Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5

by M. H. Johnson

  Yan frowned. “Try me.”

  Alex’s smile grew. “That would ruin the surprise.”

  Tung looked shocked by Alex’s flippant reply. Fangsu just whistled. “That fool has no idea how lucky he is! If he were Master’s student...”

  “Which is impossible, since he’s a Ruidian,” Tung noted, scratching his whiskery chin.

  Alex smiled. “You do know that mixed-blood Ruidians can still sometimes channel the power of their stones, right?”

  Tung frowned. “Really?”

  Alex nodded.

  “This fool is actually right,” a scowling Yan conceded.

  “Damn. I had no idea.”

  Alex winked. “So, who’s to say it won’t work the other way?”

  Fangsu’s soft brown eyes widened, cherry red lips opening in a surprised O. “Wait, are you seriously implying what I think you’re implying? That’s insane!”

  Alex grinned. “Well, nice talking to you three. I guess it’s time I walked beside some lonely sheep.”

  Tung smirked. “Don’t think you’re getting out of practice that easily.”

  Alex blinked. “Excuse me?”

  The boy pointed to his scowling mentor. “Isn’t it obvious? The captain made you Master Yan’s responsibility. He wants you near us to make sure you don’t end up dead for no good reason and, I don’t know, to make sure you’re not a complete idiot with the weapon in your hands? So, I guess you’ll be one of our sparring partners.” The young man flashed a bemused chuckle. “At least me and Fangsu can enjoy trouncing you with our practice staves after Yan puts us in our place.”

  Alex blinked, now flashing a smile of his own. “You’re on.”

  Tung pointed at Alex’s spear, just a bit longer than the boy’s naginata, though designed almost strictly for thrusting with its light, leaf-shaped blade, for all that a skilled practitioner could weave and feint with skill, deflecting attacks with winding parries before impaling his foe with a deadly thrust.

  “Can you actually use that thing?”

  Alex grinned. “Only one way to find out.”

  The boy chuckled. “Good. When we stop for lunch, then. I’ll look forward to putting you in your place! And if you’re a good sport about it, you might actually learn a thing or two that will keep you alive when raiders hit us.”

  Alex nodded and enjoyed the cheerful atmosphere of the cultivators’ banter as the massive caravan slowly made its way out the northern gate, the extra wide central boulevard assuring a smooth exit, despite the flow of livestock, caravanners, and busy town citizens heading in the opposite direction.

  Alex couldn’t help flashing an excited smile for the adventures to come once they were well and truly on their way, enjoying the feel of warm shafts of sunlight slipping past the lush green forest canopy overhead, happy enough to find his job was more about helping farmhands keep their livestock from wandering into the woods, and perhaps looking threatening enough to keep any curious predator from pouncing on a choice piece of meat, as it was protecting the caravan from raiders and the like. Yet Alex’s Qi Perception spotted not a single spirit beast or any carnivore at all, the hunters no doubt less than eager to ambush such a large grouping of people, many if not most armed, some even radiating a cultivator’s strength. Though Alex had no idea if spirit beasts could sense such things, since Alex hadn’t even met human cultivators who could use Qi Perception the way he did.

  Then again, if they did have such a gift, and were savvy enough not to show their hands, how would he ever know?

  The day passed surprisingly quickly, for all that the caravan master decided against taking any breaks until dusk, and Alex was happy enough to be spared the duty of meal prep, instead finding himself facing off against a young cultivator all too eager to show off his skills.

  Master Yan looked them both over, armed as they now were with light bamboo training spears capped with linen padding stuffed with wool at the ends, each with a mock bamboo gladius sheathed at their hips, their real weaponry safely put aside. “Are you both ready?”

  Tung jerked a nod, flashing a cheerful grin. “This is going to be fun!”

  “Then begin!”

  In the handful of seconds they spent circling one another, measuring each other’s movements and stances, Alex didn’t hold back from using Soul Sight and Find Weakness both on the young man before him, his hard stare to be expected in any serious sparring match or duel.

  You have successfully found your opponent’s weakness! Soul Sight skill check successful! You can now sense the flow of Qi through your opponent!

