Alex’s roar was an explosion of air blasting from his lips as his fangtian ji, howling with blood and bitter fury, flashed through the empty air.
Before the air was suddenly filled with the wild-eyed presence of a massive jungle cat stretching wide open maws that could have effortlessly torn off Alex’s head.
If it weren’t for the fangtian ji, cleaving through the air exactly where it needed to be, to tear the cat’s deadliest weapon completely free.
You have successfully struck your foe with Wind Blade!
Critical Hit causes catastrophic damage! You have successfully DECAPITATED your foe!
Experience earned!
Wind Blade has evolved!
Experience successfully channeled to: Mortally wounded party member!
Alex didn’t need to think about it, he just flooded his connection to Reny with all the potency he had just claimed from a Silver-tier woodland killer.
Reny’s eyes went blank as she was floored by healing potency that was a wild and frothy mix of both his Prismatic Fox Restoration technique and her own varied healing arts. And how they had managed to synergize so perfectly he neither knew nor cared, grateful only that he sensed a tingling surge of excess potency that he then channeled to Ya Ling’s spurting wrist. Even if it was only enough to seal the stump, at least she wouldn’t die of blood loss.
Not before their shadow foes finished them off, anyway.
The forest erupted with furious roars from shadowy cats now swarming about their defenses more intently than ever. And how ironic it was that all their lives now hung on Linnea keeping the pace, knowing she should be utterly terrified of the monster she had dared to fall in love with, his gentle smile hiding the dreaded culmination of her entire culture’s worst nightmares… were she not simultaneously him, tasting the grief, regret, and terror he felt even now, desperate to see them all safely out. She could empathize to an absolute degree because, at that moment, she was as much him as he was her. And if they weren’t willing to fight together as true battle-buddies, then the battle was already lost.
“At least one person understands me,” Alex thought with a shared smile, both a girl who had never quite fit in, and a boy who had lost far too much to ever open his heart fully again. Both united in the desperate fear they felt for their friend’s peril, and a fierce determination to make the monsters so intently hounding them pay for every drop of blood they shed.
It was only at that moment, surrounded by reds repositioning themselves to strike once more, that Alex remembered a choice snippet not from a treatise manual, but from an epic tale he had once savored in the comfort of his family library a lifetime ago.
When flanked and surrounded by enemies on all sides, standing your ground was a death sentence. You had no choice but to charge forth and attack. For movement was life, forcing one’s foe to reposition was hope, and breaking through enemy lines was salvation.
Yet for Alex, at that moment, it was something more.
It was a connection to the forest all around him, to the precious lives in dire peril, and to the predators who had absolutely no business being this far from the deeps of the rift, brought here by some unknown agency. A plague that had already devastated all the local wildlife and shredded countless trunks against their claws.
So when Alex dared to embrace his newest gift in the crucible of combat once more, it was as if the very branches came to his aid. Not a single twig crackling under his footsteps as the entire map of the forest came to vivid life in his mind’s eye.
You have designated Spring Leap as: Bullrush! Note. This Bullrush variant costs minimal Qi expenditure and is only effective in areas with high concentrations of plant life.
You have successfully spotted your prey.
Bullrush!
Bullrush!
Wind Strike!
You have critically struck your foe!
Alex flashed a fierce grin as he became one with the endless rustling trees all about him, the scent of his blood and fury coated by a thousand blossoms and the rich green sap of countless branches he brushed across.
He once more embraced the rush of blinking through the air faster even than Forest Flight, an arboreal echo of what had once perhaps been his greatest ability, traveling through the forest in fifty-foot hops that flashed so fast that it was all one continuous heartbeat of deadly focus, cold stillness, and furious retribution.
An eyeblink and he was away from the desperate arena of fire, ice, and steady pricking blows bleeding them and draining their strength. Now there was nothing but rich soothing green all around him for a single precious mometn.
