Chapter 634: The Will To Fight
"Again!" Kana once again crawled out of the dirt. Her clothes were not tattered, but she did not care. Right now, she only cared about breaking through and training herself. She had already gone five rounds with the black serpent, and each time she was beaten to the ground. Her body ached, and blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth, but her eyes held an unwavering gaze that was filled with determination.
Kana shot forward with her sword in hand. This time she felt like she was used to the speed of the black serpent. She dodged the first attack and then the second, and when she thought that she had finally cleared the first hurdle, thousands of black needles shot in her direction. "Ahh!"
Kana cried out in pain as a few of them penetrated her skin, knocking her back to the ground. "Master!" Ako cried out. She did not want her master to continue. She knew the black serpent's needles were covered in poison!
"Stay back!" Kana yelled. She could feel a numbing sensation in the areas she got hit. She knew she was poisoned. With no other choice, Ako could only sit back down and watch things unfold and pray that Kana would be okay.
Kana took a deep breath and was about to get back up when she was suddenly hit dead on by the black serpent's tail strike sending her shooting out like a kite caught in the wind. Her body bowed, flying through the air smashing into tree after tree until she finally slammed into a huge boulder, causing a large hole in the shape of her body to appear. Kana staggered out of the hole and leaned over, coughing up a mouth full of blood. She knew if she had not drunk that monkey wine and eaten so many demonic beasts' cores, she would have many broken bones right now. Everything she had done in the past month had really strengthened her body. Kana wiped the blood from her mouth and looked at the black serpent that was slowly slithering its way over to her to finish her off.
Kana gripped her sword and readied herself. "It seems I really need to fight as if I am going to kill this black serpent…" This entire time Kana had not shown any killing intent towards the black serpent. At the start, the black serpent was going easy on Kana because it did not know how strong she was. But after these past few rounds, it felt that Kana was not treating it seriously. She had no killing intent when she was attacking. This was like a smack to the face of the black serpent. Although it was fighting Kana against its will, it still could not stand the fact that she seemed to be looking down on it, which was why it attacked at full force for the first time.
"Little girl, you said you wanted to break through using me as your sparring partner, but how will you breakthrough if you are not even treating this as a real battle!? You were the one who told me to come at you as if I was going to kill you. So be it. From this moment on I will not give you a chance to relax! " The black serpent shot out tens of thousands of black needles at Kana while also charging towards her at the same time just behind the wall of black needles.
Kana knew she could no longer act like before. She closed her eyes for a split second to calm her nerves before opening them again. "Then so be it. Either you die, or I die!"
A wave of killing intent swept out of Kana as she gripped her sword and began swinging it around, blocking all the needles that were coming at her. Clanging sound of her sword hitting metal like needles rang out in the forest as Kana stood in one place using all her knowledge and know how to block the incoming needles. She originally felt bad for the black serpent because it was forced into this and did not wish to kill it, but now she was getting what she asked for, a life or death battle, one where only the victor would survive. Kana knew at this time one slip up, no matter how fast Ako was, she could easily lose her life.
"Much better!" The black serpent yelled out in praise at it swung its tail to the side while it attacked from Kana's front. A three pronged attack, and with Kana's limbs already feeling numb from the poison on the needles, she knew she could not fully block this attack. She gritted her teeth and braced herself as she blocked the attack from the front and took the attack to the side head on.
Kana was flung out once again and tumbled and skidded across the ground. Her body dug into the dirt and smashed into boulders and tree trunks until it finally came to a sliding stop. More blood spilled from her mouth as she continued to cough up, mouth full after mouth full of blood. "This is bad…"
She felt very powerless at this time. She did not have any power full skills, and even her dragon breath was only enough to light some tinder at this time. But to her surprise, she could feel the spiritual qi in her dantian beginning to turn. A small smile formed on her face. "I just need to persist for a little longer. If I can breakthrough, we can call the fight… Otherwise… " Kana did not even want to think how badly she would be hurt if things kept going as they were.
As Kana climbed to her feet, her hair in disarray. Her chin and front of her tattered robes were covered in blood. Purple splotches could be seen in the areas she was stuck by the needles, proving that she was truly poisoned. She lifted her sword and closed her eyes. She needed an ability. An ability that would allow her to attack at long range. It was then that the image of Shi Yu's sword intent appeared in her head. Her ability to swing her sword and send out sword rays to attack her enemies.
*Wooosh!*
The air around Kana slowly began to change….