“Well, even I don’t know that” Chaos answered Tethra because he pitied Tethra. Unluckily, sometimes, pity could hurt people, and this was one of the cases of that. Sadly for Tethra, the one that accompanied him for his journey was the only Primordial who didn’t know the way human interact.
“No! Don’t answer it! It’s a rhetorical question!” And letting Tethra explain it himself hurt him more.
“Well, I’ll just shut up then!” This conversation was done inside Tethra’s mind so Xiong Ba didn’t notice. He only noticed the change of aura in Tethra’s body after Tethra used ‘Icarus’. At first glance, Tethra had no aura, like mortals, but when he concentrated more, he felt steel-like aura from Tethra’s body. Now he felt another aura from Tethra’s body, something feathery, but it’s very faint, even fainter than the steel aura. Xiong Ba couldn’t understand what was that but he knew one thing, Tethra’s power came from that aura, not from cultivating qi. This interested Xiong Ba more. No, not because Tethra was different than the other and deeply intrigued him. It’s simply because he would get to fight something new, someone that wasn’t a practitioner.
Tethra now felt quite confident, with Instant Movement, he could do many things. Tethra Insta-Moved to the front of Xiong Ba. Startled, Xiong Ba hurriedly raised his flat part of axe to defense. With both the momentum of Insta-Move plus the strength of the peak of a Strength to Qi practitioner, Tethra’s punch could now be rated the same as Xiong Ba’s punch. “BANG”. Xiong Ba slid back for more than 3 meters from that punch. Even though Xiong Ba was caught off-guard from that punch, but still, a punch from Tethra shouldn’t be that strong.
Even Tethra didn’t expect the addition of Instant Movement could bring that much power. It was just an ordinary punch, but it still could make the unprepared Xiong Ba slid back from the pressure. Tethra didn’t dare to jump back again because of the flying axe skill of Xiong Ba. Tethra Insta-Moved back. Xiong Ba lost the chance to attack Tethra again because Tethra didn’t jump back this time. In Xiong Ba’s eyes, Tethra’s movement skill made him lose many chances. Tethra Insta-Moved once more to the front of Xiong Ba. This time, Xiong Ba was prepared, he already half-cleaved downward. Tethra also already prepared a Runic Work on his right hand. He pointed it diagonally downward and released the Wind Bomb.
The wind force that came from the Wind Bomb exploded the ground and uprooted the trees that were too near to them. The clearing inside the forest that was quite beautiful became a mess. This clearing that Tethra subconsciously passed when he followed the melody from the harp was originally very wide. That’s why they were able to move freely, but the position that Tethra just exploded was near the trees, their fight brought Xiong Ba’s position to the edge of the clearing, so the Wind Bomb destroyed not only the ground but some trees too. Xiong Ba felt a headache from this, he already promised to bear the burden for the both of them, but he didn’t expect that the destructive force of Tethra was this fierce.
Some ground flew up and dust scattered everywhere. Even though Xiong Ba’s vision didn’t get clouded by the dust, but he still wasn’t able to find Tethra after he got thrown back by the point blank Wind Bomb. Suddenly, an elbow came on top of his head. Tethra used the ground that flew up as a footing to Insta-Move to Xiong Ba’s top, then he used another ground that miraculously flew there to Insta-Move down. Now with the addition of gravity, his elbow drop’s force was stronger than his punch before. Xiong Ba was already on guard before, so he raised his flat part of the axe and reinforced it with qi. His whole body was already enhanced by qi since the start of the battle.
“BAM”. The force from Tethra’s elbow drop cracked the ground under Xiong Ba’s feet a bit. The pressure brought by it seemed to force Xiong Ba to a corner, but this time, Tethra miscalculated. Xiong Ba already waited for this moment to counter attack. He sent Tethra flying back with his axe cleaving upward. Tethra was thrown back up, but he didn’t get much damage because he also tapped the axe with his hand to force him flying. Xiong Ba then jumped upward. He knew that in the air, this new student’s position was advantageous for him. Without any footing, this new student’s strange sonic speed wouldn’t be able to work. Using that experience advantage against Tethra, Xiong Ba clashed in the many times before they fell.
