Chapter 576 - Crimson Sands - Part I

“And now for the main event of the evening. An irreconcilable dispute! An oath of vengeance… and priceless clan heirlooms in the balance!”

Eric, dressed in blue jeans and the very leather jacket, now soul bound, that Rachel had requested, strode out onto crimson arena sands he realized were actually crushed ruby powder. Beautiful, glittering, and would no doubt abrade the flesh of any barefoot mortal. He gazed up into the cheering throngs of countless thousands of wildly roaring spectators.

His heart hammered while his pounding blood roared in his ears.

He ignored the final stretchers carrying out stompers who had been a part of the frenzied melee that had left half a dozen critically wounded bodies on the ground. All warm-ups for the main event, it seemed. His eyes were locked on the woman who had just entered from the farmost arena portcullis, dressed in diaphanous silks radiating crackling defensive wards Eric could clearly sense, even from a hundred yards away.

The air rang with an unseen announcer’s declaration.

“Our two challengers have chosen to be faceless champions of their causes! The losers identity, however, will be revealed to all!”

The light abruptly shown upon Lady Suun, who unsheathed a jian that sparkled and flashed with what was almost, but not quite, the Essence of Cold. Rather, it was infused with bitter howling winds, the blinding white of suffocating snow… and the bone-freezing chill of merciless winter storms.

It seemed that the entire crowd was roaring with approval as the announcer dove into a dramatic narration, painting the arrogant cultivator as Winter’s hero, desperate to reclaim a prize upon which her entire highland clan depended upon.

“Lady Winter will thus do all she can to right the wrongs inflicted upon her cultivation brothers and retrieve the prize upon which their very existence depends!”

A heartbeat later, and Eric was also subjected to a blindingly bright cone of light. He smirked, not at all troubled by his face mask, his crimson locks of hair now blowing upon unseen winds, taking comfort in the outfit that would hopefully make Rachel’s fortune, happily embracing the persona of Ernest Edgelord Slaughter once more.

“And here before stands none other than the accused thief! A hidden Contender who DARES to declare his shadowy actions righteous, even before a wronged Silver acknowledged by the Grand Council itself!”

The crowd abruptly started to boo. Eric suppressed a smirk. Definitely that presentation had been a bit one-sided, but Eric had been given to understand that he should expect that.

And the payoff, he thought, as his opponent glared daggers at him, was considerable.

He had been declared Contender, before any gauntlet had formally been announced.

Any potential party that would seek to condemn him must do so by court or crimson sand, and was already here at the arena. If no one contested his presence before he left these trial grounds... he was grandfathered in.

If anyone did contest his presence, there was only one recourse when one party or another dared to step on arena sands.

“This farce ends now, thief and exile. You will find no mercy in Winter’s frigid retribution!”

Suun’s eyes glittered with bitter hate underneath the coliseum lights as she solemnly flourished her jian, blazing with eldritch purple flame that Eric just knew would be cold far beyond mortal physics, before the purple flames were muffled by white as the air shrieked and howled around her jian before she snapped her blade down, slicing through the air with the point abruptly jutting toward Eric, who was now the target of a massive whirlwind of howling snow and bitter cold.

Bunbun’s urgent voice rang in his skull.

Eric kept his eyes away from his familiar, presently munching a whole host of spirit fruit and junk food in the private elevated box seats that Xi Xiun and his own elite coterie were using. Yet with Battletime and hyperspeak in play, she could share her concerns in a flash of instantly understood panic.

“Eric! She’s tapping into her Dao! That’s basically essences and higher order concepts! Our resistances are underworld-leet, but we don’t have any body hardening cultivation techniques infusing our bodies with any of our own essences! If you get hit with that thing…”

“Noted. Just place the bets, like we talked about. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Okay, just please don’t die!”

Eric could taste the frigid peril in the air. Even so, he couldn’t help smiling as he locked gazes with the woman who so clearly wished for his death. And the howling winter storm she embraced was something he understood all too well.

Having fled from Old Man Winter by the skin of his teeth.

When he had been just a fraction of who and what he was now.

And sure, he could flee as the howling cold washed over the entire arena stands, expert control and crackling barriers all that kept it from freezing several thousand spectators solid in seconds.

Because this wasn’t a match between struggling Cultivators enhancing their bodies alone after stalling out along their path with only a handful of Meridians cleared… or at best, just barely on the cusp of Energy Storage or a Body Cultivator’s Bronze, as was the case with most of the stompers who called NanDushi their home.

This was a Silver Core elite on a quest from her Sect to retrieve a desperately needed treasure, in a place where it had been made clear that most Energy Storage cultivators avoided, let alone Silver.

