Fighting felt like drowning. She threw back the tide of white cloaks but more rushed to take their place like so much water. They came at her in bunches, keeping swords between them. They drove spear tips into the ground and poured in earth-aspect qi, rupturing the icy tundra, making little islands of rucked-up soil for their fellows to hop between. Others held back, lobbing Techniques at her, pale gales carving at her and lashing tongues of white fire she had no choice but to take head-on. She could dodge none of it—not the swords screaming through the air, slicked tip-to-hilt with sunlight; not the stone showers or the smoky blasts.

If she didn’t take them, Jin would. So she had to. They were like bee-stings, cuts climbing up her arms, up her face, down her back. None of it very deep, but she was leaking so bad she started slipping in her own blood. There were just too many. Everywhere burned, even her eyes. A thousand little cuts might as well have been one all the way to the bone. She could feel herself starting to tire. How much Essence did she have left? She wasn’t sure. She just knew she couldn’t move. No matter what happened, she couldn’t—

Jin cried out and her heart stopped.

She whirled around as Jin wrenched himself off the tip of a spear. One hand clutched at the wound, gone deep through his belly, as though to stem the flow. No!

He was bent low but he still tried to keep his spear up. You couldn’t wield a spear with one hand.

She was facing just two silver-cloaked Nascents. But he had four coming at him, and the bulk of the crowd.

He took a step. Then another—his steps glowed like footprints made of starlight against the angry red-black ground. He was doing the same move he’d done in the yard, trying to build some momentum, but the swordsmen were on him in an instant, stabbing at him, making him stumble awkward out of position—

She heard the sword slice through her hair first, a steel whisper in her ear. She had the wherewithal to jerk away, but not far enough. It bit into the back of her neck. She screamed, more angry than hurt, turned, slashed. A Nascent swordsman went down clutching at his eyes. She barreled through another, feeling strangely light-headed all of a sudden. Had there been poison on the blade, or had he just put his sword in the best spot possible? Her neck didn’t feel right. It didn’t matter. From the right a swinging spear, from the left a gout of flame, and behind, Jin, a second scream, louder than the first.

He went down.

Four swords slithered to his side in an instant. Four bright lines falling fast. Too fast for her to stop.

Jin was struggling up to his elbows, trembling hands trying to bring up his spear, to turn away the swords. But he faltered.

The swords bit into flesh, found muscle, found bone.

Not his.

A shadow had fallen across him. A shadow near ten feet long. A shadow which howled as she took the blades meant for him one by one, blades which carved through thick knots of muscle, bundles of nerves, shearing inches into bone. But still she refused to move.

Two swipes of her paws sent the Nascents stumbling. A lash of her tail had the ones behind leaping back. The steel hurt almost as much going out as it did coming in.

Domain.

The autumn air dropped to a mid-winter chill. A tinge of pale blue spread across the land, frosting the air. Her essence blasted them all. Around her men were scrambling back screaming. Their legs slowed on them and they stumbled over themselves, over each other. Or maybe they were just trying to get away from her. They all were, even the silver-cloaked swordsmen. She stared them down snarling. She stood over Jin, putting her body between them.

“No…” Jin whispered. His eyes fluttered weakly. He’d been stabbed in two places, one was too low, the other too far left to be vital. He would live. He just needed some space, some time. She had to do something—she wasn’t sure what. Her body felt weirdly heavy. Those four strikes on her back—she could feel each of them throbbing. Those silver cloaks had been so close, and they’d swung with all they had in them. She seemed to be bleeding a lot. Even turning her head sent pain screaming up her spine. She didn’t want to admit it, but they might’ve cut a little too deep. Not deep enough she couldn’t fight the rest of them off, she told herself. Or at least see Jin to safety. She had to—but how?

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“She’s—she’s!—”

Chen’s voice echoed through the silence. He couldn’t even finish. He just gaped at her.

