Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path

by Johnson, M. H.

  So that when he finally got the message he had been desperately waiting for, he would be ready to do what he must, assuming there was a way to end this day as anything other than a screaming soul trapped in Shui Jun's coils.

  Soul Sight skill check: Success!

  Find Weakness skill check: Success! Penetration bonuses are in effect. You sense the flaws in your foe's stance and posture!

  And between one eyeblink and the next, it all clicked, Alex suddenly understanding with pristine clarity the path of pure physical power his foe had taken, one that had allowed Double Li to come so close to killing him.

  A part of Alex couldn't help but be amazed to sense the furious beating of what really was a dragon’s heart in the man's chest. And how such a thing had come to pass, he had no idea.

  But there was a flaw in the marvel that had allowed a man who had barely reached Silver to transcend to Gold. Even if only as a pure body cultivator, let alone one so mighty he had survived multiple kinetic blasts that had ruptured absolutely every other cultivator's physical defenses and protective wards, aside from the Headmaster himself.

  A gift of might and resilience so monstrous that Alex could think of only one way to bring such a foe down.

  And that was to take advantage of the flaw that shown so brightly to Alex's Soul Sight. Because the flow of Qi empowering the Gold Titan’s attacks wasn’t hidden the way it would be for most skilled cultivators. The flood of spiritual energy emanating from Double Li’s draconic heart flared so brightly with each swing of his deadly hammer that Alex could now sense when and where his foe was going to strike almost before Li himself did.

  It was as if Alex were fighting for his life against a spirit beast, and not a cultivator at all.

  He had only to exchange the horns of a goring bull for a war hammer of the gods, and the dance was eerily similar. Alex became increasingly skilled dodging and slipping past his foe’s wild swings, beyond relieved to find himself quickly compensating for a limb he had absolutely no time to regrow, his own inhuman Finesse and Strength allowing him to do what no mortal could.

  Until he nearly lost everything, when a surprise snap kick nearly blasted through his sternum, Alex just barely darting back in time.

  His enemy flashed a cruel grin. "So terrified of the gods’ punishment that you forgot everything else! I can rupture your organs with my kicks just as easily as I can crush your skull with the hammer in my hand!”

  Alex dipped his head, thinking back to the lessons he had learned after spending evenings sparring with a fellow aspirant who had despised him, until they became almost friends. He remembered all too well how close Dineng had come to taking him out with a Qi-less blow he hadn't expected after so many enhanced strikes.

  That lesson had taught him the virtues of reading his opponent's physical cues just as much as he did the flow of Qi, even when lost in Soul Sight. "I know."

  Double Li snarled and spat as he slapped the head of his hammer in one massive hand. "The next time this connects, you'll be ground to paste!"

  "Maybe, assuming I don't kill you first," Alex said, flashing a madcap grin of his own. The crucible of battle had burned away all terror and pain, leaving only sheerest exhilaration behind. He now understood his opponent as well as he ever would.

  Live or die, it was time to roll the dice.

  The Titan tilted his head back, roaring with laughter. "All you’ve done is run! Run like the coward you are! What could a pathetic Bronze like you possibly do to hurt me?"

  Before his eyes widened in surprised disbelief as he began tumbling to the ground.

  Bullrush!

  Bullrush!

  Soul Cleave!

  The exhilaration Alex felt when he dared to blink through the air before striking his target was nothing compared to the sheer rush of exultation he felt when his blade, now radiating all the might and fury of the River of Souls, tore through his foe’s body as easily as flicking his blade through water.

  And how easy it would be to finish off his foe, right then and there.

  But Alex wasn't stupid.

  He darted away the instant after he struck as the shocked cultivator crashed to the ground, Double Li roaring and flailing away furiously with his dread war hammer against a backdrop of the Headmaster’s furious shouts and a shower of blood, entrails oozing through the massive rent that Alex had opened in the man's lower back.

  Yet Alex had never felt so close to death as he did the moment after he had struck the monster before him. Because even if he had learned how to read his foe’s killing intent when they were both fighting on their feet, the wild frantic swings of a behemoth lashing out in all directions could still kill Alex in the blink of an eye.

