The Dead King

A cold wind blew on a sunny day, high up in the stony peaks of Arkari. Ryno could see pockets of snow resting on the sides of the mountains where the sun could not touch, shaded and protected.

It was cold up here, but not unbearably so. The wind chill played a factor, but Ryno’s brown leather clothing kept him warm enough. His hood rested over his head as his long cape rippled with the conflicting wind.

It was peaceful here. Ryno wasn’t sure what to expect when he reached his destination of Arkari, but a tranquil atmosphere complimented by a steady breeze was welcomed. Wind chimes sang their song from the movement of the weather, and Ryno turned briefly to face the warmth of the sun as he listened.

He could almost stay here for a while. Take in the beauty of the sharp peaks, the rippling of the scarce vegetation, and listen to the chimes that hung sparingly on tree branches.

Whoever lived out here, it was clear they had chose a life of peace and tranquility. Ryno almost felt bad that he would have to disturb that.

He stood still for a few moments admiring it all, then shook his head and continued on. He had a job to do, and he was already a day behind from lollygagging earlier in the journey. It was time to see this mission completed.

He continued on the dirt path that always rose in elevation. At the top of this trail would be the monastery, his destination. As he got closer, more decorations and thoughtfully placed flora could be noticed. Ryno would walk under a few banners that hung across a rope, riding the waves of the wind above him.

Before much longer, he could see the entrance of the monastery. It was a cement stone wall, with an old wooden gate in the middle. Beyond that were tall buildings topped with pointed orange roofs. Ryno turned to his left, and saw a man plowing a small garden just outside the walls. He wore simple clothing attire, a white robe secured with a belt, and a brown cloth coat over that.

The man noticed him, and dropped the plow, allowing it to fall to the ground.

“Hello?” He said, walking up to Ryno. He looked concerned, it was obvious that visitors were not a common occurrence.

“Hi!” Ryno said as cheerfully as he could, waving a leather glove in front of him.

“What brings you here?” He asked in a humble tone.

Ryno grinned. “I’m here to see your master.”

The man raised an eyebrow. Ryno had an aura of devious confidence, one that greeted the man with intimidation.

“Let me get some people who can help you,” the man tried, guiding Ryno to the front gates of the monastery.

The farmer had a bad feeling about this stranger, but did his best to be polite and honorable. He would talk to his superiors inside the walls and get further guidance on what to do.

“Please wait here, I will be back with someone who can talk to you.”

“It better be your master,” Ryno responded in a simple and polite, yet threatening tone.

“Ah, ha ha, of course,” the farmer chuckled, bowing to the stranger, and entering the gate.

The latch soundly locked on the other side of the gate after the farmer had retreated into the walls.

Ryno understood that the simple looking farmer was scared of him, but it was non-issue in his eyes. Either he would return with the former Arkanian wizard, or Ryno would simply seek him out himself.

He stood and waited. Ryno debated for how long he would wait. With his hood shading the front of his face, his cape surrounded his entire body, occasionally rippling from the peaceful breeze.

Beautiful place, beautiful place. Ryno thought to himself as he looked around at the surroundings. Maybe after I destroy it, I’ll make it a vacation home for myself.

Finally, a new voice could be heard. It was more authoritative than the humble farmer of earlier.

“Hey, you!” Ryno could hear from a tower near the wall.

He looked up, and saw another robed man standing on the ledge of a watch tower that the front wall was attached to. He had on a finer white robe, and orange colored wrist straps and belt. It was better apparel than the former man he saw.

“Are you the master?” Ryno asked, unfazed.

“What business do you have, seeking out our sensei?” He returned in a hostile tone.

“I’m here to fight him. Bring him out and no one else gets hurt,” Ryno responded with a grin, hiding the ultimate reason he was here.

“The sensei does not accept duels or challenges. We are a peaceful bunch. Be gone now!” The authoritative monk said with a hint of worry in his voice.

“For a peaceful bunch, you sure aren’t polite,” Ryno tried.

“We are peaceful, but we know how to defend ourselves from those with malicious intent like yourself!” He rightfully accused.

Ryno nodded. Well, they’re not entirely stupid.

