Wood once again struck John on the face, knocking him backwards once more. John grumbled in pain once more, but he quickly looked back towards the Vice-Sect Leader after regaining his balance.
A frown appeared on the Vice-Sect Leader's face as she stared at John. Her eyes trailed downwards, and stared at her waist. Her spotless white and gold robe now had a small patch of dirt, where John's fist had barely managed to land in time before being struck himself.
Her vision trailed back upwards towards John, her face showing slight displeasure.
"Hey now," John said out loud as he took one step back. "You're the one who said to hit you, don't blame me for following your instructions."
His face was feigning panic, but the Vice-Sect Leader could see his true emotions of victory and elation beneath. She scoffed at him.
"Hmph, not bad. I suppose you're a quicker learner than I had expected," the Vice-Sect Leader replied. "You've realized that not only is your aura a source of trouble, so are your natural body movements. Only by controlling both to their utmost can you make sure your enemies cannot read your moves."
The Vice-Sect Leader paused for a moment before continuing.
"Your aura concealment talents are incredible, and will be something we work with in the near future. However, concealing your aura in battle is not a viable option. When aura explodes from your body, it's because your battle state is at a level that your body can no longer contain within, and so some of your aura naturally escapes. By concealing your aura, you are suppressing yourself to a weaker battle state. This is quite useful for things like assassination arts, where one explosive attack is all you need, but is quite useless for things like drawn out battle," she explained.
John nodded his head in agreement at her words.
"As for your natural body movements, they are still there, but are harder to read now that you're aware of them. You must continue to work on this in the future, and must also learn to read the movements of your opponents. Only when you achieve this will you have the greatest advantage in battle."
John once again nodded his head in agreement. He had never read his opponents moves, as he was unaware of such a thing. Now however, he would be on the lookout for any and all avenues he could exploit for an advantage in battle.
While thinking of this, John suddenly noticed the expression on the Vice-Sect Leader's face darken. She stared at the dirty patch on her robe, before once again looking up at John.
"However, this…"
John suddenly lost sight of the Vice-Sect Leader, and a powerful force crashed into his back from behind. His bones creaked from the impact, and he nearly coughed up blood.
"Gah!"
John cried out in surprised pain as his body was knocked hundreds of yards into the distance from the powerful blow. He toppled off the mountain, and began to fall down its sides, knocking over towering trees as his body crashed through them.
Loud echoes filled the valleys beneath the mountain as John's body slammed into the trees, uprooting them completely. He finally managed to catch his balance, and stopped his momentum halfway down the mountainside.
Anger appeared on his face as he took out his battle axe once more and flew up towards the top of the mountain. He quickly reached its summit, and saw the Vice-Sect Leader standing there, staring at him with an amused smile.
"Fuck you, you crazy wench!"
Supreme Battle Art!
Sky Sundering Axe!
John instantly unleashed his powerful axe battle art, sending a powerful battle axe image slamming down on the Vice-Sect Leader below.
Sky Sundering Axe!
Sky Sundering Axe!
He instantly unleashed more Sky Sundering Axes, which all slammed on the position where the Vice-Sect Leader was standing. The mountain began to shake from the incredible attacks, as earth was flung up high into the sky.
In his state of pure anger, John for some reason remembered his friend Ryan, and his abilities as a War Mage. Perhaps it was a fleeting memory out of nowhere, or his subconscious telling him something, but John followed his instincts and pointed towards the Vice-Sect Leader.
Lightning began to dance over his hand as he began to channel his Lightning Ruin. However, instead of releasing it right away, John continued to allow the lightning Qi to build up within his dantian and body.
The Qi reached an incredibly dense, as well as dangerous level, before long as it continued to build up within him. John's face began to turn red, and his body felt like it was beginning to explode from within. However, he used his potent Qi from his incredibly powerful dantian to suppress the energy from losing control and destroying his body from within.
His meridians began to stretch and strain from the immense Qi circulating within, nearly reaching their breaking point. However, John continued to push forward, pushing his body to its limits.
The dust and dirt kicked up by John's attacks faded away, revealing the Vice-Sect Leader standing there unharmed. She looked up towards John, her face a mixture of more amusement, as well as expectation.
After reaching the point where John felt like his body was about to explode from within, John unleashed everything. He braced his outstretched arm with his other, preparing to unleash his attack.
"Eat Shit!"
BANG!
His arm suddenly recoiled backwards from the power of the attack as an incredible beam of lightning, many times thicker and stronger than his normal Lightning Ruin, exploded out of his finger and pierced towards the Vice-Sect Leader. The mountainside lit up brightly as the lightning exploded onto it where the Vice-Sect Leader was standing.
BOOM!
The mountainside exploded beneath John's attack, as a large portion of the mountaintop was destroyed. Large boulders of earth the size of houses rained down on the valley below, as the mountaintop was reduced to rubble.
Thousands of sect members in the valleys below stared up at the scene above them, as they watched an entire mountaintop be destroyed. The weaker members ran for cover as the boulders began to rain down on them, while others unleashed battle arts to destroy the falling dangers.
The explosion and dust eventually faded, fully revealing the scene of destruction to John. The smooth mountaintop on which they had trained was no more, and was now mostly destroyed and completely charred. His eyes quickly darted around to find the Vice-Sect Leader as he came back to his senses.
"Where is she?"
John finally realized that in his moment of anger, he had gone overboard.
'I should leave!'
A hand suddenly gripped his shoulder, the fingers digging deep into his flesh.
"Right here," a chilling voice filled his ears from behind.