[Cultivation has always been a solitary walk, many cultures and philosophy believe that in the pursuit of power, there can be no companionship, no friends, no allies, no lovers. Because quite frankly power can"t be shared, but such things have also been proven wrong, but then again I"ve not been alive long enough to see such believes proved wrong.But the thing is, when a group of like minded people, who believe in the same vision come together to fight, learn and work! It becomes almost impossible to beat them. Because one very fundamental factor of humanity has remained and not changed over the years, so much so that I can"t help but admire the words that go with it...... "THERES STRENGTH IN NUMBERS!" and it couldn"t be any more true.]
A RANDOM SLIP OF PAPER
Alex shot forwards, his spear gleaming as the afternoon sunlight peeked through the dense canopy of the trees above. Alex had fought besides Anya all his life, granted it was never battles like this, it was enough that they could trust each other and predict the moves of the other person before the person makes it. And Alex and Louis have been through enough life and death battles that by this point, they lived inside the head of the other person, and it was because of that they knew that Alex rushing forward like an idiot was a sacrificial move to test the capability of their opponent.
Louis flashed with light and vanished from his position, while Anya threw the chakrams she held in her hands, both disks spinning through the air as two blazing circles of fire, drawing the attention of the giant demonic beast snake away from Alex. The snake turned it"s head to the side in an attempt to protect it"s eyes, letting the chakrams bounce of it"s grey scales, leaving behind light wounds and burns on it, before the spun back into Anya"s hands, where subsequently chains attached to her wrists, shot forth and latched onto the Chakrams.
It"s defense was really good to withstand a strike from Anya, though considering that strike wasn"t a full powered one, Alex doubted the defense of the giant snake. And with it"s size, even if it was a snake, Alex didn"t think it was quite fast, because in the end the snake had only been able to hit him before by catching him off guard, even then Khan had been fast enough to create a defensive shield around Alex. So speed and defense were not up to par, however power was another matter entirely.
(South Spear Of Summer!)
The snake reared back, taking it"s head away from the fiery strike as Alex"s spear sliced upwards on this soft underbelly, leaving a rather nasty wound that forced the snake to hiss and then shot forwards at a speed that Alex could at least follow. A golden shield showed up in front of Alex to intercept the snake, but it"s head broke through it as Alex had utilize his (Tai-Chi) fist martial arts movements to evade the snake as it went past Alex, heading straight for Anya who was also running towards the Snake.
Alex was about to stab into it"s side when it rapidly coiled itself up, bunching up his body and slamming into Alex, throwing him off his feet and straight towards a pair of cactus like plants. One contact with those things and Alex would be dying quite painfully and in minutes. However another golden shield appeared behind him to bring his momentum to a halt, though honestly Alex would have preferred if it was anything other than a shield as him smacking his head seemed a lot worse than being poisoned to death.
The Snake rushed towards Anya, ma.s.sive jaws outstretched, only for it to run into a ma.s.sive punch from Anya. Her chakrams were around her wrists like bangles as her right fist caught fire, she slammed it straight into the open jaw of the snake, completely flipping the ma.s.sive creature into the air and throwing it backwards over the rocky outcropping all the way to the other side of the forest. It was a full powered strike reminiscent of Alex"s (Iron Viper Strike) or the Legendary (One Inch Punch). She had focused all her power into one strike, however Anya"s technique was but different, as the power would also spread, kind of like a ripple in a lake, creating a wider area of damage from one point of impact.
However against such an opponent, the cost seemed to be a bit too much as Anya"s fist were a little bit mangled, and for Alex seeing her in such an injured state was the deal breaker for him. He always tried his best to avoid wasting too much energy whenever he was using his masks, as they drained him a lot, but when he"s angry, energy expenditure be d.a.m.ned. Alex shot through the forest, his aim was obviously the giant snake that just and it"s brain rattled, and the fangs on it"s right side knocked out of it"s mouth.
The snake was still reeling about, when Alex took to the air and twisted his body, his silver spear blazing red as they both shot down from the sky, their forms covered in green flames which quickly turned into a greed WindFlame dragon.
(Dragon Fall)
Nezha"s ultimate spirit skill, dropping with the force of a meteor, Alex pierced through the head of the snake who was pretty much still out of it, and in the same second, released green scorching flames across it"s entire body that turned it and it"s surrounding are to Ash in just five seconds, leaving a tired and heaving Alex behind as he dragged his spear on the ground behind him. Louis came out of his invisibility state, which was surprising to Alex, because he didn"t know that his friend had learnt the invisibility spell. It was a welcome surprise, but given the stern look on Anya"s face as he approached, Alex felt it was better to just quietly head to the exposed horn that was right on top of the skull of the ancient beast. It was better to ask forgiveness than permission, but right now, forgiveness meant more beatings and berating and Alex didn"t know which was worse.
Their battle with the giant snake was sure to attract more attention, and even more so Alex was feeling a little frantic, because only Louis and Anaya came back for him, his sister and the disciples from the beggar"s sect we"re no where to be seen of course it didn"t mean that they were in any trouble, but Alex would very much prefer it if all of the people he loves and caress about were where he could keep an eye on them, even in the midst of danger.
Alex eventually found himself standing in front of pillar like bone spine, it was snapped like a dagger and wave over fifteen meters tall, practically the tallest of all the spines here. It was probably the horn just like Nezha had said, however there were writings on it, the names of hundreds of students from the academy that had perished Within the forest over the years that the Academy had been active, a monument to their sacrifice. Alex didn"t want to seem disrespectful, but what he needed was hidden beneath that pillar, and given his destructive his mask is, Alex doubted they"ll be anything left by the time he was done with it.
Alex stretched forth a hand towards the pillar, but there was no reaction of any sort, it just stood there, dead to the world, just like the beast it belonged to. Anya and Louis drew closer questions on their face about what was going on, but there was no answer from Alex who was staring at his glove covered hands. Then much to the shock and horror of both Anya and Louis, Alex took off his gloves, leaving his hands exposed to the air, and probably a million other things that could trigger the poison within his body.
"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?" Anya shouted at him and moved forwards to stop, but by then it was too late, Alex had stretched forth his hand to touch the pillar.
Before his hand had even gotten close to touching the pillar, wisps of Ash with blackish red embers wafted off of it. Alex pulled his hand back, and felt it numb and at the same time felt the fire mask on his face begin to tingle, but more than that he began to feel a tightness in his chest. The horn pillar in front of him was also a catalyst and touching it had activated the poison in his body, he didn"t have a choice now, he had to see this through to the end.
Alex pulled back the gloves on his left hand, and took a deep but somewhat painful breath, before placing both hands on the pillar. The pillar itself seemed to explore into a cloud of fiery black, grey and red Ash that began to circle around Alex"s body, creating a heavy pressure around him, that slowly brought his weakened body to the ground. Whatever this is, or whatever might come next, this was only just the beginning.