Summer Competition 7 : The battles continue

The second day was upon the contestants. Xiao Wu and his lackeys were leading in terms of overall cores because he had pushed them without letting them sleep using lesser Qi replenishment pills. They were finally in a layer where Tier2 beasts started appearing. Red-scaled Nagas were spotted leading small hunting parties of Tier1 Nagas.

Xiao Wu cleverly distributed antidote pills to all of his followers and set up ambushes for the hunting parties. Sometimes it would work and after having sneakily killed the Red scaled naga, they would slaughter the other Nagas, but sometimes the monsters would detect the ambush and it would become a battle.

Xiao Wu was the only one who was in the Qi Condensation realm among them so he would lead the charge and then the others would attack the Red scaled naga coordinating with each other. Their tactics served them pretty well as they carefully moved through the slightly deeper levels on the second day.

***

Luo and the others also came upon the Red scaled Nagas with their hunting parties. Hao Qi's 'Hymn of the Bangers' did not effectively work on the Red scaled Nagas, so Luo and Hua Geming coordinated their attacks, Luo with his Qi palm attacks and Hua attacking with his sword.

They agreed to do this in the starting to accumulate experience through combat and once they started seeing the movement patterns and attack patterns of the Red scaled Nagas , they started to up the challenge and fought with the monsters one on one.

The rest of the Tier1 monsters would be left for Xun to kill and collect the monster's cores from, as Hao Qi's Hymn worked on them.

Luo developed a strategy to use Tier2 Qi's like Fire and Wind on his different arms and then would alternate between strong damaging attacks and luring in the Nagas to fight him while he dodged, trying to sap away their energy and then finally killing them.

Hua Geming had a whole other game plan. He started challenging the Red-scaled Nagas instead of taking advantage of the element of surprise when it was presented to him. He would understand what the monsters' limits are by trying to parry his attacks and after a while once Hua understood their limits, it would be a matter of seconds for him to find the holes in their defense and then to stab them, killing them.

Everything was going on at a comfortable pace, even the Tier2 monsters were falling for the tactics of different teams as well. Luo headed the team in a direction where they had remembered seeing a lot of monsters when they attacked Luo on his first time in the forest.

Suddenly 5 Red scaled Nagas jumped out from their positions high in the tall trees that surrounded Luo and the others . They had been lying in wait for any trespassers. "All of them are Tier 2 brother. What do we do?" Xun'er exclaimed.

Luo immediately organized them by barking out orders according to what he thought would be the individual strengths.

"Hua, take the 2 on the left ; Xun and Hao take the one on the far right. I will take the rest of the 2 Nagas."

Hua understood and immediately began a series of attacks on his targets. He kept them occupied by using swift strikes, alternating between them but it was not hurting them, only keeping them occupied. Luo was in the same boat as well and only managed to occupy the 2 Red scaled Nagas striking with swift spear thrusts.

He did not get the time to use any of his Tier1 Qi techniques because of the swift attacks and only kept them occupied on him using his physique. The status quo depended on the battle that Xun and Hao Qi were fighting against the last Red-scaled Naga.

Hao knew that her 'Hymn of the Bangers' would not work on this Naga as he was too amped up to listen and get engrossed in any music. So she came up with another plan and directed Xun to make the Naga mad. Xun obliged and started teasing the Naga with insults and throwing rocks on his face and then spitting on him all the while dodging his attacks.

With such humiliation , the Naga was enraged and let out a shrill cry. Hao Qi seized this moment and started playing another one of her melodies called the 'Hymn of Rage'.

With each passing allegro, the Naga seemed to lose control of all reason and started swinging and thrusting broadly at anything within the range. "Luo, force one of your targets over to this Naga!" Hao Qi yelled. Luo looked over at her and understood her plan.

