Alex desperately lashed out with his foot, heel making contact with flesh and bone that instantly gave out with a sharp cry as he sprang back to his feet, hand smacking the side of his throat as he opened his eyes and roared, freezing a half dozen soldiers in their tracks, a heartbeat before they began slicing throats.
Their surprised looks turned to outraged alarm.
“He’s still alive, bring him down!” The captain roared, before his face exploded in flame.
You have critically struck your opponent with Fire Fist!
Opponent has perished!
A roaring Alex held nothing back, still not sure how badly cut he was, but determined to keep all their focus on him, giving his companions the seconds they desperately needed to orient and wake up as he weaved and dodged past frantically thrust swords before lashing out with a vicious series of overhand crosses, straight punches, and hooking blows, sending his opponents flying in crumpled heaps. He was momentarily surprised by just how slow his enemies moved before him, yet it didn’t mitigate his killing fury as his fist caved in the closest soldier’s rib cage, the man spraying him with blood as bent and broken bronze tiles scattered from the man’s armor, his ribs shattered like glass.
Alex felt the kiss of steel against his hip from the soldier that had managed to stab him in the back, and somehow he had all the time in the world to twist and weave away, the blade barely indenting his skin before Alex’s furious punch shattered the surprised soldier’s teeth and jaw before pounding into the back of the man’s throat and tearing right through it all in a spray of bright red frothy blood.
Alex ripped his fist free of the seizing man crumpling to the ground, eyes rolling in the back of his head as his death throws worsened.
A snarling Alex paid the fallen no mind, his hot eyes catching sight of only two soldiers left. One wild-eyed man wearing a uniform fancier than the others, and a hard-eyed crossbowman, drawing a bead on Alex.
The man sneered and squeezed the trigger. “You’re dead, Ruidian.”
The man’s sneer quickly turned to a confused look when Alex seemed to blur, clearly unable to follow superhuman quickness.
And then he followed noting at all when Alex was suddenly before the sneering crossbowman, yanking his arm back and ripping out his throat.
Fifteen strength is utterly unable to compete with a Silver Giant’s might! You have successfully intimidated your primary target!
Alex slowly turned to face the desperately backpedaling leader of the mercenary band, his cold smile unflinching under the spray of the dying crossbowman’s blood.
“You monster. You tore out his throat!”
Alex dipped his head, calmly approaching the captain as he let out a strangled cry, stumbling to the ground.
“I did.” Alex calmly said as the officer began to whimper inaudibly, trembling hands scrabbling over the shattered tiles covered in blood and shards of metal, stone, and ice that just wouldn’t melt. Yet the captain paid no heed to his sliced open palms, just desperate to crab-walk back from the coldly-smiling monster with eyes such a chilling shade of blue, smiling like death come to claim his due.
Then the inhuman monster crouched before him, eyeing the captain like a cat about to claim his dinner.
“Please, don’t kill me… you can’t kill me!” The officer sobbed. I’m a commissioned officer of Qianshi city! If you murder me after I surrender… you’ll be sentenced to death!”
The blond-haired monster snorted, before impossibly fast hands darted out to wrap around the now shrieking captain’s neck. “Your cause is lost and you have failed. Utterly. Your supposed leaders, high on their own power and grandeur, have perished while unleashing their malice upon the entire city block. Their bodies will be discovered, and there is no way they will be able to hide from their crimes, nor anyone who assisted them. Whatever you were before, that is gone forever.”
Alex sneered and shook his head. “You’re no fool. No one who successfully leads men can afford to be. Even if you manage to escape this city, you know damn well what will happen to you if you dare report back to your former masters, with not one but both Silver-tier ‘lords’ you were to watch, scout for, and assist, dead while under your care. The puppet masters behind your schemes will interrogate you, accuse you of treachery, and make an example of you.” Alex gave a sympathetic shake of his head. “They’ll probably make an example of your entire clan, in fact. Especially if they’re no more than basic cultivators or worse, mortals. Just to make sure that all soldiers like you understand that they’d be far better off dying to the last man than daring to come back home without their masters in the best of health. So for all intense and purposes, your old life is over.”
Alex could sense it. So much of the captain’s unspoken confidence and assurance about himself and his place in life abruptly fading to panicked uncertainty and despair. Suddenly forced to accept that his old life was well and truly over. Knowing that he could never go back home.
Alex glared down at the trembling man, feeling a certain twisted satisfaction as he sensed his foe breaking before him.
Finally, the former captain bowed his head. “I know.”
Alex smirked, clapping the man on the shoulder. “So, time to start your new life fresh. Answer my questions and take what you need, including all the coin on your men’s purses, with my blessing. But best answer me quickly and concisely, because the minute the guards show up, your window of opportunity will have closed, and you already know what your doom will be.”
