We came up on the enemy camp quickly. With Emery and I in a dead sprint, we covered ground explosively fast.
Unfortunately, it didn’t really matter how fast we moved. The entire enemy camp had felt my Qi fall over them when I scouted their numbers, and they were forming up and preparing for the attack. I could sense them forming up to meet our approach.
“All six of the Earth Realm fighters and one of the Sky Realm Cultivators are coming to meet us.” I said, prepping Emery as best I could. “I think several of them already have demonic techniques active; their Qi feels wrong.”
“Got it. You hang back and give me ranged support. You know the drill by now.”
As Emery spoke, we both unleashed our Domains. In the instant they touched, our Domains quickly reached out to one another and connected with just a little effort.
I could feel my Domain flow from me and over the area as I forced it out as fast as I could manage, even covering half of the demonic camp. As my Domain expanded so quickly and covered such distance, the demonic Sky Realm Cultivator panicked and tried to form their Domain too late. I clamped my Domain down on them like a vice, keeping their Domain locked inside their body.
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
“We surprised the first Sky Realm -”
“I felt it. Good job.” Emery said, as she picked up speed and outpaced me. I slowed down, as we were nearing what I felt was the optimum range for me to harass from - within easy eyesight, but far enough that I could easily react to most attacks.
I watched Emery take two more long leaps toward the group of demonic Cultivators before they sprang into action.
As they converged on her, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, then focused in on everything as best I could.
My arms flew about in various gestures, calling up rime slicks, throwing ice, and freezing limbs. I was determined to impact this fight as much as I could and keep Emery safe and fighting to her utmost ability.
I called my Dancing Snowflakes, and sent eight of the ten to hover around Emery and protect her, while I mentally called out directions and incoming attacks.
With so many enemies, I didn’t spend any time or effort on calling out any traps I laid or openings for Emery. The goal right now was to make it through this fight alive, and I only had time for defensive callouts. I focused all of my energy on guiding Emery through the onslaught. I was confident that Emery would be able to handle offense on her own so long as I had her back..
And she proved me right.
----------------------------------------
‘Left!’
‘Behind, right!’
‘Above!’
‘Both sides.’
I felt Avuri’s warnings come through clearer than they ever had before. I didn’t know why, but it made it easy to react to. In the back of my head, I vaguely recalled Vale mentioning that with practice and trust, we could potentially work up to controlling one another’s bodies, but put that thought out of my mind for now.
In the heat of the battle, I let my consciousness fade into the background while my instincts, training, and reflexes took over. In my battle meditation, my focus went to other things - which enemies were capable of what, what kind of techniques were being used, positioning…I kept an eye on the battle in much the same way Avuri did, almost detached from the moment to moment action.
I took note of important things; like the Sky Realm demonic Cultivator was fighting with a hand-to-hand style focused on large, powerful blows. They appeared to have their body strengthened through earth and metal Qi. None of the Earth Realm fighters were a particular danger on their own. Four fought with weapons reinforced with Qi. One was in the backline throwing fire while another was throwing dirt and stones.
Thankfully, with them focused so much on raw offense rather than finesse, they never even tried to trip me up or otherwise throw me off my game.
Which went poorly for them, because I felt incredible. With Avuri’s support, I dipped, dodged, stepped, and generally avoided strike after strike as if I was able to see the future. Some attacks came close, but none managed to actually graze me.
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After twenty or thirty seconds of pure defense, I turned to offense.
As I slipped under a blast of flame while sidestepping a downward slash of a saber, I finally brought my own Qi to bear. A classic jian-style blade appeared in my right hand, while my left swung an arc in the air, forming multiple matching swords floating in the air that immediately went to work defending me alongside Avuri’s Snowflakes.
I also focused my will into my Domain. I could feel the sharp edges of all the weapons being used against me, and incorporated that sense into my defense. Floating swords met with my enemies’ weapons at every turn, their attacks often turned away before they had gotten anywhere near me.
And in that maelstrom of steel and chaos, I danced.
I had never felt so free. I was pretty sure that I was smiling as I moved through the small battlefield as gracefully as I ever had. I left my defense entirely to Avuri as I finally went on the attack.
‘Left!’
I saw the axe head falling from that side and moved accordingly. A Snowflake met it half way down in its swing, knocking it just slightly off course. I slipped aside and flicked out with my jian; the tip of the light blade cut through the muscle and sinew of the attacker’s leading wrist. His axe fell to the ground, too heavy to be wielded in one usable hand.
