Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

Karni and Siduo didn't really react to the final outburst, it was more of a 'oh, I see.' Tie Tiao and Ma Fai definitely had some sort of bad history, but it wasn't really their place to know. The most they could do was promise Tie Tiao to help him out. He'd tell them everything once he himself was ready. They were merely acquaintances at the moment after all.

The teacher decided to step in and change the focus. "Alright students, pair up and have some spars with each other. After 10 minutes, switch your partner, you're not allowed to be with the same partner twice."

Siduo was about to grab Tie Tiao, before another hand tapped her shoulder softly. When she turned around she saw a girl that looked a bit younger than them looking at her shyly.

"Err. Year one class president right? What was your name again?" Siduo asked awkwardly, she really wasn't paying attention during the introductions, she was too sleepy at the time.

"H- Hu Fuya." Answered the girl, feeling dejected.

Siduo felt a bit guilty looking at the girl's sad face. "I… we can spar first if you want. Ahaha." She trailed off, trying to ease the tension. The girl's face reminded her too much of her little brother, she couldn't help it.

"Kiki, you spar with Tie Tiao and tell me what we have to work on, I'll spar with the first year class president." She quickly took Hu Fuya and jogged with her to one of the free spaces on the sparring field.

"Well then, Tie Tiao, how about we go for a round." Karni looked at Tie Tiao as the latter nodded.

Tie Tiao summoned his martial soul, a single yellow ring springing up from below. This surprised Karni a bit.

Tie Tiao saw Karni's face and explained. "I mentioned before, the merchant family. I'm the only one that awakened with soul power in me, none of my family are soul masters so they put all of their resources into me. Things like these were included."

Karni nodded, as he summoned his staff. "I won't use my soul skills for 5 minutes, try to hit me anyway you can, after 5 minutes are up I'll be using all of my power." Karni gave Tie Tiao a kind smile, and it was the first time that smile didn't feel reassuring since he spoke with Karni in these two days. He got this smile from Siduo. He learned well.

Tie Tiao gulped as his first Soul Ring activated. He called it Little Swallow Flies.

His speed increased immediately and his body seemed to shrink to half his original size. He flew quickly towards Karni. Well, glided more than flew.

Karni was impressed. Smaller to hit means harder to hit and therefore safer. This was a very good innate ability for an agility system soul master.

However as soon as Tie Tiao tried to strike him Karni blocked him with ease, he wasn't even pushed back. The attack felt ridiculously light.

Tie Tiao grunted, tried to circle around and attack again. Karni blocked with ease yet again. "Strength or speed, choose one, you can't have both."

Tie Tiao tried again as he complained. "But I can't damage anyone with only speed!"

"Wrong." Karni blocked again with ease.

"If you're fast enough your hit will be just as strong as an assault system soul master." It was oversimplification, but true to a degree.

Tie Tiao wasn't really sure, but he didn't have anything to lose; he had five minutes to try out this theory.

Of course Karni was correct. Any soul master could tell another about what Karni just said. It was just that Tie Tiao came from a normal family. He had to mostly learn by himself and this wasn't so obvious to him.

Karni continued to block Tie Tiao. A minute passed. Tie Tiao seemed to become faster, another minute and he became even faster, yet Karni still didn't move from his spot.

"Faster Tie Tiao."

"I'm trying!!"

Five minute mark was upon them, Tie Tiao went far away from Karni and then sprinted straight towards him.

Karni finally slid back after he blocked the attack. "Good, you got it. However I hope you realise I was intentionally blocking you."

Tie Tiao sighed. "I know, I know."

"Good, now it gets serious."

"Eh?"

Two bright yellow soul rings showed themselves and Tie Tiao could feel the pressure increase immediately.

"Watch out!" Karni yelled as the first and second soul ring lit up. Tie Tiao was still looking into his eyes as they turned yellow.

"What's this?" There were so many golden yellow Karni's!

"Aaah!" He yelled as his leg was sweeped and he was on the ground.

Karni chuckled and offered an arm.

… … …

Cats came in all different shapes and sizes. If one were to describe Siduo, she had a playful nature that made sure to confuse and leave the opponent frustrated with her speed. She was also quick and deadly with her aggressiveness, a part of her nature that also came from the tiger. One's martial soul was a representation of one's actual soul after all.

On the other hand, this girl before her was the opposite type of cat. A stray cat. Cautious, silent, and hoping, waiting for an opportunity. Her eyes were focused in slits, constantly moving.

Siduo approved of this. The girl had very sharp instincts. She understood how the girl reached the top of her class with only a regular martial soul. Even though in appearance, the martial soul was pitch black in colour, it clearly had no element's of darkness or shadow like Siduo's. It was just colour.

