The copse worm’s disguise was so poor, it baffled Boneroot in two ways. First, how could a creature reliant on stealth survive without blending into its surroundings in the slightest? Second, how had he failed to notice it?
While the spirit beast’s thick, brown hide could pass for the bark of a tree, its ‘leaves’ were a laughable imitation of nature. They were chitinous, jagged appendages, dangling from the worm’s ‘branches’. Instead of matching the neutral tones of the canopy, they took on a hideous, lime green.
They also tore apart the log on which Boneroot was perched. The copse worm lifted the head back up, while it struck with one of its others. Each part of the creature was ugly and out of place in its own way. The next to swing at him, for example, was covered with a course, black fur. Despite its pitiful capacity for stealth, the worm’s attacks were powerful. Boneroot figured there must be a central body under the ground, giving each of its heads better leverage to flail about.
Boneroot dodged each of the copse worm’s attempts at slamming him with relative ease. For all its power, it was uncreative. Once he knew where each of the heads was, it was clear from where he’d be attacked. Still, the creature pushed Boneroot back from the clearing. He darted up a tree and jumped between a couple others, intending to escape and warn his team.
The complication came when his team arrived before he got the chance. That complication was further complicated by the simultaneous arrival of Wei Zhen’s team. Wei, himself, burst into the clearing, directly behind one of the worm’s heads. The muck of the swamp clung to his legs, but it didn’t appear to slow him down. The tall boy blocked the beast’s first attack in an impressive defensive display.
In the first instant of confusion as the two teams figured out what was going on, Boneroot realized now would be the perfect chance to use his own disguise. With Zhi lagging behind, he had a chance to imitate her and get the drop on her brother. He quickly pulled his set of Zhen robes out of his void ring and threw them over his own clothes. It was hard work to not devolve into a fit of giggling. He was confident, though. Boneroot reentered the clearing, looking for an opportunity to take out one of the other cultivators.
Immediately, Wei barked an order and a bolt of lightning incinerated the ground where Boneroot was standing a moment before dodging.
He must have seen the shocked look on Boneroot’s face because he scoffed, “You’re a head taller than her, not to mention—”
The copse worm prevented Wei from extrapolating on just how terrible Boneroot’s disguise was. Suddenly, he felt a bit guilty for how harsh he’d been to the copse worm. Apparently, disguise was a deceptively difficult artform. He’d probably even feel a sense of camaraderie with the ugly worm if it didn’t take another swing at him.
Boneroot ditched the extra robe and leapt back to regroup with his team.
“What was that?”
“What was what?” Boneroot gave Iris his best straight face.
“Did you... did you try to disguise yourself as Zhi? I know you said you had a plan for the robe, but please tell me that wasn’t it.”
Iris and Guang stared at him, already sure of the answer. Boneroot flushed a deep crimson as he defended himself.
“I thought it would work! It was a split-second decision.”
“You’re a head taller than her! Not to mention—”
Once again, rightful incredulity was cut short by the attack of one of the copse worm’s heads. Despite primarily focusing on Wei’s team, the spirit beast wasn’t ignoring them. Guang had to jump back from the clearing to dodge.
“How did they find us so quickly?” Iris shouted over the sounds of Wei’s team engaging the worm in combat. Boneroot saw spikes of Earth popping out of the ground to assail the creature.
It was Hana Kasumi, trudging through the bog water and looking furious, who responded.
“Zhi ran away! And she led them right to us! That— that bitch!”
“We’re better off for it,” Boneroot shouted. “Iris, Guang set up your techniques. Hana over here. When they push through the clearing, I want you to hit them hard. I’m going to take out their backline.”
His teammates responded without words. Biku’s horns began to spark with a crackling energy matching that of Iris’ fingers. Guang slowly materialized his ki in the form of a metal ball and unsheathed one of his axes. Hana emitted a veil of mist around the swampland in front of them. Boneroot slipped a thin paper talisman into Guang’s hands before he left.
