The First Peak of the Force

by Yuri Ajin

  “I’ll kill, I’ll kill...” His laughter was low and quiet, drenched in lunacy. “I’ll take revenge... I swear to God, I’ll kill you, Kai Arnhard!”

  In the distorted voice, Kai recognized that of the mysterious man who had killed Ash and injured Lily.

  In the next instant, Yan Liang’s aura exploded. Kai could swear that he felt his opponent suddenly gain more strength and power.

  “Hey, boy!” Rune’Tan suddenly interrupted his meditation. “Don’t just stand there! Someone’s soul invaded this poor fellow! Run and hit! Also... Don’t touch him under any circumstances!”

  Grinning, Kai drew his blade.

  “Long time no see, friend. I’m afraid that I’ll be the one getting revenge today!”

  Chapter 31

  THE QUARTERFINALS

  Not wishing to waste time, Yan Liang, or whoever was controlling him, rushed at Kai, wielding two daggers imbued with dark energy. Unwilling to give him a chance to get too close, Kai filled his body with ki and began to retreat.

  “Why can’t I touch him?” he asked Rune’Tan.

  “I can’t say for sure what’s wrong with him, but if he touches you, he could harm your soul. This is definitely some kind of technique. I need time to figure it out and come up with a defense strategy.”

  “Really?” Kai was a bit surprised. Up until now, he believed that Rune’Tan was an expert on all things related to the soul.

  “I’ll kill, kill, kill,” Yan Liang kept repeating as he inched closer, but due to the fact that his soul and body, filled with the forces of Light from infancy, were resisting and rejecting the invader, he couldn’t use his full strength or speed. “I’m sick of you!” he growled and swung both daggers, sending forth a beam of dark energy and Forces.

  Kai summoned the Sword of the Water Surface from his Ring. No one had time to marvel at the weapon, because it instantly turned into thousands of small drops of water. Over the past two years, he had perfected Morning Dew using the Wasteland’s dwellers as his training dummies. This ability was rather useful as it was a long-range one.

  Having poured one-fifth of his ki supply into the blade, he was able to summon and control about three cubic meters of water. Some of the drops clung to his hands. Waving his hand, Kai hit the dark beam, destroying it at once. The rest of the droplets formed needles that flew toward Yan Liang.

  “What is that?” the people whispered. No one had seen a technique like Kai’s before. No one had either seen someone change their entire personality like Yan Liang did. So far, this was the strangest fight yet.

  “Is it the Sea Dragons’ Technique? Some kind of Force of Water?”

  “No, it’s not that...” One of the Fairies frowned. She specialized in this element. “Looks like it’s his sword’s ability.”

  “A weapon ability?”

  People exchanged confused glances. Most of them didn’t see Kai holding any weapon.

  “Why are you surprised, people? Did you really think that all he knows is how to fistfight and nothing else? He was just waiting for the right time to show what he was really capable of. I’m more interested in the rank of his weapon.”

  “Hmm… Judging by what I can sense,” said the girl from the Fairies. “It’s definitely not Gold rank.”

  “Then how much energy does he have when he can create such an effect with a pathetic Silver-rank weapon?!”

  “Is he really only at the Brain Endurance level?”

  While they were debating, something strange was happening in the arena.

  Once the hail of needles died down, Kai stared in shock at the dark orb that had enveloped Yan Liang, separating him from the rest of the world and protecting him from the attack. However, when it disappeared, he was no longer inside.

  “Don’t relax! He’s here somewhere!” Rune’Tan warned. “I feel the echoes of his soul, but I don’t know where exactly they’re coming from. It seems like he’s everywhere... Behind you!”

  Kai instantly turned around and saw Yan Liang emerge from his shadow as if it were a puddle. He almost grabbed Kai, but he managed to get away at the last moment.

  “What… What is this?” Yan Liang looked surprised. “Teacher never mentioned anything like this... What’s this Force that’s slowing me down?!” he cried, looking at hands. Both they and a part of his body were covered with a bluish, barely noticeable frost.

  “Well, since you’ve forced me to use that, there’s no point in holding back.” Kai grinned, finally getting ready for a real battle. He was aware that he wasn’t allowed to kill his opponent, but nothing prevented him from beating the shit out of him.

  Thousands of droplets began to swirl around Kai. Rapidly freezing, they formed a storm of sharp ice crystals, some of which immediately flew toward Yan Liang.

  “Do you think that the same attack will work on me twice?!” the blond growled, enraged, and created another dark sphere.

  What he couldn’t have known or expected, however, was that the sphere would begin to freeze when the ice collided with it, which weakened all the protective and attacking properties of the dark energy and its Forces. However, the Cold Void didn’t stop there. The frost sapped into Yan Liang’s ki and ate through the tether that connected him to the sphere. As it reached his soul, everything inside him went cold, and the Shadow Shift Technique was deactivated.

