Chapter 173 The Gap Between Stages

Chapter 173: Chapter 174: The Gap Between Stages

The pressure kept rising.

It pressed on Daniel’s shoulders like a hand made of mountain. His knees shook. His ears rang. His Keen Sense, which had been pinging all morning like a tiny alarm bell, had gone completely silent, as if it had decided that screaming would be rude.

Beside him, Lyra’s pistols slipped from her fingers and clattered on the stone. Paul had gone down on both knees, hands pressed against the ground, wind flickering around his fingers like a candle in a storm. Brick Head sat in the dirt with his mouth open, apparently under the impression that this was a game.

Only Long Tian stood easily at the center of it all, hands loose at his sides, golden light flickering around his armor like a banked fire.

"Stage three," Long Tian said pleasantly. "Fascinating. You’re a whole realm beneath me, and yet you’re still standing."

"I’m not standing," Daniel said through his teeth. "I’m leaning very hard."

"A technicality."

"Technicalities are my favorite kind of law."

"So I’ve heard." Long Tian tilted his head. "Do you want to know what stage four feels like?"

"Heavy?"

"That is only the beginning."

He lifted one finger. The pressure doubled.

The ground cracked under Daniel’s boots. Something in his chest creaked ominously. For one terrifying heartbeat, he thought his ribs might simply fold inward, and he saw the clean gold line of Long Tian’s smile hanging over everything like a moon.

Boring, Daniel told himself fiercely. This is boring. I am a boring man being pressed by a boring rock.

It wasn’t working. The weight was real. But somewhere beneath the terror, a small, stubborn voice in his head said: He isn’t pressing Su Wan.

Daniel risked a glance.

Su Wan stood white-faced in the middle of the circle, rigid as a statue, but she was upright. The pressure that was flattening his friends broke around her like water around a stone.

He’s not aiming it at her. He’s aiming it at us.

A cold, clean idea slid into place in his mind.

You can’t aim something at what you can’t see.

"System," Daniel whispered. "Class change. Shadow Scout."

[Class Change: Shadow Scout]

The world shifted. His Keen Sense came back online like a lamp being relit, and a quiet, clear pulse ran through his body as the skills of his bonded class settled into his hands.

He took a breath, slowly, through his nose.

"Shadow Step," he said.

[Skill activated: Shadow Step. Duration: 10 seconds. Cost: 5 MP.]

The shadows folded around him like a cloak. His outline blurred, his body dimmed, and the pressure on his shoulders eased, just slightly, as if the weight of Long Tian’s attention had slid right through him. Long Tian’s pleasant smile stayed fixed on the spot where Daniel had been, but his eyes narrowed. He was searching.

Daniel stood up.

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever done. His knees quivered. His ribs screamed. But he stood, and nobody was looking.

"There," he muttered. "Now I’m tall."

Eight seconds left.

He drew a breath.

"Blink."

---

POV Switch: Su Wan

Su Wan saw it before Long Tian did.

She had been trained to watch the edges of a fight, the gaps in a stance, the small unguarded moment between breath and strike. And she saw the air behind Long Tian ripple, just slightly, like heat above a road.

Then Daniel Black appeared out of nothing, two paces behind the heir of the Golden Dragon Clan, with his fist already cocked back.

Her breath stopped in her throat.

He’s going to hit him.

He is actually going to hit him.

Daniel’s face was a mask of focus, pale and sweating, with the manic grin of someone who had just made a terrible decision and was thrilled by it. His arm drove forward, every muscle in his shoulder coiling, and the fist connected with Long Tian’s armored back like a battering ram.

The sound was extraordinary.

It cracked across the gorge, deep and bright, like a bell struck with a hammer. Long Tian flew forward, off his feet, across five meters of open ground, and hit the stone floor on his shoulder. He skidded, rolled, and came up in a low crouch with his golden hair in his eyes.

One of his pauldrons had split down the middle.

A thin line of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

The pressure vanished.

It simply went out like a blown candle. Lyra gasped and caught her breath. Paul fell flat on his face, coughing. Brick Head clapped slowly, delighted.

Nobody in the gorge said a word.

Long Tian touched his lip with two gloved fingers and looked at the red smear on his glove.

He had not been bled in years. She knew, because she had watched him train every day since she was ten years old. In ten years, she had never seen anyone draw blood from Long Tian Zhao.

And Daniel, who was standing there panting with a crooked grin and one hand clutching his ribs, said:

"Hi. Again."

---

POV Switch: Daniel

Daniel had perhaps four seconds to enjoy it.

Long Tian rose slowly. The smile had vanished from his face. In its place was something much worse, a kind of pure, curious attention, as if Daniel had turned from an insect into something that might actually be dangerous.

"Interesting," Long Tian said softly. "You hide in shadows. You teleport. You strike like a stage-three beast with the weight of a boulder behind it." His eyes narrowed. "What are you?"

"Seventh place," said Daniel. "Napper."

"A comedian."

"A comedian with a very sore hand." He shook it out. It felt like he had punched a mountain, and he was fairly sure two knuckles were cracked.

Long Tian lifted his right hand.

Light gathered in his palm, gold as the sun at noon, so bright that Daniel had to squint. It condensed, spun, and flattened into a disc the size of a dinner plate, humming with a high, terrible note.

"That one," Lyra said hoarsely, "is going to hurt."

"I’m aware."

"Can you dodge it?"

"I have about two hundred and ninety-five mana," Daniel said. "I can dodge it eighteen times."

"Then dodge it eighteen times!"

"That’s the plan."

"It’s a terrible plan!"

"It has a lot of character!"

The disc screamed out of Long Tian’s palm.

Daniel blinked.

He reappeared fifteen meters to the left, on top of a boulder, and the disc tore through the place where he had been. Stone exploded behind him. A cloud of dust boiled up. He felt the heat of it on his cheek.

[Mana: 295 → 285]

"Eighteen," Daniel muttered, "just got seventeen."

Long Tian was already moving.

He crossed the gap in a golden streak, faster than Daniel’s eyes could follow, and the second disc came out of nowhere. Daniel blinked again, ten meters up, and landed on the arch of Gate Five. Behind him, the arch cracked.

[Mana: 285 → 275]

The third disc nearly took his head off. He felt it part his hair. He blinked, again, to the far side of the road.

[Mana: 275 → 265]

"He’s too fast!" Paul shouted, struggling to his feet. "Daniel, he’s just toying with you!"

"I KNOW!"

"Then DO something!"

Daniel grabbed both pistols from his belt. He had no good idea. He had maybe two seconds before the next strike. His mind was spinning.

You can’t beat him in power. You can’t outrun him. What can you do?

"Sure Shot," he said.

[Skill activated: Sure Shot. Next shot will not miss.]

He fired.

The bullet shot across the gap in a bright, flat line, and Long Tian, who was mid-stride, didn’t even bother to dodge it. He raised a golden hand. The bullet struck the shield of light around his palm and burst like a soap bubble.

"Is that all?" Long Tian called, with real, hungry curiosity.

"No," said Daniel. "That was a distraction."

"A what?"

Daniel pointed his second pistol at the ceiling of the gorge, at the point where Gate Five’s cracked arch hung above Long Tian’s head, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet punched into the keystone.

For one long, silent heartbeat, nothing happened.

Then the stone began to creak.

"You wouldn’t," Long Tian said.

"I’m sorry, I thought we were being honest here," Daniel said. "I would."

The cracked arch gave way.

Three tons of stone came down in a roaring avalanche of dust and thunder. Long Tian vaulted back out of the way, golden light flaring, and the collapsing arch landed exactly where he had stood a heartbeat earlier. A cloud of grey boiled up. Rubble rolled across the road.

When the dust cleared, a ten-meter wall of rock lay across the path.

And on the other side of it, on the sixth gate’s side of the gorge, Daniel stood next to Su Wan with a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on," he said. "We’re leaving."

She stared at him. "You *blinked* me?"

"Don’t think of it as kidnapping. Think of it as dinner delivery."

"I will kill you."

"There’s a rule against that."

"I’m going to find a loophole."

"Daniel!" Lyra’s voice came through the dust, thin and furious. "That’s not fair! You can’t just leave us on the other side!"

"I’ll come back for you!"

"We can climb it!"

"Then climb it fast!"

From beyond the rubble came a long, slow, rolling laugh. It was not a pleasant sound.

"Clever," Long Tian said. His voice carried through the dust, close and conversational. "A trick. A silly, childish, delightful trick."

The rock wall began to glow.

Gold light bled through the cracks, and the whole barrier trembled. A palm print, huge and blazing, pressed itself into the stone from the other side.

"But tricks," said Long Tian, "do not stop a realm."

The wall exploded.

---

POV Switch: Brick Head

Brick Head did not like loud noises.

When the big rock exploded, he put his hands over his ears, and when he took them off, everyone was shouting and Daniel was lying on the ground with dust on his face and the pretty golden man was walking toward him with his hand glowing like the sun.

"Hurt Daniel," Brick Head said to himself, slowly. "He’s going to hurt Daniel."

He didn’t know much about fights. He knew that Daniel was his friend, and friends didn’t let other people hurt friends.

But he also knew he wasn’t fast enough. He wasn’t smart enough. He was just big.

So he did the only thing he could think of.

He turned around and looked at the bear.

It was standing in the middle of the road, patient as a mountain, the amber crystal in its chest glowing gently in the dust. Su Wan’s black cloak still lay across its shoulder like a shawl.

"Please," Brick Head said. "Please help Daniel."

The bear looked at him.

Then, very slowly, it looked at the golden man.

---

POV Switch: Daniel

Daniel had maybe one breath to live.

