Chapter 156: Tiny People
Takeshi was walking through a forest that was not very dense, looking around with a somewhat bored expression.
"Oh gosh, if I had known, I would have refused. Wandering around like this, looking for a place for everyone to come to, but where can I find it? Wandering is so boring."
Feeling that searching was yielding no progress, Takeshi wanted to look down from above to observe.
Beneath his feet, a small mound of earth just large enough for him to stand on rose up, lifting him into the air. Takeshi put his hands on his hips and squinted his eyes to look around.
"Even though I've practiced, being in the air still feels so strange."
"It seems there are no villages ahead."
Within his sight, there were only trees and more trees, a green color of leaves stretching to the end of his vision. Feeling quite disappointed, he remained on the mound of earth and continued to fly, his speed a bit faster than a normal run.
After going on and on, there was still nothing. Takeshi jumped down and continued to walk, but unfortunately, he stepped on something.
Under his foot, where he stepped. A group of tiny people were running in a panic; their houses were tiny mounds of earth. The mound of earth from before, when Takeshi jumped down, he had also let it fall and unfortunately it had struck the wall of this tiny village.
The wall was as high as one of Takeshi's hand-spans; his foot stepped right next to the place where the wall was destroyed, and his foot also crushed a section of the wall. The wall was just stone using earth mixed with a bit of water and stacked up.
The screams of the tiny people were even smaller than the squeak of a mouse. Takeshi's hearing was quite good, so he noticed and leaned down.
Takeshi's eyes widened in surprise; he had never met tiny people before, only encountering them in books, but the books here were fairy tales about the loves of tiny people.
Takeshi leaned down wanting to see more clearly; the tiny people were running chaotically in the small village and pressing themselves against the walls. Coincidentally, Takeshi's mound of earth and Takeshi's foot had crushed both exits of this tiny village, leaving them no way out, and they pressed against the walls in terror.
"Is... it real? Real tiny people? This is definitely luck."
The tiny people—every one of them wore very coarse clothing, but very similar to humans. Some tiny people were carrying children; the soldiers of the tiny people were even trembling with fear while standing still, looking up at Takeshi who was pressing close and wanting to see more clearly.
Suddenly, from the crowd of tiny people—there were about over two hundred tiny people here—a tiny person leaning on a staff stepped forward; his hair was not yet completely white, but he appeared to be the village head. He raised his head high and spoke loudly:
"O Giant, whatever you want you can tell us, please leave us in peace."
Takeshi could hardly hear clearly; he was quite shocked to see tiny people, knowing that the old tiny person wanted to say something, but he couldn't hear. He leaned his ear close.
"Huh?"
When the tiny village head saw Takeshi lowering his ear close, his heart calmed a bit because he felt Takeshi probably didn't want to do anything. He courageously stepped closer to Takeshi's ear and wanted to speak.
The other tiny people standing behind showed clear worry and called him back:
"Village head... please don't go, it's very dangerous."
"Village head."
"Come back, village head."
He didn't care and stepped forward, his eyes shining with determination, two hands placed in front of his mouth as he yelled loudly:
"O Great Giant, please state your request, we will comply, please do not harm this place."
Takeshi's eyes showed clear interest as he raised his head and looked down; he was kneeling on the ground.
"They are tiny people; I wonder how it will be if I bring them back for everyone?"
Takeshi then replied: "Okay."
He stood up and stepped back; although the wall was devastated, fortunately no tiny people died.
Seeing Takeshi step back, the tiny people were overjoyed and hugged each other, cheering the village head's name.
Stepping out of the village's range, Takeshi knelt and leaned close, his eyes full of delight.
"Why are you guys here?"
After speaking, he leaned his ear down and awaited the next answer.
The village head also had to answer, there was no other way:
"This is our home."
Takeshi replied, showing clear interest and curiosity: "So is it dangerous here?"
The village head could only answer, because just one swing of a leg could kill all the tiny people:
"Yes, here we often have to confront an ant colony in the distance."
After hearing that, Takeshi also laughed in his heart when their difficulty was a swarm of ants; his eyes darted around, then he wanted these tiny people.
"So do you guys want to go with me? I will create a new home for you."
The old village head showed clear pensive thought. He knew that if he refused, he didn't know if Takeshi's mood would turn to anger and destroy this village, but if he agreed, would it be safe?
Smiling awkwardly and forcedly, he knew it was hard to stall because Takeshi was many times stronger; doing so would not be good.
