Veteran was currently banging his head against a nearby building in frustration. This was the result of Ares'' unbelievably stupid explanation about how to accomplish 100% enhancement...
All of the effort he put in...
Bang
The pinnacle of pressure wielding in cultivation society...
Bang
The answer was so simple...
Bang
Right underneath everyone''s noses the whole time...
Bang
COOKING?
BANG
Veteran''s last headbutt brought the entire building down but, right now, he didn''t care about such a trivial matter. 100% enhancement was achievable if you actively strained yourself... Cultivating during the process was probably the correct way to do it and yet the first person to ever discover 100% enhancement had done so by cooking a banquet instead... Being the ''pressure master'' suddenly felt like such a worthless title considering how simple the method for perfection was. If no one had found it in all this time then wasn''t everyone just collectively a bunch of idiots? What did that make Veteran? The king of idiots?! Well Ares was technically the king of idiots now... And that name was oddly fitting... To think it was just a matter of stretching your body to its limits. Were cultivators such massive cowards they would rather play it safe and achieve mediocrity than go all in and discover greatness? Since when had everyone been so tame?... Veteran felt a little upset, actually. So many famous and infamous cultivation legends who''d all overlooked such a basic experiment and taken the road more travelled. Following in everyone else''s footsteps and not thinking for themselves... What a saddening thought. He was almost convinced he didn''t even deserve the knowledge at this point... Almost. He was still a pressure afficionado at the end of the day, and he had a close connection with the stuff, so there was no shot in hell he wasn''t making use of this information. His desire to learn outweighed the immense shame of not having sought out the knowledge in the first place.
There was a method of resetting one''s pressure enhancement calibration but it was extremely ''rare'', the kind of thing that typically only people at Veteran''s level, and above, could ever even interact with. Put simply, it was a purifying fountain that washed away a person''s pressure, desyncing it from their body and forcing them to recalibrate it. The intricacies of the fountain weren''t quite understood because the source of the fountain was untraceable. Plus the owner of it was an elusive fellow with strange personality traits so getting an answer out of him was like pulling teeth. Veteran would have to explain to the guy why he, of all people. wanted to use the fountain but the guy in question wouldn''t spread the information so that was fine. See, he was a ''purveyor of rarity''. He obtained countless rare pieces of information, antiques, weapons, resources, treasures, curses, etc.. As long as he didn''t own it, or hadn''t heard of it, he wanted it. In exchange, he would give, or allow usage of, one of his myriad mythical goods. Generally speaking, he was considered the most knowledgeable man in existence because of his fascination with the unknown. He was also trustworthy in that he kept all business transactions secret. Veteran informing him about his reason to visit would, ironically, enable his visit as his information about achieving 100% enhancement was pretty incredible. The purveyor was a strange but simple man in that way. After his dealings with the fellow, Veteran could restart his calibration via the fountain and fix his mistakes in a couple of days. As he''d already done this song and dance before it wouldn''t take him altogether too long to solve his core issue and return to the wide world.
Right now, though, he felt reinvigorated. His desire to pummel Ares had never been higher than it was in this very moment. His earth-shattering revelation was so ridiculously stupid that the guy had to be punished for it in order for the concept of justice to continue existing in this world. Their chat had come to an end and there was nothing else to say so Veteran walked up to Ares, who was the none the wiser about what was coming his way as he was still merrily chatting away, and blasted his head into pieces with a swift punch! The satisfaction of watching Ares'' dead body crumple and his brain splatter over the street was immense. Veteran could have sworn he heard the voice of thousands of expert cultivators cry out in joy as he took revenge for them all. Ares'' humiliation of every expert was too foul to let stand unpunished! His job wasn''t completely over just yet though, he still had to beat Ares in a proper fight at least one more time to feel like the score was well and truly settled. After that Ares could beat his ass all day and night long and become untouchable, that was fine. If Veteran''s predictions about Ares were correct then he had one more day, give or take, to eke out a win before it became an impossible ask of him. He would have to give his all and use every trick up his sleeve but it was worth it to help his bruised ego and battered pride regain a little of their original spark.
While Ares re-entered the pagoda, after Veteran''s surprise murder, the fourth day of his pagoda training began and his body started to tolerate higher levels of enhancement again. It was painstakingly slow compared to usual, improving at around half its usual pace, but, if the trajectory of his improvement remained true, then he would reach 92% on the dot by the end of the day. Veteran believed around 95% was the cut-off for when Ares would categorically never lose again so his time was running short to get the win. He''d given it his all numerous times now and never managed to find the victory he was searching for. Plus it just kept seeming so much further away with every subsequent loss. Ares'' telekinesis functioned as an equaliser he couldn''t navigate around or counter properly. It was his first time seeing it and the number of uses it had was boggling his mind. Ares was tricking him left, right, and centre all day long. By the time Veteran had discovered, first hand, every single potential application of the telekinesis he would no longer be able to match Ares anyway! The bastard was stalling a fair fight until he could win it with ease! He was intentionally trying to prevent another loss because he could see the fire in Veteran''s soul still burning lightly. And yet, by the end of the day, Ares was still unsuccessful in snuffing it out for good. Veteran was a stubborn mule to say the least. Ares was having a blast kicking him around though. It was good to have finally turned the tables.
