The Almighty Ring

“Die, Bison!” Rufus roared. The shock from seeing a living person being killed in such a horrendous manner was still fresh. Perhaps, the only way Rufus could forget about it was by killing Bison.

“It’s not going to be that easy!” Bison bellowed. He shot back to his feet, his stance was extremely overwhelming. He stood still, glaring at the incoming Rufus.

Rufus was shaken to the core, and when he saw how confident as well as dignified Bison was, he froze. He failed to understand how he, a powerful leader with a combat level of over 9,000,000, was scared stiff by a severely weakened opponent who only measured a little over 4,000,000.

Like a deer in headlights, T’syai remained stationary, shivering because of fear. Be it to Abel’s gruesome death, or how Bison exuded formidability just by standing stoically, or even how Rufus was shaken to the core, T’syai could not react. His mind was now flooded with only one emotion: fear.

Bison stomped his way forward, and with a perfectly angled thrust, he tossed out a punch.

“Oof!”

Rufus gasped at the sight of Bison being knocked back by a simple, desperate attempt to block his punch.

“What the…”

Rufus could not understand what had just happened. Bison’s punch was so weak that it failed to even penetrate a basic energy barrier.

Bison had suffered from severe damage when he was blown away with a simple push. When Bison finally spat out a mouthful of blood, Rufus understood what had transpired. He stopped shaking and started laughing.

“I see now, Bison. You are on your deathbed now. Hah! To think that I fell into your trap! Such a trick! Bravo!” Rufus laughed as he said. Bison was truly drawing close to his last breath. Even though the punch was delivered from a perfect angle, it was just for show. If Bison were still strong as before, that punch would have been lethal. To think that Bison could still pull a trick like that even on his last breath… That made Rufus laugh at himself!

Bison was, to put it simply, going to die. The damage he had sustained from the current and previous fight with Jiang Fei was too much for him. He was still able to live now, but without an armor like Jiang Fei’s, a single punch, even an unpowered one, would end his life.

“I’m going to kill you now. If you want to get up to more tricks and tomfoolery, you best present it now!” Rufus snorted as he cracked his knuckles, slowly walking closer to Bison.

Bison was too weak to even lift his fingers right then. All he could do was look up at Rufus when Rufus finally stood right next to him, staring down.

“Didn’t you say something… Killing you wasn’t going to be that easy? I’ll show you how easy it can be!” Rufus snorted, lifting his leg up to show how he was going to stomp on Bison’s face.

To be fair, it was only an act. Rufus was embarrassed when he had been scared by a mere pose, and he was merely acting tough to reclaim his lost pride.

“Heh!” Rufus scoffed before he cracked the most sinister smile. Instead of merely dropping his feet on Bison’s head, he charged up his fist and held it high before dropping it down at supersonic speed. That was everything Rufus could do; he poured everything he had into the punch to deal the final killing blow. If it hit its target, Bison would die or sustain lethal damage, which he would die from later.

Thump.

When the metaphorical iron fist dropped from above, it stopped abruptly a few inches from Bison’s forehead.

Both Rufus and Bison were in a state of shock. The only difference was the cause. Rufus was in great pain while Bison was surprised. Not a second later, Rufus pulled away, groaning in great pain as blood was spilling from his fist.

There was a flicker of light, and only then did Bison realize that a shield had been conjured around him. The shield was incredibly strong, so strong that even though Rufus landed a punch with everything behind it, it failed to make a dent on it.

“You’re right about one thing: killing Bison isn’t going to be easy!” a voice rang from behind, and it belonged to someone Bison was incredibly glad to hear from.

“Am I hallucinating?” Bison asked himself when he got to his feet and saw the face of his previous opponent, smiling in a carefree manner while waltzing over to his side.

“My lord! You’re alive?!” Kaa’lna gasped, failing to hold back her voice.

“Why did you save me?” Bison asked bluntly. He was unable to accept the outcome; Jiang Fei was alive, and he had saved him from certain death.

“Who are you?!” Rufus roared. Just then, he wanted to retreat to his army and seek help from his comrade. He had seen how T’syai was rendered motionless. His eyes could no longer focus, so clearly, something had been done to him.

“Save you? Ah! Right, two reasons actually,” said Jiang Fei, pausing for dramatic effect.

“You’ve been a great help in stalling the fight. My soldiers were all unarmed because of you. Secondly…” Jiang Fei continued but paused again as he turned to look Bison directly, ignoring the still stunned Rufus behind them.

