The Emperor's Prey

by Jeremy Han

  “Behind us!”

  Another agent had found them. The Dong Chang knew that this was a critical intersection and had headed there. They anticipated that it was a running battle so they dispatched soldiers to where Ma Hun was while they headed here to cut off any one who managed to come so far. If they were not here, they would work backwards. Ji Gang was heading to Ma’s location now with a detachment of soldiers. They had split up. Still the odds were not good; three against two. The agent behind them took out his flare and fired it. The sky lit up with a bang. Ji would come soon.

  “Damn it!” Li shouted loudly, but it was blotted out by the fireworks. He did not wait; he knew the way as well as the Farmer; it was forward so he charged. The Acrobat never wasted any time. He charged down the narrow way, somersaulted, cart wheeled and when he came to the last few meters away from his enemy, he leapt up the wall, running the last few steps horizontal to the wall, perpendicular to the ground, before jumping down at his enemy, attacking with a downward slash. In a flash, An Deli’s whip blade came up like a snake as he saw Li Jing coming at him. Lu Ximing also drew his sword. Both of them got a little startled when they saw it was Guan Yu, the red-faced god of war fighting them. The angry god’s guan dao struck their blades with a loud clash and they were joined in battle. The Acrobat’s highly athletic style of fighting did not give them any respite as he wielded the heavy weapon with deadly force. The two imperial agents were forced backward. Li Jing attacked left-right, high and low, a continuous juggernaut; the guan dao expertly coming at all angles. In lesser hands, the heavy weapon would be a hindrance in such narrow confines, but the Acrobat had wielded it all his life, killing many with it in different battlefields. The two agents needed some time to gauge their nemesis’ speed and when they responded, it was without hesitation. An struck first; his whip blade launched in a curve. It hit the shaft of Li’s weapon as the Acrobat used it to block the incoming blade, but with a flick of his wrist, An’s blade bent flexibly toward Li’s face. It struck the mask like a metallic whip and it cracked. The indirect attack was unexpected and Li Jing wanted to respond, but another threat bore down on him: Lu lunged. Li dropped the heavy blade downward while lifting one leg to balance while he blocked Lu’s sword thrust. The two agents attacked in tandem, forcing Li Jing backward.

  The Farmer turned and faced the lone man bearing down at him. He walked calmly; his hand moved. One moment he was unarmed, but with a blink, two short cutlasses appeared, one in each hand. He held them wide open as he walked casually toward Fu. Yong Ju, Ji Gang’s prodigy was Fu Zhen’s opponent tonight. Fu’s legs shifted almost imperceptibly so that his weight was balanced and his body rooted. Despite his small size, he could generate great amounts of strength because of the way his body drew power from its base on the ground. It was all about posture and stance. The man attacked with wide swinging movements. Yong’s cutlasses slashed left and right, drawing big circles in the air as Fu repelled each blow by raising his staff in the same left-right manner. Then his forward foot moved in fluidly, his front hand thrusting the pole into the centre of his opponent. Yong raised both blades in an X so that the incoming pole was stopped then he threw his hands up and at the same time, spun his body to launch a back thrusting kick at the Farmer. The Farmer’s rear leg swept a semi-circle on the ground, so that his body rotated and the thrusting leg missed him. He brought the staff down and struck Yong Ju in the face as the man slid forward with the kick. Yong tumbled backward as the smaller man attacked with all he had. As he moved forward, he pushed the staff forward like a pike; Yong blocked it easily by doing a side-stepping block, and then both his hands came up parallel to the ground and pinned the staff to the wall. Then he attacked. He spun so that the twin blades in his hands rotated toward the Farmer, who was still holding on to the staff. Fu dropped his pole and retreated just as the cutlasses hacked into the wall where he stood less than a second ago, raising a cloud of dust as the plaster was destroyed. The second the cutlasses hit the wall, Fu counter-attacked. Without his staff, he was just as deadly. His foot slid forward like onrushing water and his hands touched Yong’s, he could sense his enemy’s slightest movements. When Yong’s hand moved backward, Fu pressed in to attack, but when Yong moved his hand an inch forward, he locked it; essentially, Fu was mirroring his enemy. They looked like they were locked in a dance as Yong tried to disentangle himself. Whatever he tried failed because Fu just followed. When he tried to force his way out by attacking, Fu neutralised it by yielding and transferring the energy away. When he tried to withdraw, Fu flowed in, adding his own strength and causing Yong to lose balance. It was as though their hands were glued together and they moved as mirror opposites. It was highly frustrating for an opponent to be caught in this situation. This was the first time Yong Ju fought someone whose hands were soft and deadly like a jelly fish clinging on, its thousands of tentacles locking on with predatory intent. Several times Fu came close to striking his throat. Then Yong tried to break the hold by kicking. He launched a front kick which Fu blocked with a counter low kick, but it was a feint as Yong’s other leg came up and kicked him in the chest. Fu grunted and retreated backward. Yong took the chance to disengage as well, eager to get out of a situation where the older man’s hands seemed to trap his. The Farmer retrieved his staff as he disengaged. Yong mentally processed the earlier engagement, but he could not figure a way to counter the Farmer’s esoteric hand technique. All he knew was that he could not afford to get entangled with the smaller man again. The Farmer calculated the distance and the length of Yong’s legs. His cutlasses were fast, but his real skill was in his kicks.

