Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 112: Skill issue

“And who would you be?” Drayan asked, pulling his blade from the ground and pointing it at Chance. “We don’t often get Rank Three cultivators coming through our small sect, and even less often are they foolish enough to try to attack.”

“Oh. You must be misunderstanding,” Chance said with a laugh.

“Going to try to talk your way out of it? Amusing, but pointless,” Drayan said. His gaze flicked to Jie, who took a step back. Drayan snapped the fingers of his free hand. “Stop moving.”

Jie froze in place.

“Tell me, then,” Drayan said with a cold smile. “Since you’re so willing to talk, I’ll let you get a few last words out before I Bind you. I felt you snuff the life of my subordinate out. If that wasn’t an attack, what was it?”

“Ah. That’s an easy mistake to make,” Chance said. “I understand. I didn’t attack him, though. I executed him. He was a terrible person.”

The ground beneath Drayan’s feet from the force of his lunge. He thrust his sword at Chance’s chest. Chance drew on his Essence, letting it flow through him, and let his body relax. He laughed as he leaned back and the blade passed harmlessly over his nose.

Drayan jerked the blade down and Chance twisted to the side, bringing the hilt of his urumi whipping up into Drayan’s chin. The man grunted, staggering back. He’d been taken by surprise, but it didn’t look like the blow had even injured him.

Chance’s urumi scraped along the walls of the alley as he flicked it out. It curved toward Drayan, who ducked to the side and let the segmented blade whistle over his head. He jerked his hand forward and Jie leapt at Chance’s back.

Spinning to the side, Chance gave Jie a gentle shove and stuck his foot out. Jie tripped over it, hitting the ground with a grunt. Still laughing, Chance cartwheeled forward, dropping to the ground as Drayan tried to sever his head from his body, then drove his shoulder up into the larger man’s stomach. Drayan grunted, but he didn’t budge. It was like striking a brick wall.

“You think that’s going to do anything to a Rank Four, boy?” Drayan let out a snort of laughter as his hand swept through the air, his fingers clawed as he reached for Chance.

If he gets his hands on me, it’ll be bad. I don’t know how he establishes the usage of that Binding magic, but I’d bet it requires him to grab onto me.

Chance vaulted backward and poured Essence into his urumi. Its blades glittered a warm gold as he flicked it out once more. Drayan shifted his footing and let the blades whistle past him, but Chance yanked them back right as Drayan started to advance.

The blades nearly carved into Drayan’s neck, but he managed to bring his sword up just in time to block it. Metal screeched against metal and Chance yanked his urumi back into its sword-form, twirling and sending it flying out once more.

Drayan grunted, forced back. Despite his words, the glowing blades of the urumi were clearly more than enough to make him pause. Chance pressed on that advantage, keeping a flurry of spinning blows pressing down on the man.

A tight alleyway isn’t the best spot to use an urumi, but I’ve got so much practice fighting against Soothounds in the Old City that it’s nowhere near as problematic as it should be.

Jie leapt at Chance’s feet, controlled by Drayan’s Binding Essence, but it was like trying to catch an oiled fish. Chance slithered out of his grasp, then pirouetted right past Drayan, avoiding a sword slash and bringing his urumi down on the man’s back.

The blades scraped against Drayan’s skin, ripping through his clothes and carving a line of blood across his side. Drayan spun toward Chance with a roar and lunged, thrusting his sword. Chance slammed the hilt of his urumi into the blade, knocking it out of its path before whipping his foot up into the man’s chin.

Drayan ignored the blow and reached out to grab Chance by the neck. Chance flashed him a smile as he stumbled drunkenly, slipping right out of the man’s grip before it could close. Chance’s third eye burned with power as he reached out and grabbed one of the strands of Karma running out of Drayan.

A golden blade formed in the air behind Drayan’s back and, before he could react, it plunged into his back. Drayan let out a strangled hiss of pain, but the blow didn’t go as deep as Chance had been hoping it would.

“Infuriating little mosquito,” Drayan snarled. He flicked his fingers, and a brick ripped out of the wall. Chance leaned to the side and the brick hurtled past his head, shattering against the wall of the building.

The ground beneath him rumbled, the stones rippling as the entire alleyway came awake. A cold smile stretched across Drayan’s lips and he splayed the fingers of his free hand out, using the other to point his sword at Chance.

“People aren’t the only thing that my Essence can control.”

“Ocie,” Chance said, his smile not budging for an instant. “Would you correct his misconception?”

“What are you–”

A stone hand erupted from the ground behind Drayan, closing around him with a loud crunch. Chance charged it, thrusting his urumi for a gap between the fingers. The hand rippled, and Chance stumbled over a rock.

As he tripped, the hand exploded. Shards of stone tore across the alley and Drayan dropped back to the ground, bruised and bleeding slightly. A spike jutted out of the ground, but he smashed it to the side with a fist, shattering the rock.

Drayan drove his blade into the ground and shoved both of his hands outward, as if he were pushing against two invisible walls. A sphere of force washed out from him, and the alleyway froze.

The stones beneath him trembled as Ocie tried to control them, but Drayan’s control was enough to keep even the city out. He’d probably infused the area with his Essence, making it far harder for anyone else to access.

