Thanks to Alex’s exquisite sense of smell, the slightest breeze in the air was all it took to fill him with a sense of looming disaster that had him racing across the desert sands just as fast as the girl beside him, suddenly understanding what those frantic peels had to mean.
The city, for all that a large portion of it was made of pumice, granite blocks, or tempered clay bricks, a fair portion of the shops and residences were made of wood as well, and almost all buildings had wooden roofs, lattices, and support beams.
So Alex could visualize all too well what would happen if any sort of fire got out of control in the city above. And with the frantic pealing of those bells…
“Alex, come on! You have to go faster!”
Alex didn’t waste time shouting back, already running for all he was worth. For long moments there was nothing but the distant cacophony of panicked bells and the pounding of his heart as Ya Ling raced pass Alex, whose own feet seemed to sink into the sand, no matter how much he visualized stiff Earth beneath his feet.
So he did what he should have done from the start. Turned panicked energy to calm focus, feeling the breeze shift from a wild current to a comforting hand on his back propelling him forward. A push that soon became an ever-building pressure as he fused focus with subtlety, eager to balance his growing understanding of Wind with a sadly limited Qi pool. Yet each moment of calm focus allowed the wind at his back to gain ever more force and momentum, to the point it was both propelling him with every stride, yet was efficient enough to use that his Qi Pool barely lowered at all.
You have successfully found the balance between speed and efficiency, now able to run along stone steps or desert sands with the Wind adding speed to your steps!
Wind Walking is now Rank 5!
You may now use Wind Walking to boost running speed and minimize fatigue for minimal energy cost!
Ya Ling wasted no time trading words with the pair of guards and the panicked milling crowd about the gate entrance as they closed with a rapidity well in excess of any racing horse.
“Nodin, no time to waste! Where’s the fire?”
The guard’s panicked gaze met her own. “Multiple fires, Lady Wu! Several smaller ones by Silver Sands Academy, and half the Southwest quadrant is now blazing out of control! The water pumps aren’t working!”
Even those words caused the crowd by the now closed gate to mill with growing panic, some wanting to be let back in, others screaming to be allowed out, to join the caravan that clearly chose just the right time to depart.
Ya Ling gave an angry shake of her head, cursing furiously. She turned to Alex, flashing a brief smile to see that he had caught up.
“Alex, we can’t afford to waste any time, you understand that, right?”
Alex nodded. “We’re heading to the Southwest quadrant, aren’t we.”
She flashed a humorless smile. “Please tell me that you’ve been holding back all this time and that you can actually fly as well as you sprint?” Without even waiting for an answer, she turned back to Nodin. “No time to waste, we’re going over the wall!”
The man blinked, before he went slackjawed at the sight of Ya Ling literally running through the air.
“I have rope, Alex, but we need to...” Her gaze became one of relief to see Alex cheekily flying right alongside her.
“Yes, I was holding back. Now we’re wasting time and our spiritual energy reserves. Let’s find that fire and do what we have to do,” he said urgently, and whatever exhilaration he secretly felt at seeing the entire glorious city spreading out before him, he broke out in a cold sweat that was a single gut-check away from panic, when he caught sight of the roaring fire on the other side of the city.
It wasn’t just a few uncontrolled fires.
It was an entire quarter of the city that was now burning wildly out of control.
Alex paled at the sight. “Fuck me.”
Ya Ling flashed a humorless smile. “Fuck us both. Are you ready for this, Alex?”
Alex’s features froze, hesitating to answer. But it said something, he thought, that he was still racing toward the hellish flames, as was Ya Ling, no longer worrying about Qi Expenditures. Not with the distant sound of cries and shouts… all too easily able to imagine the countless calamities unfolding at that very second as dozens or perhaps even hundreds of innocent souls either perished of smoke inhalation, or were burnt alive.
Never before had Alex missed his ability to forge gates through will alone than he did at that very moment, now utterly cut off from the world he had forged, perhaps forever.
Yet still… there had to be away.
Ya Ling didn’t bother asking what their plan was, as compelled by desperation and a panicked need just to be there, every bit as much as he was. Yet their pace and the rapidly growing scent of charred wood and thick black smoke wasn’t enough to distract his racing thoughts, desperate to come up with something as the fire grew to an angry inferno in the distance, bright yellow flames flashing and flickering against the smoldering red.
Never had Alex felt quite so insignificant as he did right at that moment, as he and Ya Ling sunk to the ground by silent accord, knowing there was absolutely nothing that they could do.
Not against that fearsome blaze.
“Alex...”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Alex held her shuddering form close. “I know.”
Ya ling choked back a sob. “I thought, maybe with my Wind, if it was small enough… or maybe I could smother it with sand… but no. I don’t think anyone could do anything against that. Not unless we had an entire lake’s worth of water!”
Alex gave a frustrated nod, scratching his neck as he bemoaned his own bitterly tight Qi reserves.
Before his fingers froze their habitual rubbing of a neck that now wore no beast core collar at all.
Alex’s heart skipped a beat as he slowly drew a prize that made Ya Ling hiss and step back in alarm.
“Alex, those things are dangerous!”
But Alex paid her words no mind. Didn’t dare to. All his focus was on the beast core that was so different from the pearlescent cores he recalled during his last incarnation. Once they had seemed attuned to hardly any element at all. But here and now, they had gained a specificity, and a potency, that they had never had before.
