CHAPTER 38: CHAPTER 38: WAR PATH PT3 — MARQUIS RESOLVE

Anvil got up from the ground and shook his head. Pain flooded his system and he gritted it off, he was a man and pain was nothing—he looked at Kishi, he had severely underestimated the man, he was indeed powerful, not just boasting he is powerful.

Anvil tapped on the drums creating a soft melody that filled the battlefield—the sky roared in resonance to the casual taps and bumps of the drums and lightning sparks charged around Anvil. He closed his eyes and increased the speed he was tapping the drums.

A beam of lightning descended onto him covering him with its majestic glow—the tapping sounds gave the lightning form and control. Anvil, covered in the lightning shield took a breather and exhaled dashing forward leaving a streak of lightning to dance where he was.

He appeared before Kishi and punched the man in the chest sending him flying into the distance—his superior speed amplified the lightning armor he wore enabled him to cover the distance between them and he struck Kishi sending him crashing into the ground. Anvil bent his knees as he plummeted to the ground, hitting Kishi in the process and creating a massive dent on the earth.

Kishi coughed out blood as the knees hit his stomach. One minute he was looking at the spot Anvil was in and the next, his system could only register pain flooding into him—his eyes were slow to comprehend the level of speed, he could only see glimpses of Anvil but that would be too late as the damage would come seconds after.

Kishi regained his bearings and got to his feet—he focused on the application of Neuro-Qi, the one that allowed amplification and he focused on his eyes causing them to mature—he could see Anvil coming at him, but not only that, he could see silhouettes outlines around Anvil, these silhouettes preceded movement the latter made and came true after the actions leading up to them.

Kishi unknowingly had evolved basic eyesight amplification to prediction through tracking the muscle pattern, and breathing pattern to predict where he was going to be.

He’s coming to the left. Kishi watched as the silhouette moved and it showed him where Anvil was going to be.

He covered himself with his Neuro-Qi creating a dense cover on his fist and threw a fist towards the position the silhouette hinted Anvil was going to be.

The two fists collided and a shockwave ripped across the clearing causing the ground to sink.

Anvil’s eyes were wide—raijin, the armor he wore was the second fastest attack that he had in his arsenal and yet Kishi had predicted where he was going to be, before he got there. Anvil jumped back and put a good distance between them. "How did you know where I was going to be?"

"Your body—" Kishi took a pause drawing out the suspense in the air. "— is your biggest flaw while being your most reliable tool. I could simply see where you are going to be, before you get there."

"So body based prediction. Clever."

Anvil had to give Kishi his flowers, the man evolved and adapted mid fighting after seeing his raijin form once—but in his reasoning the was a single flaw, as much as Kishi wanted to thump his chest in pride of his accomplishment, he only saw Anvil cause Anvil allowed himself to be seen.

GALE OF THE GREAT MOUNTAIN KING

Kishi’s rod parted and revealed a fan which he sung releasing massive blades of compressed winds which tore through the land, severed trees as they approached Anvil.

The latter tapped his drums again and the sky roared in agreement sending down a bolt of lightning that reshaped itself into a serpent with a giraffe head—The lightning struck the ground, striking Kishi and Anvil and putting a stop to the air blades.

As the dust settled down, Anvil was unharmed by his attack—Kishi on the other hand had severe burns spanning the entirety of his body. The heat of the attack, not only burned him on a surface level but caused his implants to overload from the access energy having nowhere to go.

Damn it. Kishi seethed. This was a massive setback in their plans—without him, he knew that the east platoon would get demolished extremely quickly but without the use of Neuro-Qi, he was hopeless. He couldn’t contest with the man in front of him.

"Guess, we shall fight another time." a mark appeared on Kishi’s forearm and he vanished.

Anvil heaved a sigh of relief, the last attack had taken so much out of him—continuation of battle would be futile. Blood oozed from his chest and he went to one knee. "He got me good." He placed his hand on his ear. Mission complete, the East force has been delayed.

Marquis El Grigory stood in front of large displays overlooking the Sects masters of various Sects within the Heavenly Cities. "Gentlemen, we are in an emergency. Heaven’s Feel has declared war on every city here and as we speak Dravnel is underattack."

"That damn son of Tiang."

"We should take arms and stop this charge."

"Us? team up with lowly lives like you all?"

Marquis pinched the bridge of his nose—even when facing extinction they still couldn’t put aside their pride and work together. Always, they have to resort to childish bickering and insults. He clapped his hands, garnering their attention. "We should stop arguing like fools and come up with a solution, I have thought of a measure we could take, to delay the advancements of Heaven’s Feel for the time being."

A woman wearing a large pink hat with blue eyes stared at Marquis. "Whats your proposal Grigory?"

Marquis heaved a sigh of relief. Atleast someone in this bunch was considerate enough to listen to what he wanted to propose. "We call upon the Nine Heavens. Only they have the strength to stop Qingye and his forces."

The command room went silent, every Sect master stared at Grigory wondering if they had heard him right.

Call the Nine Heavens?

Most of the Sect masters thought that was a foolish quest—ever since the dawn of the new age of cultivation, the Nine Heavens have played a pacifist group—not bothering to intervene in lower lands matters. The only time they mobilized was when their sanctuary was underattack 60 years ago, since then they had remained elusive and shrouded in mystery.

"Preposterous! Those people will never help."

"You must be joking."

Marquis glared at the masters—his eyes discarding their shine and leaving behind, a serious look.

"I am, and I am going to make them cooperate with us if it’s the last thing I will do."