“But you’ve shown yourself to have a modicum of cleverness, if nothing else, and I’m not one for wasting useful tools. Of course, I will tear out your tongue for your unforgivable insolence, but if you prove to be valuable enough, I just might allow you to grow it back.” His scornful smile grew wider. “I will give you a single chance for victory. A single chance to prove to me that you are more than worthless trash who needs to be made to suffer for your transgressions. So prove to me you are worth redeeming. Prove to me you can fight!”
Duo Ku’s gaze hardened. “Because none of the other dogs who shudder before my gaze would be standing tall after a blow that should have left them dying at my feet!”
He pounded his hands together with such force that Alex felt the shockwave of the clap, bowling several onlookers over.
“Now it is time to see if you are worthy of the mantle of Spirit Wolf, of joining those who would dare the madness of eternal battle, fighting by my side!” the man roared, holding his killing gaze back no longer, the remaining students flinching at his aura. “Fight me in earnest, Ruidian, as if your life depended upon it!”
Hard amber eyes glared into Alex’s own. “Because it does.”
And that was when Alex made his move.
All his preparations set.
All resources accessed.
He had power healed as much as he could before charging forward, though he was still refusing to show his final trump cards.
Knowing his maneuvers would avail him nothing—physically, at least—but still, he had to try.
Biochemical Mastery skill check – Success!
You have failed to perform Hadake Jime against your opponent.
You have failed to perform Kubi Nage against your opponent.
Your opponent effortlessly slips free of your armbar!
Soul Sight skill check failed!
Your foe effortlessly counters your blows, despite near maximum Bronze attributes!
Alex lashed out with a blindingly fast series of halfmoon kicks, crane strikes, and sweep kicks, not even trying to cripple his opponent, so much as to get a reaction. Or at least, maneuver for position.
But his sneering foe shrugged off his blows like nothing. Even those flowing so perfectly with the storm of Light Qi through them, punches that would have sent any Bronze cultivator crashing to the ground with broken bones, earned nothing but contemptuous laughter.
Spinning backhand fists were parried effortlessly, angle kicks checked by shins even tougher than his own. His foe’s almost casual snap kick struck so fast that Alex had only seen a blur, sending him crumpling to the ground, surprised not to be spitting up blood.
And how bitter a lesson it was. All his hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours of fierce, diligent training meant absolutely nothing compared to a Silver specialized in both Quickness and Strength. Because the difference between ascending from Basic to Bronze and Bronze to Silver-tier cultivation was like comparing a sleeping mat to a fine wooden pagoda, before comparing that pagoda to a magnificent imperial palace. Even worse, Duo Ku’s weave was far too complex and unorthodox for Alex to get a read on his enemy’s Qi flow, so there was no way Soul Sight could help him predict the man’s moves and counter the massive advantage his enemy had over him.
And that was when Alex forced himself to close with his nemesis, realizing it was just as bad as he had feared, and knowing what his next move had to be. No matter how much he had to suffer to achieve his goal, he forced all distracting thoughts away as he ran into the metaphoric fire. He was almost surprised by how easily he had slipped past Duo Ku’s defenses, his opponent not even trying to slip free when Alex darted around and clinched him, desperate to secure some kind of lock on his foe.
Instead the monster laughed, shrugging off all Alex’s desperate attempts at chokes, arm locks, and pins, before effortlessly flipping Alex over his back, leaving nothing behind but the oily residue of sweat mixed with the sharp, acrid scent of wildflowers and poppy, like a primitive cologne to mask the scent of terror. Cologne that had just made it that much easier for the powerful Silver Giant to break Alex’s hold like it was nothing.
Sweat, the bane of all wrestlers. And against a monster that so utterly outclassed Alex as Duo Ku did, Alex didn’t have a chance in hell of successfully pinning him, no matter his attempts at arm bars and neck locks.
Of course, Alex had unleashed ridge-hand strikes at multiple pressure points as well, just as Sha Shou had taught him, when he sensed his time running out. But with his poor angle and position, and most importantly, daring to fight a Silver without enhancing any of his blows, he enjoyed very little success.
