Path Of The Dragon (A Dark Fantasy Cultivation Wuxia Xianxia Progression Series)

Chapter 48 Overwhelming Power

Elder Shi lunged at Jie and slammed a palm into Jie's stomach. Jie grunted, the blow smacked the air out of her, but she activated her lightning step and qi armor. Elder Shi's next palm strike was already heading toward her. And, though Elder Shi used no martial skills, she was incredibly fast. Dodging the blow would be impossible. Especially at this range. Jie reinforced her qi armor and braced for impact.

Elder Shi's palm slammed into her stomach again, but this time it didn't knock the wind out of her. There was a shocking drain on Jie's qi reserves and her armor reacted to the strike, explosively blasting her away from Elder Shi, just as she'd planned.

Jie turned in the air and formed a lightning step platform. She boosted off it and onto the ground where she ran from Elder Shi, using the speed afforded to her by lightning step to its fullest to keep away from Elder Shi as best she could.

Elder Shi sped up, however, and Jie was forced to combine lightning step with her qi armor, activating the effect each time her foot slammed into the ground to push her just a bit faster.

"Good!" Elder Shi said, "Smart thinking, but you won't win that way."

Jie gritted her teeth. Win? What would count as a win exactly? Elder Shi was far too strong for victory to be possible. She opened her mouth to say as much, but Elder Shi struck and Jie was forced to focus entirely on evading. Her qi reserves were slowly draining though. The drain of using qi armor to move wasn't massive, but it was enough that she couldn't do this for much longer.

She ducked under another palm strike and pushed off Elder Shi's arm, activating her qi armor as they touched to squeeze out that extra bit of speed and movement at an impossible angle.

"Well done!" Elder Shi said, "But you still can't win if all you do is dodge."

"I can't beat you anyway," Jie snapped before leaping out of the way of another palm strike. Damn, but Elder Shi was fast.

Elder Shi laughed. "I'm holding back, remember? What would you do against an opponent of the strength I display when you can't run away?" she said.

Jie narrowed her eyes and slid under another strike, the breeze of which played over her face. Against an opponent of this strength? Could her attacks harm someone who was so much stronger than her? Not as strong as Elder Shi, but as strong as she was retraining herself to be...?

Jie leaped back, and Elder Shi's palm grazed her qi armor, scraping over it as though the older woman's hand were made of enchanted iron. Jie's qi armor protested with a snarl of lightning that sent Jie rocketing away once more.

Someone so strong... and Elder Shi probably wasn't going to let her win based on endurance. A series of strikes just wouldn't do the damage to someone of such a caliber... it would have to be a big strike. Probably even somewhere they were vulnerable...

Such a thing would be dangerous to do in a sparring session, but Jie highly doubted she could even scratch Elder Shi.

Another palm snapped out and clipped Jie on her shoulder. Her armor triggered and blasted Jie away, but Elder Shi was already moving in the direction she'd sent Jie. Yes... even a lesser opponent would probably figure that out too. Jie gnashed her teeth as Elder Shi bared down on her.

But... she'd taken strikes. Hard strikes. Thanks to her armor. If this was what Elder Shi was pretending to be... she could probably last for less than a second in an up-close battle. But, while that might be almost instantly back on Earth, it was plenty of time in this world, where she moved so fast that time took on new meanings.

Time enough to land a strike of her own... but to have a chance of hitting Elder Shi, even at the level she was holding herself back to, the attack would need to be a surprise.