Flow of Existence

When the wolves were all gone the village chief suddenly called out to Ade. "Ade, come here I really shouldn't be rewarding you for this, but letting this go to waste would be even worse."

Ade was as pale as a ghost. She apparently had no idea her grandpa was this monstrously strong, she could only fear what type of punishment would await back in the village.

The village chief signaled, pointing towards the elemental beast that was laying on the ground. "This elemental beast is still alive, you take the final hit. I'm sorry Nash but I hope you will understand, she's still my granddaughter after all." 

Nash snorted. "No hard feelings but I would appreciate it if you would at least patch me up, I'm sort of bleeding out here."

The village chief laughed. "Yes, I will but I first need to oversee this, who knows what that half dead wolf could pull."

Nash gave him a nod as he took the limited bandages he had left and just started patching himself up, seemingly uninterested in the killing of the elemental beast.

He wasn't really, he was busy sneaking glances at how Ade was approaching the large black menacing wolf that had just almost killed them.

As Ade came closer the wolf suddenly grunted and let out a burst of its Flow. Both Ade and Nash froze, but the village chief seemed unaffected.

The village chief snorted. "Half dead beasts should know when to quit."

He dashed over to the beast, before Nash could even follow he was already there. That was when he heard a loud bang and saw the wolf fully knocked out again. No longer under pressure from the wolf's Flow Nash decided to give the killing of the beast his full attention now.

Meanwhile Ade decided to stop taking it slow too, she sped up and stood next to her grandpa and the half dead wolf.

She reluctantly looked up towards her grandpa. "So what do I do now?"

The village chief sighed, seemingly even more annoyed than before. "Just slit its throat, and do it fast. Come on, we don't have all day."

Ade took out her knife and quickly slashed the throat of the powerful elemental wolf. Each of movements were not without fear, the fear the fight with the wolf had engraved into her no doubt lingering.

But when the deed was done her expression changed from one of fear to one of elation. Nash had never seen her so happy before, she must have gained a lot. He also saw her quickly close her eyes, to check her innate element, no doubt.

While Ade still had her eyes closed the village chief suddenly hit her on the top of her head. "What are you being happy for, come with me and fast."

The village chief looked at Nash. "Your friend is waiting for us too."

…

Back at the village chief's home, which was a small hut on the outskirts of the village, Kes, Nash and Ade were now all sitting around a half circle table. Standing in front of the half circle table was the village chief, despite his old age his face was one of mostly annoyance.

The village chief sighed. "You two can count yourself very lucky, if Kes had gone to anyone but me both of you would have died."

Kes' expression changed to one of surprise, he had seen Nash's wounds but to think it was that serious. He was glad to have made the right decision, coming to the village chief was a gamble after all. But seeing how the old man had rushed out to save the two Kes knew they were in good hands.

This also finally confirmed his suspicion of the village chief being freakishly strong. Nash and Ade both looked like they had seen a ghost. The village chief must have really pulled out the stops, but Kes wasn't there to witness it so he still did know the full extent of his abilities.

The village chief gave Ade a glare which made her shudder. "First of all, Ade, you are suspended from the academy until further notice. You can expect to miss the actual hunting exam in a month, even though you made way bigger gains this time than any student will probably ever make during that exam. The forest will obviously also be off limits for you during the suspension, I expect you to never do any of this again."

Ade gave a meek nod. 

Kes pulled up an eyebrow and looked at the village chief. "Bigger gains than any student will ever make? What exactly did they run into in the forest?"

Kes had felt Ade's Flow increase. She was sitting next to him and was not that great at suppressing it after all. But Kes wasn't that great at detecting either so he couldn't exactly tell by how much it had increased. 

Kes also had no clue what a large Flow increase after a hunt would mean he had never hunted himself after all. He could tell Ade had made a way bigger gain than Nash, but that made sense, she was the one who ran into the forest after all.

The village chief turned his gaze at Kes. "It was a wolf who had formed its innate fire element. It seemed to only have formed it recently, but most of the villagers would still do anything to get a kill on one of those things."

Kes' face turned to one of shock. An elemental beast was not something you heard about every day. Kes shuddered at the idea of standing face to face with such a monster. He now realized why both of his classmates were looking so pale.

He quickly glanced at Ade, she had landed the final hit on the beast. Kes wondered how far ahead the girl was ahead of him now. She must have gotten a lot closer to forming her innate element, he wondered how the circle looked when she closed her eyes.

But the biggest difference was her Flow increase, she had no use for her innate element increase until she actually formed it after all. Kes had already been quite far behind but she would probably really be out of his league now. 

