Chapter 191 - Forged In The Fires Your Enemies' Hate

Fuck!

He jolted up with a lurch, a spike of dread lancing his pounding heart as flashes of decapitated assassins blinking his way with desperate panicked eyes somehow twisted into the terror of looking down at his own decapitated head, a mocking Lai Wei Arenso sneering over his body, having found the courage to climb up himself and spy his enemy at his weakest, collapsed and splayed upon the gazebo of bone and wood, an easy kill for anyone who dared the climb.

Eric took a deep gasp, frantic hands patting his body, making sure he was still in one piece, before giving a quiet chuckle.

Because his dream was absurd.

He already knew Lai Wei was an arrogant coward who would never dare the ascent himself. And it seemed that that went for his bodyguards as well, at least as far as scaling up a fortified defense that had successfully taken out 4 assassins and an earlier trio of cultivators went. Not that Eric blamed them for their caution. For all they knew, he was just biding his time, sitting back with his high powered blaster rifle, ready and waiting for the first fool to pop his head over the gazebo railing.

He chuckled at the thought, just grateful to find himself still in one piece.

Before closing his eyes and breathing deep, centering himself for the battle to come.

With a gentle brush of his gauntlets, holes manifested in the floor of his elevated structure, Eric peering through for long moments until he finally caught sight of a frustrated-looking youth now dressed strictly for comfort, sitting at a hardwood table complete with silk table cloth and vase-filled flowers, eagerly devouring what looked like an actual seven course meal, complete with silvered tureens filled with soup, heaps of steaming rice, and an impressive assortment of noodles and poached game.

Eric’s eyes widened in disbelief as he took in the sight of dark elves clearly taking their ease what had no doubt been hours of frustrated waiting, perhaps even shouted pleas or demands Eric had been utterly unable to hear. And though the three bodyguards were still wearing their mithril hauberks, none wore helms or gloves of any sort, the boy himself kitted in nothing more cumbersome than fine silk clothes as he plowed food into his face in between castigating his stoic-looking sentinels and glaring up at the tree.

Eric felt his heart skip a beat with what he dared to call excitement as he slowly made his way around the trunk to the far side of the gazebo, opening a hole in the flooring adjoining the trunk, the massive girth of the ascended tree now perfectly blocking his enemy’s view.

He curbed his growing excitement as he quickly, but most importantly, quietly and carefully scaled down the far side of the tree, holding back a fierce grin when his feet finally touched loamy soil, eagle-eyes taking a quick scan for ambushers or twisted, brilliant stratagems seeking to lure him out, as if his enemies taking a rare moment of ease were bait, instead of his prey.

But there was nothing.

His enemies really were stupid enough to let down their guard and stuff their faces in the clearing sheltering his tree.

Even if that had been the historic norm, outside glossy paintings and fairy tales of battle. Soldiers commonly taking their ease from time to time in camp before returning to the front lines when it came to days-long sieges after the sheer adrenaline of the first day or so wore off, and commanders had to worry about the cost in moral and exhaustion of demanding hyper alertness from all troops without pause for days on end.

And really, What had Eric done for days, save cultivate in the shelter of his tree? Responding to absolutely no threat or provocation. Not until assassins had literally shot the most toxic of crossbow bolts at his shelter, and as far as his enemy’s could tell, took out his foes in one fell swoop they might have seen as no more than a single quick flicker of crimson light, if they saw even that, when the assassin’s balloon had dared to descend to an angle near the opening in Eric’s bulwark. And Eric had done absolutely nothing else after that, as if waiting for his enemies to come to him.

He could understand their thoughts perfectly. Eric had ignored the cultivators scurrying on the ground and screaming up at him for days. A mouse hiding from wolves. What would possibly motivate that mouse to dare bother a pack of wolves, on the ground, where they held the advantage? Because then all of Eric’s tricks, so useful for popping balloons or having floorboards disappear from underneath his enemies’ feet, would mean absolutely nothing when he dared to face them on solid ground.

Eric flashed a fierce smile as he slowly made his way around the trunk, crouching in the tall grass as he peered around the base, before catching sight of his foes, now less than thirty yards away.

