CHAPTER 100: SURVIVING AGAINST THE MASKED WOMAN

Zen stood behind a tree, his short sword in his trembling hands and Shibi standing atop his sweaty head. The Masked Woman, with a needle sphere above her palm, entered his vicinity and he made sure to stand still.

“Needle Sphere!” The Masked Woman shouted as she spun around, sending ki needles all around.

Zen could not believe that he had survived as the needles that had hit his tree dissipated. He moved off just as the Masked Woman looked behind the tree. Zen hid behind a bush with multi-coloured dead leaves. He sat on the ground with Shibi on his lap and his blade at the ready.

“I don’t know if we’re going to survive this, Shibi.” He whispered. Shibi tried to move but he stopped him. “Wait, Shibi, if you try to take her all you’ll do is distract her for a while before she… hey wait, maybe that’s what we need, a distraction.” Zen fished out his storage stone and smiled nervously. “And I think I know what can help us with the distraction.”

The Masked Woman stalked slowly across the forest. She heard rustling from a bush and saw a set of footprints in the snow covered floor leading to the bush in question. She straightened her fingers and a ki blade outlining her hand grew from them. She stalked quietly and when the bush was in striking distance, she thrust her hand into it. She smirked as she felt her hand sink into something…

Two hands burst from the bush, displacing leaves as they grabbed onto her arms. “Wh-What is this?” The hands were not human but wooden! It was a mannequin!

Zen leapt from behind the bush, his blade sweeping down to behead her. She leaned back, the blade sailing over her head. As soon as he landed behind her, he turned around, aiming to stab his sword at her. She used a back kick to stop his momentum and leapt in the air, spinning over and over. The motion freed her from the mannequin’s grasp and also helped kick Zen away.

She turned to pursue Zen who had fallen on the ground but had to dodge the mannequin that had recovered from her attack and was chasing her down. Zen got up and joined the mannequin. Together, they were genuinely pushing her back as she was forced on the defence. Unlike Fuu and Shaonu, Zen and his mannequin were truly fighting as one. Because of how well Zen knew the mannequin’s fighting style, mainly because that was the fighting style he was familiar with, he could easily combine his attacks with it, covering each others weak points and striking at any opennings that the mannequin would create.

The Masked Woman had to divert one of Zen’s stabs which left her open for a kick from the mannequin. Zen followed through with his natural motion and also delivered a kick into the woman’s face, sending her hurtling back.

Zen smirked when he realised he actually had a chance. “Let’s go!” Zen shouted as he and the mannequin charged as one.

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The Masked Woman’s killing intent rose as small blades grew from her hands and she charged forward, “Die!”

There was a flurry of moves when both parties met. For a few moments, neither gave ground as they tried to land a decisive blow. But then, the Masked Woman became overwhelmed, moving back to escape their attacks. She was able to disarm Zen of his sword, sending his sword spinning from his hands and arcing in the air. She tried to take advantage of this, forcing Zen to back away while blocking her strikes which were getting past the mannequin.

The blade finished its arc and fell down and to everyone’s surprise, the mannequin caught it! It began using the blade, forcing the surprised woman back as one of its swipes cut deep into her forearm. Zen recovered, chasing after the fight once again, however, this time he was less useful as he was unfamiliar with the mannequin’s impressive sword form.

The Masked Woman was able to kick the mannequin into Zen before she leapt back, distancing herself from them before building another ki sphere in her palm. Zen and the mannequin recovered and were faced with the Masked Woman with a ki sphere above her hand.

She sprinted for them and the mannequin charged for her. She dodged its swipe and with her ki sphere spinning quickly in her hand, she thrust it at the mannequin. “Ki Sphere Technique: Sphere Shredder!” the ki sphere ate through the mannequin’s sword arm and abdomen, cutting it in half.

“N-No.” Zen said in horror as he backed away from the masked woman.

Her one visible eye narrowed angrily at him as he backed away from her violently spinning needle sphere. “What? No more tricks? Just as well, now you can just die!”

Shibi stood between them, his teeth bared in anger and his fists beating his chest.

“How weak,” she said before stomping forward.

Shibi leapt up and his small nimble body dodged the needle sphere as his monkey fist thrust for the Masked Woman’s face. Zen could not believe what he was seeing as Shibi’s fist began to sparkle in ki.

“Wait…” Zen said in shock, “That couldn’t be…”

The sparkling fist made contact with Masked Woman’s face.

“Dazzling Jab!” Zen said as the Masked Woman’s attack was stopped cold in its tracks.

The jab was as weak as he had expected it to be but there was something else that it did. It had made the Masked Woman disorientated as she swayed unsteadily, punching at nothing while her needle sphere lost its form.

Zen took the opportunity, running his ki through his meridians. “Blits Punch!” He delivered 100 punches, most finding their mark and the last one sending the Masked Woman tumbling away.

“I… I did it.” Zen said in exhaustion. Shibi jumped on him and he smiled. “I mean we did it. How did you learn Dazzling Jab?” Zen figured it was from watching him, he had trained the move plenty of times in front of Shibi and it seemed that Shibi naturally picked up the move.

“Die.”

Zen lost his excitement as he looked at the Masked Woman as she rose from the ground, a needle sphere forming in her hand. “Die.” The needle sphere solidified. “Die! Die! Die! Why won’t you die?!” With that she thrust her hand forward and sent a stream of needles flying to him.

“Maja Defence!” Hue Yi appeared from seemingly nowhere, landing between the needles and Zen before blocking them all with his technique.

“NO!” The Masked Woman screamed.

Silicy swooped down, landing on one side of Hue Yi and Jao Fuu appeared on the other side.

The Masked Woman’s killing intent began receding and her breathing returned to normal. “You always have someone protecting you, huh Wang Zen? But I doubt their urge to protect you will beat my urge to end you, so watch yourself Wang Zen, for this is not the last time you see me.” She turned her head, as if she was about to turn and leave but then her visage blurred and disappeared. It was her final illusionary technique.