“Papua is also clear of Daoists and Buddhists,” I went on. “However, I have not had the time to take a look at Indonesia yet. I was originally planning to go back south after visiting the Philippines, but when the last of the Daoists fled towards China, but not towards Taiwan, I changed my plans, and so here I am.
“Given what I am seeing so far, I think you will find what I have to say both useful and interesting. Also, I will be needing an outcropping of granite or something similar, and about a pound of gold. It is time to get you connected back to the rest of the world again.”
“It has been many years since someone from Heavenbound Hall has been here,” Fang Anna spoke up. “Is there a reason for this silence, Lady Traveler?”
“Given I’ve only been associated with them for four months, I have no idea, Mistress Fang, but my gut answer is... those they’ve sent into China have died, and they never made it to you. What contact the West has had with China recently has been through those controlled by the Daoists. They were largely unaware of any problems until the Cultivators overplayed their hands in America, attempting to infiltrate the Fireshroud there and began establishing a forward base in the country.”
There were some grunts from around, both accepting, some skeptical. “What of this Heaven you claim to espouse?” the last Master, Chin Chuin, spoke up irritably. “Why have they not intervened?”
Sleipner didn’t bother to find a ramp, riding his Wardway right up off of the water and onto the edge of the docks, all the locals quickly making way for the uniforms of Dragon-wielders, and the very slick and modern design of Sleipner... and an obvious Westerner and halvyr, too!
“I will speak on this more if you can start gathering those who should hear, but suffice it to say, you have no idea of just how powerful the Shroud that cuts off the sun actually is.” The grim faces all around me looked up despite themselves. “They have been eating worlds and hiding from Heaven, Hell, and ALL the other powers for millennia while they have done it.
“So let me make this clear.” I turned my full attention on him, and he flinched back despite himself. “This is a mortal problem. There are no gods, heavenly hosts, divine armies, or anything else coming in to save you. It is you who will win this fight, or you who will fall; no more, no less.
“The Shroud exists SPECIFICALLY to keep Heaven and the Divine from coming to your aid. Still, something managed to stop it from acting unilaterally and just eating the world outright, so you owe something out there for the Curse of the Sun. Perhaps you might even be grateful to it, one day.”
He looked less than impressed, but he also didn’t say another word.
“Now, I am very, very, very much in a hurry. There are a LOT of people who need this information, not just you, so please do not waste my time. How fast can you bring in everyone, and get a broad meeting set up? I am not speaking just to you... I am speaking to everyone on this island. They ALL need to know what I am doing here...”
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Being Powered and chi-wielders, getting things arranged actually didn’t take all that long. Masters from the far end of the island often had private planes to get here quickly, and finding a large enough venue wasn’t hard. Their technology was behind the times, but that was fine... it gave me enough time to make an Obelisk for them, fill it with the magic of my Allegiance for them, and get them connected back to the world internet.
It also meant the first tens of thousands got to see a Holo of The Human Tongue, and join the rest of the Human race at that level.
The conference itself had a more martial air than intellectual given the nature of the participants, but that was fine. To say they were interested in possibly making it to Ten using the Helix method was no lie, and even if they were reluctant about releasing the idea of Forsaken to normal people, the fact that they were still the elite and always would be gave them some comfort.
More to the point, I Teleported away, and came back with Sama, and Shvaughn, the latter taking on a Cherokee Amazon Warlock guise named Windwise. The Orientals had only respect for the Native American culture, so it was a good compromise.
Oh, but wasn’t Sama a cruel wake-up call for all these buff martial artists. She couldn’t use chi... but they couldn’t use it on her, either, and her Wolverine foundation skills for unarmed were exactly as developed as her Sword skills were.
Oh, watch the brightly uniformed men and women in their School colors go flying this way and that, get hammered around and down, bones break, people bleed, flesh bruise, and unsightly looks proliferate.
Seven Dragons: Storm, Ocean, Crystal, Fire, Moon, Shadow, Sun. Three Beasts: Wolverine, Monkey, Eagle. One Flower, the Night Rose.
Storm combined Wind, Thunder, and Lightning. The fastest overall, the most agile finesse style, the most ethereal on the attack, capable of sliding through formless defenses easily. When you touched Lightning, you were grasping the most powerful of the sword styles. The Demon-Slaying Kicks were considered the most advanced of the kicking styles, too. Its favored terrain was open fields.
The Ocean Dragon was the most fluid, and the most capable of overcoming rigid, hard defenses. It was potentially the most overwhelming in brute force, and possessed the most advanced and powerful palm Forms. Of the Greater Dragons, it was the easiest for most to use and wield, and its Flowing Waters Swordplay the best foundational style. Its favored terrain was muddy or unstable ground, or in water.
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The Crystal Dragon was a compilation of the body defense styles that famously included Golden Armor and Iron Outfit, among others. It was both hardened skin and damage absorption, with a style nominally usable only by men (Amazons and Hagchilds being exceptions), using large weapons, Might, armor, and brutal power... without being slow or lacking endurance. Indeed, Crystal Dragons were expected to have the endurance to outlast anyone else on the field. Their unarmed techniques were fists and hard palms, breaking bones and exchanging hits against an enemy, proactively using defense to become offense. Its favored terrain was defending corners, narrow passages, or standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
Fire Dragon was the dual-wielding, combat-happy claw style, the art of throwing yourself into a fight with everything and coming out alive. Phoenix Claw borrowed from every claw style there was to be the best rendition of them. Its favored terrain was on slopes, or in the middle of the enemy where they could lash out in all directions.
