Ki Horizons - [Litrpg, Adventure, Power Levels]

My eyes opened wide in shock. The whole building rocked all at once and most of the people around me fell on their asses, hard. Even my feet felt unsteady. It was like a ripple of pure concussive force had just moved underneath me.

The demon had frozen, eyes wide in fear. I realized why only a moment later.

An explosion of yellow energy nearly killed me. Not ten feet from me, a massive ki explosion was in front of me, destroying everything in its radius. My eyes shook and my heart hammered in my chest as my hair was blown backwards and it felt like I was punched in the gut. The people around me were sent flying and the demon was slammed into the car, denting it. The blast dissipated quickly but my whole life flashed before my eyes as I stared in that eternal moment, into that yellow wall of destructive energy.

Ten feet to my right and I would be dead.

My Village. This is how my Village truly died. This is how everyone who survived the rain of death died. This is-

Someone tackled me to the ground.

I snapped out of it, instantly taking everything in. But nothing made sense. The explosion was dissipating, but people were running in all directions, the demon was nowhere to be seen, and the person who'd knocked me to the ground was the tigerman from before. A massive hole was already causing the floor around me to dip. Most of that made enough sense but why had the tigerman-

A body flew where I had been standing not seconds ago, slamming into the stage, and breaking it, the car, and everything around it to pieces in a massive shrieking crash of metal.

The tigerman had saved me from becoming nothing more than a smear.

"T-Thanks!" I yelled over my ringing ears.

"We have to get out of here!" He screamed, eyes wide in panic. His good deed done for the day, he leapt off me and sprinted towards the moving walkway, heading as far away from the action as possible.

What on Vega… the action? What was going on?!

Before I could even get to my feet properly… a body rose from the destroyed stage, now nothing more than scrap metal. I took them in. It was… a kitsune. A male kitsune. They looked young and handsome, beardless and short white hair with red streaks through it. Wearing a flowing kimono. Like their hair, they had four white tails, also with red streaks going through them. They stood, looking largely unharmed and with a calm but alert expression on their face. They were staring up into the air.

[???]

Oh.

Suddenly, three police officers in black armor appeared above my head.

Flying.

[???]

[???]

[???]

Oh.

The Kitsune began to float into the air as well.

"Halt! You are under arrest for the destruction of Smile Company property and an attack on their headquarters! Power down and get on the ground or lethal force will be used against you!"

A light white aura surrounded the three police officers.

The Kitsune languidly got into an open palmed martial arts pose, somehow making the movements look smoother than anything I'd ever seen. Like he was living water going across ice. I felt my talent start poking me in the brain as the rest of my brain was busy.

Busy exploding.

I couldn't sense Ki… but I could feel the clashing Auras and Energies in the air. I even saw minor sparks. My whole body felt like it was being pounded into the ground by the oppression. It was like I was being attacked by Master but worse. His was more evil, more lethal, and even more powerful, but it had never been in conflict.

I felt like gravity had tripled around me and I couldn't tell if it was real and physical, or all just in my head.

And that was least the of my problems.

That same part of my brain that made me good at combat and poked my brain while watching the Kitsune's movements was also doing something else now.

Screaming at me.

I was going to die. I was going to die like a man dies from a meteor. I was doomed, I was going to die, die, to die, die, die die. It was everything, all encompassing, pounding. My heart hammered a million miles a minute, sweat practically drenched me in mere moments, the world seemed to stand still, my vision blackened, and yet I knew, the second one of them moved, I'd be nothing more than a smear on the side of the road.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I had to get out of here.

But where?!

My mind skyrocketed in panic and fear and anxiety and just like with the turtles, it was screaming at me but it was already too late and-

A single movement. A single clash between arm to arm.

And the power reverberating through the air was enough to slam me into the metal ground and crack my sternum. Anything nearby me was sent flying or broke even further than before. A massive rent in the floor opened up directly below them. I coughed up blood, feeling like the executioner's axe had missed me by a hair.

I stared up at two beings like gods. The police had made the first move and the Kitsune had blocked it with barely any strain. That single movement alone would've killed me had I been directly underneath them.

I had maybe three seconds during their intense staredown before the hundreds of clashes they were about to have turned me into literal roadkill. I dove, barely understanding the thought in my head or where I was going or what I was doing. The thoughts had been too fast, too necessary, for me to grasp them before I felt hundreds of shockwaves crash into me.

