February 5, 2023, Late Night
Blue lightning pulsed around white blade of katana. Its wielder took a stance, pointing the tip of the katana beside his face at the enemy thirty paces ahead.
Mei Mei, Elizabeth, Reza, and Amon were already down, unconscious and covered in wounds. Only Sizhu remained, kneeling on the ground, his right arm severed from the elbow.
"I will teach you the basics of killing. Watch, Sizhu."
Jianying adjusted his square glasses. The butcher Witch, who was twirling two chained weapons in his hands, threw a long cleaver from left, aiming straight at Jianying.
"There is one most important thing in killing. That is calmness."
The long chained butcher knife almost severed Jianying's head, but calmly, using the hilt of the katana, Jianying deflected the butcher knife just before it touched his neck. The enemy's throw missed its mark.
"No matter how dangerous your enemy is, calm is the most important part for you to see with clearer sight."
However, the butcher Witch had no intention of giving Jianying a chance to get close. In his right hand, he leap forward while spinning his body and slammed a large meat hook at Sizhu and Jianying, who were still standing in place.
BOOM!
"You'd better watch from a safe place." Jianying and Sizhu had already jumped aside simultaneously.
Sizhu stood weakly, his left leg trembling. With heavy bleeding, Jianying was even amazed by Sizhu's determination to still try to live, even though his opponent was an enemy that he currently couldn't defeat with his strength.
"I... I can't let him hurt my friends... Not while my eyes are still open..."
Jianying grinned slightly. "You'll only be a burden."
Then Jianying step forward to face the Witch, who was already prepared with both weapons in his hands. Ten paces, both walked casually closer to each other.
"You bastard meat disturbing my dinner. I WILL TEAR YOUR BODY INTO SEVERAL PIECES!"
Jianying nodded slightly, "Go ahead, we'll see who gets chopped into minced meat first. Ah, I'll give you a chance."
With a lightning-fast step, Jianying delivered a powerful straight kick, even though it was blocked by the butcher Witch's reflexive hands covering his stomach.
THUD!
The butcher Witch was thrown thirty paces into the air and landed inside forest full of trees.
This human's strength is no joke. I must kill him quickly before he kill me.
"Three attacks. If even one attack lands on me, you can leave."
The butcher Witch was surprised. He didn't expect how quickly his opponent could catch up to him after being thrown, without he's even realizing it.
Swinging the chained cleaver behind his back. Jianying only tilted his body backward almost 90 degrees. Then the Witch's right hand, which was the meat hook, struck towards Jianying.
BOOM!
"I'll count that as one."
Jianying was already standing beside a tree. He even sheathed his lightning katana in front of the opponent's face.
"YOU ARROGANT MEAT!"
Loosening the chains in both hands. The butcher Witch went wild, spinning both his weapons quickly, then attacking Jianying, who stood calmly, assailing him with chained weapon attacks like tentacles. A ten meter radius around them was immediately covered in fallen trees hit by the whipping of the chains and the blows of the Witch butcher's weapon.
Jianying's feet didn't move much; he took one step forward. Backward, walked sideways, tilted his body, made a small jump, bent down, but not a single attack managed to scratch his body.
"Two attacks. You need to try harder. I'm sure those kids weren't hurt by cheap attacks like this."
"YOU NOISY ARROGANT MEAT!"
"MEAT CUTTING TECHNIQUE! MINCED MEAT CUT!"
The Butcher Witch jumped and whipped his chain towards where Jianying stood. In an instant, twenty meters in front of him, only wood splinters and rocks cut into dust remained. Hundreds of whip marks were also visible on the ground, creating a puff of smoke.
"Three. Disappointing. I expected more from you since someone sent you to kill the green-eyed youth."
Jianying, from behind the smoke, grabbed the Butcher Witch's exposed armpit and threw him into the sky as hard as throwing a baseball.
"I'll teach you how to cut meat properly. First, your right hand."
SING! CRAT!
In the sky, both were suspended in the air, but the Butcher Witch was completely motionless. A blue light flashed, and his right hand was already half severed very quickly.
Black blood spurted out as the two men slowly floated in the air.
Acting quickly, the Butcher Witch swung the chained cleaver in his left hand at Jianying, who had just neatly severed his large right hand, which had already fallen to the ground.
