Though Yunfei was hundreds of feet away when he brought his weapon down, Calvin could practically feel the curved blade’s kiss against his neck. He threw himself away with all the power he could muster, the ground where he had been standing shattering as he launched himself back and to the right in an eruption of golden sparks. The world around him felt like it was trying to crush him, phantom vines constricting his limbs and slowing his retreat, and his spirit screamed a very much unneeded warning as he forced the fire on the ground to rise around him, cocooning him in a protective bubble of vermilion flames.
He was still too close. Much too close. Though he’d never had the misfortune of being targeted by such a weapon, Calvin could feel it in his gut as surely as he knew his own name. There wasn’t nearly enough space within this arena to escape the strike of a weapon such as that one. He couldn’t run, couldn’t hide. The pressure of its mere presence weighted on him like a lead robe, slowing his movements and dulling his reflexes. The weapon’s blade was only a little longer than that of a particularly large knife, but it was so much more than just a blade and its reach had nothing to do with its form. Yunfei did not have to cut him with it, didn’t even need to get close. He just needed to swing it and activate the techniques imbued into it by its maker.
Bringing out such a weapon was a reckless decision, something few would consider even in an important duel between the top few dozen ranks, much less one between someone in the top hundred and an unranked disciple. Only the prizes awarded during the annual Outer disciple tournament were tempting enough to occasionally see such things brought out, and even then it was a risky proposition. A Core realm level weapon could easily be countered by a weapon of comparable strength with significantly less strain, and then its user would be a sitting duck to be plucked at their opponent’s leisure.
Yunfei’s spirit would pay a terrible price for this, even a single swing doing more damage than Calvin had suffered throughout the emergency mission he’d gone on. His nodes and channels would require a great deal of reinforcement after this, and his spirit would be strained to its very limits. His ranking among the Outer act would no doubt tumble as other disciples lined up to challenge him in the coming days and weeks, but none of that mattered here and now. Because if he didn’t do anything, he was going to lose. And that was unacceptable.
He sought out the distant place where Gwen sat, her form blurred into an incoherent blob of color by the formation around the arena, but he could imagine the fear and horror in her eyes. He could practically taste Lulu’s outrage—to use such a weapon in a duel between those of equal cultivation was utter shamelessness—and hear Wallis’s quiet sigh of regret. He could only wonder what Ariadne was thinking, and didn’t much care about the thoughts of her retinue. No doubt the audience thought this duel concluded. After all, plenty of people knew that he didn’t have a Core realm weapon of his own.
Well, there was nothing else to it then. He’d prepared for this eventuality.
The blade fell and a scintillating crescent of qi greener than the first shoots of spring shot towards him, the fires beneath it snuffed out as it flew to reveal the blackened glass beneath. It looked almost like the blade of a scythe, its inner arc honed to wicked edge and its blade patterned with vines and roots, and the qi around it writhed with its passing. Just looking at it made Calvin’s spirit shiver, and it flew unerringly towards him even as he tried to escape it. Though formed primarily of wood qi, it radiated an aura of death. A weapon meant to harvest lives as easily as it cut through vines, stalks, and branches.
Looking past it, Yunfei looked faint, his skin unnaturally pale, but he was still standing. It was hard to read details through the interference of his blade’s own aura, but his aura was clearly flagging. Had he a moment to focus, Calvin might have been able to shatter it entirely, suppressing his opponent with nothing but the weight of his cultivation, but that would take time he didn’t have, and would do nothing about the attack hurtling towards him with the gravitas of an executioner’s axe. His shoulders were hunched and the weapon hung heavily from both his hands as though he carried a great weight, knuckles white from how tightly he was gripping the handle. He looked in no shape to use it again, or even sheath it for that matter, but perhaps he’d be able to manage another half-hearted swing. Something to watch out for.
Well, assuming he managed to last through this one. No, that was not the right mentality at all. When he overcame this challenge.
