24 Why Eliminate When One Can Assimilate?

(Nathan POV)

As we both drew our blades, the silence between the two of us was so thick that one would need a sword to cut through it. I could feel Shiva's envy and hate for me as she felt as if I had overtaken her position as Sensei's student, which I think is what he wanted in the first place.

It has been a common occurrence for a master that only has one student at a time; the whole rule of two things and simply having more invites, competition, and infighting. Yet, it is too late to convince her at this point, and she is too stubborn to give up now. So, as the sound of creaking wood and wind howling from outside ceases, we charge one another.

Shiva, attempting to gain momentum in the fight, attempts a downward slash to which I period and attempt to elbow her in the face. The strike I attempted was dodged. She then attempted a diagonal slash across my chest, which she almost managed to hit, but it merely scratched my uniform. 

As I moved backward to get some space, she was already in front of me attempting a thrusting maneuver towards my leg, to which I simply sidestepped the strike and attempted to slash her arm, holding the sword to which she then managed to twist her entire body and roll along the floor.

After Rolling for a couple of seconds, she's immediately back on her feet and trying to slash at me. Most of them, I'm able to block her. But it seems that her ferocity is giving her increased focus, and I can see the fire in her eyes. If I were Palpatine, I would commend her and try to make her my apprentice on the dark side. But on the other hand, it is also the way of the Sith to never suffer rivals.

As she then takes multiple quick slashes at me, I dodge one heading towards my side as I then clash blades with her over and over again. Each swipe met with a slash, and every thrust met with a parry or dodge. It is a very deadly dance, which she seems to find annoying. "Fight me! You are still holding back! Why!?"

Her movements become even more erratic yet predictable as she switches styles of swordsmanship repeatedly in order to trip me up, but unless you are Deadpool-level random, it matters nothing, as even chaos can be controlled. 

Upon her next swipe, I managed to parry it and use the opening to bash her in the face, to which she then jumped back and threw multiple shurikens at me. I grabbed one out of the air and threw one right through her hair tie, causing it to flow naturally.

It also cuts her across the right cheek, which she dabs with her finger and simply looks at it. Her eyes narrow as she returns her view back to me, and she tosses multiple smoke bombs that divert my attention, yet I simply sheath my blade and harden the skin on my hands slightly using my blacklight, and thanks to the gloves I was wearing couldn't see it.

As she thrusts toward my heart, I catch the blade between my hands, grip the blade, and then pull her towards me as I flatten the blade and slam my elbow down on her blade, breaking it in half. She then kicks me in the chest and uses me as a kickboard to launch herself back, and with her sword broken, she grabs the sword on the wall behind her.

"Stand down, Shiva. If I wanted it, you'd be dead already." She then narrows her eyes as she then rushes me again. I then stop her blade once more. And seeing her determination, I sigh mentally as I decide to end this farce.

I then use my mind's eye skill in combination with my hyper intuition and see her attack as slowly as a normal human would see a snail. When used in tandem with Senju Muso, all her attacks are laid bare as I immediately block her slash to my face and use the force behind her strike to slam her in the gut with the hilt of my blade.

She coughs up some blood from the impact as she's launched into the side of the wall, yet before she can recover, I am already next to her. I then slash her across the chest, leaving a shallow cut as a warning. 

The blood flowing from her chest covers her uniform as I then punch her in the face repeatedly just to make sure she is knocked out. And so, with her like this, I decided to try something. I feel the virus extending into a claw, and as I stab her in the chest, I let my virus enter her form.

I then back off in order to not seem threatening as the Sensei is about to walk into the room, which I could sense thanks to the force. The man could probably sense that we were fighting so he could physically hide his presence, but he could never hide his presence mentally or spiritually, at least without a bit more preparation work.

My senses are made correct as he opens the door and sees Shiva bloodied and knocked out. He then smiles and snaps his fingers, and the two men following him take Shiva to the med bay, to which I hide a smile on my face. 

As my virus is not at its full power, what I just injected in Shiva will slowly corrupt her with time, and soon enough, I will be able to see through her eyes.

I very much considered killing her right then and there, but I did not want to kill such a possibly useful asset as I fully admit that without my power, she would have been able to kick my butt for years on end, so why destroy when you can assimilate.

 And since the virus carries my DNA, it is virtually invisible even to the most extensive of blood tests, so it can't be seen and its effects copied.

So, once I can leave this place, I will have a woman on the inside.

Wait, that sounds wrong.

