Chapter 185
The Five Point Exploding Palm Techniques
In the movies, the idea of a five-point palm exploding heart technique was just a myth. Something that had just enough of scientific backing that it could theoretically be believable enough to avoid breaking the immersion of the viewer.
For this case, the five-point palm exploding heart technique was an attack, where the heroine made five quick strikes to her opponent, in parts around the heart, cutting off the ability of the foe’s arteries from being able to push out blood quickly enough to the rest of the body. Then after delivering the blows in quick succession, the enemy realizing what had happened, can only marvel at the fact that he was going to die. There was no doubt in his mind, as he could apparently feel the consequences of the strikes, going so far as to hold his hand over his heart in a futile gesture.
Then pointing out that the rumor was that he would die upon taking his seventh step, he stood up and did just that. Took seven steps that slowly got harder and harder to complete, until finally he collapsed due to his heart exploding.
In this case, I believe it was left vague enough that each viewer could make their own inference as to what truly happened. See I believe that the attack could work from rupturing the arteries, making it so they were unable to correctly push out oxygenated blood to the rest of the body in a manner that once steps were taken, the added pressure of physical movement would cause the slowly flowing blood to build up, causing undue stress on the heart and then ultimately rupture from the sustained pressure.
While I was living, I knew that such an attack was impossible. Well maybe not impossible, I still held the childish believe that almost anything could be possible, but that at the very least I would never be able to witness such a miracle.
Now I found it funny how much my life had changed.
I no longer worry about what can or can’t be done, but rather just focus on two factors, what and how.
Right now, what I want is for the last and final Cardinal Protector, an enraged fire elemental that has taken the shape of an enormous dragon to stop their attack. This of course leads me to the how, which again pulling from my deep love for all things fantastical I find myself pulling from previous sources and altering them enough to be applicable to the world we find ourselves in.
That is the thing about this world, high level players die at the hands of low level players all the time. Low level players can become kings and rulers of unclaimed areas, and will be allowed to keep whatever they can keep control of.
Even I, who am approaching the lower mid-tier levels am slightly formidable.
I’m small, durable, and I realized long ago that the restrictions on us players are not as stringent as we think they are.
This is why, I now find myself facing off against a monster that is easily four times higher than my primary class, and likely more than double the level of all my classes combined. This world isn’t meant to kill us, but rather it is meant to challenge us, and to push us beyond the normal boundaries of the reality that we left behind to be here.
Take for instance this moment, the absurdity of the whole moment hits me as I begin to move enacting my initial attack against the last Cardinal Protector, Flumberro.
The world around me slows down, as I enact Celerity. Strangely in this state, my mind that normally roams quickly seems to fly at double or even triple its normal speed as I am in this state.
Sadly, I think that most of my existential thoughts on personal growth seem to come in these moments of pre-emptive violence. Almost like I can feel that there is an alternative way to do things, but then feel the need to settle things with my fists. Or in this case, with my palms.
I jog left, away from my intended target, namely the overly large glowing magical core of this gigantic predator.
Even with the world paused, I can feel the intense gaze of the creature shifting to follow me.
Oddly enough, this is the first creature that has managed to do this, to follow me at what should effectively be a closed spot in time. My mind realizes this and is instantly grateful for the fact that I had misdirection in mind all along.
Teleport, left.
Poof.
I have to drop Celerity to quickly pick up the ability to use another of my Traits, as I cannot find the way to mix the two streams of power still.
Movement right.
Just as expected, the dragon tracked my movements while Celerity was active, and is already in the process of raising up its front right paw to swipe at me. This is perfect, as it means the creature has to plant their left paw into the ground to provide an anchor point for their weight.
Teleport, again.
Poof.
Celerity.
I appear on the now exposed left side, facing the dragon and am falling to the ground. That is when I instinctively activate Celerity and lash out.
The five-point palm exploding heart technique involved four strikes around the heart, and was activated by a final palm strike to the heart, thereby causing enough damage to kill the ultimate enemy.
In my case, I’ve modified that logic, focusing my will to create a brand-new attack that was unique to myself and would hopefully be non-lethal.
With this one, I called out the name, and while it might be a rip off of the original, I hopefully have modified it enough to be more effective.
Pulling back my open hand, I curl my fingers, but not enough that the fingers would be flat, instead I let them stick out just enough so that they will land before my actual palm.
I infuse my fingers with an alternating mixture of golden and silver Qi. Each finger has an alternate source of Qi, and whatever hand has more fingers devoted to golden Qi, my palm is infused with silver Qi. Then the alternate for my other hand.
The attack is relatively simple, if dangerous.
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My fragile fingers stick out, striking the outer scales of the beast, right above the parts where I intend to strike and do the most damage at.
