“How!?” the giant snarled, glaring hate at Alex, clearly injured, for all that his deadly timing made it clear he was no novice to the arena sands.
But Alex only flashed a cold smile. If his foe didn’t understand the temporary whole-body invulnerability he now enjoyed the instant his Adderstrike made contact, Alex sure as hell wasn’t going to say anything, and he took a particular fierce joy in seeing that at least he had managed to bruise his foe’s left kneecap, if not tear a ligament like he had in the other leg.
The cultivator chuckled coldly. “I see you’re full of clever tricks. It truly will be a pleasure to kill you.”
He then roared and charged, his incredible strength making it clear even his injuries wouldn’t slow him down, then punched the air just a handful of feet from Alex, who was caught completely off guard, timing his leap away for when his enemy got just a bit closer.
You have been struck by Air Hammer! 20 Damage taken! Qi Absorption deflects 2 points of damage! You have lost your balance!
And even as he struck, the giant roared, leaping in the air and stomping the ground with his foot where Alex had collapsed, just a heartbeat before.
Quickness check made! You have successfully used Bullrush in the nick of time!
Huang Kuong looked startled for only an instant when a desperate life-saving leap sent Alex hurtling back through the air, the monster of a cultivator roaring and charging his foe once more, both of them ignoring the awed spectators who seemed amazed that Alex had all but flown through the air, feet now resting lightly on the lip of the arena wall.
He didn’t need to flip to his internal character screen to know that he had only nine Qi points remaining before he would collapse in an exhausted stupor, or give the whole game away.
“I will kill you, Ruidian!” the giant roared, preparing to leap into the air himself, regardless of any injury to his knees which hadn’t even hindered his earlier foot stomp, relying on inhuman brute strength alone, no doubt planning to slam Alex right off the wall. And for all that the man charged like a mindless bull, Alex could sense the clever savvy in the man’s eyes.
Whatever odd tricks Alex had, no doubt the giant knew that he was no Bronze or Silver. Perhaps his foe even sensed that Alex was rapidly running out of the Qi reserves that were allowing him to accomplish such odd feats. And if that was the monster’s hunch, he was more right than he knew.
Alex quickly seized the initiative, leaping back into the ring, leading with a flying thunder kick aimed straight for the grinning monster that Alex absolutely knew the man had every intention of smashing away, carefully timing his stiffening strike not for the man’s ugly iron teeth but for the clawed hands even now seeking to grapple.
You have successfully struck your foe’s fist! Bronze Ogre technique prevents shattering of bone! Two tendons torn!
Your foe has successfully grabbed your changshan with his right hand!
As Alex had known he would, having taken the man’s measure, seeing the hot fire in those beady little eyes, somehow knowing the man would claw Alex’s clothing in a bunch and shake him like a leaf, unable to grab him with both hands, at least for a few moments until he gained a sense of the damage and girded himself for the pain.
In that moment, Alex would truly be in peril.
But for all that his head whipped back and forth as the cultivator roared, Alex already knew that hate-filled countenance needed to behold the terror in Alex’s eyes before finishing him off by smashing his thick bony brow against Alex’s own.
“How does it feel, Ruidian? To know that you will die by my hands?” the monster roared, dipping his head back for a skull-shattering strike.
And even as Alex spat a stream of venom into the man’s beady little eyes, he was struck by sudden terrible insight, embracing the maddest of ideas, one that he wouldn’t dare had he actually bothered to calmly think it through. Which was the last thing he could do when being shaken silly before being headbutted, thrown to the ground, and stomped to death by the wild-eyed giant only now screaming in agony as the poison began to burn.
But it wouldn’t be enough to stop him from cracking Alex’s skull like an egg.
Unless Alex embraced that which would either utterly kill him, like smashing an egg against pavement, or vindicate him.
He flashed a bleak smile as he embraced either victory or death.
As fast as the giant was, whipping his brutish forehead forward, Alex was faster.
Insight made! You have had a breakthrough!
