After the two sides agreed to have a break, lady Etessa and the three division heads rushed to the spot Leo was sitting at. Elder Cross still felt awkward around the youth, thus he didn’t say anything, but planted four dark blue flags around them, while elder Cooper checked on Leo’s condition.
“It’s a simple defensive formation.” Lady Etessa explained, “It’ll allow us to communicate without being overheard.”
“Alright, first things first!” Elder Payne impatiently jumped in, “For how long can you hold on? How much Qi have you left?”
“I …” Leo really didn’t know how to judge.
He was partially still in the trance he was experiencing during the previous fights, but the pain from elder Cooper taking off old bandages and applying new ones started to return him to reality.
“Ok, ok!” Elder Payne took a deep breath thinking how to rephrase the question, “How big your core seems to be now? With that we can judge if you’re at risk for Qi deprivation.”
“Well … it’s in a size of a … a peanut, I guess.” Leo felt cold sweat covering his back.
From the very first steps of cultivation his dantian had never been so small. Obviously it shrank when the Qi transformed from gaseous substance into a liquid after stepping into the Foundation establishment stage and later even more when it became solid after Leo formed his core. The problem was – even at the start of the Core formation stage his core was in the size of a walnut.
Elder Payne’s reaction surprised him though.
“Phew!” The elder sighed in relief, “And I was worried! You really are one of a kind to be able to use Qi so sparingly.”
Leo stared back at him in disbelief, but lady Etessa explained, “You see, when we first form our cores, they’re a bit larger than peanut, probably in the size of a hazelnut. Before forming a nascent soul, we cultivate them to grow in the size of … let’s say … a large plum. For example, I’m a step away from the Nascent soul stage and mine is even slightly bigger. Since you clearly have formed your core not that long ago, you’ll have to train for years to reach a similar result, therefore elder Payne’s worry is understandable.”
While listening Leo’s confusion grew, but elder Payne apparently didn’t notice it.
He said, “Now the hard part will begin. It looks like they decided to stop playing around and will send out people who were supposed to take care of the junior sect master.”
“Mhm.” Leo instinctively nodded, but was still trying to process what lady Etessa said.
“They are the best of the best and its possible the two bastards have hired some experts from outside their sect. You must be careful! They are both strong and fast and we have no idea what their techniques and affinities are or what weapons will they use.” Elder continued to explain.
“Mhm.” Leo nodded again without a clue what elder was saying.
“Good!” Elder Payne patted him on the shoulder, “I’ll put my trust in the teachings you have received from the immortals of the Golden city.”
The last part did wake Leo up and he realized that he might actually be in deep sh*t if it went on like this. Contrary to his expectations and despite him winning one fight after another, his own side was concerned and worried, and apparently they had some reasons. Unfortunately there was no master Shaw or master Zaraki around to ask advice from.
‘Damn it! Leonel Renaud! Wake up!’ Leo inwardly smacked himself, ‘There are experts you can trust! Why are you wasting your time with these amateurs?!’
Of course, there were people around he could and should ask advice from!
“Excuse me for a moment!” Leo said, stored the chair away and rushed over to the crowd of city people that since morning had at least tripled in size.
Unexpectedly his arrival was received with loud cheers and ovations, but after a polite wave Leo squatted down close to grandpa Noel, who had the pleasant stench of the Firewater all over, and said, “I think I’m in a pickle. What should I do?”
“What do you mean?” The old man asked, completely confused. Didn’t the youth destroy every opponent up until now?
“Well, it looks like the Seven peaks sect is preparing to send out their best fighters. I have no clue how to go against them, even the elders from the Sacred Order don’t know what strategies I should follow.” Leo explained.
Grandpa Noel and Torben just finished their second bottle and the buzz they had was considerable. Needless to say the old man had hard time staying awake, to not speak about giving an advice. To not loose face though, the best thing he could do was to muster a complicated expression, but his neighbor Torben was either less drunk or more chatty thus he was the one who tried to help the poor youth out.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“You know, Leo … I’m a carpenter.” He said lisping slightly, “When I get to work with the best wood, I first try to get to know it. I touch it, feel it and even caress it …”
“You surely like to caress your wood!” Grandpa Noel had no clue how to advise Leo, but no matter how drunk he was, he always knew what to say to Torben.
“Mhm! I surely do!” Torben gladly agreed, “Only when you know your wood you can start to process it. And the better the wood, the more important it is to know it! Otherwise it might go to waste!”
Leo closely listened, trying to understand the ‘expert’s’ subtle lesson. But even though what Torben said made sense, he could not get how he should apply this knowledge. There was no way he had to touch the opponents all over, right?
“I’m sorry, master Torben!” He said. They probably had limited time and every moment was precious, “Could you be more blunt? How should I approach the toughest opponents?”
“Oh? The toughest ones?” Torben scratched his head in confusion, but then his eyes lit up and he said, “You hit them like the toughest nails – hard and precise! And if they are even tougher than they initially looked, you hit and hit, and hit them until they sink in the wood! Of course, don’t forget to pay the attention to the proper technique – the main force comes from the shoulder, not from wrist! But don’t worry, mastery comes with practice. Even if you break few nails in the process, you’ll get it in the end!”
