For every member of his pack that Alex managed to take out, the beast would claim its core and grow stronger, while Alex grew exhausted and weaker.
In the end, that beast would see Alex dead, no matter what it cost.
Even as it used Alex’s own desperate struggles to forge its own evolution.
Alex laughed bitterly, knowing exhaustion and fatigue were already setting in. Worse, he was vulnerable. His desperate hope that being twenty feet up would save him had just been proven utterly wrong.
Because that one sneaky shadow jackal had pounced from overhead. And Alex’s Qi Perception hadn’t rung a warning until the very last second.
Desperate eyes quickly scanned around as he took deep breaths, thinking nothing of burning the fresh blur of experience he had earned into Eternal Fox to give him the equivalent of Power Healing, a rush of energy dumped not even into quickly healed wounds, but to badly depleted Qi reserves.
Because at this point, saving experience to level up meant nothing. All that mattered, the only thing that mattered, was healing and recharging himself as fast as he possibly could. To survive yet another minute of this endless, awful day.
Now he had to burn through his newly acquired experience just as he earned it.
He could save nothing.
And he dared tap into nothing he had stored in his interface before.
Because his hideous bundle of saved experience, including an eternal golden pearl of power, would blast through him all at once. He was frightfully certain he had absolutely no way to control the flow and the very power that could redeem him if he had access to all the tomes and resources he would need to finally devise an eight element cord.
He laughed bitterly at the thought. Thinking of Dragon Academy, with so many pieces arrayed against him such that he had been denied even a single chance to access the library before he had been forced to flee, and that had been after enduring the most herculean of trials and doing everything right.
Using the last shreds of his sage-like insights tied to the epiphany of his breakthrough to rescue his friends from diabolical Silvers, and even the wondrous sanctuary and the prize of knowledge that should have been his... had been denied him utterly by roaring furious gods who had slammed all their pieces on the board to deny him every scrap of aid, going so low as to threaten everyone he had ever loved, if anyone of any race who knew of his true intentions in Baidushi knowingly gave him any aid.
Which meant he dared not open a single page of the magnificent library belonging to a strikingly beautiful and deadly kitsune whose eyes had shone with such gratitude for her and her daughter’s salvation... and Alex had to turn away every bit of help she could have offered.
Forcing Alex to flee countless hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles, until encountering a free trade city that was free only for so long as they could keep the citizens of Baidushi fed, before making his way to a tiny, out-of-the-way monastery. And even there, Alex had been right to assume he would never be the recipient of the gentle kindness that seemed the birthright of so many heroes in the stories he had loved to read growing up. And thus his ears had been instinctively perked for the telltale signals of treacherous intentions that had caressed his ears only when Xiao Shen slipped up at the end with mocking statements shared with his supposed healer that only a paranoid fool would think had been aimed at him. But of course they had.
Yet the greatest tell of all had been when the man had stated with equanimity the Dragon Academy headmaster’s name, a vindictive bastard who had actually ascended to Gold and took such pleasure in destroying his enemies. Thus it was a name that no true foe of the man would dare say aloud.
But of course all of that could be explained away. All of that was justification after the fact. Because it hadn’t been clever mocking words that were the norm for all conniving cultivators that had given the man away, but his simple acts of generosity. Unconditional kindness. Even fatherly concern. States of mind that were as alien to the average ruthless cultivator’s mindset as could possibly be.
Yet still, Alex had dared to embrace a fool’s hope. Gambling everything that his Qi Absorption and Artifice skills, along with gloves of Dark Qi formed under the cotton sickroom gloves he had still been wearing, would be enough to stop the wards on that library door.
It had, after all, proven strong enough to ground a diabolical curse utterly.
And how wrong he had been, the power of Gold sufficient even to transcend the very rules of the elements, sending Alex crashing into the River of Souls.
For all intents and purposes dead for the last time, as his enemies planted pieces against him upon the surface of every board he would ever come across, it seemed. All with the fierce and absolute intention of denying him absolutely every resource that could possibly help him figure out the puzzle of his Qi paradigm and ascend.
Alex flashed a fierce smile as he peered into the gloomy crevices that were cratered like Swiss cheese in the vast, arching roof above. Because in the end, he had done it. In the final fierce instant before death had claimed him, his shattered arm had still managed to shove itself just under the shattered lip of the door.
“All you have to do now is get through this door, and the library is effectively yours!”
Those had been his enemy’s words. Permission granted.
And when his dying fingertip had crossed the threshold, Alex had taken him at his word, and Fate itself accepted Xiao’s declaration.
His divine ring had claimed every book, every chair, every table, and the very carved and filigreed stone walls outlining that wondrous repository of knowledge.
Leaving nothing but a massive granite shell, as his foes would have known that very instant, had they even bothered to look behind the sealed door. But they were concerned only with getting rid of loose ends and claiming the bounty that had been put on Alex’s head, bothering only to kick his arm free and strip his body bare before tossing him into the deepest pit in the massive Dark Qi-infused crater that was to be Alex’s grave.
A bounty that somehow been communicated to even this out of the way locale. Because the gods who despised him were playing fast and loose with the rules once again. And the horror of it was, Alex thought he understood why.
