4/12/2019 ??

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  Clash!

  Whoosh!

  King Valtoris knocked Daniel's pole away, giving the latter a cut on the right shoulder.

  Daniel thumped back a few steps as blood spilled from the new wounds. His healing rate couldn't keep up with the constant bashing and resistance to King Valtoris, Moon Mother, and Hu's combined tactical demonstration.

  He breathed as if he was out of breath. It was his third time and the worst. The pole crashed right into a spot a few hundred meters away and struck through the dirt. It stood alone.

  "I failed again, didn't I?"

  "No, you did better this time…About seventy percent there," King Valtoris commented. "But again…You still forgot to transfer your energy to the polearm."

  "Damn…Again. Ballocks! I had it! The last time I had it!!" Daniel exclaimed in frustration, only to cough madly like a sick man. The blood puddles were next to his feet. He pulled out his regenerative handkerchief and wiped his mouth.

  Moon Mother came over, sending a shower of cold water. She summoned it over Daniel.

  "That's not funny!"

  "It's just cold water. I added some elements to help you recover quicker, as we don't have much time to spare."

  "Then remind me how long we've been in here."

  Hu was fixing a few of her tails as they were damaged from her few training duels with Daniel. He burned one, obliterated one into a twig, and shaved one. Her face was grimacing at the pain, expressing it with heavy groans. "It has been five weeks."

  Daniel blinked his eyes, hoping she was only joking. "May you repeat that?"

  "Five weeks and counting until you're finished."

  "You really can't wait to kill me. You are a snarky fox girl."

  Slap!

  His left wrist caught in time, shielding him from her phantom whooping. It left a bruise, and the skin ruptured. Another mess to deal with. The drowning loads of water healed every ailment and wound before the slap.

  King Valtoris intervened. A giant palm manifestation slammed Hu. "How many times have you been told to know when to step back from crossing the line?! Too many!" This was the first time Daniel saw him that angry, as he was the stoic and non-emotional of the three. Crazy enough, he let Hu pinned there by the manifestive palm and turned his attention back to Daniel. "Change of plans. Me and Moon Mother will guide you to the end…Feeling better?"

  "I think so," Daniel said as he stood up straight. He put his handkerchief in his pockets. One look at the polearm, summoning it back in his grip.

  "Why didn't your qi transfer this time? I noticed it happened to every weapon you demonstrated except a sword." King Valtoris asked.

  Daniel looked at his metal polearm. Only then, his qi transferred through. "Look. It worked, but only because I was focusing on it. I can't do it instinctively. No matter how hard I tried." A sudden check came to mind. He then asked King Valtoris: "Can you give me a wooden sword, please?"

  Moon Mother summoned one, sending it flying to him. Daniel dropped the metal polearm and grabbed the hilt. Immediately, his qi poured onto the wooden blade without a hard look. It was that easy.

  At that point, Moon Mother and King Valtoris looked at each other as if they figured out what was wrong with Daniel's issue.

  "I see now." King Valtoris performed telekinesis, sending the pinned-down Hu to a chair. She was still restrained but could move most of her body freely. A sole audience until the end.

  "What are you guys doing?"

  "New plan. We are starting over."

  "No…Not doing another five weeks again."

  "We aren't. We're going to finish this in three days. Start to finish."

  "How?"

  King Valtoris pointed at the wooden sword. "If a sword is really your true path, then we are going to focus on that. Afterwards, we can add the other weapons with it in a unique way."

  End of Day 1

  Daniel restrained his cough for the longest, only to break now. He had the worst cough ever. A liter of blood left his mouth like a projectile. Some of it hit across the summit, striking the border of the void. Long and behold, a splatter of bright blue light erupted. A big bang rammed his ears with angry gusts, blowing off everything on the summit. Flowers, trees, and furniture were all gone.

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  Moon Mother activated a barrier, blocking everyone from getting hit by the destructive winds. A little hand gesture triggered a cleanse, wiping out all sources of the wind and Daniel's blood leftovers.

  Not the first bizarre things had been blasted right from Daniel's mouth. It was the first time knowing his blood could become a ticking time bomb. It might have a useful advantage, but it was too stressful to bear.

  King Valtoris put his sword back in his new sheath at the left side of his belt. "Strange…Your qi has been highly unstable for hours now. It keeps going up," he muttered, deploying a spell from his palm. Daniel absorbed it all.

  "Should I be feeling something?" Daniel wondered as he wiped his mouth. He took a break on a summoned seat. Suddenly, he felt off around his head. It was dull and a mix of lightheadedness.

  Moon Mother rushed over and looked at King Valtoris. "Help his right, will ya?"

  They lifted Daniel up by his shoulders. Moon Mother summoned a couch. Hu, who was still restrained to her chair, found it unfair and was very vocal about it. She tried to break out of her restraints, prompting King Valtoris to summon a spherical barrier.

  "Why are you doing this, Val?!"

  "You're so stubborn. Does he annoy you that much?"

  Daniel, despite being woozy, looked at Hu. "I want to know. Tell me the truth…I can speak through the mind, too."

  "Yes! Yinhai! He does okay! Does that satisfy you three?"

