“Qing Wu! Dui Zhong! We’re under attack! Get up! Get the hell up now!” Alex roared.
That was when he sensed it, the silvery cords of mist already seeping into the caravan. Cords of Spirit Qi he was dismayed to find he had absolutely no idea how to counter, for all that those probing strands shattered like glass, when they tried to attach to him.
“Dui Zhong! Qing Wu!”
“It’s no good! He won’t wake up! No one will wake up!” Cried out Luo, one of the surviving pair of basic cultivators that had enjoyed such fortuitous encounters earlier in their journey, the look in the young man’s eye as he locked gazes with Alex from an adjoining wagon was that of someone wondering he he was now about to pay for his good fortune in full.
Alex cursed under his breath, suddenly understanding the nature of that Spirit Qi that promised not death, but endless nightmares that would become death to those already asleep… once the rapidly approaching remnants had their way.
“Luo, curse magic has saturated the caravan. No one is waking up!” It was a guess, but made as much sense as anything else. “Is there anyone else who can fight awake?”
Luo jerked toward the riders. “Bo Bo! Can Xun use a spear as well as you?”
“Better!” Said an unfamiliar voice. “But if you expect me to take on whatever the hell’s in that cloud of mist… not a chance in hell!”
“You need us riding these caravans as fast as we can,” declared the heavyset one known as Bo Bo. “The beasts sense trouble. IF we don’t keep a tight rein, they’ll panic, and we’re all surely doomed then!”
Luo visibly paled under the moonlight before Alex’s exquisite Perception. He could so acutely sense the young man’s terror, at the very though of trying to take on the undead with a spear. A dance that could only have one ending, and not one Luo could hope to walk away from.
Yet for some reason it didn’t stop the manic grin Alex could feel sliding across his features, or his desire to laugh at the madness to come. “Luo! Keep a calm head and direct the caravan! Have the riders try to pull ahead, forcing them to give chase and trail you along the trade road, your best terrain by far!”
Luo jerked a nod.
“Already on it!” Declared Bo Bo.
“Alex, what do we do if they close on us? Will our crossbows even work… Alex!?” The young man gave a surprised cry when the air lit up with a brilliant disk of furiously spinning Qi as Alex leaped free of the wagon and loped back at an easy energy-conserving pace for the very edge of the mist. His might have been a cautious stride, but Rank 4 Prismatic Fox meant he could now had reserves for physical exertion far beyond what any mortal, or even most cultivators of Bronze, could hope to match.
He forced himself to get ever closer to the mist radiating the promise of purgatory in endless stygian depths once more. It was everything he could do to press on, already knowing that if worst came to worst, he could embrace the crucible of peril for as fast and long as any foe he expected to meet out here. Even the dead.
The question was, could he do anything against them?
A question that was rapidly put to the test when he got a look at his first walker… A dessicated body dressed in a tattered cultivator’s robe with the remains of a rusted spear head still stuck in the corpse’s eye.
Limbs possessing what Alex feared was hideous, supernatural strength lunged for the mortal that dared approach… before the undead thing found itself stumbling in the sands to its knees.
You have successfully used Wind Slice against Undead Revenant.
Undead Revenant is knocked off balance!
Attack fails to penetrate Death’s Mantel!
Alex’s jaw clenched as he leaped back, instinctively parrying the first pounding blow that he sensed could smash concrete with his shield. And much to his satisfaction, it was the undead revenant trying to flank him that groaned in dismay, hand broken against his Prismatic Shield, though his attack had done little more than trip the one he had aimed at.
And now Alex’s Qi Perception and Desert Sense were blaring warning as the undead wave threatened to flood over him, and his Wind Blade had effectively done nothing at all.
Not until he infused Water and Wind into a killing storm, fit to purge through any barrier of the desert.
A storm he would grace with the element he knew the dead most feared.
But to make his water a conductor worthy of his Lightning, he had to infuse it with iron salts as well.
So he did.
No matter how much his Dantian strained and shifted against the pressure as he desperately weaved and dodged past shambling blows that might have been clumsy and slow, but had enough strength to tear a warrior free of his armor. He could sensed that with painful clarity as he darted past yet another clawed, dessicated hand.