The five fingers, burning with infused Qi strike out and pierce the soft flesh of the magic user. Even the thick scales of a magical dragon are nothing compared to the burning power of my Qi strikes. Fingers dig in just millimeters below the surface, before I crash my palm into the scales cracking my fingers and delivering a decisive palm strike that sets off a chain reaction in the targeted area.
I strike once, at the top left of the major meridian that is meant to cycle purified mana out from the overly large core of the beast. Then with my right hand, I strike at the bottom right of the same meridian.
As I strike out, I remember that annoying song that Gwen always used to make me dance with her to. What was it? The float like a butterfly and sting like a, oh yeah. Now I remember. And with that, my mind is filled with the stupid kpop beat that sadly seems more accurate now that I am in a male avatar. As I would be the theoretical bumblebee in this case.
“Sweet little bumblebee
I know what you want from me…”
The song provides a beat and a tempo that I instantly pick up in my mind and use to conduct the next few movements in speed.
Falling, I wait, letting the entirety of the massive core pass me by, before I finally reach the bottom and lash out twice more, hitting the major meridian that pushes energy out to the lungs and the back end of the beast.
Teleport, up to the right.
Poof.
I simultaneously drop Celerity and Teleport, only to switch back to Celerity seamlessly. This time I am striking at the major meridian that leads to my right, the dragons left. One strike high, the other low.
Then I repeat, appearing on the left side of the giant core, and give two more strikes, before finally Teleporting away.
And like that I somehow finish my final strike and escape as the last bar of the chorus finishes playing in my mind.
“Doo-bi-doo-bi, doo-da-da
Doo-bi-doo-bi, doo-da-da…”
“Gah!” I hiss, trying to get that song out of my head, but fortunately there are other things to worry about at the moment. Things that I focus on in the hopes that I can eventually forget this song.
The moment I land, is the moment the system seems to catch up to what I did.
Golden Five Point Exploding Palm Technique.
Silver Five Point Exploding Palm Technique.
Golden Five Point Exploding Palm Technique.
Silver Five Point Exploding Palm Technique.
Then I got the new skill notifications as well related to the attacks.
New Skill Gained: Golden Five Point Exploding Palm Technique is now level 1. Five Point Exploding Palm Technique is a Strength X2, Dexterity X2, Endurance, Intelligence, and Willpower X2 based skill.
New Skill Gained: Silver Five Point Exploding Palm Technique is now level 1. Five Point Exploding Palm Technique is a Strength X2, Dexterity X2, Endurance, Intelligence, and Willpower X2 based skill.
Apparently, it counted each differing palm as a different attack and skill. Which I guess was better than me having to make two strikes with both hands to make it one complete skill.
By the end, I had give a total of eight strikes, or four with each hand.
Breathe.
I was panting, the sheer exertion of lashing out with the new attack pattern, and the subsequent need to now heal my fingers that had all broken or snapped from the strikes could be felt.
I was close, so close to shaking out my hands to help mitigate the pain. Instead, I just paused and watched the giant beast.
Stagger.
The beast wobbled as its massive size suddenly dropped its right paw that had been up to swipe at me, and quickly switched to clutching its chest with its left paw.
“What have you done?” Flumberro asked, his thoughts still flooding into my mind, as I could feel his pain bleeding through our one-way Telepathic connection.
“I warned you.” I say, drawing out time and letting my body’s natural Regeneration heal my broken hands, as I don’t want to risk trying to move the mana around the Qi that is still forming in my fingers as I am ready to give round two of this attack.
In my mind, I know I am there, that I should or maybe that I will eventually be able to use both Qi and Healing magic in the same hands at the same time. Though now is definitely not the time, as I am in the middle of a major battle. Standing in front of a horde of undead soldiers that are all seeing the prowess of their King, and how he is now standing toe to toe against the strongest of the Cardinal Guardians.
I might even have managed to finally gotten that stupid song out of my head. Doo-bi-doo-bi, doo… or not.
Stomp.
The creature moves forward, as it does, I can see tiny fractures beginning to appear in the beast’s core that then spiral up through the noted cracked and bent fracture points within the beast’s massive meridians.
“What have you done?” The creature bellows out, its words slurring towards the end. Well, slurring more than they normally do with its long-forked tongue.
“I told you, I have learned how to nullify magical abilities, without killing off the host.” I begin, taking up a defensive stance, while holding up both of my still glowing hands towards the beast.
Stomp.
The creature takes another step forward, with this step there is clearly more strain as the beast only seems to move forward three fourths of the distance, they managed with their first step. Once again, the creature stops its movement, this time taking a moment to grasp its chest, right where the fractures of its core are the most severe.
