by Ivan Kal
Ming Li turned her eyes to Kyarra, then put one foot behind herself, raised one sword above her head and put the other near her hip. Then the fire on the blades intensified and the flames grew, extending past the blades and coiling around the spirit artist as they formed into fire serpents. Kyarra swallowed as she saw this. Vin had warned her about Ming Li’s techniques, and had told her that these fire serpents were her signature move. The serpents hissed at Kyarra, and then Ming Li lashed out with one blade. A serpent shot forward, its mouth opened, and hit Kyarra’s first shield, the fire ate through it consuming the spell-construct and Kyarra quickly activated the second one from her anima-well. Immediately Kyarra reacted by throwing a gush of wind at Ming Li, forcing her to step back.
She focused and activated two more bindings on the ground, which left her with only one large one. Two sets of chains flew from the ground and grabbed at Ming Li, and Kyarra took the moment of respite to rebuild her first shield. As soon as she had finished, she sent another beam of pure anima from her fragment at Ming Li—only to see her already freed from the chains. She wavered and then appeared behind Kyarra, both of her serpents striking against Kyarra’s shield. This time, however, it held as Kyarra consciously reinforced it. Kyarra turned and swiped her hand at Ming Li, sending bolts of fire against her, forcing her to move back as her serpents coiled and ate up all of her firebolts.
She quickly created two spell-constructs, writing glyphs into the air in front of her and then activating them. The anima shifted and flew into the air, doing her bidding. Ming Li recovered and pulled both of her blades backward, her serpents raising high above her. She swiped forward and the serpents lashed out from above toward Kyarra.
Quickly, Kyarra activated one of the spell-constructs she had sent into the air, swiping down with her hand. A prison of light fell on Ming Li, cutting her serpents as it surrounded her. Kyarra focused her will on the second spell-construct that was directly above Ming Li, but the prison of light cracked and two new serpents punched through, along with the spirit artist, who readied a follow-up strike—but Kyarra raised her hand above herself and triggered the second spell.
Ming Li noticed, or sensed, it activate, and looked up. Immediately, she pulled her blades close to her body and the serpents coiled around her, protecting her as thousands of dagger-sized icicles fell down on top of her. The flames of the serpents sizzled against the ice and Kyarra took the opportunity to prepare another attack. She put her hand to her side and inscribed glyphs quickly, then activated them. Rain water flew together to her side, forming a long oval of water. Triggering the spell Kyarra held in her mind, she froze that water and then sent it flying at Ming Li just the onslaught from above stopped. With a thought she activated a rune on her staff and a wave of force exploded outward, hitting the shard from behind on its way, cracking it into thousands of pieces and accelerating them.
Ming Li’s serpents moved as the threat from above stopped just in time for her to see the oncoming onslaught. Kyarra saw her eyes widen and she swiped forward with one blade—a wave of fire left, vaporizing many of the icicles, but not all of them. Her blades whirled around, breaking many more. It was an amazing sight to watch—she was a swirling force of nature, and Kyarra could not help but feel small as Ming Li stood before her, still alive, watching Kyarra with a hard look in her eyes. A few icicles had grazed her upper arms and her thighs, and one had even grazed the side of her cheek—but there was only one out of thousands that had actually hit her. Ming Li turned her eyes on the icicle embedded into her upper thigh before she reached up and pulled it out, throwing it to the ground. She glared at Kyarra, her breathing faster.
“Enough of this,” she growled. “I’ve grown tired of playing. I am ready to face Vin.”
Then she took on a strange stance and her two serpents shimmered and split up into four. Four serpents now coiled around her, and then the flames started to roar, the color changing from orange to blue fire. In an instant she appeared before Kyarra and slammed a fist against her shield, and Kyarra felt a wave of powerful anima enter her spell-construct and take it apart as the serpents roared from all around her. They slammed down, eating through her two last shields as if they were made out of nothing at all. Quickly, Kyarra triggered a shield from her ring. It still didn’t matter—a serpent punched through and hit her in the chest, sending her flying through the air.