‘Behind!’
I spun, leading with my weapon. It knocked the attacker’s spear aside, but left me too far away to make a riposte. With a motion from my left hand, one of my floating weapons struck instead, flying point first through the woman’s chest. She may not be dead, but dropped to the ground gasping for air.
‘Get down!’
I buckled at the knees, and felt the heat of a blast of fire pass over my back as I ducked. Just as suddenly, I felt a chill as four Snowflakes converged above me and flew toward the attacker. As she tried to fight off the four Snowflakes from the front, a fifth flew into her back. As it made contact, it threw off her balance and she lost the fight from the front as well, all four Snowflakes slamming home around her body.
‘Rigabohtve!’
My body moved instinctively to Avuri’s warning. My arm shot out to parry the blow coming in from the right as I stepped away from the rocks falling from above. With a spin, I grabbed the wrist of the man wielding the sword in front of me and pulled him forward. I skewered him through the abdomen with my jian. With a twist and a yank, he fell away as I brutally opened his stomach.
I distantly heard a shout from someone as I moved in to strike against the earth Qi Cultivator. I slipped in front of him while dancing between various earthen projectiles and struck out with my blade. One cut removed an arm. A second removed his head.
Then I felt a spike of panic or fear from Avuri. Without thinking I swung an arm out toward her. Six matching swords flew into the last Earth Realm fighter. Her running momentum took her body into a tumble as she fell face first to the ground, limp. A gesture with my left hand ripped all six blades from her body as I brought them back into formation around me.
I turned to face the Sky Realm Cultivator - the last enemy standing with us, as the six Earth Realm combatants all lay on the ground in various states of living or dead.
It seemed as though while I fought through their fellows, they had opted to gather Qi and prepare for the coming fight.
Their Domain was still locked down, now by both my own Domain as well as Avuri’s. But even without it, this fight was likely to take some time. They were covered from head to toe in stone and dirt, fashioned into armor. Their fists looked like they were massive morningstars, with jagged points of stone erupting from the round armored mitts.
My floating swords and Avuri’s Snowflakes hovered around me as I slowly approached them. As I prepared to leap across the last few steps, I felt a flare of Qi erupt from the stone armor, as well as the distinct scent of demonic Qi.
The deep reddish hue of demonic Qi permeated the stone armor, and it changed. Dangerous looking stone spikes erupted all over the outer shell; some were wicked and long like weapons, while others were short and stumpy for turning weapons. The entire suit of stone glowed brightly for a moment before fading, leaving the previous natural brownish stone a dark, insidious red-black.
‘Be careful.’
I eyed the new demonic enemy before me as I crossed the last bit of distance. My jian, as well as all eight of my floating swords converged on my stone-clad enemy. They simply stood there as their armor took all nine hits and shrugged them off. The floating swords had made glancing blows, the momentum of their flight carrying them past their point of contact and they flew off in various directions.
The blade in my hand struck at their neck. It caught between one of the barbs of stone and the Cultivator’s neck, then snapped.
‘Get back!’
I immediately leaped backward to create some space.
A stone bludgeon was swung in an arc right through where I had been with such force that it created a gust of wind that pushed me further back than I had intended.
“Lucky.” My opponent said. The voice was distorted, from the demonic Qi or the stone armor I couldn’t tell.
I called my flying swords to my side again as I reforged my jian into the shining white of the purifying blade.
We clashed once more. My flying swords still had no effect. But my jian clashed with one of the demon’s morningstar fists, and sank through the stone armor with ease as the demonic Qi vanished before its edge. I felt the edge make contact with the enemy’s hand and bisect their hand between their middle knuckles down to the wrist.
When we separated again, I heard a chuckle come from the demonic Cultivator. ”Interesting. This must be how you so easily took care of Zak. No matter.”
As I moved in for what I had hoped would be a finishing blow, I saw the reddish hue fade from the stone, leaving it pitch dark. My blade made contact with the black stone along the demon’s abdomen and cracked, but made no appreciable damage to the stone armor.
‘Danger!’
I barely managed to get two floating swords interposed in front of the responding kick that sent me wheeling backward through the air. I felt the ice Qi of one of Avuri’s Snowflakes puff away as it intercepted the point of the stone spike that would have embedded itself in my side if not for Avuri’s cover.
I took a deep breath, and sent the strongest signal I could manage to Avuri, and then closed my eyes.