“I will give you one last chance to bring him out before terrible events occur at your peaceful home,” Ryno warned.

“I said BEGONE!” The man yelled, assuming a fighting stance. “Or that terrible event will be your demise!”

Ryno sighed.

With a single finger, he gently touched the old wooden gate. It violently and instantly exploded forward, shattering into a million splinters.

The man’s jaw dropped. His body shuddered, fear physically overcoming him.

This stranger had so much power kept inside himself, that just touching a gate meant to keep him out caused it to explode.

“Y-you dare to… a-attack us?!” He barely made out.

“I’m getting to the sensei one way or another,” Ryno calmly stated.

“I will defend my home to my dying breath!” The monk declared. Electricity danced around him, and he jumped from the top of the watchtower, landing fiercely to the ground. The hard dirt around him cracked from the impact, and he assumed a strong fighting stance.

“Well I can appreciate your devotion. C’mon then, let’s see what you’ve learned.” Ryno chuckled as he threw his cape back over his shoulders.

The monk charged, trickles of lightning dancing around his body. He went in for a charging punch. Ryno deflected it away with his arm.

The monk then assaulted him with various punching attacks and kicks, a form of martial arts he had learned while being in this Arkari monastery.

Ryno deflected every move, he had an answer for all of it.

“Your form’s terrible,” Ryno commented as he slapped away each attack. Aggressively, Ryno adjusted his footing forward, overtaking the monk’s assault and causing him to step back.

Ryno had complete control of the fight, and pulled his punches as to not instantly end the encounter. A bit of sparring was something he hadn’t had in a while, and fighting a bunch of monks who used a physical approach to compliment their electric elemental abilities was just what he needed.

“Yup, you left your self wide open for this one,” Ryno stated as an electric palm to the monk’s chest sent him flying backwards.

The monk’s body slammed up against the stone of a mountain wall. He spat blood as he tried to regain his stance, standing back up after a moment to process what the heck just happened.

Ryno patiently waited for him to recover, but was interrupted when a new monk emerged out of the entrance of the shattered gate.

“How dare you!” This new monk yelled as he assumed a fighting stance.

“Hold on, I’m trying to fight this guy first,” Ryno told the new monk. “I want to see what he has learned!”

The bloodied monk stepped forward, ready to carry on the battle.

The new monk ignored what Ryno said. He charged at him, ready to engage in battle as well.

“I said HOLD ON!” Ryno yelled as a massive bolt of lightning erupted from his palm, hitting the new monk, and disintegrating him instantly.

There was nothing left of the man who had come out to investigate the noise of fighting outside the monastery. Ryno had reduced him to mist – if even that was left – that would be carried away by the wind.

Ryno’s eyes had gone bright white from the attack, and dimmed back down to normal afterwards. He turned to face his current opponent.

“Sorry about that, people can be so rude,” Ryno grinned, his deformed teeth protruding from his gums.

“You… you’re a monster. A psychopath!” The monk exclaimed. “That was my brother! And you just… You’re insane!” Instead of the monk charging for another physical fight, he launched a ray of electricity to Ryno.

Ryno caught the stream of lightning into his hand. He was absorbing the attack into his palm, and slowly walking forward as the monk continued to let loose his electric assault.

The monk strained, sweated, and gave everything he could into his continuous lighting chain.

Ryno’s eyes began glowing white again as he continued to absorb the attack and walk closer.

“You can call me a lot of things. Stupid, a monster, a freak, a child, whatever. But do. Not. Call me. A Psychopath!”

All the energy Ryno collected into his palm, was reversed back onto the monk in a massive electric explosion. That monk was also disintegrated.

Once the smoke cleared, Ryno stood alone, surrounded by a small black crater of ash. His eyes dimmed back down.

When he turned around, three more monks stood, ready to fight.

Ryno took a deep breath. Oh boy, here I go killing again.

The three charged at him.

The first to reach him, Ryno grasped his face, and violently shoved him backwards at the speed of a bullet. He smashed into a distant mountain. The second went for a punch on the side. Ryno grabbed his arm, folded it in a way that it should never be folded, and threw him by his appendage into the front wall of the monastery. The body shot through the wall, continuing on inside to wherever.

