Chapter 5: Think Positively
Mac tried to push the old man away, but his grip on his shoulders was too firm.
"What the heck, you junkie Santa!?" Mac said. "Let it go of me already!"
"Please, Mac Key Kast!" The old man did not budge and continued pleading. "I don't have much time left. You are my last chance! You need to become my disciple!"
The scene could be considered comical if you weren't one of the people involved. A mountain of a man was on the ground, supplicating with everything that he had, just so then the kid in front of him would call him master. The scene could be considered creepy too.
Mac tried to punch the man away. But he could only throw awkward punches considering that the old man would not let go of his shoulders.
When Mac realized that his punches had no effect, he called for Hai. "Hey, Hai! I know that this situation must be confusing you, but would you be a dear and burn this guy here to ashes?."
"Huh, what!?" Hai seemed to have come back to reality. "Burn him? Wait, no! Mac, who is this guy? And what did he mean when he said that he could cure your Small Orbis?"
Hai couldn't make sense of the situation. If there were someone so willing to cure Mac's broken Small Orbis, why did Mac come to her village?
Mac turned his head to Hai as he, reluctantly, touched the old man's face to push him away.
"Well, you see... huh..." He tried to think of a reasonable reason why he refused the old man's help. "There is no way there isn't a catch in his proposition. If he cures my Small Orbis, and if I become a cultivator because of him, he will probably demand me to do something difficult, like, defeat someone really strong, or worse, use my newly gained powers for good!" Mac then realized the most obvious rationale why he didn't accept the help. "Besides, look at him! I would be more willing to believe that I rat could cure me, not wherever the fuck he is."
Hai had to agree. The people in her tribe may live under precarious conditions, and the wild may be their bathroom, but no one there looked worse than the old man.
"But so then, who is he?"
"A stalker, that is what he is!" Mac said furiously, trying to push the old man away again. "This guy has been following me for the last weeks, begging me to accept him as my master."
Mac finally managed to get away from his grasps.
"No! You don't understand!" The old man cried.
"Yeah, and looking at you, I don't really think that I want to," Mac said, trying to brush off the dirt that fell on his hair. "So why don't you go..."
"Wait!" Hai interrupted. "Eh, mister, sir, why don't you calm down and calmly explain to us your situation."
"Hai, what the heck!?" Mac said.
Hai was trying to be responsible, and she believed (Or at least hoped) that this conflict could be resolved by a conversation. This wasn't like when she faced Mac in the forest. They were in a safe space, and the other party didn't seem to be looking for a fight, unlike how Mac was.
"You... you are right! I am sorry, children." The old man tried to straighten himself. He weakly got up on his feet. "I was just really desperate."
"Yeah, we saw that!" Mac said
"Mac! Be quiet, please!" Hai interrupted, getting in front of Mac. "Sir, eh... Why are you here?" Hai decided to take one step at a time.
"The reason why I am here..." The old man coughed. "Is to seek after the infamous individual behind you, Mac Key Kast."
"A bit late for compliments, don't you think?" Mac said.
"Ok, I understood that." Hai pushed Mac away. "But why are you following him? You mentioned something about making him your disciple, didn't you?"
"Yes, that is correct!" The old man became more apprehensive. "I wanted to convince Mac to be my disciple by offering to cure his Small Orbis."
"Wait! Why do you want to make him your disciple anyway?" Hai said. "Don't you see that he is against it, even with the chance to fix his Small Orbis as a reward? Arent there anyone else that you would rather have as a disciple?"
"Heh, probably not," Mac answered a question that was not for him. "Since I am quite literally, perfect."
"Mac, for the last time, shut up!"
"No! He is right!" The old man said
"He is!?"
"I am!?"
"Yes, he is!" The old man took a deep breath. "In the entire land of Omnelum, Mac Key Kast is the one most suitable to become my disciple and receive my Small Orbis."
"Wait, what do you mean by receiving your Small Orbis?" Hai said.
"When I say that Mac Key Kast is perfect, I mean that, because of his broken Small Orbis, he is capable of receiving mine."
