The finals were upon them. It was the duo of Li Tai and Yu Tian. Cloud Sword and Dragon Shield. Usually comrades in arms, but this time they were enemies.
Interestingly, as the two stepped up, it was clear that Li Tai was the nervous one. The one with the sword was afraid of the shield.
When they started, it could be immediately seen why. Yu Tian summoned a total of 10 shields. More than he ever summoned before in the tournament.
Li Tai wasn't surprised, it was clear they were familiar with each other's abilities. Yet as soon as the two got close to one another, everyone could see the problem. He physically could even get close.
In a matter of seconds Li Tai was already surrounded by the 10 shields, he couldn't squeeze out between them, he couldn't jump over them. When he tried to pierce through a certain part, other shields would reinforce it.
Sometimes. Yu Tian even opened up a gap between the shields, only to close it by slamming them into Li Tai and activating the Dragon Roar and stunning Li Tai. The ability was both a great defensive ability and a great small range control ability. Quite versatile.
Li Tai was clearly used to the Dragon Roar, the stuns were much less effective against him compared to other Soul Grandmasters Yu Tian fought. These two fought each other and with each other many times before. They were the greatest of friends and rivals at the same time. Before they became Soul Grandmasters, the win rate was slightly in Li Tai's favour with a 60 to 40 ratio. Once the two became Soul Grandmasters, Yu Tian gained an amazing defensive and controlling soul skill. Even Karni and Siduo were amazed at how well Yu Tian could control it. The ratio turned the other way around with a 80 to 20 win ratio for Yu Tian.
Looking at Li Tai in the middle, he seemed like a bird in a cage, unable to escape. And then his sword disappeared, the second soul ring activating.
Just when Yu Tian had a shield in front of Li Tai for a split second and the shield blocked his view of Li Tai, Li Tai made a throwing motion. And then immediately activated his first soul ring while pretending to hold an invisible sword.
Yu Tian suddenly felt a small cut on his shoulder. Bewildered, he dropped the shields and looked at Li Tai. He willingly admitted defeat. Karni and Siduo were a bit confused, before realising what happened.
Li Tai made the sword immaterial so it could pass through all the shields, then once it was through the final one, he quickly made the sword sharp and pierced through Yu Tian's shoulder. Well, his clothes, there was barely a scratch on the shoulder.
The reason Yu Tian surrendered was simple. If Li Tai wanted to, he could've thrown it directly in his neck and killed him. He was open to attacks with a simple trick and great timing.
The two approached each other. "So that was the move you've been practising? I'll be honest, I don't even know how to actually counter that outside of guessing when you do it."
"Making the sword invisible from afar was quite hard to achieve, I've only started having some success last week."
Yu Tian thought out loud. "Now that I'm aware of it, you can fake it as well. Ugh, you're going to become annoying to fight against."
"You don't get to say that." Li Tai said and held his friend's barely cut shoulder.
In such a simple manner, the competition ended. Most of the people on the stands were actually quite disappointed. The ending was anticlimactic. In their eyes. One was clearly losing and then the winner suddenly surrendered.
Only the teachers and the two in question knew what actually happened. Karni and Siduo, who were paying close attention, figured it out based on what Tie Tiao told them beforehand.
Tie Tiao's loss was similarly confusing to the audience the day before.
Yu Tian and Li Tai were given their rewards, but then the two of them loudly made a speech.
"Wu Siduo, Val Karni. We challenge you to a 2 vs 2, tomorrow in this arena. Oh. Um." The two turned to the teachers. "If you would allow it."
Karni and Siduo stood up and gave a thumbs up, excitement was in their eyes. Even if these two were below them in their ranks of soul power, their skills spoke for themselves.
The teachers gave their approval. Everyone who wished could watch this 2 vs 2.
There was another reason that Yu Tian surrendered so easily when he witnessed his friend's move. Li Tai avoided injuring him so that the two would be strong against Karni and Siduo. They had such preparations from the very start. They started thinking of what they could use against Karni and Siduo long before this competition.
Tomorrow's match immediately became a loud topic.
