The Road to Wudang (8)
The opponent stood a full rank above him. The Black Shadow Gate Master’s only viable play was to tie the knight down and let his disciples strike from the rear.
Everything until now had ended in failure, yet he had no other choice. He could flee, or he could kill the detestable Westerner right here. But how many men could truly abandon everything they had built over decades and simply run?
The territory they had finally claimed after so long?
The plan is already in ruins. If I don’t kill this bastard now, there will be no salvaging it. He must die, no matter what.
Martial artists often spoke of hiding thirty percent of one’s strength, but the Black Shadow Gate Master had no room for such proverbs. He wrenched power from his dantian and flooded his limbs and meridians with internal energy. The moment that sinister, pitch-black aura enveloped his body, William’s eyes gleamed.
Just from that energy, I can tell exactly who’s backing him.
What other faction in the world used internal energy like that?
“...So you were a pawn of the Demonic Cult.”
“...”
The Black Shadow Gate Master offered no denial. Once he had drawn out even the power he had kept hidden, there was no point. A thick killing intent now swirled openly in his eyes.
Yet among the disciples, ripples of unease had begun to spread.
“The Gate Master… belongs to the Demonic Cult?”
“Does that mean we’ve been serving the Cult all this time?”
“We learned our arts from him!”
“But we don’t have any demonic qi, do we?”
“He must have hidden it perfectly.”
“Ha…”
All because of that one man, the entire plan…
“Enough chatter. Let’s finish this. I’m a busy man.”
Beating him should bring me one step closer to perfecting the footwork.
After several exchanges, William had already grasped the rhythm. If he could topple the Black Shadow Gate Master at the end of this battle, the stepping technique would be his.
“Disciples! That man must die! If he lives, we are all finished!”
Startled by their master’s shout, the disciples began encircling William. He paid them no mind, simply bending his knees slightly as he felt the aura surging wildly through his veins.
A clear signal of intent to move.
The Black Shadow Gate Master charged first, determined not to be caught off guard again. His leap was as fluid as a wolf lunging for prey. From such a massive frame came a speed that defied imagination.
It’s been a while since I fought a pure fist-fighter.
William’s body surged forward in answer.
There would be no dodging.
A knight knew only the charge.
Blue armor shimmered into existence over his form.
At the sight of the now-familiar aura armor, the Black Shadow Gate Master thickened the internal energy coating his fists even further. Then both men slammed their feet into the earth and exploded toward each other.
Two apex predators raced forward to tear out each other’s throats.
William struck first.
His longsword traced a graceful arc toward the man’s chest. The moment the concise blade path descended, the Black Shadow Gate Master slapped the flat aside with the back of his hand and drove a fist at William’s heart.
Too light!
The sword had given way far too easily. Sensing the strangeness, the Black Shadow Gate Master retracted his punch and retreated three steps. At the same instant, William’s blade spun in the direction it had been deflected and swept toward his opponent’s neck.
“Ha!”
The Black Shadow Gate Master arched backward to evade, then immediately thrust out a palm loaded with internal energy the moment he recovered his posture.
Palm Wind.
A favorite technique of peak-level fist fighters unfolded from his hand.
I wonder if I can even cut something like this.
William kept his ox stance and advanced slowly. Since the technique was unknown to him, he had no way to measure its power; the aura armor around his body grew visibly denser.
Still…
If he backed down from an attack of this level, who was truly the cat and who was the mouse? True to his nickname, William stepped forward with valiant resolve and sliced the palm wind apart.
That actually carried some weight.
He had expected nothing more than a gust of air, but this was Central Plains martial arts after all. Feeling as though he had blocked a heavy blow, William closed the distance.
The Black Shadow Gate Master had no intention of allowing him to approach so easily. Fists and palms wove dizzying patterns through the air, launching multiple spheres of compressed wind at William. Since his opponent wielded a sword, a direct charge was unwise; this was the safer method.
Even for William, the barrage came with enough force to shove his entire body back, slowing his advance. The Black Shadow warriors did not miss the opening.
“Now!”
An ambush while my movement is dulled. Clever.
Escaping immediately would have been the prudent choice, yet sometimes refusing to retreat was the correct answer. William poured strength into his toes, pushed his aura armor to its limit, and drove forward toward the Black Shadow Gate Master.
He ignored the attacks raining down on his back entirely.
“I can’t tell if that’s a man or a wild beast.”
“More like a lion, I’d say.”
“Uaaagh!”
“Gate Master! The sword won’t pierce him!”
“What kind of martial art is that…? Even the Diamond Indestructible Body I’ve only heard about in rumors can’t be this ridiculous.”
The Black Shadow Gate Master looked utterly stunned as he hammered William’s sword strikes aside with his fists again and again, knocking them off line. It was a deliberate attempt to prevent any counterattack.