With the last sentence he winked and patted Leo’s shoulder as if encouraging him and from what it looked like this was the inspiration Leo was looking for.
“Thank you, master Torben!” He said, “Thank you for being here and looking after me!”
“No need to worry, kid! Everything will be fine!” The carpenter replied patting the youth on the shoulder again.
When Leo rushed away, Torben turned to Noel and said, “Listen, I think your grandson wants to be a carpenter. Is it fine if he becomes my apprentice?”
“Sure, why not?!” Noel happily nodded and with glassy eyes began to look for the third bottle in his bag.
After return to the usual spot between the two armies, Leo could only thank Heavens for sending hidden experts to guide him.
‘Alright! Master Torben couldn’t openly instruct me to cripple my opponents, but if I think about it, it clearly makes sense. They are stronger than I, therefore I have to hit them over and over, breaking piece by piece.’ Leo translated the carpenter’s teachings in his own way, ‘The question is, did master Torben mean I need to hit them on the head or break their extremities? Or both? … hit and hit, and hit them … I guess I should hit whatever I can and if it breaks, it’s a bonus?’
Leo’s contemplation was interrupted by a man, approximately thirty years of age, who came forth, introduced himself as ‘Vlado’ and immediately attacked with a longsword.
Contrary to the previous opponents, this one didn’t hold back one bit. His sword was covered in a thin layer of ice and he clearly had been chosen to be Etessa’s adversary because of the elemental mutation he had. Ice mutation could do wonders by slowing down cultivators with the wind affinity, but was rather strong against fire as well, if it was overwhelming enough that is, like in the current situation – at least it was meant to be. After all it was the common knowledge Leo had the fire affinity.
After performing several evasive rolls, Leo was forced to realize his body was becoming slightly stiff and his movements slowed down as did his reflexes. Within the span of several breaths he got two deep cuts across the chest which finally brought a ray of hope to the attacking army and quieted down the Sacred Order’s forces – after all these were the first serious injuries Leo had suffered today.
Fortunately it didn’t take long for Leo to realize the reason that made him getting stiffer and after a couple experiments he learned that channeling lightning through the extremities completely neutralized the slowing effect.
He didn’t show it on his face though. Pretending to still suffer under the ice effect, he barely evaded another sword slash and without trying to attack Vlado’s vitals, simply punched the sword hand while it was still in motion. The punch was so abrupt and quick, even the Nascent soul stage experts barely noticed it, but for the other spectators only the sound of bones breaking signaled something noteworthy happened.
Vlado’s expression distorted, but he immediately recovered and grabbed the sword with the left hand. That allowed him to block two more punches from Leo who immediately used the opportunity to go into offense. Unfortunately the best thing he could manage was to break the sword in halves with the Lighting palm before Vlado admitted defeat.
This time the next opponent came forth right away without allowing Leo to take a breather. He couldn’t even put on a single bandage when a middle aged lady named Zlata began to whip him, literally. Her weapon was a whip, close to ten yards long, and somehow she managed to easily utilize her water affinity from a distance to make Leo wet all over. Of course, he didn’t pay much attention to that because besides it being annoying, the only thing it did was it made him dirty himself more while rolling around.
The next period, which seemed like an eternity to him, but actually wasn’t longer that thirty, thirty five breaths Leo spent rolling around, cursing and trying to catch the slippery lady. She was clearly an expert and knew that letting anyone close would quickly end the fight, therefore she masterfully kept her distance and attacked quickly like a wasp, except her whip was much more painful.
It all ended when Leo finally had enough and let her hit him on purpose. He grabbed the whip with his left hand and channeled the lightning in the weapon while pulling her towards himself. From the earlier experience he knew the weapon would slip from his hand in a moment, thus he didn’t intend to disarm her, but slightly shock at best.
The result surprised not only Leo, but every single spectator as well. To them it seemed that when he caught the weapon and pulled, Zlata clumsily tripped and an instant later Leo was at her side and landed a kick in her face.
After Dreadlands he had no qualms about hurting the weaker gender, because in his eyes they were not that weak at all. His actions though, caused dissatisfied murmurs in both armies, that immediately died down when once again Vlado showed up.
Zlata’s unconscious body barely landed on the ground when Vlado rushed forward, formally introduced himself again and began to furiously attack Leo. The man’s right hand was nicely bandaged, but he was holding sword in his left and either he was ambidextrous or really proficient with the left hand, but for the first time since he returned to the sect Leo felt a deadly danger.
Fortunately it didn’t take long for him to realize what he actually felt was his clothing and bandages freezing over. The combo was ingeniously simple – to make him wet and then freeze and defeat. Surely breaking Vlado’s fingers earlier was an unexpected accident and the man didn’t intend to repeat this mistake again. Infact, he kept pushing forward and the frosty aura he radiated continued to constantly expand.