Invincible Earth! : Volume 1

The manual followed with detailed instructions regarding how to meditate and gather energy in the body. Lance decided to study the contents in detail when he got some time to himself.

He looked up to find Darius walking toward him with a what looked like a small kid beside him.

Both Lance and Darius were not very tall, standing at around 5 feet 9 inches. The kid though, was half their height. This was why Lance even called him kid in his mind.

Darius walked up to him and said, “This is Entsy. When I told him about you, he wanted to come with us.”

Darius inconspicuously bent close and whispered in his ear,” Don’t underestimate him because of his height. He has a very strong nature and is the same age as us. Just don’t say anything about height.”

Lance shook the hand that Entsy had stretched out. He had middle eastern features, with black hair, black eyes and olive colored skin. His downward facing nose especially stood out in Lance’s vision.

“I’m Etsy. I heard Darius talking about you and decided to come over. I hope we become great friends.”

“I hope the same. I’m Lance, please to meet you.“, said Lance as he returned the greeting. Etsy seemed very amiable. He wondered why Darius had seen the need to warn him.

“Lets go to the cafeteria! There’s a map of IE on the back of every cultivation manual. For now though, just follow me!“, said Darius as he started marching to the door.

The door could only accommodate one or at most 2 people at a time, which was strange considering the size of the room. As such, there was a queue to exit which the group of three joined.

With nothing else to do, they started chatting about their daily life. Lance was delighted to find out that the other two also liked playing video games, so they got into a long discussion about the Witcher franchise. This felt like a breath of fresh air in the wholly foreign place that Lance was in.

After a half hour of waiting, Lance’s group reached the door. Just when they were exiting, they found themselves shoved aside by another group of three who had skipped the queue.

“Hey! There’s a queue here!“, shouted Lance at the group who were leaving as if they had done something very normal.

As the group turned around in the hallway, Lance could see who it was that was so brazen. The teen who had answered that he was first was in the center, being flanked by two huge people who seemed to be twins. They had blocky features and did not look like teens at all.

“Oh? But I feel we don’t need to follow the queue. Do you have the guts to change my feelings?“, asked the blonde-haired youth with a smirk on his face.

Lance didn’t know how to respond. This wasn’t an answer one would typically expect.

As he was thinking what to say, Darius who had exited behind him said,“Of course we do! Go show him Lance!”

Lance felt himself being pushed from behind towards the hostile group of three.

He realized that he had entered the first fight of his life without his own volition.

Lance couldn’t help but curse, “Why is everyone I meet here so despicable?”

…

Lance had less than a second to figure out what to do. He had seldom gotten into fights in his life, with most of them just being scuffles that didn’t require much thought.

As one of the twins’ fist got closer and closer in his vision, all he could do was close his eyes and brace himself. As he did so, he felt something deep inside awakening and calling to him. He felt that if he reached out and grabbed that something, he could send the fist and the twin flying.

Before he could even begin to imagine how to reach out, he felt a sharp pain on his forehead that pulled him away from the dream-like state he was in for a fraction of a second.

The next thing he felt was his brain moving too fast to adapt to, hitting his skull as he reversed directions and flew backwards like a rocket.

The only thing that he could console himself with was that he was caught by two arms which cushioned his momentum and stopped him from fainting. Looking up, he saw that Darius had caught him and said “Thank you” woozily. The sudden movements had shocked the consciousness in his untrained body and had resulted in him becoming slightly delirious. If he remembered that this whole thing had taken place because of Darius in the first place, he definitely wouldn’t be thanking him now.

Darius sighed as he saw Lance slumped in his arms.

“You blockheads could have gone easy on him. Now, hes gonna have a bruise on his first day. I can’t call myself his friend unless I take a at least a little bit of revenge for him. You stay out of this, Apollo. There will be a time and place for us to fight. And when that time comes, I will beat you.“, he said as he pointed at the blonde-haired kid.

“No problem Darius. I’ve heard rumors that it was only by a very small margin that I beat you to become number 1. When that time comes, I can show everyone that a winner is a winner, by a centimeter or by a mile. Have fun with them. Boys, meet me back in the cafeteria. Remember, don’t cause too much of a mess, its the first day and the higher ups have a thing for newbies. Also, don’t underestimate these two. That guy is ranked second and that midget is ranked 10th. You two are a measly 50th and 51st rank, so I don’t expect that much from you. Surprise me, and we can talk further about those strength-amplifying materials.“, said Apollo before he sneered and Darius and left along the pathway.

It seemed that Apollo’s words had served to ramp up the twins fighting spirit. “We, Dimi and Domo are undefeated when we fight together no matter how many opponents there are. Bring it on, high rankers. Let’s see if you really deserve those ranks.“, said the twins as their eyes gleamed as if they were looking at prey.

“Look at these rookies, Entsy. I go left, you take the right. Let’s finish up fast, we still have to get Lance to the quarters. And I’m hungry.“, said Darius as he set Lance down near the wall.

Entsy nodded. He had been bristling with fury ever since Apollo had called him “midget” and now was the perfect opportunity to take out that anger.

“Pie. I want pie.”

Lance’s words brought pin drop silence to the tense atmosphere. The only sounds that could be heard were that of people gathering behind them to see an epic fight.

As Lance started making imaginary snow angels on the ground, the crowd couldn’t help but start laughing.

…

Darius ignored the laughter as he gathered his power. Since birth, he had had a strong connection with the earth. As a youth, he used to spend hours and hours just lying on the ground, feeling the pulse of the earth. This worried his parents, but the smile of utter peace on his face stopped them from disturbing him.

When he had been taken in by his ancestor, he had found out that the connection he had was actually his intrinsic nature. From then on started endless training sessions, but he never complained one bit because he was the happiest when he was in contact with the earth.

As time went on, he learnt to be connected even if he wasn’t in physical contact with the earth. Even on the tallest skyscraper, he could feel the link, strong as steel.

Entsy always had a panache for running. When he was a baby, his parents were shocked to see that he always ran more than he walked. This love for running and moving caused him to go down the path of efficiency, of figuring out a way to move and keep moving, however he wanted. His intrinsic nature stemmed from this desire to be as fast as an exploding bullet or as untiring as a stallion.

The twins started running toward them.

A smile spread across Darius’s face as he felt his power coursing through his veins, being strengthened by his connection with the earth. It gave the power a feeling of weight, a feeling of dependability, a feeling of stubborn resilience.

He wound back his arm, and at the perfect moment that the power reached his fingers, he punched with all his might into Dimi’s stomach.

Dimi was shocked. One moment, his fist was inches away from landing on Darius’s face and the next, he saw a blur as Darius’s arm was already planted in his stomach.

The earthy fragrance that permeates in the moments before rain graces starved soil could be smelled in the room. Everyone breathed in deep as this wonderful scent wafted all around.

As for Dimi, he flew across the room and with a loud “thud’ hit the wall of the passageway before slumping down, listless.

On the other side, Domo could be found lying on the ground with two shoe marks on his face. People had barely registered that exchange as it had been much less flashier than Darius’s performance. One moment, Entsy was bent, staring at his legs, as if preparing to high jump. The next, there was a flash as an image of Entsy was seen on the wall and the next thing one heard was a dull “thwak!” as Domo fell down. Entsy could be seen standing in his original place again.

Both of them looked towards each other as they smiled, panting. They had used their best moves and almost all of their power to take out the twins in one move. Even then, luck had played an important factor because they could take care of the twins’ inattentiveness due to Lance’s timely remark.

The crowd broke out in thunderous applause, in awe of the wonderful performance. It inspired many to work hard in cultivation and hopefully become as cool as these two.

Some of the people, who were more knowledgeable than others, hastened to share the information. “Do you know them?“, they asked. “Its “Gaia” Darius and “Spring” Entsy! Ranked 2nd and 10th! One has a link with the earth that makes their every move carry the might of a thousand mountains! The other can vibrate his legs so fast that it cannot be seen by the naked eye! He stores this energy in his legs and can then burst forward, faster than a bullet!“, they said as the people listening “aaaah!“ed and “ooooh!“ed.

Although these words were highly exaggerated, people understood that these were two people to look out for.

Stars shine eventually, whether they are momentarily hidden by sunlight or too far away to reach our eyes yet.