They no longer had to worry about consequences. Their words meant nothing to them, if they never had to fear repercussions.
Thanks to the bastard Lai Leng, this was Alex’s final life.
So his enemies, which seemed to be an entire pantheon of gods, save for WiFu himself, were now more than willing to pull out all the stops to try to kill him this final time. Even if they had to concede to WiFu a dozen black cards, it meant nothing if the God of Chaos and Change’s favored piece was finally and forevermore dead.
“I got you bastards. In the end, I finally got you!” Alex hissed.
But in the end, it really hadn’t mattered.
Because his enemies had finally broken their own inviolate rule, compelling their pawn to tear free that which was never to be touched.
Teasing the poor fool with an enticement he had been unable to resist.
For all that his soul had quailed.
Seven lives of perfect fortune and happiness.
Even now, the gods’ pawn was racing away from his home of cutthroat monks and diabolic cultivators and broken fools.
For a heartbeat of time, Alex was that man, joined to him, running by his side. His divine artifact, a piece of his soul, was now joined to that man’s finger, forcing Alex to experience and feel the exhausted man’s terror and pain as he used all his Qi reserves to flee dangers imagined and real, the pads of his feet cracked and bleeding by the time he had descended the far side of the crater, past the marshes and slipped into deeper woods still.
And Alex sensed Chow Ong’s excitement as he took deep breaths of pine scented air, having passed the rotting stench of the bogs at last, stumbling into a clearing, crashing into a bed of pine needles as his delirious mind imagined commanding thousands of loyal troops,
standing tall and proud, flashing to the relaxed image of a rich merchant rolling dice with friends, everyone laughing at his glorious luck, so blessed that not one companion felt anything but love for the man, happy to give all their wealth to the charming rogue who had touched all their hearts. Then fever dreams of waking up in the loving arms of a mother he had never had in this life, knowing he would one day become king.
But Alex could feel it right away, even if Chow Ong was too sick and feverish to pull himself out of his daze in time. The hot panting breaths of the massive spirit beast looking down at the trembling mortal that had dared to enter its territory.
With a delightful prize the massive shadow wolf would happily claim for itself.
“You can’t kill me, lord of the forest. For I work on behalf of the gods! I was promised seven lucky lives if I flee all I once knew with the prize I hold!” a suddenly shrieking Chow Ong begged. “I was promised by Lord Zeng Yi himself!”
The forest rang with laughter that roared and crashed like the howling storm above.
“Then you are indeed in luck, fallen monk, for the pain of your trials is finally at an end.”
The monk’s widened with impossible hope. “You mean you’ll let me free?”
“No, fool. I’ll let you start the first of those seven lucky lives right now!”
The monk’s desperate shriek pealed endlessly through the night as the giant wolf’s maw opened wide.
And it was only in that instant that Alex realized he had fallen into a daze, and the hot breath he felt was on his own clammy, naked flesh.
Bullrush! Bullrush!
Alex didn’t think. He acted, leaping into the air, soaring through the shadows to the ceiling above, before orienting and blinking to one of the ledges in a flash, to the background accompaniment of a sea of swarming jackal-like beasts that had washed over the stone pillar he had slumped against in dazed exhaustion, just moments before.
Vicious horrors that did not flare as brightly to his Qi Perception as any other spirit beast, cultivator, or even the weakest of mortals would, but as dull shadowy blurs he had to concentrate to spot.
But at least now he knew what to look for.
And when he sensed a similar blurry gray from the lip of the crevice ahead, he did not hesitate to act. For though his mind was exhausted, his body had taken fierce advantage of experience boosted power healing to the utmost.
Adderstrike! Adderstrike!
He did not wait for eyes to adjust or senses to ping with pristine clarity.
The feel of his fists smashing snapping jaws and fearsome claws was enough.
And Alex knew exactly what he had to do, forced to fight shadow jackals in darkness.
He would embrace the instant of invulnerability every attack brought him.
Smashing into jaws and claws that would otherwise tear him open.
Adderstrike! Adderstrike!
Crashing into and tearing through the howling masses of flesh ready to swarm him, to leap on him from above.
Until he had taken the battle to them.
Charging forward as he weaved and dodged, fists smashing in teeth, ridge-hand strikes crushing throats, snapping kicks and heel strikes shattering ribs and cracking skulls as he made his foes bleed for every ounce of flesh they tried to tear from his body, so many perilous slashes muted to flesh wounds instantly sealed shut as his body flooded with experience, and Alex channeled it all into Eternal Fox.
Until Alex faced the final massive jackal in that upper chamber, weaving and darting aside as too clever jaws sought to tear open his throat, before crashing down and tearing open his knee.
Alex crashed to the ground, momentarily speechless with pain.
But not before he shattered his dying foe’s skull.
And still, the silence was only for an instant.
He sensed the swarm of spirit jackals below, racing for the tunnels even now.
His guts twisted with the dying creature’s gaze, understanding without words being said the meaning.
