After lunch, we spent some time meditating, then set up to spar for a bit. We’d mix things up, two-on-two one day, or one versus one another time.

Today though, we did my favorite. The whole class against me.

They went all-out, because they honestly had to. I dodged, attacked, struck out, and knocked everyone on their backs in waves. The point wasn’t to beat me so much as to delay a stronger opponent, and this training had saved a lot of lives during the counteroffensive.

Of course, for me this was just amusement as I played a slightly rough game of tag against a class of opponents.

Then Kaoru nearly hit me from behind.

“Alright class, free-for-all amongst yourselves. Don’t kill each other.”

I grinned ferally, and Kaoru matched me fang for fang. We hadn’t sparred in ages, and were finally both on par with each other and not currently pregnant.

Go time.

I closed fast, kicking out into open air as Kaoru’s illusion disappated into smoke. But I’d expected that, and was already tumbling forward under her fireball.

“Whoo. Those are getting warm. Mind your strength Kaoru, we don’t want to demolish the monastery before it’s even rebuilt.”

Kaoru just smiled, and fox fire converged on me from all directions. The same trick she’d used to end the Vermilion Queen, except I wasn’t some pampered loon. I absorbed what I couldn’t dodge, shielded a few with a water barrier, then stuffed a fireball of my own up Kaoru’s tails.

Hey, just because I prefer earth and wood doesn’t mean I can’t or don’t use other elements. Just like the morning’s lesson demonstrated, the whole idea of elements was a trap, a handy crutch at lower levels you needed to open your mind and discard as you attained Mastery.

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Dodge here, flip there, let Kaoru take revenge for her dignity with a light branding on my right cheek, close on her real location… whoops.

Kaoru lay on her back in the dirt, a sizable crater surrounding her. She was mostly fine, just had the wind knocked out of her.

“So… uh… How does it feel to be the Tortoise King?”

She laughed, coughing a little as her breathing reset.

“It hurts, you little murderbun. But fortunately, I’m nowhere near as fragile as he was. I concede this match.”

Applause as everyone cheered for the match we’d just displayed, then a brief rumble as I knocked them all on their backs.

“Forgot you were in a fight? That won’t go well against an enemy. Back to it, you lot.”

Kaoru laughed more fully as she took my hand, getting to her feet.

“You really are so mean to your students.”

“Gotta be, when I’m teaching them to fight. I can be nice when I teach them to cultivate.”

“Yes, I heard. Talky?”

I smiled. “Exactly how long did you spend toying with the Vermilion Queen again?”

She shrugged. “That’s just how I fight.”

“Yes. Talky. I prefer getting straight to the hitting part.”

A bemused laugh, and a small basalt pillar shaking Chang off-balance and forcing him to stop focusing on his mother and her best friend trash-talking one another.

“Yes, watching you play volleyball with a 2,000-pound orb of pus was amusing. Seeing what happened when he went splat… not so much. And you could’ve warned us about the tree.”

I shrugged. “Didn’t realize it’d happen until it did. We know now, though I thought the Vermilion Palace would have fire going up, not down. And what was that I heard from little Song about being ground zero of a nuclear explosion before spending half an hour staring at the caldera, then coming back stark naked?”

“Alright class, I think that’s enough sparring for today. Help Master Zhong with the rebuilding efforts until dinner, and feel free to have one of the smallbreads provided while you work.” Li approached, interrupting our banter. I came in and kissed him, half-tempted to drag him off and start mating again. He was quite charming when he put on the leadership mantle.

“Xiang, Chen and Song need your help with the Vermilion Palace refugees. Could you please help the poor girls?”

I pouted a little, but only in play. There was work to be done, we could save the grown-up fun stuff for nightfall.