Ki Horizons - [Litrpg, Adventure, Power Levels]

It was only for a brief period but all too soon I found myself thrust out into the world yet again. My body and mind healed from whatever horrible water had been thrown at me merely to calm me down.

As Vincent stood nearby, naked as the day he was born and already picking up his clothes, I found that he was different. To call him calm would be like calling a volcano cold. Namely, completely fucking wrong.

He was practically boiling, moving so fast he was almost a blur to my senses. It was a miracle none of his jewelry broke or any of his clothes tore despite the speed. The few hours in the pod had not cooled him down much at all- Well, no. Compared to him immediately running off to fight Vega, he might as well be made of ice despite him looking like he was filled with nothing but a hot head of steam.

"Vincent."

"What?" Came the reply. Sharp, angry, pissed.

He turned to me, almost daring me to say something, the sanity in his eyes practically straining to remain there. Vincent was mentally stronger than anyone I think I truly knew… but once he was past his limit he was really past his limit. We'd talked about it before. When he broke… only the Rage remained.

"You're missing it huh?"

"Missing what?"

"The opportunity. We're being kicked out of the city but Master wouldn't give us something easy to do. Aren't you always whining about not getting into real life and death battles? Maybe you'll get your chance now."

I was taking a bit of a calculated risk with that. But I knew how my brother worked by now. There was around a good fifty percent chance I was about to find a fist flying through my face faster than I could probably think. But the other fifty percent chance was…

I put on my clothes, slowly, no faster than a baseline human even as I could feel Vincent practically puff up like an unstable stick of dynamite. Even my general sense of danger was screaming at me, helped not at all by my lacking Ki Sense showing me how Vincent was starting to boil internally as well. My words had set him off even more badly than he already had been. I mentally got prepared for a fight…

…only for the coin flip to land the other way.

"Yeah. Finally, I can show you what a real warrior can do. I'll kill everything that so much as threatens us while you can just stay in your damn pod."

"Hah! You really think we're getting new pods where we're going? Hope you don't get too hurt."

"I should be saying that to you. Feel free to come back limping and broken. I'll take care of the rest."

"Yeah yeah, the big bad warrior trained from birth but never given the opportunity to truly try, I've heard you a million times. Stop whining and complaining and get ready to put your money where your mouth is. Your anger needs an outlet and I for one want to know where it's going to be going."

"You better hope we're fighting enemies or I'm going to be fighting you before the day is out."

I merely smiled, glad my brother had channeled his rage into arrogance.

Now… where on Vega were we going again?

************

Master sat in front of us at the head of the Dojo. We matched him, listening to his instructions.

"You'll be heading to New Thread City, commonly just called New Thread. Your plane leaves in two hours. It'll be a six hour trip. As for your mission, you're to join and win the tournament that's going on there. It starts in about a week."

I frowned and raised an eyebrow but Vincent beat me to it.

"A tournament?"

"Yes, a Tournament. Is that going to be a problem?"

"It just…" Vincent trailed off, not finding the right words.

I bit the Ki blast for both of us.

"It sounds too easy. Unless it's a special tournament? Or… wait, is the tournament only for those above a power level of [50]?"

Neither of us, any of us really, were immune to facts and logic. Our growth had been truly incredible and shocking. Not just the speed but the actual number. We were… really strong. Triple digits were rare, even inside Vega City. At least, they were to me. I'd never heard of anyone quadruple besides Vega and I had to assume Vega either killed them or they stayed in hiding for good damn reason. Or maybe I just didn't know enough. Either way, a normal tournament would be nothing.

After all, we had been trained by Master. Fighting people around our own level would be… like sharks eating dolphins. Master didn't train us in the Demon Style for nothing.

So… a random tournament even in a random city that wasn't Vega… well…

"Too arrogant, the lot of you." Master replied, surprising both of us. "You fight one man and train on some machines and think you have what it takes to beat warriors with decades on you? You beat a few rats and train in a clan and think you're undefeatable? No, even someone younger and with a lower Power Level could still beat you."

My eyes widened in shock.

"Don't underestimate the world. There's no guarantee you'll win this tournament and that's without the handicap."

"Handicap?"

"Yes."

Master waved his hand and-

My thoughts vanished and a bone raising horror filled me to the brim. My toes curled, my hair stood on end, and my veins whispered of doom. A vial had appeared in Master's hands and it felt like… a demon. No, no I'd met a demon. This thing was pure evil. It was in such a small vial, just a thing of silver liquid within with a slight murkiness or glare to it, but it felt like I was staring into a horrifying abyss of absence.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Even my Ki Sense seemed to scream at it, as if a centipede the size of a city had suddenly waltzed into the room somehow and started spitting at me.

"What the fuck is that?!" I said, staring at the vial.

Vincent's tension was so deep he'd somehow managed to scratch claw marks into the wooden floorboard despite not having claws.

"It…" Vincent said. "It's so… awful."

