Beyond Gods 67 "Just Doing Our Jobs"

Johan gazed down at his cuffed wrists speechless.

"I am fighting in the tournament tomorrow," said Johan, "I can't be in prison for a week."

"You are not fighting anymore," said the solider as he shone a flashlight in Johan's face, "For all we know your one of the people killing off fighters to get an edge. Maybe you will have better luck next year."

"Please make an exception," said Johan, "you can escort me home. The city is in danger and I heard news that some mercenaries are planning to mount an attack to destroy this city."

"That is the most far out excuse I have ever heard from a person who has broken the law," laughed the soldier. "You people are sure getting creative with your curfew excuses! But, the law is the law. You broke it and your reasons don't matter. Take this as a life lesson. From now on, you should be more aware. You know what we deal with yearly, it is as dangerous for us pre-tournament as it is for you. Being trained as a soldier doesn't make us invincible to guns. For all we know, you are one of the killers, especially, since you are in the tournament. People these "days will do anything to look good."

"Jim," said another soldier, "Tell Corporal Jade that we got another night prowler, she wanted to deal with and personally interrogate everyone who breaks the rules independently this year."

"Serious?," said another soldier, "She is getting almost as micromanaging as Armyka. I pray I never have to report directly to either of them ..."

Things had just gone from bad to worse, Johan knew he had to do something.
Jade had tried to kill him, chances are that she would if they met again.

"Kid," said a soldier, "don't take it personally, we are just doing our jobs ... its just one tournament and you are still young."

CRACK!!!!

Johan clasped his handcuffed hands together and slammed it into one of the soldier's jaws. His head snapped to the side awkwardly as he collapsed onto the floor.

"UGhhHHHH!!!!," Johan grunted in pain.

His fists was still partially broken and the strike had made it worse.
His broken fist began to swell.

He grunted his teeth and continued.

[Five soldiers ... One down, four to go,] thought Johan.

Johan used the momentum of his strike to twist his torso to throw a spinning kick.

SWOOSSHHHHHH!!!

CRACK!

Johan's leg flew through the air at lightening fast speed striking the side of another soldier's head, instantly rendering him unconscious.

Johan let out a giant flash of light, using a mana technique, blinding the soldiers.

Johan used the momentum of his first kick to throw another kick at another soldier with pin point accuracy on the side of the head.

FLOP!

The solider fell to the floor as his entire body instantaneously went limp.

In less than five seconds, Johan had knocked out three soldiers.

Three down, thought Johan, two to go.

"What happened!?," yelled the first solider.

"Get reinforcements!," yelled the other soldiers. "I'll hold him off! He used a mana technique!"

"I can't see!," yelled the first soldier.

Johan was no fool, he knew that the only reason he had knocked out three soliders in a row was because they hadn't expected him to attack. However, these were men trained for combat, he didn't know how powerful they'd be if they actually got pre-emptive and used what they had learnt.
But he did know they were feared and respected even by higher level fighters because of their unique training, supplements and strength.

Johan took the soldiers blindness as a sign to run away. He leaped off the ground, towards an alley wall leaving a crater where he had been standing.

He bounced from wall to alley wall quickly scaling the building and creating as much distance between him and the soldiers as possible.

Tap!

Tap!

Tap!

Johan's feet lightly hit the walls, as he carefully made sure that he didn't use more strength than was necessary to climb the walls.

"I have to get out of these hand cuffs," muttered Johan to himself.

Umph!

With a grunt, Johan ripped apart the handcuffs. His training had been paying off, and his raw strength was back now that he wasn't on earth anymore.

His heart beat like a machine gun and adrenaline rushed through his veins.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEP!

Horns began to blare throughout the city.

"RED ALERT," boomed a male soldier's voice on city wide speaker, "AN ACTIVE KILLER IS ON THE PROWL! ARMED AND DANGEROUS! SOLDIERS HAVE BEEN KILLED! BE ON YOUR GUARD, SHOOT ANY NON-SOLDIERS ON SIGHT DURING NON-CURFEW HOURS! ENEMY KNOWS MANA TECHNIQUES!"

Johan found a ledge of a building and stooped down, crouching and staring down at the city quietly.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Johan heard gun shots going off in the distance.

Spreading out his perception, he realized that there were several non-soldiers out at this time, he hadn't been the only one. Many were being shot, more people were running to find shelters frantically.

Johan's heart wavered as he realised people were being killed because of him.

Furthermore, he sensed that all the solders he had struck were dead. Their necks had been broken.

Once again, he had killed ...

He had killed three innocent soliders who were only following orders.

Guilt creeped into Johan's mind, but he quickly put it in a mental box and locked away the feelings inside him. Their deaths were not his fault or intention.

"I had to do it," whispered Johan, "It wasn't my intention ... or my fault. Worse things will happen if I just followed their orders. It was either them, or me and everyone in this city. They were sentencing me to death with their actions. I tried to talk it out, but they wouldn't listen. I tried."

Johan gazed into the darkness out of Looking Gla.s.s City and saw the glimmering shadow of Silverblade's giant turtle approaching ominously. By his estimate it was still at a week away from getting to the city.

"First, I'll go get dad tonight, tomorrow morning I'll hide Luisa and the others in the pits. It should be safe there from any bombings. Then, I will let everyone know during the tournament that they have to leave," muttered Johan, "everyone will be watching. I can at least save the people that listen ..."

Johan decided to head to Kru Bu's gym because it was closest to him.

-- Ø --

Johan made it to Kru Bu's gym.

The door was unlocked and walking in he found Kru Bu alone kicking the heavy bag.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

In the mirror, Kru Bu took notice of Johan standing behind him and spun around stunned.

"Johan!," Kru Bu gasped. "I thought you had perished with the others. Jade told me she saw you die!"

"I am fine," said Johan, "things went terribly wrong, but I survived."

"Thank Buddha that you are alive ... But how did you get back without me?," said Kru Bu. "How come you weren't transported out with the others?"

"I don't know," said Johan.

He felt like he could trust Kru Bu, but he thought explaining his entire adventure would be complicated and difficult to grasp. For now, he was here to train and impress at the tournament. Get the support of an upper realm sect and get strong enough to protect his friends and take out Armyka. Hiding and making excuses had become a habit for Johan since it had simplified many complicated situations and even gave him an advantage at times.

Quickly, Johan came up with a cover story to minimize questions from Kru Bu.

"I was transported back here," said Johan, "But there was a delay."

Kru Bu nodded thoughtfully.

"On occasion in the past," said Kru Bu, "I have been transported to other locations, but to think there was a gate from that realm to here. What happened was unfortunate and unexpected, no one has died there in the past. It saddened me deeply, if I had known, I would have never taken you."

"My fight is tomorrow," said Johan.

"I see," said Kru Bu, "are you here to train?"

"Yes," said Johan, "Can you help me? One on one training for your favorite student?"

"Of course," said Kru Bu with a smile. "Lets. .h.i.t some pads."

"I left my fight card at home," said Johan.

"I looked on the fight schedule," said Kru Bu. "They'll send a transporter ball here to take you to the fight location at five in the morning tomorrow. I hadn't informed them of your disappearance."

"Transporter ball?" asked Johan.

"Think of it as a flying teleporter," said Kru Bu, "but they look like floating tennis b.a.l.l.s. They recently started using them in the last seven years. They army still uses high level technologies because arrays and many mana techniques and technologies don't work predictably here."

"Okay," said Johan.

Kru Bu picked up some hitting pads and said, "Alright, put on your hand wraps and gloves and hit some pads. Lets win that tournament and make this gym proud!"