  He was about to create another one when the frozen sphere shattered and Kai, clad in thick armor made of ice, dashed toward him.

  Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to dodge, Yan Liang raised his hands to block and was immediately sent flying through a curtain of shattered ice and frost. He could barely move his arms as they became encrusted in ice. Some of his bones were broken, and he was sure that he had suffered internal bleeding.

  Landing on his feet, he suppressed the pain and poured more dark energy into his hands in order to overcome the Cold Void.

  Kai looked at his right hand. The layer of ice on it was almost destroyed by the dark energy. He instantly realized how lucky he was. Had the layer been any thinner, he would’ve touched Yan Liang.

  “Damn it,” he cursed under his breath and restored the ice shield, making it even thicker. He had to sacrifice some of the armor in order to protect the more vital parts of the body.

  Breathing out a cloud of steam, he rushed forward again, intent on crushing Yan Liang with the Cold Void before he fully recovered from the previous attack.

  “Die already!” Yan Liang shouted.

  He never could’ve imagined Kai possessing such a power. He could feel the frost spreading across his meridians and source, which made it harder for him to control energy. His soul was fighting its own battle, draining him even further.

  His initial plan wasn’t to defeat Kai in a regular duel, but the end justified the means. All the raven-haired young man had to do was to come in contact with him; his special technique would take care of the rest, causing irreparable damage to his soul that would stop his development forever.

  “Dark Grasp!” he cried as soon as Kai was close enough.

  Tentacle-like vines shot from under his sleeves in Kai’s direction. The latter immediately removed most of his armor, leaving only his arms and legs protected. Shards of ice scattered in all directions, like small blades, and cut through the vines, giving Kai additional time to dodge and get closer to his opponent. Yan Liang responded by summoning his daggers again and striking back, aiming at Kai’s chest.

  If someone else had been in a similar situation, they would’ve immediately tried to dodge, but Yan Liang didn’t care. That is, whoever was controlling him didn’t care since it was not their body that suffered.

  Kai punched Yan Liang in the stomach, lifting him up a couple of feet. Seeing his chance, the blond swung his daggers. The blades pierced the ice armor, and then Kai’s arm, which he held out to protect himself. Yan Liang was finally able to touch him. A stream of Force burst from his body and hit Kai in the chest.

  The scenery changed immediately. Kai found hi
mself standing in the middle of the street of an ordinary city. Nearby was Rune’Tan, who had assumed his youthful appearance.

  “You trapped him well,” the redhead said.

  “Thanks,” Kai replied, thinking about just how many times Rune’Tan had saved him. If it weren’t for him, he would’ve screwed himself over at the beginning of the duel.

  “And what will you do now?” Rune’Tan asked with a smirk as he looked ahead. “Did he think that I wouldn’t figure out his plan?”

  “He doesn’t even know you exist. So, can he be useful to us? Can we get some info outta him?”

  “Way ahead of you,” Rune’Tan said slightly annoyed. “It’s just a bit of the soul. All I found was information about his plan and his knowledge of techniques. Nothing useful. Whoever is after you, they knew what they were doing...”

  “Hmm… Then…” Kai took a couple of steps toward the faceless male figure, held in place by Kai’s ki. As Rune’Tan had explained it to him, someone had undergone a very risky ritual to break off a piece of their soul and infiltrate Yan Liang’s body. However, they couldn’t have known that Kai had his own “soul buddy,” who was able to quickly figure their plan. As soon as he realized that the fragment was supposed to enter Kai’s soul through the hidden acupuncture points and damage it, he intervened and redirected the fragment to the soul world, where it was in Kai’s full control.

  “How did they even get in possession of Yan Liang’s body?” asked Kai.

  “It can happen through direct contact, which is why he wanted to touch you. But since this happened in the arena, then it was probably done through some object...”

  “I see.” Kai nodded and then waved his hand, erasing the fragment from his soul world.

  Back in the real world, Yan Liang lay unconscious on the ground.

  “After all that has happened, he’ll need some time to regain consciousness,” Rune’Tan said.

  Kai shrugged and then glanced at his left hand. The wounds made by the daggers had healed, but not completely. Two particles of the dark energy were still fighting, slowly consuming his flesh but his bloodline was gradually suppressing them. Sooner or later, it would’ve won, but he didn’t want to wait, so he used his ability to tame energy and got rid of the parasitic ki.

  “The… The winner is Kai Arnhard from the Sea Dragon Clan!” the judge announced.

  Kai only nodded and left the arena. He’d have to spend the rest of the day under supervision as the officials would surely want to investigate Lan Yiang’s case.

