Yang Xiu stood about ten yards behind Ru’er. Her master was off to her left about twenty feet. Sounds of many beasts approaching came from the weirdly colored woods in front of her.

“Get ready,” her master yelled. “Just a few seconds.”

She nocked an arrow.

Her main emotion was excitement. So far, they’d handled everything that came at them with ease. There was no reason to think they wouldn’t do so again.

A raccoon burst through the underbrush. She pulled and loosed. One hit. One kill.

Her master advanced. A second later, so did her brother.

She nocked another one.

A squirrel jumped onto a tree branch above Ru’er. For an instant, she considered killing it but decided against it. There were more dangerous beasts coming, better uses for her arrow. The rodent could barely scratch any of them.

A small bobcat jumped out of a bush toward her brother. He was between her and it, so she left it to him.

A monkey swung from a tree. She loosed, hitting it in the eye.

More pests appeared, another squirrel, a few rats. She disregarded them. A bear followed them, charging at Ru’er. She didn’t have a shot on its eye, so she searched for another target.

A snake. A boa constrictor. It was a good fifteen feet long and wider around than she could fit her hands.

Size didn’t matter. An arrow to the eye killed it just as well.

Yang Xiu eyed her master to make sure he wasn’t being overwhelmed. He was surrounded on three sides by all manner of beasts, but none were laying a claw or teeth on him.

The way he moved was incredible. Each strike with his spear drew blood. Many killed the target outright.

She’d thought she’d seen everything he could do as they’d hunted the last few months. She thought she’d closed the gap considerably.

He’d been holding back. His speed. His precision. He was on a whole other level.

Her eyes swiveled back to Ru’er. He wasn’t doing well. The bear had struck his side with its claw, and it was still fighting him.

She loosed an arrow, taking it down.

There were too many other beasts nearby, though. She couldn’t kill all of them before her brother got injured even more.

“Retreat!” she yelled. “Retreat!”

Her master glanced at her and at Ru’er and nodded, stepping back but keeping up the fight.

Yang Ru, on the other hand, acted like he hadn’t even heard her. He lunged forward to stab a coyote, not seeing or caring that a hedgehog was about to bite his leg.

She loosed, but it was too late. The beast had sunk its teeth into him. He grunted.

“Retreat, you big idiot!” she yelled.

“Yang Ru!” her master yelled. “Retreat! Now. That’s an order.”

She’d never heard her master sound that angry. Actually, she couldn’t ever remember him being mad at all.

His words, or maybe his tone, finally got through to Ru’er. He turned and ran, clutching his hand to one side and limping.

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Yang Xiu shot the closest pursuit and was able to get one more arrow off before turning to follow Ru’er. She glanced back. Her master was fighting as he ran after them, targeting whatever creature took the lead in the chase.

The two siblings had worked on their movement skills extensively over the last couple of months and had gotten to a point where they could keep up with their master. Though Ru’er was slowed slightly due to his injured leg, they were running quite close to their top speed. Her master was falling behind.

“Should we slow down?” she yelled to Ru’er.

“No. A couple of hundred yards at top speed.” Her brother parroted their orders.

She was worried about her master holding back the pursuit by himself. What if he got injured? The way he was flitting from beast to beast seemed dangerous.

But Ru’er was right. Her master deserved the respect of having his orders followed.

A couple of hundred yards couldn’t come fast enough.

Several seconds later, she judged they’d run the required distance. They just needed to find a good location.

Yang Xiu sensed something behind her. She glanced back. It was her master. He sprinted past them at a much faster rate than their top speed.

His face looked like the clouds right before a summer thunderstorm.

Yang Xiu gulped.

Her master stopped a short way ahead of them and turned around. The two halted facing him.

“Yang Ru, what the holy heck did you think you were doing? What did I tell you to do when someone called for a retreat?”

“Group up and retreat, Senior Brother Chao.”

“Did I leave too much open for interpretation there? Did you think I meant that, when someone calls for retreat, you should wait until you feel like it to comply?”

“No, Senior Brother Chao.”

“And what were your specific orders for that engagement?”

“To kill four or five beasts and then retreat, Senior Brother Chao.

“And that was for you personally to kill four or five beasts, was it?”

“No, Senior Brother Chao. It was for Yang Xiu and I to kill that many together.”

“Then why on God’s green Earth were you still standing there fighting, already injured, nearly surrounded by beasts, when the two of you had already killed six together and your sister yelled for you to retreat? Tell me, Yang Ru. I want to understand, and I simply don’t.”

God’s green Earth? What did that mean?

The little bit of extra strangeness wasn’t what she truly found disconcerting. It was how her master was acting. Mad. Livid. Like he was ready to rip her brother’s idiotic head off.

Despite her master not appearing to be much older than her, she’d begun to think of him almost like a kindly old grandfather. If that was what he was, that grandfather still had his teeth!

“This lowly one has no excuse, Senior Brother Chao.”

“You’re right. You don’t. Because there is no excuse. When we’re in combat, when lives are on the line, my word is law. You do what I say. You do not question it. Both of you. Understand?”

“Yes, Senior Brother Chao.”

Her master took his spear and threw it right at Ru’er. It flew past his head, missing by only inches. Yang Xiu spun her head to follow its flight. It sunk into the eye of a lion that had just appeared.

“Take your healing pill. Then both of you get ready to fight. They’re almost here.”

Between her, her brother, and her master, they’d killed more than ten of the beasts and left many of the rest wounded. Their flight had had an effect, too. Some beasts were faster than others, leading to the wave being staggered even more than it was originally.

All that to say that the remaining fight wasn’t nearly as challenging as the previous one. With Ru’er chagrinned and her master clearly still angry, the three went to work silently, making kill after kill until there were none left.

“We’ve got a little while before the rank three arrives with a few lieutenants,” her master said. “Rest up. Grab some water.”

“Yes, Senior Brother Chao,” she and Ru’er chorused.

A few minutes later, her master walked over to her. “Killing a beast with each shot is impressive. You like being impressive, don’t you?”

She did like to impress him but held her tongue. That answer seemed like a trap.

“You’re right to hesitate. I saw what you did with the bear.”

Yang Xiu honestly did not know what he was talking about. Her face must have showed her confusion.

“You didn’t have a kill shot on the bear, so you left it for Yang Ru, even though he was still engaged.”

She had?

“After we’re finished today, meditate on the flow of the battle. You need to see the bigger picture. Sometimes wounding an opponent is better than killing one.”

“Yes, Senior Brother Chao. This lowly one apologizes.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. This is the first time you’ve faced such a situation. Learn from your experience and do better next time.”

“Thank you, Senior Brother.” She opened her mouth to ask him something but thought better of it.

“What? You can say it, whatever it is.”

“It’s just that I thought I was catching up to Senior Brother, but I’ve never seen those moves and that speed.”

He barked out a laugh. “Yang Xiu, you are a talented, dedicated, and hard-working disciple. I have no doubt you will go far in the cultivation world, but you’ve been a cultivator for three months. If you could surpass me in skill level after that paltry amount of time when I’ve had years and years to work on manipulating qi, I wouldn’t be much of a master, would I?”

That was true. Her master really was the best.