The entire hall could hear Sawyer's heart practically beating out of his chest.
Even if he wasn't already having serious doubts about this, Taira's little display a few seconds ago had firmly implanted a reminder in his brain.
His opponent was not human. He was practically a god that was completely different from anything that he had ever seen.
This was dangerous.
But really, what choice did he even have?
His only saving grace was the fact that he didn't actually have to beat Taira in a fight.
He just had to steal that stupid belt from around his neck.
If it was just that, he could do this easily! As long as he played it smart.
'Alright… if you think a little hazing is going to scare then you've got another thing coming..!'
Sawyer planted his feet and lowered his center of gravity by bending his knees.
'I can do this..!'
With fire in his eyes, he lunged forward and closed the distance between himself and his master.
Taira broke both of his legs before he even knew it.
Sawyer went down screaming before he ever saw either of Taira's tails move.
The atmosphere within the hall remained unchanged as this was more or less what everyone already expected to happen.
Though the humans were beginning to turn a little green…
"All of that bluster, and for what?" Taira asked in annoyance as he snapped his restraints.
"If you learn nothing else in what is undoubtedly fated to be a short life in Tayar, know this:
Grandstanding will not save you.
Your prior experience will not protect you.
Preparation. Dedication. Knowledge. Tactics.
Only these things can guarantee you a life worth living in our world… and even then, you may still run into a greater power who can rend all of your efforts useless.
This is why we retain our humility.
Until Aveena and I can make you into adequate sailors of cultivation's grand ocean; do not forget that you are just frogs at the bottom of a well."
Taira stood on Sawyer's airway until he passed out.
He slowly turned his gaze toward the frozen humans and scoffed internally.
Thawing out the room; he grabbed Sawyer by his jacket collar and began dragging him like trash.
"Co. We are behind already."
After everything that they had seen, the humans were too afraid to dally behind him.
So despite their lead feet, they followed behind him one after the other like a row of terrified ducklings.
-
Taira led the humans toward the stone bridge in front of their sect.
With the greatest of ease, he hurled Sawyer's broken body over the bridge and into the water.
{Disciple.}
'Not now, old man.' Taira dismissed.
{This is no ti for one of your standard piss poor moods! You need to say sothing to those new underlings of yours.}
'What the fuck are you talking about..?' Taira sighed in exhaustion.
{Obviously I know better than you that everything you said is 100% correct. But you must show so give here.}
'You're insane. Why should I baby them? They are already in for a harsh enough awakening when we step back into the real world.'
{They co from a peaceful domain! They aren't like you or I, so you cannot behave like they do!}
'I will not water down my thods of instruction for any-'
{You don't have to water anything down, you thick-headed fox! But if these people believe they are following in the cult of a tyrant, how do you think they will react to that? You risk sowing seeds of resentnt.}
Taira hated it when Velreth was making sense.
Because once he was presented with new ideas, especially good ones, his mind couldn't help but overrun itself with new calculations and scenarios.
He didn't particularly like it when Velreth the cultivation ghost was the cause of making him rethink himself.
But Taira wasn't going to let a fool thing like his pride make him overlook his master's suggestions either.
'So much talking…' He wanted to lay down.
{You need to get over that. You'll have a bright political future ahead of you if you live long enough. No doubt you will have to do much more talking than this on a consistent basis.} Velreth reminded.
'…'
{…Disciple?}
'…Sorry, I was considering ending my own life for a bit.'
{Of course you were.}
Taira sighed as he watched the waters below the bridge bubble and glow.
Without taking his eyes off the water, he tried his hand at Velreth's suggestion.
"… I am nine-hundred and two years old."
The humans nearly got whiplash from the change in deanor that was like night and day.
"My father was the ingenious and powerful king of the vampires. My mother was his third wife and best assassin.
I was the their hopes and dreams given physical form."
"S-So you were a nepo baby, Dai-Shi?" Jordan asked shakily.
Taira actually found himself wanting to laugh at the human girl.
"Hardly. My parents wanted to be my father's successor, but they made work for every privilege I had. Even their affection.
When I was only four years old, I began training with the sword.
If ever I seed to be taking the process too lightly or bordering too much on playing, my father would break every bone in my fingers and hands.
If I cried or passed out, he would wait for to heal, wake , and then do it again."
The girls covered their mouths in horror while the boys looked like they were going to be sick.
"It sounds worse than it actually was in all honesty. I was a prodigy, so I picked up most instruction quite easily; requiring only a couple of months to gain an advanced proficiency in several kinds of weaponry.
It was my mother's training that made see death.
She broke my bones and cut my tendons so that I would know personally which one caused the most discomfort to the body.
I was fed various strands and combinations of poison in my als; until I learned to identify them by taste, odor, consistency.
Then I was made to research thods of detoxification… sotis while I was still poisoned.
When I turned fourteen, I spent a year in an underground bunker with my two older brothers who despised .
Put simply, their job was to hunt .
If I made a sound, of my breathing was detected, if my heart beat too rapidly, they would find every ti.
Sotis when they caught , they burned the skin they found distasteful, or just stripped my muscle entirely off the bone. Once, I was nearly castrated."
Jordan, Himari, and Saanvi felt their eyes water uncontrollably.
Taira couldn't really say he blad them.
It was… definitely unsettling to rember this part of his life when his mories returned.
Keran and Enyo were aware of the year he spent away, but they didn't know what happened.
They just knew that when he returned ho, he was different. Nearly the spitting image of his father in deanor.
They hated it.
"I had to learn to hide perfectly without leaving any traces or tells of my existence. Only when they could no longer find for a week did my father let leave.
Shortly after I turned twenty, it was discovered that I was inept. And just like that, all familial interest in ceased.
I spent the next three hundred years as a shell of myself. No motivations or interest in any part of the world that had cast aside.
And then… I went into a 500 year coma with Enyo at my side.
When we awoke, my skills had not atrophied, nor had my knowledge deteriorated. I was at the sa peak I was the day I stopped my training."
Taira made a gesture with his hand and Sawyer ca shooting out of the water like a cannonball.
He landed on the bridge coughing and sputtering; but his legs completely healed.
Taira went towards the girls and wiped away the tears running down Jordan, Saanvi, and Himari's faces.
"I'm not telling you any of this because I want your pity or sympathy.
I'm telling you this because I want each of you to understand the kind of training I want for each of you. The kind that doesn't leave you even after an 800 year sabbatical.
Now make no mistake, I am not my parents. I will never give you cruelty disguised as aid.
I understand that you all are in a difficult position that you didn't ask for.
As such, I will not push you more than necessary, but any instructions Aveena or I give you are to be followed to the letter.
You cannot get through cultivation without enduring pain in so capacity.
So I will ask you once again for the very last ti.
Are you willing to endure this so that you can co out better for it in the end. Yes, or no?
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