Mage And Wolf
Chapter 182

Chapter 182: Chapter 182

"Brought a gun to a knife fight did you?" I laugh when Karl comes up to join us in the stands.

"The twirling swords thing made it far too difficult to resist." Karl shrugs, making me laugh but everyone else look confused.

"It’s a scene from a popular comedy where we come from. The antagonist swings his swords, showing off his incredible skill and the main character shoots him dead instead of fighting him." I explain.

"I’ll have to watch that comedy one day. Seeing you do the scene was pretty funny." Betty smiles up at Karl.

A little later the second combatant we have in Group A loses to an extremely strong fighter of the Divine Fist. I swear, those guys just exist to ruin our fun.

Karl is up again, this time against one of the Sacred Thunder Disciples staying in the same hotel as us. They exchange pleasantries before the fight, not showing the anger and aggression so many of the fighters hold toward their rivals. The Sacred Thunder fighter is almost to the end of Condensation, one of the top 5 in Group A, so it’s a bit unfortunate for him that he has to face Karl so early.

The referee starts the fight and Karl goes to the finger guns, launching a barrage of Arrows that’s met with a streak of lightning. The Sacred Thunder disciple flashes closer and launches a kick at Karl’s side that is met with a heavy block and a quick snapping kick to keep him from getting into grappling range.

Most prefer to fight on their feet, but fighting from the ground isn’t prohibited and knocked out with a choke hold is the same as knocked out with an energy strike. Karl is very strong when it comes to grappling though, and it appears that his opponent wouldn’t object. Both the Shadowed Blade and the Sacred Thunder have very effective energy attacks to use when you’re already in contact with another person.

They trade a few more strikes before Karl lunges forward, grabbing his opponent across the neck and under one arm, trying to lock him in tight as he drags them both to the ground. White Blue lightning flashes three times in rapid succession, lighting up the purple Arcane energy of Karl’s barrier before the two become steady glows as the opposing energies compete.

The Sacred Thunder fighter manages to get a leg underneath himself and twist free of Karl’s hold, panting to catch his breath and circling for an opening.

The crowd is roaring in approval, this kind of down and dirty fighting is much more relatable to them than the usual distanced strikes and energy attacks. The two are trading heavy energy covered punches from very close range, the barriers they’ve erected lighting up at every clash. Then Karl lands a heavy kick to his opponents head and the light flickers before failing and the Sacred Thunder fighter collapses to the ground, unconscious.

"Winner, Black Dragon of the Shadowed Blade Sect." The referee calls out and the shouting and stomping of the crowd makes the whole arena feel like it’s shaking, catching the attention of everyone in the area, except the other fights in progress who are isolated within the barriers around their rings.

Karl feeds his slowly awakening opponent a healing pill before the medic can even arrive and the two walk back to the stands laughing, stopping constantly to receive Congratulations from the crowd for their fight.

"I don’t know how I can compete with that show. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the common crowd so into an Inner Sect fight before." One of the disciples near us laughs.

"Forget about that, I’m also in Group A. Hopefully we don’t meet in the preliminaries so I can say I made it to the semi finals." One of the Sacred Thunder Disciples complains.

"That reminds me of my youth." Elder Song laughs "More of an old fashioned bar brawl than some fancy dance battle between cultivators afraid to get hit."

Elder Song has a point, many of these fighters shy away from close contact, only their feet and fists coming close to their opponent. I wonder if it’s in the nature of their technique that they don’t have an all over shield? Or perhaps they need visual confirmation to focus their energy strikes?

I spend the next half hour going through the memories of fighting techniques that Elder Po imparted to me, finding that both are the case, depending on the style. In fact, on closer examination many of these styles have fatal flaws contained in them, even the one I blended, while it can defend against attacks all over with a raised energy barrier, it’s not great for attacking at close range or while pinned, relying only on the Energy Dragons in such situations. I’ll have to add a grappling style into the blend to fix that oversight. But that will take more time than I have, as I begin alchemy soon and it is time for lunch.

I grab Betty by the hand, telling her we’re going looking for lunch, and we skip down the steps with Elder Ye and our guide right behind us. The Girl has been so enraptured by the competition she hasn’t signed a single word since we sat down.

The competitors and Elders section is right down by the rings, and we’re only a dozen seats back, with a clear and close up view of the fights. If you can’t afford to pay big money for a seat in the lower ring, you’ll be so far away that these fast paced fights are almost impossible to follow, so she’s likely never truly seen a fight like this.

That changes as soon as we’re out of the arena, her hand movements impressively fast for a non cultivator. I extend my energy towards her and find that she does have a decent talent for cultivation, but the injury from her face, down neck and torso has closed the energy pathways, leaving her unable to even attempt cultivation. No energy can circulate once it enters her body, so she’s stuck at zero. If she had a cultivation base to begin with, she would still have been crippled by this injury, even after using a Regeneration Pill, which would fix everything but the energy pathways.

"Hey, do you mind if I heal you a bit? At the very least I think I can fix it so you can talk." I tell the guide, who jumps on me to envelop me in a huge hug.

I was going to give her a healing pill today anyhow, no young girl deserves to go through life with such heavy scarring, but we’ve got a little over an hour left before alchemy Group B has to report, so I think I can open some of her meridians, like me and Karl did back on Earth before we knew what cultivation was. She’s got a talent for cultivation, so this shouldn’t be too dangerous for her.

She leads us to a park with a comfortable grassy area and we finish our lunch in a hurry while Betty and Elder Ye snack.

"Whatever happens, don’t let anyone interrupt this. If I’m interrupted she might be even more seriously injured." I tell Elder Ye quietly so the others don’t hear. She nods her agreement and starts watching the area carefully while eating her lunch.

I have the girl lay down on a picnic blanket and start to work, gently opening the first energy point in her head, then her neck, working down to her chest. Once I get to the heart and the energy can finally make a basic circuit I feed her a Regeneration Pill, not having anything low grade handy, and continue until I’ve opened all the points in her core organs through her dantian and energy trickles through her torso.

Her body is beginning to feel exhausted though, so I stop there, not wanting to risk everything I’ve done by getting greedy.

"There, that should be better. Your scar is healed and you should be able to start cultivating now, if that’s what you want to do." I smile and pat her head.

Her mouth works silently, trying to form words before she finally manages a quiet "Thank you" and bursts into tears, gathering me into another hug.

"You know, I’ve seen you do that before, and it’s just as astounding to see a second time." Elder Ye smiles at the pair of us.