  King Valtoris wasn't. "I need the reasons. Not just an honest yes."

  The three could see her grimaced face and heard her growling. All stared at her until she responded from her heart. No lie out of this one.

  "I…wasn't pleased when you pulled me out of the realm."

  "Really? You said you were free then."

  Hu stared right at King Valtoris' eyes. "No…I wasn't! I said I would be free, but not at that moment. My schedule at the time was hanging out with my foxes. Did you forget?!"

  Daniel raised his eyebrows while listening to King Valtoris respond.

  "We all rarely asked for help, and you did promise that if an urgent situation had us all twelve involved, you would join with no second thought. That was part of the pact. We all had a deal!"

  Moon Mother gave a playful poke to Daniel's right temple, jolting him on alert and full of energy. Almost like Direct caffeine right at the spot. It moved past his sickly episode and distress. When King Valtoris mentioned his unstable qi, Daniel kept the heartburn-like symptoms hidden from him. It burned like getting spilled by boiling hot food, and bits lingered on the skin for dear life. If he had read his mind then, he probably already knew.

  "Is that really all there is to it?" Daniel asked. "This entire mood was because of time. At least you could have said that in the beginning before taking it out on me, don't you agree?" He summoned his sword, not leaking qi this time. With one look at Hu, he tried reading her head. His mind slipped inside the walls only a millisecond before her consciousness blocked him. That was when he understood. "So…It was really because of this. I wondered if it's even childish to comment on deities, but I'll say it. You have way more time to control than I do. At the end of the day, I'm just a speck with a limited amount of time. Just take a step back…You'll be with your foxes in no time."

  Daniel's hand was on Hu's shoulder. King Valtoris only caught that just now.

  "Let's go ahead with the next round, shall we?" he said, looking at Hu. "Care to join us now?"

  Moon Mother went ahead first and set up an arena along with the fake sky and climate. Once the stone and concrete finished combining, mobs of beasts, titans, and mindless soldiers were summoned in groups. The arena floor was about nine miles in circumference.

  Day two has just begun.

  Day Two

  Moon Mother and King Valtoris took the role of spectators as Hu initiated the second day of Daniel's fast-paced training. One more day to go, but only if he made it out alive in this one without getting hampered by his intruding sickness.

  Hu still lingered in the mood from being absent from her realm. Daniel could tell she was still not entirely in the complete mindset of training him. It was like she was homesick despite being able to enter a portal and out with a footstep.

  "I'm going to be honest. It was childish of me to be corrected, so you'll have a taste of this," Hu said, ending with a beastly growling echo.

  Multiple black foxes about the size of five stories were summoned at Hu's request. Daniel watched as they towered over their shadows, covering some of the sun.

  He wasn't given the time to mentally count how many of them as one leaped over Hu and charged right to him with a ferocious jaw. Daniel went on with all the knowledge he could remember. He casted three Hanzi, 千稻雨, as the gigantic jaw got closer by the second.

  "Anihilate! (消灭!)" Daniel commanded a release, causing the three Hanzi to brighten. One real slash to the casting triggered a bright reaction. The slash unleashed a qi right to the beast, pinning it right at the spot.

  A cumulonimbus cloud formed right above the arena floor. All the mobs that were summoned by Moon Mother charged at inhuman speed right where Daniel stood, and there were thousands. Lightning bolts struck a few dozen, eliminating them. A titan that was struck collapsed into a pile of boulders. All were gigantic, and it felt like cheating because the arena floor was flat. The pile was going at a sports car-like speed, demonstrating terror with each boulder's colossus height.

  No time to spare, as it was about twenty seconds away. A few of the giant gothic foxes attempted to go around the zone of the one that was pinned. To them and Daniel's surprise, the foxes were pinned in place too.

  A loud crashing sound erupted from the darkened clouds, and swords rained from the sky. Like thousands of archers in the sky, swords struck down at multiple mobs at once. All were pierced through their bodies. One intrusion was game over for them. Daniel viewed the giant gothic foxes that were pinned getting savaged and lacerated by the precipitating swords.

  Hu launched from her spot with the aura of a ferocious wolf. A head and body of one, but tails of a fox.

  Daniel launched too, preparing Valence to strike. He immediately broke the sound barrier upon taking off, and his feet left a huge fissure in the arena floor. Any mob unfortunate enough to be in the range perished. The two hit right at the mark. Valence glowed golden for the first time. The usual blue qi leaking from the blade was overridden. It was like pouring liquid gold.

  Hu was fighting with her aura-filled arms, competent enough to deal with the blade. Her black aura of darkness poured along with Daniel's golden light. A straight line of two colors was formed, demonstrating immense power.

  About ten seconds left as the arena was closing in.

  Hu punched right into Daniel's face with a left jab. A series of cracks as loud as popping open multiple champagne bottles on a speaker. It threw him off the clash, turning the moment into a ticking time bomb. As blood spat right out of his eye socket, mouth, and nose, he unleashed one heavy slash of qi before twirling right to the ground. Crashing headfirst, Daniel knew he was about faint. In desperation, he casted 盾 as the clash site exploded.

  Bright light swarmed the floor as his eyes closed, fading out of consciousness.