Sword and Snow

As I touched down amid the three potential demonic Cultivators, I flared my Qi. I felt Avuri, tens of meters behind me, do the same. Our Domains flowed from us, and latched on to each other, forging that bond that had helped us survive against Vale’s training.

I wasn’t so sure that particular skill would be necessary here, but it wouldn’t be bad to get some actual combat experience while using it.

As soon as my Domain suffused the area around us, the animals that the three Cultivators had been leading bucked and tried to escape. The Cultivators let them go, called up their own Qi, and turned to face me. The smell of wet dogs immediately permeated the area.

“Hello there.” I said, my voice dripping with a sickly sweet venom.

Before any of them could react, I felt Avuri’s Qi flow through my Domain and solidify around each of my opponents feet, leaving them frozen to the ground. I laughed inwardly; such a lopsided start in our favor was a good sign for us.

I called up a Qi sword into my right hand. It was a full sized, thin sword, which would be good for this fairly close-quarters fight.

As the enemies tried to spin to face me, only to find their legs stuck fast in ice, I darted in toward the man on the left. His right arm was alight with fire Qi, so I aimed there first. My blade came up, angled just so, between his torso and arm. The edge met little resistance as it tore into his armpit. As I wrenched it up with a bit of added force, it slid through sinew and bone as easily as butter.

The man’s arm thumped to the ground a meter away, and the fire Qi dissipated. A layer of ice suddenly coated the man’s stumped shoulder, seemingly containing the bleeding. I sent a shock of gratitude toward Avuri, though I had no idea if she would receive it through our connection. I was still getting the knack of sending messages, although Avuri seemed to be rather adept at it.

I felt a strong impression of danger from my right, and slipped to the left, cleanly avoiding a sweep from an obscenely large hammer. It must have been made of Qi, as the woman who was locked to the ground on the far right whipped it about with ease, despite it being larger than her in every way.

As I stepped to the side, the first man called up more fire Qi. It exploded from him in a burst, focused around shin height. Sure enough, it melted all three of my opponents free, and they moved to surround me.

I made a flourish with my left hand and several floating knives appeared in the air beside me. As they continued to cautiously surround me, I mentally reached out to a large number of loose stones in the dirt around us. They had become sharpened by my Domain, and at my command rose into the air.

I chose my target and mentally fired my weapons. All of the stones quickly converged on the man with the fire Qi. As they did so, the other two enemies charged me. I stepped back to defend myself, sidestepping another huge swing of the giant hammer, and blocking a strike from a more traditional single edged saber.

I felt the stones pelt the fire user. He had created a huge wall of fire to defend himself, but it hadn’t been as effective as he had surely hoped.

Some of the smaller stones were melted away by the extreme heat of the fire, but many more pierced through. His body was riddled with cuts and bruises when the fire wall fell. But also several puncture wounds where the sharpened stones had dug in deep. He collapsed to the ground, his Qi puffing away to smoke as his control slipped away. Whether he was dead or unconscious I couldn’t tell without some focus, so I just focused on the fight at hand.

Hammer girl and saber man had split to attack me from two different sides. I called my knives to defend my left from the saber attacks while my sword arm was in position to deflect hammer blows that got too close.

A moment seemed to pass where we all took deep breaths to prepare for the action before we all exploded into movement.

I felt Avuri’s intentions come through our link and acted accordingly. A patch of ice sent the saber wielder off balance as he stepped in for a strike, and a knife interposed itself to parry his attack wide. I felt Avuri call the danger from my lower right side, as the hammer girl swung diagonally up from the lower right. I slipped around the hammer easily, and repositioned myself behind the girl as my flying knives kept the saber fighter busy.

“Are you the one that turned those caravaners into paste?” I asked through gritted teeth. I brought my sword up to the woman’s neck, poised to strike.

As she gathered her hammer to spin another swing at me, she answered, “No, that was my -”

I didn’t let her finish her words, or her next attack. My sword slipped cleanly through her neck, even easier than it had the first man’s shoulder. Her scream was cut short almost as soon as it began, her head severed from her body. I once again appreciated Avuri’s quick application of Qi, as her ice covered the woman’s neck scarily fast, stopping the potential bloody mess.

Then I finally turned to the last man standing. I waved my knives away, letting them come to rest behind me as I readied my sword.

“You’re a Sky Realm Cultivator, aren’t you?” The man asked, as he raised his saber in a defensive looking stance.

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what you were thinking, picking a fight with three Earth Realm Cultivators like this. Do you enjoy killing the weak?” He spat.

