“You will accept my challenge, Panheu, or you will surrender your academy to me by default!”

The words washed over Alex and his companions as they slipped out the garden shed to behold a grimly smiling Panheu having green tea beside his wives and their supposedly honored guests, which included an absolutely massive cultivator covered in lamellar armor drenched in dark enchantments, the helmet by his side revealing a wild countenance, all bristles and fury, an ugly snarl pulling a scarred face as hot red eyes glared at Panheu with absolute contempt, the tea on the exquisitely lacquered hardwood table before him utterly ignored.

“Well, ‘headmaster?’ will you accept my challenge, or will Administrator Ruizhi be within his legal rights to remove you from this school by force?”

Panheu chuckled softly, as if the massive monster far beyond any Silver Alex had previously seen, more powerfully built than even the massive Yan Song, the personal bodyguard and half-brother of Princess Xian Hong had been, was no threat at all, no matter that he radiated fearsome strength and killing intent, like a blazing phoenix upon a core as hot as all the fires of hell.

A Gold strength cultivator with body hardening techniques worthy of that fearsome core. Alex was sure of it.

He felt an uncomfortable twisting in his gut he refused to call fear. Because sure as hell, the monstrous creature demanding challenge had come prepared for a fight. If the Panheu of just a month before had actually accepted this monster’s challenge, Alex couldn’t even be sure who’d win.

“That’s right, Panheu,” sneered the far more diminutive man by the Gold Titan’s side. “It’s clear you’ve entirely unsuited for your role as steward of this academy, having refused each and every one of my recommended counselors to guide you in the times to come, daring even to refuse choice students who would serve this school well!” Alex froze upon sight of the nasally voiced idiot dressed like a popinjay in the most over-embroidered robes he had seen in quite some time. Robes that did nothing to enhance the overly officious administrator actually daring to glare Panheu’s way. Pathetically, all the gem encrusted gold threads and silk seemed to be weighing the slender man down, for all that he was clearly a Silver, and just as clearly embraced a path of cultivation utterly devoid of any strength building properties. A pure wujen who probably avoided physical exercise like the plague.

Administrator Rhuizi. Sitting here so comfortably in the flesh, as if he hadn’t been been trying to orchestrate the death of thousands.

It was all Alex could do to hold back the choking fury he suddenly felt clawing at the back of his throat, getting a good close look at the schemer responsible for the near tragedy that had just barely been avoided in the city below.

Because a diminutive stature did nothing to mitigate malice, merely hide it, the hot-eyed contempt the man had for the kitsune woman sitting so comfortably by Headmaster Panheu’s side was the same as the glimpse Alex had caught when the man had been urging his men to capture and slaughter the ‘outlawed Ruidian’ and anyone accompanying him… without even bothering to specify exactly who he was. As if genocidal slaughter would suit Ruizhi’s purposes as well as any carefully executed sentence, which Alex was pretty certain was exactly the case.

“Even now your unforgivable barbarism makes it clear you are unsuited for your role here at Dragon Academy, Panheu,” administrator Ruizhi declared. “Subjecting us to WiFu’s own misbegotten abominations that should be purged from this world entirely!” He glared Jidihu’s way as she took another sip of her tea, her icy smile giving absolutely nothing away.

Alex exchanged a glance with Hao Chan, carefully holding the hand of a wide-eyed Yinzi.

“Heaven’s mercy, what an absolute idiot! I mean, just look at him, dressed like a complete clown, a scrawny chicken who thinks he’s the fox about to rule the henhouse!” Yinzi said, before flashing her brightest smile when the Administrator’s cheeks blotched with outrage, twisting his head to glare their way. “That’s Administrator Ruizhi, isn’t it? I mean it just absolutely has to be! You’re right, Alex. That bitter shrew-faced bitch Feng Yu is perfect for him! Two scrawny stringy-haired rats chittering their displeasure for the entire world, together forever, for who the hell else could possibly stand their company?”

“That you would dare!” Ruizhi lurched to his feet, glaring Yinzi’s way.

“You’re kind will be purged from this city entirely, vermin! Mark my words, you all will be, before the year is out!”

He then turned to glare Alex’s way, lips curling up in a feral smile. “You. I recognize you! Oh yes. No matter how badly those idiot artists and seers got your face wrong, you’re exactly as my grandson described.” He turned to glare at the giant.

“Tan Wu, bring me that Ruidian’s head!”

