Trading Blows

The dagger was a viciously curved weapon, oozing with a venomous qi. In fact, simply holding it was damaging the meridians around Luo Shuchang's left hand, but he would worry about that after he took care of Chen Liwei, continuing to push qi into the tip of the blade.

At this time, Chen Liwei had closed the distance, raising his mace for a final, desperate attack.

"Die, brat!" he yelled out, blood dripping from his numerous wounds. The tip of his mace shone brightly, heralding the deadly strike about to be unleashed.

Luo Shuchang chose this moment to rush forward, himself, cutting off the channeling of his sword technique and raising his sword to meet the mace before it fell.

Chen Liwei's mace almost instantly destroyed Luo Shuchang's sword, but the clash gave him just enough time to slip inside of Chen Liwei's range, thrusting the dagger straight through his protective shield and into his ribcage.

"Guaaagghh!!!" Chen Liwei cried out in agony, the dagger's malevolent qi tearing through his body. At the same time, he pulled back and swiped at Luo Shuchang with his still glowing mace, grazing his shoulder.

Luo Shuchang bit down a pained grunt, getting flung backwards by Chen Liwei's glancing blow. He had used almost all of his qi with that last attack, and so was slow to dodge the mace. Dirt and grass went flying as he rolled along the ground, finally coming to rest a few dozen meters away.

"Haah, *cough*."

Struggling to raise himself to one knee, he wiped a trail of blood streaming down out of the corner of his mouth. He tried to get up to his feet, but collapsed back onto his knees, Chen Liwei's qi strike having caused havoc to his meridians.

"You... Damn... Brat!!!"

Chen Liwei, on the other hand, merely stumbled backwards, ripping out the dagger embedded in his chest and tossing it to the side. Staggering about like a drunkard, he slowly made his way over to Luo Shuchang, refusing to fall, just yet.

"Damn... What manner of weapon..." he muttered weakly under his breath, hobbling over to where Luo Shuchang struggled on the ground. The dagger's qi was like a poison, draining away at his life force, and he could feel his vision blurring as the seconds passed.

Still, he pushed on, intent on killing this impertinent pest!

Shuchang could only watch as Chen Liwei came closer and closer, steadying his breathing to get his injury under control, but it didn't look like he'd be able to move before Chen Liwei finished the job.

Had he finally made a fatal miscalculation? He had really underestimated Chen Liwei's tenacity!

After a few agonizing moments, Chen Liwei finally stood before the kneeling Luo Shuchang, raising his mace into the air for one last strike.

"Quite impressive, brat," he spat out between heaving breaths, "But it looks like your luck has run out!"

He screamed out in triumph as he brought down his mace, but right before it could connect, he felt himself suddenly go flying as a hard, metallic object smashed into his face.

"Sorry to interrupt!" Ryker, who was now brandishing the Sturdy Iron Cudgel beside Luo Shuchang, said with a cheeky grin.

"Ryker!" Luo Shuchang managed to exclaim, looking up at the tall figure that had just saved his life. He'd really lucked out in inviting him!

Ryker stood in front of him with a smile, looking to where Chen Liwei lay crumpled on the ground.

"Yo, Twin. Looks like you needed some help?" he said, still warily keeping an eye on their opponent. That last strike felt like he was hitting a mountain face, his hands still shaking slightly from the recoil.

This guy might be a little tough?

"You... Bastards..."

Sure enough, Chen Liwei picked himself up from off the ground, a dense aura of qi beginning to pour out of him like water.

"Hehe... Since you've pushed me this far... I suppose I have no other choice but to take you down with me!"

With a bestial shout, the dense qi surrounding him started surging violently, rolling off of him in waves. He could feel the poisonous qi invading his meridians; he would probably be dying, soon.

If that was the case, he would make sure these two died, with him!

Even without any knowledge on how to use his spiritual sense, Ryker could feel the pressure Chen Liwei was giving off rising, instinctively putting up his guard.

"Ryker, be careful!" Luo Shuchang shouted, "He's detonating his Golden Core!"

"What's that supposed to mean--" Ryker started to ask, but before he could finish his question, Chen Liwei suddenly appeared in front of him, swinging his mace with abandon.

Ryker hastily moved his staff to block the attack, just barely parrying the strike as it sent him flying into a tree. He didn't even have time to recover before Chen Liwei rushed up again, intent on taking his head with a horizontal swing.

The tree behind him exploded into splinters as he ducked the attack just in time, and he tried to rush in and tackle Chen Liwei to the ground. However, it was like trying to uproot one of the gigantic trees in this forest, Chen Liwei not budging an inch as he grabbed Ryker by his hood and flung him away like a rag doll.

At this point, Luo Shuchang had recovered from his injury enough to be able to move again, grimacing in pain as he moved to assist Ryker. The venomous qi from his Black Fang Dagger was definitely working, seeing as Chen Liwei was desperate enough to detonate his core.

Now they just had to survive long enough for him to succumb to his wounds.

As Ryker crashed into the thick underbrush, Luo Shuchang rushed over to pick him up, throwing him onto his feet and getting into position beside him.