Yet despite the pain, the creature only doubles down, cycling even more mana through its body which obviously puts even more pressure on the already strained meridians.
“Stay still. If you submit now, then I will be able to have our healer reverse the damages.” I state. How I will manage to leave the battlefield, change into myself with the same exact track suit and heal the dragon, without being caught, well that is entirely unknown at this point. Future Cass’s problems, not mine. For now I still have the random task of
“I will never submit!” Flumberro rumbled, as he spit out a breath of fire, or at least tried to.
Whoosh!
A giant stream of fire sprayed out easily covering three hundred meters of space between us, turning the sand into smooth glass that rippled and popped under the heat and strain.
The attack was very impressive, and one might expect it to have been a measure to make sure I didn’t have any intentions of coming forward. However, the look of shock upon the dragon’s face, minor as it might have been spoke volumes about what actually happened.
Not only had the flames not reached me, the person who was standing a few meters in front of the remaining Deolarian military, but the attack itself had proven costly on the beast as even larger fractals began to spike and crack within the meridians first and then slowly work their way to the core of the great beast.
“You should stop, before you destroy yourself.” I offer.
Yet, my words only seemed to enrage the beast, as it lowered its left claw from over its chest and began charging forward.
Stomp, stomp, stomp.
Each step pushed the giant beast forward dozens of meters. It was clear that the beast now had its new effective range. At least it had the range based upon the power it was able to exert moments ago. That was why it now forced its way forward, pushing through clear pain as its lips snarled back revealing rows of sharp teeth. To most watching, this might be seen as an act of anger, but I understood it for what it really was, a monster feeling pressed, being forced to push through its limits to protect its territory.
I understood this, which was why I was ready to strike again if needed. While I was a little exhausted from using out seemingly all of my Celerity, I knew that if push came to shove I too would buckle down and force myself to try even harder.
Yet, with each step, the monster did two things, first it caused more fractal patterns to appear on its core, and it effectively lowered its maximum attack range, despite being closer.
“Five, six, and seven.” I said, counting out the steps and watching how the core of the beast completely ruptured on the seventh step, causing waves of fire mana to radiate out from the beast, as the massive surge of energy was no longer contained within the giant monster’s body.
I watched as waves of blue, light blue, red, orange, and even yellow mana burst forth from the creature and began burning on the monster’s body.
“GHHAHHGGAAA-AHHHH!” Flumberro cried out in obvious painfilled shrieks through the flames.
While I was not worried about the damage caused by the flames, Flumberro was a fire elemental, or close to it, meaning that the flames themselves would do little to hurt Flumberro. If anything, the flames were a healing factor for the great beast, as it used the flames to begin healing the damage caused by the ruptured core. Rather than having massive fractures in the meridians and core, the core and meridians were being cauterized by the magical flames that erupted.
Unfortunately, the flames meant that Flumberro’s power would forever be hindered, effectively crippling both his current form and what he could ultimately become.
I needed to move and was about to, when I saw Mallory descend from the sky and land next to me. Then moving in the way that only Mallory could, she began directing resources to the correct spot.
“Nagingah! Put out the fires so that we might properly heal your fellow guardian!” Mallory called out.
“Arf, arf.” Then like that, a dark blue elemental in the shape of a blue Pomeranian swished forward, getting right next to us and sending out a giant stream of water from its outstretched muzzle. Honestly, I was impressed as the Pomeranian, well the guardian in the form of a Pomeranian was just as powerful as before its transformation, as it was able to clearly spray from where we stood to the giant Flumberro and send out streams of water that doused the creature and caused the flames to subside, while the healing properties of water magic were applied to the beast. This wasn’t enough to heal the fractures, or even remove the scarred magical tissues that appeared over the core and meridians, but it was enough to put out and save the giant creature.
Panting.
Flumberro was panting heavily as it lay in the heart of what was slowly turning into a giant pool of blue mana infused water. A pool formed from the giant beast, its melting and burning away of sand into glass, and the glass now being sturdy enough to hold a giant pool of water.
I was so caught up in the splendor of the new magical glass swimming pool, and what it would be like to swim in said pool, well after we removed the dragon from it, that I almost missed Mallory’s question.
“So what do we do now?”
With that I paused, and realized I would likely need to use Mallory to draw attention away from myself, while I made the old switcheroo from being in the avatar of the Delorian King, and switch back to my normal form as the Doctor for the Midnight Hunters.
“Good question, wait right here.” I say, gesturing to Mallory.
I am mentally going through my mental check lists on what to do, when I suddenly get another system update, and with it, I realize that my options have increased dramatically.
Hidden Quest Completed (Timed Limited Duration): Proving Your Worth by Removing the Guardian’s Power…