Alex made his way on the larger battling platform that had been out aside for the open meridian competition. He was standing there with the rest of the twelve to thirteen year old. Obviously he had a lot of eyes on him due to the fact he was the oldest here, and Alex didn't have a thick enough skin that he would be able to ignore all of the whispers that were going around, it wasn't something he was used to.
But thankfully he didn't have to wait to long for this wave of embarrassment would end as a loud gong resounded across the arenas, and barely after the last person got on top of the platform.
The entire place exploded into a shower of animosity as everyone turned on each other with swords, daggers, and fans. The reputation of the Wudang sect was built on their great cultivation techniques, but also on their superb sword skills. So while they were other weapons used to train and fight, the sword was the mainstream weapon within the sect, and at the moment eleven of them were pointing straight for Alex.
This was a predetermined moved, and even though it was coming from a group of twelve to thirteen year old, it didn't make it any less dangerous, especially since weapons and their inflicted injuries were now allowed within the competition as long as the person doesn't die, but obviously someone can also be crippled. There wasn't a technique in this world that can regenerate a lost limb, heck organs could regenerated, but once you've lost an arm or a leg, that was it.
38 of Alex's 108 meridians were located on his back all the way to his tail bone. As he was slowly being surrounded, gleaming metal pointed from every direction as his vitals, his meridians expanded, almost as if there were breathing as they took in Qi, and almost immediately they blasted out of his back creating illusory black wings that sent him up into the air and above the strike of the group of ruthless teenagers that just tried to poke him full of holes.
[SIX KINGS OF BEAST ART: SHADOW-WIND DRAGON EAGLE]
*SCREEEEEEEEE!*
The loud cry of a bed resounded around Alex and the dropped down from the sky, his foot crashing into the head of one of the kids trying to skewer him. The little or at least somewhat little girl was smashed into the concrete platform, passing out almost immediately as Alex broke the encirclement. He took a stance and pointed his palm towards the others, they took the invitation with almost too much glee, their swords glinting from the sunlight escaping through the skylight above. Alex moved forward ducking through a stab for his neck and seamlessly turned around almost as if he was air itself as he slammed his elbow into the stomach of the boy who's sword he just dodged. The boy shot back slamming into the person behind him and ending up having a sword stabbed through his shoulder.
Alex ignored the scream of pain as he shifted his body a bit and a spear coasted by, he slammed the entire back of his hand on the person's chest, unfortunately the springy feeling let him know he had just hit a girl, and even though it wasn't as bountiful considering she was still growing, it was rather embarrassing. The cry of indignation that rang out as she crashed into the crowd was more than enough to bring a tinge of red to Alex's brown skin.
A sword swept towards his feet, but Alex turned using a round house kick to jump and slam his feet into the face of the person trying to attack him. Unfortunately he as left off balance as someone slammed their shoulders into his midriff and threw him to the unforgiven concrete platform that as Alex slammed unto, he realized was carved with brail like figures of mythical creatures. Or rather it wasn't as if he didn't know the platform was this way, he just didn't care enough until he was the next being slammed into it.
The person who slammed into him was thrown on the ground right besides Alex, apparently he lost his balance when he went after him. Alex reacted almost instinctually, slithering like a snake until his arms were wrapped around the body of a thirteen year old and fair skinned boy. Alex didn't hesitate as he got back up to his feet and raised the boy into the air.
[SKY PYTHON SLAMS EARTH!]
There was a loud whoosh as Qi escaped from Alex's meridians, increasing his speed as he brought the opponent in his hand slamming down unto the ground with an unforgiven glint in his eyes.
*BOOM!*
The boy spat out a significant amount of blood and immediately passed out as blood seemed to rapidly pool around his head where he had cracked it onto the platform. Alex grabbed the boy and reached the edge of the platform in no time, and didn't hesitate as he threw the kid towards the medic station around the platform. However even though he was trying to something good and he had received a bit of respect from the other disciples for it, he was still in a fight, and obviously he was one of the most dangerous fighters on this platform, someone would want to take advantage of his absent mindedness to get him off the platform.
A dagger stabbed towards his kidney, but Alex turned with a flourish, his sleeves seemingly flapping with the wind as the person trying to stab him went past him and stepped of the platform, much to the shock of a lot of people who thought he was done for. Someone else came throwing a punch, his meridians all open wide absorbing Qi in massive spades as he slammed it into Alex's chest. A hit of this magnitude should be enough to blast even someone in the open Dantian realm off the platform, there was just no way for Alex to be able to properly handle it.
However just as the punch was just three inches away from his chest, Alex moved forwards, his hands moving and seemingly slow yet at the same time fast, some people didn't even see how he moved, as his palm met the closed fist of his opponent and he pushed it to the side and raised it over his head in a circular motion, bringing it to rest on his other side, the power and Qi behind the strike completely dissipated. His opponent was beyond shocked as he opened his mouth wide, almost as he was staring at an eight wonder of the world.
"Tai-Chi...…" Whispers of the martial arts Alex just used resonated across the entire arena. But while his opponent was paralyzed by shock, Alex curled his finger into a fist and allowed his meridians to absorb a huge amount of Qi, so much so that the wind around him was even disturbed.
[IRON VIPER STRIKE!] *BANG!!*
Alex felt ribs getting crushed beneath his full powered single strike, his opponents flew across the battling platform, crossing a twenty meter distance before coming to a stop right in the middle of the platform.
Everyone else paused as they stared at Alex and the power he was able to elicit with just his fist alone, but this fight was not over yet, and this time Alex was taking the Initiative. He crushed down, his back bunched up in a weird way as Qi slowly swirled around him.
[SIX KINGS OF BEAST ART: SHADOW-WIND DRAGON EAGLE]
There was a blast of Qi as Alex shot into the crowd of fighters, he moved with a single minded focus that quickly turned into a monotonous repetition as he punched, kicked, pulled and threw people off the platform in droves. An strangely enough through all that chaos, there was not a single weapon that even touched his clothes much less his body. Alex had a body that had been nourished by Qi and at the same time starved of Qi since he was a baby, it could be said he has been cultivating right from the womb.
And being put it in a proper place with the tools to achieve great things, Alex fully displayed his true born innate skills. But his true talent did not come from his physique or his spirit king abilities. Rather it came from his mind, what this young man didn't know yet, was that he had a man hardwired for battle, and not in the wild berserk way, but rather in a fast and calculative way. Alex used the least amount of force and Qi to achieve the most optimum and maximum results.
The young disciples of the sect didn't notice this trait, but the veterans here knew what they were seeing. For all intents and purposes, Alex was in total control of the battlefield, scheming, plotting and executing perfect battle plans at the drop of a hat, and winning in an extreme yet marvelously eloquent way.
And the worst part was that this kid had no idea what he was doing, the veterans of the sect; Alex's grandfather included shuddered to think about how much more dangerous this boy would be once he realize what he could do on a battlefield.
Even more worse is if he learns to use such deductive and controlling abilities off the battlefield. Should he apply such craft to the politics and power struggle of the Wulin, then there would be hell to pay for his enemies, heck even his allies would not be spared from it. But some of them knew it was not a matter of 'IF' but rather 'WHEN'.