“Want to join me?” Jiang Fei asked simply.

Bison widened his gaze, but after only one second, Bison laughed loudly for a while.

“You are an interesting one!”

“That’s the word on the street!” Jiang Fei said, smiling innocently.

“Fine!” Bison bellowed.

“I will join you! And if you help me kill both T’syai and Rufus, I will even bend the knee!” Bison said, smiling happily.

As a Decronian, Bison would only show respect to those with power and strength. It was not strange for them to bow their heads to anyone stronger than them. In this case, Jiang Fei had yet to prove himself since technically, he had not defeated Bison in a fair match. That was why Bison had requested Jiang Fei to kill T’syai and Rufus. Even though it was a request for assistance, Bison treated it as a means for Jiang Fei to prove himself. No matter the method, as long as Jiang Fei achieved the desired outcome, Bison would gladly surrender.

“I accept that deal!” Jiang Fei howled. Within a second, Jiang Fei flashed away from Bison and reappeared in front of the unmoving T’syai. He placed his hands on his forehead and injected molded energy into his body. When T’syai realized what Jiang Fei was about to do, he tried to block the mental energy that Jiang Fei surgically injected into his head but failed.

“Don’t fight it. It’ll only make it worse,” Jiang Fei said as he brought himself closer to his face.

Even so, T’syai struggled against it. While his body was not listening to his commands, he still tried to flush out the foreign energy that was invading his body. However, as Jiang Fei warned, the energy within T’syai body wreaked havoc. In just a few seconds, T’syai’s internal organs were ruptured. Just as T’syai was about to flush out Jiang Fei’s energy, he sustained further damage on the inside and collapsed both mentally as well as physically.

When he was on his knees, Jiang Fei placed both his hands on his head and injected an amount of psychic energy so refined that T’syai’s mind was wiped cleaned before he even realized what it was going to do to him. It was a skill that Theon had taught Jiang Fei: the Mind Wipe. It was an incredibly powerful skill, which eliminated an opponent’s consciousness, and it required specific conditions. Jiang Fei would need to be physically close to his opponent, in contact preferably, and inject a refined wave of psychic energy for three seconds at least, depending on the type of being. Three seconds was for the general masses, more if the opponent was stronger. On a battlefield, realistically speaking, would an opponent allow you to inject energy into his or her body for three seconds?

Jiang Fei had only gained the opportunity to use the skill because T’syai himself was momentarily stunned for a brief second, granting Jiang Fei a wide enough opening to attack with a psychic assault. Once Jiang Fei had successfully paralyzed him, he was frozen again, which opened himself up to further attacks. Rufus, on the other hand, feared an opponent he could not understand, granting Jiang Fei even more breathing room to execute the skill properly.

Although both Rufus and T’syai were both Valsalrian, they had their own ideals and experiences. When Jiang Fei appeared out of the blue and stunned T’syai in just one second, it made Rufus fear him. It was the fear of the unknown, the fear of what Jiang Fei would do to him next. He had heard the conversation between Jiang Fei and Bison. Jiang Fei had promised to help Bison kill both T’syai and Rufus. Now that T’syai was taken care of, it was his turn…

“He’s all yours,” Jiang Fei shouted as he tossed T’syai, now a body voided of a mind.

Jiang Fei had promised Bison that he would help him kill Rufus and T’syai, but since he was bound to the absolute no-killing rule, Jiang Fei chose to use Mind Wipe instead. Technically speaking, T’syai was still alive but living without a soul. Jiang Fei was playing with fire since wiping a person’s mind was similar to killing a person. However, Theon’s no-killing rule was only to prevent Jiang Fei from belittling other lifeforms and becoming a madman. That was Theon’s absolute rule. It was to distance themselves from the ideal of the strong and differentiate themselves from the brute as well as the cruel. Killing was inevitable if Jiang Fei wanted to stand on the same level as Theon, but killing without purpose would always put him amongst the evil.

“A man of your word! Thank you!” Bison said. Even though Jiang Fei did not kill T’syai, he had recognized Jiang Fei’s strength and considered the condition met. He acknowledged that Jiang Fei’s true power lay not in physical strength but in his psychic power. If he had resorted to using it earlier during his fight with Bison, Jiang Fei would have defeated him easily without sustaining a single scratch!