Chương 13: 11.2 Dragons and Bears

Atop a thorned black vine that curled between a gnarled tree root, a rat bit at some gray mushrooms. Psst! The mushrooms sprayed a green mist at the rat that immediately fell off the gnarled root, clawing at its eyes.

"Kaaaa!" A snake darted out of an inky puddle. The rat tried to jump but was swallowed whole before it could. The snake went still, sticking its tongue out a few times as it savored its prey. BANG! A boot crushed the snake, the ground exploded and the figure disappeared in an instant. Where the snake once was, there was now a small crater. The inky water seeped out of the puddle and into the new recess. Rumble… The water started to ripple. The ground started shaking. Trees began swaying violently. BOOOOM!

A curved black wall of scales shot through the forest. Trees were thrown high into the air and waves of inky water were thrown across the forest. The black wall didn't disappear like the figure had. The black wall of scales continued rushing past, slowly getting shorter until finally, it had passed. The forest returned to silence. A small valley had been formed that seemed to stretch endlessly on both sides…

"HAHAHA!!! HAVING TROUBLE KEEPING UP!!!" Satheon boomed with laughter as he shot through the forest. CRASH! Satheon ignored some of the small trees, smashing straight through them without slowing down, slamming his foot down like a meteor and propelling himself forward like a cannonball hurtling through the forest.

"KSSSRAAAAAAAAA!!!!" An ear piercing screech deathened the forest, drawing out all sound and making even Satheon's vision blur.

"Ha-ha-ha-haa!" Satheon laughed happily at the flood dragons screaming.

"The screams of a loser never cease to make me laugh!"

"KSSSSSSS!!! RHAAAAAAAAA!!!!" The flood dragon's half hiss half roar seemed trying to argue with Satheon, but he laughed it off and continued running without looking back. Further behind, in the flood dragon's blind spot, cycling a genuine stealth technique, Sirius managed to just keep up by using a movement technique. She wasn't some monster like Satheon who used nothing but pure physical ability to sprint. Still, the extended chase was leaving Sirius Qi reserves in question.

Still, she controlled her breathing and shot forward after Satheon and the flood dragon.

"HWAAAAAR—" The flood dragon leaned its head back, its throat beginning to glow with light.

"Hoho!" Satheon felt the stir of qi behind him and strained his smile even wider.

"Hup!" Sirius leapt at the flood dragon's head from her position, raising her sword up high and charging it with Spirit Qi as she executed a heavy sword technique. BOOM! The flood dragon's head was thrown to the side and it whipped its head around to face Sirius. BGGGGGGZZZZZZZZZZUUUUUU!!!! A beam of white light shot from the flood dragon's mouth, overshadowing the sky and making the gray forest seem pitch black in comparison. Satheon glanced back.

"I'm good!" Sirius's voice sounded out from somewhere. She had used her dedicated stealth technique the moment she felt her blade strike a mass of hastily gathered hardened Qi. She evidently hadn't been able to strike faster than the beast's natural instincts and reflexes. Satheon snorted and continued sprinting. The flood dragon looked around, turning its head in the air before it eventually made a loud huff and continued chasing after Satheon. The strategy Satheon and Sirius came up with was simple.

Since Sirius had learned a dedicated stealth technique, but wouldn't be able to keep up without using up her Spirit Qi on movement techniques, Satheon would take the lead in being the bait. Sirius would then have the leisure to gather Spirit Qi as she used it while staying in the flood dragon's blind spot. If something happened and the flood dragon tried something, then Sirius could make a distraction from the blind spot, keeping them both in relative safety. Unfortunately, the beast wasn't stupid.

The flood dragon knew it was being baited, its eyes flicked away from Satheon, betraying their intelligence as it scrutinised the surroundings, searching for traps and the small creature that had kept attacking it then disappearing. So far, despite even Satheon taking some cursory blows at the beast, neither him nor Sirius had dealt any major damage. At least, they hadn't caused anything as bad as the Iron Back Crocodile's death blows, which themselves seemed like rather shallow wounds despite their size.

Taking a risk to glance back, even Satheon lost his smile after a while. He had underestimated a beast halfway to becoming a flood dragon. At close to 900 meters long the flood dragon was approaching the strength of the early Golden Core realm. … In the distance, it was useless for the flood dragon to find threats with its eyes. Faust's first order of business was to set up a concealment formation around the area he and Phalecia were working.