As he ran off to the side to loop around, Boneroot caught sight of where the copse worm had been fighting. Each of its heads was put down in a different manner, though two of them bore the signs of being crushed by a warhammer.
Unsurprisingly, Wei, himself, was the first to step through into the wooded swamp where Guang, Iris, and Hana were set up. He took a moment to scan the area for Boneroot, but charged forward almost immediately after into Hana’s mist. He found himself waylaid by a metal projectile streaking past his head. On its way back, the metal ball made a dull thud as it hit the armored aura projected across Wei’s body. At the same time, the mist enveloped his legs, slowing his approach.
One of Wei’s teammates emerged from the shadows at his side. Lula Vo In sprinted forward through the mist at Guang, who was still focused on Wei. She was cut off by a current of electricity going up between Iris and Biku, positioned on opposite sides of Guang. In the moment she stepped back, a small metal ball surged toward the side of her neck. Though she managed to block at the last second, the motion left her vulnerable to Hana’s blade of mist. Lula fell to the ground with a gash in her abdomen.
In the same moment that Lula Vo In dropped and Wei got through the mist to take on Hana, Boneroot was dealing with their other team members. He had already cut down the unfortunate and unaware Yuxuan Bowen with a Radiant Claw, leaving him to deal with Liang Pao, the Thunder cultivator, and Hua Shulin, the Earth cultivator.
A flurry of shockwaves pelted the ground in a trail behind Boneroot’s elusive form. A volley of Light beams were shot in return. Circling his two targets, he decided to get rid of Liang Pao first. If he let the boy go unchecked and failed to dodge one of his techniques, it might spell the end of his chances at this competition and, consequently, his team’s.
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Whenever Boneroot moved forward to attack Liang, however, he found himself rebuffed by one of Hua’s defensive techniques. Even the CHAOS YARN he opened the engagement with was quickly swallowed up by the ground on which it landed.
Boneroot shot another Light beam, this one with the strength of five of his mini beams, but it still didn’t punch through the barriers of rock and soil that the Shulin boy kept raising. After a few more exchanges with his opponents, Boneroot knew that he had to bring this fight to a close before Wei overwhelmed his teammates.
He decided on an untested technique. First, Boneroot feinted toward his opponents, who were hunkered down with Hua’s constructed defenses at the edge of the clearing. When he saw Hua begin to use another defensive technique, he simultaneously channeled his Void and Light kis. Boneroot used his Sunless Stride to move a dozen paces wide of his target, from where he loosed a single Mini Mega Beam.
Just as the other cultivators reacted to his quick shift in location, Boneroot slipped back through the construction of Void ki to appear at his opponents’ position once more. Capitalizing on the confusion, he placed a quick series of punches into Hua’s face. Without his teammate’s Earth techniques to protect him, Liang Pao only lasted a handful of heartbeats longer. Soon, both of Wei’s teammates were out of the fight and Boneroot was exhausted. He hadn’t used that much Void ki in a long time. Though satisfied his gambit had worked, he wondered if it was even practical to expend that much energy into one technique.
Tired, or not, there was still Wei to deal with. Boneroot mustered the remaining dregs of his energy and broke through the edge of the swamp. The first thing he saw was lightning. The next few things he saw were also lightning. He had to squint to make out what was going on, but it quickly became clear that the fight was not going well for Wei Zhen.
Lightning arced in a continuous loop between Iris’ fingers, Biku’s horns, and, shockingly, Guang’s axes. Every time Wei tried to advance on his opponents, he was pushed back either by an orbiting hatchet, the stream of electricity following in its wake, or Hana Kasumi striking from within her mist. It was an impressive display, particularly considering it wasn’t actually rehearsed.