She hit the ground hard and rolled. Then, before she had a chance to get up, Ming Li stood above her, staring at Kyarra with cold, merciless eyes. Kyarra raised her fist and triggered a spell in her ring, and a bright light exploded out of it, blinding Ming Li. She looked away putting, one hand on her eyes, but still a serpent lashed out and bit Kyarra on her upper arm. She screamed as it burned her and wrenched her off the ground, throwing her to the side.
As she flew through the air, she tried to get take advantage of Ming Li’s temporary blindness by sending spell-fire toward her from her staff. But the serpents acted, coiling around her and protecting her. Kyarra hit the ground, scraping her hands and almost dropping her staff. She stood up, recreating her shield and forming another spell-construct in her mind. Ming Li disappeared then and appeared next to Kyarra. Her serpents punched through her shield, and she stepped close.
Kyarra swiped her staff at Ming Li’s head, but she blocked with her blade, and then Ming Li’s foot shot out and swiped Kyarra’s knee. As Kyarra fell backward, Ming Li hit her with the pommel of her blade in the chest, forcing the air out of her lungs and making her bounce off the ground.
Before she could do anything, a serpent bit down on her thigh, and she couldn’t even scream, as she had no air in her lungs. Another serpent entered her vision and opened its mouth above her head. “Too bad. In a couple of years you might’ve been experienced enough to give me a challenge.”
The serpent moved toward her face—and then suddenly veered off. The one biting her leg coiled away too, as four blades flew at Ming Li’s head.
“Ah… Finally.” Ming Li smiled viciously as Vin stepped into the courtyard.
CHAPTER THIRTY
ASHARA
Ashara sat in the basement room in the rebel headquarters as battles raged above. She had been a part of planning for the attacks, helping with the movement of goods, mainly weapon caches. She told them which would be the easiest ways of moving the crates, and how they should be packaged so that they could draw the least notice. It had felt good to actually contribute somehow. But now as her part was done, she couldn’t help but worry. Actually, she was terrified. She hadn’t had a chance to speak with Vin before he left, and she hadn’t spoken with Kyarra in almost a week—and now they were up there fighting. They could lose their lives and she wouldn’t have even had the chance to speak with them one last time.
She so desperately wished that she could fight, that she could be as strong as Vin and Kyarra. At the moment she felt useless. All she could do was wait for someone to come and tell her the results of the battle above. It was the same feeling she’d had when her family had been under attack. She hadn’t been able to do anything but wait and watch as her father struggled, and in the end she lost everything. She couldn’t help but fear that this time it would be the same.
She was so wrapped in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed someone else in the room with her. She turned, only to see a tall nobleman—and as he stepped closer, she recognized him as the man who had asked advice of her in the warehouse. She hadn’t known that he was a part of the inner circle of rebels. Many nobles had been bought by the Lashians, but a few had remained loyal. She guessed that the man in front of her was one of the loyal ones, as he wouldn’t be here otherwise.
The man stopped a few steps away from her, his golden eyes making her shiver. He was dressed in the same clothes she had seen him wearing before: a red-and-black silk coat and similarly colored trousers.
“My lord?” Ashara said questioningly. She wasn’t sure if he needed anything. But she did not want to spend time in his presence.
&nbs
p; “Any word of how things are going in the city?” he asked.
“No, and there won’t be for a while,” Ashara answered.
He grunted and then came to look at the map of the city on the table. “You are not up there with them?”
“I would only get in the way. I have no combat skills.” Regretfully.
“One can always learn, if one has the will,” he told her.
“It would take a long time for me to get anywhere near good enough not to be a burden,” Ashara said hopelessly. Ever since she had met Vin and then Kyarra, she’d wanted to be like them, to be strong, but she knew that she never would be.
“There are always shortcuts to any end,” the noble replied cryptically.
