Alex struggled futily against unbreakable bonds of Shadow, his worst nightmare suddenly before him.
You have failed your Contest of Wills against Silver Naga cultivator! You are unable to twist free of Bonds of Shadow and port into your ring!
The kitsune’s mocking smile turned to a snarl of pure hate as he flashed his blood-covered dagger before Alex’s eyes just before plunging it underneath Alex’s armor and ripping it free, Alex unable to hold back a cry as a single spool of his intestines spurted out of the rent now in his abdomen.
You have been critically struck by dagger for 1 Heavy Wound and 50 Damage! Power Healing stabilizes disemboweling wound! Willpower check needed for all skill checks. You are currently suffering from Extreme Pain!
Alex howled in agony as the monster before him furrowed his brow, twisting his dagger ever deeper into Alex’s bowels.
“Why won’t your guts drop, Ruidian worm?” the assassin asked in an almost conversational tone. “You are helpless, and utterly within my power. I know your movements. I know the fear you have for me. And I know you are powerless against me.”
The deadly kitsune chuckled coldly, stepping back, licking Alex’s blood off his knife with a cold-blooded smile. “I cannot tell you the strange frisson of wonder I felt when I first sensed you enter the city, getting ever closer to your eventual doom. Never would I have thought you would be so foolish, after having gone to so much trouble to escape me, even daring to send a Golden demon enslaved to your woodland powers against me!”
The kitsune’s expression didn’t change a hair as his fist whipped around in a powerful overhand blow, smashing Alex right in the face as hard as he could, half a dozen times.
You have suffered 3 Light Wounds! You have saved versus concussion!
Alex was startled by the pain, spitting out shattered teeth, his nose crushed to a pulp, his enemy proving himself to be just as strong and fast as he was.
But it wasn’t strength alone that made the kitsune before him so terrible.
It was his ability to cloak in shadow so effortlessly.
It was his ability to turn Alex’s own shadow against him, even now holding him helplessly splayed before the monster that so enjoyed tormenting him.
“This is your fault!” roared the kitsune, pointing to the ruins of his face. “You are the monster responsible for Golden venom searing my flesh, warping my features, making my every night an endless agony! Poison so potent no Silver healer will even try to counter it, even when I offer them a fortune in gold and spirit pearls, even knowing I could end their lives in a heartbeat!”
The kitsune’s eyes flashed with fury bordering on insanity. “Even my master, who once took such pride in my presence, now refuses even to look my way. I am now his black glove in truth, unfit for any duty save skulking in the shadows and killing all these fools who actually think they will be allowed to compete with my lord. All thanks to you, worm! And for this crime, for this blasphemy, you will dance to the dirge I set before you, no matter how badly your body and soul scream for mercy!”
Heart now pounding at a frantic pace, Alex fought the wave of terror washing over him, struggling just to twist free of unbreakable bonds of shadow.
It was some moments before he recalled what should have been his obvious first move, sure to break the bonds around his arms and legs and perhaps buy him the single eyeblink of surprise he needed to truly break free.
You have saved versus terror. You are able to act without penalty!
Dark Qi Projection successful!
You have failed to break Shadowbonds!
He finally used his panicked brain in a way that might actually save him, summoning thick gauntlets of Black Qi, knowing it would counter any blow, force apart any binding.
Only to whimper in horror when his gauntlets fizzled out as if they had been nothing, his enemy’s ephemeral bonds of shadow somehow beyond even Voidal Qi’s ability to rupture.
A feat Alex would have said was impossible for anyone not of Gold, perhaps high Gold, just the day before.
But there he was, futilely struggling, as his foe gushed with mad laughter.
“Oh, you poor fool. How I can taste your struggles. How they delight me!” The monster of a kitsune bent his face right on top of Alex’s own, before savage teeth snapped down to tear his ear off, clearly savoring Alex’s surprised scream.
“I prayed to the gods for vengeance. Prayed to the same damn gods whose existence I denied for over a century!” He chuckled coldly. “And I will never doubt them again, for they have gifted me with the most wondrous prize imaginable.” He flashed a terrible smile. “Would you like to know what that prize is, Ruidian slime?”