Which meant that she was gifted and deadly, as well as arrogant as hell.

She could probably wage a one-woman war on NanDushi and take out countless thousands before any kind of defense could be put up, requiring a concerted effort just to expel her, let alone kill her… and for all Eric knew, she would reign as a queen in the end.

Were it not for hidden players like Xi Xiun and who knew who else… countless Higlander elites ruling NanDushi by proxy who no doubt preferred the status quo to be exactly what it was… a Cored Silver like Lady Suun really was a tactical weapon all by her lonesome, and was no doubt respected as such at all times. Save by arrogant cocky upstarts like Eric, daring to mouth off to her in public, before revealing himself as the source of all her ire and hate.

Of course, no faction defending NanDushi from the shadows would stop the storm now washing over Eric. A storm he could flee, but then exile and a world aligned against him would be his only reward for that bit of cowardice.

Or he could reveal just how fast he was and countless other cards in front thousands… or hundreds of thousands, as this fight was now effectively being televised…

OR he could follow his original plan and take on this bitch while revealing hardly any cards at all.

Save for hidden aces that very few would understand the significance of, as he forced his eyes shut, relying on Infravision alone as he marched against the howling winds buffeting him while his skin froze and cracked. Forcing himself to endure the howling, shrieking gale that was actually freezing one of his ears to a solid chunk of ice.

A torment to his skin.

A torment that would no doubt leave even the strongest opponents lacking the appropriate higher order concept in their arsenal, a frozen husk within seconds. No matter how strong they thought they were.

You have suffered Frostbite that BYPASSES ALL RESISTANCE!

You have suffered 5 Light Wounds.

Your left ear has FROZEN SOLID!

The air rang with Suun’s wild laughter. “Savor these final moments, outlander thief. For they will be your last, as your lungs freeze to ice! You need not fear exile, for the bitter winter storm shall be your eternal fate, and the howling screams of your soul the eternal price you pay for daring to cross the Toya Clan!”

Rank 38 Bloodmastery Skill Check modified by Rank 4 Blazing Fire Essence: Critical Success!

You know no blood better than your own.

You have warmed your blood with the essence of Fire and Wrath! Your blood is now a perfect 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit!

Eric could barely hold back his wild, manic laughter, warmed by his own growing fury. His heart pounded with fierce hot blood that saturated his body with the Fires of his wrath. A snarl and surge of will and his blood was FORCING its flow through every cold-shriveled capillary, his skin flushing with warmth and heat as he choked back a cry from the shocking amount of pain he felt.

Countless sensory nerves were screaming as flash-frozen skin was forcefully restored, a numb ear saturated with capillary blood flow as his right hand squeezed the hilt of his dachi and loosened it in its frozen sheath with the whisper of mithril on leather and the promise of hot death.

Hearing that was no less exquisite for the agony in his throbbing, frost-bitten ears. Yet even sweeter were the murmurs and shouts of the crowd.

“One to five on the Ice Queen!”

“One to seven on on the Ice Queen!”

“One to ten on the Ice Queen!”

“Ha! Who would take that gamble? I’ll bet the fool’s already frozen!”

“Someone actually took my bet. Easy money!”

Eric noted as well, beyond the howling winds, the frustrated complaints of discomfort, anger at a performance made pointless when all was whirling winter snow, and no action for the slow-cams to replay at mortal speed at all.

Yet the killing weight of a furious Silver was enough excitement for most, it seemed, when the air filled with manic, bitter laughter, a queen of winter storms delighting in her conquest as she strode through the howling winds to confront her frozen prey.

Before stopping cold, flawless jade features twisted into a sneer that froze in incomprehension when she gazed at a coldly smiling Eric.

“No.”

She blinked in confusion that quickly turned to alarm fury, her casually held jian now held in tierce as a smirking Eric kept his own dachi sheathed, shifting his hips and lowering his balance, lips curving wide as Suun snarled.

“What trickery is this?”

Eric gave a one-armed shrug, fingers rapping the hilt of his blade. “What trick would that be?”

“You should be a frozen block of ice!”

Eric affected a look of surprise. “Oh, you mean the breeze?” He smirked. “And here I thought you were doing both of us a courtesy with a bit of wind to wick away the sweat of our exertions.”

Suun’s look of outrage turned to killing fury. She screamed and lunged with her blade, revealing a Quickness that was well beyond Bronze, and a skill well beyond the typical berserker when her blade twisted and rolled, her furious countenance becoming a smirk of bitter triumph when thrust became winding lunge and a double zwerch that would have torn out a lesser warrior’s throat, if not decapitate them altogether.