But before my intrusive thoughts can win, Sensei walks up to me and studies me closely. "I congratulate you on defeating my student, and it takes control not to eliminate a vital asset even when they are not so favorable towards you. She is skillful and loyal but has yet to understand the fact that there are those Beyond her in this world. You are ready."

I then do a small bow, and he bids me to follow him, and as I do, he leads me into another room, this one being a garden room with various poisonous plants and fungi. Unexpected that he would try to poison me, but the fact that he is this obvious may be a diversion. Devil's cherry, belladonna, deadly nightshade, and dwale, all of which can kill in seconds.

Yet we don't stop here. We then come to a wall with a large painting of Ra's Al Ghul, and he simply walks into it, to which I then realize that it is an advanced hologram. 

I walk into it, and behind it is simply a large library with a large yin and yang symbol in the center. And as he then sits down on the yin symbol, I sit on the yang side.

"You have shown skill and resolve, so here, the next stage will begin. I will now show you a power that not many have the aptitude for. While some can use the very basics to control their body, more advanced users can live longer and gain enhanced speed, strength, durability, and extrasensory perception. The world will reveal more in these moments than you have seen your entire life. You have no choice in this; if you succeed in harnessing it, you succeed, and we continue. If you fail, I will kill you here." Leaving no time to respond, he formed a green glow from his right hand and smashed it into my chest.

I feel foreign energy trying to slam into my insides, but I simply use the virus to adapt and feel blank doing its work as I then use a power boost card, and the world seems to slow down with the system showing various options to improve the virus.

[Enhance Virus To Adapt To Mystical Energies?]

[Enhance Biomass Efficiency?]

[Enhance Viral Control?]

[Unlock Further Viral Weaponry?]

[Increase Viral Enhancements To Host Body?]

(Let it be known that he can earn all of these power-ups naturally with the essence of the blank, but power-up cards allow him to skip the progress entirely. With each different option, take one card each.) 

Deciding to use a card for enhancing my mystical adaptation, I feel my body shift as the blacklight cells adapt to the Chi. I feel my life energy flowing through my body. Still, the way it is used is a bit bland, like a lesser form of magical energy, but focusing on keeping the energy from leaving, I keep it all within an aura around me. As he lets go, I feel the foreign energy dissipate, and my body stabilizes.

I now know what he meant as I could feel the aura from nearly everything around me. Unlike the force, which is mostly based on sensing emotions as well as the aura of the living, this Chi seems to sense the aura from everything from inanimate objects to people, but before I can study further, Sensei throws a punch. I then block it and use a palm strike to send him flying backward.

Yet he simply reorients himself mid-air and lands on the tip of a spiral pillar in the corner of the room. He then jumps down from it and walks towards me as my Chi remains up. 

Yet, I use this moment to remember the book I got from the gacha relating to nen. Since I had essentially gotten nen baptism, I tried to focus on the basics; I could remember from my little exposure to HunterxHunter, which, other than the great opening theme, was very little.

But I recall one principle that of Ten or the opening of the nodes but allowing the ne to flow throughout your body rather than away. So, I closed my eyes and focused on my spirit and energy. I saw the nodes within my body and the nen flowing around like a viscous liquid and attempted to keep it from leaving. 

Actually, my blacklight and midichlorians were aiding in this as the blacklight was trying to adapt to the new energy while my midichlorians, sensing my distress, were trying to use the force to focus my body and spirit.

So, trying to control this energy on all cylinders, the process is rather quick. When the show described it as learning to ride a bike, it was actually a very apt one as, in the beginning, it was very difficult, yet with simple time and patience, the flow became much more controlled, and while some was still leaking, the flow had drastically slowed. My aura, which looked spiky and wild, was now a more flat and normal appearance.

Well, no, normal can be described as having a shield around you that is glowing in a combination of blue and red, yet Sensei seems almost lost as he looks at me. 

I walk up to him and await instruction as he seems to be experiencing technical difficulties. So I simply sit and wait while trying to focus my aura and hope I can read that book soon to expand my arsenal of spiritual arts. Still, I do admit I am chuckling mentally seeing Sensei's flabbergasted expression.

(Okay, my readers, the League of Shadows Arc will be coming to an end in a couple of chapters, and I do appreciate each and every one of you guys and your patience. Currently, our main character is at max street or small village level, but in terms of martial skills, he's probably on his way to becoming the most skilled person on the planet in terms of normal humans. I am considering giving him a card to travel to another universe. I am struggling to think of which one I'm leaning toward giving him a card that sends him to the DC Animated Universe, the show one, not the movies.)