The revolution crumbled beneath her, descending from lofty ideals to chaotic panic. Zae Zin Nim watched from atop a flying crystal, struggling to reconcile her mission objectives with her disgust.
Workers in the acid pits from another miserable city state had decided to join the revolution, but they hadn't put in the work to be remotely equal to the forces opposing them. They barely had any acid cultivators worthy of the name and had tried to fight with buckets of acid and even rocks. If they had been crushed, they wouldn't have disturbed her work, but somehow they had managed to escape and begin an unorganized exodus, demanding help from the revolution.
Now they fled through the space between cities, dealing damage to farmland with their acid containers, scattering, sometimes even trampling over one another. This was more the sort of thing she had expected from a peasant revolution and it was a miracle there wasn't more of it.
Or perhaps not a miracle. Obviously there were cultivators like Yurwa and Gundle who deserved more than life gave them, or servants like Krainuun who were as crafty as any merchant. She had never believed that all peasants truly deserved their position. But it was equally foolish to imagine they were all noble oppressed souls, superior to their oppressors. Just as many of them were as stupid and as venal and unthinking as any sect that hoarded their advantages in young masters.
After locating the worker uprising, Zae Zin Nim identified the army pursuing them. Just another force from another city state, probably with a few crystalliers who, if she was lucky, would be strong enough to help her hone her edge.
"Move southwest," she called to the workers, amplifying her voice with qi. Some of them even managed to obey while others just saw someone flying on a crystal and ran around like headless chickens. Well, they would have to pull up their pants and manage on their own.
Instead she arced downward, placing herself between the two forces. Zae Zin Nim gathered her qi, giving the soldiers time to do the sensible thing and retreat, which of course they didn't. She had no qualms about unleashing her technique: dozens of qi bolts arced out, flying around their limited armor to strike vital points. An entire wave of soldiers went down.
Yet the others kept coming. A group bearing crystal shields marched forward to try to blunt her attacks - they couldn't resist a true cultivator for long, but they did have some efficacy, and there had been more and more of them since the merchants became serious about the war. Others split around the point where she fought, beginning to loose arrows at the retreating acid cultivators.
They should have just surrendered to her instead of throwing their lives away, but they would probably achieve their goals. None of them could hold a candle to her individually, yet instead of surrendering sensibly they pushed onward. She wondered if the peasants and weaker sects on Cloudspire could do the same, if they didn't cower in fear whenever a superior cultivator appeared. It was a grim thought.
Just when she was beginning to suspect they had no crystalliers, she felt a whisper of pure qi within the enemy ranks. If not for her extensive cultivation, she might have missed it and been struck.
Instead she had just enough time to prepare herself, deflecting the qi technique rushing at her and then the palm strike that followed. For a moment she saw only the rushing robes between them, then they retreated and her opponent became clear.
Ren Ziq Quen. The Diamond Crystallier gave her a mocking bow before attacking again.
Immediately she was forced on the defensive, forgetting about supporting the retreating army and struggling just to keep herself alive. Her opponent's Transcendent Divine Body allowed him to fly even at the Nascent Foundation stage, making him far more agile than she was, imitating his true power with a pathetic little crystal. Even if their qi was similar in strength, she could never overcome that disadvantage.
Eventually the inevitable happened: she was too focused on defending herself and a qi strike hit her crystal. Zae Zin Nim tumbled out of the air, barely catching herself as she slid backward after the retreating army.
The sensible thing to do would be to retreat. She wasn't fighting for her own sect or nation, not even for anyone she knew. Throwing herself against an opponent like this before she was ready was completely senseless.
"Get up!" someone called.
"You can get him!" came another voice.
For a moment she was infuriated by the workers, but then streams of acid arched overhead. Two of the acid cultivators had tried to attack Ren Ziq Quen, even though it was completely futile. Their acid melted in the air before it even touched his body, evaporating in his aura.
But in their foolish attack, she saw a flicker of Kai's determination. Zae Zin Nim drew herself upright and gathered all the qi in her dantian. She would not simply surrender, even if she was outmatched. Not here and not now.
When she unleashed her next qi technique she let out a cry, which was not very refined but pushed her to her limits. Ren Ziq Quen looked at her scornfully and spun in place, easily slapping aside her qi bolts. But she had never intended to strike him, and as she had predicted he didn't care about the soldiers around him. The qi devastated the nearby soldiers, widening the gap between the army and the acid cultivators.
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Thankfully they had the sense to keep retreating so her stand wasn't useless. Zae Zin Nim examined her opponent, hoping that she would not suffer for this mistake.
<
Name: Ren Ziq Quen
Total Power: 463
Cultivation: Nascent Foundation 23% (258)
Divine Physique Level: E-0 (80)
Soul Level: 5 (25)
Transcendent Divine Body (+100)
>
Ren Ziq Quen was just as strong as she remembered... which for the first time didn't seem so intimidating. His cultivation hadn't advanced far since they last met as he rested on his laurels. Unfortunately, his strength was more than enough when she compared her own.