Hu Fuya's first soul ring was active. It was white. One other in the first year actually had a yellow one, but he still wasn't the president.

It was a shame that the physical differences were so big. Siduo wasn't using her soul ring, while the girl's soul ring seemed to affect her vision instead of anything else.

Siduo didn't really have trouble overpowering her, even with the girl's skills. Siduo still had better skills than her after all. She got on top of the girl and pinned her down for a win. Her shadow over the girl's face. The two looked into each other's eyes for a second. Siduo paused on top of her, a neutral look on her face.

A small, green, bright colour went over the eyes of the girl, before she turned shy all of a sudden and Siduo apologised.

The two got back into position while Siduo wondered. "That soul skill seems interesting."

… … …

"Auhg." Tie Tiao fell again. He was getting used to avoiding Karni's eyes by now, but Karni still managed to use every opening Tie Tiao showed.

Karni had Siduo to practise on after all. Not only was their speed not comparable, neither was their evasive manoeuvres or their attack power.

"10 minutes are up! Switch."

"Looking forward to continuing this in the afternoon, Tie Tiao."

"Eh? Why in the afternoon?"

"You didn't think we were only going to train you during classes right?"

Tie Tiao was truly feeling a bit scared now. Karni was being quite ruthless with him just then. All of his body had bruises of falls, and of Karni's 'stick' as he called it in his mind.

Before he could argue back, he was already pulled away by Siduo.

"Anything of note?" Siduo asked.

"Besides needing work on everything, his soul skill is pretty good."

"Good. Check out the cat girl's soul skill for me as well."

"Siduo, you're also a cat you know?"

"Come Tie Tiao, show me your skill." She ignored Karni in a cheery way.

Karni looked around for his new sparring partner, the girl who was previously with Wu Siduo was looking at him with pleading eyes. She wasn't sure Karni would actually want to spar with her.

"Hu Fuya correct?" Karni asked.

She nodded. "Wu Siduo said I could spar with you after her." She said quietly.

"She recommended you as well." Karni smiled.

… … …

The practice was over. It lasted for 3 hours and it was quite brutal. Karni and Siduo got to fight all of the class presidents and didn't lose once, they drew against each other though.

The other presidents mostly fought those from their own classes, while skipping a single one here and there. The one exception to that was Ma Fai, who fought all of them, but didn't win everything. He was frustrated and in a corner next to a tree.

"I can't lose. I must become strong enough to defeat even those with two rings. I can't let that hold me back."

He closed his eyes and a brief memory flashed.

"If only you were born different."

A brief flash of a suppressed, burning memory flashed by, before the aftermath became clear to him.

"We're disappointed. This is what happens when you don't do as we ask."

He opened his eyes. They were full of resolve. The previous arrogance at the start of the day was gone. He couldn't afford to have it at the moment.

"I can't let my family down again. This bet. I can't afford to tell them about it. I'll have to win." He didn't need to say it to anyone out loud. Anyone but himself.

… … …

If Karni and Siduo would've performed any less, they would have faced many consequences. They were the hope of their academy after all. Defeat was not an option.

Their way of going about it was completely different though. Karni was slippery, like he was dancing around them, sometimes, it felt like he was dancing with them. He didn't move in reflex, he moved with them. He got a nickname of Dancing Boy, as well as annoying

Siduo was much more infamous. Her style could be best described as… sadistic, playful, intense, mocking all at the same time. Like a cat treating a human like it's their god. Because of that her nickname was Hell.

He wasn't sure how she got that nickname originally in the books. There she had the same nickname, most likely connected with her martial soul. She definitely didn't get it because she was acting hellish though. Fate worked in mysterious ways sometimes.

Karni got his name because of his abnormal movements during the spars, Siduo got her because she was enjoying when she was attacking others a tad bit too much.

The only person who called her in a normal way was Hu Fuya. Siduo took a liking to a fellow Cat person, so she was more lenient with her.

Unlike Siduo, Karni didn't really notice anything special about Hu Fuya's soul skill, outside of the fact that it seemed to enhance her vision and perception. Nothing too special, but very effective for the girl's style.

When they finished with the classes, they dragged Tie Tiao along with them. He really wanted to scream bloody murder. He had a three hour practice as well after all.

Towards the evening Tie Tiao was finally let go. He was completely ragged and was barely walking back. Results were clear however. Tie Tiao's speed has increased by 4 times the amount because of Siduo's relentless scolding.

For any other soul master, this would be absolutely amazing. But for Tie Tiao, it was really because he wasn't using his soul skill in the right way at the start. By the end of the day, he forgot about strength and only used speed.

