Ryuna was so out of it, she couldn’t even react to her bones being pulled back into place.
Even with her body overflowing with chi, she should have still felt the pain of her bones creaking around, pushing up against flesh, binding the broken pieces of themselves together. But with the daze she was in, she didn’t feel anything.
She had Master Kirin to thank for that. After the match, she had left Brise in charge of officiating the duel between Billy and Hai Tien, at least until she was finished attending to Ryuna and Caedo.
Following the match, she’d immediately taken the two to the infirmary of the monastery — well, actually, she’d taken Ryuna to the infirmary, and set Caedo into a room a few doors down the hall. It didn’t take a genius to notice the animosity between the two, and she needed to keep them both calm and relaxed while she healed them.
She stood over Ryuna’s still body, slowly maneuvering her palms over the space above the young woman’s body, as though she were brushing them against an invisible casing.
Droplets of beyond-crystal-clear energy rained down from her fingertips in tune to a steady heartbeat, creating ripples through the golden light surrounding Ryuna’s body.
Master Kirin had, of course, been the first to notice that Ryuna’s chi aura was highly unstable, but it appeared to have calmed itself down for the time being. Though it still struggled to maintain its light, fading in and out, it remained steady.
That is, until an errant errant bolt zapped out of place, lashing out at her hands like the fangs of a beast. She kept it at bay without trouble, but it was certainly something to keep in mind.
In time, Ryuna’s eyes began to blink themselves back open, and the rest of her body soon followed, fighting back against the rust of unconsciousness. “Hm….?”
“Just relax,” Master Kirin spoke softly. “You’ll be fine. You’re a very strong girl.”
“Damn right….I am….” Her eyelids closed back up as a headache began to ring within her skull. “I won, right?”
A light chuckle, like a gently babbling brook, escaped from Master Kirin’s lips. “You did. Congratulations.”
“Did I….kill him?”
Her question lingered in the air for a time.
“Would you be pleased if you did?”
Ryuna draped her forearm across her closed lids. If they’d been opened, she would have seen a bulge of flesh wiggle beneath her skin, returning to its rightful place. “Not really….”
“You did not kill him.” Master Kirin smiled. “I would not have let you even if you had tried.”
She then refocused her eyes on Ryuna’s chi aura as it finished stitching her body back together properly. “I will be powering down your aura until your final match.”
The golden light started to fade away, retreating back into Ryuna’s body, but not before one final bolt attempted to land one final stab into Master Kirin’s hand.
“That was a pretty crazy feeling,” Ryuna said. “Having my chi be all souped up like that. Is yours always like that?”
“No. Mine is far beyond where yours is at.”
The banter caught Ryuna by surprise, and an exhausted burst of laughter escaped her lungs. “Not for long….I’m gonna surpass you for sure.”
“Confident, are we?”
“Hell yeah I am. You seen me?”
Master Kirin smiled as she pulled her hands back to her sides. “Indeed I have. You are incredibly gifted, Ryuna. And you’ve honed your skills quite well.”
A satisfied smile appeared on her face, but it vanished as the master continued. “But your chi is unstable, and so long as it remains so, you will never advance beyond your current station.”
Ryuna strained against her aching muscles in order to push herself to an upright sitting position, looking Master Kirin directly in the eyes. She hated being criticized, especially when the criticism was undeniably true, and the solution to that criticism was outside of her grasp. “Yeah, that’s why I’m gonna win this tournament and become your student. That way I can learn how to control it.”
The master shook her head slowly. “It is not quite that simple. Your chi is a personal, spiritual power. I can teach you how to wield it, but I cannot teach you how to control it.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Master Kirin pressed one of her long, taloned fingers against Ryuna’s chest. “To control it, you must control your own spirit. Your spirit is unstable; pulled along in multiple directions, unable to find its place and achieve its goals.”
Ryuna’s brows furrowed. “Can’t you just speak clearly? My head’s ringing and I don’t have the patience for this poetry shit.”
“You are a smart girl, Ryuna. I know you understand what I am telling you.”
The master slowly turned away, stepping towards the door. “I will be attending to Caedo for the time being. Get some rest, and think it over.”
