Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path

by Johnson, M. H.

  Alex nodded. “All it took was a single open gate that no one but you and I could see, and the headmaster’s storm of icicles perforated the pair of sentinels guarding the official gate into the true heart of the library.”

  “Killing them both, I bet.”

  His mouth tightened into a grim line. “Probably. But don’t shed any tears for them. Anyone with positions of authority over this portion of the library, or its gate, has already sold their soul to Prince Dongfang Hong’s cause.”

  She frowned thoughtfully. “Alex, if you’re gates can really do all that...”

  Alex quickly shook his head. “I can’t make gates that will teleport people to any location other than what they see. That’s why I let them take the library’s own portal. I couldn’t superimpose mine over theirs without them understanding that it was either a barrier, or a trap. But I can tune one of my own gates to only effect various elements of spiritual energy and still let my opponents see me, which is why Sudong’s icicles didn’t kill me, even if the peripheral bite of his freezing mist came damned close.”

  Xun Hu’s eyes widened. “But wait, that also means that Sudong could have walked right up and kicked you, and that portal you had in front of you like a shield wouldn’t have done anything! It gated your enemy’s Qi attacks, but has no other effect on the physical world.”

  Alex smiled. “You catch on quick.”

  “But what about the gates that we used that they can’t see?”

  “Those affected only ourselves. They won’t see it, and they will pass right through it. Alternatively, I can make a gate that is physically present that you or I could pass through, but someone I designate as an enemy couldn’t, effectively making it a wall of force. But it still won’t teleport people to a location without them first being able to see the location.”

  The young kitsune positively beamed. “Neat trick! Can you teach me?”

  Alex chuckled softly, glad that Xun Hu’s shadows muffled and hid them almost a well as Zhu Bi’s could. “As soon as you get your own world seed, I’d be happy to.”

  She sighed and shook her head in mock regret, before her ears swiveled, her whole body tensing up as she spotted their targets. “There! They’re right ahead!”

  Alex nodded, having already pinged them with Qi Perception as they slowly made their way around the bookshelf-lined chamber, grateful that their foes were still completely unaware of of him as he planned his next move. Just like playing Duty’s Call with Wallhack in play, he thought with a fierce smile.

  For all that he was a mere Bronze who would dare to challenge battle-trained Silvers, he would do so on his terms alone.

  And that would make all the difference.

  Kitsune Shadow Cloak has been removed!

  You have successfully avoided detection.

  Soul Sight skill check: failed!

  Find Weakness skill check: successful!

  Alex spent several anxious moments staying utterly still as he crouched within the gloomy shadows beside a large bookcase, no longer protected by a kitsune’s blessing, feeling a lurch in his gut whenever the Silvers left to ambush the Blue Prince would let their eyes wander along the bookshelf-lined corridors before snapping their focus back to the massive jewel-encrusted jade door. The pair exchanged harsh whispers before one gave the door a good kick.

  “That bastard of a Blue Prince can’t hide forever!” said the more powerfully built guardian closest to Alex.

  The second far more slender cultivator nodded her agreement, sparing only a quick moment to scowl once more in Alex’s direction before shaking her head in frustration. “Our master will get to the bottom of this and put that arrogant brat in his place soon enough. What I can’t figure out is where that damned walking corpse went. We tore off his frozen arm, and his granddaughter’s now short a foot! They should be begging to be bound, just for the relief of a healer. Neither were in any shape to do anything but plead for their lives!”

  This earned a snort and a nod from her cohort, both now peering down the corridor directly opposite from Alex, and even he could hear the dull thud of books falling to the marble tiled floor.

  “I think I hear something. Maybe those two are still here!” the larger one hissed.

  The pair exchanged grim smiles before making their way down the corridor on surprisingly quiet feet, naginatas at the ready.

  Alex smiled fiercely as his heart began to pound with exhilaration, Xun Hu having executed her part of the plan perfectly. He felt a cold shiver of excitement race down his spine, all but tasting the moment to strike.