Though in too much agony to talk, Alex quickly nodded, taking advantage of those terrible moments to heal as much as he possibly could.
Yet the answer given made Alex want to scream to the heavens when his enemy lowered the hem of his jacket collar enough to reveal a shimmering silver tattoo.
And much to his horror, Alex somehow understood instantly what it meant, even as he accessed Biochemical Mastery and one of the beast cores around his neck for a desperate last stand.
“You played a Nemesis Card? Truly, brother?” asked a bored-looking WiFu, sipping from a chalice of crystal as he gazed down at the world-sized board, Alex’s mind propelled for a single eternal heartbeat back into that magnificent gaming hall of the gods, the source of so much of Alex’s pain and despair.
The bloated god dressed in golden raiments so like those worn by ancient generals during the warring states period back on Earth, gloated. “I knew there would come a time when your pawn would overextend. When an enemy he failed to kill would cry out for vengeance, hatred pounding in his heart.”
Shalu raised a massive finger before WiFu could speak. “And before you say anything, Yuci is no pawn of mine, and never will be. He’s simply a man who made a desperate plea. One I was all too happy to answer.”
The vindictive god’s laughter turned cold and cruel. “How does it feel, Fox, to watch me turn one of your own pawns against you? No matter who lives or dies, you’re forever down a piece. Best of all, even if your Ruidian toy survives this round, his death is all but certain in the next! For my piece will be reborn with hatred burning in his heart, searing his soul, ‘til the fateful day he strikes your favorite pawn when he thinks he is safest!”
The general’s twisted smile stretched inhumanly wide. “From this moment forward, that kitsune’s entire purpose and reason for being for all time, for all his future lives, shall be to strike and kill that damned thorn in my side that should have been drowned in the sea a thousand years ago! And your Fog of War card can do nothing to stop him!” he roared, throwing his golden chalice, still filled with wine, right for WiFu’s head, the hot glare of his fanatic hate just as intense as the hatred the kitsune assassin had for Alex.
“And the bitter despair in your eyes is more than enough compensation for the loss of a card, WiFu. In fact, the only thing that could be sweeter will be seeing your expression when I finally destroy this city and burn all your dreams to ash!”
So visceral was the image that, for a timeless moment, Alex felt he was really there, seeing, for the first time, half a dozen other divinities gazing down at the board, including the impossibly beautiful woman who had claimed both WiFu and Long Wang’s heart, as well as the head of their pantheon, Lord Zhang Yi, and a handful of others whose unmasked divine features seared his soul even to glimpse.
For a single heartbeat, WiFu’s gaze caught his own, impossibly fast reflexes snatching his brother’s chalice from the air, sipping the last drops of wine it still held.
“Sweet as your tears, my brother. Pity, though. You seem to have grown sentimental of late. I have no doubt one piece or the other will triumph, and one will fall. The latter will be worth no further consideration. And the former?” WiFu chuckled coldly. “I have no doubt that the former will take exquisite delight in ruining all of your carefully thought out schemes,
from now ‘til the end of time.”
WiFu flashed a cheerful grin while Shalu fumed. “So, thank you for offering to tend to my tools for me, brother. For I find nothing beats conflict for honing the finest edges upon my blades.”
And before Alex could catch the bloated general’s response, he was pulled free of delusion or madness by an explosion of pain every bit as awful as General Shalu’s roars in the world beyond this one, Alex clenching his jaw with the pain, having no other way to express his agony with his cheeks so full, now gazing up at his own entrails, torn free of his abdomen by the wild-eyed kitsune smiling right in his face.
“How does it feel, Ruidian? To feel your guts torn free? To die at my hand?”
To that question, there was only one response Alex could give.
Spitting an entire mouthful of his most caustic brew at his foe’s face, flooding Yuci’s mouth and spattering his one remaining eye.
You sense your opponent’s weakness! You have critically hit your opponent!
Congratulations! Poison Spitting is now Rank 5!
