Qi Like Tar

Right as Paike felt that he might not only survive this challenge in front of him but also win, he heard the call for a retreat.

It was something they had all agreed to in their plan. Once Wu Chen had finished his part of the job, he would give the signal, and they would all regroup at the fallback point. The others were counting on him. They worked under the assumption that they would be chased, and he needed to help everyone get away.

He looked at the cracked carapace of the ant in front of him for a second. A dark temptation whispered in his mind. Why go? They will be fine. You can stay and prove that you are better.

Paike turned and ran. He wasn't going to let his pride get the better of him.

Pride was necessary to cultivate. You had to believe innately that you were the best. That you would succeed where so many others had failed. To upend the natural order and claim immortality for yourself. To challenge the heavens as the story put it.

Perhaps that was also why, in most stories, pride led to the protagonist's, or sometimes antagonist's, downfall. The antagonist usually fell to the protagonist's martial prowess, but not always.

Paike's pride had been trampled for years. He wasn't sure if that would help shield him more or only leave him more vulnerable. But he was able to overcome the temptation to finish his fight.

He just hoped the others could as well.

Reaching the fallback point, Paike skidded to a halt and did a quick head count. Liming and Mi Lixian had provided support. Their buffs from the music radiating through the forest or Liming's gentle fog of qi had kept them out of the fight.

Li Feng was nowhere to be seen. That would have to wait as they needed to deal with the immediate threat.

Drawing from his dantian, Paike flooded his channels and activated Unstoppable in his goals. The only tricks he used were to speed up the activation, not wanting to risk trying anything new with others' lives on the line.

As he rammed his shoulder into the ant's side, he set a shield and released it. There was no time for it to grow more than the size of his thumb. He hoped the smaller area would let it penetrate the carapace better. However, it appeared that with less qi, there was also less power behind the shield as it stopped spinning and moving.

It only pushed the ant a little bit before it dissipated, power spent. Still, it was enough that Guan Li and Xia Jun could get enough distance to turn and engage it.

Xia Jun struck it with lightning, frustration on his face. Judging how he didn't get closer, Paike assumed that he couldn't penetrate it with his spear.

Guan Li had vanished. Paike assumed that he was going to try for a repeat of their first fight.

The only issue was that they weren't the only ones being followed.

From the forest, a second ant appeared. The crack on the carapace made it obvious which one it was. Why it was so much further behind Piake, he couldn't say.

He had assumed it wasn't following him when he hadn't heard its presence. Bloodjade ants weren't exactly stealthy.

Xia Jun was caught off guard and only managed to get his spear up in time to avoid having his head crushed by the mandibles. It was a near thing.

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Instead of dying to a crushed skull, he was only impaled by a foreleg. The thing lashed out, and the leg punctured through his collarbone with ease.

Guan Li changed his target in a desperate effort to save Xia Jun's life.

It was just enough. His shadow missed the weak spot entirely, but the ant turned to him, ripping its leg out of Xia Jun.

The music swelled as Mi Lixian was spurred into action. However, the support wasn't aimed at him or anybody.

Paike didn't have time to pay attention as his own ant demanded his focus. It finally turned to him after he had crashed into it. Turning its longer body was a bit of an involved process.

It would have been an exaggeration to say that the ant had turned too late, but it was close to the truth. Paike hadn't been idle as it maneuvered. He also hadn't lost focus or been distracted as one of his team went down.

There was training for that. It would never be enough to truly prepare one for losing a companion, but no Kong would freeze up in the middle of a fight because of that.

Paike just finished his qi work and swung his staff. This wasn't the ant who had seen the true impact of this attack. And he had learned from last time. The hammer of qi flowed in the arc prescribed by the spinning qi, guided just barely by his hand and will.

Whereas last time all the momentum had transferred from the qi construct to the ant, this time it wasn't so perfect. The ant was armored, but its legs couldn't hold up against the crushing blow.

The wide arc sheared the first one off and cracked into the second one.

Ants didn't have six legs for nothing, though, and Paike had to throw himself backward to avoid the clashing mandibles.

Luckily, the missing and now injured leg saved him from Xia Jun's fate. He rolled backward and had to stumble to the side to avoid the second ant from coming behind him. He retreated, gaining space to evaluate the situation.

Wu Chen and Liming had dragged the injured Xia Jun away from the fight. Mi Lixian stood over them as Wu Chen poured something down his throat and Liming's hands glowed over his wound.

This left Paike alone against the two ants, because he couldn't see what had happened to Guan Li. He could only hope that he had slipped into the shadows, waiting to strike.

Backpedaling, Paike kept both opponents in sight as he tried to come up with a strategy that could get them out of this. Their plan had been to flee if there were more than they could handle. But not only was Li Feng still missing, but Xia Jun wasn't going anywhere fast.

He was only now realizing how unprepared they were. Their planning was amateurish and the preparation nonexistent. They didn't have enough talismans or pills. At least they hadn't talked about it. There was no real escape plan or backup.

His teachers would never let him leave the family compound if they caught wind of this.

A feeble excuse was that he had been distracted by all his ideas, but more honest was that all of his recent successes had gone to his head. He had started to believe that he was special and that he couldn't fail. It wasn't even pride, but a slight easing of his guard. If they got out of this, he wouldn't let it happen again.

The injured ant was slower to move. It still wasn't slow, but it took it longer to turn. Not that it really mattered. The ant's only strategy was to rush at something and bite it until it was dead. And Paike was running out of space to retreat before he hit the trees.

The more ants, the less they cared about injuries. It was lucky that Guan Li was able to distract it from Xia Jun before it could adjust to having the other ant there. If it had, nothing would have gotten it away from finishing off its prey. The other ant had its back.

Paike started to run sideways, circling. They readjusted. He cut back the other direction.

The injured ant reoriented on him without stumbling, but it was a tad slower, and the ant with the cracked carapace bumped into it.

"Now would be good!" Paike called, hoping Guan Li would hear.

He raised his staff to the side, his new favorite technique already taking shape. What had he been thinking earlier? This was the best.

It didn't do any damage, but that wasn't his plan. The crack on the ant widened as it was flung away. The impact also threw Paike to the ground.

The injured ant reared up to trample him. It had to get higher to use its middle legs. And this was the perfect opportunity.

Guan Li repeated his feat from earlier and destroyed the ant's brain. Paike was just able to get out of the way to avoid being pinned.

He launched to his feet, ready to face the last threat. But found Li Feng standing next to the ant on its side, wiping his blade clean.

It appeared he'd reached its weak point when it tried to right itself. His arrival was near perfect timing, but Paike couldn't help but feel a little cheated. He had fought it twice now and wasn't able to finish the fight either time.

"My apologies for my tardiness. I was busy losing my pursuer. We should probably get going before it finds us. Or the rest of them come."

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