Fortunately, he understood the nature of his bottleneck.
Or at least, he thought he did.
He had to expand his mastery of those skills, trump cards that had saved his life more than once.
But he could no longer just minutely add to the efficiency of strikes he already knew. He had to embrace that which was completely different.
That which he knew would hurt.
Alex glared at the trunk, bracing himself.
Instead of a fist, it was with his stiffened hand that he intended to strike, leading not with powerful, hardened knuckles, but instead with the vulnerable tips of his fingers. No matter that the slight cupping of his hand would protect his finger joints to a certain degree; if executed poorly, a spear hand strike could damage him worse than his opponent. And for all that he had used it in conjunction with Piercing Strike in the past, that had been with no more force than a calculated punch, hitting just the right spot. Now he was getting ready to channel bone-shattering Qi force into the blow.
First, he warmed up to what he was going to do, striking the fallen trunk before him with his spear hand strikes, just as if his fingers were jabbing the dozen crucial weak points around the neck and skull, or the dozens of other vulnerable points on the body where nerves could be struck and stunning blows could be delivered upon a non-cultivating mortal with very little force, just as Sha Shou had taught him.
Of course his fingertips stung with the blows. Much less than they would have before he had earned a small amount of damage resistance, but with an effective 25 strength, jamming his fingers into hardwood tree trunks stung just as much as it ever had.
Alex took a deep, shuddering breath, heart racing, knowing what he had to do next.
Knowing he would fail just because he feared it so much, was visualizing disaster, not success, but determined to try.
Adderstrike!
Alex screamed when his fingers exploded.
Adderstrike has been used in unorthodox fashion! Adderstrike fails to maintain momentary invulnerability!
You have shattered all the bones in your right hand. You have suffered a Crippling Wound!
Power Healing engaged!
Alex choked down his scream, finding exquisite relief as the fiery agony passed, though the very sensation of his bones sliding around ruptured tendons and oozing back into place before it all set and healed, generating mad heat that was instantly reabsorbed and used to speed the healing even further, left Alex’s stomach twisting in knots.
He glared down at his hand. “Weakness is bullshit,” he hissed.
Adderstrike!
Suffering just as before.
He forced himself to endure the agony a dozen more times before shaking his head, taking a break, meditating on his failure.
And this was just the first of so much he needed to master.
He knew that.
But first, to make sure he didn’t lose his own confidence.
Adderstrike!
His Dark Qi-covered fist exploded through the deadwood like cannon shot. His shin kick as well.
As did striking with his fists and shins with no Dark Qi Covering at all.
But when he turned around, as if the massive trunk wasn’t wood at all but an enemy cultivator choking him close, and tried to elbow it, he could hit with his normal, not inconsiderable strength, but could not morph his elbow jab into Adderstrike at all.
He tried repeatedly to visualize his right elbow as a fresh striking surface, but all he did was get to savor smashing his funny bone over and over again.
A sensation that wasn’t funny at all.
“What the hell?” he cursed aloud, before taking a deep breath, leaning against the tree, and thinking back to the time he had first learned this internal Qi attack from Master Liu Jian, relying on no element at all but the inherent internal reserves to be found within a healthy cultivator’s body, recalling just how hard it had been learning this skill and adapting it to his shins in the first place.
He was a fool to think he’d be able to grow so much in a single night’s worth of pain, especially since he had neither excess experience nor wished to burn any of his very few remaining spirit pearls forcing insights forth at a supernatural rate.
Instead, he closed his eyes, and visualized his internal Qi bracing his limb just like before.
Recalling just how fearsomely hard and indomitable his fist felt in the moments he channeled his Qi, he did his best to visualize that potency extending from his clenched fist, to the knuckles just beyond, to the ones just before his fingertips that no one could strike with, to the fingertips themselves.