The kitsune jerked back with a hideous shriek.
And far from any sense of triumph, Alex felt nothing but the same sheer terror one would feel at the sight of a truck careening right for them, sensing black death just a heartbeat away.
Your opponent has momentarily lost his grip on Shadow Qi!
Quickness check is a tie! You have successfully activated your ring! You are porting through!
Your opponent has struck you multiple times with Shadow Teeth!
You have been lanced through your kidney! Your abdomen has been perforated at multiple locations!
Willpower check successful! You manage to tear free of Shadow’s Deadly Maw!
You have suffered 1 Serious Wound and 2 Critical Wounds.
You have saved versus death!
You are now Power Healing!
26
“Master? Master!” The panicked voice of his seneschal washed over him as Alex found himself bleeding out on his own palatial courtyard before clenching his will upon his spurting body, instantly halting all blood loss and flooding his perforated organs with an intense burst of spiritual energy from his beast cores while his brain survived on Dark Qi alone.
And even as he was quickly brought into the palace by a pair of frantic guards, the seneschal screaming at them to hurry and place him on his bed, Alex desperately sought to heal the worst of his injuries.
But much to his horror, his best efforts did little to stem the growing tide of death within him, whimpering with horror as he burned through first one lesser beast core, then another. And another.
Before tapping into the maelstrom of quantized potential representing what he still thought of as his level up bar, grateful his experience far exceeded that needed to Rank up yet another level, as all his excess slowly drained away.
Before the gong of death rang in his ears, and he received the message he dreaded above all others.
Eternal Fox Rank 11 fails to best Cursed Wounds resulting from Divine Nemesis Card. You are unable to repair organs perforated by the gods’ chosen champion of your destruction!
And even as he writhed and screamed, feeling the suppurating curse of his foe’s terrible wounds threatening to pour over and flood the rest of his body with unavoidable death, he could all but hear the roars of laughter and twisted ebullience in a hall full of spiteful gods so like the bullies that had once tormented him at Dragon Academy, feeling just as broken and battered as he had before a mocking Lai Wei, his ghost sneering down at Alex with the same mocking smile Long Wang and his bloated brother flashed the symbol of Baidushi city, unable to see Alex directly, yet knowing that was where his final doom had been wrought.
He could understand no words. His pain far too great for that. But the cold look in WiFu’s eyes said it all.
Just as hard and pitiless as the normally affable Elder Panheu’s had been whenever he thought Alex was being a fool. Or worse, showing weakness.
The terrible gaze of his patron god bore into Alex’s own.
“Is that all you got, disciple?”
And Alex wanted to scream at the bitter unfairness of it all. After having struggled against countless obstacles in a desperate bid to survive, to triumph, to do the right thing as best he understood it, or just to survive, his own patron still expected him to endure, to persevere, to carry on, no matter how horrific the pain.
Just like Alex had while facing off against not just one but three Calamity cards, playing off the deadliest of greater spirit beasts against Shui Jun, the guardian deity Alex had actually managed to cleave in twain, channeling the very power of the River of Souls directly through his spirit, where it was strongest, just above those deadly currents.
Yet he remembered all too well the deadly curse that had near destroyed him when first he dared those waters. Slowly transforming his legs to ghostly equivalents, and it had only been when he had cleaved off those limbs and grown them anew that he cleaved right through the curse, clean flesh replacing ghostly legs which had already sunken to oblivion.
Alex spat blood, forcing his head up, gazing at the puss-filled wounds in his lower abdomen, where his enemy’s Shadow Teeth had struck him. Injuries that should have healed in seconds. Yet thanks to the Divine Nemesis card, would not heal at all.
And in a moment of horrific insight, he realized exactly what he had to do.
“Seneschal Dong Xiao, attend me!”
In a flash, the panicked looking man was before him, eyes windows into a tormented soul that was almost as real as Alex’s own, exquisite robes free of all dirt and grime crinkling only with the man’s desperate bow. “Yes, Child of the Heavens! How may your lowly servant help you?”
