Back up on Bravo''s Base Of Operations, Ye and Bravo were duelling around the flamethrower. Thankfully the mounted fire chucker was starting to slow down as its not like it could have infinite momentum or anything. Although Bravo might try and install such a contraption, one that allowed it to keep spinning by itself, after increasing his cultivation later down the line but that in no way affected the current duel. Ye had occasionally feigned a retreat but Bravo never fell for it and prematurely detonated the mines, leaving them in position to be a constant obstacle and threat that boxed Ye into a small area in which his movement was limited. It wasn''t too terrible because closer ranges was where he shone regardless so it could have been way worse. The real kicker was that Bravo''s stronger attacks were going to start pouring in soon as different parts of the tree had different defence mechanisms. They were all on rails, however, so they could rush to his aid if he spent long enough in one place. Electric fences, rocket launchers, and swarms of metal bees that could hunt down intruders were just some of the deadly weapons headed in Ye''s direction. fortunately he had his own trick up his sleeve, one Bravo was very much aware of but couldn''t do much to stop.
Bravo kissed his teeth when he saw a swarm of cherry blossoms come bounding up onto the platform because he had no way of dealing with this art. He was familiar with it and had been hit by the damn thing hundreds of times in his many duels against Ye but what was he supposed to do? He wasn''t really packing any arts that could wipe the blossoms out so he just had to take it. The unique art was one called ''Tightrope Tango: A Splash Of Colour'' and was actually, surprisingly, a mental art under the sword aspect. These were rare for the sword aspect but not something that couldn''t be created if you really put your mind to it. As for Tightrope Tango, the cherry blossoms summoned by Ye would be created stealthily somewhere out of view and ambush the opponent. If a majority of them were able to wrap up the foe then the battlefield would shift to an internal one within the opponent''s mindscape. Bravo, who was just helplessly surrounded by these blossoms, arrived inside his own mind where it was just a plain white room... Sort of. It was almost completely empty save for Ye who was stood opposite him, a thin black line that both cultivators were precariously perched atop, and two pools of inky black water with one to either side of the line and a few feet below it.
Essentially, this was a fight atop a ''Tightrope'' and whoever fell into the murky water first lost. No arts were permitted during this duel, it was just a contest of raw skill and footwork. If Ye lost, when returning back to the real world he would be locked out of using any arts for five minutes. It was a hefty punishment but, if he won, he would receive a weapon enchantment that was extremely potent. The enchantment was a multi-coloured fire that lingered on his blade while razor sharp petals swirled around him. If he slashed any of the petals they would burst into miniature fireworks so every swing was now at least five times as problematic as before. pair his masterful footwork, his professional swordsmanship, and the fiery enchantment and he was nigh unstoppable. The only way to prevent this was to stop the mental art or win the proceeding duel but both were tricky in their own right. Bravo would always fail the first half of that equation because he simply couldn''t do anything about the blossom swarm. There was nothing in his arsenal that could blast away the horde of pink that entrapped him. As for the duel... Well he''d never won before... Could he be blamed, really? Fighting on a tightrope was already a massive problem but Ye''s proficiency in this place was honestly annoying. No one person should ever be this good at fighting in such a niche battlefield, it was agitating every time Bravo was dragged here against his will. If nothing else, being punted into the black water was thoroughly humiliating. Only he and Ye would ever see it but that didn''t make him feel any better at all.
The fight on Bravo''s home turf had been briefly halted and now the one on Ye''s was about to begin. Given his familiarity with this place, Ye was quick to advance along the line like a slithering snake. His ability to move his upper body sideways and not fall off gave him a massive advantage in that his body wasn''t strictly confined to the tightrope at all times; he could lean, sway, and even occasionally jump off the line in a semi circle to land back on it at a different position further ahead. His straight line assault was unavoidable here so Bravo had to patiently watch as Ye danced jointly in rhythm with his blade. Every step and twirl was accompanied by the sound of a clash as Bravo mounted what little defence he could. Bravo''s goal was to anchor himself to one spot, hunker down, and not be forced to trip backwards, as that would probably be the end of him, but holding his ground was getting increasingly difficult as the ferocity of Ye''s offensive only ever seemed to increase. Ye even consistently started pulling a dirty move and dipping his sword in the inky water, coating it in the strange liquid that he could then flick at Bravo with every swing. If the opaque liquid blocked even a fraction of Bravo''s vision as it flew toward him then that was yet another benefit to fighting in this arena that only Ye could confidently make use of.
