บท 209: Battles On Three Fronts
From the very start, Sun overpowered his sister who was in the Spirit Realm with just his physical strength. As he battered her around like a toy, he said, "You… watched that day as I was taken away and operated on." The flames on his Gauntlet sparked with crimson highlights which slowly but surely grew in intensity with every other hit, "Happy, even as I lost my everything. Happy to take it for yourself," Growing ever-hateful, Sun's Gauntlet's transformed mid-punch to become slimmer and faster, "And why? Because I was weak? Because you needed it? NO! It was because of stupid traditions and even greedier husks of organic waste that dared call themselves my family."
Landing an uppercut that sent his sister flying into the air, Sun didn't let up even for a second as he used a move he had been working on with Elizabeth over the training week to conduct an aerial battle. For a second, Emilia thought Sun's incompetence had given her a moment of respite, only for him to appear behind her like some sort of ghost. Standing upon an unseen platform of solidified space Sun scoffed as kicked downward; the heel of his attacking leg carrying with it the force necessary to shatter Emilia's left shoulder blade.
Like a meteor striking the Earth, Emilia crashed into the ocean. The impact being so catastrophic that a titanic plume of water several-dozen-meters tall rose alongside a small abyss with the displaced water rushing back to fill the gap. Squinting his eyes at the destruction he had caused, Sun's anger didn't lessen. He knew for a fact that such an attack had probably barely even damaged an opponent of his sister's level, so with little hesitation he pointed his finger directly at the Qi signature he sensed near the spot his sister had landed by.
As a small ball of Pure Yang charged up before his pointed index finger, Sun scoffed once more before firing a beam with the thickness of a finger. As the beam had been charged, it was both potent and fast. Moving faster than one of Elizabeth's bullets, only someone with speeds nearing the peak of the Transcendent Foundation Stage could attempt dodging.
Like a streak of lightning, the beam's flight path stayed visible for a fraction of a second before fading; the light that came from its energy being visible even after travelling several hundred meters into the ocean's depths. However, Sun didn't celebrate the success of his beam attack as Emilia could be seen calmly floating up from the water to meet her brother in the air.
"You know, for a Saint in the Mortal Realm, you're quite dangerous. Still…" She brandished a bottle, wagging it from side to side as if to mock Sun as she continued, "Have you forgotten that we're a family of Pill Masters? No amount of damage you do to me can't be healed…"
"Forgotten?" Sun smirked as he materialized a bottle of pills himself, "No, my idiotic sister; I haven't forgotten. In fact, you can say that I've carried on the family tradition by becoming an Alchemist, myself!" He took a pill from his bottle and swallowed it as Emilia watched on with a bit of apprehension forming from the sudden change in atmosphere around her brother.
"Now then, why don't you get serious? You'll probably die if you think I've showed you the peak of my strength!" Even faster than before, he landed a drop kick at several thousand kilometers per hour, finally causing Emilia to cough up a mouthful of blood as she shot towards the horizon.
Without much of a choice, she took a pill to increase her body's regeneration factor before taking another to bolster her physical abilities. Using her own True Qi like a shockwave to stop her flight path, she finally showed Sun a scowl as her sword came to meet his gauntlet in the air again. "You wanted this, so don't come crying later…" A truly reckless battle between titans began over the Pacific Ocean.
…
"Mhmm," Elizabeth turned to the ocean. Even normal people could hear the sounds of battle and the flashes of spectacular cultivator abilities, nevermind her, whose sense and abilities bordered on the impossible. Turning her head back to the battle between her apprentices and the disciples of the Steadheart Sect, Elizabeth sighed, "Alright this is my loss."
With her words, the spar that was on its way in the sparring ring between her chosen apprentice for Ice Magic and the Steadheart's outer disciple promptly stopped. Tina, Elizabeth's Ice Mage disciple stood up from the ground and gave a martial salute to her opponent; an action that was reciprocated with words of acknowledgement.
As the young girl came over to Elizabeth's side, she was patted on the head and told, "It's fine that you lost. After all, your opponent clearly had much more experience fighting that you; it's only been a week… Don't let this failure weigh you down. Prepare so that it doesn't happen again."
Whilst lifting up her apprentice's spirits, Elizabeth simultaneously healed the cuts and bruises her apprentice had accumulated during the battle and heavily brought down the morale of Steadheart Sect disciples. 'A week? S-she can't mean that little girl's only been training for a week, can she?' Most of the foreigners thought in unison.
"Alright, who's next?" Elizabeth said after letting Tina free; she was completely healed by then.
"Uh, wouldn't you like to first discuss what our disciples did wrong and right? You know… so that they may take additional insights from us, uh… experts." The Outer Sect Elder which Elizabeth came to know as Elder Tie, proposed. As a mere outer sect elder, he was in charge of the Steadheart Sect's least talented and weakest disciples; those at the Mortal and Pawn Stage.
"Makes sense, I guess," Elizabeth stated. She turned to Tina's opponent and said, "Let's start off with everything I could tell that you did right. So," she started, "Exploiting your opponent's lack of experience, forcing her into close combat, and using unconventional tricks to supplement your martial art were all key in securing your victory. Albeit a bit underhanded if this were some sort of regulated event, it was both pragmatic and realistic. After all, these are sparring events meant to prepare you for real battles, where anything goes."
"As for what you did wrong… Well, there were a total of 13 opportunities you could have capitalized which would have ended the fight much sooner, there were 21 instances where you were injured which could have been avoided with your current strength, the foundation of your cultivation is in shambles, and your attacks all lack the sharpness that should be present while using martial arts…" Elizabeth then went on to recreate the battle with the boy, mercilessly pointing out each flaw and how it could have been resolved, before leaving him mildly shell-shocked.
However, she didn't let her own apprentice off the hook and to the people of the Steadheart Sect, it looked like she was abusing her apprentice even more than her opponent as she went on for twice as long showing just how poorly the little girl had fought. When she was finally done, she turned to the Elder Tie and asked, "Anything else you want to add?"
"Uh… no," Saying anything else would just be grounds to get humiliated. So, another pair of combatants were chosen from Elizabeth's apprentice group and the Steadheart's Outer Sect to have another sparring session.
…
Sighing, Tristan's grandfather looked longingly at his grandson. He said, "Qwetzel, what happened to you? You were set to become our savior! The leader that would bring us to world conquest! But now look at you… You're nothing but a shell of your former self; hollow and weak. Your spirit is all but gone!"
"Qwetzel, is the name of that devil you supplanted me with… The culmination of all my heart demons, intensified over the years. But you already knew that, didn't you? I mean, you're the same, right?" As he spoke, Tristan drew his Solitary Yin Sword. He had already layered enchanted talismans all over his body…
"So he's really gone, eh? Fine… If you've really overcome him, we were just wrong in our original judgement." As the old man spoke, the light around him slowly started scattering, "You should follow him to the grave then, you worthless host."
From a distance, tendrils of darkness began swarming Tristan as he propelled himself towards his grandfather. He dodged or cut all the tendrils that got too close and eventually stood within reaching distance of his grandfather. Mercilessly, he slashed with the intent to bisect the old man diagonally and by the feel of his sword, he should have come close.
Only, to his horror, after the blade came out the lower left side of the old man's body, no blood or guts came spilling out. There was only a void of darkness that closed up the massive wound the old man had sustained as if it were never there to begin with.
Smirking at his foolish grandson, the old man said, "Did you really think I would be so easy to kill?" He was so confident that he even sighed directly in front of Tristan as he said, "You could have had this power as well, but you abandoned Qwetzel. Now die!"
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