The man’s shoulders slumped and he jerked a desperate nod. “Alright, Ruidian. I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”
First in halting words, wincing as he let secrets slide, then with a growing sense of urgency no longer bothering to hold anything back, the night air filled with words that had both instructors Rah and Sulia gazing at the man with horrified dismay, before glaring in the direction of Qianshi.
It was Senior Cultivator Te Chang who finally broke the silence when the captain’s desperate stream of words abruptly broke off, wide-eyed and flinching as he was forced to endure the glares of every single cultivator his squad had dared to attack, now hale and healthy before him.
Alex was surprised to see Te Chang upright at all, considering the severity of his injuries even with Alex’s healing, before noting the empty flask in the man’s hand and the pallor in his cheeks, Sulia hovering anxiously beside him.
Yet Te Chang’s cold smile gave absolutely no trace of his weakness away as the captain flinched and sobbed. “Please, I told you everything!” the man pled, as the air erupted with fresh whistles and cries for help in the distance.
Te Chang dipped his head. “I believe you.” He even went so far as to hand the man a small purse, a flask of water his wife had gathered, and a pat on the shoulder. “You have kept your end of the bargain, and we will keep ours. Now, best you be on your way before the city guard arrive, or I fear you will find their enhanced interrogation methods extremely… unpleasant.” He sighed and shook his head. “Honestly, it would be a miracle if you survived to morning. So best you get going while you still can.”
The captain gave one last panicked look at all of them before scurrying to his feet, then bowing profusely to them all. “Thank you. Thank you for my life. I will never trouble you again. I swear it!”
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With those words the man lurched off, still holding his injured hand.
Alex’s grin of relief at seeing all his friends upright and alive turned to an uncomfortable wince as the silence between them all grew.
Te Chang was the first to speak, clearing his throat. “Alex?”
Alex forced a smile. “Yes, Senior Cultivator Te Chang?”
To his complete surprise, and apparently his wife’s as well, the man bowed solemnly before him. “I believe we all owe you a debt that can never be repaid. As to what happened here? We need never speak of it beyond this night. Beyond knowing that we were well within our rights to do anything and everything in our power to survive.” He gestured to the shattered corpses all around him, the broken ground covered in blood, entrails, and more than a few heads cleaved free of their bodies entirely, pinning them with their glassy-eyed stares.
Alex swallowed back the bile crawling up the back of his throat as he forced himself to gaze at the remains, eyes helplessly fixated upon shattered suits of armor covering cratered chests and crumpled helmets that had failed to protect shattered skulls.
It had been a vicious slaughter, as if by a savage beast.
And Alex knew, as did everyone else, that almost all the kills had been his own.
Te Chang’s oddly knowing gaze grew unexpectedly sympathetic. “It is only because we dare to accept the bitter costs of both survival and righteous liberty that others may cherish idealized lives sheltered from bitter realities that we know all too well.”
Alex was surprised to see multiple nods of solemn agreement, even from Sulia, who was looking Alex’s way with only a fraction of the horrified disgust that she had been, just moments ago. Dui Zhong gave him a comradely smile of one brother-in-arms to another.
“Truly, boy, you fight with the strength and fierceness of a Silver Giant! And I had thought you but a half-step from Bronze, less than two moons ago!”
Alex beamed at those words, warmed by the solemn nods honoring his martial prowess by near everyone present. Yet Ya Ling, he was dismayed to see, refused to look his way at all.
He then turned to Linnea, relieved to see her flashing him a fiercely determined smile, Hanz and Lieberman right behind her, giving him the respect of any adept to his battle leader, yet he sensed all too well the horror and dismay they all felt, all three of them, such that, once their life-saving gestalt ended this night, he viscerally understood that they never wanted to walk a path this bloody, or perilous, ever again.
He nodded his head in solemn respect to their unspoken wish, a wish felt by three quarters of the being he now was, before slipping free of their gestalt to focus fully on Te Chang’s solemn words once more.
“Now as much as I would like to rest and meditate until this awful night feels a dozen years in my past, a monumental task still lies before us. One that we must resolve before it is too late.” He gazed sadly at the corpses at their feet, and the ruined buildings just beyond. “A task that would assure that the sacrifices of all those who have already fallen this night are not in vain. For the sake of our school… for the sake of our entire city, we must press on.”
Dui Zhong glared in the direction that the captain had gone. “But what about him? We’re really letting him get away?”
Te Chang flashed an enigmatic smile. “Are we?”
This earned furrowed brows until Sulia spoke. “My husband, as you no doubt noted, slipped our prey a very fine coin pouch. One the former commander is unlikely to want to surrender. Yet nice enough that anyone who intercepts him might dearly love to claim for themselves.”