  It didn't matter that he had felt the jerk of a cleaved spine, and that his deadliest attack inflicted an injury not just to the body, but to the spirit as well. It didn't even matter that it should be nearly impossible for any foe to be healed from such an injury.

  He was fighting a Gold Titan with the heart of a dragon and the blessings of gods who wanted Alex dead at all costs. And there was nothing quite so vicious as a cornered rat, or a cultivator with titanic strength that could swing his war hammer at odd, unpredictable angles, a weapon that imperiled Alex with the slightest touch, even while its wielder lay bleeding out on his back.

  So Alex was content to stand back and wait, gazing intently at his critically wounded foe some distance away as he Power Healed as much damage as he could. He refused to flinch, even when the massive cultivator roared his hate while pounding his fury upon the wrecked flooring all around him.

  "You think your blade can stop me, mortal worm? I am a Gold. A Gold! I will heal! Faster than you can imagine. And then I will pound you to a pulp!"

  Alex said nothing, just taking deep breaths and biting back his screams as his arm regenerated before their eyes. A sight which, for some reason, made even the Titan's eyes widen with horror.

  "You're not natural. You're a monster. An abomination!"

  Only then did Double Li squeeze his eyes shut, wracked by awful spasms as a storm of ice and lightning exploded against the barrier dividing the chamber just a few yards behind him, the howling storm abruptly cutting off to reveal the furious countenance of Sudong once more.

  "Get up, fool! It's just a flesh wound. A flesh wound! Not even WiFu's tricks can fool a Gold of your caliber! Get up and crush him to dust!" screamed the hot-eyed headmaster who was now furiously pounding on the barrier enclosing him while glaring at Alex with incalculable hate.

  Alex smiled through his pain, happily giving his foe the finger.

  Which just made his enemy howl all the more, the area beyond the gate alive with a storm of lightning that could kill Alex in the blink of an eye… were it not for the barrier between them.

  Double Li chuckled softly before scowling down at the spreading pool of his own blood. He slowly gazed back up at Alex in confusion as the fountain of crimson continued to spray from the wound in his back.

  "I should be healing. My dragon blood should instantly fuse my flesh, no matter how grievous the wound!"

  Alex smirked, hoping his foe's pain was far worse than his own had been. "And yet, somehow, you're still spilling your entrails and blood across the floor,” he said, stretching his now fully restored limb, grateful that the fearsome agony of regeneration had finally run its course.

  Then he had to swallow a curse as the Titan's horrified gaze turned to a tight smile, the arterial spray stopping at last, Qi Perception making it clear that the rent upon the man's back was actually sealing itself up.

  Perhaps not perfectly. Perhaps it was still oozing. But his entrails were definitely slurping back inside, and Alex was once more forced to face a cultivator radiating primal power, with a dragon’s heart beating in his chest.

  Double Li began to laugh, tears of relief turning to blazing fury as he glared Alex's way, no matter his pallor and trembles from having lost so much blood.

  You have removed one smoke bomb f
rom storage. You have removed one beaker of Universal Solvent from storage.

  Double Li's desperate chuckle grew to a roar of triumph as he struggled to his feet, using his hammer almost as a crutch.

  A part of Alex couldn't help but be impressed, awed, and a bit chilled by just how terrible was the power of a Gold, or at least that Golden heart, that had actually allowed the Titan to repair a spine severed not just by steel, but by an artifact channeling Death's very waters. And if Double Li had been a friend, or the destined hero of his own tale that he no doubt thought he was, Alex would have cheered him on.

  But he wasn't. Double Li was a cold-eyed monster who had taken Long Wang's hammer with every intention of butchering Alex.

  So Alex would show his foes no mercy.

  Holding back for a priceless half second, he assured all the cards were truly his.

  Soul Sight perception check made!

  Find Weakness skill check: Critical success!

