Chapter 28
Serpent Strike!
Serpent Strike!
Echoes of the past infuse your soul!
You have chosen (for absolutely no official reason!) to redefine Serpent Strike technique as: Adderstrike!
Rank 2 Storm Wing successfully counters Crimson Mantis Steel technique.
Congratulations! Storm Wing is now Rank 3!
Alex howled with furious vindication as the final panicked Silver crashed to the ground with a wheeze, joining half a dozen others whose shattered bones and bodies stripped of all gear in seconds meant that not a single one would be posing a threat on this night, at least, as Alex embraced mad epiphany for all it was worth, mind flashing with so many sealed flickers of dream unfolding into a glorious frisson of intuition and memory, backdooring the secrets to abilities he had once thought lost to him forever as he flittered about what was now a hundred-yard-diameter woodland grove, reveling in the sheer glory of tearing free ancient gifts from the hoary clutches of a forbidden past, embracing fluid arts he had last danced with Hao Chan what now seemed—what had, in fact, been—a lifetime ago.
And here he was, roaring with triumph and laughter, shaking his fist at the starry night sky, the perfect target for any stalking foe to strike in his moment of absolute and, perhaps, totally justified hubris as he all but glowed from the fearsome insights flooding his body and mind.
“Ya Ling?”
“She’s almost done! Alex, we’re not alone!”
Alex gritted his teeth, triumph turning into growing dread as he held his pose, shook his fist, and swore to all who would listen that he’d challenge the crimson prince and all he stood for.
“This is all you got, you bastard? Pathetic! I’m coming for you, Dongfang Dickhead! I’m coming for you, and there’s absolutely nothing you can—”
Perception check made!
You successfully dodge Venom Slice!
Shadow Attack has marked your flesh!
Medium Wound reduced to Light Wound (Draconic Essence).
You have suffered 1 additional Light Wound!
Alex leaped back, taking in the pair of shadowy, cold-eyed killers who had somehow slipped past both Desert Sense and his now active Forest Sense.
A pair of Silver-tier assassins who would have made short work of Lini instead had their attention pulled in by the Ruidian acting so far above his station, who would dare to mock them all.
Alex choked back a groan, Silver-tier poison now flooding his body as his cold-eyed foes, one of whom must have at least Tier-3 Silver Quickness, flashed a black-toothed smile.
You have been poisoned by Crimson Asp Nectar!
Prismatic Fox Restoration Technique–modified Vitality Role = critical success!
Sure, you feel it, a serpentine claw reaching for your vitals, but adrenaline keeps ALL adverse effects at bay.
For now!
“There he is!” sneered the first would-be assassin, her cold gray eyes glaring into Alex’s own.
It was all Alex could do to rip himself free of the serpentine blade now covered in poison and his blood before flittering through the undergrowth as the pair of elite executioners roared and followed.
“We’ve won! He’s a dead man walking!”
Only to stop cold when the earth began to rumble.
“No, impossible. The ritual site is clear!” hissed the closest killer.
The second Deep Silver assassin glared a coldly smiling Alex’s way a heartbeat before Alex disappeared.
“He was playing us. He should be choking on his own tongue! The damned Ruidian was playing us! Shadow magic is in play, and we all know that the tainted bitch favors the Fool. Quick, to the ritual site. We can still pluck any forbidden core free of any kitsune accomplice he has!”
“Right before we pluck her… Lu!”
The startled assassin wasted a single precious moment, lurching back in surprise when her partner’s skull exploded in bone, blood, and gore.
“No. Impossible! You were—”
Adderstrike!
You have critically struck your foe with the same overhand cross you’ve used to slay countless hundreds of foes before!
You have achieved 33% Immunity to Crimson Asp Nectar.
Entropy’s grasp upon your fate is in DECLINE!
Adderstrike is now Rank 4.
THE ETERNAL DISCIPLE AWAKENS!
Yet the earlier euphoria Alex had felt as finally feeling as if he was getting ahead in this game of Pyrrhic victories and bitter losses, furiously eager to forge himself on the whetstone of his enemy’s hate in ways Elder Panheu would have so approved of, had turned into horrified dismay after having come so close to destroying another lost soul, a boy who could have been his own.
“You tore his ear off.”
“I healed him! I gave him a path forward!”
Now he would burn that shame away, losing himself in the furious rush of SLAUGHTER! Honing a forgotten art that had been on the tip of his metaphoric tongue to such a frustrating degree since the moment he had slipped free of the Eternal River’s waters… another lost talent that was his once more.
Now and forever.