  And a heartbeat later, it was over.

  Winding parry knocks opponent’s weapon off line.

  Your weapon is resting against your opponent’s neck! You have successfully controlled the force of your blow. Your opponent takes zero damage!

  Alex winced, realizing that even without channeling his Qi, he had to be more careful.

  He had blasted forward in the instant his surprised partner was blinking at finding his weapon so easily leveraged aside, not even registering the bamboo shaft that could have so effortlessly crushed his windpipe and killed him, padding aside.

  Thank the one god on his side that he had immediately pulled pack, barely even touching the kid’s skin.

  “Break, now!” snapped a startled Yan, his sudden fear for his student as great as Alex’s own.

  Alex immediately stepped back, putting both hands on his now upright training spear and bowing his head.

  “Thank you for the match.”

  A confused Tung was still blinking, clearly flustered. “What just happened? No, it can’t be over. You didn’t even touch me. I didn’t feel a thing! You just feinted and pulled away... right?”

  Yan slowly shook his head, measuring Alex with his gaze. “No, Tung. Alex got you good and proper, I’m afraid.”

  Tung gave an angry shake of his head. “No. Impossible! I want a rematch right now!”

  Alex flashed a reassuring smile at a frowning Yan. “I’ll be more careful in the future when sparring with your student. You have my word on that.”

  Tung furrowed his brow. “You’re acting like I’m your fragile little brother, just because you startled me? I demand a rematch right now!”

  Yan dipped his head. “By all means. But first, tell me what you’ve learned, Tung.”

  Tung ground his teeth, clearly feeling more than a bit frustrated. “Never take any opponent for granted, ever. The moment you think you have nothing to fear is the moment you die.”

  “Close enough,” Yan said. “Begin!”

  Tung immediately lashed out, feinting with an overhand chop for the head before abruptly pulling his weapon close, killing his momentum and pivoting his weapon under where he expected his enemy’s staff to be as he launched himself forward, committing to a powerful thrust and seeking to send Alex bowling over with a perfect hit to his torso... only to frown in consternation when his opponent wasn’t standing where he was supposed to be. And now Tung was the one falling over, somehow tripping over that silly Ruidian’s spear shaft and crashing to the ground with a grunt before feeling someone gently tapping his helmet.

  “Donkey’s balls! What just happened?”

  “Alex just got you again, maybe?” said Fangsu, the girl’s eyes twinkling with unmistakable mirth.

  “Impossible!”

  “You okay?” Alex asked, offering his hand, doing his best not to pay undue attention to the admittedly pretty young woman sizing him up even now.

  The boy snorted and got back to his feet. “I want a rematch!”

  “Sure,” Alex said, this time weaving under his opponent’s furious sweeping blows, the young cultivator swinging as if he were wielding a greatsword and not a spear, but effective enough in the right circumstances. And how surprised he looked to find his weapon suddenly in his opponent’s hands, hardly having felt the twist to his thumbs and the now throbbing backs of his hands when Alex almost gently slipped inside his guard, winding the boy’s weapon f
ree of his hands before pivoting around and knocking the young cultivator off his feet without causing any injury at all.

  “And that’s three for three,” Fangsu said, flashing her friend a teasing smile. “I think our clueless Ruidian friend might just be kicking your butt, little kung fu brother.”

  “Who are you calling little?”

  Her grin widened as she smirked down at a flustered Tung. “I guess this makes me the senior student,” she teased, not hesitating to help her friend back to his feet.

  “Well, why don’t you challenge him then?”

  She quickly shook her head. “I’d rather not be humiliated by getting my cute rear handed to me by the silly Ruidian with the absurd weapons we so happily made fun of for bringing along, who’s somehow just as fast as our teacher.”

  Yan’s soft chuckle didn’t reach his steely gaze, once it settled on Fangsu. “You’re too cautious. And too good at hiding from your own fear in the guise of caution. We both know why this is so, and your true courage when it matters. But I can think of no better training right now than having you face your fear, when it’s least likely to cost you your life. Now take up your training stick and challenge our new friend.”

