Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 3. An Uncontrollable Power. (Part II)

“Come on, let’s fight!” Laien shouted merrily and withdrew his white spear from the black gold interspatial ring on his right hand. He didn’t use Qi to enhance his voice, however, so the only person who heard his words amongst the clamor was Anatis… and one other; the crimson-haired, crimson-eyed man, Nix.

Meanwhile, the spectators were beginning to express their opinions of Laien’s actions through loud, Qi-enhanced shouts.

“He’s going to fight him? Isn’t he just another inner disciple?”

“Maybe the one who died was his friend; such a rash decision,”

“He’s throwing his life away, so foolish,”

By the looks of it, most of them appeared to be pitying Laien. They could sympathize with his loss, but they weren’t about to cheer him on just because his motive was righteous.

It was only natural, though. The people of the south tended to be heavily down to the ground and even slightly cynic. They revered the strong, but they disliked indulging in the foolishness of the ‘heroic actions’ from the tales.

Were Laien to bide his time, train to get stronger and then seek to get revenge, they would have strongly admired his decision. However, they wouldn’t support the foolishness of trying to pick a fight with this monster from the Twin Phoenix School on the spur of the moment.

But of course, there were some people who had different opinions. For example, the fifty plus disciples of the Red Dragon School who were aware of Laien’s identity.

“Ha, what do you know!” one of them shouted haughtily, strengthening his voice with Qi. “Just wait and watch, you will see how strong he is!” the youth declared loudly, but at the last second decided not to reveal who Laien was on his own. Since Laien and Siana were hiding their status, it wasn’t up to someone like him to reveal their identities and either way, it would soon become very apparent who Laien was.

“Yeah, for sure,” the older of the two Core Disciples of the Twin Phoenix School spoke up with a smirk on his face.

“I am sure we will see how the bumpkin from your school gets his ass handed to him,” he added with a loud, booming laugh and swept the disciples of the Red Dragon School with a disdainful gaze. He wasn’t fond of Anatis, but whether he liked that bastard or not he needed to admit one thing; that his strength was extraordinary.

In a one-on-one duel, even he who was at the middle stages of the ninth mortal realm wasn’t sure if he would be capable of besting Anatis. For some random twelve years old kid from the Red Dragon School to be able to keep up with that bastard? The mere idea was nothing short of a very bad joke.

After this little exchange of opinions, the two groups of disciples naturally got into a huge argument. The atmosphere was beginning to heat up, but thankfully it didn’t look like the two sides would start a random bout in the audience.

“Be sure to fight him properly!” the older of the two young men shouted to Anatis, then laughed to himself as he ignored the quarreling which was going on around him. It was already great to have had Anatis kill one brat from the Red Dragon School, but now it looked like he would be forced to kill another one. Really, this day was getting better and better.

Yet, instead of paying attention to the clamor coming from the spectators, the two twelve-year-olds simply looked at each other from the distance of around ten meters.

“He’s not angry at me?” Anatis wondered in his confusion. “What is this look in his eyes…? It’s not a scornful one, not an uncaring one… and neither a neutral or loving one. What is it?” Anatis felt honestly confused. He had long since forgotten how it felt to have someone look at him in an honest, friendly and merry manner. He couldn’t understand why Laien would ever approach him with an attitude like that after what he had done.

“I received something from you and I hope to get even more,” Laien said wryly, swirling his spear excitedly. “So, feel free to take something from me too, okay?” he encouraged with a smirk, releasing his spiritual energy and covering the spear in his hands with a layer of white, icy mist, transformed by the Principle of Energy and filled with the powerful essence of the Aspect of Tranquility.

“This feeling….!” Anatis held his breath, a light of understanding appearing in his eyes. He had been attempting to suppress the effects of the Aspect of Wrath for years, but couldn’t quite grasp how to do it. He understood that he needed to be calm and to have his mind enter the state of ‘tranquility’, but since his heart had been and still was constantly devoured by the feelings of anger and hatred, he became unable to truly enter such a state on his own.

“It’s only a bit, but now I should be able to keep my mind clear,” Anatis couldn’t help but smile. The next second, he went through the identical process Laien had a moment ago. He first tried to suppress the Aspect of Wrath with Tranquility, but failed to do so; his insights into the Aspect of Wrath were simply too profound for them to be affected when clashing head-on with the bits and pieces of the Aspect of Tranquility. Then, he attempted to merge the two essences to 'calm down‘ the Aspect of Wrath and succeeded on the first try.

During these few seconds Anatis took to make his breakthrough, some surprised voices were beginning to appear amongst the spectators.

“White mist? He isn’t using the Red Dragon Arts? He is wearing clothes of the Red Dragon School though?”

“Another spear wielder, too… just about twelve years old, black-haired boy… it couldn’t be…?”

