Chapter 22: Feud

The next few games passed by quickly. The second game’s theme was the fire element. The teams needed to seek out hidden fire spirits and collect them using specialized tools. It was quite similar to the first game and I thought I was seeing a pattern. We ended up coming in fourth place while Sword Dao Palace, the Righteous Fury sect, and the Inferno Scorpion sect came in third, second, and first place respectively.

I wasn’t chosen to participate in the fire elemental game but I cheered on our disciples nonetheless. During the game, it seemed like the Mertalians and the Inferno Scorpion sect were both targeting our disciples more than any of the other teams when they met each other in the arena. One of the powerhouses watching the tournament had flown down before the start of the match and, using a special technique, he had terraformed the arena into a small microcosm of a realistic lava field topped with a small volcano in the center of the area. Even with Heng Jian on the team, we weren’t able to get better than fourth place.

I was getting antsy from being unable to compete in the second game, but luckily, as one of the few people we brought with strong wood affinity I was able to compete in the third game.

I didn’t recognize the other disciples joining me for the third game, which I felt a little bad about so I introduced myself as we were walking.

“Hi everyone, I’m Astra! I hope we can all get along!” I told them. They looked at each other and one of them spoke up.

“We know who you are, Lady Astra. You and Lady Lian Jia were the winners of the last outer sect competition and you’ve been made the personal disciple of the sect leader!” The relatively young looking girl said excitedly. She was diminutive even from my height, wore her chestnut hair in a small ponytail, and exuded the kind of bubbly attitude I easily got along with. I asked her for her name and she told me her name was Fan Lin. The others were Cheng Xiaoqiu, Wen Zin, and Jiang Lian.

They all seemed like nice disciples and I had to admit that it felt good to have them kind of looking up to me with a sort of reverence I’d never seen before, though being called Lady still didn’t feel right. I shivered uncontrollably. And shook myself, the group of young disciples were still looking at me and I composed myself before reengaging them in conversation.

I gossiped with the group and learned a little about them. They were all wood cultivators and had known each other in the sect for years. They were all friends and I loved their dynamic! Fan Lin and Cheng Xiaoqiu as the girls of the group took charge of the other two who seemed to have no issues with the leadership decisions of the bubbly girl and overly tall girl.

They all seemed like good friends and I was happy to be able to fight alongside them.

We walked down to the arena together, still talking about their experiences in the sect as a group of inner sect disciples. They had some funny stories from their own missions that I enjoyed listening to and we were all fairly relaxed and having a good time. Once we were down in the arena, however; all joviality left our group as I could feel bloodlust from multiple separate directions. I looked around and pinpointed the Mertalians, all of the Inferno Scorpion sect disciples, and strangely Tang Wei from the righteous fury sect were staring at our group, though Tang Wei seemed to only have eyes for me. His eyes bored into me and I honestly got a little bit of an uncomfy feeling from it all.

Fan Lin leaned over and whispered into my ear.

“Astra, who’s that hunk that’s staring at you? And he has that weird thing behind his head just like you do, it’s like you two are fated to be together!” She said before she squealed.

Cheng Xiaoqiu for her part was more level headed than her bubbly counterpart.

“It looks more like he wants to kill you than sleep with you.” she said. My eyes flew open and I flushed furiously at her words. It was only now that I realized the others in my group were all much older than I was.

“I-I don’t think about that kind of stuff!” I told them both and they just looked at each other and smiled.

“Don’t worry Astra, when we go back to the sect, we’ll teach you everything you need to know.” Lin said with a mischievous smile on her face and I flushed even harder.

Luckily the announcer saved me before I could be teased anymore by the older girls.

“It’s now time for the third game! You’ve seen these disciples battling it out twice now, what surprises will the third time hold!?” He asked.

After giving a suitable length of time for the crowd to cheer he continued.

“For this game, the contestants will be collecting woodland spirits who call the great spirit tree their home. We’ll have our formation master conjure the field as we have in the past and, similar to the previous games, we’ll give special containers to keep your collected spirits within. You’ll have to use your agility and speed to maneuver through the branches and leaves to find these small woodland denizens and collect enough to come out on top!” He said.

Without further preamble, the formation master stepped into the arena and created another new formation faster than I could follow. Once he was finished, it was infused with qi and a pale yellow light suffused the arena before it amalgamated into the vague shape of a towering tree. Once the light died down, I was once again struck with awe at the sight that beheld me. Similarly to the large city sheltering tree of Liusha city, this tree towered over the arena. Myriad branches lined its sides, swirling around one another creating a complex wooden sculpture. The branches and wooden paths swirling around the tree were covered in various bush and bramble, foretelling that it wouldn’t be easy to make our way through the tree’s paths.