The one benefit it looked like Veteran would have over Ares was that the kid''s cultivation was low. As far as combat went, regarding cultivation, it was irrelevant because the pagoda balanced Veteran''s cultivation to be fair... But that was only as far as combat went.. With a poxy cultivation Ares was subjected to the greatest foe someone of his calibre at this level could face, exhaustion! Veteran was a simulation and unaffected by long slogs, plus he was used to them from his time back in reality. Ares, on the other hand, must have been starting to feel drowsy. He would keep going until he was done here, that was obvious, but whether he would be able to even walk back home after without collapsing and falling asleep in the middle of a street somewhere was genuinely a concern... Well Veteran knew it wouldn''t be an issue. Ares'' 100% enhancement with annihilation would no doubt give him a significant burst of energy and let him do what he needed to do before going home and getting some proper rest. But that was 100%. Until then, Ares would have to fight off his sleepiness mid fight. Veteran had already seen him rub his eyes at one point during the downtime after one of his wins. He was operating off of pure adrenaline and will power at this point! He had a stash of food and drink to keep him topped up on energy to some extent but it wasn''t getting any easier the longer he stayed here. He also seemed adamant not to take a siesta, or anything of the sort, as Veteran had suggested it at one point and he simply shook his head. Apparently this period of time was too important to waste by not training. That was fair but it may very well cost him a match at some point! Veteran''s hope now rested in the 90-95% region. Ares wouldn''t be unbeatable here, his sneaky telekinesis manoeuvres would be all out in the open, and he would be at the peak of his exhaustion... This was Veteran''s time to strike!
As Ares enhancement ticked over to 92% another match had just begun. Ares was standing awfully close to a window and Veteran remembered the trick he was trying to pull off because he''d used it earlier that very same day. This rat was secretly using telekinesis on the whole building! If Ares could bait Veteran over and kick him out the window it would turn into a long fall to the ground in which Ares could repeat the method in which he first won. He would jump out after Veteran, stomp on his chest, and push him all the way down to earth. Veteran knew better though as he could no longer see the street lamps outside, because the building was higher in the air now, and that was as good an indicator as any that Ares was pulling off the same shenanigan again. Wizening up had just saved his life!
Veteran turned around and ran. He wasn''t trying to escape from Ares because he was scared or anything, it''s just that being inside this building was asking to lose. It was a death-trap when taking Ares'' telekinesis into consideration. The building was chock full of objects to throw at veteran and so he wanted out! An open air fight was preferable against Ares as he was currently. Veteran ran to the staircase and leapt through the window before donning his silver cape and flying as far away as possible. This had become a necessary start to pretty much every single match, unless he wanted to forfeit it immediately, and he didn''t get to dictate otherwise anymore. veteran was no longer in control.
Ah how nice it was to just punch all his challengers in the face at the start before they were even ready... Well his other versions were still doing that. Ares wasn''t the only challenger here on the fifth floor but he was definitely the only one winning or coming even remotely close. This was clearly a lower region with less experienced and talented cultivators as no one else had even scratched Veteran yet... Although maybe he was expecting too much. There were some Gods that couldn''t even hurt him, after all. The only person worth noting was Mako but even he was running out of steam after so many beatings. There was one other person Veteran recognised and that was some weird Viking with a neon axe that had been chasing the pagoda around for quite some time now... This guy seriously never quit... In his defence, he was way better than the average challenger, just nothing much in the grand scheme of things when compared to the numerous other prodgies Veteran had seen.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
As for the fight at hand, Veteran sighed as Ares chucked the entire building at him, again. He''d been doing this a lot too. It was a powerful attack and put Veteran in an awkward spot. If he destroyed the building, Ares could use the rubble to not only continue attacking but also to obscure his position if he wanted to. If Veteran tried to avoid this by not destroying the building then Ares would just keep either throwing it at him or he would wield it like a bat and swing it at him repeatedly. Not to mention, while all this was going on, Veteran still had to deal with a 92% enhancement Ares constantly throwing devious punches and kicks from tricky angles... It was truly a nightmare experience quite unlike any other fight Veteran had been a part of. Pressure fight, specifically. He''d seen crazier normal fights that wound up destroying multiple domains. Nobody had ever used pressure like Ares, though, that was for certain! Veteran decided his best bet was just to destroy the building here and now. Neither option was great but the building packed a serious punch when it was whole like this. Last time he''d been smacked by the damn thing half the bones in his body broke on impact. Dealing with the rubble of the building was easier overall so he thrust out a punch and sent a silver vortex of pressure spiralling forward. It tore through the building and shredded it into thousands of pieces, none of which fell to the floor. Ares was prepared and had expected this response from the start so he was quick to spread out his pressure and control all of the remaining bricks.
