Steel flashed under the light of the desert sun as probing feints became teasing slashes, Alex reveling in the feel of the blade in his hand as he knocked aside Ya Ling’s lightning fast strike before countering with a graceful flick of his blade that would have drawn blood had it hit, his opponent arching her chin back from what would have been a painful nick. Alex couldn’t hold back his grin as he reveled in their contest, darting forward to trap her blade, forcing her weapon up high before slamming against her elemental shield with his own.
Only to find that he was the one sent sprawling back, and he couldn’t help but chuckle as whirling wind and blistering sand showed just how powerful affinities could be, as his own shield was sent flying and only a desperate twist kept her razor sharp steel from kissing his hips.
“Almost got you there, hero,” she teased.
Alex couldn’t help but grin in agreement, saluting her with his blade before approaching with a high hanging guard. His footwork was aggressive but his teasing blade refusing to over-extend. Instead he teased her out, taunting her with steel until her smirk became a frown of deadly serious concentration. Then, in the blink of an eye, Alex was reminded that he wasn’t necessarily the fastest cultivator in this patch of the desert, it being all he could do to counter the sudden flurry of slashes that was normally not the forte of the jian, but with the power of Wind behind every blow, Alex’s dao was jolted with each slash he parried or forced off line.
Until a gust of grit caught his eye and the sting of fiery pain truly put him in his place once more.
You have successfully countered Wind Flurry!
Finesse check failed. You have failed to counter sand blast!
You have been struck for one Light Wound! (Draconic resilience mitigates to Superficial Wound.)
“Alex!?” Qi Perception made it clear that his friend had stepped back, the worry plain in her voice as she spoke on. “Oh, deserts mercy, I’m sorry! I didn’t meant to cut so deep! I just reacted instinctively after over-extending my flurry to cover myself.”
Alex waved away her concern, Prismatic Fox reducing both the sting on his hip and in his eyes to a tingle within seconds, Biochemical Mastery giving him a surge of lubricating tears. Then the grit was gone after a single eye-wipe. “Actually that was spot on what you should do. We’re using live steel and fighting in earnest.” His gaze grew intent. “Even if we’re pulling our blows, this all means nothing if you don’t truly feel that sense of jeopardy and peril that’s so necessary if we’re going to push ourselves to the next level. So you’re darn right you should use every trick at your disposal, just as you would for bandits or spirit beasts.”
He chuckled softly. “It’s me that should apologize for not taking you as seriously as I should have.”
Ya Ling’s eyes widened, sensing the storm of wind now surrounding him in a tight protective shell. “Alex, what art are you using? I can tell it’s Wind related. It all but calls out to me!”
Alex smiled. “Enhanced Wind Qi Deflection. Let’s just say I was inspired by historical accounts of a true badass who rocked the battlefields with a similar variant, and even if this won’t do crap against Lightning or Spirit Qi, it has the advantage of deflecting both physical strikes and Qi attacks relying on a mostly physical medium.”
Ya Ling’s features broke into a hungry grin. “You’re so teaching me that technique just as soon as we’re done here.”
Alex flashed her a teasing smile. “That all depends on whether or not you can beat the secrets out of me, doesn’t it, princess?”
Ya Ling’s only answer was to renew her onslaught with greater force and fury that ever before. Her eyes were wild with excitement and hunger in equal measure as her killing steel darted forth like a serpent’s strike.
Had Alex’s Quickness not ascended to Bronze Rank 2, he knew he would have been marked already. Were his own strikes and parries not enhanced by 7 ranks of Wind Crane kung fu, her blows would have slammed effortlessly past his guard.
Tearing through all resistance with more force than Elder Win’s own sheering blow, Alex had no doubt that steel would have been pierced, and stone exploded under the force of her onslaught. All of which was enough, just barely enough to give him hope that all was not lost. He prayed that Ya Ling was truly one with her blade, the wind howling all around them, and the desert sands stretching for endless miles.
Because it was time for him to stop holding back.
Find Weakness skill check: Success! You sense the flaws in your opponent’s form, still not used to being without her left hand.
Soul Sight skill check: Success! You effortlessly sense the flow of spiritual energy coursing through a girl who would claim you as her own!
You have successfully trapped your opponent’s blade.
You have successfully BLUFFED your opponent with your killing intent!
You have taken one Medium Wound!
You have avoided crippling injury.
Alex would have to give her credit. Her jian, so heightened with the essence of Wind and a technique enhanced killing thrust, was far beyond what any steel blade could counter, even backed by Golden Realms mastery and 7 Ranks of an elemental killing art and Bronze Rank 3 strength.
