When Jie bathed, she noticed her pale skin still had an almost glowing silvery sheen to it from the treasure golem she'd consumed. Even now, she felt her body refining and processing some of the metal and growing stronger and better at cycling her qi.
After cleaning up, Jie donned a fresh set of robes, a mixture of black and red, and thought about how to open her middle dantian and what was blocking her while her friends took the time to bathe after having cultivated fully. But, once again, Jie found herself unable to make progress on the conflict within her and her thoughts turned to the coming fight as she bit down on her thumb.
"It feels so good to be clean," Pan Tian said.
Xue stretched languidly, his fur now pristine and white once again.
"This one thinks Xue agrees with you," Ithilix said, "this one was upset at first about the delay, but it's indeed nice to be clean. This one wonders how long it will last."
"Ugh that's true," Pan Tian as she brushed her hair, "No matter which way this goes, we're going to get blood all over us. Probably dirt and feathers too. Yuck."
Jie stroked her lips with a knuckle. "Maybe we should go over our strategies one more time," she said.
"Again? You've had us go over them 'one more time' three times now," Pan Tian said.
"I just want us to be prepared," Jie said.
"We are prepared," Pan Tian said, "relax, Jie. We'll be fine. What's going on with you? You're not normally so worried about a fight."
"I just don't want you guys to get hurt," Jie said.
"We'll be fine," Pan Tian assured her, "we've dealt with worse. You saved us from that Elementalist lake monster. We can handle this. You can handle this."
Jie nodded, trying to make herself believe Pan Tian. They'd gone over everything and Pan Tian was right that there was likely little to be gained by doing so again...
Yet, Jie couldn't help worrying that they'd encounter something in the coming battle that she'd fail to protect her friends from. And the fight was to the death... yet when she thought of killing, her guts twisted up into a knot that made her feel sick. What if she hesitated at a crucial moment? What if her friends died because she couldn't do what needed to be done?
"This one thinks it's best not to perspire over the small things in life," Ithilix said.
The strange turn of phrase jolted Jie out of her spiraling thoughts for a moment.
"What? Do you mean don't sweat the small stuff?" Jie asked.
Ithilix nodded.
I don't know that I'd call a fight to the death 'small things not worth sweating over', Jie thought bitterly. Though she kept her mouth shut as she didn't want to bring down their morale right before a fight.
"Exactly," said Pan Tian, "I think, right now, you just need to breathe, Jie. You'll do fine. We have faith in you and in each other. We're as prepared as we can be. Now, it's better to relax so when the time comes, we're as ready as possible. We'll go in and we'll face whatever comes together. Everything will be okay."
Jie gave her friends the best fake smile she could muster. "Of course, you're right. I just... I don't like waiting," she said with as easy a tone of voice as she could manage while her worries and the conflicting mixture of fear for her friends, guilt, and self-loathing roiled inside her.
***
There was a knock at the door and their escort opened it and peered inside.
"It's time," said the bird woman.
The Elementalist arak led them through streets packed with countless arak. The crowd parted before their escort's scowl but didn't bother to hide their interest. Countless eyes studied their every movement as several arak flew overhead, no doubt to get a better view. Many of the arak laughed and jeered. Though only half of them used a language Jie could understand. Most of them seemed quite certain that Jie and her friends were about to die and appeared to be thrilled by the idea.
The bird woman led Jie and her friends into another building with yet more dark tunnels that eventually led to a set of stairs ending in a barred gate. Beyond the bars was a massive, brightly lit arena that stretched up to a stalactite-covered ceiling high above.
Arak sat in endless rows of seats stacked in tiers one atop the other. A cage of bars and a swirling field of energy with elegant script moving through it separated the bustling crowd from the arena.
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No doubt a formation to protect the crowd from stray strikes... or to keep anyone from escaping, Jie thought.
The arena itself was a field of black and gray stone with a thick, red crystal column in the center capped with a large metal platform almost as high as a three-story building. At the column's base were large metal plates decorated with beautiful engravings.
Jie was fairly sure she could use lightning step to scale the pillar as she had the rooftops in Heping city, but she wasn't sure if her friends could do so. Even if they could, it would certainly give arak fighters a massive advantage. She bit down on the knuckle of her index finger as she mentally adjusted her plans and thought about what she'd discussed with her friends.
The elders sat high above the rest of the crowd in opulent booths with decorative statues, expensive tapestries, and attendants around them. Kazzak managed to look unconcerned while many of the elders had a bloodthirsty look in their eyes.
"What do we do about the platform?" Jie whispered to her friends.