  Sensing in that moment Double Li's agony and terror beneath his rage, Alex knew all his weight rested upon the hammer he was using like a crutch. And for all that the man was girding himself to lift his divine weapon and charge with lethal intent in just a heartbeat's time—Alex sensing with pristine clarity the fiery storm of Qi swirling in his foe's draconic core about to erupt—in that moment, he had never been closer to death. Not in all the countless years since he had first been blessed with his Golden heart.

  And the look of fury and terror as their eyes met made it clear that Double Li also knew just how terribly vulnerable he was in that moment. His eyes widened with sudden horror, sensing that Alex understood as well.

  "No, wait... wait!"

  But Alex would do no such thing.

  Bullrush!

  Darting behind his foe once more in a cloud of smoke to disorient for that vital split second.

  Before striking in the shadow of his enemy's greatest weakness.

  Soul Cleave!

  His sharktooth blade tore effortlessly through a massive thigh as wide around as his waist.

  Soul Cleave!

  Before cleaving right through the other.

  Two limbs severed in the blink of an eye.

  And Alex did nothing but smile when he was washed in the crimson spray of his shrieking foe's arterial blood.

  Only this time, when his enemy was forced to obey the laws of physics and crash to the ground, two stumps spurting blood just under his torso, Alex didn't dart away.

  Instead, he struck in the instant his foe howled his terror, a massive child desperately clutching his hammer as he toppled over in horrified confusion, unfathomably strong hands that could effortlessly tear Alex to pieces instead gripping the divine shaft as if for dear life...

  Until they began spasming and releasing that pristine artifact for all time, when Alex cleaved the Gold Titan's skull in half.

  You have fatally struck a draconically aligned Gold Titan!

  Willpower check made! Experience successfully channeled into Potency Mastery!

  And the furious howls he sensed from the gods above and the Headmaster below filled Alex with sweetest exultation.

  But not nearly so sweet as plunging his fist down his foe's gullet and tearing free the still-beating heart of his enemy with the same technique he would have used to claim the doomed man's Silver core, had it not shriveled like a raisin and corroded to Bronze.

  In that moment of transcendent understanding, recalling his fearsome battle with Shui Jun, he knew that to truly claim the prize he was after, he had to tear it free in both realms at once.

  So he did.

  Spirit Crane Strike skill check successful! You have torn free a dragon's beating heart, in worlds mortal and spiritual both!

  The Draconic Ancestor of Double Li hisses his displeasure at the mortal who dares to steal the sacred gift sworn to the firstborn heirs of every generation of the Golden Li Clan!

  Reveling in the sight of a magnificent heart both bright crimson and blinding Gold, his hands shimmering with both utter blackness and the brilliant ghostly light of the River of Souls, Alex didn't hesitate to bring his terrible prize to his lips and unlock the sweet, sweet potency within.

  Eternal Fox modifiers in effect. Saving Throw versus toxic rejection made!

  Resisting the easiest path to power that it promised.

  And how it enticed with the sweet rapture of Gold; immediate, profound, a Dragon's eternal might assuring that he need never fear the perils of Bronze or the hardships of Silver ever again. Golden power and eternal flame would be his province, and ascension would still be his, a Golden corona of fire slowly growing over decades, over centuries, until one day, it blazed like the sun.

  Alex flashed a bitter smile.

  He had already been enticed once before, and resisted, barely, the beating heart of a deity that had one day promised Jade.

  He would not now be cheated by Endless Gold.

  Qi Perception Check made!

  He refused to become the tool of any Dragon God, serving the Golden Path that the beating heart in his hands promised.

  Instead, he would make it serve him.

  In the most fundamental way possible.

  Consuming the sacred treasure in his hands, he claimed its deepest secrets for himself.

  And a dragon god's initial ire at gaining an unexpected disciple turned to killing fury when Alex destroyed its gift forevermore.

  Eternal Fox has fully synergized with Biochemical Mastery!

  Biochemical Mastery is now Rank 7!

  A portion of the Lesser Dragon Deity Long Li's immortal power is now your own.

