Zhao Doushi snorted. “Your newest amusement does have the Fox’s own luck, Father. By all rights, the fool should be long dead.”
Panheu beamed, denying nothing with his satisfied nod. “Indeed, by all rights he should. Instead he is now a Bronze, and of a pristine purity any cultivator would envy. Even our headmaster, chomping at the bit, seeking to purge all traces of WiFu’s influence from Dragon Academy on this, the most auspicious of all nights, would have been envious of Alex’s potential, at last revealed!”
And Alex could feel it then, a dark brooding presence beyond even the bitter sharp hatred of the alchemist.
Elder Panheu gave an approving nod as he slowly circled Alex who didn’t dare move a muscle. “I see my pupil has grown in all sorts of fascinating ways, benefiting like no other from the crucible of my instruction.”
Alex felt an odd chill with those words. Besides those first few precious months, the only instruction Alex had gotten from the man was to do his best to survive as he was thrown to the wolves, time and time again.
But there was no denying it.
Despite the terror, pain, and turmoil he had endured, he had never been stronger than he was at that moment.
And how chilling it was when his mentor abruptly smiled and nodded, as if reading Alex’s very mind. “It is good that you understand, as only survivors do. But there is one remaining trial before you. You understand this, do you not?”
Alex froze, heart suddenly pounding, dreadfully certain that he knew exactly what his master meant.
Somehow knowing by the hardness of their identical smiles that he wasn’t getting past father or son until he had endured his final trial. And even if he could…
Forced to face his own ugly fears, he now had no intention of running away.
Instead, he choked down the dread he refused to let rule him, jerking a nod instead.
“Yes, masters. It is so.”
Even as he said the words, his mentor raised his hand and three weapons rose from the ground. A spear, a dao, and a fangtian ji. Each of them were exquisite works of craftsmanship, all three of them radiated a soft silver glow, and Alex had absolutely no doubt as to the weight, balance, and sharpness of the weapon all three of them knew he would choose.
Alex grabbed the hilt of the fangtian ji, the other two weapons fading to silver sparkles, as if they had never been. “But how...”
“As if there had been any doubt,” snorted Zhao Doushi, crossing his powerful arms and glaring at the gate.
“I had thought, with the way he took to the spear and dao… but of course you were right,” said Elder Panheu with a soft chuckle.
Alex swallowed, gazing at the weapon in his hands for long moments, admiring the razor-sharp crescent axe blades, great for hooking and chopping, just below the deadly spear head. It felt as supple and well-balanced as any masterwork weapon could possibly be, as deadly in his hands as any halberd or poleaxe would be in the hands of a fifteenth-century knight. And he could sense deeper Qi-forged enchantments as well. Hesitating no longer, he slowly turned around, facing the gate, already knowing the nightmare that awaited him.
Somehow not surprised at all to see the gate creep open of its own accord, and of the half-dozen cultivators glaring daggers of hate at the three of them, their words of harboring kitsune and those favored by the Fox washing over deaf ears, though only one dared to cross that barrier.
Lai Leng himself.
Perhaps the most feared and revered of all the masters at Dragon Academy.
A Silver in his prime who did not fear to cross the barrier, glaring daggers of furious hate at Alex, and Alex alone.
Tasting the awful death waiting for him, it was all Alex could do not to tremble under the man’s glare.
He, a newly-minted Bronze, was now expected to face a Silver in his prime.
“You!” roared the alchemist. “You should be dead, you foul abomination! For what you did to my son, I will see you burn in the pits of purgatory myself!”
Alex’s breath froze in his lungs, so great was the killing intent focused his way, his enemy glaring at him with such searing hate. Alex could all but taste the man’s wrath, the loathing contempt he felt for the Ruidian who mocked this school with his very presence, who had slipped so many nooses and traps sent to destroy him and the Silvers who dared to house him. Yet the gravest offense beyond all else was that Alex had dared to maim and cripple Lai Leng’s own son, instead of accepting the bitter death so many elders within this school wished to gift Alex and all disciples of the God of Mischief with.