This first week they continued working on his speed. They created a training plan for Tie Tiao. First they needed to maximise his speed, then they had to make him use the advantages of his martial soul, those being agility and size, and lastly they needed to increase his lethality.

Karni was already making plans for that last part, which was arguably the hardest to do. Tie Tiao's martial soul didn't have any real attacking power after all. They couldn't just think that he'd gain it with his second soul ring, because he likely won't reach it after only half a year.

He was looking over some Soul Tool plans. It was a pair of daggers that used an ordinary ice metal as its basis and the focus of the daggers was their sharpness.

This was a plan that Siduo helped come up with to increase Tie Tiao's lethality. After they finished training Tie Tiao in everything else, they would give him these to train with. Only then would he have a chance to beat Ma Fai.

He heard knocking on the door.

"Kiki, we have Spirit Ascension Platform practice today."

"Shit, I forgor!"

Siduo just looked at him weirdly with the way he said that and Karni just shook his head in embarrassment. He forgot at times that people had different jokes here.

Karni quickly packed and they headed towards the Spirit Pagoda. Teacher Ye and Mo Qing were already waiting for them.

"Today the two of you will have a special challenge." Mo Qing began.

"Since you already have some experience with this now, the two of you are going to have a one time only challenge."

"If you manage to get 95 points you two will get a special reward. If you were to fail however."

"Special punishment." Answered Mo Qing, with a bright smile.

"Great." Sighed Siduo.

She knocked on Karni's head. "Well then Kiki, shall we get those rewards?"

Karni stretched. "Let's go."

Mo Qing simply smiled, happy to see the two children taking up the challenge.

… … …

Karni opened his eyes. He felt comfortable in this rich vitality of the forest.

"Spirit Pagoda really recreated this place vividly." He thought as he immediately crouched so as not to be a target.

He looked around and saw a big tree not so far from here. "It's better to look for Sisi from there."

He reached the tree silently and quickly. Just as he climbed it, he saw a familiar figure looking down from above, full of smiles.

"You were faster than me." Karni whispered.

"I awoke next to it, so I was quite lucky." Siduo giggled.

Karni sat next to her and looked at the layout of the land. There were a lot of cliffs in one direction. The other side was only forest.

"You spawned perfectly." Karni chuckled to himself, then immediately quieted down. He looked towards the east at the same time as Siduo did. They heard a familiar sound.

They looked at each other. Karni with a bitter and Siduo with an excited expression. "Earth Wolves." They muttered at the same time.

"How about some revenge?" She looked in the distance as she clasped her fists.

Karni sighed. "Hell really fits you. We'll have to plan first though."

"But of course."

… … …

The wolf pack was currently feasting on a couple of dead soul beasts. They seemed like some fairly powerful bear type soul beasts. Their exact species wasn't recognisable since they were mostly eaten up already.

Karni and Siduo were currently on opposite sides of the Earth Wolf pack. Both of them were heavily covered in mud. One could hardly make out who was who when basing on appearance alone.

Karni quietly summoned his staff and started swinging it, lightly gathering the Stacks of vibrations on it. When he got to the 5th Stack, a shadow dashed quickly from the opposite side. A 10 year old Earth Wolf died instantly.

When the pack noticed, the perpetrator was already gone.

Karni attacked a different one at the outermost side. He killed another 10 year old wolf in a single attack. When he hit him, a loud bang could be heard in the air. He managed to hide in the shrubbery just as fast, the sound of his footsteps covered by the ringing in the air.

As the pack looked towards the noise, another wolf was killed at that very moment. A shadow striked silently from behind. The dead body went unnoticed, so another wolf was killed by a shadow in quick succession.

The pack finally noticed the last kill, however before they could register what happened, a loud sound rang out on the opposite side yet again. Karni and Siduo killed 5 Earth Wolves in quick succession.

This was a big pack. A total of 40 wolves were in it. Karni and Siduo had to be quick. This confusion wouldn't last for too long, but it was enough for another rotation of the same trick. Five more wolves were killed in quick succession.

They were down to 30 wolves in the blink of an eye. The 7 100 year old wolves in the group became furious. They howled loudly and the ground shook lightly. The 10 year old wolves received a command. They started spreading out in all directions to find the assassins.

The was one of the more powerful packs in the elementary Spirit Ascension Platform. They were prideful, and for good reason. They could defeat a thousand year old beast without much trouble. This was due to their synergy. They decided to search for their assailants instead of going into a defensive formation.

Karni and Siduo each had a smile on their faces, this was just what they wanted. They stopped attacking for the time being. Despite being a powerful wolf pack, Earth Wolves weren't particularly known for their cunning.

Their instincts betrayed them in such a situation. They couldn't smell anything. The air of bear blood was strong in the air, and the only other smell was the blood of their fellow wolves. They couldn't smell any other entity at the moment.

