chapter 26 Round 3

After our conversation I sat down and refilled my own primeval sea essence and the primeval sea essence inside of beggar moth gu.

After that I reevaluated my last match, Celine's killer move was simply to dangerous. She could literally bypass most defensive gu and put people to sleep. My variant self had to put actual effort to wake me up, I see why Initel wasn't confident that I could win. That killer move reminded me of the story's lead soul into dream.

This might not be the stories gu world but a certain saying definitely still applies to this one. Everyone is a side character and a main character in this world. I have to be wary of everyone who knows what type of genius I could run into.

This competition is proof of that saying, Heck even I'm considered a genius, and yet I still feel so weak and insignificant. At first I thought it was because I had some type of inferiority complex, since lots of people have told me that I doubt myself too much, but now I don't think it's that. I truly know myself otherwise I wouldn't have been able to refine self gu. Perhaps me underestimating myself is because I subconsciously understand that I may be a main character in my eyes but to the world I know I'm a side character as are all others.

I felt like I was on the verge of understanding something but no matter how hard I tried to understand what. I couldn't grasp it, as if it was something on the tip of my tongue. I'll dwell on this later for now I should worry about my next match.

I shouldn't take any risks once my next match begins I'll immediately bring out my featherman self to aid me and probably my human self to distract my opponent. Of course I'll also equip myself with my bow and arrows and a spear and a metal bat. I learned from my previous fights that it's best to also give my variant selfs well stored gu. That way I can hide and get tools from them without exposing myself.

After preparing myself for my next match I tried once again to understand what I was on earlier, but I made no progress sadly even with the help of self-being wills I seemed to hit some wall. While I was thinking so I was brought into a hot rocky terrain. Looking around I saw a large crater in the distance with smoke coming out from it, am I in a volcano terrain now.

Looking around even more I saw my soon to be opponent. She was a dragonwoman with ash grey hair and black horns. Facial wise she was beautiful but then again from the few dragon men I've seen all of them had incredible good looks. She had a thin slender build but I couldn't tell what her height was because she was riding a beast.

It was a large bull but it was weird to look at for some reason. At first I thought it looked like a zebra being white and black, but as i looked closer I could see the black moving all over it. Only the white remained motionless, but it was then that I noticed that the dark marks were not a natural patter but small bulls. As if it were a tattoo that moved on its own. Was it like a beast that could store other beasts, I know that their is beast tattoos that can store beasts on the user. That way enslavement path gu masters can carry their army around easier.

??? [Ladies and gentlemen our next match has two undefeated competitors. From Lianxi clan the striking Caiji Lianxi who excels in enslavement and lighting path. While representing Hu clan is the rising star of strength path and phantom path. All bets will be final in one minute, as for you competitors you know the drill.]

I summoned my featherman self and gave him my weapons, but before I could even hand him his gu I felt the ground rumble looking up I saw a bull after bull emerge from the black and white bull. More and more came out until the bull was all white with not a speck of black on it, but now their was easily two thousand bulls all over.

These bulls looke very different from the one the came off of. They were a dark purple color so dark that if it wasn't for the fact that when the sun hit them just right and they glimmered purple I would have assumed that they were black. Their horns looked like they were made of hollow glass, but inside of them was electricity.

Well they did say she also specialized in lightning path, did that extend to her beasts as well. As I was about to give my featherman self his gu I felt the hair on the back of my neck go up. I could even smell something acidic in the air, all of this had my instincts flaring.

I fully activated bone scale gu bringing out all my phantoms to use all my whole variant self team. Then I had them cover me as I used harden terrain gu to it max. Just a second later loud thunder rang out.

.... Caiji pov.....

With everything ready I activated my strongest kill move Lightning Bull Stomp. All of the electricity stored in my striking bulls went into the sky forming a large bull leg that stomped on to my opponent.

The lightning blinded me for a few seconds as it struck my opponent, but something was off. Unlike the other two matches where immortals saved my opponents and ended the match. Nothing happened this time all I could hear was the ringing in my ears and my bulls breathing.

That could only mean my opponent is still alive, what are the immortals thinking. Even if he's still alive he must be near death how could they allow this match to continue?

So I hid and watched where he last was, soon the dust settled and a crater was all I could see for a bit, but then a bloody hand gripped the edge of the crater, and burnt figure came out slowly, his whole body was blackened from the lightning strike. With his clothes burned badly into his flesh, I wondered how could he be alive let alone stand up.

As I watched in horror at once used to be a good looking man, his skin started to come back in a visible rate. The melted clothes were pushed away as his skin grew back, even the hair on his head grew back to its original length. Only it was disheveled over his head, as he raised up one hand and gripped his hand into a fist.

Shu[ That....hurt....like hell...]

... back to mc pov.....

Once the lightning struck my variant selfs human shield they barely lasted as I could feel my body regain strength meaning they were destroyed completely, but that thought was completely over shadowed by the pain I felt. I felt like I was thrown into a fire, everything was unbearable, I worried that I would pass out from the pain but soon I felt nothing. Did the lightning fry my nerves sense of pain?