"Depends on how they use it. But don't let the fact they can fly let you stop thinking about using the platform the opposite way. They probably can't attack or see through that metal platform any easier than we can. So, they can use it for a high ground advantage, but we can use it like a shield if we hide under it at the right angle. We'll just have to see how the fight goes," Pan Tian said.
"Hmm... that's true. I hadn't thought of that," Jie said.
"You'll learn these things with experience," Pan Tian said, "none of this is outside of our expectations though. I think we'll be fine."
Jie nodded.
Barred gates opened around the arena and fifteen arak ran out and over to the metal plates at the base of the blood red crystal pillar. A dull feathered arak at the eighth star of the Expert rank barked orders at the others.
One of the weaker males, only at the first star of the Expert rank, lagged slightly behind the others and she kicked him in the back, sending him sprawling hard onto the stone floor.
"Aaarhk! Move it, cur!" she screeched as the male arak scrambled to his feet and joined the others that scurried over the metal plates and unhooked latches, each of them moving with reckless haste. The rest of the arak connected thick metal chains to rings on the plates.
"Heave!" barked the leader.
The instant she gave the order, those atop the metal plates ran or flew away with panicked energy. While those holding the chains hesitated, their eyes on those who had not yet made it clear of the plates.
The leader backhanded the closest arak holding a section of chain, smacking the unfortunate soul to the ground.
The others got the message and pulled mightily on the chains.
The plates started to come apart, revealing blood red liquid beneath, but caught on a latch linking the plates and came to a stop with a jolt that rippled through the arak workers. Jie now sensed multiple auras ranging from the seventh to the ninth star of the Expert rank coming from inside the liquid.
The leader's feathers rippled with rage as she stormed toward the plates. She grabbed the unfortunate male who'd drawn her ire in the beginning by the feathers on his head and dragged him onto the metal plates. Then, thrust him down hard right next to the final latch as she loomed over him with a vicious scowl.
The male cringed away from her, no doubt overwhelmed by the strength of her aura. He unhooked the latch as fast as he could, his hands shaking as he did so. The moment the latch popped free, he scrambled away from her and off the plate as she glared at his back. Jie felt the leader begin to cycle some kind of martial skill only for her terrified workers to haul hard on the chains.
The plates pulled apart smoothly and the leader fell backward, only to catch herself with her wings, flapping furiously in the air.
"Imbeciles!" she shrieked.
Her workers cowered away from her. But, before she could unleash her fury, a tentacle shot out of the blood, coiled around her ankle, and yanked her down. Her scream was cut off abruptly as she hit the red liquid with a splash and vanished from view.
The blood bubbled, working itself into a froth, then stilled.
A moment later, feathers and bones bobbed to the surface. The remaining arak pulled the metal plates out of the arena, seeming more relieved than anything else.
Jie and her friends stared at the pool of blood at the base of the crystal column.
"Was that a blood elemental?" Jie asked as auras circled inside the blood pool like a tank of hungry sharks.
"I think so... yes," Pan Tian said.
"This one thinks it would be wise to avoid that area," Ithilix said.
A barred gate on the other side of the arena opened and four arak cultivators jogged out. One had bright, colorful plumage similar to Kazzak's while the other three had dull, brown, or gray feathers. Three of the four wore robes cut at the shoulders so their winged arms were free for flight. One of the females was covered in gleaming, red crystalline armor and wielded beautiful twin blood red swords. But even she still had most of her wings uncovered and Jie was sure that she could fly even with her armor.
The crowd cheered and began to chant the name 'Hazzik.' As they took up the chant the brightly colored male posed, and the crowd applauded even more eagerly. Jie had a feeling it had something to do with the fact most of the crowd was female as far she could tell.
But, when Hazzik looked over at Jie and her friends, his orange eyes were serious. He looked back to his father, Kazzak, who nodded almost imperceptibly. Hazzik barked commands to his allies, but Jie couldn't hear them over the roar of the crowd. He tensed up and bright orange qi flared to life and swirled around him until it covered him in a pulsing fiery glow.
"Sunfire qi? Rare. And he has an aura skill. Be careful, Jie. Remember this fight is going to be all about you and him. The rest of us will do our best to keep his friends from distracting you or slowing you down, but this fight is all about which of you wins your battle. Don't underestimate him either... I've heard sunfire cultivators have incredible power," Pan Tian said.
"His allies are each at least a star stronger than you guys," Jie said.
"We'll manage. Don't worry about us. We're all quite strong too. It's just compared to monsters like you that we look weak," Pan Tian said.
"I didn't mean--" Jie began.
"Relax," Pan Tian said, "I know. You just focus on taking him down. Let us worry about our own fights. No matter what happens... alright?"
No matter what happens? I don't know if I can do that... Jie thought.
"Sure," Jie said.