1

Few Days later

BOOM RUMBLE

Loud scorching thunder outside echoes in the clinic room.

Huo sat across from Qian’s bedside, staring at the floor below her. It’s been over three days since the Raid of Jinsu, and one of the potential casualties is Qian. She has been in a coma since from excruciating wounds on her chest and back. Huo couldn’t see what her wounds were, but Selina had warned her not to lift the blanket as it’s disturbing to pull your eyes out.

Despite the warning, she stood from her chair and immediately lifted Qian’s blanket. As overwhelming as it depicts, she slowly covered the bloodied, exposed wounds. She sat down and turned towards the window, glancing at the night's heavy rain.

She sighed deeply and leaned back to the chair into the open. She then spread her legs.

“Why am I even sitting next to you? I’m the only one visiting you since you fell. You have lost so much respect since you pissed him off,” She said then leaned up closer to the end of the seat, casting her shadow over Qian. “I should have listened to Xiong years ago. Instead, I listened to you. Our good times scatter in my mind. You didn’t care she sacrificed herself to save all of us. You took it for granted. You could have listened to Kilian, but you didn’t. Many who come across Kilian, have their perspective of life changed.” Huo stood up from her chair. She grabbed her sword’s sheath and tied it to her waist. “You had plenty of opportunities to change during the couple weeks before the raid, but you denied it all. For that, this might be my last time speaking to you. Goodbye.” She placed the chair on the wall and walked out of the clinic room.

Huo notices a large cowboy hat on the table next to the entryway. A note under the hat as she lifted from the table. She reads the note, “For Huo. - Anonymous.” She went to find a mirror and eventually found one outside in the outdoor hallway at the clinic’s entrance. She sees herself in reflection and tries on the cowboy hat.

“He remembered. What a gentleman. This looks beautiful.” She muttered and smiled as she posed in the mirror with the cowboy hat on. After a moment of joy, she gave a feel of the material from the hat. She can’t find the right description as she rubs around the brim. It’s not only rough but also smooth. It’s all black including a red band, her favorite color.

After analyzing the hat she glances at the continuous pouring rain and looks at her cowboy hat before smiling, “I still love the rain though.” she put her hat on and with her fresh outdoor boots, flash-stepped towards the throne hall.

Selina and the older lady are standing in the vacant throne hall waiting for her.

“You ready?” Selina asked.

“Yes, you two seem excited for this don't you?”

“Well, it’s something new. I’ve only cooked food to serve and not to attack with,” The older lady optimistically said.

“No doubt mam, your spices can kill someone now.”

“Oh, please I don’t know if I’m efficient at it yet. Also please call me Ottilie, I’m progressively de-aging.”

“My gosh you are taller,” Huo said, comparing Ottilie to Selina. If it was her three days ago, she was only right at Selina’s shoulders. She was able to make time training outside of cooking meals which resulted in her rapid growth and slowness of aging, the first case of witnessing deaging. She now stands beside Selina’s chin. The arms look more defined as she now wears a maroon sleeveless shirt tucked into her black pants. The boots she wears are influenced by Selina’s casual outfit.

Selina’s OLRS grants Ottilie’s overall info:

||Name: Ottilie// HT: 5'6"//WT: 128 lbs//Age: 64//OLRS: N ||

Damn, she is living the moment with all youth coming back to her. Selina thought and realized the time was clicking. “So are we ready?”

Huo and Ottilie nodded.

“Let’s go. We don’t want to keep Kilian waiting,” Huo said.

The three flash stepped towards the clear intersection and went under the tree to the left. They see Kilian standing in the distance under the scattered trees, observing the path ahead leading North to where the entrance border is located.

“You keep watch at standby with others, I’ll go up with him.” Huo instructed, “Hey.” she whispered to him while passing through piles of puddles.

“Right on time.” Kilian turned. “You said your final farewells.”

“Yeah.” she sighed.

“It’s either she can make it and lose all memories, becoming somebody else entirely, or she dies from her wounds. One way or the other.”

“The last thing I’m gonna say about her is good riddance. Man wished I had listened to her,” Huo said, referencing Xiong.

Kilian distanced her from any remaining guilt, “Don’t guilt yourself over it. She disrespected everyone. Once the money is out, the facade disappears. That is the real her. There’s nothing we can do about her situation. She is too far gone.”

“Hmm.” He was right. Options are cut off. “Anyway, back on topic. How’s the situation holding up.”

