The next morning, Lui came to Alassi's room early, looking uncomfortable. "Grandma..." the girl looked at her earnestly. "I think Mian is coming back, and others are with him."
Sobon took that for the warning it was. After rising and having a decent breakfast, Sobon linked with the defense system, along with another pattern she had engraved on an old broken mop broom handle, which she concealed in the back of her blouse. It was only a prototype--a handheld barrier in the shape of a blade, powered by left-hand aether, with another simple cannon script covering the bottom end of it, like the one she had used on the pirate ship, capable of left or inner firing. Sobon hoped there would be no need for it, but she hadn't the slightest trust for anyone in this world. For similar reasons, Sobon spun up her dynamos, collecting as much thread as she could, and preparing them for whatever may be coming.
By the time several figures came up the road, Sobon was convinced that her preparations were not merely paranoid. Among the figures, Alassi recognized only two--Mian, who was bound and dragged along by one of the guards, and an older man in a deferential position that Alassi recognized as the city leader of the town Mian had gone to. At the lead was a younger man with his aura blazing--although Sobon noted that the aether geometry of it seemed wrong for the number and color of stars he was displaying. To his right was a man who held himself severely, and who was mostly covered in various pieces of heavy cloth, including all of his face but his eyes, eyes that locked onto Sobon instantly.
That bodyguard, since that must be what he was, had a level of qi Sobon had not seen yet--well above the man who he escorted. It was a firm qi, but it had a strange quality to it, shedding multiple colored hues without being the gemlike, opalescent sheen that Sobon recalled from the reaper's scythe. Sobon wasn't sure where to rank him, and neither did Alassi--although they both agreed, wordlessly, that he was above their level. According to Alassi, he was in a 'realm' above her--having passed out of the lesser metals and into the greater ones, although Sobon didn't pry into the details.
Behind the noble--or whatever he was--was one group of soldiers, and behind the town leader was another. Without a doubt, the young noble had the stronger and better equipped group of guards, but both groups had enough to cause trouble for a group of normal people--or, if their intentions were pure, enogh to lead the refugees away safely. Somehow, Sobon doubted it was the last.
The noble and his bodyguard called their riding beasts to a stop well into the clearing where the inn sat, and he sneered at Sobon, initially disregarding her. "Let the warrior who slew the innocent merchants I hired step foward! On my honor, I will see justice done!"
Sobon's spirit remained even as she stepped forward. "They were no innocent men," she said, ignoring the many and panicked instincts from Alassi to bow down before the man.
The young noble raised his head to look down his nose at Sobon. "You? A pathetic woman was the one who killed my dear merchant friends?"
"They were slavers," Sobon said, keeping her eyes more on the bodyguard, who as yet had shown no desire to move.
"You shall not call my friends such things, and you shall bow before this young master!" With his last words, the noble enforced an aether wave, one that pressed down on everyone before him. Sobon, calmly, released her right-hand aether dynamos, resisting the wave without breaking her posture.
"When you are deserving of respect, you shall get it," Sobon replied, grimly.
As if noticing at last that Sobon was indeed a warrior, the noble leaped from his riding beast--a horse, according to Alassi--and landed not five feet in front of her. Arrogantly, he laid hands on the sword at his waist, but only pushed it back slightly, rather than drawing it or resting on the pommel. "I am of the noble house of Mofu," he said, "and I am worth more than your entire lineage combined. You will BOW!"
Even with the closer range, and more direct attention, Sobon suffered the attack calmly, still keeping her eyes on the bodyguard, who still showed no signs of acting.
"If I may, young master," the city lord stepped forward. Sobon hadn't even noticed him dismounting, and didn't particularly think to care. "This woman is known as Alassi, an old Witch of the west who served the Diamond Lord for many years and was retired after being wounded."
"Oh, I see," the noble, sneered, and Sobon felt like dirty aether was being spat out at him with the words. "So her disrespect is not out of ignorance, then. All the more reason why--"
"What evidence do you have," Sobon projected her voice with a touch of her body's qi, simply because she didn't know how to do it with raw aether. It made the noble flinch, just slightly, and kept all eyes on her. "that what I have said is false, and that these men were innocent? Especially given that the slaves they were carrying are still here and can account for their own history?"