Duo Ku just laughed his contempt, arm flexing a miniscule half inch to display all the leverage he needed to prevent Alex from doing an iota of damage, no matter how badly he sweated and struggled against the giant, like a bee buzzing on his arm, before he was finally dealt with.
The giant casually raised Alex, still struggling with his arm, to meet his eyes, showing genuine disappointment. “For a while, you had almost seemed… interesting, with your quick mastery of the most basic of all elemental attacks in four separate elements. Skilled enough even to put every one of those pathetic Adepts who will never achieve true Silver in their place.”
His sigh turned to a sneer. “But it is the crucible of mortal peril that brings out the best and worst in any soldier. It is battle that will bring revelation to the greatest of warriors, just as it will freeze the wills of all lesser men, whose only place in the battlefield is to serve as a carpet of bones for those worthy of victory!”
Before Alex could blink, he was whipped around so fast that the world was a blur, choking back an agonized scream as he flew through the air.
Your opponent has successfully grabbed left ankle!
Your left ankle has suffered catastrophic damage! You are now partially crippled!
You are now flying through the air!
Whipped around in a manner eerily similar to what the infernal merchant Hao Zei had once done to him, Alex was too disoriented to register the broken fragments of bone in his ravaged ankle as he hurtled through the air. Horrific memories of shattered bones and near death quickly cleared his head, however, as he locked his gaze upon the patch of grass he was soaring toward…
Finesse check made! Inertia Cancelled! Lightness in effect!
He Bullrushed to it, uninjured right foot leading, instantly oriented and on the ground as he forced his deadly fall into a graceful tumble.
But the cry ripping from his throat as shattered bone fragments rubbed against each other when his left leg touched ground was all the crowd of sycophants needed to cheer on their triumphant champion. The smirking Duo Ku’s eyes were now mere pin pricks as he gazed down at Alex, so fast he was already in position to strike before Alex had finished rolling, all the while shaking his head with contempt.
“Marvelous! Not a speck of blood on you. And were it not for the ankle I crushed, you look ready to bolt like a rabbit for cover, after a throw that should have left you too stunned to move!” The man took a deep, wheezing breath before laughing for sheer joy. “Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful! I get to play with you for longer than I could possibly have hoped, Ruidian. Oh, the fun we will have as I squeeze your flesh, all without shedding a single drop of your blood, before I finally snap your neck!”
And before Alex could say a word, let alone put up any defense, his opponent’s fist slammed into his gut, and his world became one of unending pain.
You have failed to save against Stunning Blow!
You are temporarily immobilized!
Right elbow has been shattered. Right arm has been pulled free of socket.
Left elbow has been shattered. Left arm has been pulled free of socket.
Your wrists have been successfully dislocated. Multiple finger bones have been fragmented.
Your foe successfully avoids shedding a single drop of your blood!
Willpower check failed. You are screaming incoherently!
>
“Scream, for me, Ruidian dog. Scream as loud as you like! No matter who hears your cries, they will not lift a finger to help you. Do you understand, fool? All pieces of significance have already sworn their allegiance. I now own the board and every piece of value upon it! Only a fool like you would dare to challenge me to a game I have already won!”
For endless moments, Alex was drowning in a sea of unending pain. His eyes grew red with the crimson agony that would not spill as his foe purposely ground together broken bones after shattering them, one by one. As if eager to assure that Alex would forever be a cripple, damaged beyond any but the most elite Silver healer’s ability to restore, even should he somehow survive this ordeal, he made sure slivers of grinding bone never once broke his skin.
Torment the color of flame seared through his soul as the hideous forced contact, skin against skin, like companions in pain, brought to fierce life the nature of his foe’s Qi of metal and flame, the taste of copper and brimstone, and the howling, pitiless winds of the north.
Unorthodox elements gave away his once-royal origins like nothing else.