CLANG
A heavy downward strike from Ye was blocked so he allowed his sword to rebound as he flipped backward, landed in a crouch, and spiralled forward to put even more force behind his next attack. He was unfettered by this environment and was arguably even more acrobatic than he was previously. It was no wonder Ye had never lost a duel in here, not even to the matriarchs whenever he sparred with them. If Ye could do actual damage to his opponent here he would be unstoppable in this room and might be able to consistently punch above his weight class. He was actively working on making that a reality but adjusting mental arts was hard, especially if that wasn''t your primary focus as a cultivator. Luckily for Ye, he wasn''t really the type to use many arts in combat so he could fully devote himself to this one whenever he wasn''t practicing his one-armed swordsmanship or racing around on his flying sword. He was highly specialised but highly dangerous and could easily make up for any areas in which he was lacking. Ye was a rather plain, sword swinging cultivator but his dance-oriented movement and fiery enchantment, that he effectively always won the right to use, gave him an edge that others were lacking.
Highly specialised cultivators could be very hard to beat if you didn''t possess the means to stop them and that was probably why Bravo had never won against Ye. Step 1, stop the art: impossible. Step 2, win the duel: Impossible. Step 3, beat Ye after he earned his enchantment: impossible. If Bravo could change the status quo during any of these steps then rolling over Ye wouldn''t be an issue but such was the nature of cultivation. Sometimes it was an even duel, sometimes you were a fire pillar affiliated cultivator going up against an expert water pillar affiliated cultivator. That didn''t mean winning was impossible but you would have to work your ass off to get any kind of meaningful result, that was for sure. It was why most expert cultivators were either very versatile or just completely unrivalled in what they were good at. Bravo was a versatile cultivator but the one area he was desperately lacking in was arts that could affect a large area. his Base Of Operations was huge, and some weapons on it were good for that purpose, but he had nothing on demand and that was really coming back to bite him in the ass right about now. He''d kept reminding himself to work something out in case he needed to fight Ye but his determination to hunt down dryads usually took priority. Large arts that took up a lot of space in favour of raw damage were pretty useless against dryads, as they rarely showed up in groups, so Bravo had been putting it off on repeat for tens of years at this point. Ares had really hit the nail on the head earlier as Bravo''s one track mind was actively hampering him from becoming a better cultivator. He would be stuck at his current level if he didn''t branch out and work on other things he was sorely lacking in. Funnily enough, though he wasn''t aware of this, a lot of dryads and mecha dryads in the wider world, outside the Primordial Blade''s interference, were capable of summoning their own plant army via seed magic and so he would need to learn wide-range arts at some point anyway if he wanted to maintain his eternal dryad hunt. His worldview was simply too narrow and the anger broiling away inside him was clouding his judgement.
Ye finally had to block an attack, as Bravo had found a small opportunity to swing his axes, but after deflecting it to the side his almost completely unceasing string of attacks resumed in full force. Ye splashed the water in Bravo''s face and hopped around him, switching sides and forcing Bravo to uncomfortably twist his body around. This was a painfully slow process that left him stumbling backwards on his flailing feet but, even in spite of that, he managed to fight hard until he could stand upright again by batting back Ye. This wasn''t his first rodeo and he''d been in this situation before so he was aware of how to recover. It wasn''t a guarantee that he could it, though, so he had to avoid winding up in that situation to the best of his ability. The duel continued with Ye upping his pace, switching the grip on his weapon multiple times during a series of slashes. Depending on the angle of his wrist, he could hold the sword with the blade in a standard grip or a reversed one, allowing him to curve it quicker along different angles that he facilitated via his dance. The sword in his hand was frequently tossed lightly into the air, roughly a centimetre or two up, so he could switch grips on the fly as he hopped from foot to foot.
