With their conversation moving back towards more light-hearted topics, Lin Songmei and Zhao Liying spent some time getting to know each other as they helped clean up the rest of the machine combatants assaulting Yan Mingqing, Han Youhong, and Wang Taigang.
Spending another few minutes as a group to collect the two-and-a-half quivers worth of arrows Songmei went through, they were back on the move a little ahead of schedule.
“The other cultivators really held their own,” Youhong commented as he stared off into the distance, letting the wind blow through his hair. “I didn’t get to see their battle, but how were they?”
“For the most part, really competent,” Zhao Liying answered, glancing over at the cultivators who were resting atop their two carriages. “Because they don’t usually work together, there’s a range of levels. For the most part they’re around where we are? I think a couple of them are close to ten or eleven opened meridians though, but our techniques, for the most part, make up for that difference.”
Continuing to make some light conversation, the five of them sat around in a circle, stretching and chatting away. It wasn’t until close to an hour later when the caravan began to slow once more, as Yang Tianshu cleared his throat. “The radar’s gone off once more. Prepare for another battle!”
Watching machines and people began to appear between the cracks of the buildings, Songmei clambered down from the carriages—it seemed it would be a land-only battle this time. With an unending drone of clanking and shouting, one of the dilapidated houses collapsed to the ground as a wave of machines and people plowed through.
Surprised at the lack of airborne threats, Songmei raised her eyebrows as she spotted... people, mixed in among the waves, as infantry and some others acting as impromptu commanders. A quick Qi sense though revealed all the people had cultivation lower than her own.
Maybe that’s why they were wearing exoskeletons.
Long before she had been a cultivator, Songmei had read an article discussing the possibility of exoskeletons becoming common use among construction workers. It seemed these functioned along the same line of thought, but suffered from the same weakness.
Having gone through a mecha, sci-fi obsessed phase back when she was twelve years old, Songmei remembered getting her heart wrenched out as she read the article. In the most scathing, derisive tone, Songmei read as the author tore apart the company trying to bring exoskeletons into daily usage.
What the issue boiled down to—at least how Songmei remembered—was an issue with dexterity. They did provide an increase in strength, but there was also an irreparable, fatal flaw baked into the very concept of the exoskeleton. One that couldn’t be resolved with current technology.
Cycling her body enhancement technique as she circled around the carriage, Songmei let loose a number of arrows while studying the exoskeletons.
Yeah. A moment’s observation revealed the same issue. Seemed like they went along the same lines, boosting the strength of the wielder to elephantine levels at the cost of lowering their dexterity to... similar elephantine levels.
Feeling herself slowing down and beginning to lose focus, Songmei was jolted back into awareness by an adrenaline-pumped Taigang.
“DON’T GET PASSIVE!” Taigang hollered at the top of his lungs to carry his message over the sounds of battle, rousing the team to action with a few aggressive waves before diving back into the fray. “WE’RE SLOWING DOWN! IT’S ONLY TEN IN THE MORNING!”
Taigang, arms and fists shining bright, gleaming gold, sent wave after wave of enemies flying with his punches alone, trying to set an example, a standard, for the rest to follow.
Faced with an enemy, Taigang’s fighting was both graceful and ferocious. A twirl, a spin, and an earth, ego, and core-shattering kick to the stomach later, the exoskeleton clad enemy was down on the ground, foaming at the mouth as Taigang curb-stomped him before launching himself forward to the next enemy.
No one could hear, but as Taigang’s figure disappeared, the man cried out, calling for not his mother, but all his ancestors going sixteen generations back as he wondered how he was overpowered in a direct bout of strength.
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With Taigang flying by her, Mingqing sighed, shaking her head as she forced herself to focus up. Eyes narrowing, Mingqing used a few aggressive, Qi-infused slashes to clear out a space around her.
Isolating an exoskeleton clad woman decked out from head to toe in non-stop firing weapons, Mingqing rushed towards her. With starry mist streaming off her sword, the machines—if they had the capacity for sentient thought—would’ve only seen a dark-blue flash as Mingqing wove her way through the crowd, rushing towards the woman.
With a leap off a machine, Mingqing slammed it into the ground, incapacitating it as she spun in the air. Dodging a number of bolts while performing a ten-out-of-ten acrobatics routine, Mingqing plunged down towards the woman.