“I doubt that,” Ashara said. Some things were impossible to achieve without actual effort.
“You could always get yourself a fragment of power,” he said.
Ashara chuckled nervously. “I have no magic in the first place. It would do me no good.”
“Many bearers of the fragments of power have no magic. The weapons crafted to contain the fragment is what gives them power in the first place. It only takes will to activate the spells already laid into those weapons, and the fragment provides power.”
Ashara looked at him sharply—she hadn’t known that. Regardless, how could that knowledge help her now? “Well, I guess that I better start looking then,” she said sarcastically.
The man nodded, ignoring her tone. “Power comes to those that seek it. Hide from your desire for it, and you will only succeed in remaining weak. Mediocre.” His golden eyes looked at her, as if they could see every one of her inner thoughts. She shivered uncomfortably, there was something about him that made her feel small and insignificant. He frightened her.
“I-I don’t want the responsibility that comes with it,” she said as she turned her eyes away. She had a power of her own, she had a way with words and had always been able to get what she wanted. But the only thing her power had brought her was ruin. She had destroyed her life with words. She would not trust herself with such power again. Yet she knew deep down that she did want it—it was what had made her romance with the princess of Amaranthine so appealing, so thrilling, the fact that she had been so close to greater power. She realized in that moment that she always gravitated toward the strong. The princess, Vin, Kyarra…all of them were powerful in their own ways.
She turned around to look at the noble again, but found him gone. Behind her, the doors to the basement were ajar.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
VIN
Vin kept his presence hidden as he watched Kyarra fight against Ming Li, her spells flashing out toward her opponent. It was hopeless—he had known the moment he had seen Ming Li, and as the fight progressed he had only grown more certain. If this had been the same Ming Li he knew from Orb, Kyarra would’ve won. But it wasn’t—that Ming Li had been a spirit artist of the fifth step, and now she had closed the gap to reach the sixth step. The gap between the two was as wide as an ocean of this world. Ming Li was playing with Kyarra.
But still he watched, hoping that Kyarra would succeed. He saw her cast powerful spells, and for a few moments he even thought that she might actually have a chance. But then her attack failed, and Ming Li activated the Dance of Four Serpent Heads, and he knew that it was over. Her serpents lashed out and broke through Kyarra’s shields, and he watched as Ming Li stood above her, preparing to deal the finishing strike.
“Too bad. In a couple of years you might’ve been experienced enough to give me a challenge,” he heard Ming Li say, and he knew that he had a choice. Either he stayed hidden and survived, perhaps to escape to fight another day, when he got strong enough to challenge Ming Li, or he stepped out and died. For the old him, the sage of the seventh path, the choice would have been easy. He would’ve chosen the opportunity to fight only when he could win. But for the Vin that had lived through the end of his world, who had been left all alone, who had then found people to care about… For that Vin, there was no choice at all.
He Shaped, and sent his blades flying as he jumped from the roof of the mansion to land in the courtyard. The blade disappeared in the serpent flame and Ming Li turned to look at him.
“Ah… Finally,” she said as she turned to face him, Kyarra forgotten.
“Ming Li,” he greeted her, bowing over his fists. She might’ve lost herself, but she was still a spirit artist. And if he was to die, he would do so as an spirit artist.
“Hah! You bow to me? Such care for the proper greetings. Nothing like the last time we met.”
“There is still time for you, Ming Li,” Vin said desperately. “You can step back to the true way.”
“The true way?” she asked with a sneer. “It was not the true way that has given me this power. I want you to see it, to know it. Even diminished as you are, I know that you will appreciate true power that my new way has given me.”
“This path will bring you nothing but pain,” Vin said.
