“Not his clan,” Alex said. “To Sheng Jie alone out of all is kin do I declare my utter loathing and contempt. Sheng Jie, and all the pathetic cronies he pays to do the dirty work he is too cowardly to embrace himself!”
Alex grinned when his foe flushed, seeing his calculated guess had hit home. He could indeed imagine Lai Wei gladly taking the fool’s coin for work he would have happily done for free.
Sheng Jie’s terror instantly turned to humiliated outrage. “How dare you say that about me, Ruidian! How dare you insult my noble heritage! I’ll have you flogged for that! Flogged and kicked out of the school!”
“You will do no such thing,” declared none other than Master Pan himself, gazing coldly at Sheng Jie, his eyes equally hard and unforgiving when they pinned Alex’s own.
“A declaration has been made, much said yet unsaid, so all other parties may keep their honor. But to you, Sheng Jie, a cultivator’s declaration has been made. Your character has been impugned by a righteous foe who feels so justified in his declaration that he has declared it an inner truth. And his foundation has not crumbled, as any fool can see, with him standing strong before you.”
Pan flashed a cold smile. “I could ask what act was actually committed that would leave him feeling so righteous in condemning you, but it matters not. All that matters is the truth that shall be proven in the arena of blood and steel!”
And within minutes, Alex found himself facing off against the noble-born who had done everything he could to humiliate, maim, and destroy Alex.
Alex flashed a cold smile, saluting his opponent with the blade.
Sheng Jie’s shiver was contained, but Alex could sense his fear, peering deeply into his opponent’s flinching gaze, looking for more. So much more.
And then he had it.
+2 modifier for earlier encounters. Soul Sight Skill check successful!
“Alright, cultivators, you know the rules!” said Master Pan. “As honor and cultivation bases are involved, this is a bout to submission! Should Alex submit, he’ll suffer significant damage to his foundation, perhaps be crippled, and someone will need to escort him safely back to his master’s domicile.”
“I will handle that, Master Pan,” declared Qie Qie resolutely, glaring daggers at Sheng Jie.
Pan smirked. “Very good. And should Sheng Jie submit, he will kowtow before Alex, in this class, at least, and show him all the deference of a supplicant eager to defer even harsher sanctions for crimes which will never be spoken of aloud in this class again!”
He glared at the assembled students. “And disciplines dealt here will not be spoken of outside this classroom either. And that goes for you as well, Sheng Jie. I will have no blood feuds resulting from this bout. Averting wars and deciding battles without the needless deaths of thousands of low ranked soldiers is why you all train for cultivator duels in the first place. Is that understood?”
Solemnly, the entire class nodded.
“No need to worry on my account, Master Pan!” sneered a once more confident Sheng Jie. “Clever tricks or no, I will prove my mastery of the blade over his entire body!”
Alex grinned. “You’re welcome to try, just as I’m welcome to use whatever’s at my disposal once the bout begins. Is that not right, Master Pan?”
Pan snorted. “So long as you’re not grabbing weapons off the rack, pulling out live steel from god knows where, or attempting to murder him when he is down, then yes. That’s true for both of you.”
Sheng Jie flashed Alex a mocking smile, cocky confidence once more in place. “Was that your plan, Ruidian? Circle around while I take your measure, then toss your dao in my face while you go fleeing for the spear rack as fast as your tricky paws can take you? If so, you might as well kowtow before me right now! I’m on to your tricks, as is Master Pan!” he said, flourishing his blade in flashy moulinets, looking the exact mirror of Lai Wei.
Alex hissed, the visceral memory of his hand cleaved from his wrist flashing across his mind’s eye. And for all that he felt a lurch in his gut which even Sheng Jie could sense, he smiled.
This time, he was ready.
And with the clang of the gong, Sheng Jie launched forward with a roar, fully kitted in armor just as Alex was, vicious smile in place.
“Time to make you pay for your unforgivable insults, Ruidian!” he said, lashing out with his blade for Alex’s temple, his smile growing when Alex shifted his blade to counter, Sheng Jie immediately twisting his weapon around to smack Alex’s wrist with his hard steel blade.
Only to frown as Alex wound his blade in sync with Sheng Jie’s own movements, slipping free of his opponent’s bind before step-sliding away.