Slicing through the focused fire as the woman tried to maneuver away, Mingqing bit her lip as the mist streaming off her sword began to take the shape of a roaring ram. Crashing down atop the woman, Mingqing’s sword lashed out, devolving the fight into a one-on-one brawl.
Disengaging as the woman laid there with a new bloody nose, Mingqing wiped her own bloody lips before beginning the fight back towards the carriages.
Youhong, seeing Mingqing absolutely send one deep into the sea of enemies swarming them, could only sigh.
“I’m a good teammate... right?”
Shaking his head, Youhong disappeared from where he stood, reappearing closer towards where Mingqing was. Spinning his chain blades, Youhong grimaced as his eyes sharpened. He already knew tomorrow morning was a bandaging hands morning.
Grunt, stomp, spin. Rinse and repeat. Settling into a rhythm, Youhong turned himself into a human blender, his chain blades wreaking havoc on the lines of fodder just streaming towards him.
With his red eyes glistening under the strain of focus, Youhong scanned his surroundings. Any machine looking like anything more alive than shredded paper following his first round of blending received a bonus Qi-infused moon slash—free of charge!
Freeing Mingqing, Youhong backed away, giving Mingqing a free path back to the carriage from which she could tornado bomb another exoskeleton wearing human fighter.
On the other side of the battlefield, the group of seven ragtag cultivators, without a moment to breathe themselves, couldn’t help but spare a glance towards the five youngsters plowing away at the enemies.
“What... even are they?” One murmured, taking a pounding to the face as he lost focus in battle. “There’s a golden comet running around, swords-user sending dive bombing before sending up plumes of mist, a silver flashing sphere of death, a flaming snake contorting while literally melting enemies, and random laser projectiles turning groups of enemies into lumps of crystal.”
“Dude, focus the f-up! Go write your poetry in bed, not on the battlefield!”
“Oh, right, right, sorry, sorry!”
Yet, even with the amazement and praise they never heard, the battle seemed like it’d never end. Songmei and the others dug in, biting their lips and forcing their bodies to keep moving. Songmei herself felt her crystal-making improve by leaps and bounds as her body felt like it was being put through fifteen laundry cycles.
Only after what felt like hours did the crowd of enemies begin to thin. Sending a few arrows to pick off the last few enemies before anyone else could rush their way over, Songmei, along with everyone else, began to realize: they had done it!
Bone-tired, Songmei slumped against the side of the carriage. Sliding down bit-by-bit, Songmei gave Mingqing a high-five as everyone took a moment to catch their breath and rest up. Cycling her Qi and catching her breath, Songmei rotated her hand in front of herself, forming a little chunk of crystal to rotate in the air to solidify her the realizations she had made during battle.
“Want some help picking up your arrows?” Mingqing asked from the side, slumping over and resting her head against Songmei’s shoulder.
“Yes please...” Songmei sighed, dread seeping its way into her voice as she remembered the quivers of arrows just lying on the ground. Why did the sect have to have such high-quality, Qi-reinforced arrows? They never broke! She had to re-collect them every time...
---
Following an arduous arrow collection session, one only alleviated when Youhong, Taigang, and Zhao Liying pitched in to help out with, Songmei and the others clambered back on top of the carriages. Feeling the caravan of carriages churn itself back to life, Songmei and the others began to cycle their Qi once more.
“This is about to be a long rest of the morning and afternoon,” Youhong sighed, raising his jet-black t-shirt to wipe a layer of sweat off his forehead. “At least we’re ahead of schedule...”
With a chorus of agreeing murmurs resounding from the rest of the group, silence fell once more as everyone gazed off into the distance with blank stares.
“You know...” Taigang broke the silence with a hesitant, tired murmur. “Since we’re so ahead of schedule, want to do some ‘team bonding’ tonight? We could all go back to our own places and freshen up, but then get a meal together and do a game night? How does that sound?”
“What team leader energy, if we ever do press events, you need to be the main speaker.” Songmei coughed from her starfish position on the ground before giving a weak thumbs-up. “I’m down though, didn’t you all say there’s a tabletop roleplaying spinoff of the bricklaying game?”