Since I was a child, I hated bugs!

Those little horrific Icky Yucky Crawly insects.

I hate, hate, hate them!

Flowers and plants always attracted me, and it broke my heart each time I saw one of them with parts of its petals eaten or blackened by the bugs. I hated them more.

But more than hating them, I was fearful of them; They overwhelmed me with fear. Sometimes I couldn’t get out of the house for fear of encountering those insects.

Sometimes, even thinking about them made my entire body crawl and I had to have my maid shower me to make that despicable feeling go away.

As I grew older, I tried to defeat this fear, to act normally outside, to forget they even existed, but this fear would come crashing down on me again like a karmic retribution when a bug touched me, or when I saw an overwhelming number of bugs.

I was okay, the entire labyrinthine trials I was fine, till I wasn’t when I saw Black Crow’s ultimate move.

I tried to act as if nothing happened, and again I succeeded to a great extent, but I can’t fake it anymore. The only people left without a fight are me and him!

I am supposed to fight him, And I can’t even move from my place!

Can my flowers defend me against him?

Can the rest of the Fire-breathing bottles stop his swarm assault?

My mind is numb from fear. Can I just quit? Should I quit? And what happens to all the things I achieved during this trial?

Nobody would look at me with respect, or adoration again, If I expose this weakness about me.

I never felt that it was safe to show others my vulnerabilities. You’d think people wouldn’t use your weakness against you, but they do, they exploit it to the extreme…

I never felt like I lost a part of me for showing a weakness that people used against me, but I kept losing hope in others more and more each time they did.

I always thought that by doing that, they are losing parts of their being. They are debasing themselves by doing that to you.

But nobody cares. I learned that mostly our society is all about keeping appearances, and that’s why I started carrying myself this way.

The playful woman, who melts your heart with a smile, who is friends with all the other women, while she knows fully well that most of the noble women she deals with harbor her only envy and jealousy.

They talked behind my back. I knew because they came to me and talked about other women behind their back, or told me what other women said about me in order to expose them because they weren’t on good terms.

Since I died, it has become even harder for me to trust people again, but I still keep up the persona I know very well, fearing that If I drop it, I won’t be able to cope anymore with this new life.

My death was tragic and brutal. I was a married woman; I was of a noble family, and married into a noble family, but my husband, like all rich men in our time, had a mistress. It wasn’t uncommon for men in high places to keep a mistress in our society.

He didn’t even hide it, not for long anyway, and once it came to light, they became more audacious, building a residence for his mistress on the edge of our large villa, about 15 minutes walk from the main house, he would visit her daily.

I didn’t like it, but I already knew it happened to most women that I deal with daily, so we just hid our contempt and took care of the main house, supervising the maids, or taking care of the kids.

I had two little beautiful children, a boy and a girl, 8 and 5 years old, respectively.

We had a teacher for each child, a famous scholar for the boy, and a younger student for the girl.

We also had the head-maid of the house teach her womanly duties and etiquette.

She was also taught the same as me, the same set of morals. Like me, they taught her to be subservient to men.

I didn’t like that very much. I didn’t want her to have the same life as me.

But it was the time we lived in. Filling her head with different ideas was just going to make her miserable in the future.

I didn’t want that for my little girl, but if she ever had different ideas, I would try to support her as best I can.

Sometimes I wonder, did I do right by accepting the mistress, or rather, did I have a choice?

I accepted her like all the other noble women did, but she didn’t accept me.

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The mistress gained enough power in my household, and she orchestrated my demise.

She gave the maids poison she had got, and ordered them to put it in our food, on a day where she had my husband over for dinner.

It was a really stupid move. That evil bitch thought she would get away with that. Even if my husband didn’t punish her, my family won’t sit still after I get murdered.

If it was only me, I probably wouldn’t have minded, but my children ate from that food, their bodies were weaker than mine, and I had to watch them die in front of my eyes, unable to save them, the doctors didn’t know which poison it was, so they could not save us in time.

I died, and they kept my body in my bedroom till it was time for the procession, but I woke up. I knew I was dead when I woke up.

I also knew that the bitch won’t get away with what she made me and my babies go through.

I went to my babies and kissed them both goodbye on their foreheads. I held back the tears. It wasn’t the right time to cry.

I sneaked out into the quiet of the night and went over to her residence.

Her maids looked at me like they saw a ghost, but then they thought the news they got about my death was not true. I ordered the maid to let me in, and she did.

