Half Year Sect Competition (IV): Tough Opponent

[It is only fools Who wouldn't use every tool in their arsenal to survive. In all that you do give it your all, and try your best. Do not pay attention to aesthetics or act with the intention of making a show, whoever you are, whatever you do; the true sum of a person's action is not how well or how beautiful they act, but it's by how dedicated they are to that action, fight!]

Alex stretched his hand to his back and pulled out a gleaming sliver halberd. A weapon like this was not something he would have ever considered, but he had spent the past month under the supervision of both Laozi and Nezha, trying to master the basics of the spear and the rudimentary spear craft knowledge that Nezha has been trying to impart.

<<<<<<FLASHBACK >>>>>>

"Just like sword, the spear has many forms, in fact you can say that the spear is actually a sub weapon of the staff. It is further divided into the spear itself, a lance, the glaive and the halberd that's in your hand. However there are more forms, like the trident or the Naginata from the land of the rising sun.

The halberd is the most balanced form of a staff, and that's because it has a traditional spear tip and an axe head quite suitable for the chopping moves a normal spear is unable to carry out. Normally the spear only has three basic moves, and that's STAB, SWEEP AND SLASH.

Slash is obviously the hardest as it definitely won't easy slashing someone with a spear as you can with a sword or a knife. It requires a fine degree of control and finesse that if mastered could stretch to the utilization of other weapons. The halberd is an attacking weapon, just like fire it consumes everything in its path, it's much harder to defend with a spear, which is why it's the weapon most suited to the element of fire. Now all you need to do is practice the three basic moves until they're all you eat, breathe and sleep. You will now cultivate the sword along with the Halberd, a spirit King is not a master of a particular method of fighting, he's a connoisseur of the battlefield, sampling everything and giving it back in return."

<<<<<<<FLASHBACK END>>>>>>>>

The halberd was an extendable weapon, due to the way it's made folding in to itself, it was not as strong as others, but never the less it was still a weapon that could cause a lot of damage. Alex pointed the Halberd at the pink haired girl and then shot towards her. His strike was as straight forward as it could get, without him even utilizing any sort of Qi in the process. This was just a testing strike, and his opponent wad more than willing to meet his strike with one of her own.

She moved her body to the left, and let Alex's halberd move past her while she swung her sword towards his neck. Alec already had a momentum going, and it would be hard for him to make a stop and get into a defensive position, which left the only one other option for him. And clutched the shaft of the halberd and transitioned into the a different attacking form, choosing to sweep the sword towards her chest. There wasn't that much of a difference between the two of them, but a hit from the halberd would still cause an injury.

She changed the direction of her sword, facing it upwards as she blocked the strike from the halberd, however the power behind it still pushed her a few feet backwards. But she was not the only one as Alex had to take a step back as well, she was as tall as Alex, but considering Alex was considered somewhat short for a fourteen year old, to the eyes of others, she was a rather demure and dainty little girl.

As far as strength went, they were almost equally matched, the only difference was that het attainments in sword arts was a whole lot more better than Alex, but never the less Alex knew he was much more stronger. So far the only art he had used was (TAICHI) and the other arts from the (SKY PYTHON SERIES), and even with that he had not utilized his full strength so as to avoid killing someone. But right now, it was about to get serious.

All 108 meridians of Alex were already opened and rapidly absorbing Qi, slowly building power into his halberd as the weapon developed a red hue. Alex was just a step away from connecting all his meridians into Qi veins and leading them to his Dantian. If he could do so, he would be able to open his Dantian and store Qi within his body for battle, and the Qi refined in the body was a lot more stronger than the Qi in the world.

But Alex was not the only one with power here, the sword in the hands of the girl also developed a purple hue, and lightening could be seen crackling and sizzling across it's surface. This was the end game now, and they both wanted to bring this fight to an end as soon as possible. The area fell silent for a few moments, and then.

*BOOOM!*

They both shot towards each other, and in barely a second both their weapons smashed into each other in a head on confrontation. Her sword seemed to have gotten faster, but Alex was utilizing the reach of his halberd and keeping away from her and keeping her away from himself. If she got any closer Alex would not be alike to utilize the true power of the halberd and might actually lose the fight. Flashes of red and purple covered the platform as both Alex and the young girl were evenly matched and suppressing each other, and then the girl got angry and lost her patience after one of Alex's strike had moved a little too close to her face.

"PURPLE LIGHTNING SWORD ART: BLACK CLOUD DESCENDS"

The sword in her hand suddenly dimmed as purple lightning on it turned black with wisps of black fog gathering around it. She swung the sword and giving how close she was to Alex, a cloud of black lightning slammed into his halberd, went past his defense and smashed in his chest, throwing him backwards and into the air, all the way to the edge of the platform, and with his current momentum, it was obvious that Alex would soon be thrown off.

Alex himself was not in good shape as the massive amount of electric volts that ran through his body shook him and left severe injuries on and within his body. He blacked put for only a second before coming too and flipping himself in the air, then he stabbed down with his halberd that luckily he still held on to. The halberd crashed into the platform, raising sparks as it dug a two inch deep furrow in the stone platform, ruining most of the cravings but actually succeeding bringing Alex's momentum to a stop, right at the edge of the platform.

The eyes of almost everyone was wide open as they couldn't help but commend the luck and resilience of Alex. Alex was balanced on the spear with his feet facing upwards and his head down, however his eyes were still on his opponent who was now heading towards him at her maximum speed. Alex furrowed his eyes in annoyance as he flipped down, raising the halberd out of the ground and slamming it towards her head with all of his strength.

She crossed her sword over her head to defend, but the moment the Halberd touched the sword, Alex pulled back, making sure the axe part of his halberd dragged the sword out of her hands and away from her, falling off the platform behind him. Then Alex swung the halberd up in a half moon motion, the entire weapon bursting into flames in the process as green burning flames appeared within the red ones.

(SOUTH SPEAR OF SUMMER!)

The flames blazed as the smashed into the girls body, carrying her all the way to the other end of the platform, then off it and brought her smashing to the ground, a deep cut appearing on her chest as the smell of burnt flesh also ensued. The whole Arena was silent in appreciation to the skill Alex had just shown, and then the voice of the announced was heard.

"Winner of the open meridian realm battle royals, Zhang Xiao Feng!"

There was just a few sounds of modest clapping from within the crowd, so much so that everything was somewhat awkward. Nevertheless it didn't change the fact that Alex won and he was now number one in the open meridian realm. What came next now, was without a doubt the battle between those in the open Dantian realm, and given his previous displays, everyone here knew that Alex was also going to be challenging for that too.

But this was still am awkward situation, a very awkward one. And that's because the girl Alex almost burnt to a crisp, was the granddaughter of the current Sect master, cousin to Alex's own step brother, and betrothed of one of the empire's prince. It stands to reason that everyone here would think Alex was heavy handed because of the rivalry between him and his step brother, but the thing is, Alex had no idea who she wad. But now it seems, he might have poked a hornets nest.