Poison God's Heritage

First things first, I placed my hand on my side and found something pretty annoying.

"Where are my things?" I muttered.

"You have died. No dead man can bring anything from the mortal world here, or have you forgotten?" the being said, its voice echoing like a distant thunderclap in a cavernous void.

I sighed and switched instantly to a fighting stance. The cold, eerie floor beneath me seemed to pulse with a dark energy, and the shadows along the jagged walls flickered like restless phantoms.

"One without names, you have a flexible mindset. Many unlike you would be conscious about their lack of weapons; however, you seem more malleable to such a loss," the being remarked, its words slithering around me like a creeping fog.

"To be honest, I have a pretty good feeling that none of those weapons I had with me would serve me any good here. And I never needed them. I made them because they make striding through life easier; they're not crutches for me to rely on," I said, my voice steady but my mind sharp, calculating.

The being's lips curled into a grin, revealing jagged teeth that glistened like freshly drawn blades. "Indeed, they would have served you little to no good, the same as they did to those that had come before you—men who begged for their prized possessions, only to die shortly after."

I glanced around, the flickering torches along the walls casting distorted shadows that seemed to move with a will of their own. The walls themselves depicted gruesome scenes: warriors impaled on their own weapons, bodies broken and twisted in final moments of despair. Each painted face seemed to scream silently, their wide eyes a testament to the horrors they faced.

I'd rather not have my own weapon be the thing that kills me.

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I shifted my stance, lowering my center of gravity, and entered the Fist of Roaring Ki's initial stance. One arm tucked under my chest, the other pointed forward in a tiger claw. My legs spread shoulder-width apart with a slight squat, ready to spring.

"Good," the being hissed, its voice a low rumble that vibrated through the bones in my body as it dashed forward with a speed that defied logic.

"Fist of Roaring Ki! Fist of Eternal Gold!"

"Fist of Roaring Ki! Fist of Eternal Gold!" the being immediately incanted, mirroring my words and movements. Both our fists slammed together, the collision sending a shockwave through the room that rattled my teeth.

I felt my shock seep into my bones. He was using a skill that was personally crafted for myself and my body, a technique honed through years of pain and perseverance. Yet he wielded it with a fluid ease and far lesser use of Qi and power. Which meant one thing.

I was sent hurtling through the chamber like a ragdoll. Pain lanced through my back as I skidded across the rough stone floor. Without a moment's rest, the being had already flown next to my tumbling body, twisting his entire form like a coiled spring, and raised one of his feet high above his head.

Fuck!

"Roaring Ki! Golden Titan's Axe!" he roared.

I barely had time to cross my arms in front of me as his heel crashed down. The impact sent a bone-jarring shock through my forearms, and the force of the blow was enough to drive me from mid-air into the ground. The stone beneath me cracked as my body bounced off it like a broken puppet.

My bones shattered like glass; my chest caved in, and the air in my lungs was forced out in a painful whoosh.

The bounce against the unforgiving ground lifted me just enough for him to already have switched stance, his elbow now blaring with a cyclone of Qi so potent it seemed to distort reality itself. I saw death in his incoming strike—cold, certain, and unyielding.

"Fist of Roaring Ki! Golden Fist of the Eternal God!" the creature roared. The spiraling Qi around his fist twisted with such ferocity, so forcefully and so powerfully, that I felt my soul tremble under the sheer weight of his presence.

A wave of regret washed over me. I had realized something new from the ferocity of his Golden Titan style, but I wasn't going to get the chance to try it. This will kill me.

"Domain of Delusions! Fake and Real!"

The world around me turned black in an instant. I was no longer in the air; I was standing. The being was now above, suspended mid-air, confusion rippling through its expression as our positions swapped.

"FIST OF ROARING KI! GOLDEN FIST OF THE ETERNAL GOD!" I roared back, applying the exact same move the enforcer used. I spiraled the Qi around my fist, not blasting it out but instead creating a powerful pulling force that made my fist reach its target faster, mightier, and stronger.

The fist landed right into the chest of the enforcer and sent him plunging into the dark domain. I watched as he stood up from the shadows, muttering under his breath.

"I had expected you to use this, but it was an interesting thing to see. Even I was momentarily confused. What a strange domain," he said as he slowly approached me.

And to be honest, that scared the ever-living shit out of me. No one should be able to move properly here. My domain isn't something difficult to understand, but it is extremely difficult to adjust to.

Not only do I, by the power of my own Delusions, switch the notion of space—turning up to down, left to right, and so on—but I can also manipulate whatever happens inside it by the sheer force of my will and soul, changing spells and skills as if modifying a scene in a dream.

Yet, this thing, this monster, was not affected—not at all. All I could switch was our positions, not his conscious mind, which allowed him freedom in my own terrain.