Chương 66: Leap of the Reckless Flame

As I descended the mountain into the hill area, the stronger opposition and his accompanying soldiers followed me with angered faces. The worst part was that one of them was air-walking toward me. Just looking at him floating above me pissed me off dearly. I had all this power grown inside me, yet I still could not do that… one technique of faster movement. After complaining in my mind I quickly realized the man in front would catch up if I continued on the conventional path.

So I turned sideways toward the cliff edge. The man behind me was now about 1. 6 kilometers away, his glaive ready to strike my exposed back. Finally I reached the edge of the cliff.

"Woah." Five thousand meters above the ground. The world fell away beneath my feet in a single, endless drop. A colossal wall of grey and black stone plunged straight down into a sea of thick white clouds far below. The clouds looked soft from up here, like a vast ocean of cotton, yet I knew the ground waited somewhere beneath them hidden in view with hard and unforgiving path.

Jagged outcrops and knife-sharp ridges jutted out from the cliff face at irregular intervals, some covered in patches of dark green moss, others slick with moisture that glistened in the light. A deep, roaring wind rose from the abyss, cold and powerful enough to push against my chest. It carried the scent of wet stone, distant pine, and something ancient. Birds or creatures that looked like birds circled in tiny black dots far below, riding the updrafts.

The sheer scale of the drop made my stomach twist hard for a second. My legs felt light, almost unreal, as if the mountain itself wanted to throw me off. Unfortunately there was no time for fear as the pursuer closed the gap. As I turned to check, the man closing in from behind gave me every reason to just wing it and climb down with fast movement. And so I did. Believing in myself, I jumped down toward the cliff's rocks and began descending that way as fast as possible.

The man looked confused for a moment when he saw my jump. Then his face twisted into a smile. He had never seen such a reckless man in his life down a huge cliff, all just to get away from him. That only gave him more reason to catch me. He air-walked downward after me with greater will. It became a race. Whoever reached the ground first would hold a huge advantage on the other. The wind howled like a furious beast as I plummeted down the sheer cliff face.

Sharp rocks and jagged outcrops rushed past me in a deadly blur. My heart hammered wildly in my chest. I kicked off one boulder with all my strength, spun mid-air like a flaming tornado, and grabbed a hanging root, swinging myself further down like a madman. Stones shattered under my flaming grip. My Cor Flamma burned bright, leaving small tiny trails of fire against the grey stone wall.

The air-walking warrior dove after me like a predatory hawk, his glaive pointed downward, cutting through the air with deadly precision. Every time he closed the distance I pushed harder, leaping from ledge to ledge, sometimes sliding down near-vertical sections on my reinforced boots while sparks flew from the friction. The ground rushed up to meet us at terrifying speed. My blood sang with wild excitement and raw fear. This was true freedom.

This was the aggressive path I had chosen with no hesitation, only action in mind. I made it to the ground first, landing with a heavy impact that cratered the earth beneath my feet and sent a cloud of dust exploding outward. I could not enjoy the glory for long, however. The man was still on me, now alone the other far to gone, since the others had not yet joined the descent. I was close to clearing the area, so I ran straight toward the forest.

Deep, dense woodland surrounded me in beautiful shades of red and brown, but my eyes stayed locked on the branches above. I used the technique I knew well... jumping from limb to limb of branches so I would leave no prints on the ground and make it slightly harder for the pursuer. But what i did not know, the man had experience with my learned technique. He now called out constantly the word "Suren!" (素人 = the pale ones). I did not know what it meant.

When I looked back at his face, still filled with anger, I knew it did not mean he wanted a friendly tea time with me. He wanted to punish me for some reason. I yelled at him desperately, "I am sorry, but Master said to train in this region! So let me go as i am a nobody here! Please!" The strong soldier responded with a cold voice, "I do not trust Suren nowadays… so stop and receive your deserved punishment for illegal Entry!"

