At first Lee tried to lie in his crate motionless, but the sudden silence that followed the shouts of alarm made him curious. He carefully looked through the grip hole and saw the still crowd below, and a mont later understood the cause for the whole thing.
The cyclops, along with another instructor were currently carrying out from the barracks sothing that resembled a bloodied person.
After looking more closely it was clear there wasn't much left over from them – they were skinned, organs removed and their flesh separated from their bones. Basically it was a bloody skeleton with so pieces of at sticking to it.
'Alright!' Lee quickly analyzed, 'So far so good. You set up as your murderer to get caught while escaping and now no one will look for you. But shouldn't soone look for the dead guy whoever it was?'
But the next mont a revelation hit Lee.
No one would look for the Potato's missing squad mber from over a month ago! But wasn't the corpse supposed to be rotten? And where did the skin, flesh and organs go?
Lee had no clue about the first part, but a glance towards the cooking pots answered the second. For a mont he felt nauseated, but fortunately the events below diverted his attention.
While the guards were ordered to perform a thorough search, the kids were quickly lined up to find who was missing. When the nearby guard on the wall rushed down and didn't pay attention to the crate Lee was in, he had the impulse to jump out and leap over the fortress's wall.
With the lower gravity this world had there was a high chance he could survive the fall, but on the other hand, most of his bones would've been broken nevertheless. And there was no way to escape anywhere in that condition.
"Here!" Surprisingly the search turned out to be a short one.
Trainees still stood in a neat formation, stretching their necks, trying to see what exactly was found, but instructors and guards gathered around a couple wagons that were used to bring blobs from the nearby farm.
Lee couldn't understand the reason – the two wagons were empty and so primitively built no one could hide inside unnoticed. This was the reason he and Potato scratched the reverse Trojan horse escape plan.
Turns out Potato thought otherwise.
When Roganax finally had enough, he smacked one of the wagons with his spear and the thing fell apart like a house of cards. And from the pile of debris Potato's figure slowly crawled out. Ignoring the crowd, he threw a glance towards the southern wall, and even from the distance Lee could recognize the incredible annoyance in his eyes.
From the looks of it, Potato's plans were ruined by Lee backing out at the last mont, but the latter couldn't understand what the idea actually was.
The fact that the guy sohow glued at the bottom of the wagon, probably above axles, was clear, and so was the fact that he set up Lee as his murderer. But it was confusing why he was certain that the corpse would be found after Lee was caught escaping and not before, like now.
'He can't be that stupid!' Lee though, 'No, sothing went wrong with his plan.'
Indeed, Lee didn't know that right after the prayer one of Potato's squad mbers ca looking for the guy and in annoyance kicked his bed, finding the mate, although without realizing it – a different one. On the other hand, when planning the whole thing Potato knew such risk existed, except it was minuscule so he decided to ignore it.
Now, though, he stood there, surrounded by guards and instructors, but the brief annoyance on his face vanished and was replaced by wide grin. Lee couldn't hear what the cyclops said to the guy, but it looked like it only amused Potato.
But soon he had enough.
Lee guessed it was a kick, although the motion was too swift to tell clearly, and the loud sound of Roganax's rib cage breaking reverberated through the fortress. The tall and well built cyclops flew and dropped to the ground few yards further away as if he was a hey doll, but Potato didn't stop.
In a blink of an eye he perford two roundhouse kicks and heads of several guards blew up like water lons, and under the cover of rain of blood Potato dashed towards the fortress's gate.
It was obvious that the guards stood in a safe distance from the guy, but died a miserable death anyway. To Lee it reminded of Valen Sunwell – how the emperor killed several elental warriors from the Hand of God in one move.
Back then the surrounding enemies were also out of reach, but sohow the emperor's sword cut them down nevertheless.
Unfortunately for Potato, he wasn't omnipotent. Lee witnessed only the beginning of his escape, but apparently it took so effort to catch him.
Only later in the day Lee found out that the guy was killed. Two guards discussed the event in detail right next to his hiding spot, in fact – while talking one sat directly on the crate Lee was lying in.
Turns out Potato has killed and eaten Lee, and afterwards tried to escape. In the process several more fortress's guards and an instructor died, but Potato didn't survive either.
The guards, of course, were certain the event had to be Lynax's test, because according to them it was the only reasonable explanation for a kid to possess godly powers.
Once again Lee felt like he was back in his first life, in the underground pyramid, watching the superhumans fight. This was a whole another level compared to the scourge who had absorbed the fire sparks – he had seen their performance several tis during the past months.
But while he, like the rest of the kids watched the demonstration in awe, it was a child's play compared to what Potato did. And technically Potato was only a year or two older than him. Or maybe younger, but much better developed. Was it because of the so called self-ignited spark?
Now, lying in the crate, Lee had a lot of ti to think – there was nothing else he could do anyway. Technically for the rest of the world he was currently dead, except he still had to get away from this place.
The failed escape, Potato's betrayal and the spectacular performance caused thousands of thoughts run through Lee's head, and he knew there was no way he was capable of effectively analyzing the situation nor making new plans. Thus the best thing he could do first was to force himself to calm down.
Of course, the crate he was in was uncomfortable and he couldn't sit in a regular ditative position, but following Tess's teachings cald his breath as he focused on the water spark in his abdon. It was still there, surrounded by cloud of dirt that was revolving around it, and for the first ti watching it Lee felt deep disgust.
It seed like not only the space around the spark, but his whole being was being polluted. It was the only reasonable explanation he could think of why his mind beca so dull that even soone like Potato managed to easily manipulate him.
Obviously, it was the result of the living in the current environnt, but surely there were people who were unaffected or barely effected by it. Potato ca first to mind, but the elental lord Lunax was the best example.
Surely one could say they were stronger, more experienced compared to Lee and it allowed to remain clear headed, but wasn't he able to sohow replicate that ability?
Up until now he always refused to use the spark's power in order to live longer, but his life almost ended because of that. In addition, he wasn't out of the woods yet.
'What if I ...?' Lee had a sudden idea, and focused on his spark, but few monts later began to slowly guide the blue mist surrounding it through his body. First down his legs, then up the chest and towards the arms, and then, slowly, bit by bit, into his head.
After the first step he already guessed what the sensation was going to be, but he barely held back a loud moan of satisfaction when the blue mist covered the last parts of his body. It was like getting a massage by the most gentle hands in the world, except from the inside.
In addition, Lee was certain he felt his mind and thoughts becoming clearer and sharper.
'Ok!' He thought to himself, 'Even if it turns out to be a placebo effect, I have to start practicing this shit on a regular basis!'
This way he spent the rest of the day and the night, and only when the blood moon rose and the whole fortress was praying again, he dared to climb out the crate.
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