Chapter 15: Sky's Path!
Doug couldn't understand what he was seeing. In front of him the leopard that had killed his friends was suspended in mid air as if locked in space. In front of it stood a young man draped and gold with a face that seemed as it were carved by Divine sculptors.
'Who is that?! He managed to stop an Earth realm Qi beast so effortlessly!"
He wasn't they only one, everyone was stunned at the turn of events.
None of it made any sense!
Miara stared at the back of the young man and started speaking.
"Sir, I am the 3rd princess of the Emerald Kingdom, I beg you for your help!", she pleaded. She knew that he was the one that had stopped the leopard. Even though she couldn't tell how powerful he was she had a feeling he could help them.
The young man turned around and faced her. When she saw his face she was stunned! For a moment she forgot that her life was even in danger. He was even more handsome then her father and brothers, something which she didn't believe could be possible. Aaron was just as stunned by what he saw. He had never seen a woman so beautiful. Her light brown skin, her long black hair ,and those emerald green eyes had captivated him. Lost in each other they both mumbled the same thing out loud.
"..So Beautiful"
However before this encounter of theirs could continue Aaron had felt his strings snap. Turning around he saw the leopard break free and step back while eyeing him cautiously.
"Who are you?!", it roared! It couldn't understand what had restrained it but it knew it had something to do with this mortal.
"Aaron Heart", Aaron responded. Not noticing that behind him Miara had locked the name in her heart.
The leopard continued to stare at him for a while before growing angry.
This human child had no Qi! How dare it act so arrogant in front of it!
"How dare a mortal attack me!" without giving Aaron a moment to respond it charged at him and intended to simply swipe him away. It didn't even use Qi, why would it waste its energy on a mortal?!
Aaron was stunned by the speed the leopard displayed, It had literally teleported in his eyes. Before he could even use Soru or react the leopards claw was about to make contact with the right side of his torso.
"No!", Miara who had already been surrounded by her guards yelled, He had come to their aid and now he was about to be killed defending them!
"Master!", Elliot who was hiding behind a tree in the distance stared in horror.
'Shit! Am I going to die before even fighting?!', Aaron cursed. He had allowed himself to be distracted but it was to late for regrets.
Bang!
The leopard's claw made contact slamming into Aaron's body
However, what happened next broke everyone's understanding of the world.
The blood and organs they had expected never came instead Aaron's upper torso had shattered into thousands of fragments of ice while his legs stayed rooted to the ground! His entire upper body was gone! The leopard was just as stunned it couldn't make sense of what had happened. Was he not human?
"...What's going on?", Miara's voice trembled. She was stunned, as she looked at the body standing there that no longer had a torso attached to it. She was confused as to what had occurred but before she could try to make sense of the situation something even more inconceivable happened. The body that had been shattered had started growing back from the waist up. In front of her eyes the upper body of his formed in less than 3 seconds, once his body had formed the ice surrounding him began to flake off. In front of her a a familiar sight, a golden robe and divine face stood, he was completely unscathed! One could see frost coating his body and thick cold white mist danced around him.
Doug and the guards had their mouths hanging open! Elliot had fallen to floor and stared at Aaron with disbelief. None of them understood how he wasn't dead. The most stunned being the Leopard, he was trying to figure out what this thing in front of him was but he suddenly felt his body restrained again.
"Damn cat! You dare sneak attack me!", Aaron was infuriated. He had almost died! Had that attack been imbued with Qi his elemental body wouldn't have been able to avoid the strike. He was only at Level 5 the Leopard was 4 levels above him, more than the required 3 to cause him damage. He immediately restrained the leopard with his strings and launched at him at such speed that his feathered coat fell off!
"Rankyaku!", swinging his right leg out a blue light flashed and headed towards the restrained leopard.
Bang!
It struck the leopard's chest but didn't do much damage, only a little blood could be seen. The leopard began struggling madly and broke free once again!
"Raaaawwwrrr!!! I'll kill you!!!!", it roared, angered that it was injured.
Charging at Aaron with the same speed as earlier it attacked except this time it used is full power to kill him.
However Aaron was prepared this time!
"Kami-e!"
