Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 18. Frightening Power of Martial Masters.

Unable to move a muscle, Laien felt strangely defenseless. He smiled at Yin who sat down right next to him, to what Yin also responded with a smile. Thankfully, two spiritual masters quickly approached them and began healing their wounds, what the two of them welcomed with relief.

As the man unknown to him was healing his two major wounds and the light internal damage he had suffered from overuse of spiritual energy, Laien closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He could already feel how his spiritual energy began recovering, allowing him to be able to at least move a little. He still had most of his Qi, after all. He was only feeling so weak because of the fatigue which resulted from using too much spiritual energy at once.

After the man finished healing him after a minute or so, he sat down and glanced at Yin. By the looks of it, the other spiritual master had a harder job to accomplish as he was yet to finish tending to Yin’s left arm.

“Will you tell me now?” Yin inquired with a smile. “What was this thing with Master Einrah? Some kind of a bet?” he asked curiously.

“Ugh,” Laien groaned and scratched his head. “I and Anatis made a bet with Einrah and elder brother that if we don’t both get to the finals, we will need to spend four years being trained in Einrah’s branch of the Twin Phoenix School,” he explained with a sigh, wondering if he would really need to stay there for such a long time.

“It won’t be a problem then,” Yin said with a merry grin. “I don’t really care about winning this tournament, I already got what I wanted. I can just concede my spot in the finals to you and everything should work out,” he said lightheartedly, not fond of the idea of having Laien be confined to one place himself.

Laien shook his head slightly and laughed helplessly. The tournament rules wouldn’t allow for that to happen, but he could probably use it as a bargaining chip and negotiate something else with Einrah. The man seemed to be unexpectedly fond of him, so he didn’t think it would be that hard to change his mind.

“I will see if I can work something out with them, thanks,” he said gratefully, but just then a powerful explosion occurred in the private sector.

Everyone turned their eyes to the cloud of smoke and dust, from which a golden-robed man flew out back-first and landed heavily on the battleground.

“What do you think you are doing, Rudford?!” Einrah shouted furiously, staring at Rudford who jumped down gracefully while keeping his hands joined behind his back.

“Don’t be like that, old friend. Have you not used to be the one who always wanted to fight me at every chance? We’ve got such a nice opportunity, so let’s see if you have the strength necessary to demand anything of my disciple,” Rudford declared with a slight smile. Laien had just shown him an amazing fight like that, so how could he not act to do him a little favor in exchange?

“You lose a bet and now you want to fight over it?” Einrah asked with a laugh. “Very well, come! I will smash you in front of all those people and make you kneel before me!” he yelled back with a broad smile, wildly excited by the prospect of fighting Rudford. He brandished his greatsword and roused his Qi, releasing a murderous aura powerful enough to frighten all the spectators in the audience.

“Take these kids out of there!” he glanced over his shoulder and barked at the two medics, still calm enough to care about the boys’ safety.

“I should have enough energy for that,” Laien smirked and glanced at Yin, then created a platform of water below the two of them and flew over to the large hole in the wall of the private sector.

With the aid of the Aspect of Awareness, he became capable of not only acutely sensing his surroundings but also of adjusting his control over his magic to a much larger degree. Thus, creating a thin but powerful armor of ice directly on top of his body of converging a platform to fly in the air became possible for him.

The moment the two of them landed, Laien noticed Siana looking at him angrily. “Are you trying to kill yourself?” she asked with a clear frown on her face. “First with Anatis, then with this ‘Yin’. Are you going to keep trying to get yourself killed every time you meet someone strong? You are so stupid!” she stated, clearly annoyed with her big brother and after she did, she turned around and sat somewhere far away, refusing to pay Laien any attention.

“Ahaha…” Laien laughed awkwardly. What could he say? He loved to push his limits and contest with other guys of similar strength. He wouldn’t go as far as to get involved in a duel where he would have a high chance of dying or getting crippled, but he also needed to admit that his fights with Anatis and Yin were quite dangerous. However, if he were to compare then the one against Anatis had been worse in this sense… so why was Siana getting so angry now?

“You worry about that later! They are about to start, pay attention!” Sinra called out enthusiastically. He never expected he would get to see two martial masters of Rudford and Einrah’s caliber duke it out with each other and sure enough he didn’t want to miss even half a second of this rare spectacle!

