Alex had only survived so long by trusting his gut, so when his gut twisted with death’s dirge, he was spinning around even before a fresh red appeared on the board, Alex finding himself gazing into the twisted countenance of Te Chang’s former secretary, now radiating the killing aura of a Deep Bronze with an emphasis on deadly speed, and she was already weaving past his over-extended fangtian ji as venom tipped daggers plunged for his chest, kitsune ears revealed at last from a bonnet torn free by her own darting movements, her lips curled in a furious snarl as she went in for the kill.
Before they widened in surprise when the fangtian ji vanished. And she was in no position to block the powerful fist slamming into her solar plexus in an explosion of blood and fire.
You have critically struck your target with Flame Fist!
Deep Bronze Kitsune Assassin has perished!
Flame Fist is now Rank 6! You have achieved Adept tier with Flame Fist! You have chosen the Adept tier perk: Synergism. You may now blend the element of Flame into all your elemental weaves with greater ease than ever before!
The air cracked and boomed with death’s thunder once more, the girl who had once smiled so sweetly at him gazing at him in sheer disbelief before the sudden violent shift in internal pressures caused her eyes to explode as her ribcage crumpled and her entire body was sent ragdolling away in an explosion of flame.
You have been struck by twin venom daggers!
You have 100% Immunity to Yellowbane Extract. You have 100% Immunity to White Willow Venom.
You have suffered two Superficial Wounds.
You have access to multiple Beast Cores. (All cores of Water and Ice have been designated off-limits.)
Prismatic Fox Power Healing Engaged!
Heart pounding with terror for his friends, Alex paid no more mind to the kitsune the moment her broken body was airborne, her red blinking light having already grayed out to the next life. All his focus was now on the pair of Silver Tier monsters still standing, trying to take out his friends under the glaring brightness of his still maintained half-dome of Wood and Flame, all that was keeping his friends from being peppered with fresh crossbow bolts.
Alex swallowed his fury, turning his outrage to bitter cold focus as he picked his next target, fangtian ji once more in hand.
“The Ruidian bastard is the threat! We bring him down now!” Wei Gui snarled, curling his lips as he spun around, catching Alex’s gaze before blanching and stumbling back before Alex’s killing intent.
The man sneered, shaking away the fear in his eyes as he clenched his fist. “I will not be cowed by the likes of you! You have interfered in our affairs for the last time, halfblood!”
Qi Perception check made!
The ground immediately exploded in shrapnel off metal and stone, but Alex was already on the far side of the nearest tree trunk, suffering a handful of cuts and bruises for his trouble.
Because this wasn’t the first time Alex had gone up against Wujens aligned with both Earth and Metal. So when he saw his opponent make gestures eerily similar to the first Silver tier Wujen to try to kill him within tunnels far closer to the nether-realm than anyone wanted to admit, he already knew what his only hope was.
To spring for the cover of the thick trunks all around.
“Wei Gui, did you get him?”
“Shut up Soh Lan, and finish off the woman. I’ll worry about the brat!” The saturnine-featured cultivator snarled, glaring at the tree Alex had darted behind. “You think that will save you, fool? I’ll shred this tree and the entire damn block, if that’s what it takes to bring you down!”
The surge of Silver tier potency now flooding the man was enough to make even Alex blanch, and the resulting explosion of metallic slivers caused multiple trees to slide to the ground in shredded chunks as Ya Ling’s shriek made it clear both that she had been hit and that, for the moment at least, she was alive and poison-free.
Alex could only pray that she stayed that way, darting across the foliage so quickly that he managed to avoid death altogether even as a single leap took him entirely across the street.
“Te Chang!” Sulia’s desperate cry underscored how perilous their situation as Alex leaped through the treetops lining the boulevard, desperately dodging explosive shrapnel as one tree after another slowly crashed to the ground, a night-blind Wei Gui glaring into the darkness, sneering at what he saw of the shattered cobblestones.
“Finish that bitch off, Soh Lan!” Wei Gui glared into the night. “I’m going to make sure that obnoxious monkey is finally dead!” His laughter only grew as desperate blasts of plasma and spears of icy shrapnel shattered fruitlessly just inches from his skin.
The man didn’t even flinch, just chuckled and spat, eyes glinting cruelly.
Artificer Skill check made!
Alex felt a cold chill of apprehension, finally understanding why multiple waves of fire, ice, and steel shrapnel from his allies had done nothing but earn Wei Gui’s contempt.
The man was protected by a shimmering ward of such power that it could only be Gold.
