by Yuri Ajin
Deciding to take advantage of the fact that Shacks didn’t seem like he was paying attention to his surroundings, Fang Bao leaped toward him. Whether he had done it intentionally or not, Shacks lowered his guard.
Despite the extremely heavy sword in his hands, Fang Bao showed great agility. It was as if he was holding a feather and not a couple of pounds of steel. He appeared next to the distracted Shacks in a blink of an eye and attacked much faster than before.
When the blade was almost next to the archer’s head, he suddenly jerked and looked at Fang Bao with fear. He tried to dodge, but failed. The blade hit him on the shoulder.
Fang Bao’s smile was soon replaced with anger. Just like before, Shack’s figure disappeared like the morning mist.
“You’ve almost caught me!” the archer said mockingly, standing next to another dagger.
“Stop running and fight!” Fang Bao barked as he turned around and hit the dagger next to him with his sword. The small blade shattered, turning into energy.
“Well, that’s just rude...” Shacks shook his head and created a bow and arrow. “Well, if that’s how you want it…”
Not wishing to give him time to shoot, Fang Bao rushed at him again. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure how Shacks’s technique worked as he didn’t feel him use the Force of Space. If it wasn’t teleportation (which was difficult even for Elementalists to use), then Shacks must’ve been moving incredibly fast. But why didn’t he use this speed to attack then? Did he not want to? Or maybe he couldn’t? He suspected it to be the latter.
However, for now, all he could do was fight.
I’ll destroy the dagger, and then attack him. If that doesn’t work, then my assumptions are wrong, Fang Bao thought. What is this exactly? Light? No, I would’ve noticed the movement by now... Shadow? No, he’s too fast for that. There must be some kind of a delay or effect... The bastard!
With a jerk, he got to Shacks before he had the time to shoot. The archer dodged and jumped back along with the dagger.
“Why are you so rude? That’s not ni―”
Fang Ba caught up with him and cut him in half. The next moment, the clone dispersed again.
Seeing that his guesses were correct, Fang Bao destroyed the second small blade.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, Shacks appeared next to the last of his daggers.
Soon, the third dagger was destroyed. Fang Bao expected that he’d finally be able to fight Shacks properly when he saw the latter disappear once again. Cursing aloud, he noticed that there were far more than just three daggers ― a hundred identical blades were scattered throughout the arena.
“When did you…? It doesn’t matter. It’s time to get serious,” Fang Bao said. He took his sword with both hands, poured ki into it, and thrust it into the ground with all his might. The power rushed into the floor, diverging in all directions. The first dagger that got in its way was instantly destroyed by a stone spike that shot out of the ground. The same thing happened with all the other blades. Shacks disappeared.
Fang Bao looked around but didn’t see his opponent anywhere. Nor his corpse. He also couldn’t sense anything.
Perplexed, he looked at the judge wondering if Shacks would be disqualified. The elder only shook his head. For all he knew, Shacks might’ve turned invisible, which wasn’t against the rules.
It was at that moment that Fang Bo felt a chill ran down his spine.
“I’m bored,” he heard from behind him.
Before he got a chance to turn around, Fang Bao felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder that sent him tumbling forward. An arrow nailed him to the ground. He tried to get up, but his body was numb.
“Calm down and listen. I won’t attack you again,” Shacks whispered right near his ear.
With an effort, Fang Bao turned his head to look at Shacks who was squatting next to him.
“Don’t push yourself. I know that you’ve shown only a small part of what you can really do. I know that this is nothing for you...” Shacks continued. “And I also know what you’ve found four years ago.” The archer grinned, amused by the shocked look on his opponent’s face. “But I don’t really care. You’re incredibly strong, but... You’re no match for me.”
Fang Bao got angry. He began to rise slowly; he was done holding back. Awakening his true strength, he wanted to wipe the arena’s floor with Shacks, when he suddenly felt a hand on his back. He fell back down and couldn’t get up, no matter how much he tried.
“You…” Fang Bao’s eyes widened as he felt Schack’s aura for a second. “Your stage!”
“Yeah.” Shacks smiled playfully, then stood up. “Well, now…” He raised his hand, drawing attention to himself. “Honorable judge!”
Fang Bao began to rise again, but this time he had no intention of attacking.
“Yes. What is it?” the judge inquired, surprised.
“I surrender.”
The arena fell silent. People began to exchange glances and whispers.
“What’s he doing?”
