“What do you think they are talking about?” Noel asked Torben while taking another sip from the booze bottle.
“How should I know?” Torben shrugged, “I’m mostly concerned we have to sit on the ground while that damned kid has the only chair. I guess we need to be better prepared for tomorrow.”
“Oh? You also think he could persist for another day?” Noel was surprised.
“I’m a carpenter! Why do you expect me to know these things?!” Torben angrily grabbed the bottle from Noel’s hands, “I heard they said the pretty girl will fight if your grandson looses.”
“The ‘pretty girl’ will be the next sect master. I’d suggest you pick your words more carefully!” Noel grinned at his neighbor, but they both were shushed by another bystander.
“Stop bickering, you two! They’re about to start!”
Indeed, it finally looked like Leo was done eating. He slowly got up form the chair which ‘magically’ disappeared right after, then drank a bit of water and heartily smiled at his opponent. To Willis it was clear as a day the youth was thankful for the warning and the rest of the duel was only a formality.
But then something happened the civilian spectators couldn’t follow and even the cultivators of both armies who were below the Core formation stage had hard time seeing.
For a split moment Leo vanished from his spot and after he returned, elder Willis grabbed own neck with both hands and a heartbeat later fell on the ground, spasming in agony. Even the youth was shocked by his own speed now that the Cleaver was stored in the amulet.
The two co-sect masters rushed towards Willis, but it was already too late. For the first time in his life Leo consciously applied Lana’s teachings in the real combat and a direct punch in the throat not only eliminated the opponent, it crippled the breathing pathways, smashed the Adam’s apple and blood vessels in smithereens, basically making sure the old man would never recover again.
The Nascent soul stage experts could survive even if their physical bodies were destroyed and only souls remained, and the recovery would be only a matter of time. Similarly the Core formation stage cultivators could regrow their missing fingers or even limbs and if their inner organs were crippled, they could ‘fix’ them via cultivation process.
Unfortunately for Willis, he could not recover the part Leo destroyed no matter how much time he had, because the lack of influx of air in his lungs and blood to the brain would kill him anyway. Thus, after spasming for a while, he died.
Obviously it was accompanied by another wave of cheers from the Sacred Order’s side while for Seven peaks this turn of events was completely unexpected. Yesterday Leo clearly kept wasting time and everyone expected him to continue the same way today. The two co-sect masters even built their strategy for duels with this in mind and Willis’s task was to wear Leo down at all costs – the old man was experienced Core formation cultivator even if he led the Administrative division.
“I’m sorry!” Leo suddenly startled everyone around him, “I didn’t mean to! It was an accident!”
Grandpa Noel’s instructions were clear and he had to act accordingly!
Every single person who heard Leo’s ‘excuse’ was stunned speechless. ‘It was an accident’? What did that even mean? Obviously these were duels that had death-match rules, in fact, there were no rules except the duels were one on one and only one combatant could win. Even someone dying was to be expected. It was just that everyone during yesterday’s matches got used to these fights being more like regular duels.
The problem was – this sudden change in the Sacred Order’s strategy threw preparations Milos and Goran made through the window. As it turned out the junior sect master was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but it was no wonder, especially knowing who her mother was. The two co-sect masters immediately realized it was their own blunder, but sadly there was no time for regrets.
“Zoran, you’re up!” Milos hissed towards the attacking side.
There, in front of the regular troops, there was a line of young cultivators, sitting on the ground cross-legged, meditating with their eyes closed. These were the people who were supposed to ‘fix’ Leo’s issue in case Willis failed. The problem was – nor Milos, nor Goran were willing to sacrifice any of them.
“Be careful!” Milos whispered, “Fall back and switch if necessary! Your survival is the number one priority!”
Leo quickly judged the tall and muscular young man with the spear in his hand and realized the hard part of the day was only about to begin. Elder Payne’s earlier advice to not trade wound for wound was still fresh in his memory, but he had to think of a way to get close to the spear wielder who had the advantage of reach.
The beginning of the fight made the attacking army cheer for once. Thousands of the Seven peaks disciples felt relief seeing Leo getting chased around the field and it was clear it should be only a matter of time until he got hit by the spear.
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Meanwhile Leo was not worried about the concerns of the silent Sacred Order’s crowd and focused on evading. For now he was doing it solely on the expense of the physical body and didn’t use any Qi techniques. What he tried to figure out was whether he should break the weapon like he did with many yesterday or wait out and punch the opponent if the opportunity arose.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how one looked at it, when another spear slash landed next to him, Leo delivered a Lightning punch destroying the spearhead. The opponent immediately fell back, said ‘I surrender!’ and under the stupefied eyes of the Sacred Order’s side sat back on his spot to meditate.
Immediately the person next to him got up, grabbed a spear and rushed forward.
“Petar!” He introduced himself and without waiting for a reply began to attack.
Even Leo with his limited intelligence realized the tactics the opposite side intended to employ. Truth to be said, if not for grandpa Noel being around, he would’ve also surrendered and left, but now he simply couldn’t. The problem was he also couldn’t get close or attack the opponent without using Qi at all or risking getting hurt. And that meant – he had to use Lana’s tactics!