“Is that your finishing move?” Drayan asked with a cackle. “This is my house. I will add you and whatever strange Essence you wield to my collection, boy.”

Jie jerked upright, his arms hanging at his sides limply. The walls trembled and rose up around Chance, blades forming in the rock and rising into the air above him.

Chance’s brow furrowed. If Jie and the blades attacked at the same time, something told him that Drayan wouldn’t be trying to make sure that Jie didn’t get hurt in the process. He shook his head in disappointment, then reached into the center of his chest.

No more playing around.

Brilliant golden light erupted around Chance, and mist slithered across the ground, winding around both Jie and Drayan. It failed to push through Drayan’s defenses, but it slipped right into Jie’s skin without resistance.

Drayan jerked his hands down. The jagged stones thrust down at Chance and Jie leapt forward, trying to pin Chance down within the hail. Chance swayed to the side, letting the hail pelt to the ground all around him.

The rocks smashed into each other as they grew near both him and Jie, shattering and raining harmless dust instead of tearing through skin. Drayan’s eye twitched in fury and he dove back as Chance’s urumi unfurled to its full length, scraping across the wall beside him.

“How?” Drayan demanded.

“Guess you don’t have as much control as you thought,” Chance replied, staggering to the side as a spike erupted from the ground. Jie lurched toward him and Chance redirected him to the side, flicking his urumi and yanking the blades back.

They caught Drayan on the arm as they retracted and he hissed in pain. The ground bucked beneath Chance’s feet, but he was already moving. The golden light pouring out of him solidified and formed into an arm.

Drayan’s eyes only had an instant to widen in surprise before the open palm slammed into his chest with enough force to launch him from the alley like a rocket. Drayan sailed through the air and flew into the street, hitting it with a grunt and sliding several feet.

He rolled to the side as a spike erupted from the ground, nearly piercing through his chest. Chance’s laughter rang out as he sprinted for Drayan, bobbing and weaving as the city came alive around him, trying to rip him to shreds.

Drayan snapped his fingers. His sword, which was still embedded in the alley behind Chance, suddenly leapt into the air and flew toward him, hilt first, with blinding speed. Chance twisted to the side, but the sword moved so fast that he couldn’t completely avoid it.

It cut a deep line across his chest and side as he spun, and the blade slammed back into Drayan’s hands.

Bands of ice-cold energy enveloped Chance, and he stiffened. He jerked at his limbs, trying to move, but it was like he’d been encased within a rock. Drayan’s smile grew as he ran a finger along his blade.

“What was it you said? Guess you don’t have as much control as you thought,” Drayan cackled. “Welcome to the Brackern sect, boy.”

Chance drew deeply on his Essence. He felt it flow through his limbs, storming within him, as Drayan took a step closer. One of his fingers twitched. Drayan’s eyes narrowed and he redoubled the pressure bearing down on Chance.

Essence clashed in the streets violently, swirling around both of them like a storm. But, even as hard as Chance fought, Drayan was a Rank higher than him. The man simply had more Essence to work with.

Millimeter by millimeter, Chance’s strength started to erode. Drayan’s Essence wound tighter around him, claiming more control and pushing Chance’s power away. But, despite all that, the grin never left Chance’s lips.

“What are you smiling about?” Drayan snarled.

Drawing on all the Essence he could muster, Chance ripped a single eyelid out of Drayan’s control.

Then he winked.

Drayan only had an instant to ponder what the gesture meant before Bella’s fist crashed into the back of his head. A thick wall of translucent blue crystal erupted from the ground directly in front of Drayan, even as the loud crack of her knuckles connecting with his skull rang out.

His head snapped forward, slamming into the crystal. A vibrant ringing note rang out from the crystal as it vibrated with the force of the blow. Blood splattered across sit as Drayan’s nose broke.

Bella didn’t give him time to react. Crystal encased her arm as she reared back and brought it forward once more, her eyes as cold as the crystal surrounding her.

The ringing note shattered.

Since arriving at Gleam, Chance had seen people and monsters die in a multitude of ways. Eaten, ripped to death, cut apart – none of them had ever looked like particularly inviting ways to die.

But, in all that time, he’d never seen someone do a perfect recreation of a grape in a blender. Drayan’s head vanished in a spray of blood and gore, and the crystal shredded through his body as it broke, fragments of it spinning through the air and reflecting the sunlight.

The force of the blow sent Drayan’s body hurtling through the crystal wall, ragdolling as it tumbled down the street. It slid to a stop right at the front of his mansion, then slumped down.

Control returned to Chance’s body and he straightened.

“Thanks,” Chance said. “I wasn’t ready for how fast he could Bind me. I thought it would be a lot harder. Good surprise attack, though. That wouldn’t have gone nearly as well if you hadn’t caught him off guard.”

“Don’t worry about it. We need to get out of here,” Bella said, nodding to the alleyway. It won’t be long before reinforcements arrive.”

Chance blinked. The street had emptied during their fight, but he hadn’t even realized because of how focused he’d been on Drayan. He turned, running over to Jie and helping the boy to his feet before sprinting back over to Bella, joining her as they ran back into the darkness of the alleys.