Even as he watched, Yunfei’s lips curled into a cruel sneer as he stared at Calvin’s retreating form. It was a smile of certain victory, filled with a certain cruel schadenfreude. ‘Look,’ his expression whispered, ‘I might be a talentless bastard preying on the poor and ignorant, but my family still gave me a treasure worth more than my own pointless existence. What did your family give you? Oh, whoops, you don’t have a family.’
Or perhaps Calvin was simply projecting. One way or the other, he couldn’t wait to wipe that sneer away and grind Yunfei’s ugly mug in the dirt.
Calvin’s qi rose within him and he discarded all distractions, focusing his mind. Within his spirit, three Gates turned with a steady, implacable rhythm, driving qi through his channels in an endless torrent. He let his awareness of them fill him, the world around him falling away.
Qi from his channels crashed relentlessly against the wings of the Gates and that force became motion. The Gates turned, driving some qi down deep into his nodes and pushing that which rose to the surface back out into his channels. It was a self-reinforcing loop. So long as the Gates held steady, they drove qi and qi drove them in turn. And the Gates stood firm, for they did not try to stop the flow, but rather moved with it. They let themselves be moved, but only along their own endless path. Round and round they went, grinding bones to powder and boulders to gravel.
He inhaled, hot air rich with burning qi filling his lungs. He crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his footing, fragile glass crumbling beneath his weight.
[The Gate Turns in Place]
He’d finished less than a quarter-rotation when the attack reached him. It felt like the time he’d been struck a glancing blow by a cart barreling down the road as a child, except instead of getting thrown backwards his controlled turn turned into a wild spin, accelerating so quickly that the air around him boomed and his hair and clothing whipped out in all directions. His entire spirit shuddered and groaned under the strain, and one of the Gates within his spirit shattered into sparkling shards of qi on impact, while great cracks shot through the wings and core structure of the remaining two.
Even reinforced by all the qi he could spare them, his muscles screamed in protest. The lattice of energy woven through his entire body wavered and his bones flexed like they were made of green wood rather than rigid bone, the side effects of his new Golden Jade Marrow sparing him from a dozen cracks and breaks. He was moving so quickly he could see nothing but streaks of color, the whole world reduced to bands of black sand, vermilion fire, rainbow trees, and the blue sky above.
And even still, the attack continued to press against him. He’d torn away the vast majority of its strength, but his skill with [The Gate Turns in Place] was not sufficient to fully counteract its more profound components. The outer layer of his spirit was scoured by thorns and razor-edged leaves. Wounds opened up along his arms and limbs where the protection of his spirit was thinnest, bleeding freely, and his blood rapidly soaked through his robes and splattered out all across the arena.
With nothing else to do, the vast majority of his attention focused on stabilizing his own technique, Calvin answered in the only way he could. With fire. It poured off him in wild, uncontrolled waves, orange and yellow and intermixed with faint sparks of lavender. It wasn’t a technique, unshaped and unformed qi boiling out of his channels in a torrent that could have formed countless techniques but was instead expended in moments to limited effect. But, crude as it was, quantity had a quality all its own. It tore at the ragged edges of Yunfei’s attack, and wood turned to ash and dust. The last of the scintillating present collapsed into sparks and was torn apart.
Though it had only been a heartbeat, Calvin already felt himself losing control of his technique. If he did, the forces acting on his body would tear him apart as surely as Yunfei’s attack would have. The Golden Arbiter’s Veil would trigger, saving his body and spirit from permanent injury, but he would lose as surely as if he’d done nothing.
He used the other technique that formed a pair with [The Gate Turns in Place].
