Chapter 253 Achy Body

"Don't you think you should give our son a chance?" Lee Seng's Mother's muffled voice spoke. Lee Seng sat near the door, listening to his parents' conversation. "You're paranoid about something, dear. This paranoia is leading you to do experiments on our own son!"

"It's not experiments, Chee!" Dr. Chang raised his voice. "All that I'm doing is for him. I need to make sure our son doesn't get taken!"

"Taken by who? Y'know, ever since that day on the beach, you've changed. You're in your office more. You refuse to go home and be with Lee Seng and I. I understand we both work extremely hard, but time should be given to our son, don't you think? Do you wanna become those parents who leave their child home and make him think we don't love him?" Her serious stare at Dr. Chang made him pull his glasses off and wipe his face.

"Look," Dr. Chang looked up at his wife. "I've told you a million times. I've told you that people are watching me now. They're watching you, Lee Seng, the Numbers. They're waiting for the right opportunity to attack us! If I don't do something to protect our son, we won't be able to see him again!" Chee groaned and turned away from her husband. She shook her head. He was being really paranoid and as much as she dug for an answer, she always got the same thing.

"So you'll just test on your son like you did to ten other people?"

"I'll make sure he's strong enough to not die!" Lee Seng's father exploded. He stood up and slammed his hands onto the desk. Chee was taken aback by this and jumped. She turned to face her husband. He had a pained face on him.

"We both know how this goes, Vang." Chee's voice wavered. "The chances of you succeeding while creating hell-knows-what, is very low. You tested on ten people, but how many people ended up as a fail before those ten showed signs? The amount of deaths with your Biohuman experiment is high. If you're going to create another serum and use it on our son then don't! Not over my dead body."

—

Lee Seng's eyes fluttered open. He was lying in bed. The sun seeped through the dim room as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. His body ached all over. He groaned, clutching at his stomach.

'How many days have passed?' He wondered. He looked around the dimly lit and open space. It seemed like a cabin. The wood seemed like the one used from the flora trees but were shades darker. He sat on one of the four beds. The three other beds were empty. His ears could hear the faint grunting and clashing.

His brain began to dump him the memories of what transpired. He remembered going to the cabin, meeting Florabelle, fetching vines from seaweed poison flowers and then the ghosts…

"Shit. Ritsuka!" Lee Seng pushed himself up onto his feet, immediately dropping to the ground with a loud thud.

"Did you hear that?" Florabelle's quiet voice asked.

"Hear what, Sprite?" Halys ask.

"I told you to call me Florabelle, General!"

"You're interrupting training time. If you just wanna goof off, then go somewhere else."

"No, Fox Spirit, I'm serious! I heard something from the cabin!" Florabelle protested. The immediate sounds of weapons dropping and feet rushing closer was heard. Lee Seng tried to stand but felt the pain in his stomach flare up. He groaned as the strength in his arms dropped his balance, forcing his upperbody to fall to the side. Footsteps rushed into the cabin and towards the door.

"Lee?!?" Ritsuka's voice shouted. The door swung open and more light poured in. Lee Seng winced and tried to turn away as Ritsuka and another set of footsteps moved over to him. "Why didn't you call for us? Keng, let's put him back on the bed." Keng nodded and the two of them lifted Lee Seng up, who winced in pain. They set him on the bed, leaning him up against the wall.

"Did you just wake?" Keng asked. Lee Seng looked at his two friends. Ritsuka and Keng wore worried faces. Lee Seng couldn't help but smile, looking down.

"What's wrong?" Ritsuka kneeled, tilting his head to get a peek of Lee Seng's face. Lee Seng shook his head.

"Nothing." He couldn't help but smile. His eyes were starting to water. He wiped the tears and looked at Ritsuka and Keng. "Y-you're okay." Lee Seng's relieved sad face wore a smile so big, Ritsuka couldn't help but nod.

