novelraw Chapter 517 - 516 - Careful Wording
Chapter 517 - 516 - Careful Wording
Lind was fighting carefully because things were not going the way the spirit explained to him. He was supposed to be on a team of 10 but he was only seeing 5 to a side. Further, Ryu had said weapons would be shattered if used again.
Callisto was still using her sword. So what was going on? Why was it not shattering?
He then noticed the flow of Qi around her head was strange as her eyes became crazed. Ryu looked concerned as he used a mace with difficulty but still had intent on it.
The Qi was unlike anything Lind had ever seen but he had little time to analyze it. He had to keep fighting against the other 3 on Ryu and Callisto's team while they attacked his team.
He was expecting experts but there was something off about all of them. They seemed fairly weak despite being tier 7 and 8 Sky Realms.
It was clear they were not familiar with the weapons they were using despite putting out decent intent strength on them.
Protean easily shattered the attacks and Lind disabled but did not kill anyone. His weapon spirit was having the time of its life from what he could tell. Compared to sparring or practice, it was actually being used for its purpose.
Protean could project the blade of any weapon as Lind adjusted the hilt length as needed. He became a one man army without having to transform to his dragon shape.
Lind was able to free himself before he saw his 4 companions nearly killed by Callisto alone. She was swinging her sword viciously but without her usual skill.
Her eyes did not actually seem to focus on her targets but on anything that moved save Ryu. Lind did not immediately move as he could take a moment to absorb the situation.
There were 10 people in the arena but the spirit said nothing about the 'team' winning but himself. People appear on opposing sides and they make assumptions but the arena did not require death to declare victory as he saw the 3 he took out disappearing.
The other thing was he noted they did not get expelled but sent back to the observation area. He saw Ryu was trying to stop Callisto but she was blowing past him as she always had.
She was a master swordswoman that even Solon swore to Heaven and Earth to never anger ever again.
Lind had no time to wait and adjusted Protean to extend both a glaive blade and a halberd on the other end. The black grips adjusted to staff length as he cut Callisto off.
His eyes narrowed as there was no reason in Callisto's eyes. She was clearly paying some price to keep her sword and refused to switch. So why did other weapons shatter? He observed her meridians and frowned deeply at what he saw.
"Qi deviation of her own making?" He had to focus as the sword began to blur but Lind had Aura in all weapons yet now he was combining 2 similar weapons auras into one. It seemed simple but Ryu and the other 4 could only stare as Callisto and Lind began to leave them far behind.
Ryu had experienced the power of Lind before but that was with his full draconic power behind it. What he saw now was pure weapon skill on par with the best experts he had ever heard of. When did Lind have the time to do that?
Lind, himself was floating between weapons more and more as Callisto smiled like a mad woman at him. It was as if the beast inside her had found something she desperately needed.
One was carnage incarnate while the other was smooth as glass.
Silver eyes of madness while dark green eyes of serenity were all some could make out. The 4 on Lind's former side were terrified of them both while Ryu actually began to smile once more.
He had not seen anyone that could stand up to his wife in centuries, including himself. She only stopped for him but as time passed, she refused to change weapons but the price was steep from what he could tell.
He had tried to keep a saber at one point but the sharp pain made him quickly toss the weapon that shattered like glass after that. It seemed if you could endure the pain, the weapon would not shatter and Callisto valued her sword far more than any other item she possessed.
It was the last gift from her master in the Divine Sword Sect before she became a Sky Realm demon. It was a high grade 5 weapon and her skill with it was without peer in the same tier.
Now, Lind seemed not only able to counter her but his strange weapon was all weapons at once! How was such a thing possible?!
Lind felt his mind reaching a special state as he reviewed his short stay. The Inheritance seemed simple but there were discrepancies in his expectations.
The spirit called him a Battle Master and he had to master weapon aura to proceed. Fairly straightforward but for an Inheritance it seemed far too simple. An Immortal would not make anything simple.
Lind let his memory drift back to the Trial of Stone. He had been forced to master techniques of each kind of weapon to survive through each wave until it was second nature to use intent for any weapon given.
Was that the correct term for him then to call him Battle Master? Wouldn't a Weapon Master be more apt?
He could not clear up that part but 10 people were summoned to the arena and he had to have 10 victories with different weapons to proceed. Many would interpret that as 10 rounds but instead he was on a team of 5 when they appeared.
Ryu knew about the 10 victories but made no mention of the team discrepancy. Why? Did he not know?
As Lind thought about the words, his weapon aura began to condense far more than the basic auras he comprehended in the first arenas. All of the cultivators suddenly felt profound awe looking at the battle.
Callisto's madness began to fade as her sword aura also began to change.