Foes that were not entirely clueless, even as they cursed and glared at the branches arching high overhead, Arenso having gone from castigating them to cracking jokes and earning his men’s laughter as he pointed at the trees. Because whether it was chance, years of training, or the intuition that comes from surviving years of strife and turmoil, one of the three sentinels did turn at just the right moment to catch sight of a fiercely smiling Eric as he finished positioning himself.

Yet the man could do no more than gaze Eric’s way with bulging eyes as he began his silent, furious charge, the man frantically spitting out half-chewed food before inhaling and coughing and desperately struggling to get the words out. But by that time 30 yards had turned into less than ten. Because if the Eric of a few months ago had had the speed of his all time favorite track star, near 50 miles per hour at the fastest portion of his most dramatic 400 yard win, the Eric of today had stats so high he could sprint from zero to one hundred faster than any race car to ever win the Grand Prix.

And if his one-time slow and steady running pace had turned to an inhuman dash, that was nothing compared to how fast he could now unsheathe and strike with his blade, the air ringing with the sound of mithril cleaving through air as a handful of confused looking cultivators, most frozen in the act of stuffing their faces with rice, gazed Eric’s way in confused incomprehension as raining loops of grey matter and blood splattered down upon their rice bowls. The cultivator Eric had struck had time only gaze up with wide-eyed incomprehension, one trembling hand reaching for the missing half of his own skull before collapsing in death, the remainder of his cleaved open brains now spilling out upon the loamy ground.

It was a sight that transfixed the wide-eyed cultivators with horror.

Precious moments lost to shock and disbelief that a now furiously roaring Eric took full advantage of, veteran of enough battles by now to know that seizing the Vor, maximizing the carnage he could commit in those first moments of utter confusion was absolutely everything in terms of shattering the moral of his enemies, taking out every enemy he could before they could kill him with Qi Powers he couldn’t even imagine.

Yet the way his blade flared a brilliant fiery gold as he plunged his blade through the desperately upraised hands and mouth of the guardian sitting next to his scalped partner, blasting through flesh and bone with an ease he would later find terrifying, made it clear that his mystic fruit born ascendancy had changed him in more ways than a massive boost to his stats, suddenly understanding with an exquisite clarity the dreams of Wind and Fire that had haunted him through countless days of stabilizing the divine fruit now forever anchored to his soul.

Fire that blazed through his weapon in a chaotic storm, the skull of the doomed man presently choking on the blade that had blasted right through his mouth and the back of his throat abruptly exploded, washing the entire table in an explosion of flame so powerful that a panicked, screaming Lai Wei and a single guardian were thrown clear of the table.

You have critically struck enemy cultivator with WindFire!

Backlash suffered as you struggle to master a discipline dared only in your dreams.

Windfire has been successfully quantized at Rank 1!

Qi Reserves have been temporarily depleted!

Eric howled with the flood of white-hot flame blazing across his meridians, desperate for release as his heart pounded with the fury of battle.

For a single heartbeat, he was one with the storm of spiritual energy roaring through his soul, a howling whirlwind of fiery potential unleashed in an explosive gale.

Then he felt the first cold stirrings of panic, sensing his reserves crashing down to zero before he wrestled back control of the fiery stallion that his gift had become, squeezing tight to the wild power of flame within him, so much more unruly than it had ever been before.

Because there was a price to pay for daring to enhance the essence of his flame with two more elemental affinities, his fires fueled by divine Wood and the unruly might that Wind gifted to the storm.

A deadly trinity it would take great will and discipline to master.

But only if he lived long enough to do just that.

And perhaps the surviving pair of cultivators had spotted his momentary stumble as nearly all his Qi reserves left him with that singular deadly and completely unexpected storm of Qi. A storm somehow warded by a wall of elemental wind summoned by the final guardian, for all that Eric’s blast had been so powerful that the table itself was now a roaring bonfire, the pair of fallen guardians already blazing husks that had been blown completely free.

Yet the final guardian, ignoring the burns to his face, fixing Eric with a killing glare so intense that even Eric’s heart skipped a beat as he immediately leaped back, parrying frantically with his blade to counter the deadly Wind Blade wielded by a master who had far better control of his one element than Eric might ever have of his conjoined three.

A blade of howling Qi that cut so sharp that Eric hissed to see the stone by his feet snap in half… just before stopping with a jolt as Eric snapped his blade down for a low windmilling parry, wincing under the pressure he felt behind that Qi Attack that he feared would have torn open even the mystic wrappings protecting his legs, his foe no doubt knowing the strengths and limitations of his clan’s armor as well as anyone.

