The Path of the Strongest Mortal, page 10
And, of course, Kai.
Shacks had found himself in an interesting situation — his opponent in the fifth round was Malvur. When the battle began, the archer tried his best to hit his opponent while simultaneously trying to avoid the giant’s powerful attacks. To his surprise, Malvur didn’t even try to dodge. He calmly took all the hits, as if they were nothing more than mosquito bites.
After several minutes of unsuccessful attacks, Shacks realized that he couldn’t harm the giant, so he decided to surrender. He was already in the top ten, so he didn’t see any point in fighting for first place.
But he’d be damned if he went down without making a show out of it.
“I give up,” he said, jumping back to avoid another of Malvur’s attacks, and raising his hand. “I’m, in fact, an archer, and I ain’t used to close combat!” he added loudly and, having given his opponent and the audience a theatrical bow, left the arena.
His words caused a mixed reaction. Some laughed, thinking that he was lying, others laughed because they thought he was joking. There were those who were even angry. After all, if a human archer managed to get this far in the competition, then what good were those who had lost to him?
Could it be that the tournament was rigged?
When the quarterfinals were over, those who had been eliminated earlier returned to the arena to claim their place on the list of the remaining one hundred and eighteen fighters.
***
“How are your wounds?” Malvur asked, surprised to see no traces of recent injuries on Kai.
“As you can see, everything’s in order.” He spread his hands.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“To fight.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Don’t underestimate me, Malvur,” Kai said, assuming a fighting stance.
“I won’t.” The giant nodded firmly. “Attack.”
The participants of the first fight of the semi-finals were Kai and Malvur. Only one of them could reach the finals. And although both were already granted freedom, they still wanted to fight each other.
Kai jumped at Malvur and swung, aiming at his solar plexus. Aware of how tough the giant’s skin was, he wasn’t going to hold back, so he immediately opened the Body Gates of Power.
However, he had to jump back the next second to avoid being hit. Malvur’s hand hit extremely close to his temple.
Dodging, Kai tried to go behind the giant’s back, but the latter turned around unusually quickly for his build, swinging his leg. Kai could’ve tried to block in order to determine just how strong Malvur was, but he’d risk shattering his bones.
After Kai jumped once again, Malvur switched to offense. He couldn’t spend the entire fight waiting for his opponent to come to him.
Closing the distance between them, he swung. All Kai could do was to put his hands in front of him to defend his face and neck. The ground shook and cracked beneath him; he had to strain his arms, back, and legs in order to block the giant’s fist and push him away. Malvur watched with eyes wide open as he felt his feet slide across the ground. He didn’t expect such strength from a human.
Taking advantage of Malvur’s bewilderment, Kai broke his block and swung. Snapping out of it, the giant lost his footing and fell on his back, and then immediately rolled to the side to avoid getting hit. Unfortunately for him, he received a knee to the face the moment he got back to his feet. But before the hit could connect, he activated the bloodline present in all members of his family. His bronze skin darkened and became covered with glowing red patterns, turning into a shield.
When the hit landed, Kai felt like he had struck metal, not soft flesh. But before he had time to be surprised, Malvur’s fist broke several of his ribs and sent him flying to the edge of the arena.
I’m faster than him, but I’m weaker, he thought, rising back to his feet. If I open all the Body Gates wide, my stats will increase. But without prana, I’ll quickly waste all of my ki and become easy prey. These people think that I have only one-fourth of my energy because of the collar. I can’t restore it because then they’ll know that this thing doesn’t work on me. I have forty seconds to use up my energy supply... Maybe even a minute... Will that be enough to pierce his armor? Fuck, what should I do?
His head buzzing as he looked for a solution to his predicament, he recalled something from his past life.
Malvur was almost in front of Kai when the latter spread his legs and lowered his body, looking like he was about to tackle him. Slightly confused, but not discouraged, the giant attacked with his fist. Kai dodged by stepping to the side, grabbed Malvur’s hand, and turned around.
Before the giant had time to understand what was going on, he found himself on the ground. Rising abruptly, he saw Kai, who had moved slightly to the side, prepare a new attack.
How did he manage to do that? I didn’t see anything... He was right, I can’t underestimate him. I need to be careful.
His next attack ended the same as the previous one.
Raising himself slightly, he stared at Kai.
He changed position incredibly quickly, grabbed my leg, tripped me, and then... I don’t understand...
Deciding to give it another go, Malvur rose to his feet and tried to knock Kai down with his superior strength and weight, but he once again found himself on the ground.
And again.
And again.
And again.
For the next five minutes, this pattern repeated. Malvur attacked, fell, rose, and attacked again. It wasn’t until he finally realized that Kai was using his own strength against him that he tried to attack smarter. However, he lacked skill and experience in battles and Kai was too fast. So he kept failing.
Fifteen minutes later, Malvur, dizzy and in pain, realized that this could no longer continue. Approaching Kai for Heavens knew which time by now, he froze for a second, and then slowly outstretched his hand.
Slightly surprised, Kai shook hands with him.