Kilian stood silent for a moment, “Hopeful, but we are here early. So, we have time to prepare ourselves.” He pointed at the path ahead. It’s very dark but behind the darkness are all the soldiers and guards from [The Four] all on duty. “The coalition doesn't know we are coming. We are too quiet for them to take notice.”

||Human count: 855||

“I counted eight hundred fifty-five men blocking that bridge,” Kilian muttered.

“So an ambush onslaught.”

“You got it.” he nodded.

||Roland: 10 m ||

Kilian turned around, “Roland?”

“Yes, sir. It’s ready.”

Kilian and Huo gave a thumbs up. Roland nodded before departing while holding his right clenched fist midair into the distance.

RUMBLE.

Kilian’s OLRS spammed with numbers and warnings:

||[Incoming violent gusts]

[Strength Lv.1: Applicable]

[Defense Lv.1: Applicable]

[Casualties: 280]||

Scattered booms and pounding sounds can be heard in the distance following flashes of scorching bright red engulfing the air at four different points around the peripherals. Huo felt the shockwave vibrating her legs and feet. The gusts swarm in the direction where she is standing. At the same time, it was cool and breezy. Her eyes were at ease.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Well, time to fly.” Kilian withdrew his black blade.

He exerted a bright quantity of qi into the air and slashed it to the ground, initiating the go and charge. He and Huo leaped up into the air. Through the lurks of the dark, the two’s adaptability activates making night as day. Exposing the whole border gates and a bridge over a stream, hundreds or maybe thousands in formation. A few clusters scatter around the formation.

Huo summons her shield over herself and Kilian. She places the tip of her blade towards the night sky, attracting lightning currents to her direction.

A loud rumbling noise in the vicinity escalates. A cascade of lightning spouts off the clouds in a flash before zapping at Huo’s blade. Her blade is fully charged, and her eyes turn white with currents leaking out of her sockets. She howled deafeningly before unleashing magnitudes of energy ahead.

The coalition charges forward toward the two with a few leaped midair.

Shit! Huo missed a hidden opponent’s blade, heading to her chest.

CLANG

The black blade guarded barely a few inches from her.

Huo glanced, seeing Kilian exert his right arm in front of her.

“Very cheeky of you,” Kilian grunted. His black blade reacted to the opponent’s sword and generated a light shockwave ahead, exposing the hidden assassin’s cover. He then flashed in front of him, slicing him in half. The blood proliferated in open exposure and exploded aerially.

Huo slashes through the blood, dissipating the blood and combining it with a lightning slash attack, striking a few others around the vicinity midair.

“Oof!” Something hit her to her side, sending her into the distance before being abruptly stopped.

“You, okay?” Selina appeared behind Huo.

“Unlucky, Selina.”

“Give him to me.” Selina reaches her arm out.

Huo looked down, “Theo?!” She sees Theo, injured to the head along with a nosebleed.

“Hurry! Or All three of us are crashing to the floor.”

Huo glanced to see an illuminating dark green coming towards her. She exerted her left foot, propelling away, and she tossed Theo to Selina. She teleported with him away.

Shit. She let the dark green come closer as it doesn’t appear as a projectile but as a person. The silhouette becomes more visible at a closer distance in between. Huo’s eyes immediately widened, gasping when she recognized the silhouette. Applying pressure, she slowed herself down swiftly, leaving long trails of smoke. She regained footing and blocked the upcoming person.

CLANK.

The two clashed swords following bright sparks. The dark green aura dissipates, revealing a voluptuous tan-skinned woman.

“You are the last person I expect to wield a sword.” The woman said bluntly.

“While you didn’t want to visit me, what’s up with that?”

Her face turns tense and frowns. “You were my fucking best friend. Remember the oath we made to never leave each other?”

Huo jumps upwards halfway without letting out of the grasp of the woman. Then proceeds to ram her chest with a double front kick. She spiraled mid-air, giving her the head kick, sending her crashing into the trees.

She pursued her and landed near the crashing site all surrounded by smoke. Phew… She exhaled deeply before a deep inhale.

The ground starts to rumble as the women flow upward through the smoke and land in front of Huo. She wiped off the blood from her mouth. “You changed. Are you really Huo?”

“I don’t know, am I?” Huo mockingly asked.

“Don’t toy with me,” The woman activated her enhanced speed and bolted from her prior position, striking Huo with the tip of her blade. Huo grunted while she was exceptionally pushed back by her. “I’m gonna take you back with me.” She deployed a sphere towards Huo’s side, rapidly sending her off the tracks crashing through a wall afar.