Washing himself in the blood of foes. But only after wasting precious moments stalking his prey.
A single sniff was all he needed. Biochemical Mastery first making damned sure that ZERO biological markers tied him to the pure-blooded YanTu Silvers before unleashing ALL his fury honing his killing art.
Even as he spared an additional half a dozen he could have so ruthlessly killed, sensing how strongly their souls chafed against tainted bindings. All for the sake of the one he should never have hurt at all.
For he had done it.
Slipped free of Wanshi’s failing barrier in time to pull off a miracle.
Unleashed holy havoc with a blitzkrieg assault that had lain low the greatest threats to him, while honing his killing edge against all the rest. Which put all the limelight and focus on himself alone, even as Ya Ling skulked the periphery, despite being shocked at his desperate plea to let a certain boy go.
“Alex!”
“My blood flows through his veins.”
He had done absolutely everything he could so that dark, shadowy sentinels beyond even his sight—sentinels he knew MUST be in play, WERE in play—would focus on the cocky bastard he was.
NOT on the girl who was just now being shown to terrible, brilliant effect, a priceless Gold-tier stone in her hand evaporating the shadows she had hidden in so well, revealed only in the heartbeat before she placed it on the plinth now before her.
A priceless treasure that countless psychopaths and tyrants would fill the deserts with crimson tears to claim as their own.
A treasure even now shown before the deadly glare of one monster who SHOULD NOT BE HERE!
A portal that had NOT opened when a desperate commander had thought to doom them all.
Nor opened when Alex crippled or slaughtered the entirety of Dongfang Hong’s elite company, hoping to draw any last-minute trump card being played with all eyes on him. Away from the ritual site.
Only now did their true nemesis show. Only in the heartbeat that a priceless treasure was revealed.
Only in the seconds it took Lini to prepare herself to place the treasure somehow too heavy for her delicate hands to hold, as if a fragile Bronze was desperate to overcome Gold.
Only now inches from a city’s rescue and the happiest of all endings.
Only now was she stopped cold by the killing glare of a Gold.
Li of a Thousand Eyes indeed.
“Stop right there, kitsune BITCH!” roared a thunderous voice as the entire lee of the caldera echoed with the wrath of a tyrannical monster, and Rachel, Ya Ling, and Lini were all sent to their knees by the killing aura of a furious Gold.
A voice that Alex, to his horror and fury, realized he recognized.
The voice of a Gold-tier wujen who had once threatened him and all his friends.
A lifetime ago.
“Foul wretch!” Li roared as he stomped over to the terrified, frozen girl. “You think a foul abomination like you will be permitted to touch treasures fit only for my lord’s consumption? You will PAY for that, you rat-faced abomination! Pay for that with your LIFE!”
Hostile red-rimmed eyes glared into a terrified Lini’s own.
Flaccid lips curled like slugs in a smile of such malevolence that it revealed a full set of iron teeth scribed with foul infernal enchantments that Alex was horrified to realize served as wards that no standard Silver attack could hope to pierce.
“Now kneel before me, wretch! Step away from that plinth and kneel before your master!” Li roared, even as his right hand began to crackle with a brilliant actinic light that instantly filled Alex with such horrific despair.
God’s Fire.
Just a heartbeat away from being unleashed and obliterating the innocent kitsune girl who shouldn’t even be here. All for the sake of a city and her friends whom she loved with all her heart.
“Lini! Toss it and flee into the underbrush all around us! He’ll focus on that for the split second you need!
It’s your only chance!” Alex screamed desperately with his mind.
Praying that his friend would understand in the heartbeats he prepared for what he was quietly certain would be his final gambit before finding himself sinking into Shui Jun’s coils once more.
Yet to his awe and dismay, Lini not only understood, she had it within her to respond. Somehow tied to his hyper time-dilation… at least in her mind. “No! If I surrender the core, he will win and our city will fall! All my friends will be serving those bastards until they die for shame!”
“Throw the core!”
Alex’s heart quailed when she flashed a sad smile that showed off her heart-shaped features to striking effect.
“Lini!”
“Love you, hero. Now please kill that bastard for me?” Lini dared to say as shaking knees stiffened and a Gold-tier beast core slipped free of her trembling hands.
The snarling Gold snatched for the treasure she had released before him, only to howl with fury when his hands passed through glittering shadow.
The true Water core had been snatched up by Lini’s own near prehensile tail before being lobbed right into the…
“NO! DIE, YOU ABOMINATION!” Li of a Thousand Eyes screamed, lighting the entire alcove with God’s Fire.