The Journey Of The Wretched Spring

The Immense Battle

It’s unfortunate and heartbreaking to see them tending to their loved ones' wounds.

I’ll make sure that they won’t live this kind of life again, and I’ll clean up the city that’s been corrupted.

My skin’s hair suddenly stood up, and my instinct was telling me to be wary when I saw a man entering the hallway of the abandoned building.

Everyone’s expression suddenly changed, like in a drama where they saw their hero arrive.

"Mom, what’s going on?"

"Son, A guest arrived, and these fools provoked them and rushed towards them; that’s why they’re in that state."

"Where’s Wilbert?"

"He’s in his room resting after he fell to the ground unconscious."

"That muscle head."

"Son, you should apologize to our guest."

"Okay, mom, wait here."

"No, I’ll come with you."

My instincts are trembling, and my mind is shaking. My unwavering confidence trembled when I felt his eyes gaze at me.

"Hello, I apologize for what my friends have done to you. I hope you can forgive us for this unsightly behavior."

"No need to worry; I came here to talk and had no intention to start a war."

"Thank you. So, what do you want to talk about? By the way, I’m Barry."

"Gareth. I came to talk about making you my subordinate to unite the downtown."

Barry smiled vaguely, but I could see the doubt in his eyes. The gaze of the beast was nothing to joke about; this pressure is terrifying.

"I don’t see any merit in me becoming your subordinate, Mr. Gareth."

"I can help you protect your neighborhood and destroy the others, like North Kind."

Barry crackled. "I don’t see any reasons to follow you."

"If you follow me, I’ll destroy North Kind and High Horse for you. That way, no more conflict will arise in the future."

"That’s true, however. If you happen to fail, it could be our demise."

"You don’t need to worry about it, since I’m confident that I can do it."

"Confidence doesn’t do shit."

"You can try, with my confidence. However, if you completely lose, you’ll follow me until I fulfill my goal."

"Seems fair. Let’s start."

"Then you set the rules."

The mood suddenly changed, and the air was cold as his dagger-like eyes gazed at me and said,

"Hey, in a dog-eat-dog There’s no such thing as rules; you either die or live."

"Then, son, I’ll set the rules. The one who loses unconsciousness loses."

"Sounds fair to me, ma’am."

Barry rushed towards me without hesitation, aiming for my abdomen, but he suddenly tackled me. I resisted, but it was late.

*THUD*

I fell to the ground as I saw Barry’s punches going down towards my face.

*BANG—BANG—BANG*

Every punch that landed against my skin hurt so much as I tried to defend myself from his continuous attack.

I broke his momentum and stood up as fast as I could. I countered him with a low kick as I clinched my fist to hit him, but Barry was already a step ahead.

*BAM*

He hit me with his forehead, and I was forced to kneel because of the impact. As I tried to regain my stance, Barry grabbed a chair and slammed it against my back. I fell to the ground helplessly.

*BOOM*

The pain is overwhelming. Barry continued to hit me with the chair until it shattered. He smirked and looked down on me.

"Is this the best you can do? I was hopeful for nothing."

"We’re not done yet."

I felt fear, not from a human but from a beast.

*SWOOSH—BAM*

Barry lost his balance when I hit his leg with the remains of the shattered chair. I went above him and started launching my punches.

As Barry tried to resist and counter, my legs were already locked around his waist. I punched and punched; my mind was already seized by my fear of losing, and my sight was already overshadowed by my thirst for blood and victory. When the hand that protects Barry’s head falls off, Jaymar rushes towards me and stops me.

"He’s already unconscious! Stop now!"

My body was already moving on its own, and I could not suppress the urge to kill him.

*SWOOSH—BOOM*

Barry’s mother rushed and hit me with a metal rod, and as my sight was dominated by my anger, Jaymar grabbed both my hands and said,

"Stop now, Gareth! You already win!"

As I regained consciousness, I sat on the ground and sighed. I wasn’t able to suppress my instinct and the will to live.

As Barry’s mother walked towards me, she gave me a bottle of water and said,

"Rest for now, dear. I hope you can forgive me for hitting you." Her face looked terrified as she approached me.

I understand why she had to do that. After all, no mother in the world would let her only son die, and the match was already over.

"No worries; it was my fault to begin with."

That’s right. I was sure I could control myself, but I was on the verge of losing. I lost myself. With this flaw of mine, I thought I had already learned how to suppress my emotions.

In the future, there would be more and more terrifying enemies that I could encounter. Losing my rationality would someday result in my death.

Barry’s terrifying strength and enormous experience in fighting make me completely lose to him. What a disgrace! After training for years, I couldn’t completely win and was instead almost overpowered by him.

"Your fight was great; how’s your head?"

"Nothing serious."

"You should probably have controlled yourself back then; you were like a beast who lost his reasoning."

"I know, it was pathetic."

"You’re right, it was pathetic."

This guy, are you here to console me or make fun of me?

"You know, seeing you like that, I thought you were a completely different person. But I was relieved when you calmed down, and I was assured that you haven’t become insane after all these years."

"It was necessary."

"Yeah, since Christian’s hunting you down. When you disappeared, there were people in suits looking for you."

"People in suits?"

"Yeah, did you perhaps know something that you shouldn’t have known?"

As I nodded, the air changed.

"What is it?"

"Christian was the one who killed my father, he asked someone. When we were going home with my father, the taxi that we were riding was hit by a truck. Christian’s father, Arthur, was captivated by my mother’s beauty, but when he saw my mother and father together, he commissioned someone to damage our car’s brakes, and my mother was killed in that accident."

I saw how shocked and frightened Jaymar was. He thought that Arthur wasn’t a wicked bastard. I can understand since Arthur always wore his calm and kind mask.