What is a weapon? What is intent? What is Aura?
Lind was falling down into a hole but then something clicked into place as Protean suddenly changed. It snapped in 2 and became bare bones gloves while emerald light filled in the gaps on his fists.
He then was directly fighting against Callisto but the feeling of weapon aura had not vanished, it had grown stronger!
Why?! Ryu was now staring as he realized he could not defeat Lind at all at that moment. No matter what he used, only defeat awaited him.
The rest of the humans with Lind felt the same as they simply assumed a lotus position to take in all they could from the feeling the 2 fighters gave off.
Lind was watching Callisto but now he saw so many openings as if they were clear as day. Before there was only the blur of her blade but now he understood it was not so simple. A weapon was an extension of the cultivator.
The spirit and soul resonated to become far more powerful than either could alone but even simple weapons could gain intent and aura. So where did it come from? What was a Battle Master?
Lind's skin glinted with emerald but there were no scales! His soul seemed much more flexible than he had realized and Protean was capable of so much more!
"War is in the heart but peace is in the mind. I walk the path of war to bring peace but must walk all ways of war to ensure peace." Words suddenly left Lind's mouth as his eyes blazed emerald!
His cultivation began to rise to the peak of tier 8 as strange sigils were suddenly carved by sharp spikes that appeared on Protean. He was incorporating all he was into the fight!
Callisto's smile changed from deranged to sincere as her silver eyes cleared of madness and her sword began to seem an extension of more than her body but her soul as well.
Ryu understood, by the spirits he understood.
They were both pushing aura well past its limits to take the next step! Callisto had been so close and she refused to stop but the Inheritance conflicted with her choice. She was close to its desire but stubbornly refused to play by its rules.
She was trapped between her own will and the Immortal Will of the Inheritance! Only someone on a similar level or able to be more flexible could guide her back!
Lind was not just fighting with Callisto, he was saving her!
Lind was also winning! They were once evenly matched but he saw her take a step back suddenly and then another. She was never one to retreat even in the face of death!
Even he had never been able to make her retreat!
"Peace is a lie but it is also the truth. War is the truth but also a lie." Lind spoke again and Ryu felt a massive headache assault him. The words hurt! "Battles are all that exist, only the foe changes and I must change with it."
Ryu nearly blacked out and he noticed the others were no better. Only one person seemed unaffected as she smiled wide back at him, Callisto.
"I am the blade that will carve the world. I bring death to serve life. I will whisper in the wind at the end of days." Callisto now spoke and her words were just as devastating. It was so close to her Dao but much more profound.
"Death is but a foe, and I will fight it." Lind's words shattered the aura on Callisto as she was sent flying backwards. Protean changed back to a shield and Lind roared as an aura flared from the shield into her body.
The crack of bone was heard as blood sprayed from her mouth, but she kept smiling.
"I fall today but I will bring death again!" Callisto suddenly glowed in blazing light as she vanished from the arena. Her voice had been a screech through the pain but Ryu was smiling. She was back!
"The 2nd trial is over. A successor had been chosen for the path of Devastation. The 3rd trial will now commence." A woman spoke across the arena as light enveloped them all but Lind never moved even as the rest vanished.
He felt alive! He felt like a part of him had been asleep but was now fully awakened! He had made Protean to be any weapon but never realized the Relic had inspired him so much!
"Apprentice Battle Master, you did well." The spirit appeared to him once more but Lind only then realized what had happened.
"She was so close but refused to go through it the way you intended. You gave me a bit more information to help her?" The spirit bowed at him. "What happens now?"
"Other successors will now be chosen. However, this place has nowhere else for you to go. You have already achieved what was needed for a Battle Master." Lind felt all the revelations and words that had come to him.
A Battle Master was not a Weapon Master. Quite literally, he mastered whatever battle he was in and adapted to his foes to achieve victory. Peace was the goal but it was not eternal so it was not the end. It was but a different kind of battle. War was obviously nothing but battles but only by seeing things from all angles could one hope to survive.
Death was the ultimate foe but it could be overcome as well. He was living proof of that.
He looked at the spirit and bowed.
"May I know the name of this place?" The slim girl smiled before several runes appeared. Lind felt a slight headache but he could make it out.
Immortal Conqueror.
He smiled as the feeling of teleportation took him back outside the Inheritance. He knew his friends were safe for the moment, one had grasped a reward in fact. It was up to them after that to get out.
There was no more he could do. He turned and saw the backs of the 5 tier 2 Sky Realms still fleeing and realized hardly any time had passed outside but he was fairly certain several days had passed inside.
"Get back soon, my friends. Dangerous times are ahead of us all." Lind took to the sky and finally mapped out his way home. He was long overdue to go back.