One of the wolves turned towards the left and saw another of his pack dead. There was no sound, no shadow. It howled loudly before it, too, ceased to make any sounds. Some of the wolves came to check out what happened, yet on the opposite side a similar thing was happening.

They were spread out so nicely, they practically offered themselves on a silver platter in the eyes of Karni and Siduo.

The seven, hundred year old wolves in the middle looked in anger as they heard the sorrowful howls of the wolves. They finally realised their mistake and quickly called back their pack, they had lost too many of their companions.

The wolves started to run back towards the centre, however that didn't mean Karni and Siduo would let them go. When all of the wolves came back, they formed a tight circle, only 15 of them remained.

Karni and Siduo climbed onto the trees. They saw each other's faces. Now the truly hard fight would begin. So far, everything went better than they thought they would. Originally, they were prepared for a chase with a larger group, but right now they didn't look like they'd go chasing them.

Karni started turning his staff and gathering the Stacks. On the other side, Siduo quietly prepared to strike the moment Karni was finished.

Karni could, since their encounter with the thousand year old Yellow Leaf Fox, bring the stacks on his staff to 19 without any trouble, anything more than that would be pushing it, 20 seemed like a big threshold after all. It would mainly affect his spiritual power.

He reached 19 and decided that going further was worth it right now. He focused his mind on the sound, remembered the feeling of his heart bit and followed it. As he hit 20, a humming sound like music was released.

Even the wolves could hear it, but it was so stretched out, that they didn't know what direction it was coming from.

Karni nodded to Siduo and her first soul ring lit up. Karni and Siduo leaped up at the same time. They were above the pack. The wolves even noticed them. It would be hard not to, with the humming of the Bo Staff so loud and clear now.

Karni activated his second soul ring to share with Siduo. Siduo grabbed Karni and threw him directly at the ground. The sound exploded directly into one of the hundred-year old wolves' face. The wolf's head exploded into bits of pieces. A truly gory scene of a scattered brain. This was what happened when he used the Stacks on a hundred year old soul beast.

At the same time, all of the wolves were knocked back by the shockwave and became dizzy because of the humming in the air. Two of the 10 year old wolves were simply knocked out.

Karni stared into as many of the wolves' eyes as he could and applied his second soul ring ability forcefully.

He saw another yellow ring which wasn't his flash by, hundreds of claws slashed at another one of the hundred year old wolves, it couldn't stand a chance. It was caught completely off guard.

Karni was quick on his feet, he immediately attacked the remaining ten-year old wolves which were having trouble differentiating up from down.

Another two died in quick succession. Meanwhile Siduo managed to use her second soul ring ability, Hell Hundred Claws on yet another hundred-year old wolf and kill it.

Karni managed to get all of the wolves under his second soul ring. His power consumption at the moment was massive. Forcefully using his soul ring ability on more than ten wolves was very exhausting. Both physically and mentally.

But thanks to that, Siduo had an easy time killing off another hundred-year old wolf.

4 of the hundred-year old wolves remained. Karni was already exhausted.

Two wolves, each a hundred-year old, pounded towards him, though their aim was a bit off.

Siduo managed to intercept the one. Using Hell Hundred Claws directly on its neck, cutting into it just deep enough to kill it. She was just as tired as Karni. She's been using the ability in quick succession, killing wolf after wolf.

Karni on the other hand already built up another 10 Stacks of vibrations from attacking the 10 year old wolves before. He let the wolf bite at his staff, while splitting it in half. He hit it with one of the drumsticks. The hundred-year old wolf almost continued biting, before losing the colour in its eyes.

While this happened, one of the two remaining hundred year old wolves

Karni used his now named Drunk Dancing Movement to quickly come around Siduo as he blocked an attack that was aimed at her. Siduo read on that quickly and managed to kill the wolf. The side was perfectly exposed for her claws to dig in.

Only a single wolf remained. It wasn't even one of the stronger hundred-year old ones. That one died at the very start, when Karni launched his 20 Stacks.

Karni looked the survivor in the eyes. The only thing the wolf saw was golden human shapes everywhere, and in the next moment… nothing.

It was over. They won. Karni and Siduo high fived. They called to the energy the wolves released and brought it with them. It was not safe to stay in this place. They both used a lot of soul power and the blood stench was everywhere. It shouldn't be long before other soul beasts smell the massacre and come sniffing about.

Their current goal was achieved. They travelled for about 20 minutes and found a river to clean themselves in.

They remembered the cliffs they saw at the beginning and headed towards them. They found a cave, perfect for hiding inside and recuperating. Seeing as the cave was abandoned without any signs of recent activity, they decided to recuperate for some time.