So, it was with extreme satisfaction and surprising ease that Boneroot snuck up on Wei. His teammates must have noticed because they created a lapse in their defenses. When Wei dropped his guard to take advantage, he received a quick, but deep slash across his back. The boy fell to the ground, where Hana’s mist blade put him out of the contest.
In the wake of their victory, Iris began taking in deep, shaky breaths. Guang and Hana looked to be in better shape, but their entire team was leaving the fight understrength. Still, Boneroot thought, better that than not at all.
“Let’s move before anything else,” Boneroot told his team. “I don’t want to be here if anyone comes by to pick off the weakened.”
“Like we did?” Guang asked.
“Exactly.”
Boneroot took off through the clearing where they’d just encountered Wei’s team. As he passed by the copse worm’s lifeless body, he was thankful his team hadn’t had to contend with that and Wei’s team at the same time. All things considered, their timing was perfect, however unfortunate it seemed at first.
The four cultivators regrouped at the edge of a dense thicket a few minutes away from the scene of their fight, almost at the edge of the swampy area of the forest. Though it wasn’t as far away as Boneroot would have liked, he wasn’t sure Iris would be able to get much farther without collapsing. By the time she caught up to their position, she was bathed in sweat and bleary-eyed. Biku had apparently dematerialized soon after the fight ended.
As soon as everyone was near him, Boneroot took the Vital Roots talisman out of his void ring. Immediately after channelling his ki into it, he and each of his team members were breathing easier. Boneroot noticed some of the small nicks and scrapes on his hands start to heal themselves, as well.
“Thanks, Boneroot,” Iris gasped.
Guang flexed his hands and added, “That’s more effective than I expected.”
Boneroot nodded as he slipped the talisman back into his ring. He noticed Hana peaking at the inscription on the wooden slip.
“I suppose that’s Vital Roots, rather than Revitalizing Aura?” Hana posited. “Yes, I believe Zhi had one as well. It’s appreciated.”
Boneroot shared a look with Iris. It was clear she also wanted to comment on Hana’s unexpectedly friendly demeanor, but didn’t want to risk ruining any good will they might be building.
“How many teams do you think are left?” Boneroot asked.
Keeping with the change in character, it was Hana who told him, “If I might draw your attention to the mountains. There are still 15 torches lit.”
Boneroot was surprised he hadn’t seen it before. In a semicircle around the Vale of the Xiatian, 20 braziers were embedded into the stone of individual mountain peaks. Of those twenty, five had gone out.
“That’s more teams left than I would have wanted,” Iris grimaced. “I guess it’s barely been an hour, though.
After a thoughtful moment, Hana offered some consolation, “That’s true. However, I would surmise there are fewer teams near us, as we’ve already handled two of them. Assuming the teams were evenly dispersed throughout the valley, we should have some breathing room. I imagine the number of teams still in the running won’t dip below ten for a number of hours to come. Most will be looking to find defensible positions. Where I come from, a Royal Battle can last days.”
“Speaking of defensible positions,” Boneroot said, grateful for the smooth transition. “Let’s find one. Then, we should cultivate in shifts. I want to be as ready as possible for the next team we run into.”
The four cultivators jogged beyond the cover of their thicket and soon were grateful to be out of the swampland. As they ran, the landscape changed from muddy bogs to open fields riddled with tall knolls. Though they were glad for the dry land to run on, Boneroot and his team were hesitant to move through an area with comparatively little cover. Still, their options were limited, tired as they were, so they had to rely on the thin lines of trees between fields to block sight from anyone far off.
Darting between knolls and their shadows, the cultivators finally stopped when they made it to a large cave at the far end of the first field they ran through. The cave seemed to be nestled into the edge of the valley itself, before merging back into the Wei Mountains. While it wasn’t the most easily defensible position and it offered little to no vision of their surroundings, it was at least a shelter to last until morning.
