Zhen Kai Yun leapt through the sky, using Wind to propel himself forwards. Usually, the feeling of freedom he had in soaring through the air made this one of his favourite activities, and he sought to prolong it as much as he could.

Not tonight, however. Tonight, he moved as quickly as he could, his Core emptying rapidly.

The village ahead was on fire, the blaze standing out in the night. He should have seen this coming. He had been tracking the movements of the Bayati over the last few months, their recent agitation raising flags in the Imperial Information Corp. He had watched their troop movements, and though he had indicated the possibility of an impending attack soon in his reports, he had clearly made a huge mistake in the anticipation of when they would attack.

He was in so much trouble for this.

Landing in a cloud of dust, a gesture sent lightning crashing from his hands into the bodies of two of the Bayati horsemen that were charging towards him, sending them off their horses and crashing into the dirt. Using his Sweeping Gust technique, he moved swiftly through the village, killing any enemy soldier he met.

He hadn’t seen this raiding group in his scouting trips. No signs of any groups breaking off from the main army, leading him to miscalculate. The fact that they had struck this village wasn’t a large blow to the Empire as a whole; while this village was a large source of food production for the Empire, its main export had been ‘gourmet’ items; rare fruits that could only be grown in the northern climates. The loss of those was likely to only affect the pampered nobles of the capital, and Heavens knew how little he cared for those. No, what was more concerning was that if the Bayati could sneak such a large group past him, how many of these such groups had already gotten past Imperial Agents?

And how in the Heavens had they managed to do so?

Shouts and cries of death made him turn his head, for these were not the cries of the villagers. No, these were the death cries of the enemy soldiers, their morphed vocal chords making their cries seem like the whimpers of a kicked hound. Turning towards their source, he spotted it; an old man, fighting side-by side with a boy who couldn’t be more than fifteen, against a group of the enemy langren. Watching as they fought, he nodded to himself; the old man was clearly a veteran, probably with at least a Stage 3 Core. The boy was not trained in the use of reisen, and his use of the spear was a bit embarrassing to watch, but his mastery of martial arts was decent, and he had good reflexes. Kai Yun could work with that, provided he didn’t die. A boy like that, capable of rushing into battle against beasts even without a trained Core? He could mold him into a deadly weapon for the Empire indeed.

Although, this was dependent on this next encounter with the enemy commander, which even Kai Yun had nearly missed and just noticed. About to head into battle himself, he stopped at the last moment and pulled himself back.

The enemy commander would likely go after the bigger danger first, which was clearly the old man. And given the boy seemed to have a history with the old man… If he gave it a few more moments, he could possibly increase the boys’ emotional investment, and use that further to his advantage. He’d lose a trained soldier, but there was the potential to gain a much better asset.

It was a gamble, but Kai Yun hadn’t gotten to where he was by playing it safe. He watched as the commander leapt across the ground and killed the old man, then watched as the boy crumpled under the assault of his Core. Only then did he step out to face the enemy.

All in all, that couldn’t have gone much better. Now, to deal with the trash.

Stepping out of his corner, he saw his opponents head swivel towards him. The man was cloaked in shadow, which meant he was using an Art that incorporated Darkness. In his hand he gripped a curved sabre, the blade around the same length as the standard issue daoand still dripping with blood. In his experience, Darkness arts tended to go for stealthy assassination techniques, or to use attacks that robbed their opponents of sight. Given sufficient darkness, these paths could be truly terrifying as the users could meld with and move through the shadows, but the firelight cast by the burning buildings thankfully had robbed the area of most of those. The man gave off an aura that signified a Core that Kai Yun estimated to be an upper middle Stage Seven. Respectably high, in fact higher than his own upper Stage Six on the cusp of Stage Seven. This would be an interesting fight, then.

Settling into a Elusive Breeze stance, Kai Yun prepared for the assault.

A wave of shadow poured radially forth from the man’s body, coating the world in darkness. Everything within the sphere vanished, and Kai Yun could see only his own self. A standard Darkness skill, well within parameters. Estimating the time it would take for the man to reach him based on his observations in the previous fight, Kai Yun counted to three and unleashed a blast of lightning, as powerful as he dared release. Watching the darkness recede as the man staggered, Kai Yun followed up with a bolt of lightning that the man dodged in an impressive act of contortion. Unrelenting, Kai Yun followed up by releasing bolts of lightning from multiple directions on him. The attack drained his Core, but it was effective: shadow leeched off parts of his body, revealing tanned skin underneath. Some of the bolts missed, but that was unavoidable given the nature of Lightning. Clenching his fist, he summoned Wind to crush down on the man in all directions, further restricting his movement.

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In response, the man opened a void above his head, leaving the lightning to crash harmlessly into the dark circle and disappear. Forcing his way out of the ‘prison’ even as he faded from view, only instincts led Kai Yun to leap backwards as a blade whistled dangerously close to his throat, the tip of it grazing him and drawing a thin line of blood.

