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Seven black flags arrayed in a circle around Jin, the ability to surrender taken away from him, fighting against a mightily angry prodigy whose sword was glowing an ominous light purple.
"Can't we just talk this out?" Jin complained as he hefted his lance. "Violence is never the answer, but simply the first recourse of the unintelligent."
Tian scoffed and slowly approached him with steady steps, closing the distance Jin had put in-between the two of them.
Jin started to circle, keeping the distance and eyeing the purple glow of the sword with wary eyes.
"All you know how to do is talk," his opponent retorted. "But now that there's no more running away, I don't care about your words, only your inevitable demise."
The Illusion Room disciple sighed and repositioned his lance so as to smash the butt of it against the barrier that the black flag formation had set up.
As expected, the lance failed to pass through. It seemed that jumping off the platform as a form of surrender was also off the table.
Jin continued circling as Tian slowly followed, the butt of his lance continuing to drag on the barrier, creating a wailing sound, like dragging stone on iron.
He'd acclimated to the boos; they were just background noise now.
Being booed became a very unimportant issue when your life was actually on the line, Jin found.
Still a dozen meters away, Tian suddenly swung the sword at his side up, a purple crescent escaping the blade and screeching towards Jin at a blistering speed.
Jin's qi moved and his body contorted to the side just fast enough to avoid the flying slash. The hem of his robe didn't make it, fluttering to the floor.
The stone floor.
The stone floor that had been opened up like a piece of butter, facing a 1000-degree knife.
"That's copyright infringement," Jin complained as he continued warily distancing himself. "You think Shounen Jump won't sue?"
Tian simply glared at Jin's nonsense and continued approaching.
The problem with facing Tian was that the Purple Cloud Sect had techniques related to space; the cut that the slash had left in the stone was perfect, molecular. If Jin actually fought the purple cloud sect disciple up close, which was currently his only possibility, then he'd get cut apart before he could say sashimi.
He had very few options. His combat skill was obviously lower than Tian, while his physique was at the same level, if a bit more flexible.
The thing about the physical gap between an outer disciple and an inner disciple was that if the inner disciple, Jin in this case, had invested the majority of his cultivation into the mind, then even an outer disciple who had instead focused more on his body could keep up with him.
The only advantage that Jin actually had was stamina, especially now that Tian had wasted half his qi on making surrender and running away impossible.
The issue was that trying to fight a battle of attrition against someone who only needed to land one hit to bisect you was quite idiotic. The more time passed, the more likely it became that he would get hit, and when he did, it was over.
Another slash suddenly came Jin's way, this time a wide horizontal one. It was very fast, so Jin could only duck or jump.
He chose the latter, kicking his legs up and jumping over the purple slash, but cursed as he saw Tian following close behind, murder in his eyes, sword gleaming in the harsh desert sun.
However, Jin knew that being airborne was a less manoeuvrable position, inviting a follow-up attack. That's why he'd done it, because he was less vulnerable than Tian thought.
As the purple slash passed underneath, the butt of Jin's lance slammed down into the stone floor and provided a point of leverage. Jin pushed himself off, flying even higher into the air. Tian passed just underneath where Jin had previously been, sword mispositioned.
The blade of Jin's lance slashed towards his adversary, before the Illusion Room disciple had to abort the attack as another, smaller purple slash flew his way.
He twisted in mid-air, used the lance once again to manoeuvre, this time away from Tian, and skidded to a stop on the stone floor.
The entire exchange had lasted less than two seconds.
"So you do have more than just cheap tricks," Tian said begrudgingly, before scoffing and spitting to the side. "Not that it will help you," he said before slowly approaching again.
Jin retreated, but Tian's words resonated clearly in his mind.
Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks, Cheap tricks.
Why was Jin running away from Tian and exchanging blows?
That wasn't his dao.
It wasn't his style.
A moment of clarity suddenly engulfed Jin's mind, which was odd since he hadn't even diverted any qi to heighten his mental processing power.
The world around Jin suddenly blurred out, everything but four objects fading to black.
The arena, Tian, the purple cloud sect leader, whom he currently had in his line of vision, and the large projecting ball hovering far above and broadcasting the fight to the audience.
"I'm an idiot," Jin suddenly realised breathlessly as he diverted more of his qi into his brain.
Tian stopped in his tracks, looking at Jin curiously. "Really?" he asked sarcastically.
"Of course. We're equally strong. I have more stamina; you have more training. But, I didn't consider one of the most important factors," Jin muttered frantically as an idea started forming in his head.
"And what might that be?" Tian asked curiously, enjoying the despair on Jin's face.
"I'm smarter than you," Jin said breathlessly with dilated pupils. "Comparing our brains is like comparing a racing horse to a three-legged cat with arthritis and early-onset dementia."
Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks, Smart tricks.
Tian simply stared at him with wide eyes before throwing his head back and laughing. He wiped a tear off his face. "I wouldn't necessarily call you smart," he grunted, before shaking his head. "Also," he added with a grin. "Corpses aren't generally well known for their intelligence."
