Chapter To the Chessboard

"Sam" disappeared from the spot.

    And a metal bug that"s the size of a fist was flying there. Mountain Master waved his hand and the spiritual energy in the whole acted up. The bug that was far away was dragged towards him.

    There is no invisible force that did it, just the spiritual energy present in the atmosphere made it happen. After catching hold of the bug, he crushed it slightly.

    In the middle of the bug"s body, there is a token with some special inscriptions. He took a look at the token his eyes glowed a little.

    "Interesting inscription technique. The level of sophistication is really hard to attain. Indeed, he is much better than the three that just died.

    Too bad he doesn"t recognize the value of my offer and is still adamant on making me an enemy. He would have had a great life ahead."

    With that, he injected his energy into the token and disappeared from the spot.

    When he reappeared, he looked around and saw that he is standing inside a dark void. But unlike his disciples, he is not floating on top of some s.p.a.ce.

    He is actually standing on the chessboard.

    "Where am I?"

    "Is this the place that you brought those three morons before they died?"

    He asked out loud, even though he cannot see Sam.

    Soon Sam appeared on the opposite side of the board and replied.

    "Yes, but not exactly to the same spot as you. They received some special treatment."

    "Wonder what that is?"

    Sam stayed silent without saying anything. The special treatment he was talking about is the three young masters floating in the air while fighting the trio. Sam knew that leveling up the playing field with the young masters is going to be an ardent task.

    That"s why he tried his best to create the gloves that he gave the trio and he even dared to tinker with the chess board that was given to him by Karthikeya.

    He wanted to leverage the advantage of the chessboard which is to level the playing field to the cultivation level of the weaker person of the two. But the problem with the chessboard, is the physical damage that they take in here on the board wouldn"t be reflected on their original self.

    So, if Sam had directly sent the people the trio must have had to play chess with them over a few dozen times before their mental strength is worn off and then bring them out while they are still in shock and finish them off.

    This is of course not a feasible plan in his opinion as it wastes too much of his time.

    So, he created an instant solution for this. He tinkered with the chessboard to create a semi-independent s.p.a.ce within the s.p.a.ce of the board. When they used the gloves, they are brought into those s.p.a.ces.

    He leveraged the feature of leveling the playing field but restricted the chess game and the absence of physical damage.

    Even though killing them wouldn"t be possible as from based on his experiments, trying to really kill them is bringing the people back to life.

    He doesn"t know how that mechanism is working as he cannot dismantle and scrutinize everything in the chessboard, so he made it so that they can defeat them here and bring them back before killing them.

    In this way, they don"t have to waste their time trying to deal with them. They can just kill people as they liked.

    As for why Sam didn"t use the same technique, it"s because it won"t work when the level difference is way too much.

    One of the key requirements that should be met is that the gloves are activated at the same moment and both parties should be in physical contact.

    There is no way in h.e.l.l that Sam would be able to pull that off.

    So, he decided to just bring him here.

    "What are we doing here?"

    Mountain Master looked around the chessboard curiously as he asked.

    "We are going to fight of course."

    "That"s why my cultivation is not on its original level. Was it restricted to make this fight a fair one?"

    "Yes."

    "This is a really convenient device. But something tells me that"s not all there is to it. A chessboard of this size, I wonder what the pieces will look like."

    Sam just waved his hand and the pieces came onto the board.

    "Want to start this off?"

    "Why not?"

    Mountain master moved his p.a.w.n and Sam did the same, Mountain master got to kill Sam"s p.a.w.n, but he felt the weird suction force that dragged him away from the spot.

    He saw himself in the void on a large piece of land that was floating in that void.

    He couldn"t understand what happened, but he could feel that his cultivation is even lower than what it initially was and before he knew it, he felt a sense of danger from behind. He made his move and wanted to defend himself.

    But before he could do that, a blood-red sword blade sliced through his neck and the last thing he saw is his headless body as his head fell off it.

    Mountain master felt the darkness envelop him before he reappeared at the main chess board.

    *PANT*

    *PANT*

    He panted heavily as he looked around. He is soaked in sweat. He didn"t have a single shred of that grace and sense of superiority that he had a few moments ago.

    "Don"t tell you are done already."

    Sam asked from the other side.

    "What the f.u.c.k happened? What did you do to me? That dream, no felt way too real to be considered a dream. What is this place?"

    This time his voice is shaking a little bit. He is definitely not as nonchalant as before.

    Sam smiled as he thought of something.

    The main reason that Sam planned this chessboard even if he knew that killing the Mountain Master is impossible here, is because of the advice given to him by the Demon-Soul swordsman. Apart from explaining the character of this person, he also got a s.h.i.t load of characteristics that he could exploit.

    And this is one of his attempts to do so.

    Sam wants to take advantage of some of the bad traits that this guy has and it turns out that excessive pride is not the only bad trait he has.

    Sam didn"t give him the time to process all of this, he made his move with the p.a.w.n and asked the mountain master to make his own move.

    "I am not doing that until you tell me what the f.u.c.k is happening here."

    "Make your d.a.m.n movie, you slimy rodent."

    Sam muttered slightly and all of a sudden, the Mountain master took a deep breath. He had bloodshot eyes and he gritted his teeth with such vigor that even Sam felt some pain just from looking at it from afar.

    "What the f.u.c.k is wrong with you? Make your move."

    "I will make my move. Don"t you worry? I will make my move."

    He did make his move and soon, their p.a.w.ns met each other once again.

    As soon as they did that, they reappeared in the empty s.p.a.ce once again. This time the mountain master is a bit vigilant and looked around just to make sure that he wouldn"t die like before.

    He prepared a barrier around him to meet any surprise attacks.

    At this moment, Sam who appeared on the other side ran towards him and leaped into the air while driving down with an ax kick.

    The Mountain master got ready to make his own move as he was sure that the barrier will hold Sam a bit.

    But to his surprise, the kick came with such a force that the barrier shattered with mere contact, and the kick proceeded to land on his head.

    Mountain Master barely blocked the kick with his hands, but the void style kicked in at the contact, making his arms break and bleed.

    Sam landed before swiftly making his move. He swept the mountain master"s feet a kick and landed a kick on the chest after he fell down.

    Mountain Master was stunned. He never thought he would have trouble with keeping up with someone in a battle. Particularly when they are fighting on equal terms.

    It has been a long time since he was in a battle and it almost seemed like a new thing to him for a second.

    He doesn"t know how Sam managed to be this fast. But he knew for sure that he going to suffer if he doesn"t figure out a way to defeat Sam.

    The only problem is that most of the Mountain Master"s expertise lies in the battles where he could use his tricks, which is not exactly possible here because of Sam"s attacks. Everything is way too straightforward here.

    As he was thinking, Sam"s kick landed on his head exploding it.