112 The Duel

After a few moments of being ready to fight, Yun decided the duel had begun and reached out with her spear tip quickly to strike at the Captain. In response to her strike he swirled his spear in a profound way, knocking her strike away, but she responded with a flick of the wrist and slashed a small gash open on his sleeve.

The opposing captain's face became firm, anger showing in his eyes, as he aggressively stabbed and slashed repeatedly. In response to his aggressive attacks Yun merely used a few flourishes to deflect his force to the side, completely dispersing the danger. As she deflected his assault with ease his eyes turned from anger to absolute fury, his entire countenance transformed.

How could this tiny female defeat his strength? Never had he been this humiliated! He had lost all his face today in front of his soldiers, and he was determined to earn it back.

Slash after slash, stab after stab, Yun merely deflected them patiently. This foolish Captain was exhausting his strength moment by moment without a care.

After nearly an incense stick of time had passed the Captain had calmed down slightly and realized that he was playing right into her methods. This infuriated him more, but he kept his head clear this time and didn't blindly assault her. He instead decided to try using some techniques that were rather tricky to deal with in order to wound her.

His spear shot forth rapidly, and as soon as Yun reached out to block it he shifted his angle and struck again, aiming for a vital point. Yun, with a flustered look on her face, backed up a step as she evaded this attack at the last moment.

The Captain grinned. It would work! He immediately used another such technique, aiming for a region near Yun's Neidan with an insidious strike. Once again Yun barely evaded it, panic evidently growing on her face. This was obviously an enemy who knew some techniques to deal with all sorts of life or death circumstances, giving him an advantage. Too bad his enemy was this tiny Vulpis child, his ultimate nemesis.

Yun continued to barely evade his strikes, even getting her clothing hit with glancing strikes a few times, eliciting some sparks from the scraping impact. After a few more minutes of this passed, the Captain was flustered again. This child was too lucky! How could she manage to evade these strange and profound attacks with her measly power!?

Yun kept evading around a few circles, completely avoiding any harm from this inept Captain's pitiful attacks. Eventually the captain managed to land a hit. He believed it was his skill finally showing through, but in reality it was Yun's concentration being severely impacted by the strange situation she found herself in.

While she was fighting this Captain in the flesh she could feel strange fluctuations from her Neidan and had split a small portion of her concentration off to check on the imprisoned Goldenflame Lynmurku.

Looking inside herself she was astonished to see that he had not only begun to successfully dig a hole, he had even been forming the excavated surface into a mound to make his cave entrance! Yun was furious inside, but at the same tie she had to focus on her duel with the idiotic Captain lest she be severely injured by him. She had no idea what would happen if she were injured right now between her and the Lynmurku.

Having seen what was going on inside, Yun focused back on the direct conflict at hand. Just as she was bringing her mind back into the fight she was caught off guard and he managed to strike her shoulder with a glancing blow, leaving a bruise due to the strong abilities of the equipment Zhu Cai had made her.

Sparing a thought in her heart to thank Zhu Cai yet again, Yun went on the offensive with this boorish Captain. She began to execute her Golden Fluttering Spear technique a little at a time, bringing out shadows of her spear strikes to distract her opponent. He showed surprise on his face just before his expression returned to fury.

His strikes became more and more wild, lashing out in anger and disgrace, but Yun just continued to calmly parry him, using as little strength as she could due to the fluctuations of her energy.

As the fight drew on the fluctuations became more and more intense, to the point where it seemed the Captain had even noticed it as a grin spread across his face. Of course, he had no idea what was really going on, he assumed that she had an unstable foundation and the fight was worsening it, possibly even nearing collapse based on the shaking of her energy.

As this continued Yun winced in pain and her techniques began to fail, shattering into golden light before they even collided with the enemy's weapon. The Captain rejoiced inside that he would finally be able to defeat this brat, but just as he was counting his spoils he discovered that she had slipped her spear into his defenses and placed the tip against his sternum, stopping before stabbing through his heart to signify that this duel was not a life and death battle.

"Now, Captain, since this fight is over I'll thank you to take me into the fortress as you're supposed to and show me to your commander. This farce of a fight has gone on long enough. Did you really think that my shaking energy has anything to do with you?"

The fuming Captain really wanted to tear this tiny fox apart. How dare she humiliate him! Unfortunately, as his countenance became more severe so did the pressure of her spear tip against his chest. Looking at her position she was obviously capable of applying enough strength at any moment to go through his heart and out the back of his armor in one thrust.

"Fine, I admit defeat. Follow us into the fort and I'll show you to my commander. But don't think this is over, I'll return this humiliation to you twofold!"

The Captain leapt back up onto his waiting Lynmurku and turned around without giving any kind of signal before trotting back to the gate of the fortress at a fast pace, trying to give Yun some trouble.