Will watched the man fall. The man he had just killed. He didn’t even know his name.

  “Will!”

  Will moved. He didn’t know if he was about to be attacked or if Alea needed help. But his master had drilled into him to never sit there like an idiot while he tried to figure things out. If you can’t plan ahead of time, then you moved and then figured it out.

  Still covered in lightning, he was fast enough to avoid a slash of wind that one of the three gang members left had sent his way.

  He didn’t waste time. Adrenaline was pumping to hard for him to really feel the trauma of what he just did. So for now he resolved to do what he had to do and handle the rest later.

  With a speed that left the rest of the cultivators stunned and disoriented, Will went to back up his friend.

  These last three must of been the cream of the crop because they were actually pressing Alea back.

  Will moved in and cut the left carotid of the wind user who had sent an attack his way; trying to take advantage of Will’s trauma induced stillness. The man immediately disengaged from Alea and clamped two hands to his neck. Will sliced off one of his arms at the elbow and then sent him stumbling thirty feet with a kick to his midsection. He might have powerful attacks, but the wind user was a trash fighter. He was no where near the skill of the woman he had fought at the tournament. Either way, Will doubted he’d be getting back up.

  With that Will refocused on the two left that were trying to pin Alea down with attacks. Both were earth users, and while they couldn’t manage to land a hit on her, neither could she seem to break through their defenses.

  Will came in low and with as much lightning as he could safely channel into his right arm, sent a powerful punch into the midsection of the cultivator closest to him.

  The man was sent stumbling back and sent to a knee. But not flying back like Will had expected. Unlike the leader, the fighter had had the chance to coat himself in stone armor. And not only that, he must have decent insight into his element because the man was heavy.

  But that was all he was. As Will engaged with him he realized that while his defenses were great, his offense and his speed were subpar. Because of that the fight turned one sided fairly quickly. Will chipped away at his armor and defenses, doing his best to overwhelm the man. Eventually he was able to start landing hits against critical areas.

  The strain on the man’s Qi channels must of been immense to keep up such a defense because before to long his armor fell away.

  He seemed shocked at the abrupt end to his technique, and before he had a chance to refocus Will ended him with a slice to the artery at each side. It was quick and clean and the man was unconscious in seconds and dead not too long after.

  Will turned to look for Alea but found her already finished with her fight. The other earth user dead at her feet.

  He let go of his lightning and his Qi circulation and was about to ask her if she was ok when he realized he couldn’t. His mouth wouldn’t move quite right.

  He was shaking.

  It started small, a light tremor. But after a few seconds it quickly increased in severity and he started shaking violently all over.

  His knives dropped from loose fingers and he fell to his knees. His eyes were wide as he stared at his hands.

  Why is there no blood on them? Shouldn’t there be blood?

  It was the last thought he consciously had before he didn’t think anything at all. Later he would realize that he was disassociating while adrenaline was coursing through his body in extremely high levels and his body was trying to bring those levels down, causing his body to shake.

  “Will! Will, can you hear me?”

  He thought he could. His mind didn’t seem to be working right. Had he been poisoned?

  “Will listen to me, you’re in shock. Your body will calm down but you need to focus. Please, just try to focus on my words.”

  He tried, he really did. But things seemed so far away from him. His cares, this world. Why was that…right. He’s a murderer now.

  His shaking increased. What was wrong with him?

  “It’s ok Will. It was them or us. If you hadn’t of killed them they would have killed us.”

  That got through to him. But what did that matter? He took a life. More than one. He needed to find the nearest prison and tell them to throw him in a cell.

  He realized just then that Alea was hugging him and holding him close. She was holding his head against the side of her neck and had her arms wrapped around him.

  “Will.” She whispered. “They would have killed that boy. They would have done worse to his mother, and then killed her as well.”

  Will closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His shaking crescendo’d and then began to calm. He felt feeling and life breathe back into him as he forced himself to truly confront what he had done. And then he started crying.

  He was ashamed. Yes of the killing, but also childishly of crying in front of Alea.

