68. Silver-Gold

“The world stands behind you. Will you stand aside?”

His master’s voice echoed in his ear, whispered on the wind. Hien Ro felt his conviction growing as he watched. He pumped half of his Qi into the formation, the collective whole of their constellation. He watched as Lukal Lukal engaged the enemy general – he was fairly certain that this female cultivator was the leader of this group.

Lukal Lukal fought like a demon. He waved his new spear, thrusting and slashing and keeping the enemy dodging, all while conjuring techniques from various angles. The piercing energy of his blows was enough to break through the golden path cultivator’s shields, but the shields were enough to slow the techniques of Lukal Lukal.

Still, he was gaining ground.

Still, he was losing.

She fought back, utilizing a short sword that glowed red with purple ruins along the blade. The sword swiped and blocked the conjured spears, and each blow that she blocked, she learned a little bit more about how Lukal Lukal fought. Soon, she would make the counter attack, and her golden path body would give her an advantage despite Lukal Lukal’s strength and speed and the reservoir that he had to call on.

He spun up a Rising Star, borrowing just a sliver of lightning Qi from the collective to empower it beyond what he could manage on his own. He held it at the ready, waiting for an opportunity to strike

Thaseus wrestled with the corpse. He did not use his bamboo sword, not for this. This was a battle of sheer strength as he and the corpse beat each other senseless.

Thaseus took a blow to the face.

He punched the corpse in the stomach and felt ribs crack. The enemy showed no signs of pain at all.

The next punch he took was even harsher, coming from the non-grafted arm.

Thaseus returned it with one of his own.

He smiled. It was like the old days, wrestling and fighting with his siblings and peers in the clan.

He no sooner thought this than he was knocked off his feet, through the air, and into one of the huts nearby. He pulled himself out of the wreckage just in time to see Taimei unleash one of her coherent light techniques, burning a hole through the undead’s stomach the size of a grapefruit.

The ghoul didn’t seem to notice.

“Stop fighting like a meathead and fight like the predator you are ,” Xol scolded.

“Sorry,” Thaseus muttered, then he pulled on their Qi from the collective. He split into three. Illusions, not avatars like their master could conjure, but impossible in the darkness to tell apart by sight alone. He ran forward and--

Phal Rei’s corpse picked the wrong one, just as Thaseus had hoped it would. Thaseus landed a critical punch and felt the monster’s skull break beneath his punch.

Xol appeared behind the corpse and ripped with his teeth, hamstringing the ghoul. He was gone a second later, perfectly invisible to all senses.

Taimei shot another light attack, a slash which cut through the corpse’s legs.

Li Toh growled with frustration as another blast of lightning hit its mark. Its mark. Him. He was the target of the lightning wielding cultivator.

Who the hell wielded lightning? Who was insane enough to go through the process of attuning themselves to electricity? Who thought that was a good idea?

He growled as he launched his own attack, a black-flame devouring orb that would burn and burn and burn until not even ashes were left. It was his pride and joy, although the new technique was favorable too, but he would pay back this lightning cultivator for the pain he was inflicting.

Polkluk saw the attack coming. He knew that he he couldn’t dodge. He attacked instead, pulling on the collective and empowering his lightning further by the raw energy from within. He disrupted Li Toh’s concentration, but not by much, and still the attack came. He couldn’t dodge, but he wasn’t afraid. If he died, the others would--

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A bolder smashed into the black flame before it hit its target. The stone was engulfed and swiftly melted into slag. Arjun stepped forward.

“Perhaps you should focus more on dodging, that does not seem like an attack you should take head on,” Arjun suggested.

“I’m curious to see if I can do that,” Farun commented. He began weaving his energy in the way that he’d seen the enemy doing, pulling on Xol’s darkness attributes from the collective.

“Now is not the time to experiment!” Lahri shouted as she sprayed the enemy with high-pressure water. It cut a line through Li Toh’s skin, but could not cut through his skin, since he was at the gold rank after all. These fools were--

Li Toh’s arm fell off. He looked at it stupidly. The water, it had cut his arm off!

Wen Shi didn’t have time to focus on the rest of the fight, but she was recognizing that something was off. These cultivators, they were silver ranked. But yet they fought like golds. With an unimaginable reservoir to call on, techniques that were crisp and practiced and full of purpose.

They had to die.

“Li Toh! Forget their bodies, kill them!” she shouted. She was immediately engulfed in ice. She flinched and shattered the encasement, turning towards the source of the attack. She began gathering her energy to counter and shouting “They’re pooling their energy somehow! If you hit them with inversion--”

She knew no more.

The Rising Star hit her directly on in the second she was distracted. The plasma, as hot as some stars, flashed through her and left not even ash behind.

Phal Rei was in pieces, but those pieces were pulled inexorably together. They would reattach and regrow given time, but the opponents were burning the pieces faster than that could happen. Thaseus with his fire Qi, and Taimei with her lasers, worked together to render the corpse into ash

Li Toh saw that the battle was going badly. He turned to flee, but at Wen Shi’s command, he paused and considered. Giggling, he decided he wanted to see what happened if he tried her suggestion. Whipping together an inversion attack, he sent it straight at the lightning cultivator. He giggled, watching as the young man looked surprised, having been unable to dodge the near instantaneous attack.

The Rising Star hit him full in the torso, an attack unleashed by Farun while the enemy had been distracted. His head blinked, willing itself to float for a moment to witness its enemy’s end.

It never came, even as light faded and darkness encroached.

Li Toh’s head fell to the ground, lifeless.

“What is that attack?” Lahri asked, concern in her voice. “Are you okay?”

“It’s like the inversion attack that Master unleashed on us during the fourth through eighth graduation exams,” Polkluk said, scratching his nose. “I’m sorry that I allowed myself to be struck by it, but it was easy to quash. It was shallow compared to Master’s technique.”

Those were the words that Li Toh’s undead head heard as it came back to life.

The disciples gathered up the heads of the two gold ranked cultivators and burned the rest of their bodies before flying back to the city of Mer’cah.

Where an army was forming up to make a stand.

~~~~~

Di Phon woke in the middle of the night to receive the report. Moments later, the city bells were ringing announcing the incoming attack.

Throughout the night, the ghouls launched themselves at the walls. The jungle had been cleared for a thousand yards before the city, creating a killing field where the bronze and silver-ranked zombies charged at the city. The bronze ranked cultivators fought in dozens of battles, each waiting for a silver ranker to come and rescue them.

The silver ranked cultivators stood back and watched, waiting for a silver ghoul to reveal itself so that they could pounce on it and slay it quickly, before it could cause havoc in the bronze rankers.

And the two golden path cultivators of the city stood above it all on the ramparts, watching the night devolve into chaos.

“It is so frustrating to stand here while our juniors die,” Di Ram said to the elder cultivator.

Tornolai was silent for a moment. Di Ram looked sidelong at him, for it was seldom that the boisterous man was silent. Eventually, Tornolai said “It is not our place to stifle their growth. It is our place to shield them from that which would crush them without noticing them. Keep your eyes opened for the golden ranked threats.”

“I know,” Di Ram said.

The fighting lasted for hours.

They arrived with the dawn. Like a storm they flew over the battlefield and brought destruction in their wake. Lightning, fire, purifying light slew the ghouls in droves, leaving behind nothing.

Ten figures flew from behind enemy lines, three women, six men, and a great cat. The destruction they unleashed was precise and total, and in moments the undead besiegers were wiped out.

The cries of celebration rang out, and the peach blossoms were soon paraded through the city. The celebration lasted for three days.

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