Chapter 16: Unreasonable Request

“The fifth step of Kinetic Force, Martial son, your body is still not strong enough to handle a successive utilization of it. But it doesn’t mean that you should shy from cultivating it. Train in your mind; let your soul reach perfect familiarity with the fifth step for instantaneous execution. Essentially, it would take a long period of time before you will be capable of using the fifth step as well as the initial steps, but until then, you can rely on the fifth step as a method of last resort, one attack and a price to change the flow of a battle in your favor”. These were Kartius’s guiding words for Zax with regards to the fifth step of Kinetic Force.

“Remember, Zax, when you go beyond your limits and manage to stand up again, as a bodily cultivator there is no better form of tempering. And the fifth step of Kinetic Force, your limit, it may force you to utilize a power that you are far from adequate to mess with, but this type of destructiveness is not necessarily bad, if not repeated often”.

“The overbearing steps of Kinetic Force have the unique capacity to break your body in a cellular level and when the process of healing initiates, absorption of nutritious treasures and the energy of the world will accelerate the cultivation of bodily refinement techniques. In contrast, lower increment will inconsistent with the primary objective of the seven steps of Kinetic Force and their efficiency will be lost”. Grandmaster Kartion expounded.

Turbulences of Kinetic Force coursed in every fiber of Zax’s body, breaking him as he struggled to withstand the corrosiveness of power far beyond his level of control.

“Soar With The Storm!”

This was the name Zax gave to the fraction of an instant he could maintain the fifth step, and his only long range attack.

The ideal range of Soar With The Storm is ten meters, which is way Zax had to get closer to his two opponents despite the danger of their attacks, since from the eleventh meter onwards, the power of Soar With The Storm will halved for every additional meter.

At the same time Zax punched, all sounds seemed to vanish inside the area where the fighting stage used to be.

Even the sounds of his blood vessels exploding and Zechariah’s and Linor’s attacks became dormant.

A ripple emerged, not from Zax’s fist, but his whole person. It started as a dome and rose forward like a baleful cyclone of invisible, yet unstoppable, power.

Sun Reaper and Dark Lightning slammed against Zax’s Soar With The Storm.

BOOM!

The scythe phantom shattered to tiny fragments and the living lightning collapsed to worm size electric currents that dispersed.

Zechariah and Linor watched with wide eyes as their strongest attacks could not even pose a minuscule resistance against Zax’s punch. They both raised their arms, mustering all of their reserved mist energy to defend.

BOOM!

Like a balloon exploding upon the touch of a needle, Zechariah’s and Linor’s defensive mist energies burst under the pressure of the invisible cyclone.

Zechariah and Linor were hurled uncontrollably, like broken kites in a thunderstorm.

BANG!

BANG!

As the two struck the eleven elders’ protective formation, clear sounds of detonation rebounded in the hall.

The protective formation was already slightly cracked from the fluctuation of Zechariah’s and Linor’s attacks, after being hit by their bodies and the force propelling them, it finally crumbled.

The crowd of spectators was flabbergasted. Most were only able to see the flashy redness and blackness of Sun Reaper and Dark Lightning and then Zechariah and Linor being slammed against the elders’ formation. Only few managed, with great difficulty, to follow the exchange and even less people saw it clearly.

A green mantle suddenly appeared, replacing the elders’ formation and simultaneously served as a cushion to catch Zechariah and Linor and gently carry their unconscious bodies down.

The dust around Zax settled and his body remained in the punching posture; or rather it stayed like that since moving was too painful.

Blood dripped from Zax’s mouth and the open wounds all over his body.

“Cough!” Zax attempted to breathe out and release the tension from his entire physique, but he only vomited more mouthfuls of blood.

“Announce the end of the three way battle, Talhera”. Elijah, still supporting his Tal, told her in a detached tone. Cold light flashed in his eyes as his gaze seized Zax and recalled his last attack.

Talhera staggered on her feet before composing herself. These three participants, Zechariah, Zax and Linor have left her speechless. Never had she believed that other than her senior Tal, Neyrar, there would be other monstrous Martial cultivators within the same generation and of the same scale.

“Winner, Zax Zel”. Talhera declared.

Members of the medical team rushed to pick up Zechariah and Linor. Two members hurried to Zax, they saw him still standing and sober that they questioned if the blood covering his person really belonged to him and not his fallen opponents.

However, as they approached and got to a meter or so from Zax, the two medical team members suddenly grimaced and their complexion became pale as they felt an immense pressure descending from above, as if gravity itself was increased by several folds where Zax stood and about a meter in front of him.

The effect on gravity was due to the residue Kinetic Force in the air. As a result of the planet’s gravitational force, the residing Kinetic Force was drawn down.

A soft wind blew the residing Kinetic Force and the two medical team members heaved in relief. Their cultivation was at the Mist Lord level, but they still could barely stand up. They could only imagine what it is like to suffer the direct attack that caused the gravitational change. Nevertheless, the two had a job to perform, and now that they were able to move freely, they hurried to Zax.

The moment one of the two placed his hand on Zax’s shoulder, to assess his internal condition, he felt as if he touched smoldering coal. He raised his hand hastily, not that he was hurt by the heat emitted from Zax’s skin, but from feeling an odd sensation under his palm.

On Zax’s shoulder, a red swelling in the shape of the medical team member’s hand formed and kept augmenting.

“Cough!”

Zax was about the groan, but was choked from the blood in his throat. He found solace by the fact that his condition was much better than the last time he used the fifth step, even though he should have waited a bit longer before executing it for his bodily cultivation. Then again, he regretted that in the short window he now has to accelerate his bodily refinement technique, he lacks the medicinal treasures to absorb and can only rely on the energy of the world.