The massive cultivator flashed Alex a killing smile. “With pleasure, Lord Ruizhi.” Before freezing where he stood, snarling down at Panheu’s hand. “Move your fingers, worm. I’ll be breaking yours soon enough.”

Panheu’s chuckle could have frozen wine. “It is indeed a pleasure to see such fine killer’s instinct for my disciple to hone his techniques against. And I will indeed give you permission to challenge my disciple.”

Administrator Ruizhi’s eyes widened. “This Ruidian trash is your disciple? Ha! All the more reason to oust you, pretender! I will take great satisfaction in seeing Tan Wu put you in your place!”

Panheu slowly shook his head. “No need.” He then turned a smiling Alex’s way. “The contest between my disciple and your chosen champion will decide the fate of this school. No need for me to lower myself to fighting a failed Gold.”

Tan Wu’s features darkened with humiliated fury. “You think you can best me, old fool? It will be a pleasure showing you just how glorious my ascension truly was!”

Ruizhi banged the table with an impotent fist, hardly knocking the wood. “No need, Tan Wu!” the man then flashed a feral grin. “If Elder Panheu is willing to stake his stewardship over this school on the prowess of his… champion, then that is acceptable. Of course, should the boy fall, the school is mine, and you and the kitsune you so clearly favor will be banished from this city forever!”

Panheu’s eyes glittered darkly, yet all he did was smile. “Acceptable. But should my disciple actually manage to win… your champion’s head and the beastly core beating in his breast are both his… and you will swear an administerial oath that neither Ruidian nor Kitsune will be discriminated against, rounded up, exiled, or purged from Yidushi ever again.”

Ruizhi glazed at the grimly smiling Panheu for long moments, cold eyes seeming to only then take in the smiling cultivator blessed with ropy muscles that were the farthest thing from a Gold Titan’s… before blanching and lurching back, eyes filled with unexpected wariness.

“I agree to the terms.” The man actually swallowed, before glancing Tan Wu’s way. “Assuming you agree, Lord Tan Wu.”

The man flashed the flinching administrator a cold-eyed smile, making it damn clear to Alex who’d really be ruling Yidushi, should he actually fall before this monster. He turned back to Alex with an evil glimmer in his eyes, pounding his massive fists together. “It would be my absolute pleasure.” He then flashed a hungry smile Hao Chan’s way. “Then I will claim my own prizes of battle before bringing much needed change to this pathetic excuse for an academy!”

Hao Chan flinched, covering the jolt of terror she felt with rage. “Make him pay, Alex.”

“Oh yes, do make him pay!” an excited Yinzi squealed.

Alex took a careful breath when he caught sight of Tan Wu’s mocking grin, belatedly realizing that for all his faults, the man was no fool. He was trying to goad Alex. Even radiating the monstrous confidence of a half-step Titan who had pushed his Strength pretty damn close Rank 1 Gold, with a Vitality to match. Whether or not he was a full or half-step Gold, or could ascend any further was beside the point. It was the Titan before him now that Alex must face, a battle-savvy warrior who clearly wasn’t taking the odd Ruidian wearing an ancient-looking set of stone tile armor for granted. Which meant that it was more vital than ever that he pay full attention to his surroundings and measure his opponent as carefully as the man was measuring him.

Crashing his oversized fists together like the clear strength cultivator that he was as he took a single lumbering step forward.

Perception Check made!

There!

Alex’s mind blared with sudden alarm, realizing his peril just barely in time as he arched back, rotating his arm in a desperate parry as his foe’s fist, radiating the essence of Fire and Stone, crashed into his desperate parry.

Alex’s mind was blaring desperate warning as he was sent cartwheeling through the air shocked by the significance of what could have so easily been a lethal blow, magnified by the one element his Silver Wing discipline had the most trouble with, Earth. Not fire enhanced with deadly weight and unquenchable sticky flame, but crushing stone superheated at the joints to assure a Strength cultivator with all the resilience of stone, who was capable of moving just as fast as Alex was.

Perhaps even faster.

You have been struck by Internal Qi technique!

Silver Swing fails to counter Adderstrike!

Prismatic Bones have saved versus shattering!

You have taken one Medium Wound.

You have saved versus disorientation!

“Ha, Panheu! Is this the best your disciple can do? Tan Wu has defeated him in the blink of an eye!”

