Molting the Mortal Coil

The man in white, Yang, was glaring fiercely at Sage. In his eyes, this little bug was just a mantis trying to stop a chariot, yet he had the gall to question their honor? To his side, the woman in black, Yin, held up a hand. She quelled Yang’s temper with a cold calmness, “The Black White Army never breaks a contract. What are your last wishes?”

Compared to the fiery arrogance of the man in white, Sage felt a chill from the woman’s words. From the look on Dian Huifang’s face, he felt these two were not at an insurmountable level. If their power had been enough to scare Huifang, Sage would have fled immediately, but from her reaction Sage still felt he had a chance. His methods were far beyond what someone of his level should have. Even so, the finality of the woman in white’s words sent a shiver up his spine.

“So, there is no room at all for nego…”

In the middle of his sentence, Sage threw himself to the side, avoiding a three foot wide beam of light. The clothing on the right side of his body burned away almost instantly, leaving charred black marks on his clothes and burns on his side. The beam that passed him by shot to where the Dragoons were maintaining the Million Scale Shell. That single beam smashed against a hexagonal scale of energy and the power rippled outward. Dozens of scales were instantly destroyed and the residual heat from the attack cooked four of the Dragoons to death in mere moments. Sage saw the attack coming with his Foresight and even then he only barely avoided it.

Rolling on the ground he tumbled back to his feet and took off running, leaping from side to side to avoid black spikes that suddenly shot up from the ground. He could only avoid the spikes by pushing the air and swaying his body in ways that would normally be impossible. Rather than being forced to rely on manipulating his body in relation to his center of gravity, he used Cosmic Traction to make turns and motions that were completely unexpected. Even so, Sage was still cut by a few of the dark spears. He could see a few seconds into the future, but even scanning around himself rapidly it was impossible for him to see in all directions at all times and he was hit in his blind spots a few times. Thankfully, he avoided being impaled, only taking grazing wounds and cuts as the spikes passed by.

At that instant a ten foot tall boulder appeared between Sage and Yang. Sage saw the man charging towards him so fast he disappeared in his Foresight so he immediately blocked the direct route to buy some time. The twelve Blacksilver Pawns were already rushing towards Yin with their full speed and the many black spears stabbing up from the ground were diverted towards them. Sage pulled out a pill the size of a tennis ball from the Universe Ring and threw it onto the ground. Instantly black smoke billowed forth from the pill as it smashed into pieces.

Yin and Yang dashed backwards, rapidly increasing the distance between themselves and Sage. They were very experienced combatants and they faced poisons and other underhanded methods many times in the past. They wouldn’t take the chance that tool Sage threw down was a weapon. Even if it allowed him to escape, they would merely continue to chase him. They were very patient and Sage could only have so many of such a weapon. They’d defeated many such vile characters in the past by staying cautious and forcing their enemy to expend all of their life saving tricks and weapons.

Yang sniffed the air before calling out, “It’s just smoke!”

Then Yin shook her head and some of that black darkness energy forced into a fifty foot wide half-circle fan shape. She formed it up in the air and it didn’t just fall, but it swung downwards, releasing a gust of wind towards the cloud of black smoke that kept growing larger and larger. The black smoke was blown away, only to reveal wisps of thick white vapor hidden beneath. The white vapor looked like thin strands of heavy fog, or tiny clouds woven through the black smoke. Yang was taken aback, but then he started roaring violently to express his anger.

“You hide poison among the smoke! Villain!”

Yang now spoke with a sense of self-righteousness. He decided that he’d seen someone using poison and that could only mean that someone was a villain of the highest caliber. It didn’t matter to him in the least that he’d already spoken of murdering that person just a few moments before. Yin was ice cold as usual and the giant fan waved back and forth a few more times, dispersing the black smoke and leaving behind a giant beast. A snake with a three foot wide and hundred foot long body was coiled up at the center of the smoke cloud. It’s scales were just as black as the smoke had been, and now that the smoke was pushed away the snake rose upwards. A huge hood snapping open, the massive cobra fixing its gaze on Yin and Yang.

Yang was surprised to see the man they were facing replaced by a giant snake, but then he let out a loud guffaw, “Haha, it’s been too long since I feasted on serpent. Just in time for a new pair of boots!”

Yin flapped her wings and suddenly jumped in front of him. The large wings wrapped around them like a shield and more layers of darkness lifted from the ground, wrapping around them. As the layers closed up, they had just enough time to see the giant cobra’s head dart forward. Something flew towards them at high speed and the layers of protection sealed up just in time to stop it.

From the outside, Sage saw what looked like many black hands rising up from the ground and wrapping around the pair of Yin and Yang like a shield. A many layered cocoon to protect them from his attack that was already in motion. A basketball sized ball of green liquid shot through the air, propelled by the Divine Breath technique. It splashed against the side of that dark cocoon and a green smoke came from the place it contacted. Without waiting any longer, his mouth opened again and a thick vapor was blasted outwards. A cone of heavy white vapor blanketed the dark cocoon, completely saturating the area and building a spherical cloud of thick mist thirty feet wide. The large cobra then turned and dipped it’s head, slithering away rapidly. A few moments later it reached a field of grass about five feet high, tall enough to hide it’s body, and disappeared from view.

The green liquid burned through two of the outer layers of darkness before the occupants inside escaped through the back. The cocoon only partially unraveled and the two of them leapt out through a hole. They both immediately looked around for the giant snake and not seeing it, they glanced back as the acidic substance corroded the darkness, melting a hole clean through it and dribbling to the ground inside. Yin and Yang were surprised, but they immediately called upon their full power. Previously, they thought it would take only a snap of their fingers to kill Sage. The barrier of a higher rank separated them, something that only the most powerful could cross. That dark cocoon was only fashioned out of Yin’s Qi alone, but even so it was burned through in just a few seconds.

Yin and Yang shared a look before starting to pull upon their full strength. Instead of forming light or darkness with their Qi, they poured it out into the world and used it to manipulate the power of light and dark that existed in the universe. At that moment it was like the world had split into two halves with a line drawn between Yin and Yang. At one side was a blinding brilliance, like the sun had doubled or even tripled in size and strength. At the other, an eclipse, the light fading away into dark, like a curtain had been drawn across the sky.

A few thousand yards away, even Songji couldn’t keep her mouth shut, “Amazing.”