The more perceptive people in the audience started guessing who this black-haired youth was. Suddenly, even the boy’s rash decision started making sense to them. If that black-haired youth was the one they thought him to be… then they would have a chance to witness an incredible duel…!

“You ready?” Laien asked, having given Anatis some time to comprehend and get used to the new insight he appeared to have gained.

“Yeah,” Anatis smiled and gave Laien a very grateful look. What he needed most right now was personal strength and he received just that. It would be hard to make him feel more satisfied; even the fact that he had killed that inner disciple started mattering less to him.

“So, let’s go at it. I hope to at least establish the first half of the foundation,” Laien said with a wry smile and added the Aspect of Wrath to the mix, instantly causing the spiritual energy around his spear to grow considerably more powerful.

“Spiritual energy and ice, spear wielder, Laien,” Anatis pointed out one thing after another and laughed. He exchanged a meaningful glance with Laien, then after the two of them nodded at each other he released the golden flames of his Scorching Flames Art. The essence of the Aspect of Wrath surged, but with the aid of the Aspect of Tranquility, he managed to retain his senses, though not without effort.

“Scary,” Laien said with a chuckle, already covering his body with a protective layer of spiritual energy. Without it, he wouldn’t even dream to approach Anatis or exchange blows with him. He would have been burned into charcoal in a matter of seconds, especially after the power of Anatis’s golden flames increased due to the Aspect of Tranquility being added to the Aspect of Wrath.

As if by some unperceivable signal, the two of them jumped forward at the exactly same time and attacked each other.

Anatis began by throwing a thrust, while Laien smirked and prepared to send a powerful, although one-handed downwards swipe. Unlike Anatis, he had a large amount of experience in fighting another spear wielder; he had been beaten up by Master Shire enough times to know how to pressure an inexperienced opponent.

Just as he was about to go through with the thrust, Anatis noticed that he would be the one to get hit first and was forced to change his plans. He swiftly moved his spear above his head and met the attack head-on.

The steel clanged against each other and the flames and ice collided, releasing a loud hissing sound as they contested for supremacy.

To Anatis’s surprise, Laien’s magic was equally matched with his golden flames. He knew that creating ice was a high-level spell, but to think it was powerful enough to match the fifth level of his Scorching Flames Art? He had really expected to at least have an upper hand, but their powers appeared to be at the perfect stalemate.

“Let’s see how you deal with this,” before their two spears even separated, Anatis controlled the tongues of golden flames which swirled around his body and sent them at Laien as if they were jaws which wanted to swallow him.

In response, Laien smirked in amusement. Normally, he was the one making his opponent be on guard to sudden attacks from strange directions, but now the tables were being turned on him. However, with neither him or Anatis having an upper hand, how could a simple attack like that work?

The tongues of golden flame hissed once again as the freezing air around Laien’s body came in contact with them. They managed to offer some resistance but ended up breaking apart and dissipating.

Without getting sidetracked by this assault, Laien swiftly pulled his spear back and in a motion faster than Anatis could respond to from his high defensive stance, made a swift thrust at Anatis’s abdomen.

“Damn it,” Anatis cursed wordlessly. In the position he was at, he didn’t even have enough time to attempt a counter-attack to make Laien second-guess himself. He was clearly faster and more agile than Laien, but he still ended up in such a compromising position…! Having no other option, he twisted his body, desperately attempting to dodge the incoming blow.

The blade of the spear just barely missed his stomach but managed to tear through a good portion of his shirt. Subsequently, he felt a piercing, needle-like pain along the thin line of skin which was affected by the frost of Laien’s spear.

Laien continued to smirk confidently as he once again shifted his grip to one-handed one and made two short, quick steps, rotating his whole body to the right and sweeping with his spear horizontally.

Finding himself off-balance after the last hasty dodge, Anatis was once more left with no opportunity to exchange blows and was forced block the attack; what he did with relative ease due to his superior physical strength.

However, after the brief clash Laien did the same thing as before and withdrew his spear without allowing Anatis any time to correct his stance, then delivered another thrust, aiming it around Anatis’s waist.

As a result, another piece of Anatis’s clothing had been torn off him, this time it being a portion of his white pants at the side of his waist.

With the unchanging smirk on his face, Laien continued the seemingly simple series of one-handed attacks followed by one or sometimes, two thrusts of his spear.

Since Anatis was up to the challenge and refused to make some distance, of what he was definitely capable of, he ended up with his clothes in tatters and with quite a few purple-colored frostbites all over his body. He had simply gotten himself into a disadvantage in the very first exchange and continued to suffer due to it and due to how unused he was to fighting another spear wielder.

“Incredible, how can they be moving so fast?”

“Those spears… maybe they are more frightening weapons than we thought…”

“This black-haired kid, he must be Laien! The Great Master Rudford’s disciple!”

“He seems to be winning too, so strong! The Red Dragon School is the strongest after all!”