I laughed, then looked at him as though he were crazy. “Boy, I smell the demon all over you. It reeks. I’m not about to let three demonic Cultivators walk away from me alive. Even if I wasn’t actively hunting your stupid little sect, I would have killed you three anyway.”

His eyes narrowed and his jaw set then, as if coming to terms with his fate. He ignited his Qi, and the wet dog smell redoubled. His sword seemed to take on a strange, murky red glow. And the glow began to flow over his hands and up his arms.

It was slight, but I felt something akin to a Domain push out of him and attempt to push against my Domain. It didn’t succeed, but it still was a mild concern. Assuming the demonic Qi wasn’t just a faux Domain, and also supported his body, this could prove to be a challenge. Maybe.

Avuri backing me up gave me a major confidence boost, though.

The murky red Qi covered the man’s entire body in the course of a couple seconds. As it gathered at the top of his head, the Qi seemed to coalesce into a single horn, protruding from the left side of his forehead. When he spoke again, his voice was distorted, as if it was filtered through something thick.

“Let’s see how this works. I’ve never had to use this technique before.” He grinned, showing his red-tinged teeth, stained by the demonic Qi.

I flicked my sword with a snap of my wrist, and my entire sword began to glow as white as snow. The demon eyed it warrily, but then focused on me and readied his sword.

Before I even saw him move, I felt Avuri’s warning come through our bond. I let my body react instinctively based on her will, sidestepping and cleanly avoiding an onslaught of several swipes and slashes.

Seconds into the assault, I felt another impression from Avuri and prepared to act. A patch of ice again caught the man off guard, and he slipped for just a moment. I used that small opening to lash out with my blade. The tip caught his right arm, which was wielding the saber.

The cut was shallow, but the effect of my sword still worked to great effect. The murky red aura that had covered the man’s entire body seemed to recoil away from the cut, leaving his forearm exposed.

On his next attack, I met his saber with my own, and the purifying effect blasted away the aura from his weapon as well. As his eyes went wide, I grabbed his wrist with my off-hand and moved in for a leg sweep. As my foot connected with his forward leg, a blast of icy wind swept his back leg and he tumbled end over end, slamming to the ground with a thud.

As he scrambled to try to reorient himself and get to his feet, I called up my knives. One each was sent into each of his legs. Two more struck the sides of his abdomen. A fifth struck his left arm.

As the knives, now pulsing with the same snow white purification technique landed, the demonic aura burst. As it retreated from his body, I swung my blade neatly up and down by his head, cutting cleanly through the strange horn that had formed on his forehead. It shattered, and what little of the demonic Qi remained immediately dissipated.

The man seemed equally stunned and afraid. I leveled my sword at his neck as Avuri began to approach us.

“You’re going to tell us exactly what we want to know.” I said, that same sickly sweet tone I had greeted them all with back in place.

“And what is that, exactly?” He spat angrily.

“As much information as you have on your little sect of demons.” I said with a polite smile.

“And whether or not you’re all connected to the demonic sect up north.” Avuri chimed in as she approached.

The man’s eyes narrowed on Avuri as she spoke. “There’s no demonic sect in the Dying Lands except us, you bitch.” As he jerked forward toward Avuri threateningly, I jabbed the tip of my sword against his neck again.

“None of that, thanks.” I said. “Explain.”

His focus shifted to me. “That northern sect dissolved. We’re what’s left.”

That was news to me. Avuri and I shared a look, confused. This was one route we hadn’t really considered.

“You two are gonna regret messing with us.” He continued, a bit of haughtiness in his voice. The bastard was proud of his allegiance to his sect. “Our bosses are going to have a field day with you two ladies. They knew you were asking around Bastion about them. Sent us to send you a message, but I guess you took it as an invitation instead.”

He grinned, showing his blood stained teeth again, then nodded his head in the direction he and his two friends had been traveling. “Camp is that way. Another, oh, I don’t know…four hours walk away? Better hurry if you want to make it before those kids die.”

I glared at the man. He seemed far too comfortable. “Why are you being so helpful?”

“Emery!” Avuri shouted suddenly, and then tackled me from the side without warning.

“Bye!” The man shouted with a laugh. I felt a sudden surge of demonic Qi enter my Domain at a shocking speed. It was apparently underground, and stopped just below the man I had had at sword point until a second ago.

The earth itself seemed to open up and swallow him whole. And then the demonic Qi just zipped back the way it came at the same frightening speed.

I sat up from the ground, Avuri still half wrapped around me, as we stared after the Qi retreating in the direction of the sect camp.

“What the fuck was that?”