Chapter 30
You have successfully parried your foe’s killing blows using the power of the storm.
Space, the province of both Wind and Water, now bends to your will as effortlessly as the ripples left by your hand in the pristine pools of life itself!
“No! We are the Chosen!” snarled the company commander of the elite troops Alex had confronted in a side passage leading right to the academy gates. “We will not be stopped by the likes of you!”
The hot-eyed commander roared as he lashed out with a fearsome barrage of strikes from a guandao radiating the crushing power of the mountain itself, unleashing devastating overhand blows that struck the ground with such force that stone tiles exploded like shrapnel, bouncing off both his and Alex’s forms before ricocheting and chewing right through the brownstone walls sheltering desperate sobbing souls crushed by the reality that the days of peaceful life in one of the few remaining desert sanctuaries had just come to a bitter end.
Yet not one cleaving blow struck the blue-eyed cultivator whose cold stare made the captain lurch and step back, just in time for his remaining men to roar and rush forward, lashing out as one.
Only for them to stumble blindly forward in confusion when their weapons skewed off target, before the air cracked with the sound of thunder as an explosion of lightning tore into them with such catastrophic force that they were all sent flying back.
You have fatally struck Rank 2 Silver with Storm Strike!
You have fatally struck 1 additional opponent and stunned 7 additional opponents with Lightning Blast!
Lightning Blast is now Rank 5!
Adept-tier perk automatically chosen: Potency! You may now strike up to double the previous maximum number of targets, channeling ever more of the storm’s potency as your own!
But they lurched back to their feet with roars, for the elites feted with crushing an entire academy were the furthest thing from inferior.
Each and every one of Alex’s opponents was at least a Rank 2 Silver, which would make them fearsome foes, even against this academy’s chosen prodigies.
No doubt why this elite platoon had been chosen to claim the grand academy tower and the prizes within.
Yet the ugly burns they all had been marked with were unmistakable, and two didn’t get up at all.
The captain glared Alex’s way, eyes wild with hate. “Kill him now!” he roared.
Before actinic flashes of lightning were replaced with obsidian darkness that tore through the entire group of Silver-tier monsters. And this time, when their smoking bodies went flying back, not a single one managed to rise again.
You have successfully struck 6 Silver-tier cultivators with Doom Blast.
Opposing captain’s Gold-tier warding artifact has been successfully ruptured!
All targets have suffered Catastrophic Damage from Black Lightning!
Your fallen foes’ potency is now forever your own.
Doom Blast is now Rank 4!
Alex replayed the entire battle in his mind in the handful of seconds it took him to race back to the densest cluster of Dongfang Hong’s invading forces as all physical and mental fatigue evaporated to nothing and a Sage’s Insight was set aloft once more on the backs and souls of over half a dozen potent Silvers.
Each inhalation of his breath was an echo of every winding parry and weaving dodge he had executed, his mind flaring with epiphanies and insights that sent shivers through his soul.
Each exhalation was the roar and fury of battle as he engaged Dongfang Hong’s troops once more, unleashing what were now truly transcendent forks of blue-white lightning from every swing of his glowing fangtian ji to arc through dozens of elite Bronze-tier soldiers in the blink of an eye.
Qi Perception check: Success! You sense the foe at your—
Adderstrike!
You have struck Bronze-tier Assassin for catastrophic damage.
Your foe explodes on impact!
Before the spray had even settled upon countless panicked soldiers flinching from all that remained of the most recent combatant trying to sneak up on him, Alex was weaving and striking with furious abandon.
He reveled in embracing the mad dance of battle, the air alive with the stench of blood and offal, scorched steel and despair.
He was the orchestrator of a choreographed masterwork that could only have one ending as his foes stumbled forward at just the right moment, overextending right when Alex wished for a polearm to grab or a skull to catch with a fresh right hook that sent the largest arcs of lightning he had ever unleashed forking through dozens of souls now smelling of terror and death and charred flesh as Alex roared and embraced the madness that was daring to take on an entire regiment of his most hated foes.
And winning.