There was no way in hell his friends would be able to scratch the cultivator before them, let alone take him out, and Alex felt a cold chill of foreboding. If Wei Gui was this well protected, if the Duo Li clan was this well connected… he was forced to wonder just how well protected the would-be headmaster Xuon Li had actually been, once more grateful that he hadn’t risen to the bait and tried attacking him. Because the bastard might well have had a retributive ward after all, in addition to what, in Wei Gui’s case, were neigh unbreachable defenses.
Finesse check made!
Not for the first time, Alex felt a fierce sense of vindication in how well Qi Perception allowed him to sense all the players on the battlefield, now making full use of the inky black night beyond the roaring shield his Potency Mastery allowed him to maintain almost effortlessly, at least for a few minutes.
He would normally have been filled with a fierce sense of price and wonder at his construction of Wood and Flame, his creation still shielding all of his companions from elevated crossbow fire, maintaining it a good seventy feet from where he had originally summoned it into being… but he was too busy calming the roaring panic of his heart as he scooted behind a shattered trunk to focus on anything but the immediate hunt, sensing death rapidly approaching.
“Where are you, Ruidian, monkey? I know you’re here somewhere!”
And Alex’s vindication instantly turned to despair when he sensed another awful surge of Qi. For a heartbeat having forgotten that he wasn’t facing Bronze tier body cultivators limited by what they could strike in front of them. He was facing down an irate Silver-tier wujen who was clearly more than happy to destroy the very city, if it meant he could bring Alex down. Then it was a desperate race up one of the few remaining trees as he leaped for cover while his ears were deafened by the roaring crunch of yet more of the road exploding in shrapnel and shredded wood.
Quickness Check made. Barely!
You have suffered 2 Light Wounds.
Alex did his best not to cry out, lips tightly shut still as he endured the pain of shrapnel shards tearing in to his side.
If there was one benefit to his cackling foe venting his fury on the entire block, it was that there was no way the monster could hear a thing over the roaring destruction he had caused.
And that was when he saw it. A chance glance down an utterly clear alleyway that the swaying tree he held on to would have allowed him to effortlessly dart down and flee this madness, and somehow he just knew he’d escape his enemies’ furious gazes for good, if he chose that path.
Yet the screams of his friends compelled another course as Linnea’s abruptly cut off cry filled Alex with sudden sharp panic. She, the only one of his Ruidian companions now fighting, for all that all three of them had been successfully purged of poison. It was her plight as much as anything else that compelled him to leap to the rooftops a single spring from the tree, keeping low and out of line of sight, praying that the sound of his feet on shingles, wooden slats that cracked, and sturdy tiles that made no sound at all would continue to go unnoticed as the alleyway he had been so tempted by abruptly exploded in shrapnel as the pair of adjoining buildings began to collapse.
FUCK!
A silent scream as Alex’s heart roared a furious staccato beat. And he was now racing silently to his target. Fully committed. Praying his sense of the nature of the man’s ward was accurate, Glaring down at his foe who wasn’t even targeting him anymore, but just delighting in the sheer destruction he caused, faced twisted in a demonic grin.
Knowing he’d only get one chance before being forced to pay a very dear price.
“You thought you could mock me, Liushi? You thought you could humiliate my clan and get away with it? Fools! My brother will claim your academy and our clan your entire damned city!” He laughed like a madman as a full dozen men kitted up in bronze lamellar suddenly came into view from a side street, half armed with spears, the other half wielding crossbows held high, searching for targets.
It appeared that the city guard had finally arrived.
Before their angry roars for order and the sharp cry of whistles abruptly cut off, their faces wide-eyed with horror as they gazed upon a wildly laughing Wei Gui.
“Wujen battle. Get back, get back!” Cried their obvious leader, but it was already too late, as a trio immediately crashed to the ground, writhing from crossbow bolts jutting from their chests and throats as the dozen or so mercenaries hidden in the nearby buildings finally found a target they could shoot at.
“Retreat, retreat! We are under att—” and before the surprised soldiers could even gather themselves or collect their wounded, the road exploded in shrapnel as the entire squad was shredded to crimson paste.
Wei Gui’s twisted face grew truly hideous as he laughed like a madman. So caught up in his twisted display of power that he only noticed the brilliant flash of lightning behind him at that very moment, Alex’s fangtian ji spinning at inconceivable speeds as a whirlwind of Water, Wind, Steel, and Lightning swirled over the half-moon axe heads of his weapon.
The wujen’s eyes widened with surprised disbelief an instant before the night flared to life with a brilliant crackling boom as the wujen was thrown back.
Stolen novel; please report.
As was Alex as well.
You have successfully Sensed Wujen Ward Weakness!
Storm Strike modified Spell Cleave enjoys + 21 Modifier to rupturing all wards.
You have successfully disrupted a Gold-tier artifact!
You have been thrown back from your foe.
