The leap forward became a corkscrew attack as I used the versatility the bow allowed to rotate and reverse course and release lightning forged arrows with each twist. Once I had dodged his attack, I quickly exchanged the bow for my Tessen. With the weapons equipped, I began using one to direct the wind, and the other as a shield, open and ready to block any further attack.

I channeled the wind that I gathered as I spun into [Moon Opens] releasing a series of slashes made of the compressed wind, enough that the wind became flying blades just as solid and deadly as any edged weapon.

Daniel responded by simply leaning back. His leg and calf muscles were imbued with Qi allowing him to hold a position perpendicular to the floor. The wind blades I had released sailed harmlessly past him. My leaping attack followed the trajectory of those blades and I had to quickly adjust the Tessen that was gathering wind to change course.

A flutter of fan and cloth from my Hanfu and I were landing behind him, close enough that I attacked with [Dragon Tail]. It was a sweeping attack, lashing out with my leg in a spinning motion in an attempt to knock his own legs out from under him. In his precarious position, with his body bent backward, it was almost guaranteed to succeed.

But Daniel had anticipated the move, or something similar, and had allowed his body to fall to the ground. It gave him the stability and leverage needed to use his own leg to block my attack as I lashed out. He had also taken the time to exchange his weapon, swapping out the whip for a pair of Sai. The three prongs of the dagger were well suited to counter my own Tessen. Their ability to foul any attack by trapping their opponent's weapon within the tines was problematic.

I could offset their function by keeping my Tessen open. The weapon would be too large to trap once opened, and the material that stretched between each tine was enchanted. Powerful enough to ignore slashing and piercing damage.

He executed a kip-up once he had countered my attack, powering through to regain his feet. He had managed to foul the fabric of my Hanfu with his Sai, tangling the silk from the legging enough that he had was able to exert some control over the trapped leg. I took advantage of our connection to bring my other leg up and level a front thrust kick, aiming at the arm and hand that was holding me instead of the more obvious attack toward his face or throat. My foot connected with enough force that he released the Sai he had been wielding reflexively and with a quick twist of my body, augmented by my wind Qi, I was able to regain my feet.

We squared off against each other at the point. A flurry of attacks, Tessen against Sai, each of us extending our perception to the fullest, allowing us to anticipate the other's movement. It might have seemed like a well-orchestrated martial exhibition. Each strike, parry, and riposte perfectly timed to deflect the other's movements. But it wasn't. The slightest mistake on either of our parts would have deadly consequences.

And that was Daniel's objective for this fight. This was no sanctioned duel, no jockeying for points, or a test of skill. Daniel meant to kill me, and if any of the attacks he released landed, I would be hard-pressed to survive. His Sai took on his aspect and became wreathed in flames that burned blue in concert with his rage and frustration.

I managed to mute those flames using water and ice. The collision of elements creating a bank of steam that billowed outward. The eddies of wind we created as we moved and fought gave a certain impetus to the wind that I collected. A wind that I used to coral the steam into a blanket of fog that obscured our vision.

I used the opportunity to take a step back so I could start the movement for [Wind Over Water] one of the new techniques I had gained access to once I reached the Qi Gathering Realm. I wasn't as proficient with this attack as I was [Dancing Wind and Rain], but this new technique harnessed my Dharmic abilities as well as Qi, giving me greater control over each element.

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Using Dharmic magics allowed my control over the elements to increase, my ability to influence each element almost on the microscopic level. Instead of just moving and creating wind and water with my will, it was more as if I became each element.

The control allowed me to blanket the cave system we were standing in. It had slowly filled as we exchanged attacks and had permeated the area with blankets of steam. [Wind Over Water] gave me complete control over every drop of water, every molecule of wind.

My body took on an ethereal shape, a ghostlike quality reminiscent of the elements I controlled, making my dance of Tessen more fluid than it had ever been, and Daniel's ability to hit me impossible. My body was more water vapor than flesh and blood as the Dharmic spell transformed me into wind and water.

I released the billowing reams of cloth that I was never without anymore and merged that fabric with the water vapor that now saturated the cave. The fabric becoming ethereal wisps of water that I could control by making material. That fabric swirled around Daniel, entangling his arms and fouling his attacks. Though easily ignored at first, as the fabric continued to encircle him, it quickly constricted his movement. I released more and more cloth until it had wrapped him in a cocoon of fabric saturated with water and wind.

His flames would have normally destroyed the fabric, leaving nothing but ash as they ignited and burned, but control of the Dharmic had allowed me to transmute the material I released. A weave of wind, water, and cloth to give it substance and function different from what any seamstress or tailor had ever envisioned. Instead of wrappings of cloth, the binding material was as much water as anything. Constricting bands of water seeded deeply within the weft of the fabric.

It could still be destroyed, but as long as I continued to feed water to the cloth, as long as I was willing to expend Qi and Dharmic soul energy to reform any of the water Daniel might boil away, the cloth would be rebuilt.

Daniel responded by mimicking my ethereal form, his body changing to embrace the flame and smoke he released completely. The transitive nature of fire and smoke made it impossible for me to hold and the bindings of cloth and water that I had invested so much Dharmic energy into fell into puddles that pooled across the tunnel floor.

The fight seemed to have ended in a stalemate, neither of us able to gain the upper hand using the affinities we were well versed in. The most effective attack I had while we made use of our Dharmic forms, while tempered in bodies of pure element, was when I attempted to starve his flames of the oxygen needed to burn.

The attack worked, but he easily foiled my intent by moving to a new position. I wasn't powerful enough in my control of the Dharmic yet to create a vacuum large enough to encompass the tunnel we were fighting in.

Whenever I asserted my dominion over the air in an area surrounding him, the effect was limited, localized to barely more than the size of his body. That wasn't enough to keep him trapped. The slightest change in position or movement of an appendage on his part was enough to restore the fuel he needed to burn.

I needed a way to smother his flames if I was going to win this battle. I could escape. There was nothing he could do at this point to keep me from running, but if I did, that would only leave him and his family as powerful enemies I would need to guard against.

I couldn't imagine his House would be happy to know he had revealed the secret concerning the hidden properties of the missive paper they produced. That the secret hadn't been discovered by now meant that the technique to forge copies had to be ingrained in the very fibers of the paper. The runic enchantment that was embossed on the paper itself had to have been examined extensively by now and found to do exactly as they claimed.

He had been a fool to share that much information about his House. He had already lost one fight with me, to be positive he would win the next was idiocy. But I didn't think he was a fool. He wouldn't have waited to attack me, bragged about the secret of the paper unless he had some artifact or talisman that would assure his success.

And with the wealth his family had already spent to heal his soul as much as they had, whatever trick he was depending on to kill me was something to watch out for and guard against. If I didn't have the torc to escape into when he triggered his fail-safe device, I would have run and risked the certainty of his House moving to protect their secrets.