Moon Dragon was the quintessential soft, defensive style, the hardest to actually hurt... and the best at throwing people around so they injured themselves, hit one another, hit themselves, etc. They preferred fighting in soft cover that hid movements but did not impair them, like bushes, shrubbery, high grassy fields, and the like.
The Shadow Dragon was stealth and close-quarters work, up close and personal, and had the most developed grappling techniques and instant-kill moves. It was not honorable in style or function, and didn’t care. Master Chin Chiun’s eyes lit up when hearing about some of the Techniques of the style. Shadow Stalkers preferred very close fighting, cramped quarters, and even fighting on the floor.
The Sun Dragon was the most rigid and scholarly, catering to both Western-style rapier fencing and the use of the spear. It was a style for both gentlemen and soldiers, heavily emphasizing mental focus, formations, marching, teamwork, solid lines, and overcoming the enemy with discipline, intelligence, and unswerving determination.
The first Beast was the Wolverine, so named because Anything Went. It was the style of pure unarmed combat, every part of the body a weapon, fighting however something needed to be fought. Rage techniques came bubbling up from the Wolverine, although practitioners could be and were aligned to pretty much all other animals from a Totemic standpoint. The Wolverine was overall fighting ability, not specialization in one style; it was all about conditioning, skill, experience, finding weaknesses, and doing what needed to be done to win the fight.
The second Beast was the Monkey, who was about tool use, specifically Oak and Willow, the base Stick and Spear forms, and the Rocks, the thrown weapon techniques. Monkey was a stand-in for Humanity, as it was these very, very basic weapons which had started the martial paths!
The third Beast was the Zen Eagle, who basically ruled over vision, alertness, sentries, and ranged combat. The techniques worked equally well for gunfighters as for snipers, and bows as for firearms, which astonished the Chinese here greatly, forcing a revision of their opinions on firearms with their own powers. That it worked very, very well with Warlocks was not lost on such, either.
The flower was the Night Rose, and given that it focused more on deadly mastery of social skills, and verbal and diplomatic warfare of all types, there was no demonstration, but it was the style of dominating a political arena, be it day or night.
Sama was happy to display just how advanced all of these techniques were, all the while noting that the biggest factor was the one using them, the second being the Techniques themselves. She also observed that the full range of what she was doing was probably represented by those in attendance, but as they hadn’t gotten together, refined their Forms into specialties, and instead had mish-mash hodgepodges of specific Techniques scattered amongst themselves, there was no way their Techniques could reach the same level of profundity.
I just sat there and healed everyone back to full silently after they were done getting pummeled by her. Fighting her required pure skill, no chi cheating, and none of them had close to the skill required to handle her.
Nobody could beat her. No FOUR of them could beat her. She outlasted them, wore them down, and barely took any hits while doing so. It was plenty obvious to those watching that she was merely enjoying herself at their expense, and she trampled ruthlessly over all their pride in so doing.
Her every movement was poetic savagery. Even the densest of them could not help but realize just how dangerous she was, a combination of murderous refinement on so many levels that they didn’t have, and simply hadn’t paid attention to with their bright shiny chi abilities in front of them.
Those in attendance who were not Powered were staring at her with burning eyes, however, and she and I noticed all of them.
Her follow-up lecture on the state of martial arts in America further trampled their pride, as she went over the consolidation of skills into the Seven Dragons, Three Beasts, and One Flower.
Well, technically there were Nine Dragons, but the Storm Dragon counted as three, and the Thunder Dragon was more for Paladins and Champions, anyways.
Despite her not being a chi-wielder, there was absolutely no doubt that her knowledge of inner energy at the ki and spiritual level hugely surpassed that of anyone else there. There were already true Dragon Warriors at Seven, Helixing as fast as they could to make it to Ten and blaze the road for everyone else as they discovered what greater powers they could tap into... with advice from a certain trio in Markspace helping them along, ahem!
They could not help but be devastated when she showed off her actual swordplay, and Tremble’s terrifying song virtually reduced them to helplessness when she really got going. Highly spiritually aware, they could sense the incredible lethality of her Profound Swordwork, even if they couldn’t imitate it, and coupled with her basic invulnerability to their chi Techniques, it made them suddenly realize how vulnerable they could be, even if she couldn’t fly.
She didn’t demonstrate her Tats, as she didn’t want to totally crush them...
Shvaughn was happy to display the powers of a full Ten Stormbound, including running on air, gusts of wind, generating lightning, Eldritch Blades, and the full kit and kaboodle. This was another avenue of power for the Primos, separate from Sama’s demonstration. Shvaughn also had a very firm spiritual foundation in her basic weaponwork. The crashing power of her Eldritch Blade could rival all their chi Techniques (although she was also quick to point out that they were weak, and higher Techniques were indeed stronger close-up), and she was fully capable of beating any and all of them who challenged her, and did so thoroughly.
The Warlock path was not weak, and only got stronger if the one who swore the Pact was stronger. It was often poo-pooed as being external power... but if you weren’t Powered and it was the only thing available, who cared?