I activated self-reliance gu long ago other wise I think I would have long died. When I could see again I saw that I was in a crater, I climbed out ignoring my pain and saw that Caiji was out of sight, but now all of her bulls horns no longer had the electricity stored in their horns. Did she power that attack with their electricity? Then that means she can't spam that attack let alone use it any time soon.

With my body healing quickly my sense of pain came back and and I could feel everything. From the air touching my exposed flesh to my burnt clothes being pushing out my body. I lifted up one of hands and made a fist, feeling all of the pain as I did so.

Shu[ That.....hurt.... like hell... now it's my turn.]

I took jab gu and brought out my phantoms and solidified my featherman self and handed him his gu. He flew up into the air, but as I did so the bulls all charged at me. Before I could even arm myself a large bull was about to ram me in the chest.

I punched out using jab gu hitting it in its head. It slammed down into the ground with its head becoming mush. I bent down grabbing the dead bulls front legs and started to swing its dead body at the bull that were to close. Then I instructed my featherman self to pick me up to that I wouldn't get swarmed by all the bulls.

He swooped me up and handed me a bag full of spiked metal balls. From up above I started to throw down the spiked metal balls. I didn't even have to aim well since all the bulls were in a large group. I injured several heavily even killing a unlucky few, but just as I started to get a momentum they began to disperse all over.

I was using thermal gu the whole time but I couldn't tell where she was. Well if you won't come out I'll just kill your army. Starting with the bulls that stand out, now that I was up in the air I could see some that stood out. Besides for the white bull their was two large bulls that made the others look like children compared to them. They must be beast kings their was also a large yellow bull that was constantly running around and as it did so I could see sparks pop out. There were some bulls running with it, I could see the sparks be absorbed into their horns slowly refilling the electricity stored in the horns.

Well first off I have to get rid of that yellow bull before she manages to refill enough electricity to use that attack again. My featherman self handed me a spear and flew close enough to it. I aimed my spear and launched it off with the help of jab gu. It flew out quickly but the bulls around it covered it using their own body's to protect the yellow bull.

My featherman self handed me another spear, but before I could throw it I was hit with a lightning strike at my side causing my featherman self to drop me. With the help of self-reliance I was back to peak health, but that was enough time for the bulls to attack me head on.

The strike came from one of the beast kings but instead of attacking me head on it disappeared in to the group of bulls. I punched out killing one of them but two others rammed me from the sides, but with bone scale gu activated their horns couldn't pierce me but it still hurt. I began spamming jab gu and killing bull after bull. I was starting to get covered in their blood, I might be killing a good amount of them but she was stalling for time.

The more time I spent with these bulls meant the more bulls getting charged by that yellow bull. As I was fighting my featherman self came and carried me away. Looks like I should deal with those beast kings first if I want to kill of that yellow bull.

My featherman self handed me brass knuckles and flew me to one of the beast kings. My featherman self held me by the feet as i activated jab gu kicking off his hands. Launching myself at the beast king, but I wasn't done yet I activated jab gu again as my fist hit the beast king in the head.

It's face caved in a bit but unlike the other bulls its head didnt splatter so I activated jab gu again hitting it with my other fist. It's jaw completely fell off of its face while its body fell lifeless. Once it fell some of the bulls nearby went off own their own no longer wanting to fight with me.

Then my featherman self picked me up again and we went after the last beast king. Once again I kicked off of my variant self and launched off towards the final beast king, but this time it wasn't so easy as a bolt of purple lightning hit me mid air. Causing me to tense up and be unable to strike it as it head butted me instead.

I landed into the ground hard and the beast king was quickly on me about to stomp on my head, but as it was it's two hooves were in the air an arrow struck its eye causing it to fall lifelessly. My featherman self strengthened with gu and armed with my best bow was able to strike once it had a clear shot.

It then picked me up and we went after the yellow bull, but as we flew over I felt my hair rise again. My featherman self quickly handed me the gu he had, as I saw a lightning leg of a bull appear in the sky. It striked me before I could even summon my variant selfs to shield me. I was once again sent into a world of pain, but this time it wasn't as bad. I could feel my skin char a bit and my muscles tense up like crazy but this time I could still feel and my skin wasn't as badly damaged. Meaning this attack was weaker than before.

Using self-reliance gu I could feel its healing working faster than the attack injuring me. I landed on the ground at full health and used jab gu to run after the yellow bull. The surrounding bulls tried to stop me but instead of bothering with them I jumped up and kick off of them using them as stepping stones.

I was able to catch up easily and landed on top of the yellow bull. I raised my hands up and was about to slam down when Caiji yelled out.

Caiji[ STOP I SURRENDER!!!]

???[ The winner is Shuidi Zhide Hu!]

I looked over to where I heard Caiji, she was inside of a bull that looked exactly like the rest. The insides of the bull didn't look like innards but like a comfy couch. No wonder I couldn't find her.

As I was thinking I was once again sent into Initel's blank world.

A/N (Check author's thoughts for character information)