Lastly, the third one went in for a rising electric kick. Ryno dodged it by swaying his head to the side, causing this monk to do a flip. When he landed, Ryno sent a bolt of lightning through his chest, causing him to fly backwards and land on the ground, dead.

The entire encounter lasted maybe three seconds, one second for each attacker.

Ryno began looking around to see who was next.

There was no one else. No one else came, he stood alone once again.

After a moment, Ryno noticed the song of the tranquil wind chimes once again. They were unaffected by the morbid events that transpired around them, and happily gave off the same pleasant noise they always had. Ryno wished he could be like the wind chimes.

He waited a few more moments for a new monk to make themselves known. When that didn’t happen, he walked forward.

He stepped over the body of a defeated opponent, and crouched through the hole in the wall he had created with another body.

“Hello?” Ryno called out.

On the other side of the wall was the monastery’s courtyard. One end had a fighting ring and target practice, the middle area towards the largest building contained a shrine. On the far end from him was a breezeway that led into another building.

Not a soul to be seen. The wind rippled a few long flags that were tied to poles in the courtyard, a few special grown trees swayed peacefully.

Ryno walked into the center of the courtyard and looked around. He tried to spot a person spying on him through a window, or someone hiding behind a pillar or wall. Finally, his eyes rested in a corner, and he saw a bongo drum.

Is that a bongo drum?

Ryno hadn’t seen one in ages. He ran up to it, and sure enough, it was a wooden tube, with an animal skin pulled tightly over it, creating a drum. It was painted with designs, and coated in a protective varnish.

“A bongo drum! Oh, I love these!”

A distracted Ryno sat down in the corner, crossed his legs, and picked up the drum, bringing it close to him. He first looked it over, admiring the craft work and paint job on it. He guessed that one of the monks up here had made it.

He sat it down inside his legs, and with a closed fist, knocked on the tightly pulled goat skin. It made a satisfying noise.

Ryno chuckled, happy to hear it.

He began tapping the drum with his fingers, creating a beat. The sound changed in pitch whether he tapped it closer or farther from the edge.

He looked up, and enjoyed the ambiance of where he was. He continued playing the drum. He wasn’t any good, nor was he able to keep a steady beat, but he was as happy as he could be.

As he drummed his fingers on the bongo, Ryno looked to his left and saw the body of the monk he threw through the cement wall.

It was bloodied, mangled, and deformed from being sent through such a thick object.

You don’t look too good, buddy. Ryno thought to the dead monk.

After a few more moments, a new white robed man walked out of the center building around the shrine.

He saw the shattered gate in a million splinters, the hole in the front wall, and a body of a fallen brother lying on the ground.

He looked over, in shock and despair, and saw a seventy year old man in brown leathers sitting on the ground cross legged with a bongo drum in front of him.

“Hi!” Ryno greeted.

“W-what? What happened?! What is the meaning of this?!” The monk demanded, a mix of shock and horror plaguing his face. He assumed a fighting stance in front of Ryno.

“Are you the sensei?” Ryno asked.

“No! He will be here soon though! Did you kill that man?!” The monk continued.

“Yeah, I did. Took me like, one second to do, tops,” Ryno casually stated.

“Then you will answer to ME!” He cried out, as electricity coated his body. This monk was stronger than the others he encountered earlier.

“Hey, calm down.”

The monk charged forward at Ryno, tackling him, and slamming the two of them into the corner of the building.

Ryno kicked the monk off of him, sending him backwards a great distance.

When Ryno got up, he looked down, and saw that his bongo drum had been destroyed. The wood broken apart, the goat skin ripped open and hanging off of the remaining tube.

Ryno was devastated.

“You… you broke… my bongo drum!!”

The monk was facing Ryno again, realizing that this wasn’t any normal opponent. That kick had extreme power behind it, most likely from the enhancement skill, a general skill that saw the increase of your bodily strength and durability.

The monk gathered that from the strength of the kick, he had enhanced more than three times over, an overlapping of the skill to create a more powerful form.