Sheng Jie sneered, immediately going on the offensive. “Too afraid to face me? Think you can just slip away from me? Not after your unforgivable insults, worm! First, I will crush your spirit, then I will crush your body, and one day I will crush your soul!”
His ugly snarl was a promise, half the class cheering on his vicious onslaught, but somehow he could never connect, his blade always sliding off of Alex’s foible, or subtly forced off-line by forte, never connecting with his target.
Sheng Jie snarled as he pummeled Alex with a furious barrage of blows that did nothing to wipe the cold smile from his Ruidian foe’s face, not even the double slash he thought would surely connect with his opponent’s neck. Yet Alex had just leaned back, supple as a willow, the blade slicing the air just inches from its target.
Sheng Jie lurched back with a surprised cry, wincing at the throb in his wrist, his foe daring to use his weapon in the most unorthodox of manners, striking with the back edge of the blade, the clip-back point biting cruelly into Sheng Jie’s wrist padding far more painfully than the slashing front of the blade would, purposely dulled for training purposes. But even the dullest of points was still potentially lethal, concentrating all the aggressor’s power into a hyper-compact surface area.
Sheng Jie paled when Alex flashed an ice-cold smile, and suddenly the cultivator knew what Alex was planning.
“No!” he snarled. “I will crush you, Ruidian worm!” he said, holding eye contact with his foe before lashing out with his foot, determined to hammer Alex’s knee just like he had the first time they had ever sparred, happy to use momentary confusion for crushing the fool who had dared to best him.
Only to blink in consternation, his leg suddenly throbbing, seeing he had been shin-checked by his opponent, who was showing not a trace of discomfort when armored boot heel slammed into bronze greave.
“You will not best me, filth!” Sheng Jie roared, this time rushing his opponent and closing in with a left hook before following up with a whipping hammer punch using the hilt of his dao, as if eager to shatter yet another of his master’s bronze helms, so long as he could also crush the Ruidian wearing it.
He gasped in surprise when his hook hit only air, Alex pivoting effortlessly to the side as Sheng Jie hammered only air with his sword hilt, before crying out in startled pain when a powerful palm strike to his sword-wrist sent Sheng Jie’s blade flying free, giving him just enough time to cry out before an armored fist smashed his nose in an explosion of blood and pain so violent he lurched back with a cry.
Blinking when no follow-up blow came, the Ruidian’s mocking smile a terrible sight to behold, if the ghastly pallor upon Sheng Jie’s blood-spattered countenance was anything to go by.
Alex’s cold smile widened. “Well, fool? Pick up your blade. We’re not done.”
Humiliated tears at the laughter of his classmates compelled a hostile growl, and Sheng Jie abruptly lurched for his weapon before spinning around, as if afraid to find Alex just about to run him through.
And Alex just stood there, smiling, so in tune with his opponent and the flow of this battle that he already knew the outcome.
You have achieved a deeper understanding of your foe, sensing his meridian flow! Soul Sight and Find Weakness synergize for a +6 bonus against your opponent! Foe’s Rank 4 Dao reduced to -2 effective
skill level. You sense where your foe will strike before he does!
And it was true. Allowing his opponent to take the initiative, parrying and countering the force and fury of his opponent’s onslaught had given him the opportunity to truly sense the flow of Qi through Sheng Jie’s peripheral meridians and his six intact meridian gateways, his very perception cluing him in to secrets the Sheng clan had no doubt done their best to hide.
But it wasn’t quite time to finish this farce.
Because Sheng Jie was the least of his foes.
He had been utterly mastered by a monster of a Bronze who had literally ripped him open, leaving just a heartbeat before Alex had surrendered to his terror and rage and embraced his ring in front of them all, knowing the awful steps he would then have to take. No matter how close he wanted to hold his cards, he had been a fool to hold back against an enemy he now knew was eager for his death.
Next time, he’d use Adderstrike and Bullrush to the fullest. Next time his foes tried to ambush him in anything but a just and fair cultivation match, a smirking Lai Wei would be screaming over the ruins of his poison-spattered face before Alex finished him off, having no fear for whatever came next.
Next time.