"Neither are outer disciples," Jin retorted as he spread his arms wide and dropped his lance to the ground.
Tian froze and looked at the dropped weapon with furrowed brows.
Then, the most unexpected thing that could have happened, happened.
Jin sprang forward, arms extended forward and fingers held together in a small bird's nest, a very small hole facing Tian, showing the darkened inside of his palms. Qi and colours flickering inside.
Tian lazily held up his sword, tip facing Jin as the boy approached to impale himself.
Then he froze as the colours inside of Jin's cupped hands coalesced into a clearer scene. An illusion.
Jin similarly froze; Tian's sword was one inch away from his stomach, his arms extended over it so that Tian could look at the illusion he'd crafted in his hands.
He nervously looked up, saw that nobody but Tian could see what he'd created and grinned.
Tian stared, red-faced, at the miniature illusory display of the purple cloud sect leader, purple robes hiked up to his chest, being fucked in the ass by a very well-endowed monkey king.
It had been a simple illusion to make. Jin had simply had to take a sample from some of the porn he'd watched in his last life, and overlay the body and face of the purple cloud sect leader who'd so graciously come to spectate the match over the person on the receiving end. The top, in this case, had gotten a generous remake as a humanoid monkey with a prodigious staff.
Jin dispelled the illusion, concentrated, and created some bright yellow characters in his palm instead.
'If you don't play along, everyone will know.'
Then he clapped his hands together, shot out a sticky string of qi to attach itself to Tian's forehead, retreated a few steps, and spoke.
"Mind Puppet technique, successful!" he shouted arrogantly, holding out his hands and pointing them at Tian as if they were the reason the boy was frozen in shock. "I might not be your match physically, but you shouldn't underestimate a mind cultivator!" he boasted.
Tian simply stared at him blankly, mouth wide open.
"You made a simple mistake in the beginning," Jin explained. "You told me how important defeating me was to you and why exactly you bore your grudge." He shook his head. "You handed over the information advantage, and most importantly, revealed your mental state to me. That meant that all I needed was some time to establish the link and infiltrate your mind."
"You-, you-, dare?" Tian stuttered, seemingly disbelieving what had just happened.
Jin looked at him serenely. "You left me no choice. It was either do or die. If I die, I'm taking you with me," he hinted. He wiggled his extended fingers. "You're going to have to learn how to keep your cool in the future," he narrowed his eyes at the other disciple, before twitching one of his fingers downwards. "Now drop the sword," he ordered.
Tian's bone sword slipped out of weak fingers as hatred erupted in the boy's eyes. More powerful than before. Before it had been a thing of sect honour, now it was personal.
Jin would have loved to order the boy to slit his own throat, but if he pushed Tian too far, the boy might just decide that his sect leader's honour was worth less than his life.
But Jin probably had the capital to get away with one thing.
He tutted and shook his head. "Punch yourself in the face," he said in a dead serious tone of voice.
The hatred in Tian's eyes intensified, and his face twisted into a rictus of pain. Veins were throbbing all over his forehead, and he was more flushed than a tomato.
Jin twitched his finger upwards.
Tian's fist followed, slamming into the boy's cheek.
"Now drop the formation and surrender," Jin said calmly.
Tian glared at him, seeming to consider. His eyes flickered to the sword at his feet.
"You'll have your chance to kill me in the wild one day, with no witnesses," Jin reassured the boy, knowing full well he was never going to get off the Illusion Room Sect mountain again in his life.
His words, however, seemed to calm Tian down somewhat, and the boy brought his hands together in a praying motion, at which point the flags scattered around the arena tipped over and fell. The barrier was down.
Even if Tian didn't surrender now, Jin would.
In fact, it might still be better to surrender so he wouldn't have to go another round. He opened his mouth.
"I surrender," Tian said begrudgingly. Then he bent down to pick up his sword and promptly walked off with a stiff gait.
Jin was left standing alone on the platform amidst the boos of the audience until the Blazing Fire Sect referee came to unceremoniously hold up his arm before shooing him back to the contestant's platform.
There, he walked past Xin Erwa, who was looking at him hungrily.
"We'll have a good match," the girl crooned.
Jin ignored her, sneaked a glance at the stand where the Elders were seated and saw the purple cloud sect leader listening intently to something Tian was whispering into his ear.
In the background, Elder Flower was palming her face while Sect Leader Chun was talking to what must have been the sect leader of the Blazing Fire Sect. The man's orange mohawk was stylised like a sun and the biggest Jin had ever seen.
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AN: Honestly I think I ended that quite elegantly… Anyway, the tournament arc is over in literally one chapter. It got some mixed reviews on Patreon, but honestly, I liked it and it's not like we'll be repeating it. I felt the narrative needed some fresh air from consistently creating video games, or maybe that's just my opinion. After this, we finish Sky's Rim.
By the way, free patrons can currently suggest interlude ideas in a post I put up yesterday while subscribers can vote on the ideas in a poll in a few days.