Then it came to her. There was no other way. For now, for just this moment, their eyes were all on her. Jin was forgotten. She had to keep them here. If she couldn’t pull Jin away… she saw what she had to do.

The silver-cloaked Guards were the real threats. But they weren’t here to kill Jin. Their duty was in the name.

So raised her head to the Heavens and roared. As it rattled through her it sent fresh shocks of pain up her back, but it got their attention. It unbalanced them.

She narrowed her eyes at Chen Qin so they all knew exactly what she was thinking. And she pounced.

She didn’t make it half as far as she wanted. Her hindquarters felt like blocks of wood; there was no spring to them. She landed past the silver cloaks in a clump of Guard. They scattered before her, crying out. Then she ran for him, icing the ground with each step.

Chen screamed as her shadow fell across him. He tried to get out the way. Behind she felt something burn into her back, but it was just a Technique, some silver cloak’s desperate shot. It wasn’t easy to follow her where she’d tread. She had less than a breath to do it.

When Chen turned to run, she swiped. Her claws caught the back of his leg, slicing down, cutting through the strings of his knee. He fell.

“No, no, no!” He gave a choked sob. His face wasn’t quite as she’d remembered it. His nose was slightly crooked where she’d broken it back in the forest.

She closed her teeth around his neck. He flailed at her but his hands flopped off her. Toy hands. She bit down until she heard a crack, felt it give beneath her teeth, then the hands went still.

There were hands prying at her now, steel prying at her back, but she raised her head in triumph and the corpse went with her. There for all to see. In that moment, she felt not a hint of remorse. She felt happy.

Everyone was staring at her.

Then one of the silver-cloaked guard choked out, “KILL IT!”

And the Guard was shocked to motion.

They came for her. She ran. Even limping, wounded, she was faster than the lot of them. She sucked Chen’s corpse dry as she ran, barreling her way over folk—they were so small, how could they hope to stop her? Chen’s lifeblood was a jolt of fresh energy. He might’ve been useless but his body had been near Nascent. The fog in her head briefly cleared.

She could’ve bounded to the wall in two steps and begun her escape. But they were still too close to Jin. So she kept Chen’s floppy body aloft as she dashed around the street. All the Nascents were after her, and they were nearly frothing they were so mad—good. They kept slashing for her and she nearly let them. She let the little ones hit her where they wanted. She kept them on the hook as she made her way down the street. It felt like wading through an endless thicket of brambles. Each step hurt, but slowly, surely, she was leading the mob away… just a little more, a few more li, she could see the outer wall, the sea wall, looming, a long block of gray on the horizon—

She howled as a line of fierce pain stretched up the back of her leg. A silver cloak! But how had he gotten so close? She realized with a start it wasn’t that they were getting faster. She was slowing down. Each bound ate up a little less distance, and she was nearly dragging herself by her own front legs. Her back legs were there, in motion but nearly dead. Her body was giving up on her. Just a little more…

She felt the Nascent qi gathering by her right flank and lunged left, then right again, felt the qi skew into a skyscraper. She kept up this drunken waltz, hurtling left then right, feeling deadly light explode all around her. Sometimes it caught her, and she was certain that was the end of it, but somehow she found it in her to keep going. She wasn’t really thinking about making it to the wall anymore; it seemed irrelevant, it didn’t matter. All she could think of was Jin. She hoped he had time to get away. He was smart, he’d know to make it to Mistress Chao—she’d take care of him. She’d lured away all the strong ones. Even wounded he could take the rest. She hoped she wasn’t just trying to convince herself. She felt suddenly very sleepy. It would be so easy to lay down, but spikes of pain kept jolting her awake.

She was at the wall. She wasn’t sure how—it all passed so fast. She leapt and her claws froze into the stone, clinging. Then she leapt again, and by the end she was nearly dragging herself up, but she did it. Arrows stabbed at her from above. Little needles, nothing to her. The Guard gave way as she hauled herself over the top.

Then there was a long, flailing drop, but she landed heavy on her feet.

She fled.