The hot-eyed cultivator sneered his hate and contempt for Eric as he darted back before lashing out with a fresh series of faints and cleaving cuts to vulnerable legs Eric could just barely counter with his now depleted Qi reserves.

“You think you can kill us so easily, backstabbing worm?” The dark elf roared, eyes alight with malice and imminent triumph as his furious onslaught of cleaving cuts turned to a snarling lunge for Eric’s face. “I sense your body weakening, your reserves depleting! You will die before my assault, mongrel, and my charge will ascend above all lesser men!”

The cultivator’s very words had an air of compulsion, as if they strove to draw Eric in. To freeze his limbs with dread and despair, pinning his mind helplessly to the will of the experienced killer before him.

Mental Resistance modified Willpower check made!

Danger Sense Active!

But Eric had already tuned out the words meant to distract him while another made the kill… sensing the threat to his back as his infravision felt the burning heat of a fire cultivator a heartbeat before he could roar his own defiance and run Eric through.

Only to find himself lunging point-first into his guardian when Eric dropped and rolled away before immediately kicking back to his feet and leaping back, desperately trying to cycle his Qi and regain some of his utterly depleted Qi reserves, somehow not surprised to find that Lai Wei and his guardian were at least coordinated enough not to impale themselves, now both approaching Eric with cold smiles, blades raised in unison.

“And so it finally ends, Xien. We will take that bastard’s head, claim our prizes, and emerge triumphant!” Shouted Lai Wei, lips curling with the taste of victory.

Xien furrowed his brow, taking nothing for granted, even as he and his charge slowly approached their steadily retreating nemesis.

“Have a care, young master. This barbarian Roundear did manage to kill many of our men.”

“By sneak attacks, treachery, poison, and surprise!” The youth declared with a contemptuous sneer.

Eric couldn’t help but chuckle coldly at that. “So says the snake that sent assassins to ambush me and has done everything he can to arrange for my death, from the moment you got here! Did you even seek any arrangement or accord that wouldn’t end in my death? You did not, because you’re a psychopathic little murderous shithead, just like the entire Sect you work for!”

“Oh, the worm speaks. How fascinating!” Lai Wei said with a mocking smile, before laughing with contempt. “Of course we will cut you down where you stand, like the maggot you are. Why should we seek accords with the weak and powerless? They are to be crushed under the heels of the strong! That’s the way the universe works, fool! Strength and loyalty to your sect, your clan, above all else!”

Eric chuckled coldly, unable to hide his contempt even now, with death steadily closing in. “Really? Is that what you tell all your guardians forever stuck at Rank 30, or lower, forever forbidden to take the next steps in ascension, told they just aren’t ready, that they need to perfect their technique, just one of a thousand excuses for why they must stay exactly as they are.”

Eric sneered as Lai Wei’s eyes widened with alarm, stealing a quick nervous glance at Xien who was coldly plodding forward, perfectly matching Eric’s retreat as he continued backing away.

Eric didn’t let the bastard throw him off his tempo, taking short powerful breaths as Pavel had taught him that set his muscles tingling, the increase to his heart rate and intake of Spiritual Energy most definitely noticeable. But Eric still continued to affect his hunched, exhausted posture, for all that his muscles now absolutely tingled with power, momentary dizziness long since passed.

“What renegade cultivator from our sect filled your head with such lies?” Lai Wei snarled and spat. “We care only for the well-being of our men, something a backstabbing worm like you could never comprehend!” He flashed a truly vindictive smile. “But rest assured, once we find the defector after we claim your head, we’ll make him pay for his crimes. Pay with so much blood and tears he’d kill you a thousand times over, if it would spare him the fate he now has in store!”

“Spoken just like the truly benevolent young master in every isekai cultivation tale I ever read. Oh wait, no. That’s not your role. You’re the arrogant asshole who ends up getting killed after playing the arrogant fool, halfway through the story. To the fucking page,” Eric said with a contemptuous laugh, surprising them both with an effortless leap a good ten yards back. Though not going too far, happy to taunt the pair by staying just out of reach, the hard frown of Xien now that of a man who realized Eric might not be quite as weak and drained as he had seemed.

