Chapter 304: Tar Master

Seeing the person’s response so many times in advance, Sage had set this trap to take advantage of his foe’s behavior. That gave him the chance to block the avenues of escape and allowed him to close the gap between them. He touched down on the ground only a dozen yards away from the cloaked figure. Just in time for the person to spin around to face him. Almost immediately, the black liquid was flowing across the ground towards him, and at extremely high speed like a tiny wave.

Sage had already taken in a deep breath and he released it towards his foe. A furious cone of flame erupted from his mouth. At almost the same instant, the black tar on the ground stopped advancing forward and instead advanced upward, creating a wall between the two of them. The cloaked figure disappeared from Sage’s view, hidden behind the wall of tar and the inferno of flame. Sage had already used it upon the tar person from before and while not effective it had at least worn it down. The flaming tar person had been nearly half the size it had originally been after a few minutes of combusting.

He stopped the gout of flame and smiled at the person opposite him. Small flecks of the tar had been blasted apart from the fury of his flaming breath. The little globs were still burning and had splattered across the area. Like tiny disgusting candles, they created a chaotic pattern of lighting. Pools of reflective black, like dirty mirrors with licks of flame atop them. More of that black oil like substance flowed out from the lower hem of his foe’s cloak. It spilled out in viscous waves, the puddle transforming into a small mound and lifting the person upwards. Sage laughed and a viscous liquid spread out from behind him.

Four tendrils of undulating liquid extended from behind his back, they looked like the tentacles of an octopus, but of an ice blue color and didn’t look solid. If the black liquid was like oil or tar, the tendrils were closer to a sort of ooze. As they twisted and moved in the fire light, they similarly reflected the light, but it was a cleaner reflection than the oil, more like a mirror than the rainbow iridescence of the tar.

Both combatants seemed to be gathering their strength. The initial clash was merely a test of might. Sage had confirmed a sort of resonance between them and verified that their strength was comparable. That initial attack would have told him if he was too weak to battle. In fact, before he even made the move he’d already seen the response, but seeing the future wasn’t everything. The clash of Qi, collisions of physical force and the remnant power that arose from the contact had to be felt, not seen. The Timeless Eyes couldn’t help him in that regard. That was why he chose to open with a gout of flame. The enemy already knew about the attack, and it covered a wide area. It wouldn’t reveal any of his tricks, while also creating a distraction if he was too weak and had to immediately flee. Fortunately, it seemed they were quite evenly matched.

The smile on his face grew wider, and the four ice blue tendrils behind him reared up and then swung forward like four whips. They each arched to attack on a different angle, and the black tar rose up from the ground in one large clump, twisting and swirling like a single huge pseudopod. A slug of black oil swatted away the four tentacles, blocking the attacks and immediately counter attacking. It grew larger and larger, intercepting the Blue Icesilver and then swinging in to attack Sage. Flowing smoothly, it only had to curve twice, looking somewhat like a fighter using an elbow to block a punch and then turning the move into a punch.

Sage immediately rolled sideways, somersaulting away from attack. He bought himself a little more distance and attacked again. The four tendrils retracting and then swinging in to attack again. The black tar moved as it had before, the lower section of it twisting to bat away the tendrils while the upper section swooped in for another attack. The blue tendrils weren’t so simple this time, and when the black ooze tried to swat them away their tips swiftly transformed. They narrowed and flattened, suddenly changing color, it looked like frost formed on them as the ice blue ooze turned into a milky blue ice with a sharp edge. The ends of the tendrils turned into blades, slicing into the black tar. When they did, it was like a thin membrane around the tar was sliced open and the dark liquid spilled out.

The spilled tar merely fell to the ground before seeping back to rejoining the pool beneath Sage’s opponent. It didn’t cause any damage at all, but it did slow down the motion of the tar arm that was battling with Sage. Sage dodged away from it again, but it struck a bit closer to him than the first time, smashing a small furrow into the ground. Bits of gravel and pulverized stone dropped from the black arm as it lifted back into the air. Sage recovered his footing and stabilized himself after the roll. The black tendril did the same, swooping to the ground and gathering up more of the tar, its surface appearing once more unmarred and undamaged, but a bit larger than before. It grew to about five feet wide before attacking again. The cloaked figure lifted their arms, fingers curled like a puppeteer controlling a marionette. Then they thrust their hand forward and the huge liquid snake rushed towards Sage.

It was a completely different type of attack this time, it advanced like water rushing down a pipe. Smashing directly forward without any twists or turns. Sage formed the Blue Icesilver into blades and slashed at the front of it, piercing the smooth surface and causing tar to spill out like before. Unfortunately, that didn’t slow it down in the least, the tar that spilled only fell into the wave that was already sweeping forward. The very tip of the spear was dulled, but the tar behind pushed it like a freight train.

He dove out of the way and the back of the huge black oil swung out to the side like a big rig jack knifing, or a train derailing. The snake like tar striking him with its tail. Or at least that’s what he saw with Foresight. Every method he used to dodge met the same result. His four blue tendrils swiftly retracted and instead smashed into the ground around him at the four compass points. He poured Qi into them and they rapidly expanded, swelling up until they covered him like the petals of a flower. Just before the battering ram of tar struck him, their outer edges hardened and the dark liquid rushed over him like a tide. He was completely submerged beneath it. He could even sense it drilling into the ground around him and he also extended the Blue Icesilver to form a complete shell around himself. The tar engulfed him and started to squeeze. He responded by expanding the Blue Icesilver, forming spikes beneath the surface and then retracting them so the black tar impaled itself upon them from every direction.

The tar lost cohesion and the pressure went away. At least for a moment, before it picked back up again. The liquid closest to him was inert, but a few feet away a sort of sphere formed and it squeezed from all sides, using hydraulic pressure to exert force against him. It even lifted his shell of Blue Icesilver from the ground and held it up. He felt himself moving across the ground. When it stopped he seemed quite helpless in the little cocoon of milky blue ice. Then, the pressure reduced and he felt a small tunnel open at the side of the black tar. A tiny passageway to the outside. He slightly pulled back the Blue Icesilver in the same place and after a moment he found himself looking at the hooded face of his cloaked foe.

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