That explained the feeling of draining that he felt when he had imbued the weapon. It was literally extracting some of his Dao out of him in a way that meant that it was hard to replenish. If he didn't watch out, he could turn into a Dao well, and no wells were ever bottomless. He did not want to know what would happen if one lost all of their Dao energy.
For now, he felt fine, as he must not have put much of his Dao into the attack. His natural strength had been enough to deal the finishing blow, with only a little assistance. Sam got to his feet easily enough and determined that there were no long lasting effects from his exertion. Giving the other members of his group a reassuring smile, Sam set the pace for the rest of the journey.
Despite his outward energy, inside he felt more than a little perturbed. His Dao of Anger was becoming more and more prominent, with his other Dao falling by the wayside. Even though he had achieved a deepening of his Dao of the Arbiter, somehow Anger was winning out. He needed to find a balance for them, and quickly at that before he was consumed by his wrath.
Sam made sure not to tap into any of his latent rage as he attacked the monsters that waited in the shadows to waylay the party. They were definitely nearing the center now, as the concentrations of monsters were becoming nearly suffocating. Sam was just about able to keep up with his additional points into Dexterity and thankfully there were no more deaths. A few serious injuries, but nothing immediately fatal.
Sam and his stronger companions were doing a good job of keeping the others safe from the many threats that the woods had to offer. To Sam, it was nowhere near enough however. He felt a small sense of relief as his Dao of the Arbiter found its purpose again, as the shepherd of a flock of innocent sheep, unjustly sent to their deaths. It was perhaps a naive analogy, but it worked for the situation. He was quickly discovering that half of all Dao work was mental, and the other half was finding a way to use that mental energy in the real world.
The sound of fighting rang out up ahead of them and Sam called for a stop. The others immediately halted, trusting his judgment. Sam edged forwards to survey the scene. A pitched battle was occurring on the forest floor about 50 feet away from them. Two teams were having at it, bright streaks of fire and bolts of ice soaring across the air towards the other sides. More than a few corpses lay on the ground and Sam saw that three figures were dominating the fight. Two of them were on one side, and the other was holding his own against them. The two allied fighters were both women, but one of them wore a mask. Sam was able to tell her gender from the cut of her clothing and the way that she moved. She was obviously a novice at fighting, but her stats seemed to make up the difference. Strangely, she seemed to lack a certain part of her fighting style, as Sam saw her pause multiple times during the fight, as if waiting for something to happen. The other woman had no such problem and she was a very capable fighter, sending arrows streaking towards her enemies like blurs of light in the darkness.
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On the other side was a giant of a man, who Sam instantly recognized. It was the Bear of the Motherland, the Russian fighter who had tied against Reaper in the tournament. He was clearly outmatched by the two, but not by much. His ax thrummed through the air as he blocked the attacks of the two women, although he was not able to do much more than that. They moved too in sync for him to land any telling blows and his body was already covered in wounds.
As Sam watched, not wanting to interfere, the man let out a grunt of frustration and began to claw at himself with his hands. As his nails tore through his skin, sheets of blood began to run down his body, far more than such small scratches should have caused. Patches of earth and stone rose up from the ground underneath him, coating him in a suit of rocky armor that was, of course, shaped like a bear. Sam was once again perplexed at how these people were creating such effects with his attacks. So many fighters that he had seen possessed elemental effects with their attacks, but he had no such ability. Sure, his Dao was almost unfairly powerful, but who didn't want to be able to conjure up fire with a thought?
Sam heard a faint rustle in the bushes behind him that signaled the arrival of his compatriots, but he motioned for them to retreat. This was not something that he wanted to meddle in if he did not have to. The arrival of more fighters could have an adverse effect on the situation, perhaps even causing the other teams to band up against them. He was happy to watch them for now, hopeful to find out more about their fighting styles from his observations. There was a good chance that he would have to fight them at some point.
With his life on the line, in a way that it had been not in the arena, the Bear was clearly not holding anything back. His moveset was far more varied than Sam had expected, integrating all sorts of earth related attacks. Most of them were very simplistic in nature, hinting at a simple mind behind the craggy visage of the man. The women on the other hand were clearly more imaginative, but neither of them had any flashy abilities, so they had to rely on displays of acrobatics that would have made any pre-System human weep with jealousy. Flips and one handed cartwheels blended into a deadly dance of flashing steel, their weapons singing a song of death and blood. They were starting to have trouble dealing with their opponent however, as their bladed weapons were almost useless against the armor of their enemy.
Sam edged in even closer, eager to see how the fight progressed, but a twig snapped under his foot and the warring cultivators froze. They turned as one towards the bushes, catching sight of Sam’s frozen visage. He waved apologetically and then dropped to the ground as a stalactite of sharpened rock soared through where his head had been. Enhanced body or not, that would have hurt. He winced as he saw the projectile carve straight through a tree behind him like it was made of soft cheese. It was exactly as he had expected. They had united against the greater threat as soon as he had arrived.