  Fangsu paled, actually gazing at Alex with something akin to fear. But to her credit, she jerked her head in assent.

  Alex winced. He sensed far more going on here than a naïve student being forced to spar in earnest. She held her weapon with the grace and ease of a true professional. One who knew what it meant to dance in the sparring ring, and perhaps the arena of death as well. But the look in her eyes and the spike of furious terror he could so clearly sense, as if she was dueling to the death with a madman out for her blood, didn’t belong in a casual sparring session.

  He flashed his best disarming smile.

  “I’ll tell you what. Let’s make a game of it. I’ll go on defense to start. I can tell just from looking at you that you’re way more graceful than your kung fu brother, probably faster too. So why don’t you practice scoring points on me? If you can hit me once out of twenty blows, you earn a point. Then we’ll switch roles. If I fail to hit you twenty times out of twenty, striking so lightly it feels like no more than a tap each time, then you win a point. And I will aim no blow at your head or upper torso. What do you say?”

  The girl flashed a relieved grin, her sharp anxiety instantly easing. “Sounds like a match. But you’re seriously underestimating me! Let’s make it twenty for twenty for both of us, but I get to hit you anywhere I like,” she said, sneaking a quick glance at her master, as if making sure he didn’t mind their free-sparring contest becoming a more controlled competition, more a contest of skill than an actual bout, which Fangsu instantly seemed much more comfortable with.

  Surprisingly, Yan just smiled and nodded at Alex.

  And in the blink of an eye, Fangsu was launching a blistering series of attacks at blinding speed, feinting low before striking high, and when Alex smoothly countered, she sought to wind her staff over his and score a quick telling thrust, frowning prettily when a smiling Alex countered, before completely surprising him with a move he only recalled seeing in a documentary about ancient fighting techniques a lifetime ago, deliberately smacking the ground with her staff so as to catch him with the bounce.

  Finesse check made!

  A strike he dodged only barely, earning a couple surprised looks when his spinning backflip took him a good distance back, heart racing as he held his staff in a low, wide grip, feeling the storm of Qi suddenly roaring around him, ready for anything.

  An impishly grinning Fangsu immediately dropped her staff and raised her hands. “I give up.”

  Alex blinked, surprised, before catching sight of Tung’s shocked expression, and Yan’s alarmed glare.

  Realizing that in the immediacy of the moment, parrying for true, his genial mask had slipped off, furious Qi momentarily manifesting to reveal his killing aura.

  He immediately bowed low before Fangsu. “You forced me off balance and totally out of position. As far as I’m concerned, the match is yours.” He flashed an admiring smile. “And I’ve never seen a bounceback like that outside of... well... training manuals! Very effective. But will it work with your naginata?”

  Fangsu had the grace to flush at that. “Hardly. It can be pretty effective with quarterstaves if you time it just right. But if your opponent expects it, it can put you in a really bad position. When using it as a mock-weapon? It’s just a cheap trick to earn match points.” She smirked at her friend’s hurt expression. “Don’t say anything, Tung. You know it’s true.”

  The warm if condescending smile Yan had first favored Alex with was now utterly absent from the powerfully-built cultivator’s features as he coldly eyed the Ruidian before him. “How much did you pay the merchant for your ridiculous weaponry?”

  Alex grinned. “Less than ten silver.”

  The Bronze-ranked cultivator nodded “And I’ll bet those swords are more than simply oversized blades.”

  Alex’s grin widened. “Actually, they’re the most absurd looking dao you ever did see, but they suit me, I think, since I tend to embrace the absurd more often than not.”

  Yan’s answering smile didn’t reach his measuring gaze. “I think it’s time you and I had a match, don’t you?”

  Alex slowly nodded, friendly smile still in place, though his gaze hardened. “Only if it’s a match to touch or submission, immediately acknowledged after the opponent declares it, or he’s clearly been stunned, with no attempts at crippling or fatal injuries made by either party. A match with the rules of kime firmly in place.”

  Yan raised a surprised eyebrow. “Isn’t that a bit overdone?”

