Chapter 98 - Friendly Bout Part 1
Elizabeth was excited to see what Chase and Adam were capable of, but she couldn't help but think to herself that both of them were crazy in their own way.
It was as though Adam was Chase's father, but Adam was younger than Chase and physically smaller. Both of them also didn't care about anything to do with the world and were only focused on cultivation and their own power, which was understandable after realising how insignificant ordinary things were in comparison to cultivation.
Elizabeth was also ignorant to the enthralling and exhilarating sensation and the satisfaction that one felt as their strength was enhanced and improved through cultivation, so would never truly be able to understand why people became so addicted to strengthening themselves after beginning to cultivate.
Elizabeth had managed to sense energy after being around it for such a long time and had quite a strong spiritual sense, which is the sixth sense that Internal Cultivators have that allows them to sense energy, but she had never been able to cultivate no matter how much she tried.
Her body just wasn't capable of storing more energy than that of an average human that didn't cultivate, and she had a unique constitution that had never been seen before.
Every human was capable of storing small amounts of Internal or External Energy to strengthen their body slightly above what one would expect from an ordinary human, no matter what their talent for cultivation was like, but Elizabeth's body rejected any energy that she attempted to absorb and store within her body.
She tried everything that she could think of to try and cultivate, but gave up after failing to do so after so many years of trying.
However deep down in her heart she was hoping that there was still a solution to her problem, and seeing the incredible and miraculous feats that Adam was capable of despite his ordinary cultivation, she had slight hopes that he could help her.
She moved to the edge of the large training room and sat on a chair, while Chase and Adam stood opposite each other with a 5-metre gap between them in the large hall-like training room.
"Master I must warn you that my strength has increased and I am now a rank 2 Novice Cultivator, I have also increased my skills from the last time we battled. But don't worry master, even if I beat you I will still be your subordinate" stated Chase respectfully.
Chase's words were unintentionally looking down on Adam and implying that he believed that he would beat him, but Adam didn't pay heed to what Chase said and wasn't offended by them.
"I am pleased you will still choose to be my subordinate. But I have to disappoint you and tell you that there is no chance that you will be able to beat me" refuted Adam as he cracked his knuckles and stretched his body, ready to fight against Chase.
He knew he wouldn't be able to see his status as Chase wasn't a being with malicious intent towards him, but from what he could sense and from what he had heard from Chase, he had only just broken through into rank 2 and would have stats that were similar to Adam's.
Chase was definitely superior to Adam in terms of resistance, but Adam would be superior in terms of energy reserves, speed and intelligence.
Adam still wanted the Status Peering Feature of the system, but remembering that it was 100,000 system points, he knew that he had no chance of affording it any time soon and he had to rely on his sharp senses to gauge the power of an opponent.
"Master are you read..." asked Chase before being interrupted by Adam who charged towards him.
Adam knew that he didn't have a particular advantage over Chase and if he wasn't going to use his summons, he had to rely on his skill and needed to outsmart Chase who was a powerful juggernaut in comparison to himself.
Dashing towards him, Chase also dashed towards Adam and displayed speed that was similar to his, as Chase knowing how Adam fought wanted to strike first.
Adam was the embodiment of dirty fighting and the idea that there were no rules in battle was cemented into his head as he narrowly dodged Chase's attack and looked around him for anything that he could use to get the upper hand.
He could see two daggers on a rack of weapons, that Elizabeth had prepared for Chase if he wanted to train with them, but he didn't want to harm Chase or deal him permanent damage, so decided to use something else instead.
Before chase could react or grab him, Adam dashed towards the rack of weapons and swiftly snatched two short wooden batons that he could use as daggers.
The handle was wider and it was heavier than what he would expect from a dagger, but its length was perfect for a dagger, and because it was blunt, he could use it without worrying about dealing Chase too much damage.
With his Dual Wielding Mastery at 10%, it wasn't hard for Adam to use two weapons at once and to adapt to the two batons as he dashed towards Chase who seemed to have activated his hardening ability.
Adam observing Chase could see that his movements were slightly slower and were restricted slightly, and he assumed that it was a cost of using the hardening ability of his.
[It seems that the hardening ability no matter how great it is, restricts his movements and lowers his speed. No wonder he took all my attacks head-on when we first fought and didn't attempt to counter] observed Adam.
Seeing that he had a small advantage in speed, now that Chase had activated his hardening, Adam began to create distance between himself and Chase planing to use the Dual Slash Skill.
With a blunt weapon, the cutting power and damage of the Dual Slash Skill would be reduced massively as the energy blades were released through the weapon that was used and takes the shape of the blade.
But that was exactly what Adam wanted in the current situation he was in, as he didn't want to harm Chase, and was the only reason he was comfortable using the skill against him.
He had thought about whether or not to reveal the Dual Slash Skill to Elizabeth and Chase, but he decided that he would as it wasn't something that he was going to hide like the Unique Collector Skill and wasn't anything amazing anyway. He also trusted Chase and Elizabeth and knew that they also knew of skills that cultivators could use and what they were capable of.
After he had made enough distance between himself and Chase who was trying to get close to Adam, he finally felt as though he had enough space to activate the Dual Slash Skill comfortably.
Elizabeth and Chase that were watching Adam were confused by his actions, that didn't make sense as he picked up a weapon then ran away from his opponent.
But neither of them doubted his ability and were curious to see what he was going to do next.
Dual Slash
Adam crossed the wooden batons across his chest as he streamed Internal Energy stored in his dantian, which was in his lower abdomen, into his arms then into the weapons he was holding.
He decided only to use 2 IESP through the skill, which was the minimum energy requirement and had 1 IESP worth of energy and power in each of the two blades slashed out.
Flinging the two blades towards Chase, Adam observed that they were blunt and wouldn't cut his skin, but the power behind the blades were what he would expect from if he used it with a sharp weapon.
Chase was only a few metres away from Adam and had no chance of dodging the Dual Slash as he put his arms up to block the attack.
Chase was flung sliding backwards as the impact damaged his arms and rattled him slightly.
However, Adam could see that it didn't have much of an effect on Chase and the skill's power was greatly weakened when being used through a blunt weapon.
"Nice attack master, but it isn't powerful enough to break past my defence" stated Chase.
"Chase you need to watch what you say and also how you say it as you can reveal your weaknesses to your opponent in a battle like you did the first time I faced you" advised Adam.
Chase had become too ignorant after gaining the monk inheritance and it was as though his past experiences and common sense had all been wiped and he had to be taught how the world worked again.
However that could be seen as a good thing, and Adam could use it to make him cautious, ruthless and knowledgable about how people really were deep down.
"It seems I need to use some more power against you after your defence has improved" stated Adam with a smile.
Both Chase and Adam were starting to get serious and enjoying the battle, while Elizabeth watched in awe of the leap in strength that Chase and Adam had displayed after a few days.