Because every second he allowed himself to revel in the sweet madness of facing down thousands who wanted him dead…
Every moment he gloried in the sound of his own shimmering silver super cable now moving at such shrieking monstrous speeds that he was on the cusp of leveling up yet again as countless battlefield insights rang in perfect harmony with so many breakthroughs of his past life that were now flooding his body and soul with every sweeping parry, graceful dodge, and devastating counterstrike he unleashed…
Every moment he was lost in his own transcendent epiphany as he continued to hone himself in the crucible of conflict were seconds that he wasn’t haunted by the knowledge that the royal palace had fallen, hundreds if not thousands of innocent citizens had already been slaughtered, countless children had been orphaned, families had been broken, and his friends had been captured.
Their desperation echoing through his skull, even now.
Every second he fought and KILLED these invading bastards was a second he wasn’t being tormented by the memory of Lini’s haunted smile when she had known she was about to die.
It was in that moment, as he weaved and juked with desperate grace against an army of highly trained soldiers, that Alex lurched.
His party link and gestalt abruptly turned against him.
Feeling the hot spike of agony that could only be Linnea being tortured.
Because someone knew. Somehow, someone knew.
“The monstrous Ruidian weakens! Kill him, men. Kill him now!”
The excruciating agony of feeling hot pincers tear free his kneecap had been so shocking that he had stumbled back with a cry, only for no fewer than half a dozen spears and guandaos to mark his flesh.
Or try.
Legs were pierced.
An abdomen punctured.
Yet it was the Red Prince’s soldiers who lurched back with desperate hisses when they caught sight of the madman’s gaze.
“Run. Run, get back!” The final words of one of the very few soldiers who got it. Who finally understood.
Yet it made no difference when a howling Alex once more swung his resummoned fangtian ji, now infused with the essence of Lightning itself. A pristine artifact of destruction that none of the terrified soldiers had a chance in hell of countering before the world erupted in white-hot lightning.
Storm Strike!
You have critically struck multiple foes for Catastrophic Damage!
Storm Strike is now Rank 10!
Perk automatically chosen.
Pristine Retribution! You now channel the pristine essence of lightning!
Your lightning is more potent and deadlier than ever, and your ability to pierce Qi wards and wujen barriers is now without equal!
Even Gold-tier wards must save versus instant disruption at significant penalty, as your Spell Cleave + Storm Strike total is now DOUBLED when attempting to rupture wards or barriers or counter incoming spells!
Over a score of men were sent flying back, impaling themselves on the spears and guandaos of their fellows as Alex howled like the furious animal he now truly was, as Potency Mastery and fresh kills refueled his reserves anew.
He flashed the countless steel-clad soldiers a manic grin as they flinched before the wild-eyed madman promising death eternal.
Before the very earth twisted and buckled, everyone’s hair lifting on end as a pressure wave of titanic force descended upon them all.
Alex alone was unbowed, snarling and looking up to catch sight of a towering Gold leaping into the central square covered in shattered bodies, twisted steel, smoking flesh, and so much blood.
Even Alex took a single step back as he was struck by the pressure wave of a true Gold Titan who was no longer holding back an iota of his killing aura.
Alex’s eyes widened with vindication and fury, glaring upon the countenance of none other than Xien Tang himself, kitted in full plate armor scribed with crimson runes and eldritch wards, radiating so much spiritual power that the air shivered like heatwaves in a corona around him.
Yet even the power radiating from Tang’s armor paled in comparison to the deadly killing might pulsating from his guandao. A weapon that sent shivers of apprehension racing down even Alex’s spine. He instantly understood that if this weapon were to caress his flesh, it would be a VERY BAD THING.
Xien Tang glared Alex’s way in turn, his craggy features lightening in sudden recognition, the air filling with his ice-cold laughter.
“I knew there was something off about you when I first saw the blond-haired boy who dared to hold his head up high before true-blooded men! Arriving at Liushi’s final hour, playing escort to pathetic pawns at just the wrong time, causing my master so many headaches, as hen-stealing foxes are so wont to do, no? ”
Alex’s jaw hardened, his thoughts racing, realizing that the only way this monster could be right here, right now, was if he had somehow been waiting in the wings for who knows what ultimate gambit.
But when the wards had gone down, even if for only a perilous handful of moments, it had still been enough for Xien Tang to slip through like so many others, any oath-bindings that had once been curbing their madness having been shattered with the momentary disruption of the barrier.