The Twenty Virtues Book 1- The Twenty Generals

20- The Survivor Who are Real

"Do you want me to kill you?" Kesna asked, intrigued. The man in front of him didn't seem depressed, though he didn't look entirely healthy either. "Why?"

"Does it really matter? Shouldn't you be trying to attack me in every way? Why does it feel strange when I ask you to do it?"

"Well, supposedly, dear man, you shouldn't want it. This means there must be something advantageous for you in requesting such a thing. Maybe you have a power that can return the damage to me or, perhaps, you're trying reverse psychology to make me retreat out of fear."

"How unfortunate for me, to encounter such a cautious person. So, shall we just stand here? I don't have a deck of cards to pass the time, you know?" Kesna laughed at the archer's comment. He had now planted a seed of paranoia in the deceived man's mind, and internally, he began to panic. Until he realized that this wasn't going anywhere; he just needed to be cautious. He wouldn't be in danger no matter what happened.

"Alright, standing still is what we'll do." After uttering this lie, the man's throat seemed to constrict and his cheeks puffed up for a second. In pure reflex, John grabbed his bow and jumped from his chair just in time to dodge a spray of purple liquid from Kesna's mouth. The liquid corroded the chair completely as it fell onto the object.

"Wow, you're quite the sneaky guy."

"I don't know what you're talking about..." said the general while wiping the liquid from his lips. "I just felt unwell for a moment; I apologize if I startled you. I didn't mean to dirty your chair. But hey, didn't you want to die? Was all that a bluff?"

The viper's cynicism was evident. The deceived man didn't even try to hide his malicious intentions; he just wanted to see if he could confuse John. On the other hand, John was not at all surprised by the man's actions. He was a crafty and cowardly trickster who attacked by surprise to kill. This had already become evident to the archer.

"I never said I wanted to die. I only asked you to attack me to kill."

"Well then..." From the silent world they were in, a noise began to emerge, like hundreds of cicadas singing, the noise of rattles moving, and scales colliding. From the corners of the humble houses, a group of snakes began playing their venomous symphony, emitting a purple vapor from their mouths. The vapor danced to the melody, creating a nebulous ballad in the air, circling Kesna and forming a kind of smoke screen between the two.

John held his breath and ran, not knowing the effects of this. It could be instant death as far as he knew. The man had planned to awaken his powers by putting his own life at risk. The problem was, he was actually putting his life at risk. He wanted to tread the edge of the precipice but not fall into it. An enemy using poison could be the worst or best possible answer. If the poison killed slowly, it would be perfect; if it was instant, it would be terrible. But then came the other side of the story: even if he awakened his powers near death, he would end up dying from the poison sooner or later, especially given his not very resistant metabolism.

Just those brief steps he had taken to get away from the snakes had already worn him out. It wasn't just about moving away; he had to dodge the strikes coming at him. The snakes emerged from the ground, leapt from hidden alleys, and there seemed to be no limit to how many could be created or from where; they just appeared as Kesna wanted. But he still had about thirty arrows in his quiver, not to use them to attack, but just to shoot and kill the snakes that left him with little chance to escape.

As he had distanced himself considerably from the smoke screen and the nest of snakes, he began to think. What were the pros and cons of this opponent? First, his personality: well, one of the pros was that he didn't have to worry about holding back or whether his enemy would hold back. That man was very direct in his intention to kill. However, he was also being too direct; he seemed cunning and cautious enough not to act this way. Hiding in a column of smoke and sending minions to attack was something he expected, but he still anticipated more surprise attacks.