  “What I can’t figure out is why there’s no blood,” said the larger sentinel. “Even if they dragged themselves somewhere, there should at least be a—“

  Her words were cut off with a reflexive blink as a hot crimson spray splashed in her eyes.

  In dumbstruck disbelief, she froze at the sight of her slender partner collapsing to the ground in slow motion, trying fruitlessly to speak around the massive spear that had erupted from her mouth in a bright red shower of blood.

  Confused eyes blinked once, twice, then never again.

  And by the time the obvious tank of the pair found the breath to scream, the streaking flash of bronze was gone.

  Bullrush chained two times.

  Adderstrike!

  You have elected to carry full inertia to your target!

  +100% penetration bonus in effect.

  Piercing Strike skill check modified by +5 Artificer familiarity bonus = critical success!

  You can now effortlessly pierce YanTu Amulets of Basic Warding!

  Alex grimaced, his face contorting in an odd mix of furious exultation and strain as he focused on channeling the massive surge of experience that killing a Silver one-on-one had granted him, just like he had done in the job hall. He already knew how perilous the path he was forced to walk as a Rank 6 Bronze, with only one Rank to go before he had to ascend to Silver, when he still had no techniques for forging his cords into indestructible cables that might one day hold a golden core.

  If nothing else, he was now dead certain that his next strike would hold all the insights to be found in countless hours spent perfecting maneuvers very much like the one that had just taken out his foe.

  You have successfully channeled a fragment of the infinite potential of your latest kill into leveling up applicable skills exclusively! An act of madness no balanced cultivator would dare. Congratulations! You have forged a new skill.

  Potency Mastery is now Rank 1! You may now safely channel a full 10% of the potency (experience) needed to gain any Bronze Rank into your skills before Vitality/Willpower checks are needed to avoid meridian strain or potential obliteration! (This resets at dawn’s first light!)

  Additional benefit unlocked: You may now recover an additional 1 Qi point per second for the full minute after achieving victory or a kill, as you channel a portion of your foe’s potency into pristine spiritual energy!

  Alex’s spirits soared at the notification of a skill that might just save his life as he pulled out a second masterwork spear from the handful of quality weapons he had claimed from his foes. It wasn’t his fangtian ji, but for what he had planned, it was perfect.

  His vicious grin widened as he sensed the furious howls of the strength-based cultivator at his rear, pausing a single heartbeat to spit some truly vile-tasting glop onto the broad leaf-shaped head of his spear before blinking forward at inhuman speeds as his Qi Perception made it clear that his foe was charging around the circular corridor, howling for his head.

  “You killed Lin He! You’ll pay for that, you bastard! I’ll find you, whoever you are, wherever you are! I’ll find you and cut you down if it’s the last thing I—“

  The enraged threats cut off in a surprised eyeblink as Alex’s spear tore through the back of her throat. The Red Prince’s amulets of basic warding he now understood so well that it was no harder to pierce than nudging the rudder of a boat back on course, and not even a Silver tank’s most elite b
ody cultivation techniques proved capable of resisting the momentum he had built up with a dozen Bullrushes all compressed in a single perfect moment of impact, as Adderstrike transferred the full force of Alex’s lethal blow to a surface area no larger than the point of a dagger.

  Defensive Body Cultivation techniques, already fractured by a 100% penetration bonus, inevitably gave way before a prick that became a wide, bloody smile of a gash when Alex’s spear struck true.

  You have been sent flying.

  Quickness check failed!

  You have suffered 1 Medium Wound.

  Despite his fearsome charge, as well as catching his foe off-balance as he raced around the entire circumference in the time it took her to take a handful of lumbering steps, the desperate death-throes of his panicked foe sent him catapulting through the air. His too-brief window of invulnerability was like a bubble effortlessly popped when he was jerked off his feet and sent cartwheeling with the same force as Hao Zei’s furious throw, once upon a time.

  Only now, he was far stronger than the eager Basic cultivator he once had been, struggling to his feet just in time to see the muscular sentinel stumbling toward him with dazed eyes, reaching for him as if she would tear him in half in her final moments.