Yet where others saw a glossy dark pearl and thought of crippling waste Qi and crumbling foundations, Alex saw it for what it truly was.
An incredible font of untapped potential.
For all that it would be greedily gulped down by his bones in the blink of an eye, if he wasn’t careful.
Alex took a deep breath, locking gazes with an anxious Ya Ling. “If I can generate water… And I do mean a shit ton of water… Ya Ling, just how strong is your mastery over Wind?”
The girl before him held his gaze for long moments. “No limit, Alex. Or at least, not that I know of.” She flashed a shaky grin. “At this point, the howling Winds in my meridians make unleashing gusts about as effortless as, well, passing gas.”
Alex couldn’t quite hold back a chuckle at the analogy.
“Well good,” he said. “Because I think I have a monumentally stupid idea we could try.”
With those words he closed his eyes and carefully focused inward at the swirling storm of spiritual energy he could so easily channel into a whirlwind of water in the shape of a four foot diameter disk that served as an excellent defense, especially when combined with other elements.
But today it was pure water alone he summoned, relieved that his mastery was such that now it hardly cost him any energy at all.
“Alex? Um, I hate to break it to you. But that shield alone...”
“I know.” Alex furrowed his brow in concentration as he slowly released the instinctive barrier that kept him from absorbing the beast core in his hand right into his Dantian or hungry bones.
“Damn,” he cursed, surprised and dismayed by how fiercely strong a pull his prismatic bones had on the stream of Dark Qi he was allowing through a tiny crack in the barrier between himself and the stone’s potency. Like water crashing down a mighty fall, Alex was powerless to stop his bones from claiming every iota of power he tried to release. To fight that current was like trying to swim upstream through perilous rapids.
“Alex.” Ya Ling’s voice grew worried. “I think we’re running out of time.”
Alex angrily shook away the distracting voices of men and women shouting in panic, crying for water brigades, arguing over shattered cisterns as the smoke grew thick and heavy in the air.
But what was worst of all were the distant screams as the skies grew crimson with the sun’s parting, the city now lit by the hellish backlight of flames that might consume them all, if they didn’t do something.
Alex glared furiously down at the stone in his hand. “Why the hell won’t this work?”
A gentle hand clasped his wrist. “Come on, Alex. Let’s see if we can do any good at all. If not? We’ll go back to the house.” She gave a bitter shake of her head. “Let’s hope the whole city doesn’t burn down before we’re forced to flee yet again.”
Alex froze then, glancing at the beautiful girl pulling the hem of his changshan. Allowing him to be pulled a single step, then another, his thoughts racing as her expression grew increasingly exasperated. “Alex...”
But Alex had already closed his eyes, desperate to grab ahold of that glimpse of enlightenment. That sense of pulling. Of going along with the flow.
Ya Ling wasn’t fighting against him so much as directing his movements.
His heart started to race, suddenly visualizing waterwheels and gristmills… tools that respected the current’s force and didn’t seek to best it… merely to direct its flow.
Alex’s eyes widened as it all finally clicked, finally understanding what needed to be done.
Ya Ling’s pained expression grew severe. “Alex, come on! Now’s not the time for...”
She froze, gazing at the swirling disk of water before him curiously. “Alex, how’d you get it that big? And why’s it spinning that fast?”
Alex turned to Ya Ling, a wild light in his eyes. “How’d you like to be a hero worthy of the storybooks? Because this city sure as heck could use one.”
She blinked, looking suddenly taken aback. “Wait, you’re serious?”
In answer, Alex leaped to the skies, racing along hot air currents that somehow cut the cost of Wind Walking to a fraction of what it should have been, even as he channeled the power of his Dark Qi pearl right through the now ten foot wide swirling disk of water he held before him. He swallowed, turning his head, catching Ya Ling’s gaze.
“I have absolutely no idea if this will work. But I do know that the water I summon is real. And I’m thinking that maybe if your wind funnel is constantly ripping it free of my disk...”
Ya Ling flashed a fierce smile. “Are you serious? Alex, that just might work! But there’s no way that’s not going to drain your Qi reserves in seconds.”
Alex winked. “Let me worry about that part, kung fu sister. As long as you can control our water hose… I’ll keep the pump flowing. Deal?”
“Deal.” Ya Ling’s excitement was tempered by sudden worry. “Alex, I don’t know how much you know about flame...”
“To much,” Alex admitted with a wry grin.
“Sure. But this is going to be hot. We’re going to be right over an inferno. I’ll be having to balance cooler winds blowing over us just to keep the heat off, and that’s in addition to flight and seeing if I can actually pull the water free of that disgustingly massive Water disk you have spinning way too fast.”
Alex nodded. “All good points. Are you up for it?”
“Damn right I am.”
“Then let’s go!”
Ya Ling, gliding along the air currents far more gracefully than he, squeezed his one free hand before pointing to where they needed to go.
Alex grimaced and nodded as the sweat beaded upon his brow, knowing he had no right to complain. Because if he was feeling the warmth even with draconic blood pounding through his veins… Between toxic fumes, radiant heat, and deadly updrafts… He could only pray he’d see Ya Ling safely on the other side.
Yet even knowing all that, she didn’t hesitate to race by his side into the flames.
He had never felt such admiration for her as he did at that moment. He only hope it would be enough.