Chapter 13

The battle between Won and Tan was intense but brief. Won again tried the armor of flames technique that he’d used against his sister. Unlike his sister, Tan let him get away with it for a few minutes as they fought.

As before Won was aggressive, even more so than against his sister, but Tan was everywhere and the older boy couldn’t keep up with his younger opponent. He launched a flame in one direction, only to find that Tan was behind him. He turned and rounded a kick wreathed in flames, only to find that Tan wasn’t there. He turned to where Tan was and launched a small lightning bolt, which actually impacted Tan.

The younger boy gasped in surprise, and Won grinned, but Tan shook himself. He blurred and seemed to go in two directions at once. Won reacted to the wrong image, and Tan kicked him in the side of the head. Abruptly a wind swept in and killed the flames wreathing Won. The fire cultivator launched another lightning attack at his wind aligned opponent, only to find that once more he was shooting at an afterimage.

He took a step towards the real Tan, only to fall to his knees, gasping for breath.

“Enough, Tan, let him breathe. You win this round,” Tren said, and abruptly something changed in the air. Won seemed to catch his breath all at once, and he nodded.

“You’re getting better at cutting the live air from the dead air,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do against that.”

“You’re getting faster at conjuring your lightning. You got me by surprise, but you should have pressed the attack. Your lightning isn’t strong enough to really hurt me, but if you’d have followed up you might have won,” Tan replied.

“Oops,” Was all that Won said, and he went to sit down with the other children.

Kora swallowed nervously. It was her turn to face the most advanced cultivator among the children of the Shen farm, and he’d just easily dismantled a fire cultivator who clearly had more experience in combat than she did.

She got into the field with him and took her stance. She swallowed nervously as she waited for the bell, Tan standing casually across from her. Lord Shen slammed the mallet against the bell, and the match began.

Sort of.

Tan continued to stand there, waiting patiently for her to make a move. She frowned. He’d been more aggressive against the other opponents, was he not taking her seriously?

“How do you want to do this?” he asked casually. “Want to practice your magic, or do you want to exchange punches, or what? I’ll let you take the lead. Just come at me with whatever you’ve got.”

Her eyebrow twitched. He wasn’t taking her seriously. She might be an amateur, but he could at least give her some respect.

Since he was giving her plenty of time to prepare, she decided to use it. They weren’t supposed to pre-cast their abilities before the sound of the bell, but since he wasn’t attacking, she began to prepare a technique. She gathered her Qi and ignited it in a technique that her family had passed down, shaping it in the form of a dragon.

More like a long tube in her case, but it undulated and around her. She grinned, infusing the flames with her understanding of fire, of burning and consuming, making it more than just a fire but the concept of destruction. She launched the tube at Tan, intending to make him pay for his arrogance and--

And it fizzled out inches away from him.

Her eyes went wide. How had he done that?

“Is that it?” Tan asked. “I mean, is that all you wanted to try? You can surrender if you want, I don’t really want to beat up a girl. Ko doesn’t count towards that statement.”

Kora’s temper flashed, and she charged forward. Her fists wreathed in flame, she attacked him. He met her attack, casually blocking or dodging as she punched and struck at him, trying her best to remember her long ago lessons in hand-to-hand combat.

It quickly became apparent that she was out of her depth. After thirty seconds of enduring her attacks, Tan swept her legs and she fell on her back. He pinned her to the ground with a knee to her throat, and she tapped out.

He helped her up to her feet and bowed respectfully to her.

“How did you do that? Extinguish my fire? Air makes fire burn hotter, it shouldn’t have—”

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“Your understanding of Air and Fire is incomplete. Ask your master to show you the mystery of the strangled flame and you’ll understand how I defeated your technique,” Tan answered.

She frowned. The mystery of what?

She sighed and went back to the others to watch the next match.

Pao faced off against Ko. The sea met the shore as they fought for thirty minutes, displaying an intensity that Kora had trouble comprehending. Through it all Ko maintained control over the fight, but as she watched she realized that was because Pao was letting her lead.