Ares sat down on a floating platform as he commanded the bricks to assault Veteran with varying timings and at different angles. It was a swarm of bricks orchestrated by a concrete conductor, one who was lazing about and taking this chance to rest a bit. Veteran was insulted by the fact that Ares was very nearly dozing off while he was out here fighting for his life! He swiped aside countless bricks and broke countless more with wide-ranging pressure attacks. The swarm didn''t thin no matter how long he went on for, though, as Ares was replenishing his fodder by tearing up the street below. Ares had no obligation to go over and fight Veteran when he could just keep sitting on the side-lines like this. That didn''t mean he did nothing else to make Veteran''s life harder though. This was still training and there was plenty for him to keep experimenting with. One aspect of pressure he still wasn''t well-versed in was physical pressure. His bullets were powerful but he never summoned anything else, and that was a waste, so he opted to use this match to play around a bit at Veteran''s expense. Ares took a deep breath and closed his eyes, very nearly falling asleep on the spot as he did so, and imagined the shape and function of his new pressure attack. This was a relatively easy process as physical pressure was quite malleable. Launching attacks with it was easy it''s just that Ares never bothered because he was still working on his enhancement. He could very well launch large attacks just like Veteran now if he wanted. Throw in his annihilation mana and he was a real threat with physical pressure. It was almost as if he''d regained access to his destruction arts. Before he started dropping literal bombs, however, he took a slower approach and simply created an animal. A tiny, golden frog with a dagger in its front left hand. The little fella turned to Ares, gave a bow, and disappeared to go do his job.
Veteran was still hacking away at the brick barrage when he felt a tingle run up his spine. He was a war hero with a sixth sense for danger so he took his gut instincts very seriously in life or death matters. Veteran ducked and a gold blur zoomed past him in the space above his head. Whatever that was, it was fast. It was also very clearly not a result of telekinesis as the golden colour gave the game away. Veteran knew Ares was using his annihilation mana as he could sense the destruction lingering in the air... The only question was what manner of creation was Veteran dealing with here? He could tell being fast wasn''t the only quality it possessed as it was clearly small too. It was doing an excellent job of hiding amongst the floating debris...
Veteran punched out at another brick and was forced to throw his body to the side immediately after when he felt another disturbance in the air behind him. His evasive dodge almost worked but he still had a bloody gash along his flank because he''d been a little slow. He did manage to catch sight of the animal as it sped by this time, however, and he wanted to go over and slap Ares for spawning such a weird creature into this world. The frog had stuck its tongue out as it shanked him before landing on a floating brick and climbing on top of it. From the top of the brick, it jumped somewhere into the cloud of debris and hid, allowing it to reposition and go again for another assassination attempt. This frog oozed smugness and was annoyingly good at the task Ares had set it. It was fleet footed and could grip onto the moving debris with ease meaning its rapid assault didn''t make getting to safety afterwards a problem. It could keep this up forever without falling so it just added another layer to the situation Veteran was already in. The debris, the frog, Ares if he could ever be bothered to get up and attack... Veteran really couldn''t catch a break here.
Frog? Veteran swivelled and struck out pre-emptively in a bid to catch the frog but he was fooled! His fist connected with yet another brick but, when it shattered, the frog came sailing through the dust and sliced Veteran''s left ear off. Luckily Veteran had deflected the dagger off his eyeball otherwise the injury would have been a big one. The frog was now actively utilising the bricks that were being launched at Veteran to hide his approach while also using them as a pseudo shield. From now on, unless Veteran used excessive force on every single brick that came his way, there was a chance the frog would be hiding safely behind them... This was an brilliant combination of telekinesis and physical pressure, proving without a shadow of a doubt that Ares was an expert... But Veteran hated it! How could he appreciate the mastery while he was on the receiving end of it? No matter how cool the froggy ninja was, it was still trying to kill him right now!
Veteran curled up into the foetus position again and started charging. The bricks couldn''t pierce his pressure layer and, if the frog attacked, Veteran would unleash the blast early and kill it! If he was allowed to keep charging then Ares would have to back off with his telekinesis, giving Veteran room to charge Ares down immediately after and ruin his focus. Veteran felt confident in this strategy until he saw Ares also charging some kind of pressure attack... And it was gold too... If Veteran stayed in this position he was making himself a sitting duck but he couldn''t really move either without putting himself back in the exact same position he''d just left... Decisions, decisions... In the end, Veteran figured he would attempt to go head to head with Ares'' pressure attack. Veteran''s silver explosion Vs whatever Ares was doing... What was the worst that could happen? He lost? Veteran had been doing a lot of that lately anyway!
