Vlado didn’t intend to hold back one bit and clearly aimed to put an end to the circus Leo hosted for the second day in a row. It wasn’t even a question of Qi reserves – it didn’t matter how much Qi any of them held within their dantians, because Leo’s opponent was basically bursting out all he had and the youth’s shirt and trousers were already covered in a thin, white layer of frost. The biggest problem was that Leo felt the frost seeping inside his body through every pore, slowing him down and the effect intensified the closer Vlado got to him.
‘This is bad!’ Leo stated the obvious to himself.
There was only one thing he could do and sadly it looked like he was not going to repeat the last night’s feat and fight till the sunset. His pride hurt more than his wounds, especially because the two ‘experts’, Noel and Torben, were watching and to Leo it felt as if he was letting both masters down.
‘Wait!’ He suddenly got an idea after barely escaping another slash, ‘Since I’ve decided to give up, I can at least try to punish this guy! I’ll be recuperating afterwards anyway!’
With this thought Leo channeled the purple lightning from dantian to extremities in order to overcome the freezing effect, but stumbled with the next step from how effective the result was. Vlado immediately delivered a well timed slash, cutting Leo’s left upper arm to the bone. The attack was welcomed by a wave of cheers from the Seven peaks army, but Leo couldn’t care less.
For some reason the moment the lighting Qi ran through his pathways, not only the slowing effect of the frost Qi that kept invading him earlier disappeared, Leo realized he suddenly could somehow manipulate the foreign Qi as if it was his own! It was almost as if the purple lightning worked as an antidote to everything that invaded his body, not only the actual poison!
This discovery changed everything. Now Leo had two sources of Qi – his own reserves and Vlado’s who cluelessly continued to press on. Of course, the foreign Qi didn’t immediately have the same elemental properties the Qi from Leo’s dantian had. He also couldn’t accumulate it during the fight and make it his own, but it didn’t matter.
Leo didn’t have to think twice and almost teleported in front of Vlado by discharging the excess Qi from his feet. It didn’t even look like any footwork technique and he almost stumbled in the process again, but this time managed to land the right fist that still tightly held Noel’s iron knuckles exactly in the middle of Vlado’s chest.
Similar to how he fueled lower extremities, Leo sent all the Qi he had in the upper right side in to the punch. He felt his fist sinking inside the opponent’s chest and the cracking sound of something breaking reached his ears only when Vlado was already sent flying. With a soft thud the guy landed five yards away and remained lying there motionless.
While every single spectator fell silent from witnessing the abrupt way the duel ended, Leo had enough experience dealing with the Seven peaks and, after swallowing a couple of blood recovery pills, began to bandage the left arm. He was still trying to process how and why he was capable of using the foreign Qi that should theoretically work against him, but one thing was clear – if he got more opponents like Zlata and Vlado, it was likely he wouldn't run out of Qi no matter how long he had to duel.
“Damn! He’s dead!” Goran hissed after checking Vlado’s condition.
Leo was slightly surprised by how indifferent he felt about the fact that he killed the second person in one day, but attributed it to the teachings from the two corrupted path masters he received earlier. He still couldn’t make up his mind if it was fine and whether he had become a cultivator from the corrupt path again, like it happened after the ritual grandpa Noel performed, but luckily he didn’t have too much time to waste by thinking.
“I’m sorry!” He followed master Torben’s instructions and tried to blame his actions on an accident, “I didn’t mean it! He started attacking me first and did it so furiously ...”
“Janko, Jasna – it’s time!” Milos ignored his blabbering and commanded, “Make it quick, but be careful! I’ll need you to deal with Etessa later.”
‘He was right!’ Leo had a ‘revelation’, ‘They’re not even angry since the guy died on accident! The expertise of the two masters is on completely another level! Too bad they’re from the corrupt path though ...”
Unfortunately he had not much time to waste thinking since the next pair of opponents stood in front of him. Of course, they intended to fight only one at the time, but Leo already witnessed how hard it was.
From the looks of it Janko and Jasna were siblings, maybe even twins and they employed similar tactics Zlata and Vlado used earlier, except this time the guy had the water affinity and his sister – the rare mutation of the ice element. They both looked around thirty years old and used swords, and Leo could heave a sigh of relief he was not given an annoying whip user to fight or someone even worse.
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From the moment Janko began the duel, it became clear he intended to wear Leo out as much as he could – there was no way he could allow Jasna to suffer Vlado’s fate. Unfortunately their strategy was based on quick-swapping, applying water and then ice in succession while disabling Leo’s ability to defend himself. Thus the hardest job fell on Jasna’s shoulders and they had to switch the moment Leo was wet enough.
Luckily for the siblings Leo was too busy exploring and researching his newly discovered skill and had no interest in hurting any of them. He did look rather miserable retreating all the time, rolling away and barely escaping sword slashes and the more experienced experts began to think he was finally at the end of the line.
