Chapter 26 #5
Yet Alex had already Bullrushed upon a carpet of greenery to the rear of the band, where the Deep Silver wujen thought himself safe as he called down a whirlwind of fiery Qi that shrieked and howled.
It was a fearsome sight that a younger version of Alex would have been absolutely terrified of being sucked up and consumed by, a tiny little ember in the most nightmarish twister imaginable.
Before the twister warped and exploded in a titanic rippling cacophony that caused multiple soldiers to groan and collapse as a handful fell to what was perhaps Alex’s deadliest attack.
Soul Sight skill check: failed.
You fail to understand the flow of Qi through: Deep Silver Wujen!
Artificer skill check made.
You understand your foe’s warding amulet.
DOOM STRIKE!
You have struck enemy Wujen for Catastrophic Damage!
Dark Lightning has critically struck 3 adjoining cultivators.
Vitality check made!
You RESIST being stunned from backlash.
Dark Qi Lightning causes you 1 Medium Wound.
The air filled with the screams of dying men as the second wujen collapsed in death as Alex himself lurched back, momentarily disoriented with pain before FORCING himself to Spring Step back and back again, humbled by just how much he could sense Rachel pushing herself, stretching her boon, as Alex took deep breaths and embraced power healing to repair what damage he could.
“That bastard killed both our wujen! Break the talisman! Li of a Thousand Eyes must be warned!”
Alex’s heart lurched with dread, somehow certain that Li of a Thousand Eyes was none other than the Gold-tier monster he had once been forced to face before.
It was all he could do to lurch out of a desperate healing trance, needing only seconds to repair, to quell his fears… seconds he knew he just didn’t have.
Yet even if he had neither time nor a healer’s grace, one thing he had in abundance was the fury of the storm.
Storm Strike has critically struck Silver-tier Body Cultivator!
Find Weakness 100% bonus modifier in effect.
Lightning ruptures all enchanted wards.
Your foe has been sent flying!
Lighting Blast strikes an additional 3 * 3 + 4 = 13 (closely packed) Body Cultivators!
Lightning flashed amongst the roars and screams of those eager to serve as the jackboots of tyrants before being sent cartwheeling through the air, as if washed away by the storm.
“Kill the Ruidian!”
“For the Red Prince!”
Desperate eyes glared into the darkness.
“Wotan, report!”
“Our commanders are dead, Sulin. The Ruidian knew just where to strike. Both retributive collars have been cleaved in twain.”
The giant’s eyes lit up with alarm. “The fool spared us from slaughter but did us no favors. He’s the king’s hidden trump. He must be!” Sulin glared into the darkness, the men taking a single breath of relief when deadly quiet washed over the oddly lush clearing.
Before the wild-eyed Ruidian was suddenly in front of Wotan, who didn’t even have time to blink before the young monster’s fist struck the soldier’s skull with the pressure and weight of the entire caldera behind him.
A pressure so great that more multiple soldiers cried out when they stumbled back, coughing up blood.
A force so monstrous that Wotan’s skull exploded like bloodfruit kicked by an enraged stallion, fragments of crimson gore and the coppery stench of blood and brain washing over them all.
Sulin lurched back in horror, wiping the hot gore off his cheek, recognizing precisely what their foe had pulled off so easily.
Avalanche. That monster had used a Silver-tier Avalanche striker technique without needing any Qi buildup at all!
“Strike him dead!” roared the nearby pair of ascended Silver Giants, no matter the blood leaking from their eyes and ears, holding their weapons with the grip of elite guandao masters who had been flanking Wotan’s side.
Only for the air to ring with the sound of abyssal liquid depths and impossibly sharp steel, and two more heads tumbled to the ground as lightning filled the air before either of their weapons could be jerked out of midguard, so terrifyingly fast did their opponent move, like a streak of lightning, leaving only devastation in his wake.