“I surrender,” Malvur said and the two left the arena together while the audience discussed what kind of unusual fighting style Kai was using as it was like nothing they had seen before. Oh, had they only known that the poor, cultivation-less humans had traded ki for fists and Forces for gunpowder.
The fight made the audience think about how a deceptively simple-looking technique could bring the most powerful of cultivators to their knees. The battle between Kai and Malvur, as interesting and spectacular as it had been, was forgotten an hour later, overshadowed by the second fight of the semi-finals.
***
In the middle of the arena stood a short figure, whose face and body were obscured by a long cloak, hiding anything that might’ve hinted at what race they belonged to. They didn’t even know their name.
No one who had fought against them managed to pull their cloak off. That is, no one had lived long enough to do so. All of their opponents had suffered severe injuries in the course of a couple of blows, after which they either surrendered or died on the spot.
Only the healers knew what kind of power the mysterious figure wielded. Upon closer examination of the corpses, they saw that their insides had been turned into mush as if their organs had been finely chopped.
The hooded figure stood in the arena for almost five minutes until its opponent finally appeared. Beast looked like a typical dorgan — thick black fur on the back, chest, arms, and legs, with barely noticeable, extendable claws, sharp fangs, tail, vertical pupils, and a scar over his left eye.
Like most of Lex’s strongest fighters, he was known for being extremely cruel and arrogant. So when he entered the arena, the audience didn’t cheer, as they usually did when other famous fighters appeared. Even the wind seemed to stop blowing.
No one dared so much as breathe in his presence. Almost all of his opponents died before they could surrender. He enjoyed the suffering of others. He fed on it. Which is why he often deprived them of the opportunity to surrender by either ripping off their jaw or pulling out their tongue.
No matter how crazy Beast was, neither Lex nor Starks ever thought of killing him. He got away with cruelty as he was the strongest fighter in the entire history of Udin’s existence.
“Hello,” Beast said in a deceptively pleasant voice. “Would you mind showing your face?”
The cloaked figure was silent.
“It’s offensive to hide your name and face from your opponent, you know? It’s better to be friends with me. Come on. If you properly introduce yourself, I’ll let you surrender and walk away. How does that sound?”
There was no answer.
“All right, then I’ll rip it off you together with your head!” he growled, angry over being ignored, and darted at his opponent.
The cloaked figure instantly reacted by ducking. Raising, it aimed for an uppercut but the dorgan dodged, sensing danger.
Having made a backward somersault, Beast froze.
“What was that?!” he exclaimed. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had taken him by surprise.
Possessing enhanced senses and instincts inherited from his great ancestors, Beast was able to instantly detect a threat hidden in a deceptively simple attack. That was weird as he knew that his opponent didn’t possess enormous physical strength. And they clearly didn’t have any weapons.
Then what’s going on here? he wondered, confused. My gut has never let me down before... I’ll just have to be more careful...
He relaxed a little and, ducking slightly, rushed forward again.
A deadly blow almost reached the mysterious fighter when they suddenly dodged, hitting Beast’s leg with their palm at the last moment. The dorgan screamed in agony, feeling like fire was crawling up his leg... which he couldn’t feel anymore.
“You bastard!” Balancing on one leg, he tried to swing.
The cloaked fighter attacked again.
In the next instant, a second scream filled the air. Beast’s hand was no longer on his wrist. He didn’t have time to react when his opponent slammed him in the chest.
The impact sent him flying back, vomiting blood along the way. The clothes on his chest were torn, but there were no visible wounds, confusing both the audience and the judges as to what could’ve caused him such distress.
No one understood what was happening, and only Starks, shocked, jumped up.
Meanwhile, Beast, who was shaking violently, fell to the ground. And although he hadn’t been able to hit his opponent, the speed with which he moved managed to cause a gust of wind strong enough to blow off the cloaked figure’s hood.
His opponent turned out to be a blonde with several blue curls, light gray eyes, a sharp gaze, and an unusual blue tattoo under her right eye. The System description appeared above her head the moment her face was revealed.
[Race: Sylph, Human]
Removing the now useless cloak, she stared at the heavily wounded, but still alive Beast with eyes full of everything but mercy. She was a little surprised that the dorgan hadn’t died yet, however, in the state he was currently in, finishing him off wouldn’t be a problem.
“An’na. That’s her name,” Linus said to the bewildered Starks.
“I never thought that I’d see something like this.” Calming down, the elf sat back in his chair.
“I thought the same thing when I found her six months ago,” Linus said. “Oh, if you only knew how much effort it took to capture her. She even managed to seriously injure a couple of my Elementalists. But it was worth it. Now, neither your Beast nor anyone else can stop her.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Starks replied dully.
“What are you talking about?”
“Look.”
An’na almost got to Beast when he tried to rise, leaning on only one arm and leg. Through trickles of blood that covered his contorted face, he glared at his opponent, and then growled madly.
“I’ll kill you! Kill you! Scum. Die!” His eyes rolled back sharply, leaving only the whites visible. Tossing his head back, he froze like a statue.