Bravo managed to block a strike, without allowing Ye to deflect it, and pushed forward with another mighty upward swing but Ye blocked it while lifting both his feet off the line. The force of Bravo''s hit swept Ye away as he crouched through the air and allowed himself to be pushed further down the tightrope. Not only could Ye escape backwards and end Bravo''s offensive prematurely but he could also now speed along the line and generate more force for his next swing. It was a clever move that utilised his opponents strength advantage to create his own via a well-timed backing off. Ye had done this song and dance, and many other variations of it, countless times and was very capable of adapting on the fly to any all strategies thrown at him. He ran back in with a stance that was low to the ground and dropped to one knee, sliding straight down the line as he spun on its tip and performed a full 360 degree rotation. This allowed him to generate some rotational force as he rose up from his knee to his other foot, allowing his diagonal, upwards swing of his sword to carry a horrific amount of power considering the limitations of the environment. Bravo kissed his teeth and braced for the inevitable. He''d never seen Ye pull this trick off before and there was nothing he could do to stop it. If Bravo blocked this the pushback would launch him off the side without fail but if he tried to run then Ye would kick him in the back and end it that way instead. At least, by blocking, miniscule though it was, there was a slim chance he could anchor himself like a boulder and refuse to move. He joined both buzz axes on his right side and swung them downwards to meet Ye''s swing at the same time. He went all in with his strength here in a bid to counteract the force coming his way, fully leaning into the swing.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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"Fuck." Bravo couldn''t help but swear out loud as he realised far too late what was happening. There was no almighty clash as his weapon hit nothing but air. In hindsight, it was obvious that Ye wouldn''t take a risky head on clash like this if Bravo was equally prepared to do so. Yes Bravo would probably get knocked off but there was a chance Ye would too due to his inferior raw strength. At that point it was a matter of who fell first which would be a hard result to sway in your favour. There was no assurance he would win like that so Ye had simply threatened the strike without actually committing. At the last second, instead of going through with the slash, he held his sword in place and hopped backward. Meanwhile, Bravo, who''d committed to his swing, had thrown his body weight around far too much and was now tumbling over the side of the line without having taken so much as a scratch. He put so much momentum into his swing, expecting Ye to nullify some of it with his own, that he couldn''t even stop himself anymore as he went sailing off the side after not colliding with a solid object. This was an utterly humiliating defeat because he''d basically been massively conned here. He was swinging at ghosts and tripping over himself in the process. He hadn''t expected to win but losing like this was dastardly.
The bastard Ye, waving ''toodaloo'' at Bravo from back on the line as he sunk towards the water, pulled a brand new attack out of his ass only to not go through with it at the key moment. That was peak scumbaggery as far as Bravo was concerned but a loss was a loss and he had to take it. The one solace was that nobody saw this pitiful loss so he could lick his wounds in private after. Bravo swore to himself to set up a tightrope back home and practice as this was actually something he''d go through with. It wasn''t impossible for him to one day incorporate ropes into his dryad hunting so it could very well be a useful talent to develop. If he had metal ropes he could lock down a dryad by attaching it to his Base and then run along said rope to mount the dryad. Practicing would allow him to defend himself during the approach. Also, he was seriously sick of losing to Ye as this had happened one too many times. Sure he could just focus on learning a method to deal with the petals and prevent himself from ever entering this insufferable environment but, honestly? He was petty down to the depths of his soul. He didn''t want to flee the Tango, he wanted to win it and pay Ye back for all the years of humiliation inside it! Just winning once would be enough to wipe that soft smile off the smug petal boy''s face, Bravo was sure of it. He sighed to himself as he crashed into the water.
SPLASH
Bravo woke up to find himself back by his flamethrower. The thing had already stopped spinning long ago and he was tempted to set it off again but figured that would be unwise. With Ye''s fire enchantment he had decent control over errant flames so adding more to the mix would only hamper Bravo and not aid him. Plus his other weapons were about to arrive soon so he didn''t need this one. They were still a few seconds out though because the fight in his head had happened fairly quickly. Inwardly it felt like a two-to-three minute clash but, in reality, it had only been give or take five seconds. That was just the nature of mental attacks so it wasn''t anything too surprising, just a bit off-putting whenever it happened. In order to buy time for his backup to arrive, Bravo pulled out the detonator and just went all in. It would keep Ye preoccupied for as long as Bravo needed, and the swordsman was far closer to the mines than Bravo was, so he didn''t hesitate for even a split second in setting everything off.
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
The various explosions rung out simultaneously, creating a sort of harmony of cacophony that merged into a single grating noise. That was in terms of sound but in regards to spectacle even Ares, who was still being pestered by branches occasionally, gave the light show a thumbs up!... Or he would have if he could actually move his body right now. He was still just kinda staring at the sky like the helpless idiot he was. The chain explosions created a series of respectably sized, blackish orange domes that covered the entire view of the area where the two seasons were fighting. No doubt Ye''s petal barrier protected him and Bravo, being further away from the explosions, could likely just tough it out.
While things were dying down, the weapons Bravo had been banking on came sliding down and around the centre of the tree before taking various rails to different places. The rows of electric fences raced along the underside of a branch, located directly above the core area, and formed a grid overhead that could be selectively lowered while the rocket launchers formed a circle around the two seasons so it could launch attacks from all angles. A cage containing the bees was simply chucked into the centre of the area, next to the flamethrower, and it broke apart on impact which unleashed the mechanical swarm with their zap stingers. There were a few other weapons on this base but they were still lightyears away and would no doubt take too long to arrive. This set of weapons had been the closest to Bravo''s current position and yet they took this long to get their asses over here so the remaining weapons likely wouldn''t show. Actually, if Bravo could congregate every weapon simultaneously he''d probably have enough of an arsenal to just blow Ye to smithereens even now but, as the man in question walked out of the explosions unharmed, Bravo knew things weren''t going to go well during this specific duel of theirs. Still, the prospect of potentially winning if he devoted his all to improving his Base was tempting. If he could either upgrade it via cultivation or maybe even find some art-boosting cultivation resources then that would be fantastic.