“But he was winning!”
The judge stared at him for a good couple of seconds.
“Are… Are you sure?” he finally managed to mutter out.
“Absolutely.” Shacks nodded.
“Then…” He cleared his throat, raising his voice. “The winner is Fang Bao from the Seven Blades Clan!”
“Have fun.” Shacks smiled and patted his opponent’s shoulder. “I’ve already achieved my goal.”
Having said that, he left the arena.
It took the people who had bet on him a couple of minutes to realize that they had lost a lot of money today.
“That asshole!”
***
Kai couldn’t sleep that night. He kept re-watching Shacks’s and Fang Bao’s duel over and over again, analyzing it with his energy vision. Fang Bao’s true power, hidden deep inside, didn’t go unnoticed. He was about to remove the seal that held it back right before he was pinned to the ground.
However, the most amazing thing was that Shacks didn’t even participate in that battle, but his doppelganger. Even it didn’t actually move at all. In fact, both it and the daggers had almost the same internal structure, which meant that every time a double was destroyed, the daggers simply created a new one.
While Fang Bao was chasing copies, the real Shacks was watching from the sides, hidden from everyone except the Exorcists, Elementalists, and, of course, Kai, by a special technique. The rest of the daggers had been scattered around in advance, so all he had to do was remove the concealing technique from them at the right time. When Fang Bao eventually destroyed them, Shacks simply created a bow and arrow and fired from the shadows.
The daggers and the doubles were created from the Forces of Mist. The Mist was different from ordinary fog. The latter could be created with the help of Water, because, it, as an older element had sub-elements ― fog was one of them.
Apparently, the founders of the Bright Moon Clan had once delved into the study of it. Kai didn’t come to this conclusion right away since little was known about this clan and its abilities. If it weren’t for his energy vision, as well as his recently acquired achievement, he would never have been able to understand what Shacks was doing.
Shacks was probably the most talented young warrior in all of Saha. And it had nothing to do with the mysterious Mist. It was simply because of his strength, ki, and skills he had demonstrated. The shot he had used to end the fight was incredibly powerful. However, for some reason, most of his energy was sealed in his body. It was when he opened the seal in order to make that winning shot that Kai was able to see just how much of it was actually there. Judging by the speed with which he appeared next to Fang Bao, he was faster than Ivsim or Lei Shen.
All this made Kai’s blood run cold. He knew that he wouldn’t stand a chance against Shacks if he suddenly decided to use all of his power.
For the first time in a while, he felt small and weak.
***
The following mo
rning, he plunged into meditation for a couple of hours in order to recharge. Today it was the day of his fight, so he had to be in his best shape.
When Kai and Jiang Yong finally entered the arena, only a fraction of the audience paid attention to them. The rest continued to discuss yesterday’s fight and the reasons why Shacks had given up.
Kai just shrugged, indifferent to their reaction or lack thereof, and looked at his opponent.
Jiang Yong was a short, dark-haired guy. By all accounts, he looked like a typical teenager from Earth. At the age of sixteen, he had already reached the Meridian Formation level. He was ninth among the members of the Seven Blades Clan for a reason. Nobody was given the surname Jiang just for their good looks.
There came the sound of a sword being drawn. Unlike the majority, Jiang Yong didn’t keep his weapon in the Ring, but sheathed on his belt. It was an odd choice, but Kai wagered that perhaps some techniques required the blade to be in that position.
“I hope for a challenging duel.” Jiang Yong bowed slightly, his voice full of respect.
Kai was taken aback by his attitude. He had already gotten used to the fact that apprentices were quite arrogant and that they considered everyone else trash.
“Same,” Kai replied, revealing the Sword of the Water Surface.
This time, he was in no hurry to turn it into droplets, so people got a chance to take a look at his weapon.
“A sword?!”
“Why does he need a sword all of a sudden? Doesn’t he prefer hand-to-hand combat?”
“Holy Heavens, so it means that earlier he didn’t even need a weapon to win?”
“I told you there was a weapon, you numbskulls,” the student of the Fairies said. She had been there when Kai was fighting Yan Liang.
Having in mind that Kai had kept using his fists to fight that meant that his primary combat style was bare-handed. To see him wield a weapon now meant that he had dedicated quite some time to mastering another combat style, which was a rarity among cultivators who usually picked one path and stuck to it.
Lei Lo, whose ribs were still healing, gritted his teeth as his left eye twitched violently.