  He’s not so much of an idiot that he doesn’t realize he has a stupid crush. A crush he knew would go no where soon. A part of him hoped, years down the line when he was properly impressively strong that he would have a shot. No chance of that now. Women don’t like men who cry. Just ask any girl from his high school.

  Ah what was he saying. Worrying about a crush when he had blood on his hands now.

  Will opened his eyes and looked up, beyond Alea’s shoulder.

  There, huddled against a building and still being shielded by his mother, was the boy he had saved. He wasn’t crying anymore, but he still had the tear streaks running down both sides of his dirt covered face. He looked at Will and Alea and there seemed to be a small glimmer of hope in the kid’s eyes.

  Will’s eyes stopped flowing at the sight. His body calmed and relaxed slightly as he realized something. He might of done something horrible, but that boy would live now. So would his mother. Those men might not have a future anymore, but this mother and son would.

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  Will found that was enough.

  He put his hands on Alea’s shoulders and gently moved her away.

  “I’m ok now.” She looked back at him, her eyes filled with concern and worry. “Really. I’m sorry you had to see me like that. I’ve never….never had to do something like that before. Never even seen something like that before.” He lowered his eyes in shame. “I’m sorry for being so weak.”

  She cupped his face in one of her hands. “You’re not weak Will. I’m just sorry that you had to experience this at all. Death and bloody hands are part of being a cultivator. But that doesn’t make it any easier, and it doesn’t make it something we have to enjoy. It’s just part of the journey.”

  Will had his own thoughts about that. But this wasn’t the time and he wasn’t in the right head space even if it was.

  He stood up and Alea followed after him. He looked around at all the death around him. The emotions tried to break into his mind again at the sight, but he beat it back and let himself take stock of the situation.

  “What do we do now?”

  “Do?” Alea said. “We don’t do anything. We go on our way and learn from the experience. Although not much to learn. These pigs weren’t much when it came to fighting.”

  “The bodies? The authorities? Shouldn’t someone do something about one and wait for the other?”

  Alea raised an eyebrow at him. “Authorities. Can’t say I’ve heard the term before, but I know what you mean. The locals will take care of the bodies. Probably strip them down for anything valuable and burn the bodies. These were criminals though Will. So no one is going to miss them now that they’re gone. Even if they had surrendered, we don’t have the equipment to hold them and there were too many of them to try to restrain them. There would have had to of been a powerful cultivator here to keep them in line and then we could have taken them to the nearest city. Which would have taken resources we don’t have and no one else would want to spend. They probably would have been executed at that city though if we had managed to get them there. But that obviously wasn’t an option. Now though? They’re just another stepping stone on our path as cultivators.”

  Will thought it a cold outlook. Definitely an opposing one to how his old world did things. Could it really be so…simple..here? Simple felt like the wrong word but that’s what it was.

  Sure this seemed like a pretty open shut case. Village full of witnesses, crimes committed and punishment given. But where does it end? Where is the line drawn? Surely at some point there has to be investigations to make sure everything went the way everyone is saying it did right? Otherwise it would be too easy to control a situation and do whatever you wanted.

  Was he missing something here?

  He chalked it up to more things he didn’t know about this world and mentally moved on.

  Alea’s outlook was cold, but practically it made sense. Evil men were put down and it was time to move on, taking what they could from the experience and then looking to the future. It was callus, but this fight was real world experience as far as fighting went. It was horrifying and terrible, but the experience couldn’t be ignored.

  “Right. We should get going then I guess.”

  She looked worriedly at him, but simply nodded, saying nothing more.

  They retrieved their packs from where they had fallen when the whole thing had started and began making their way back on the road.

  Will looked back one last time at the village, knowing that this fight would forever be burned into his memory.

  As he was looking he spotted the mother and son. She was holding him in her arms and they were both watching as Will and Alea walked away. Seeing him look back they both smiled and waved at him. Will smiled back, a sad smile, but still a smile.

  He reminded himself in that moment that this was a different world and played by different rules. Amos had said those words to him before but they hadn’t really sunk in till now.

  He saw those smiles from those two people whose lives would now continue and reaffirmed to himself the conviction to do what he needed to protect those who needed protecting. Like he had always wished someone had protected him.