An eyeblink later and he was on the thick supportive bough of a tree overlooking a red-eyed Shadow Cat glaring down at the whirling barriers of ice and fire, sniffing out the best way to break through and savor the sweet red taste of human flesh once more.
Before frowning, realizing that something was wrong. But just a heartbeat too late. As even Rank 1 Silver Quickness gave the cat no time to turn when a wild-eyed human appeared right before him, feet resting on the wind itself as his fangtian ji tore through the air, crackling with the very howling winds holding so many bloody secrets that the cats had strove to suppress.
Yet still, the furiously snarling beast moved faster than should be possible twisting to the side as much as possible. So what should have been a spine-cleaving blow instead tore open its flank, spraying the rich loamy soil below with pink frothy blood as the cat yowled and stumbled from the tree, only to crash to the ground, stunned for long moments before desperately trying to scurry away from the battle that had some close to being its doom… and its fellow shadow cats that would gladly finish what the human had started.
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Flickering thoughts that had somehow become Alex’s own as he desperately Bullrushed yet again, this time appearing right over the swirling vortex of fire and ice, to strike a wild-eyed cat leaping for the prey right below, Alex’s fangtian ji now whipping through the air at speeds far beyond Bronze Rank 1 Quickness as multiple skills synergized into one lethal blow, showering the pinned adventurers in a shower of freezing blood, boiling brains, and shattered skull.
And Alex refused to waste even a second worrying about how he was keeping his footing in mid-air, knowing only that he had to LEAP right now! As two more shadow cats sprung for his friends, both losing a single paw as they howled and crashed into the whirling maelstrom of fire and ice, Alex’s fresh commands to his friends below abruptly inspiring surges of potency that caused the inside of their dome to explode with fresh fire, ice, and gore as the crippled cats toppled through icy shrapnel and liquid flame only to be finished off by Dui Zhong’s furious blows.
Then Alex was racing through the forest once more, choking back a silent scream as he zeroed in on one slinking presence after another, so many feline eyes glowing in the dim light, eager to devour fresh prey.
Before the crack and boom of lightning, or the flash of steel singing a song of howling winds and bitter storms sent one vibrant cat after another limping back with devastating wounds or crippling injuries.
And he was savvy enough not to stick around to finish the job.
For surprise alone had culminated in actually marking the flesh of his enemy, and it was Wind Strike enhanced by Wind Crane kung fu and Lightning that allowed him to penetrate Greater spirit beast hide and mark his would be executioners with the best deterrent there was.
Blinding pain and crippling injuries. Then blinking away before the too fast cats could even bring their other limbs around for a deadly raking rebuttal that would have seen the end of his desperate gambit.
By the time they turned to strike, he was already blinking through the woods to his next unsuspecting target, taking full advantage of his Greater Wind affinity to appear right on the branches occupied by his foes, flanking them perfectly, then lashing out with such desperate fury that not one managed to completely escape his wrath, or his fangtian ji.
For all that more than one had scored him as well, Alex now bleeding from half a dozen lacerations that were no where near as deep as they could have been… would have been, if he hadn’t committed to hit and run tactics only, while embracing the element of surprise.
“Alright, we’re good!” Alex declared, popping up in the midst of his companions once more, delighting in the smile his other half gave him, before his… her? Eyes widened at the sight of him, covered in vicious half-healed claw marks and blood, minus two fingers from his left hand that he still didn’t remember how the cat had managed to claim, only that it was too damned fast, even when mortally wounded, and Alex had been lucky as hell to jump away in time.
He spat up bright frothy pink goop he refused to look at too closely, knowing that he needed to heal, but having had absolutely no opportunity to do so after the second kill.
The other dozen strikes had all been hit and run. Because it wasn’t about killing his enemies or collecting cores. At this point it was about survival, and nothing more.
“Alright, come on everyone! We press on for the gate!”
Fortunately, they had been moving steadily, if a bit too slowly, and Alex’s words, coached just as any friend’s would be, coaxed them to move just as fast as they damn well could while still being coordinated.