He failed utterly at the exercise, save for the one perfect moment he successfully visualized his power extending to the middle knuckles of his right hand, seizing that instant to whip around and smash the dead trunk just as if he were striking a pressure point in someone’s throat, more surprised than anything else when, as opposed to another hideous burst of pain, his narrowed fist had pierced the deadfall like a spear.
It was almost painful pulling his hand free of the trunk.
And holding onto that one sweet moment of triumph in a night that had otherwise been an exercise of futility and pain, he dragged himself back to his hammock, ignoring the braying of livestock and the clusters of hurrying men and women, paying no mind at all to the strangely-frightened gazes of farmhands eager to get out of his way, too exhausted even to spar with a pouting Fangsu as he lurched under the wagon, pausing only to place helmet, ji, and dao in the unused undercarriage hammock next to the one he had claimed as his own, still wearing most of his armor as was so often the case, before crashing down into the blackness of sleep.
11
Quest granted! Survive the ambush to come!
Alex frowned, slowly slipping free of clouds of dream where he gently drifted, all the hardships of training and conflict replaced with the sweet serenity of eternal bliss, savoring every moment he was wrapped in a bed of soft clouds with the sound of the gently crashing sea below, the cries of seagulls above, and the warmth of eternal sunset caressing his skin.
“Alex, wake up! Please, wake up! Where are you? We need you!”
Alex frowned as the gentle cries of seagulls were replace by the panicked screams of herders and the desperate shouts of guards.
Ehuang’s voice.
But how was she here in the cloudy heavens with him?
Then everything clicked and he jolted awake, a surge of adrenaline flooding his system, pushing all memory of heavenly dreams away as the scents of blood, churned earth, and panic flooded his senses, the air ringing with raw, panicked screams.
Instinctively he forced himself to calm.
“Alex!”
Master Liu Jian’s lessons came to the fore as he took a calm moment to grab his helm in shaking hands and secure the strap so tight he felt the bite in his chin as he slipped out of his hammock, grabbed and secured his sheathed pair of dao while taking a deep shuddering breath, grateful for his habit of sleeping in his armor, far more practical in a hammock with a cultivator’s resilience than most gamers of a lifetime ago realized, before finally clenching tight the shaft of his fangtian ji, his eyes quickly darting around from the shelter of the undercarriage, ears catching the unmistakable whiz of crossbow bolts whizzed through the air.
“Alex! You’re okay!” Ehuang’s relieved voice cut through the roar and din of men dashing for cover or fleeing for the woods as panicked livestock raced everywhere, a hazard that forced people to zig zag constantly as baying sheep darted about, one crashing to the ground with crossbow bolts lodged in its wide-eyed skull now just inches from Alex’s face.
Alex turned to face Ehuang as another sobbing herder stumbled and fell, a pair of bolts lodged in her back, Alex seeing no trace of Yan, Fangsu, or Tung. Only a concerned Ehuang racing toward him with a relieved smile that elevated her beauty to a transcendent grace that speared his heart, seeing the naked longing in her eyes, how much she yearned for him still.
&n
bsp; He had been a fool to treat her as no more than a casual friend when she sat beside in the evenings, pretending he didn’t know, that he didn’t understand.
She deserved better. So much better.
Smart, clever, warmhearted, with a sensual body less toned but just as voluptuous as Hao Chan’s own. In another world, another time, he would have gladly taken this exquisite supermodel of a girl silly enough to fall for a fool like him into his bed and into his heart, and wouldn’t have hesitated to put a jade or gold ring on her finger the minute they graduated college together.
Put a ring on her finger, claim her heart, and never let her go.
“Ehuang! Get down! Get down now!”
Relieved eyes lined with kohl, which he knew she did just for him, jerked a sudden panicked nod.
But a screaming Alex already knew it was too late.
He heard the whiz of the bolt with his exquisite sense of hearing.
Humming through the air like the mocking laughter of the gods.
And Fog of War card be damned, those vindictive monsters would never let him forget their spite.
