A breath brought the darkness around me into focus. Another breath pierced it, let it shrink from my mind and the qi I cast at it like a lance shattering a mirror. A third breath pushed past the automated energy squeezing against the walls of my mind, shoving it away to shatter in the disappearing darkness.

Whoever designed the item Hajake had used underestimated me severely, if they intended it to hold me. He’d barely crossed the temple’s doorway when I shook it off completely and started to move. My mental defenses had been trained by the best, and Rijoko’s qi infused me. It would take more than a toy which he’d probably got from Jideia or Isuro, judging by the spiritual feel of the qi involved, to bother me.

I didn’t hesitate, but ran through the temple. Hajake was moving quickly. Any time I spent trying to free Kajare or Liali was time he could use to get away, and I refused to let him slip out of my grasp.

The sunlight pierced my eyes as I slipped through the gap in the double doors and hurried outside, but they adjusted right away. I glanced around quickly. We stood in an open field, the walls of the city a short distance away, and another temple complex a few hundred meters to my right. But my guards had retreated beyond the outer perimeter to give us privacy, since putting up sound-dampening wards in the temple would have been rather rude. While I sensed them stirring now, I couldn’t wait for them. I could feel Hajake’s presence, rapidly rising into the air and speeding away from here.

I took another deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment, focusing on my body and envisioning the shape I needed. My robe tore as new growth ripped its way out of the back of my shoulders and the sides of my back. Air rustled through feathers as I flexed my new wings, then concentrated on the qi in the air surrounding us, and heaved. Then I bent my knees and jumped with all of my strength, ripping out grass as I ascended meters into the air. My wings spread and pushed against the air that rushed under and flowed around them, and my ascent, which had begun to halt as gravity asserted itself, sped up again.

I couldn’t help a grin as I pumped my new limbs and soared into the sky. I’d only done this once before, for a brief practice flight, but it was even more awesome than piloting a plane. Keeping a part of my attention on the air technique I needed to maintain, I glanced around. My wings spanned several meters from tip to tip, and they were covered in sleek black feathers. Considering the size, I didn’t need to flap them often, and it took me a short while to find the best rhythm. The feeling of new muscles working was a little weird, but I didn’t let it distract me.

Hajake was still flying away at high speed, and I knew I couldn’t afford to dawdle if I wanted to catch up to him, so I put a little more power into my technique. He had to be using a flying sword, but he was in the sixth stage, so this wouldn’t be easy. I glanced down at the rapidly shrinking temple, trying to calm my nerves.

I didn’t believe for a second that his little trick had been enough to snare Terki. The King of Terbekteri was in the eighth stage, for crying out loud. But he was just letting me chase his errant son without making an appearance or giving me any help. It didn’t make much sense to me. Hajake’s betrayal constituted a major issue that could ruin our alliance, and he knew that if I died, the Empire would not take it lying down. Maybe he just couldn’t bring himself to strike down his own son. Regardless, I had to focus on Hajake now.

I was closing in on him, I could tell. It was partly because I could see which direction he was going and try to cut him off, and partly I was just making more efficient use of my qi. A flying sword was just a tool, after all, and I doubted his was really optimized for speed and endurance. I was also cheating with my wings.

I narrowed my eyes and took my spear from my storage ring, carefully holding it so it didn’t interfere with my flying. Then I channeled a bit of darkness qi through it and launched it at the flying form in front of me.

Hajake swerved in the air, dodging the attack. Using light would have been faster and had better chances of hitting, but now I knew I had his attention.

“Not so fast, traitor,” I called to him. “Or are you too scared to fight me?” I gathered more qi. “Still want me to see your face before I die?”

He glanced over his shoulder, while I watched his movements carefully for any sign of lacking control. “You’re an annoying little pest, Inaris,” he called back. With the distance between us, I had to really strain my hearing to make out his words over the rushing wind, but my enhanced ears were up to the task.

He turned around in the air and slowed down as a sword materialized in his hands. “As a matter of fact, I do want to see you die. This time, goodbye will be more permanent.”

I steadied my breath, trying to take in everything. It might have been better if he’d continued to flee, since he might also get reinforcements, not just me. But I didn’t think so. Despite his bravado, the white-knuckled grip he had on his weapon showed that I’d cornered him, that things hadn’t gone his way and he had everything riding on this. Seeing the hint of fear he betrayed was surprisingly satisfying.

Of course, desperate enemies were the most dangerous ones.

I barely jerked to the side in time to avoid the fireball rushing at my face. Tucking my wings in, I dove for a moment, before spreading them and pushing myself upwards quickly. Another attack, this one an expanding circle of flames, passed through the air I’d just been, hot enough to warm my feet.