… … …
The next day, Karni and Siduo arrived at the arena. The two of them on one side, and the opponents on the other. The stands were full. Even students from the sixth grade came to watch. Karni and Siduo regularly sparred with Soul Elders to fight against them.
Sometimes they even won. The two had quite the reputation among the upper years due to their strength. Now that the Cloud Sword and the Dragon Shield would be joining the special class, the upper years will have to spar against them as well. Everyone was quite curious how these two could handle themselves against Karni and Siduo.
Yu Tian and Li Tai were aware of the other two's abilities as well. They spent a few years with them when they were Soul Grandmasters. Before they entered the Intermediate Academy. They asked around about their new powers as well.
This time it was Teacher Ye herself that refereed the match. She was a reassuring presence that nothing would go wrong.
"Everyone on their place. Introduce yourself, your soul power, your martial souls and your system." She pointed in Yu Tian and Li Tai's direction. Since this was also a presentation to the whole academy, they needed to make a good impression.
Yu Tian stepped up first. "Yu Tian, rank 25. My martial soul is the Dragon Shield and I'm a defence system soul master."
Li Tai immediately followed. "Li Tai, rank 26. My martial soul is the Cloud Sword. I'm an agility-assault system soul master."
The teacher nodded and then turned towards Karni and Siduo.
Karni was the first to step up. "Val Karni, rank 30. My martial soul is the Staff of Predictions and I'm a control system soul master."
Siduo then joined him. "Wu Siduo, rank 30. My martial soul is the Hell Cat and I'm an agility system soul master."
Li Tai and Yu Tian were honestly a bit shocked. Didn't that mean that they could've already become true Soul Elders? Why were they like this instead? They wouldn't get answers to their questions until after the fight.
"Everyone get ready. I'll start the countdown." Teacher Ye reminded. Everyone got into place.
"5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Start." The teacher backed off quickly to make space.
Everyone dashed ahead at the same time. Karni and Siduo quickly glanced at each other as Karni activated his first and second soul rings. Golden Insight and Vision Bestowal.
As soon as he did, she activated her first soul ring and dashed straight ahead, aiming directly for the Cloud Sword Li Tai.
The Cloud Sword dashed ahead as well. He turned his sword invisible with his second soul ring and then threw it. Soon activating the first soul ring.
As if Siduo knew where, she dodged with ease. Karni's soul ring worked in a particular way. The enhancements he got weren't to the predictions themselves. It was just the overall boost to awareness. His predictions could work much, much better and be clearer. It could tap into the power of predictions much easier. Whether the object was invisible to the eyes or not didn't actually matter. With the second soul ring, he would transfer the innate effect of predictions to someone else. Joined with the first soul ring, the awareness would transfer as well.
Li Tai frowned and recalled his martial soul. His sword was still invisible. His first soul ring activated.
Siduo didn't care, she charged directly at him, her second soul ring shining brightly.
The two clashed. A sword could block parts of the attack, but the Hell Hundred Claws put many scratches, some deeper than the others, onto Li Tai. Siduo was clearly the winner of the bout.
However, she suddenly turned and dashed away.
"No you don't." Li Tai said and threw his sword at her like a spear.
She dodged with ease, but it slowed her down. In the next moment, she was surrounded by 10 shields. She was in a cage of shields.
Li Tai quickly slipped out of them, leaving Siduo inside alone, while he went towards Karni.
Siduo was inside, and as soon as she was, she deactivated her abilities and just stood there. She saw what Li Tai went through yesterday. She wasn't about to waste her strength on something she knew she couldn't break through.
"Fine." Yu Tian said. His first soul ring shone.
Siduo just stood there taking it. She focused on the feeling and she grinned. It felt like Karni hitting her with about 8 to10 Stacks on his Bo Staff, but it was a constant feeling, it wasn't too hard to take it. She just had to be ready in case the power would amplify suddenly.
Yu Tian's face turned in shock, before he used his second soul ring again. The shields started moving, charging at Siduo from all sides.
Siduo dodged the first one like an illusory shadow, then bumped the second off its track with icy strong hands. She was using the Tang Sect techniques.They used less soul power compared to her soul skills.
Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to dodge, Mysterious Jade Hands to redirect. However, despite the ease of her dodging and the combination with Karni's second soul ring, she still couldn't see an exit.
Meanwhile Li Tai was charging towards Karni. Karni stayed behind, because he simply couldn't compare to that speed. He was agile, sure, but pure speed? He couldn't do anything when he saw Siduo getting trapped, he was simply too far away.
Li Tai was now closing in so Karni split his martial soul into Drumsticks. Like setting up a rhythm for a song on the drums. He bumped his drumsticks together. One. Two. Three.
Six Stacks met with a Sword, two for each time Karni bumped the drumsticks together. He's improved well in regards to understanding this aspect of his martial soul since the Tang Sect Trial against Xu Sanshi.
Li Tai was surprised at seeing Karni intercept his attack with a normal sword with such ease. He quickly activated his first soul ring, while Karni put his martial soul back together.
The two martial souls clanged, but Karni was clearly losing in a show of force. Despite having his stacks, they couldn't compare with an actual boost from a soul skill. They could only daze people if hit directly, but hitting a weapon? It wasn't nearly as effective, even with building up his Stacks while fighting.
Unfortunately, metal could take much higher frequencies of vibrations than a body of a human or a soul beast.
Since he was mostly losing in a direct confrontation, Karni started dodging in his unnatural ways. Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track and Drunken Dancing Movement working together. His dodge brought him to Li Tai's back simultaneously, but the opponent managed to react quickly, slicing at him immediately. It was clear there was actual technique of swordsmanship involved.
Karni intercepted the sword, until a tiny semblance of a shock showed on his face, after the shock, the sword suddenly vanished. Second soul ring from Li Tai was lighting up, then the first soul ring immediately followed.
Karni reacted appropriately. His Bo Staff split in half again and intercepted the invisible sword. He wasn't surprised at all now. He was surprised when he saw it in the prediction instead.
He used the force from the powerful invisible sword to turn back, towards the cage of shields in which Siduo was still constantly dodging, just a tiny bit closer than before. He knew she needed his help.
She couldn't break out of the encirclement for a simple reason. None of her attacks were concentrated ones. Her Hell Hundred Slash used many slashes and while she'd learned to fuse them a little, it still required multiple slashes. By the time she'd manage to push one of the shields, others would already reinforce it, and then she'd be back at square one.
She couldn't escape with speed either, as the shields let no actual hole show through which she could. Yu Tian chose safety and made slower attacks rather than to accidentally give her a hole through which she could escape. The two were very much in a standstill. Siduo had trusted Karni that he'll arrive soon.
On the other hand the battle between Karni and Li Tai was in a never ending dance. Well it looked more like Karni wanted to dance, while Li Tai wanted to fight. But because Karni saw the future for a second ahead, he always made it look like Li Tai danced with him as well. All the while Karni slowly but surely moved closer and closer to the cage of shields.
Li Tai was frustrated. It was a similar feeling to being in the Dragon Shield Cage. Not being able to truly overpower the opponent. But this one felt even worse, because he had no idea what to do. No matter what tricks he tried, Karni responded appropriately.
He knew Karni saw predictions, but it was still a very uncomfortable fight to have. This frustration blinded him to the fact that they were much closer to the shield cage now, than they were before.
Karni was intentionally keeping close to keep Li Tai's focus, if he'd try to run too soon, Li Tai would definitely catch up.
The dance continued, whenever the sword would vanish, Karni would intercept it as soon as it was material again. Then bounce back just a tiny bit. Everytime their martial souls clashed, a soft ringing song could be heard.
Karni actually already had all of his available Stacks on the Bo Staff. Li Tai himself now had to constantly use his soul skills to attack, otherwise, he'd be the one to be pushed back. But as long as he kept the soul skills active, he could prevai-
It was only now that they were close to the shields that Li Tai finally realised what happened.
Karni saw that he was planning to body him to slow him down and he immediately used his Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track in its pure form to get a glance of Yu Tian from the other side of the shield cage.
Li Tai didn't manage to react quickly enough. Karni saw Yu Tian's eyes and activated his Purple Demon Eyes and second soul ring, Vision Bestowal.
