With the five men in tow, Lin Liqin walked out into the street and said, “We should have more than enough space here. Since I made the challenge it's only fair I let you set the terms.”
Passersby perked up their ears, many stopping to watch. One of the men stepped forward, wanting to use the growing crowd to pressure Lin Liqin, “To be clear, you promised to leave town for good if you lose here today?” The man smiled as gasps and murmurs sounded out from all around.
The gazes of the onlookers fell upon Lin Liqin. Most of the men wore expressions ranging from mild schadenfreude to open glee, meanwhile many women were clearly worried for his safety. None of this seemed to phase Lin Liqin as he calmly responded, “I'm a man of my word. Don't worry, I won't go back on it. I was asking about the terms of contest. How would you like to settle this? Shall we use weapons?”
The men were aware of the power of Lin Liqin's zither. One of the men wore an uncomfortable expression as if he were recalling a painful memory. He quickly spoke up, “No weapons! That includes your instrument. We'll settle this with our fists.”
Lin Liqin watched with mild amusement as one man with a sword on his hip shot his companion an annoyed look before setting his weapon aside. “Okay, no weapons. What about using chi or ki?”
“Of course we'll use chi and ki!” blurted out the man that had just relinquished his sword before any of the others could answer.
“Very good,” said Lin Liqin as he began stretching, a subtle yet distinct golden glow cascading across his body as he mobilized his ki. “Last question, will you be fighting one at a time or all at once?”
None of the men stepped forward to volunteer to go first. They were all aware from Lin Liqin's golden aura that he'd gone through his second ki refinement and that it would be difficult to defeat him one on one. The pressure from those gathered around was now on them as they started to take a formation under their heavy gazes. It was clear they intended to attack together and many of the men openly snickered at their cowardliness while the women called them shameless.
“Will Liqin be okay?” asked Aimi with visible concern.
“He seems to be taking this seriously, so he should be fine,” Lin Liqiu whispered back. “It may seem like he is at a disadvantage, but he has been controlling the flow of the battle from the beginning. His zither has a strong reputation, but is ultimately a support item, not an offensive one. The swordsman on the other team losing his sword is more than worth Liqin giving up his zither. Also a group fight may seem like it favors them, but it will limit the techniques their chi users can preform now that they have to avoid hitting their teammates.”
“That's good. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if he got hurt fighting for my honor,” Aimi's voice began to trail off a bit at the end. A light blush coloring her cheeks as she stared at Lin Liqin.
-Too cute!- Lin Liqiu wore a blush of her own as she watched Aimi pump her tiny fists in support of Lin Liqin.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
As Lin Liqiu glanced back towards her brother it seemed the conflict was about to begin. All the fighters had taken their positions. Two chi users were in the back, one gathering water from the air and another with flames in the palm of his hand. In front of them stood the other three men. The swordsman took a kendo[1] stance and using his ki he produced a white aura that he focused into a short blade. The remaining two men simply raised their fists. One took a standard karate[2] stance while the other took a wider stance that lowered his center of gravity, often favored by those practicing jujutsu[3].
Meanwhile, opposite the men Lin Liqin looked very relaxed. He hadn't taken a fighting stance or focused his chi to call the elements. Even the aura from his ki that he'd displayed earlier was missing. He looked as if he didn't have a care in the world and the approaching confrontation had nothing to do with him. As he swept his hair back some of the women in the crowd even started cheering for him.
The man in the karate stance couldn't take it any longer and charged at Lin Liqin. The straight punch was quick and effective. To many of the onlookers it looked as if Lin Liqin had been caught unawares. The blow, backed by the users yellow ki aura, hit with such ferocity that it made Lin Liqin spin in place.
However, keen observers noticed that he pulled his head back at the last second, the blow glancing his shoulder instead as it flashed gold with ki. Using the force from the blow Lin Liqin rolled down the man's arm, landing a punch of his own to the man's ribs as well as an elbow to the back of his head as he did so. Lin Liqin, as if by accident, had stepped on the back of the man's shoe causing him to lose it as he stumbled forward from the blow to the head.
A volley of water and fire came flying in but collided in air creating a cloud of steam. As the two chi users started bickering the swordsman rushed through the cloud, stabbing in Lin Liqin's direction. Falling backward to avoid the aura sword he landed in the arms of the jujutsu practitioner who used his momentum to execute a shoulder toss.
Mid toss Lin Liqin grabbed the man's wrist while his free hand made pulling motion causing a pillar of earth tinted with gold to rise under his assailant's feet, launching him into the air. This caused the two to reverse positions. As Lin Liqin landed on the ground his arm turned gold as he forcefully pulled the man face down out of the air. Now holding the man's ankles he sent a resounding kick into his stomach that sent him flying. However the man's shoes remained behind in Lin Liqin's hands. He was quick to throw them at the fire chi user, stopping him from casting another fireball in his direction.
The water chi user began firing streams of water at Lin Liqin. A golden wind wrapped around him scattering the water. The swordsman rushed at him again but Lin Liqin used the wind to redirect one of the water streams into his chest, soaking him completely.
By this point the karate and jujutsu practitioners had recovered and were making their way back into the fight. With the two chi users at his back and the three martial artists approaching from the front Lin Liqin dispersed the wind around him and raised his hands. At first the men thought he was surrendering, but then he crossed his hands behind his head and began to fall backward as if he were falling into bed.
Lin Liqin landed gently in a puddle of water and began to chuckle softly as his body came to life with gold lightning. The water chi user and swordsman were soaked from the water streams and the other two martial artists were standing bare foot on the wet street, making them easy targets for Lin Liqin's lightning. As the last man standing on his side, the fire chi user looked at Lin Liqin like he was a monster as he slowly stood back up.
Screaming with rage he began gathering a large amount of fire. With a simple wave of Lin Liqin's hand the water on the ground took on a golden hue and surged forward, extinguishing his fire and sending him tumbling into the gutter. With that the fight was over as the crowd started to cheer. Even the men that had wanted to see Lin Liqin lose were caught up in the excitement and congratulated him wholeheartedly on his victory.
Aimi ran out of the crowd and into her champion's arms. She got on her tippy toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. As Aimi came back down on her heels she looked up at Lin Liqin expectantly, but he just gazed past her. Following his line of sight she found Lin Liqiu standing at the edge of the crowd, tears in her eyes as she gave him a stiff nod before turning to leave. “I'm sorry Aimi, I can't,” was all he said before pushing his way through the crowd, his eyes never leaving his sister's back.
Author's Notes:
[1] Kendo means “way of the sword” in Japanese and is a martial art focused on using swords
[2] Karate means “empty hand” in Chinese and is a martial art focused on punches, kicks, and open hand strikes
[3] Jujutsu aka jiu-jitsu means “yielding art” in Japanese and is a martial art focused on turning an opponent's momentum against them using grabs, throws, and joint-locks