Earth and Water, Lightning and Steel. An inconceivable combination of potencies that not even the deadliest of Dongfang Hong’s wujen could claim as their own.
Even more troubling, Wanshi’s hidden master possessed a speed and grace far beyond even Sulin’s former elite assassins, not one of whom was permitted to join their elite company who hadn’t achieved at least the second tier of Silver Quickness.
As for his stalwart bastions that had survived the bastard’s all too clever and deadly combination of ocean water and imperial lightning, their comparatively slow, stumbling gaits meant they didn’t have a chance in hell against their too clever foe.
A ruthless monster who had savagely cut down Sulin’s wujen and slaughtered his flankers and assassins with shocking speed and deliberation and was now slowly grinding down his elite tanks and guardians with ruthless zeal.
The largest of the cultivators stumbled back in horrified dismay.
Dongfang Hong’s hidden elite, the true commander of the platoon and beyond the province of even the prickliest Silver wujen, beholden only to a Gold’s mastery, was unable to deny just how ruthless and effective this Ruidian monster’s tactics were as his surviving men immediately broke and ran.
They might have been trained cultivators who had honed themselves in the crucible of battle for half a century, but no warrior who managed to ascend all the way to Silver did so without years of struggle and sacrifice, doing whatever it took to destroy their opposition, outmaneuver or simply crush their foes, and of course, above all else, survive at all costs.
And even this was a deliberate tactic and would result in none of their deaths at the Red Prince’s hand. Not when every precious Silver’s orders were to survive against overwhelming foes and report while lesser men bore the brunt of failure… but there were no lessers here.
Only the absolute elite, here to ensure that the Red Prince’s chosen had unquestioned mastery over this caldera.
And with two insiders successfully enticed, even now being escorted like nobility to their just rewards and a Bronze Ice core now in Lord Xien Su’s possession with Lord Guo to serve as his buffer and all-too-easily underestimated guardian, Sulin had felt such fierce pride and mastery over the entire city of fools that they had already taken measures to ensure the only point of weakness would become yet another bastion of their strength.
Their entire company of elites chosen to guard this ritual site so that no unexpected wildcard, no wild memory of the ancient Fox’s absurd luck, could steal victory from Dongfang Hong’s righteous mantle a second time.
Yet by some bizarre twist of fate, the Fox’s despised disciple was showing himself to be a master of far more than underhanded trickery, this time about Fate’s wheel.
None of them were fools. There was only one opponent this could possibly be. And they had held fast against this twisted divine trickery till near half of their number had fallen. Only then did the final dozen scatter like the wind.
And how strange it was, Sulin thought in his final moments as soft brown almond eyes abruptly met his own, to see the swirling sands rise in the form of a strikingly beautiful desert princess.
Yet before he could inhale to intimidate or command or even rip his opponent wide open with his guandao, the girl’s jian, a pathetic courtly fencing weapon, had already plunged into his throat and torn right through his spine.
“Impossible! This woman is but Deep Bronze! My bones are far too strong for inferior desert steel to pierce!” he screamed in his mind as he collapsed to his knees… and toppled over in death. His final moments a whisper carried by the desert breeze.
“True,” replied a husky voice. “Unless your opponent’s sword is enhanced by the greatest of desert storms. Winds that can strip the flesh from the bones of all her foes.”
Yet despite the howling cacophony of panicked wails and the splash of hideously cold water promising that he’d be forced to pay a mighty tab that had just come due, Sulin died with a bitter smile of coldest faction upon his features.
Even as he sensed the smug girl’s features, gifted with enough forbidden Spirit Qi to read his final flickering thoughts, fill with terror.
Even as he sensed, more distantly still, the enemy of his former master abruptly turn and pivot for all he was worth.
It made no difference.
For his foes had failed to kill him before he could snap the token that would change everything.
Though it was bitter cold comfort to know that his only reward would be his enemies joining him in the frigid waters that would be their doom until all their sins had been washed away.
However many agonizing years or centuries that might take.