  Just as An and Lu thought they had the Acrobat in disarray, the man jerked his torso in a split second movement and suddenly, the black-faced judge Bao Zhen stared at them accusingly. The red-faced god was gone. This sudden change disoriented them for that precious quarter of a second which allowed Li Jing to attack. The Acrobat did his face-changing act to add confusion to the fight. He changed tactics. Instead of charging in with his blade, He rolled forward. He tripped them before flipping up and brought the guan dao into a slashing position. An Deli rowed away just in time to avoid being cleaved and the blade thunked into the ground. Lu got up first and attacked. He attacked with lightning-fast thrusts while charging forward, giving An the space to get up and recover. Then An joined the attack. With great coordination, they attacked high and low, forcing the Acrobat to retreat. He executed several back flips and landed in a monkey stance. So far he held them at bay, preventing them from pushing through into the intersection to pursue the emperor and Li Po.

  But two against one was not a fair fight. An and Lu knew the importance of pushing through so they attacked. Li knew it too. When they moved, he attacked so that he would not give ground. He expertly parried their simultaneous attack and then he pinned their blades against the wall with his heavier weapon so that they could not advance. He hoped that by immobilising them, he could buy the rest time; every second was a few steps closer to freedom. But the two agents were not helpless without their swords; Lu dropped his sword and attacked with a sliding kick which caught Li Jing in the chest. Again, it was expert coordination at work. As An’s blade was flexible, once Li moved just an inch, his weapon came out and snaked toward the retreating man. An moved with deadly intent with the blade aimed at Li’s heart. The Acrobat, reeling from the vicious kick could not defend himself fast enough so he tumbled backward. An forced his way forward as Lu went to pick up his sword. An’s whip blade whirled with a deadly wap-wap sound as it moved undulating like a cobra trying to deliver a lethal bite. The only way Li could survive was to abandon his strategic position at the end of the alleyway. With a few more steps An would push through into the intersection, then either he or Lu could pursue the emperor down the street while the other held Li off. With a shout, he lunged with his sword arm fully outstretched, confident he would gut Li this time.

  There was a shout and a brilliant flash of steel. An screamed. Blood pumped out of his sever
ed hand and sprayed onto the flagstones. It looked ominously black in the night and if it was not for the overwhelming smell of iron and the ear-piercing screech of a man in agony holding his stump, it was hard to tell that it was fresh, red blood. Zhao Qi stood before Lu with his bloody sabre held up pointing at him. Lu Ximing stopped his attack just in time to evaluate this new threat. An Deli was out of action; that was for sure: his hand was hacked off at the elbow. As he lunged forward toward Fu at the intersection, he could not see that Zhao was just round the corner of the wall to his right in his blind spot. When Zhao saw Li retreat from the incoming blade, he instinctively brought his sabre up and hacked at the hand holding the blade that chased his friend. The chopped off hand twitched on the ground like a grounded fish.