But not before lopping it off, a heartbeat later in an explosion of water and lightning.
Insight check made! You savor battlefield revelations and memories of past lives as you dodge death yet again!
You have successfully infused Wind with Water, Metal, and Lightning into one Synergized whole!
Alex ignored the interface messages now blaring in the back of his mind, having eyes only for the slavering horror about to leap upon his back and rip out his throat… before spinning around and slamming it prone with his shield of prismatic light, a heartbeat before lashing out with his blade of steel and three additional feet of crackling lightning and tiny flecks of iron spinning about a core of water and wind like a buzz saw, before cleaving completely through the skull of the snarling revenant in a flash of black bile and gore.
And Alex couldn’t describe into words the furious exultation he felt at the surge of potency surging into him from his first successful kill. What mattered was that Potency Mastery would now grant him 4 minutes of super fast spiritual energy recovery as his blade crackled to ever more brilliant life, the swirling bits of cutting iron spinning ever faster as he whipped his blade around in cleaving arcs, roaring in furious exultation as one revenant skull after another exploded in gore or was cleaved completely free of its host. The bodies instantly collapsed and began to wither and dessicate before Alex’s eyes before crumbling to dust… or melting to a black, sizzling paste, the undead spirit exiled back to the River of Souls the instant it felt Lightning’s caress.
Rank 10 Modified Golden Realms skillcheck made!
You have successfully parried and evaded multiple attacks!
You have successfully struck and slaughtered 7 Revenants!
You have been struck once from behind.
Balance lost!
Your bones save versus breakage.
Alex was suddenly wheezing for breath when he was sent flying back by the largest revenant he had seen yet, Rank 1 Finesse and too many sparring sessions with friends and overly enthusiastic training partners at least having taught him how to spring back to his feet in record time.
Just in time to counter the roaring fury of the eight foot tall horror that must have been a fearsomely powerful cultivator in life. Potent enough that his rotting brain grasped the significance of a warding shield that incorporated lightning into its configuration, doing all it could to strike Alex at unexpected angles as it steadily pushed Alex back, his Desert Sense screaming warning just a heartbeat before the trap was sprung, chilling Alex as he cartwheeled back and lashed out only once, at just how devious at least the more potent undead truly were.
Hardly the mindless husk as the undead revenant he had just cleaved in half or its fellow ambusher, now down a pair of hands as it crumpled to the ground. Yet all Alex’s attention was on the clear leader of this band of undead killers, roaring his hate for Alex as it charged forward once more, faster than ever.
Monstrously quick, in fact.
Suddenly revealing the speed of a Deep Bronze, at least. Speed that should have taken Alex’s head off, if he hadn’t already pivoted his shield, as if knowing exactly where his opponent would strike, the pair engaging in a desperate furious exchange of sheer monstrous speed and brutality that should have utterly obliterated the far more fragile opponent… yet somehow, didn’t, as Alex always seemed to know just when to dodge and how to best pivot his shield.
Soul Sight skill check made! You clearly sense the surge and flow of deathly spiritual energy that your ancient foe could hide so well in life, now so clearly visible in death, for those able to endure entropy’s gaze!
The creature stepped back and snarled, glaring at Alex with furious hate, and that which could almost be respect.
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Before being abruptly spat in the face with a stream of Universal Solvent that seared through undead flesh with alarming ease, before the night lit up with a brilliant flash of lightning.
The greater revenant opened its ruined jaws to howl silent protest as it collapsed… an instant before its head exploded in caustic gore.
You have critically struck Greater Revenant with Elementally infused Stormblade!
Fatality!
Experience earned!
Windblade is now Rank 5!
Skill evolution available.
Synergism detected.
Windblade has fused with Enhanced Water Strike!
Lightning affinity detected! Previous Lightning mastery sensed!
You have learned a new skill: Stormblade!
You may now channel the force and fury of the storm with every swing of your weapon!
Alex leaped back, lashing out with his dao as he spun around, intercepting flailing limbs and claws radiating deathly Qi that he feared would be fatal to almost anyone.
And much to his re lief and dismay, his plan worked. The entire swarm of revenants was veering away from the wagon… and toward the sole living mortal that dared to challenge them in mist that tasted, ever so faintly of death’s river.