"This," Master said. "Is poison. A very special, very potent, very scary poison."

He waved his hand again and another one of those vials manifested, one for each hand.

"You two will be drinking it. It-"

""WHAT?!""

"-will help accomplish many goals at once."

He stared us both down.

"This tournament should help give you inspiration and experience fighting people with a variety of martial arts, something you both are sorely lacking in. Especially you, Mutai. Real people won't be as stupid as most of your 'enemies' so far. But these here will help the real training. They…" For the first time I could remember, Master hesitated.

I felt my heart rate skyrocket. Master never hesitated. And instead of simply telling us what the poison did, he began a lecture.

"What is the core of being able to control Ki?"

"It- What? Why?" I said.

"Ki Control, the ability to move it. No, wait. It's-" Vincent started.

"Ki Sense." I finished. "You can't control what you can't sense."

"Precisely." Master nodded. "And what's the best way to train any sense?"

I frowned, not knowing the answer.

But Vincent… Vincent paled.

"It's… removing all of the others."

Master nodded.

I blinked, staring at the potions. Removing… all the other senses? Wait, no, wait. That would mean-

"The poison will blind and deafen us?" I asked, shocked.

"If only it were that weak. No Mutai. It removes all other senses. Taste, smell, sight, hearing, feeling, proprioception, gravity, your internal clock, balance, hunger, thirst, pain, and a few more minor ones."

I stared at hell in a bottle.

"There's… there's no way we can actually… we can't… Master, that will kill us."

Vincent was more on the ball than I was.

"You want us to win a tournament with that in our bodies?"

"It won't kill you. You'll still have one sense left. Your Ki Sense. It'll take a week to take full effect. By the time the tournament happens, it'll be all you can use. And yes, your mission is to win."

My jaw dropped at the enormity of the task before us. If I had to fight Vincent without being able to see, hear, or feel, I'd already be screwed. Pain, balance, and gravity would make standing and walking impossible. No sense of time, hunger, or thirst would actually kill me if I didn't have some kind of indicator. I… I basically had to recreate some way to tell at least time if I wanted to survive. Then I had to go and fight numerous people in a tournament.

Well… that… was a lot but at least it wasn't deadly-

"Can there be two winners of the tournament?" Vincent asked.

"No, of course not. Whichever one of you fails will have to walk back. And I do mean walk."

My eyebrows nearly left my head.

The wilderness between cities and towns wasn't necessarily hyper dangerous but the area around Vega City was. A few towns and more were out there but any environment naturally spiralled upwards in strength. They had to, survival of the fittest. With so many strong people, over such a long period of time in Vega…

There were triple digit level animals, dinosaurs, wild creatures, and more around. To say nothing of how many creatures might still be above our power levels in the double digits. Now that sounded more like Master. Something incredibly super dangerous as failure for the already incredibly super difficult task.

"...Your training never ceases to amaze me…"

"Good. Now, drink."

I stared at the horrible Vial, practically radiating malevolence. For once though, I wasn't the first to do something.

Vincent Valorious, last of his name and last of his clan, practically tore the Vial from Master's grip and downed it.

I stared in horror.

He shivered, spasmed, actually started to change colors to some kind of horrifying silver, and then merely looked like he'd eaten raw sewage.

"Oh by all the gods ever made, that was foul." Vincent said, disgust replacing most of the fire in him.

I looked back at the Vial, realizing there were advantages to getting thrown first into the walls and obstacles. I never had to see how much they sucked beforehand.

"God damn it."

************

"Come on, shake it off."

"Go fuck yourself Master. You don't know what this is like!"

"Do you think I've never been poisoned? Try again Mutai."

I puked, quite a bit. The taste was honestly the worst part and that was saying something because I felt like raw sewage had tried to invade every bone and cell of my body. It was… awful didn't begin to describe it. It was like the feeling of being sick, condensed into one pure awfulness. For just a split moment, it'd even been worse than when I'd gotten infected in the sewers.

And that had nothing on the taste.

"It's like a skunk and a shit elemental decided to have a baby in my mouth!"

"Colorful, awful. I approve. But your flight leaves soon. Here are your tickets." Master said casually, handing us each one.

"Now get out of here and don't even think of remaining in the city or coming back before the end of the tournament, or I'll kill you."

The way Master said that, in the same voice as one might say 'It's lightly raining' sent shivers up my spine. So matter of fact, confident, and sure. And I didn't doubt him for a moment. Master never lied and he wasn't above using the threat- no, the promise of murder to get us to do what he wanted.

Freaking Monster.

Me and Vincent grabbed our tickets and then… we were on our way.

The second the door closed-

"I'm going to win this tournament." Vincent declared, staring right at me.

I raised an eyebrow.

"It's good to have fantasies." I said simply.

I left him spluttering in outrage and I continued walking, following my Vambrace's directions and ordering a ride for both of us.

"Now… I wonder what New Thread City is like?"