Qi Like Tar

Something about his brothers words sounded off to Paike. As if his brother expected him to be aggressive. Which was a fairly odd expectation. Being rash wasn’t part of his character. Had he been acting off?

After they stepped out of the tea house, Paike immediately activated Unshakable in His Faith. The technique burned at a low level, and instantly, he felt the unreasonable anger that had been boiling in him over the last few minutes fade. He turned a glare at his brother, who met it with a knowing smile.

"Life is a battlefield, little brother," Taka said with a mock sneer, an expression that Paike knew all too well from the play acting in their childhood. He had also seen it easily change from a mock expression, to a real sneer in a moment. It was all part of the manipulation, but it hit a little too close to home. But luckily, he realized that his twin was still baiting him. So instead of reacting how he would have reacted some five years ago when he was a boy, he snorted a laugh.

"I'm older than you."

"Only by five minutes," Taka protested. "Besides, I'm at a higher cultivation stage, more than an entire realm above you. So if I say you're the little brother, you're the little brother."

Paike almost didn't justify the absurd statement with a response, but in the end he gave in. "Reality doesn't fall into your words, little brother." This time, he did sneer when he said it. "You aren't an immortal yet. And even then, I don't think you cultivate time."

His brother didn't respond as they sped out of the town and into the forest. Paike stopped at a random clearing a little way into the woods.

"I think this is far enough," he said, spreading his feet slightly to get into a better stance.

His brother stood casually in front of him. The fight had already started, but neither was making a move. Paike had no illusions of actually winning. How he would do would almost entirely be due to how his brother limited himself. If he chose to fight at his true power, Paike would just have to survive. If he limited himself, Paike would force him to stop limiting himself. Either way, his best strategy was likely to endure.

Even though he was ready, he still missed Taka’s first move.

His thoughts rushed out of him like his breath as a palm strike he barely could see coming struck him in the stomach just below his dantian, forcing the air from his lungs and sending him tumbling backwards. Even as he regained his balance, rolling over his shoulder to his feet, he felt the impact on his core, squeezing it slightly, trying to force the qi out and disrupt its pattern of movement. However, that wasn't going to work on him. His qi barely flexed, sloshing slightly but not gushing out like one would expect.

His brother was coming close for a grapple, attempting to pin him in submission with his qi and sheer physicality, his body an engine of motion. Except when Paike finished his roll and stood, he was able to deflect the hand going for his throat and strike back with his own blow.

Taka twisted in a move not taught by their family at all, slipping around the blow, and another punch came in. Paike activated one of his other new techniques. Unmovable in His Convictions, he flared it along with the Transient Shield Formation in front of the blow. The shield cracked and then shattered, barely slowing the emerald attack down. But even as it crashed into his chest, Paike remained steady, though he would likely be dealing with heavy bruising tomorrow.

He took advantage of the surprise to form his own grapple, catching the wrist of the fist that crashed into his chest, twisting it while kicking out with his leg, sweeping his brother off his feet. The emerald cultivator was clearly not limiting himself to anything like early Topaz, and even as his feet left the ground, Paike felt a pressure on his own hand at the wrist.

With nothing but sheer physical prowess and dexterity, his brother used Paike's grip on his wrist as a leverage point and the muscles in his arm to rotate his body as if in a no-hands cartwheel, landing back on his feet.

Paike's arm was now out of position for his own guard. He barely had time to register the move before another blow flew at him. However, he had never relinquished his technique. It deflected off his cheek with a stinging slap, but didn't send his head snapping back.

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This time, Paike didn't try anything fancy, just punched out with as much force as his admittedly less advanced physical cultivation allowed, slashing with his fingernails. As they cut into his brother's side, the cultivator was gone in a flash, appearing a dozen paces away, checking his wound. He bowed slightly.

"First blood to you, little brother?" The surprise in Taka’s voice, pulled a small smile out of Paike. The exchanged showed just how outclassed he was in physical ability, but his opponent wasn’t any smarter than him.