[The Gate Bars the Way]
His hair lashed his neck and his sleeves snapped sharply as he came to an abrupt stop, his back to Yunfei. For a single instant, the world seemed to hold its breath. Then, the ground beneath him exploded. Not the way it had when he kicked off it in a hurry, but rather as though it had been struck by a falling star, or perhaps a whole pile of explosive talismans going off all at once. For a breath, he stood on nothing but air as the packed sand and black glass beneath him became a crater a dozen yards across and deep enough to expose the arena’s foundation far below. The ground beyond his crater shook and shrapnel flew in an expanding wave that crashed against the formation surrounding the arena like rain and instantly put out the sputtering remains of his tide seal.
Calvin began to fall, but the danger had not yet passed. Perhaps it had been a mistake to move so far from Yunfei, though it had given him a few extra moments to prepare. Even in his weakened state, Yunfei was too far from the destruction caused by the energy he’d redirected into the earth to be significantly injured. His arms were bleeding freely and his spirit felt like one more good push would cause damage that would take months to recover from. Another one of those green crescents would inevitably trigger the barrier and end the duel.
He kicked off before he hit the ground in a rain of golden sparks, launching himself up and out of the still growing crater. He flipped and twisted in mid air until he was facing Yunfei, carefully shaping his qi as carefully as he could so as not to damage his spirit further. His foe’s mouth was in the process of falling open, jaw slack. His face had lost its sneer, replaced by wide-eyed horror as though he couldn’t believe what he was looking at, and as their eyes met he took an involuntary step back.
Calvin smiled back at him savagely and shot forward, fire gathering around him, but he never made it. The hilt of Yunfei’s weapon slipped between limp fingers and dropped to the ground. A moment later, Yunfei himself toppled after it, his legs no longer able to support him. A golden barrier flashed into place around him as he landed on top of his own blade, and Adetola’s voice suddenly boomed in his ears.
“Victory by barrier activation to Calvin of Six-Swan Pond.” A gentle yet utterly unyielding force caught Calvin in mid air and slowly lowered him down to the ground. He recognized the Overseer’s qi in the technique and did not struggle against it, not that he thought he’d have had much luck. It had taken everything he had to stop a single blow from a Core realm weapon. Fighting a true Core realm cultivator, especially a powerhouse as prominent and capable as senior sister Adetola, was far, far beyond him. Plus, he didn’t want to get disqualified. That did happen sometimes, even after a duel had been officially called, though usually it meant someone was using forbidden techniques or had received outside assistance.
Adetola paused for a moment as the formation around the arena dropped and Calvin was hit by a veritable wall of noise. Cheers and cries of joy were mixed with sounds of shock, outrage, and protests from those who’d gathered where Yunfei had been sitting. Half the audience was on their feet, and Lulu was jumping up and down, waving her arms in the air with all the decorum of a toddler given too many sweets.
Calvin wanted to do nothing more than collapse onto the ground, but instead he straightened his back and smiled, raising a fist into the air in victory. The cheers redoubled, his friends joined by the random disciples scattered throughout the stands. Everyone liked a show, and he’d certainly given them one worth watching.
He wondered what they were thinking. While rare, he’d seen other Foundation realm cultivators endure the blows of Core realm weapons. And he’d certainly had the advantage of attunement on his side. Fire burned Wood, after all. But he doubted many had been expecting him to pull it off. That was typically a feat reserved for the top few cultivators of the Outer sect, a number that absolutely no one had counted him among just minutes ago. Would they discount it as a fluke?
He probably wasn’t that lucky. Though the audience was not all that big, he had a feeling a lot more people would be talking about him in the coming days and weeks than ever had before.
He…had mixed feelings about that idea. He’d spent so long doing his best to not attract too much attention, a task he’d just made infinitely harder for himself going forward. He’d used the Nine Rotating Gates within view of dozens of his peers and even a Core realm Inner disciple. He’d flared his cultivation and, while his attunement was still in its very earliest stages and should have looked no different from most other fire attunements, perhaps someone might have noticed something off about that too.
But, well…
He looked at Gwen, who was jumping up and cheering right alongside Lulu, her eyes sparkling with joy and her voice shrill from screaming. There were tear marks on her cheeks, but she looked the happiest he’d ever seen her.