“You!” Arrogant Yidushian features that were no longer unearthly in their malicious perfection glared Alex’s way as Wei Gui spat out blood. “You would dare to strike a prince of the kingdoms? You will pay for that, Ruidian scum. Pay for that with your head!”
The man’s malicious smile grew as he abruptly tossed from a gold storage ring a full dozen obsidian axes that immediately began spinning around him.
With a contemptuous sneer, the man strode boldly towards a still silent Alex.
Alex was dismayed to see that the triple whirling orbits of those obsidian blades would make a finishing blow extremely tricky, even if the original ward had been shattered, Alex noting the shallow cuts all over the man’s neck and face, and the remnants of the enchanted amulet he had spotted, even now falling to the ground.
A glaring Alex tossed a random piece of rock the wujen’s way, the man instinctively flinching like any man unused to combat, before smiling as one of the obsidian axes managed to knock the rock aside.
“You think your paltry weapons can strike my flesh? My blades will cut you alive the second you approach, fool! So run! Run for your life! It will do you no good when the very ground explodes under your—“
Wei Gui’s words were cut off, his eyes bulging in surprise when his face was hit by a stream of clear liquid which his obsidian blades utterly failed to counter.
The man’s reflexive snarl turned to a look of horror when his face began to smoke and wither, inhaling for a desperate scream that turned to a choking wheeze.
Wei Gui abruptly crumpled, both hands going to his throat as he gazed in bug-eyed horror Alex’s way before he began to spasm and thrash as multiple Silver-tier solvents dissolved his face. His melting features warped in a silent scream, blind eyes already glimpsing frigid waters that filled the writhing cultivator with horror as poison continued searing through blood and brain as the man frothed and spasmed, his writhing body twisting with such tension that bones began to crack and splinter.
But Alex didn’t bother sticking around to watch his enemy’s last moments, racing with desperate urgency back to his friends, just in time to see a roaring Linnea on her bloody knees, no loner protected by Alex’s ward of vines and flame, fist clenched as she howled, jerking down her hand in time to overwhelm the enemy fire wujen with a massive bolt of swirling flame, all her own.
Soh Lan roared and stumbled back, yet the same Gold-tier ward that had protected his ally surrounded this predator as well, Linnea’s fearsome flames failing even to singe her enemy’s hair.
“Fool! Thinking a Ruidian trick can match a true master of Flame?” He glared at the windows of the nearby building that hadn’t been destroyed by a power-mad wujen, ignoring the crumpled cultivators still desperately huddling under Linnea’s weakening wards.
“Strike her down!”
Immediately multiple crossbow bolts twanged from the building.
“Linnea!” Alex screamed in his mind as the girl looked his way with soft luminous eyes before collapsing to the shattered pavement in a growing puddle of blood.
The sneering wujen, covered in a fresh corona of flame, turned to glare Alex’s way, eyes widening with surprise. “You! You should be dead!”
The man’s look of surprise turned to a snarl of contempt as a roaring Alex charged forward, Fangtian Ji now howling with the full force and fury of the storm.
“Wei Gui failed to kill you? I will not. Die, worm!” The man’s hands twisted like a spider’s limbs as a whirling series of fiery comets sprung free of the man’s flesh before arcing around, straight for Alex.
A Silver tier killing spell which would have once spelled his doom.
Instead Alex laughed, unleashing the full force of his killing hate as he leaped for his target, swinging his fangtian ji in a furious arc that could have only one outcome as his opponent’s mocking sneer turned to a look of horrified dismay when brilliant flashes of light caused Alex no worse than the mildest of burns.
Soh Lan lurched back in panic, arms raised as he screamed a desperate chant that broke off in a howl of agony as steel flashed and the wujen’s limbs were sent flying through air now rich with the scents of ash, scorched flesh, and blood as the parched cobblestones drank deep of the sudden arterial spray.
Spell Cleave successfully disrupts Heaven’s Fire!
Spell Cleave successfully disrupts Heaven’s Fire!
Spell Cleave partially disrupts Heaven’s Fire! Heaven’s Fire explodes against you!
Fatal Wounds have been reduced multiple damage tiers as Wujen Flames yield before your own!
You have sensed the weakness in your foe’s defenses!
Piercing Storm Strike successfully ruptures Gold-tier ward!
Alex’s world became one of bright, blinding agony as his back erupted in white hot flame even as lightning flashed and his decapitated foe exploded with the force and fury of Alex’s ward-rupturing strike.
For long moments there was nothing but the horrific throb of white-hot agony as he was overwhelmed by the awful stench of cooking flesh.
His own.
He was desperate to escape the blinding heat, light, and pain.
Yet as much as he wanted to sink into the soothing darkness calling out to him, a fading part of his mind knew that doing so was death.
Enemies still stalked the night.
Enemies with crossbows.