Then Alex smiled past his terror, at last understanding the significance of the terrible weight upon his psyche, even as he braced his knees against crushing hatred, force to endure the naked fury of an enemy’s soul bared before his own.
Thanks to the hideous poison his enemy had used, putting both their spirits in mortal jeopardy, they shared a dark bond neither could break, and not even his enemy could deny.
Alex dared to grin back at his foe. “That’s right, asshole. Lai Wei broke his oath, and it was my pleasure to fry all his meridian channels to oblivion. How does it feel to have a burned-out failure for a son?”
The alchemist’s face blotched with fury. “I will kill you for that, abomination! I will tear apart your body! I will corrupt your very soul!”
Hesitating not an instant longer, the roaring alchemist charged forth, a saber of liquid flame erupting from his hands as he sprang for the kill, screaming out a series of curses that caused a howling whirlwind of caustic green bile to swirl into being before shrieking through the air as it raced for Alex, searing lush green foliage to yellow brittle death as it passed.
The alchemist flashed a twisted rictus of a smile as he sought to pin Alex between cyclone and deadly killing blade, his weapon streaking through the air with inhuman speed as he lashed the air with a frenzied series of moulinets.
“I will cleave your head from your neck, worm! See if I don’t!” he screamed.
Before his eyes grew wide with almost comical disbelief when Alex blasted through the whirlwind of caustic death before Lai Leng could even blink, the alchemist’s desperate parry batted aside so effortlessly it was as if they had rehearsed this sequence of moves a dozen times before.
And between one disbelieving blink and the next, amidst a backdrop of the horrified gasps and cultivators roaring for Alex’s head beyond the gate, it was Lai Leng giving ground before Alex’s furious onslaught as the massive boon in reach and leverage proved once more why, save for purposes of channeling Qi, polearms would crush swords eight times out of ten.
“No! That’s impossible!” screamed a furious Lai Leng, as if unable to believe the stream of crimson splashing into his eyes was his own as Alex’s wicked spear tip just grazed the man’s forehead, after Alex expertly pivoted past the now poorly-held saber, crackling venom unable to disrupt the arcane enchantments around the weapon Alex now held in his hands.
And Alex didn’t let up for a moment, terror transforming to furious resolve as he was rocked by the same glorious truth his enemy was realizing to his dismay, Panheu happy to declare before the world.
“And now you see the cost of pitting your soul with darkest magics against a fellow cultivator! For should he survive your initial onslaught, you will forever be open to him in turn!”
And it was true. Alex had pierced the man’s veil, Lai Leng having revealed himself utterly when his hideous poison seared Alex’s very soul. Had Alex perished, as anyone but those daring the longest odds would have thought, it would have meant nothing. Rather, it would have allowed Lai Leng to savor every moment of Alex’s torment.
But Alex had somehow managed to best incredible odds and survive. And in doing so, he could now sense his enemy’s weakness with every frantic breath, every hissed curse, every desperate attempt to push him back, Alex twisting the shaft of his weapon to ward frantic cuts before snapping forth with quick rebuttals that immediately put the alchemist on the defensive as the Silver cultivat
or desperately sought to push back the killing head of the fangtian ji.
You have pierced four levels of your opponent’s mastery! 3 Silver levels and 1 Bronze level mitigated. Opponent’s Finesse and Quickness are Bronze Rank 3. Total modifier: +10 Bronze Ranks.
Your Bronze Rank 1 in Strength, Quickness, Finesse, Rank 6 White Crane kung fu, and Rank 5 Silver Swan kung fu (counted as Bronze Ranks until you ascend) give you +14 Bronze Ranks. Your Rank 5 Golden Realms kung fu (A lesser basic cultivator art) gives a modified +1 additional Bronze Rank advantage. Total modifier: +15 Bronze Ranks.
The words flashing across Alex’s mind’s eye meant nothing. In truth, he was doing everything he could just to hold his own against the faster, more powerful Silver cultivator desperate for his head. It was only because he was finally tapping into the whirling Light Qi all around him, for the first time in truly dire circumstances, that allowed him to wind past his opponent’s deadly slashes and unexpected thrusts with the alchemist’s poison-coated blade.