<
Name: Zae Zin Nim
Total Power: 430
Cultivation: Nascent Foundation 34% (262)
Coldfire Corona: 33 (43)
Blackblood Physique Level: E-3 (89)
Soul Level: 6 (36)
>
The gap between them might have narrowed, but it was still substantial. Her first instinct to retreat had been tactically correct, especially because she wasn't sure she could overcome the advantages of the Transcendent Divine Body.
But no. She had committed to this path and she wouldn't flinch from it. Kai wouldn't.
They met between them, eschewing qi techniques for pure martial arts. She managed to keep up with him blow for blow, but soon their palms met. When their inner force collided, he remained in place while she skidded back.
"Why fight with them?" Ren Ziq Quen asked, with a dismissive nod toward the retreating workers. "Not that the nobles on this continent are much better than peasants themselves, but what can these miserable workers ever do for you?"
"Why is someone with your advantages here?" Zae Zin Nim countered. "You could be a prince on Cloudspire, why slum on Deadwaste?"
"Don't presume you understand my plans."
She should have kept him talking, because the soldiers were keeping their distance and every second allowed the workers to retreat further. Tactics like this felt unfamiliar to her, compared to honest battle. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of anything else to delay him.
Ren Ziq Quen attacked again, as ferociously as before, but Zae Zin Nim had time to think during their battle. If she was going to win, she needed to take him off guard. By far her best chance of that was using the Coldfire Corona, the question was choosing her moment.
In a battle where she was outmatched, it was difficult to set up such a perfect opportunity. She barely stayed ahead of him until one arrived by chance: he unleashed a qi technique at point blank range, sure that it would drive her back.
Zae Zin Nim plunged into it, surrounded by her blue flames. Even then, she wasn't fast enough by speed alone. But her opponent was taken aback by the sudden rush of mana and he hesitated the critical fraction of a second it took her palm to strike his chest.
This time he was the one who skidded backward. Ren Ziq Quen dropped to one knee and looked down at his chest in shock... but he wasn't bleeding. He should have been coughing blood. If that strike hadn't been enough to overcome the Transcendent Divine Body, she had a problem.
When she stepped in to press her advantage, a beam of qi struck her from the side. Zae Zin Nim cried out and staggered, desperately looking for the source. Not a crystallier: there was a noble officer in the army aiming some sort of weapon at her.
It wasn't enough to cripple her, but it bound her in place, and Ren Ziq Quen had already recovered. She didn't see a way through...
Then the crystal bracelet on her wrist shone. As it cracked, a ripple of qi completely wiped out the beam from the weapon and even made Ren Ziq Quen take a step back. Zae Zin Nim leapt away from them as quickly as she could, before the effect dissipated.
She had managed to get clear, but the bracelet was spent. Worse, she had just shown her opponent her greatest secret weapon, and Ren Ziq Quen was not so foolish as to be tricked again. Fighting before had been a justifiable decision, but her struggle had allowed the workers to retreat much further. Continuing to fight in the face of opposition like this was no longer sensible.
Zae Zin Nim retreated after them, nervously looking over her shoulder. Ren Ziq Quen could have caught up, but instead he only maintained distance, calling after her.
"Was that your last gimmick? Nothing else to show me?"
"I would have had you if the peasant hadn't stepped in," she called back.
"Your trick gave you the upper hand, but that's all you have, isn't it? Now that it's spent, you know which of us is the superior cultivator."
Despite her tone, Zae Zin Nim's confidence had broken. She didn't see any path to winning another fight between them, and worse, the army wasn't giving up just because they had fallen behind. Were any of their allies close enough to assist? Suddenly she wished she had paid closer attention to the details of the war that had seemed so trivial before.
A blue form dropped out of the sky, unleashing a hail of needles in the process. Ren Ziq Quen retreated in midair, deflecting them gracefully. But Omilaena was already breathing out, expelling a wall of poison to hold back the army.
When Omilaena came to follow their forces, the others didn't pursue. Zae Zin Nim bowed to the other woman. "For the first time, I'm happy to see you."
"Come on, I expected more gratitude than that." Omilaena spoke playfully, but her eyes watched the enemy with cold precision. "He's a tough one, though. Too bad I couldn't get here in time to help you finish him while he was weak."
"What was a Diamond Crystallier doing out here? I thought Yulthens was uninvolved."
"That's a new development you didn't know about. The top merchants of Yulthens are taking a page out of our book and sending the Diamonds to fight. Basically, they're trying to turn the other cities into vassals. That cultivator works for... Riuklina, right? She probably has this whole army working for her against Suortril now."
"I am more concerned about fighting such an opponent again." Zae Zin Nim frowned down at her damaged robes. "I do not think I can manage in the short term. What about the injection of chakra you gave me against that monster?"
"I can give you more, but not randomly." Omilaena spun a syringe into existence and flipped it in her hand. "It isn't just a magical liquid, it's a sophisticated technique, so it loses efficacy rapidly. If I was present at the battle, I could give you a boost, but if I was there, we might as well fight him together."
Zae Zin Nim nodded glumly. It could still be a viable strategy if they were locked in a battle with several Diamond Crystalliers, but that was unlikely, especially if the merchants of Yulthens were still engaged in battle with one another.
Technically they had won this encounter, allowing the ragged little army to escape. But as they retreated, it felt like another defeat.