Time For Training

Have a free short story while I'm on break!

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Cai Dao cycled his mana meditation while flexing his harvesting spells. Physical and Telluric mana surged within him, where it was immediately caught in the whirlpool like meditation and pushed upwards. 

His technique, the Perpetual Calabash, was one of the most complex mana mediation techniques his sect had access to, and had been left behind by a former Titled Patriarch, back when the Iron Peaks had been a Great Sect. Of course, they were still ranked within the top eight, but their current Matriarch lacked a Title. If he could cleanly sweep this tournament, the Storm King might assist her…

Cai Dao drew his attention away from the reason he fought, and back to the whirlpool of the Perpetual Calabash. The technique constantly drew mana upwards in a complex motion, both massively improving his mana recovery rate, and working to expand the walls of his mana-garden whenever he was full on mana. Managing to impart both effects in a single meditation was truly a work of art, but the long-past Patriarch had not stopped there. It strengthened his connection to Destiny, which had brought him dozens of body-tempering natural treasures. Most notably, his Divine Gold Ore and Thousand Blood Stone. 

There was a dull roaring sound.His eyes snapped open, and the three blades rotating around him – one of metal, one of force, and one that was half of each – froze. Across from him was one of his rivals, disembarking from a manacycle. The sleek machine purred before shutting off, and the rider removed his helmet, revealing his face.

“Sect-brother Wu,” Cai Dao said, his voice as cold as ice. He knew why the man was here. He had been chosen to take part in the dream trials, while Wu Xia had only come in second, and thus been scorned. The man’s ego had been unable to take the blow. 

Cai Dao didn’t see the problem. Second best should accept their place: dying to the one person better than them.

“Cai Dao! I challenge you for the Elysian Mastery Tournament orb,” Wu Xia began. The instant that Cai Dao nodded, Wu Xia unleashed his attack. The third of a ton manacycle lifted into the air and exploded toward Cai Dao. 

His domain sword, the blade that was half force construct, and half metal, swept forward, crashing into the manacycle before it could even get halfway to his position. The mass of enchantment and steel was torn in half, Cai Dao’s unique domain blade effect sapping the mana out of the enchantments and venting it into the air. 

A lot more mana vented than a third gate manacycle should have had, and Cai Dao only had a second for his eyes to go wide before the two halves of the bike exploded. 

It was a powerful detonation, alchemy that incorporated all of Wu Xia’s skill in his secondary mana type, combined with hidden nodes of sunsteel within the manacycle. It struck with the power of a sixth gate elder, and Wu Xia had doubtless expected the attack to be lethal. Against most Spellbinders in the sect, it would have been.

Cai Dao was not most sect members. In the space between seconds, he had cast Aegis, a fourth gate completely spherical shield. That spell alone would not have been enough, but his legacy, Corporeal Arts, imbued all of his spells with an amount of energy equal to his physical strength. 

And Cai Dao had a lot of physical strength. Between his Heart of an Iron Mountain full gate spell, his Hidden Soul of Mundanity full gate spell, the imbued effects of his other spells, and his natural treasures, Cai Dao could have traded blows with a strength focused life Arcanist and come out on top. Added to his Aegis?

The wave of power rushed over him, leaving him untouched. In the instants before the smoke cleared, Cai Dao dismissed his spell and considered his response. Behind him, his metal blade and force blade practically quivered, eager to unleash violence, but he held back. Those blades would be trump card for the tournament – it was best to not unleash them now. 

His third blade, his domain weapon? That would do. It was nothing special, after all. 

He extended a hand and it flew to him from where it had lodged in the dirt, and the smoke cleared to reveal him standing there, his sword in hand, hair not even ruffled. Wu Xia gasped and launched into an attack, forging the sect’s Bronze Armor and the Iron Enhancement. Green light of a life spell leaked from the plates of the armor, and the man’s own domain saber appeared, but Cai Dao was not concerned. 

His jian met the enemy saber, and Wu Xia’s guard was knocked open. Despite the life mana, Cai Dao was simply stronger. 

He pressed his advantage with a straight lunge, and his domain weapon bled mana out of the armor, leaving a deep cut in the man’s stomach. The cut began to heal, and Wu Xia brought his saber down at his head. 

Cai Dao ducked aside and stabbed again, his blade bleeding the other man’s forged mana armor into energy and leaving another cut, which also began to heal.

