by Ino Lee
The beast grabbed the ninja and propelled it toward him like a spear, closing the distance between them instantly. Li spun around and glanced aside the ninja’s pointed attack, unable to run from the living projectile in time. He stumbled to his feet and rolled, which broke his momentum and forced him to fight.
With his attention focused on the ninja, the zhuk bore down on him. Li jumped aside and scrambled defensively, parrying strikes from a ninja blade while dodging the zhuk’s war mace altogether. Once again, Li decided it was too much for him, so he fled toward the radiance pool where Han awaited. Though Han was just as much of a threat, destroying the pool was his only chance for survival.
Before he could even run a dozen steps, the zhuk hurled the ninja through the air again. It landed in front of him and blocked his path. They were not going to let him run freely. Li stopped and wondered what to do next, sandwiched between them. He could not outrun them so he took the offensive.
He targeted the zhuk and charged it, preferring to fight it face-forward rather than have his back turned to it. His tactic worked in part as his sudden reversal allowed him to dart past the zhuk’s initial strike—a downward chop that rattled the ground. He leveled his sword horizontally, looking to slash at the beast’s midsection, but the demon diverted the assault by scraping the earth and dragging its war mace defensively to its side.
Li tumbled away and quickly abandoned the idea of attacking. His approach was completely haphazard, but it was the best he could do against such odds. He had to be patient and wait for his enemies to make a mistake.
He swerved back to the pool with the ninja standing in his way. He tried to angle away, but the demon altered course to intercept him. They briefly exchanged strikes before Li swept a leg out from underneath it with a kick. He did not engage it further because the zhuk kwai was fast approaching.
Continuing his sprint toward the radiance pool, he glanced behind him to see the ninja leaping back atop the zhuk’s shoulders. At any moment the zhuk would launch the ninja in front of him again. But before that could happen, he grabbed onto the strap of the lantern oil bladder he was carrying and swirled it high overhead. Letting go, he sent it skyward toward the demons, drawing their curiosity.
A high-pitched buzz ensued as Li spun a throwing blade through the air. Instead of throwing the blade straightaway, he made sure it rotated and flipped as it sailed, making the impact much more violent when it hit the bladder. Lantern oil splashed from the ruptured vessel and showered down on the zhuk kwai and dark ninja.
The beast did not stop.
Li held his ground and widened his stance, flaring the light orb. He brightened the light with his palm out and then slowly clenched his fist. As his fingers closed, the light orb tightened and intensified until it finally became a tiny, but brilliant speck of light.
The zhuk slowed with hesitation. Suddenly, a spark popped from the light, and then several more in rapid succession. The demons’ eyes widened when they realized the danger.
Li opened his hand again and pushed forward, sending the spark flying into the chest of the zhuk kwai. Flames instantly burst from the ignited lantern oil and spread to the ninja. Both creatures fell to the ground and rolled, trying to extinguish the flames.
Li retracted his hand. While he did not expect the fire to kill them, he hoped it would slow them long enough for him to concentrate on destroying the pool. He turned toward it once again, but something closer startled him. Han had crept up and was standing within reach.
“Annoying gnat,” Han growled.
A barrage of mace swings ensued. Li dodged the attacks and stumbled back. When he regained his footing, he countered with several swift slashes, but his sword clanked ineffectively off Han’s mace. He continued his assault, but despite his best efforts, the demon defended effortlessly. Li’s anger flared at his futility.
His sword flashed white momentarily as he gathered his strength and lashed out with a swing, but Han anticipated and brought his mace forward before he could fully extend his arms. The sword stroke was powerful enough to cut into the mace, but not powerful enough to cut all the way through, leaving the blade partially lodged inside.
Han lifted his club and tore the sword violently away from Li, who then spun away, being overpowered and disarmed. The sumo pursued and charged with the Sword of Shaolin still sticking out of his mace.