"Don't die," he said simply, having no time to converse with Chen Liwei already flying straight at them.

"Didn't plan on it," Ryker shook his head and replied with a grin, brushing off some dirt.

The two of them split and ran in two different directions as Chen Liwei closed in, forcing him to choose who to go for. He of course chose to pursue Luo Shuchang, quickly overtaking him as he flew through the air.

Ryker saw Chen Liwei go after Shuchang and quickly doubled back, using the Profound Wind Walking Technique to try and catch up. Still, it was hard for him to gain ground on the flying Chen Liwei.

Luo Shuchang also noticed the pursuit, and mustering up the last of his qi, he performed a quick series of spatial teleports to reverse directions and get around behind Chen Liwei, running past Ryker in the process.

Chen Liwei growled and turned back to continue his pursuit, but he first had to face Ryker, who was gathering qi and mana at the tip of his staff.

"Heads up!" Ryker shouted, utilizing a spear-like move from the Fierce Yaksha Cudgel Technique and sending a vicious thrust at Chen Liwei's abdomen, putting all of the momentum from his charge into it.

Chen Liwei went flying back from the blow, crashing straight through a tree on his way. When the dust settled, however, he simply got up and roared angrily, looking no worse for wear.

"Guess that didn't work," Ryker said, sweating, and he quickly high-tailed it out of there to go catch up with Luo Shuchang. Chen Liwei just roared out in anger again, flying after them.

"So, what's the plan from here?" he asked as they ran, still in disbelief that his full power strike did little more than to make Chen Liwei even angrier.

"We play keep away until his core detonation runs its course," Luo Shuchang replied, panting heavily, "His power is greatly increased, right now, and even his life force has gotten an upgrade, so we'll find it hard to kill him."

"Once his core has fully detonated, however, he'll lose all his cultivation and succumb to his wounds."

"How long you think we got?"

"Maybe five minutes."

Ryker clicked his tongue and looked back over his shoulder, seeing Chen Liwei slowly gaining on them.

He could probably outrun him for five minutes on his own with the Profound Wind Walking Technique, but that would mean leaving Luo Shuchang, who seemed to be running out of steam, behind.

Thinking to himself for a moment, he eventually turned to Luo Shuchang and spoke.

"Hey, you keep running," Ryker said, switching out the Sturdy Iron Cudgel for his Snow-Rimed Sword, "I'll distract him for a bit."

"You're not thinking of sacrificing your life here, are you?" Luo Shuchang asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow. Surely he wasn't carefree enough to give his life for a complete stranger?

"'Course not," Ryker replied, grinning, "Two things I'm good at: causing trouble, and not dying!"

Giving him a thumbs up, Ryker turned to face down the approaching Chen Liwei, imbuing his sword with sword qi.

Although the Fierce Yaksha Cudgel Technique was technically a higher grade technique than the Life Severing Sword Art, the sword qi he obtained from the Frozen Sword Lotus put his sword techniques at a higher level, for the moment.

Concentrating on his sword, he quickly began to wind the strands of sword qi together, creating thicker and thicker bundles of it.

'Embryonic sword momentum?' Luo Shuchang thought to himself in astonishment. That wasn't something a Qi Gathering cultivator should even be close to comprehending!

Ryker's limit at the moment was 16 strands per bundle, though Bestie had mentioned 108 were needed for it to be considered true sword momentum. Still, most Foundation Establishment experts could only utilize single strands of sword qi, not to mention those in the Qi Gathering realm.

"You think such a flimsy sword momentum can stop me?!" Chen Liwei shouted as he charged, genuinely surprised this newcomer could manipulate sword qi to such an extent while still being in the Qi Gathering realm.

However, that didn't mean anything in the face of overwhelming power!

"Heh, we can give it a try!"

Ryker brandished his sword and swung straight at the neck of the fast approaching Chen Liwei, seemingly abandoning all of his defenses to strike a killing blow.

"Shit!"

Chen Liwei instinctively pulled back, avoiding Ryker's sword by a hair's breadth. Even with an embryonic sword momentum, he could feel that the strike would have sliced clean through his defense, though his own mace would have killed him, in turn. Was this guy crazy?

'No, I'm the one who's already resolved to die! Why am I avoiding his attacks?' he thought sullenly.

He should have gone ahead and traded killing blows with him; was this guy banking on his instincts being sharp enough to instinctively avoid it?

Ryker's plan was actually a lot simpler than that: he'd go for the kill, and take a hit in return if he needed. Judging from Chen Liwei's previous strikes, he figured he could at least take one. And they only needed to hold out for a few more minutes, right?

"What, getting cold feet, already?" Ryker teased, sensing Chen Liwei's hesitation and going for another killing strike.

The Life Severing Sword Art lived up to its namesake, containing a plethora of killing blows. The only issue was that it would be hard to perform a lot of its movements without giving up an opening, but that didn't matter if you could take the hit. At least, that was Ryker's line of thinking.

Chen Liwei grimaced, seriously considering whether to match Ryker's resolve and take them both out, right here!