D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Bodeir and Feng faced off against each other. The announcer threw a gold orb to both of them, making sure to top them both up with qi. Feng seemed to breathe easier after the infusion of spirit, but Bodeir hardly reacted, simply giving the announcer a slight nod. “DO OUR COMPETITORS HAVE ANY WORDS THEY’D LIKE TO SHARE BEFORE THE FINAL FIGHT?”

Bodeir shook his head, and Feng, seeing that, shook his head as well. “I SEE WE’VE GOT TWO MEN THAT WOULD RATHER SPEAK WITH THEIR FISTS! EXCELLENT. WITH THAT DECISION, I DO SO DECLARE THE FINAL MATCH… BEGUN!”

Both fighters reacted instantly. Feng charged forward, daggers glowing a bright blue while Bodeir remained in place, but he summoned up a coating of stone from the floor. This caused Feng to stall in place, just out of Bodeir’s range. If Bodeir was going to ‘waste’ qi on armour that wasn’t necessary at that moment, Feng wasn’t going to stop him. He would happily take the qi advantage.

Bodeir, seeing this charge stop, simply dropped into a meditation pose. Right there, on the ground, baiting Feng to charge in. Feng wasn’t willing to take the bait in this case, and sheathed his daggers, sitting down opposite Bodeir and mimicking his pose. Feng was doing just that, mimicking his opponent, he was still keeping his focus trained on Bodeir and wasn’t risking himself by taking in larger amounts of qi… but he was technically gaining qi, slowly.

Bodeir on the other hand, actually was meditating. He was taking in as much qi as he could while remaining unnoticed and channelling that qi into the ground below him. Suffusing it with his power. For the audience, especially those unattuned to qi, this turned into a very boring five minutes. Bodeir kept his trick up, and Feng was too busy watching for Bodeir attacking. The constant flow of qi to the rock armour covering Bodeir was also a good way to disguise the fact that a lot of the qi was being dispersed.

Things finally happened when Bodeir’s qi had infused the rock all the way up to Feng himself, where it became blindingly obvious what Bodeir had been doing. Feng’s eyes widened as he launched himself towards Bodeir, flinging himself feet first with his arms towards Bodeir’s face. It was a rushed move on his part, but he wanted to do everything he could to interrupt Bodeir as faced as possible.

In this case it paid off. Just as Feng had been too focused on watching with his eyes, Bodeir, by necessity, was focused on channelling his qi. He didn’t react until Feng’s boots smacked into his face, sending Bodeir’s head rocking backwards and disrupting his concentration. The abundance of qi tried to escape, but Bodeir was able to channel it instead into his rock armour, causing it to explode off of him, forcing the two contestants apart.

Bodeir groaned as he stood up. The explosion hadn’t been kind to him either, and he’d just been struck in the forehead. He was lucky to have such a hard head, and Feng hadn’t struck any of the softer areas of Bodeir’s skull. That being said, the rock had exploded into pieces on his body, and it was pockmarked with bruises. For Bodeir, it was a minor thing and he just sped up his healing a bit to remove the pain entirely. He was full on qi, and for bruises this was a minor concession.

.....

Feng wasn’t quite so lucky. His legs had been over Bodeir’s body, as his feet and boots had pushed Bodeir’s head back. This meant that while some of the rocks had been stopped by the boots, there were quite a few that had lodged themselves into Feng’s flesh a bit above his boots. Feng winced, but didn’t think he had the time to reach down and pull them out. So instead, he had to focus on healing, with the rocks still there. It took a lot more qi to push them out as part of the healing, but he thought the risk worth it. He wasn’t so far from Bodeir he could afford dropping his guard like that.

Feng pulled his knives out and charged, not willing to give Bodeir time to take over the arena completely. It was clear, that Bodeir was willing to play the extremely long game in this case, so Feng decided he’d need to make the first move. Bodeir had lost control of much of the qi in the arena floor, but he was quickly reconnecting with it. He had only lost it for a moment, and with a flex of his will the connection burned to life again.

Feng reached Bodeir and went straight for his neck, trying to slice into it with his left blade. Bodeir let the attack come, ignoring the pain as the dagger pierced his rocky armour and a little bit of his skin. He continued to ignore the chilling feeling Feng’s qi was driving into the wound as he slammed a rocky fist into Feng’s stomach in retaliation. Feng attempted to parry it with his dagger, but the small metal blade was simply pushed aside by the power. Bodeir’s fist crashed into Feng’s ribs, and the ice cultivator let himself be pushed backwards, rather then standing up to such power.

Feng grimaced, as the rock armour around Bodeir’s neck closed and then slowly started to increase in thickness. On Bodeir’s end, he was trying to ignore the steady drip of blood, and push qi into the wound to offset the ice qi that was already causing the first signs of frostbite around the wound. It wouldn’t do a cultivator much harm, not so little, but Bodeir was willing to spend a bit of extra qi on a neck wound.

Feng snarled as he charged in for another attack. Bodeir met him happily. Feng danced around Bodeir as best he could, taking example from his sister. He wasn’t as fast as she was… but he was much faster than a Bodeir covered in rocks. His daggers didn’t have time to dig in properly, but they were leaving patches of frost with every scratch. Bodeir was making weak attempts and brushing Feng off, but not trying all that hard. Just enough to force him to keep away.

Bodeir twisted his foot in place as he flicked a rock bullet at Feng. Feng twisted out of the way… stepping onto the churning earth Bodeir was controlling. Bodeir’s leg twisted further, as the stone churned and tried to suck in Feng’s foot. Feng blasted ice from his soles, forcing his foot upwards, but not perfectly. He’d had to use a good deal of force and Bodeir was ready. He slid forward on the stone, and his fist zeroed in on Feng’s face.

Feng, panicking from his mistake, had no choice but to try something dumb. He hadn’t properly practiced this technique… but it would have to work. He gathered half of his qi into his throat and let loose a hail of ice from his mouth. Bodeir’s fist iced over, even as it slammed home on Feng’s cheek, though much of its power was lost. Feng stumbled backwards, but Bodeir wasn’t able to follow up. His right side was frosted over, the ice holding him to the floor.

The announcer watched closely, ready to call the match if Bodeir was unable to move. Cracks started forming through the ice, and Feng decided to go for broke. A wave of ice exploded from his mouth as he funnelled more and more qi into the technique. Bodeir considered dodging by shifting the earth under his feet with the ice included, but decided it wasn’t worth the qi.

Ice formed all around Bodeir, layer upon layer building up, mostly on Bodeir’s front until he was completely trapped within an ice crystal. Feng was stumbling back and rubbing his throat in pain. His throat was burning and his neck was cold to the touch. He’d used too much ice qi at once, and his body wasn’t ready for it. He was already shivering. Feng didn’t know if he’d won yet… so he collapsed into the floor and started to suck in qi greedily, recharging as much as he could with the time allowed.

“IS THIS THE END FOR BODEIR? IF HE CANNOT ESCAPE IN TEN SECONDS THE MATCH WILL BE CALLED IN HEIR FENG’S FAVOUR!” shouted the announcer. “ONE”

No movement from Bodeir.

“TWO… THREE… FOUR… FIVE…”

The ice started shaking, Bodeir was clearly still awake and fighting. Would it be enough?

“SIX… SEVEN…”

The ice started to crack, and the shaking grew more intense.

“EIGHT… NINE…”