Not one jewel, not one ounce of flesh would he be allowed to take from the fallen as he leaped out into the blackness, experience point burst alone allowing him to power heal his cracked knee in midair, the sweet dark power flooding into him with his opponent’s dying gasps just barely keeping him from utter collapse as desperate eyes alit upon a stalactite, Bullrushing to clasp its slimy surface, knowing he was about to fall to his doom.
“Not one morsel of our flesh will you be allowed to consume.”
“Not one of our cores will you be allowed to take!”
“We will kill you in the end.”
More glittering intent than words, the monstrous swarm of slavering jackals pouring into that crevice and devouring Alex’s kills, glaring their hate at him as they did so, spoke that truth louder than any words possibly could.
As his fingers throbbed with agony, fierce strength and desperate leverage unable to keep his grip.
Strength check failed!
Bullrush! Bullrush!
Forced to dart through the air to another tunnel ledge swarming with jackals.
Qi reserves rapidly depleting, no matter how much tainted power he consumed with his kills.
And Alex realized he was being a fool.
So consumed with fear.
Draining his Qi.
Forgetting all of Panheu’s lessons.
Pain? Yes, it would come.
He would risk disembowelment and dismemberment every instant.
But the dance of battle, if perfectly embraced, was a dance he could win.
A snapping jaw launched for Alex’s throat.
Missing by inches as Alex weaved aside, his arcing blow cracking into his foe’s side, forcing it back, off balance, but not over the lip of the ledge.
The beast smiled as if sensing its foe was weakening, no longer shattering skulls with Adderstrike.
Before howling as its brethren slammed into it, and both were sent crashing to their deaths against the jagged sharp stones far below.
But Alex spent only an instant tasting their arrogance and fear, his mind ever so slowly tuning in to his foes, his fists flashing flickers of blackness, so saturated the very air was with the waste Qi that destroyed so many peripheral networks so quickly, and here he was, all but drowning in the stuff.
Dark Qi that was, to him, as sweet and strong as molasses.
Alex smiled through the pain as the next pair of slavering abominations charged him in tandem, pivoting and twisting as his fists arced around, hammering his foes not with the limited reserves of internal Qi needed for Adderstrike, but by using the swirling storm of Qi all around him. Only now it wasn’t just a whirlwind of Light Qi he was tapping into, but the wild, unpredictable eddies of pure chaos as well.
White Crane Rank 6 modifier in effect. Silver Swan Rank 5 modifier in effect.
You have successfully struck your foe! You have sent your foe flying off the ledge!
You have been hamstrung!
Experience flood in effect!
Power Healing in effect!
Saving throw made. You leap before your foes can tear out your throat!
Bullrush!
Alex flashed a bleak smile as he raced through the air, leaping gracefully into a tunnel all the way across the massive chamber rooftop that seemed more like an inverted honeycomb than anything else.
Meeting the sickly yellow gazes of his enemies.
For of course they were there, waiting for him.
But he was ready.
Hands shimmering with what felt like the tint of steely oblivion, he was ready.
Lashing out with furious fists and snapping kicks for raised throats or heel stomps for lowered skulls looking to hamstring, his every blow bruised muscles, cracked bones, or sent his foes flying over the ledge.
No matter how many wounds he took, he began to learn the steps to this deadly, terrible dance.
Knees cracked or in some cases torn completely off, tendons severed, toes snipped, fists
gouged... he mastered the art of the leaping pirouette, the retreat of just a few heartbeats as the surge of experience poured through his soul, and when he was finally forced to leap free, he did so gracefully, Qi reserves restored, not depleted, by the swirling mass of Light and Dark Qi spinning around and through him, adding devastating power to his arcing punches and whipping kicks, enriching his very soul.
Smiling through the constant unending agony, the storm of Dark Qi and the flood of experience healing him almost as fast as he was shredded, reminding him so much of his breakthrough to Bronze... for all that this was so much deadlier.
This dance, so much more terrible.
And the lessons no less profound, he thought, as a fist flickering with ebony blackness shattered the skull of the snarling jackal before him as if he was channeling Silver Swan combined with a steel gauntlet on his hand.
A gauntlet made of pure Dark Qi.
No matter that an instant later it was gone, and the fist slamming into the next jackal’s open mount cost him three fingers before he desperately leaped free of ledge and across the perilous chasm once more, screaming with the fearsome agony of Power Healing yet again, pain one thing that never seemed to numb...
For just that moment he felt fierce exultation swirling with the terror and the sheer rush of fighting for his life against maddest odds.
Knowing he had done it.
Created that gauntlet of Dark Qi.
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill! Dark Qi Projection! In a place this saturated with waste Qi, you can give it physical form, even without a divine storage ring! Create a barrier fit to block any direct Qi attack below Gold. Forge a shadowy gauntlet harder than steel! Rank 0 - partial comprehension achieved! You do not yet fully comprehend this art. Significant penalty to skill check rolls to manifest this Qi ability!
And still the demon beasts came.
Eager to tear into the mortal cultivator that dared to strike at them, dozens upon dozens of lupine beasts fighting in eerie unison.
Filled with blackest hate for the human who dared to resist them.
So hungry for his flesh, to lap down his blood, to crack his bones and feast upon his marrow.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior's Oath: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 4 Page 29