The words echoed strangely in Alex’s inner ear as he crashed to the ground, fighting for a life-giving gasp of air that took a perilously long fraction to fill his lungs as Panheu gazed at Alex with cold silent eyes that gave absolutely nothing away.

Tan Wu frowned, shaking his head. “Calm yourself, Ruizhi. The fight’s not over yet.”

“But you defeated him effortlessly! Sent him flying in the blink of an eye!”

Tan Wu glared at the administrator as Alex grimaced and felt pulverized muscles restore themselves at a supernatural pace. “My fist should have instantly shattered his ribs and ruptured his heart. It didn’t, so still your mouth, and you might actually learn something.

Ruizhi’s eyes widened as his cheeks blazed before the mocking smile of Panheu and his wives. But being the coward that he was, he bowed his head in deference. “It will be as you say, Lord Tan Wu,” he whispered in clear deference, no matter that he was the administrator of a territory at least a thousand miles in diameter, with upwards of ten million citizens under his immediate care, and another ten million farmers and trade town dwellers who called him their lord.

A man who had more people under his command than many an ancient empire flinched before the derisive snort of the Half-step Gold even now gazing at Alex like he was a curious bug.

“How is it that you are even standing, Ruidian? I have shattered more than a few Silver Giants with that very punch.”

Alex gazed at the man for long moments before answering. “Your internal technique only gave me time to partially counter the blow, but it was a solid hit, regardless. He tilted his head curiously. “I don’t suppose you’re one of Liu Jian’s hidden disciples?”

The man’s eyes grew flinty hard. “How do you know that name?”

Alex dipped his head. “I think that should be obvious, kung fu brother.”

And before the man could do more than blink in surprise, just as Alex had planned, he was moving.

Bullrush.

Adderstrike!

Bullrush!

A surprised Tan Wu lurched forward, the moment he was off balance all the time Alex needed to return to the position he had been sent flying to, moments before, forced to concede that he wasn’t the only one with bones far stronger than they should be. Even if he hadn’t used Find Weakness or Piercing Strike, eager to make a different sort of point, Tier 4 Silver Strength plus Rank 8 Adderstrike should have shattered even a Silver Giant’s bones.

Which begged the question, how exactly had his ribs survived his opponent’s strike?

Ning Jing was glaring at Alex. “Why are you playing with him?”

Even as Jidihu and Panheu exchanged smiles while Administrator Ruizhi was gazing Alex’s way in frank disbelief. “What just happened? I blink and the boy is… no, no Ruidian could learn secret techniques reserved only for deepest Silver!”

Tan Wu’s incredulous gaze slowly turned into a hard smile. He dipped his head.

“I see the general did take on additional students. Impressive. Most impressive.” He turned his eyes Hao Chan’s way, showing no sign of his earlier hungry grin. “You’re women are beneath me. I have no interest in them.”

Alex carefully bowed his head. “Your family has nothing to fear from me, either.”

Tan Wu nodded in odd approval, before turning to glare at Ruizhi. “I’m keeping the boy. He is mine to do with as I see fit.”

Ruizhi blanched. “But he’s Ruidian filth! My grandson had him tried and found guilty for...”

“I care nothing for your grandson’s machinations. And he’s clearly no Ruidian, no matter his odd heritage. So clearly, your grandson’s accusations were… mistaken. Don’t you agree, Administrator Ruizhi?”

The man scowled, before shaking his head with a curse. “Fine! Best the boy, claim the school, and we’re done here.”

Tan Wu gazed at Alex for long seconds, before whispering a word that clawed oddly at he air… his armor instantly falling off his frame, showing a powerfully built man wearing quilted padding over changshan shirt and cotton pants that ended mid-calf. “A contest of skills then? No enchantments… no kitsune tricks.”

Alex smirked, before stepping free of his own armor after making use of a crystal clear trio of gates his opponent was graceful enough not to cross, ignoring the concerned hisses of his friends, looking so vulnerable while shucking out of his armor.

Panheu glared at Alex like he was a fool, before frowning Tan Wu’s way. “Surprisingly astute judge of character. Beware, Alex. It is one thing to play the fool, and another thing to die as one.”

“Point taken,” Alex said with a smirk, keeping only one gate in place, albeit with a twist… and twenty seconds too long wasted that earned a cold disapproving frown from the formerly amused-looking Tan Wu.

“Do you fear to face me now, mixed-blood?”

Alex smirked. “Not at all. In fact, I’m grateful for the—“

But Tan Wu had already disappeared.

