took through the First Elder’s spirit to the way he moved the aura, every step was clunky and inefficient. He had developed great skill with the technique, but the tool itself was lacking.
He was a self-taught swordsman who didn’t realize he was using a stick. No matter how skilled he became, he would never be as dangerous as someone with a real weapon.
At the same time, the First Elder Forged the image of a sword. He drew a three-foot blade from a sheath at his side, but the Forged image was a few inches shorter.
Between the Ruler technique and the Forger technique, anyone relying solely on their senses would be skewered before they realized what happened.
The elder twisted his sword through the air, lunging at Lindon in a practiced motion.
Lindon stepped to one side, seizing the First Elder’s arm in his white hand.
“No,” he said, “this is the Path of the White Fox. Pay attention.”
Madra leaked into Lindon, refilling his channels again. The elder broke his grip, and Lindon allowed it.
He left an image of himself standing still while he ran invisibly toward the First Elder and cast the Fox Dream over the man’s mind. The older man broke the Ruler technique, but Lindon had already caught him in the chest and shoved him back.
“One,” Lindon said.
He threw a punch, and the Elder twisted to one side to avoid it, but Lindon had concealed his movements with the Foxtail technique. His real punch clipped the Elder on the chin.
Lindon held back so he didn’t shatter the man’s jaw. The Elder only missed a step.
“Two.”
A sword came flashing in, but Lindon hurled a purple fireball and allowed the sword to land.
It stabbed into his shoulder…and stuck. With such little strength behind it, the blade couldn’t penetrate his Underlord body any deeper than the skin.
The Elder dispersed the first ball of Foxfire, and the second, but then Lindon used the rest of his White Fox madra. A barrage of Striker techniques struck the Elder all over, sending him falling to his knees in a cry of pain.
The ground rumbled. Earth aura flashed.
“Three,” Lindon announced. “I killed you three times.”
With that, he returned his attention to the Patriarch. Wei Jin Sairus scowled at him. “You disrespect your elders, Shi Lindon.”
His image stayed standing where it was. A Fox Mirror. But really, he crept invisibly to Lindon’s other side, a dagger clutched in his hand.
Lindon had seen him use this technique in the same way before, but not so clearly. The Patriarch had done this against Li Markuth, the winged terror that Suriel had banished. Markuth had not been fooled either.
Lindon dipped his head to the Mirror. “Patriarch.”
The Forger technique returned the gesture. Sairus really was skilled. “Unsouled,” his illusion said.
Lindon turned his head to meet the eyes of the “invisible” Patriarch. “Not anymore.”
As Sairus tried to plunge the dagger into Lindon’s side, Lindon ducked and drove his palm into the Patriarch’s core.
Pure madra flashed blue-white in a massive handprint that covered Sairus’ entire midsection. The Empty Palm wiped out his madra, flooding his system…and the power of Lindon’s spirit overwhelmed his.
Channels broke, his core cracked, and he convulsed with the pain in his soul. He made a choking sound and his eyes rolled up into his skull.
Without a word, the Patriarch fell to the ground as a spiritual cripple.
The First Elder straightened himself up in a display of dignity. “You will still not have your way. We will resist you to the death.”
Lindon felt like his bones had turned to lead. The Heaven’s Glory School had surrounded the hill. They were putting down more scripts. They still wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t listen to reason, and they wouldn’t listen to force.
He had accomplished nothing.
The ground was shaking constantly now, and he finally realized that the power of the earth aura had not subsided. Instead of ebbing and flowing, as it had been doing for days, it had grown and grown without cease.
He felt what was about to happen and looked up to the sky. Suriel had shown him how to prevent this from happening, but he had to wonder if she had foreseen this. Was this why she hadn’t saved Sacred Valley herself? Because it was futile?
Why had she even saved Lindon?
One of the Akura clan shouted down to Lindon. “Honored Sage, we must leave! The Titan!”
Lindon nodded. Only a few more days, and they would have been able to evacuate everyone.
But what did it matter? These people didn’t want help.