Ch 30 – Fierce but Wise, Ge Dao

A Few Hours Later.

'My opponent is the mysterious new expert, Locus, huh?' A man thought as he slowly walks over to the stage, and heard the loud murmurs of the people around him.

His body was large and muscular like a fierce warrior. Even though he wore a gray martial robe, it can't hide his muscular physique. His skin was dark and bronze in color as if they weren't made from flesh but of metal. His shining bald head and scruffy beard gave him a savage look, yet his calm eyes were unlike his boorish appearance.

His appearance alone made him appear to be a fierce but intelligent warrior, one who knows how to think with his mind and bash with his fist.

"Look, look! It's the Rank 3 expert, Fierce Drill Ge Dao!"

"Sigh, even lone cultivators like him are attracted to Lo Clan, I wish I was also a part of this clan."

"Having a super force backing you really is convenient, huh?"

"You get access to a lot of Gu and knowledge from birth, how envious it is."

As many whispered and murmured to one another, Ge Dao, the famous Fierce Drill, walks up to the stage and surveyed the area around him.

As a lone cultivator, Ge Dao is similar to members of the demonic path and has lived a life full of hardships and was mostly reliant on himself.

He lived in the wilderness and traveled from one place to another, sometimes barely surviving encounters against fierce beasts and other wandering cultivators.

With his age and experience, he has cemented his reputation as an expert amongst Rank 3, but due to his savage lifestyle, he finally decided to make a change and planned to join a righteous force and leave his status as a lone cultivator.

With this lucky opportunity given by Lo Clan, he decided to join in hopes of garnering their attention and becoming an external elder. If he does succeed, he'll finally be able to enjoy a more luxurious life filled with benefits and ease.

After ingraining the terrain of the stage into his mind once more so as to minimize the risk he would face while fighting, he saw a cloaked figure appear from the distant hallway connected to the circular walls of the colosseum-like building.

'A relatively tall frame compared to the normal person, but still smaller compared to me. Due to his cloak, and the mysterious black gas that covers his body from head to toe, one can't infer much about his physique. But his display of strength as a swordsman and how he can tug Lo Ehuang to fly towards him shows that he is in no way physically weak.'

From a glance, Ge Dao hurriedly analyze as much as he could from the mysterious expert.

'He walks slowly without any care in the world, showing his confidence in his own strength. Even if he knows that he would fight me, I can't sense an ounce of fear from him. But many Rank 3 experts have the ability to hide their fear already and portray a sense of fake confidence to intimidate the enemy.' Ge Dao calmly observed and finally felt Locus' weak Rank 2 aura.

'Just like what they said, Locus really does have a Rank 2 aura. This means he has a Gu that can disguise his true aura and showcase something weaker.' Ge Dao summarized, before feeling confused, 'But why? We already know he is Rank 3… Unless he is of higher rank?'

'No, that shouldn't be the case. If he was Rank 4, he could have easily defeated Lo Ehuang, unless he is deliberately handicapping himself. But that's also illogical as it would only result in him increasing his chances of losing, and he is in no way stupid to do that.' Dismissing his question, Ge Dao nodded his head at his opponent as a sign of respect and prepared to introduce himself.

"My name is Ge Dao, and you may know me as Fierce Drill."

"Fierce Drill… That name doesn't really suit a man as intelligent as you. Locus."

As Locus nods his head, he raised his arm clad in black miasma like usual and summoned a black blade.

Seeing that Locus was prepared to fight, Ge Dao takes a deep breath, calms himself, and activates his Gu to form two silver-gray drills around his arms.

'Why don't we change things up a bit this fight and go for the initiative?' Kaleido playfully thought, and his body disappeared in a flash.

Seeing Locus appear right in front of him within the next moment, Ge Dao steadily raised his arm and blocked his blade, and the sound of metal clashing against metal was heard.

As their arms and blade halted in a stagnant state of equal strength, Kaleido lets out a mildly surprised voice, "Oho, you are quite the strong fella."

In the next instance, Kaleido twisted his arm and slid down his blade against the Ge Dao's drill, crouched down, and lunged forward in rapid succession.

Without any worry in his eyes, Ge Dao let the blade near his chest, and as he was about to be punctured by the black blade, activated a certain Gu at the last moment and metallic gray qi covered the area around his chest.

Seeing his blade unable to pierce through the barrier of metallic gray qi, Kaleido senses the danger behind him and through his adept spatial awareness, he "saw" Ge Dao about to hug him tightly and crush him with raw strength.

Unperturbed by this, he crouched down and let go of his blade. With those fluid movements, Ge Dao hugged the blade instead and felt his legs buckle with Kaleido's leg sweep on the ground.

Feeling his body was about to topple down, Ge Dao's body was suddenly enveloped by qi, and a mysterious force seemed to push him forward towards Kaleido even while falling to the ground.

Teleporting away, he saw Ge Dao lunge forward and roll on the ground, standing up with deft actions and looking at him with serene eyes.

'Experienced in close combat, with high reflexes and having low reliance on Gu to be effective in combat. He uses his agile body to deal with a flurry of blows and can dodge attacks in the nick of time even without looking at them. High spatial awareness and reflexes seem to be his way of doing things when it comes to fighting up close.'

