Micro, Kel, and Tae travelled back to the courtyard as the three members of the Sparrow sect arrived at the entrance to the temple. Kel ordered the disciples who were training in the courtyard to leave at once, and it wasn’t long before three women in long, blue dresses were standing across from them with an aura of urgency and displeasure.
Micro recognized the woman on the right as Lana. The sight of the bow hanging off of her shoulder made Micro wince, but he was happy to see that she was only trying to kill him with a cold glare for the time being. The woman on the left looked and was dressed similarly, though she wore a much colder expression. The woman at the centre of the group was the most impressive to Micro. Her aura was sharp, and it felt like pins pricking his skin despite the defensive aura he wrapped himself in.
“Hello again, Lana!” Micro awkwardly shouted through the tense silence.
“Be silent.” She hissed back.
“Might I ask what business the heir to the Sparrow Sect has with us here today, Thea?” Kel held his hands together in front of his chest and bowed slightly as he spoke.
“You are always welcome here, of course…”
“I’m here for the hero.” Thea declared, her cold blue eyes glowing fiercely.
“If you’re not going to kill it, we will.”
“Hero? I’m not a Hero, Kel.” Micro explained quietly to Kel.
“Those are a much newer model. I think she’s confused.”
“Regardless of his origins, he has been accepted by the Fire Mountain Turtle Sect as a disciple.” Kel replied calmly, ignoring Micro’s words for the time being.
“You know what that means.”
“You can dress a magician’s puppet in whatever clothes you want, Kel.” Thea shot back.
“You have no idea what you could be dealing with. Their physical forms are stained with the blood of countless sacrifices, and the souls they put inside are twisted and warped beyond-”
“You speak of things you do not understand, heir to the Sparrow Sect. Before you is a cultivator and a disciple of this sect.” Kel argued, his eyes narrowing.
“Do you question the judgement of my grandfather?”
“A disciple, you say?” Thea scoffed.
“You dishonour our kind with this nonsense. A cultivator? That thing beside you? Do you know what a scandal like this would do to your sect if it came to light at the tournament in two days?!”
“You know nothing of the soul within this unfortunate vessel, Thea. The tournament can-”
“Enough.” Thea interrupted him, waving her hand in front of her in frustration.
“The magicians made that thing, so we’re going to destroy it. We didn’t come to negotiate, Kel.”
Before Kel could continue his argument, the three young women had already drawn their bows and aimed them all at Micro. Kel didn’t hesitate to summon his newly mastered turtle shell armour and step in front of Micro, but Lana had already launched herself forward with a violent gust of wind. Tae, coated in the same armour, was able to tackle Lana mid flight, sending both of them tumbling off to the side.
Micro marveled at the way Lana suddenly unleashed a barrage of arrows at Tae while jumping from side to side, dodging Tae’s shield thrusts with ease, all while Tae deflected arrow after arrow with her shield. Kel was the next to draw his shield as two arrows converged on him simultaneously, and it wasn’t long before Thea and the other Sparrow Sect archer had surrounded them.
“You take the boy’s head, Mary!” Thea ordered as she suddenly took her bow in both hands and swung it down on Kel’s shield like a hammer, causing him to buckle beneath its impact.
“Master!” Kel shouted, attempting to turn to look at Micro, but he was unable to take his eyes off the archer in front of him as her attacks continued.
“Hello-” Micro attempted to greet the woman called Mary, but he recognized the arrow she was aiming at his chest from several paces away from the previous night, and didn’t want to experience its sharp tip again. As the arrow departed from the running archer’s bow, he quickly summoned his new turtle shell armour as fast as he could, barely erecting it in time to prevent the projectile from meeting his chest.
“Die, disgusting-” Mary began to shout as she let loose three more arrows, but she was surprised when Micro showed no sign of dodging or deflecting them. Instead, he lowered his head and started running straight toward her. She flailed her arms in an attempt to change her own trajectory, but she was unable to counter her momentum in time. In a last moment’s effort, she threw down her bow and crossed her arms in front of her, sensing the dense aura about to collide with her.
“Sorry!” Micro cried as his armoured head met her aura strengthened arms with a crackling sound that made him sick to his stomach.
“Are you…”
“What are you?!” She screamed in pain, but she didn’t fall. Without losing a step, she kicked off the ground, her broken arms limply trailing behind her, and spun around to deliver a sharp kick to Micro’s side.
“Ouch…” Micro winced at the pain in his side, but it wasn’t enough to knock him off his feet. After rubbing his side for a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“No dents… That’s good…”
“What the… Isn’t that…” Mary gasped as she limped back from Micro, apparently no longer in a hurry to attack.
“What?” Micro asked.
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“That armour… That’s the same as…” She continued, looking back and forth at Micro and Kel, who was still locked in combat with Thea, as Tae was with Lana.
“Oh, we all mastered the Turtle Art card this morning!” Micro explained once he realized what she was referring to. He knocked his shielded hand against his shielded head, producing a dense thud, and smiled at Mary.
“It feels nice not to be so soft…”
“But if you can use Core Cards, then you…” Mary whispered with uncertainty.
“Give up you ugly hag!” Lana’s shrill shout interrupted Micro and Mary’s strange conversation as she stood over Tae, whose armour was flickering like an old light bulb. She drew an arrow and pointed it down as Tae as she scrambled backward on her hands, and was just about to fire.
“No!” Kel screamed as he jumped sideways, no longer concerned with blocking Thea’s attacks, and barely managed to shield Tae from the arrow with his armoured hand. However, his armour was almost as weak, and two arrows now protruded from his green robes, one from his shoulder and one from his right arm. He fell to the ground near Tae, who could only scramble back in frustration at her lack of energy, then the two looked to Micro in panic.
