Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Sounds of collisions, explosions, and pained groans echoed out again for the next few days as John continued his hellish training with Lilian. John had lost count of how many healing pills he had consumed by now, and was starting to feel like a healing pill himself.
His body was aching in every location, and he felt as though he was on the edge of what he could handle. Even the hellish Celestial Lightning Script training wasn't so brutal.
Today was the final day of John's training, a fact which filled him with joy and elation. However, he still needed to get through the day, and Lilian seemed intent on making it the hardest day of training yet.
Each blow of hers was done with more force, as if she was trying to beat combat instincts into John forcefully. John's body cried out in protest with every blow, but he remained silent as he allowed the training to continue. Despite him not wanting to admit it, his combat prowess and instincts were once again growing at an incredible rate, and he found himself much more formidable than when he had started the training.
However, he would never admit to such a thing, and instead remained silent as he allowed his master to continue the training.
The wooden stick in Lilian's hands slashed towards his face, which John instinctively dodged and followed up with a counterattack. Unprepared for such a quick reaction, John's fist almost landed on Lilians waist, who raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Not bad!" Lilian said as her leg kicked out, slamming into John's side before his punch could connect. His body shot off to the ground below and slammed into it with great force, shaking the land and forming a small crater.
"But not quite good enough yet," Lilian continued as she stared down at John below.
He crawled out of the crater and stared at his master above. Every inch of his body ached with intense pain, but John ignored it as he prepared to fly back up to his master to continue their battle. If there was one thing he was confident in saying he was the best in his age group at, it was pain tolerance, half due to his own actions, and the other half due to his masters actions.
"That's enough," Lilian called out before he could resume their battle. "We're done with your training."
John paused as he stared at his master, slightly confused. This was the earliest she had ended their training, and he had also expected it to last for a few more days. However, he wasn't going to argue against it. The convoy that was to leave for the Honorable Alliance was to leave in a few days time, and he needed a few days to fully recover anyways.
"Rest up for the next few days. We leave in three days time," Lilian instructed as she turned around to leave.
"Wait," John called out. "Are you forgetting the last part of our training?"
"You were serious?" Lilian replied as she recalled the condition John made of unleashing one attack on her. She had agreed to take it head on unguarded, but even such a thing was futile.
While she couldn't actively guard against it, she was allowed to wrap herself with Qi, forming a protective shield. With her cultivation two major realms higher than Johns, this type of defense would be more than enough to negate any attack he could unleash on her.
"Yep," John replied.
"Fine, fine. Let's just get this over with," Lilian replied as she descended to the ground and landed a short distance away from John. "I suppose this will be a good training exercise as well. With this, you'll see just how weak you still are."
John smirked as he heard this comment from his master. He quickly dashed away from his master, his actions slightly confusing her. She had expected him to close the distance and try to land a surprise physical attack, as that was one of his strong points. However, John retreated and put nearly half a mile of distance between the two of them, surprising her as well as intriguing her.
"Alright, stop wasting my time and get this over with," Lilian called out to John as a sarcastic smirk appeared on her face. "Let's see where all this confidence comes from."
"Let's see you stay this smug in a few minutes," John called out.
He closed his eyes for a moment and calmed his mind, before his dantian began to surge with power. Lightning Qi began to swell within his dantian, growing denser and denser by the second as John started to channel his Dragontail Decimation.
Lilians head tilted slightly to the side as she gazed at John in the distance, curious as to what he was doing. However, the lightning Qi that began to leak out from his body eventually gave away what was going on.
"A channeled attack? Alright, let's see how strong you can make it."
Lilian knew John was not a War Mage, and didn't have innate channeling talents. However, all cultivators were still able to forcefully channel battle arts, just with less efficacy and more danger than a true War Mage.
Lilian watched patiently as John's attack continued to grow in power. Her eyebrow raised after thirty seconds, when his channeling still continued to grow.
"He's already channeled it for so long. Is this idiot risking his body and cultivation to channel the attack this much, or is he actually capable of controlling such an attack?" Lilian mused out loud as each second that passed by only furthered her surprise.
After a minute, the power emanating from John had grown to an immense level, and so had Lilian's surprise. However, this was not the end, as the power from John continued to grow at an incredible rate.
A minute and a half!
Two minutes!
After two and a half minutes, the power emanating from John had grown to an unreal level, vastly exceeding what even someone as experienced as Lilian thought possible. This attack had been channeled even longer than the one he had used on the Fire Falcon, as his experience from that attack furthered his insights into the battle art, and allowed him to use it better.
After two and a half minutes, John's eyes snapped open and immediately locked onto Lilian. A smirk appeared on his face for a moment as he could see the surprise on Lilians face, and his finger pointed to the sky directly above her head.
Dragontail Decimation!
John's face instantly paled as he unleashed the attack. A large lightning node appeared above Lilians head, causing her to look straight up. The lightning dragontail pierced out from the lightning node and slammed down onto her, as if a dragon itself had appeared.
Lilian's surprised face hardened slightly as the Qi protecting her body flared out with much greater power, greatly increasing the defensive strength surrounding her.
Boom!
The lightning tail struck directly onto her, and was immediately followed up by an incredible explosion. John shielded himself from the explosion as it washed over him, before his attention locked onto the location of his master.
The dust from the explosion faded, revealing Lilian standing at the epicenter of the attack. Her hair was frazzled, and a small amount of blood trickled down her face and her arms. Her cold eyes stared at him, which caused John to seize up for a moment.
The cold look on Lilian's face quickly faded away, as an impressed smile replaced it instead.
"Not bad at all," she called out to John.. "It seems as though you aren't truly useless after all."