CLANG!
Jianying parried first, then in retaliation, he kicked the Butcher Witch's stomach very hard, sending him crashing to the ground.
BOOM!
In another part of the forest, brown smoke billowed high. But the Butcher Witch gritted his jaw and spun the chained cleaver as hard and fast as he could.
The sound of lightning struck, and he knew his enemy was preparing for a follow-up slash.
CLANG!
A cleaver appeared from a direction Jianying didn't expect, as the man with square glasses was about to sever the Butcher Witch's left hand. The Witch smirked, feeling his enemy was not as strong as he thought.
A dozen sharp bony tentacles emerged from the large mouth on his stomach and targeted Jianying, who was one step ahead of him.
Jianying calmly severed each sharp bony meat tentacle that moved to target him.
After two seconds, all the tentacles were severed, and the Butcher Witch disappeared behind the billowing brown smoke.
The sound of chains clanking, then from Jianying's blind spot, a chained cleaver shot out very quickly.
Jianying neither flinched nor was surprised; he tilted his katana behind his shoulder, then let the cleaver deflect off Jianying's katana.
"Using the smoke to obscure the opponent's vision and using the forest trees to deflect attacks so they come from unexpected directions. An interesting technique."
Jianying stepped aside before a chained cleaver suddenly flew, almost severing his body.
"Let's end this game." Jianying took a low stance, storing his katana below his waist.
"Eighth slash technique; 七星風暴斬; Qīxīng fēngbào zhǎn! (Seven-Star Storm Slash!)"
ZRAT! ZRAT! ZRAT! BOOM!
Dozens of consecutive slashes with sharp blue lines formed, creating a stacked star shape twenty meters around.
Trees, high billows of smoke, and the Witch hiding behind the smoke were all hit by Jianying's blue lightning slashes.
The Butcher Witch was almost diced into cubes if he had taken one more step into Jianying's attack range. Many deep cuts appeared on his body and face, causing black blood to flow profusely onto the ground.
"YOU!!!"
With a face full of anger and frustration, the Butcher Witch spun the chained cleaver in his left hand, his regenerated right hand forming another chained cleaver weapon, and like a madman, he threw it at Jianying.
CLANG!
Jianying calmly parried every chained cleaver thrown at him. He walked calmly, deflecting the opponent's attacks, parrying, or dodging without excessive movement.
Meanwhile, the Butcher Witch ran, leaped high, lunged but still failed to land an attack on Jianying. Yet, around them, trees fell just from a single thrown butcher knife.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The sound of iron echoed in the middle of the night, sparks flew every time the two weapons met. They exchanged blows until they moved to the side of a steep, high cliff wall. Trapping Jianying so he couldn't escape.
The fierce battle would end in matter of seconds. Both stopped attacking and began to prepare to unleash their ultimate techniques.
The butcher Witch grinned, seeing Jianying cornered against the cliff like a deer with nowhere left to run.
"Meat-cutting technique;"
The butcher Witch prepared to throw with all his might.
"First slash technique;"
Jianying raised his katana beside his face.
"BONE-BREAKING CUT!"
"閃電; Shǎndiàn!"
CTAR! CRAT! CRAT!
Two chained butcher knives flew, bouncing off the trees beside Jianying very quickly. But Jianying was faster, moving like lightning, sever the two arms of the butcher Witch who had just thrown his weapons, embedding them in the cliff wall.
Black blood gushed out, the Witch's two mouths gnashed loudly until cracking teeth were heard.
CRAT! CRAT!
But Jianying showed no mercy and continue cutting his two legs. Eliminating his footing which had just pushed the Witch's large body to jump backward.
"This ends now."
CRAT!
The lightning katana cut the mouth on the butcher Witch's stomach in two. Leaving only part of his head and heart.
***
"What a mess. Blegh, and it stinks!"
An Haocun, swinging among the tree branches like a spider-man using his special wire. The special wire emerged from the two black gloves he's wearing.
Seeing the situation on the field where a flag covered in blood splatters was waving, his eyes caught five people who were still breathing, though barely.
He walked towards Mei Mei, checking her pulse. After that, he walked towards Elizabeth, doing the same while stitching the open skin on her waist with his special wire. Where her intestines were spilling out. Then he walked towards Reza, humming.