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At the instant their feet touched the ground, Tethra used Instant Movement at full power to further their distance. Their distance grew to around 50 meters. Tethra received many minor wounds because he wasn’t as experienced as Xiong Ba. Moreover, Xiong Ba’s agile axe skill was too odd, he wasn’t able to dodge at all. Strangely enough, when he got hit by it, he didn’t get thrown off. At first, he thought that if he got thrown far from Xiong Ba, he would be able to untangle their clash and reach the ground to use Instant Movement, but the weird axe skill actually prevented him from being thrown by some kind of strange controlling force. He didn’t know what, but that force led him to get another internal injury worse than the first one. Tethra then prepared another Runic Work to resume his assault. When he was in the air, he didn’t get time to prepare one because he was too busy dodging the strange axe’s trajectory.
Xiong Ba, seeing Tethra drawing a Runic Work with his right hand, immediately ran to Tethra using his movement skill, Heaven Road Hell Path. Even though he shouldn’t use skill just for fighting a junior, but he still needed to finish this fight before this junior injured himself for fighting recklessly. The skill consumed almost a third of his qi. Ignoring it, Xiong Ba stepped forward. “BOOM” Sonic Boom appeared behind him. Xiong Ba’s speed while using this skill was even faster than Tethra’s Instant Movement.
Tethra, that was about to release another Runic Work, opened his eyes in shock seeing Xiong Ba right in front of him. He instantly released the Runic Work he prepared.
“O plate that bear the food of heaven and earth, come forth, please hold another burden, and deny all who want to pass, Plategis!”
A huge plate appeared exactly in front of Tethra. Xiong Ba with his axe already raised high, used another skill this time, the specialty of all axe users was showed by Xiong Ba. Using that skill, Xiong Ba’s qi became more depleted.
“Mountain Press Axe!” “CLANG” The axe collided with the plate. Shockwave spread everywhere. The plate still stood tall from the pressure brought by the axe, but the pressure didn’t stop there, it kept pressing, vigorous like a mountain. The plate cracked and finally shattered. In fact, the plate shouldn’t shatter that easily. It was because Tethra’s body only had the strength of third cultivation stage, that’s why the Runic Work couldn’t last long. Actually, Elder Pan invited Tethra to Rune Faculty not to let Tethra fight using Runic Works, rather Elder Pan only hoped Tethra could help researching Runic Work. Why? Because the durability of a Runic Work depends on the physique of the user, Tethra who couldn’t absorb qi, of course, wouldn’t be able to temper his physique. That was only Elder Pan’s conclusion obviously, he didn’t know Tethra’s real strength.
Behind the plate, Xiong Ba saw a huge bowl. Xiong Ba was startled because it completely hid Tethra’s body and presence inside, even Xiong Ba couldn’t feel any of Tethra’s aura now. Xiong Ba then continued his attack with the skill. The mountain-like pressure brought by the skill cracked the bowl but its power wasn’t enough to break the bowl. Just as Xiong Ba was about to crush the bowl, he felt danger behind. Xiong Ba turned his head while bringing his axe with his body to cleave behind. Behind him, Tethra suddenly appeared.
Tethra used the bowl as a faint. In truth, that bowl was only an ordinary summoned bowl with enlarged size. The fact that Xiong Ba’s skill could only crack it meant that the skill was really exhausted shattering the Plategis. While Xiong Ba was shattering the plate, Tethra used the moment in between to jump from the bowl to the sky, then he used the shattered pieces of Plategis that hadn’t turned to particles to jump downward towards Xiong Ba’s behind. Unfortunately, almost every expert practitioners have danger sense, so Tethra’s surprise attack failed instantly.
Xiong Ba smashed his axe to Tethra, he directly used the flat part of the axe to collide with Tethra’s head. He utilized his whole strength to make Tethra unconscious. “BAM” Unexpectedly Tethra didn’t get unconscious directly. He was sent crashing into a tree. “CRASH” Tethra trembled but still stood up. In Tethra’s mind, fighting tactics after fighting tactics played, but he still lost. He really needed some training. There were many advanced martial arts experience inside Tethra’s mind, but he lacked practice. Tethra stood up unsteadily.
“Don’t stand up anymore... You’re already two tired... eh? Feet are the same as tires aren’t they? Anyway, don’t worry, I won’t hurt you” Xiong Ba’s word seemed to have become a trigger inside Tethra’s mind, Tethra dropped down to the ground after Xiong Ba said that. Xiong Ba walked near Tethra to bring him for treatment. Smiling slightly, Xiong Ba thought that this fight was fun, he would expect another duel in the future when Tethra is stronger. Humming a tune, Xiong Ba walked to the direction of cultivation temple while carrying Tethra fireman-like. On the way, Tethra mumbled.
“At least, I win in terms of face, my opponent is average...” “How Mean!”