  He turned back around and walked with a firmer step, and a slightly harder look in his eye.

  He didn’t train his lightning sense at all that day and he didn’t cultivate or meditate that night when they stopped either. He decided to give himself at least one nights break. He needed it. When they camped they ate a light meal and quickly went to bed, not much being said between them. When Will’s head laid down he oddly found sleep easily and quickly. He figured he’d have a hard time sleeping for weeks. Instead, he passed right out and the darkness of sleep took him completely.

  He woke up the next morning feeling oddly rested, and began his morning cultivation. When he finished he noticed Alea cooking some freshly caught fish.

  “Up early this morning?” He asked.

  “I couldn’t sleep. Toss and turned for a while and only slept for an hour here and there. Eventually I just decided to get up. Thought I’d be useful and catch us a proper breakfast.”

  “Well I appreciate it. I’ve never gone fishing before so I doubt I would have been any good at it.”

  She looked at him oddly. “You’ve never fished before? Was there no bodies of water near your village?”

  “Uhhh, I mean there was.” Will scrambled. Such a stupid innocent comment to blowup so spectacularly in his face. Of course fishing would be a major staple of food in this world. Never having gone fishing is a huge red flag. He decided to keep it simple and as honest as he could. “People in my village fished obviously. I just never did.”

  “Huh.” She said. Seeming to mull over what he said. “Weird. Anyway, dig in. It’s basically done.”

  They ate quickly and in silence, both eager to get on the road.

  “Thank you, for yesterday.” He said. She looked at him oddly. “I never thanked you for having my back. For clearing out the other men in the village, for putting my head straight before the fight with their boss. For helping me..after. I’ve never had a friend who had my back like that before. So, thank you.”

  Her eyes widened, and then she smiled.

  Friends huh? Yea I guess we are. She thought. She’d never had a real friend before. Not her own age.

  “You’re welcome.” She said before she awkwardly let too much time go by after his comment. “You had my back in that fight. Only right I had yours as well. Speaking of which.” A smile tugged at her lips. She tried to subdue it. She knew that Will being forced to kill those men hung heavy on him. But still! He deserved to know how big of an accomplishment what he had done was. “You took down a fighter an entire realm of power above you!” She said excitedly. “How does it feel? Besides the horrifying realization that you had to take a life that is.”

  He rolled his eyes at her, but found himself smiling. “I’m dealing with the killings better than I thought I would be. I decided that sacrificing their lives to preserve the villager’s, especially that mother and son, are worth it to me. Besides, it was their choices that put them in that position. And that’s not my fault.”

  “Good!” She punched him in the shoulder in what she hoped was a gesture of camaraderie. But honestly she had no idea. She didn’t realize it, but she was as awkward about trying to make friends as Will was. She just hid it better. “But that’s not what I meant you idiot. Do you have any idea how rare it is when a fighter can genuinely hit above their weight class?”

  “You can.” He said simply. He was under the impression it was common. Or if not common, not exactly rare either.

  “I’m a genius. It’s different for me.”

  Will laughed. “Well I’m glad my traveling companion is so humble.”

  She smiled at him teasingly. “Never claimed to be. And no great cultivator is truly humble. To reach the high heights is to believe that you can. Being a cultivator is expensive and dangerous. Reaching beyond the lower realm takes more than just going through your paces. According to master Taleya there’s something more that you need and only the great can make it. She wouldn’t tell me what that was though.” She said with a pout.

  “Well for now I’ll just worry about getting to the Mind Realm. As far as that guy from yesterday.” He shrugged. “You were right, they were all kind of trash. Besides, I didn’t face him at his best. I didn’t give him time to use his element at all. And his skill fighting without his element was nothing to brag about. You make it sound like it was a big deal, but honestly I’m sure almost any half way decent cultivator in the Spirit Realm could have beaten him in the same circumstance.”

  Alea was going to argue. She wanted to change his attitude. She believed Will to be a great cultivator, if only he started acting like it. She didn’t push though. Not yet. He needed more time after the fight to get right again.

  “Anyway. There was something I wanted to ask you.” She raised her eyebrow at him, waiting for the question. “What made that massive roar during the fight?”