Treasure snapped her fingers and hundreds of chains burst out of the ground. Her flame balls were strange and out of place with their size but she outdid herself with the chains. There were close to twenty around him.

All of them burst out and latched on to his body. He felt a sense of deja vu, he was in the same situation during the second test.

Except, he’d prepared this time. Ten wind blades formed and he shoved them under each chain’s base cutting off the flow of essence. There were still two chains left but he’d released his arms which was enough.

Treasure had created a giant flame ball in that time. Both of her arms were raised up into the air, her hair was dancing and her eyes were fervent, excited.

Musnuf slashed his staff across the air, the momentum launched a chain wind blade. It destroyed the ball of flame, making it combust.

Her robe caught on fire but she was unaffected. Her attack strategy was based on forward, forward, FORWARD.

Then she stopped. He’d created a giant floating blade in mid-air. It was a whisper away from her throat. She didn’t lack perception.

Everything he threw at her, she was dealing with it without slowing down. How much essence does she have!? Don’t tell me…

She was a physique holder. It explained her infinite reserves of essence and the wild abandon with which she used it.

I don’t want to use it… He was running through his mental checklist of options and arrived at a simple conclusion. It gave him pause and in that brief moment of hesitation he ate a giant blast into his chest. He flew off the ground and crashed into the ground with a thud. He was having a hard time breathing, orienting himself and making sense of everything.

He felt a shoe on his chest and his eyes started regaining focus like two out of orbit stars. His undulating vision coalescing to form Treasure.

He felt a deep untenable burst of shame, shame at being in this situation. The moment of realization that he was about to lose. “Fuck you.”

Wind blade didn’t just give him the ability to create blade’s, he’d obtained an inherent intuition for manipulating wind.

He blinded her using his illusion skills. She was caught off guard and he tried to slip out from under her but chains burst out of the ground and restrained him. He ripped off the flame dagger and shoved it into her thigh.

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It didn’t burst apart into flames but it was just lodged in there. That made her stumble a little bit and he formed it.

A small box around her head. It was formed of raze sharp wind blades elongated and widened to form a rectangular box. He pulled the wind out and the box shrunk down. It wrapped around her face like shrink wrap. She started clawing at it, trying to get out of it.

She didn’t have a way to get out of this one. He just backed off and blinded her, it added to her panic. She was too reliant on her physique, it did all the heavy lifting for her, conserving essence or even basic combat arts weren’t her forte but she hadn’t needed them. It was obvious because of how she utilized her physique and her fighting style.

Enough. It's over! Elder Flower’s voice echoed in his head. He let go of the shrink wrap but she’d crumpled to the ground. Green ghost chains descended from the sky and whisked her away. He’d won.

She ascended up into the sky and the flame dagger was still burning away. It hadn’t come out. That’s odd.

He downed a potion of healing, splashed a little bit of it on his wound. He let the relief and excitement wash over him and just laid down on the ground amidst the flames. He started circling the Blue Tiger Mantra pushing it up to his chest and healing his wound.

His eyes were closed but light was leaking through. It darkened and he opened his eyes. Swallow was sitting on her knees, her face peeking down at his. He could feel a blush blooming on his face.

“That was insane. I almost thought I wasn’t going to win.”

“I knew you would win.” She replied.

“Why is that?”

“Just a feeling. This was a good show, an elder might just take you as their disciple.” All of a sudden, he felt a horrible churn of dread in his gut. He was going to have to leave soon. He had two weeks left, he felt nowhere close to prepared. The preparation for this duel had given him a respite from the constant anxiety but it was back.

What’s going to happen to Swallow? All disciples had died, all of them slain not because of the patriarch but because of a few taps of his keyboard. He’d doomed billions.

All of it had been a step away from him but looking into Swallow’s eyes made it real. A little part of him whispered. Stop it, they’re all doomed anyway. You know what’s going to happen.

“Where did you go?” She waved her hand over his eyes.

“Nothing. I was just distracted by your face.” A small smile burst onto her lips. Even she was surprised by it.

“Don’t say that.”

It would be hypocritical of him to say that he was going to save these disciples, they’d just almost gotten him killed when they destroyed his illusion but maybe he could pull Swallow away. She didn’t have to die.

Fuck, this is retarded.