Er swiped his blade at Henry, sending a tracing arc of lightning whizzing towards his head. Henry ducked the energy wave and dashed in, sending a punch aimed at Er’s liver. His hand passed right through, and he felt it numb his whole arm as he pulled back.

“You will not find me so lacking as my sibling's interloper; I have shored up my inadequacies and weak points,” Er said as he spun around, clipping Hen Ri’s shoulder, drawing blood, and numbing his arm again.

His arm felt weak, but Henry recognized this wasn’t a ki disruption technique. His literal muscles were in revolt. They seized and locked, and he felt the worst Charlie horse ever. Henry grabbed one coin from his spatial storage and absorbed it. He felt his ki reservoir bump up one notch.

Henry activated his Water Strand technique and had them link onto all the rings on his finger. He dove to his side and shot them all at Er. The rings rocketed towards the Northerner and promptly went right through him. Er paused and just laughed at him.

“Poor fool, my brother's rings will not work on me. Nothing in your slapdash arsenal can handle my skills.”

As if to prove his point, Er dashed past Henry’s ring, sword dancing across the air again, sending lightning arcs in his direction. The arc split in mid-air and followed after Henry. He flipped and spun, slipping in between waves of energy. His battle precognition flared with every strike, alerting him of Er’s next move.

Er pushed him hard and scored a couple more cuts, further numbing his limbs. Henry felt like he was slowing down as the cuts and electrical shocks that followed started to take their toll. He still hasn't landed one hit on Er, and the northern cultivator simply phased through the attacks. Physical combat was out of the picture, and so were his rings. He knew that to stand a chance, he would have to stop using that phasing technique. Every skill had a weakness, as proven by his previous fights. He just needed to figure out Er’s trick.

Henry drained another one of his coins, leaving four left now. Using the surge of ki, he tried to push multiple Water Strands at Er. Once again, the northern cultivator just let them all pass through him harmlessly. Er swung his blade at him and clipped his leg with a deep cut. Henry channeled his ki for a quick burst of speed right as Er finished his attack motion.

Crack!!

Henry’s leg found purchase into Er’s side, knocking the cultivator over; the satisfying sound of ribs snapping brought a smile to Henry’s face. It was his turn to monologue now.

“You have a crazy strong skill there, Er, but now that I know the trick, I’m gonna make you eat that sword,” Henry said as he tried to put on a confident face.

His arms and legs were growing numb from where he had been hit. These words and actions were all a front. Er was strong, and his skills were well-suited to handling Henry’s techniques. He had to get in Er’s head and rattle him. The northern cultivator seemed weak mentally. Those who boast so loudly usually are. That would be Henry’s avenue of attack.

“That was a lucky shot, you mongrel,” Er said, wincing as he stood up.

Yup, his ribs were broken, Henry thought. Absorbing another gold coin, Henry rushed at him.

He fainted another kick to the same injured ribs as Er phased out again. Henry was ready for this. He pulled his kick at the last moment and sent three rings to the ground where Er’s foot would land. The rings made three craters, and as Er reformed, his foot sank deep into one. Henry threw a left hook to the face as Er lost his footing.

His fist sailed through, and he felt it go numb again. Er slashed at him, trying to get him to retreat, but Henry was ready, sending the rings embedded in the floor rocketing up toward the Southerner's head. Er was just a second too slow in his reaction time and got hit in the face by one of his rings.

The small iron ring hit with such force that it shattered some of Er’s teeth. Er screamed in agony. He sent waves and waves of lightning ki out at Henry, who was forced to retreat.

He tried to dodge as best he could, but the sword slashes cut Henry deeply multiple times in his chest. He was feeling it harder and harder to breathe. Henry hypothesized that the electrical ki was slowing down his heart. What a frightening ability. If he didn’t die, he would also need to learn how to harness lightning ki.

“I hope you have a dentist, Er, because your grill is a mess.”

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Er tried to say something, but blood and bits of teeth had filled his mouth, and he found it hard to relay his indignation.

Wincing in pain and trying to keep his heart rate steady, Henry gave Er his most predatory smile. He swore that he saw the spikey-haired cultivator flinch. Henry coated his rings in the poison he had collected from his earlier fight with Si and sent all his rings swirling around his body like little planets in orbit. He also brought out his knuckle dusters and coated them in the poison. Er’s eyes grew large as he saw what Henry was doing.