And it said something about the degree of Alex’s perception, or perhaps simply their forced intimacy, that his mind’s eye was forced to see not seven but eleven perfectly intact meridians blazing bright and true, the cords binding them both unorthodox and strong yet inherently flawed, as was the warped pathetic remnant of a twelfth gate that would never open, and had never opened, perhaps over countless lifetimes.
Even in his agony, as if he bathed in seas of fire as bright as his enemy’s blazing Qi, Alex was flooded by revelations both terrible and profound.
The way his enemy’s Bronze cords had been twisted into a magnificently thick cable of Silver that wrapped endlessly about itself like a ball of yarn as Duo Ku sought a balance between the tensile strength of the cords of Spiritual energy he had forged for himself—the norm after endless thousands of years of doctrine—and the first steps along an unorthodox path of compression, winding his Silver cable tightly about its own roots,
It was no carefully woven web of potency that would ever host a Gold Core, or allow dozens of carefully mastered Qi Disciplines to be hung from its strands.
It was a massive, coiled knot of power, impossible ever to unravel. But so long as the cultivator cared only for increasing his physical power, the size of his Dantian, his Qi reserves… there was no limit to how far the monster slowly killing Alex could ascend… even if only as a Silver.
Incredibly fast. Inhumanly strong. Even with only the most basic of body hardening techniques, having chosen a path of liquid metal and explosive power, as opposed to the hard rigidity of brittle iron, which would have denied half his nature. More than half; his Eagle Palm Strike gave away an element which Alex knew few even acknowledged. After all, why follow a fool’s path of rigid slowness when enchanted armor rich in runes and a master smith’s enchantments would be all the protection Duo Ku would ever need?
Alex was struck by sudden visions of the giant howling with mad laughter at the head of a crimson company of men, equipped with a shield radiating deadly steel Qi sufficient to ward any blow in one hand, and a ball and chain forged from the ore of a shooting star in the other. Fire, Air, and Metal, all in one. Duo Ku could lead the vanguard of an army with his ever-increasing Strength and Quickness, and the magical treasures his father had left him.
Even in his agony, Alex felt the surge of revelation, insights roaring through him sufficient to clear the fog of torment just long enough for him to regain his senses, knowing that if he were to have any hope of survival, there was one thing he absolutely had to do.
And that was to clamp his jaw tightly shut and refuse to utter a single additional scream.
Even when his broken hand was abruptly squeezed by the snarling monster, roaring at Alex to beg for mercy as bone fragments tore through the muscles of his hand while the cackling jackals hooted at his torment… even as his right bicep was shredded by the bone fragments underneath, and perhaps a Qi attack as well, causing his arm to blaze with fresh, horrific pain, Alex refused to cry out or beg for mercy. Not when that a final surrender would assure his foe victory, and Alex an eternity within the River of Souls.
Not even when the giant roared and flipped him around, glaring into Alex’s eyes.
Amber orbs crackled with madness, pupils drawn to pinpricks that forced his face so close that Alex could smell the rancid scent of spoiled meat upon the man’s breath, slurred words making Alex’s doom perfectly clear.
Face to face, arms fully extended, escape utterly impossible.
Right where Alex wanted him.
Willpower check made!
What is mortal agony to one who dares to wade in Death’s waters?
Power Healing engaged!
You have fused your shattered ankle into a semblance of a working joint!
“Scream for me, worm,” crooned the sneering Duo Ku, his hot breath washing over Alex’s bloated cheeks and tightly clenched lips. Yet before Alex could respond, the monster abruptly wrenched back Alex’s arms, squeezing so hard that the splintered bones were grinding underneath the skin until Duo Ku’s clumsy hand slipped free due to the viscous sweat covering Alex’s entire heaving body. A reprieve that was far too short for Alex to use, the monster snarling as he instantly reclaimed his grip, squeezing tighter than ever.
And it was all Alex could do to endure, salty tears nearly blinding him at just the wrong moment, such that he almost missed his one chance at survival.