“All martial master of the Heavenly Flame School, with me,” Injar said calmly right afterward and moved to the inner walls of the arena.

The present experts, including the likes of the twin brothers, Carkan and Anna all recognized Injar’s intentions and began placing themselves all over the inner walls. All of them began releasing their Qi and formed a semi-transparent azure protective formation around the battleground. They all knew that if two martial masters as strong as Rudford and Einrah were to fight in a place as small as this Royal Arena, they would end up killing all the spectators. Thus, none of them objected when Injar called upon them to set up the formation.

“What happened here anyway?” Laien asked hurriedly when Anatis, Nila, Alex and her friends joined them to watch the fight together.

“Rudford implied it would be proper to let us get off scot-free since you fought so well,” Anatis replied with a smile. “Einrah disagreed and said he was looking forward to the next four years, after what Rudford chuckled and swept with his arm, smashing Einrah out through the wall,” he elaborated, anticipating this fight more than anyone else.

“You said Rudford is stronger than him, right?” Anatis asked just to make sure. He no longer truly hated Einrah, but he would give much to see him beaten up.

“I told you, didn’t I? Just wait and see,” Laien replied with a laugh and waved his hand, suggesting Anatis to focus on the fight itself.

Rudford smiled confidently, still holding his hands behind his back. He roused his Qi and employed his level nine Dragon’s Body Art, causing a bloody-red armor of scales to form all over his body. He grabbed the hilt of the longsword at his waist and drew the weapon, sending his Qi into the blade which subsequently began glowing with crimson red aura.

Einrah smirked and began transforming his Qi according to the Scorching Flames Art. The golden flames began dancing all over his body, instantly turning the rocky ground below his feet red, just a bit away from turning into magma. The intense heat spread in every direction, only stopping at the azure barrier protecting the Royal Arena from being burned down.

The Red Dragon Arts were known for their ultimate defensive capabilities… the Twin Phoenix Arts were famous for their destructive power. Right now, the two most powerful wielders of each of those arts would face each other! Witnessing this kind of duel… it was a chance of a lifetime!

Rudford smiled, and yet the smile didn’t reach his eyes. On the contrary, his expression was quite scary. “You finally reached the ninth level of your arts, eh Einrah? Let’s see what you can do with them!” he shouted, his sturdy draconic tail flipping about excitedly. It even smashed at the ground once, the mere force of the blow causing the whole Royal Arena to tremble slightly. After executing the Dragon’s Body Art Rudford’s physical capabilities went beyond normal means of understanding.

“Calm down, Serara. We aren’t trying to kill him,” Rudford said barely audibly and swung his longsword lightly. However, despite what he said, the longsword began emanating an even more intense baleful aura all the while causing the Qi flowing through its blade to grow stronger.

“Really, I’m beginning to think your little sister is less rowdy than you,” Rudford laughed at the thought. The brief scene of a young, crimson-haired girl turning her head around and giving him an annoyed look flashed in his mind, causing him to chuckle. It really had been one hundred years since the two of them last engaged in any serious fight, hadn’t it? He couldn’t blame Serara for being overly excited.

Einrah frowned as he watched Rudford talking with his sword. He knew that Rudford was lucky enough to be wielding one of the eighty-one Heavenly Treasures, but actually being reminded of it in a manner like that was making him nothing else but mad. Was Rudford really underestimating him so badly that he thought he had spare time to be chatting with his weapon?

“Fine, have it your way,” Rudford smirked and raised his longsword high up, then swung it down. The distance of forty meters between him and Einrah mattered little as along with the swing, five huge Dragon’s Claws formed in the air and struck straight at Einrah.

Einrah snorted and stuck out with his greatsword, unleashing a torrent of golden flames amongst which dozens of illusory phoenixes formed. For a second, everyone could swear they heard a roar of a dragon and screeches of many phoenixes as the two powerful techniques clashed.

The collision of those two high-level techniques resulted in the two of them intermingling and struggling for about a second until both of them lost their strength and dissipated into a mass of relatively harmless to people like Rudford and Einrah, but incredibly hot mass of flames and hot air.