Silver Wing successfully counters Adderstrike!

The half-step Titan wasted a heartbeat gazing in disbelief when his monstrously powerful blow skittered away from Alex, knocked aside by a pressure wave of Qi that no amount of Silver Tier strength could hope to counter.

Alex couldn’t quite hold back the exultation he felt, as techniques gleaned in the fugue of revelation, honed to a deadly edge in dream, had failed to be pressure tested by anything more than the furious sparring that he and his closest companions embraced every night in realms of magical dream, where they stared at each other just a bit too long after every match, and killing intent was the farthest thing from their minds.

But this, this was real. His technique worked!

He had actually managed to counter a half-step Gold’s—

Adderstrike! You have been caught off guard! Fatal Wound reduced to Medium Wound and stunning blow thanks to Draconic Resilience and Prismatic Bones!

“Focus, disciple!” Panheu roared, the anxiety Alex suddenly heard in the man’s voice snapping Alex back into focus like nothing else, taking full advantage of the moments he was actually airborne to switch to Dark Qi respiration, his solar plexus momentarily frozen as he flew through the air.

In those panicked moments, falling to earth with multiple ligaments torn and lungs that refused to take in air, he finally sensed the depths of his peril, how foolish he was to hone the blade of his soul against such fearsome threat. He frantically searched for a way to delay facing the coldly smiling features waiting to claim him below, when his desperate mind focused on a solution that had allowed him to flee Dragon Academy long ago, when first breaking through to Bronze.

Careful steps had him lurching upon the air, rich as it was with the mist from the sea below the promontory upon which Panheu and Ning Jing’s manors both rested. Though he deliberately allowed himself to wind through the air, as if still tumbling through the heavens, his movement had actually stilled as he power healed with desperate intensity, savoring that gulp of air finally entering his lungs as his ligaments healed and joints popped back into place such that it was worth the momentary blaze of agony from switching back to aerobic respiration, and then he allowed himself to tumble back to earth in truth.

Catching the eyes of the frowning Tan Wu before disappearing from everyone’s view.

Bullrush! Bullrush! Bullrush!

Stormstrike!

The air cracked and flashed with lightning as Tan Hu stumbled forward with a surprised gasp.

Yet once more Alex refused to follow up, seeming to appear a split second later, exactly where he had been standing before.

“How?” Administrator’s eyes were wide as saucers. “No… lightning? There is no way… impossible!”

Hao Chan cuckled coldly. “So sure of that, Administrator Magpie? Have you never gotten a careful look at YanTu nobility before?”

The man blanched. “No. You dare not say such things allowed! There is no way that Ruidian bloodlines here...”

Yinzi tisked, shaking her head. “Poor, blind Ruizhi! Do you truly not see? What do all Ruidian girls here in Yidushi and Baidushi have in common?”

“Red hair,” said none other than Tan Wu, his gaze burning into Alex’s own, as if desperate for answers.

“Correct!” Yinzi crowed. “And the one type of Ruidian they don’t have here are those with blond hair. Have you ever seen a blond-haired Yidushian? Never! Not even along storyteller’s row! But everyone instinctively knows what Alex is… or looks like… even if the only traces of blond anything you’ll find are YanTu nobles who insist their dirty brown hair, the farthest thing from glossy black, has nothing to do with mixed blood lines and everything to do with the power of their cultivation arts!”

Tan Wu’s frown had grown more thoughtful, and Ruizhi looked downright horrified.

Even if Yinzi was spouting what Alex suspected was complete bunk, as princess Xian Hong had scarlet hair with no traces of blond whatsoever. But her patter was throwing their opponents for a loop, and that was good enough for Alex.

He was surprised when Tan Wu gave a begrudging nod, before speaking to Alex in a dialect he had last heard amongst a trio of cultivators who had been dead set on killing him along a certain flight of golden steps, not that long ago.

“Why are you here?”

Alex flashed a cheeky grin, before answering in the same dialect. “To hone my arts in the crucible of conflict to a killing edge I’ll never achieve while pampered in some rich brat’s private retreat.”

Tan Wu actually snorted. “Do you still wish to exchange pointers?”

Alex winked. “Why not? Good exercise, if nothing else!”

The near seven foot giant chuckled. “Good. Because I still plan on claiming this academy.” His smile hardened. “Politics. You understand.”

Alex dipped his head. “Indeed I do.”