"Yeahh… I pass on your punishment." We ran for a good forty minutes. I made solid progress, zigzagging through the dense forest and using every tree and root to my advantage in the unkown terrain. Branches whipped past my face as I leaped from one to another… until I made the most fatal mistake later on while on the run. Believing I had finally outrun him, I climbed a hill to rest for a moment and took a proper look at the scenery of this region.

I also hoped to spot a village or town that could help me figure out where I was and where I might train or fight without bringing that much trouble. I moved slowly, still scanning for any soldiers, and took the honey jar from my loincloth pants. I ate a good amount, filling my belly well enough. When I reached the top, thick trees still surrounded me. As I stepped toward the edge, the view suddenly improved…

The reason was simple: woodcutters had felled the nearby trees to gather timber for a new outpost currently under construction. But it was already too late, as i stood there wide in the open. They saw me, and I saw them. The moment my eyes met their phoenix eyes with amber hued skin tone they hurled their large axes at me with strong force. I drew my sword-axe and blocked the incoming blades with a loud clang. I had finally had enough. I was getting truly pissed. My Animo released heavily.

The problem was that the man who had been hunting me possessed excellent Animo-reading capabilities, very equal to Galer's, perhaps even better. The moment he sensed my rising power, the number climbed rapidly in his mind and a sharp [Zz-zz-zZzZZZ] sound echoed through his perception and notified somewhat where was my placement. He turned and air-walked upward at once. When he found me attacking and beating the local woodcutters with my sword-axe, it only reinforced his wariness toward " Suren" like me.

He angrily yelled at me to stop and rushed forward with his glaive. I dodged his storm of glaive strikes with swift motion. The ground beneath was deeply pierced. Sand and dirt flew upward in massive clouds. His Animo spiked to 25, 000 as he entered his Earth Vestuto, the Mountain Tiger Skelet. His design became truly majestic. His body was clad in Mountain Scale Armor made of overlapping black ironcoal scales arranged in a flowing mountain-ridge pattern.

Crimson red silk and bright gold accents ran through the armor like veins of molten sunlight. Ancient tiger bones, glowing with earthen power, manifested around his shoulders, spine, and forearms like natural armor extensions, giving him a feral yet regal tiger-warrior appearance. His ornate and imposing helmet featured a tall white feather plume and sharp tiger-ear motifs. Long dark grey-black capes flowed behind him, trimmed with white fur and gold dragon emblems.

In his hands he wielded the Green-Golden engraved with his Name Feng-Dao Glaive. The massive crescent blade at the top glowed with fierce grey earthen energy, while intricate golden dragon engravings pulsed along the reinforced shaft. A sharp counter-spike at the bottom completed the deadly weapon. I could feel his presence resonating strongly. Sweat dripped from my face. I felt this was right before me a good training partner... a true chance to truly let loose for the first time against an unknown opponent.

We had nothing stopping us. No crazy master. No opponent with absurd durability. Just two strangers sizing each other up. That was exactly how Siegfried had always felt when he must had his "fun" in battles. Then an old obsession stirred. For the first time in a long while I saw Siegfried standing behind the man's dark shadow, emerald eyes watching me. Like an obsessed man I wanted to prove my worth to both of them… but more than anything, to Siegfried, the self-induced shadow of my own delusion.

So I transformed into my Vestuto, the Cor Flamma. 8, 100 × 3 reaching the Animo of 24, 300. He looked at me with great wariness of my Animo and spoke.

"Close to mine… but not close enough to overshadow mine. My name is Feng-Dao of the Dao Sect. My title is The Fierce combating Tiger! What's yours suren?" I shouted back, "Erumes Flamma! I don't have a title like you yet, but I hope one day it will sound as cool as yours!" He chuckled, and then we both attacked with strong intensity. The clash was ferocious. I tried to reach his back with my specialty being the axe part of my sword, but with his transformed predatory amber eyes he saw exactly what I planned.

