Runt stood up on stage with his teammates against Lei Zhi’s team. A black liquid flowed around his body continuously like a guardian snake. His golden ocarina shined from the sun’s light. Floating incorporeal green chains wrapped around his forearms. This was probably going to be his toughest fight yet.

  Jue couldn’t help but loudly squeal looking at the serious version of her little brother. She wanted nothing more than to just swallow him up in her arms and shake him from side to side. The only thing stopping her was the black thing circling around him! When she tried giving in to her instincts, it started melting her skin!

“Be careful.” Runt sighed. “Protect me, alright?” Runt said.

“I’ll protect you Little Brother! Nothing will be able to get past me!” Jue confidently claimed.

“Oh, sure.” Runt wasn’t speaking to her but whatever. “Shi. If you can do it, try and take out the small guy first. If not, help us deal with the big axe guy.” Runt said to the silent beauty.

“I’ll do whatever I want.” Shi scoffed and turned her head.

“I can kill her if you want me to, Little Bro.” Jue spoke nonchalantly.

“We’ll fail if you two fight. Just protect me and let her do her thing. I’ll try and follow her lead.” Runt couldn’t agree to that suggestion. “You don’t have to listen to anything I say, but please don’t try and fight the old man.” Runt tried to give her a warning.

  She didn’t give any acknowledgment of his warning. Her back was faced toward him and she didn’t even make an annoyed noise this time. Runt could only hope she listened to his advice. If not, it was going to be kind of impossible to win.

“Begin!” The elder started the match.

  Runt immediately played his ocarina, only to suddenly see a hook flying toward him. He watched Jue step in front of him. Knowing the strangeness of everyone’s weapons in Heaven’s Angels, Runt knew things would end badly if Jue tried blocking it. He wasn’t sure if his Boss’s stuff would be able to melt through it either.

“Don’t block it! Avoid it!” Runt warned her.

“Huh? Okay.” Jue calmly dodged the hook as Runt ducked down low, still playing his instrument.

  Shi Lina decided to ignore his advice entirely. She directly ran past the small guy with the dagger and headed toward Lei Zhi. The short let out a relieved breath of air when she passed by him. Jue stood in front of Runt to protect him from this guy but he wasn’t attacking alone. Both the short guy and big guy with the axe rushed at them.

“How fucking annoying...” Runt muttered before blowing into his ocarina with higher intensity.

  The beautiful serene music flowed gently throughout the entire event. It gave nearly everyone a feeling of peace, relaxation, and calmness. Runt focused a majority of his qi on controlling the soundwaves within the arena. He’d be wasting qi if he cared about the soundwaves outside the ring.

“Come on out!” Changlin brought down his axe on top of Jue’s head.

  A clear sharp bang rang out as an invisible barrier appeared in front of Jue. It completely surrounded Jue and Runt but it also seemed to stop them from attacking their opponents. Jue tried uppercutting the axe coming down on her but clashed with the barrier. Runt stared at Lei Zhi toying around with Lin. Maybe he could win if he dealt with these two fast enough...

“Are you feeling sleepy?” A voice entered Changlin and Gou’s head.

  Both momentarily stopped in their tracks to break down the barrier. Changlin rapidly shook his head while Gou stumbled.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to just take a nap, instead of doing all this fighting? No need to exert yourself. No need to get hurt. Just a nice relaxing nap.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  No one but Runt understood why Gou suddenly collapsed. He fell face-first onto the stage and started snoring loudly. His dagger clanging against the stage away from his hand’s reach. Just as Gou fell, Runt took down the barrier on the verge of destruction and took another peek at Lei Zhi.

“No one will lay a hand on my Little Brother but me!” Jue announced with her rising fist.

“I’ll break you and that kid!” Changlin horizontally slashed his axe.

“Maybe you should aim lower? Her waist looks pretty vulnerable...” The voice reentered Changlin’s head.

  Changlin didn’t recognize the woman’s voice but felt somewhat compelled to listen. Such a beautiful, soothing voice wouldn’t lead his astray, right? He didn’t know the woman talking to him but Changlin felt like he was already in love! His axe lowered down from its initial target to aim for the girl’s defenseless wait.