No further words were said then as the pair charged forward in a blur, blinking in and out of the visible spectrum so fast that even Jidihu was furrowing her brow as Tan Wu and Alex Bullrushed back and forth, each trying to flank the other as the air filled with the scents of jazmine, honeysuckle, mulch, and shredded grass, the garden paying the price for a pair of movement specialists reveling in the chance to finally meet an opponent with skills the mirror of their own.

Alex’s exhilaration rapidly turned to rue, sensing how it had to play out, before deliberately coming to a halt before the tea table, appearing abruptly before a snorting Jidihu and a softly cursing Ning Jing.

“Pair of fools would be a monstrous headache on any battlefield!” Ning Jing cursed.

“I do believe that is the point, sister-wife,” said a bemused Jidihu, pouring tea at that very moment for a beaming Yinzi and a quietly frowning Hao Chan, clearly trying to make out a battle happening so quickly even deep Silvers were being left in the dark.

Which didn’t suit Alex at all.

Tan Wu came to an abrupt stop, smirking in a moderately annoying manner, a heartbeat later, calmly sipping the tea cup left for him with a sangfroid even Alex had to admire. “Tired already, young master?”

Alex smirked. “More like, we’re in a perfect stalemate. On the battlefield we could retreat, strike key targets and dart away for freedom before we could be countered, and our evenly matched opponent would, if he had the sense and ruthless disposition, simply race for the opposite field and take out our own commanders just as assuredly as we could take out his. There’s no real good counter, save extensive barrier wards or simple exhaustion depleting one’s Qi reserves entirely.”

Tan Wu smirked and dipped his head. “True. Our master could devise no good strategy to counter our movement techniques, especially not when practiced by Silvers and Gold, so settled on us all swearing a solemn oath never to betray the legion, or the emperor.”

A subtle flicker of emotion, and Alex immediately understood the agony knifing the man’s heart… yet forbore to tell him the news that would change absolutely everything.

Not until their match was through.

Instead, Alex smiled in acknowledgment. “That sounds like Liu Chan alright. So let’s both acknowledge that neither will best the other with movement techniques in play, and focus on a match where our disciples and associates can actually learn from observing our martial skills.”

The half-step Gold smirked. “Or could it be that you’re closer to exhaustion than you care to admit? That you’ve lasted so long already is a credit to your reserves, far beyond most body cultivators, I see that already.”

Alex chuckled. “Maybe that’s it. But we’re here to test each other’s skill, right? A test of endurance would be so much less satisfying, or illuminating for my disciples.”

The man raised a bemused eyebrow at a beaming Yinzi and a flushing Hao Chan. “Disciples or concubines?”

Alex smirked. “Does it matter? Nothing like a good tussle between the sheets, after all.”

This earned a bemused chuckle, and a glare from Chan making it clear that Alex would be paying for that comment later.

Good. Tension from another source.

Alex flashed a cheeky grin Hao Chan’s way, before parrying an absolutely furious onslaught that kicked up the earth in an explosion of force and fury that would have too easily killed the Alex of just a couple of months ago.

Silver Wing successfully counters Avalanche!

Silver Wing partially counters Silver Mantis.

Qi Absorption mitigates Earth Infusion. No damage taken!

“Alex!” Panheu’s voice. So much conveyed with a single word.

Tan Wu’s eyes widened. “I feared that last assault would kill you. Instead you stand as tall and proud as any lord!”

But Alex was frowning with displeasure. “Would you mind repeating that assault?”

The half-step Gold’s incredulous gaze hardened. “Careful, ‘young master.’ You’ve earned my respect, but I won’t be condescended to by anyone, least of all a child who still sees a cultivator’s life as anything but the bitter crucible that it is.”

Alex locked gazes with the man, finally letting go of his own killing aura.

Tan Wu flinched and hissed.

“Again, please,” was all Alex said.

To his credit, a now glaring Tan Wu did just that, and he wasn’t holding back.

Which suited Alex just fine as pearlescent liquid flashed against the indomitable might of a mountain’s worth of crashing stone… before warping the trajectory of the entire avalanche, Panheu’s garden paying a catastrophic price with the crater that had just shredded an absolute fortune in spirit herbs. And this time Alex could taste the deadly peril of Earth and poison forming a shockwave of killing intent around a spear hand strike that could so easily have ruptured his heart, a handful of weeks ago.