Before being stopped cold with the ring of mithril on Highland Steel, dachi sliding between razor sharp jian crackling with swirling ice and the frost-bitten skin of Eric’s neck.

Though to be fair, his eyes widened with as much alarm as her own.

Mithril blade has saved versus damage from Highland Steel!

Runes of Resilience and Dominion save the day!

Suun then roared and lashed out with a blistering series of cross-cuts, Eric managing to turn her slashes and deflect her feints and teasing lunges before she twisted her blade away with a flash of steel and a snarling leap back, Eric also springing away, his blade in a high hanging guard, perfectly matching her own.

Eric suppressed a smirk as the crowd roared with excitement when the massive holo-screens spaced around the arena played out their fencing in slow-time, Silver-tier arts zooming in on them both.

“Odds are going down, boss. Even without taking the offensive, you’re looking too good!”

“Take all the bets you can with better than even odds for her. Let’s clean the fuck up!”

“Oh wow. Xi Xiun is actually on to us! Shit!”

“Shit.”

“No. Sweet! He has access to the Highland betting pool! Cultivators and their spirit pearls, am I right? Anyway, he just offered to help expand our pool for a 10% commission, win or lose.”

“Of course. Do it.”

“You think you have a chance, outworld scum?”

Eric couldn’t help but smirk at that, sizing up the panting swordswoman before him. “You know what? I think I do. In fact, I’d even say that I have a better than average chance. What do you think, Suun?”

“That’s revered cultivator to you, scum!” She roared, her left hand unleashing a flood of ice spikes as she lunged with her right.

Quickness Check: Outstanding!

Only to blink in consternation when she somehow ended up tripping over Eric’s foot, the half dozen ice daggers that also radiated perilous, higher order concepts of devouring cold tore into the ruby sands without hitting their target at all.

Eric held back a smirk when inhuman grace alone prevented Suun from smacking against the sands, face first.

She spun around, somehow managing to look more outraged than ever. “You would dare!?”

Eric gave her a puzzled look. “Dare what, exactly?”

Her eyes bulged as she slashed the air with a series of furious slashes that came nowhere near touching Eric even as long dormant social instincts and Danger Sense screamed warning, and he was abruptly leaping aside when her expression shifted from furious to calculated, and a fresh half dozen slices through the air became an equal number of blades made of pure frost that looked capable of cutting anything.

Of course making streamers through the still howling storm and somehow being able to convert that into not just attacks but attacks still saturated with cutting essence was absolute bullshit… but Eric wasn’t stupid enough to stick around and complain.

Especially when the sands exploded in multiple eruptions and distant screams when a force barrier strained to the breaking point and Eric sensed the obliterating slices of winter doom tearing through several hundred yards of bedrock underneath the protective half dome.

Eric suppressed a chill that went beyond winter cold, finally appreciating just how perilous this fight truly was.

He tutted and shook his head as he met her bitter glare once more.

“Well, fuck. That could have really hurt!”

“You should be dead!” Suun snarled, her lips curving in a cruel smile as her sword began dancing in the air again.

Eric’s gut twisted in alarm when he recognized what she was doing. No longer fighting with the jian at all, but using it as a tool to scribe her will upon the winter winds. Advance wujen magic that could truly fuck him up.

“And this time you will—”

Her words cut off when Eric charged forward, mithril lashing out and forcing her Jian to break off from its deadly art to embrace the art of Mithril against steel once more, the arena sands echoing with the ring of metal kissing metal so quickly that the din became one endless harmonious note as deadly blades flashed and struck and a furious Suun’s slashing jian just couldn’t seem to score Eric’s flesh.

“Bets are maxed out, Fearless Leader! Xi Xiun even opened a major tab in spirit pearls on our behalf, and I’ve locked over ten thousand spirit pearls in bets already! Sweet odds in our favor, too. Confirmation bias has those hungry bastards betting in their girl’s favor!”

“Glad to hear it. Things are getting serious, Bunbun. It’s time for me to quit fucking around.”

“Enough of this!” Suun screamed, twisting inside his guard to ram her elbow in his face, her jian binding with his dachi before she winched her hilt against his thumb with a furious jerk that should have disarmed him. A well-honed fencing technique that would have effortlessly disarmed an earlier version of himself.

Yet all he did was smile, dipping his head in grudging approval at the furiously glaring woman effectively in his arms.

“Nice. I was about to do the exact same winch and twist. Keeping Quickness at a thousand… you actually beat me to it.”

Her features paled, eyes widening. “You were holding—” Her words cut off with a cry when Eric smashed his forehead into her face, sending her reeling back with a cry, blood spurting from her shattered nose and teeth.

