Their food came and the topics turned away from the Chen family entirely. Jie was served a meat she didn't recognize covered in blue sauce and speckled with what looked like mushrooms. Or something similar.
She took a bite and the food melted in her mouth. She shivered. "Wow," she said, "I think this is the best thing I've ever had..."
Pan Tian's face lit up even more. "I'm so glad you like it! I'm a little surprised you haven't eaten way better food than this though, considering your background," she said.
"I had a... strange situation," Jie said.
"I bet," Pan Tian said, "you'd better tell me all about it one of these days."
Jie smiled softly. Maybe one of these days... she thought.
She couldn't help wondering how Pan Tian and Pan Zhanshi would react if they knew... but she wasn't going to tell them now. No... maybe after she killed Fang Zhuyu. If she succeeded...
They had several courses and Jie ate until she felt like she'd explode. She was normally far more restrained, but even though the food at the academy was good, it didn't compare to the food here. Besides, seeing Pan Tian's smile each time she tried something new made her feel good. When they could eat no more, they talked and laughed and for a moment Jie felt like a normal girl again.
But the sun fell low and the auction would be starting soon, so they finally left the restaurant. They rejoined with their guards outside and strolled back the way they'd come.
The previously bustling streets were largely empty now as the day faded into evening twilight and the buildings cast long shadows upon the paved stone. Though the buildings lining the streets in this part of the city were not so tall as to obscure the light entirely and what few streetlights the city had were slowly coming to life.
"Thanks for the meal," Jie said, "I really enjoyed it."
Pan Zhanshi looked at Jie with horror in his eyes. "Heavens... it can't be... they've kidnapped Jie and replaced her with a doppelganger! I'm not fooled! Jie never sounds so content! Now, tell us what you've done with our friend!" he said. Then, he burst out laughing.
Jie glared at him, but she couldn't keep her lips from turning into a smile.
Pan Tian giggled. "I'm just glad you--" she broke off into a pain-filled shriek as an arrow of sickening green qi caught her in the side.
Jie whirled to face the direction the attack had come from as she activated lightning step and qi armor. Figures had half-emerged from the tops of the rooftops all around them, their faces masked by dark fabric that revealed only their eyes as they rained projectiles down upon Jie and her allies. A smoke qi arrow slammed into Jie's chest, right where her heart was, and knocked her backward. Jie felt a massive drain on her qi from the armor and her chest stung, but the arrow hadn't penetrated.
Jie regained her footing and pointed two fingers up at the masked attacker on the roof who held a bow of curling smoke qi. A blast of dragon lightning qi erupted from Jie's fingers and crossed the space between them in the blink of an eye. But the assassin ducked back behind the lip of the roof just in time and Jie's attack crackled through empty air.
More assassins appeared in windows and other roofs all around them and Jie found she had trouble sensing them with her spirit sense even though she could plainly see them. Enemy attacks filled the air, comprised of all kinds of qi from fire and smoke to poison, acid, cold, and types Jie couldn't immediately recognize.
Jie put herself in front of Pan Tian and blocked an arrow that would've hit the older girl in the neck with her shoulder. It sent Jie spinning away and massively drained her qi, but at least her friend was alive.
The Pan family guards formed up around them and three of them worked together to form a dome of earthy brown energy over the entire group. They grunted and shuddered with every projectile that smashed into the shield. The remaining three guards started channeling some kind of martial skill into the other three with what looked like wind qi. It swirled around the guards maintaining the barrier and made their auras fluctuate and swell with power.
Jie used the opportunity the guards provided to grab Pan Tian and grip the qi arrow. The foreign qi burned and hissed against Jie's qi armor as Jie gripped it and pulled on it hard. Jie had heard that it was better to push arrows through, but she couldn't imagine it'd be a good idea with something made out of such hostile qi.
Pan Tian screamed as Jie ripped the arrow and a chunk of Pan Tian's flesh free. The arrow had quivering barbs that'd wormed their way through Pan Tian's torn flesh like tree roots burrowing into soil. Jie tossed the gory sight aside and pressed Pan Tian's hands to her side to help staunch the blood flow
Even so, blood gushed from the wound like a river, spilling between Pan Tian's fingers as the older girl took shallow breaths through clenched teeth, her face pale. Jie activated her storage ring and withdrew a green pill filled with healing energies. One of the few she'd managed to get the auction house to part with without needing an auction. It was a low-powered one meant for her rather than for Ming and she shoved it into Pan Tian's mouth.
Pan Tian gave a shuddering moan and her torn side took on a green hue and started to knit back together.
Stolen story; please report.
"Thanks," Pan Tian said. Her voice was half-choked with pain and her teeth were clenched tight around the word.
More arrows slammed into the barrier spreading spiderweb cracks through the shield and the guards holding it up fell to one knee.
"We... have to... move..." said one of the guards.
"Where do we go? We're surrounded and they'll have ambush routes mapped out," said another.
Jie frowned. The rooftops aren't that high up here... Could I reach them...? Jie thought. She peered around the guards and through the barrier. It wasn't glowing as brightly, which made it easier to see but also meant they didn't have long.
"As soon as the barrier falls, protect our charges. The Pan family and their guest shall not die this night!" said the guard that Jie had assumed was in charge.
The barrier shattered into glimmering motes and shards of qi. Jie dashed toward the attackers as fast as she could, using lightning step to its fullest.