Alex spat blood as his hand reached out for the shaking seneschal’s own. “I need your help, Dong Xiao. See that saber right there?” Alex pointed to his shark-toothed monstrosity beside his bed.
“Yes, master. I see your dread blade.”
“Good. Now pick it up, place it just under my belly, and saw away.”
The man’s eyebrows widened in alarm. “Master, I couldn’t possibly!”
Insight gained! If using a Bronze Soul Stone was enough to give life to a deep Silver disguised as a Bronze, it should be more than powerful enough to give true life to servants in a castle already so close to Gold!
You have accessed Rank 7 Bronze Soul Stone.
You have given True Life to Seneschal Dong Xiao who now perfectly remembers his life before attending your service! Congratulations! You now have an expert Silver healer on your staff!
You have one Rank 6 Silver Soul Stone, one Rank 1 Gold Soul Stone and one Rank 1 Divine Soul stone remaining! You have 1 Lesser Beast Core remaining!
The seneschal gave one horrified gasp as his now jade green eyes widened with a lifetime’s worth of experiences, memories, and passions that had somehow always been his own before his stunned expression settled into the professional gaze of a healer recognizing a fatal wound.
“My lord, if you will permit me, I believe I can heal your injuries far more efficiently than—”
“No you can’t!” Alex wheezed, too exhausted to speak aloud any further, instead communicating directly with the healer’s mind. “My enemy enjoys the boon of a Divine Nemesis fate card! All his wounds are Divine Curse class! You have to cut all the blackened flesh completely free of my body, then you must trust me to heal myself! If you try to mend me...”
The man paled, shaken to his core. “I... I understand, master. Do you wish anything for the pain?”
Alex flashed a bitter smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll be able to survive the initial shock. The true agony will be when I’m regenerating it all back.”
“Master, I can’t help but notice that you’re no longer properly breathing.”
“Because I’m surviving on Dark Qi alone while Power healing. Together it’s like running for endless miles straight up hill. An agony you can’t imagine. So, for WiFu’s sake, please make the
cut!”
The seneschal, who had awakened to his true self in an eyeblink, nodded his head and expertly placed Alex’s dao an inch past where he sensed the blackened infection ended with the solemn poise of the most professional of healers.
Before using the serrated teeth of the magical dao for what they were best at, sawing through Alex’s flesh as quickly and expediently as he could, so expertly that the amputation continued unimpeded even as Alex writhed and bucked, doing his best to contain his agony and failing horribly.
And then, it was done.
You have saved versus Catastrophic Wounds! Dark Qi stabilization bonus in effect! Cognitive functions remain intact! Severed arteries clamped! You are accessing your last remaining beast core! You are accessing excess experience pool! You are now Power Healing at a rate of 55 pounds of bio matter per hour!
Alex took gasping breaths as soon as he was able to, fighting back his howls of agony as his lower torso and legs regenerated at a rate that was actually visible, still unable to prevent newly-reforged nerves from flaring with wild bursts of pain he had to endure without surcease until they finally regained their own equilibrium.
He found it helped to close his eyes and channel all that pain into visions of himself running cross country, exhilarating in the pain that was almost pleasure as he took great big breaths of pine-scented air near his home, racing past forests and lush green fields as he put in the miles every summer morning before his junior year, exhilarating in the sheer joy of pushing his lithe, wiry body as hard as he could, knowing he was getting stronger every day.
He was pushing himself especially hard that day, right before fall tryouts, confident that this year, he’d finally make the varsity team.
Just one final hill to go before he was back home, and he could all but imagine the roar of the crowd at his back, heart racing with exultation as he embraced the pain and ran uphill at a dead sprint.
And finally, just as he was struck by visions of his mother and a girlfriend who looked so very much like Hao Chan meeting him at the door with a plate full of cookies and a pitcher of lemonade, Alex opened his eyes, laughing with relief and wonder and a momentary pang of sorrow for a life long lost as he beheld the miraculous wonder of flesh free of all scar or injury, rising up from his bed on trembling legs and taking deep breaths as his strength returned once more.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5 Page 51