Adderstrike successful! You have gained a crucial understanding of your primary Qi attack! Whether fists, feet, shins or skulls, it’s all about absolute focus at the point of contact! For all angled attacks become straight lines at the moment of impact! Adderstrike is now Rank 6!
You have stunned your opponent!
You have successfully used Soul Sight upon your foe! Critical success! You now know your opponent as well as he knows himself!
Your opponent’s concentration has been shattered! Warning: inhuman vitality minimizes disorientation!
Alex’s eyes widened as the cultivator glared and snarled despite the explosion of blood and gristle that was his shattered nose, for all that the crack of their skulls banging together had echoed through the stadium.
Worse, his massive foe was already shaking away the poison that should be searing his eyes.
Alex had been a fool not to use anything stronger than the subtle poison Lai Leng had arranged to be used on him.
But in that single heartbeat of time, stunned by shattered nose and stinging poison, Alex realized that his foe was vulnerable in ways he hadn’t been before. In that terrible, wondrous moment, just a heartbeat away from being thrown to the ground and stomped to death, Alex suddenly understood the nature of his foe’s terrible resilience, the crucial weakness to whatever body cultivation technique that had allowed this monster to advance so quickly.
His foe’s terrible resilience was beyond profound.
Yet unlike other body cultivation paths that slowly strengthened every aspect of the body to transcend all physical limits as the cultivator advanced along his chosen path, this man had taken the shortcut of pouring all of his advancement along a path that promised extremely quick gains.
But there was a cost for such phenomenally rapid growth. Huang Kuong’s flawed art demanded continuous focus and concentration for his inhuman resilience to be put in effect, much like raising an iron shield, or clenching a metaphoric fist.
If and when Huang Kuong’s concentration was shattered, he risked vulnerability that few other body cultivators would have to contend with. Not a problem when he was fully aware of his opponent and in full control of any duel. But thanks to the burst of agony he felt with his nose shattered to pulp, eyes now aflame with pain-inducing nerve poison, the giant was suffering distraction perhaps beyond anything he had ever experienced before.
Yet despite the terrible flaw in his opponent’s technique, Alex knew he dare not hesitate a moment longer. He had to strike, now, with everything he had. Yet elbow slashes, chops, and hammer fists would do absolutely nothing against his foe.
Even with monstrous defenses lowered, only one attack would bring down this monster before Alex himself was killed.
Purposely arching his neck back so he was looking straight up at his foe’s massive chin, Alex found himself in position for a sudden straight-line attack. Or at least, what his brain chose to perceive as such, which was perhaps all that mattered.
Adderstrike! Alex smashed his foe’s jaw with his left palm, jerking Huang Kuong’s chin straight up, the giant’s vulnerable neck suddenly exposed.
Find Weakness skill check made!
“Adderstrike! Adderstrike! Adderstrike! Adderstrike!” No longer caring what he gave away or how odd it sounded, Alex roared as he struck, putting all his hate and fury into a final furious series of blows, alternating between smashing his foe’s jaw and blasting his rigid fist through a suddenly-exposed neck.
Adderstri
ke has been successfully chained five times! Six teeth shattered; jaw cracked! Septum crushed! Spear Hand has successfully crushed trachea! Your foe collapses!
With the strangest expression upon brutish features, the giant collapsed, letting go of Alex as he desperately wheezed for breath that wouldn’t come, now writhing and struggling on the bloody arena sands, his panicked eyes suddenly so reminiscent of the terrified boy this monstrous cultivator had killed only a few short hours ago.
“No! Impossible!” Lai Leng cried, as he gazed down at Alex in horrified disbelief. Hao Chan looked stunned, Panheu’s expression was utterly unreadable. “Impossible!”
Alex glared down at the writhing monster of a cultivator, ears awash with the awed, disbelieving whispers of the crowd.
“Did you see that? Unbelievable!”
“The Ruidian was using Qi techniques. How is that even possible?”
“Those were elite soldier’s techniques. Commander Jian only taught them to a handful of imperial troops, years ago! I know because my father’s been trying to hunt down those secrets for decades. Damn shame we can never share this fight with outsiders.”
