by Ino Lee
They reached an uneven break in the land: to the left was more expanse, and to the right was more mountainous terrain, an extension of the Forbidden Range. Li stopped to consider his options. Xiong joined him up front.
“What weighs on your mind, Shoukui?”
“A critical choice.”
“To take the flats or mountainous ground?”
“Left will bring us closer to the northern gate, where Great Wall soldiers amass. But with it comes flat ground and the prospect of more open battle. We were fortunate this battle, but how many more are we to fight?”
Xiong looked right. “And there, hills and canyons, turns where we may both be funneled into the enemy or escape them.”
“Yes.”
“The Koon Gee will also know their own mountains. Many armies have chased Koon Gee from the Wall only to stall at the canyons.”
Li shrugged. “The lesser of evils, I think. A hidden monk wall will not work forever. I also fear radiance pools in the open armies, dragged by zhuk kwais.”
Xiong nodded. “At least we know one is not already here, or the lo-shur spirit would have possessed a zhuk during our last encounter. That would have changed the nature of the battle completely.”
“Indeed.”
“There is one more thing. Kai senses peril behind us. I believe the unan and forces from the Dragon Pass draw near. They wait at the edge of open ground so as not to be seen, perhaps.”
Li examined the area. “I see. Then it confirms my instinct. We cannot face armies in open combat, let alone with a force on our tail. We must trek through mountainous obstacles to evade them. Right is my choice.”
“Agreed. The hills then.”
Thunder rocked the canyon, a distant boom bouncing between the walls, echoing as if they were inside of a great lute’s belly. Though they could hear the squall’s turbulence, they saw neither rain nor wind. The anomaly plunged them into a surreal world, driven deeper by each sharp crackle, the rumble spurring them on like war drums from the heavens, making them anxious, expectant, and almost eager for battle.
Li wanted to say something encouraging, something they would be able to draw strength from on their terrible plight. But his mind was occupied by the endless choices ahead of them, each twist and turn the difference between life and death. Kai would attract every Koon Gee within range and they needed every opportunity to avoid them. At least the deep rock would make it difficult to follow and also serve to dampen the mark’s range.
His thoughts turned to his brother. Perhaps Wong would find the kaigun-shur and kill it, freeing Kai from the curse and preventing every Koon Gee within range from making a beeline toward their party, but that was wishful thinking. Wong must have sensed the mark in the Koon Kagi by now though. Most likely he was on his way with Jaguan, and if they weren’t already dead, that was something realistic to hope for.
The first signs of danger appeared—the smolder of a stamped out campfire. Dagwais saw their march and huddled into a cave. Li flagged the danger, unsure if the dagwais were just stragglers wanting no part of the action, or outmatched enemies taking cover and willing to take potshots as they passed by.
“Watch the caves,” he barked. “Guard the rear.”
They moved past the cave. A nervous dagwai watched them uncomfortably from the entrance, carrying a big stick. Li figured that if these particular dagwais were truly a threat, they would have responded to Kai’s mark earlier and been more prepared to fight.
“I don’t like this,” Tofu said.
“They are not warriors. They are no threat.”
“I feel these canyons are full of death, Shoukui. I suspect everything.”
A second heap smoldered nearby, its caretakers long gone, fostering suspicion of the numerous openings that dotted the ravine. Were they merely barren crevices or the entrances of vast caverns teaming with bloodthirsty villains? Open ground never seemed so appealing.
The canyon curved ahead. Toward a rocky outcrop closer to them, an electric bolt tore through the sky, illuminating a shiny white face that was gone in a flash.
“Did you see that?” Shian said.
“No, what?” Li said.
“A face.”
Thunder crackled.
Zedon coughed blood, then fell forward, a trident sticking out of his back. Kai screamed.
“Unan!” Xiong yelled.
A red devil cheered triumphantly behind them, springing from a crevice after lying in wait.
More faces appeared, one blue and grinning, another gold and growling. The frozen expressions descended from the heights on long, thin black limbs. Dark ninjas followed, throwing ropes over the canyon walls.
“Keep moving!” Li said.
Warriors with bows started unloading their weaponry, picking off the vulnerable descending Koon Gee. Xiong ran forward and hurled an ax at a line, severing the rope near the top and causing the entire row of ninjas to drop.
Aiying focused the archers.
“Aim for the gold mask!” she said.
“Gold mask!” another warrior repeated.
The unan shifted, scurried across the rock face, dodged, twisted, and jerked its head from side to side to avoid the projectiles, but its body was riddled with arrows, some stinging with chi, causing it to lose its grip and fall. It braced for impact, resulting in a stationary moment where Aiying’s arrow found its mask.
An opera mask with streaks of blue lunged from a high wall at one of the archers, grabbing a hold of his neck and flipping him off the line. Ninjas pounced on the defenseless warrior while the unan came back for more, swiping the leg of a monk with a javelin. Xiong buried a chi arrow in its belly and backed it off with several more shots, chasing it into a crevice.