  Li Jing got up and looked at the commander who was standing between him and Lu. The man was breathing heavily and his face was pale. Under the moonlight he looked even more ashen. Then he noticed that Zhao’s other hand was clutching his chest; the hand was red with blood. He rasped,

  “Li Jing, go!” Zhao said breathlessly.

  “Commander. You are hurt.” He could not leave his comrades behind.

  “Escort the emperor...and Li Po. Fu and I will take care of things here. We will be with you shortly. Make sure his Majesty and your daughter get on the boat.”

  “Yes Commander!” Li ran. Thoughts of Li Po flooded his mind. His thoughts flew to his daughter’s safety and he tore himself from his embattled brothers-in-arms. Yong saw what happened to An and watched with frustration as Li bounded away; he felt he had to do something; he attacked with a flying kick which Fu ducked. But that was the diversionary move; the second he landed, his torso spun so that both blades slashed. Fu Zhen brought his staff up to block but the force was too great and the speed too quick. He fell backward as his staff was destroyed by the cutlasses’ attack. As Yong tried to press his advantage against the fallen man, he miscalculated; the Farmer rolled to his side to avoid the cutlass attack and kicked his knee from a ground position. It jammed Yong’s step and he screamed in pain as his knee shattered. He tried his best not to fall but Fu Zhen was up on his feet. Yong tried to slash him at close quarter but Fu closed in and grabbed the incoming hand, adding his own force by pulling it, drawing his nemesis forward. Yong lost balance and the Farmer’s forward-moving palm slammed into his face. The small man hit him with a double left-right, his palms shooting out from a relatively short distance with great explosive power. His hands sling-shot from the waist, drawing power from his solid stance, up to his torso, all the way until it connected with the agent’s face repeatedly. Yong went down cold. Fu knew age had caught up with him; the short but sharp exchange with the younger Yong Ju had left him winded. But experience had won the day. He knew Yong would be anxious to finish the fight fast. He observed that the younger man would get impatient and would lose his cool. He ‘fell’ so that the imperial agent would over-commit his attack, thus enabling him to enter into the Farmer’s attack zone. Weapon to weapon, he knew he could not defeat the imperial agent. He used guile instead. He dashed over to Zhao.

  At that same time, Lu Ximing charged and lunged at Zhao Qi. Zhao was slow in blocking as his vision started to blur from blood loss. The blade bit into his shoulder as he tried to twist his way out of its deadly path. He kicked out instinctively, catching Lu in the mid-section just as the man ran past him. It stopped his offensive, but Lu was not hurt too badly. Instead, he recognised that Zhao was weakening and he pressed the attack again. He attacked gracefully like a dancer with a deadly intent, fuelled by his realisation that he was the only one left.

  Where is the bloody Ji Gang? Lu screamed in his mind. He cursed his commander for not being there. Zhao parried his blows and retreated. With great effort, he dodged the sword narrowly and tried to counter-attack, but the imperial agent was too quick; he blocked the feeble slash and smashed Zhao’s face with the pommel of his sword. Blood sprayed from his broken nose. Zhao retaliated with his claw hand; it struck Lu in the chest, throwing his sword aim off but it lacked power. Zhao pressed his attack with a mighty shout, raising the sabre and bringing it down. Lu raised his sword to block and then channelled the force downward and away from him, throwing Zhao off balanced. Before the agent could attack the tumbling commander, he sensed before he saw the incoming attack. He turned and faced it, staring into Fu Zhen’s blazing eyes. Reaction took over and he thrust his sword out, Fu’s unarmed attack was disadvantaged the moment Lu saw him, losing the element of surprise. The Farmer was overcommitted in his attack; he clapped his hands together and gripped the incoming blade between his palms to immobilise the attack. Lu screamed in anger and pushed forward, driving the smaller man backward. Fu felt the blade start to move through his pressed palms toward him. Then he saw Zhao get up and hobble over with his sabre raised. If Fu released his grip on the blade, Lu could kill him before Zhao arrived, and then he would turn and kill the weakened Zhao. Fu faced a dilemma, drop the sword and try to retreat or hold it there, hoping that Zhao could kill Lu first. Or at least, make sure that Zhao had a fighting chance. Lu seemed to sense it as well; there was only one course of action left as Zhao came from the back. He was sure tonight he would present himself before Yan Wang ‘the King of Hell’ no matter what; it would be rude to meet the king without a gift. He was finished, trapped between Zhao and Fu, so he decided he must at least take one of them with him. With a mighty shout, he plunged the blade forward with all his energy, overcoming the small man’s grip. The blade entered Fu Zhen’s chest with a punching sound. The blade continued to move forward until its hilt touched Fu’s palm and their faces were only inches away from each other’s. Blood oozed from his mouth and the fire left his eyes as pain overwhelmed his senses.