Noticing the man’s arms spread wider than before, William saw the next strike coming—an attack aimed at his solar plexus. A single solid hit would have sent any Central Plains martial artist to the brink of death.
…If William had been one of them.
His aura armor fulfilled its duty perfectly. The Black Shadow Gate Master felt as if he had struck an invisible wall; his hand went numb as he staggered back.
“I thought it was merely external cultivation… but I was wrong.”
Protective qi could usually only block attacks completely devoid of internal energy—typically nothing more than unpowered hidden weapons. Martial artists rarely used it in real combat because the energy cost was high and the effective range limited.
Yet this man had casually blocked a fist infused with fist qi.
The sheer toughness was inconceivable, even against someone a level above him. To the Black Shadow Gate Master, aura armor was an utterly shocking technique.
With an art like that, the Diamond Indestructible Body would be redundant.
It was a truly tempting prize. Greed flickered in the Black Shadow Gate Master’s eyes. If he could capture the knight alive, sever his limbs, and extract the technique with the Demonic Cult’s help, that power could become his.
“So you’re a sodomite after all?”
“Nonsense!”
The Black Shadow Gate Master retreated. He had realized that trading blows directly was pointless.
“Keep hammering him! Hold him down until his strength runs dry!”
“A war of attrition, then.”
I have roughly half my aura remaining.
Prolonging the fight naturally favored the side with numbers. But William had not come alone.
“You seem to be under a misconception. Did you really think I came here by myself?”
“What?”
The moment the words left his mouth, warriors began appearing atop the Black Shadow Gate’s walls. Elite fighters from the Kang and Gu clans. Though only twenty in number, they were more than enough to contain the Black Shadow warriors, who had already lost a third of their fighting strength.
These were the clans’ most carefully chosen elites, after all.
“Handle the small fry. I’ll take care of him.”
“Yes!”
The clan warriors charged the Black Shadow disciples. The sudden appearance of fresh enemies shattered the disciples’ coordination; one after another they began to fall. The tide of battle flipped in an instant.
“Damn it all!”
“I never should have joined this damn gate!”
“That cursed bastard…”
Eyes burning with raw hatred. The look was all too familiar to William. He snorted.
“Time to end this.”
William stamped the ground. His body accelerated explosively, covering the distance to the Black Shadow Gate Master in the blink of an eye—faster than before.
The lightning-like rush left the Black Shadow Gate Master no choice but to unleash his lightness skill at full power in an attempt to flee. But William was faster.
“Goodbye.”
The longsword in William’s right hand carved a cold arc through the moonlight.
The blade left a blue afterimage as it descended toward the man’s shoulder.
If I can just deflect this…!
The Black Shadow Gate Master moved at a speed he believed he could never exceed, swinging to bat the sword away.
But this was the third time.
No warrior falls for the same trick three times.
William’s sword spun along his grip into a reverse hold. His left hand, wreathed in aura, seized the blade itself. His right hand shifted to join it, gripping the steel.
William lowered his stance and drove the pommel straight toward the Black Shadow Gate Master’s chest like a war hammer.
“It’s a dirty trick… but it’s more than enough for you.”
“I won’t fall for this!”
The Black Shadow Gate Master’s hand shot out and desperately seized the sword’s crossguard. His palm tore open, but he barely kept the pommel from smashing into his stomach.
Yet he could not maintain the deadlock. The moment William released the full force of the aura wrapped around the blade, he would be blasted backward.
So the Black Shadow Gate Master tried to release the sword and retreat with footwork—only for William to stomp down hard on the foot that was about to move.
“Uaaagh!”
“Where do you think you’re going in such a hurry? The night is still young.”
With his foot crushed, the Black Shadow Gate Master screamed. The dagger drawn from William’s belt sank deep into the man’s shoulder. Shoulder and foot both shattered, the Black Shadow Gate Master finally collapsed.
“You bastard! Because of you—my grand design—!”
“Grand design? Don’t make me laugh.”
With a ruined foot, footwork was impossible. With a blade in his shoulder, he could not use his arm.
Only one option remained.
“Damn it…”
He began reversing the flow of internal energy that had been circulating naturally.
The final resort available only to those who practiced demonic arts. Since death was inevitable either way, he chose mutual destruction.
“Keep talking shit.”
Before the technique could fully activate, William’s sword pierced straight through the man’s dantian.
“Keurgh…!”
“Did you think I’d let you pull off a last desperate gamble?”
“You filthy… bastard… When the Demonic Cult… rises again… trash like you…”
“Still running your mouth.”
As consciousness left him, blood began leaking from every orifice of the Black Shadow Gate Master’s body.
William looked down at the gruesome sight, let out a long sigh, and wiped his blade roughly on the man’s clothes before sliding it back into its sheath.
I never expected to find a thread leading to the Demonic Cult in a place like this.
Another wrinkle of concern etched itself between his brows.