The Bloodfang tiger did not know what was causing the glow, but it definitely didn't like it. Ignoring the two, it launched towards the only one who could qualify to be its opponent -Hua Zhenlan. In order to avoid it, she had to move away. Which in turn, made her lose focus, slowing down the already painstakingly slow activation process.
As she dodged, Chi Jung appeared between her and the beast, his body a flame from head to toe, stopping the beast from launching at her.
"Are you sure you can fight it? It is a Late stage Monarch beast, but you guys are still Kings. Though at peak stage, but still Kings." Hua Zhenlan inquired as she tried to regain concentration.
"We'll take care of it, just focus on what you are doing." Chi Jung barked, a majestic sword appeared in his hand. The aura was so intense, that even the Bloodfang tiger was slightly intimidated. Before it shook the feeling off and launched at him to attack, but was struck in the side by a large clump of ice, blasting it a few meters to the side.
"I think it forgot about me, [COLD DOMAIN: BONE SEEPING ARTS]. " Hua Ya's melodic voice was heard, angelic in tone. Ice spread outward from beneath her feet in intricate patterns, covering the clearing in frost. Normally she was more proficient in using water elements, but knowing ice would better compliment Chi Jung's fire, she chose it instead.
The Bloodfang tiger was an earth elemental arts beast, so it had little ways of stopping the ice particles from entering his pores and slowly freezing its bones and making it a little bit slower. Hua Zhenlan had water elemental arts and Chi Jung's fire would cancel out the freezing effect on his body. Most importantly, it wasn't targeted at either of them, Hua Ya had put her full focus on the Bloodfang tiger when she activated her family's technique [COLD DOMAIN].
The Bloodfang tiger was angry that it was being passed around by weaklings, usually it would have torn through people of their realm in seconds. It is stronger, it is faster, it is better… it is better. What it couldn't understand was that Hua Ya was from a higher realm by birth, making her naturally superior to it. And Chi Jung was a highly talented individual, born in the upper echelon of this realm, making him have the best this realm could provide at his disposal. This gave them an advantage over it. Both of them being able to fight across a realm together was not too surprising, but the Bloodfang tiger was just warming up.
Its aura flare, almost doubling its speed, it rushed towards the most annoying one -Hua Ya. She stomped the ground, an ice spike shot up right in front of the beast. The Bloodfang tiger brandishes it with his claws, breaking it relatively easily. But it had to defend against the low slash from Hua Ya's descending sword, as they collided they were both thrown back a few meters. During the push back, the Bloodfang tiger felt an intense spike in temperature. Without looking back, a jagged earth wall shot up through the icy ground blocking the fire ball Chi Jung had thrown. Though the wall quickly melted, it was not without taking a portion of the fireball's strength, leaving the rest to have little effect on his hard scale.
As the Bloodfang tiger was trying to stabilize itself, Chi Jung appeared in front of it, almost as if he teleported, with his flaming hot sword – fire covering its exterior. He made a slash, bringing the sword down towards one of the legs of the Bloodfang tiger, trying to cripple its mobility. Though the strike was not enough to heavily injure it, it would draw blood, which was what the Bloodfang tiger was trying to avoid. The strongest of them had not joined the fight, she was standing there with a glowing arm, while the other cradled the child. Whatever she was doing, it knew she would be troublesome.
Chi Jung continued targeting its limbs with a fury of slashes and thrusts showing his refined swordsmanship. Yet the Bloodfang tiger was faster, it was able to dodge all the strikes –until it realized something was wrong. The sword got closer after every strike, till the Bloodfang tiger had to consciously harden its scales to prevent the thrust from penetrating.
It looked down to see its limbs covered in ice fragments, every time he landed on the frozen ground, ice lumps crawled up his legs in tiny quantities going almost unnoticed, but together they were very effective in sapping it of its mobility.
It tried to shake it off, but noticed they just kept coming back. It still had to worry about the fire yielder who was still unleashing a series of fiery strikes, it was barely avoiding and defending against. Looking in the direction of the ice user, she was standing motionless –it seemed the control of the minute lumps of ice required her entire focus. She would never use this technique in single combat, but since she was a support in this battle, it was the best she could do.