Numerous ninjas dropped on either side of the formation and attacked with a full arsenal of chain. Metal links whirled overhead and lashed with a variety of blades: dagger, tiger claw, and the sickle-end of kusarigama. Two warriors went down. Tiger claw wrapped around Tofu’s great blade, but the burly warrior heaved the ninja toward Li’s lunging sword, ending it.
“Break formation!” Li yelled, wary of being picked off and conscious of the chained weapons’ susceptibility to close combat, turning the warriors loose.
The defenders charged with their shields up and moved in to cut down the assailants, crafty foes that tried to shift away. One ninja fell to an arrow and others to swords, scattering them. The red devil and the mask of streaked blue regrouped the ninjas and dug in, keeping the Shaolin warriors occupied with hand-to-hand combat. Xiong handed Kai his bow and rushed to meet the opera mask.
Li watched a new batch of ninjas descend into the canyon, taking stock of the situation as casualties mounted. They could not fight them off forever. He called a retreat, fearful of getting bogged down, and asked Shian to lead the way as he dropped to the rear to fight off the unan.
“Warriors—to me!” Shian said.
She thumped a ninja in her path and got the contingent moving again. Li tore into the unan occupied with Xiong, flaying a chunk of its flesh. The injury did not hurt the demon much, but being distracted and losing its arm to Xiong’s ax did, causing it to back away. The red devil came over to help it escape as Li and Xiong thought to pursue, but instead turned to their own retreating party.
New ninjas took up the chase.
A noose appeared out of nowhere and dropped around the neck of a Shaolin warrior, lifting him up a ledge as he gasped and kicked, his body left partially hanging over the side. Lafay’s maniacal laughter could be heard as the victim’s legs twitched, then went limp. The demon stood tall with a newly stained knife and perked up when it saw Kai.
“Why, hi Kai! Where are you going?”
The demon did not chase, but remained perfectly still, looking on uncomfortably as they pulled away.
Shian veered from the action into an adjacent cor
ridor when more Koon Gee—ones that included zhuks and dagwais—poured through a low point in the walls. A full battalion had found its way into the canyon. She shifted down another path and broke into a full run, finding a narrower corridor and choosing difficult paths to follow.
The risk was high. If she steered them into a dead end, they would be cornered by a much larger force. Though the narrow walls would limit their attack, their superior numbers would eventually wear them down.
The rains finally came—a burst of cloud. Its arrival made the situation seem much worse, but the precipitation made it as difficult to flee in as it did to pursue. She saw an ascending corridor in the rock and knew what must be done.
“Quickly! Up the passage.”
They climbed up the fissure on increasingly slick ground, the rain funneled in by high mountain walls. Near the top, they slowed to a crawl to maintain proper footing as a steady flow of water trickled underfoot. Koon Gee poured in after them.
Shian moved on, but Xiong stopped.
“What is it?” Li asked
“This ground. It is the perfect place to defend. A choke point on difficult terrain.”
He dropped his quiver.
“Go on. I will make a stand.”
“No—”
“Go. I can hold off the battalion.”
Li stared at him, knowing they needed the time, but reluctant to leave one against an army. There was little time to waste. He motioned to the other warriors.
“Give him arrows.”
Shu, one of the few remaining bowmen, dropped a quiver. “A full set. Some Shaolin, some dagwai. Aim true, Xiong.”
Kai handed over his set, but couldn’t find words to say.
“I know,” Xiong said. “Take care, little monk.”
Aiying took up a position. “I’ll back you up.”
“No, stay with Kai. Keep your quiver; they will need a long range threat.”
She hesitated.
“I’ll make it back,” Xiong said. “Go.”
There was fire in his eyes, an expression that conveyed urgency and conviction, an unspoken farewell at his sacrifice.
“See you soon, Xiong,” Li said.
Xiong strung an arrow and screamed, firing over the side at an approaching dagwai. The Koon Gee were easy targets, slow to move and without cover. He fired again and again as bodies dropped and the flow of rainwater turned red.
The Shaolin warriors moved on, the sounds of Xiong’s war cries fading as they pulled away.
38
THE SHAOLIN WARRIORS ran without formation, survival their only focus. The cost of the canyon was high. Besides Li and Shian, only six other Shaolin warriors were left to protect Kai: Wenyen, Tofu, the fighting brothers Shen and Qi, Shu, and Aiying. Together, they formed an elite squad of warriors, the best to make it from Black Mountain.
They were cold, wet, and tired.
“Should we wait for Xiong?” Kai asked.
“We have to keep moving,” Li said.
Shian looked east. “There is blood on the horizon, conflict toward the Wall.” She held her arms out. “I can feel a mass of energies.”
“I feel it too,” Wenyen added.
“The Great Wall soldiers have engaged the Koon Gee,” Li said. He pointed. “We must find a way through, but we will avoid the bulk of the conflict by hugging this terrain slightly north.”
The thundershower let up. It was the kind of rain that could come or go at any moment. Li stopped at a pool of fresh water that had gathered in a rock depression to fill his canteen.
“We can share what chi water is left.”
Wenyen produced a new vial of Infinity water.