"Mmm, I'm okay. General Halys said more damage could've been done if you didn't protect me. The poison got out and I made a swift recovery because Keng woke up not too long after you passed out. He was able to heal our injuries, but the General said you have a lot of stuff that was negatively impacting your body including all of the decay Keng had." Ritsuka filled in for him. Lee Seng nodded. Keng wrapped a hug around Lee Seng, who continued to cry.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Lee Seng cried. "I was so scared you would die because of me…"

"Don't say that." Ritsuka patted Lee Seng's leg. "I misjudged the distance with the Shadowfall augment of Obsidian Glass. I need more practice to make sure it doesn't happen, again."

"You all need a lot more practice." Halys spoke. He stood in the doorway. Lee Seng and Keng hadn't picked up any movement from him.

"That isn't going to get any more creepy." Keng commented. Halys ignored Keng's comment and moved over to the other side of the bed and sat on the empty bed.

"You're finally awake. You missed out on two days of training." Halys told him.

"Two days?" Lee Seng repeated in disbelief. Halys nodded.

"You suffered from a lot of damage because you took Keng back into your Spirit. I wouldn't be shocked if you sustained some actual damage to your Spiritual body thus your body hurts like hell."

"Two whole days… We were supposed to train for three days but I probably can't even get any in."

"Don't beat yourself over this." Halys comforted Lee Seng. "You did the hardest thing. You dealt with the tasks given to you by me and Florabelle."

"What do you mean?" Lee Seng searched the room for answers after Halys didn't instantly respond.

"He wasn't scared of ghosts." Keng sourly answered. "They used part of the truth and twisted it so we'd have to deal with the Witch and strong ghosts."

"Meeting Florabelle was a whole accident." Ritsuka added. "Apparently General didn't even know Florabelle was the one who got hit by the horrible prank the other Fox Spirits pulled."

"Since you passed the test, I decided to continue with what was originally planned after I set this up." Halys motioned around.

"Apparently Halys has the divine blessing of Dahlia." Keng tapped Lee Seng.

"Dahlia?" Lee Seng questioned.

"The goddess of Nature." Halys explained. "She has chosen me as one of her many blessed. Our goal is to make sure nature stays in tact. Anything evil that punishes the God King's home, will be destroyed."

"So our interests align with the Cursed Forest." Keng added. Lee Seng watched as Halys nodded.

"I will assist you in the journey with the Cursed Forest. You've been asleep for two whole days and it's currently the third day. I know you said you wanted to get three days of training in, but we should give another extra day just in case. An extra day for training so you can adequately prepare yourself." Halys told Lee Seng.

"What if we don't–"

"Do not worry if we can or cannot. We simply must. Understand?" Halys cut him off. Lee Seng slowly nodded, satisfying Halys who stood up. "We will call it a day with training. I will hunt so we can fill our stomachs and Lee Seng can recover faster." The two other boys immediately began to shrink at the mention of 'recover faster.'

"What?" Lee Seng looked at the three of them. "What does he mean by that?"

"Y-y-you'll see." Ritsuka stuttered.

"You shall be reborn and your body shall start afresh after this meal." Halys smiled. He walked out, leaving Lee Seng with the two scared boys.

"What does he mean by that?" Lee Seng asked, again. "Tell me!"

Some time had passed and Lee Seng and the others were in the living room. Halys had left for awhile and the three boys were chatting away.

"Halys is a really great teacher." Ritsuka told Lee Seng. "He's probably stricter than Mr. Icarus, but he listens to what I want to work on and has been showing me where I've been lacking. For instance, I've been practicing with Angerfang and told him it's capabilities and he gave me some tips such as working to decrease the negative effect of Angerfang being out."

"What's Angerfang's negative effect?" Lee Seng asked.

"Angerfang has the innate ability to absorb energy. I did on you when you shot those arrows at me, remember?" Lee Seng slowly nodded, remembering what had happen. "Angerfang saps a constant stream of energy from me to fuel itself. When Angerfang isn't in use, it can still sap energy but not as much. I've been trying to figure out ways to keep the consumption as low as possible and it turns out, I might be able to pull from Angerfang when I need to."

"Ahhh, that's… good, right?" Lee Seng looked at Ritsuka. Ritsuka nodded. "So, I've been meaning to ask this. Can you use your weapons abilities with another weapon?"