With one last glance up at the fifteen braziers still lit on the surrounding peaks, Boneroot took refuge with his team. The cave was spacious, but fairly shallow. It only extended into the mountain a few dozen feet. Boneroot was grateful they wouldn’t need to worry about any spirit beasts crawling out of a cave system. Immediately upon arriving, most of the cultivators collapsed to the ground, exhaustion finally setting in despite the aid of the Vital Roots talisman.
“You sure we shouldn’t look for high ground?”
Guang spoke from the back of their new shelter, weariness evident in his voice.
Boneroot, still crouched at the entrance to the cave, keeping an eye out for anyone following them, shook his head.
“This is the best we could hope for given the circumstances. I wouldn’t want to approach any obvious vantage point like that while we’re all dead on our feet. The chance that another team already controls it is too high.”
“Astute,” Hana said. “I imagine we will want to divide up the task of keeping watch now.”
“Let’s eat first,” Boneroot said as he handed out the food from his void ring. It was Guang’s idea to stock up prior to the competition. They mutually agreed to stick to bread and vegetables, rather than experiment with what subspace does to meat.
“It is true that meats won’t last as long,” Hana told them in between large bites of the loaf she’d gratefully accepted. “However, that is hardly a factor in such a short time frame. Most food items can be stored in a void ring for an equivalent amount of time as they can be stored in a cooling room.”
Boneroot gave her a quizzical look. Iris was the one to answer him, though.
“Something rich folk have, Boneroot. Enchant a room to keep all your food cold so it doesn’t spoil that quickly.”
It took some time to explain to the boy the logic behind the process, but they eventually came to the task of setting a watch.
“I’ll go first. You three cultivate. I still have some energy to spare.”
Boneroot received some half-hearted pushback on his proposal, but the others knew it was the best option. It was decided, however, that Boneroot shouldn’t be left alone. So it came to be that he and Biku went on their secret mission.
“Did you locate any, um, spacious persons?”
The little deer spoke into his mind. Boneroot and Biku had done a quick sweep of the surrounding field, though they didn’t stray far from the cave.
“Yes. Someone very strong, too.”
Boneroot kept his voice to a whisper as he and Biku regrouped behind one of the nearby knolls.
“Really? Supe— I mean, quite strong?”
The horned deer swung his neck about, searching for whatever threat he missed.
“Yes, there is a very dangerous, quite strong perynkon right in front of me.”
Boneroot grinned at Kuroki’s friend.
“Be serious!”
In a huff, Biku trotted back to the cave to guard Iris. The spirit beast’s armored chest was certainly puffed out a bit more than usual, however. Soon enough, Boneroot joined the deer without having spotted any sign of other teams in the area.
A few hours into Boneroot’s watch, Iris sprang up with a triumphant, gleeful cry. Boneroot wasn’t sure whether to be impressed, or concerned that Guang and Hana weren’t roused from their own meditation by the sound.
Iris looked sufficiently chastened when she spoke, but that didn’t undercut the raw excitement in her voice.
“I get it now! Cultivating! It makes sense! It’s like a current, like back in that fight, right? I just need to push it around, like I pushed it around the axes, or Biku, or my fingers. It’s always moving, always bouncing...”
Iris babbled out an incoherent slew of, to Boneroot, nonsense jargon. He did glean that she’d finally figured out what was holding back her cultivation, though, so that was unambiguously great. Biku appeared to agree, though he couldn’t hear their internal conversation.
He could only grin as Iris and Biku pranced about, throwing celebratory punches into the air. The tears in Iris’ eyes were just one of many signs of the frustrations she’d had to endure on her path up to this point.
Throughout the night, Boneroot and his team switched places as they regained their strength and even got some sleep. When they emerged from the cave the following morning, the first thing each of them did was look up to the peaks of the Wei Mountains.
Guang frowned.
“Still twelve left? You weren’t kidding about this taking days, huh?”
“As I told you,” Hana muttered under her breath. If Guang’s grin was anything to go by, though, the Water cultivator was starting to ameliorate her reputation among her team.