The wind whipped her hair and lightning from her qi armor crackled over her entire body as fire, acid, and smoke qi struck the paving stones around her. They'd scored some hits when she'd been unprepared, but now she could focus, she wouldn't give them such easy strikes again.
Jie leaped up onto an awning and sprang off it onto the roof of the building where five assassins stared at her with wide eyes. She boosted off a lightning step platform in mid-air and rocketed toward them as they fired qi arrows while running backward away from her.
Jie hit the roof and rolled across it as qi arrows screamed through the air around her, passing so close she felt the foreign qi sizzle against her qi armor. As Jie reached her feet, something slammed into her back like a hammer blow concentrated to a singular point.
Jie's qi armor reacted to the strike, blasting her further forward as the assassin that'd materialized out of nowhere was knocked back with a startled grunt. Jie whirled on him even as she continued sailing toward the archers and activated finger of light.
Dragon lightning qi lit the twilight like the sun and slammed into the backstabber's stomach. The explosive lightning blasted him off the roof and smashed him hard into the face of the building across the street with a meaty thud and the scent of burning fabric and charred meat.
He was still alive, Jie knew, and she felt irritated with herself for holding back even when he'd just tried to kill her. Annoyed at her inability to do what needed to be done. At her restraint toward those who had none.
A spear of yellow lightning struck her in the side and sent her tumbling away from the archers on her roof as the other assassins on the roofs around her focused their fire upon her. Jie evaded as best she could but the attacks were simply too many and she rapidly found herself getting overwhelmed.
Then a figure of rich, dark shadow emerged behind one of the attackers on the other roof and drove a blade of night qi through the back of one of Jie's attackers.
Pan Zhanshi's shadowy form impaled the assassin and lifted their flailing, spasming body into the air with his blade. The others on that roof turned to face Pan Zhanshi but he dropped into the darkness at his feet before they could strike. And their distraction gave Jie the opening she needed to close the distance between her and the assassins on her own roof.
Jie reached the closest one, the one who'd hit her with a smoke arrow earlier. He tried to shoot her with another smoke arrow at point-blank range, but Jie side-stepped.
The smoke arrow whisked past her as Jie stepped forward, driving her dragonfist into the man's stomach. He folded over her fist as all the air left him in a strangled whoosh before the force of the blow sent him flying back across the rooftop. Jie ducked under a fire qi arrow and unleashed a finger of light in response as she felt the familiar friendly auras of Pan Tian and her family guards land on the roof around her.
The fire qi assassin zipped out of the way with a movement skill that created a line of fire in his wake. The instant he came to a stop, a dense rectangular shield of thick earthy qi slammed into him like a moving wall, courtesy of the Pan family guard captain.
One of the guards focused that strange skill Jie had seen earlier upon her, surrounding her with wind qi as she felt the world around her slow further as though using an additional movement skill. She felt lighter too and strength surged within her.
"Thanks," Jie said.
Pan Tian slashed at the assassins, sending arcs of resplendent moonlight qi at their enemies, forcing them to evade her strikes and opening them up for Jie to pick off with finger of light. Jie did so. Firing off one finger of light after another, the speed boost from the guard allowed her to snap them off so close together that they lit the twilight like a strobe light. Once again she was restrained, focusing only on disabling her targets rather than killing them.
She dropped four targets in quick succession but there seemed to be no end to the assassins. Many of the assassins unleashed ranged attacks from the rooftops around them while their melee fighters leaped, climbed, or used a variety of movement skills to engage Jie and her allies. A couple were chasing Pan Zhanshi across the rooftops with similar movement skills to his own, adding to the chaos of the battle.
Another invisible attacker materialized behind Jie as he pulled a garrote over her throat. Jie's qi armor shrieked in protest against the foreign qi and blasted it away as Jie created a lightning step platform and boosted backward off it, driving her entire body into the assassin behind her like a comet.
One of the Pan family guards created a qi shield behind the man and Jie smashed the man into it, slamming him between herself and the shield. She felt a couple of his ribs break against her back but as she slipped out from under him, she noted that he only seemed dazed and would soon be able to return to the fight.
Jie was about to strike his head with a carefully controlled dragonfist to knock him out when beautiful arcs of white light separated his head from his body, splattering Jie with blood that her qi armor failed to block.
Jie's skin crawled even as she fought down a wave of anger at herself for once again leaving the killing to someone else.
But there was no time for wallowing in emotion and Jie turned at once to seek out more of the assassins. Tornadoes had sprung up on some of the other rooftops. No doubt the work of the wind qi guards. The attacks didn't seem to be particularly lethal but they disrupted the assassins incredibly well, sending them swirling around in a vortex as they struggled to get free. It only made them easier for Jie to disable with carefully restrained finger of light attacks.
It was hard to tell as Jie could barely sense their attackers but she felt there'd been around sixty of them at the start. That number had rapidly dropped. As it did so, the battle swung even further in favor of Jie and her allies.
Once the assassins' numbers dropped below half, several of them broke and ran. A moment later, the rest of them followed suit.
The battle had been brutal but short. Although it hadn't felt like it as each moment dragged on forever under the onslaught.
Jie panted and ran a hand through her crackling, blue hair. "Be careful," she said, "there might still be more in hiding."
Her words seemed largely unnecessary however as everyone remained alert.