Behind, the people of the village were all terrified; there were sounds of discussion—some agreed, some analyzed, but the common point was that they all didn't want to go, but if they stayed they might die.
The cries of the children in the tiny village were crying in unison.
The village head looked back, his gaze dropped, and he turned away. He saw everyone like that and knew it would surely be hard to make a decision, so he had to choose for the whole village and analyzed the best in his head.
"So where does the Great Giant want to go?"
Takeshi at this moment was no different from a nightmare to them, and they had imagined their own gloomy future.
He was happy and laughed loudly; his hand placed down on the ground and lifted up. A piece of land about more than one footstep wide was lifted. All the tiny people fell everywhere before the large vibration.
The village head could only take a risk and try to say:
"Please be calm, we will obey unconditionally."
Takeshi didn't hear clearly; he smiled and leaned down.
"Don't worry, I will take you away. Don't be afraid."
Suddenly, the earth underneath rose up and enveloped the piece of land, just like that it was wrapped into a sphere shape.
"Wonderful, surely everyone will be interested."
"You guys bear the darkness for a bit."
The ground under his feet just like that rose up, lifting his body high, flying along immediately on the right was the earth sphere he had covered. Takeshi turned in the opposite direction and headed back, clear excitement showing.
…
Moving to where the five remaining people are…
Airi and Aoto along with Ayaka were sitting at a wooden table; the thick canopy had holes cleared for light from above to shine down as the trees they planted here were extremely large. The three were sitting enjoying tea; the tea wasn't very good but drinking it was okay.
On the table were six cups—three containing tea for Airi, Aoto, and Ayaka. Beside them was a plate of red wild berries.
Aoto had a handful of wild berries in his hand and ate one. His face wrinkled because of its sourness, but it seemed this berry was quite addictive to eat so Aoto ate quite a lot; he glanced out toward Kazuka and Elyssia who were sparring.
Ayaka, Airi, and Aoto still had sweat on them; it seemed they had just finished training.
Airi took a sip of tea.
"Kazuka looks like he's progressed a lot, hasn't he?"
Ayaka: "Mhm, he is getting more and more flexible."
Aoto pointed toward the sparring match.
"Look, he attacks very ferociously, but his reflexes are still very fast. This kind of close-quarters combat truly creates great pressure. Not to mention he's very keen, attacking continuously with legs and hands, head, yet when being countered he can still dodge."
He nodded in admiration, while his hand still tossed wild berries into his mouth:
"Very flexible."
Kazuka continuously launched attacks, but Elyssia also continuously blocked and countered. They were only training simply without using energy; if they were sparring and a large energy burst occurred, they would sense it and rush over immediately—safety is better after all.
Let's look at Kazuka's actions when fighting; it looks very slow, but in reality it's extremely fast.
Kazuka's right hand swung the sword hard from above.
*Keng!!* The two swords did not have energy covering them, so the sound of metal clashing against each other rang out very clearly.
Elyssia blocked across and caught the slash.
Immediately after the two swords touched, Kazuka swung his left leg and kicked toward Elyssia's side. But Elyssia had caught Kazuka's leg, preventing the dangerous kick to the side.
Immediately Kazuka spun his body, his sword pulled back. His body spun once while his left leg was still held by Elyssia's right hand. A spinning kick was launched, his right leg aimed straight at Elyssia's face. At the same time, his right hand holding the sword stabbed backward toward Elyssia's chest.
But because it was training, Elyssia also yielded; her left hand struck hard at the left leg she was holding.
Kazuka let out an "ouch" and fell. Two hands braced against the ground, his right leg kicked upward, simultaneously his left leg twisted and escaped Elyssia's right hand.
She leaned back and dodged the direct kick to the face. Seeing he missed, his two hands contracted as if two legs were crouching and leaped forward again, and both left and right legs kicked out once more. But because Elyssia had previously kept her distance, she swung her leg and kicked at Kazuka's stomach.
The sequence of actions sounds very long, but in reality, it only takes place in an extremely short amount of time.
In a battle, many times it's hard to see the opponent's movements but only see blurry afterimages because the attack speed is too fast, but reflexes knowing there is danger will immediately find a way to counter, whether it's putting out a hand or backing away. When fighting, such sequences of actions happen very frequently.
In the match where Mythyr fought Kazuka it was the same; although the action sequences were a bit fewer, it was still quite dangerous, and mainly Mythyr often kept distance and used the Earth element making Kazuka's dodging very tiring.