"Wait a minute." This time Mac was going to make the question. "I am aware of how big Omnelum is. It is kinda like, ten planet Earths. Are you telling me, that in the entire world, I am the only one with a broken Small Orbis? Well, I call bullshit!"
Mac was a well-traveled individual. He knew many things that people stuck in a small community in the corner of the world like Hai could never dream of. Knowing the size of the world was nothing to him. Although, neither Hai nor the old man understood his method of measurement.
"No. That is not what I meant." The old man said. "What I meant was, that out of all the people that suffered from a broken Small Orbis, none of them has ever come close to your achievements."
"I didn't know you could speak with such wise words." Mac nodded. "But why do you need the best of the best? What do you want me to do?"
"It is because..." The old man's words looked to have gotten stuck on his throat, until he said. "I need you to kill someone for me! And for that, I would need someone who proved to be capable of achieving the top of the world. Someone who could reach the pinnacle of the world of cultivation. Someone who could..."
"Yeah, yeah. I think I have heard enough!" Mac interrupted. "And the answer is no! So go away! Now!"
The old man's hopes seemed to have been broken when he heard Mac's words. He somehow managed to look more miserable than he was before.
"Wait, Mac!" Hai hastily said as she saw the old man break down once more. "Why are you refusing him so violently now? Aren't you confident that you can achieve the top of the world?" Hai tried to play into Mac's arrogance. She was afraid that a conflict would break out.
"I have absolutely no interest or right to search to be the strongest or whatever the fuck!" Mac furiously said. "He is wasting his time and ours. Besides! After all that talk, we are still not even sure if this guy is speaking the truth! How can we tell if he has the power to do anything at all?"
Hai tried to calm Mac down, but she heard the old man mumbling something.
"Power? Yes, that is how it always is, right?" The old man started to go crazy. For some reason, the word "power" seemed to have awakened something inside of him. "I will show you then, Mac Key Kast, how powerful I really am. And then you will become my disciple, right?" The old man was grasping for the smallest amount of hope that his disturbed mind could find.
Mac jumped in front of the terrified Hai with his warhammer in his hands. He was prepared to fight.
"I-i heard you talking about some invaders on the beach, right?" But the old man did not wish to fight Mac nor Hai. "I will show them. I will show them and you! I will show you all my true power! I WILL NOT FAIL THIS TIME!"
Hai could cry. She tried to resolve the conflict with a conversation, but in an instant, it somehow escalated into something bigger.
"No! Stop!" Hai cried. But she and Mac were suddenly pushed back by an invisible force. A force strong enough to send the tent and everything within it into the air. And Hai and Mac went with them.
That mysterious force was coming from the old man. He did not move or talk. That power just exploded out of him like a second nature of his. He was a true cultivator. Someone who had entered a realm that was beyond a mere mortal.
And just like that, he vanished. Hai, who had just crashed into the ground, could barely follow him with her eyes. He moved through the night like lighting. In a few seconds, Hai had already lost sight of him.
"He is going... he is going to the Crimson Coast!" Hai struggled to get up. "Oh, no! What have I done!? I have doomed my entire tribe!"
Hai did not care if she wasn't to blame. In her mind, she failed because she was there when it happened. She had the chance to avoid conflict, but she did not stop it. And now, the tent used as a memorial for her father was in shambles, and a crazy man was about to attack a group that could destroy her tribe. She felt completely hopeless.
Hai took her hands to her face and started to cry. She was close to breaking.
"Hey, this is not time for that!" Mac said as he tapped Hai on the head. He was running in the same direction that the old man went. "If we ran, maybe we can catch him!"
Hai was desolate, but seeing Mac running at full speed, made her forget for a second that the situation was hopeless. So she started running after him.
"It is useless! He is too fast!" Hai screamed as she started to sober up, but she did not stop running. "By the time we reach the wall... He..."
"Well, there is no point in thinking like that, right?" Mac screamed as he entered the forest. "Try to think positive. Perhaps he will trip on a root and fall down or something. I am sorry for the campness, but if we don't give up, there is always a chance!"
Mac almost tripped on a root himself when he said that. He felt he died a little when he said those words out loud. But at the end of the day, Mac truly believed them. He just wanted Hai to believe in them too.
