Odyssey Of The Sword Dancer

1. The Beginning after the End

"Find him!"

Rain fell freely without control.

"Don't let him escape!"

The city was coated in darkness, the heavy downpour of rain drowning out every other sound.

The air felt oppressive

Yet under this condition five men could be seen running through alleys, and a distance from them was a young man running for his life.

Each step he took was drowned in urgency.

He kept on running and weaving through alleys, but his luck finally came to an end.

He ran into a dead end. Standing there he didn't bother turning back.

The rain slowly came to a drizzle.

"How long did you think you could run, Oliver," a young man who seemed to be the youngest among the five stepped out. "Did you think you could outshine me and get away with it?"

Turning around slowly, Oliver lifted his head; his expression bearing the severity of the situation he was in.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at them calmly, but the pain and betrayal he felt was clearly visible in his eyes.

"I didn't really see you as the backstabbing type," Oliver said with a shaky voice.

"You betrayed me first, you got signed into phantom prints, one of the biggest dance companies in the world." Jason said. "That was my dream!"

"So you want to kill me and then take my place," Oliver said in realization, anger surging through his body. "Then let's not waste anymore time."

He pushed his hair back and beneath the rain, he made his choice.

He was going to fight his way out.

Seeing the look on Oliver's face, Jason couldn't help but smile. "You never did know when to give up."

He made a signal with his hand and the men behind him moved forward.

Oliver raised his fists and smirked. "And you never did know when to shut up."

No further words were said.

One of the men ran forward with a grin and threw a punch at Oliver.

Oliver pushed his hand to the side and punched the man right in the face. Another fist came flying and he jerked his head backwards, barely avoiding the punch.

Then another punch entered his line of vision, then a kick to the stomach. Attacks kept on coming. He couldn't dodge them all.

Slowly bruises started to appear on his body, including a swollen eye.

He raised his hands to block the attacks with his back against a wall.

Oliver could barely see, and the rain wasn't helping either. 'What's the use, I'm gonna die sooner or later, so why bother fighting.'

Thoughts like this ran through Oliver's head, until he caught a glimpse of Jason's face.

There was no remorse or pity. "How did I not see him for who he truly is."

They had spent years together, he barely kept secret from Jason, but here he was, about to get killed by who he considered his best friend.

Suddenly, he felt extremely furious, he didn't feel the blows anymore. Blood flowed out of his mouth and other cuts in his body but he didn't feel a thing.

Call it adrenaline or whatever you want.

At that moment none of that mattered to Oliver.

At that moment it felt like his body was completely under his control.

He caught a fist flying towards his face and drag the assailant forward, punching him right in the neck.

The man collapsed with a strangled cry. While the other men were standing still in shock, Oliver moved.

He grabbed another man and pushed him into the others. He rushed out of the tight corner he was in and readied himself.

"You fucking kid!" with a shout one of the men punched at Oliver. Oliver bent low and swept his leg off the ground.

"This is a waste of time," another shouted. He brought out a knife and ran towards Oliver. Without an ounce of fear, Oliver met him head on.

The man stabbed at Oliver, but Oliver sidestepped the attack, the man continued slashing and hacking at Oliver, but for some reason Oliver kept on dodging each attack.

"What are you doing?!" Jason screamed. "Just kill him already!"

Oliver kicked the man with the knife in the stomach, punched another in the face and dodged a punch to his face.

'Maybe I can actually make it out of this,' those were Oliver's last thought. He was struck in the head with a brick.

Oliver stumbled, trying to stay upright but it was futile.

He hit the ground face first.

He made an attempt to stand up, but his face was stomped back into the ground. Blood flowed unabated from his head, washed away by the rain.

"You really thought fighting back would change anything?" Jason asked mockingly, his feet still on Oliver's face.

Oliver had never felt this amount of hatred for anyone before. 'I will kill you even if it's the last thing I do.'

Jason lifted his leg and stepped back. "Give me the knife."

The man with the Knife handed it over and stepped back.

"Goodbye Oliver," Just as Jason bent down to stab him, Oliver turned and stabbed him in the eye with a piece of iron he took from the ground.

"Aaarrgghh!!"

"Hahaha, go to hell, mother fucker," seeing Jason scream like that made all the anger in Oliver fade away.

The goons moved forward to kill Oliver before he caused anymore trouble.

"Don't! I'll do it myself!" With a bloody hand covering his eye he moved towards Oliver.

And without any hesitation, he stabbed him, over and over again. Oliver didn't scream, he was already numb after the adrenaline wore off, he just stared at Jason.

Jason kicked him one more time then turned to walk away. Staring at Oliver with nothing but disdain. "Let's go."

With those words he and his goons turned and walked away.

Lying under the rain, Oliver continued to grow weaker. 'What a shitty life, just when things were starting to get better .... I died, or at least I'm almost dead.'

'Mum, I'm sorry,' he knew his mum was someone who over reacted on the smallest of issues, he couldn't help but think of how devastated she would be after hearing of his death.

His dad and his siblings, just thinking of how they would feel hurt him more than the pain of dying.

Slowly, his thoughts became all mixed up and then ....he died.

Time flew by without pause. And Oliver was beginning to get tired. "Am I gonna die or what?"

Opening his eyes he found himself in a white void filled with clouds. "The fuck? I was on Earth like a few seconds ago."

He stood up and walked around for a while. "Am I in heaven? But if this is heaven, should it be this quiet?"

All of a sudden the clouds began to gather and formed a swirling mass of light.

Oliver stared at it for a while. "What is that supposed to be?"

After a while he walked towards it. "Well let's see where this leads."

Closing his eyes, he stepped through the swirling mass. he didn't know how much time had passed, all he could think about was the pain he was going through.

It felt like he was being stretched and compressed at the same time. All of a sudden, the pressure disappeared.

Opening his eyes, Oliver was expecting to see a mystical place or something like that. Instead he was heading towards the ground at an alarming speed

"What the-"

-Bang!