The noble, at that, unsheathed his sword and levelled it at Sobon's face. Sobon, her body still suffused with fresh aether, ticked up her body insincts a level, watching the sword coming in slow motion just long enough to know that the move was a threat and not an attack. So, she released the boost and allowed the sword to come to a stop inches from her face, keeping a calm expression.
"I swear on the house of Mofu that my words are true," he said with a snarl, "and I will fight to have satisfaction from anyone who suggests otherwise." With the last words, he released something in his spirit--and as Sobon had guessed, his apparent qi level rose from some muddled Silver stars to three golden spikes. It was an impressive display--especially since Sobon had never reached golden qi yet, and had no certainty about what that qi level really meant.
Alassi, though, was confident that she had no chance to fight, even though Sobon had broken her spirit into the Silver range already the evening before--with an accompanying explosion of black sludge from her body, similar to what Ki'el had undergone after the battle on the pirate ship. Even with the fresh aether Sobon was bringing in slowly increasing her qi capacity, it seemed to the old crone a lost cause. That... didn't mean all that much to Sobon, really, but she noted it regardless. It was a poor soldier that didn't at least listen when others expressed concern.
"You wish to duel me to prove my words false?" Sobon let her voice remain calm, which was no small feat at this point in the conflict. Not for the first or last time, she thought longingly about simpler times, when her body was a technological prosthetic loaded with aether weaponry, and not an easily provoked sack of meat. Alassi's body was reacting to the higher qi of her opponent, even with Sobon flushing it out with pure aether. And although it panicked Alassi to hear the words come out of her mouth, Sobon continued, "Such a pathetic excuse for justice."
Given the reactions of several people around, that was the worst thing Sobon could have said, no matter how much she might believe it.
"Bold of you. Very well," said the young noble, withdrwaing his sword. "If you can endure three strikes from this young master, I will forgive the deaths of my sworn brothers. And if you cannot..." Sobon could tangibly feel the noble's attention as it wandered across her body, settling on the very few places that interested the young man. "You will serve me, for the rest of your life."
Sobon considered, studying the qi of the noble to the best of her ability. After a moment, she nodded. "I will agree, as long as the... young master agrees to also take one strike from me."
Predictably, the noble threw his head back and laughed, dirty qi leaking into his voice, the black tarlike aether splattering on those who heard it. "Take a blow from you? A retired, crippled silver cultivator?" Somehow, despite having a sword in his hand and relatively narrow sleeves, the man shucked himself out of his shirt, exposing his bare chest, and threw his arms out wide. "I invite it! Take your best shot, you pathetic excuse for an old hag!"
Sobon studied the man even as she reached for her hidden implement. She saw the bodyguard siffen as she found the broom handle, but when she revealed it as nothing more than a length of wood, he relaxed, as did those in the noble's guard.
The noble himself found himself unable to look down on Sobon any harder than he already was, and simply stood there, gloating and enjoying his last moments in the sun.
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Sobon could ackowledge, though, that the qi layers around the young noble's body were thick, and another aether field projected outwards, forming a barrier that would dull any attack. The pirate captain had something similar--between the two, he had tanked a truly deadly blow to the head, surprising Sobon, and she had no reason to think the man before her was less protected.
However, Sobon was concerned with the overall structure of the man's aether, and if he had guessed correctly, it had a glaring weakness that he doubted any of the locals would grasp. It was the sort of thing that Sobon himself was poorly trained in--a Fairy of the Mixed Marines would know better the ins and outs of personal aether, but Sobon was mostly sure that there was one spot in particular where the man's aether circulated back in after expressing the outer shield.
So Sobon activated the sword-projection barrier over her stick, then carefully, and subtly, layered a single thread of her own aether along the edge of the weapon. Then, with the noble still grandstanding, she moved forward, only to duck and turn, spinning in an awkward way in order to force the blade into the outer barrier from a certain spot, with a certain angle.
