“You don’t technically have to do this, you know?” Xiaomei’s lip was becoming marked by the constant chewing she had done to it. Her anxiety was threatening to leap onto him, so he ignored the comment and continued to stretch. With each movement, he replayed the events leading to… whatever this was about to be.
Quiet Combat was a law in the Guan family, and its surrounding country. Mostly unused, it is a method of settling disputes which neither side will back down on with words. A battle is held, with the rules decided by the challenged party, and whoever wins is declared the righteous party. It is usually done to avoid trials when an influential member of the family had committed a serious crime, so Dan’s place in this situation was both dangerous and politically explosive too.
The implication was that Guan Po Shang had committed a serious offence against elder Baba. She had claimed Dan as a student, and therefore under her implicit protection, and so by Po Shang’s actions had she become offended. Guan Po Shang contended that Dan was not her student at all, and that this was simply a farce to throw dirt onto him.
This had all been explained to him by Xiaomei while Hyun Soon nodded along solemnly. “If I don’t, I’m pretty sure they will throw me into that cell again. Except this time I don’t get out.” That, or worse. Dan had only been in elder Baba’s presence for moments at a time over the last few hours, and as such Dan had not been able to ask what she was thinking. Her partner elder Yaya simply nowhere to be found. There was a lot of moving and energy and chaos right now as the stage was prepared, so it didn’t truly surprise Dan not to see the man. Elder Yaya had seemed the epitome of sloth and wouldn’t look at all right surrounded by this amount of energy.
The congregation which had entered the room before the Guan family elders were apparently builders and artisans. Together, on the field outside the Sasin forest where the Quiet Combat had been announced, they had created the stage. It was an immaculate feat of teamwork, engineering and ingenuity. As Dan scanned it with his senses, it almost gave him a headache. There were so many intricate weavings of manacraft that Dan couldn’t look at it with his own mana properly. It would be its own challenge, for sure.
However, the real challenge was Guan Po Daiyu. Dan still wasn’t sure if this was intended to be a fight to the death. The way that she had looked at Dan as they were separated to prepare for combat was burning into his mind. It was fury, but something else too which made her eyes look almost haunted. Dan didn’t know what to expect when he stepped onto the stage but he knew he had to do it. Elder Baba had helped him, possibly more than he would ever know, and if he was being asked to defend her honour - as her student? - he would do it with pride.
“I think he’ll win, though.” Hyun Soon was trying to calm an increasingly frantic Xiaomei. She looked at him as though he had cursed her, and the large boy quailed at her intensity. He didn’t want to truly back down though, and continued. “Really. She’s not an actual teacher apparently and she’s only on the square stage. Dan reached the square while we were in the forest, right?” Dan nodded and held up his empty soul badge, engraved with the square which had appeared after the battle with the puppetmaster and his horde.
“But she’s nearly star, Hyun.” Xiaomei said this with the weight of an executioner’s axe, as though the result was so obvious. There was nothing else needed to be said. Dan had just barely reached into an echelon above himself, unsure of how to use his power and hurting himself with it in kind. In turn, Guan Po Daiyu had likely been at square stage for over four or five years. Not to mention, her mana would allow her some form of offence, defence or trickery that Dan’s empty mana would not.
Dan had hopes of taking a portion of the woman’s power and turning it against her. Without knowing what she could do, however, that was a risky proposal at best. Dan would likely be best suited by churning most of his mana within himself and casting out only enough to keep his attention on Guan Po Daiyu at all times. He was confident enough in his own strength, and with each stretch he could feel his muscles get more and more excited.
Whatever was coming up, it would be a chance for Dan to push himself to an absolute peak, and possibly beyond. The idea excited him greatly, though he wasn’t sure it would be as accepted by Xiaomei. He wanted to tell Hyun Soon that he was thankful, but instead he gave the boy a wink and a nod. I can do this, it said. The returned eyebrow raised replied thought so.
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“Again, we’re pretty sure this isn’t a fight to the death. The Guan family elders are expecting me, I can’t back away now. Even if I should.” Dan looked directly into Xiaomei’s eyes, with the small girl being the first one to look away. She knew that as well as I did, but Dan felt that he needed to say it as well. There was no time left anyway, their conversation had stalled but it would have been impossible to continue with the intense drumming that had started. “That’s for me,” Dan said with a forced grin. He turned from his friends and started walking up the sizable set of stairs to find his place on the stage.