She looked so beautiful, eyes widened in gentle surprise, even as a crossbow bolt fired by a man Alex swore he would kill by day’s end blasted completely through her skull, her controlled dive turning to a collapse, her soul lost before she even hit the ground, lifeless eyes gazing into his own.
“Ehuang!”
Alex shrieked so loud he didn’t hear the whiz of the crossbow bolt coming for him until he felt it clang against his steel covered skull.
Snarling as he turned and spun, raising one forearm now instinctively covered in Dark Qi to ward his open-face helm as he glared at the road ahead, now flooded with scores of men kitted in patchwork armor upon small horses that were almost ponies, no doubt ideal for rapid getaways and dodging into the Deepwoods all around where royal troops on far larger steeds would have a hard time following.
And there were mountains in the distance. Alex had sensed them the other day. Perfect terrain for bandit camps.
He had been such a fool not to be ready.
Not to invite Ehuang to share the nights with him, doing what little he could safely do and showing some damned self-discipline. Because as ridiculous and unrealistic as that would be, at least she would be safe under the wagon with his blanket wrapped around her while he did whatever needed doing. Killed whoever needed killing.
Instead, Alex had feared even a hint of temptation, determined to be the perfect cultivator.
And Ehuang was dead.
That beautiful, foolish girl was dead.
Alex’s roar sent the milling livestock fleeing the camp entirely, now desperate to flee him above all else as Alex snarled his hate at the dozens of crossbowmen now cranking and aiming their repeating crossbows at him alone.
“Alex! Get down, you idiot!”
Quickness check made!
Alex was already tumbling behind the massive wagon whose underside had served as his home for the entirety of his voyage, catching sight of a panicked Master Yan forming up with the other guards behind a wagon just a short distance away, the man’s eyes filled with a certain sense of relief upon catching sight of a still uninjured Alex as the ground Alex had been standing upon was torn apart by crossbow bolts.
“Alex! To us!” Yan cried, Alex only then noting the thick bronze shield Yan wielded with a powerful Bronze-ranked strength that let him hold it as easily as the shields of layered canvas, leather, and wood were held by the twenty or so guards gathering in the shelter of the wagon the cultivator hid behind, another ten men wielding bows and crossbows and preparing themselves to get in position.
Far lighter than the bronze monstrosity Yan held.
Captain Dui Zhang, looking larger than life, also held an enormous bronze shield and a vicious bearded axe in his offhand, with a dao strapped to his waist, fully kitted in steel legionnaire armor. His eyes widened upon catching Alex’s gaze. He flashed a fierce smile.
“Get over here, newblood! I got a bronze shield perfect for your ridiculous strength! Together you, me, and Yan are going to lead the charge and break through those bastard’s ranks!”
Alex jerked a nod even as crossbow bolts whizzed through the air between their wagons.
Alex knew he had little to fear but he clamped down his hate and focused.
Bullrush! He didn’t even pay attention to the dozen or so gasps and hissed curses when Alex seemed to appear right before the guards as they hunkered down behind what obviously doubled as the supply wagon, Yan giving him a considering nod. “Legionnaire trained. I knew it.”
Captain Dui Zhang nodded. “Good. His father was part of an elite unit. That explains much.” He handed Alex a thick bronze shield that might have weighed a hundred pounds.
Alex welcomed its comforting weight as the guard’s murmured whispers grew.
“There’s no way he could lift that so easily. Not unless he was deep Bronze!”
“But he’s a Ruidian, isn’t he?”
“Don’t you know why he doesn’t fight anymore? No one will take him on.”
“Damn bastard raiders! How the hell did they get their hands on a score of high-quality crossbows?”
“It doesn’t matter!” Dui Zhang roared, looking larger than life and radiating a fierce, commanding presence. “The civilians are fleeing for cover! Me, the Ruidian, and the temple monk are going to lead the charge into their ranks! Their fire will focus on us, so you have no excuse to break formation! We’ll crash through their ranks and you fools will cut them down to the last man! Our first order of business is to take out those archers! Aim for the legs and cripple the mounts, then cleave open those damned bastards when they fall on their faces! Are we clear? Get in formation!
