It pawed over to its food bowl and sat in front of it like royalty. He didn’t just want the food, he expected it. “What are you, a cat now?” Its tail was growing well, longer than its own body.

He walked over to its bowl and took a spirit stone. He placed the stone in the bowl and broke it down to its liquid state. A lot of the essence was wasted but it would aid in the little cub’s growth.

“That should tide you over.” His pet was an essence addict now. It was a good distraction and he walked out of his abode. However, his mind was whirring around in his noggin, trying to think of the preparations he’d made. He went over his experimentation with the smoke talisman’s. Each one was wide enough to cover him up but he had to activate two or more for the smoke to be sufficient.

The Stop Bleed needed to be stacked depending on the wound. The Flame Dagger was the most unreliable, it wouldn’t stop burning and stabbing it into things was useless.

There were a few people rushing down to the platform, he felt a little bit of attention being heaped on him. A few green clouds were rumbling around the platform.

He walked upto it and looked around. It was overwhelming, there were at least a thousand people gathered here. Some of them were garbed in the inner disciple robe’s. It was obvious from the little cloud’s they’d generated. I guess it's a technique reserved for inner disciples.

There was a ring of clouds above them. Those had to be for the Elder’s. He looked around for Swallow and spotted her. She was sitting cross-legged on a cloud large enough for three people at most. She had a tiny leopard clutched in her lap. There was someone else beside her. He was guessing that she couldn’t use it or perhaps, didn’t want to.

He waved at her and she smiled. He looked down and the flower sisters were standing there. He averted his gaze and met Tranquil’s eyes. The only one he didn’t spot was the fat disciple. He even spotted Enduring Wave in the crowd. How many people did I piss off?

He didn’t feel that guilty about it, he wanted to win, they wanted to win: it was a fair competition in his eyes, not to mention that they’d ambushed him first.

Treasure squeezed out of the crowd, brushed her hair back and started waving to people. He was somewhat expectant of her ridiculous behavior.

Both of them walked up to each other. “Whoever gives up or makes the other one unable to fight wins!” Simple and practical rules which could drag the fight out forever. He could go the distance with her because of the Blue Tiger art.

“Who’s going to determine if we can’t fight anymore?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Elder Flower. She’s observing along with Elder Rain, she can interfere at her own discretion.”

“How do you know so much about the Elders?”

“Oh, that. I helped them organize this.” She smiled and Musnuf held back his laugh.

“That’s good. Let’s put some distance between us.” He started backing away.

“Let’s start at the count of three, huh?” She shouted over at him.

She was about to start counting but he shook his head. “Let’s have someone else count!”

Treasure grabbed a random disciple from the crowd.

“One!” His heart started beating in its ribcage like a caged lion.

“Two!” He swallowed.

“Three!” She blasted off the ground but he erected a giant illusion box around her. It was pitch black. She still barrelled forward and burst through the illusion wall. It disappeared at contact but there was nothing behind the wall. He was gone.

She started laughing, “I’ll just have to flush you out!” She made a giant flame wall and blasted it down onto the ground. His camouflage illusion was gone and he jumped off the ground.

He’d gone around the box to the other side of the platform. Treasure blasted off after him in a similar method to Enduring Wave.

He made another pitch black box around. In that brief moment he ripped apart a small pile of smoke talisman’s.

She burst out of the box again but this time there was another larger box above her. It encased the entire platform. She snapped her fingers and created a small ball of fire to illuminate her surroundings.

The smoke was hindering her sight. All of a sudden a spearhead burst out of the smoke. It was aiming for her throat but she dodged out of the way and drew out a short-sword. She swung it down and a whip burst out of the blade’s edge. She slashed a few time’s where spearhead had come from but there was nothing there.

Another spearhead burst out and she dodged it. This time she wheeled around, created a giant flame ball and chucked it at the giant platform box. She smiled.

Musnuf smiled. The ball neared the wall and rectangular blocks of the wall disappeared, letting the flame ball through. She was off-guard now and the spearhead burst out of the smoke. She moved her short-sword but an invisible blade burst out of it and stabbed her in the stomach.

She’d just expected the spearhead but not the wind blade. She ignored the stab wound and reached forward to grab the staff but the wind blade dissipated, the staff blew back into smoke.

She was in the dark, with the staff bursting out of the dark every now and then to stab at her. Musnuf was elated. He just wanted to stay out of range in the smoke and whittle her down.

He felt a hole in his illusions behind him. Treasure hadn’t blasted it. He turned to look and it was Tiger. ….fuck

The spectators joined in as well because they were curious about what was happening inside. In a matter of minutes the giant black box was gone. The smoke would drift away, he only had three more smoke talisman’s.

This was turning into the one thing he didn’t want, a full-on frontal battle.