Mac would not say easily, but he was sorry for the trouble he had just caused. There were many paths that he could have used. That was one misstep that he was willing to fix, and it was not just because it would distract him from his other mistakes.
Both Hai and Mac sped up through the forest in silence. They were secretly hoping they would find the old man on the ground after he tripped. But instead, the wall came first.
"Oh, no," Hai said when she heard muffled noises coming from the other side of the wall. "We are too late!" But she still followed Mac's lead and escalated the wall alongside him. This time, they didn't bother doing it sneakily.
In a few seconds, both reached the top of the wall and looked to the other side. Their face fell with what they saw.
The beautiful red sea with its striking waves was still there, but their attention was concentrated on the people on the beach.
There was the crazy old man. And not only him, but four more people. The same four people that Mac and Hai saw on their last visit.
The difference, this time, was that two of the adults were on the ground. It only remained a trembling duo of an adult and a child.
When Hai saw that scene, a crazy idea popped into her mind. Perhaps the crazy man was powerful. Maybe powerful enough to take on the invaders by himself. Hai was trying to think positively, just like Mac said.
Unfortunately for Hai, it seemed this night was not going to give up on being her worst just yet. As soon as a positive thought visited her mind, a horrible fact kicked it out. She saw the old man fall on his knees, shaking. He was obviously not capable of continuing anymore.
"What happened?" But she did not have time to ponder over it.
Because the adult still standing lifted his spear. He was going to strike the old man.
Hai did not know how to feel about the old man's impending death. But she was sure she would not be sad.
"Urgh!" Mac did not know how to feel about his death either. But he still made a decision in a split second. "Hai! You stay here. I will deal with this."
And just like that, he jumped from the wall. He landed on the sand heavily. It was like the fall damaged his legs.
"Wait, please!" He cried to the man far away, calling his attention. "Don't kill him. He is my grandpa," Mac then started to run at a moderate speed, which was way slower than his normal one.
The reason why Mac was behaving this way was that he was trying to control the armed man's reactions. Mac wanted to confuse him and not be presented as a threat. Mac wanted to be confused as a normal kid who was worried about his grandpa.
That was why he was sprinting slowly. That was why he tried to hide his warhammer as he ran. That was why he called the old man his grandpa. It was all for the sake of Mac getting closer. So then he could save the old man.
Mac's trick barely worked. The armed man hesitated, but not for long.
"It does not matter who he is, boy!" Mac heard the armed man scream. "This old fool dared to attack my companions. His punishment can only be one!"
The armed man raised his spear once more. He seemed to be drawing pleasure from the idea of killing the old man.
"No! Stop!" Mac screamed once more. But this time, his words carried a mysterious power. The same type of power that he used on Hai earlier. The armed man stopped once again, this time for a few seconds.
Mac did not know the true nature of this power. He only knew that he could use it wherever he wanted and that his words would have the power to influence the will of others. Mac had nicknamed it as "Hidden Will."
The effects of Hidden Will were vicious and powerful. If someone with a strong will refused Mac's, the individual would be subjected to extreme pain until they gave up or if they somehow managed to overcome the pain and Mac's will, combined, with their own will alone.
But in this case, there wasn't much resistance. The time that took the armed man to recover his conscience was just enough.
Mac stood next to the old man with his warhammer already in his hands. He stepped firmly on the sand and swung his giant weapon. A warhammer may be too big for a fifteen-year-old, but Mac's long arms and unusual strength allowed him to use it with mastery.
The armed man did not have time to attack back. He could only try to use his spear to block the weapon that would hit his chest.
Unfortunately for him, that was not enough to stop the attack. Mac's weapon broke the poor man's spear in half just as easily as it broke the bones in his chest in sequence.
The now disarmed man fell on his back, spitting blood. Never in his whole adult life, he would have thought that he would lose to a kid with a weapon way too big for his own good. And yet, there he was. Barely able to breathe due to his injuries.
Mac looked to the man drowning in his own blood, then to the other two that were already down when he arrived, then to the little kid holding a strange rock while trembling, and then to the now convulsing old man. Mac remembered what he was trying to avoid when he came to this beach. He finally looked at Hai in the distance and screamed. "Oh well! This could have gone worse!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone