Many writers of fiction leave weapons out of their narratives entirely. They write fanciful tales of their hero gathering the elements and mastering direct casting or manipulation to a point that no weapon can match their range and utility… In reality, the only cultivators that don’t use weapons of some sort are the ones too broke to afford anything. –Kai Relan, Smithing Apprentice in the City of Pailian
* * *
It wasn’t that the bow was poor quality, just that it was made for a mortal. The strength of a cultivator, and the qi that flowed through every inch of my body, was far too much to expect mere wood to withstand. It shattered in my hands and crumbled to the ground in splinters.
But, the arrow hit its mark. The Witch writhed and screamed as her blood splattered to the ground around her. I ran forward, intent on dealing the killing blow before she had a chance to recover, but she let out another of the ear-piercing screams. I stumbled and threw my hands over my ears.
Flash Forward warned me of two more spiders approaching from behind, and I threw myself to the side to avoid their hungry fangs. I tumbled to the ground, my hat tumbling to the side. Before I could get back to my feet, the witch was on top of me, sullying my robes with the dripping blue blood coming from her back.
“You!” she growled. “I offered you mercy, and you slapped it away!”
“You have a skewed idea of mercy,” I countered, trying to squirm free. Her legs had pinned into my clothes, thoroughly restraining me against the ground. Without using my lunar blades, I wasn’t sure I could make a meaningful hit against her from this angle…
Think, Yoru, think! Are you going to be taken down by a household insect?! What kind of Ascendent are you? My mind raced through a thousand possibilities, but none of them gave any guarantee of success.
“I’m going to bleed you dry, now, then that pretty face of yours will serve as my knight,” she hissed. Her fangs gleamed in the reflected light from my hair.
Panic filled me, and my alias as a void artist suddenly became the least of my concerns. This was life and death, and I would rather live as a hated supplicant of the moon than die masquerading as a void artist.
But, just as I began calling on my light, willing it to take its wickedly sharp form, a buzzing caught my attention, and that of my captor.
“DIVE!”
The buzzing grew louder in an instant, and four gold and black bodies slammed into the spider witch with enough force to throw her off me. She shrieked in rage. Her kin shot several strands of white silk into the sky, but the newcomers dodged and ducked to avoid them as they circled back for another assault.
A flash of light illuminated the area, and, to my surprise, it wasn’t from me. Golden light burned bright, providing a brilliant backlight for the attackers as the spiders hissed in pain. Then, they descended, as if on the wings of heaven itself to slay the vile demons of the earth.
The spiders shrieked and turned as six enormous hornets, each surrounded by a small swarm of their lesser kin, dove at them, stingers bared. In an instant, the spiders were scattered. The Witch bared her fangs.
“YOU DARE ATTACK US AT NIGHT? YOU FOOLS!”
The street descended into chaotic war. Wasps harried the spiders at every turn. Smaller hornets stabbed stingers into eyes and joints while their larger kin drove stingers that more resembled spear-points straight into the spiders’ chitinous hides.
As the chaos broke out, I scrambled to my feet, ready to join these unlikely allies in battle. The golden light descended and dimmed, revealing an even larger hornet underneath. Its stripes had glowed with the light of the sun itself, but now they dimmed, and I could see it more clearly. It was clearly a commander, holding itself with poise, and with a coldness to its black eyes as it stared at the spider.
“Are you alright, cultivator?” it asked with a voice that buzzed like its wings. I couldn’t tell if it was masculine or feminine under the buzzing, but it was clearly more friendly than the spider.
I nodded. “I thank you for your aid, honorable hornet.”
“We did not come prepared for a fight,” the hornet admitted. “Our forces are that of a mere patrol, and we are at a disadvantage in the darkness.”
“Then I am even more grateful that you took the risk in saving me.” I bowed deeply, and the hornet seemed appeased.
I ducked as a strand of silk streaked over my head. The Witch was quivering with anger.
“Let us deal with this nuisance first,” the hornet commander buzzed. I nodded in agreement.
The hornet’s stripes flashed brightly, and its wings shimmered with sunlight as it dove forward. It didn’t seem to move as fast as its kin, but instead rushed forward with raw power behind its stinger.
I rushed after it, gathering void qi in my hands. The Witch reared her legs and swiped at the two of us. The hornet dodged to the side before flashing its stripes brightly above her eyes. Meanwhile, I reached out and brushed my fingertips against another leg on her right side. This time, when my void lashed against her chitin, it didn’t just dissolve the hard outer shell, but dove deeper, dissolving muscle and sinew underneath.
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She shrieked in anger and pain before lunging upward. Her pincers snapped at the hornet, crushing one of its legs in her grip. The commander only grunted and slammed its stinger into her back, right where my arrow had hit its mark. The spider Witch reeled back, stumbling on six limbs.
“She’s as good as dead,” the commander buzzed. “We must retreat.” It raised another limb towards where the remaining hornet forces were not faring as well. Three of the six larger hornets had been injured, and were flying more slowly than before, and one more lay dead and still on the ground. “You will come with us.” I bowed my head in acceptance. This was as good a chance as I’d likely get to converse with the hornets on good terms. I wouldn’t let the opportunity pass.
The commander flashed its stripes brightly one more time, blinding the spiders enough to give the hornets a chance to retreat. They streaked away into the forest. Once they were gone, the commander and I followed, darting between the narrow trees to prevent the spiders from following.