It was almost like a dance, she realized halfway through the battle. A dance where both partners tried to kill – or at least wound – the other. Pao defended himself from the onslaught with ease, while Ko gradually tired. The battle ended without a decisive blow, the water cultivator simply collapsed in exhaustion, her fatigue hitting her all at once as she ran out of energy. Both her Qi and her strength failed her, and after a few moments of gasping for breath she tapped the ground to show that she was done.

Pao helped the exhausted girl off the ground and back to the audience, then faced off against her brother. Once more Won wreathed himself in flaming armor and faced off against an opponent who was stronger than he was.

The battle was once more intense but brief. Won brought all of his intensity to bare, his flames burning so hot that Kora’s eyes hurt to look at them. But it was his lightning that won the round, as the fire cultivator shocked the earth cultivator with a bolt of lightning, then followed up with a kick to the head that knocked Pao from his feet.

Off balance, Pao fell when his opponent swept his legs, and then Won was straddling him and pounding him in the face with fire-gauntlets. Pao tapped out after enduring the beating for a moment, unable to get the leverage he needed to push the younger teenager off of him. He got up with his eyebrows singed and one of his eyes slightly swollen and clapped Won on the back.

“Good job,” he said.

“Can’t believe I won,” Won said.

“I’ve got to figure out a way to defend against lightning,” Pao said, shaking his head. “Once you hit me with that it disrupts everything. My stance, my Qi, my balance. It’s so disorienting that I’m not sure how Tan recovers so fast.”

Won nodded, and went to sit down.

Kora swallowed. She was up again, this time against Won. The other fire cultivator was far more experienced than she was in combat, and she was understandably nervous.

She was right to be.

When the bell sounded, Won came at her with everything he had, wreathing himself in flames that burned as hot as anything she could manage despite her being three stages ahead of him in cultivation. She didn’t make Safron’s mistake of trying to imitate his technique, but instead focused on attempting to take control of his flames and turn them against him, while simultaneously meeting and blocking his strikes.

It didn’t go so well.

He landed a punch to her face, and then one to her stomach. A blow to her shoulder, and one to her breast, and then her thigh, and each punch hit hard . She realized abruptly that he was using a body enhancement technique that she was unfamiliar with, whereas she was relying mostly on her magic to carry the day.

Another blow to her face, and she fell to the ground. He pressed the advantage, kicking her in the side and then pinning her down. She tapped out.

It was over in less than a minute. Less than less than a minute, it had probably only taken him thirty seconds to dismantle her defense.

He helped pull her to her feet and grinned at her. He was proud to have won, but didn’t rub it in too much.

“What is that technique you were using? Not the flaming armor, you were doing something to hit harder than you should have been able to,” she asked.

“It’s the Inner Fire. You’re not ready for it, I think,” Won answered.

She frowned. Was his understanding of their shared element so much greater than hers that he could master a technique two stages before her and then beat her with it? Well, obviously, she thought. If they were going just by cultivation status she should have one, it only made sense that, as the technically weaker participant, his techniques must be superior to hers.

“Would you teach it to me if I were?” she asked.

“Not a chance,” he laughed. “Good luck against my sister. She’s tired after fighting Pao, you might have a chance.”

Kora perked up at his vote of confidence. But it was misplaced. The fight against Ko lasted slightly longer than the fight against her brother, but Kora was just as hopelessly outmatched. She surrendered after just two minutes.

Kora retreated to her room after the match to lick her wounds. She was surprised when Lady Wensho followed her to offer healing for her wounds.

“What about the others?” Kora asked.

“They’re accustomed to this sort of thing. The bruises they earned will help them reflect on their mistakes. You, on the other hand, are accustomed to a softer world. If you choose to heal after attempting to prove yourself, nobody will look down on you for it,” Lady Wensho assured her.

Nervously, Kora accepted the offer, laying down on the bed and allowing the woman to massage her back, rubbing her bruises and infusing them with a healing Qi. Within a few moments the aches and pains were gone, and Kora fell asleep before the grandmaster water cultivator had finished healing her.

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