SCC Chapter 15 (Patreon)

She didn’t so much agree as she didn’t outright attack me. Every second we sat facing each other, I realized she was a loner. If she had a clan, they wouldn’t care much for her, but the more likely outcome would be that she ran away without their assistance. It was her clothing, expensive but old. The way she held herself, like she had most of the teachings of noble etiquette but not all, which left her speech slightly discordant.

Pulling out her tanto sword, she spoke again. “Fine… I will become your bodyguard if you win but… You won't, so it doesn’t matter.” My eyes widened as I felt her qi cycle toward her feet. I was pretty good at guessing what the person's affinity was the moment they used a technique, even if it didn’t have any outright signs of elemental effects. I had just grown a natural instinct towards techniques from years of combat.

She wasn’t using anything I’d ever seen before; my eyes widened as the technique did not attempt to hide its element. Lightning shot from her feet as she yelled out. “Lightning rush!” She kicked off the ground moving towards me in a zig zag pattern as I decided to yell out my move as well. “Sky step.” 

I didn’t have to, it was something only an inexperienced person did when they were still getting used to how their technique worked and needed a placebo activation so their body will prepare itself for using the qi in the correct pattern of the technique.

I retreated back away from her into the sky above her iron thread trap. Most techniques either had a weakness or were expensive to use. The lightning technique seemed to be on the expensive side when she needed to travel in a single straight line for long distances. The technique was still good enough to launch her up into the air and towards me.

Half expecting another lightning fighting technique, I’m surprised when I feel fire qi start to come from her. Fire was a common affinity, and I could tell she had a high affinity with it, perhaps even higher than lightning, but lightning was extremely rare. It was rare to the point that even as a sect leader, I only knew about seven lightning techniques compared to the hundreds of techniques I knew for fire, earth, metal, water, or wood.

That lightning technique looked flimsy now that I thought about it, like it was only a half-baked technique and needed another few decades to perfect. Three of the lightning techniques I knew were movement techniques, and all of them were better than the one she used. I noticed the problem with her technique at a glance, and now that she was in range, I took advantage of it. The technique wasn’t good for making any rapid changes in direction.

Sky stepped down. I saw the shock in her eyes as her gout of flame went right over my head. Another problem with the technique is it didn’t help with the speed of her entire body, only how fast she was moving. I quickly entered her personal space, making the lightning technique her entire fighting style was based around ineffective.

Still in the air, one of my hands wrapped around the wrist of the hand that contained the tanto, the other reached up to rip the veil from her face. I stopped when I felt the qi fluctuate when I went to remove it. The mask was a defensive item that would launch a wave of concussive force if someone attempted to remove it. The sudden intrusion of me in her personal space had her acting flustered for the first time.

She attempted to knee me in the groin, which is what I was waiting for. My legs came together, pinning her leg as we fell towards the ground. I shifted our bodies so I would land on top of her. The fall wasn’t anything big enough for either of us to be in danger of being injured; it was enough for me to slam her arm down, knocking the weapon out.

She had lost all her training as she slapped and tried to kick at me. Pinning her hands down, our bodies rubbing against each other, I couldn’t help but start to get hard. The only thing stopping it was my iron will and the thought that if she felt it, she might get the wrong idea about what I wanted from this fight. Sure, if she was beautiful enough, I’d love to have sex with her, but that wasn’t the goal. The more people I could get on my side inside the hidden realm, the better.

She finally remembered that she was a cultivator. I could feel qi take shape of a technique in her body as her mouth started to glow. She was about to breathe fire on me. My first instinct was to close her mouth and have her head explode, but that would once again defeat the purpose of this fight instead of outright killing her. I did the easiest thing I could think of to avoid the attack and moved my head beside hers as I felt the flame spew from her mouth.

The fight showed signs of the clear difference in our skill for fighting now. Her breathing was ragged as she used up most of the stored qi in her body. I barely used any. The biggest thing with sky step is it was only a small part of a multifunctional technique, and because I only used it to step into the air a few steps, it barely took any qi. Rolling her onto her back, I tie her hands together. Her body thrashes as she thinks I’m about to do the worst to her.

“You brute! Get your hands off me!” Lifting her to her feet, I whispered in her ear. “Calm down, princess. Do you remember our agreement? You lost the fight, if you have any honor, you’ll work as my bodyguard inside the hidden realm. Otherwise, I’ll let you go right now if your honor means nothing to you. Now… Can we head to my home to discuss your position, or should I let you go?”

I let her inside as I prepared tea for her. Even with all that, she didn’t drink it until I drank from my cup. Did she really think I’d do all this just to drug her… To be fair, that was something I’d expect her to have dealt with if she was beautiful. I did it to see what she’d look like without her mask, but she sipped the tea as if the mask wasn’t there. I just got straight to the point. “To be honest. You’re too weak to be my bodyguard, and I only want you with our group to increase our numbers so we can accomplish more inside without being ganged up on by larger groups.”

She looked upset, choking on her tea, and I said she was weak as she glared at me. I grabbed a few cookies from a shelf before sitting back down. I nibble off an ear of the bear-shaped cookie as I continue. “Is that your only lightning technique?” Her eyebrows furrowed in anger as she didn’t speak. I rolled the cookie on the table before I asked. “What would you give me for more techniques for your affinity?”

Now her eyes widened in surprise as her silence was broken again. “There’s no way you know any lightning affinity techniques.” I sipped my tea as I waited for her to calm down and speak again. “My master, the person who took me under his wing, why I’m so advanced along the cultivation path so far does. It wouldn’t be much effort to acquire some from him… If the price was right.”

I smiled as the trap was set; now I just had to wait for the prey to take it.