A magical effect happened. If the soul skill is used with the Tang Sect's eye technique, he could forcefully apply it to a person as long as he saw their eyes. No need for him to wait for others to look at him. He intentionally refrained from using this on Li Tai, for fear that the guy would figure something out.
As soon as Karni applied the effects on Yu Tian, he dashed further towards him and ignored the fast approaching Li Tai.
For a second, Yu Tian saw a bunch of golden shapes, his shields were part of these, but more importantly, the person in the middle had at least 10 golden afterimages each going in a different direction. Perhaps the term, "beforeimages" would be more correct.
His control over his own martial soul immediately faltered. Siduo took the first chance she saw. "About time."
She rushed out, but not towards Yu Tian, no, she reached the side of Li Tai at the perfect moment, her second and first soul ring shining.
She held nothing back. Hell Hundred Claws were combined with her Mysterious Jade Hands. All the slashes were of clear icy blue colour intermixed with black. However, just before Li Tai fell, he sent his sword toward Yu Tian.
On the other hand Karni threw one of his Drumsticks with what were now already full Stacks and hit Yu Tian directly in his chest. He didn't dare to aim for the head, he might actually kill him if he did that.
Yu Tian's body immediately felt numb, the shields fell from the sky when he couldn't control them anymore. Karni jumped on top and swung his other Drumstick towards his head. Just then the sword that Li Tai threw, arrived.
Yu Tian moved his whole body to hit it with a single shield, for he couldn't actually control his individual body parts right now, and a weird glow suddenly appeared. Karni saw a giant dragon rising from the clouds, but collapsing soon after.
Then the actual Dragon in the Clouds appeared. Karni ran back, while throwing the other half into the dragon. The sword tried to swipe at the staff, but it collapsed before anything else.
Just when the figure of Yu Tian reappeared, the bo staff hit it, and he fell to the ground.
On the other hand, Li Tai tried to run towards Yu Tian when he threw the sword, but Siduo's Hell Hundred Slashes covered a big area. With her having the Mysterious Jade Hands activated as well, he couldn't take the attack at all. It was sturdier than before, and there were a total of 50 slashes fused from the 100.
His body was bleeding all over, it was only Siduo's good will that made it so she didn't slash him too deep.
In a single explosive move, Karni and Siduo won, even though everything seemed to be in a stalemate. And even though there was a slight resurgence, nothing came out of it.
The winners were announced.
Even before this situation, Karni and Siduo decided to deal with each of them separately. Karni was supposed to take care of Yu Tian and Siduo of Li Tai.
With Karni's second ability, it would've been hard for Yu Tian to keep his concentration and lock Karni inside, while Siduo would most definitely overpower Li Tai with her abilities.
The two actually fell into Li Tai's and Yu Tian's trap when they captured Siduo. Thinking about that end, the two realised they had some luck as well. That… Karni looked at Siduo.
It was definitely an attempt at soul fusion. It's just that with Li Tai not arriving there soon enough, as well as with Karni disturbing Yu Tian's body control beforehand, it fell apart. No wonder the two were coming to the special class.
The week-long event across the Intermediate Academy was over, and it was time for the Green Tiger Academy students to return.
Karni and Siduo bid Tie Tiao and Hu Fuya goodbye. Weirdly enough, Ma Fai has been keeping close to Tie Tiao and talking to him every once in a while. They parted ways with the students at the train station in Star Luo City.
… … …
The next week, two new students greeted Karni and Siduo in the class. Li Tai and Yu Tian made an awkward, and a bit of a hostile entrance.
Siduo welcomed them happily. "Welcome younguns. In here we do training, training and a bit of suffering every now and then. Enjoy!"
The Sword and the Shield were caught completely off guard.
"We also have to suffer from Sisi's jokes. Outside of training, we're quite carefree."
Teacher Ye looked at Karni sternly. "That being said." Karni coughed. "We train 99 percent of the time and training can go into the afternoons often."
The tension that existed when the two new students entered immediately disappeared. Is that how these two always were? Would it be considered dumb, carefree, or just goofy?