Petar performed a couple of pokes and slashes, and then impressively passed the spear from his right hand to the left behind his back, spear spectacularly rotating. Leo didn’t need a much bigger opening – he dashed forward, lowering his body as close to the ground as possible, punched attacker’s knee and rolled away in rather pitiful fashion, but managing to escape the spear slash that followed.
It took some time for Petar and the crowd to register the cracking sound that resulted from Leo’s punch and even a bit longer for Petar to recognize the pain he was in. But when he looked down and saw his bloodied knee bending backwards, he roared in agony and lost balance right after.
One had to respect the man though – he did his best to ignore the pain and immediately tried to get up, supporting himself with the spear, but even a random civilian would recognize he had lost the duel.
“Petar! Get back!” Goran instructed.
It would take a lot of work and time to fix the shattered knee, but it was not a lethal wound and there was no need to loose a promising talent, thus the co-sect master had to make sure Leo wouldn’t deliver another punch to the throat, like he did to Willis.
The youth, of course, didn’t even think about it. He took out the chair from the amulet, sat down, swallowed a Qi replenishment pill and began to do a breathing exercise – just like master Torben instructed earlier.
“Hahaha! Did you see that! I swear he’s using my iron knuckles!” Grandpa Noel hysterically laughed.
“You can’t see that far, you old fart!” By now his neighbor, carpenter Torben, was similarly drunk, “But what you can tell for sure – he’s definitely sitting on my chair!”
“Heavens! That kid has guts!” Noel ignored him, “To taunt thousands of people this way – even I back in the day would not allow myself something so stupid!”
Indeed, Leo’s act with the chair and the nonchalant behavior doing the breathing exercises made every single person from the Seven peaks furious, even the two co-sect masters. They were experienced people and ‘realized’ this was done to shake the morale of their troops, but the youth managed to piss them off nonetheless. Of course, they were capable of maintaining the calm appearance and Milos called out the next person.
“Filip! Don’t be careless!” He ordered.
The next young man immediately rushed forward, not intending to let his opponent recover, but it was not like Leo had exerted himself too much. He did have a revelation though. There was a reason why the competent fighters like Lana were feared in Dreadlands. Her tactics of hitting vitals were simple, but deadly and just by hitting the knee of the last opponent Leo had eliminated a dangerous foe.
He didn’t even use any Qi in the attack except for the footwork, but that expenditure was way less than using the Lightning fist or palm. In addition, the damage caused by the physical strength of the punch in combination with the iron knuckles was fully sufficient – using Qi in the current situation was simply an overkill!
Suddenly the previously chaotic mosaic of lessons he received through the years from Lana, Anna, Dalina, elder Payne and grandpa Noel formed a clear picture of the most appropriate combat style he should apply for the current situation. In fact, he started to perform the breathing exercises to calm himself down – the emotions the sudden enlightenment brought were simply too overwhelming.
Contrary to the two elders from the Mercenary guild and the two co-sect masters, Leo didn’t realize his success was only due to the sudden explosive increase in speed and accurate targeting. Of course, his experience and training were the reason he was capable of reaching the current level, but Leo was modest enough to attribute everything to the experts he had met in his life.
When the next two opponents fell, one with a shattered solar plexus and the next after being punched in the groin, Leo was back in the zone. This time it was different, not as careless as the one he was in yesterday, but much more deadly.
During the first half of the day he methodically continued to consume blood and Qi replenishment pills after each fight. He almost never got injured, but the old wounds that were not healed yet began to open one after another, coloring his clothing red.
Of course, Leo wasn’t bothered. Ignoring the pain that in comparison to what he had experienced in his life was akin to mosquito bites, he reapplied bandages during the breaks and managed to have a bite in between battles as well. Most of the people were already used to his apparently endless stamina, but both co-sect masters took Leo’s change in tactics as a sign he was about to run out of fuel pretty soon.
Unfortunately nothing changed until the noon. Leo disabled one opponent after the next and while the Sacred Order’s side grew increasingly relaxed, even up to the point people started sitting around in the grass and chat while watching the fights, the expressions of the Seven peaks disciples became more and more distressed.
It was one thing if they would get knocked out like it happened to their colleagues yesterday, this morning barely anyone walked away on their own feet after fighting the monster everyone called ‘Legendary Leo’. No matter how one looked at the situation, even the hearts of the most experienced and most confident experts from the Seven peaks began to falter the more time went by.
“We’d like to suggest the two sides will have a break!” Milos said to both elders from the Mercenary guild.
“I don’t care, it’s up to you to negotiate.” Kai Thomas said.
Both he and Emila Landry, similar to Noel, Torben and many others were sitting in the grass, watching duels while having a drink. The event that was supposed to be over until noon yesterday was still ongoing, but strangely enough they both began to find it entertaining.
“We agree!” Lady Etessa came forward and loudly said before Milos changed his mind, “As long as it takes an incense stick to burn or …?”
“That should suffice!” Milos nodded and went back to his troops where Goran was gathering some people.