It wasn't a very good trap if the enemy could see it coming from miles away. Faust stood atop the large black rock that protruded up from the forest. He watched the flood dragon rampage through the forest, leaving a deep gash through it like an empty river. Faust looked back down to the area within the concealment. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. This was Phalecia's first mission outside the sect and it showed.

Her movements were the slow meticulous ones of a coddled alchemist. Still, her efforts were concentrating the Wood Qi into the area. Inspecting his own work, Faust double checked the concealment formation and the nodes which would change to transform it into a bewilderment formation that could trap the flood dragon here. The Qi Amplification formation was an incredibly simple one, just a few pre-made formation flags placed with telekinesis.

"Huuu…" Faust exhaled, pushing his hands down with his breathing. With one hand movement, Faust controlled some Spirit Qi and shot it towards where Satheon and Sirius should be, signaling them to start luring the flood dragon over. In the next hand movement, Faust began using hand signs for spell casting. Almost as soon as he started, the Wood Qi around Faust began vibrating in anticipation for the massive fire spell Faust was preparing.

Fire Qi also began gathering, transforming from the Solar Qi that blanketed the world under the sun. Faust was forced to double his efforts and concentration as some of the Wood Qi began transforming into Fire Qi prematurely. He also pushed the Earth Qi down further to prevent it from transforming the Fire Qi into ash and Earth Qi later. As Faust began his casting, Phalecia felt her efforts become vain as the Qi became excited and uncooperative.

She looked over to see Faust with his eyes closed, making various hand signs. Spellcraft… Phalecia thought. It was often ignored for being flawed in multiple aspects. For starters, since you were controlling the Qi around you and in the environment, you couldn't move much while spellcasting without incredible experience. For cultivators whose battles happened in the blink of an eye, such a restriction alone was quite taxing.

Spellcraft was also difficult to learn, heavily based on Qi mechanics and Qi interactions and non written or spoken language. All of those were math heavy subjects which scared the average strength chasing cultivator in the same manner as horror stories told to children. Lastly, Spellcraft simply took a long time. In the same time it took to cast a single spell, multiple techniques could have been used no matter how quickly the hand seals or chants for Spellcraft were done or said.

Yet despite all the downsides, Spellcraft remained relevant for a single reason. Power. The potential to unleash power not just one major realm above, but in special cases, potentially even two major realms above the caster. Though such special cases could be recorded on one hand. Phalecia could feel the power thrumming in the air, a sense similar to what she got when her alchemy cauldron was about to detonate. She put some more distance between herself and Faust. …

Satheon suddenly felt a wave of Spirit Qi pass by him. Finally! He thought, making a sudden turn and shooting towards the seemingly empty protruding black rock in the distance.

"SSSRAAAA-" The flood dragon almost managed to catch up to Satheon during the sharp turn, but several talismans exploded on its side and gave Satheon a few more precious seconds to gain ground. The flood dragon paused, carefully scanning the area for Sirius. Despite its best efforts, the human techniques evaded the beast's senses.

"SSSSKKKKKRRRRRRRROOOOOOARRR!!!" The flood dragon roared in frustration, using its huge body to thrash around and flatten the area, it focused its gaze on Satheon sprinting away. A fire seemed to light in the flood dragon's eyes as it seethed, breathing heavily before it shot towards Satheon with renewed vigor. … Faust watched calmly as the flood dragon rapidly approached.

"I leave it to you Junior Brother!" Satheon shouted as he shot past the protruding rock.

"..." Faust didn't respond but gave him the side eye before refocusing on the flood dragon. The beast passed the boundary of the concealment formation, it slowed down briefly as it looked at the changed surroundings, then its gaze focused on Faust. Faust gazed back at the beast, his hands not pausing even as the flood dragon roared and charged at him. The ground shook. The rock Faust stood on began trembling violently. The flood dragon's mouth opened wide, covering Faust's entire vision.

"Senior brother!" Sirius's voice sounded out. Faust made the final hand seal, the thin pyramid, index and middle fingers of both hands pressed against each other, with the other fingers wrapped around each other, the palms close, but not touching. The gathered Wood Qi transformed into Fire Qi in an instant. Then there was White. The entire space in front of Faust was engulfed in blinding white light. Faust and the rock cast an immense shadow behind them as the Qi pressed down.