In less than a second, Ge Dao lunge forward using the same Gu from before and appeared right in front of Kaleido in the next second.

As his rapidly rotating drill collided with Kaleido's sword, he continued and raised his leg a bit, covered it with a drill, and plunge it down onto the ground.

Web-like cracks rapidly formed and Kaleido seemed to lose his balance, and Ge Dao didn't let go of this opportunity.

Killer Move—Gigantic Drill!

As his metallic gray drill expanded in size, he moved it as if it was as light as a feather and ready to pierce Kaleido's body with it.

Unfortunately, just as he expected, Ge Dao watched as Kaleido's body disappear from his vision in a flash.

Not caring about this, he continued to swing his drill forward, rotated his leg over the brittle ground filled with cracks, and watch as the wind around him formed into a vortex with the rapid rotation of his ginormous drill.

'Oho? So he's using the force of the rotation of his drill to suck me toward it? Even if I were to teleport somewhere else in the stage, I would still be within the vortex and fly toward him inevitably?' Kaleido praised Ge Dao.

'Unluckily for you, such tricks won't work against raw strength!'

Killer Move—Void Slash!

As his blade was coated in black miasma, he felt his body be lifted into and uncontrollably fly towards the eye of the vertex.

Calmly responding to the situation, he swings his sword and shoots forward a sword beam of space toward Ge Dao who was viciously pointing his ginormous drill many times the size of his body to the sky.

In the next instance, Ge Dao's eyes locked with Kaleido, and moving his ginormous drill that was as light as a feather, he points it at Kaleido and uses another killer move.

Killer Move—Fierce Drill Rush!

As his ginormous drill gets coated in metallic gray qi, his body lunges forward at immense speed and faces the fearsome void slash that was shooting toward him without any hint of fear in his eyes.

'While having a larger number of Gu doesn't mean it would always make a killer move stronger, it still is the norm. If we compare our killer moves' raw strengths, then mine would surely be stronger as it uses four Rank 3 Gu in total!'

Just like he planned, his drill pierces through the void slash and continued moving forward towards Kaleido.

'I know that he would just teleport away as usual to dodge the attack, but this is where this all ends!' Ge Dao's eyes gleamed with an ominous light, and he activates a fifth Gu!

For mortal Gu Masters, using four Gu for a killer move is already impressive, and now Ge Dao is going to use five!

'If the activation of this killer move fails, then I'll suffer a huge backlash, but if it works…' Ge Dao's eyes flashed with resolve and he gritted his teeth, 'Then I'll win this fight!'

Swinging his hand forward, he couldn't hold in the pressure and grunted loudly, "HA!"

As the drill detached from his arm, he watched as it exploded forward with faster strides like a rocket. It spun faster like a flying drill missile, and he watched as it charged toward Kaleido at breakneck speeds.

When he saw the faint black light appear in front of the drill, even if his vision was blocked by it, he knew that Kaleido already teleported.

'Because of the ginormous size of the drill, it would make it so that the only places Locus can teleport to is either behind me, to my right, or to my life. Add the fact that the ginormous drill's rotation speed increased, meaning the vortex around it became stronger, and teleporting to either my left or right would still mean Locus would have to worry about flying off into the air.' Ge Dao's muscles bulged with strength and power, and he rotated his entire body for a full 180 degrees.

From his right arm, a drill manifested, and right in front of him, he saw the body of Locus appear from the burst of black light.

'With those series of conditions set in place, the only place he can pick is to be behind me!' Ge Dao grinned, and thought, 'The victory is mine, Locus!'

But just as he was about to use his movement type Gu once again and end the fight once and for all, he heard a low chuckle enter his ears, along with an ominous voice, "Against unimaginable power, what can tricks and schemes do?"

With horror in his eyes, Ge Dao watches as Locus calmly raises his sword and swings it.

In front of him, he saw that it was as if space itself seemed to have been split into two, and an intense feeling of pain erupted from his chest down to his stomach.

'H-How! His Killer Move and continuous teleportation should have drained his primeval essence already, and even if he does have enough primeval essence, how come he is still able to use another killer move with such ease? He has faced near-death so close already, his mental energy should have been exhausted!'

As his consciousness slowly drifted away, he stared at the figure clad in darkness with deep fear in his eyes and muttered, "M-Monster…"

Plop.

His body dropped to the ground. Scarlet blood dyed the area around him, and Kaleido watched coldly before turning his body and walking away from the stage.

But as he did so, he paused for a second and said, "Still, I can't help but commend you for your intellect and scheme, Ge Dao. Unfortunately for you, my schemes just run much deeper than what your brain could ever think of."

'Perhaps in a couple of million years, you'll understand what I meant.'

AN: This chapter has 2071 words.

Remember the title of this volume? Space, Time, and Gu?

Yeah, you better pay attention to some of the time-related words because Cuttlefish That Loves Diving making me wanna foreshadow some stuff.

But other than that, Ge Dao is my attempt at portraying an experience fighter's thought process and how they create schemes in a fight.

(January 30, 2023 – 431st day of writing)