Alex ignored the excited murmurs of the spectators, turning instead to glare at the pair of white robed cultivators entering the ring once more.
He slowly shook his head.
Both men paled when they caught sight of Alex’s killing gaze, fleeing the ring as quickly as they had entered it.
Alex then looked down at the man choking and gurgling at his feet, panicked, terrified eyes pleading for aid.
“And now you know exactly how that poor confused boy felt, just before you killed him,” Alex whispered before standing up straight once more, slowly lifting his leg, glaring down at this monstrous foe who had taken such cruel delight in butchering children before Alex’s eyes.
The brutish cultivator’s eyes widened with unmitigated horror, forced to accept that he was about to die by Alex’s hands.
Huang Kuong’s once powerful arms, now void of all Qi flow, were raised in trembling supplication, his crushed trachea making a final gurgling plea for mercy.
Alex showed him none.
He remembered so viscerally Liu Li’s awed gaze laced with just a bit of horror when he had first used Adderstrike to shatter wood, realizing only then how devastating his blows truly were, for all that she had laughed at the sight of Alex’s legs covered in wooden splinters, shrapnel from foot-stomped logs struck with nowhere to go, save in an explosion of wood chips and splinters.
Alex gazed up at the crowd, noting a dozen pairs of eyes staring down at him with the same horrified surprise as Liu Li had shown a far more innocent Alex for just a second, all those months ago, before covering it up with laughter.
But no one was laughing now.
Nor was Alex wincing from fragments and splinters penetrating his flesh, so very much having changed as he continued to develop and refine his favored Qi attack, his only Qi attack, really, and the temporary invulnerability he gained the very instant he struck meant that none of the shrapnel had pierced his flesh when Huang Kuong’s ribcage literally exploded under the force of Alex’s Adderstrike-enhanced foot stomp.
A blood-covered Alex claimed his prize before turning to gaze coldly at the horrified spectators, all of them gossiping like mother hens, Alex’s odd gifts allowing him to hear far more than he should from the crowd.
“He killed him! That Ruidian actually killed Huang Kuong!”
“And he didn’t hesitate to tear free Kuong’s pouch. A true savage!”
“Savage? Hardly. He fought for his life and survived, as any of us would hope to do. And why not claim the pouch? It’s not like it’s doing Kuong any good now...”
“Silence, fools. He’s looking our way!”
Alex flashed a bleak smile, cold as death itself. “Anyone else?”
Panheu chuckled softly, with an almost-fatherly smile for the students gazing at Alex with looks of horrified awe. “And now you all understand the price to be paid for charging heedlessly along the quickest paths to power. None of you are fools. All of you understood that Huang Kuong followed an unorthodox path. His advancement through the ranks of Bronze Ogre was swift, rapid, and inspired no small amount of envy amongst so many of you.”
He gave a sad shake of his head. “And this is why I have counseled against pursuing the Red Haze to those of you who took my classes and had the wisdom to listen. It is true enough that this unorthodox path, cooked up by alchemists and fools, a volatile mix of Earth and Fire Qi force-fused to a cultivators flesh, activated only with focus and will, does promise quick gains in power, but it does so at a terrible cost.”
He gazed down at the shattered corpse that only minutes ago had been a fearsome cultivator. “For when your concentration is lost, so are you. Had that fool chosen a wiser path, it might have been decades before he advanced to just a half-step from Silver. But his strength would have been his own, tied to his very bones, and no clever monkey would have had a hope of besting him, whether or not he had been stunned, disoriented, or caught off guard.”
Elder Panheu received a dozen solemn nods. Then his gaze hardened, the remaining students paling before the sudden deadly aura radiating from the Silver cultivator now glaring down at them from the judges’ seats. “And it’s best that each and every one of you remember your oaths. Nothing is to be said about the final fights you have witnessed here today. Nothing about the abilities of Master Lai Leng’s favored disciple, and nothing about the clever tricks of a Ruidian boy who will learn his place in this school soon enough! You gave your word, and best you not forget it!”
