41. Exhibition

  Thaseus prepared to compete in the coliseum once more, something which he had never expected to do. That he was on the cusp of breaking through to the Diamond Path was in the back of his mind, and his hope was that this bout, an expedition to test the wards in preparation for the junior’s portion of the tournament, would be enough to push him over the cusp.

  While he was looking forward to dueling Master Little Bug as well as part of the Petal Blossoms, this private match was even more anticipated. For it might finally settle the question that had been lingering in the back of his mind for some time now.

  He knew that he was not as strong as each of the other disciples of Little Bug. Taimei was, due to her techniques, effectively unbeatable in the daylight. Xol had been likewise almost invincible during the night, rest his soul. That narrowed his primary rivals down to seven.

  His dual attunement to wind and fire made him particularly fearsome, as one complimented the other in way that were both practical and profound. He had a hard time fighting against Polkluk, a fact that he would have had trouble countenancing if they were both still the idiot teenagers they’d been when they had first met. Idiotic for different reasons, but idiotic all the same.

  He grinned, reflectively. If there was ever a synonym for idiot, it would be ‘self-assured teenager,’ he thought. But then, Polkluk’s weakness had been that he lacked self-confidence. Well, that and actual weakness which had taken the great Little Bug five years of effort to correct.

  But Polkluk was not his opponent today.

  Yara’s ice made her fiersome as well, as she could freeze the very blood and bones of her opponent if she wanted to. If you didn’t know to counter it, you were dead before the battle truly started. Thaseus knew to counter it, and the remainder of the battle he was confident that he would overpower her in the end. But she would make him work for every strike.

  But she had not agreed to test the wards.

  Hien Ro had ascended to the Diamond Path, or else Thaseus would have preferred to fight him. Ro was often seen as the leader due to his closer relationship with Little Bug, and that was something that Thaseus wished to prove was an honorary title only. Hien Ro was mighty, yes, but he was not the best fighter among the nine remaining disciples.

  The Dao Companions together would of course trounce Hien Ro, but individually they would be like wheat before a scythe. That was not a reflection of their individual strength, but rather the fact that they had committed so much of themselves into being a unit that it would weaken them considerably to break apart from that unit and fight individually.

  Three Thaseuses did not make an equal to the companions, for they complimented each other in ways that he could not compliment himself.

  That left his opponent today.

  Lukal Lukal.

  The one who had shown him how a champion fought.

  He took a moment before stepping onto the sands to touch the crystal that everyone was supposed to touch before entering the floor. Including the judges, for some reason, but there was no judge in this match.

  He stepped out onto the sands, and Lukal Lukal stepped out from the opposite end to greet him. Lukal Lukal, as always, bore a wide-grin and was carrying a spear that looked like it was older than he was. The young man jogged over and shook Thaseus’s hand.

  “I never thought that we would cross blades again in this place!” Lukal Lukal said excitedly. “It shall be an excellent amendment to the story of the relationship between me and my friend, Thaseus Dios.”

  The crowd cheered, for he was speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear. A minor trick of Qi, though Lukal Lukal’s element was Earth and not wind, so he still needed to raise his voice.

  “When we first met, Lukal Lukal, I did not think much of you except seeing you as an obstacle to overcome. To be crushed beneath the heel of my boot,” Thaseus admitted. The round faced man just continued to smile at the admission, for he knew there was more to come.

  “But you showed me that there is more to strength than violence, and less to violence than strength. You helped to correct my path, and I thank you. Not as a teacher or a master, but as a rival who I am constantly struggling to overcome. Let us never once meet in a competition in which the outcome is a foregone conclusion.”

  “Except for chess,” Lukal Lukal said. “For that is a game which I enjoy but cannot seem to master, while you play to perfection.”

  “Yes, except for chess,” Thaseus agreed.

  The crowd cheered at their words as they took their positions.

  Then a lightning bolt struck from the sky, and a boisterous laugh filled the entire coliseum. Where the lightning bolt struck stood a middle aged man with rippling muscles, white hair, and a glorious beard. He had changed, especially his hair and the wicked scar down half of his face, but the Raging Tyrant was immediately identifiable to anyone who had seen him before.

  The fact that he now stood on the beginning of the platinum realm was obvious to any who witnessed the weight of his aura.