A tinkling chorus of laughs chimed out from above and I looked up to see the same man who had released the fish in the first round tipping out another bag. From the mouth of the bag, myriad small shapes bounded out, alighting upon the various paths of the tree and running all around before settling down. They scampered and played with each other as they ran. I watched in giddy fascination as a pair of spirit squirrels wrestled as they ran across a nearby branch before disappearing behind a branching path.

Once the show had ended, the announcer’s voice shouted out across the arena. It seemed to echo off of the gigantic tree and bounce around the area as he spoke.

“Now that’s what I call a spirited display!” He said to equal parts laughs and groans from the crowd.

“The administrators will be bringing you your spirit bags promptly, after which we’ll begin the third game!”

A different administrator than during the first round came to our group and doled out leather bags to each of us. They had intricate rune work weaved into the openings of the bags which made my head hurt when I looked at them for too long. The administrator went to each of us and taught us how to capture a spirit, using a sleepy looking pinecone with eyes and tiny legs. After bringing the spirit in and out of the pouch, it nuzzled my hand for a second and I melted a little bit before it jumped back into the hand of the administrator and he made his way to Lin. I watched as the older girl fawned over the tiny spirit, ignoring the instructions from the administrator until he finally chastised her. She put on a slightly apologetic but still impish expression before going through the same motions I had.

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After the administrators had finished with all of the groups, the announcer spoke up. A palpable air of tension had risen up in the minutes the administrators had been going around and the tension ramped up with the announcer’s voice.

“Now that all of our contestants have been taught how to play, it’s time to start the third game of this year’s inter-sect competition. Remember contestants, if you leave the arena, you’re out for the round so be careful and watch your steps! Now begin in 3…2…1… Go!” He shouted and our team burst into action. We quickly scoured the area near our starting location for spirits. The interesting part of finding the spirits is that they wouldn’t all just come with us willingly. Unless we wanted to use force we would have to convince them in other ways. One tiny monkey pointed at a small bushel of spirit bananas on a higher branch near it and after giving it one banana from the bushel, it willingly went into my spirit bag.

We spent the next fifteen minutes making our way towards the tree in the middle of the arena, convincing each spirit we found on our way to join our own personal menageries. As we got close to the center tree though, the amount of spirits decreased in density. I didn’t think that made sense and the others in my group agreed that it was weird.

In places around the tree we found scars carved into the wood. Piles of soot and charcoal littered the tree branches and it was clear someone had gone all scorched earth on the area immediately around the center tree. I frowned. There was really only one sect who would send fire cultivators into a wood element game and I balled my hand into a fist as I thought of the Inferno Scorpion Sect.

Their seating was on the opposite side of the arena from where my team was so I couldn’t see them, but I directed my anger in their general area and considered that as doing my part against a great evil in the world.

We scoured the barren branches near our group but were unable to find any more spirits. I could only hope that the other teams were having as much trouble as I was in finding any spirits or we’d be falling behind.

We decided to move around the tree to the left to try and find more spirits. We jumped from branch to branch sprouting from the large tree in the center for half a minute before a voice rang out in the area and stopped my group in its tracks.

“So, the old man’s newest pet finally decided to deliver herself to my feet.” The voice said. I looked around before I spotted a figure standing on a nearby branch above me. It was Tang Wei, the sect master’s previous disciple.

“I haven’t delivered myself anywhere. You should be focusing on finding spirits, Tang Wei” I told him. He sneered at me.

“Why should I lower myself to trying to befriend and collect some measly spirits when I could simply eliminate you all from the competition and have my team collect all of the spirits left!” He shouted before bursting into action. The elemental locus behind him pulsated and I could feel my own locus resonating as he launched his arm forward and a bolt of qi shot out at me. The bolt was a pale yellow tinged with gray and gave me a queasy feeling just looking at it. I dodged out of the way of the blast and blocked Tang Wei’s punch with my newly coalesced swords. I was pushed back slightly and some of the qi from his punch tried to invade my body but I rebuffed it.

“Everyone! Keep going and find more spirits, I’ll handle Tang Wei!”

“No! We’ll help you fight him!” Lin shouted back but I quickly shook my head even as I dodged a blast of blue and red qi from another of Tang Wei’s punches.

“It’ll take too long, we’re already behind the other teams! The competition is more important than beating this guy!” I told them all. Lin seemed to think for a moment before shaking her head as if to shake off any unnecessary thoughts. She took the lead of the remainder of the team and they all continued traveling around the tree in search of spirits.