When the door shut, Ryuna’s eyes dropped to the floor, and her tongue pressed into the side of her cheek. “Solve it all by myself, huh?” she growled beneath her breath. “That’s always what I have to do….”
* * * *
ULTRA DRAGON
* * * *
Despite being told to remain in the infirmary and get some rest, Ryuna was up and out of there as soon as she felt her feet had recovered enough strength to support her.
Walking back to the main room where the tournament was held was a bit draining on her, and the persistent buzzy feeling sputtering around the inside of her legs didn’t help, but she made it in time to watch the final moments of the duel between Billy and Hai Tien.
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Hai Tien had fashioned the chi aura around her hand into a sharp blade, and had dashed inward at an angle, avoiding the blast of energy Billy had launched in her direction.
As her hand slashed across him, he held up his arm, taking the brunt of the cut along his forearm, keeping his head and torso safe.
The ninja of the Dragon Clans suddenly twisted around mid-air, launching a beautiful bicycle kick. It had been thrown so soon after the initial blade cut that it almost appeared as though the two actions had been one, even if logistically that didn’t seem to be possible.
The kick broke through Billy’s forearm guard, exactly as intended, striking him dead center in the face.
But rather than reel back in pain, a flash of pale blue light, matching his chi aura, burst outward from the contact point of Hai Tien’s bicycle kick, as though she’d struck the surface of a pond instead.
Ryuna furrowed her brow, trying to discern exactly what Billy had done. It could have just been some sort of shield made of his own chi or something along those lines, but perhaps it was an Install? She hadn’t been around to hear him set one, and couldn’t identify which one it could be just from that one single instance. She definitely wanted to try and figure it out, since she knew she’d be facing him in the finals soon.
Billy himself remained steady, unaffected by Hai Tien’s attack. As her body sailed past him as it rebounded from the deflected kick, he twisted around and threw his own foot outward.
He pressed the bottom of his foot into the center of Hai Tien’s stomach with such force, stunning her in place, freezing her in time.
He pulled his left arm back, hand perpendicular to his forearm. Pale blue light gathered around the palm, swirling like a whirlpool. And then, a tremendous, almost mechanical voice exploded around the room.
« ART! »
〚 SPIRIT FLOODING PALM! 〛
Now Ryuna’s eyebrow curved up. Not many fighters in the tournament had pulled off any Arts up until this point, and any Art was worth paying attention to, no matter who was performing it.
Well, maybe not Caedo, but everyone else, sure, Ryuna mused.
The maneuver of the Art itself appeared simple enough: Billy thrust his palm directly into Hai Tien’s core with conviction. As his hand made contact, streams of pale blue light ricocheted back in Billy’s direction, although they curved around his body, not striking him directly.
A fraction of a second later, dark purple light exploded from Hai Tien’s back, like a geyser of shimmering oil, splashing against the far wall behind her.
Her eyes rolled into the back of her skull, and her body went limp. When the blast of light had finished, Billy caught hold of her and gently set her down onto the floor, just before she began to cough back into consciousness.
Billy turned to face Brise, who lifted her hand. “Match! The winner is Billy.”
Bringing her fingers up to her chin, Ryuna pondered the Art that Billy had just performed. “‘Spirit Flooding Palm’,” she muttered to herself. Art names were often about as literal a description as they could be, so all you had to do was mull it over before you could get the gist of what it was capable of.
“Congratulations, Billy.”
All eyes turned to Master Kirin upon hearing her distinct, watery voice. She stepped into the room and bowed politely at Billy after taking a look over at Hai Tien, who was slowly pushing herself back up to her feet.
“Ryuna, will you please step forward?”
Obliging, Ryuna pushed her way through the crowd and walked over to the center of the room, standing across from Billy. Granted, she was more focused on Master Kirin in an attempt to gauge whether she was surprised or angry at Ryuna having defied her orders to stay in the infirmary, but there was no expression at all to read on the old woman’s face. There hardly ever was.