Li flipped back to gain some distance and reached for a throwing knife. He slung it with as much strength as he could muster, but the sumo angled his mace in front to block. The knife stuck and remained lodged inside, much like the Shaolin Sword. After a final knife was deflected, Li backed away, weaponless. He bolted for the radiance pool.
Han pursued.
Reaching the foot of the reservoir, Li abruptly stopped and turned. Han was directly behind him and tried to hammer him over the head, but Li baited him into the attack and timed his next move—he leaned to the side with his feet still planted and watched the mace fly inches past his face on a collision course with the radiance pool wall. Han, however, was able to hold back his swing, inches before fracturing the reservoir.
He turned to Li and grinned. “Clever man.”
Shifting his weight, he sideswiped Li in the face and sent him flying. Li tumbled back and crashed to the ground, bloodied. Han charged, eager to finish him off, but the Shoukui was up on his feet again and dodged the subsequent attacks. The lo-shur was surprised at his agility and thought for a moment it was fighting Wong.
Angling for a chop at Li, Han brought his mace across his body, and then back again for another swing. On the final motion, Li arched his back sideways so that the mace sailed over him. As he did, he held his hand out and managed to grab onto the hilt of his lost sword. The momentum of the swing dragged him up again and the sword dislodged.
Instead of using his reacquired weapon to attack, he ran away from the pool, toward a nearby tree. Han drew close and struck, but Li ran up the tree and used it to flip back over Han’s head. When he landed, he hunched and paused while his sword sparked hot white. He let out a war cry and charged with a vigorous swing.
Han was able to dodge by sliding to his feet and falling to the ground, but a mistake had been made. Lying on the floor, he was left in a vulnerable position and fully expected Li to follow with a killing stroke.
None came. The demon guessed that Li lacked the fortitude finish him off and laughed, taking great delight in the fact. What a pathetic adversary the Shoukui of Shaolin turned out to be.
He turned to look.
Li remained just past the tree, still stooping from the motion of his previous attack. All was silent except for the sound of creaking wood. And then Han began to understand. Li had cut through the trunk.
The tree began to fall over and Han shielded his face. Its uppermost branches crashed into the radiance pool, splashing water and cracking its walls. Liquid spilled onto the earth.
Li stood. The radiance pool was destroyed.
After rolling out from under the fallen trunk, Han came to his feet but did not move. Li approached cautiously, staring at his eyes for clear signs of his old friend, but when Han looked up, his eyes were still a demonic black.
Li backed up several steps, startled and confused. He raised his sword defensively.
“Fool!” Han laughed. “Not so clever after all.” He continued laughing.
There could only be one explanation: there was another pool. Somewhere hidden within the massive complex churned the demonic waters of another radiance pool. Li’s heart sank at the thought, though it was something he should have anticipated.
The task of finding and destroying another pool seemed hopeless, and when things seemed like they couldn’t get worse, the zhuk kwai and dark ninja stumbled back into view. The flames from the lantern oil were gone, though the hair on the zhuk and the clothes on the ninja were charred and smoldering. Rather than slow them down, the burns they sustained see
med only to irritate and inflame them further. They looked at him, with rage in their eyes and breath, exuding the vengeance that was on their minds.
Li wiped a trickle of blood from his face and felt completely alone.
39
THE REST OF the hallways were clear of Koon Gee. Wong traversed through them unimpeded and sensed that Kai was within reach. He no longer sprinted, but approached cautiously, like a predator zeroing in on its prey. He was close now and wary of the lack of activity. Though he fooled an entire squadron of Koon Gee into running the opposite direction, he wasn’t so naive as to think he was out of danger.
He felt a shift in the mark. It was slight, but his sense of the mark was now much clearer than before, being in such close proximity to Kai. He concentrated for another second to confirm and determined that the mark was actually moving away from him. What could it mean? Why was he moving? He quickly plotted a course to intercept and followed, wary of the company that might be traveling with him.