  “I am Tornolai! I have come to judge this battle! I assume that my invitation was, once more, lost in the mail!”

  ~~~~~~

  “He’s not undead is he?” I asked Atla the moment after Tornolai revealed himself.

  “No, of course not. I’d smite him if he was. He was pretty badly corrupted when I first woke up and I kind of think he got caught in the fires that cleansed me of the rest of the undead. But he was still alive. I wasn’t certain if I should help him or not,” Atla said. He was in his boy form, sitting next to me in the box reserved for me and the tournament committee.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I inquired.

  “I didn’t know you knew him,” Atla said. “Anyway, he asked me not to tell anyone when I showed myself to him and asked him if he was a good person or a bad person. He said ‘I am Tornolai! I do not smite the weak or innocent, but the wicked should fear me and run when they hear the crash of my thunder’ and then he kept talking but I’d already decided to help him, so I moved the dragon veins around in his cultivation cave. I forgot all what he said but he’s funny.”

  I sighed, and turned to Tonilla. She shrugged.

  “He actually was a pretty good judge in the first tournament once he agreed to obey the rules we set out,” she admitted.

  “The fact that he’s advanced two realms in six years also makes his authority rather definitive,” I pointed out.

  “And there is the fact that we already approved him as an authorized judge,” Tonilla reminded me.

  “While we thought he was dead,” I said, sighing. “Oh well.”

  I used a technique that would ensure my voice was heard throughout the coliseum, then spoke softly. “Welcome to the tournament, Tornolai. I would have mailed you the invitation myself, but you neglected to leave a forwarding address.”

  He laughed boisterously and answered with a booming “Forgive me for allowing you all to think that I was dead, but I simply couldn’t turn down the opportunity to make this entrance! I have been looking forward to this moment since the last tournament! And to see the two champions battling against each other once more at the start! It brings joy to an old man’s heart!”

  “This is an exhibition match, Tornolai, and there are no rules except that killing the opponent means an automatic forfeiture. But you may call out points as you see fit,” I continued.

  “Points and pointers, I think!” he said, and he laughed some more.

  I sighed. “If you see flaws in my disciples techniques, then yes, as their master I ask that you correct them,” I said.

  I sat back to relax and watch the match. “Tell me, Atla, are there any other old cultivators in seclusion that are close to reaching the platinum path?”

  He shrugged, then said with childish mischievousness “ Maybe .”

  Out on the coliseum floor, Tornolai caught both of my disciples by surprise when he announced the start of the fight with a literal bolt of lightning and a shout of “Fight!”

  ~~~~~~

  Thaseus faced down his opponent, shaking his head at the development. “Well, this doesn’t really change anything, does it?” he asked.

  “Not for me. Does it change anything for you?” Lukal Lukal asked.

  “Actually it does. I wish to prove myself in the eyes of this man, and this gives me the opportunity to do so,” he admitted. “So I apologize, fellow disciple, but I shall be winning today after all.”

  “You make it sound like we agreed to the outcome to influence the bets.”

  “Hah! That would make me a cheater!” Thaseus exclaimed, and he used the exclamation to dash forward, his bamboo sword flashing from his hips.

  The exchange that followed, with Lukal Lukal utilizing his spear first as a defense against the furious attacks and then as a counter, was hard for anyone below silver rank to follow. Thrust and counter thrust were made perfectly by each combatant, and they danced about the arena on movement techniques that made them faster than the naked eye could follow.

  Even the recording crystals, floating here and there in the arena, were having trouble keeping up.

  Tornolai watched with an amused expression, but aside from crossing his arms and waiting for the opponents to get serious, he didn’t move except to turn his head to watch the back and forth.

  “I thought this was a test of the wards,” he called out in a slightly bored voice, and as though calling for the true beginning of the match, the techniques began to fly.

  Thaseus unleashed an inferno that covered the entire arena, turning the sand to molten glass.

  Lukal Lukal floated above the air, taking control of the glass with his own techniques and launching glowing blades after his opponent, all while shielding himself with Qi.

  Thaseus zipped around, dodging the missiles while continuing on the assault against Lukal Lukal’s barrier. The inferno grew smaller and hotter, but it had already tested the wards protecting the audience, who had first shied back and then rushed forward to see the action closer.

  The missiles likewise crashed against the barriers, and aside from lighting up as the power of the wards activated, nothing happened. The missiles simply vanished.

  The techniques continued for some time, as Thaseus unleashed blades of wind and flame, using swings of his bamboo sword to empower his techniques through his connection to his Dao.

  Likewise, Lukal Lukal launched piercing attacks from the tip of his spear.

  Most of these attacks missed and crashed against the barrier, causing the audience to shriek with fear and delight at the magic that protected them.

  Lukal Lukal was the first to score a strike, a blow to Thaseus’s abdomen that pierced through to his back.

  Then Thaseus cut of Lukal Lukal’s left arm, and they called it a draw.

  “I concede!” they cried in unison, even as Tornolai was about to call out the points that he planned on awarding. He frowned, for he had been intending to give them both six points, the maximum that he could allow according the rules as he understood them.

  “But what about the injuries,” he muttered.

  And at that moment the wards in reverted everything in the center of the coliseum back to how they had been at the start of the battle. The glass was sand once more, the combatants whole and hail, and Tornolai with an expression of shocked surprise.

  “Never mind,” he muttered again, wondering how exactly that magic worked. Not that he’d ever venture to question it, that would make him look weak, but the curiosity was burning within him. Advanced formations weren’t exactly his specialty anyway, it it would likely take him centuries to understand this one in particular.

  The crowd cheered and began debating among themselves who the true winner of the duel was. It was a matter which would be debated for years to come, even as the real tournament began.

  The junior judges emerged onto the ring and began drawing circles in the sand, and the first of the foundation realm contestants were called to begin their fights.

  ?