“Alex! Back away! You’re going to get killed!”
Alex was startled to hear Reny’s desperate voice in the distance, but not so surprised that he failed to raise his brilliantly crackling shield, a shield through which he was forcefully channeling as much excess potency through as he could, answering every desperate lunge and furious assault with Lightning and the condensed fury of cutting winds and waters that shredded all it touched. For all that Alex was forced steadily back, he took fierce satisfaction in the line of dismembered remains crumbling to dust in his wake.
He knew he was being a fool a thousand times over, daring to take on an entire regiment of revenants foes, no matter how slowly or clumsily they moved, or how fierce an edge that affinity with the element of Lightning gave him when battling the undead. Because the uncomfortable truth was that he never felt more alive, more truly at one with himself and the world around him and his connection to it all, his dao, than when he was putting his life on the line. Embracing the ultimate expression of chaos and transformation. The evolution of himself. The end of his enemies.
His justification was that he was buying his friends time.
Time to rip free of supernatural slumber. Time to rattle fuzzy thoughts into crystalline focus. Time for the Silver monster among them to once more summon his masterwork ritual that was almost a spell.
You have been struck by necrotically infected claws!
Desert Fox Cultivation counters killing blow.
You have inhaled Death’s Mist.
Death’s Mist has no effect upon one who would dare the River of Souls!
Desperately, he tried to keep ahead of and simultaneously stall the growing tidal wave of death. Even as his pace increased, his muscles now burning with the ache of a constant unending workout as Desert Fox, Tier 3 Bronze Vitality, and sheerest desperation had him push himself as hard as he ever had as a Bronze, cursing the sea of dead that did not tire and would not stop, until he finally got the message he had been waiting for.
“Alex, back up! Uncle’s Ready!”
Ya Ling’s voice. Welcome news he immediately responded to, praying Reny would forgive his utter disregard of her own. All the more so when he felt a fierce sharp tear in his left calf, but it didn’t stop him from instantly retrieving his spear from his storage space to hobble away as fast as any mortal athlete had ever sprintedn.
Barely making it to the edge of a massive ring of howling winds that had suddenly covered the entire desert, bitter cold cutting so deep… but unable to quench the fires of his draconic heart…
And then he was through.
You have taken 1 Critical Wound from Revenant Assassin.
You have partially saved against Crippling Blow!
You have been caught in: Black Ice Ritual!
Draconically enhanced Vitality saves versus Deadly Chill.
You have successfully broken free of Black Ice Ritual!
Alex choked back an agonized cry, only then noting how close he had come to being hamstrung, healing as best he could while still stumbling back, looking up in genuine awe at what seemed to be a howling tornado of winter ice and bitter cold.
A tornado capable of tearing through even Death’s Mists… though perhaps it was just that whatever dark connection was tying the living and the dead was shattered as the foul abominations were flash-frozen to blocks of ice gazing out a the world with hate filled stares.
Alex’s heart was still pounding with the abrupt cessation of battle, having gone from killing fury to frigid resolution in the blink of an eye.
He was more startled than he should have been when Qing Wu seemed to spring out of nowhere, giving Alex a measured look before chuckling softly. “If I ever had any question as to your sanity, I certainly don’t now. You’re a madman, through and through. Daring to take on an entire army of revenants for the sake of people you’ve known only weeks.”
He sighed and shook is head, eyes twinkling with unmistakable approval. “If only there were more heroes who didn’t manage to get themselves killed long before they ever reached Bronze or Silver. What a world we would live in then.”
He gave Alex a companionable clap on the shoulder. “Come on, hero. Best we head back to the wagons. Reny’s already got a fresh hot bowl of soup ready for you, and everyone else who dared stand strong or ride smart when the dead dared the desert sands.”
Alex turned to face Qing Wu. “I’m staying.”
The man blanched, momentarily taken aback. But not as much as Alex, surprised he had even uttered the words allowed, but knowing even as he said it, what his next move had to be.
“Alex?”
He spent several long moments looking at over a hundred frozen undead, glaring with unmistakable hate, from their prisons of ice.
Qi Perception check made: You understand key properties of this ice, even if manipulating it is utterly beyond you!