  Alex chuckled dryly. “I’d strongly recommend you think very carefully before challenging or accepting challenges at any city cultivation academy. Cultivators, I find, can be very jealous about their position in the perceived order of things. Any challenge to that is to be ruthlessly destroyed.”

  Yan frowned. “I’ve never had any experiences quite like that.”

  Alex shrugged. “Then you clearly never studied at Dragon Academy.”

  “Fair point. Alright. To touch with staves, then to submission, including tap-outs, with no genuine attempt to maim or cripple; only pin, strike, or entrap, when unarmed.”

  Alex gazed at the cultivator before him for long moments before finally giving a nod. “Alright,” he said, knowing he could only benefit from the practice, and that the uncertainty he felt, knowing peril was just beneath the surface, was the added risk he needed to truly get the most out of his martial training. Honing himself in the crucible of peril and combat, as his former master Panheu might say. And as ruthless an instructor as he could sometimes be, when it came to honing Alex’s killing edge, Panheu had never steered him wrong.

  Yan dipped his head, solemnly taking Fangsu’s surrendered training spear. He saluted Alex once, before probing Alex’s guard and launching an all-out assault on his defenses, lashing out so fast and furious that any mortal would have missed Yan’s blurred form between one eyeblink and the next.

  Skill check failed! Your opponent lands one touch upon you. Zero damage suffered.

  You are now synergizing White Crane and Golden Realms Kung Fu. The whirlwind of Qi helps you deflect your opponent’s blows!

  You fail to sense your opponent’s weakness.

  You have struck your opponent for zero damage!

  Alex and Yan traded hard smiles with the first exchange of blows before falling back, regrouping, and lashing out, if anything, even faster than before, Alex immediately twisting his staff from middle guard to hanging guard, neatly catching his foe’s weapon and forcing it off line before dipping forward and thrusting at the man’s midsection, scoring only a glancing blow before switching to a half-staff grip to counter the massive sweeping blow Yan responded with, striking so hard it shattered both their staves.

  But Alex was already racing forward, slamming into his opponent with a knee bomb even as he
spun around in midair so as to flip his opponent over as they crashed into the ground, and suddenly it was a fiercely intense grappling session, neither striking with elbows or knees or seeking to manipulate or snap fingers, both instead trying to pin and leverage the other into a point of submission while achieving positional dominance.

  Finesse check made!

  And despite Alex’s Rank 2 Bronze strength, his opponent was just as strong. It was only his previous training that allowed Alex to gain and then claim the edge, embracing what was effectively an endurance contest before popping free of his opponent’s desperate attempt at a pin and spinning around Yan, ending the match with a rear choke, Yan’s arm pinned between them, immediately relaxing all pressure when his opponent gurgled and smacked his leg.

  “Stop! He’s done!” an anxious Fangsu cried out, and only then, with Alex suddenly noting the wide-eyed looks of disbelief Fangsu and Tung were giving the pair of them, did he think about what implications this might have in Yan’s standing as their teacher. Or with the caravan as a whole.

  Alex lowered a hand which Yan accepted, lifting the man back to his feet before bowing deferentially low.

  “This humble student thanks you for the lesson, instructor Yan. Truly, you put me through my paces, forcing me to my limits, there!”

  Yan chuckled ruefully. “It is I who should be thanking you for reminding me and my disciples about the folly of false assumptions and daring to underestimate any opponent, lest it be our final opponent.”

  Much to Alex’s surprise, there was actually a bit of tapping utensils against bowls filled with rice and meat from the communal stew pot, the caravanner version of a clap. It seemed a fair number of porters and even a few intrigued guards, settling in after the day’s duties were done and camp set up, had wandered over to this part of the caravan and were watching from a respectful distance, effectively enjoying the free show.

  One of the guards frowned Alex’s way. “So, is it true?”

  “Is what true?” asked Fangsu.

  “Can a Ruidian actually cultivate?”

  Fangsu turned to her master, who merely chuckled and grinned. “Your guess is as good as mine. I’ll tell you one thing, though. He can certainly fight!”