Those watching noticed his qi shiver with the blow, but saw nothing else. The blade not only didn't penetrate his flesh--it wasn't even aimed at it.
But Sobon let her thread of qi get carried away into the noble's own aether, forcing it through at least one filter or internal defense, until it reached some spot deep within where the man's aether was gathered. When she reached it, Sobon stepped away, spinning up an In-flow aether dynamo and pressing it into the cannon script, targetting the spot in the aether that her own aether thread had just reached.
Unlike the barrier projection, the cannon script consumed enough energy to flash-char the broom handle, but Sobon sensed a pulse, and watched the noble's face flash with confusion... and fear.
"Hah!" One of the noble's guards was pointing at Sobon, mockingly. "The witch doesn't even know how to use a broom, let alone a sword." There were other voices of agreement, but Sobon only had eyes for the noble--and for this bodyguard.
The latter was just as concerned as the former, but Sobon saw nothing in his face that indicated he was about to interfere.
The noble, though, reached up to grasp a spot in his chest which Sobon supposed must have been where the aether pool might have been, and his sword dropped limply from his fingers. "This bitch..." he mumbled to himself, only once, although Alassi echoed a thought that she seemed to hear through her Qi core. ...she cracked my dantian!
Sobon, in preparation, brought up his makeshift barrier blade, and before he was even fully ready to block, the man had charged her, putting a wave of qi into a quick but devastating punch that instantly knocked Sobon back ten feet or more. He was also charging again, but Sobon ducked and moved into a different position, raising the blade to block another strike, which the man released as a forward kick.
The blow sent Sobon clean through the door to the inn, which shattered into pieces, raining shrapnel inside.
Sobon, though, was already connecting to the simple defense script she'd laid over the house, and she poured all of her own dynamos into the reservoir even as she activated it. She hadn't yet done a full test--but the script was very simple, at least in layout. She found herself unsurprised when the barrier slipped into place at the outside of the doorway.
Still, with her body's own qi and her dynamos all within range of Sobon's mind, she found herself stretched a bit thin, so she connected the controls, such as they were, to her left hand, holding it out to one side to remind himself no to use it in combat. There wasn't much she could do, except raise and lower the barrier, and channel more energy in--but separation of duties was a simple and necessary task when handling so many factors at once.
The noble, without comment, charged the barrier, but clearly sensed it, and struck out at it with a golden fist, and then another, and then two palm strikes. Each of them was a significant blow, but the simplicity of the barrier pattern belied a simple truth: a pattern with a pure nature and purpose was more powerful and energy efficient than a spoiled brat with a temper tantrum.
At least, one of a similar power, and Sobon was just close enough to the man's higher level of qi to be able to soak the blows with what she thought might be a three-to-two energy ratio. That means she was stil losing energy faster than him... blow for blow, at least.
There were many cries from outside, of "Young master!" and the like, but Sobon stepped back to the doorway and looked out from just this side of the barrier, studying the noble's face. Unlike him, Sobon was still calm, although her pulse was racing, and Sobon thought that Alassi was at least a little excited to see the sweaty, muscled, half-naked man staring daggers at her. Not the kind of excited where she would willingly lose, or even respect the man--but internally, the woman liked what she saw.
Sobon... did not. "I believe that was three blows," she said, simply, raising the barrier sword in her other hand as though in warning.
The city leader stepped forward, projecting his voice. "Since you are from the west, Witch Alassi, I will remind you that in these areas, you are only allowed to use patterns that you laid during a duel or carry on your person. Even if you laid these engravings yourself, you still must take one more blow from Young Master Mofu to satisfy the duel."
For whatever reason, though, Mofu was already charging up another attack. It was clear he was unwilling to accept that the barrier was too strong for him to penetrate--and Sobon knew that he was losing Aether through his wounded... dantian? Whatever the aether storage place was that Sobon had damaged in her attack. And she was sure she had done damage--the blow was less powerful than the one that has splattered the pirate captain's head like overripe fruit, but then, Sobon hadn't targetted any part of his physical body with it.