Linnea’s haunted gaze met his own for just an instant… but Alex knew her smile of relief and approval were genuine. Because her thoughts were still his own.
“What’s the status?” Linnea asked for the benefit of the group.
“All the fuckers are limping or bleeding. Hopefully that will slow them down just enough for us to get the hell out of here!”
Fortunately, it was. Even when Ya Ling slipped on dizzy feet, giving Alex a look equal parts terror and confusion. He didn’t waste time with regret, only snatching her in his arms before she collapsed. He kept up a steady pace toward the exit, helping the group past vines, burs, steep depressions and thick undergrowth he could have effortlessly slipped through, letting nothing deter him. Yet he still urged his companions to move ever faster when he sensed a handful of the deadly half-step Silver-tier beasts gathering themselves together to head his way once more, filled with a furious hunger that demanded blood, no matter their wounds suffered.
“Alex...” He flinched away from Reny and Qing Wu’s gazes, having deliberately eased the painfully tight grip he had had on all their minds.
“No time!” He said hoarsely, smarting from his own wounds, praying that they could all chalk it off to the madness of battle and the conformity of the herd in times of peril… while knowing just how unlikely that was.
He ignored the gazes now burning holes in his back as he desperately led them from the forest to the clearing, as the wounded but still mobile cats did all the could to head them off and set up ambushes for them. The power of his interface, enhanced Wind affinity carrying so many scents that Biochemical Mastery picked up like a scent hound, as well as having already marked them with his steel and Linnea’s sudden ability to sense heat so brilliantly that they now effectively had infravision were the only things allowing him to spot his Silver tier stalkers at all.
And then between one endless panic-filled moment and the next, a final row of trees was past, and there was the clearing, lush grass waving invitingly in a soft breeze that revealed so many secrets, the portal just a short distance away.
Ya Ling’s eyes filled with tears as she sobbed with relief. “There’s the exit. We’re free!” She tumbled out of Alex’s arms, racing forward with surprising speed despite blood loss and a missing hand, the Wind itself seeming to carry her forward.
“Ya Ling!”
Alex’s desperation did nothing to slow her desperate sprint, having gently eased the tendrils of his influence so far from everyone’s mind so carefully that he prayed they’d hardly note the difference. So thoroughly that there was barely any party link between them at all, and his panicked surge of warning meant nothing without the words behind it, and with death stalking them so skillfully, there was no time to say a word.
Only a jolt of panic shared between Alex and Linnea as her left hand raised and shot out a white hot meteor of furious plasma and despair, knowing she would be just a heartbeat too late, even as inky darkness revealed the wide-open maw of a furious Shadow Panther about to disembowel Ya Ling with a single vicious swipe of his paw.
Time stretched as Alex’s soul screamed.
He howled with bitter fury as the tale of his life once more seemed eager to mock him. Yet he refused to let horror freeze him where he stood.
Instead he MOVED.
Space itself seeming to twist as he communed with the grass beneath his feet. An extension of all grass on these killing fields beside the entrance, hiding so many gory secrets. So many connections between predator and prey as two points became one and with a single step Alex STRUCK his prey for all he was worth.
Embracing the one attack he could unleash in the blink of an eye, the one technique not wildly altered by his new affinity, Wind Blade shrieking through the air as his fangtian ji blasted forth, cleaving through the Shadow Puma’s throat as Alex shielded Ya Ling’s body with his own, giving her just enough time to leap through.
Yet Alex, in his desperation to reach his friend in time, had failed to account for the Shadow Puma’s monstrous speed and power.
A single swipe sent him spinning through the ground, dismayed by the sight of his own crimson blood spurting forth from his mangled shoulder.
“Alex!”
An eyeblink later, he was slammed to the ground, desperately trying to summon a shield that took too long, far too long with howling Wind enhancing everything to such an extreme degree.
And before he could blink, before he could even draw the dao sheathed at his hip, the furious cat was before him, mouth open wide to crack open his skull with a single monstrous bite.