“Billy. Ryuna. The two of you are the final competitors of this tournament. You will face each other in one last duel. I will take the winner under my wing on my travels, and teach you the ways of chi mastery.” The old woman’s head slowly moved from one competitor to the other. “But regardless of who wins, know that you have both shown incredible potential, and should your time in the tournament end in defeat, your journey to chi enlightenment does not end here.”
Billy bowed his head. “Thank you, Master Kirin.”
Ryuna nodded her head. “Cool.”
Afterwards, Master Kirin left the room once more, taking Hai Tien with her to attend to her injuries. Ryuna briefly considered staying behind to speak with Billy before their match, but she decided against it. Her short-lived crush on him had all but vanished by that point, and she didn’t think he’d make for interesting conversation.
Besides, her body was still aching. She needed to get some actual rest, especially with the match coming up, as it would certainly be her toughest yet.
As she made her way to the exit, a growl erupted from her stomach so loudly and ferociously, she could practically feel it gnawing away at her body. She lurched forward, clutching at her gut. She was starving. Though she’d been able to sneak food from Welca during the fasting, it hadn’t been nearly enough. Ryuna had a big appetite, and fighting made her even hungrier than usual. Add onto that how draining her chi was, especially after having had a taste of the next level of chi power via the aura amplification, and she was more desperate for food than she’d been in a long, long time.
“May I speak with you a moment, Ryuna?”
A hand pressed against her shoulder from behind, prompting her to turn around. It was Brise. “Sure. What’s up?”
The monastery woman offered her a polite smile. “Congratulations on making it to the finals.”
“Thanks.” She had actually wanted to say something more impressive, such as “Save your thanks for after I win the whole thing”, but she truly didn’t have the energy to bother boasting.
It doesn’t matter anyway….They know it’s all fake.…
She shook the negative thoughts from her mind, making an effort to stand up straight, so as not to look weak, as Brise continued, “I have some potentially good news for you.”
Ryuna raised a brow. “Oh yeah? Hit me.”
“Both Caedo and Hai Tien have announced that they will be leaving. They have been staying in the monastery, but now that they no longer will be, their rooms are available.”
Ryuna didn’t even properly process what she had just heard, her mind dizzy from fatigue and hunger. “Wait, what?”
“I know it is rather late in the tournament, and for that I apologize,” Brise continued. “But you are welcome to stay here in the monastery while you rest up for your final match, if you would like.”
It took that second explanation for it to finally hit her, and a pleasantly surprised smile appeared on her face. “Whoa, really?”
“Of course.”
“Hell yeah, I’ll definitely be staying over!” said Ryuna. “I’ll just run back to Welca real quick and grab my bags!”
She started to hurry out the door, but paused, spinning back around. “Oh, can I get Hai Tien’s room? I don’t want Caedo’s.”
Rather strangely, Brise didn’t appear to have realized that there was bad blood between the two, as her puzzled expression suggested. Nevertheless, she nodded. “Very well, then. I will reserve Hai Tien’s room for you and have it cleaned by the time you return.”
Ryuna began to leave once more, but stopped again, this time at the behest of Brise. “Oh, be careful on your way to Welca.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Well, I can tell that you’re still weakened,” Brise explained. For a moment, Ryuna tried to straighten up and flex her muscles to hide the signs of her fatigue, not wanting to look weak in another’s eyes, but she couldn’t muster the energy to truly put forth the effort. “But also, the forcewells underneath the mountains have been bubbling quite violently. It would not be especially strange if wayward streams of ULTRA Force started to break through the surface. You should be wary, and return quickly.”
Ryuna had almost completely forgotten about the forcewells. On that subject, she remembered the hollow promise she’d made to help with the welling; she’d never intended to make good on that promise, and since she would be spending the remaining days of her trip in the monastery, she no longer needed to, either. “Gotcha. Thanks.”
Yet again, her departure was halted before it could take place, although this time, it was not because of her own decision, nor was it because of Brise’s interruption. It was actually because of her stomach, as it released a bellowing roar, like that of a raging dragon.
Ryuna’s cheeks went red with embarrassment, doubly so when she realized everyone else in the monastery had heard her.
Brise patted her arm comfortingly. “Why don’t you have Hai Tien’s meal before you leave?”