Luckily, he stopped there. I let out a breath and slowly drifted closer. Hajake was a stage above me, which meant he’d be faster, stronger, and tougher, although my shapeshifting would turn things around in that regard.

I shouldn’t let him come up with a new attack. I swept my hand out, hurling a volley of small black spheres at him. He dodged and weaved through them, but one impacted the shield around him, which suddenly became visible as a heat haze in the air. I could sense my technique eating into it, but it was smothered by his qi quickly. Judging by his grimace, he hadn’t anticipated how much damage it could do.

Then I spat a curse and pulled myself into a barrel roll as he returned fire, literally. This time, he spat several fireballs that I managed to dodge, only for them to turn and home in on me. My spear swatted two out of the sky, but I couldn’t avoid the last. It crashed into my shoulder, just above the base of my wings, and searing pain stabbed through me. In the next breath, I could smell some of my feathers had been cooked. But a moment of focus quickly restored my flight capability back to its peak. My attention didn’t waver from Hajake, and I went back on the attack with a few more Void’s Nibbles, interspersed with some pseudo-laser light lances.

His shield ate those of them he couldn’t dodge, but I wasn’t too worried. I watched his movements while I evaded his follow-up attacks, crashing some with Fides and taking a few glancing blows. Quickly, I was able to confirm my suspicions: He wasn’t quite as agile as me. He was basically standing on a metal board in the air he directed with his qi, after all, while I was flying on my own. I tucked my body in and retracted one wing downwards, tilting to the side and then turning in a half-circle before a push and a gust from my air technique righted me again, letting two of his attacks cross each other where I’d just been.

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The distance between us had been closing steadily, and after a momentary lull, both of us let loose with a big attack. A blob of darkness so big there seemed to be streaks of other colors in it shot out of my spear towards him, while a wall of fire exploded out of his hand to engulf me. I closed my eyes and tilted my body to let my legs catch most of it, riding the force of it as best as I could.

My legs sizzled, but I’d learned my lesson and deadened most of the nerves carrying pain sensation in my body. I opened my eyes just in time to see him swallow a pill, probably alchemical healing, as the skin missing from his right arm and side filled in. I cut off my air technique and beat my wings harder, spiraling slowly downward. A flex of my own ability returned my legs to working order.

Burns were actually pretty easy for me to heal with my shapeshifting, ironically enough. I didn’t have to push two sides of a wound together and make my body knit everything back together, just destroy the dead tissue and replace it with healthy tissue. I smiled grimly as I dodged a follow-up fireball. I didn’t know how many items he had, but they would run out at some point. If it came down to it, I’d win a battle of endurance.

A shadow in the corner of my awareness captured my attention, though I kept most of my focus on Hajake. Someone’s watching us. Probably an eighth stager. Terki, or just another Terbekteri cultivator who sensed the confrontation and got curious?

Well, if they wanted to intervene, they probably would have done it already.

Hajake lowered his flying sword carefully to keep himself on a level with me. At the moment, we were flying over an uninhabited lake. That was good, for ensuring that stray shots wouldn’t do much damage, at least. Though it also meant he wouldn’t feel compelled to hold back.

Stopping the air technique I’d used meant I wasn’t as mobile as before, but the ridiculous strength in my cultivator body let my wings keep me mostly aloft. I was good, but not good enough to use another technique with a different qi affinity at the same time as that one. Now, though, Hajake was on the defensive, so maybe it was time to risk it.

I made a sharp turn, focusing intently on the moisture in the air around us and pulling on the qi contained in it. Carefully, I shaped it into the pattern I wanted, then let it go.

Hajake jerked as a large blob of water appeared around him, expanding further. His shield hissed as the fire affinity qi held it off from reaching him. I used the opportunity to follow up with some frozen shrapnel, though that was too weak to do much damage.

He poured more qi into his shield, and though it flickered, it held. I suppressed a sigh as I noted a visible glimmer was added to it, just an edge of flames. That’s the problem, he has more qi reserves than I do. I guess a battle of endurance is a bad idea after all.

I cocked my head, noting another flicker at the edge of my senses, where another eighth stager might have appeared to watch the fight, and the other cultivator. At this rate, we were going to get interrupted soon, and that could be a problem.

Whatever, I decided. He’s been happy to keep this a ranged battle so far, maybe I should get up close and personal to take better advantage of my assets.

