Chapter 15 #9
You have learned a new technique! Storm Wing will allow you to sweep aside any attack within your ability to parry, the strength of your defense modified by Storm Wing Rank and Storm Swan Kung Fu Rank!
Storm Wing is now Rank 1!
Storm Swan Kung Fu is now Rank 4!
Master the storm and master yourself!
The crowd’s murmurs grew, several formerly cold-eyed men and women looking at Alex in a new, approving light, having sensed the significance of his parry.
“Well done, challenger,” said none other than Sunlay, flashing the person Alex pretended to be an approving smile.
Of course, the courtier who had crashed to the ground, earning a few derisive snorts, was a member of the definite minority who clearly hadn’t been impressed by Alex’s technique.
“You think you can mock me, fool, and get away with it?” Xun Lan immediately sprang back to his feet. “You will die for your insufferable arrogance!” The courtier charged forward once more, yet this time it was with his blade radiating violet Qi that made more than a few people gasp in surprise.
“He’s infused his sword with Poison Qi!”
“He’s no simple diplomat.”
“That’s a forbidden technique!”
Yet Xun Lan paid no more heed to the mood of the crowd than Alex did.
And for all that his heart was hammering as Xun Lan closed the distance with a snarl on his twisted features, he couldn’t help but smile.
Reveling in how sharply he could taste his opponent’s killing intent.
How clearly he could sense his opponent’s intentions. The way he shifted his balance and hips, feinting with his blade before darting low to lunge right for Alex’s groin.
And every step of the way, Alex’s arm was there to meet him.
And for all that Alex’s eyes widened for just an eyeblink when his foe seemed to skip forward a good three feet, it didn’t stop his left arm, now a swirling storm of Water, Wind, and Steel, from effortlessly sweeping aside Xun’s blade, Alex feeling a wondrous surge of jubilation as it all continued to come together for him, sensing so viscerally, so completely, the storm of spiritual energy flowing through his meridians almost exactly like Silver Swan once had, a lifetime ago.
His opponent stumbled a moment too long as his angle shifted unexpectedly. Just a few degrees. But it was almost as if space itself had been pushed aside, at least for the tiniest eyeblink in time.
For a single unguarded moment, Xun Lan was truly vulnerable, collecting himself before righting his balance and turning back toward Alex, a look of surprised disbelief written upon his pinched features.
At that moment, Alex was struck by a sudden epiphany that at first glance had absolutely nothing to do with the storm.
Yet it had everything to do with another too-long-neglected element, as what would normally be a buildup could now be instantaneously embraced in this pristine moment, knowledge and insight coalescing into one unified whole as his fist roared through the air with the sound of countless tons of rock pounding all resistance to dust. Or, perhaps, a glimpse of bitter dark secrets that the sea so often hid.
And somehow, by some slim chance, Xun Lan had shifted himself just enough to catch Alex embracing a technique he had used in combat so rarely because of the time it took to build up.
For even a full second was an eternity when both cultivators had at least a single Silver-tier of Quickness.
Yet in that moment, it was closer to the sense of an enemy ship crashing against rocky shoals.
Death hidden in the stormy sea’s murky currents until the instant sharp coral and rock tore out the keel of the ship, leaving its doomed crew to drown in murky waters…
or their own blood, as punctured lungs refused to inflate.
“No! I yi—”
CRACK!
The air rang with a sound like thunder, or perhaps thunderous waves grinding wooden prows to kindling against the rocky shoals of oblivion.
The crack echoed through the court as Alex’s fist struck Xun Lan’s chest so hard that imperfect Bronze bone-hardening techniques resisted only for a split second before failing so catastrophically that Xun Lan’s entire rib cage shattered, countless fragments of razor-sharp bone shredding both lungs and heart as the body erupted in shattered bone and spilled entrails before everyone’s horrified eyes.
AVALANCHE!
Silver Rank 4 Quickness, Strength, and Storm Swan Synergize perfectly with Silver-tier striker technique: Avalanche.
You have caused CATASTROPHIC damage to your foe!
Your foe fails to save!
Your foe has been obliterated!
