Chapter 65: Crown Prince's Birthday ( 3 )
Chapter 65: Crown Prince's Birthday ( 3 )
Jian's little feat of speed had garnered him quite the bit of attention, and while the crowd was roaring wildly, the big players were all engrossed in their thoughts, analyzing the contestants.
The savage looking boy had gotten the attention of quite a bit of sects for his animalistic style that depended on pure instinct. They lacked such elements in their respective groups. The last generations of cultivators were quite bad when it came to close combat and they also tended to overanalyze everything. They didn't rely on instinct anymore these days and that was a real waste.
A warrior always needed to rely on his instinct even just a bit, and cultivators were warriors at heart. Not all of them were, some were more on the meditation and relaxation side, but most of the current cultivators knew only how to fight.
If you did mainly fighting, it was quite dumb for you to lack the main strengh of a fighter. But then again, just seeing how weak the current cultivators were physically was enough to give anyone an inkling of just how bad all of them could be at hand to hand fighting.
As such, the savage looking boy was a card everyone wanted to possess. Jian too had that to his advantage, but it wasn't as blatant as with that boy. However Jian's skills with the halberd were quite the show. He seemed to have been born to wield such weapon, and even he had been surprised at just how easily it was for him to swing it around..As though it was an extention of his arm.
Another group had it's eyes glued to the scene. A group that was very closely watching the young talents, much more so than the nobles per exemple. Because while the nobles were also watching the battle, they didn't pay too much attention to it. It was funny and all, but they were here for the prince and the true contestants. Those young talents were simply the little strawberry sitting atop the cake, and the nobles weren't very fond of little extras.
"Watch out" yelled a part of the crowd as Jian tried a surprise attack on one of the contestants. The crowd was also participating and it was starting on the contestants' nerves. While it was quite a good feeling to get that much attention, the crowd was also very much distracting the fighters.
But not all of the contestants had those problems. Some were able to completely focus and tune out the rest of the world.
Jian's only problem at that moment was how he could wipe out all the other contestants, nothing more, nothing less. Anything else didn't matter, he was entirely too focused in that moment.
'That busty woman with the whip is still on you. There is also that kid with the huge sword. Try to pit them against each other. Pay a close mind to that girl with the bow, she has some mean archery skills.' Commented Mara. He was as focused as Jian and was truly participating, as if he was one of the constestants.
In truth, he was Jian's assistant at that moment, and all the little arguments they had in the past were quickly forgotten. They were a true team.
'Mara, watch out for the girl with the bow, yell anytime she has her sight on me. I'll try to get that woman off my back. Also tell me if you see that mountain of man, he was insanely strong and I don't want to take a surprise headbutt or something.' Jian said as he ran towards the child wielding a sword way too huge for his small body.
The child, immediately understanding what Jian was trying to do tried to run away, however Jian suddenly appeared behind him and threw him at the woman.
Crashing into her, the child had no time to get away and was instantly punched by the woman.
" You are not getting away boyyy~" She said with her sultry voice.
Jian moved around, looking left and right to make sure no one was on him, and finally reached the only part of the arena that wasn't filled with contestants. From that place, he took a breather and watched the chaos unfold.
Admidst all that fighting, you could easily spot the ones who were truly at ease. One contestant was actually medidating against a wall and no one even dared to come near him due to the aura that coated his body, while another contestant was simply trying to seduce all the women fighters. He didn't seem to have much success at first, until one of the female contestants agreed to fight alongside him and they formed the strongest team of the entire battle.
A girl with insane speed and a man who seemingly couldn't get damaged by anyone. That was surely going to be a problem. However Jian was very confident, because not only could he see a huge hourglass, meaning that the fight had a time limit, he could also tell that this wasn't the most important part of the contest. The nobles were still waiting for the show of powers, especially since most of the fighters hadn't shown anything other than their martial art or blade wielding prowess.
He could simply lay back and relax, unfortunately a certain being had other plans for him.
[ User, as I can see you are quite relaxed right now, I must remind you that you still have points to spend. After you spent most of your hard earned points to get cultivation ressources, you simply stopped and kept the rest. ]
' System...You literally told me you would evolve after I spent my last points. I am not sure I want to do this unless I have to. I mean...You sure as hell made it seem really dangerous. If I remember, you said and I quote ' My evolution will allow me to unlock new functionalities and will make me much more useful. However it also comes at a cost for the user...A tremendous cost.' ' Jian argued.
[ I reckon this was perhaps an error....Anyway, I can force you to do it. ]
Before Jian could wonder what the system was even talking about, a screen popped right in his face, and said face paled.
[ Emergency Quest ! Failure to accomplish that mission will have the following consequences: Death....Immediate Death ! ]
[ Description: Spend your last lottery points to allow the system to evolve. ]
[ Reward: Nothing ]
"What the hell ?! You can do that ?!" Jian screamed.
The people of the audience who could hear him were all rather confused, but no one paid that any mind...At least they stopped thinking about it when huge sword crashed besides Jian's face, nearly cutting his entire head.
Jian blanched as he watched the child walk towards him. The child's body was littered with hundreds of small cuts and his face looked as smashed as possible, but Jian could see the whip woman in the distance...And the winner was quite obvious.
"You took care of her faster than I thought you would. Doesn't change the fact that you are exhausted and I am perfectly fine. What makes you think you can even put up a fight ?" Jian asked, feeling a bit smug.
In response to his apparent arrogance, the child greeted his teeth and took out two small daggers from the back of his belt. It was time to get the fight on. And everyone was quite pumped on for this.
Not only was the kid the one who showed the most potential, but Jian actually had the gall to relax mid-battle. However the fight didn't quite go as planned.
Not only was Jian completely dominating the fight, the child was unable to resist. Not a single attack hit and the daggers went swinging in random directions as Jian kept dodging.
" You won't beat me like that. Those little attacks aren't fast enough." Jian said.
The child glared at Jian with such determination, Jian was stunned for a second. This was a warrior in the making, Jian was sure of it. He had much more determination than Jian ever had at his age.
"What's your name ?" Jian asked. He was quite interested in a child so young and yet so strong. It was rare to see a 7 or 8 years old child on the battlefield.
"Vehr." The child answered. Jian's eyes widened as he recognized the origin of that name.
"Wait...Vehr...Isn't that from-"
In a second the sword that was stabbed in the wall was removed, an attack collided with a desperate counter-attack...An arm fell to the ground.
Biyu who had been watching the fight with as much focus as her brain could muster was momentarily stunned. The deafening sound coming from the crowd snapped her back to reality and she cried out with them.
This was such an amazing moment to the crowd, even the crown prince gazed at the two fighters. A smiled was etched on his face as a glint of recognition lit up in his eyes.
"That child....What an awe-inspiring power...Oh, what I would give to get it.."