I got my air technique going again, easily evading his next few attacks and turning around in an arc. When I saw an opening, I pushed with a surge of strength, keeping my wings still for an abrupt turn and then pumping them with every bit of new muscle I had. As projected, I shot at him from a downward angle, and he was too slow to get out of the way in time.

His shield resisted my charge, bleeding me of momentum at the same time it afflicted me with burns. But I’d let my air technique go and instead focused on breathing in its qi, drawing it from its intended purpose. I know fire, you fool, I thought, swallowing a healing pill myself as I struggled.

Fire is fickle, my ancestor had said. Hajake wasn’t as good as he thought, anyway. I didn’t get all or even most of it, but enough that the structure of the technique collapsed like a wet card house. Then I stabbed Hajake in the face.

He flinched back enough to spare his brain and his eye, but I didn’t let up. I pushed myself closer, grabbing onto him and kicking his flying sword.

The next moments would have been excruciating, at normal pain sensitivity. It might be stupid to grapple with a cultivator stronger than me, but my shapeshifting bought me the advantage I needed to even the playing field. While I was constantly healing the burns he graced me with, I kept my form malleable. I lengthened my arms as needed, put a tough exoskeleton in front to absorb the weak blows he managed to get out, even bit him with suddenly lengthened teeth. At some point, his sword was lost in the fighting.

The chance came when he tried to disengage. I weakened my grip for a moment, then twisted my spear, shifted my suddenly concentrated weight, and kicked off his flying sword at the same time as I stabbed Fides into it. The tool crumpled around my weapon like it was made of foam instead of metal. A twist, and I sent it spinning off into the distance, dismissing my spear in the same motion. Hajake’s domain extended in the form of a pair of fiery whips, but I engulfed it in my own, smothering them for just long enough. He broke through my grip eventually, and I pulled my star-studded darkness back in, but the damage was done.

A moment of terror shone through his eyes as he started to fall. Now it was him trying to cling on. I beat my wings furiously, calling a knife to ram into his side. I felt his domain extend, burning a tight hug of fire around my midsection. It ate through my skin quickly, and I had to take a moment to form another technique, sliding plates of icy armor around me long enough to heal and reinforce my back.

Hajake used the opportunity to stab me with a new short sword, aiming for my head. I craned my neck to the side and watched it slice off some of my hair before I called Fides back, stabbing it just a second too late to penetrate a defensive technique forming around his core.

We fought a vicious battle in the sky, still mostly falling, but he was obviously off balance, and my ability to shrug off any damage was winning out.

The ground neared, and I pumped my wings harder, calling on more air to break my fall. Hajake tried to cling on, but I managed to time things just right to throw him off with a face full of Void’s Nibble before we would have crashed. My feet almost skimmed the ground before a gust of air lifted me to the side, and I stuck a half-controlled landing, sliding on the wet ground at the side of the lake.

I spun around and got back to Hajake in an instant. He laid on the ground, mud splattered all over, and the impact obviously had an effect. He didn’t react quickly enough to stop me pointing my spear at his neck, darkness qi brimming through it enough to eat any quick defense he might throw up.

“Goodnight, Brother,” I said.

It would have been nice to just shove the tip of the spear through, but I had other plans. So I called a hammer into my other hand and swung at his temple before he had a chance to act. There was a loud thud, and blood on it when I removed the tool. It probably wouldn’t kill him, with his cultivation, but I could tell he was out cold, for now.

With a sigh, I disappeared the wings and stowed the hammer in my storage ring, taking out a shirt as well, since my clothes were in tatters. It would just get bloody, but I’d feel better being fully dressed.

I’d barely put it on when a presence appeared beside me. Turning, I saw Terki set down on the lakeshore.

“You just watched. Why didn’t you intervene in the fight?” I asked, too wired to be diplomatic. At least he wasn’t here to attack me, or he already would have.

“By the time I ensured that Liali and Kajare were alright, you were already engaged in your chase,” he said. “And I thought you wouldn’t like it if I interfered — this was a challenge between you and Hajake.”

I scowled, turning away from him, though not before I noticed the dark shadows in his expression. I didn’t know if I should buy that. Would he have let Hajake kill me? I don’t know how he would deal with the political fallout. Not to mention my father would be less than pleased. But maybe I’m missing something.

I shook my head, storing those thoughts for later consideration. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to ponder this, anyway. Although one thing was clear to me. I should probably let this pass, I needed the alliance with Terbekteri too much to jeopardize it, but there’d be repercussions.

If Terki wanted me to really trust him, he’d have to work at it for a long time.

Hajake’s death was going to be a good start. And man, was I looking forward to finally seeing that.