The Art Of Sword

Sunz sees a shadowy figure whisper “The more you show your skill the more knowledge I know.” As it approaches him, Sunz draws his sword but there is a problem, the blade is gone and he is only holding the hilt. A brief moment gone, the shadow disappears and the hilt grows a shadow blade. The blade suddenly moves on its own, extent to stab Sunz in the heart, and it succeeds. The blade then turns back into the shadowy figure and whispers “You’re the perfect specimen”.

Then Sunz woke up from the nightmare, his body covered in cold sweat, he sits up and said to himself “Well that was a strange dream!”. He tried to find his phone in the darkness, it take him about a minute feeling the environment around him until he found it. He opens the phone screen, the time right now is 3 am.

Sunz: I’ve only slept for 3 hours but my body feels refreshed. Hmp that's strange, let’s just try to get tired and go back to sleep. But what can I do? (Thinking about what he can do while flipping his phone in the air)

Sunz: I guess I can do some background checks on San. Grimm did tell me her hero name “Ember Witch”.

Sunz enters the keyword “Ember Witch” on the internet. The first 3 results are the heroes ranking website, her social media account, and a website compiling all of her mission until now.

He goes onto the heroes ranking website first and he sees that she is in the top 10 S-rank heroes. But what he did not expect is that there are at least 1000 S-rank heroes. 10000 A-rank heroes. 100000 B-rank heroes and 1 million C-rank heroes.

Sunz: Wow that is scary but makes sense since we live in a world where most people have special abilities. I guess the villain numbers might also be the same.

The heroes ranking website also has other section. In Germany, San is the rank 1 hero. And according to the stats, there are at least 2 S-rank heroes working around the world between day and night in every country. America is the country that has the highest amount of heroes in every rank. Korea dominates the heroes ranking in popularity, but somehow San is number 5 in the popularity rank.

Sunz: This is definitely useful information. I’ll come back to you later, now let’s check out her social media. (I expect that there will be sexy clothing and thirst trap.)

Sunz then goes to San's social media. And what he expected was right, model pictures in sexy clothing, some everyday casual pics, meeting with fan pics. Lucky that she doesn’t have that many posts (500-600 posts). But something strange, most of her pictures from the start of her career include Grimm hanging out with her. And two years later Grimm just disappear from her social media.

Sunz: I guess that Grimm wanted her to be independent so he tell her to not include him in her photo. But how did she go from an innocent girl to a K-pop singer in a span of two years? Ok then, that’s enough of social media lurking for now. Now let’s check out her mission log.

Sunz moves on to check out San's past missions. The website information is very detailed. It shows the type of mission, who was part of that mission, what their rank was and it even includes news articles and videos of the scene too.

Sunz: So in the first two years San and Grimm did a lot of missions, and non of the mission is done alone. At the start of year 3, they were A-rank heroes. And this is probably the point when thing goes bad for both of them. After a month in year 3, they suddenly went on hiatus for half a year. And San made her re-debut with a solo mission. It also has an interview too?

Interview clip.

Interviewer: Hello superheroes fan out there! Today we have a very special guest. A young hero who had been gone from the battlefield for half a year. It’s Ember Witch.

San(Ember Witch): Hello everyone! Thank you for having me on here today. (She gives a warm-hearted smile to the camera.)

Interviewer: She such a modest person. I have to say your recent mission was a phenomenal event.

San: I wouldn’t treat it like that. It’s more like a mission for me to get back into the flow after being away for so long.

Interviewer: Speaking of being away. A lot of your fans had been very worried about you and after your recent mission, a lot of questions had been asked. So do you mind answering some of them?

San: I just hope that the questions aren’t too inappropriate. Haha… (she nervously laughs)

Interviewer: Ok then let's start with the first question “After seeing you handling the first mission on your own and all of your past mission were co-op one. So I wonder who was the person that work with you at the start of your career?”

San’s eyes start to get teary, she sniffles a bit then wipe the tear from her eyes and start to speak: He was the person who inspire me to become a hero, and through his rigorous training help me become the hero I am today. Even though he’s gone, I always said to myself that he will always watch over me and want me to become one of the best heroes.

The interviewer also starts to get a bit teary but still tries to talk: That was such a heartwarming story from the Ember Witch. Fire means destruction but today that fire of yours melt our heart. For now, let's take a short break and use it to express your love to your family.

Clip end.

Sunz: Well that’s hurt my eyes. But why does she make the story seem like Grimm is dead when he is right there sleeping in the corner? There must be more to this, if I can find “Ember Witch” information on the internet then Grimm must also have some too.

Apparently, Grimm is also his hero name, and when Sunz goes to check for his name on the ranking website. It displays “Grimm status dead”

Sunz: It’s funny that the website just says that he is dead. And now for Grimm's nemesis “Big Ben”. Wow, this definitely tough “Big Ben” is an S-rank hero, built like a brick shithouse, he can fly and he is a fucking negotiator!

Sunz: Now with all this information I need to be more prepared for this tournament and the future mission. *Yawn* right now I’m just a nuisance to opponents. And my first enemy right now is sleep deprivation.

Sunz put his phone away then wraps his body inside the blanket and goes back to sleep.