The young man’s eyes widened at the perceived depth of Eric’s insult. “You will pay for that worm, see if you don’t!” he hissed, stayed only for charging headlong for Eric by the tight grip Xien now had on his shoulder.

“Careful, young master. He seeks to goad you, nothing more.”

Eric flashed a cheeky smile. “You’re nanny’s right. My words have absolutely no merit at all. Because you’re clearly someone who cares greatly for the wellbeing of his troops. Not one who thinks nothing of the men assigned to guard his life, refusing even to use his sacred healing treasures to save the life of at least one ninja in his employee that he could have saved, no matter how he implored you to act, with his broken neck and helpless eyes searching desperately for your own.”

The youth hissed in alarm. “You saw that?” Before a dusky flush hit his ebony cheeks.

Eric sneered. “I saw a spoiled young prince who thinks nothing of the lives sacrificed for his own advancement. A boy who isn’t even a man, given sacred treasures that will assure his ascension to Bronze in record time.”

Eric then glared at the coldly staring Xien. “An arrogant young scion without a single redeeming characteristic helped by fools who don’t even realize that if there was any truth to the garbage that they must wait endless decades before being ‘ready’ to ascend, then the sect elders sure as hell wouldn’t be letting man-boys saturate their channels with Divine Tier spirit fruit!”

“Lies!” Lai Wei screamed, a vein popping up on his forehead as his blade burst into flame. “You will stop your treacherous lies or...”

“Or what, you’ll kill me?” Eric sneered. “Kill me before I tell your devoted servant that years of library research will point to one fundamental inescapable truth… that the most relevant determining factors in how far one can ascend, whether or not one can even break through to Bronze or even make it to the halfway point, is a strong foundation, a stable technique and constant momentum.”

Eric smirked at Lai Wei’s expression before locking gazes with Xien.

“Your only goal should be pressing forward and advancing as many ranks as you can, as fast as you can, while still keeping your foundation pristine. Of course you get bonus points, literally, each Rank, depending on the size and strength of your meridian gates and if you’re lucky enough to find a technique that perfectly fits you. And an extra stat point per rank, even more if you’re truly lucky, is certainly better than settling for average. But somehow you can never quite find that technique, can you? Somehow, it’s always out of reach, and you’re always told to keep studying, keep training, just wait a few more endless years. Which is the absolute last thing you should be doing. Because in terms of actually ascending the ranks, perhaps even one day breaking through to Bronze… nothing, absolutely nothing, beats momentum. Advancing as far as you can, as quickly as you can, slowing down only long enough to assure that you do it all with as pristine a foundation as possible. That’s what really matters. Not how dazzlingly complex your peripheral meridian network happens to be. Sure, complex intricate peripherals are wonderful for efficient use of Qi Skills, but is not crucial for actual ascension. Momentum, however, is.”

“Blasphemy!” Lai Wei hollared, now truly looking panicked. “Who dared to tell you these lies!? Who?”

Eric snorted. “Why are you so stressed by a wild cultivator’s words, little Wei? Is it because it goes against all the bullshit assurances your dad and everyone else gives their hardworking slaves, so that they never figure out that youth and momentum are everything in terms of ascension? That once your foundation is in a pristine state, you want to finish forging your peripherals as soon as you can, so you can saturate your entire frame with as much Qi energy as possible while still in the cusp of youth before ascending? That youth, momentum, and Qi Saturation is the combination that leads to the most explosive breakthroughs? The best chance of elevating the future leaders of your Sect to Bronze, above every other variable?”

The young man’s eyes positively bulged. “Kill him, Xien! We must kill him now!”

Eric laughed. “That’s right, Xien, come and kill me! Strike me dead before Lai Wei pats you on the head and you both return, only for you to find yourself and your entire family killed in their sleep, for daring to learn the secrets that the Feng Ren Sect is determined to keep from all of you! Rapid ascent is everything! Being stuck as a rank 30 servant for decades means that that’s all you will ever be!” Eric shouted even as he sprinted away for all he was worth, hoping he had deduced correctly the difference between Fire and Wind.

Because he had given Xien all the warning he could. If he was stupid enough to chase Eric still… then Eric would show no mercy. Could show no mercy, he thought, his mind suddenly screaming with warning.

