Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai]
Chapter 52: Metal Dragon Art

Yeo landed across the arena from Jake. If he was perturbed by having to go up against the other boy, he showed no signs of it. He just raised his hands, egging on the crowd as he turned in a slow circle before he returned to face Jake, drawing his kusarigama from its place at his side.

Jake tapped the butt of his hammer against the ground, unwilling to make any more movement than necessary. If anything, he looked bored.

“For what it’s worth, I don’t get any sick sense of pleasure out of doing this,” Jake said. “You could have been so much more. Instead, you chose to be a disappointment. Just remember that.”

“Shut up,” Yeo replied. “This is who I am.”

“People change, Yeo,” Jake replied, grabbing his hammer with both hands and hoisting it into the air. “And, to quell your curiosity before it starts, there was a special request for me to go against you. This isn’t some freak coincidence.”

Yeo faltered, his confident expression flickering for just an instant before he plastered it back across his face. “All the better, then. There’s more than one way to the Essence of Metal, and I’ll prove it.”

“There are other ways,” Jake agreed. “But not yours.”

“It looks like these two fighters have some personal history!” Analise called, interrupting them. “That should make this fight all the more interesting. Let’s get to it without any further delays, then. Begin!”

“Metal Dragon Art: Twin Heads!” Links of metal erupted from within Yeo’s bag, trailing up his kusarigama and splitting off into a second one. Jake shook his head in disgust as the other boy pulled the two weapons apart, spinning them on either side.

“So damn flashy. So pointless,” Jake spat, twirling his hammer above his head. “Come on, then. I want this over with. It makes me sick.”

Yeo charged, his kusarigama whistling in the air around him. He leapt as he grew close to Jake and whipped his Kusarigama forward, scoring their blades across the other boy’s armor. They screeched as they ran along the metal, but the strike did little more than scratch Jake’s defenses.

Jake extended a hand, thrusting it into the path of the spinning chains. One of Yeo’s weapons snapped around his hand, entangled. He yanked, pulling Yeo off balance and driving his fist into his face.

Yeo rolled with the blow, flicking his weapon to free it from Jake’s body as he came back up. Blood trickled down his nose, but it didn’t look like he’d even noticed. He unleashed a flurry of rapidfire blows against Jake, each one leaving a new scar on the other boy’s armor.

Still, not a single one of them got through. In retaliation, Jake took precise, calculated strikes, only moving when he needed to. If Yeo was a determined termite, Jake was a mighty tree.

A hammer blow caught Yeo in the chest, throwing him across the ground and knocking one of the kusarigama from his hands. He staggered to his feet, clutching his side as he rose, then gritted his teeth.

The kusarigama flew back into his hand, and he spun them both to get momentum back before charging Jake again. The other boy reared back, allowing Yeo to strike him several times before his hammer flashed.

Yeo managed to avoid the blow, but Jake spun and unleased a second one, nearly catching him in the head. The nimble boy managed to lean back, but Jake followed the motion and clipped him in the arm with the continued attack.

The force of the blow tossed Yeo again. This time, Jake stamped on the kusarigama’s chain as it rattled through the air, slamming it to the ground. Yeo jerked to a halt on the ground, refusing to release his grip on the weapon.

“Learn already!” Jake brought his hammer down on the chain, shattering it. “This damn obsession is why father gave up on you, Yeo. Give. It. Up.”

Yeo staggered to his feet, one of his arms hanging out of socket. He grabbed it and shoved back into its place with a pop, not breaking eye contact the entire time. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ɴøᴠel Fɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“He’ll come around.”

“No, Yeo. He won’t,” Jake replied, grinding the chain beneath his metal-clad boot. “You’re a failure. He gave you everything he could afford to become a powerful cultivator. You chose to be this instead. Look at yourself.”

“I followed my Essence,” Yeo snarled.

“You followed a delusion. That’s why Father gave up on you. You’re a failed cultivator and a failed son. Imagine what I could have done if I had half of what Father gave you. Luckily, my talent makes up for your shortcomings. He still got the cultivator he always wanted, and I got left to pick up the scraps that you left behind.”

“You don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Yeo spun his kusarigama and charged Jake. “And he hasn’t abandoned me. I’m just seeking my own path for a little.”

The other boy swung his hammer and Yeo vaulted, stepping off of it and flipping over Jake’s head. He hooked his kusarigama beneath Jake’s helmet and yanked, ripping it off and throwing it to the sand.

He landed, spinning to capitalize on the attack, but a blur of metal flashed through the air, carving a line of blood across Yeo’s head as he threw himself back at the last second. Yeo scrambled across the ground and back to his feet as Jake turned to face him.

The head of Jake’s hammer had split to reveal a long, jagged point that had been nestled within it. Faint glimmers of light ran along the hilt of the weapon, curling around Jake’s hands and hissing as it touched the air.

Yeo’s eyes went wide, and his grip on his kusarigama loosened. “Dad’s spear.”

“That’s right,” Jake said, pointing the spear at Yeo. “He gave it to me, Yeo. And do you want to know what he said when he did? ‘Make something of yourself. At least I can have one son to be proud of.’ He’s done with you, Yeo. No more wasted time. No more dreams. It’s time to face reality.”

