Gai Jin jumped into Gai Lui’s range once more, and this time, there was no escape for the man.

Jin struck at Lui’s wrists with all his strength, depleting half the qi within him in an instant. Another risk, but one he needed to take to capitalize on the moment.

Lui screamed as the shield was wrought from his wrist.

Gai Jin held it with one arm and held Lui’s sword hand with another, and struck again, only this time he had the shield.

Lui’s other arm lost the sword.

Death qi traveled up his left arm and unlike Gai Jin, Gai Lui could not negate it.

“No,” Lui whimpered.

Gai moved again, this time ripping the boots from the man’s feet with a quick twist.

And once more for the robe.

Then he tossed the treasures, all of them onto the ground.

Gai Lui was still relatively unharmed. He was bruised in the face and his sword arm had death qi traveling through it but aside from that, Gai Jin had been the one to take up most of the damage.

By all appearances, Gai Lui had the advantage, at least if they were truly equally matched.

Gai Jin pushed the man onto the ground and stood firmly between his master and the treasures.

Lui stood there, clutching his arm and working to push out the death qi Jin had cleansed so quickly during battle.

They stood fifty paces from each other and Gai Jin chose to walk to Gai Lui.

Death at the hands of his disciple? There was pride in that, Lui knew. But there was also shame.

In a way, Gai Jin was a bit of Gai Lui. They shared a first name due to luck and Gai Jin had changed his sure name from Fang as an old ritual, a way of shedding his past and giving it all to monkhood.

It was a rarely practiced thing in the modern days but Gai Lui had insisted on it, if not for the fanfare then for the symbolism. Gai Fang was the younger brother of a whore. Gai Jin was a man of the Bloody Fist Sect.

Yes.

There was shame here. But Gai Lui could bear it if his pride would blossom. Gai Jin was Gai Lui's work after, his prized disciple.

He ran at his disciple and his disciple moved. Jin punched but Lui swept under it, entered Jin’s range, and punched toward his head.

Jin moved, letting the attack glide past his cheek, and kneed Lui in the stomach.

Lui bent and stumbled backward.

But no, he would die. He knew this. He would die at the hands of his own disciple but he would be remembered. Their fight would be remembered. His death would be remembered and all would know Gai Lui as the master of the powerful Gai Jin and their fight would be remembered for millennia.

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He ran, renewed with vigor, and struck again. Jin fought back, but his punches didn’t land so thoroughly, maybe his disciple was tiring? He had used an immense amount of qi after all.

This time a strike to the face sent him flying backwards in agony.

Lui stood up again and moved forward.

Jin stuck hard now, kicking at Lui’s side and while Lui blocked the strike, there was an audible crack as his bones fractured.

Jin frowned.

He hated Gai Lui. He hated him. His hatred for the man had been the light that had pushed him forward deep within the cave. His hatred had brought him his strength and pushed him to this moment.

His hatred had saved him.

He struck Gai Lui again, striking a rib this time.

Then why? He thought.

Again Gai Lui came at him and a few of his master’s strikes landed on him, but against his refined body, they were barely even there.

Jin struck back and missed as Gai Lui lined up for another shot.

Jin dodged and elbowed his master in the face.

Why do I feel this way? Jin wondered.

He looked, but not with eyes of hatred now but with clear eyes of pity.

He looked at the master who had raised him, who had fed him and clothed him. He who had comforted him from the storms of the high mountain. The man who had trained him for decades.

He looked at his master, his father, his family, his betrayer.

Why do I still care for him?

Jin moved.

He had to end this. He had to kill this bastard of a man before anything could make him do otherwise.

He moved, true and with purpose and he fanned his hatred and for the first time, he felt it.

Effort.

But still, he moved. His strikes landed now, his master missed every attack and Gai Jin landed his.

His master broke, bit by bit.

The face, the hands, the legs.

Bones snapped, muscles withered and his body bled.

Now his master lay there, unmoving, waiting for Jin’s final strike.

Jin came closer. He felt it now. The weight of it all. The pain. It hurt. He didn’t know why it hurt but it hurt nonetheless.

He raised his fist. He closed his eyes and he thought of Li Fang and the flame burned once more.

He moved-

“You sure about that?” A voice spoke.

Jin held and so did everything else.

A man stood to his right, squatting over his master’s frozen form.

“Who are you?” Gai Jin roared.

He stood to face the man, eyes focusing on his simple form.

“Just a watcher,” the man replied.

“Are sure about this though?” He asked again.

Jin glanced at his master’s body.

“Would you interfere?” Jin replied.

“Oh no. I would have killed him already, but you took so much time and I figured I’d give you a chance to think things over.”

Jin’s eyes widened.

“You know nothing of-”

“I know a lot kid. But that’s beside the point. He landed a few hits a while back. Hits you didn’t bother to dodge.”

Jin said nothing.

“There was also that fight you had just now. Gai Lui, I could understand. He came here first, then used the treasures as a last resort. But you? You don’t care about anything except vengeance, right? So why’d you hold back? Why not overwhelm him at once and kill him? Why stall for so long? Why let him run away when you could have just popped one of those cores and killed him? Why stall? And why be so willing to talk to me a moment before your awaited moment of vengeance?”

“I must do it,” Gai Jin muttered. “He killed my sister. I must do it. If I can’t do this…if I can’t avenge them then what good am I as a brother? What good am I as a man?”

“It’s hard to love,” the man muttered. “But it’s also hard to hate, isn’t it? It’s fine to not hate him, kid. Killing him won’t change a thing.”

Gai Jin breathed. He looked down at the man who had wronged him, the man who had condemned him to hell.

And he called for it. He wanted that rage and hatred. That anger of gods that could burn down continents. He searched for it, but he could not find it, not anymore.

At that moment, the man he knew now and the man who had raised him became one.

He looked down and saw only a pitiful man. A pile of burning shame and failure. Hubris so large that it had eaten him whole. Gai Jin knew, that even in death, his master searched for that pride. A tombstone made of gold and diamonds.

Pity.

It wasn’t born out of love or compassion. It wasn’t born out of mercy or kindness. Gai Jin was just tired. It was true. Gai Jin was not a man of hatred. He killed demons, but he did not kill people.

By all judgments, Gai Lui should die.

But Gai Jin couldn’t bear to stain himself with the action.

Time continued and the man vanished from his side. Gai Lui breathed again and stared up at Gai Jin.

Gai Jin spoke.

“You are not worth my hate.”