Later,Damon's mom came back home,she scolded and punished him for training in his condition. Damon sneaked out to train again,before his father came back. During dinner,his father said,"Your mom told me, that you went training again."
" Yes, I did." Damon replied.
"That's great, keeping training with the dagger, am sure you will get stronger." His father said and laughed.
"How could you say that, our son just came back from the hospital and instead of resting his goes out training. He comes back with bruises on his body,how could you encourage him." Damon's mother said angrily.
"Calm down mom,you don't have to worry about me,I will be fine."Damon said.
"Keep quiet, you were in the hospital for weeks and you expect to let you do that harsh training of yours,just look at your bruises." She replied.
"Honey just relax,as long as he trains with the dagger there won't be a problem. The dagger was made by me,the best blacksmith in the village Drake Reed." His father said proudly.
"Shut up! How dare you say that? It was because of the dagger that he went to the hospital in the first place. Therefore I, Anita Reed prohibits Damon from training." She said.
"No,I can't do that mom,I have to train and get stronger,because only when I become the strongest can my goal be achieved." Damon said with a face of determination.
"What stupid goal is that? Why would put your life at stake for something that you can't accomplish? It would be better if you stopped and just be by our side." She said with a sad expression.
"Am sorry mom,I promise to always be there for you when you need me but I can't give up on my goal,you more than anyone knows why I can't do that." Damon replied.
"O...OK let's calm down a bit." Drake said after Anita left,Drake went after her, Damon then went outside to relax. Drake and Anita were in their room,Anita was crying while holding a picture. "Honey,stop crying nothing will happen to Damon." Drake said.
"I...I just want to live together with my family, away from any danger,is that too much to ask." She replied still crying.
"No, of course not,you can ask for whatever you want,but this is something Damon wants and as his parents we have to support him." Drake said then embracing her.
The next day,Damon went to train. As he was training he became to recall the past night's event," I should have acted more appropriately last night, I hope my mom will forgive me." He thought. As he was thinking, he had a sound in the bushes.
"Is any there? He asked but there was no reply. He then began to slowly go towards where the sound came from,as he reached the bush,he stretched out his hand to see if anyone was there,as he shifted the bushes he saw no one and he then became at ease. But suddenly, someone appeared at his back and tried to kick him at the side of his stomach but he reacted quickly and blocked it with his hands but the kick still pushed him back. As Damon regained his balance another person emerged from the bushes and threw a punch at him but he still blocked.
"Who are you guys? Why are you attacking me? He asked with no response. Then three more men appeared, they were all wearing masks,then all of them charged at him. Damon seeing his situation knew he couldn't run and drew his dagger to fight back. The masked men charged at him from all directions, Damon immediately pin pointed the weakest among them and charged towards the person. The mask man went for a punch,Damon easily dodged and landed a punch to his face,another masked man attacked him from behind,Damon countered with a straight kick to the stomach. A masked man then tried to kick from the side ,Damon bent down and avoided the kick and swept his legs, the two remaining mask men were dumbfounded, they decided to attack together, Damon was able to dodge their attacks taking advantage of their lack of teamwork. He was able to take one down with an elbow to the ribs,the other gathered his energy to his first and went for a punch,Damon responded by channeling his energy into his dagger and blocked the punch and grabbed and threw him towards the other masked men.
The masked men began to stand one by one and started talking among themselves;
"How is he so strong?"
"Isn't he an E rank, just how does he move like that?"
"Even though we're D ranks,it should be more than enough to beat him."
"It was the same when he fought brock."
"We need to use our magic,that is the only way to win."
"You guys,are you working for Brock,is all this his doing." Damon said.
"And what if it is,what are you going to do?" One of the masked men said.
"Am going to beat you and find him and beat him too,I still own him for last time." Damon said.
"What did you say? Don't get cocky just because you managed you have the upper until now. This were the ones that is going to beat the shit out of you. The masked man replied and charged towards Damon, Damon charged back,then the mask man said;"I cast physical enhancement." A faint glow appeared on his body and his speed increased, as Damon trusted his dagger at him,he dodged it and landed a blow straight to his kidney,Damon didn't have time to react as another blow was sent straight to his jaw,sending him flying to the ground.
"H...How did his speed and strength increase... Did he use magic." Damon thought,as he tried getting up,all the other masked men casted the same spell; physical enhancement, and all them rushed towards Damon, he was defenceless against their brutal assault and was beaten badly to the point that blood fell from his head and his whole body was bruised and sore.
"How do you like that.... not so tough now are you."
"Didn't you say that you would beat us then go and beat our boss Brock."
"This is the price you pay for going against us, Hahahahaha."
"Alright, let's take him and meet up with the boss."
As they were going to take Damon, he began to stand."What he can still move,even with all the beaten he has taken." A mask man said. "Is that all you can do,it will take alot more than that to defeat me." Damon said barely standing."
"Just look at you,you can barely stand,what else could you possibly do?"
"Why don't you come find out." Damon replied.
"You arrogant bastard,fine since you are so desperate to die,I will fulfill your wish." The masked man replied and raised his hand towards Damon and charged alot of spirit energy from that hand.
"What do you think you are doing,the boss said to bring him alive." Another masked man said.
"Didn't you hear what he said? He's obviously not going to let us take him, so am going to use this chance to deal with him since it was his fault that the boss got angry at us. We could always tell the boss that we killed him due to his resistance besides he was going to die eventually. The masked man replied.
"Tsk...fine do whatever you want but just hope we don't get punished later." The other masked man said. Damon then went into a stance,he took a step forward with his left leg and right leg backwards, leaned forward and bent down slightly and gripped his dagger tightly with his right hand and gripped his right hand tightly with his left hand and shifted his hands backwards to the right and concentrated all his spirit energy towards his dagger,that it glowed bright red.
"It seems you did have some power left,but it won't be enough to happen this. I cast; Energy blast. A ball of energy was fire from his hand. Damon, stared at the blast as it approached him ,as it got closer he used all his strength and release a powerful slash with his dagger,which created any energy wave that launched towards the blast. As the energy blast and energy wave clashed with one another,the energy blast was split in two and exploded, the masked men couldn't believe it,but the did not have to react as the energy wave blew all of them away.
Damon then began to think to himself, "it worked,it actually worked, the move that I have spent so long working on, I call it Crimson Blade." Then a shadow fell on him and as he looked back, he saw Brock,but before he could even move his head was smashed to the ground by brock over and over and over again. Brock then dragged Damon's unconscious and bloody body and walked away.
At the house of the village head, located in the middle of the village. Julia was in her room when the door knocked. "You may come in." She said. It was the housemaid,"A man came to deliver a letter to you milady" the housemaid said. Julia took the letter and the housemaid left,as she opened the letter,her eyes widen as she read what was written in the letter,the letter says,"We have Damon, if you wish to see him come to the entrance of the inner layer of the mysticwood forest. Come alone,if you tell anyone,you will never see Damon again." Julia immediately left her house without telling anyone and went to the mysticwood forest.