And for all that Alex put all his efforts into twisting past his opponent’s dao and keeping his three-foot distance, he still found himself gasping more than once when the deadly blade caressed his flesh with the shallowest of wounds.
Yet Lai Leng’s triumphant roar always broke off with a snarl when he saw how his poison failed to do anything more than blister Alex’s skin after tearing right through Alex’s armor.
“No! Impossible!” the man seethed. “My Serpent Cyclone should have you on the ground, writhing, your face melted off! My dao should be eating through your flesh, the poison entering your heart this very instant!”
Alex didn’t deign to answer, for all that Elder Panheu’s cold chuckles, somehow mirroring the brooding rumble of thunder echoing across the horizon, made it clear that he, at least, wasn’t surprised. For Alex was too busy focusing on his foe, striving to read Lai Leng’s every move, judging with ever greater precision how thought and intention led to action, a crucial skill to master with an opponent as fast and fluid as the killer he now faced.
And when he saw Lai Leng shake his head with a snarl, as if dispelling the very thought of the foul monkey somehow resisting his poison, Alex already knew his foe would blink for a hair of a second before snarling and pressing the attack once more.
In that moment, Alex knew his opponent better than Lai Leng knew himself.
And in that moment, Alex struck.
Adderstrike! Adderstrike! Adderstrike!
Black Swan!
And faster than his enemy could blink, Alex had tapped his personal Qi, finding it just as draining as ever, though luxuriating in the fact that not even his foe had a chance to sense his internal Qi-based attack, blinking in front of the monster before his deadly magical artifact slammed into his enemy’s kidney. And had his foe not been warded by the strongest of enchantments, his entrails would have exploded out his backside in a shower of blood.
As it was, he was sent flying through the air.
So a quick-thinking Alex flashed a vicious grin, not hesitating to lash out with his spear straight up before the tumbling Lai Leng could crash and slide upon the ground.
And this time Alex felt the air leave his gasping foe’s lungs, the head of his weapon bruising flesh and cracking bone as the man was sent cartwheeling through the air before Alex struck again.
And again.
Lai Leng screamed.
Alex laughed, delighting in catching his foe unprepared. A foe who might be among the deadliest of all alchemists, able to concoct master cultivation pills and fill an entire city block with deadly caustic fumes. Fumes that were worthless against a master of the Eternal Fox cultivation technique, with a pristine body now immune to massive quantities of poison, acid, or caustic agents. A body that had already forged itself specifically to counter his enemy’s poisons above all others, for better or worse.
So what use would such an alchemist have for any techniques that would allow for wind running or flight?
Alex could imagine the man laughing at the absurdity of the idea, just an hour ago.
For who could have predicted that Lai Leng, the famous alchemist, would now be howling in panicked fury every time Alex blasted forth with his fangtian ji, sending his foe flipping up towards the heaven once more?
His foe might be a Silver with inhuman resiliency, but damn if Alex wouldn’t make him shriek with pain by the time he was through.
And Panheu’s laughter continued to grow. “What does it say about you, fool of an alchemist, to be so readily bested by the least of my disciples?”
And when a deadly baritone voice that could only be the headmaster himself roared at Panheu to stay his disciple’s hand, Alex’s mentor laughed all the louder.
“I will do no such thing! This fool of an alchemist has done all he could to arrange for my disciple’s death, up to and including using forbidden Soul techniques upon him! I declare all Dragon Academy covenants broken! He is my property to do with as I wish, and if you don’t like it, Headmaster, you may challenge me yourself!”
And the night suddenly shook with the violence of a thunderstorm.
Yet Alex paid it no mind, lost in the sweet hot rapture of spearing his howling foe, gazing into the terrified eyes of a desperate man who had for so long sneered at Alex with endless contempt, squeezing his oath as if it meant nothing, doing all he could to foment hostility and contempt for the Ruidian in their midst school-wide when Lai Leng was denied the right to strike at Alex directly, finally using his son as the cat’s paw to destroy him, one way or another.