  After a thorough investigation, the soul masters discovered that there were traces of foreign energy on Yan Liang’s Ring. Using artifacts was forbidden by the Tournament rules, except for weapons. To make sure that the participants had somewhere to store their equipment, the organizers gave them special Rings, while their personal ones were enchanted with a spell that prevented their use within the arena.

  Seeing that Kai had nothing to do with the incident, the representatives of the Blades and the Sun Blessed left him alone, with a promise that they’d continue to keep an eye on him and a warning that he was forbidden from leaving Neiven.

  ***

  In a small hotel room on the outskirts of Neiven, a young man sat on his bed in the lotus position. Across his left eye was a horrible scar. Watching the fight through the eyes of Yan Liang, he was eagerly awaiting to see Kai lose.

  When the two fighters finally collided, he expected to see Kai suffering, but instead, he felt the connection with a piece of his soul suddenly weaken as if it were transported somewhere to the other end of the continent. After a couple of moments, he fell to the floor, screaming in horrible pain as he felt a piece of his soul be torn from him. That shouldn’t have happened. The plan was to take it back immediately after he completed his mission, but something went wrong.

  Through the pain and haze, he realized that he had lost not only fifty years of his life, but that his source had cracked, meaning that he’d be able to reach the Exorcist Stage, not by the age of thirty, as he had planned but by the age of forty or even fifty, which he couldn’t allow.

  Closing his eyes, he saw five more stare back at him. Two years ago, the five-eyed tattoo had been forever painted on his hand. The black one had always given him the creeps.

  I have... I have to... I need to contact them... he thought as his mind sunk into oblivion. Otherwise... the teacher will disown me...

  ***

  Kai was in no hurry to go to the arena, so he spent the morning practicing his sword skills. At noon, he went to the city for lunch and to get the recordings of yesterday’s battles.

  He found out that Lily won against Knox but that she dropped out of the Tournament. Had she managed to win, today she would’ve fought Shacks.

  Pity, perhaps she’ll get another chance against him…

  The fight was long but spectacular and it left the crowd yearning for more. No one from the audience believed that some inner-circle student from a very distant land would be able to fight on equal terms with someone like Knox.

  But Lily was never the one to be frightened by uneven odds. She had had to give it her all and suffer severe injuries, but she won. Unfortunately, she was too wounded to continue. Even though she was treated by the most skillful healers, she couldn’t proceed and was thus automatically disqualified.

  Shacks moved on to the quarterfinals without having to fight with anyone that day. Not that it mattered as everyone, including her, knew that she’d stand no chance against him, having in mind how much she had struggled to defeat his younger brother.

  However, her achievements couldn’t be denied. Having in mind the disadvantage she was in due to where she had come from, leaving the Tournament now couldn’t be considered a sign of weakness.

  Having seen the recording of her battle, Kai was now even more sure that Lily truly deserved the title of Alkea’s best. Had she stayed there, she would’ve probably become one of the strongest, if not the strongest Exorcist. Only Greenrow could’ve competed with her. After all, he had a remarkable talent, especially in the field of Forces.

  Having seen Lily’s, Kai watched the recording of Ivsim’s fight. His opponent was another Blade but of such low rank and reputation that he wasn’t supposed to be much of a challenge for the silver-haired although much was expected of him as he had managed to get this far.

  Like Lily, Ivsim, too, was an underdog who proved his worth by quickly ending the fight. He didn’t even let his opponent come close. Wielding his two swords, he drove his opponent into a corner without too much of a hassle, demonstrating his superiority until the young Blade simply gave up. For the entire fight, Ivsim used only sword energy.

  The last battle that interested him was Shin Sei’s, whose opponent was the second strongest apprentice of the Sun Blessed Clan. Of course, the Salamander won, but he had to use more than his Fire Cover Technique to do so.

  Out of the four techniques that represented the Salamanders, he used two more in addition to the Fire Cover. The first was Flaming Claws, with which he formed a long fiery claw on each of his fingers. With them, he easily cut through all of the defensive barriers, forcing his opponent to dodge.

  The second technique was Salamander’s Breath. Shin Sei used it at the very end when he finally got tired of running after his opponent. For him, just winning wasn’t enough, he also had to show off and amaze the crowd. Taking a very deep breath, Shin Sei breathed fire. Flames filled up almost the entirety of the dome. His opponent barely survived, ending up with terrible burns on almost the entire surface of his body.

  When he finished watching the battles, Kai finally went to the arena, where another fight awaited him. Today he had to fight with none other than the young and promising genius of the Thunder Serpent Clan — Lei Ming, the show-off he had seen on his first day in the Upper Nest.