The Bloodfang tiger changed its strategy, swiping its long tail at Chi Jung, who was caught off guard as he was sent flying, crashing into a tree. It changed direction, lunging towards Hua Ya. Hua Ya was still cool headed even though she had to face the Bloodfang tiger alone, since Chi Jung was temporarily out of commission. As it drew close, her leg sank into the ground as she snapped a kick into the empty air — a motion that should have meant nothing. But in an instant, an ice pole burst forth, tracing the arc of her leg and shooting toward the Bloodfang tiger. The Bloodfang tiger deflected it and kept running, but more poles erupted, each one mirroring her movements as she flowed through Taekkyon footwork.
It ducked, dodged, weaved, parried, but they didn't seem to stop coming and it couldn't get to her because she moved through the footwork changing position every few steps. Though the poles had little effect on him, the prickly feeling it gave was very annoying. Suddenly, it sensed danger behind it. It quickly changed position to the left, dodging the fireball, only to meet a slash from a bloody faced Chi Jung, the fire at the exterior of the sword tore through his hard scales and flesh leaving a five centimeter cut, blood flowing.
"Blood for blood." Chi Jung growled as he spat out a mouth full of blood.
"So it does bleed." Hua Ya teased from the other side, her voice cold. She looked towards her mother, who was already glowing in both her arms and torso.
The Bloodfang tiger seemed to understand what they were saying. It was already angry that they were able to injure it, now they dare mock it – it decided to play with them a little and they mock him. Furious, he slammed his fore limb into the ground, breaking through the ice. The impact drove a jagged fissure down into the ground, rocks flying.
Seizing the chance, Chi Jung ran up using the flying rocks as stepping stones. He launched himself, hacking down at the soft spot in the center of head –it only weakness. The Bloodfang tiger sensing the grave danger, narrowly dodge the fatal attack but not without a deep cut in its shoulder.
It roared angrily at the fact that it just had a near death experience. But they gave it no time, it had to defend against more ice poles while also covering his blind spot from Chi Jung, and that was easier said than done. Chi Jung knew how to capitalize on its slight hesitation, when it decided whether to defend against him or Hua Ya's ice poles. Swinging his sword wildly, he looked like a mad man. But looking closely, you can see the calculated precision as he moved between the poles in harmony. Them not contradicting but complimenting each other, he delivered a few more cuts, even one closed to the eyes –a back kick to one of the ice poles, aiming at the right eye, to increase its intensity. But the Bloodfang tiger instinctively ducked leaving another less fatal injury to the beast.
Even Hua Zhenlan at the side was impressed, it would have been a happy moment if they were not fighting for their lives. It looked like they would be winning if she joined the fight, gravely injuring it or making it flee – if not kill it, but it was all an illusion. Bloodfang tigers are known for playing with their opponents, especially if they are weaker than them. Since she has not joined the fight, it is thinking she is having a power up or something and it is strategically stalling for her to get there.
But with every new cut, it was going crazier. Every time its flesh was burned by fire, it was abandoning its principles. Now it could see it, it could see how they could kill its pregnant mate, before it was a little skeptical about how these weak humans could kill its wife. It would have loved to have fun with them, but it couldn't let its wife's killer roam free. But now it saw it, they could have done it, No.. they did it.
With that, its eyes completely turned red, as it went full rampage mode, consumed by bloodlust. The ground that has somehow frozen back after the fissure was broken through again. Piles of stones and rocks knocked Chi Jung and Hua Ya back. It released his aura, roared mad. Now it was going all out.
In response, the couple exchanged a nod. Before ignoring the beast and going to Hua Zhenlan' side leaving a completely bewildered rampage beast behind. They hugged the child and her grandmother one last time, Chi Jung sword disappeared as he removed a ring and handed it to Hua Zhenlan whose only non glowing body part was her upper head.
"Give her the ring, when she is old enough. The sword, a picture of us for her to remember by and a few other things are there." Chi Jung said, "The sword was my father's. He told me the greatest honor you could give your sword as a swordsman was letting it break in a battle against a stronger opponent –That is true fulfillment."
After a short pause, he looked at the beast "This Bloodfang is not worthy."
" What was it?" Hua Zhenlan nodded to him and asked, looking at Hua Ya.
" What?" Hua Ya replied.
"You said I would do one other thing for you before the beast came, what is it?" Hua Zhenlan asked again.
" I want you to always remind my Chi Xianyan that I love her... From here to forever. And she should never forget it." Hua Ya said in tears.