Unlike when Laien and Anatis fought each other, the basis for both Rudford’s and Einrah’s martial arts was the same; they were both fueled by the fire element. Thus, when two similarly powerful techniques of those Great Masters collided, no explosion occurred. Unless they executed an extremely powerful kind of martial art, the opposing techniques would most often end up canceling each other.

As if signaled, Rudford and Einrah simultaneously rushed into melee. Their weapons slashed at the other with great force, the very first exchange creating a powerful sonic boom and causing the ground below their feet to shatter and crumble.

Rudford smiled confidently and applied more strength to his longsword, pushing Einrah’s greatsword away and in consequence sending the man flying back for good thirty meters. In a direct battle, his Red Dragon Arts were simply superior to Einrah’s Twin Phoenix Arts. Without shying away from using this advantage of his, Rudford charged at Einrah again and forcefully made the battle into one great melee.

Refusing to be forced to use his ultimate techniques just like that, Einrah grit his teeth and despite being pushed back with each blow, kept defending from Rudford’s strikes. Each time he would take a blow head-on, he would be blown away. Each time he would deflect the strength to the side, a dozen meters long tear would be craved in the ground through the mere force of Rudford’s attack.

The commoners who were watching the battle unfold were all quiet, in too much of awe for the power of the Great Masters to be cheering. Most of them could barely see indistinct shadows of the two men exchanging blows, though each time their attacks would wreck the arena they would jump slightly in shock and disbelief.

In comparison, the present martial masters and the talented youngsters who were capable of following the duel with their eyes were almost all covered in cold sweat. This kind of power, those movements… they all knew that no amount of weak martial masters could hold a candle to a truly superior one, but only now did many of them understand how monstrous the difference between them and people like Rudford or Einrah was.

“They aren’t even going all-out, they are only exchanging casual blows,” Anatis said quietly, a shiver of fear running down his spine. Einrah was even more powerful than he had thought… and by the looks of it, Rudford was actually suppressing him!

“Told you elder brother is strong,” Laien said with a smile. He and Siana had seen Rudford and Roderick sparring with each other, they were pretty much aware of how powerful Great Masters were.

Finally, as his hands were beginning to grow numb Einrah unwillingly retreated. He was ready to stop Rudford from keeping close to him… but Rudford stopped, not pursuing him at all. The fact enraged Einrah like nothing else. “How much can he be underestimating me?! He might have finally broken through to the seventh realm like me, but does he think it will make a difference before my flames?!” The Wrath inside Einrah surged at full strength, enhancing his golden flames even further. In the span of two or three seconds, the area in proximity of ten meters from him became so scorching hot that the outer layer of the ground began turning into lava.

Seeing how Einrah was beginning to take the battle seriously, Rudford released his Aspect of Tranquility and filed his Qi with its protective energy. The draconic armor all over his body gained an additional, slight mysterious glow to it. He feared Einrah’s flames no longer… but he needed Einrah to understand that too.

“Hmph, take that Rudford!” Einrah started gathering a great amount of his Qi and pouring it all into his greatsword. He raised the blade over his head, then slashed down and released all the accumulated power at once. A monstrous wave of golden flames erupted forth, scorching the rocks into magma and sending all the air in the battleground surging upwards. The technique swallowed Rudford, then clashed against the semi-translucent barrier of azure flames which shook, but managed to hold as it rebounded the flames which soon spread throughout every inch of the battleground.

“Using so much Qi at once… he is just like you,” Yin said in a low voice and glanced at Laien. Practitioners were generally capable of using at most twenty percent of their Qi in one attack. To go past this limit, one needed to not only have sublime control over his strength, he would also need to have a body capable of withstanding such a burden.

There were, of course, means of ‘preparing’ a large attack through a rare martial art or a long chant of a powerful spell, but those relied on slowly accumulating the power necessary to perform the feat. In battle, the difference between being capable of instantly bursting forth with great power and needing to accumulate it for many seconds was a very large one.

“He is elder brother’s rival from old days, he needs to be strong,” Laien said calmly. Although he had only gained the basic level of understanding into the Aspect of Awareness, he could tell that Rudford was there amongst the flames and that his life force wasn’t diminishing. Thus, he wasn’t worried. On the contrary, he was enjoying the spectacle along with the shocked, terrified, awed and amazed reactions of the crowd.