But for now, he took advantage of a furious Sheng Jie, who was desperate to wipe away his fear and shame with a wild final onslaught, Alex parrying or sliding out of range from all of his foe’s furious blows. In fact, he found it almost effortless to counter each and every thrust and slash, already knowing exactly where Sheng Jie’s strikes were going to land, sensing the flow of dirty brown Earth Qi tainted by too many cultivation pills no doubt forced down his throat by a family determined to make an average cultivator into a genius, ruining his foundation along the way.
Because the point wasn’t just to best the foe before him, Alex thought as he pivoted his shin to ward another furious kick his enemy sent his way.
It was to better harness his own martial skills, to take all the training his masters had instilled into his head for the last few days, and synergize it with all he was learning about reading changes in stance, posture, gaze, and the moment of the actual attack. All of this he was learning from Sheng Jie at that very moment. Alex’s goal wasn’t simply to humiliate and break his foe, but to squeeze every iota of learning and experience he could from honing himself in the crucible of combat against a foe who very much wanted him dead.
Just by observing the flow of Qi, Alex was quickly learning how to judge intention, pace, and tempo against a foe who genuinely wanted to see Alex perish to his blows. And how fiercely he smiled, savoring every second of their deadly dance as he countered Sheng Jie’s frenzied series of kicks, punches, and slashes.
Until at last Alex gave a satisfied nod, dodging yet another furious spear hand just by tilting his head.
“I think I’ve learned all I can from you, worm. It’s time to end this, don’t you think?”
And before a sweating, heaving Sheng Jie could do more than stare, Alex had already snap-grabbed his opponent’s over-extended wrist, pivoting his own hips and twisting around, forcing a gasping Sheng Jie’s limb to maximum extension before his right palm smashed into the cultivator’s elbow. The sickening sound of tearing flesh and cracking bone could be heard, a gasping Sheng Jie’s desperate shrieks tearing through the air a heartbeat later.
But Alex had immediately disengaged, not even giving enemies or instructors a heartbeat of an excuse to accuse him of any type of hold that might forfeit him the match, not trusting anyone’s five second count here, weaving to his enemy’s blind side before lashing out with a vicious series of shin strikes, hitting his opponent just above his knees, earning a startled lurch from a shrieking Sheng Jie pitching forward.
Find Weakness skill check made! Critical strike! Water & Steel Qi discharged! You have suffered mild strain to your peripheral meridian channels!
And before his opponent could do more than scream, Alex was already whipping his body around like a ballerina as he embraced his former training partner’s favorite finishing move, Hao Chan’s beloved spinning heel kick smashing into Sheng Jie’s jaw so hard bone shattered, rupturing free of flesh in a shower of blood even as a storm of Qi flooded and overwhelmed brittle meridian channels no stronger than a dried husk of a tree torn apart by a storm.
Sheng Jie crashed to the ground with a guttural groan, face now a mass of mangled flesh and shattered bone. His aquiline nose had been pulverized, his once-handsome jaw was now a ruined mass of shattered bone, fragments actually tearing through his skin, lower teeth a mashed memory as he wheezed and spat out gobs of tooth, bone, and blood.
“Did you see that? That kick was a Silver Swan technique! He ripped Sheng Jie’s jaw half off his face!”
“Ha, ha! No more pretty-boy looks for him! I could never stand his arrogant sneer.”
“And his elbow. That’s an advanced White Crane technique! I hear they twist and shatter joints when dueling for cultivation spots or submission matches.”
“The Ruidian absolutely destroyed him!”
Alex smiled coldly as the animated voices of the crowd washed over him, so many once disdainful students now looking at him in a whole new light.
He paid them no mind, darting down until his face was just a couple inches away from the broken cultivator gazing back at him in genuine horror, too afraid to do more than bleat like a terrified animal.
“Match is over! Alex wins!” Master Pan declared with a baritone roar, but Alex only smiled, making it clear he had no intention of striking a trembling Sheng Jie any further.
He flashed Sheng Jie his warmest smile. “We had a good fight, didn’t we, worm?”
Sheng Jie whimpered, trembling before his tormentor.
“I’m sure you’re going to be quite some time healing, giving you plenty of opportunity to reflect on the error of your ways. Lots of time for certain friends to pay you a visit, no?”