Slowly but surely, Wu Xia was worn down. The cuts began to heal slower as his mana ran low, then empty. Eventually, Wu Xia collapsed. 

“Before I die. How do you have so much more mana than me? My legacy makes my walls grow taller at five times the rate, and my mana meditation doubles that!”

“I did not use my mana. In our altercation, I cast one spell to shield me from the blast.” 

Then Cai Dao swung his jian in a backhand swipe, and cut the man’s head clean off. He took some time to clean off his blade, looted Wu Xia’s belongings, then pulled out a communication mirror and contacted the Royal Gaurdians. 

Unlike other weak countries, who demanded such things as the return of the deceased’s property, or a clear, active, present threat for it to count as self defense, Zuanzhe and Greater Daocheng respected the truth of strength. He would be fined for killing an oponent in the duel, but not excessively. After all, Wu Xia had tried to kill him with an above-teir explosion.

Cai Dao filed the Royal Gaurd paperwork and paid the fine, then sat down to return to meditating. Wu Xia had been the first, but he would not be the last. After all, everyone wanted to stop the man who had taken the number one spot within the trial orb…

Ming stared into the trial orb. After months of work, throwing herself against the trial over and over again, day in and day out, she had managed it. She was ranked as one hundred and seventy-nine, which was comfortably within the cutoff threshold of the top two hundred and fifty-six.

It wasn’t good enough. 

While she had blown through the combat that occured every fifth challenge, even the raid on the desolant colony to kill its queen, it was the other challenges that had presented an issue. 

She would do better in the tournament itself, as well as the events she’d signed up for: the mundane blade exhibition, the magical blade contest, the steeplechase, and the non-grappling martial technique display.

And those competitions would have good rewards. She would forgo the cash prize that most professionals who attended the ancillary events but were not members of the central tournament were there for, and instead select training. Assuming she could win the blade contests, which she was confident in, she would earn mentorship up until she broke through to Arcanist from interested parties. 

She had bartered with the Knowledge King during one of their meetings – Ming was representing their interests on the global stage, after all – and had personally insisted that the first of those to mentor her would be the Patriarch of the White Viper sect, Prince Ikki. If there was anyone in the world who was able to teach her how to infuse her resonance through her blade and combat style more effectively, it would be him. The White Viper’s Fang, his blade, was famous throughout all of Greater Daocheng, but especially in the kingdom of Feng Chui. 

She wasn’t sure who else would express interest in mentoring her, but they didn’t really matter. If they could teach her, that was helpful, but she didn’t think any of them would be able to truly assist her in killing the Windrider. 

But even if she was confident in gaining mentorship from the enigmatic warrior, it still burned her that she’d ranked so low in the initial trials. Delio, with his summoning magic, had exploded in versatility and power alike, and last she’d checked, he had ranked as sixty-third. In many ways, he was the inverse of her – he had practically grown wings in tests that allowed him to use relevant summons, but would struggle in the pure combat tests of the tournament itself. 

Ming rose and placed her orb within the small locker that the school included near their dormitories. Back home in Feng Chui, she never would have dared to do that. In her village, at least before it had been destroyed, none would have even dreamt of stealing it. Their community was too tight knit, and would have been proud of her for placing so high. No, it wasn’t her village she would have had to fear, it was the rest of Feng Chui. If anyone from a mid-sized or larger sect had caught wind of her ownership of such a prize, they would have attempted to duel her for it, steal it, or assassinate her for it. Most likely some combination of the three.

Here in Elohi, the peacekeepers – a strange name for guards, in her estimation – were far more stringent with the rule of law. If someone stole it, it would be found with as much haste as reasonably possible and returned to her. Duels weren’t even considered legal ways to trade property or settle legal disputes, though they were allowed for sport, and if someone tried to assassinate their opponent, it would result in massive amounts of paperwork, and arrests.

Ming was still unused to the culture. In some ways, Feng Chui felt much freer to her, but in other ways, she did not have to bow and scrape just because the owner of an establishment was a higher gate than her. That was freedom in its own ways.

Perhaps most importantly of all, however, far fewer farming villages were torn apart by monsters in Elohi, and almost none by higher-gate mages looking to throw their weight around against the peasantry. And it was those peasants who she fought for, who she would kill the Windrider for. Perhaps, once she’d killed him, and after forming her own Title, she could try some of Elohi’s laws back home… 

She shoved the thoughts to the side and began walking to the training gym that all members of the combat certification program were granted access to. It was time to train.