Cultivating Chaos 2

by William D. Arand

  “And what if we told them to leave and take you with them? Take you home?” Ash asked. He had an ulterior motive for wanting to run these people down.

  “No,” Tala said simply. “Because I don’t wish to go. I’ve… grown soft. My elegant self is no longer as ruthless as it once was. Nor do I wish to be.

  “I’m going to charge the Dokkalfar leader now. Watch the back row, they look like magicians.”

  “W—”

  Ash had no opportunity to say anything more as Tala was already charging across the distance to the rider.

  Chunhua’s response was instant. Rolling her hands back, then forward, she let loose a crashing wave of Qi. Turned into elemental forces and overcharged, it was a roiling tsunami of crackling, buzzing, angry Earth and Metal.

  Except even as the Earth crashed forward, it was super-heated and changed by Tala. Holding up one hand briefly before she reached her target, she released a rapid rush of Fire Elemental energy, turning everything into flowing molten rock and metal.

  The Dokkalfar magicians Tala had mentioned were slow, but not completely unprepared. They were quickly working in concert to stop Chunhua’s attack.

  Terrifying. She’s so powerful.

  “More so than when she fought Bartok. She’s been training. Extensively, it would seem,” murmured Locke. “And training with others.”

  Ash was slow to react, taking far too long to summon up a bow of his hardened Qi. Moving as quickly as he could and leaning into Coiled Spring Step, Ash fired off six hardened Qi arrows.

  Each was aimed for a magician in an attempt to disrupt their concerted effort.

  Then everything became a mad and frenzied melee of cultivators and Dokkalfar mounted scouts.

  Ash had to give up his bow and retract the Qi.

  Bracing himself, he launched forward with a Spring Step to land beside Tala.

  The beautiful swordswoman had decapitated the speaker of the Dokkalfar and was now engaged with two more by herself.

  Pulling his butterfly swords free of the ring, Ash stepped up behind Tala, allowing the Kin to focus on her own opponent.

  “I don’t need your help,” Tala growled, her sword tip coming around in a rapid arc and battering away the mounted opponent’s saber.

  “Clearly, your beautiful and…” Ash paused to deflect an attack and strike out at the attacker’s wrist in the same movement with his other arm, “elegant self doesn’t need it. But maybe I do.”

  “Obviously, you need help. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be staying with you,” Tala proclaimed. Then she battered away her opponent’s attack, let go of her sword with her left hand, and held it out towards her opponent.

  A cone of fire leapt from her hand and simply enveloped the Dokkalfar rider in a gout of flame.

  At the same time, an angry roaring column of solid iron smashed down into the mounted enemy directly in front of Ash.

  Chunhua casually walked by the spot where she’d just flattened someone and engaged another foe.

  “Glad to hear it,” Ash said, turning and moving with Tala as she went to engage another set of enemies.

  “Gen suggested you push on a few of them. I think Tala would be one. Wouldn’t you agree?” Locke suggested.

  This isn’t really the time for it and…whatever.

  “Can’t promise I can keep resisting your fine legs, long ears, and elegant self, Tala,” Ash said, keeping to the Kin’s left and providing her assistance.

  In a blur of metal, Tala’s sword swept around in a wide arc.

  Clanging through the opponent’s raised guard, the blade buried itself in the lizard’s shoulder.

  Stepping in quickly, Ash cut the saddle free of the lizard as it tried to scurry away from Tala. The rider tumbled to the ground and hit the dirt.

  Only to be immediately skewered by Tala’s long blade, the weapon going straight through their chest.

  “Then I suppose it’s a good thing that I shall not attempt to resist you any further,” Tala grunted, then yanked her blade free of the dying Dokkalfar. “I will notify you when the time is right. Know now, though, that it will not be soon. I must personally prepare.”

  With that said, Tala deliberately lost herself in the crowd of mounts and cultivators, putting herself out of Ash’s reach.

  “I’m personally ready now,” Chunhua declared, coming up from Ash’s left. Holding up her hand, she whipped it across the space in front of her. A blade of Metal Elemental Qi snapped out in a razor-thin line from her and moved upward.

