我的继坶我的性老师

“Are they both from the Mountain Shaker Sect?” asked ‘Lily’

Bing shook her head, “Nope, Bodeir’s opponent is Bonnin, she’s from the Earth Singers Sect. They are in many ways the Mountain Shaker Sect biggest rivals… in philosophy if not power. They are a much smaller sect and only take in disciples with earth affinity, or something related like metal or lava… not that they HAVE a lava affinity disciple, but they’d certainly take them if they could,”

“What do you mean ‘philosophy if not power\'” asked Sue.

“Well, the Mountain Shakers obviously use earth in… hmm… it’s hard to describe because I don’t totally understand it myself. They like… they endure, and then move in a single catastrophic attack. A bit like… a bit like a mountain enduring the winds, and then triggering an avalanche on people trying to mine its depths. They have a word for it… and a more eloquent way of explaining things... but I don’t really understand it myself.

“The Earth Singers… they make less sense but I guess as someone with wind affinity I understand them better? They are all about working with the earth. Flowing from one move to the other and following the natural state of things. Or so they say. They get their power, supposedly, by being more ‘in tune’ with the earth then the Mountain Shakers who apparently abuse their power over earth to force it into their moulds.

Um… hmm… ah, here’s an example. They both have a signature movement technique. Bodeir and the Mountain Shakers use… well I don’t know the real name but I call it the ‘Earth slide’ where they stand in place and then move the earth under their feet at high speeds to essentially slide places. The Earth Singers? They pride themselves on being able to swim through earth,”

“Well… which is better?” asked Kat.

Bing shrugged, “Some people would say the Mountain Shaker Sect must know what it’s doing, it’s older, more powerful politically, and militarily, it was founded recently, and it is still getting stronger… other would argue that the Mountain Shaker Sect only knows how to use brute force and that the control required to properly use the ‘swim in earth’ technique shows a much greater degree of skill with qi, and affinity with their element, that they are pathing the pathway to properly cultivate towards immortality,” explained Bing.

.....

“Right but that doesn’t say anything about what you think,” pointed out Sue.

“I think the Mountain Shaker Sect probably has the better technique. It can be scaled up much better, and never really stops being useful, even once people take to flying, you can still make use of it. The Earth Singers though? It’s an interesting skill but it just doesn’t scale well as a movement technique. They aren’t using the earth to go any faster, they’re just able to swim through the earth. Does that difference make sense?”

There was a round of nods. Bing looked like she might have been about to say more when the signal for the fight to start sounded. They all swapped back to the arena, and Bonnin jumped straight into the arena, disappearing under the earth. Bodeir didn’t seemed concerned with this and just stood in place, waiting for the right moment. *Might just be waiting for her to attack. It’s not like that technique lets her breathe through earth. Or at least… I assume it doesn’t.*

[How long can cultivators hold their breath anyways?]

*I have no idea. Would Bing be able to hold it longer as an air cultivator? Or less because she needs air for her techniques?*

[We can ask after the fight.]

Kat nodded and kept watching. Bodeir remained still for a few moments longer before stamping on the ground, the arena shuddered a bit but nothing seemed to be happening. Bodeir didn’t seem to be discouraged at all though, he started to flow through a series of stances, each ending in a stamp that shook the arena’s foundations. Finally, after a set of fifteen, something changed.

Bonnin was sent flying from the earth, she managed to roll with the momentum and bleed it off before rolling into a ready stance… as best she could. It seemed that her left arm was broken and she was limping a little “You little bastard!” shouted Bonnin, “I don’t believe you’ve mastered tremor sense to that sort of level! What trick are you using?”

Bodeir just shrugged at the accusation, not really willing to tell the other cultivator that tremor sense was just something he had, and it worked. He might not have been the brightest of the bunch, but his earth affinity was spectacular like his father. The idea that he needed to ‘master’ his tremor sense was silly. To him, it was like a penguin being shocked at a duck being able to fly.

Bonnin started to swing her arms around wildly, summoning up all the smaller scraps of rock nearby until they gathered around her like a swarm of locusts, and like locusts, she unleashed them to devour everything in their way. Bodeir didn’t even blink, he simply held strong. The mass of rocks was only so accurate after all. Most didn’t hit him, and those that did simply bounced off, doing minimal, if any damage… to his clothes. The pelting of rocks continued, the cast offs that didn’t make it to Bodeir were retrieved and added back to the mass of rocks Bonnin to be thrown again.

Bodeir just watched this all with a lazy gaze. He could wrench control away from Bonnin if he wanted to… but it was rather pointless in the end. The rocks were doing any damage unless he considered dirtying his clothes ‘damage’ and Bonnin was clearly exhausting herself. The swarm of rocks was making it hard to see just how little Bodeir cared about this assault, he hadn’t even summoned up any rock armour to further protect him. It just wasn’t necessary.

When Bodeir started to take slow steps forward, Bonnin started to notice something was up. The speed of the rocks doubled, they started to shatter on impact with Bodeir but he didn’t slow, he didn’t look worried, and he didn’t even bother to speed up. In his mind he had all the time in the world. So he slowly, casually, walked forward. It was a great disrespect, but for someone with such ‘weak’ affinity to the earth trying to bar his way with pebbles? Well… Bodeir was a bit of an idiot, and didn’t care all that much for his father’s ambitions…

But this attack was really just so weak. So pathetic. A Rank 2 cultivator, one of the best from the younger generation of the Earth Singers… and they couldn’t so much as cut him. Bonnin was of course, really starting to panic now, Bodeir had travelled more than half the length of the arena, the slow steady pace was unnerving Bonnin and she started to thinks she needed an edge.

In between waves, Bonnin started to stamp the ground, cracking it and throwing up larger chunks that she let loose against Bodeir. He took this without flinching as well, though for those watching closely like Kat, it could be seen that Bodeir forced them all to shatter into pieces just before making contact with him, giving only the illusion of taking the full weight of those boulders without flinching. While that obviously wasn’t true for those paying attention…

Bonin was quite far gone now. Her half of the arena was a massive crater, Bodeir was right in front of her. And there was nothing she could do to stop him. She was exhausted, nearly out of qi… and utterly outclassed. A smaller fish… in an even smaller pond. That’s all she was… those were the thoughts that haunted her as she started to wobble in place, not stopping her assault more out of stubborn pride then anything else, but most of the good sized pebbles were gone now, and the arena was in shambles. She couldn’t break the bedrock below to provide more boulders.

Tears started to leak from the corners of Bonnin’s eyes as she started to fall, stopped only by Bodeir’s hand around her neck. “You were lucky to get this far. Really you were… and I pity the fact you’re likely to get a heart demon from this. Perhaps you better attune yourself to the earth you covet like the rest of your sect. It might tell you why you are so weak,” said Bodeir, in a dull deadpan voice. Bonnin’s eyes just started to roll up inside her head. She was unconscious before she hit the ground.