The preliminaries were child's play compared to the semi-finals!
Rihanna finally understood why the preliminaries had started to feel boring and repetitive by the second day – because most of the competitors had not displayed their powers and skills in full force.
"From the semi-finals onward, this Championship will become far more intense and exciting. Most candidates at Spirit Sensing level have already been disqualified. The remaining are all at Foundation Building stage. You will see more dual element and even triple element-merging techniques. The skill levels will also increasing, with everyone showcasing their own styles and strengths."
Uncle He, as usual, was explaining all the details of the competition. Over the past few days, the group of lone cultivators had become very close to this little girl. Perhaps because she never showed any fear or discomfort being around them, and also displayed an unusual amount of intelligence and perception beyond her years, they too opened up, and felt like they were instead teaching a disciple.
They would discuss all the finer aspects of every dual – elemental combinations, attack and defense techniques, intuition through experience versus intuition through knowledge of varied techniques, importance of body flexibility and agility in both defense and offense, guiding weapons of a cultivator, how to create and enhance spiritual consciousness of one's guiding weapon...they would talk endlessly, and Rihanna would sit and listen, her eyes burning with curiosity, asking questions every now and then. They really felt like she was a part of their team!
Wen Haoli on the other hand seemed rather dissatisfied and suspicious. Rihanna could sense that he probably was suspicious of why she had changed so much. Though she did not think he could possibly think of transmigration of souls as a culprit, however she avoided him so as to not face any weird interrogation.
The audience went wild once more, and Rihanna turned her attention from the very interesting discussion to look at the stage.
"Isn't that the new disciple Liye Satsuya of the Sect Leader of Ancient Beast Aura Sect?"
"Yes....I think he is facing the son of the Vice-Leader of Weaponry and Armor Guild, Mo Doste....I think he is from the Cloud Heaven Sect!"
Rihanna had long given up on these weird sounding names. Heck, even the language sounded like a mix of Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, African and Greek. Some words even sounded like Sanskrit to her!
"Both are mid-grade sects, aren't they? Let's see what this new disciple will dish out today! He is said to be one of this years dark horse."
Keeping one eye on their informative blabbering, Rihanna glued her eye to the fourth arena stage.
It was the same fellow who had clashed with one of the major sects on the market main road!
As soon as the array lit up, both the competitors called upon their elemental attack skills.
Rihanna had learned from the 'Uncles' that there were basically two methods of using the energy accumulated by the Spiritual Root. One was using the elemental weapons. These were solidified manifestations of their elemental powers, and often took the shape of a weapon or element form, as created by the user. Like, water could be used as water, or made into water arrows, water whips or water tornadoes. Of course these were more effective if you merged two or more elemental powers into them.
The other method was using words and gestures. The words were created through sounds of heaven and earth – or as she understood it, Universal sounds. The sounds helped in directing the energy to the fingers, and the different gestures created different techniques for the energy output. This was more complicated, and required a large amount of mental strength. Women were generally more adept at this style of cultivation. Of course, neither style was segregated by gender, and were popular amongst both men and women.
Satsuya attacked first, and a huge stream of water blasted off towards Doste. Everyone knew from the prelims that Satsuya favored his water element. Apparently so did Doste, as he immediately countered with a large shield of blue fire, which slowly but surely expanded towards Satsuya, changing instantly from defense to offense.
Doste didn't stop. He used his wind step-manipulation technique, rushing haphazardly all around the court like a wild bullet, surrounding Satsuya with blue fire shields from every side. Satsuya instantly fell onto his back-foot, continuously shooting off water streams to block all the incoming shields, shifting completely from offense to defense.
"Tsk! He should have used poison instead! How can water hold against Doste's fire?"
Rihanna was confused. "Why is the fire so strong? Shouldn't such a force of water be able to douse out the fire?"
"That is blue fire. It burns at a much higher temperature than normal fire. It is a sort of evolved fire, and even a little amount can turn that stream of fire into smoke. See....the entire stage has now becoming foggy with all the water vapor."