“ You know you could always quit and let your sister deal with me, and I would hate for your siblings and the officials to see more of me kicking your ass.”

Er spat out the blood in his mouth and stood up straighter at the mention of his sister. Henry saw him glance over at her quickly before his face hardened as he looked back at Henry.

This guy had a sister complex perfect.

“You are the second best for a reason, dude; Yi’s got it all the looks and the skills. Hell, Pops most definitely likes her more. Take it from an outside observer: just quit, man.”

Er was fuming, and at this point, lightning discharges were leaking out of him as he struggled to contain his anger.

“I was just going to break some bones and make you beg for mercy, but now I’m going to kill you,” he said as he pointed his sword at the ski.

Henry felt the Northerner's ki spike as the air crackled with his power. Er’s sword glowed and sparked with energy; he then threw it high into the sky, where it hovered in the air above them. Henry could feel more and more ki pour into the sword. It made all the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Henry thought he went a little too far, but he didn’t know how to do anything in moderation.

He wasn’t just going to stand here like an idiot while Er charged his attack. Henry sent all of the rings forward, aiming at different parts of Er’s body. He needed to break up whatever the hell the northern cultivator was up to. His rings passed through just as Henry expected. Henry did not count on the discharge of a dome of electrical energy that seemed to push its way from Er’s person.

It repelled Henry, sending him flying back. The electricity ripped through his body, and he smelled popcorn strangely. His shoulder started to hurt, and so did his arm. Holy shit, he was having a heart attack. Henry tried to send ki to restart his heart, but it was getting harder to direct the energy flow.

Er did not stop channeling ki into his technique as Henry lay on the floor looking deathly pale. The sword now looked like a beacon in the night as it vibrated and hummed with power.

The blade exploded when it looked like it could not take it anymore. The shards rained down on the battlefield, with lighting trails following them.

Henry knew he had to move. If he didn’t, these things were going to skewer him. The problem was he was still having a heart attack.

Henry refused to die like this on his back without trying to fight back. The seductive voice in the back of his mind spoke to him again. The pressence whispered seductively into his ears, "Use me," it said, like a long-lost lover promising sweet nothing if only Henry would call out to them. Give it control, and it will get him out of this situation.

Henry knew he hated this voice, the thing inside of him. Something deep inside his soul knew that he had always hated this thing. What could he do, though? He was lying on his back, having a heart attack, as hundreds of blades flew at him. He would live to fight another day.

He let go and accepted this foreign presence.

Another crack appeared on a seal that Henry could not see, and something in the darkness of space smiled just a little wider.

Henry felt like a passenger in his own body as he popped up off the ground. With precision and grace that he didn’t know his body was capable of, he dashed at Er. Dodging the raining shrapnel with inhuman grace, Henry closed the distance.

Er was shocked as he watched Henry gracefully maneuver out of his sword formation, wondering again where Father had found this monster.

The discharge of electricity slowed Henry down a bit as it tethered to him and metal shards. In a wild move, Henry starts to devour the ki around him. Not in a metaphorical sense, but his mouth extended to freakish proportions, and he started to shove electrified shards into his maw. For every shard that he devoured, he felt his ki pool fill. How was he doing this?

He wasn’t doing this, but Henry realized this thing inside him was.

Er looked at Henry in fear. What was he doing? Why was he eating his sword? Er had never felt fear like this other than when Yi or Father was mad at him. He knew that he needed to keep this thing away from him. He pulled the shards of electrified metal that had been consumed yet back to him and readied himself for one final attack.

Er threw everything he had at this freak. Just stay down, he prayed silently.

A tornado of steel and lightning ripped across the battlefield headed straight for Henry. If he could have, he would have dodged or conceded this match. There was no way he could take this hit.

He was not the one in control, though.

The thing that was puppeting him widened its jaws even further now. Henry was no longer a man but just a mouth.

He swallowed the attack, all of it, every last morsel of ki and metal. The influx of ki was exhilarating, like straight adrenaline to his soul. Pleasure and power like he had never felt before.

Then he spat it all back at Er.