CHAPTER 279: THAT WON’T WORK

Yang Jian’s body had solidified completely, his ethereal nature replaced by the presence of a warrior ready for battle.

In his hands materialized a weapon that made Grim look at it twice.

A triple-pointed double-edged spear. The weapon was nearly as tall as Yang Jian himself, its three points gleaming from the sunlight.

"Draw your sword," Yang Jian commanded. "If you’re going to face me, do it properly."

Grim drew Echo from its scabbard. The sword felt different here in the divine realm. His sword elt lighter.

"Your stance is wrong," Yang Jian observed with clinical detachment. "Too much weight on your back foot. You’re preparing to retreat before the fight has even begun."

"I’m being cautious," Grim replied, adjusting his position slightly.

"Caution has its place," Yang Jian agreed, as he began to circle around Grim. "But excessive caution becomes cowardice, and cowardice gets you killed."

Without warning, Yang Jian struck. The triple-pointed spear swept toward Grim’s side in a horizontal arc that would have opened him from ribs to spine if it connected.

Grim barely managed to bring Echo up in time, the blade ringing against the spear’s shaft with a sound like a bell being struck.

The force of the impact drove him backward three steps, his arms numb from the vibration.

"Too slow," Yang Jian said, already following up with a thrust aimed at Grim’s center mass.

Grim twisted to his left, the spear points passing close enough to his ribs that he felt the displaced air.

He tried to riposte with a diagonal slash toward Yang Jian’s exposed back, but he simply stepped back and let the blade pass harmlessly through empty space.

"Predictable," Yang Jian continued his critique while launching another attack.

"You telegraph every move. Your shoulders, your eyes, your breathing. Everything announces your intentions before you act."

The spear came at him in a series of rapid thrusts, each one forcing Grim to give ground.

He parried when he could, dodged when he couldn’t, but found himself being steadily driven backward.

"Better," Yang Jian acknowledged as Grim managed to deflect a particularly vicious thrust aimed at his throat. "But still insufficient."

Grim tried to create distance with a sweeping horizontal cut, but Yang Jian simply ducked under the blade and swept his spear in a low arc that forced Grim to jump to avoid having his legs cut from under him.

The moment Grim’s feet touched the ground, Yang Jian was already moving.

The spear reversed direction, coming up in an uppercut motion that would have gutted him if Grim hadn’t thrown himself backward in a desperate roll.

"Your footwork is amateur," Yang Jian said, not even breathing hard despite the intensity of his assault.

"You move like someone who learned to fight in a courtyard rather than on a battlefield."

Grim came up from his roll with Echo held in a defensive position, sweat already beading on his forehead. "I’ve been in real fights."

"Have you?" Yang Jian asked, feinting left before driving his spear toward Grim’s right shoulder.

"Because you fight like someone who’s never faced an opponent truly intent on killing you."

The spear point grazed Grim’s shoulder, ripping the fabric from his clothes. Blood welled from the shallow cut, reminding him that this was no sparring match.

"Focus!" Yang Jian snapped, following the shoulder strike with a thrust toward Grim’s heart.

Grim managed to parry this one, deflecting the spear to his right, but Yang Jian simply used the momentum to spin the weapon and bring the butt end around toward Grim’s temple.

Ducking under the strike, Grim tried to close distance and get inside the spear’s reach.

For a moment, it seemed like he might succeed. Echo came up in an upward thrust that should have caught Yang Jian in the ribs.

Yang Jian sidestepped the attack with ease and brought his knee up toward Grim’s solar plexus.

Grim barely managed to twist away, the knee catching him in the side instead of the center, but the impact still drove the air from his lungs.

"Is this really your best effort?" Yang Jian asked, stepping back to give Grim a moment to recover. "I’ve seen tavern brawlers with better technique."

Yang Jian’s next thrust seemed slower, more predictable. Grim parried it easily and riposted with a cut that should have taken the spirit across the chest.

But Yang Jian wasn’t there.

Somehow, he had moved just enough that the blade passed harmlessly through empty air, and suddenly the spear was coming at Grim from the corner of his eye.

The shaft caught him across the chest, sending him stumbling backward. As he fought to regain his balance, realization dawned.

"You’ve been holding back," Grim said, the words coming out between labored breaths. "That moment when I thought I was winning. You let me think that."

"Very good," Yang Jian replied with a smile. "You noticed. Most students take much longer to realize when they’re being humored."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to see how you’d react when you thought you had an advantage," Yang Jian explained, settling back into his combat stance. "Would you become overconfident? Reckless? Or would you recognize that something was wrong?"

"And what did you learn?"

"That you have good instincts when you trust them," Yang Jian said. "Now let’s see what you can do when I take this seriously."

The change was dramatic. Yang Jian’s movements became fluid.

The spear seemed to be everywhere at once, each strike flowing seamlessly into the next in a pattern that gave Grim no opening to counterattack.

Grim found himself purely on the defensive, Echo moving in desperate parries and blocks as he fought just to stay alive.

The spear points came at him from every angle. High, low, left, right, thrusting, slashing, sweeping.

"Celestial Mist: Ethereal Mist," Grim gasped, releasing the technique that had served him so well in the past.

Thick fog erupted from his body, concealing him from Yang Jian’s sight and giving him a moment to breathe. For a few seconds, he felt safer, hidden in the concealing mist.

Then Yang Jian’s spear thrust through the fog, the point stopping inches from Grim’s throat.

"Mist techniques won’t work against opponents who can track you by sound, scent, and spiritual energy," Yang Jian said.

"Also, you’re breathing like a bellows. I could find you with my eyes closed."

Grim rolled to his left, dispelling the mist as he came up in a crouch.

He was learning, adapting, but it wasn’t enough. Yang Jian was simply too skilled, too experienced.

"Let me help," came a familiar voice.

His fox companion materialized beside him. The creature immediately charged toward Yang Jian.

Yang Jian’s spear swept toward the fox, but the creature twisted in mid-air, avoiding the strike and landing on the spear’s shaft.

Before Yang Jian could react, the fox had raced up the weapon toward his hands.

"Clever," Yang Jian admitted, releasing the spear rather than let the fox reach him.

But the distraction gave Grim the opening he needed. He lunged forward, Echo extended in a thrust that should have caught Yang Jian center mass.

Yang Jian twisted away from the strike, but not quite far enough. The blade’s edge parted his robes and drew a thin line of blood across his ribs.

"Well done," Yang Jian said with genuine approval.

The moment of satisfaction lasted exactly as long as it took Yang Jian to grab another weapon from thin air.

This time a simple straight sword that appeared in his hand like it had always been there.

"Now we fight properly," Yang Jian said.