“What happens when your ice finally melts?”
Qing Wu paled, then grimaced. “That won’t be for a very long time. With any luck, the midday sun will be such a bane that half of them will surrender to death’s call once more.”
“And the half that stays?”
The Silver furrowed his brow. “Alex, do you realize how tough killing revenants truly is?”
Alex pointedly didn’t look at the dissolving corpses he had left behind him, no doubt almost invisible in the darkness, against the press of revenants closing in. But to his Soul Sight, Qi Perception, and Desert Sense, he had sensed the bodies expiring and fading under the midnight hoard as if it were clear day.
“Challenging,” he agreed earning a bark of laughter from the Wujen.
“You foolish, glorious boy. You but fought the rabble, and distracted them gloriously! What you perhaps didn’t sense were the ones that had gained a twisted understanding of the darkest elements of the dao, who also slipped through deaths waters, back to the living lands. Abominations as strong as a Deep Bronze…” His gaze hardened. “Abominations as powerful as a newly risen Silver. There are reasons why caravans are so valued, Alex, why we have so many guards, and why all the farmers of the oasises that dot our lands and from which glorious cities rise all seek shelter behind thick walls, every night.”
Ya Ling furrowed her brow, glaring at the icy statues, for all that she flinched before their unearthly gazes. “Uncle, we should destroy them. Now. In one fell swoop! With how powerful your ice is...”
Ya Ling trembled under her uncle’s abrupt glare. Before he sighed and seemed to deflate. “It’s not that easy, dear one.”
“Why isn’t it?”
Qing Wu scowled at the hundred plus frozen revenants he had so completely mastered… without culling more than a handful.
“Because frigid cold is awesome for freezing limbs that shouldn’t be moving anyway… but death doesn’t mind the cold.” Alex declared with a bitter smile. “If anything, cold enough temperatures, assuming cells aren’t all ruptured, can allow life… or the vessel that contains life, to linger for years, maybe centuries.”
Qing Wu’s too knowing gaze pinned a suddenly abashed Alex’s own for long moments, Alex only appreciating in that moment how rude it was for him to speak out of turn.
So he was surprised when the Silver Master cracked a smile and dipped his head. “My student is correct. It is just so. To say nothing of casting two greater rituals in a single night, after having so recently shored up my foundation...”
Alex immediately bowed. “You have done more than enough, Master Wu. Allow this prospective student to hone his amateur arts against the might of your ice, and the corruption within.”
This earned a thoughtful smile from the wujen. “Very well, Alex. If you wish to stay, and see if you can actually manage to both break through my ice and take out even a single revenant before day light… I will give you credit for perseverance, if nothing else. And that trait, as much as any other, such as learning and respecting your own limitations, marks the difference between a middling wujen, and one destined to truly shine. Just promise me one thing?”
“What’s that?”
Qing Wu pointed to the smallest of the black ice statues, radiating so little entropy it was half gone already. “Start with the smallest one. If you truly have it within you to both break my ice and take out one of these vile abominations… you will have earned your place at the academy, no matter the political currents, or how badly you fumble with the most basic wujen enchantments. All that I ask is that you play it safe.”
Alex solemnly bowed his head. “I will.”
“Good. Now come with me. You get to explain your plan to my wife while filling up first on stew.”
“But no bread,” Alex said with a sigh.
This earned a chuckle. “You’ll have to wait till we get to Liushi. No one knows the best shops, stalls, and bakeries better than your future classmates, after all.”
Alex nodded gamely enough, though the minutes felt like they stretched for hours under Reny and Ya Ling’s concerned gazes and probing questions. And the hug Ya Ling gave him beside the wagon, underneath the brilliant starry night sky, calling him a hero with her teasing gaze that left him hungry for different fare, motivated him as much as anything else.
Even if the wagons had been moving the entire time, the distance a gentle deterrent he sensed his companions hoped would inspire him to take his ease and enjoy well-earned rest… his desert sense marked the lands burdened with death’s encroachment with disturbing intensity. He soon found himself back before the ice statues once more, his previous injured calf fully healed once more, having full confidence in his ability to catch the wagons at any time, thanks to Desert Sense and, of course, the trade road itself.