“You were right, Little Bro! He did aim for my waist, just like you said!” Jue excitedly squealed.

  Jue opened up her fist, grabbed Changlin by the head, flipped behind him, before striking her elbow into his exposed back. Her elbow dug deep into his kidney causing him to scream in pain and drop to his knees. With his entire backside completely open for her, Jue didn’t restrain herself. Not like she knew the meaning of restraint in the first place...

  Jue cracked her leg across the side of his skull, knocking him into the stage floor. She rose her foot and stomped his already slightly cracked skull deeper into the arena. Her foot was about to continually stomp him deeper and deeper but a barrier appeared over him. Runt was glaring at her.

“Don’t kill him, idiot.” He coldly admonished.

“Sorry...” An unusual mix of fear and excitement filled her body causing her to shiver.

  Jue grabbed the somehow still conscious but greatly disorientated Changlin by the legs before tossing him out of the ring with Gou. At the same time they were finished, so was Lei Zhi with Lin. Lin was paralyzed by Quon’s venom and unable to move her body. Completely immobile but entirely conscious.

“Follow my lead.” Runt slowly walked toward Lei Zhi.

  Ever since the start of the match, Runt has used countless voices to try and affect Lei Zhi with his ocarina. He found out a while ago that he was able to use his bloodline ability in combination with his ocarina. Boss was the one to suggest it to him after he found no use in the ocarina for himself. But none of the thousands of voices he’s heard had an effect on Lei Zhi.

  His bloodline worked on everyone Runt has tried it on. Its effectiveness changed depending on how strong the person he’s using it on compared to himself. Runt didn’t understand why it wasn’t working even the slightest bit on Lei Zhi. Simple suggestions worked best compared to complicated ones. Asking someone to lend him a coin worked better than asking someone to adopt him. Lei Zhi didn’t respond to a suggestion from him asking him to blink. Was it possible that he was blind and deaf?

“Here I come.” Lei Zhi kindly smiled before vanishing from the face of the earth.

“How did he just disappear like that?!” Someone from the audience cried in surprise.

“Even I can just barely sense him... What the hell?” A Core Stage cultivator muttered.

“I didn’t realize Withering Willow was so powerful with enough mastery...” An Elder commented.

  Jue rushed to Runt’s side once she couldn’t sense the presence of the old man anymore. She opened up her ears, eyes, nose, and qi to find him. Unfortunately, her martial arts weren’t suited for detection. Her little brother’s black thing protected him from the old man’s sudden attack. It dragged his body forward to avoid the hook piercing through his clothes.

“I’m not the only one fighting.” Lei politely reminded.

“Huh?” Jue was already in motion to attack Lei Zhi when he said this.

“Shake, Quon.” Lei instructed.

  Jue felt something slimy, cold, and wet wrap around her fist. Then a sharp puncture into her skin and her entire body was no longer capable of listening to her instructions. She couldn’t even let out a scream before dropping to the floor paralyzed. Runt realized that Lei Zhi’s cultivation technique could be extended to other people besides himself...

“It's really a drain on the qi reserves.” Runt suddenly felt something behind him.

“Shit!” A curse flew out from his mouth as he threw one of the chains wrapped around his arm.

  The green chain wrapped around the body of the giant shark and incapacitated it. Runt then threw the other chain at Quon who deftly swam into the air to avoid it. With a blow of his ocarina, Runt manipulated the soundwaves in the air to closely follow the spirit beast and chain it up. Now there was only Lei and Runt left.

“Tao hasn’t taught you martial arts yet, has he?” Lei Zhi asked.

“Just a little.” Runt replied.

“I’ve learned a few things from Bing, Ying, and occasionally Jing. I don’t mind giving a few pointers if you’re up for it.” Lei offered.

“I guess I haven’t been training as hard as everyone else...” Runt thought of Jie, Lin Shu, He Wenqing, Xiucai, Shang, and Ying during the week before the finale. “Alright, I'll exchange with you for a bit.”

  Runt placed his ocarina inside his robes. He looked toward Lei Zhi before running toward him. Hu Tao never taught him much about fighting publicly. But it was a different story in his pocket dimension... In fact, Runt was the only person still able to communicate with Hu Tao even after he was sealed. He knew exactly who sealed him.