He used the glaive as an extension prop and jumped behind me. I kicked toward his landing spot. Like a true feline beast he dodged on all fours, twisted his body downward, and struck from that awkward angle. I blocked with my sword, trying to match his strength, but it was in vain. The force pushed me back hard. So I let go, flew toward a massive timber, used it as my own extension prop, and rolled straight toward him to engage on his attack.

As he air-walked upward and swung the edge of his glaive toward my head, I increased my speed by using my body like a paddle, shooting past him faster than his cut could reach me. The battle continued for what felt like an eternity. We traded blows across the ruined clearing, smashing through trees and tearing deep scars into the earth.

Every time I closed the distance with a flaming burst, Feng-Dao met me with the heavy crescent of his glaive, the impact sending shockwaves that flattened the surrounding undergrowth. Sparks and embers exploded between us. My Cor Flamma roared hotter with each exchange, yellow-orange fire trailing from the edge of my sword-axe. I feinted high, then dropped low and swept for his legs.

He leapt over the attack with feline grace, twisted in mid-air, and brought the glaive down in a vertical cleave that split a massive boulder behind me in two. I rolled aside at the last instant, feeling the wind of the blade pass over my back, then launched upward with a rising uppercut of pure power of my Blade. The strike grazed his chest plate, leaving a weak mark across the black scales. He answered immediately in a counter.

The tiger-bone extensions on his arms flared with earthen light as he slammed both fists forward, forcing me to cross my arms and block, as there was no time to block. The force drove me backward several meters, boots carving deep furrows in the dirt. Before I could fully recover he was already on me again, the glaive spinning in a deadly whirlwind of green-gold and grey energy.

I parried three strikes in rapid succession, the fourth scraping across on my shoulder and drawing a line of blood that sizzled against my hot skin. The surrounding soldiers who had gathered could not jump in... our fight had become far too intense for any intervention. Every clash released pressure waves strong enough to force them back. Trees toppled further. The ground cracked deeper. The air itself seemed to tremble under the weight of our Animo meeting each other on clashes. I refused to give ground.

I pressed forward again, mixing heavy axe swings with precise thrusts of the sword tip, forcing Feng-Dao to stay on the defensive for several precious seconds. For the first time I saw a flicker of real seriousness in his phoenix eyes. But then the worst part was that this Feng-Dao asshole kept making fun of me once he realized I could not air-walk after him. He was genuinely confused. He claimed he had never seen someone so strong who still lacked that ability, and he threw mocking comments at me the entire time.

I used one of those moments to show him a new move I had learned recently and did not use it yet he was my first testing partner.

"Time for you to see my arsenal of true skill, inspired by my master Hwan Songge! This is my'Elsa di Fuoco' = Hilt Fire Blaze!" My hands burned with never-ending flame, turning completely yellow with deep orange cores. In my other hand I heated the sword hilt to the extreme until it glowed the same color with that it carried to my entire sword-axe in form of an outer aura of my Vestuto. It allowed a new kind of attack. I launched it at him with a heat of 3. 000 degrees Celsius. He dodged…

or at least he thought he had. He was wrong. A cutting flame aura shot forward from my sword like a spreading blaze and grazed his leg. It hurt him as burned his leg and now he could not use it. In return he declared that he would show me his ultimate with anger in face. His skeleton, infused with the armor, lit up as he gathered energy, illuminating him like a living lamp. Then he used that power to rush forward at even greater speed even with using 1 foot and the other only lightly.

The moment I understood his move was not ranged but close-range, I tried to run in a side position. The impact was too heavy. I was hit so hard that the outpost itself was destroyed and the destroyed ground cratered deeply beneath us. I lost that epic-scale duel. When I woke up I was already handcuffed and being transported by Feng-Dao personally toward his Sect Base, or so I was told. I did not know what awaited me there, but I felt disappointed that I had lost on arrival against a formidable opponent.

Still, I knew my new approach with the Vestuto had been the right call. I simply needed to create a stronger output… while now worrying about my current situation.