Chapter 13: Shock and Awe

"And its over!" shouted the announcer as I walked away from Tang Mao having just released him from my threads that bound him. "Winner Mr. Xie... In his first match he shows a stunning display defeating an opponent three ranks above him." The announcer chattered on. As I began moving towards the edge of the ring a series of comments from the audience caught my attention.

"Loser... why did I beat on you" one person cried. "Lost to a newbie... your pathetic" came from another. "Hey trash Mao why not just quit as a fighter." shouted one. "Trash Mao, Trash Mao, Trash Mao!" the nickname caught on as more and more of the audience began to chant his new nickname. 

It was oblivious that the comments were getting to him as Tang Mao's breathing became hard his face turned to rage and a vicious bloodthirsty glare marked his face. His glare was first aimed at the audience not that they could see it but then it settled on the back of his opponent "It's not over" he said " I haven't lost" he continued. With a lunge he shot towards his former opponent 'Mr. Xie' summoning his martial spirit and with a final jump he swung his claws aiming for the neck all while releasing a bloodcurdling scream. 

Hearing the scream I turn to see Tang Mao lunging for my throat and in quick response I summon my martial spirit. Ever since I acquired my second spirit ring it had always been my opening move in fights mostly due to the fact it was my only option at the moment but that hadn't stopped a habit from forming. Moon blade covers my lance and with no time to launch it I instead shove my lance at Tang Mao. Realizing his situation Tang Mao tried to activate his second spirit ability to phase through the incoming attack but unfortunately for him in the heat of the moment he had forgotten how little spirit power he had left. 

With a sickening sound along with plenty of gasps from all people there be they the audience, the announcer, myself and most notably or painfully Tang Mao who had been pierced through the chest by my lance. With his blood running down my lance and his face so close to mine that his eyes bore into mine but all of that was secondary compared to a familiar feeling rushing through me. 

Oh how I longed for this feeling again so much that some night were spent sleepless thinking about it and with it came the same improvement to my cultivation as what had happened the first time thought this time it was notable more powerful. I could feel my cultivation improve rising to rank twenty three with ease and my mostly depleted spirit power refilled at an accelerated rate. 

It took a few moments for me to return to my senses as I lowered Tang Mao's body down onto the ring lying him out and quickly moving to the side as spirit master from the great spirit arena swiftly appeared on the arena one standing by me as another checked Tang Mao's body originally truing to heal him but stopping shortly after stating that he had already passed away. 

Following that Tang Mao's body was covered in a cloth and taken off the stage as I was ushered off the stage by the other expert of the arena while the announcer tried to calm down the crowd. Deaths at the great spirit arena weren't exactly rare but those cases were usually during the match not when a fight had already ended. 

Zhong Guozhi rushed up to me once I was released from the expert who brought me back from the ring. Giving me a quick once over checking for any injuries before yapping my ear off about how shocking that fight was or more precisely what happened after the fight. But all of that didn't matter to me as my thoughts hadn't changed since the moment Tang Mao died. With the event recreated I was no longer guessing blindly in the dark as to what it was and how to do it. All I need to do was try and recreate it under controlled conditions and then life would be golden.

Wanting nothing more than to do just that I hurried to leave claiming that the death of my opponent had affected me. Zhong Guozhi was more than happy to oblige and left with me intent on returning to Shrek. I could understand why as while he was concerned for me I knew he was also wanted to focus on his cultivation. Zhong Guozhi already had his silver fighter badge and was only lacking the rank forty cultivation to graduate so the more time he could spend focus on cultivating the better for him. 

Once we had made it back to the academy we were greeted by the vice principle Zhao Wuji. He was notably short and extremely muscular to an almost grotesque point with broad shoulders and a large attention grabbing tattoo on his torso. I had originally met him shortly after my test against Zhong Guozhi but it was only briefly as he had gone for a trip back to his home town for some reason. When we passed him he had questioned us about our early return, it turns out that I was suppose to spend most of the day at the arena participating in fights in order to gain experience but after explaining what had happen he let us off the hook and judging by the look on his face he probably thought it was my first time killing someone. 

I had originally intended to rush out to try and test if I could recreate the event that boosted my spirit power but having returned and calmed down I instead choose to focus on cultivating as in my current heightened state my progress was gonna to considerably better and if it was like last time then after the supposed 'high' ended I would enter into a 'down' period. It would be best to make use of the chance I had now to cultivate and wait for an opportunity to test my hypothesis about what had happened at the ring. The best time to test would obviously be when no one from Shrek was watching or at the spirit arena where I could get away with killing my opponent.