Te Chang flashed an enigmatic smile. “And once the captain or his superiors start talking… we’ll hear every word they say.”
Alex’s eyes widened in surprise, genuinely impressed. “So you effectively have him wired. That’s awesome! Maybe we can actually get some evidence on him, so it’s not just hearsay.”
“That’s the hope. And perhaps tomorrow, placing my talisman before the academy heads… perhaps the Prince himself… will both earn us clemency for the actions of this night, and vindicate the captain’s declarations… or not.”
Ya Ling frowned. “Wait, we’re not going to take action before our enemies find out what we know?”
The older cultivator sighed and shook his head. “We will focus exclusively on our mission to rescue this city from the perils of drought. As to the plots and intrigue our dear captain let slip, we have no proof, other than his word. The man could have been making up stories, or worse, giving a per-rehearsed spiel setting up an innocent party. We have enough cause to investigate, but not to act. Yet.”
“But once that asshole captain starts speaking allowed...”
Te Chang nodded. “Then, we can act. Yet for now, other duties demand our attention. Arguably far more important duties.”
Alex furrowed his brow. “Assuming we can even leave the city tonight without corrupt officials or bribed guards in our enemies’ pockets deliberately waylaying us. Or even worse, once we leave the city.”
The cultivator beside him chuckled ruefully. “There is that. So let’s hope for the best, shall we?” Despite the mock levity in the man’s tone, there was a hardness to his eyes that Alex hadn’t seen before the perilous fight for their lives. It became clear that the master was no longer holding back his aura, when the pair of anxious guards who came racing up the road made a beeline for them, before blanching when Te Chang met their gaze.
“Honored cultivators, there has been a disturbance,” the taller of the pair declared, earning a humorless smile from Rah.
“Indeed there has,” Rah said.
The soldier blanched. “Then, forgive me, honored cultivators, but I must...”
Te Chang slowly shook his head. “We have business to attend to, and no time for delays.”
The man visibly swallowed. “But, honored cultivators...”
“That will be all,” Te Chang said with a finality that allowed no argument.
“Of course, honored cultivators. I don’t suppose you know exactly...”
“What we know is that various parties will do anything they can to assure this city’s downfall, and we will do whatever we must to stop it,” Sulia snapped, eyes crackling with icy heat. “And unless you wish for your own wives and children to be without food and water, you and your men will stop asking pointless questions and start doing your damned job!”
The soldier visibly trembled, before falling into dogeza. “Please forgive this foolish soldier for questioning you. May Liuishi prosper for a thousand years.”
Alex sensed the pair of men holding their pose for long seconds. Long enough that when the man raised his head once more, Alex and the others were gone.
Te Chang gave his wife an unfathomable look. “Wife?”
She snorted. “They might fear us, but they’re not fools. They know damn well we’re the ones who slaughtered those bastards. Best we get our spin on it early, before whatever carrion jackals that infected our prince’s counsel put their own spin on it in an attempt to damn our entire academy. Because if they were bold enough to strike at us in the open, tonight of all nights, with Xiun’s claws already about the academy...”
Ya Ling, who had been lost in brooding silence since the battle, shuddered at those words. “You think there will be a successful coup.”
Sulia chuckled coldly. “As things stand right now? I have no doubt.”
Ya Ling’s eyes widened. “Then we have to go warn the prince. Right away!”
To Alex’s surprise, Sulia shook her head. “No, child. What we have to do is get that Ice core exactly where it needs to go. Three falls are only a single core away from being full. It will immediately restore our city’s faith in tradition, their faith in us, the guardians of Liushi. We might even be able to spin the claims that our enemies faked and exaggerated the water shortage, which should quickly shift the populace’s onus and ire onto our opponents. Either way, anchoring that core is our only hope of assuring that a prince sympathetic to our academy and the Ruidians who are so vital to it remains in power.”
Rah gently patted a troubled Ya Ling’s shoulder. “We will takes steps. I promise you. But the minute the alarm goes out, the city will be locked tight. Which means that we will be stuck here. And should our enemies actually succeed in whatever they’re attempting… it’s unlikely that any of us will survive the purge to come.”
Ya Ling trembled, catching Alex’s gaze as if for comfort, before blanching and looking away.
Alex felt an awful knot in his heart, already knowing what her look meant.
Even if the rest seemed clueless or oblivious as to what Alex had done…
She knew. Or at least suspected, especially after experiencing it on two separate occasions.
At any moment he could seize the psyche and soul of anyone who had ever accepted his party invite, like puppets on a string. Forced to dance to his whim. Even if he would never dream of doing such a thing to those he considered allies and friends.