“Sending them away won’t do you any good! Once I’ve dealt with you, I’ll go track them down and throw them all out of the arena!” Tang Wei said.

I didn’t respond, instead turning one of my swords into a qi dagger before throwing it at his face. He dodged the blow and I activated Halcyonic Maelstrom hampering his movements. He wasn’t as affected by the swirling vortex of qi as I had hoped. I was once again drawn to the locus above Tang Wei’s head and it undulated. I was getting the distinct feeling that it was somehow in pain.

Tang Wei pushed his hands together in front of him and slowly pulled them apart, a black orb appeared between them. It crackled with the various colors of the six types of qi and I could feel its power from where I stood.

He pushed it toward me and it sped up as it moved, zig zagging in seemingly random and erratic ways. I quickly dodged it before it could hit me, but I could feel the tumultuous ball of combined qi following me. As opposed to Shimmer’s qi beam, this combination of the elements was discordant and combative.

I summoned Shimmer and she put up a combination shield of all six elements. It bent and curved inward as the little black ball pulsated against it, but the shield held.

The black ball finally disappeared in a small implosion and broke the shield. An explosion of light blasted out from the implosion and it blinded me temporarily.

When I came to, I looked around for Tang Wei and when I finally saw him, my blood ran cold. He was standing over Shimmer, looking down at her with his spirit bag in his hand. He reached down for her and I instinctively dissipated her before he could touch her. I didn’t know if he would be able to capture Shimmer, but there was no way I was going to find out. He clicked his tongue and then looked back toward me.

“Too slow, I suppose. I’ll just have to make you summon her again. He made the same hand motion and summoned another of the black balls. He launched it at me and I tried to counter it with a Halcyonic Abyssal Cutter. The first two I launched at the ball missed due to the erratic nature of its movements but the third hit home and sliced directly through it. Another explosion rang out and I smiled. Before the light from the explosion could dissipate I felt a presence next to me and barely reacted in time to twist my body and dodge the worst of the punch Tang Wei threw at me. I was launched back and flipped through the air, landing gracefully on the side of the tree on my legs. I slid down the bark of the tree, it was a steep slope, but the qi I infused into my feet helped me keep my balance and footing. I jumped to a nearby branch. I shouldn’t stand still If I can help it.

Another of the black balls flew towards me and before I launched a Halcyonic Abyssal Cutter at it I activated Halcyonic Maelstrom to mitigate any surprise attack Tang Wei would throw at me. I threw another Halcyonic Abyssal Cutter at the ball but it missed. My next two missed as well and I was just about to dodge when the ball hit my Maelstrom. It shuddered and then began following the flow of the Maelstrom. This gave me an idea and I looked to Tang Wei who was launching himself at me. Before he could reach me I ended my Halcyonic Maelstrom technique and the black ball launched itself at Tang Wei. I had timed the ending of my technique to when the black ball was moving toward him and his shocked expression at the black ball moving toward him was priceless.

He blocked the ball and it exploded on him. When the light died down, he looked more ragged than he had before, but he seemed more angry than hurt.

“That’s it girl! It’s time for you to die!” He shouted before his elemental locus vibrated above him. In a sphere around him I could feel the qi being disturbed. Everywhere the strange qi touched, outcroppings of various representations of the six elements of qi popped up. Tiny mountains of metal, twisted brambles of wooden branches, patches of molten lava, balls of swirling water, turbulent mini tornadoes, and spikes of earth appeared around him. The zone expanded and covered the area between us. It was a large enough area that it covered me and various patches of combined elemental affinity cropped up.

To my left a patch of molten ground combined with a swirling ball of water and became a boiling mass of writhing water. A mini tornado to my right picked up flecks of metal and threw them around haphazardly. A grotesque imitation of a tree grew from within a mound of earth, its gnarled, twisted, branches poking out in random directions.

I looked around and was shocked, the changes were abrupt and strange, but I smiled.

“Looks like I’m going to be a bad matchup for you, Tang Wei.” I told him. He looked puzzled.

“Don’t put on a front girl, I only recently mastered this core formation technique! It allows me to simulate the domain of a domain realm cultivator! You’re going to be torn apart by the elements here, girl!” He spat back at me. I just smiled at him.

My elemental locus hummed above me and I could see a look of confusion sprout on Tang Wei’s face.

I activated my core formation realm technique and shouted its name in triumph as I felt the qi expand from within my dantian.

“Halcyonic Elemental Convergence!” I shouted. And the world around me changed.