  It carved several heads from shoulders, sometimes taking the shoulders with it, and dissipated into the sky.

  “And I believe I’ve redeemed myself, as well, and am now worthy,” said Chunhua with a puff of air. Missing a step, she tottered for a second.

  Reaching out, Ash wrapped his arm around Chunhua’s hips and steadied her.

  “She’s empty. Push a pill in her and consider this a teaching lesson for everyone. You can’t recharge your Qi here. What you go in with, is what you have,” Locke explained.

  That was rather surprising to Ash. He’d never considered the fact that they couldn’t draw on anything.

  But when he thought about it, it made sense. If there was no life here, there’d be nothing to draw on.

  Pulling a pill from his inventory, he held it and forced Chunhua to face him with the same hand.

  As soon as her white eyes caught his green ones, he let go of her face. She was pale and looked rather weak, but her eyes were lucid and quite coherent.

  Then he stuffed the medicine between her lips and patted her cheek lightly.

  “Swallow that and take it easy,” Ash commanded. “You can’t draw on anything here.”

  Chunhua only stared at him, swallowing the pill dry, and not moving away from his embrace.

  “Awkward,” Locke mumbled. “This isn’t a rom-com. There’s a fight going on.”

  Twenty-One

  Taking stock of the situation, Ash was certain that their enemies were now dead, dying, or captured. The battle had only just ended a few minutes ago when he couldn’t find anyone else to fight.

  Gimmie a location marker for anyone who needs medication right now.

  “Certainly,” responded Locke.

  A mass of red squares, yellow diamonds, and green circles appeared in his view.

  “I prioritized our own people first,” Locke added.

  Nodding his head, Ash was going to ask for an arrow to the closest person who needed help the most.

  Before he could even finish the thought, though, a big green arrow appeared in his view, pointing him onward.

  Perfect.

  Getting ready to pull out restoration pills and potions, Ash quickly jogged along, following the arrow.

  A young woman with blood pouring down the side of her chest had a flashing red square over her.

  She was cute, young, and looked like she’d been stabbed right through a lung or her heart. Her wide eyes flicked to him just as he got close.

  Getting down on one knee next to her, Ash didn’t even bother to ask what she needed.

  He just pulled out the strongest healing pill he had and crammed it into her mouth. Forcing his fingers between her lips.

  Anything else she needs?

  “Compress the wound,” Locke advised. “Given that she’s an orange, keeping her alive is essential to our cause.”

  A glowing, green shadow image of where to put his hands appeared over the woman’s wound.

  Matching his hands directly to it, Ash leaned into her.

  Groaning once, the woman watched Ash.

  Couldn’t risk Rou being here, but I wish she was.

  “Pity you couldn’t put her in the ring and take her with you. You need to do something about Tai,” Locke countered.

  That’s… a good point.

  Sitting there, Ash looked around. Trying to figure out which way to go next.

  The red square over his patient stopped flashing and became a solid color.

  Loo
king back to the woman, he gave her a smile, then got up and rushed off to the next, following the green arrow once more.

  Any chance you can make it easier? Lots of people need help.

  There was a flicker of the green arrow before it became steady again.

  No sooner than Ash had reached the next patient—another flashing red square—he was given a small window with a list of things that were wrong with her. A second window appeared along with the recommended course of action.

  He was glad for both, given that he couldn’t actually see anything wrong with her, other than that she was incredibly pale-looking and her eyes were closed.

  Pulling out the stated potion at the top of the list, Ash forced the vial between the woman’s lips and pinched her nose shut with his other hand.

  Gagging and sputtering, the woman drank down the potion as her eyes opened.

  A number of ailments in the first list turned off and several items from the recommendations disappeared.

  Appearing over the woman’s chest was the image of a green hand holding a knife. Another hand appeared which seemed to indicate pulling the woman’s robes down to her waist.