Enemies that were trying to kill his friends.
So with desperate panicked focus, he grabbed tight hold of that blinding fiery pain, channeling that wild energy into a soothing healing light.
You have successfully embraced Prismatic Fox Restoration Technique.
Skillcheck made!
You have accessed potency to engage in Power Healing!
Yet it wasn’t his own agony that was tormenting him, but the imminent death of a friend who had been struck by cruel crossbow bolts, poison, and flame in a handful of seconds, too fast for even Alex to keep up with.
“Linnea! Heal! You must heal now!”
Party member Linnea (Slave node Lin0x47) is suffering catastrophic damage.
Cognitive impairment suffered.
Neural Matrix collapse imminent.
Slave Node can no longer be accessed.
“Bullshit!” Alex hissed through his pain, sensing the flickering connection, no matter what his interface said. His eyes widened. He might not be able to force her own body to reset to an earlier state if her node was damaged… but that didn’t mean he couldn’t heal her in other ways.
They were a party. All of them were partied up!
Prismatic Fox skillc heck made!
You have successfully linked all Slave Nodes to your own.
You have begun healing all secondary nodes!
Note! Your secondary nodes will be catatonic for the duration of this healing.
Alex’s heart pounded, exhilaration replaced by dismay.
What he was doing was remarkable. Beyond remarkable as what had once been one of the most exquisitely complex of feats, swirling the maelstrom of spiritual energy through his meridians to revitalize and nurture his body, had become as effortless as walking. As natural as setting similar cycles of power flowing through all his friends.
At first it was slow going. He could only restore one at a time.
He feared he wouldn’t have time to do what he needed to, sensing so much critical damage, before realizing it was only because Linnea was so close to death. When his sense of himself and his connection to his party members grew, when his sense of his own Power Healing sharpened, he found it similar to juggling multiple balls in the air. The first two were easy. The third was extremely hard. The fourth? Easier.
Yet all the while he did that, his guts twisted with dread.
Because the drawback to what he dared was losing himself so deeply in his party’s nodes that he lost himself as well.
For the long endless seconds that he worked on restoring his party… he was splayed out on the shattered cobblestone road, vulnerable to anyone that might be lurking in the shadows… such as a handful of armored mercenaries choosing that very moment to strike.
He counted it a miracle he could hear at all, for his eyes saw nothing but the flows of spiritual energy he was desperately applying to his friends.
Doing all he could to keep them alive.
No matter how much they might hate and despise him in the days to come, should they ever understand just how much control he had over them all.
“Our enemies have all fallen, sir! None of them are moving!”
A long tense pause, as if a commander was considering.
“The fire ward’s still up. Where the hell are Wei Gui and Soh Lan?”
“Fallen, sir.” Alex knew he wasn’t imaging the hitch in the man’s voice.
“Fallen? How!?”
“The Ruidian, sir. The blond one. He charged Soh Lan. The monster struck just as Lord Soh Lan’s magics took him out from behind.
Audible cursing could be heard. “Impossible! Their artifacts made them utterly indestructible! These men were to rule as our master’s seconds, just as soon as he assumes control of this city. Are you sure Lord Soh Lan’s dead? Not injured?”
“The Ruidian decapitated him, sir!”
“Damn it! Where’s Wei Gui?”
“Fallen, sir!” Said another voice. “His face… I think he was struck by a powerful wujen attack, sir. Maybe other enemy wujen are closing in?”
The captain could be heard quietly cursing, before he spoke up once more. “Alright, you all know our orders. Search the bodies for beast cores. Once completed, or once fresh guards can be heard approaching, we slip through the shadows for our exit point.”
“Yes sir.”
Alex desperately worked to stabilize the two fragile flickering flames of life he sensed still in danger of fading out, knowing he was running out of time.
Skill check made! You have successfully stabilized Party member Linnea (Slave node Lin0x47).
You have failed to stabilized Party Member: Ya Ling! (Slave node Ya0x44)
You sense enemies rapidly approaching!
Alex forced himself to slow down and focus, even as he could feel the vibrations of feet nearby.
His enemies first checked the remains of Soh Lan, cursing softly.
Now they were approaching him.
He heard the ring of steel leaving a sheath, instantly knowing what the soldiers were intending.
The cultivators they approached might be dead or just injured. Either way, they’d slice Alex and everyone else’s throat, just to be sure, before searching their corpses.
Alex howled silently in his mind, knowing he was out of time.
Skill check made!
You have successfully stabilized Party Member: Ya Ling! (Slave node Ya0x44)
Quickness check made.
You have surprised your foe!
Alex wasted no time. The instant awareness of his body came back to him, he was rolling frantically away, even as he felt the awful hot sting of sharp steel kissing the side of his throat.