You don’t need a powerful Skill to win. Sometimes, you don’t even need a higher level.

Sometimes, the only thing you really need is a little bit of surprise. Something that no one knows you have—that no one sees coming.

-The Trespassers’ Compendium

II-11

Blood Against Blood

"His class has changed, as has his level," the Shell said.

The young master eyed his father, watching William Yu summon a bow. It seemed to be his weapon of choice. Another difference from the father Wei knew; the patriarch of the Drowned Sky Sect was known to use a sword. This bow, unlike the last one Wei faced, was of a different demon altogether. It was a composition of bone and jagged teeth, and at its very top, a blood-red sclera blinked and glared at the world, its gaze piercing to the point of pain as it landed upon Wei.

"Think," his Shell said, compelling Wei to focus."Use your mind. You broke some of his Aspects before, yet he stands before you stronger than ever. You saw his Class Specialization, his level, yet they are different, far greater in a short span of a few weeks. How can this be?"

Wei clenched his jaw and frowned. Has his father been preparing for this as well, leveling his class? No. Wei felt different. Instinct told him there was something else at play here.

“He knows your system. He knows what he risks if he is to lose, but he shows no sign of fear.”

Perhaps he doesn't have any, Wei thinking. Perhaps he no longer dreads death.

“It is one thing to not fear. It is another to disregard the defilement of one's own very spirit. He knows what you did to the Knight of Lust. Fate is worse than any finality death can provide, and he is unshaken by that as well.” This, more than anything, spurred a build of paranoia inside Wei.

His father shifted his stance and materialized an arrow created from the light itself. Before he prepared to nock, he offered Wei a final, weary expression.

"For what it’s worth, I did," William said.

Wei spun his spear, and the wind within the room began to twist faster and faster. "You did what?" Wei said.

"I did love her, and I still love you." William let out a laugh. "God, I'm pathetic."

He loosed his arrow. Lightning shot out from Wei’s spear.

Both father and son exploded in action, trading attacks. The arrow sailed out, growing brighter. Lightning exploded from Wei's spear tip, even as he cleaved fifty meters of space using his scythe. Re-positioning himself directly behind his father, Wei swept both his harvesting blade and his storm-infused spear across his father, splitting the man clean down the middle. Wei felt himself cut through flesh and spirit. He expected gore or Essence to spill.

William Yu exploded instead.

The result blast flattened Wei against the scythe-infused walls as if he were a flea trying to defy a hurricane. Black flames erupted out of his armor, and his Shroud of Scorn shattered, breaking as fast as it materialized. Only his Omniscience allowed him to keep track of what happened.

His father rematerialized from the light-forged arrow he first shot at Wei. His body had merely been a decoy, a bomb. Wei growled—prepared to charge the man again. Lightning crackled down the young master's skin as he rushed, and he tore droplets of water from the mositure in the air; directed them to pierce his father from all angles. Chunks of wood exploded from the stage below as William dodged, and then, with a burst of envious Essence, his shape changed, spreading out as a swarm of locusts to better avoid the spearing rain.

Wei retaliated, bringing his Broken Crescent high, and the moisture went from an unceasing barrage of hyper-accelerated bolts to a descending tsunami pulled down from the ceiling. William transformed again, his body flashing to that of a humanoid swordfish. He dove into Wei's waves, and the young master shot a bolt of lightning at the water, seeking to end this bout via electrocution.

Suddenly, Wei’s Omniscience caught another burst of movement; a few locusts had parted from the swarm, and they condensed behind Wei. The young master's blind eyes widened as his lightning flashed through the falling wave, and the humanoid swordfish wailed and began to spasm. William reformed himself behind his son, and from his bow sprayed a veritable flood of arrows that spilled out in a constant stream.

Wei cut distance again, using his scythe, blinking to the other side of the chamber, only for recently loosed arrows to immediately twist through the air, defying inertia in their pursuit. Wei cursed. His father continued firing. More bolts of light filled the room, but among them mingled other arrows. They burned with various Essences—blood, destruction, lightning, other elements, hunger, lust, and more.

A blast of wind exploded out from Wei, but that only slowed the arrows slightly. With a surge of momentum, they pushed through his repulsive barrier, but he Essenceshifted into a gust of wind, and evaded some shots with ease—until a bolt made of wind crashed into him.

Wei went sprawling across the ground, his shoulder armor dented inward. His arm felt bruised, but he was otherwise fine.

Until another five arrows impacted against him, each detonating in quick succession. Every time, a counterblast of flame would erupt from his gifted armor, lessening the concussive impacts, but it felt like someone was hammering Wei's body using a sledgehammer.

“You are a fool to take a passive, defensive approach,” his shell chastised. “Get close, run him down, and focus. Use your Omniscience, feel his Essence, do not trust your eyes.”