And within seconds, they were braving the hailstorm of crossbow bolts and a few arrows as well, plinking like rain off Alex’s and his companions’ massive bronze shields, Alex noting the scores of tiny holes drilled into the top four inches allowing him to roughly make out the milling enemy troops ahead as their run turned to an all-out sprint, roaring into the charge as coldly-smirking crossbowmen quickly cranking back bolt after bolt that didn’t have nearly enough power to penetrate good quality lamellar armor, but shot so much quicker than a winched crossbow, absolutely butchering poorly-armored farmers and livestock.
Yet with three Bronze cultivators leading the charge, no vulnerable flesh was exposed to the lethal rain of crossbow bolts as they raced straight up the road to the ambushing bandits, the forest on either side of the road effectively hemming them in.
Alex’s mind raced a mile a minute as they closed, having to hold back from following his own instinct, instead keeping pace with the captain as their shields protected near two score of men behind them.
Dui Zhang shouted a curt command, and the backmost ten broke off from the charge, quickly darting for the cover of nearby trees to answer with crossbow fire of their own at a sharp angle from the main road, seeking to flank and harry their foes, as all enemy fire was focused solely, it seemed, on the intimidating sight of three massive bronze shields bearing down on the bandits.
“Now let’s cut those bastards down!” Dui Zhang roared as they rapidly closed with the now-anxious highwaymen, the forwardmost rank fumbling for their sheathed dao as spear-wielding horsemen sought to shift position, readying themselves for a charge.
And that’s when the Alex’s companions were washed in screams and flame.
Enemy cultivator detected!
Alex’s Qi Perception immediately pinged upon the surge of Fire Qi from the powerful wujen only now making his presence known as a massive crimson dragon of flame erupted from his hands, spewing ribbons of scarlet fire upon the shrieking guardsmen as their formation broke up and the enemy cavalry readied to charge.
Alex realized their sudden peril, seeing how the sudden pain and confusion had broken Captain Dui Zhang’s iron-hard control over what were, after all, mostly hired men.
The enemy crossbowmen had fin
ally stopped firing, readying themselves for melee, though the cavalry were only seconds away from impaling the guards with their spears and lances.
Surprisingly, Master Yan didn’t hesitate to take on the wujen, Alex’s Soul Sight allowing him to clearly see the shield of shimmering Earth force as he charged the deadly wildcard, and Alex really had no idea how Earth Qi would fare against a Fire Qi assault.
But when the cackling old hermit hissed words that shivered through air and a shield of crimson flame spiked by infernal wrath roared into being, even Master Yan gasped and stumbled back, barely dodging aside as not one but two cavalrymen charged him.
“Bring me that fool’s head. Bring me his head!” shrieked the shriveled old man as a sudden whip of fiery flame snapped about Yan’s ankle, forcing the man to the ground for just a heartbeat before he lurched back to his feet.
Only to be lanced by charging cavalry, sent crashing to the ground once more.
Alex only allowed the shock of battle to freeze him for an instant.
Ehuang’s final look of confusion was seared into Alex’s soul, hot coals of fury temporarily banked for discipline Alex now allowed to flare into mad life once more, peripherally noting yet another cultivator of at least Bronze rank laughing like a madman as he whipped about a glowing ball and chain so reminiscent of the weapon Alex recalled dodging for his life against, shortly before daring to jump through a portal in an act of maddest desperation.
But Captain Dui Zhang wasn’t one for dodging nimbly about, instead bracing with his massive shield as the road rang with the terrible gong of iron hammering into thick bronze at terrifying speeds, the laughing cultivator always darting back and circling as the captain tried to engage with his whirling axe, keeping Dui Zhang occupied as the bandit’s cavalry blasted into the shrieking, disorganized guards.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5 Page 20