  He quickly leaped back, chilled to find that even with his massive bonuses, his Adderstrike still hadn’t pierced the monster’s clearly reinforced spine.

  But he had done enough to tear open the wobbling giant’s throat as she painted the bookshelves and their priceless treasures crimson with her arterial flow, her horrified gaze locking with his own as shaking hands struggled with the pouch at her hip, before her eyes rolled back and she toppled over in death.

  Then nothing but utter stillness and the stench of blood and voided bowels filled the vast repository of knowledge, the screams and shouts and clambering footsteps now no more real than an ephemeral dream, fading away just as quickly as the light did from his latest victim’s eyes.

  He stared at his fallen foe just long enough to see the memories of wild adventures and heartfelt camaraderie in a fierce former adventurer, the devotion of a loving mother, and the sweet golden life of a gifted bard during the eye-blink in which he locked gazes with Guo Ma’s soul, those ghostly eyes filled with that same terrible despair as she had conveyed in the final moments of her life, as if she knew Death himself was judging her soul.

  And it was the cries of countless innocent children and lives filled with love and joy yet to be born that wept and begged for their soul as much as the hardened mercenary who regretted the bitter twists and turns her life had taken, a woman who had been a carefree idealist even in this life, just a few short years ago.

  “Go,” was all he said, his voice husky and raw as the soul flashed him a single beatific smile of thanks before fading away in a river only he could see.

  He, and the solemn kitsune girl gazing at him so intently.

  “Why?”

  Alex squeezed his eyes tightly shut and shook his head. “Because only in this life had she taken a bitter turn. She was as much the loving mother, idealistic adventurer, and carefree bard, as she ever was the hardened soldier. And even in this life, had we not been on opposing sides, had she been assigned the role of defender and not put in the position she had been forced into…” He shrugged and sighed. “I won’t regret taking out the Red Prince’s men. Every last one of them. But that doesn’t mean I’ll tear out their cores or crush their souls for eternity.”

  His gaze hardened. “I will reserve that fate for the few who truly deserve it.”

  Strangely, or perhaps not strangely at all, considering all she had been through, Xun Hu's eyes were free of all judgment. Though she did favor him with a curious smile.

  “What I find almost as remarkable as talking to someone who judges the souls of the dead, is the fact that after all the buildup of your earlier fights, you took out two Silvers in less than a minute.”

  Alex flashed a grim smile. “That’s the advantage of revealing as little of yourself as possible. So when you’re in perfect position to strike at your foes using internal Qi techniques and similar arts that few of any rank manage to master, your enemies don’t even realize they’re in your killzone until after you’ve already struck.”

  The girl frowned, gazing down at the lifeless Silver at their feet. Then at the second one, likewise utterly still in death, soul already fled. “But still. Even their steel armor…”

  Alex shrugged. “My first mentor once taught me that armor is primarily used by stronger cultivators to protect them from death by a thousand cuts from storms of arrows and walls of pike, so they can ignore the blows of mortals while focusing entirely on other Bronze or Silver cultivators. But against a fellow cultivator? About as useful as padded cloth, and no more than that. The only exception is when you also possess armor that’s the equivalent of a spiritual treasure. And as for how I pierced their armor and their defenses as easily as I did… I learned two internal Qi techniques from that same master, only discovering how remarkable they were a couple years, or perhaps a lifetime, later.”

  Xun Hu frowned. “Internal Qi techniques?”

  Alex nodded, lifting his eyes to her curious stare. “Adderstrike allows you to hit with the force of a charging knight and give you perfect invulnerability for just a split second in time, even as a basic cultivator of still-mortal strength. And there is no buildup of external elemental Qi that would give a skilled combatant a warning of your attack. Though it will drain your internal Qi alarmingly fast, unless you have exceptional reserves.”

  He smiled in spite of himself. “Considering that my Strength and Quickness are near the peak of Bronze, the only thing remarkable about my spear punching through her flesh was that the larger Silver Giant's Bone Strengthening techniques were so strong that I couldn’t shatter her spine, even with all that working for me.”