So Alex didn’t bother even trying, instead allowing the mesh of sap-laden wooden slats, vines, and leaves to catch her blade. Of course, the latticework did nothing to stop the piercing blow, now tearing into his forearm. But wood that parted so easily to steel’s killing edge could latch onto the smooth sides of the blade with surprising efficacy, thanks to tensile strength and sap that proved the synergism of Wood, Biochemical Mastery, and the echo of ancient forests long gone but never forgotten.
Ya Ling’s eyes widened in surprised dismay, her own hungry intent wilting before the sight of Alex’s crimson blood spurting from his forearm, thanks to steel that bit far more readily than even she had anticipated.
“Alex, No!” Her word of dismay became desperation of another sort, when she simultaneously realized that she had just blooded and infuriated her friend with a crippling blow, and that she couldn’t slip her sword free. That the overlapping latticework of fibers, in fact, had completely trapped her blade. At that moment, forced completely off balance with her shield poorly positioned to counter, Ya Ling was utterly vulnerable to a furiously roaring Alex’s bitter sharp steel blade being RAMMED right into her…
Before Alex stumbled to the desert sands in a puff of wind.
Heart hammering, Alex quickly rolled for all he was worth when the air hissed with the slick sound of steel piercing three feet of desert dune.
Laughing, he didn’t stop, continuing to roll as the hiss of steel against sand grew ever closer. A dozen lethal blows in just a handful of seconds. “Damn you, Alex! You could have killed me!”
Alex didn’t dare hesitate for even a second, springing back to his feet and roaring with mimed fury once more, this time crashing into her with a shield of crushing stone, just barely keeping his footing as he sent her stumbling back, both hands raised to defend herself as Alex snarled and struck. No longer holding back his own ferocity as his dao roared with fire that would have instantly cooked flesh… had his blade passed through anything but sand.
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The momentary glare of a perfectly carved statue chilled him with such a look of hurt betrayal before crumbling to the desert sands.
And then Alex was dodging a furious whirlwind of howling grit. Eyes shut but he didn’t need them with Qi Perception, Enhanced Wind Qi Deflection muting hot desert sands capable of flaying flesh from bone into mere stinging irritation as Alex roared and crashed once more into a horrified looking Ya Ling, stumbling back, crashing to the ground, both hands raised in sudden panic as a howling Alex lifted high a blade now crackling with the explosive power of the storm.
Willpower check made!
Alex froze in horror, gazing down at a girl that in another time and place… he fell to his knees, gut roiling with shame. He swallowed the painful lump in his throat as he slowly resheathed his blade, Ya Ling staring at him with an odd mixture of confusion, horror, and desperate hope.
“Alex? Alex, what the hell was that!?”
Alex flashed a bitter smile. “That final moment was me realizing that I was being the biggest fool in the world, channeling Water and Lightning as if against an enemy, not a friend I hold so dear to my heart as you,” he whispered under the glaring midday sun.
Ya Ling blinked at that, shuddering as she regained her feet, glaring at him, before bursting into tears. “Damn you, you could have killed me! You scared the shit out of me! What were you doing? What the hell were you doing?”
Alex chuckled softly, now flashing a shit-eating grin. He said nothing, slowly stepping forward, hands open before him.
Ya Ling’s eyes widened. Her breath hitching her throat, gazing at him so intently as he took another step forward, gently clasping her right hand with his left… and her left with his right.
He stepped even closer, forehead gently touching her own as her breath came in hitched gasps and he saw every beauty mark and flaw of her dusky features, ignoring the sudden flare of painful heat from his Dantian, no longer able to deny how very much he hungered for her.
Instead, he gently rose her left hand to his lips and kissed her palm, delighting in her startled shiver.
“I was just helping you remember who you truly were.”
“Your future wife?” she teased with a husky laugh.
Finesse check failed!
Alex blinked in surprise, dismayed to be foot-swept twice in the same afternoon by the same girl. The last coherent thought he suffered for long seconds when soft warm lips met his own and his world became a searing flame.
Until he lurched back with a hiss and a painful wince, flashing a truly regretful smile.
“If only I didn’t walk such a crooked path,” he groaned.
Ya Ling’s look of hurt confusion turned to a rueful smile as well. Her cheeks flushed prettily but she gazed at him boldly. “We really need to get you to Silver, don’t we, Alex?”
Her smile froze him where he stood. “Because make no mistake, I am claiming you, hero, if it’s the last thing I do.”
She then stood up, offering her hand to help him back to his feet.
So of course he pulled her close and flipped her over, gazing down at her as he pinned her hands with his own.