"Mm~ mm~ mm~"
Picking up a hand lying near Reza, he then stitched Reza's stomach, which was almost making his body split in half, and his severed left hand. He stitched humans as if he were stitching dolls.
Sizhu was still sitting in his place. His eyes were already blurry. He maintained his consciousness, worried that bad people might come. Seeing An's habit who come out of nowhere and stitching his friends, he didn't mind too much.
"You guys are amazing to still alive after fighting with a mid-level Arch Witch. This year's Hunter candidates are indeed interesting."
An stitched Amon's two hands and his right leg. Then he walked and stood before Sizhu, who was sitting and observing his behavior. He squatted in front of Sizhu.
"So you? Hm? The child we found from the forbidden forest? You have an unique ability that we've never seen before." He stroked Sizhu's head as if stroking a puppy.
Then his left hand pulled Sizhu's severed body parts, both hands and half of his left ear.
Among the many corpses and human body parts, An could identify someone's limb at a glance, even if the limb was severed.
"Who are you?" Sizhu asked skeptically.
"You don't remember me? I was on the podium earlier at the opening of the Zhan Dou tournament."
Sizhu tried to remember. "The cunning-faced one."
An grinned. He indeed had a narrow eyes, cunning face and often smiled slyly; he knew people often called him by such nicknames.
"I have a name, show some manners to your senior. Sizhu.. Xiqing."
"Xiqing?" Sizhu asked back. He felt familiar with that surname.
An replied with an odd smile. Then he quickly sewed Sizhu's two hands, left thigh, wounded left shoulder and his ear without his noticing.
"Well, it's done. Although it's not perfect, I just reattached your limbs so you don't have to bother looking for your own body parts around here."
An then stood up. Sizhu also stood straight and tried to move his newly sewn hands. There were black stitches made of special wire that sewed his two hands.
Then, after swinging his hands a few times, Sizhu began to feel his hands again. He started to be able to move his fingers as usual.
An's jaw dropped. He never thought someone could do such a thing. Normally, ordinary humans would need surgery to reattach severed veins and nerves. But Sizhu, somehow, managed to reattach his veins manually and regain control of his hands after a few seconds.
"Thank you, you cunning-faced one."
"My name is An Haocun! You'd better remember that, kid!" An exclaimed, annoyed. Nevertheless, his face was grinning with interest.
Sizhu walked towards his staff lying on the ground. He limped a few times, but after a few steps, he walked normally again.
"Reverse blood flow technique, huh? This kid... is indeed very interesting. No wonder *they* are targeting him." An said to himself while touching his chin.
After picking up his beloved wooden staff, Sizhu walked to pick up the flag in the middle of the field.
"I just have to bring this to the academy to participate in the next round, right?" Sizhu asked An, who was standing and thinking.
He nodded. "Don't worry, because of the disturbance that occurred, you will given an option to continue the tournament or surrender even without bringing the flag as our compensation. No one expected an Arch Witch to appear tonight, right?" An said with a strange grin.
Sizhu didn't pay much attention to him and tucked the flag staff under his armpit. He was more focused on winning the Zhan Dou tournament and entering the academy so he could become stronger than he was tonight.
He had also promised to the two Hubei children, Qing and Yaoyao, to grow stronger. So that... he could protect the people around him.
His gaze swept over his new friends, one by one, lying on the ground. Mei Mei, Elizabeth, Reza, Amon. Without them, Sizhu was sure he wouldn't have survived tonight.
"They are strong people."
"Ah, you're back, glasses?"
An greeted Jianying, who was carrying the butcher Witch, half a body without arms, in his hands.
His clothes were clean, only slightly stained, even though he had just finished a fierce duel with an Arch Witch.
"Why did you let me live? Meat?"
"Shut up and follow me."
Jianying turned to An, who was smiling broadly, seeing Jianying return with a large 'prey'.
"An, take those children to the academy. I have work to do."
"Tch, that should be your job! I am an academy judge! Not a caretaker!"
"I don't care! Quickly take them back to the academy!" Jianying ordered while continuing to walk towards the academy and waving his hand high.
"Four-eyed bastard!" An cursed, but he wrapped every breathing body and dragged them towards the academy.
***