Endless: Hell's Swordsmen

Volume 1:Chosen??

The time was 2:30PM and shops close soon.Since he had very little time, he decided to purchase the helmet before closure. He walked out of his attic-like bedroom and washed up under his leaky shower which only shot out icy water. Shrugging the discomfort away was easy for the current Astro, while his old self used to spend 10 minutes alternating parts of his body under the shower in order to get used to it. After cleaning himself, he put on his outgoing shirt and wore some summer shorts and slippers before heading out.

Walking along the boulevard, he was forced to look at the filthy surroundings of this underdeveloped area that existed on the outskirts of town. Despite the progression of society in the area of technology – or perhaps, because of it – nothing had really changed. The poor were getting poorer and the richer were getting richer. While Astro wasn't yet at the bottom rung, he wasn't that far off. Thanks to the leftover insurance money from his deceased parents, he could afford to keep off the streets.

Even though this part of town was indisputably shitty, there was still some level of patronage, so it didn't take him long to reach a small outlet store with a blue banner stating "Get your FIVR helmets for Endless here with a basic starter's package for $300!!!"

as he was walking to the shop, four familiar faces emerged from the corner. The moment these fellows locked onto him, they started snickering meanly.

The leader of them, an ugly rotund fool by the name of Jarko, walked up to Astro while his man tits shook the heavens and earth. "Well, well, if it isn't the Astro the cowardly lion. What are you doing here? Coming to donate money to us so we can start our guild? Oh gee golly, how kind of you."

The three skinny and ugly fools behind him took their cue to snigger. Rolling his eyes, Astro sighed.

"Piss off Jarko, your stink is clogging my nose. What I'm here to do is none of your fucking business, shitbag."

Astro's reply was met with silence. Not even in their wildest dreams did these four idiots expect him to retaliate to their provocations. Astro could choose to walk by them and let this matter blow off, but he had a different idea. With a dark smirk, Astro sent his fist flying into the guts of the fat fool before him, which made them all gasp. Talking back was one thing, suddenly attacking was another. Just what had this dude eaten that made him so ballsy?

"This is for all the times you bullied me, cowtits."

However, tubby didn't fall over in pain. With a surprised grunt, he realized that the fist he thought would hurt him actually did nothing at all. The moment he and his lackeys came to this realization, their previous fear and alarm blew off as they burst into laughter.

Astro didn't make any other move, simply smirking coldly while gazing upon them as one would an insect. This act made the bullies cut their laughter as they grew angry at this scrawny fellow's scorn.

"Alright Astro, I'll give it to you, you've finally grown some balls. But clearly, they're far too small to… to… urgh…. ARGGHGHHHHH!!"

Tubby's words cut of the moment he started talking too much, realizing that every word he spoke brought exponentially increasing pain to his chest and abdomen area. At the current level, he could barely remain standing and fell to the floor, gasping and shrieking in pain which further increased the ferocity.

The faces of the mindless fools behind him turned white as a sheet from the sounds their boss was making. This wasn't the normal level of agony, this was advanced torment. He wouldn't sound out of place in a terrorist torture video as a victim right now.

Turning to face the other three, Astro spoke slowly but dangerously. "You have 10 seconds to give me every single dollar you have on your body otherwise you'll end up worse than him. He's only enduring 50% of the pain thanks to his fat body. You skinny fools will have to bear it all."