  “But you still managed to rip open her throat.”

  “That I did.

  “Blinking through the air so fast I could hardly see you for a handful of seconds.”

  “That’s Bullrush,” Alex explained. “At its most basic form, it’s a technique that allows elite infantry units to instantly close the gap between themselves and the enemy’s front line, slipping past spear walls and tearing through enemy formations.” He dropped his gaze back to the motionless cultivator at his feet. “But once you develop that skill to the degree that I have, you can float on a leaf or effectively fly through the air and blink hundreds of yards forward in a heartbeat by chaining Bullrushes, if you have the Qi reserves for it. It’s how I got us to the library in the first place. But slamming into your foes with incredible kinetic force is probably what it’s best suited for, even at Rank 1, though it’s not quite as deadly, or risky, as Phoenix Strike.”

  The kitsune nodded. “My belly’s still in knots from our trip. But I’m alive, so I’m grateful, and I won’t even ask what Phoenix Strike is.”

  “Probably for the best, unless you like really violent rides with a very messy ending,” Alex quipped with a smile.

  “I think I’ll pass,” she quickly said, her intent eyes peering over the fallen Silver’s once more. “Why did you take out the smaller one first?”

  “Because just by the way she moved, I could tell she was both exceedingly graceful and very fast. She was far more a threat to me than the Strength cultivator,” Alex explained. “The last thing I want to do is take on another Silver with reflexes quicker than my own.”

  Xun Hu’s expression grew thoughtful. “I’m guessing cultivators able to follow paths incorporating both those attributes are probably the deadliest of all, save for wujen who have mastered the elements.”

  Alex nodded. “Strength and Quickness fused together. Fortunately for me, it’s nowhere near as common as pure Strength cultivators possessing a reinforced body to match, or speedsters who have just enough muscle to make the most out of whatever weapons they specialize in. Because a cultivator following a path like Duo Ku’s is far more l
ikely to kill me than any other. He embraced Fire and Metal and Air as well, transforming a destructive cycle to one of deadly refinement using an element few even acknowledge, every blow as fast as lightning, hitting with enough force to shatter steel. The only drawback is a body far less durable than, say, Silver tier cultivators embracing the rigid might of the mountain.”

  “But still, what does it matter if other Silver body cultivators are tougher, if he can pound them to dust before they can land a single punch?” asked Xun Hu.

  Alex smiled. “Exactly.”

  Her smile matched his own. “Of course, if you’re stupid enough to wrestle a Ruidian who can spit caustic lye in your face and melt it straight off, then you deserve what you get.”

  “I won’t argue with that,” he said, before closing his eyes and summoning a gate that revealed bright green woodland foliage and the rustle of trees, the sharp scents of wildflowers and pine cutting through the stench of death in the chamber as Alex rolled both corpses through.

  Xun Hu’s eyes widened. “Why did you…”

  “A gift to the forest. And it cuts down on awkward questions and unnecessary complications.” He hefted several pouches of felt, leather, and silk, tossing them her way. “Prizes of war. And thanks for backing up my play.”

  The girl’s mercenary grin lightened his heart, as did the awed look of wonder when she pulled out a fortune in gold, jewels, and at least a few beast cores. “Alex? This is a… are you sure?”

  “Keep it. It’s yours,” he said, savoring the warmth of her smile before turning to the true prize before him.

  Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tomes and manuals of burnished leather, bronze plates, and papyrus scrolls, filled with countless insights and techniques from countless master cultivators over who knew how many lifetimes.

  An absolute treasure trove of knowledge in which he might have happily invested months or years years of his life earning access to, more than eager to complete assignments or missions for the school. He could have been its staunchest ally, bringing countless useful resources to bear, had this academy been anything like the halcyon dream of wonder and endless possibility he and every other aspiring cultivator so dearly hoped to find waiting for them. Like the climax of a beautiful story, after enduring countless hardships and trials.