After about ten seconds, the golden flames began dying down. Everyone was looking for any signs of Rudford’s presence within them, many people worried he might have perished in the golden flames which had turned the whole battleground into one sea of fire and magma. However, a few seconds later they all noticed a figure clad in the blood-red armor of scales standing exactly in the same spot it had stood in before.

“That’s… impossible…” almost all martial masters who saw Rudford couldn’t believe their eyes. They understood better than most how destructive the power of Einrah’s golden flames was, but Rudford had actually… actually withstood them without even being wounded?! This kind of strength… he would definitely be able to compete and stand on the even ground against the three supreme experts of their Kingdom!

“This bastard…” Injar frowned. With Rudford’s defensive capabilities being risen to this degree, he would probably be unable to injure him unless he managed to land a clean hit with his sword. However, with Rudford’s physical superiority… he no longer felt confident in matching this monster. Perhaps only his own master and that old freak would be able to confront Rudford directly and win. Regrettably, martial arts like Twin Phoenix and Heavenly Flame were too bad of a match against Red Dragon Art’s impregnable defense.

Most of the spectators realized that the result of the duel had been decided… but Einrah was too far gone into the anger to just lower his sword. “Haaargh!” he roared madly and leaped into the air, targeting Rudford with a full-strength wide swing of his greatsword.

Rudford sighed slightly and jumped lightly to the side, easily dodging the blow which subsequently smashed at the flowing layer or magma and sent it flying in every direction.

As if he was possessed, Einrah continued with the onslaught of full-strength slashes. Time after time, Rudford dodged the incoming blows, not needing to do as much as blocking or repelling them. After Einrah gave in to the Aspect of Wrath, he lost all his touch and his technique became rough and simplistic. Against crude attacks like that Rudford felt to need to respond seriously.

“Enough,” Rudford said calmly and instead of dodging, raised his hand and caught Einrah’s greatsword. He then swung his longsword casually and cut a deep, serious wounds through Einrah’s stomach.

Seeing how Einrah was being seemingly cut down, the spectators gasped… but the otherwise heavy would on Einrah’s stomach healed almost instantly. The Flames of Rebirth… there existed two ways of killing someone who mastered their ninth level. Smashing the head into pieces, or exhausting the wilder’s Qi. Any other wound would be healed in the blink of an eye!

Yet, Rudford didn’t aim to defeat Einrah down through this attack. He looked the man in the eye, still keeping a sold hold of his greatsword. Luckily, it looked like this little bit of pain brought Einrah more or less back to his senses.

“I lost…” Einrah murmured. From the look in Rudford’s eyes, he could tell his old rival wanted to give him some face… what he reluctantly accepted. The two of them released their Qi at the same time and put their weapons down. This way even though people would speak that Rudford had won this duel, there would be no clear victor and his reputation wouldn’t suffer as much as it would have, had Rudford chosen to beat him up to the point of unconsciousness.

He was a prideful, arrogant person by nature, but he also knew when the time to bow his head was. Holding back his frustration and anger, he withdrew his Qi and put his greatsword away. He exchanged one rather resigned look with Rudford, then headed with him back to the private sector right after Injar and the others released the barrier around the battleground.

Whether he was willing to content or not, the bet between them and the kids had just been made invalid. He respected the argument of strength though, so deep inside he didn’t hold it against Rudford for what he did. He would have done the same if he were in his place.

It took the spectators a long while to realize that the fight has ended. Yet even when they finally did, they didn’t quite feel like cheering and shouting Rudford’s name. Rather, they were filled with quiet veneration and respect, the person of Rudford growing in their eyes to the level of an avatar of Ishtar, the God of war.

Those who still remembered the times of the Great War were all smiling happily. As the saying went, the country was only as strong as its most powerful experts. Truly, against someone of Rudford’s caliber only an expert of equivalent strength would be able to stand up to. Armies numbering hundreds of thousands of solders? Hundreds of weak martial master? The supreme experts were generally able to fully disregard the ‘strength’ of masses.

“Great fight, elder brother,” Laien said with a smile when Rudford and Einrah entered the private rooms through the hold in the wall. As a result, Rudford smiled back at him while Einrah snorted angrily and looked away. He might have accepted losing to Rudford, but he wasn’t happy about it at all.