An’na took a step toward him and was about to finally finish him off when a powerful explosion threw her back to the very stands.
A pillar of bright light appeared in the center of the arena. As it slowly faded away, leaving behind itself a crimson mist, it revealed that in the place where Beast had once stood, there was now a wild, merciless monster.
***
Seventeen years ago, Lex received incredible news. In the dwarven lands, near the southern border of the Holy Kingdom of Tael, appeared a dorgan that had failed to complete the Full Transformation. Maddened by his failure, he began to terrorize those lands.
As soon as this information reached Udin, Lex immediately set out to find this individual. He wanted to personally see such a rare phenomenon.
Dorgans were known to have descended from divine beasts and inherited many of their traits. This was especially true for two of their abilities — Partial Transformation (which was also available to some members of other races with certain bloodlines) and Full Transformation.
Partial Transformation allowed doragns as well as the few chosen cultivators of other races to acquire traits of their distant ancestors, which, in turn, made them more powerful. However, to obtain this ability, one had to be of pure blood and possess a considerable amount of talent.
As for Full Transformation, it was only possible for those born with a predisposition for it. Nobody had ever succeeded in acquiring it artificially. It gave the cultivator incredible strength, but there was one serious drawback — when using this ability, their animal side tried to absorb the mind of the dorgan in question, causing them to lose their humanity and revert to their beastly nature. Because of this, no one was able, or allowed, to use Full Transformation for a long time.
Rumor had it that that was exactly what had happened to Beast.
When he had found him, Lex, instead of capturing or killing him, wanted to fight him without using ki and Forces, to test his strength. The price for his foolishness was his left eye. As revenge, he also tried to deprive Beast of his left eye, but it was restored in a matter of seconds. And after Lex brought him to Udin, their alchemists managed to tame the beast with the help of special drugs, which he took to this day.
Today was the first time since then that Beast lived up to his name.
***
A huge creature that only vaguely resembled a wolf appeared before the audience. Its muscular body was covered with scars and bone growths. It had huge fangs and blood-red eyes. All of Beast’s wounds were instantly healed after the transformation, so the porridge that An’na had made out of his organs no longer bothered him.
Having located his opponent, Beast slowly moved toward her, saturating the air with his eerie aura. And even despite the fact that they were hidden behind a barrier, many spectators in the front rows began retreating, afraid of being so close to this monster.
An’na frowned. She believed that with her abilities this tournament would be a walk in the park, but she didn’t expect this.
Concentrating, she used what was currently her strongest weapon.
No one saw anything, but in the next moment Beast’s right paw was cut off, making him howl in pain, but he immediately reattached the severed limb to the wound.
This made An’na frown even more. She attacked again.
This time, Beast was able to sense her approach and jumped to the side. However, he didn’t manage to get completely out of her way, so she managed to graze him, leaving several very deep cuts.
An’na’s face darkened. She continued to attack, but Beast dodged much faster and more accurately now.
“Where did you find her?” Starks asked.
“By accident,” Linus admitted. “Heavens sent her to me. She not only possesses the Will of the Sword, but she has also mastered the Force of Fusion.”
The Will of the Sword was a special power that allowed the cultivator to materialize their will in the form of a blade. The stronger their will was, the stronger the attacks were. The best thing was that this required neither ki nor Forces to use. However, such an ability was so rare that, apart from An’na, there was only one other cultivator on the continent with a similar ability. But they were at the Divine Stage.
“She’ll reach the Sword Orb someday. And the Divine Stage probably. Aren’t you afraid that she’ll want to take revenge on you for holding her captive?” Starks asked.
“No.” Linus chuckled. “We’ve vowed to each other. If she wins this tournament, she can choose freedom as a reward, and we’ll never speak of this again.”
“I see...” Starks replied, frowning. If she won first place, he’d have to share the secret of making the Extract with the sylphs, which he didn’t want to do.
***
The battle continued. It was only the second minute, but this fight overshadowed all the others with how epic it was.
An’na continued keeping Beast at a distance, repeatedly attacking him with the Will of the Sword. However, in the state of Full Transformation, the dorgan possessed incredible regeneration even by Nikrim’s standards, so he had no problems chasing after her despite the wounds.
At some point, the two fighters found themselves at the opposite sides of the arena. Bending down, Beast abruptly kicked off the ground with all four paws and rushed at her.
Standing still near the wall, An’na focused on his face.
“Cut.”
No sooner had she said that when Beast’s eyes, nose, lower jaw, and a big chunk of skin disappeared. His skull was opened and his brains exposed.
A second passed... two... three... He no longer showed signs of life.
But before An’na had time to take a breather, the huge creature began to stir. Beast’s muscles tensed and he jumped to the side. A part of his face had already recovered.
The girl shuddered with disgust and worry, but immediately pulled herself together.
“Pierce,” she uttered, intending to finally finish off her opponent when he suddenly changed his trajectory.
Zig-zagging across the arena, he dodged all of her attacks as he crept closer to her. Determined not to give up, she used the Will of the Sword again and again, but her attacks no longer managed to touch Beast.