  “Sorry,” Ash said, then did exactly the prescribed action, exposing the woman’s bare breasts. He then pulled a small stiletto from his own inventory and matched the position of the other green hand. Once more the second hand appeared, this time with what looked like a tube of some sort. There was a name listed for it as well, but he didn’t even bother trying to pronounce it.

  Trusting the information, Ash pulled it from his inventory.

  The hand with the blade plunged it slowly into the woman’s side, the image of the stiletto having replaced the knife now.

  Mimicking it, Ash stabbed the woman to the same depth.

  The green bladed hand drew away, and the tube was then inserted into the wound.

  Once more, Ash did as instructed, pushing the tube into place.

  The red square over the woman became pale pink and the green arrow jumped to the next person.

  Off we go.

  An hour later, after treating all his people and then working on the enemy, Ash felt wrung out. Wrung out and tired to the point that he really wanted to just lie down and take a nap.

  “Doing what we did does take away from our energy. It just doesn’t cost that much. The problem is we can’t regain anything here,” Locke explained.

  Oh, that makes sense.

  “I’ve got him. Just lead us back.”

  Opening an eye from where he sat, Ash saw Chunhua and Moira.

  “Alright,” Moira said. “I’ll see if I can’t find the closest scouting group. If we can get them to head this way, we can use their horses.”

  “Yes. That’d be helpful. Pity we couldn’t get the lizards to remain,” Chunhua murmured.

  “There’s no way they would have let us mount them. They’re not friendly creatures,” declared Tala as she walked into Ash’s view. “And I’ll carry him. He only decided on this course of action so I could go home.”

  “Hm. Fine,” Chunhua said, locking eyes with Tala. “Be careful with him.”

  “You don’t need to tell me that,” Tala grumbled. Then she came over to Ash and gathered him up. Strangely enough, she didn’t throw him over her shoulder as he expected. Instead, she held him in front like he was a princess. “He and I worked it out. We understand each other now.”

  “Oh? Good. I may not be able to compete with Mei and Jia, but at the worst, I’ll become his third,” Chunhua said, lifting her chin slightly.

  Moira only laughed at that, her wings sliding out. Then she shot off into the air, flapping hard.

  “More likely fifth or sixth. Everyone keeps discounting little Yue, the fools,” argued Locke. “Excluding Yue though… Moira, Mei, Jia, Na, Chunhua, Rou, and Tala last. She’s just too combative.”

  Tala didn’t reply to Chunhua’s comment. Instead, she just held onto Ash and started moving at a full run back toward the camp. He could feel it when the enhanced running speed was fed into Tala and the rest of the group.

  Laying his head against Tala’s shoulder, Ash let his mind wander.

  “I could be first,” Tala grumbled. “Show them all. First amongst them all. Beat them all to the ground with my fists and take my place.”

  “Then be first,” Ash mumbled and then promptly fell asleep.

  ***

  Ash’s eyelid was peeled back, the bright light of midday stabbing into his brain.

  “Ugh,” Ash groaned, trying to turn his head away.

  “Don’t move,” growled Rou. “Or I’ll let Tala be my hands. She will not spare you the way I am.”

  Grunting, Ash tried not to move from Rou and instead focused on trying to see her.

  “He’s fine,” Rou said after a few seconds, then clicked her tongue. “Just Qi loss. Like almost everyone else. He was just apparently too stupid to take a pill to try and negate that.”

  “Gave ’em all out,” Ash admitted. Leaning forward as Rou pulled away, he found he was sitting upright against a small pile of stones.

  “Idiot. Anyone else could have given you one to help,” Tala cursed. “Why didn’t you ask? Even I have them.”

  “I… didn’t think about it. Didn’t realize that was the problem. I was just trying to stabilize everyone,” said Ash, holding his hands up in front of himself.

  Glancing around, he saw he was in the area of the camp that was set-up for himself and his friends.

  Jia, Mei, Yue, Tala, Moira, Chunhua, Rou, and Na were all watching him with different looks on their faces.

