• Chapter 2: Shingo

    While the docks were full of activity in the vast city of Sentia, there were other places with lots of fun stuff to do as well.

    For instance, Sentia's combat arena.

    This combat arena was where people who had potential to become great fighters would come and challenge people twice their strength, speed, dexterity, intelligence, and so on, taxing all the physical and mental capabilities of the human body to their absolute limit. Many people came here daily, often times for one of two reasons:

    1. To boast how tough they are
    2. For a bit of fun

    But, there was one particular regular to this arena who went there for a different reason. Shingo, a boy of only seventeen years, went to the arena for training. He had been there nine times before, training some of the most hardened combatants, and sometimes he would fight himself, but not always, since most of the time, every person he fought failed to show any inner strength against the minor.

    Today, however, Shingo went there for one reason that took a tighter grasp on his mind than any of the others:

    There was a strange newcomer in the arena with a large sword, proclaiming his strength and powers against all opponents in the arena. Shingo wanted to see how tough he truly was. It was unlikely that this guy was weak, for sure, because he'd heard stories about this same man, earlier in the day, nearly killing a local Sentia Guard, and that in itself was normally a feat to behold.

    The minor slammed open the doors to the arena, causing a loud, resounding bang to ring through the empty halls, ignoring the sudden stares received by the local public in the building as he sprinted towards the battle ring.

    It was never hard to locate anything in the arena. Typically, there was only one room occupied, and it was the battle ring. Shingo knew his way there by heart, and anybody lost merely had to follow him to get where they needed to go. If they could keep up with the quickly dispersing cloud trail, that is. It wasn't long before he reached his destination. Sure enough, there was a man with a particularly large, bladed weapon resting upon his back. He wasn't proclaiming his abilities, however, merely choosing to stand in silence with his arms crossed as one of the enraged fighters got increasingly more angered, but never once lifted a finger in offensive action against this fellow. Shingo found this hard to see clearly, as it was custom for brawls of any kind to break out, but never arguing matches.

    He soon found out why it was that this man wasn't taking on harm, however, as the burly man who was screaming at him suddenly found his face jammed through a wall. Or so it seemed, at least to Shingo. But one fact was written in stone, there was a sizable dent where the man's cranium had struck the stone-and-concrete structure.

    Shingo almost started laughing. Really, it was almost a chuckle. But it was enough for him to grab the attention of the man with the sword. An eased grin spread across his face. "Ah, I was looking for you, Shingo," he stated. Shingo didn't know when or where the guy had learned his name, but he didn't care, truthfully. All he knew was this guy was an interesting newcomer.

    The young boy hopped down from the upper floors and walked over to the ring. "I don't see why you're looking for me, all I am is a kid with an unusual talent for combat," Shingo said, lazily. He honestly hadn't a clue what he just said, but he didn't care, so long as he wasn't being silent. Apparently, however, what it was he said must have been deciphered by the man into, "Yes, I am the person you're looking for," as he suddenly reached for his sword. "Let's see how potent you are on the battlefield, then, shall we?" came the taunting reply, and suddenly, with a strange, warbled, high pitched ringing from the blade, Shingo found himself in a battle.

    Needless it was to say that this man was fast. Faster than anybody previous that Shingo had fought. Needless to be said as well was that Shingo was having a bit of difficulty keeping up with the random attacks from this person. He did manage to recover, however, and soon found that this person seemed to move in slow motion, as most did when Shingo fought them. Unfortunately, Shingo must have been somewhat too slow to react and found himself suddenly dazed and unstable. Three seconds later, he blacked out.