Though leverage had been hers, a thousand or so in Strength was utterly trumped by Eric’s 4000, and 1624 Physical Resistance meant that there was no force on NanDushi that could hurt him. Save for essence or Dao based attacks, of course. Of which a humbled Eric realized there were plenty. And they could kill him pretty damn quick, if he didn’t take his foes seriously. But winching with the hilt of a battle jian would hurt him no more than she could winch open a battleship. On the other hand, her bold attempt to bind her blade to his own made it effortless for him to claim both their weapons.

Lady Suun’s eyes widened with horror when her blade was flicked away as she stumbled back. Yet before she could do more than scream and thrust fingers radiating cold toward Eric, he was already diving inside her guard, flowing past clawing fingers glowing like ice and slipping his arms around her neck in a rear naked choke as he exerted the tiniest bit of his Strength, hardly more than a thousand, to twist her around and ram her face in the ruby sands.

The crowd went deathly silent as her screams cut off when choking wheezes, the panic of asphyxiation and her face planted into biting ruby sands too damned distracting for anything but frantically clawing at the sands that her face was being ground into… then clawing at arms carefully constricting the flow of blood to her brain, the very arena now vibrating with a Silver’s panicked screams being choked to oblivion.

Her kicks weakened.

So Eric increased the pressure.

Slender arms now free of any Dao communion began frantically clawing and squeezing in desperate panic as the wards vibrated with the furious intensity of yet another Silver’s aura that Eric could now feel at his back.

But he didn’t let up his pressure.

Not until Suun’s arms slackened completely.

Not until his opponent was utterly still.

Eric then slowly rose, with a parting slap on his opponent’s chest as he coldly tore free every last ring from her slender fingers, claiming earrings and necklace as well.

He stood tall upon the crimson sands, his glare taking in the entirety of the audience, most especially the pair of floating cameras now zooming in on him.

Bloodmastery Skillcheck: Success! You have MASTERED your fallen opponent!

Suun’s heart beats as you will it!

Swollen arteries and capillaries pump blood at your command!

You have kicked over your fallen foe.

Mouth is no longer covered in ruby sands.

Lady Suun breathes once more.

“I stand victorious and my opponent fallen!” He was surprised to hear his voice rang through the entire coliseum, without infusing it with the Essence of Dominion at all. “My cause is proven righteous, and my opponent’s possessions are now my spoils of war!”

Eric glared out into the audience. Then, because it felt right, he unsheathed his blade and howled his triumph.

And somehow the crowd was roaring right along with him. He could here the excited cheers, see hundreds, then thousands of spectators of all ages and backgrounds stared his way as they shouted and clapped or howled right along with him. Because most people loved an underdog, and like it or not, the alien beauty that had become his own, that now truly was his own on a genetic level… meant that he really did have the striking good looks his mother had once tried to bring to life with enhancements he no longer needed on the silver screen.

Of course he tore off his mask and basked in the glory of the crowd.

Ernest ‘Edgelord’ Slaughter would do no less.

He winked at the crowd, patted his soul-bound leather jacket that had already fully repaired itself, much like his bluejeans. “Like the outfit?” He rolled his arms. “Legendware! Great for taking on life’s bullies and bringing out the hero in all of us!”

“Oh my goodness. I can’t believe you just pitched your clothing line!” Bunbun squealed.

Eric grinned. “Yeah. Super cringe. But fuck it! Why not?”

Still, cocky as he felt, revealing to the world a youth that looked nothing like Eric, he wasn’t so stupid as to be blind to the pocket of spectators who weren’t cheering, even as the announcer filled the air with that which everyone already knew to be true.

“The hero of the hour has proven himself in the arena sands!” Even as the declaration was made, the barriers went down and half a dozen panickedj-looking healer types rushed toward the fallen core cultivator.

“All charges against our champion have been proven to be simple misunderstandings! All grudges have been forgiven! May a fresh new day dawn for the newest hero of the arena sands!”

A smirking Eric was well aware that Lady Suun’s identity was still being kept hidden and absolutely no attempts were being made to reveal or humiliate her. Nor were her accusations cast in a disparaging light, merely declared to be misunderstandings. And that was fine. Deliciously violent as the day had been so far, playing the political angle and smoothing ruffled feathers and minimizing enemies at his back was definitely the name of the game now.

Besides, he sensed that the night wasn’t over yet, even as he clenched his fists as the sheer rapture of advancement hit.

Congratulations! You have successfully bested a Silver-Tier Cultivator with an advanced understanding of her Dao! You have bettered yourself in the crucible of peril, and it shows!

You have evolved once more as Eve’s Chosen!