  “Considering only two people died and there are no actual wounded, I now understand why that is so. Ash took care of it all,” Jia said. Then she shifted to the left and crossed her left arm over her middle, planting her right elbow atop it and resting her chin in her palm. “You could have just told them to take their own pills, Ashley.”

  “Most of them were unconscious,” Ash said, then shrugged his shoulders. “I’m fine though. No problem.”

  Puffing her cheeks out in an oddly cute and angry way, Mei glared at him. Letting out her breath in a rush, she growled and shook a hand at him.

  “Ashley Sheng, you will not make me a widow so soon. Do you understand? Do you?” Mei said angrily. “Na is now assigned to you as a personal bodyguard. She will not leave your side for any reason. Do you understand me, Handmaiden?”

  “I understand, Mistress Sheng, I will accompany the master at all times,” Na said between her teeth, glaring at Ash.

  “To be fair, that was kind of stupid. I did warn you against it,” Locke reminded him.

  Yeah?

  Fuck off.

  “Oh. Cranky. Geeze.”

  “He’s fine,” Tala argued, then stepped over to him and sat down at his side. Wrapping an arm around his shoulders, she pulled his head down onto her chest and shoulder. “I will care for him and will be his bodyguard. Moira will, as well. Na will remain as his Handmaiden. He needs one.”

  “That’s fair,” Moira said, looking at Mei and Jia. “Tala and I will monitor him going forward. Tala has chosen to remain with us by the way. She does not wish to return home.”

  “Good,” Yue proclaimed, nodding her head sharply. “Ashley… Ashley is a good man and master. You’ll do better staying with us.”

  “Anyway,” Ash said, not pulling away from Tala. She was incredibly warm and Ash was feeling a little cold, if he had to be honest. “Did we secure any prisoners? Did they tell you anything useful, Tala?”

  “We have a single prisoner,” Chunhua answered. “The others killed themselves when it became obvious they were lost and could not escape. This one was knocked unconscious and missed the window to end her life.”

  Someone had approached at the edge of their private camp area and stopped, causing Na to go over and speak with them.

  “No, they did not reveal anything I did not already tell you,” Tala murmured, her left arm tightening around Ash and her hand lying against his brow
.

  Uh.

  “Uh.”

  “Uh,” Mei said.

  “Shall we question the prisoner? She’s awake. I’ve been monitoring her,” Chunhua offered.

  “Is he ready for anything?” Jia asked, looking at Rou.

  “Yes. So long as he just takes it easy and lets his Qi Sea refill,” admitted Rou, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “Then I’ll go fetch the prisoner and bring her back,” Chunhua said.

  Moira came over to sit down on Ash’s other side when Chunhua left. The wing behind him spread out, then slowly curled around Tala and Ash both.

  Mei and Jia stood not far away, watching Moira and Tala, who stared back without speaking.

  “Oh. Interesting. This should be very interesting, actually,” Locke said with a chuckle.

  “Master Sheng?” Na asked, from the side of the camp area.

  Turning toward Na, he found that there were five women standing there with her. Each one Ash recognized. They were all from the wounded that Ash had worked on healing.

  “They… all want to pledge to you,” Na said, clearly unsure how to proceed. Ash had been quite direct with how he felt about more people pledging to him.

  “Well, they can just—”

  “I believe in you! I have faith in you. I pledge all of myself to you, Ashley Sheng. Master Sheng,” said a woman, pushing slightly past Na before the other woman grabbed her. The woman nearly shook Na off anyway and took two more steps. “You brought me back from death. You fed me pills that don’t… can’t… be purchased in this realm. And that’s after everything else you’ve done. I owe you everything. Everything.”

  Ash recognized her as the woman who’d had the massive hole in her chest. He’d deliberately fed her the biggest pill he had because he’d had no idea how to handle her wound.

  “I pledge myself to you. All of me. In every way,” said the woman, not allowing Na to push her back. In fact, she took another step, closing within five feet of Ash. He could see now that Na was doing all she could to push the other woman back.

  The woman was simply stronger than Na and had better talent.