As Ares'' attack would have to travel to Veteran he, unsurprisingly, released his attack first. It was charged relatively fast so it wasn''t as impressive as it could be but his annihilation mana meant it packed way more of a punch than it logically should have. Normally he would have had to trade charging speed for power but his unique bloodline made that trade-off less relevant to him. Ares clicked his finger and a golden dragon appeared with a mighty roar. The dragon looked straight at Veteran before swimming through the air to go give ''greetings'' of the less-friendly variety. It opened its maw wide and chomped down on the guy but struggled to pierce the silver lining on his skin. It was making slow progress but whether it would chew him into pieces before Veteran unleashed the attack was anyone''s guess. The dragon kept inching closer and closer to Veteran''s flesh while Veteran kept resolutely charging. This attack was important as it would wipe away all the debris and the stupid frog in one go, giving him an opportunity to pick a fight with Ares. If Ares was busy with Veteran he couldn''t use telekinesis at the same time as he wasn''t that skilled yet thankfully. It was too late for Veteran to pick a different path. The dragon''s fang dug into the pressure and actually managed to sink itself into Veteran''s skin but, unfortunately, being a half-baked attack meant it wasn''t as powerful as it needed to be to go any further in the time it had. Veteran unleashed his blast and chaos ensued.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
A silver blast spread throughout the city and ravaged it. The city had been in rough shape before but it was going through considerably worse treatment now than it ever had before. Buildings were evaporated and streets were dug up. The disgusting sewers were now visible for all to see and the area near the origin of the explosion was a complete no-man''s land, devoid of objects of any kind. In the air, Veteran was all that was left standing. The bricks were all gone, as though they''d never been there to begin with, and the frog had presumably taken a one way trip to the afterlife. The dragon was also dead although, much to the chagrin of Veteran, it had done a number on him milliseconds before being enveloped by the blast. Thanks to its last ditch effort, Veteran''s arm was hanging by a thread of flesh. Before running over to Ares he fixed it up with his pressure. He had the time to do so because... Ares had actually gone and fallen asleep... He''d pushed himself too hard and conked out on the spot... This would be a cheap win but a win was still a win! Veteran would take what he could get at this point! Also, no wonder Ares hadn''t charged the dragon fully, he would have drained all of his energy on the spot! Veteran had to give kudos to the kid for maintaining his telekinesis even during his sleep as Ares was still floating on his platform a short distance away. Kudos be damned, however, as Veteran was still going to kill this kid!
Veteran flew over while cracking his knuckles. After he killed Ares the kid could go take a quick break and come back after. He neared Ares, landed on the platform, and ran up to him with his fist swinging down towards his head... Before he reached Ares, though, Ares'' head slumped down. As it was a relatively small movement, Veteran didn''t concern himself with it because it was just Ares being sleepy... Right? NOT! Alarm bells went off when Veteran sensed danger headed his way. A brick flew over Ares'' shoulder and was headed straight towards him. Veteran managed to look at Ares once more before the brick got any closer and he could see Ares slyly peeking at him with one eye open... The kid was baiting him! All his tired gestures were a set up to lure him into a false sense of security! Ares was actually tired but rather than let his disadvantage be abused, he abused it first! In this situation, Veteran had to deal with the brick but that would then leave him open to Ares'' assault right after... It was a rough position to be in but he had to deal with the brick otherwise it would crash into his head and then things would be infinitely worse. Ares stood up and dashed to Veteran''s left as the brick closed in on his right... splitting his attention like this was a common tactic for Ares but at least Veteran could see it all happening this time. He punched out at the brick and turned to Ares...
...
...
Ribbit
Frog? THE FROG WAS STILL ALIVE?! Ares must have saved the frog from the explosion earlier, used himself as bait, and the rock as a distraction, all so the frog could assassinate him once and for all! The frog had pulled off the same trick and hidden behind the brick and yet Veteran fell for it a second time! This was atrocious. He couldn''t stop the frog and, as it used its dagger to stab him in the back of the head, it was looking like Veteran was going to lose again... Screw it! I''m cheating! Veteran didn''t care anymore! He wanted a win by any means necessary so he took the dirtiest method of winning available to him and ran with it! He looked Ares dead in the eyes and slowly started pushing his head backwards into the dagger the frog was holding! Ares eye''s widened and, a few seconds later, the floor was reset and Ares was gone. Veteran had won! How? He forced Ares to commit suicide! If Veteran pushed the dagger into his brain, Ares would have beaten the challenge and that was a no-go right now. Ares had bitten his tongue to commit suicide and end the match on his loss. It was underhanded but Veteran had finally won!