Sheng Jie’s tremble became so violent it was almost a palsy. His gaze was that of a man fearing the Grim Reaper.
Alex chuckled softly. “No worries, worm. I won’t be disturbing your recovery, just thinking about you from afar.” He winked.
Sheng Jie sobbed.
“I need you to do me one favor, however. When Lai Wei and his cronies eventually come calling, I want you to tell them that they all have a special place in my heart, and I can’t wait until we can all get together again. Will you do that for me, worm?”
Sheng Jie bleated in mindless terror.
“Alex!” Master Pan’s hard gaze caught Alex’s own, who immediately flowed into the deepest of bows.
“This lowly one is grateful for the chance to prove the worth of his words, Master Pan.”
Master Pan snorted, flashing a bleak smile Alex dared to hope was almost approving before glaring down at the broken cultivator groaning at their feet.
He then looked up, glaring at the suddenly deathly quiet class.
“There are many lessons to be learned, here, for those of you with the wit to see it.” He turned to Qie Qie, who was gazing at Alex with a strange intensity, as if only now seeing him for the first time.
“Qie Qie?”
The girl blinked and swallowed, collecting herself. “Sheng Jie might have bested Alex in their first match, catching him when he was utterly unaware. But he mistook momentary advantage for mastery, and lost all respect for an opponent he hardly understood at all. He never even bothered to study Alex’s fighting style, the way he combines Golden Realms, White Crane, and just a bit of Silver Swan kung fu with that finishing move. Even after Alex beat him in their rematch, Sheng Jie chose only to be offended and humiliated. And that arrogance has just now cost him absolutely everything.”
“Correct!” beamed a pleased Master Pan.
“And Master Pan,” said an enthusiastic looking young cultivator who Alex had never caught the name of. “Couldn’t Qie Qie’s analogy also be applied to the macro level? What happens when cities or entire principalities don’t take uprisings or
bandit kings seriously?”
Master Pan’s pleased smile grew with that student’s observation, though he strove to clarify some points, the entire class now ignoring the agonized groans and desperate pleading of the worm by their feet, a man who had once been held in such high regard, just a fight or two ago.
Even his former cronies favored him with no more than contemptuous sneers. And that was perhaps the most important lesson of all, thought Alex, catching the gaze of more than a few cultivators whose jaded smiles or approving nods made it clear that one particular lesson was the one they would all take home.
Strength was everything at this academy. Even the basest of origins could be forgiven if you had the skill and talent to persevere against brutal odds. But suffer too grievous a defeat, or injuries so great you were no better than a cripple, and past alliances meant nothing. You were suddenly lower than the dirt under everyone’s feet.
“...And this is why you train with me as if your lives depended upon it. Because they do!”
Master Pan’s gaze hardened. “And now you all know the true cost of failure. Every day you spar, you train not only to crush your foes, but to make sure you never have to gaze up at the world a broken man, covered in the shame of his failures.”
Sheng Jie sobbed, curling his broken body as best he could into a ball of shame, searing humiliation cutting through even his agony.
Master Pan’s gaze turned frosty. “Your classmate has fallen in esteem and prestige. He who had risen so high is now nothing in your eyes, so you will treat him as nothing. Yes?”
Some students scowled, refusing to meet their master’s gaze. Qie Qie furrowed her brow, not saying a word. But many students blinked and smiled, immediately nodding.
“Wrong!” roared their suddenly furious mentor, radiating a fearsome pressure that brought them all to their knees.
“He is your kung fu brother! He sparred and trained by your side for months! Laughed good-naturedly at your piss poor attempts at noble flattery, guided any number of you in the rudiments of saber work, and never hesitated to point out fatal flaws that could get you fools killed, if not corrected! And now you would sell him so cheaply because an outsider beat him savagely? Are you truly so craven? Has the cynical self-serving pack of hyenas that call themselves instructors truly made you all so base and callous? He is your kung fu brother, fools! Once you leave this school, you will have to fear enemies around every corner, soulless smiles holding treachery and lies! People who ooze flattery even as they maneuver daggers behind your back!”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Forsworn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 3 Page 19
