Shuren dropped the broken body, slamming his leg into it. Tez's corpse flew off as it dissipated into blue motes.
"Madman."
Shuren focused on the roc still dive bombing down towards the mountain. That crazy guy was willing to die together with him! It was absurd.
The mountain had now encompassed Shuren's entire vision.
Shuren picked up the spear near the injury, walking forth to aim for its neck. "You should be free. So why are you still trying to kill us both? Stupid beast."
Raising his spear high, Shuren used everything he could to stab deep in the roc's neck.
It bounced right off. A hard exterior was found around its neck, an evolutionary trait for moments like this, protecting the great weakness of its spine.
The Deviant Beast roared, frantically moving its body to the point Shuren almost fell off from lack of stability.
He tried to use his other arm to grab on to its fur as an anchor, but only felt searing pain go through his arm.
"Tch, stupid mistake." Shuren grabbed on to the fur of the beast, while the spear dangled in his teeth. He couldn't lose his only weapon. Not here. Not now.
All he heard next was the terrorising screech of rage and injustice from the roc, once more regaining its will.
His gums bled from the force he used from biting down on the spear, and the muscles in his right hand spasmed the further he gripped the beast's fur. Shuren tried to move his left arm again, burnt as it was, but his body wouldn't listen.
In the midst of its dive bomb, the roc rotated around a few more times. It knew just the method needed to shake off the prey on its back.
Shuren's hand ripped away from the beast, with only a white tuft of fur left in it. He threw it to the side, grabbing his spear once more. "Smart, aren't you?!"
Shuren had lost all stability. Almost like the roc understood his words, it struck immediately.
The roc twisted its body vertically as it flew down, throwing Shuren further into the air. With the mountainous walls right behind Shuren, its crimson eyes glimmered.
It slammed right into the mountain wall with Shuren in its claws.
The debris from the mountain exploded, covering both Shuren and the roc. But its vermillion eyes stared deep into the prey that dared to survive a killing blow, refusing to be eaten.
Shuren coughed vile blood. He struggled to breathe, just barely holding on to the spear, as if it were his own life. It was his only ticket to escape this situation.
And for the first time in the test, Shuren felt true death approaching him.
It wasn't Wu Ming, a battle-crazed swordsman two stages above him. It wasn't the droves of fighters that pathetically tried to take him out. Nor was it that crazy Stage 3 kid, who's luck managed to subjugate a flying Deviant Beast that was at least Stage 9, yet failed to take over the sect finale.
It was just one man and one beast.
A ruler of the skies, a king of kings, superior to any other roc of its kind. One with deep intellect, recognising Shuren as a worthy adversary, rather than prey to be eaten.
It was certainly a first for it to experience food that dared to rip out of his stomach.
Shuren's right arm still gripped on the spear with intensity, even as the beak of the roc was about to bite a chunk off his head.
"Little bird, do you understand the difference between a beast such as yourself and a cultivator such as I?"
Shuren mocked it. He had a deep grin with bleeding gums. With sharp blue eyes were swirling with the flames of madness and rage.
The roc almost seemed curious about how he would react.
With the right arm trapped in the claws of the roc, Shuren ripped it straight down.
It felt like flamed swords were cleaved right across his arm, then thrown with a bucket of ice cold water on top. The glacial winds of the alps combined with the warm blood formed a cacophony of miserable pain.
Just some mere pain. Shuren was all too used to that.
Deep gashes were left through it from squeezing it between the talon and wall of the mountain. In that one moment, that single gap where the beast didn't have time to react, held his arm free, spear in hand.
And he stabbed. With all his might.
A spear, right into its vermillion eye. An eye that soon dyed a bloodied crimson, bursting like a ripe grape. Even amongst the shrieking winds in the air, the squelching sounds of its burst eye were like water dripping on the mouth of a parched man.
Shuren took out the spear back out to stab it right into the mountain wall, using it as an anchor to keep himself stable. Otherwise, he would've fallen to his death.
He wasn't sure if he managed to reach the brain, but the roc flew madly with a chaotic balance, struggling to keep upright. Flapping its wings to the point wild gusts of wind flew around. Shuren felt his eyes glued wide open from them.
It decided to fly back to its nest to recuperate.
This crazy prey wasn't worth the effort.
Shuren could only sigh. "Honestly, what an absurd test. Not even the Liu Clan's regiments were this crazy. This Sect Leader sure planned this Fractured Realm with surprises. Sighting even one Deviant Beast was rare in a region, yet he collected a bunch of them just to be used as practice."
He stared down at the ground, at least a hundred metres beneath him. He was pretty close to being squashed like a bug if the roc actually decided to ram itself to death.
Shuren dragged the spear out, falling a few metres before stabbing it back in again. He'd have to do this strange method of hiking down the mountain to make it.
The winds weren't as cold at this height, but even still, Shuren could only deal with the strange mixture of both cutting cold and searing hot pain in his body.
These were injuries completely different from just fighting other humans, other swordsmen at his rank.
Once I reach Rank 2; breaking through to Path Foundation, I'll also be able to choose a Path for myself. Like this roc was of the Fire Path, I must find a way to tread on the Sword Path! Even if it seems impossible, I won't give up!
Shuren thought back to his life in the Liu Clan once more. His right as the successor, stripped away because of his inability, or rather, cursed to be unable to wield a sword. Even though he was the grandson of the Divine Sword Saint!
It was an absurd reality. But he wouldn't give up. One day, he'll get strong enough without the support of the main Liu Clan, and make a deal with the Supreme Elders to regain his right as successor.
I'll become the Patriarch of the Liu Clan. And becoming an External Elder of the Seven Clouds Sect is my first step to reaching it. I won't fall into obscurity, I won't fail my family, and I will finish this debt with those who dared to scheme against me!
Shuren was only ten metres away from the ground. He could leap off the rest of the height.
So he fell. Even with a useless left arm, multiple gashes on his right arm, and the injuries of fending off a Deviant Beast on his own in the sky itself, he had to become the winner of this finale!
Shuren landed on the snow without stumbling, still holding his blood-tipped spear.
There was only one man left on the battlefield.
A man in an even worse state than he was. He had deep gashes along his back and front. Iron feathers embedded across his torso. Claw marks on his legs. Thin pieces of icicle dirks going through his right arm. A broken sword in his hip.
But he held a friendly grin as he saw the appearance of Shuren.
"You dealt with the rest of them?" Shuren smiled as he said, fully knowing the answer. But he still had to ask. He trudged forward through the snow at a slow pace, but each step was firm and unyielding.
"Who do you take me for?!" He replied, taking out a broken sword out of his torso and throwing it to the wayside.
Around him wasn't snow. It was a stained curtain of blood.
He raised his sword with trembling fingers, but still filled with the spirit of competition.
Shuren had to acknowledge it. He hadn't seen someone on this level, even back at his Liu Clan. Even when he was surrounded by powerful Immortal Cultivator's disciples, and those descendants of the Supreme Elders at his age, none could match up with the grit of this man.
This man, some random descendant of an irrelevant Rank 4 Clan specialising in formations for a minor province, proved to be the worthiest of them all!
Now this, this was a real opponent! Nothing like the Stage 3 rat he had to play around with before.
There was only two men left on the board.
The first ranker had over 15000 points. And Shuren was Rank 2, with 4140 points.
"You're one hell of a guy, Wu Ming!"
Shuren's battle aura had reached its peak while Wu Ming strode in, a sharpened swordsman honed in blood!