Despite training against the hired and allied cultivators over the past weeks, while Minas Mar finished the preparations for this campaign, it became clear that their preparations were still lacking. At least in this situation.
Oh Yang was neither using weapons nor magical techniques or skills. The fighting style was closest to a monk's, but not many players chose that path, and only a few of their allied cultivators did either. Most importantly, none of them were on Oh Yang's level. This was technically a fight against a boss they had no proper strategy for.
Bement huffed, releasing his doubts and distracting thoughts. Although they would secure victory as easily as they wanted to, it had no doubt that they could take him down. It was just a little harder than expected.
Giving a couple of hand signs, Bement faced Oh Yang in close quarters. What followed was a flurry of exchanges between the fists, feet, shield, and sword. Oh Yang was playing Azzo like she was a drum, while Bement tried find openings to attack. The cultivator was driving back the tank, desperately resisting.
Suddenly, Oh Yang was hit by a dark aura, and his attacks stopped for a moment. Sword was back, sending an attack of crescent energy, aiming for Oh Yang's Torso. Noticing his own sluggishness from the Curse of Burden, the mage among the Oathuard members cast, and Oh Yang ducked.
The cultivator evaded the sword attack, but now he faced the spear. Rising from the ground were dozens of energy spears in a radius of 2 meters surrounding Oh Yang. Sword and Spear had learned from the earlier exchange and used skills instead of getting into the range of his body.
Although the old man managed to evade most, three energy spears managed to pierce his hip, thigh, and upper arm. In exchange, Oh Yang had protected his vitals with an expert display of acrobatics. However, the moment both his feet and one hand were on the ground to evade the majority of spears,
"
"AHH!" the old man cry could be heard across the flying island. It would have been a lethal strike, but the cultivator managed to deflect it at the cost of half his hand and a deep cut into his left torso, just below his heart.
He didn't get to cry for long, as his cries were swallowed by the roars of fire. Bement backed away just in time before the whole area was slammed by a terrifying fireball. The mage had finally used the chance when Oh Yang was bound to strike him with a powerful spell.
The party carefully observed the flames, not expecting this to put an end to the fight.
"Now you've done it..." they heard the old man's voice echoing across the place. He came walking out of the flame, swallowing something. The burns covering his now naked body were quickly recovering. Even the arrow in his shoulder was gone. The only wounds not showing a change were the cut in his side, still bleeding profusely, the split hand, and his hair.
"I wanted to capture you, but now I will- ugh!" Not giving him time for a monologue, Calder had replaced the missing arrow with a new one. This time, it went straight into the cut of
"You little-" A second arrow was caught by the cultivator. Now wordlessly, he quickly swallowed something, and his body was suddenly enveloped in a reddish golden aura. The Members of Minas Mar had heard about the miracle medicine cultivators would use when the situation turned dire, so they only became more vigilant.
"Fuck!" someone exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention. Before they had noticed, Oh Yang had moved, attacking the mage, who had singed away his white mane of hair. The only reason the man was not dead was the magic shield. Although it broke in an instant, it allowed him to lift his staff to block the strike.
"Fuck" was his last word before the fist hit the staff, broke through it, and folded him neatly in the middle, before he was shot off like a cannonball, straight through the remnants of the palace. Oh Yang's speeds had at least doubled; considering the debuffs he was still enduring, it would have been tripled...
Before they could react, he had already grabbed the swordsman by the ankle and yeeted him with incredible force at Angar, who was standing on the aerial striker in the sky. The golem couldn't evade in time. Struck by their ally, Angar lost his footing and fell somewhere in the ruins.
"Go fuck yourself," the swordsman already greeted Oh Yang, when the old man appeared before him and closed his eyes as he ripped a scroll in his hands. Instantly, the scroll turned into a blinding ball of light, the magical equivalent of a flash bang.
"Oahh!" Oh Yang cried out as the searing light hit his unprotected eyes. Using this moment, the swordsman chugged a potion. The cultivator was not the only one who could dope. With his stats enhanced, the swordsman swung at the blinded enemy's head.
Seemingly evading by pure instinct, Oh Yang once again turned a deadly strike into just a cut across his chest. In the same motion, his right fist aimed for the swordsman, who evaded in the nick of time.
In quick succession, again and again, the cultivator accurately tried to punch the life out of the man, who still had the fist imprint on the side of his helmet. All despite still being blinded. In exchange, the swordsman also managed to land some shallow cuts.
His sword's main effects were poison and armor penetration, yet he still only managed to do shallow cuts, and the poison only did marginal damage to the monstrous vitality of his opponent. When it became clear the blinding effect was wearing off, the swordsman finally had enough.
"You know what? Here!" the man said and started retreating towards the approaching Bement, while he chucked a potion at Oh Yang. The cultivator, regaining a blurry sight, evaded with ease, but it didn't matter. The vial burst right beside him, releasing a cloud of dark violet smoke.
The swordsman was several meters away from the cloud when a fist straight to his back sent him flying toward Calder's golem in the sky. While the Oathguard missed the aerial striker, Oh Yang's hand burst into blood as he suffered 40% of his own attack.
Apart from that, the cultivator looked like a mess after taking Dowloon's poison head-on. The fog had infiltrated all the little and big wounds that covered his body after the exchange with Bement and the Swordsman. Ugly, black edges showed the rapid necrosis already setting in. His eyes were crimson, with blood flowing from all his orifices.
Still, the old man carried himself with a cadence, like he was completely okay. Once the wrathful gaze had settled on Bement, the last one standing on the ground, made it clear that the man had no intention to let anyone escape.
"Earth Dragon's-!" he started to call the name of his technique and charged at Bement. Having suffered so much, even with his power up, he was no longer too fast for Bement. The warrior was ready to defend and counter- when the cultivator didn't punch him.
The fist changed directions in the last moment, opened, and grabbed onto the rim of the shield, pulling Azzo aside and breaking his posture. Bement instinctively stabbed with the sword, but the half-hand deflected the blade.
"-Ascend!" Oh Yang ended the technique name and took hold of the collar of Bement's cuirass. Then he jumped straight in the air, pulling Bement with him. The 2-meter-tall, bulky man in heavy armor was pulled along like a little child.
Bement wanted to act, but things were going too fast. Before he could defend himself, they were already high in the air. The red golden aura surrounding Oh Yang gathered as they began to turn, twirling into the heavens like a sky dancer.
The tank had a hard time keeping track of the situation as he was flung around faster and faster until-
"Earth Dragon's Seismic Descend!"
He was released, and all he could see was the flying island pouncing at him with incredible speed.