As I felt my body break, darkness took me.

*****

I woke up feeling like I'd broken my back.

The fact that I woke up at all had me smiling even before I opened my eyes, even if my heart was still racing a mile a minute. I felt my teeth practically glued together. Ah, that was no real smile. Anxiety had crushed my jaw together.

Survival instincts kicked in and I was moving.

My body hurt, I didn't know what was broken, I had no idea how long I was out or where I was and everything was dark but I needed to move.

It was only after blinding running in the dark for who knows how long that I collapsed and took the time to assess. My mind triaged first.

Broken sternum, ribs hurt, probably two broken. Vision is fine, heart is fine, lungs are fine, most major organs probably alright though I feel my kidney and bladder might be damaged. Wait, heart skipped a beat, fear or damage? Doesn't really matter, it works right now. Limbs intact, head bleeding but not deep, head hurts, probably a concussion, lacerations across both arms but not deep.

Extremely light wounds. I was practically in perfect health.

A deep, deep breath of relief came out of me and my vision went black for a moment. I sat there, senses going haywire as I tried to focus them. I wasn't that hurt and I wasn't dead. A miracle. At the last moment I'd… I'd…

Dove into the hole.

I blinked. I had barely been thinking, mostly panicking, but I'd dove right into the hole that random ki blast had caused. Looking around me and where I'd come from… I was probably a floor deep. Except that didn't make sense. If I was only a floor deep, I'd probably be dead. That fight looked like it was going to destroy most of the building. And the Ki blast couldn't have cracked a hole that far, right?

I was in some sort of dark metal hallway, but there were lights. Almost none were on though. Looked like emergency power.

Walking back to where I'd been, I realized what had happened. The hole I'd fallen down was a maintenance shaft. What luck! But looking above…

Bang. Boom.

The fight was still going on. There was no way I was going back up this way. Even being around here could kill me if a stray blast fell down the right way. I had to get moving, get out of here, and get home to the Dojo. Fights were common in this city but it'd been a long while since I'd heard of anyone fighting at this level of power. They had just been horror stories I'd heard from a distance before but now that I was living one…

I shuddered. This fight was far beyond me. This was the kind of strength of Master. Hell, I got the feeling all of them were holding back. It was time to run away.

As I turned to get the hell out of here, I noticed something out the corner of my eye.

A capsule with a bright purple center and the symbols C1 on the front. Wasn't that the Capsule the demon was using to store a car?

I smiled.

Well, it'd been a while since I'd stolen anything, but I'd make an exception for The Smile Company.

*****

Walking down a dark corridor with the increasingly loud sounds of combat and falling rubble was not an enjoyable experience. Not in the damn least. My happiness at getting a free Capsule that could store a car evaporated as I realized just how many people must be dying above me. The store was large but… they could fly and the store was large. If it wasn't built well enough…

The whole thing could come crashing down.

And with me below it.

It was nerve wracking and being back underground, in the dark, not knowing what I was going to run into was dredging up all of my worst memories. The sewers had become background information to me but being back in a similar situation felt like it was going to drive me crazy. At any moment I felt like I was going to turn the corner and see a Chain Wraith come to kill me or a giant alligator biting me in half or a massive water elemental. It wasn't even that far fetched either.

I was underground, I was in Vega City, they must've cleared this area but all toilets inevitably lead to…

If I wasn't in the sewers, I was probably a few walls away from the entrance to them, maybe a Chain Wraith really was right around the corner.

None of those thoughts made me feel good. I'd rarely felt worse since I'd returned to training with Master.

Finally, a section that didn't seem to have the power knocked out of it opened up and I almost wish it hadn't. Before it had been dark but metallic, now it was light and metallic and it looked so very… sterile. The only time I'd seen any place that looked like in front of me was in the very rare movie I'd ended up watching over the years. Worse, this wasn't fiction, The Smile Company really could have monsters down here. Or security. That might actually be worse…

Walking down the bright metal corridor was long and boring. Finally though, there was a turn and a doorway. I walked through and-

"Damn. I was hoping for a proper lunch break."

"Could you take this seriously? I'd like to survive the day."

"Relax, the basement is fortified. We'll probably be fine."

Wait a minute.

I recognized those voices.