It was handbuilt. The stairs were a sturdy wood, as were the scaffolding underneath which kept the structure standing. So, when Dan breached the top of the staircase and saw not only living trees but a moving river, his brain started to hurt even without the buzz in his mana. How had they done this? All Dan knew was that he was intensely jealous of anyone who could perform such craft. Miracles, as he saw it.
His spot was clearly marked. A large white circle with a jarringly different floor within its five or so feet of space. The ground around it looked like the meadow floor below the structure, but within the circle was a lacquered, light wood. As Dan stood on it, he pressed his mana into it and found that it was entirely mana created wood. Dan hadn’t even known that was possible. As he stood on it, his mana seemed to cycle even faster and if he had been feeling fatigued, the feeling disappeared.
He assumed the same could be said for Guan Po Daiyu, standing on an identical spot on the other side of the arena. The air around her seemed to fracture, and Dan was less than pleased to see that she, like her father, had that violent slicing mana. His expectation that things would be “fine” dropped with each passing moment. Dan scanned the crowd with his eyes, not able to let his perception jump that far. On seats built high around them were the Guan family elders and an assortment of other, assumedly important people.
The continued pounding of the drums filled Dan’s ears over the sound of his own pounding heartbeat. That is until Guan Po Dia, the patriarch, stood from his seat.
The drumming stopped suddenly, like a physical pressure being relieved, the sound vanished leaving the large space strangely silent. Not even the birds or insects were willing to speak when the Guan patriarch was about to.
“My brother,” he started. He gestured to his left and the huge body of Guan Po Shang rose from his seat like a green mountain rising from a sea of blue-robed waves. “The challenger of this Quiet Combat. What is your claim?” His every word seemed laced with power and prestige, as though the rule of law itself had been personified and made king. Guan Po Shang had none of that in his voice, which seemed to Dan more like a blade with a tongue than a huge man.
“Guan Shi Ai has called offence and implication upon myself that cannot be left unchallenged.” It took Dan more time than he would admit to realise he had just found out the true name of elder Baba. “As she will not rescind her insult, nor relinquish her ward,” and the word sliced through the air more violently than a sword, “we are left with no alternative.” Guan Po Shang remained standing, but bowed his head to show he had nothing left to say.
“Mother.” The patriarch this time gestured to his right, and amongst the crowd, a small grey head lifted slightly. Wearing red, she managed to stand out even with her diminutive frame. “You have heard the grievance of Guan Po Shang. As the one challenged, it is your right to decide the terms of the Quiet Combat.”
If possible, the gathered elite were even more hushed when elder Baba, or Guan Shi Ai as they knew her, began to speak. She made no attempt to raise her voice. Dan imagined doing so might have torn the ancient paper texture of her voice. Still, every word was carried across the gathering without mistake.
“Po Shang is a fool. I raised him, but the world has made him scared and bitter.” Dan tried to hold a calm face, but he couldn’t help but feel there may have been more diplomatic ways to start. “His foolishness almost brought harm to one of our absolute brightest. The combat would not be quiet if he had been successful, though there was no worry of that.”
Dan chanced a look towards Guan Po Shang and immediately regretted it. There was magma in the man’s eyes and in his incredibly tense posture. He wasn’t looking at his mother, however. He was staring straight at Dan. Dan closed his eyes as elder Baba finished speaking.
“As it worked so well last time, my student will battle any student Guan Po Shang chooses. He will defeat them and Guan Po Shang will never again attempt harm upon a family member.” Through Dan’s closed eyes, tears began to fall nearly instantly. Family? Him? The terms of the battle were almost irrelevant to Dan. He felt confidence rising, inflamed by the ownership and bond that the wonderful old lady had just laid upon him.
“So it is.” Guan Po Dia did not seem at all bothered or surprised by the additional input his mother had given, opposed to his brother’s more respectful words. “Guan Po Shang, choose your fighter.” With the look in his eyes, Dan had an icy-cold moment where he considered that the patriarch’s brother could name himself. However, his eyes moved to his daughter, Po Daiyu.
“My fighter is already prepared. Be on with it.” The huge man waved his hand dismissively, as though he no longer cared about the proceedings. It may only have been clear to Dan, an expert at watching others, but the man was seething. Dan was surprised his mana stayed within and didn’t slice those near him apart.
There was no need for him to name her, Guan Po Daiyu was ready for the fight too. Wonderful, Dan thought to himself grimly, I’m sure this will be entirely painless.