“You did it!”
A loud and exuberant voice spoke with an immense volume, greeting Sage as he walked through the gates. The voice came from a man with the stature of a refrigerator, he was tall and thick with massive arms and legs. This is the sort of physique people of this world call ‘the waist of a bear’. To go along with this large frame, the man was also quite hairy in comparison to the standard of this world, but his usually wild look was very well tamed today. He was very well groomed with his long hair slicked and tied back by a jade band near the back of his neck.
Sage bowed to the man very respectfully, “Uncle Yuhan. Are you supposed to be out here?”
“Huhh huhh huhh, you think they can tell me what to do? Rules are made to be broken, boy!”
Even as the big man spoke so defiantly, he was looking over his shoulder with a definite look of worry on his face. His eyes shifted to the left and right, scanning all the entrances of the building behind him. His body language definitely spoke of extreme nervousness, yet his words were extremely confident, “You truly impress me, Kid. Ahh, it’s so hot out here, I need a nice cold drink to cool off.”
With the quick excuse, the big man scampered off to the side, escaping from the front door that was slowly swinging open. He even used a movement technique to multiply his speed, disappearing from sight before those stepping out could see him. At the door, three women wearing light yellow dresses walked out.
“So these little boys are your friends? They certainly don’t look like much.”
The woman in the center stepped forward and spoke with a blunt intensity. Her head tilted and she flipped her snowy white hair back over her shoulder. She looked at the three men standing beside Sage with her piercing blue eyes and beckoned them forward. They were a bit taken aback, but the other two women just laughed at them, “You sure called it, look how meek they are.”
Sage held back a laugh, considering he’d spent far too much time with these three ladies and was too used to their antics. His poor friends did not have the same luxury. The woman who hadn’t spoken yet had dark hair and eyes, and the pale yellow dress looked very out of place on her. She was quite full bodied and curvy, but that was not the reason the dress looked out of place, it was just that Sage was far too used to seeing her in skin tight black leather.
“You poor things. Don’t be so mean to them, Sisters.”
Her voice was sweet and gentle, but there was a predatory glint in her eyes as she spoke. Sage shook his head and lowered his voice, “I’m so sorry. Please bear with it.”
These three women were, of course, the Tiankong Siblings. Ruanfu, Baozhai, and Songji shared a glance and then the tall leggy one, Baozhai rushed forward. Her dress swished around her legs, moving in a strange way that caught the eyes but also confused them. The three men felt their vision growing hazy, but then one of them called out, “Brother Hu, look out!”
The largest of the three men raised his hands and guarded in front of himself just in time to receive a strike. Boom! A force collided against the man’s crossed arms hard enough to send a blastwave in every direction, kicking up a fierce wind that sent everyone’s clothing into a flutter. His stance crumpled slightly and he was sent skidding backwards across the ground with such force that his heels dug a slight trench into the dirt beneath him.
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Pale yellow cloth fluttered from where he was just standing and Baozhai laughed after striking the man back so forcefully. Yet, she was far from stopping. She twisted and dashed forward, rushing towards the thin and scholarly looking man that had called out a warning just earlier. The man didn’t flinch away, he ducked forward and stomped a foot into the ground, propelling him directly towards the attacking woman. He stared at her with a sharp gaze as they approached each other at lightning speed. Baozhai’s feet left the ground, almost like she was stepping into the air, with her dress flowing about to conceal the motion of her legs.
Just before the two were about to meet in conflict, the thin fellow waved his hand and a cloud of blue dust shot out towards Baozhai. She quickly changed direction, twisting to the side with a twirl of her skirts. Her toes barely touched the ground, but a moment after she danced out of the path of the blue dust, the ground was suddenly riddled with cracks. The man dodged away to the other direction, circling around the cloud of blue dust to keep it between himself and Baozhai. His eyes shot down to the ground, “Toes that can stab into the ground like spears in an instant. Quite an interesting movement technique.”
Then, he suddenly dove to the side, somersaulting and rolling away from where he was standing. He looked around fearfully and then his eyes shot over to where Songji was standing. She sent him a demure smile and spoke with a cute and childish voice, “You’re pretty good, Mister.”
He kept staring at Songji as he spoke fearfully, “Look out, she can…”
Before he could finish his sentence he was interrupted by a loud blasting noise. Baozhai shot out of a cloud of dust, detonating the ground she was standing on to propel her towards the scholarly fellow. She flipped sideways in mid-air, her hips twisted and her leg swung out in a vertical arc, performing a full roundhouse kick that came down from straight overhead. The scholarly fellow didn’t have time to warn his friends further. The well built man had only just recovered from Baozhai’s first attack when he felt a presence behind himself and spun around rapidly, swinging his curled fingers out in the shape of a tiger’s claw.
His strike went wild, hitting nothing, but he did see that he forced someone back. His eyes widened when he saw that it was Songji standing behind him, driven back a few paces to avoid his wild swipe. He suddenly realized what his friend was trying to warn him of. He suddenly looked at this woman with a lot more wariness.
At this moment in the battle, Sage looked over to the third man who still hadn’t moved from beside him and lowered his voice to post a question, “You aren’t going to help them?”
The remaining man was very nondescript in every way. He was of average height, average weight, and even average looks. He could walk into any random place in the neighboring kingdoms and seem like a completely unremarkable mortal. Those that knew him felt this was perhaps the reason for his personality. A personality that was anything but endearing and could most easily be described as loud and obnoxious, yet at this moment he was abnormally quiet and reserved.
“That third woman is extremely terrifying. If I jump in, wouldn’t that give her an excuse to join in as well?”
“Ahh, a very accurate calculation. Very astute.”
With this sort of observation it suddenly became very clear to Sage why this man was acting so out of character. The battle between the two men and women continued with increasing intensity. The direct and forceful Baozhai, along with the cunning and unpredictable Songji attacked the two men with ever increasing ferocity.
Hmm, isn’t it terrible luck if they can’t win?