Crazed eyes that were just pinpricks of darkness in molten orbs of amber glared into Alex’s own. “You sweat like a slave on the rack who knows his doom is just minutes away.” Duo Ku gave a great, heaving breath, furious eyes turning puzzled as the man blinked in odd confusion. “All of Father’s slaves are begging for death when I take them this far. Why aren’t you? Do you feel nothing? Why won’t you croon for me?”
The Silver Giant gave a wheezy chuckle. “You think you’re stronger than me, is that it? Think you can force my hand? Force me to kill you before I’m ready?” His eyes glittered with sudden rage. “You will serenade me with your final screams, even if I have to tear your arms off to do it!”
The threat he snarled right in Alex’s face, before gripping both sweat-slicked arms in a bone-crushing grip.
Just before the world rang with hideous shrieks beyond anything that had ever passed Alex’s lips before.
Find weakness skill check made! You understand your opponent at least as well as he understands himself!
Contest of skills! - Adept Rank Poison Spitting v.s. Rank 2 Silver Quickness mitigated by Extreme Opioid toxicity, disorientation, and close proximity!
You have critically hit your target!
Save versus dismemberment! +6 to roll, thanks to Universal Lubricant, made!
Bullrush!
“Careful, Alex. Talented as you might be, you have only just begun your journey. Overconfidence can kill you just as quickly as cowardice.”
Alex remembered the older cultivator’s concerned expression so clearly from what seemed a lifetime ago, Liu Jian’s counsel from a long-forgotten training session echoing inside his skull as he leaped back for his life. He held back a horrific scream as his already dislocated arms were nearly torn completely free of their sockets, knowing how utterly vulnerable he was at that moment.
But perhaps not so much as the massive Silver shrieking and writhing on the ground, thanks to the Universal Solvent Alex had sprayed point-blank, comprised of the most caustic elements of every toxin and netherworld abomination he had encountered in his travels. The corrosive liquid was wreaking absolute havoc with his opponent’s face, literally sloughing off in the shrieking cultivator’s shaking hands.
A Silver who had specialized in meteoric Strength and Quickness above all else, and who had learned to use what might normally be opposing elements, Fire and Metal, to refine his essence ever further by trading the rocklike toughness of the typical body cultivator for inhu
man speed, would be a terror on any battlefield.
Far too quick for any Bronze to hope to land a blow on such a monster.
Unless, of course, that monster had grown intoxicated by poisons so subtle in their effects that they didn’t notice the damage until they were so high that they didn’t feel imperiled at all, even as reflexes dulled, confidence soared, and breathing slowed.
And as Alex knew all too well, from his own experiences in dealing with extreme doses of pain killers at the end of his first life, that even focusing one’s eyes became difficult. Such that the intoxicated person would instinctively draw closer to peer at their target.
Which would become very dangerous if that target was a heartbeat from coughing up agents so caustic that organic matter would dissolve in a heartbeat, and even a Silver Giant’s flesh would bubble and putrefy if he lacked the most resilient of Body Cultivation Techniques, as Duo Ku’s shrieks made all too clear was the case.
Of course, even with every advantage Alex had endured the heights of agony to secure, it had been close. Too damn close. The monster had abruptly arched his head back with absolutely inhuman speed. Alex had assumed the absolute worst, aiming for the solar plexus at the end of his stream as he abruptly tucked his head, such that only a portion of the spray washed over his opponent’s flesh as he sprung away just before a lethally fast backhand could rupture Alex’s skull like a pomegranate, yet it had been enough.
More than enough, as eyes cooked like poached eggs, flesh sloughing off muscle and bone as the solvent smoked and burned through even enchanted clothing, eager to eat through the soft tissues underneath.
“Alex. Over here, quick, Alex!” Whispers emerged from the shadows of the unusually well-shaded pear tree Alex had Bullrushed towards in the wild moments after striking his foe, just as everyone present instinctively locked their gazes upon their now horrifically maimed master.
“Where is that Ruidian? Where is he?” bellowed a furious Zha Shi, unsheathing a dao from nowhere that blazed like a column of flame, hawklike eyes peering into the surrounding gloom.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 72