Sheloth's blade came down with another stroke of lightning rippling across its energized surface.
Upon its pristine edge, XJ-V saw death approach, his every sensor begging him to give in and accept fate. The Eagle had come for him, as he knew it would.
He did not close his eyes. If he had, he would have missed the miracle that flew through the fog and charged air above them.
In the next moment, the blade of the Xu'Jan commander was repelled. He rolled away into the ashen ground and blinked through his confusion as his eyes resolved the pillar of fire that had appeared before the Cog in the moment of his defeat.
Within the pillar, the shadow of a young man fluctuated – a black shape that slowly appeared through the carmine threads that flickered in the dead night outside Tekal's perimeter.
It was a shadow that XJ-V recognized.
"Feng-Lung?"
The image of his friend's smiling face appeared through the thick coating of his unshakable defense. His robes – bearing the flowing symbol of the spiral Eternal Dragon – fluttered and then set peacefully over his arms, outstretched and readied in the Gong'Bu stance.
"I…I did not know Cog's were capable of hallucination…" XJ-V murmured.
"What you see is no illusion, XJ-V," his friend replied, watching the bewildered specter swipe his sword through the air as he prospected his new prey. "I should know - you've helped me dispel enough of my own."
The Cog steadily rose, feeling the fire within him still churning to give him life when his internal systems wanted nothing more than to sputter and die.
"You – you have disobeyed Master Longhua?"
"If the Master wishes to punish me, he can do so," Feng-Lung replied. "If my destiny as a Cultivator forces me to stand idly by and watch my friend die, then I will accept banishment."
XJ-V smiled then, even as his pain receptors buzzed with fire. Through his blurring vision he placed his good hand on Feng's shoulder and let out a dry laugh in the face of the boy's earnestness.
"You know," Feng murmured. "This is still a life-or-death situation. You should probably take it more seriously."
"Forgive me, Feng-Lung," the recovering Cog replied as he groaned to rise and stand beside his friend. "It is just that someone else said something quite similar to me, not so long ago."
"A story I'm sure I'd love to hear," Feng replied. "If we live through this night, I will be your captive audience."
Both Disciples could see the confusion on the Xu'Jan's face slowly melt into increasingly feral frustration. His pale nostrils flared as he leveled the tip of his still shining blade at the new arrival.
"This sight is an offense to the faithful of Lord Yuwa," he said, teeth grinding against his sallow lips. "That a human would stand before a member of his own kind and defend a thing of base steel – a fell construct that mocks him with its very existence."
Feng's fists clenched as he spat his rebuke at the demon before them.
"He is far closer to me in body and soul than you are, fiend," he said. "You forsook your humanity when you decided to butcher your own kind!"
The demon gave a hoarse laugh that was utterly devoid of joy.
"A young fool, looking to become a hero," he said, circling Feng, watching him as a hawk watches a new morsel that had wondered willingly into its hunting grounds. "It is a sad thing that the lies of Qing's children have corrupted such an obviously brave soul. But for the love I bear our kind – the rightful inheritors of this earth – I will offer you the chance to stand down, child."
"I would be careful calling him 'child'," XJ-V's steel-clad voice shouted into the rainswept night. "You might regret your defeat that much more."
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"Your choice, warrior of Ramor-Tai," Sheloth said, speaking only to Feng-Lung. "Fly, or die."
"XJ-V," Feng whispered. "Are you still able to fight?"
The Cog nodded. "But I fear I've used up all the tricks I have against this one. His strategy is speed and strength – he strikes high and at the midsection, putting his otherworldly strength behind each and every strike."
"That sounds like the fighting style of the Divine Order," Feng-Lung nodded. "Pure, raw aggression. In one-on-one duels, it is a style that reigns supreme. But against two opponents of equal ability…"
"Like two Rank 3 Cultivators?" XJ-V smirked.
"…we might just have a chance. You flank right, I will go left. We strike him on both sides and wear him down."
"Like a spiral dragon - everywhere at once."
"I tire of waiting, warrior," Sheloth snarled, wiping the mechanized innards of XJ-V from his blade's surface. "Your answer?"