“We shall see,” Ming Li said as her serpents disappeared, leaving only the steel of her two blessed arms. The rain seemed to increase and lightning flashed as she charged him. He Shaped, and his spear appeared in his arms. He expanded his senses and could see her ki moving around her body, could anticipate her next movements. She reached him and settled into the style of the Leaping Serpent, striking at him in short and quick stabs. Vin twisted his spear and parried her attacks. It was a farce—her face was filled with a knowing grin as she pushed him back with no effort at all. She was holding back, taunting him, and shallow cuts on his body started to appear.
He summoned his blades and attacked her from behind, but she didn’t even look as she pirouetted and shattered them with her swords. He read her movements and attempted to stab his spear into her chest as her back was turned, but she Wind Stepped away, and his spear met only air and raindrops.
Laughter sounded from the other side of the courtyard, and he turned to look at Ming Li looking at him with disappointment in her eyes. “That ki! Such a strange thing. Don’t tell me that the great Kai Zhao Vin had fallen so far as to commit a taboo. Is this what the greatest spirit artist of an age has resorted to?”
He glanced at Kyarra, who had managed to get up to her knees, but he could see that she was badly hurt. He returned his eyes to Ming Li. The cuts on his body burned at her words, the truth hitting him hard. He had been something more, and now he was weak. Yet he felt anger build up inside of him. Who was she to judge, to laugh at who he was? A traitor, an honorless dog, eating from the feet of those who destroyed her—his world. She was nothing.
He Shaped and sent his blades flying at her. And as he did so he pulled his spear back, forcing his ki down the shaft and into the tip of the blade. Then with a lurch and a scream he shot it forward, releasing the Forging technique. A lance of black-and-blue ki shot out of it and headed straight for Ming Li.
Her serpents coiled in front of her, forming a shield that stopped his attack, their flames burning it to ash.
“Careful now, great sage,” she mocked him. “You don’t want to lose your balance.”
And he knew that she was right—he felt it slipping. But he couldn’t help himself, he was too far gone. His rage and his need for vengeance roared their heads. He pulled at his ki, feeling it churning with his emotions, and he Wind Stepped forward. He stepped in front of her and started attacking with his spear. She didn’t even bother to parry or block, instead just evading his strikes. Her serpents stood above her, as if they too were mocking him. He pushed himself farther, trying to read her movements, activating Surges to try and catch her off guard. Noting worked.
His spear flew at her head, and she simply ducked beneath it far faster than he could follow. But he didn’t let up—he fought on, his anger fueling him. He stabbed and swiped, and Shaped blades and had them dance around him, hoping to have her make just one mistake, to have one moment of carelessness. She didn’t. Instead, he did.
He overextended, and she
slammed her blades against his spear, one from each side, shattering it. Then she pivoted and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying through the air and across the courtyard to slam into the wall of the mansion. He fell down, leaning on the wall, his eyes barely open from the pain.
Ming Li laughed—and he couldn’t take it anymore. The boiling ocean of his emotions rose to consume him, and any semblance of his balance left him.
Ah, that is not good, little cub. Better you rest, a voice said in his head, and his vision went dark, swallowed by shadows. All pain disappeared—in fact, all sensations disappeared. He couldn’t even feel his body anymore. And then he lurched forward, only to come to his feet on an endless open plain.
The sky was dark, filled with strange stars, and yet he could see perfectly as if it were day. Green grass was up to his knees and was swaying as if on the wind, but there was none.
He heard a growl from behind him, and he turned slowly. On a large boulder lay a massive spirit beast—the same spirit beast that he had killed, and whose ki he had taken into his core. In the light, it looked even more magnificent with its blue and black stripes, and it was at least twice as large as any tiger he had ever seen. In fact, its stripes were where any exact comparison to a tiger ended. Its shoulders were wider, its claws more curved and sharper, judging by how they were digging deep into the rock below them. It was more muscular, as well, and only then did Vin realize just how weakened the spirit beast had been when he had fought her. Its eyes glowed blue as it studied him, and its tail swayed from side to side lazily.
“It was well done, your hunt. Catching me when I was weak… A smart hunter takes any advantage given to him,” the cat spoke, showing its large teeth.