The two were still a bit frustrated that they couldn't show their ability back then, particularly the fusion, which was their trump card. They weren't completely appeased, but they can accept Karni and Siduo as classmates.
… … …
Ma Fai was thrown onto the ground. His injuries hurt. "Useless. You want us to apologise? You made a deal that your family has to apologise?"
It was Ma Fai's father. His martial soul was even summoned, as he picked Ma Fai up and threw him through the house.
"You should be thankful to have even been allowed birth. Yet this is how you repay us? We even gave you the chance to become the heir of the Ma Family, due to your unexpected talent, yet you bring trouble to us?"
"I- I'm sorry." Ma Fai was full of tears. Every inch of his body was hurting.
"Don't ever dare to use the Ma family name again. From this day forward you are no longer from the Ma Family. Disappear. You should be thankful we are letting you live."
"No. Please, where do I go-"
He was kicked again.
"I knew I should've given up on you the moment I saw you were born a girl. Don't ever return. Next time you come close to our house, you won't leave alive."
"Bu-"
The man Ma Fai referred to as father picked her up and threw her over the house premises. Ma Fai barely managed to summon her martial soul to fall somewhat safely.
"Father. What do I do? What do I tell the Tie Family?" Ma Fai cried to herself. Her appearance was now visible now that she was beaten up. She truly was a girl.
There was no answer, only locked doors. She once had to pretend to be a man. It brought shame to the Ma Family if the heir was a boy. They were a very traditional family.
Ma Fai simply left for the town. She didn't know what to actually do. Her life seemed so meaningless now. 10 years she has spent being a man. She didn't even remember how to be a woman anymore. She was raised like a man, for all anyone knew, she was born a man as well. And it was all due to the fact she had the purest bloodline in her martial soul.
She stumbled upon a rock. Fell onto her shoulder. The shoulder that was especially stabbed deeply by Tie Tiao a few days ago. The injury has worsened due to the beating of her father.
It was fine until then, the treatment she received in Star Luo City Academy was effective. But now she was bleeding profusely and she had no basic knowledge of medicine or first aid whatsoever.
It was summer now and the heat was scorching today. Her injuries felt like they were burning. Her martial soul was a Flaming Eyes Hawk. Usually she liked the heat, but today it felt uncomfortable.
Ever since the incident with Tie Tiao's sister, she has worked endlessly to temper the innate anger of her martial soul, she could even control it when she lost against Tie Tiao, but now it was threatening to explode.
No. She can't explode inside the town. She had to make it out. She couldn't hurt innocent people anymore. She might just cause a disaster if she loses control at this moment.
She walked for 10 minutes, but this short time was enough for her to almost go over the edge. She crouched down. Last bits of her sanity ready to leave at any moment. She briefly considered killing herself, but she didn't have the courage. It was too much to ask of a 10 year old child.
She kept replaying everything that had happened. She thought she could finally be free of her guilt, but she didn't think it would end this way. She remembered that cold energy from the dagger. If only she had it right now. What once was uncomfortable, was now something she wished for to be here.
In a split second, a chill, soothing feeling was on her forehead. She regained some of her clarity. She looked up. "Tie Tiao?" She asked in a trembling voice.
"Quick, we need to give her medicine." A womanly voice was heard from behind.
She saw who it was. Was it actually her? Why would she want to help her?
"Ah. Sorry, I forgot you're hiding that you're a woman for a second. It's okay now. You'll be alright. Just focus on the cold feeling for a couple more minutes. Little Tiao!"
"Yes!" Tie Tiao was quick to work. He put Ma Fai on his back and started running.
"Why?"
"Quiet now. Talk later, focus on yourself right now."
"It doesn't matter anymore. Nothing matters anymore." Ma Fai screamed while crying.
"Of course it matters. We'll get you in a nice cold bath, don't worry." Tie Kexin sounded from the front.
"Why?"
"Why else? You need help, we're getting you help. Now quiet down and think of the friendly cold feeling."
They ran to the Tie Family house in silence. As Ma Fai saw the building her tears started falling again. "Thank you."