“Perhaps this will help. This old monk still has some value.”
“Excellent. We need a lift.”
Li added the chi water to his canteen and drank deeply, then passed it on.
“Drink well. We are headed directly into the storm, and I do not mean the weather.”
Kai stood away from them, distracted by distant energies. He gritted his teeth.
“Kai, come here,” Shian said. “You need chi water.”
Kai approached. “I need a new weapon.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“This dagger is no good.”
He drank.
“No—why do you need it? What do you sense?”
“The energy is all weird.”
“What does it feel like?” Li asked.
“I don’t know. It feels like lo-shur.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
They looked around but saw no spirits.
Tofu felt a drop. “I don’t suppose you could be mistaking it for more rain?”
Wenyen overheard their conversation and approached with an extra monk staff.
“This was Zedong’s. I kept it when he fell. Zhigau wood. Light, but perhaps too long.”
He touched a chi spark with his own staff against the bottom of the weapon and slowly slid up, stopping a third of the way. The spark pulsed and he knocked hard against the wood, snapping it. He handed Kai the top end.
“I’ve redistributed the energy as best I could.”
Kai smiled and waved it. The staff felt more irregular than his own back in Shaolin, with more varied widths and curves along its length.
“Thank you, Wenyen. I really needed it.”
Li still worried about what Kai said. “Let’s get moving. Pass the canteen on. We’ll drink on the run.”
The elite squad moved out.
“Does the staff suit you?” Wenyen said.
“Yeah,” Kai replied. “It works.”
“I am sure you prefer your own staff back in Shaolin.”
“I wish I had my bow.”
“Why? A staff is the best conduit of a monk’s chi power.”
“I killed an unan with it.”
Shian joined their conversation. “Kai, your true ability lies with your monk skill. You must embrace it if we are to survive this. We are so few, we will need all warriors at their best.”
“That’s why I want my bow.”
“Do you believe it was your archery skill that allowed you to defeat the unan?”
“I shot it right through the mask.”
“How?”
“I sensed it coming.”
“How?”
“I felt its energy.”
“Does that come from your ability as a fighter or as a monk?”
“Well, I guess that part is monk.”
“And how did you escape Lau Gong and Lafay?”
“I hypnotized a squirrel.”
“Did you do that as a monk or a fighter?”
“Monk.”
“And long ago, when you first attained chi fai, did you not defeat a lo-shur demon, the most powerful form of our enemy?”
“Yes.”
“How did you do it?”
“I don’t know. It just happened.”
“What happened?”
“My chi fire engulfed it.”
“Your energy projected away from you and overtook this demon?”
“Yes.”
“Does that sound like something a monk or fighter would do?”
“A monk.”
“So how then will you make it through this night? As a fighter or monk?”
Kai smiled and examined his staff. “I will fight as a monk.”
An eerie silence settled over the land. Soon, claps of thunder were replaced by screams, nightmarish terror that assaulted the senses. Li understood what it was that Kai had sensed—a radiance pool.
He readied his crescent moon knife.
“Prepare for mutated Koon Gee.”
The assault came quickly. A possessed dagwai leapt over the r
ock, an oversized lizard with demonic black eyes, thick muscles, and sharpened teeth, bursting with power from the infusion of demonic lo-shur energy. It barreled into Tofu with snapping teeth, wrapping him up on the ground. Aiying buried a chi arrow in its back, which wasn’t fatal, but enough to scare it off.
Three ninjas came next, their eyes black instead of the usual red. Li defended against rapid strikes from the first, glad for the extra defense of his crescent knife. Another came at Shen and Qi, but faced stiff resistance from their coordinated attacks.
The third tried to stifle their long-range ability by running down Aiying. The slender archer fired astray as the ninja flipped onto a rock wall, then again as it leapt over the shot and crashed into her. She rolled and flipped the ninja off with both feet, returning to her own before using her bow to parry a sword strike. She flicked a knife, and then another, spinning, and causing the ninja to bend awkwardly to dodge, giving her time to stow the bow across her back and unleash a rope dart in the same motion. The ninja flipped back and ricocheted the metal weight off its sword, grinning. Wenyen joined in and backed it off further with swipes of burning chi. Aiying retracted the rope dart, wrapped it around her leg and kicked out, giving the dart extra momentum as it flew inches past Wenyen’s side and into the ninja’s ribs with a sharp crack. The monk moved in to club the demon, but black shadow exploded away from its body, the lo-shur separating from the ninja. He chased it and burned a piece of its shadow with his chi staff.
Shian bolstered Li’s attack and the brothers repelled their enemy, causing the lo-shur to disappear as quickly as they came.
The Shaolin warriors ran.
“Just the first wave,” Li said. “A test.”
“I injured one,” Wenyen said.
“We must make contact with Great Wall soldiers. That is our only chance,” Shian said.
She flared a light orb high above their heads. Kai pointed his staff and made it brighter, while Wenyen caused it to pulsate to attract attention. The light stood out against the backdrop of storm clouds, providing a beacon that could be seen for miles.