“I’m sure Einrah will want to have a revenge in a few years,” Rudford brought up, trying to butter Einrah up a little. Their two schools would be working together, after all. He couldn’t have him sulking and refusing to cooperate just because he was salty about losing.

“You damn right I will,” Einrah turned to look at Rudford and retorted, but sighed heavily the next moment. Fine! He wouldn’t be petty and cause trouble to everyone because of it.

“So after the finals we can get out of here, huh,” Laien mused aloud. The only duel left was between Anatis and Yin, which should be quite interesting to watch.

“Actually, I think I’m going to concede the finals,” Yin said with a chuckle, then as Laien and others gave him looks of surprise explained lightheartedly. “My body might have been healed, but the fatigue is still there. I wouldn’t want to fight against Anatis at anything less than my best… and the arena is in this state, too,” he elaborated with a shrug of his shoulders and glanced briefly at the pool of slowly cooling down magma.

“Not to mention I don’t think I would be able to handle any more pain for today,” Yin added with a laugh and exchanged a meaningful look with Laien, who laughed a bit awkwardly.

“Are you certain about this?” Injar asked, worried that Yin would be bitter about forfeiting this chance later.

“Yes,” Yin said simply and nodded his head. He wouldn’t change his mind or regret his choice; he was sure of his decision.

“Fine then, after the awards ceremony…” Injar began saying but got interrupted halfway through the sentence.

“No way we’re waiting for that boring thing,” Laien said with a little smirk. However, he quickly began to wonder if Yin and the others wouldn’t want to stay. He glanced at his friends with a timid question painted all over his face, in response to what all of them smiled helplessly.

“I like showing-off when fighting, but awards ceremonies are boring,” Yin supported the idea, preferring to hang out with Laien than to receive an award before a crowd of people he didn’t know or care about.

“No point staying,” Anatis said and shrugged his shoulders. After what Rudford and Einrah had shown them, the spectators wouldn’t be too interested in cheering kids like them anyway. He would rather have some time to celebrate the outcome of this tournament with Nila and everyone.

“And here you have it,” Alex said with a cute laugh. “None of us is interested, so we should go ahead rest, right?” she added and gave Injar a questioning look. Were they free to go or not?

“Eh,” Injar sighed resignedly. “Fine, go and do whatever,” he agreed despite himself, knowing that Rudford would have forced him to reconsider anyway.

“Great!” Laien exclaimed happily and was about to start a discussion about what where they should go, but just then Sinra spoke up.

“I have had a few things prepared to celebrate your victory, so how about we return to my mansion in the Royal Palace for now?” Sinra suggested, pretty sure that Laien would find those activities enjoyable.

“I can’t wait to see what you’ve got for us,” Laien said with a smirk and gave Injar a bit amused, a bit apologetic look. Would helping them out one more time be too much?

“… Fine,” Injar sighed, wondering when had he become a caretaker of a whole bunch of children. “If you would mind stepping closer,” he said with a resigned smile.

The whole bunch approached Injar, but for some reason, Alex and her friends remained where they were. “You guys not going?” Laien asked straightforwardly.

“You want to chat with Yin more anyway, don’t you?” Alex asked with a slight smile. “We would be only getting in the way. The Grand Gathering isn’t over yet, so we can always meet later,” she explained without beating around the bush, not quite in the mood to be sitting beside Laien without having his attention.

“Hmmm,” Laien thought about what Alex said for a second, then glanced at Yin. He needed to admit she had a point; at the moment, he was much more interested in him than in her. “I guess you are right, thanks,” he said with a smile, pretty oblivious to the way Alex was looking at him.

One would have thought he would realize she came to like him after that evening… but to Laien, it really had been nothing but fooling around. Thus, the adults who watched the scene could only sigh in their hearts. The first love of this girl would likely never come to fruition.

The next moment Injar carried out the bunch into the air and outside the Royal Arena, causing the five hundred thousand spectators to grow confused. Why were the top contestants leaving already? What about the finals? What about the awards ceremony?

Only later would they be told the finals had been conceded by Yin and informed that all the contestants who had reached quarterfinals had chosen not to show up at the ceremony. As a result, the five hundred thousand people in the audience ended up leaving the Royal Arena with a strange sense of incompleteness.

They were lucky to have witnessed all those amazing duels, but the conclusion of the tournament was no less than awkward. Truly, they didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.