Wei did as his shell commanded. He cut the space between him and his father, zipping through the oncoming arrows. He shuddered into existence right beside his father, momentum from the blast still carrying him. Then, Wei halted himself with a thrust from his Broken Crescent, launching himself towards his father in a burst of rushing wind.

William spun his bow upward, and it suddenly changed into a massive sword that extended further and further until it was twenty meters in length. The tip hissed like a snake and the entire weapon began to radiate poisonous Essence. He angled his strike to split Wei down the middle—and the young master responded by manifesting his scythe and slashing through the sword first.

But his Path of the Harvester cut nothing. The hissing blade vanished in a blur of dappling colors, just as three more arrows hammered into Wei's torso, and a final one slipped under his armpit, piercing his flesh for the first time.

A cry of frustration escaped the young master, his pain less than his shame.

“Focus!” his Shell shouted inside of him.

Summoning all his will, Wei snapped back just in time to watch his father vanish into parting fractals composed of vibrant colors. A trickle of spatial Essence snaked away from Wei, and the young master saw the remaining arrows in the room circling around him. Their Essence flooded the room, and they also began to multiply, the number of threats increasing exponentially. Nothing in the chamber escaped Wei’s awareness thanks to his Omniscience, but the sheer amount of arrows populating space and the sheer amount of Essence they released made hard to parse through all the overwhelming detail.

“We face a clever foe,” his Shell said, offering a disdainful compliment toward William. “He is exploiting our Aspect of Enlightenment. There is too much to see and not enough mental capacity to do so.”

Two arrows twisted out from the mass, coming for Wei. He responded by sending a whip of lightning to greet them, attack clashing against attack. A splash of explosive Essence tore another chunk out of the wooden arena between them. But even as the boards shattered, Wei faintly noticed new replacements rising from beneath the gaps left upon the stage replacing the broken parts nigh-instantly.

Wei checked his Class menu and frowned. He only had twenty Scorn left. His Class nourished itself off of dominance, off indulging in superiority against someone he hated, and right now, his father was making a mockery of him. In doing so, he was depriving him of his fundamental resource.

“We are behaving too predictably,” his Shell said. “We need to go on the offensive mentally as well. Draw him in. Have him expose himself. His battleground is one of deception and illusion. It has been his entire life. He is a traitor and a deceiver. You are not. You are a warrior. You must draw him into your world and out from his.”

And how are we to do that? Wei asked.

“By exploiting what he does not know. What no one knows about us.”

You, Wei realized. But I thought you said—

That's why you must do use me carefully and quickly. Gather what remains of your fading Scorn and create a storm. Use it to shroud yourself and then invoke my helmet.

Wei understood. Of these many angles of attack, there still was only one conductor, one master to seek.

And William had a perspective Wei could intercept.

A blast of lightning, water, and rising earth blew out from Wei’s Eidolon, just as dozen more arrows came for him. They impacted and broke against his final elemental aegis, and Wei felt the last of his Scorn disappear in a cataclysmic burst that swept in all directions. He let out a cry of effort to further emphasize his spiritual weariness. But from within the swirling maelstrom of essence, he called upon his helmet of invasive sight and hunted for his father's gaze.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

To Wei's sudden horror, he saw interlinking cobwebs of Perception between each remaining arrow. Practically every inch of this arena under his father’s surveillance as well; the arrows were more than his projectiles; they were his eyes. As Wei projected his own invasive sight into them, however, and quickly began sorting through the rainstorm. Most offered only bland perspectives, pinholes to another place, another individual. The young master followed the network of projectiles, feeling a flowing current leading to a specific arrow—the one hiding his father.

Time, however, was not on his side. Though his final calamitous exertion devastated 200 meters of space, his father’s arrows were ceaseless, and the man didn’t bother endangering himself. In this respect, he was far different from Seever and most foes Wei faced—different from the father he remembered having as well.

William Yu was an operative: A man without interest in dueling or proving his supremacy. He just wanted to win. And he was going to achieve victory without exposing himself to undue risk.

Spatial arrows blew open vulnerable gaps in Wei’s fading storm, and hundreds more flooded through. Yet, just then, he finally caught sight of his father again. And found hims further annoyed. His father’s perspective jumped rapidly from arrow to arrow. In a strange sense, they were his teleportation network, and now he was leading the vanguard of projectiles coming toward Wei.

“He comes,” his Shell said. “Dismiss the helmet; cast your spear.”

What?

“Provoke a reaction from him and intercept his movement. Right now, he can flee at any time. A deceiver is always paranoid. You must make him think you have no choices left. Force him to react. Break his pattern.’

