiff. They felt a slicing pain through their bodies. Their muscles to their cells hurt so bad, they screamed in pain. This was definitely grade five lightening.

Regardless, Ku Nam did not stop moving. He manoeuvred through the streaks of lightening and grabbed his remaining two team mates and threw them out of the walkway and thereby, out of the lightening radius. They landed on dirt with aching bones, allowing Ku Nam to turn to the other team. The other team's leader bit his lips as Ku Nam was throwing away his companions, allowing a drop blood to slide down his neck. As the blood touched his skin, Ku Nam turned to his form, shrouded in blood red light.

"A blood shield? Not good enough!" he snorted and made more hand seals. It only took a second for him to speed through all the seals, and another bolt of lightening descended. It struck the other leader, but the blood shield held.

"Hmph! You over estimate yourself." the leader said and disappeared. He was half way to the platform the next second.

"I see." Ku Nam appeared before him the next second and kicked him twenty metres back. The leader's body slid back past Ku Nam's companions running towards the platform at full speed.

"A technique that imitates the blink skill, an authentic blood shield; you are from the Heaven Alliance." Ku Nam said, "It would be a waste for me to let you live."

"The Ku Clan. No wonder you could use lightening even with the energy restriction in the astral roots. The Ku Clan's lightening is still one of a kind. Thank you for letting me experience it. You can go to hell now!" the other leader said and charged for Ku Nam.

Ku Nam knew he was right. His lightening was not enough to break the blood shield.

"So, a physical fight it is." he said and appeared before the other leader instantly. As his form broke out into the leader's vision, Ku Nam's fist was descending.

Crack.

The other leader had made to defend, but felt his hand bones crack. His eyes rounded out in shock. What kind of physical strength was this? Grinding his teeth, he bore the weight of Ku Nam's fist. He used the momentum of the fist to escape back, then made to blink away.

"When it comes to the blink imitation, you are still far from being my equal." Ku Name muttered, then blinked behind him. The leader felt Ku Nam's heavy fist crash into his back, before his body could blink away. He could swear his spine cracked. He spat a mouthful of blood as he crashed into the stone paved walkway, a long way away from his unconscious companions.

"They let you learn the blood shield; you must be important." Ku Nam said, appearing above the leader and descending on his exposed neck.

Crack.

The leader stopped moving.

Ku Nam looked towards his companions almost reaching the platform, and blinked thrice to reach it. They arrived to meet him standing before the elevated platform. There was nothing on the plater, but Ku Nam still raised his hand and reached for the empty space. He felt his hand grab unto a slim slightly curved object and pulled it out. A lone bow made of polished white wood was exposed.

"We should leave before more people arrive." Autumn bloom said.

"Yes." the other agreed. Hey turned to where the other two companions were and saw them struggling to get on their feet.

"Can they still move like this?" Autumn Bloom asked Ku Nam. He glanced at her for second, before pulling out a bottle of pills from his space and threw it at her.

"Feed it to them." he said and she nodded and ran in their direction. They may be useless to him, but they made good distractions. To get out of this astral roots with this white bow, he needed such distractions.

Just then, a screech ran through the air, almost tearing through his skull. The bow in his hand seemed to hum in response. Something about it's hum, made Ku Nam feel it was scared. The bow glowed bright white and the light sipped into his pores and hit his blood. This only made the pain increase. A bone tattoo appeared on the wrist of his dominant hand, hot as coal. It felt as though someone had taken a red hot stylus and carved the tattoo into his wrist. As they tattoo sealed, he could feel the bow much clearly. It was a though he could tell what it felt. As the bow's feelings rushed into his mind, he cursed out loud and tumbled to the ground. The bow had physically disappeared, but he could feel it hiding inside him.

This stupid bow was afraid of the screeching that it forced a life contract unto him and hid inside his body. His companions all heard the screeching, but only Ku Nam fell, writhing in pain.

"Brother Nam!" the companion closest to him reached for his falling form in panic. Autumn Bloom paused as she heard the panicked shout and looked back to see Ku Nam fall. The companion tried to touch him, but hot lightening repelled him, flinging him to the other side of the room.

As Ku Nam felt his consciousness start to slip into the ethers, a seal unlocked in his body and thick lightening surrounded him.