A flaming paw came at him from his bottom left but before it could make contact he was able to float further left and evade the attack. Another came from his right side immediately after but again he was able to just get out of range. The heat coming off the flames made no difference to him.
Elliot was stunned as he watched., this was the same move Aaron had used on the Martial stage!
Aaron used Soru and appeared behind the leopard, swiping at with his right hand.
"Five color strings!"
The leopard was still faster, quickly turning its body it stuck out with its paw. It had sensed danger and although it couldn't see what it was, it knew something was coming at it!
Clang!
The sound of metal sounded out, spark flew from the leopards claws as if made contact with and blade! Aaron didn't let up, he quickly used his strings to bind it once again and used Soru to get behind and slice at it with his strings.
At first he had tried using the strings binding it to cut it but the leopard would free itself far to quickly. He also feared getting to close due to its speed and so decided to attack from a distance in attempt to wear it down.
"Despicable Human! What are using to restrain me?!"
The leopard was furious, every time he was about to close in on this human an invisible force would restrain all his movements, than the damn human would launch an attack at its back! Again he broke free and defended, angered his attacks became more violent. Aaron and the Leopard were moving so fast that appeared as blurs to everyone present.
'To think that young man would be so powerful! But...why cant I sense any Qi from him?', Doug thought as he was watching the fight in front of him with disbelief. The young man that looked no older than 15 was able to match an Earth Realm Qi Beast! How could he be so strong at this age and why couldn't he sense any Qi?! Also how could he turn into Ice and what are these skills he's using?!
None of it made any sense to him.
Staring at the raging leopard he shivered, had it attacked them with such ferocity they would have been killed without being able to resist.
Miara was holding onto a golden feathered coat that that the youth had dropped when he had charged the leopard. When she had thought he had died she felt terrible but seeing how powerful he was now she wasn't sure how to feel. He was strong, far to strong for his age! A thought suddenly appeared into her head.
"15 year old Earth realm cultivator....Bloodline that allows one to manipulate others...ice affinity. Could he be...?", she wasn't sure but she was starting to believe this was who her father had spoken of.
However she soon was taken out of her thoughts with the leopards roar.
"Rawwwrrrrr! I'll kill you!!!!!", the leopard had lost all reason and could only think of killing this human. Time and time again it would be restrained causing its anger to grow. It had had enough. It shifted away from Aaron and pointed its horn at him. Suddenly its rosettes began to glow and flicker, embers could be seen madly flying off its body.
Aaron noticed its behavior and tried to avoid but before he could the leopard vanished! Using his observation haki he sensed it appear behind him! Before he could turn around he heard a roar!
"Die!!!!!"
"Behind you!!!" Miara yelled, here hand clutching onto the coat.
The leopard had appeared 10 ft away from Aaron, pointing its horn which was now glowing white hot at him, a bright white beam shot out! Everything within 3 ft of the beam immediately burst into flames, even the very air itself seemed to catch fire. It moved so fast that Aaron couldn't turn around in time to defend. Gritting his teeth he made his move!
The beam struck.
Bang!
As massive explosion occurred were Aaron was standing. A Fire pillar 30 ft wide shot up into the air, burning everything in its path.
Doug and the guards moved to shield Miara from the flames as they watched in horror.
"Master!!!", Elliot called out from a distance.
Miara simply looked at the flame pillar rising in the air lost. unconsciously she pulled the robes in her arms closer.
'Was he dead? Even a mid Earth Realm cultivator might not survive if struck unaware by that attack.'
When the dust settled, a crater 15 ft wide and 5 ft deep could be seen. The soil inside and all around the crater was glowing red , steam could be seen rising.
"H-He's dead....", one the guards gulped after seeing the damage caused by the attack. He would have died 10 times over if he was the one to receive that attack.
Miara shuddered when she heard him but right at that moment a familiar voice sounded from above their heads!
"Partisan!"
Sssssssh!
Puchi!
"Raaawwwwrrrrr!!!!"
The leopard suddenly roared in pain. In his shoulder a spear made of ice could be seen sticking out. He was exhausted from launching his previous attack and had his guard down. Never had he excepted an attack to come from above. He jerked his head up to see what had injured him; Miara, Elliot ,and the guards followed suit.