Wei dismissed his helmet and heeded his own Skill’s advice. Flicking his spear upon his palmtop, Wei reared his arm back and tossed it out like a javelin. The Eidolon blasted through the air, launched by almost 900 points in Authority. A ripple of force blossomed out. His spear greeted the arrow that housed his father. Both his father and Wei felt a sudden surge of spatial Essence jumping from one arrow to another. William Yu was now two arrows down the chain.

But the act did not come without cost. The arrows detonated. Wei felt his Eidolon shatter into fragments of black and gold. But this could work to Wei’s advantage—help his sell his desperation.

Repairing Broken Crescent…

“Go,” his Shell growled, and Wei was upon his father once more.

He split space and cut once more using his scythe—and then slashed through his target in the same second. This time Wei did not hesitate. This time he was sure. The second arrow that housed his father's being was cleaved in twain, and with its shattering tumbled William Yu, screaming as his spirit was dealt its first severe wound.

Shard Obtained!

Wei hewed down once more. His father’s Speed fractured. “Perception!” Wei’s Shell roared. “Attack his Perception!” But Wei was in the thick of battle now, his senses lost, his rage assuming control. His father’s scream had woken something feral in him, and nothing could hold him back from what was to follow.

For all he inflicted against Wei, his mother, his sect, Wei would see his father pay, he would see him scream, he would see him rendered invalid before the end.

Wei fell upon his father with fists, elbows, knees, feet, and scythe. He cleaved the Trespasser twice more, and two more Shards were harvested—taken into Wei’s System.

Aspect Advancement Available [1]

Three shards for one Aspect Advancement. Wei would have been ecstatic if he wasn’t lost to a mindless rage. His Aspects would grow far faster now.

William tried to evade—but his Speed was much diminished. He summoned a bear-like demon—which Wei casually sundered with a harvesting stroke before punching his father in the kidney twice. William flinched and doubled over. And caught a flying knee from Wei for his efforts. For a moment, his William’s eyes rolled to the back of his skull. The shudder of something breaking danced up Wei's armored greaves, but he wasn’t done.

Wei’s elbow fell, splitting the back of his father's head open, just as another scythe plunged down. Even William Yu’s flinches were slower now. Marquis-Tier though he was, every blow Wei inflicted took something from him, left him as less than he was before. And more than that, it gave something to Wei.

Shards Obtained!

Aspect Advancement Available [4]

Concept Upgrade Available [1]

As Wei prepared to bring his scythe once more, however, a nearby arrow twisted in and transformed into a burst of green energy. A gulf of Envy Essence consumed Wei’s peripheral vision as a massive serpent-like creature shot out from the arrow, twisting into the path of the falling scythe. The blow cleaved clean through the serpent, unraveling its very being, but the summoned demon’s sacrifice spared William from further harm—and gave him a moment to recover.

Worse, the other arrows were reacting as well. They accelerated, rushing towards Wei. With his Scorn slightly refilled, Wei prepared to invoke his Heart of Calamity in retaliation, only to remember his Broken Crescent had been temporarily destroyed.

“Focus on your father,” his shell shouted.

Wei did so, ignoring pain and danger, even as the first arrows impacted against him. But William was nothing if not a man of many tricks. He pulled out something from his Inventory—a form that he slapped on Wei’s thigh just as his son tried to kick him again.

Then Wei felt a pressure down on his limb, finding himself unable to move, unable to even shift using the leg.

Restrainting order inflicted. Pay [5,000,000] Sins to—

The rest of that message didn’t quite finish, as another arrow transformed. This time, a five meter tall tiger-crocodile creature blurred forth, crashed into Wei. The demon impacted the young master faster than he could react.,

One second, Wei was trapped in place. The next, an entire section of the stage had been torn out from its foundations, the boards still connected to his leg, and a resounding reverberation of cracks spread through Wei’s torso as his armor was torn open like a tin can by rending claws. Source exploded out from Wei’s mouth, and absolute agony consumed him. As he finally regained his senses, he found the tiger’s hand buried deep through his chest, carrying him across the arena, slamming him against the wall once more.

Source: [199/600]

His scythe beheaded the demon. A shard was gained. But his father—two more arrows zipped through the shattering tiger-crocodile, punching clean through Wei’s right eye and skipping off his collar respectively. The arrow that landed sparked with fiery Essence, and a plume of flame condensed in a beam within Wei’s skull. The young master gasped—then tore the arrow out as it began to burn. A slashing beam cut a flap of his skull loose and left him partially blinded. Another five arrows crashed into him; exploded. Wei bounced off the wall—only to be impacted by more blasts. His armor was coming apart from his body. All he knew was pain and deafness. His Shell was shouting something he couldn’t hear.

Fortification Advanced > 42

[2/100] Aspect Advancements to Core Ascension

Wei cleaved blindly with his scythe—pulling himself away towards another direction—any direction.