Once inside, I ordered us to be left alone, and we were.

My husband’s mistress looked at me wide-eyed. Her mind was working at over-speed, trying to form a sentence to say to me, doubting herself, doubting the news she heard.

I got close to her and choked her to death. When she tried to scream, I took a scarf that was on the bed and shoved it inside her mouth.

In a few minutes, the deed was done. I got out, the maid still looking at me with disbelief in her eyes. She got in and I heard the screams as I walked away.

A voice from far away was calling me. I had nothing here anymore, and I answered the calling.

Remembering all this lit a fire inside me, I won’t give up without a fight again, never again for the rest of my life…

*****

image [https://imgur.com/XfBSXXC.jpg]

Black Crow headed to the arena and stood there by himself. Dahlia hadn’t moved. Frozen in her place, lost in her thoughts.

Scorn bore witness, and he said nothing. He didn’t rush her. After a while, it was like she woke up from the dead; she moved with purpose towards the arena.

Her gait almost seemed to be that of someone pissed off.

Seph thought she was scared at first, but she puzzled him now by that weird extreme change that happened to her!

They had a fight in their hands, though, another fight between two strong Yin cultivators. Who was going to win this one?

Was Black Crow able to use the same ultimate attack he ended his first fight with?

They were going to get an answer for all the questions right now.

Both contestants didn’t share any words. Dahlia was looking at her opponent like he murdered someone who was dear to her heart.

It was like she had an entirely different persona hidden away that they knew nothing about!

But then again, they knew very little about each other!

They were opponents for now, not friends.

Dahlia took out a fist of flower petals and threw them in the air. She spun around herself violently and fanned them with her fan.

A flowery whirlwind of considerable speed formed and headed fast towards Black Crow.

He signaled for his vultures to fly away to avoid the whirlwind, but stood there by himself, seemingly with no defense against the coming attack!

Once the attack hit him, he exploded into bugs again. The bugs spread fast, like they were climbing the whirlwind.

image [https://imgur.com/7LsVK7C.jpg]

They ate through the whirlwind like it was nothing!

That surprised Dahlia. She took out the last two Fire-breathing bottles she had and threw them at the bugs.

Fire spread wildly, eating through the bugs like they were a field of hay bales, but they weren’t enough. The bugs spread away from the fire.

More than half of them were still present, and they all headed towards Dahlia!

Dahlia took out more flower petals and fanned them. She did so till seemingly she ran out; the bugs eating through each whirlwind with uncanny speed and precision.

Once the bugs closed in on her, she crouched on the ground, covering her head with her arms. Tears dropped from her eyes, but she wasn’t weeping.

Scorn appeared and stopped the fight before any harm befell her, but she remained in her shell-shocked position. She remained in the same position while Black Crow lackadaisically left the arena.

She remained for over five minutes, while Esme, of all people, was fidgeting in her place, moving a step forward, then retracting it.

Finally, the quiet girl made up her mind. She went over to Dahlia; she fidgeted for a few seconds while standing next to her, then she crouched down, and hugged the older woman.

She started saying comforting words in her ears, that reached out to Dahlia, and got her out of her shell-shocked state.

With teary eyes, the woman looked up at Esme, who was beside her trying to force a smile. She wasn’t the smiling type.

Dahlia nodded towards the younger woman gratefully and smiled back at her, wiping away the tears from her eyes.

Esme stood up, and extended her palm to the still crouching Dahlia, who took her hand and stood up.

The two women walked off the arena while holding hands. Dahlia had passed the tough time she had today, with the help of the same girl she shocked yesterday with the fire.

Sun had gone down from Seph’s shoulder, standing beside him. He was weeping seeing all this happen, wiping the tears over and over with Seph’s robe!

Once the two women stood together, he had happy tears in his eyes, and Seph did, too.

He crouched down to pet the head of his monkey friend.

Scorn appeared once again, and informed everyone that they have another day to rest, before the semi-finals.

Everybody went around and mingled together again, some talking about the fights.

Some who struck friendships, like Dahlia and Esme, were talking about their lives.

Sun went over to Kafka who was sitting down, and patted him on the back kindly, since he lost, before going back to play with the cats again.

The tournament was about to be over. Seph made it to the final four. Can he win it all? Can he beat whichever opponent he will get the next fight out of Gabalawi, Black Crow, Huan Chun?

That remains to be seen…