If the monk didn’t also have basic enhancement, that kick would’ve killed him.

“You’re powerful. Why are you here? What do you want?” The monk asked, realizing that fighting Ryno would likely result in a loss. He grasped his chest in pain, still recovering from the blunt super-charged kick delivered to him.

“I was here to fight your sensei, kill him, and secure some stupid skill book he wrote that he refuses to share. But now, my highest priority is ending YOU! You will pay for destroying my newly adopted bongo!

I loved that bongo like a SON! Even though I had only been playing it for maybe ten minutes, that was enough time for me to grow to love it! Now, fight me, and face your death like a man, lest I deliver your killing blow to your back as you run away!”

Ryno charged up, electricity dancing around him, his eyes glowing white once again.

The monk’s eyes narrowed. “You want to kill me… over a simple drum?” He asked in great confusion. “How many others have you killed for unjust reasons?”

Ryno didn’t respond, he just waited for the monk to act.

“I will avenge them. I will avenge my fallen brothers, and all else who have died to your sick rationality!” The monk powered up too.

After a stand off of dancing electricity, the monk finally charged, fist clenched, ready to deliver a blow.

Ryno deflected the punch, and grabbed him by his neck, slamming him into the ground.

It didn’t kill the monk, but even with enhancement, it injured him greatly.

In great speeds, Ryno picked him back up, and hurled him into a building.

Ryno then flew forward, into the wall where the monk’s body had flown, and grabbed him by his neck again, holding him up inside a room of the temple.

The monk struggled, and gasped for breath, meekly trying to stay conscious. He hadn’t even gotten a single attack in. Ryno was so beyond the power level of any of these monks, there wasn’t any proper fight between them.

There were no exchanging of fists, electric attacks, or swinging of weapons. There was only what Ryno would do, and how long he would do it.

“Say you’re sorry,” Ryno stated, holding the monk up in the air by his neck.

“W-what?” He could barely breathe out in return.

“I said say you’re sorry! Sorry for breaking my bongo-friend!” Ryno demanded while shaking his body that was barely clinging to life.

“I’m… sorry,” the monk said in a raspy voice.

Ryno held him in the air for a moment.

“...I forgive you.”

Ryno then sent several thousand volts of electricity through the monk, frying him entirely, ending his life.

He dropped the charred body onto the ground.

Ryno looked down at the body, a bit sad. He then looked up and studied his new surroundings. He was in a temple room. Incense was burning in a corner, and the bright sun shown through stain glass, revealing all the colors of the rainbow. The colors rested all over the furniture in the room.

...Where is that sensei? I better finish this up, or Reechie is gonna get mad at me.

Ryno left the temple, and walked back out of the hole he had created that breached into it.

Back outside, standing in the center of the courtyard, was an old man with a white beard. Not as big or impressive as Ryno’s leader, but a decent one nonetheless. He had white robes with accents of orange bordering them. He had a golden belt, and golden wrist straps.

Ryno sighed. “Please tell me you’re the sensei.”

“I am,” the old man replied.

“Good! Nice you meet you. I’m Ryno, and I’m here to pick up that skill book you have.”

The master clenched his fist. “So, you’re after my life’s work. After I refused to give up my secrets, you’re here to forcefully take them.”

“Yeah, that’s about right. Now we can do this the hard way or the-”

“You’ve also killed my pupils and damaged my monastery!” The sensei exclaimed.

Ryno sighed. He looked away for a moment.

“They attacked me first. I was just here for you. Apparently I wasn’t worth your time, and you sent your underlings to deal with me instead. How did that work out?”

“You shall perish here,” The electric wizard said.

“Do you know how many times I’ve heard that?” Ryno said, getting fed up. “Give me the book, and I walk away. You don’t want to battle me.”

Ryno was not so carefree with this man. The sensei was a wizard, and while Ryno was confident he would win, it would require more effort to deal with him. Far more than it took for his underlings. Ryno gave the wizard a chance to avoid the fight, and was half hoping he would take it up.

“I will do no such thing. We fight. May the stronger man win.”

Ryno grinned. He knew this would be the outcome. “Alright. Let’s dance.”