Red Talon Piercing The Darkness

After the old man's last words faded, the forest became silent once more. "Dammit," Hong Zhao muttered as he used eagle vision, yet the man's presence was masked. "So you can cloak your presence too." He closed his eyes and focused instead on the sounds in his surroundings. He extended his senses to their max.

He heard a chuckle in the distance and sent a qi shot towards it, yet nothing was there. 'He condensed his voice and threw it in another direction.' Hong Zhao readied his devouring qi claws as he heard a push off of a branch coming from the west. He turned just in time to block the man's sword.

"Very good for one so young!" The man exclaimed as he pushed Hong Zhao back. "If I were to bet, I'd say you were only a rank below my own." The man laughed as he once again vanished, yet Hong Zhao had vortex thrust and watched as he disappeared this time. Though as he watched, the old man darted around the forest line, looking more like a ghostly visage moving along the trees instead of a man.

"My name is Liang He, please remember it if you survive this, or when you are sent back into the cycle of reincarnation." The old man said right past Hong Zhao's ear, yet he didn't pay it any attention. Instead, he once again closed his eyes and concentrated. Moments later, he could sense projectiles heading his way. He opened his eyes just in time to notice two throwing knives hurtling towards him. Stepping out of the way, he felt a hot pain go through his side as something cold left his body. "You have some good reflexes boy." Liang He praised. "You moved fast enough that I could not deal the fatal blow this time around."

Hong Zhao kept his cool and listened once more. As he heard the projectiles, he stepped to the side and activated qi shot. As he did, the old man appeared and staggered back slightly. A small hole punctured his fine robes, and Hong Zhao could see that he at least got a little meat in the process. The sleeve turned bloody as the man switched the sword to his other hand.

Before Liang He could once again fade away, Hong Zhao took off at the same moment, reaching for the man with his devouring qi claws. Sword hit claws as the old man defended, yet Hong Zhao had only just begun. Claw after claw rained down upon the old man. While at first, he was able to defend yet to his surprise, the young boy became faster and faster. The now red claws were hungry for this strong opponent's blood. Hong Zhao's eyes gave off a red sheen under the mask as a baleful aura escaped the qi blocking uniform.

"Impossible!" The old man cried out has Hong Zhao sent a tear through the sleeve of his robe. The boy blocked each attempt Liang He made to strike, then spun and with the other claw, attempted to maim his opponent. It quickly became a dance of death, where only the clumsy would lose.

Hong Zhao could tell from the movements of Liang He that he had indeed been a superb warrior once, yet throughout the years of having no challenge, he had become slightly rusty, only using his domineering aura to incapacitate an enemy. Meanwhile, this boy had climbed through a mountain of corpses in both this life and the last. He knew what it felt like to put his life on the line day in and day out. To come out on top regardless of what odds lay before him. He was the red talon that pierced through the darkness.

As the devouring qi claws clashed against the sword, Hong Zhao's momentum grew. Claw after claw rained down upon Liang He. For what felt like an eternity, he continued his barrage. Pushing him backward along the trees, Liang Yi tried to strike back, but when he dropped his defense for even a moment, a claw would brush past his face. He had no choice but to wait for an opening.

With his bad hand, the old man made two more throwing knives appear from his storage ring. As Hong Zhao readied another strike, Liang He struck him from the side. Hong Zhao retreated to the forest floor, clutching at his stomach where two knives protruded. Taking them in his hand, he swiftly removed them and threw them into the grass. Clutching at his side, blood poured like wine. A small trickle of blood appeared from his lip.

"What a fierce attack!" Liang He yelled in delight. "If only it didn't have to end this quickly!" He launched himself from the tree with lightning speed.

Hong Zhao looked around himself desperately for cover, yet found nothing. He looked up just in time to see the manic grin on the superior cultivator's face, and right at that moment, he activated qi explosion.

The grin on the cultivator's face was swiftly changed to one of disbelief as the entire area he had landed in went up in the explosion. Hong Zhao felt the concussive force of the attack blow him back a few steps, he was far enough to where he only received a few scrapes.

As the dust settled, Hong Zhao took of his qi blocking mask and looked at the man. Blood was still pouring from his side, but with a flip of his hand, he took out a health recovery pill and ate it. The cuts and scrapes began to steam slightly as they began to disappear at a visible rate. Even the two deep punctures from the daggers only took less than a minute to heal. "That's much better." He sighed in relief.

"W-what the hell are you?" Liang He choked out with a mouthful of blood. As the boy looked down at him, he noticed that a leg was missing from the man, and a hand was missing from the wrist. The strong cultivator was reduced to a sorry state just from this mere boy.

"Honestly, killing someone of a higher rank is much easier when it's a human." Hong Zhao mused. "You all think too much." With that said, he activated qi shot and ended the man's questions.