I couldn’t even get this bastard to use a weapon? How’s it possible that someone like him even possesses such power?! Having forgotten to breathe from anger, he felt a sharp pain in his chest that forced him to cough, which caused another pain wave.
The start of the fight was announced, but neither of the fighters was in a hurry to attack.
“So I was right, you are a swordsman.” Jiang Yong smiled lightly. “In that case, I won’t waste either of our time,” he said and swung his weapon, activating a technique. “Seven Swords.”
In the next instant, a flower with seven scarlet blades for petals blossomed behind him. It looked like an exact copy of his clan’s insignia.
Without a word, he activated a movement technique and dashed toward Kai. The blades were now levitating alongside his arms, ready to attack the moment he ordered them to.
Kai imbued his sword with the Cold Void, creating a thick veil of frost around it. For the first time in a while, he summoned forth the sword energy. Power flowed through the blade, making it even sharper and deadlier.
He, too, dashed forward, crossing swords with Jiang Yong. The young Blade instantly felt pain in his wrist. He wasn’t weak, but he was significantly inferior to Kai’s physical strength. The power of the deceptively simple blow made him nearly fly backward.
Regaining his balance, Jiang Yong pointed the blades at Kai. He didn’t waste time; he immediately used his clan’s main technique. In theory, it should’ve given him an advantage since the blades could attack from all sides at once. But it didn’t work with Kai.
Things had gone wrong from the start.
Trying to connect with the swords, Jiang Yong realized that some unknown force was slowing down not only the spiritual connection with the weapon but him, too. That delay disrupted his rhythm, making it easier for Kai to dodge.
Although he refused to go down without a fight, Jiang Yong soon realized that he couldn’t properly deal with the delay since Kai was constantly casting Cold Void.
The only way out was to back away and then take time to get used to the unusual circumstances. Unfortunately, Jiang Yong lacked the experience to come to such a conclusion. So the best he could do was use a different technique. If he couldn’t keep his opponent at bay with his skills, speed, and multiple attacks, then it remained to rely on the power of clan techniques.
“Scarlet Dragon!” he shouted and backed away.
Swinging his sword, he unleashed a mighty beast. From the sky emerged a dragon and dove down toward the arena. Opening its huge mouth, it headed straight for Kai. Having about a third of his ki on this technique, he expected a lot from it.
Kai just shook his head. Cutting the air in front of him, he activated his own technique. A wave of scarlet energy burst out from his sword.
The spectators were anticipating the techniques to collide, imagining how the dragon would consume the pathetic beam. But Jiang Yong’s technique was instantly cut in two. He had no option but to defend himself.
The attack Kai had used was nothing more than the Blade Release Technique, which he had discovered when he reached the Mind Stage. However, over the past two years, it had undergone a lot of changes. He had improved his understanding of it, so he could activate it without taking a stance or using an incantation.
And although he was currently unable to advance beyond the Hearing Stage, he still worked on understanding the Sword Forces better, which allowed him to raise the quality of techniques from low to medium. This was also the reason why his current version of Blade Release proved to be much stronger than the Scarlet Dragon as Jiang Yong had learned it only recently.
Of course, he could’ve used the Force of Intent and immediately destroyed the dragon, but he knew that such a use of this type of Force was ineffective, since he needed to spend a huge amount of ki to create it.
Having gotten rid of the dragon, Kai finally started attacking. He used the Blade Release, shocking everyone with his ki reserve.
Although he was exhausted, Jiang Yong kept fighting off the attacks that rained down on him. They distracted him so much that he didn’t even notice when Kai suddenly disappeared and reappeared very close to him.
The tip of his blade froze an inch from Jiang Yong’s throat.
He swallowed hard, and then wearily admitted his defeat.
“I give up.”
“Good fight.” Kai smiled, removing the blade. “But you lack experience. You spend a lot of energy, so you get exhausted quickly.”
“Thank you for the advice and nice words.” Jiang Yong bowed slightly. “If I get a chance, I’d like to fight you once again, brother.”
In this world, people called stronger acquaintances their brothers and sisters out of respect. Kai had never been called that before by anyone other than Julie. Then again, she was his sister and all.
“I’ll definitely think about it,” he said with a smile.
***
A few hours later, Lei Wang and Shin Sei met in the arena.
Since all three newcomers managed to get far in the Tournament, a lot of people placed their bets on Lei Wang.