He was tempted to unleash another blast of lightning to ward off the man, but his Core was down to a third and frivolous use of his techniques would leave him vulnerable. The enemy had let up his technique and now faded back into view, the technique clearly having sapped a large amount of his strength as his posture now indicated.

A stalemate. Neither of them had the ability to finish off the other. Kai Yun’s mind raced to analyze the situation, to find a way out. Considering his objectives was a good start, he supposed.

Primary objective: Find manner of infiltration. Still unsolved. Would likely require captives, preferably someone high up in the command chain, but this particular commander was probably too ambitious a capture target.

Secondary objective: acquire the boy. Has the potential to become a very valuable asset.

Tertiary objective: kill the commander. Stage Seven was high, but not particularly high among the Bayati people. The only reason they posed a threat to the Empire, despite having so much fewer soldiers, was that their people had been forged in war in a way the citizens of the Empire never had, making each of their soldiers more well trained and more ferocious. The killing of this commander, then, would be a blow to the enemy forces, but he doubted it would be a particularly devastating one.

Objectives identified, now the manner of completing them. Completing the primary objective was tricky: deadlocked as they were, going after his men would leave his own back open to the commander. Could be accomplished by-

Kai Yun was forced to abandon his train of thought as the blade swung at him, moving back out of the way. Unphased, his opponent pressed inwards, his blade a blur as he unleashed a flurry of attacks. Unable to avoid them all, gashes opened on his chest and hands, but the damage was minimal. Allowing the blade to cut into his left forearm, Kai Yun bit down a scream as the blade sliced deep, cracking the bone. But his goal was fulfilled; the injury gave him an opening to work with.

Grabbing the man by his hand before he could let go of his blade, Kai Yun poured lightning through his fingers into the man’s body. As his opponent convulsed, Kai Yun continued until smoke began to rise from the man’s body and his eyes rolled back into his head. Only when he was certain the man was unconscious did he stop his attack.

Objectives one, partially complete. Kai Yun now prepared to leave and found a new problem.

How in the Heavens was he going to get out of here while transporting two unconscious people?

A carriage scavenged from one of the noble houses, as it turned out, and a horse stolen from an enemy soldier. Warhorses were expensive, and the fact that he was reduced to using one to draw a wagon was not something he was particularly pleased about. The enemy commander had been bound tightly by some Celestial Iron chains he had brought, which would prevent his use of reisen. Still, a good precaution was to make sure he didn’t get the chance to even try, and every few hours Kai Yun would go to the back of the carriage and deliver an injection of Sleeproot extract to ensure he stayed unconscious on their journey back to the capital.

The boy, on the other hand, had been remarkably calm throughout the journey since waking up, with the exception of the attempted murder of his prisoner the first time he had been told why there was a bound man sleeping next to him. The calming of the boy had, unfortunately, required a small dose of Sleeproot extract.

Why, such passion! Kai Yun couldn’t wait to see what a weapon he could mold the boy into. He had the chance to examine his Core while he was asleep, and though slightly disappointed to find the boy’s core was, in fact, smaller than average, it wasn’t much of an issue at all. No, what Kai Yun needed was the right mindset, the proper motivation, and he believed his new asset had both.

I’m not sure how to feel.

Master Fu is dead, my home is gone, and probably everything I own and everyone I know is gone with it.

And now I’m stuck on a carriage with a stranger. He’s introduced himself to me as Kai Yun, said he’s part of the Imperial Army and whatnot, but he hasn’t told me much beyond that. I’m not even sure if I should trust him.

Although I’m not given much of a choice…

Sigh…

Truth be told, I’m not too sad about the village. The only person I felt any grief for was Master, and even that was muted by the relatively short time we spent together. The rest of the village, gone? I’m sorry, but I try as I might, I just can’t bring myself to care that much. Wen was a good man, I suppose, but although I do feel a bit sad about his death, I just didn’t know him that well to feel much emotion. All my belongings are gone, but I never had much of value anyway.

No, the reason I’m moping around here is because in those few moments when that man in shadow stood before me, he took away something much more valuable. Right up to then, I had felt like I was actually capable of something. I actually thought my hard work till then had meant something, that I wasn’t a powerless ant to be crushed under some rich noble’s heel.

And in those few moments, he had torn all that away, reminded me of how insignificant I was. Those few moments when I felt my heart would stop and my body refused to move had showed me just how weak I still was.

I’ve had time to think about it now, to reflect on those moments. I still remember the corpses on the floor, the smell of ash and burnt flesh.

I remember trying to kill a person, and though I’d failed it didn’t make it any less of a crime. Sure, I was defending myself and he was an enemy, but couldn’t I have distracted him in some other manner? In the end, I had struck him with the intent to kill.

And the worst part? No matter how much I try, I can’t bring myself to regret it. I want to lie to myself, but I know that given the chance, I would do it all again.

Does this make me a bad person?

The thoughts overwhelm me, and I lower my head and cry.