On the Sacred Order’s side lady Etessa sat down to meditate and prepare to come forth the moment Leo gave up or was defeated. On the other hand the two co-sect masters began to build a new strategy how to deal with the junior sect master. After all the two water-frost user pairs were initially meant to deal with her.
Of course, these were not the only options they could rely on. In fact, during the years of preparations they had simulated the upcoming battle multiple times and worked on several scenarios how to hold back and later defeat the strongest people of the Sacred Order.
Unfortunately nothing they planned earlier was to be implemented on this day. No matter how suppressed Leo looked, he simply refused to give up or die. Of course, he was getting cuts all over again, but every single one was shallow and not life threatening. Just like on the previous day, he was covered in blood from head to toe, but this time he had the blood replenishment pills elder Cooper provided, thus him bleeding out didn’t seem to be an issue.
Siblings kept switching, shouting ‘I give up!’ now and then, and while the next one came forth to fight, the previous tried to recover their strength. Obviously the Qi expenditure for both was incomparably larger than Leo’s even if one didn’t take into account he somehow ‘hijacked’ the foreign Qi and used as his own.
At first the Sacred Order’s side ‘booed’ when the person who just gave up switched in a short while later, but when their own elders remained silent, everyone slowly got used to it. The cheers from the Seven peaks army also began to die down when after several switches nothing changed – not only Leo wasn’t defeated, the two of their own began to look more and more pale and weak.
It could’ve been a period one could burn a couple of incense sticks, surely not longer, when Jasna, after another ‘I give up!’ held Janko back and said, “That’s it! I can’t anymore …”
Her brother was confused at first, but then realized her hands were shaking, she was covered in cold perspiration and her face was whiter than snow. The poor girl was suffering from Qi deprivation!
Janko immediately grabbed a couple of Qi replenishment pills, fed them to her and said to Milos, “Sorry, sect master! We’ve let you down!”
Clearly his sister’s health meant more to him than the war Seven peaks was about to fight, because afterwards he carried her further to the side and continued to take care of her there.
Unfortunately there was nothing either of the co-sect masters could do. These two water-ice expert pairs were the secret weapons they prepared against lady Etessa and now they had to get through the wall called ‘Leo’ the regular way.
“Alright!” Suddenly Goran’s shout echoed through the lines of attackers, “The one who cripples or kills that damned bastard will immediately receive the title of an honorary elder, the dwelling of his choosing and unlimited time of cultivation in the Spirit tower after we take over this place. Your living expenses will be paid for life and we can talk about extra bonuses like spirit stones after we have finished here. Remember, this guy can’t have much left in his tank – every next person can be the lucky one to deliver the final blow!”
At first the two armies and the crowd of civilians were covered in a complete silence. Everyone tried to process the devious idea Goran presented, but few moments later it proved it’s effectiveness.
As they say – birds die for food, people die for money. It didn’t take too long when the first youth from the Seven peaks decided to try his chances and rushed forth to be the first to challenge Leo. Several exchanges later, after blowing out everything he had, he fell back to recuperate without inflicting or receiving any damage.
Leo couldn’t take a breather though. While he was busy with the previous challenger, there was already a neat row of several dozens to take him on and surprisingly it only continued to grow. One after another young men and women from the Seven peaks sect tried their luck and when they had emptied their Qi reserves, they fell back to meditate or discuss tactics and Leo’s weak points with their colleagues.
It didn’t take long for the whole event to turn into some kind of a festival attraction, from how swiftly people were coming and going, but Leo couldn’t care less. This was the dream scenario he was hoping to experience in the Dryad mountain city! In fact, this was even better because the endless crowd of training dummies kept providing him with Qi so he could go on.
In the defense of the Seven peaks side, it was only logical to assume they had higher chances by trying to suppress Leo with their elemental affinities, especially since it was visible to a naked eye he was afflicted by them. Only when opponents with the fire affinity came forth, Leo ended the duel quickly and usually painfully for the challenger and quickly the ‘experts’ decided these were his easiest targets.
Of course, the youth had no other choice, but to spend his own Qi reserves in order to finish these fights as soon as possible. For some reason he couldn’t use the Qi of fire affinity cultivators as his own and only got skin burns. Thus the option to deal with them the old fashioned way was the only one he was left with.
While the atmosphere on the battlefield became more and more relaxed, expressions of the two co-sect masters became increasingly grim. It would’ve been one thing if the hurdle they had to pass was some kind of ruthless opponent and his actions would strike fear and feelings of vengeance in the ranks of the Seven peaks sect, providing with a chance to boost the morale of their troops. But the damned blood covered bastard for some reason was lenient with his opponents and clearly on purpose avoided inflicting fatal damage. He even apologized if he knocked out someone, making him look amicable and chivalrous.
Everyone clearly knew Leo was capable of using a deadly force, but after a dozen duels no one was afraid of him one bit! Him killing Vlado earlier was quickly forgotten and now the whole event turned into a complete farce.