“Stupid, look again! He is beginning to lose his advantage!”

Due to the overbearing clamor, more and more people were pouring into the arena at a steady pace. By now, around seven thousand people were spectating the duel in great excitement. Most if not all of the people gathered were in awe of the strength displayed by the two young boys, even though they were incapable of realizing how powerful the blows exchanged and how terrifying both the golden flames and the ice mist were.

“They really are monsters,” Nix said in a low voice, just so that only Sin would hear him. “Either of them would be capable of beating an average martial master of the first rank who doesn’t practice a high or top-level martial art. I was a bit skeptical about your idea at first, but it might just work out,” he added, controlling his voice with Qi as to make sure no one would be able to listen in.

“A bit skeptical?” Sin asked and raised an eyebrow. ‘A bit Skeptical’ wasn’t how he remembered Nix acting; wasn’t there something about ‘you won’t even find a chance to approach the strongest disciples of the young generation’?

“Stop with this annoying look,” Nix groaned. “You didn’t talk it out with them yet not to speak of getting the permission of the Great Masters behind those two. Don’t get too ahead of yourself, it never ends well for anyone,” he reprimanded, knowing how hard the Great Martial Schools could be to deal with.

“I know, I know,” Sin said resignedly and shrugged his shoulders. Couldn’t Nix just allow him to be happy for a bit without bringing him down to the ground every time?

Meanwhile, a few meters to the right of Sin and Nix…

“How come… what…?” the older of the two Core Disciples of the Twin Phoenix School mumbled, staring at Anatis with disbelief. “How can he not lose himself? How is he fighting normally?” he uttered, the prospect of Anatis taking a revenge on him becoming dangerously realistic. Maybe not tomorrow and not in a month, but how long would he and his friends be able to stand up to Anatis?

In the Twin Phoenix School, no one would care about you if you were weak. If the person who had been bullied became strong and desired revenge… then as long he didn’t cause the other party to become permanently injured, or of course didn’t kill them, anything would be allowed. It was the law of the jungle! Strong would survive, while weak ones would be weeded out.

“Big brother sure is having fun,” Siana thought with a smile. “I haven’t seen him so happy when fighting in a long time,” she chuckled, wondering if Laien wasn’t showing a bit too ecstatic expression while exchanging blows with Anatis.

The intense fighting continued for a good minute until finally, the two youths came to a stalemate with neither capable of getting any significant advantage.

The reason for that being Anatis had gotten used to fighting against someone who also used a spear, but it didn’t change the fact that he was quite a bit behind Laien in this regard. However, he was making up for the difference with his superior physical abilities.

Sensing that they wouldn’t be able to progress the duel if they continued in this manner, the two of them chose to retreat and make some distance after one particularly heavy clash of their spears. They stopped attacking for a few seconds, all the while looking at each other with equally pleased smiles.

As the two of them fought, it wasn’t only their technique which improved. Both of them were gaining additional insights into their newly gained Aspects at a very scary rate. To make a comparison… it had taken Rudford five years of secluded meditation to get as far into the understanding of the Aspect of Tranquility as Anatis had during the last minute, and Laien’s insights into the Aspect of Wrath weren’t growing at a pace slower than that either.

From that, it could be easily deduced that both Laien and Anatis had a great compatibility with the two Aspects; Wrath and Tranquility. Yet, due to the circumstances in their lives, they had had a hard time making the first step into the second path. Perhaps, it was exactly due to this affinity that both of them had been intrigued with each other the moment they met and instantly felt like fighting it out.

“This much should be enough of a warm-up, right?” Laien asked cheekily. It might have appeared that he and Anatis were going at it with everything they had, but it wasn’t the case. Both his own magic and Anatis’s golden flames appeared to be similar on many levels, including how they were better suited to short, explosive exchanges rather than prolonged, fatiguing fights.

“So we are going all out now?” Anatis replied with a smirk. Laien was totally right; he was capable of using much, much more Qi at once in a short burst of strength. However, would Laien really be able to withstand it?

“You bet we are,” Laien said with a laugh and pulled upon a full force of his spiritual energy, causing the ground below his feet to begin cracking up due to the incredibly low temperature.

The sight and the chill which involuntarily ran down his spine were more than enough to convince Anatis that Laien could match up to him.

“Try to not get yourself killed, seriously,” Anatis mentioned wryly and not hesitating any longer, roused the Qi in his body to its utmost; what resulted in a stream of distorting, scorching hot air rising up from all around his body.

Laien shivered with a mixture of fear and excitement. He could tell that one moment of carelessness on either side could easily end up being fatal, but he had enough experience to be confident in his ability to avoid this kind of a blunder.

The two of them breathed in at the same time, preparing themselves for the final, explosive clash. Everything would be decided in a matter of seconds, in just a few exchanges of blows.