CHAPTER 37: CHAPTER 37: WAR PATH PT2 — ANVIL V KISHI

Dravnel was in panic—the people living in the outer areas were flooding into the capital from all corners—the Sects far and wide within Dravnel were wiped out, one by one, no survivors remained.

A man with fiery red hair and black sharp eyes glared at the report on his desk—he slammed his fist on the table sending the papers flying into the air. "That damn Flame Emperor, I knew Tiang’s death was a driven by something and to think his child could do such."

Beside the man was a woman wearing a short-white blouse that reached her thighs, her black hair was styled to reach her shoulders and her bangs hid her eyebrows. "You know Father, fidgeting like that will not do you any good. As the main Sect that is a guardian of Dravnel we cannot take this laying down."

The man turned to his daughter and rubbed his temples. "You are right Marin, what would I do without you."

Marin grinned and gave him a thumbs up. "You’d be swallowed under the mountain of paperwork that always bothers you for one. Two, you would still be dealing with the department leaders asking about finance."

"Yes yes!" Cheng agreed with her. "No need to go into detail, you are making me seem incompetent."

A short burst of laughter filled the room and it disappeared as soon as it appeared.

Marin touched the table and a map of Dravnel appeared on a holographic projection. Her dark eyes scanned the map and she immediately identified key points of assaults. "They appear to be moving inward but from the west, the other sides don’t appear to be advancing that much."

Cheng nodded—in all of Dravnel, no one could come close to his daughter’s deduction skills, she had comprehended the map upon a second she glanced at it and derived information that would normally take even the best military tacticians a few minutes to uncover. "So where do we focus our forces?"

Marin pointed on the east side of Dravnel. "Send Anvil’s squad to intercept them. He can hold the east at bay."

A man with white hair stood at the top of the hill overlooking the forces that approached from the east. Anvil grinned as he watched the unsuspecting people slowly reach into the inner parts of Dravnel—he took out his cigarette and placed it in his mouth, lighting it with a flick of his hand. " It’s sad isn’t it Charles, they don’t know what’s coming at them."

Charles, his second in command, chuckled. "Indeed." He looked at Anvil. "I’m guessing you are going to do the opening attack?"

Anvil breathed out the smoke from the cigarette and looked at the clear sky—his eyes glowed a bit and the Neuro-Qi flowing within him released small sparks of electricity and the sky quickly shifted—the clear heavens were covered by tumultuous clouds that roared with thunder and lightning that heralded across their belly.

LIGHTNING STORM DRAGON!

Anvil jumped up and his body turned into a bolt of lightning and he dashed into the thunder clouds. He reformed within the eye of the storm and started beating on the drums that were hovering behind him creating a ear-splitting melody of angry thunder—the sparks of lightning grew and from the heavens, in all of its glory descended a dragon made from lightning and it soared to the ground.

The dragon hit the ground, above the forces to the east and a massive explosion was created towering over the small mountains, wiping nearly 2/3rds of the forces invading— He descended to the ground and took a step before the crater he had made while keeping an eye out for sudden attacks.

"If it isn’t Anvil the lightning dragon." A voice came from the cloud of smoke and a gust of wind cleared the veil revealing Kishi standing there with some of the remaining troops that had managed to survive a Awakened Saint level attack.

Anvil snapped his cigarette and a tsk escaped his lips. "You are a rat, you escape death everytime."

Kishi chuckled at the insult—to him it was a praise, a praise to his tenacity and grit to survive the toughest situations. "Well when you live as long as me, you pick up a thing or two."

Anvil narrowed his eyes. "Just drop and die."

Kishi shook his head. "I cannot do that, there are still things I have to do. I want to see a new age and I can tell it is coming, the winds of changes are steering it our way. Fate is shaping something powerful, that will shake the core of this world."

Anvil remained quiet as Kishi talked—he struck the drums again and charged up lightning in his hand. With a flick of the wrist he threw a massive lightning bolt at Kishi.

The latter did not show signs of trepidation as the lightning rushed at him. He dropped his hand and a rod dropped from the sleeve—he swung his hand releasing a thin slice of wind that split the lightning into two sending the destructive attack asunder. He pressed on and charged at Anvil locking the latter in a battle of weapons.

Their fight moved from the clearing and headed into the mountains as fury of attacks tore through the land—lightning and wind vaporized small hills as a byproduct of their intense trading of blows neither men yielding to the other. Every attack Kishi made, Anvil countered with his, and their respective cultivation abilities would clash in the air before repelling each other.

Anvil’s eyes darted around extremely quick and he pulled his body back just as Kishi’s rod passed where his chest was—that moment when Kishi missed him, created an opening which he took advantage of and kicked Kishi on the side sending him crashing into the trees.

Kishi coughed and pushed away the tree that had fallen ontop of him. He looked at his attire and a frown married his face, the robe he wore was torn and burnt and that was his favorite one—making peace with the ruined robe, he grabbed it and pulled it from his body leaving himself bare-chested and he revealed the tattoos on his body which were pulsating.

VACCUM BARRAGE

Kishi took a deep breath, puffing out his chest and he spit in the direction of Anvil, spitting out multiple, nigh-invisible bullets of wind which penetrated the trees with ease in their charge path.

Anvil saw the incoming projectiles and his eyes tracked their trajectory, he dodged the bullets, whistling as they smashed on the ground creating dents. If I’m hit by that I’m dead. he thought as he danced around them, the wind blades around the bullets cutting his skin with each one he evades.

He tapped on his drums again and brought about lightning which struck the bullets in succession causing a miniature explosion with every collision.

As the barrages died down, Kishi appeared from the cover of the smoke of the explosion and kicked Anvil in the chest launching him into the mountain behind him—Kishi landed on the ground and grinned.

"That’s payback."