The ground continued shaking as Faust pressed the Earth Qi away from the massive pillar of blinding white Fire Qi, preventing the Fire Qi from turning to ashes and Earth Qi. Air rushed past as the blazing heat less than a meter in front of Faust stabbed at his skin, slowly beginning to singe his robes. A tornado began forming around the column of light as air was heated to the extreme, rising up and letting the valley's cold air rush in to repeat the cycle.

A wretched whine sounded out but was nearly inaudible over the raging Fire Qi and roaring winds. Faust activated the Clear Mirror Pupil to help him see through the pillar of light. The next moment Faust followed with the Clear Mirror Step movement art, disappearing from the spot and appearing in the nearby air where his flying sword caught him.

"SRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" A pitch black tail seemingly made of ash and magma escaped the white light and obliterated the protruding black rock. Faust made one more handsign, turning the concealment formation into a bewilderment one to keep the beast trapped.

"Damn! It's still alive!" Faust overheard Satheon shout as the suppressed Earth Qi rose up again, consuming the raging Fire Qi and turning it to ash in the wind before dragging the newly transformed Earth Qi back down.

"Haah…" Faust sighed, it wasn't easy to beat the cycle of the elements. The pillar of white light began dimming, before collapsing in and fading in a blast of wind as air rushed to fill the vacated gap.

"HSRAA…. HSRAA…" The flood dragon was revealed, breathing heavily. Its previous lustre of black scales was replaced with charred flesh, lines of still glowing embers marring its body. Faust scanned the length of the beast. Less than 800 meters. Faust realised. The flood dragon had sacrificed its cultivation to just barely survive the attack, dropping from the peak of Open Palace equivalent to the late stage.

Faust looked around, finding Sirius and Phalecia in the sky on their flying swords while Satheon was leaning heavily against his halberd, resting after running at full speed for almost a full incense of time.

"It was heavily injured and paid a steep price to survive that attack." Faust spoke calmly, using Spirit Qi to make his voice heard by everyone.

"Hit and run tactics, without divine sense, it would take hours of focus to escape this bewilderment formation with complete concentration." Faust gave his verdict of the situation.

"Hehehe—" Satheon picked up his halberd and changed his stance.

"Finally! A fight!" He roared before sprinting at the beast. The flood dragon was heaving, struggling to move its massive body. It turned its massive head, searching for escape. Yet. The scenery repeated seemingly endlessly, the flood dragon could even see itself and how it was surrounded by humans. The beast tried looking in another direction only to see the same scene everywhere it looked. The Dazed Mirror Bewilderment formation was a reliable if not cheap formation to deploy.

The beast's face became a snarl of anger, it turned towards Satheon, instead of trying to run, the beast roared loudly, charging at Satheon. Faust took a deep breath and drew up the Spirit Qi in his body, he began making handseals for another spell while Satheon had the wounded beast's attention.

"HAAAH!" Long Tao swung his glaive according to the old ghost's technique. BOOM! The boulder shattered, exploding into thousands of pieces and a cloud of dust. Birds flew out of the nearby trees and the villagers not too far away flinched and looked away. From the side, floating in the air, the old ghost nodded.

"Not bad," His face turned stern, "but while I can't be sure of its exact strength, it won't be enough to defeat an early Foundation Establishment beast." He said.

"Or, well, a Meridian Opening beast I guess?" The old man scratched his cheek, looking up. Long Tao practiced the strike again, this time imagining a beast charging at him.

"HAAAH!!!" Tao struck again. The air split, exploding with a deafening roar. The old man looked back down at Tao, then shook his head disapprovingly.

"Man or beast, most a stupid yet wise." He began, "then there's you. Not stupid yet being foolish… You shouldn't be so hung up on that kid's words. There will be other opportunities to prove you're not just an overconfident imbecile." As if ignoring the old ghost's words, Tao struck again, this time from a different angle. The old man groaned and disappeared, returning to the cracked jade ring hanging on Tao's necklace.

"Sir Cultivator!" Someone called out. Tao turned. One of the guards he had first met kneeled in front of him.

"We received word from Highwood Village! The bear took a goat just before first light this morning!" Tao hardened his gaze, this was probably his last chance to turn back.

"Which way?" Tao asked.

"I'll show you a path, if you just follow it, you'll reach the village in half a day!" Tao nodded, stepping forward and urging the guard forward.