He clung close to the walls, the mark continually on his mind. Getting to it was trickier than he anticipated; he was traveling on an adjacent tunnel without a clear indication of how to cross over. Occasionally a wrong turn forced him to retrace his steps, but more often than not he stuck to the path he was given, seeing that it went in the same general direction as the mark. With any luck, a path to intersect would present itself.
The sound of a shrieking lo-shur ninja pierced the silence. Startled, Wong looked forward and back, but there was no sign of Koon Gee. The sound came from the tunnel beyond—around the vicinity of Kai.
Wong burst into a sprint. All he could think of was that he could not afford to lose Kai when he had come so close. He flew by the cavern lanterns so quickly that they appeared as a regular pattern of blurs. He began to lose sense of his surroundings, focused solely on reaching the mark. Something in his gut told him that Kai was in trouble and he had to get there as soon as possible.
Another screech followed. This time, the shriek didn’t sound like an alarm, but a war cry, like it was about to attack. The path ahead split, with one route seemingly in the direction of Kai. It was the break he was looking for and he took it.
In the distance he could hear the sound of skilled swordplay. A fight was taking place and the thought intrigued him. Could Li have made it to Kai? It did not seem possible. He approached a turn and the sounds became much more discernible. Metal clanked upon metal in a familiar tone. He recognized it immediately.
It was his samurai sword.
His familiarity with it was second only to the Dragon Arm, which now awakened and buzzed in his grip. His heart raced.
He turned the corner. In front of him stood a ninja with long black hair, her back toward him while she exchanged strikes with a lo-shur demon. Kai stood off to the side with his back against the wall, watching helplessly.
Wong raised the Dragon Arm and hurled it, using the full weight of his body. It flew through the air and sailed just beyond Tae’s shoulder, landing directly in the chest of the lo-shur ninja with a crunch. The force knocked the ninja back several feet.
“Tae! Kai!” he yelled, running forward, elated to find his friends again. Kai turned to him, but his reaction was not what he expected.
In the brief moment that elapsed, Wong saw fear in Kai’s face. Their eyes locked and time froze. Instead of joy or relief, Kai’s eyes widened in anguish, as if he were about to cry out. Tae turned to him, a blow dart held up to her mouth, her eyes pitch black. Before he could react, he knew it was too late. His time had come.
The poison dart hit him in the neck and his knees buckled. How could he have been so careless? He hit the ground and looked up at Kai one last time. Kai’s mouth was open as if he was crying aloud, but he could not hear it. His senses had already begun to fail and he felt deathly cold. He wanted to say he was sorry, but his breath was not strong enough to utter the words. His head lowered to the ground and he began to fall away.
Tae stood above him when the darkness lifted from her eyes. Her mind cleared and her senses came back to her. She looked down at Wong, and then over at Kai, who had crumbled to the ground, howling. And then she remembered what she had done.
She knelt by his body and turned him aside, caressing his face with her hand. Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she thought of the prophecy of his death and how it hung over his shoulders. Little did she know that she would be the instrument chosen to fulfill it; the thought of it broke her. She looked into his eyes and saw the life drain from them. For a second his eyes locked back onto hers.
And then Wong was gone.
She lay her head down on his chest and clutched his arms and wept.
Suddenly, she sensed breath. She darted her head up and looked into his eyes again. The corners began to darken with a demonic presence that spread to his pupils.
“No . . . no, no, no, no,” she began to mutter again and again.
She reached for her sword, his sword, and angled the blade toward his neck. She panicked and remained frozen except for the trembling in her hands. She would have to kill him before the demon fully took over. It was no longer Wong, she told herself. She looked over to Kai and then to Wong again. If she did not kill him they were both dead. She gripped the hilt on the blade tighter and took a deep breath.
Wong’s leg kicked up and knocked her back. His eyes were now fully black. He rose to his feet with a wild and giddy grin.
“Yes,” he elated. “This will do! Alone one cannot overcome the poison, but together, yes!”