As he blinked back into existence, he found a moment to breathe.

Only for a massive 15-meter-long eel composed of lightning and Gluttonous Essences to slam into his chest and start suckling away his very strength. For the second time, Wei was flung across the arena, slammed against the wall. But this time, the demon detonated itself before he had a chance to destroy it.

Shards Obtained!

Source: [81/600]

It was a testament to how much stronger Wei grown that he was even still alive. But the larger credit went to him splitting the concept of force and heat from the blast in quick succession. If he hadn’t, that would’ve likely marked the end of this bout.

Still. He was in bad shape.

Wei was down an eye, of his ability to hear, and his skull pounded with a building concussion. Staring at himself using his aspect of Omniscience, his stomach churned. A part of his skull was hanging off beside his ear like a danging lid. Light and shadow flowed out from an open gorge where his brain should have resided.

He tried taking a step forward, but found one of his legs unresponsive. He remembered the form—and cut through it too. “Bastard.” He hated the Circle of Greed for these things. He hated them!

Wei took a few stumbling steps forward, and another thousand or so arrows closed in on his position, establishing a wall with no room for escape. But Wei didn’t want to escape. Wei wanted his father dead. And he could see how much slower these shots were. He could feel his father’s damage. He charged. The arrows charged him back. William Yu was nowhere to be seen.

As Wei sprinted forth toward certain defeat, his Shell spoke again.“Wei. Listen to me. If you continue being a fool, the duel will conclude in his favor. He will go free. Unpunished. Your mother and sect will go unavenged.”

Wei snarled. No! Damn the laws and damn the agreement. Even if he failed in this duel, even it cost him his dignity and honor, he would break his father. He would teach him pain if it was the last thing he did.

“And so we have another opportunity. The arrows. The ones that detonate. Seize one. And break it against you. Cleave through the force and heat to spare yourself damage.”

What?” Wei responded.

“The detonating Essence will mask us briefly. Use it to summon my Components. Use me when he is blind.”

It was a mad plan. One that only Wei’s mutilated subconscious could concoct. But he was without options. His Eidolon was still broken; he had scant Source left. The path toward victory or defeat rested upon a thin thread.

Wei cut space using his scythe—appeared next to one of the arrows and caught it. He broke it with a clench and then cut the force and heat from its blast immediately, let the rest of the explosion consume him. It was a near thing. But he managed it. The world vanished in a wall of black and bright, but Wei peeked at his father’s coming using his Omniscience, felt the Trespasser jump from arrow to arrow using tendrils of spatial Essence.

William materialized finally, emerging from his arrow as he pointed two arrows of festering black and blinding white, preparing to deliver a final coup de grâce.

But now it was his turn to be the fool.

Obfuscated by the blast, Wei manifested his Chainspear Arm and directed two spears upward—parrying the coming arrows as they slipped into the heatless flames. William's eyes widened momentarily in surprise as he sensed something impact his shots. And then they bulged as a scream of absolute pain tore out from his throat. One final Source-made spear snuck under his guard and up through his groin. It seemed that both father and son screamed at a similar pitch when they were gelded.

That realization filled Wei with even more hatred, and dismissing his Chainspear Arm, he charged into his father, materializing his Gauntlet of the Breaker before delivering an uppercut that made William’s legs go straight. The blow was unlike any other Wei had ever dealt. The force of a falling meteor shattered the wooden stage beneath them. Boards splintered and flew up, words in shrapnel. William shot off towards the ceiling as if he himself were a pebble flung by a giant.

But Wei wasn’t done.

The young master dismissed his gauntlet and materialized his Spearstriders. He Echo-Dashed once into his father. Just once. The sudden surge of speed was frankly absurd, immense. He crossed the entire space from ground to ceiling within a fraction of a millisecond. Again, he rammed a flying knee into the underside of his father’s head. This time, William's eyes did roll to the back of his head as his body went limp.

He had more health. He had more resources. But this fight was done. William wasn unconscious.

Yet Wei wasn’t done.

He clutched his father by his midriff and, stamping his feet against the ceiling, shot down in a devastating suplex. The arena, already damaged to an extreme extent, shook once more, as the new boards emerging beneath were destroyed as well.

Dust and particulates of wood filled the air.

But Wei wasn’t done. He would never be done. It would never be enough.

Straddling his father’s beaten form, Wei’s fists and scythe fell. Blood splattered across the broken planks of wood. William Yu’s spirit flashed again, again, again.

Wei could hear his Shell screaming at him, felt Bishop rushing over as well. A blast of psionic energy caught him by his side—but it didn’t matter. Wei’s scythe fell one final time, and he let out a feral roar of anguished triumph as William Yu’s spirit burst apart in a flash of blinding white, and then stygian darkness.