Before it was forced aside by the bow-wave of Qi surrounding Alex as he cut through the air as gracefully as a dolphin slipping between the waves as he pivoted aside, turning his spin into a whipping heel kick that slammed against his opponent’s desperately raised shield of shimmering force in an explosion of lightning, sending Tan Wu crashing to the ground with a grunt.

Breakthrough made! You are now one with the storm of Qi all around you!

Silver Wing is has been unified with Eternal Fox martial art!

Qi Deflection has been unified with Eternal Fox martial art!

Piercing Strike has ruptured Shield of the Mountain!

Storm Strike has stunned your opponent!

YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY FORGED A GOLD TIER MARTIAL ART!

Panheu’s eyes lit with unholy glee. “He has done it!”

Hao Chan and Yinzi were trembling, party linked to Alex still, his insights now forever their own.

Even Jidihu and Ning Jing were gazing at Alex with the intensity of raptors eyeing particularly delicious prey.

But all Alex did was laugh as the crash of lightning unleashed a howling storm now washing over them all.

Save for Alex himself, seeming to cut right through the howling wind, air and rain parting to either side of him as he laughed in the storm.

“Rise, Tan Wu. I know you’re eager to forge yourself against one who dares Gold. For our dance has just begun!”

And the massive half-stepTtitan did indeed roar his challenge, though his eyes were lit with a fierce wonder the mirror of Panheu’s own, as if eager to be a part of this forging, an art worthy of the Rank he hadn’t quite been able to achieve even with seven massive Silver cords that were just a few degrees short of perfection.

But no one knew better than disciples of conflict, the revelations that fiercest battle could bring, insights and growth beyond any cultivation pill, even as oblivion itself was courted like a lover’s kiss.

And if there was any chance, any chance at all that the impossible ascension of a Gold tier art would aid the powerful cultivator in his own desperate quest to rejuvenate his stunted core…

The desperate roar of jubilation and deadly challenge Tan Wu uttered was everything Alex could have hoped for, now holding nothing back.

Pushing Alex to the absolute limit as time seemed to stretch and slow, desperately weaving past a fearsome flurry of killing blows demanding every iota of Alex’s concentration as he pushed his breakthrough to the absolute limit, parrying aside both a Titan’s killing fists and warping space itself as he weaved and dodged past death exploding through the courtyard, absolutely shattering the reinforced stone walls encasing Panheu’s compound, his dozen killing wards parting like gossamer strands before Alex’s blossoming skill and Tan Wu’s raw power, their only concession being retreat from the tea table that had so many fragile awed souls looking their way.

Yet Tan Wu’s own chilling degree of skill and power was not left unchecked, the Titan forced back by explosions of Lightning that tore through artifacts, defensive wards, and hastily raised shields of Fire and Earth, the man’s absolutely monstrous Half-Step Gold Vitality enhanced by a body hardening technique that a quietly impressed Alex suspected truly had ascended to Gold, the only reason why the monster was still standing.

Of course, Alex had been deliberately avoiding striking neck or joints with killing intent, but that was hardly the point.

He truly was honing his killing edge against a Gold tier monster, and reveling in every moment of their struggle.

Even if a sage’s insights still weren’t enough to pierce this half-Gold’s defenses, Soul Sight still denied him, save for the humbling knowledge that this man had lived many lives of honor and virtue, no matter how badly Dongfang Hong had corrupted him in this one. Insights that did nothing to detract from the fearsome challenge that Alex absolutely reveled in, honing his growing mastery over his arts like never before.

Until he caught a look terrifying close to pity as the giant twisted his hips just enough for Alex’s fist, crackling with such devastating killing intent to miss. Putting Alex just the tiniest half-step off balance.

Even as alarm bells shrieked inside his skull.

Because he wasn’t a complete fool. A single unguarded flash in his opponent’s eyes was all that was needed for him to know that even on the cusp of transcendence, he was but a babe who had played into the hands of a master, an overconfident fox who had fallen into an unseen trap.

Yet before he could even pivot his hips to dart away, it was already too late.

A perfectly executed foot stomp managed to both tear tendons and pop his ankle, even if his prismatic bones remained unbroken. Yet before Alex could even cry out, his hand had been painfully jerked back, arm hyper extended, and the white-hot screaming agony of a palm strike to his elbow forcing his limb to give in entirely the wrong direction as ligaments were hyper extended, then torn. The howling storm now awash in Alex’s blood and screams.

Biochemical skillcheck against excruciating agony made.

Universal Lubricant successfully generated!