Mage And Wolf
Chapter 154

Chapter 154: Chapter 154

I am beginning to feel quite nervous this morning as the time for my test fight draws near. I haven’t even shown anyone my creation yet, much less fought them. How will it do? Are there gaping flaws? Will it work at all in actual combat? I can’t keep my mind focused.

"Relax, you’re a great fighter, you know what a technique needs." Karl whispers in my ear, giving me a big hug from behind. "You’ve also got loads of memories stuffed into that pretty little head, you won’t lose on experience."

"It’s time." Elder Po calls. "Your opponent, Inner Sect disciple White Claw is waiting at the arena for you."

White Claw is a small man, barely 160cm, with short spiky brown hair, dyed blonde at the ends. He looks like he’s been in more than a few fights, his nose has clearly been broken more than once, and there’s scars on his hands.

But, he’s only Core Formation 2, a single rank above me. This I can handle. I’m not sure what his style is yet, but he doesn’t look like a physical cultivator, he doesn’t have the bulk male physical cultivators get.

"So I really am facing Young Miss. You’re a legend in the sect you know? How about you and me go get a drink after this?" he throws me his very best smile and I can sense Karl smirking behind me.

"Let’s see how we’re feeling after the fight first. You might not be feeling up for it, after losing to a little girl." I smile my best smile back at him.

"Everyone ready? Good. Start!" Elder Po asks, beginning the trial.

White Claw immediately attacks in the Shadowed Blade style, darting to the side and activating Shadow Meld before striking low towards my legs. I use a kick flip from the Blooming Lotus style, accompanied by an extension of the Dragon energy to throw myself in the air over his attack, the Dragon circling around my body as a guard before following my spinning kick to slam into the ground where White Claw was half a second earlier.

I lost sight of him as I spun and he managed to dodge to one side. I finish the flip, landing on one foot and continue the spin, sending another kick his way, easily blocked and caught, but followed by a punch covered in energy that lashes forward in the shadow of the second Dragon, knocking him across the ring.

Every Energy Strike in the Divine Dragon style absorbs a little of the opponents energy, straining their reserves and refreshing the user. It’s well suited to evenly matched fights and battles of attrition. Not that this is either, but the drained energy will help keep me in top form throughout the fight.

His shuffle step back towards me is so fast it feels like he’s teleporting, but his predictability is a weakness, I lean forward and his strike at my back sails over me. I counter with a series of flowing open handed strikes that look like scattering petals. They can indeed be used for that purpose if you’re disguising your strikes and the energy Dragons following my movements are forcing him to use every limb to block, sapping his energy.

As he’s getting used to the rhythm of the Blooming Lotus style attacks I switch to a straight, Claw Fingered strike of the Divine Dragon style, the subtle energy strike of the Blooming Lotus Style fully masked by the brutal attack. He didn’t even notice it had settled in until it burst and shattered his ribs.

He drops to his knees, tapping the ground in forfeit and Elder Po tosses him a healing pill.

"Very sneaky. I almost missed the bursting strike hidden behind that Claw attack. And the draining strikes were masterful, White Claw likely doesn’t even know why he’s exhausted." Elder Po congratulates me.

He’s also impressed with the following Dragon, ’like a ribbon streamer’ he says, while keeping the other close to envelop my attacks as needed. He gives me a few pointers on how to better coordinate the outer Dragon with my attacks until White Claw has recovered enough to stand.

"Not bad, disciple." Po says before giving him a series of corrections and suggestions to help improve his combat skills.

The three of us spend most of the morning together, implementing his suggestions while Karl and Elder Song return to their lab in the library. Periodic explosions are heard along with cussing and laughter. I can’t tell if whatever they’re doing is working or not.

They come up for lunch disheveled and burnt. "Care to share what you were doing?" I laugh.

"Recreating talismans from your world’s Kung Fu movies and seeing what happened." Elder Song laughs back. "It was most exhilarating."

"Did you know that the sealing talismans are actually good luck charms? If you made one that worked, the best you could hope for was that the target accepted the gift and left." Karl holds out his phone and shows me a still frame from an anime they based the sealing talismans on.

This research path might be more dangerous to the world than their artillery grade throwing knives experiments.

The next morning, after that day’s passed exam and revision, Elder Ming finally got her turn to give me lessons. She had found two new cursed pill recipes in an ancient ruins that she wanted to test for validity.

The first up is a Core Density pill. Something Elder Song’s alchemy memories know as a corrective measure for a damaged or poorly formed Foundation. He’d never seen it made, the recipe lost before his time, so this is going to be fun.

The ingredients aren’t too rare, so we’ve got a couple tries at this before needing to get more. The whole process is supposed to take 18 hours, so we’re securely locked in the basement Alchemy Labs, any interruption could be disastrous.

The hard part is the intricate blending to get only the effects desired for this particular pill. It’s like the recipe is a makeshift, using substitute ingredients for ones now extinct, or not available in this Realm.

At the fifteenth hour, I misjudged the direction I needed to take the blending and it exploded in spectacular fashion, shaking the entire Alchemy wing like an earthquake.

"Young Miss! Are you alright? Are you alive in there?" Elder Ming yells from the other side of the rubble of what used to be the roof of this basement room.

"Not dead. Help me find my cauldron. " I call out, pushing stones off my head. That hurt more than expected, I think I broke some bones. If it wasn’t for my quick reaction times in bringing the Dragons out, The roof collapse might have crushed my skull.

The cauldron is fine, the safety release worked, and it was strong enough to survive the collapse. I set my broken arm with a whimper of pain and circulate energy to heal it up while Elder Ming stares in shock, holding a Regeneration Pill.

"All good now. But let’s do this above ground next time. That was not an experience I’d care to repeat."

"Yes, forget secrecy, safety first." Elder Ming agrees in her new, gentle voice.

"What did you do?" Song scolds us when we return before serving us dinner.

"We found a Core Density pill recipe, but there was a minor mishap during creation and the alchemy lab collapsed on top of us." I shrug, not wanting to talk about it.

"Core Density? Keep good notes for me. And I’ll test it personally if it works." Of course he will. His base was damaged ages ago in an attack and never fully recovered.

The next days attempt is done in the open, with the entire area evacuated and guarded by Elders. Alchemy lessons will be outside for a while, the building is pretty heavily damaged.

From sun up to sun down and then a few more hours by lantern light I toil away before completing the process. 6 golden pills with faint white veins.

"Well, they look right. No impurities found. But how do we know if they do what they’re supposed to?" Elder Ming asks.

"Only one way to find out." I pop one of the pills in my mouth and power flows into me. Not like I’m advancing, but a kind of compression. I feel heavy, like I’ve been remade in iron instead of bamboo, then the feeling fades and I just feel powerful.

"Didn’t die. that’s good news." I smile.

"It made your skin glow black during the process, like a hint of divine power was present, solidifying your existence." Ming says and I make notes, thoroughly looking myself over.

"Now come my dear instructor! We’re going to do it to Elder Song and see what happens." I announce, staggering to my feet, exhausted.

As expected, he is waiting for us with a smile and a gourmet meal. He’s just as excited to see what happens as I am. We decide to wait until everyone has eaten, so the research notes aren’t affected by hunger. This is a long lost recipe after all, every bit of information is vital.