Hei Yu landed harshly on the unstable desert ground, stumbling a few steps. His right hand tumbled across the sand, leaving a trail of blood behind it. He looked at his right shoulder, or at the place where it used to be. The entire right side of his torso was cleaved right off, leaving a grisly wound behind.
"Oh… That's not good." The man murmured to himself and quickly went to collect his hand. Had he been just a hair slower, instead of losing a hand, he would have been split in half. He collected his missing limb and tried to reattach it; however, for some reason, the repair wouldn't stick.
He sent the energy through his Avatar, the blueprint underlying his physical reality, and gave it Essence, but the wound only slightly healed, refusing to merge with the limb.
"I- Impossible!" At first, he thought the pain he was experiencing was solely from the physical damage, but then he realized the problems went way deeper than that. His Soul, a part of it at least, had been destroyed. A quick check confirmed his fears. Where the Eclipse split his physical body, it did so with his Soul as well. He was cursed!
"Damn it!"
[There you are, ant! Trying to hide from me?]
Hei Yu turned in horror, realizing too late he was not dealing with a simple once-in-a-lifetime prodigy. He was dealing with a force of nature! And he made it mad!
"Fuck!"
The weapon descended, aiming at his vitals again. Well, vitals, the entire body, it was all the same, really. If he got hit again, with the unusual Soul-Devouring properties of the Eclipse, he doubted he would survive. That's why he summoned a giant golden bell to shield himself. The relic was one of incredible defensive power. Made entirely out of Celestial Metal, it carried enchantments and wards of one of the greatest Formation Masters on the continent.
Hidden inside it, Hei Yu took a moment to think. As the threat neared, he felt the relic activate, and a great chunk of his energy was drained in an instant. Then came the impact. Hei Yu felt like he had just survived an explosion, and his head was spinning when the relic activated again.
"What?!"
The bell was supposed to reflect the damage back at the attacker, and judging by the energy it consumed, it should have done just that, but then why was he getting attacked again?!
"Ack!" The bell was struck for the third time, and Hei Yu fell to the ground, spitting blood. Worse yet, a ray of light pierced the darkness inside. With horror, the old Cultivator realized his greatest defensive tool had cracked. It cracked! After just three strikes!
His eyes narrowed to a point as the giant outside lifted his weapon in preparation for another strike. The Eclipse came crashing down… and Hei Yu escaped the confines of the bell just fast enough to avoid its tragic fate.
The final dying breath of the bell drained his energy, and that's when he saw it. The hand holding the gargantuan weapon exploded from the force of impact, the reflected damage enough to reveal blackened bones underneath the armor of red scales and flesh. However, just as fast as the wound formed, it also closed, the flesh mending itself, and the limb returning to its original state. Meanwhile, the bell was split in half, cracked like a rotten egg.
"Monster!" Hei Yu shouted, realizing too late he had just unnecessarily attracted attention to himself again.
Gerald grinned from his massive height, straightening his back as he looked down at the frightened Cultivator.
[Leaving already? But we have barely just started...]
"Just started…" Hei Yu whispered. In his eyes, the man was blazing like the sun, his body so utterly brimming with Essence and raw energy that saying he outshone him a thousand times over would be a conservative estimate. Everything he had experienced told him that, should he continue his ineffectual resistance, he would be crushed. What he was going against was not something you could fight. It was a natural disaster, one that should be avoided at all costs!
"No, please… Please! I was mistaken! Please forgive me!" He begged.
Gerald smirked with disdain. [You try to steal my stuff, insult me, and then beg for forgiveness? How shameless are you?!]
"As much as you need me to be! Please, spare me! I have a family!" Hei Yu shouted while running away.
Well, he was not lying at least. He did have a family, it's just that his oldest son already had great-great-grandchildren of his own. The old guy didn't even know their names.
However, having a family was one of the weakest and most shameless excuses one could use against Gerald. Everyone had a family. That was no reason not to kill someone!
[Idiot!]
One of the things that happened when you could read minds was that you would quickly realize idiocy was the norm, not the exception. Clearly, age did not fix that fatal deficiency of the human condition.
And, unlike Hei Yu, Gerald could freely enter the subspace, and so everywhere the man went, he got there faster.
Detecting his imminent approach, Hei Yu rapidly changed direction multiple times, even sending false copies of himself in a futile attempt to get the giant off his back. However, what he did not know, was that his thoughts were laid bare before the all-seeing eye of Gerald's mind, and he followed his Soul exclusively. All attempts at getting him off his trail were but worthless tricks that only a child would fall for.
Even his attacks seemed worthless. Hei Yu expanded his prized Domain, trying to rid himself of the spatial lock his enemy put on him, but his specialty was in precise attacks, not breaking through containment magic.
His prized sword shattered from a single glancing blow, his bell broke after enduring only three attacks, and even his escape route was continuously getting cut off, the giant blinking around him like a fish swimming through water.
He was unpredictable, always a step ahead. No amount of bluffs or feints helped. It felt to Hei Yu as if his enemy was in his mind, able to foresee his every move. He was getting increasingly frustrated and desperate.
Holding onto his severed hand, he was still losing blood. Not an immediate concern for someone of a Spirit Realm constitution, but it would eventually drain him too much to even run. No matter how much life force his body contained, it was finite. Not unlike what the giant had. Hei Yu realized his sharp senses had tricked him. While they really were both at 10% conversion, he was but a man. An over four-meter tall man, but just a man nonetheless. The beast chasing him was giant, halfway to a hundred, for sure!
"Damn it! Damn you, shapeshifting demon!" He shouted in frustration. Never in his life did he experience such helplessness. Even when fighting against incredibly powerful beasts, at least he could wound them back. At least his techniques worked! Against Gerald, nothing did!
Frustrated and desperate, he gritted his teeth and summoned a small sphere. A special kind of bomb. It was supposed to be used as a last resort, thrown at the enemy, but…
Looking back at the giant chasing him, Hei Yu wasn't sure it would be enough. If that failed, he would die. He was sure of it. His power was waning, and he was getting lightheaded from blood loss. He had no choice.
"To think I would be reduced to this…" He murmured and activated the bomb. He then held it close to his chest and closed his eyes. A moment later, it exploded, red energy and black lightning swallowing him whole.
Gerald came to a halt, watching the explosion unfold. He stared at it without an expression and waited for it to finish. After the wild energy dissipated, the results were revealed. There was nothing left. Not a trace of his enemy.
He lifted the Eclipse on his shoulder and scratched his chin. [Did he seriously just…? What a guy. Hah!] He snorted in amusement and turned around. [Whatever. He can stay in the Lower Plane if he likes. He deserves a second chance for that. I'll consider it my loss this time.]
As he began on his way back, a small thing lying on the ground attracted his attention. It was a hand. A very familiar hand. A hand someone left behind during his escape.
Or perhaps, an offering.
[Well played, Hei Yu, well played!]
His booming laugh echoed across the desert, and he picked up the discarded limb, soon returning to the Formation, where he placed the Eclipse back in its place. He then collected the corpses around it and fixed any broken lines, bringing the Formation back to its full power.