When using in-flow to power an attack like that, it passed like a ghost through many kinds of defenses, reapparing only at its target, unlike the heavy beam that left aether fired out using the same pattern. The Crestan Military had never found a particularly efficient defense against those kinds of cannons--and instead dedicated multiple defense nodes to producing out-spin barrier fields, just in case. Whatever defenses this young noble had against qi attacks, they did not respond to his sudden and violent attack, just as the pirate captain didn't.
Still, he was alive, a kindness that Sobon was living to regret. Instead of worrying, Sobon overcharged the barrier on her blade, studying the young master as he poured what qi remained into his right hand.
"You will suffer for what you did to me, witch," the noble said, and his qi radiated the name of his attack, even as he lined up a knifehand thrust. Sobon could feel the man's intent, as he prepared to pierce through the barrier around the house and straight into Sobon's skull.
Sobon raised the broom handle come barrier blade, pointing the tip right through the projection of the warrior's intent, and nodded at him.
[ Divine Blade Hand ]
The qi that fell in behind the attack was probably greater than his three gold stars of raw qi potential, Sobon would later judge. It pierced into the inn's barrier, blowing at first a small hole in the barrier, and then forcing wave after wave of cutting intent through widening the gap over the course of perhaps a second, but no more than that, until there was more than enough room his arm to break through. And that is when Sobon, after carefully lining herself up, released the inn's barrier, pointing the very tip of the barrier blade right down the center of the noble's piercing blade hand.
By the time anyone else could see what had happened, the noble's arm was split from fingertip to mid-bicep, the line of Sobon's blade having carved a perfectly straight line through the blow. That was not on Sobon's skill, though, or not alone; Sobon had not swung the blade, or taken a step forward, only stood there with it extended in front of her.
The noble screamed, and for some reason that Sobon couldn't fathom, in spite of all biological sense, the man's qi-heavy blood simply exploded from the wound, scattering out in quantities that made very little, if any, sense. The young master stepped back, one arm trying to cradle the other--but his right arm began to fall into two pieces, and he twitched, like his nerves could not handle it.
Sobon only pieced together the order of what followed, later.
It was only after the city leader said, "That counts as three blows, and so, the Witch Alassi has won the duel." Only then did the young lord's bodyguard spring into action, and although Sobon was still in a mental step-up, he could only barely see the young lord being pulled away to safety with blood-red rags that radiated intense qi. By the time Sobon had processed the lord being teleported back and away, the bodyguard had wrapped his entire arm with bandages, and Sobon sensed complex workings of qi around the arm that were too unfamiliar for her to parse.
Sobon stepped forward, keeping her barrier blade at the ready, although the etchings on it had burned away at the wood after taking that blow, and she doubted it would survive more than another strike. Still, the noble's guards tensed at the mere existence of the blade, and that seemed enough.
The city leader was looking to the bodyguard, though, and had affected a more rigid, upstanding posture than before. "Then, according to the young master's own word, the house of Mofu has no objection to us paying out a bounty and releasing the accused."
The bodyguard turned to him, radiating qi intent at a level that Sobon herself was unsure she could have taken at that range, but packed it away after only a moment. And although he brought his qi release back down to a reasonable level, Sobon was still terrified when the bodyguard turned towards her, and teleported forward through a good fifteen feet as though with a single step.
And the guard clasped his hands together in a salute and bowed, his qi even.
"On behalf of the young master," he said, his voice deep and resonant, "I thank the Master Alassi for sparing his life, and affirm that the terms given by the young master will be upheld, on the honor of our family."
Sobon barely had time to consider replying, before the man had loaded his lord up on his horse and was already ordering the rest of the family's personal guards to form up and lead away.
Sobon was surprsied when the city leader made a noise, but the bodyguard turned back.
"There is the matter of the bounty," he said, trying his best to sound stern. "You recall that in my office, the young master--"
Without another word, the bodyguard fetched a pouch of coins and threw it at the city lord's feet, and then they were gone.