Yeo’s hands trembled and his lips pressed together. Then his eyes narrowed, and he rose to his feet, pulling the kusarigama up with him. Jake shook his head.

“Father will be proud, at least. At least one of us turned out to be something. Since is the last time you’ll ever see it, how about I show you the technique that he taught me?”

Jake changed his stance, aiming the spear at Yeo. Then he blurred, a line of light tracing through the air. Yeo leapt back, but Jake followed after him with surprising speed. Several flashes lit the arena and blood sprayed across the ground as half a dozen lines carved across Yeo, cutting through his leather armor.

Yeo stumbled, several gaping wounds seeping blood all over him. They were all deep enough to be fatal if left untreated for more than a few minutes. Jake spat on the ground and spun away as Yeo’s kusarigama slipped from his fingers and coiled to the ground.

“This fight is over,” Jake said. “He can’t continue.”

Yeo’s trembling lips opened. “Blood Demon Art: Stitching.”

Jake paused, not even looking back at Yeo. “Are you just making shit up now, Yeo? If all you’re ever going to do is lose, you could at least do it with some dignity.”

The blood pouring from Yeo’s body started to slow. A faint hum emanated from his body as tiny tendrils shot through him, pulling the wounds covering him shut. They hadn’t been healed – they’d simply been stitched shut. Yeo drew a shuddering breath, then let it out.

He reached down, wrapping his fingers around the hilt of his kusarigama, and started to spin it slowly in the air beside him.

“Turn around, Jake,” Yeo said.

Jake turned, surprise washing over his face when he saw the other boy whole, the wounds closed. The surprise quickly faded, and he pointed the spear at him again.

“Idiot. Giving fancy names to basic techniques. That won’t stop you from bleeding out internally. It’s just a surface fix. You might actually die if the healers don’t get to you.”

“They can get to me when I’m done here,” Yeo replied, spinning his kusarigama faster. “But I won’t have my debut ruined. It’s just gotten exciting.”

“If you want me to break you so badly, I will.” Jake charged Yeo with a roar.

Yeo flicked a blade at Jake, who deflected it. It spun off, thunking into the wall of the arena with surprising force.

“Metal Dragon Art: Executioner!” Metal poured down Yeo’s kusarigama and the blade at its head grew larger and heavier. He swung it toward Jake, putting all the force he could behind the blow.

Jake raised one hand as the tip of his spear shimmered with a silvery light. Yeo’s kusarigama struck his hand and, with a loud crash, shattered into thousands of fragments that rained across him.

At the same time, Jake’s spear punched into Yeo’s chest. Bands of light ballooned out of it, erupting from Yeo’s back as half a dozen new wounds opened up, these ones even deeper than the last. Jake ripped his spear free. He took a step back, then paused.

The screen zoomed in on Yeo’s wounds. Countless strands of metal shot out within his body and the wounds pulled themselves shut again. This time, it was abundantly clear that every single part of his body was being reconnected, not just his skin.

“That isn’t possible. You’re stitching your organs back together?” Jake asked. “There’s no way you can do that. It’s too precise. Metal Essence can’t–”

“Not yours,” Yeo agreed, pulling his arm down.

Jake’s arms were yanked into the air as dozens of tiny metal threads materialized around them, running up to the blade stuck in the arena wall and then back down to Yeo’s hand.

“Oops,” Yeo said. “Did I say Executioner? I meant Puppetmaster.”

Jake’s hands lifted higher into the air. The other boy struggled, trying to pull himself free, but the dozens of scratches that Yeo had carved into his armor made great grips for the thin strands. The spear slipped from his grip as it was forced open, and Yeo grabbed the weapon before it could hit the ground.

For a moment, Yeo studied the spear. Then his eyes narrowed. He tossed it to the ground and extended his hand. Links of chain flew from his pouch, forming into a kusarigama. The metal threads holding Jake’s hands up tightened, starting to cut into his armor from his repeated struggling.

“That’s the thing,” Yeo said, raising the kusarigama. “With enough time and effort, your impenetrable defense really isn’t all that impenetrable. You can keep father’s spear. I don’t need it.”

He whipped his hand forward, bringing the hilt of the kusarigama down on Jake’s head with all the force he could muster. The strike snapped the boy’s head back, and his body went limp, still suspended in the air by the metal threads. Yeo stared at him, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths as seconds ticked by.

The arena had gone silent for the last part of their fight, as if everyone were holding their breath to see which of the two would come out victorious. Evidently, the proctors had too. But, after several more seconds passed, Analise’s voice crackled to life.

“Three is incapacitated and unable to continue the fight! Ninety-two takes the victory over three in a complete upset! What an incredible fight, folks!”

A roar filled the arena, louder than it had been for any of the previous fights. Yeo’s strands unraveled, turning back to tiny fragments of metal and plinking to the ground as he staggered, dozens of wounds carving themselves back across his body.

Two cultivators flashed down to the stage, each forcing a healing pill into one of the boys’ mouths. Yeo swallowed his, blood still trickling down his lips, and raised a closed fist in victory. Then, wounds weeping even as the pill worked to heal them, he pitched backward and fell unconscious.

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