Kes felt annoyed at the idea of Ade being rewarded for her recklessness but decided to swallow his words, he understood the village chief was already less than pleased with her behavior.

The village chief's expression shifted to the expression he usually wore while teaching at the academy. "So, I have a quick question for the three of you. When do you think you have won a battle?"

Ade answered first. "That's simple, when you kill the enemy."

The village chief nodded. "Yes of course, when you kill the enemy you have won the battle. But I am looking for something more specific."

Nash answered next. "It should be when you come out of the battle with the upper hand."

The village chief nodded once again. "Good answer, but I am looking for something even more specific."

Kes answered last. "Even more specific? Hmm, I'd say you have won the battle when you survive."

The village chief grinned. "Exactly, survival is everything. Killing the opponent, reaping benefits, retaining honor, all of these don't mean shit. Not if you die, that is, everything you have ever done will become meaningless once you die. Some people obsess over leaving a legacy for future generations. They risk everything, for their pride, their honor but I have always been of the belief that these things do not mean shit."

Kes considered these words. They had always been somewhat in line with his philosophy, but never this extremely. 

Kes raised his hand.

The village chief nodded. 

Kes asked his question. "So how far would you say one has to go for their survival?"

The village chief sighed. "Sacrifice anything, everything and everyone. That is what a true warrior should do at least. Your life is your everything, every death is meaningless. Cut down whoever stands in your way no matter if they have a family or not, think of your survival and your survival only. It's something I would no longer do, but if you want to walk the path of a warrior it is what one should do."

Kes nodded, thankful for the information. He seemed to have gained new insight.

Nash was looking thoughtfully also carefully absorbing the words of the powerful old man.

Ade looked more scared than she ever had, she was clearly not used to this side of her grandpa. It was a little too much for her.

The village chief looked the scared young girl straight in her icy blue eyes. "What I mean to say is what you did today was stupid, very stupid. Do not risk your life for meaningless power, not when you are this young. It's not worth it, yet."

With those words the village chief showed Kes, Nash and Ade the door. Ade and Nash left quickly but Kes stayed a little longer.

Kes turned to the village chief. "Why did you let Nash off the hook, you knew he was guilty too."

The village chief showed a look of surprise. "Oh, you figured it out too, you really are getting better at reading Flow. My reason was quite simple, I rewarded Ade by letting her kill elemental beast, so I let Nash off the hook this one time. I'm sure he won't do it again in the future. The girl probably dragged him into it too."

Kes grinned. "Actually I hadn't figured it out at all, but thanks for confirming it for me."

The village chief's face turned even more surprised. His wrinkled face showed a look of amused surprise. "I wasn't wrong when I said you are getting better at controlling Flow, I couldn't read you at all. How did you manage that?"

Kes still had a grin on his face. "I simply made myself believe that I knew Nash was in on it. It's not like the signs weren't there, his parents weren't home but he sent me there. He was somehow even more hurt than Ade. And he had gained a whole lot of Flow too, I might not know a lot about hunting but it seemed more than natural. Also running into Ade like that was just too coincidental."

The question had one other purpose, gauging the village chief's strength, and more specifically Flow control. Kes wondered how much strength the village chief was actually hiding, and apparently his Flow control was even better than he had expected, Kes hadn't sensed anything off about Nash at all.

The village chief gave him an amused nod. "I see, very well done, you sure are a clever one. You have a lot of potential, keep working hard and you will no doubt catch up to those two at some point."

"I have another question." Kes suddenly said, sounding a lot more serious. "When you said that sacrificing everything for your own life is something you would no longer do, what would you have sacrificed in the past? Or let me rephrase that, how many people."

The village chief's amusement disappeared from his face. "Let me ask you a question in return, do you think sacrificing everything to save your own life is evil?"

Kes shook his head.

The village chief continued. "Now how many people would one have to sacrifice before it does make them evil? A hundred? A thousand? A million? The whole world? People like to quantify evil by how many lives one would give up to save their own. Everyone is an object of their circumstances, everyone does everything they can to survive. But when someone sacrifices a million people to save that life that every human being tries to preserve they suddenly turn evil."

"And yet we humans still quantify lives. A king's life is worth more than a million homeless vagrants. We hesitate to kill when we learn a person has a family, kids waiting for them at home. We sympathize with thieves when we learn they only steal to keep their family fed. So just think about it for yourself, how many humans would you kill in order to survive? And when does it reach the line of unacceptable evil?"

After saying that, the village chief turned around and stepped back into his house. 

Kes stood there dazed as he thought over the old man's words. Even though the chief had not really answered his question he knew one thing for sure, after today he really was never going to mess with the old village chief.