  Congratulations. You are now genetically related to Dragon God Long Li!

  Deity in question senses your affinity and is less than pleased with the connection.

  Hostile divine connection detected!

  Fog of War is now in effect with Dragon God Long Li.

  Alex stumbled, stomach roiling, so dizzy he could barely keep his feet. He paid no attention to the gleefully cackling headmaster screaming for his death as his mind roiled with brilliant flashes of double helixes, somehow instinctively intuiting the origins of those traits that had blessed the dragon god's descendants with inhuman Strength, Vitality, resilience, and resistance to flame, among many, many other gifts.

  Yet Alex instantly understood that there was a price to be paid for his daring.

  That the cost of forsaking the path of the Dragon's Heart so eager to beat in his chest was to grasp only the tiniest fraction of Long Li's wondrous gifts.

  But those gifts that he would claim, would truly be his own.

  No longer alien to his own path, they would resonate perfectly with the Dual Path he dared to forge, having now become a part of him, body and soul. Gifts he sensed were now just as much a part of his genetic makeup as his blond hair and his fierce determination to overcome all obstacles, even at death's doorstep. So like his father, his mother used to say.

  And with that fierce resolve in mind, he devoted himself utterly to tearing free as many of the secrets of the Golden heart as he could, though he howled with sweetest agony as minutes turned to hours, forced to rip off everything he was wearing in that charnel house of blood and horror as his muscles, bones, and sinews became infused with just a trace of a golden dragon's impossible might, that wondrous strength now forever his own.

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  Alex Hammer

  Class – Cultivator: Disciple of the Dual Path (Unlimited potential. This is a Divine path.)

  Rank 6 Divine Bronze Cultivation Achieved (Ready for breakthrough to Rank 7!)

  Physical Characteristics

  Strength - Silver Rank 1 (66) (Relentless Resolve and a dragon's might are now recognized as core elements of your path.)

  Vitality - Silver Rank 1 (66) (Eternal Resilience and a dragon's fury are now recognized as core elements of your path.)

  Quickness - Bronze Rank 4 (35) (Chaotic Unpredictability is now recognized as a core el
ement of your path.)

  Finesse - Bronze Rank 4 (35) (Mastery of Oneself is now recognized as a core element of your path.)

  Spiritual Characteristics

  Scholarship - 14 (Exceeds 90% of Population.)

  Perception - 17 (Exceeds 99% of population.)

  Willpower - 19 (You have the resolve to walk in the Valley of Death and slip free of the River of Souls.)

  Qi Pool – Silver Rank 4 (140) (20 Points reserved: Divine Soul Stone anchored. Note: forged and peripheral channels now enjoy added resiliency!)

  Health Points: 856

  Additional Perks

  Draconic Ancestry. - The blood of golden dragons flows through your veins! You enjoy inhuman Strength (+1 Silver Tier to Strength and Vitality, once adulthood has been reached. You may now purchase additional ranks in Strength and Vitality as if they were 1 tier lower than they actually are, in terms of cost and requirements!)

  You are Immune to all environmental temperature extremes. All damage from heat and flame, spiritual or mundane, is reduced in severity by 2 tiers. All cold-based attacks are decreased in severity by 1 tier.

  You have inherited Draconic Resilience. All physical damage is reduced by 1 tier! Note: Basic regeneration enjoyed by all dragons has been superseded by Eternal Fox. Draconic Ancestry grants 50% bonus to Eternal Fox regeneration rate!

  - Note: Aforementioned traits are now a part of your genetic heritage. Expect unusually strong and hot-tempered offspring when you finally marry your chosen one!

  - Note: You have gained one divine enemy. The Lesser Deity Long Li now seeks your destruction for daring to fuse his blood with your own.

  Fog of War is now in effect!

  Neither Long Li nor any other deity hostile to your cause can detect your whereabouts within the Golden Realms, nor can any agent of any deity reveal your location. - Singular exception - Shui Jun (who may, or may not, be your enemy) automatically senses your presence whenever you dare the River of Souls.

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