Yet in the end it had been the vicious Lai Wei who had once scalped a far more innocent Alex that had paid the price for his oathbreaking pride, and now it was the hate-filled mastermind himself who was forced to pay in shrieks and agony for each insult leveled Alex’s way, each contemptuous sneer while he did all he could to see Alex perish in the arena, and each underhanded attempt to break Alex, body and soul, since the moment he had first arrived at Dragon Academy.
His enemy had been filled with unmitigated hatred, from the moment he had first set eyes upon Alex.
And Alex was now more than happy to return the favor.
Countless times did he use Adderstrike to smash his foe aloft in the air, eager to torment his enemy, even if he couldn’t break through.
Before finally realizing that for all his transcendent insights, he was still playing the fool.
He could just imagine Liu Jian shaking his head with a bemused smile. “Just hit the target, Alex.”
“But I can’t break through!” Alex snapped, for a heartbeat back at their woodland retreat, gazing at his smarting knuckles in frustration, unable to pierce his master’s elemental ward, for all that he had hammered through it with Adderstrike multiple times before.
“It’s not about breaking through. It’s not about force. It’s about slipping between the strands trying to hold you back.” Then his former master flashed the oddest of smiles, so like WiFu’s own. “It’s about slipping between the cracks, like the wiliest, craftiest of hunters. Do you understand, little fox?”
Alex blinked, gazing up at the furious alchemist spitting a stream of vitriolic bile from the shelter of his Silver-ranked ward, falling just a bit slower than he otherwise would, thanks to the circular ball of force he took desperate shelter in. Only now Alex paused in his strike, gazing intently at his enemy’s defenses, finally sensing what had escaped him for so long before.
Yin and Yang. Dark and Light Qi. A balance to all things.
Strands of rigid Qi that looked nearly indestructible head-on, resilient enough to endure even a Silver Giant’s blows, utterly resistant to any compressive force. But how about tensile strength?
What if Alex somehow stretched and warped the ward’s filaments that were so resistant to direct impact? What if he tried to simply push the narrowest sliver of Qi through the intricate elemental meshwork, just like using a pencil to stretch open and rupture a single link in a mesh screen door, before jamming the entire
pencil through?
And once that first link was ruptured…
Lai Leng flashed a furious, broken smile. “Drained at last. I knew it was only a matter of time, fool! And soon you will pay. Soon you will know pain unlike anything you—”
Soul Sight bonuses in effect. Familiarity bonuses in effect. Find Weakness skill check: Critical Success!
You have successfully pierced your opponent’s Immaculate Silver Ward with Piercing Strike! Insight gained! You now fully comprehend this art. Piercing Strike is now Rank 1.
Your enemy has taken 1 Heavy Wound. Your enemy is stunned. Elemental Wards are down. Strike at will!
Alex actually froze in momentary surprise when he saw how easily his fangtian ji had pierced his enemy’s belly, having slipped so effortlessly past defenses that had seemed indomitable, just seconds before.
A feat that seemed to surprise even Panheu and Zhao Doushi. “Bloody Hell, the boy actually broke through.”
Only then did Alex flash his enemy the iciest of smiles, savoring the look of terror in the broken man before him. Nose crushed, jaw shattered, ribs cracked, forearms and wrists clearly broken; so many of Alex’s blows muted but not entirely stopped, had left his foe battered and broken. Yet even with three inches of enchanted steel stuck in his belly, Lai Leng was still alive and vigorous enough to shriek for the headmaster himself to save him, despising Alex so much he wouldn’t beg for mercy even when staring death in the face.
Which suited Alex just fine as he felt the howling storm fill him with steel blue Qi potent and terrible, about to rip his weapon free and unleash a Black Swan cleaving strike with the force and fury of the roaring ocean itself behind the blow.
“Disciple! You will halt! Now!”
Elder Panheu’s booming voice broke through even the crash and thunder of the storm, all traces of dark jaded bemusement gone, startling Alex so badly he was actually jolted out of his killing frenzy, the wild furious Qi filling himself and his fangtian ji abruptly jolted out of true.
You have lost your balance. You have suffered 1 Light Wound due to Qi Backlash.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Forsworn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 3 Page 41