He then flashed a conciliatory smile. “But you are permitted, even encouraged, to share with the entire school the unforgivable flaws suffered by all practitioners of the Red Haze, leaving them so weak to unexpected surprise attacks that even a Ruidian monkey could beat them! You may even share with any students who have taken those first foolish steps along that flawed path that should they have the humility to kowtow before me, I will condescend to purge the weakness from their flesh and set them upon a better path. They will lose ground, but will regain their foundation.”
Panheu shook his head at the pale-faced alchemist who was still gazing with shocked disbelief at the shattered body that had been a fierce and proud Bronze cultivator just moments ago. “It’s always a painful sight to see one’s most prized creations crumble when put to the test. I did warn you what would happen, trying to fuse alchemy directly to a body cultivator’s path. But perhaps this is for the best. For it is only in the crucible of the killing fields that the true worth of a technique, and a man, can be measured. Those that fall short are best left to bleed and die in the sand, the wisest among us learning from the folly of those that perish. And with the flaws of your technique now on display before us all, I do not think your Red Haze will enjoy any further favor within this school.”
Each and every student gazing up at the powerful Silver cultivator quickly bobbed their heads, their eyes filled with genuine respect, and no small amount of fear.
Panheu then beamed at a ghastly-looking Lai Leng, voice once more modulated to assure no student could hear what he said, for all that Alex could still hear him perfectly. “Well, old friend, I think it’s about time we called it a night. Don’t you?”
The silver-haired elder raised a single eyebrow. “That is, unless you have any further contestants who wish to pit their lives against the Ruidian boy below?”
The now wild-eyed alchemist glanced at the messenger discretely waiting in the background, who blanched under the terrible weight of the alchemist’s glare.
“Forgiveness, Master Lai. Those were the only two I could find. It’s like everyone else had just...”
“Disappeared?” asked a smirking Panheu.
The young messenger swallowed, bowing his head. “It is as you say, Elder Panheu.”
Lai Leng clenched desperate fists. “You have failed me, boy! Half a dozen cultivators, and you could only find two?�
�
The young man, who might be a mortal servant, Alex suspected, blanched with terror.
Panheu nodded. “Thank you, lad. You are dismissed.”
Bowing in abject apology to the alchemist, the messenger couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Panheu’s smile grew. “I believe you and I have many things to discuss, dear old friend. But first, a bit of business to take care of. And I think perhaps my wayward servant owes you a debt of apology.”
Lai Leng swallowed, jerking a quick nod, his face an odd blend of confusion, bitter hate, and desperate hope.
Alex, caught between waves of exhaustion, exultation, glory, and melancholy, didn’t know whether he wanted to shout for sheer joy or just collapse where he stood. So he settled for a disbelieving shake of his own head as he gazed at the rapt stares, grins, and glares of those cultivators who had stayed, all of them seemingly unable to believe that he had actually survived his ordeal.
Much as he was.
But when he felt the almost-crushing weight of a twin pair of Silvers gazing so intently at him as they seemed to all but float from the stadium box to the ground, Alex immediately fell to his knees and bowed, just as he had seen every other champion, or perhaps survivor do, when an Elder Master actually condescended to greet them in person.
His heart was hammering, in that moment catching his breath and sense of wonder and very, very grateful just to be alive, keeping a tight rein on the mocking, devil-may-care attitude fueled by adrenaline, terror, and utter disregard for fear’s grip that had so infuriated the alchemist even as it helped keep Alex alive.
But the fights were finally over, or so he could only hope, and embracing that state of mind before these Silvers would only get him killed. He winced. For all he knew, that alchemist would see him dead anyway. Alex swallowed, doing all he could not to quake under their crushing regard as he truly began to appreciate both his own deliverance and his frailty compared to these monsters.
Panheu gave a single clap of approval. “You have exceeded all expectations, lad, achieving that which few thought possible, showing us all that there is far more to the world and its limitless potential than what most people will ever fully appreciate.”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reforged: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 2 Page 49