He hadn’t revealed anything that exceptional. Just…moderately impressive. And what use was a weapon if you were too scared to wield it? He was a disciple of the sect in good standing. No clan would send its children to the sect if they feared they’d be robbed blind by the elders, right?
Everything would be fine.
Just fine.
He was fine.
And well, he’d promised he would win. What sort of cultivator would he be if he broke his promises to a junior who was depending on him?
Adetola’s voice boomed out again, breaking him from his revery. “Seconds, please collect your duelists and escort them to Medical Hall. Winnings and updated standings will be available at Martial Hall this evening. Kindly clear the arena so I may reform it for the next duel.”
Calvin gave Yunfei one last glance, but the older disciple was out cold. His skin was ashen, bits of black glass embedded in his skin and his expensive robe half-shredded. Well, at least he’d managed that much. That robe would be even more expensive to repair without a precocious prodigy to exploit for herbs. He lowered his arm and blinked, staring at his own blood-soaked sleeves. They looked completely untouched, the attack having passed clean through them without damaging them to reach the living flesh beneath. That was kind of neat. It was hard to get that sort of precision with fire.
He took a step, and his legs suddenly informed him that they too had not come away from the fight unscathed and he staggered, barely managing to keep his footing. He could barely feel the cuts themselves, but his skin felt strange. He raised his arm again and shook his sleeve until it slipped down, revealing black, putrid gouges in his skin that leaked blood like water. His sleeve slid down another few inches, revealing more marks. They weren’t very deep, but it looked like someone had wrapped thorn-covered vines coated in poison around his arms.
“Ouch,” he whispered, feeling vaguely detached from his body. “Those look nasty.”
“That they do,” Lulu agreed with him mildly. She gently wrapped her arm around his waist, allowing him to lean heavily against her. He hadn’t even noticed her leap down from the stands.
He blinked, his eyelids feeling extremely heavy. “Lulu?” he mumbled.
“Cycle your qi, Calvin,” she commanded. “The veil didn’t activate, so you’ll be fine, but best not risk it.”
Her words made sense, though it was oddly difficult to piece them together. His head hurt. And so did just about everything else.
He tried to deliberately cycle his qi, and one of the two remaining Gates in his spirit took that moment to disintegrate completely. He staggered as the flow of qi through his body was briefly interrupted and a wave of nearly overwhelming fatigue crashed over him. His reserves were far from fully depleted, but he had pushed himself to the very limit. For all the practice he’d dedicated to it and his increased comprehension of the method, he was still a rank amateur when it came to utilizing the techniques of the Nine Rotating Gates. They might be designed to counter techniques far more powerful than anything Yunfei could muster, no matter what weapon he wielded, but Calvin’s body simply wasn’t equipped to handle such strains.
Lulu clicked her tongue. “Right then, guess I’m carrying you. You can go say hi to your ladies later.” She scooped him up into her arms like he wasn’t more than a full head taller than her, and it took an inordinate amount of effort to keep his head from lolling backwards. That would be…so undignified.
“I could have walked,” Calvin tried, but it sounded completely empty even to his own ear.
Lulu laughed. “I’ve tried that one on Wallis a couple of times. It never works. Good showing, Calvin. Ever since you brought out that core I knew you’d been holding out on us, but I wasn’t expecting that! I wonder what rank they’re going to give you after this.”
And then they were off, wind howling in Calvin’s ears as the arena vanished behind them. He tried to say something, but he didn’t know what. An apology maybe? But Lulu hadn’t sounded upset. Maybe a question. Had Gwen been crying? He didn’t like the idea of Gwen crying. He wondered when he’d gone from silently declaring that he would be the one exploiting his junior sister to caring about her feelings. It had barely even been a month.
His last thought before unconsciousness claimed him was to wonder if Yunfei had managed to stab himself with his own stupid knife before the barrier triggered. He really hoped he had.