Tae’s face hardened with anger and she thrust her sword at him. Wong shifted and dodged the attack without moving his feet. He grabbed her arm, ducked back under the sword, and hit her with a fierce uppercut that knocked her back several feet. Her sword dropped to the ground and she did not rise from where she landed.
Wong, or what was left of him, laughed and then shifted his attention to Kai. Kai rose to his feet and began frantically backing away. Wong followed calmly.
“What hope is left for you, boy,” he taunted. “Your hero cannot save you now. Wong is gone and there is only me.”
He spread his arms and laughed.
Kai backed up until his back hit rock. He climbed up on a ledge, out of options, nowhere to go. Looking down at the twisted form of Wong, emotion welled up. He could not let all his friends be taken, especially not Wong. Tae lay on the floor, Wong and Han were possessed, and Li was nowhere to be found. Help would not come for him. He was on his own.
Wong reached up and grabbed him from the ledge.
“Your friends have fallen, and so shall you!”
From somewhere within Kai, great power erupted. Searing energy shot out from his chest and spread toward his head and fingertips. His eyes sparked white as chi fire enveloped him and set the hallway aglow.
He slowly reached for Wong and touched his forehead. Instantly, licks of white fire jumped from his hand and swept across Wong’s body. The demon began to scream in horror and dropped to its knees. It trembled in disbelief.
“Noo,” the demon gasped. “This is not possible.”
Black vapors wisped from his eyes, mouth, and ears—they twisted and writhed but could not overcome Kai’s power. Like smoke from a dying fire, the black flames whimpered and failed. Soon the darkness lifted and the lo-shur dissipated, consumed by chi fire.
Wong closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head to clear his thoughts as Kai’s energy extinguished around him. The hallway grew dark again. He looked up at Kai and stared at him blankly for a few seconds—in part to marvel at his abilities, in part to keep him in suspense with his twisted sense of humor. He then cracked a smile and embraced the boy.
Tae came to her feet and approached cautiously, unsure of what had just happened.
Wong sensed her timid approach.
“It’s okay,” he said, still on his knees with his back to her. “I’
m me again.”
She dropped to her knees and joined in the embrace, her tears now ones of happiness. She looked at Wong, who returned her gaze and then held her face with a hand but said nothing. He pulled her in close and kissed her face. Kai looked up at the both of them and caught Tae’s eye. She leaned over and wrapped both of her arms around him, planting several kisses on his cheek. Kai blushed.
Wong looked down at the boy and wondered about his ability. His energy not only overcame the lo-shur, it completely devoured it. It was a unique manifestation of his chi power that he had never thought possible—not even the Weapons Master himself could perform such a feat.
He began to see how the prophecy of the Koon Gee’s destruction was possible, and for the first time he truly embraced it. Up until now, Kai had been his burden, a cog in the prophetic wheel that would lead to his death. And he had indeed died, if only for a brief moment. But now, he was alive, and Kai was something more. For the first time since he could remember, he had hope and the burden of the prophecy no longer weighed on his mind.
Sounds in the distance caught his attention and temporarily sobered his mood. He rose to his feet.
“Come on, we’re not out of this yet.”
He walked over to the dead lo-shur ninja on the ground and pulled the Dragon Arm out of its chest. Tae rose too and held onto Kai’s hand, leading him forward.
Wong addressed them. “Li is here. He’s tracking Han to the radiance pool.” His voice turned more solemn. “Han is turned. And judging by recent events, Li has not found the pool yet.”
Tae’s face lit. “I know where it is . . . the pool. I was leading Kai away from it. It’s close I think.”
“The pool’s down here?”
“Yes.”
His face contorted. If the pool was nearby, then where was Han leading his brother? Li was most likely in trouble. The best way to help him would be to find the pool and destroy it for him.
“Can you find it?”
“I’m not sure. I think so. I mean I was conscious of what was happening, but at the same time I wasn’t—”