Duck!

Eric didn’t bother second-guessing his instincts, trusting them utterly as he twisted and spun away as fast as his inhuman quickness could manage, before springing back to his feet while the massive trunk of hardwood he had been beside began to creak and pop, wood compressing and exploding with the roar of a massive peach tree crashing to the forest floor.

Cleaved at neck height by the Wind Qi Xien had unleashed, slicing through the air.

Time seemed to still as Eric’s heart pounded a staccato beat, blade held in tierce as he gazed at the furious, cold-eyed countenance of a sentinel who would kill the blasphemous cultivator before him at all costs.

“Nice strike, but you do know you’ll be killed within a day of Lai Wei escaping this place and reporting everything I revealed to his father, don’t you?” Eric said as he raised his own blade, now blazing white hot with spiritual energy he strove to keep tightly contained, not daring to project it even an inch beyond his blade, lest he deplete his reserves with a skill he just barely understood. But storing the heat, the storm of spiritual energy within his blade? That he could most definitely do. And when he sensed the weight of the blade actually increase, even by just a hair, he couldn’t help but smile.

Much to his disappointment, the man before him actually dipped his head. “I know well the fate in store for me, murderer, no matter your whispers, lies, and attempts to divide us.”

“I told you the truth,” Eric said as he took in every shift in stance and balance within the man before him, noting the way he stepped and pivoted, the tightening of his eyes before his sword lashed out, discharging a fresh burst of deadly cleaving Wind Qi.

Unified Perception skill check successful!

Negotiation skill check: FAILED!

“You think I don’t know that, murderer? You think I don’t know you’re only desire is to divide us? Destroy us? You think I would take counsel from a monster who killed two of my men in cold blood!” Xien roared, patience at an end, lashing out with a furious series of cross-cuts slicing through the air a full four feet past the tip of his blade.

And Eric couldn’t help but smile past his own terror as his own Qi enhanced blade rose to parry each and every one of those killing strikes. So like the Windblade Pavel had used with enough force to leave bruises, if Eric didn’t manage to parry each and every strike.

And how many training sessions had ended with Eric wincing in pain?

But now, with his enemy’s blade glowing so bright with killing intent that Eric could sense the flow of energy every bit as well as he could increasingly predict his opponent’s movements, he didn’t miss a single one.

Each deadly burst of limb-splitting Qi Eric managed to counter even as he exploded forward, propelling himself with techniques that had nothing to do with Windrunning, and everything to do with Quickness off the charts as he roared and exploded off his back foot, Xien’s eyes going almost comically wide as he realized just how much Eric had been holding back.

Perhaps in the desperate hope of being able to spare one more cultivator who was as good as dead if he refused to break free of his chains of obligation.

But the final howling blast of Qi surging from Xien’s violently swinging dachi made it clear that there match could only have one ending.

Death that came in the blink of an eye when Xien hissed in surprise, startled beyond belief to find Eric had raced so fast as to be at blade length, his right hand alone all that was needed to successfully bind Xien’s own blade, held in a furious two-handed grip.

Before it was jerked off-line and sent flying with a singular twist of Eric’s dachi, the stumbling cultivator having time for one last curse before all the air exploded from his lungs… along with most of his ribs and his heart itself as Eric’s left fist blasted through the cultivator’s chest, sending his foe flying in a massive explosion of flame.

Before stumbling to the ground in dizzying pain so acute he was left momentarily breathless.

Congratulations! In an act so perilous it’s beyond belief, you have once more dared to wildly combine three elemental affinities into one synergized Qi attack, irrespective of how badly it depletes your reserves!

You have successfully channeled the storm of fiery Qi blazing through your soul! You now know how to rupture your enemies from within!

You have successfully learned Fire Fist! Enough practice, and maybe this skill won’t rapidly deplete what should be absolutely absurd stores of spiritual energy for anyone else!

Note! Unarmed Combat Feat: Empty Fist synergizes perfectly with Fire Fist! You are now able to channel Qi attacks from your fists with increased efficiency and decreased risk of meridian strain!

Unarmed Combat is now Rank 12!

Fire Fist has been successfully quantized at Rank 2!

Warning! You are suffering temporary strength penalties.

Warning! You are suffering temporary disorientation!

Spiritual Energy Reserves have been completely drained!