You have successfully used an Earth art in perfect conjunction with a normally opposing element as you seek harmony not just with the storm, but with all dimensions of yourself!
Avalanche is now Rank 2! You have gained the perk: Instantaneous Strike. When the sea is at its stormiest, there is a chance that you can embrace this art with zero build-up time! For the stormy seas can hide rocky shoals that spell oblivion for any foe trying to cross your waters.
Storm Wing is now Rank 2!
You have slain your foe.
Experience earned!
Time seemed to freeze as the entire court gazed Alex’s way in shock, ruby-red drops of blood falling upon the courtiers like rain, the speed cultivators among them revealing themselves as they flowed effortlessly away from the crimson spray.
Lord Guo, white silk cultivator’s robes now stained red with his underling’s blood, glared Alex’s way with unbridled fury.
“Murdering psychopath!” the man roared.
Alex carefully kept his face an expressionless mask, even as a part of him wanted to howl with fierce triumph and goad each and every one of the four Silver-tier courtiers glaring at him with such furious intensity.
Instead, he calmly allowed his eyes to meet each of their glares, noting them as Lord Guo made no secret of his scathing contempt for the man who had just obliterated his tool, declaring that unnecessary and extreme force had been used, voiding the terms of the duel.
“Unlike the courtesies my dear young disciple tried to show every step of their contest, giving him plenty of time to retreat and withdraw, that monstrous brute set the boy up to be slaughtered! He gave Xun Lan no opportunity to gauge his strength or to concede the fight. He deliberately taunted my poor protege to overextend, repeatedly, so he could assassinate him with a single strike! He made absolutely no attempts to show Xun Lan the strength of his form, to allow him to properly gauge his chances, as my disciple did for that thug’s benefit!
He didn’t even draw blood once; he went right for the kill!
” Lord Guo’s eyes widened as if with sudden revelation.
“And by the very terms of our engagement, by the prince’s own words, there was supposed to be an opportunity for either party to withdraw and concede the fight.
Yet that thug gave my disciple none! Ergo that was no duel—that was entrapment and murder, and I demand that murderer be remanded into my custody at once! ”
The crowd went silent before Lord Guo’s declaration.
The man flashed Alex a cold smirk that promised an excruciating amount of pain in his future.
Yet as stoic as Alex tried to keep his features, he couldn’t help but smirk at the man’s logic, as none other than his supposed wife’s words filled the air.
“So let me make sure I understand. Your bloodthirsty disciple armed with a jian who tried to slice my husband apart before our eyes even after I pointed out how unfair the match was… he’s the victim?
After slicing my husband’s arm a dozen times with his blade, taunting my dear Tong about what he would do to me, once he killed my husband, who by some miracle deflected the killing lunge…
my Tong is at fault? Because he actually managed to hit your psychotic pawn with one punch after enduring a dozen cuts against a clear speed cultivator?
How is it my husband’s fault that your protege’s bones were just as brittle as your argument?
Both doomed to shatter with a single successful counter! ”
Lord Guo blanched, eyes narrowing with outrage at Rachel’s temerity, a commoner daring to speak so to a noble, no matter that it was on her husband’s behalf, or so Alex sensed as the court’s look of surprise at the man’s original demand turned into snickers and derisive smirks, the mood turning completely against Lord Guo, who, it seemed, had been tolerated for any number of reasons but certainly not welcomed.
“Is he serious? Our prince made it clear that there would be no vendetta, and that fool would try to twist His Grace’s own terms as an excuse to break those terms.”
“The man was quick, but all it took was one punch to bring him down, and now that emissary wants Tong’s head.”
“Of course he does. We all know he just wants to weaken us as much as possible before he tries to claim our city.”
“If we weren’t in such dire straits with our fading Water core—”
“Quiet, fool. We’re still in court!”
It became harder for Alex to hold back his smile as the court’s whispers were revealed with the cool breezes that the wind catchers brought from the clever ventilation shafts throughout the palatial chamber.
It seemed that even Guo could sense the hostility and contempt just underneath the surface that carefully bland court features hid so well, and only in deference to the power the man represented.
Yet even the threat of a steel fist behind a silk glove that all were aware of wasn’t enough to sway the court.