Paike growled and leapt forward, Unstoppable in His Goals, flaring as he smashed in shoulder-first into the immovable rock that was his twin, hearing a crack from both his shoulder and his brother's hand as he skidded backward.

His hand had been out stretched to stop him, but it was forced to bend under the force of Paike’s entire body.

Paike, though, had learned from the last time they clashed. Instead of simply attempting to smash through him like a brute, he pushed his limits. The drive to win this bout inspired him, to try something that he hadn't been able to do previously. A brief whisper of a Transient Shield Formation appeared behind Taka's knees, and as he was hit, he started to tumble backwards, even as he fell with Paike on top of him.

His brother was caught off guard and balance. However it didn't seem to phase him in the slightest. Even as he fell he twisted, putting a free hand down on the ground and flicking up with his legs.

Paike was not able to be stopped due to his technique, but still, he was redirected. Flung upwards by the emerald cultivator's impromptu kick, Paike tumbled in the air, flailing, attempting to get his feet underneath him, but ultimately missing the ground as he crashed into it, his left shoulder loose in its socket from where he had slammed into his brother.

Reaching across his body, he yanked on his own wrist, popping it back in place as he stood up.

"How's your qi doing, little brother?" Taka said mockingly from where he stood just outside of arm's reach of Paike, having seemingly appeared with no movement.

"Just fine," Paike answered honestly. "How's yours?"

Taka smirked. "Each realm increases your capacity immeasurably. But you should understand this. It'll be days before you wear me down at this rate."

Paike frowned. He couldn't tell if that was just his brother boasting or the honest truth. If it were really days, he checked his own qi reserves, he might actually run out first. Unfortunately, Taka had always been able to lie with relative impunity, so he had no real way of knowing how futile this clash was.

Taka might have bled slightly from a few light scratches, but they were inconsequential. Only the psychological affect really mattered from that. In reality they cuts were probably no worse than a mortal child might have gotten while picking berries.

On the other hand, Paike was already heavily bruised. One side of his face was going to swell up in a few minutes. He likely had cracked ribs. His shoulder had been dislocated and reset, but still ached. His stomach felt like the muscles in there were only working at half capacity. His qi might last longer, but his body wouldn't.

Still, that would not stop him.

Paike lunged forward again, his body moving in a familiar rhythm, a combination trained by all the children in their family, one that his brother knew almost as well as he did. For ten breaths, they moved in an almost choreographed series of strikes and blocks, grapples and throws that left neither of them winded, both circling warily.

"Good, you stayed practiced, and didn't spend all your time meditating to awaken."

Paike ignored the banter at this point, simply diving in again, using his physical cultivation to reinforce the odd geometric shapes underneath his skin on his knuckles so that the impact of his fist against his brother's hands did not hurt him. It surprisingly worked, and Taka shook a hand after the next exchange.

"Have you been conditioning your fists or something? I know you've been doing physical cultivation, but body tempering shouldn't be attempted until at least the fourth realm. You know this."

Paike continued to ignore him as he felt his fingernails lengthen slightly, and he lunged forward again. A fist, a punch, a swipe disguised as a punch, slashed at his brother. And Paike felt some blood on his tongue be drawn from the odd row of sharp qi constructs behind his teeth even as he snarled. Teeth flashing he lunged again and again until…

Suddenly, he was on his back, his brother's knee on his chest. Taka was talking as he tapped Paike’s forehead with one finger.

"Very good. You slipped into that trance without any trouble. Hopefully, I interrupted it in time. This odd technique from your odd art is doing a good job of shielding your mind. Still, it makes it difficult for me to fully interrupt stuff like this," his brother said casually from where he sat on him.

Paike blinked, not quite understanding what had happened. He wasn't sure if he missed time or if he was simply defeated so quickly he didn't even notice. That seemed implausible for someone only a realm and a half or so above him.

"How long?" Paike croaked out, struggling to breathe from his brother's weight.

"Oh, good. You're back. Now let's see if you can do that again."

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