Chapter 6 #2
The seven-foot giant flinched in surprise before spinning around with a snarl, his obsidian hammer radiating crushing energies Alex knew he’d be an absolute fool to let himself be struck by, so he didn’t.
“You think to mock me, worm? You won’t be the first Speed Cultivator I’ve faced!”
Alex cracked his neck, fangtian ji once more in hand as the desert wind whipped back his blond locks, his tricorn hat and cloak safely stored away once more. “That may be. But I promise you, I’ll be your last.”
Fu Tan furrowed his impressive brow. “What?”
Alex stared at the man. “Seriously?”
Fu Tan’s cheeks flushed like a man realizing he was being silently laughed at. His lips twisted in a furious snarl as he roared and struck.
Find Weakness skill check made!
Soul Sight Perception check successful. You sense the flaws in your opponent’s technique.
Golden Realms and Wind Crane Kung Fu have been fully synergized.
You have mastered the bind!
Fu Tan’s eyes bulged in disbelief as Alex effortlessly trapped his descending hammer, Wind Qi countering the massive weight of Earth Qi that had gone into the blow, sending the hammer flying as impossibly sharp steel kissed the man’s forearms now covered in his own blood.
Even if the surprisingly resilient Silver-tier monster was too tough for Alex to cleave right through bone without using advanced techniques.
“No, impossible!” Fu Tan roared, glaring at Alex as if he had committed some monstrous affront.
Alex’s smile grew. “Don’t worry, we’re not done yet.”
“You’re damn right, we aren’t! Spirits of the Ea—”
“BLACK SWAN!”
The look on Fu Tan’s bloated face was one of utter confusion when Alex’s fangtian ji, surrounded by a swirling storm of wind, water, and Dark Qi-infused steel, tore through the giant’s earth-infused bones as if they were glass.
Rank 9 Black Swan has been boosted by MULTIPLE modifiers! Your fangtian ji successfully cleaves through all Silver-tier defenses!
“You cut through Fu Tan as if he were nothing!” declared the obvious sergeant. “No Ruidian cur should have that kind of power. You’re an abomination! An affront to the gods and the natural order!”
Alex chuckled coldly. “So says the soldiers playing at bandits, happy to slaughter innocent caravanners, just so they can expand their cold-blooded master’s power.”
The man’s face twisted in outrage. “Kill him! Kill that monstrous abomination! Follow my lead, men. We strike now!” he roared, drawing his own dao and charging right for Alex, his men roaring in concert, joining his charge.
Artificer skill check successful!
Alex flashed a bleak smile even as he prepared to meet his enemies’ charge, not at all bothered when the sergeant seemed to get lost in the swarm of soldiers.
Soldiers Alex wasn’t even considerate enough to let surround him, instead coldly picking them off one by one as furious shouts were met with singing steel and the clang of split helms, the crunch of shattered bronze and steel tiles, and the screams that came from disemboweled torsos and cleaved limbs.
All of it forged into a dark dirge of exquisite complexity, a song that could have only one end.
The final notes were put off only for seconds when the final dozen soldiers, sensing just how precarious their own odds were before the blood-spattered Ruidian now striding atop the mound of corpses he had wrought of their fellows, all broke ranks and ran.
Only to collapse in agonized screams as they crumpled to the sands, their spines shattered with blows from Alex’s fists.
Shadow Qi–affinity-enhanced Perception check made.
You successfully spot your prey!
Alex allowed himself a tiny smile as he flew just above the desperately running man who thought himself camouflaged so well by a cloak that perfectly matched the sand. Though Alex felt the anxious weight of the imperiled caravan behind him, he needed to be sure.
The tension he felt at wasted time turned into anticipation when he spotted the odd-looking dune just ahead, before realizing it made sense.
A company so skilled at striking from camouflage no doubt had both scout and command outposts similarly set up, and this was apparently such a one when a flap abruptly opened, revealing a saturnine man with a half-sneer on a face that screamed Yidushian pure-blood.
“What are you doing here, fool? You’re breaking proto—” The wujen’s words died out when he got a good look at the panicked sergeant’s face.
“We were ambushed, Captain. We have to get out of here, now!”
The captain’s eyes flashed. “Control yourself, Erlu, and tell me the nature of this threat. How many men were present? Were they wearing the city’s colors?”
“No, Captain. It was a lone Ruidian.”
“What? You’re joking!”
“Sir, he fought like a monster! Commanding storms of lightning, striking us with a magical fangtian ji, moving so fast that I couldn’t even see him.”
“And that’s why I assigned you Fu Tan,” the captain said acidly. “Don’t tell me you were too cowardly to kick him out of his food stupor?”
Erlu trembled. “Fu Tan’s dead… sir.”
The wujen’s eyes widened. “Impossible. With his Earth affinities and resilience? There’s no way any mere elementalist could have—”
“He was cleaved in half, sir.”
The captain froze, gazing at the sergeant with desperate intensity. “And the culprit was one Ruidian, you said. Tell me, soldier. Was his hair blond, by any chance?”
The man jerked a nod. “I, uh… I believe it might have been, Captain.”
But the wujen had already turned around. “This changes things. You will gather the survivors and hold your position here. I’ll bring word to the city contingent.”
“But sir, everyone else is dead!” the suddenly panicked sergeant cried, but the captain was already putting distance between them, flying for all he was worth.
A part of Alex wanted to laugh in cynical mirth at the pristine act of cowardice being shown, an officer desperately fleeing the scene, his troops seen as no more than stumbling blocks to the man’s own safety.
But most of him was filled with horrified dismay, because now there could be no doubt.
These soldiers were identical to Dongfang Hong’s troops in every way.
Even if it was troubling to realize that, unlike what had been the case in his most recently past incarnation, his foes had at least a sense of what he looked like.
Because a certain bitter hand was no longer in play. Or at least… suspended.
Which meant, if he was very, very lucky, that he was free of a certain dark game and the spite and ire of those so much more powerful than himself.
So long as he forbore from certain acts.
So long as he toed an unspoken line. Everything that had happened so far, even word of his actions on the desert sands, could have easily spread even this far in the time he had been here.
And hopefully the rumors would die down to nothing, and he’d continue to be deemed too insignificant for any truly tyrannical power to bother with. This time around. So long as he embraced this new life and made sure never to directly cross certain enemies from the life he had left behind.
The sergeant flinched when the air flashed with the crack and boom of thunder and lightning, expression unreadable as a coldly smiling Alex slowly floated down before him, the problem of the fleeing wujen alerting too many people about him and what he was capable of solved before it could become any sort of problem at all.
The older man crashed to his knees and bowed his head, knowing that his time was at an end. Still, the words he sobbed through clenched teeth were filled with furious dismay.
“You butchered him. Our captain, the dread bane of a dozen battlefields, slaughtered like he was nothing!”