Drop! Drop! Drop!
A few of the guards had fallen to the floor after they looked up, disbelief on their faces. Miara had here hand covering her mouth and her body was shaking, her little heart couldn't take all the surprises she had experienced today. Elliot's mouth had about dropped to his chest he and he appeared to be a statue unable to move.
Above them a young man clad in white silk robes could be seen standing in midair! Half his body giving off a cold aura and covered in frost.
"Sky Realm!!!", Doug shouted, his eyes bulging.
Only those at the sky realm could fly, this was a rule that existed since the first cultivators had come into being. There were no skills that allowed one to fly before reaching the Sky Realm and only a few rare bloodlines allowed for such an ability.
"Impossible! You're attacks aren't powerful enough and you have no Qi! You can't possibly be at the Sky realm!", the Leopard roared, the spear in its shoulder had begun to melt from the heat coming off its body and fallen out. However, it couldn't be bothered.
Hearing the leopard, Doug also noticed that Aaron still didn't give off any Qi. This was impossible, Sky realm cultivators used their Qi to fly, how could he still not sense anything? Suddenly a voice came from behind him.
"It's probably his Bloodline ability.", said Miara. She was now absolutely convinced that Aaron was who her father had spoken of after seeing his body covered in frost, Ice affinity was just far too rare. However, he was far more extraordinary than the message made him out to be. Gripping onto his golden robes, her eyes had begun to shine as she looked at him.
Aaron didn't idle as he quickly began circling the leopard while shooting ice spears at him.
Ssssh! Sssh! Ssssh!
3 spears flew towards leopard at over 100 mph!
The leopards eyes widened and he quickly struck 2 with his paws and jumped up to dodge the last spear. Just before he was about to land, his body had once again been restrained! He was locked in mid-air!
3 more spears came flying at it while it was locked in place.
"RAAAWWWRRR!!!"
The leopards rosettes suddenly gave off a red hot glow before flames were released from its entire body.
Pwhooosssh!!
The moment the spears and fire came into contract massive amounts of steam could be see. However it wasen't enough, the spears had become smaller but still pressed on.
Puchi! Puchi! Puchi
All 3 hit there mark, 2 stuck and lodged themselves into its its right shoulder one into its lower back!
"RAAAWWWRRR!!!!", it cried it pain, its eyes filled with pure hatred! It struggled and broke free from Aaron's strings again.
"I'll kill you!!!!! Even if it's the last thing I do!!!!!"
Suddenly its power began to rapidly increase and its flames burned even hotter. Miara noticed what was happening and quickly yelled out to warn Aaron!
"Be careful! It's burning its Blood essence!
Blood essence was the very thing that carried ones Bloodline. Burning your blood essence would allow for dramatic increase in power but at the expense of diluting or losing your bloodline all together. What the leopard was doing was akin to throwing away its future cultivation potential in order to kill Aaron!
Aaron couldn't sense Qi but he could feel the oppressive force coming off the leopard growing thicker. While he wasn't injured he was starting to tire, his breathing had started becoming heavy and uneven. He was only able to come this far because he was able to keep the Leopard at a distance, if he had engaged in close combat or allowed it to strike him he would've probably been killed after one or two strikes.
"I have to end this now!"
He could see the leopards horn glowing white hot, and knew that the attack that would follow would be more powerful than before. Bracing himself he prepared to dodge than bind and attack its heart and head with over 10 spears.
Steadying himself he watched the leopard, its body was radiating so much heat that the ground beneath it had begun to glow red, the air around it so distorted that the leopard itself appeared to be a mirage. However this was no mirage, even though it did him no harm, Aaron could feel the heat radiating off the leopard. The guards and Miara had to use their Qi to keep it at bay or they would turned to charcoal. Elliot had long fled back over 80 ft and watched from a distance, this was a fight he couldn't wrap his mind around let alone be close enough to witness.
"Die!!!" The leopard shouted than vanished!
Aaron couldn't believe his eyes, this was at least 2x as fast as before. All of a sudden his heart shuddered and he felt impending danger!
'It's Behind me! Dodge! I have to Dodge!!!', his heart beating madly he began pulling himself higher into the air.
But he was too slow.