I hated leaving the mortals of Heimian to face the spiders alone, but, hopefully, with the Witch dead, the local administrator would be able to rally the militia and any other local cultivators to protect the village. To deal with the root of the problem would require going to the Black Crevice and confronting the Spider Matriarch, which I was categorically unable to do alone at my current advancement. It bruised my pride, but I wasn’t powerful enough anymore to solve any problem I was faced with.
That said, this hornet commander seemed a reasonable sort. If I could leverage our collective win against the spiders to gain favor with their queen, perhaps I could get an audience and start negotiations on Pollen’s behalf. An alliance between the bees and hornets against the spiders might just do the trick in saving Heimian from the next wave of spiders.
“My c-commander,” one of the wasps buzzed as they all fell into formation around their leader. This one had an almost feminine voice beneath the buzzing, but it was hard to tell. All I knew for sure was that there was a certain hesitance to address the commander.
“Yes?”
“You’re injured,” it said simply. The commander’s antennae twitched slightly
“I’m fine, speak no more of it.” The order was absolute, and none of the remaining wasps questioned it. They kept their silence as they flew through the forest.
* * *
The spider Witch crawled into the shadows, feeling herself growing lighter as more and more blood seeped from her. How had things gone so wrong? This was supposed to be a simple task, and now…now…now she might not make it back to her mother’s nest. She might die in this wretched human place.
But, if she was going to die, then she wanted to do so in the shadows, far away from where that hated sun and its wretched winged servant would ever find her. Let them wonder if she was really dead. She’d haunt their nightmares, destroy their dreams, and drive them mad with worry as they constantly looked over their shoulder, wondering if she’d strike.
Yes…that would be her final revenge. It was all she had left, and so she focused on it. Hatred filled her as she slunk into the shadows, dragging herself on her six remaining legs until she could drag herself no further.
“Now, look what a terrible state you’ve found yourself in.” The voice sparked a tiny bit of hope in the spider witch, and she looked up with a weakened gaze.
“Help…” she begged the man who stood before her. She heard the crack of a fan and gazed up at the blurry image above her. He was thinking, contemplating her fate with the cold calculation of a hardened strategist. His green robes swirled in her vision as her energy finally faded. Then the man folded his fan once more and sighed.
“Very well, I suppose you still have some potential in you. Let’s see how you make use of it.”
* * *
They say that Ascendents lose their appreciation for time. The truth is that, as immortals, Ascendents have a greater appreciation for patience, utilizing plans that span decades, centuries, or even millennia to achieve their ends. I’d fallen into that trap, thinking that I had all the time in the world to spend on the people I cared for. The truth is that even Ascendents don’t have enough time, a fact that had become painfully clear to me during my incarceration beneath the earth. There was never enough time.
However, the world doesn’t care about how little time there is…a fact which is excruciatingly obvious when it comes to travel. Over two weeks of walking between Heimian and Hanai awaited. I was quite sure that the distance was probably more swiftly travelled by the hornets, but they had to slow their pace for me and their commander, who couldn’t fly as fast as their kin.
I missed the methods of faster travel available to cultivators who didn’t live in the middle of nowhere. Spiritual clouds, statues imbued with the power of flight like Chiho was, flying swords, etc. There were so many ways of getting around that didn’t involve walking, and I missed them greatly.
The days that passed brought us closer and closer to the new moon, a fact which filled me with dread. How could I possibly broker a deal with the hornets after they’d seen me in that condition?! They would know they were dealing with a monster worse than any yokai, and it would ruin any chances of peace between Pollen and the Hornet Queen.
The day before the new moon, I chewed on my lip as the hornets led the way into the woods. Despite still being days away from the central nesting grounds, hornets both big and small filled the air with their buzzing.
“You are tense,” the commander said. Even after weeks of travel, I still had no clue as to the gender of the patrol leader. The other wasps all seemed to be female, which made sense given what little I knew about wasps. Male hornets would be concubines kept for the pleasure and breeding of the queen. Since the commander wasn’t in that role, they must be female, and yet…something about that felt wrong. Better not to assume. Spirit beasts can evolve beyond their nature, after all.
“It’s nothing to worry about,” I answered.
The commander paused. “I see. If there is anything you require, the nest will provide.” That was quite obvious after they’d single-handedly hunted a full-sized deer in the forest on our third day. The commander had even watched with interest as I cooked my portion of it over a fire. It was nothing fancy, but they’d been quite intrigued.
I stared at the hornet. They’d been kind to me, even if they were a bit on the quiet side. It was as if the other hornets were afraid to mingle with their commander in any way. When the scouts gossiped, the commander just listened from the side. When they flew, the commander was always at the front, setting the pace, and never even chatting with those behind.
That said, it was extremely difficult to tell what the hornet was actually thinking. Its insectoid face was cold and unemotive, and the buzzing that filled the voices of every hornet masked much of the emotion, much to my chagrin.
I wanted to believe that this hornet could be my confidant. The reality was that I needed to pause our journey for two days during the new moon, and the commander was the only one who could allow me that time. But, what would I tell them?
Instead, I just kept quiet. The transformation wouldn’t come until nightfall. Until then, I had plenty of time to agonize over it.