He punched one Naga and stunned him and in the meanwhile he pivoted and kicked the other Naga with a roundhouse kick, right into the direction where the raging Naga was. As the Nagas collided, the raging one started attacking the other Naga, buying Luo enough time to perform one of his stronger attacks on his remaining target.

Luo stunned him and wrenched away his spear and with mighty force lodged the spear through the throat of the Naga and it slowly fell to its knees and stood in a kind of kneeling pose with the spear supporting his weight against the ground.

Luo then immediately took out 4 of his 10 Qi stones and then poured Yin and Tang Qi essence into them. It cost him a whole drop of his Primordial Chaos Qi to do this. He threw the Yang stones and then the Yin stones aimed at the Yang, after a delay, just like he had used with the trolls earlier ; his 'Qi stone throw' technique, to put it in short.

The stones caused an explosion and just like earlier nothing was left of the upper halves of the 2 Nagas.

Luo picked up the spears of one of the fallen Nagas and then with a burst of speed rushed towards one of the Nagas which Hua was keeping occupied. It had its back to Luo, which he used to his advantage and jammed the spear through its back.

Hua seized this moment to dodge an incoming attack from the last standing Naga and then did a half moon arc as he jumped backwards into the air. When he was right at the top of the Naga that had attacked, he stabbed the Naga , crushing its skull and penetrating it with his sword down to its throat and then pivoted right before landing, which pulled out his lodged sword.

It was a great feat of finesse and Hua acted as such. He swiped the sword in air to clean it of blood and gore and sheathed it behind his back.

Now they all breathed sighs of relief and after they caught their breaths, moved on to collect the bounty from the slain Nagas.

But just as they were about to finish collecting the monster cores and Luo, his Qi stones, a huge snake monster , its upper body that of a Naga and the lower body of a snake slithered into view and let out a shrill sound that resonated throughout the area.

Its upper body was around 10 feet tall and the tail part was even longer. It was a Tier3 monster, the leader of the local Nagas.

Luo immediately shoved Hao Qi and Xun back and then climbed one of the tallest trees while yelling "Hua, buy me some time for an attack and as soon as I attack, hit the same spot with your strongest technique."

Hua nodded and then threw a few rocks at the monster's face to get its attention. He had its attention and as it attacked trees in the surrounding area started falling as the attacks that Hua dodged landed on them.

Luo took some time and moved Yin and Yang Qi into each of his palms, nearly 2 drops worth. It was going to be a big attack, but this was the limit his body could tolerate now without being torn down by then Yin Yang Clap. It also worked when he attacked the same spot on the opponent with both Qi's at the same time.

Luo waited for the monster to hit a tree and slow down and when he got his chance he dropped down from where he was hiding, in a headfirst dive, with his palms to his side. Just as the monster's back was in range, Luo extended his palms and struck the heart area from the monster's back at the same time.

The Qi flowed from his body into the same spot and as they started to mix, Luo pushed off of the monster with his legs away from a concentrated explosion of Qi that peeled off the hard scales on his back and gouged out a layer of flesh from there as well.

The monster growled in pain, and started to flit in pain. Hua meanwhile, gained on the monster's back and started to focus his Qi into his sword as the blade lay drawn to his side. In a solid stance with legs bent and arms folded, ready to push the sword deeper at the moment of contact, he accumulated as much Qi as he could into the sword and then jumped at awesome speed , to attack the monster at the same spot that Luo had; at the glaring mass of flesh that showed from the attack earlier.

He uncoiled at the last moment and his sword was propelled by all of the speed that he could gain. He was flying true , and the sword plunged through to the monster's heart through the spot that was attacked.

The monster yelled and shrieked in pain and was being fitful in its death throes. Hua still held onto his sword lodged into its back, even as the monster swung one way and the other to try and throw Hua off its back.

"Try to hang on, it doesn't have that long. " Luo yelled and he was right. After a few moments had passed, the monster just dropped to the ground, devoid of life. Hua dislodged his sword and sheathed it in his back after cleaning it.