The stage had indeed turned blurred, as water turned to gas and filled up the space within the array, unable to disperse.
"What is that?"
Doste too was unable to see clearly. Suddenly he noticed something changing around him.
A thin but continuous stream of black smoke was mixing into the white fog, turning it into black clouds. The fog curled around in circles, like a black dust storm slowly eating away the white fog. The surrounding grew denser and heavier, hanging low, just above the arena stage.
"Oh!...This guy....he can not only use water....but he can control it's other forms as well! And he is also mixing poison into it.....that is a very high level skill for him!"
Doste too had realized it by this time. He created a whirlwind above him, sucking in all the fog in his vicinity. As he was distracted, Satsuya released water all over the stage, instantly freezing it as it covered the stage. Doste could feel his feet turning to ice blocks, impeding his movement. Twisting the whirlwind, he thrust it towards Satsuya. Satsuya immediately let out a stream of ice, freezing the whirlwind in mid-air, then hit it with a continuous stream of water, forcing it back towards Doste's head. Doste had already released his blue fire, and managed to shift out of the path in the nick of time. However, the frozen whirlwind still struck his left shoulder, throwing him across the stage.
Satsuya took this opportunity and once again released another stream of water, freezing it as it reached Doste. This time Doste was unable to move fast due to his injury, and the lower half of his body was immediately engulfed by an ice block. He released his blue fire once more, but Satsuya too froze off the air around him, bringing down the temperature of his fire. A black smoke mixed into the freezing wind once more, slowly turning into black icicles, which detached themselves and shot out at Doste. The fire was taking too much time to burn the ice blocking his lower half, so he lashed out at the icicles with a wind whip.
The black icicles shattered into dust, but that is what Satsuya was targeting for. Since the air was already frozen, the wind was unable to disperse all the black dust, and a large part of it fell on Doste. Even holding his breath couldn't stop the dust from entering through his nose. The poison dust burned through his skin, his insides were also burning, and though Doste gritted his teeth, he was finding it very difficult to maintain his focus. His guiding weapon lashed out repetitively at the frozen air all around him, as his flames continued melting away the ice block.
Satsuya released another huge spurt of water all over Doste, and immediately froze it, caging him completely till only his face remained outside. By now Doste was sweating, and black thick mucous like substance was streaming out of his pores. His vision was going increasingly blurry.
"Will he be able to come out of this alive?"
"Well.....death is always a part of these competitions....but generally once the opponent surrenders, the one who used the poison would give you the anti-dote as well. This is to keep the good-will between the sects."
Rihanna nodded, chewing on this information, as she turned back to the stage. As everyone expected, Doste's teacher signaled him to surrender. Immediately after, Satsuya pulled back his ice element, and handed over the antidote, before jumping off the stage. Doste on the other hand, had to be brought out of the stage by his teacher and another student. Then they left immediately, heading towards the medical tent at the back.
Rihanna exhaled a long, deep breath. That was all for now. The contestants would all head to the food tent set up by the Alliance of Sects, and then take some rest before assembling once again for the next sessions. Which also meant break-time for the audience. People were busy digging out food and drinks from their inner worlds or space rings, chomping on dry rations in groups, chatting away excitedly about the events of the morning. Uncle He and the others too had quickly formed a circle, busy dissecting every new technique they had discovered today. Rihanna listened for some time, but her mind kept turning towards tonight.
Hmmm....tonight was when she had to make a break for it. She couldn't help feeling a bit guilty and sad. Other than Ye Luo, these were the first people she had made friends with. And despite their difference as commoners and cultivators, they had always treated her as one of their own. She didn't have anything to give them right now, nothing with which she could return their large favor.
She really wanted to tell them that she would be gone far away by this time tomorrow...well, no matter what happened, and no matter where and how they met next time, she would always remember this favor. And she would do her best to repay it as best as she could. These were good people, and they really deserved a good life. Hopefully, if she managed to make it out of her current predicament alive....hopefully they would meet again.