"You know what my answer is," Feng spat, squaring his legs and straightening his back, heels slowly moving off the ground as his own fire started to flare up again. "I am Feng-Lung of the Eternal Dragon Sect. I stand beside my Brother, XJ-V. In the name of Ramor-Tai, and all who still walk the true path of the Dao, we will destroy you."
Sheloth smiled, showing all his rotten, blackened teeth.
"We shall see, Cultivator. We shall see."
His speed was such that he appeared before both Disciples before either could blink and launch their planned assault. It took all their strength to initiate a dual Dragontail Swipe that blocked all three of the Xu'Jan's vertical swipes aimed at their chests, XJ-V feeling the energy within him swirl and react violently as the blade sliced through the air before it.
The Xu'Jan turned, twisting his blade in a thrusting strike that would have ended a single opponent whose guard was broken then and there.
But, unfortunately for him, the opponents he was now facing were far from normal.
Both Disciples launched two Dragon Tooth strikes in perfect sync that forced Sheloth back, following up with a pair of Flaming Dervishes from above and below. The Xu'Jan was forced to counter with his blade, crouching and slashing at the wall of incoming flame from Feng'Lung's feet and taking the brunt of XJ-V's fire in his face as the Cog bore down upon him from above.
He struck out at the legs of the Cog and blinked as he saw the machine rocket away from him like an old, heretic spacefaring trooper of Qing's Dynasty. In the face of his confusion he did not see Feng-Lung barrel down towards him and send two more fiery Dragon's Tooths at his right arm – one that repelled the Xu'Jan's counter strike and another that sent his sword flying out of his hand.
Sheloth threw himself at his fallen blade and then felt a distinct feeling of piercing, unreal pain radiate up his arm.
He watched as a torrent of flame sliced right through his shoulder and detached his sword-arm from his body, ripping away grey tendon and burning through his thin, bleached bones. He watched the arm fall to the ground in a crumpled mass of sizzling flesh – the fingers being turned to pulp.
The Cultivators turned to watch Sheloth sway, blood spurting from the crimson gash that remained of his right arm. He staggered, gargled, and wept bloody rivers from his dark eyes.
"You see," XJ-V told the disbelieving demon as he dropped to his knees, staring at the spot where his arm once was. "Things might not be so easy for you, after all."
Feng-Lung stood beside him, his arms up, ready to end this fight.
"Where did you learn that little rocket trick?" he asked his Brother.
XJ-V smiled. "From you, actually."
Feng would have questioned him further were it not for the sudden vibrations that were traveling throughout his metal veins. He looked down to see his exposed engine pulse as though it was watching the panting demon that had fallen before the Cog and his Brother. The light was becoming searing, and XJ-V groaned with pain as he fell to the ashen ground.
"XJ-V!" Feng shouted.
But the Cog's eyes were fixed now on the smiling face of Sheloth as the Xu'Jan rose from the ground, staggering back and breathing deep the chill wind that had started to roar through the night.
The rains had stopped. Darkness reigned.
And in that darkness, the voice of Sheloth echoed:
"Lord Yuwa," he said, speaking to the darkening clouds swirling above the three combatants. "Your humble servant asks for your intervention. I, Sheloth, Commander of the Xu'Jan of Jin'ra, your hallowed High Eagle, blessed be his name, ask you for the strength to defeat the evil that blights your earth."
He bowed his head, offering his neck to whatever sights he saw in those clouds, while the pain in XJ-V's chest rose to a clangorous roar of strength – like an animal wishing to break its cage.
"F-Feng!"
Feng-Lung saw what his Brother did. He saw the Xu'Jan struck by a spear of lightning sent into the earth. He saw the light of that celestial stake coil round the fallen warrior and bring him back to his feet, becoming absorbed by the air that buzzed with power at his right-hand side.
"By the Dao…" Feng whispered.
Both Disciples watched the light of the lightning strike fold and morph into an arm that replaced the one the servant of that light had lost. The blade of the Xu'Jan flew back to his hand, and he flexed his new, radiant fingers, as the killing light that had come from a place beyond this world stretched itself across his weapon's surface.
Then, XJ-V and Feng-Lung watched as a warrior touched by a God that should have been dead stalked towards them.
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