“You’re easily distracted, Mary.” Thea declared as she and Lana readied arrows much different from before. Rather than long wooden sticks, they now appeared to be coated in a thick aura.
“But he’s…” Mary stuttered, but she went unheard by her comrades.
The two arrows coated in energy flew past the helpless eyes of Kel and Tae and made contact with Micro’s turtle shell armour before he had noticed them flying toward him. Even the three archers squinted as the blinding shockwave filled the courtyard, but their eyes widened when the dust cleared.
At the centre of the shockwave stood Micro, his translucent armour shining even brighter than before. Kel and Tae were relieved to see him standing at first, but they were soon alarmed to see the expression he wore.
“Kids who go around causing accidents…” His eye twitched as he spoke through his clenched jaw, trembling with anger as the arrows fired at him fell to the ground in pieces.
“How many times have you put the old man in danger…”
Thea frowned as she tried to make sense of both the words he spoke and the power he wielded, but he continued before she had a chance to reply.
“You should drive safe…” He mumbled with a pained expression.
“Or you should get off the road!”
The three girls regrouped as he started walking toward Thea, preparing arrows once again to fight, but Micro only increased his pace as they took aim. They stepped backward with every arrow they subsequently fired, but no amount of aura around any of their arrows proved enough to penetrate his armour. He looked at the weakened Tae and the bleeding Kel out of the corner of his eye and his expression darkened even more.
“Stupid kids…!” He shouted angrily, sending out a wave of aura that made the archers’ legs shake in their retreat. They had finally resolved to try escaping his path, but he suddenly jumped forward with his head lowered, intending to plow through the leader of the group with tears flowing down his face.
“Stupid…” Micro coughed as he suddenly tripped over his own foot, falling to the ground in front of them, his armour completely dissipated.
They stood in silent confusion as the situation sunk in for each of them. Thea still had an arrow in her hand, but as Kel ran to Micro and Tae put herself between them and the archers, her will to fight ebbed slightly.
“That was indeed… The art of your sect…” Thea thought aloud as she met Kel’s glare.
“He is as much a disciple of this sect as I am, Thea…” Kel replied with a bloody cough.
“That’s impossible!” Lana shouted from behind Thea, but the increasingly coolheaded leader raised her hand to stop her.
“You saw it too, Mary?” Thea asked without looking away from Kel.
“I think so… It was just like Kel’s…” She replied while struggling just to stand.
“But the magicians don’t use Core Cards!” Lana argued.
“The vessel still stinks of the sacrifices they used to create it, can’t you see-”
“Kel…” Thea continued, suddenly pointing the arrow in her hand at Lana’s neck like a spear without looking away from Kel, silencing the girl in an instant.
“What have you done here…?”
“This lost soul…” Kel sputtered.
“He is a friend to us…”
“We live and die by our words, Kel.” She asserted, still holding the arrow a hair’s breadth from Lana’s neck.
“I speak the truth to you now, as always.” Kel replied, standing up to face her despite his pain. He glanced behind him and was relieved to see Tae looking content that Micro was not in any immediate danger. Micro was still unconscious, but his head was rested comfortably on Tae’s lap, and he was breathing without issue.
“Does one cultivator judge another by the vessel in which their soul resides?”
“You believe the boy’s soul isn’t bound by the magicians?” Thea asked.
“You are certain?”
“I don’t believe any spell could ever bind his soul.” Kel nodded.
“Lana said his core was crafted by the magicians. We’d heard rumours that they found a way to replicate a cultivator’s core somehow, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.” Thea said as she examined the boy resting his head on Tae’s lap.
“She was correct, but he destroyed that core and built one more suitable.” Kel replied readily.
“The core crafted by the magicians was unstable and crudely constructed. It was only through his own abilities that he was able to create a new one in such a short time.”
“I see…” Thea sighed, finally removing the arrow from her subordinate’s neck and placing it back in the quiver on her back. Lana let out a fearful sigh and stepped back with her head lowered.
“And the pixies I heard about?”
“Those have been dealt with.” Kel said with a straight face.
The three archers stood there in the courtyard as many curious eyes began to peek out from here and there, wondering if the fight had really concluded. With Mary wounded and Lana cowering in fear of her own leader, Thea finally lowered her guard and shook her head.
“If you’ve seen enough, then I think it would be best for you to leave now.” Kel added, using his remaining strength to stand up straight.
“You know the other members of the alliance won’t be as understanding as us, don’t you?” Thea asked with her arms crossed, an expression resembling pity flashing across her face.
“This isn’t the sort of attention you want to be drawing to yourself, heir to the turtle…”
“I thank you for your concern, Thea.” Kel replied, holding back a cough.
“I shall see you at the tournament.”
Micro let out a groan as he began to awaken atop Tae’s lap, catching the attention of the archers once more. He raised himself up to a seated position, but couldn’t find the strength to stand just yet.
“Oh, you’re still here…?” Micro asked in a daze.
“You calmed down…”
Kel went rigid when he noticed the three archers’ attention turn to Micro again, bracing himself to fight once more, but Thea suddenly grinned.
“What are you called, boy?” She called out to Micro.
“I’m a Micro.” He answered as he rubbed his sore head.
“Do you value your life, Micro?” She asked, still grinning.
“I’ll live as long as I need to.” He replied quickly.
“I still have work to do.”
“I see.” Thea answered, then went deep into thought as she stared at the dizzy boy. After a moment that seemed to stretch on too long, she finally nodded her head, having come to a decision. She smiled coyly at the boy before offering her parting words.
“Then I’ll see you at the tournament also, Micro.”