Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 508: The Vitals

Chapter 508: The Vitals

Dasha Pang’s heart ceased.

The spear thrust again. Squelch! His left lung and then his kidney and then—

Dasha elbowed and kneed the Lightning Rod, snapping it in half. Igor blinked twice and seamlessly blocked the backhand strike with the anti-magic knife. His foot remained planted while he himself skidded across the arena.

Igor did not stop. He got his heart, now was the time to press his advantage and he was correct. Clang, clang, clang! A silent battle ensued, a matter of pure skill.

"How are you still alive!?" would be the appropriate question to ask and the most wasteful. He was alive, how it was done did not matter. Igor wished to end this—now.

This freak was alive.

This freak could live without his heart.

He wasn’t a demon, that much Igor had much sure of. So this human was living and defending while missing a heart. His knife worked faster. He did a double-kick in order to bring out his second knife and attack.

Dasha caught Igor’s wrists.

"Pick another weapon."

"What—"

He headbutted him and Igor staggered back. He heaved in the precious, blood-stained air, eyes glued to this dead man walking.

"Oh. Oh, I see! You...you’re using Golden Core—or I suppose, your Golden Pellet as a makeshift heart. By replacing blood with Qi, I’m guessing you’re healing everything that travels in the flow or rather keeping it stagnate. The ways of a Cultivator and their use of Qi teeters at the line between the soul and the physical body. You simply brought the Golden Pellet to the physical body completely. However, by doing so..."

The spear crackled. It had absorbed his Qi Blade and the lightning. It had plenty of sharpness left in it. Igor laughed and charged at him. Unexpectedly, at the last instant, he switched from his spear to his sword. Blooming with not fire but wind, the increased range exponential and instantly discerable.

Dasha took three backsteps. Dodge, dodge, back parallel to the floor. No counter. He was careful. He had to observe.

"Fully focused on technique now, eh? I see you!"

Dodge, dodge, dodge.

’That sword of his can change elements. Fire before and now wind. But why? The range has increased by four inches and I’m betting—’

His shoulder again. Hardly a touch and it went scarlet. Dasha ignored it in order to manifest his Qi Blade, this time without an element.

’Increase in speed as I expected. He knows I can’t increase or decrease my power now that my heart and lung is gone. I’ll be staying at this level until the battle has ended.’

That Lightning Rod absorbed his lightning and Qi Blade and whirled it right back at him with double the strength. That was why he failed to react or defend. It was a weapon made to kill him in that moment. A perfect response by Igor.

Dasha Pang’s Qi Blade and Igor’s Elemental Blade clashed. The power between them edged toward Igor and he slowly gained the advantage. Dasha’s knees wobbled and he attempted a knee that was countered by Igor’s own, followed up by a slash downward that nicked the Elemental Blade’s hilt. Clang, clang! Igor presumed this his advantage, albeit with his guard heavily raised.

Dasha took one step back, back-flipped, and while his hands were on the ground and his body was up, he swiped the floor and sent up mist. Igor shut his eyes, put an arm behind him, and stilled his Elemental Blade.

Metal clashed.

Igor even without vision managed to meet him strike for strike. His footing was perfection incarnate. Counter after counter, swipe after swipe.

Dasha attempted to do some level of overpowering. Whenever he tried, wind answered. Both feet so far hadn’t left the floor. Despite that limitation, Igor was getting faster. Faster, faster, faster.

It wasn’t ordinary swordplay. Dasha did not know what this was—the people of the crowd did.

"It’s his step! The wind god!"

The exclamation barely entered his ear. This was Aeolus’ Step, a mythical fencing technique said to have been taught by the Wind Spirits of Aeolus’ island. Each step, each shift, not a lunge but a counter or a poke, carried on the back of increasing wind currents, the strikes lengthened and sharpened by invisible blades of air.

The clashes became sharp, blindingly fast.

Clang, clang, clang! Truly, it was blinding.

Dasha parried through prediction and analysis. To counter greater speed, he could not increase his own physical attributes. He had to think ten steps ahead. The pokes of this fencing style were focused on his inner organs every single time. His Qi Blade screeched when it collided with the amplified current swirling around Igor’s weapon. Sparks flew—real sparks—from the friction between pure force and honed elemental mastery.

Igor pressed harder. A flurry of strikes rained down—stabs that seemed to bend in midair, slashes that curved on gusts of slicing wind. It was beautiful, deadly, an art form of violence. The range was ludicrous too. It was like he was fighting against a spear and a sword. It didn’t make sense.

No wonder the crowd went crazy over it.

Dasha retreated three steps, each one calculating, analyzing. ’The stronger the wind, the faster he gets. The more he counters, the more momentum.’

He watched the angle of Igor’s wrist, the shift in his hips, the way he exhaled at precisely the right moment to fuel the flow of air around his blade.

’The west. He avoids the west. The wind is weaker there.’

Clang, clang, clang! So many exchanges in a matter of seconds. Dozens that showcased the skill of a man that had been taught by divinity itself.

On the one-hundred and eleventh, Dasha understood that divinity applied it.

Feet planted flat, he shifted past a strike instead of side-stepping, his own Qi Blade warping under a precise exhalation of internal Qi—adding pressure, bending the force forward. His blade cut through the wind itself, clashing directly against Igor’s.

The impact forced both men back three steps. Suddenly, they were circling each other. Praying on the other’s skills and trying to decipher their limitations and current advantage.

"Ha," Igor barked, licking the blood from his split lip. "You learn fast, Solution."

Dasha gave no reply. He simply adjusted his stance again, the hum of the Qi Blade shifting to a lower, deadlier tone.

[ New skill learned : Aeolus’ Step ]

Dasha had never used wind, until today. The principle rotation of the Qi Blade helped him understand how to use it without the aid of the System. A pure, raw base understanding.

Igor’s grin faded slightly.