He lay on his back in the rubble with his ears ringing and a golden palm swelling above him, bright as a second sun. He couldn’t feel his left arm. His mana was at two hundred and sixty. He could Blink. He could probably Blink once, twice more.

But the palm was too big. Too fast. And Lyra and Paul and Brick Head were all within its range.

He opened his mouth to say something clever, because it seemed rude to die quietly.

A shadow fell across him.

It was enormous and cool, and it smelled like wet stone and old moss. It dropped between Daniel and Long Tian like a mountain stepping into a doorway.

The stone bear.

It stood with its legs braced, its chest cracked and glowing, its eyes fixed on Long Tian with an old, patient, terrible calm. A rumble rolled up from somewhere deep in its throat.

It did not look angry. It looked like a mother who had seen enough.

"Move," Long Tian said. "Guardian."

The bear did not move.

"The gate is open. You are free. I am not your enemy."

The bear took one slow step forward.

Long Tian’s palm hesitated.

"FORCE AGAINST THE FREED GUARDIAN," said a voice like a bell. "VIOLATION. EXAMINER DISPATCHED."

The air above the fallen arch rippled, and a thin, grey-robed man stepped out of nothing, a silver star on his badge. He looked at the rubble, the bear, the golden palm, and sighed like a man who had been called away from tea.

"Participant Long Tian Zhao," he said. "I am obliged to remind you that striking a freed Guardian of the Gorge is a violation of the second test. Offenders are disqualified. The penalty is immediate."

Long Tian lowered his hand slowly. The golden light faded from his palm.

"A misunderstanding," he said.

"Then I suggest you clear it up," said the examiner, "by proceeding to the sixth gate. At once."

For a long moment, Long Tian did not move.

His gaze slid from the examiner to the bear, from the bear to Daniel, and then, finally, to Su Wan. She had not moved from where Daniel had set her down. Her face was white and perfectly blank.

"I will see you at the end of the gorge," Long Tian said, very softly. "You have until then to decide, Su Wan. Come to me willingly, or the clan will remind you what you owe."

He turned.

He walked past the examiner without another glance, golden light flickering at his heels, and vanished into the mist like a candle snuffed out. His footsteps faded and were gone.

The examiner looked down at Daniel. Daniel looked up at him.

"Seventh place," the man said dryly. "Napper."

"That’s me."

"Elder Jian has asked me to tell you that he wishes to speak with you after the test."

Daniel’s stomach dropped. "Is that good?"

"It is not my place to say." The corner of the examiner’s mouth twitched. "Congratulations on breaking a gate. I believe you are the first in forty years."

He vanished.

Silence rolled over the gorge.

Slowly, Daniel sat up. His ribs ached. His hand was swollen like a loaf. Lyra reached him first, dropping to her knees beside him with her face pale and her eyes bright, and punched him in the shoulder, hard.

"OW."

"You idiot!" she hissed. "You absolute idiot! You *dropped an arch on him*!"

"It worked!"

"He could have killed you!"

"There’s a rule against that."

"He was going to do it *anyway*!" Her voice cracked. She hit him again, softer this time, then pressed her forehead against his shoulder and stayed there, breathing hard. "Don’t do that again."

Daniel patted her back awkwardly with his good hand.

"I can’t promise that."

"Try."

"I’ll try."

"Liar."

"Mostly."

She laughed, a wet, shaky sound, and sat back to wipe her eyes. Paul had come up behind her with a handkerchief and a long-suffering expression. Brick Head stood a little way off, with one hand on the stone bear’s flank, whispering something to it.

Su Wan had not moved.

She stood by the ruined arch with her arms at her sides and her face turned toward the empty mist where Long Tian had gone. Her braid hung loose over one shoulder. She looked very small.

Daniel got to his feet slowly, wincing.

"Hey," he said.

She did not turn around.

"I’m not going to apologize for the arch."

"I did not ask you to."

"And I’m not going to tell you what to do about him." He kept his voice low. "But if you want to walk the rest of this gorge with us, you’re welcome to."

"And what do I give you in return?"

"Nothing."

She turned, finally, and stared at him. "That’s not how it works."

"It is with us."

"Everything has a price."

"Not dinner." He gave her a small crooked grin. "Dinner is free."

She stared at him for a very long time, and he could see her trying to find the hook in it, the chain, the catch. She did not find one.

"I will walk with you," Su Wan said at last, stiffly, "until the end of this gorge. Nothing more."

"Understood."

"I am not part of your group."

"Of course."

"I will still kill you someday."

"I wouldn’t expect anything less."

She turned and walked toward the sixth gate, her back straight as a blade, and Daniel watched the screen drift up in front of his eyes.

[Affection Level: Su Wan: -22%]

He closed it without reading the rest, and followed her into the mist.

[ Yo reader’s...I just want to let you know that Daniel could have taken that guy down no problem....but he didn’t since he didn’t want to show his full strength]