She passed through the wall and crashed into a room. “Christ. She has a kick in the buckets.” Huo muttered and rubbed her eyes. A fragment of a seal free-falling to the floor. With seconds to spare, she swiftly got herself up, catching the fragment, and revealing the sword emblem.

“Fucking Jianke.” She murmured.

The dark green appears once again from the opening. Huo looked around and flash stepped from the scene. She eventually reached the upstairs of the hall.

Tingle.

A strong, disturbing tingle she felt on her back. Huo’s hands went behind her to find some debris impaled her lower right back. “Shit…” Her hands hold firmly on the projectile.

Splat.

Blood splattered on the wooden floor. She dropped the project, revealing it to be a stick probably from where she landed. Casting a spell, she was able to seal her wound and departed the scene. She cloaked herself, leaving invisible and she recognized the ruined hallway. One thing came to her mind.

Huo flies upwards to the highest standing floor, seeing a double grand door.

“Where the fuck you at?!!!” The woman yelled from below.

Huo opens the door slowly without giving attention. After closing the door, she is in a pitch-black room.

“Light!.” She directed her palm upward, casting light around the room, revealing vast shelves in the space. It’s been many years since I've last been here.

Nothing seems to change in the supposedly personal library. Unlike the Hong An Library, it seems Jianke has some of the most basic structural designs ever found in low shops near the coast of Jinsu. Ordinary homes are even more creative and purposeful compared to a rough white wall. Huo looked at the signs on the shelves and went into the weapons and capabilities section.

She scans for one of the books she used to read that is now essentially beneficial once reread. Feels through the book’s hardcovers till she is at the titles written in characters. “What was that one character?” Huo gave it a thought before getting interrupted by her wound.

Not now. Unfortunately, the cast spell was able to keep up briefly. Still hopeful the blood will eventually clot the remaining exposed openings. She refocuses and switches to the color of the book. “Red,” came across her mind first. More times and still result as red so she looks for a red book as well as a spine where the title is all in characters. She examined every shelf in the section till she found one on the bottom shelf. Huo pulled it out to find a fine hardcover copy shined in golden-themed characters surrounded by a bright red background and a dragon outline at the bottom of the cover page. She was internally excited while gripping the book.

“This is it. Yes!”

Huo opened her gi and placed the book inside her inner pockets. As much as she wants to take all the books to fill Hong An’s library, she only has one more vacant inner pocket. She took a flash step to the secrets section which was locked into a chest. She stomped the lid and pulled out another hardcover book, but black with the dragon personification of Longhun, covering the whole front page. She concealed it in her vacant inner pockets.

Then something feeling tingles again.

But it is not the same tingling.

Somebody is coming.

It’s her. She believed she might have seen her blood on the wooden floor below. As angry as Huo is, she has no other option than to go all out.

Tying her robe more to keep hold of the two books. The winds started to pick up, all going clockwise around her, and the air went nasty and violent. Light from her casting spell starts to flicker, and the shelves start shaking violently, sending all the books piled to the floor. She placed the tip of her sword on the floor and placed both of her hands on top of the hilt.

There’s no turning back now. Her emotions are cast aside, and the flashbacks of seeing Xiong’s lifeless body and blood puddles provoke her. Huo’s eyes are white once again just like at the start. The winds become so violent the doors are at their last stand before breaking. She immediately inhales all of her exerted energy into her. Her white eyes dissipated and she closed her eyes. With the entryway exposed, the light from the bottom floor shines through, and slowly, the woman rises from the bottom floor.

“Found you! You are mine now.” She dashed with her blade drawn with the tip at her once more.

Huo opens her white eyes and bursts out energy from her mouth, sending shockwaves and collapsing the whole library taking both of them with it down. A piece of the ceiling fell on top of the woman, sending her free-falling. Huo braced her legs towards the crumbling floor as a platform before leaping right above the woman.

CLASH.

“You are always better than me at everything, I envy you.” Huo applied pressure, pushing the woman further down.

The woman’s jaw went slack, and her eyebrows instantly raised. She took it personally and was bewildered at her being envied. Huo’s left-hand grips the blade, generating more qi surrounding the base and the blade. Then she grasps the collar of the woman’s gi before going for a slash toward the collapsing ceiling, igniting an explosion above them. The force from the blast pushed the two off course, and both were about to lose consciousness.

In the last moments, Huo fired a wave at point-blank range. White light engulfed the two leaving their fates uncertain.