Art boosting resources could come with any number of benefits but, usually, they were based on a specific aspect. For instance, a space aspect resource that boosted arts, if used by Bravo, could maybe install teleporters on his Base that allowed both him and the weapons to reposition quickly. These types of resources were rare and certain aspects, like the space aspect, were nigh impossible to find sometimes. Their value was immeasurable so these types of cultivation resources were frequently sought after but that wasn''t a surprise given the permanent benefit they could impart to an art of your choice. The only thing more dangerous than a specialist was a specialist who could evolve the art their entire gameplan revolved around and these type of attribute cultivation resources made that pipe dream a reality. A good example of a strong combination would be something like Bellona''s Meteor which, if paired with an ice aspect attribute resource that could slow down people within the landing zone, would be impossible to dodge. There were many such combinations but whether or not these resources even existed in the lower domains was up in the air. Not a single instance of such resources being found in lower domains had ever been recorded throughout history so probably not. They must have required sufficient ambient mana in the air to even form hence their current track record of showing up exclusively in the higher domains.
Ye had just emerged from the explosions with nary a scratch on his blemish-less skin thanks to his plant barrier. Normally it wouldn''t have been enough to keep him completely safe but the extra blossoms from his new weapon enchantment added an extra layer of highly potent defence that sheltered him from harm. The enchantment was good both for aggression and protection so it was nothing short of a win condition for Ye. He had other ways to cinch a fight if need be but this art usually resulted in his most convincing wins so he was somewhat reliant on it. The enchantment was a beautiful, flickering but tame fire that gradually shifted colour and gradient. Red, pink, purple, blue, yellow. It was like a lava lamp fire that was soothing to just observe peacefully. This soft fire packed a scorching surprise for anyone who thought little of it, however, and could burn anything it slashed to ashes. The fire closely clung to Ye''s blade and the petals that came with it formed a sort of tunnel around Ye that could trap him and his opponent inside it if he was close enough, at which point escaping became a real nightmare. Once both cultivators were in the tunnel, the petals would slowly fall in front of Ye''s opponent allowing him to constantly chase them with colourful explosions filled with immense heat and his sharp, burning sword. The sight of Ye bursting through a colourful rainbow bomb of sparks and blooming plants with his multi-coloured sword was how he earned his seasonal nickname and he was particularly famous for it back on his home planet. Countless creations revolved around his colourful finale including paintings, dramatic recreations, and poems. He was somewhat of a superstar back home due to this but also because his dances attracted a lot of attention too. He was a handsome and extremely capable man of art, a combination that made him a legendary figure back home.
He wasn''t at his floral mansion right now, however, he was in the middle of a battlefield and preparing himself to end this fight. He deemed it time to end the back and forth so he set forth to contend with all the new obstacles awaiting him. First up was the electric fences. These would be a persistent issue as he dealt with everything else but they were also the least problematic. Whatever manner of labyrinth they formed, Ye felt comfortable weaving his dancing feet through the path to success. Second would be the swarm of bees blocking his path, and third would be the rocket launchers keeping him on his toes. All very manageable. Victory was within sight and Ye predicted the same was true of Asha''s fight down below. Bravo and Theodore''s attempt on Ares'' life would come to a halt here and now and then hopefully Ye would get to have a word with the man in question. Of the many reasons Ye decided to help Ares today, one was so that they could perform a ''dance'' together one day on his home planet back with the starlights. Ares was already long overdue to give a golden performance on the planet at some point but throw in a co-ordinated fight between him and Ye and the starlights would be overjoyed. Ye wanted to go toe to toe with the giant revenant form, as well as the gold-slinging human form of Ares, so he was going to request a spar at a later date when Ares ascended from this domain. Ye would have to inevitably lower his cultivation to match Ares'' and make things fair but he imagined it would be a phenomenal dance regardless, one worth remembering because, for once, it would be one he predicted he would not be leading in. Ye could very well go fight the pagoda Ares right now, and he''d considered it, but that was highly selfish. He would get his dance but none of his starlight fans, family, and friends would get to witness it. Plus the restrictions imposed were not ideal as Ye''s feet desired to flow freely and so the lack of arts and weapons weren''t appealing to him. For these reasons he held back and was patiently awaiting the real deal later on. That was all yet to happen, however, and revolved around him winning his fight with Bravo in the here and now so he took a deep breath and calmed his breathing. He was fully prepared now to bring this dance to an end.