  “FU ZHEN!”

  Zhao screamed at the sight of his most loyal of friend die. His pain forgotten, he attacked with a renewed savage energy as the dying man held the agent for him like a sacrifice. His sabre took Lu’s head off with one mighty slash, and the man’s head fell to the ground with a sickening thud. The agent’s headless body slid to the ground slowly, and the sword dropped with a loud clatter. Blood pumped angrily from the neck of the headless body. Zhao dropped his sabre on to the floor and hugged his comrade. “Fu Zhen!” He slapped the semi-conscious man. With effort, the smaller man opened his eyes. His eyelids fluttered as he tried to focus and speak. Tears flooded Zhao’s eyes as he realised that the Farmer was dying and there was nothing he could do. “Don’t go!” He shouted. “Remember your dream, you want to retire in a chicken farm! You earned it man! You came so far!” Don’t go…don’t…go.

  Fu shook his head. “Go commander. I’m done for. Go...and...”, he coughed, “Tell the rest,” he grinned with bloody teeth, “I am not the Farmer anymore. I am a hero. I don’t need any farm. Remember I am Fu Zhen, the imperial guard, not the chicken farmer. Tell them never to laugh at me again…”

  Then he died. A single tear rolled down the dead man’s cheek. He died when freedom was so close. He had earned it. But he died so that his friends could live.

  SEVENTY SIX

  “Your Majesty.”

  These two words were enough to freeze Jian Wen in his tracks. Suddenly the streets became so still; the emperor and Li Po’s footsteps no longer echoed through the quiet morning. It was so quiet that the soft breeze sounded loud. Despite having his face covered in the shadows, Jian Wen had no doubt that the man in front of him was Ji Gang, the head of the Eastern Depot, the man who was sent to kill him. Ji took a few steps forward, and his bald head gleamed in the moon light. There was nothing hurried about him. At the end of his hunt, the hunter did not seem anxious to finish it. He seemed almost too casual. Perhaps he was confident that there was no escape for his prey. Or perhaps he was just cool.

  “Majesty, you have proven to be immensely elusive. It was a real challenge to find you, but here you are, right in front of me! Don’t you think that all things really go the way of the diligent and persevering?”

  The two f
ugitives, one a middle-aged former emperor of the world’s largest empire and the other a teenage girl who never had a permanent home, retreated from the empire’s deadliest killer. Jian Wen protectively pushed Li Po behind him, but to his surprise, and to Ji’s, she sprang in front of the monk. Her hand clutched the throwing dagger from her father. It was useless against Ji, but the gesture impressed him.

  “Such bravery!” He raised his eyebrows as he saw her action and exclaimed. “I don’t usually spare traitors but I think you are too young and innocent to know what you are involved in. You had no choice in your father’s treachery, so I am going to give you a chance,” he took another step forward, “Run. I won’t kill you. This is not your fight girl.”

  Jian Wen urged her, “Go child. Find your father and disappear. Let it end with me. After tonight, they would not hunt for you anymore. No more blood shall be shed for me.” His voice was calm and resolute. There was no fear.

  Ji agreed, “Yes girl. All I need is his head. I don’t need yours and the emperor need not know you exist. Go. Find your father and leave. I have no interest in your father once I complete my mission.”

  She growled, “Damn you! You’ll hurt no one. Not the emperor and not my father!”