Her eyes widened, and her sudden smile promised the world. “Take me. Here and now.”
“You have no idea how much I want to do just that.”
She bit her lip. “Grandmother has tinctures like you wouldn’t believe. I know she knows how much I want you. I know she was working on something...” she flushed, chuckling softly. “I think she knew this would happen.”
Alex blinked. Hit by the sudden desperate hope that there actually was such a thing… but all he had to do was think of WiFu’s sad smile to know that there was no way in hell any force on heaven or earth would allow him to slip free of a noose even now shrieking with all the force and fury of a singularity both in the core of his dantien and an entire universe away.
Enduring the desperate pounding of his own heart, Alex whispered the words he most needed to say.
“Can you break free of my grip?”
Ya Ling smirked. “Maybe it’s me who’s gripping you. Maybe I’m the jealous, greedy type and in the end I decided that I’m not sharing you with anyone.” She chuckled throatily, twisting and shoving with her hips as the entire sand dune responded to her will, and suddenly it was a slightly dizzy Alex who was being pinned by the desert angel on top of him, arching her spine as she smirked down at him, her hands squeezing his so tight before she brought his palm to her lips and kissed him.
“Sorry, Alex. I’m not letting you go.”
Biochemical Master skill check made!
Ya Ling’s eyes widened when Alex’s left hand slipped free.
Then her smile grew. “I still have you, hero.”
Alex gazed pointedly at the hand she held. “Yes, you do.” His gaze grew strangely intent. “Now close your eyes and center yourself while squeezing my hand as tight as you can! Never forget that feeling, Ya Ling. Never forget the feel and weight of your own hand.”
Only then did Ya Ling freeze up, eyes wide with disbelief.
She began to tremble, tears streaming down her face.
“Alex, I don’t want to look. I couldn’t bear it if...”
Alex gently kissed her lips. “It’s okay, Ya Ling. I can feel it. I can feel the blood coursing through it. It’s you. You’re now the same as you ever were. More powerful than you ever were. And now you know that no matter what happens, with the kiss of the desert sands under the noonday sun, you’ll be restored as you were meant to be, all injuries fading away like the dreams they are, as you awaken to the reality of the most beautiful desert queen under the sun, whole and unharmed once more.”
With those words, before she could do more than gasp, he pricked the tip of her finger. She flinched, then her eyes grew wide at the sight of the single drop of blood glistening on the surface.
Her breath hitched, she locked his gaze with her own. “It’s real. It’s actually bleeding!”
Alex solemnly nodded. It is real. As real as the nose on your face. And now you know exactly what to do to make that injury no more real than dream.”
She trembled. “But what if it doesn’t work? What if I fade to sand and...”
He grinned. “What if you instead emerge two inches taller and as strong as me? Claiming even more of the desert’s potency as your own.”
She smirked. “It doesn’t work that way.” She furrowed her brow. “At least I don’t think. It just restores me to my pristine form.”
He winked. “Exactly.”
She gazed at him for long moments before disappearing in a gust of wind.
He laughed when he felt the kiss of steel touching his throat a heartbeat later… her soft lips nibbling his earlobe a second after that.
“Thank you, Alex.” Her arms snaked around him and she squeezed him tight. “I was hoping, desperately hoping that you’d understand what I needed to do. Even though I had reservations… serious reservations, and I was so afraid that I’d flinch, that I’d fail even to use my ability, that I wouldn’t take it seriously enough. But the look in your eyes, that killing intent…” She shivered against him. “Somehow, I just knew that if I didn’t commune with the desert sands that very instant, I’d be...”
“Doubting yourself still,” Alex said, turning around and gently tapping her forehead. “But you did it. We did it. That’s all that matters.”
The beatific grin she flashed was a knife in his heart, reminding him once more of everything he had lost, when he had dared to defy the gods yet again.
He swallowed the lump in his throat, gently squeezing her hand. “Come on, let’s head back. The night comes quick in the desert sands.”
She sighed and nodded, pert brows furrowing as she took in the rapidly falling dusk. “Strange how fast time flies when we train.” She chuckled softly. “And my muscles aren’t nearly as sore as they should be.”
“The advantage of being able to reset your body completely, when you become one with the desert sands,” he said with a fond smile, tousling her hair.
Before freezing stock still, seeing the look of horror reflected in her eyes, the evening suddenly ringing with the frantic peels of bells.
“Ya Ling, what the hell is that?”
She trembled, eyes widening. “We have to get back to the city, Alex. We have to get back right now!”
“Ya Ling?”
But his friend was already racing a top the dunes as fast as her feet would take her, Alex just a few steps behind.