Sword and Snow

Enrik stepped into Kord as he threw a punch forward. It was a straightforward punch with great form. His legs were planted and we twisted his hips appropriately. It was a good, well practiced punch.

Unfortunately, sticking too closely to the practiced motions like that in a fight is liable to go poorly.

Kord slipped to the side, and brushed the punch away with an arm. His leading foot hooked behind Enrik’s ankle and pulled him forward - just a bit. But it was enough to throw Enrik off balance. And Kord stepped into a shove with his other hand, pushing at Enrik’s shoulder. Enrik’s body twisted and fought for balance, but couldn’t find it before Kord smashed a punch into his gut. Enrik twisted further and crumpled to the ground.

Emery, who had been watching off to the side, nodded. “Well done Kord. Your body sense is as strong as ever, I see.”

Then she looked to Enrik, who was trying to catch his breath after the gut shot. “Enrik, you need to be more flexible. You rely too much on your body to recreate movements you’ve drilled. It becomes too predictable. Only rely on reflexes like that when you don’t have time to act consciously. You need to plan your attacks better.”

Enrik coughed and wheezed, trying to get air to respond. “Got it.” He choked out.

Emery walked forward and crouched by him, her hand landing on his back. “Are you alright? Kord didn’t hit you too hard, did he?”

Kord, for his part, looked a little sheepish as he scratched the back of his head. “Sorry Enrik. I probably didn’t need to actually hit you like that.”

Enrik shook his head. “No, you’re fine. It was just a clean shot to my solar plexus. Absolutely destroyed my breath.” He was still struggling with his uncooperative lungs. “I’ll be alright. Not like real fights will pull punches.”

Emery nodded, but kept her hand soothing his back. “They won’t.” She looked up and around at the other kids that were in the training room with them; it was most of the Earth Realm children, except for Cierra. “This is something you should all keep in mind, though I imagine we’ve already drilled it into you all at one point or another.”

“While we don’t want you hurting each other too badly in practice, don’t pull punches. Learning what it feels like to really get hit is valuable. If this were a real fight, there’d be no time to catch your breath. And it’s better to learn what this feels like now, rather than when your life depends on you dealing with it fast.”

Several of the kids nodded, looking mildly concerned as they watched Enrik slowly get his breathing under control.

Emery looked between them and him. They had been sparring around for a few hours, the only breaks being while they watched other pairs fight.

“I think you’ve all been going long enough. Let’s take a break from the fighting for a bit, go over something else.” Emery said, and pat Enrik’s back a few times before she stood.

“There’s not a lot we can do to really prepare you all for fighting beyond your level.” She said, sadly. “Obviously, we’re hoping to stop whatever might be coming this way well before it reaches any of us here. But like we said before, we need you all prepared just in case.”

“We know, Mom.” Stena said lightly. “You’ve given us this spiel several times already. Get to the point.”

Stena’s light tone sent ripples of giggles and chuckling through the assembled teens. That was good.

“Right, right.” Emery said. “I want to go over some of what you’ll see if you all get into a fight with a Sky Realm Cultivator.” She met each pair of eyes in turn, seriously. “Your first priority is to escape somehow. You all know that you won’t be able to just outrun someone like that, but if you see a chance to get away without being hunted, that is the best option.”

She took a breath. “If you can’t do that, fight to incapacitate or escape. Without Domains, you’re fighting at an immeasurable disadvantage. Even if all of you were to team up to fight one single Sky Realm, you likely don’t stand a chance.” Then she held up one finger. “You have one shot at making it out alive. Trickery. Or, perhaps, manipulation.” She amended.

“First, it’s very likely that a Sky Realm Cultivator, faced with a bunch of Earth Realms, would be uninterested and over-confident.” She saw a few smiles spread among her kids, and immediately moved to correct that. “Mind you, when I say over-confident, I don’t mean that they underestimate your combat ability. I mean that they will have no regard for your efforts. And rightfully so.” She stressed; that did wipe some of the smiles away.

“I can nearly guarantee you that even if all eight of you teamed up with perfect coordination, you would lose against a single Sky Realm Cultivator. If you’re fighting to win the fight.” Emery continued. “Shifting your goal is how you survive. Don’t fight to hurt them. Fight to prove you aren’t worth the effort.”

“It’s exceedingly unlikely that any Sky Realm that makes it to you is interested in killing you all, thankfully. Their goal is more likely to be taking our basin for themselves. If they aren’t hunting you down actively, leave.” She stressed. “We can find a new home if things go poorly. You are not replaceable. Take your younger brothers and sisters, and get hell out of here.”

As she watched the faces around her finally start to take this seriously, she nodded. “Good. If you’re all here and the basin gets infiltrated by Cultivators that you are confident you can take on, you may use your judgment. But if a Sky Realm shows up, you all leave. No questions. I can’t imagine why they would attack you all unless you appear to be defending the basin from intruders, so stop putting up a fight and run should any show up.”

Everyone in the room looked like they were taking her seriously, which for now was enough. It didn't matter how often she had to repeat herself, she needed to be sure they all understood how imperative it was that they understand not to fight a Sky Realm Cultivator unless they truly had no other choice. There was one last thing she could do to force that home.

“If you’ve all got it through your thick skulls that you should do everything within your power to avoid fighting above your Realm right now, then we can move on.” Eyes started to come alive with excitement then. Emery supposed there was no helping the excitement of learning about new things.

“We’ve never really had good cause to go over how the Sky Realm works because you’ve never really needed to know. But we may as well talk about it now.” Emery began, but a hand shot up. “Yes, Fia?”

“But we did go over Domains a while ago?” She asked, confused.

“Yes, we did. But Domains aren’t the only thing that changes when you reach the Sky Realm, just the most obvious. And even then, we didn’t cover it in too much detail, which we might still do. But for now, I want to go over Qi.”

“Qi?” Briar asked. “Is Sky Realm Qi different somehow?”

“Yes.” Emery said, plainly. “It differs in a few ways. The first is the easiest to explain; when you reach the Sky Realm, your Qi will pervade your body and strengthen it. All of you, come here.” She said, motioning the whole class forward. As they approached, Emery stuck her arm out straight ahead of her. She was met by several confused looks.

“All seven of you can work together to try to move my arm. However you like.” She smiled maliciously. “I won’t use any Qi to actively strengthen my body, just my Sky Realm physique.”

The next few minutes were incredibly entertaining for Emery, as she watched her kids try to move her arm entirely in vain. They tried as a group in several ways, even tying a rope to her wrist and playing tug of war with her. She barely moved at all to her children's chagrin.

“I think I’ve made my point.” She said finally, still holding fast against the whole group pulling on the rope. With a small effort, Emery wrenched her arm back toward her and pulled everyone off their feet and laughed as they tumbled over one another. Then she continued as they untangled their limbs and sat on the floor.

“The second change is the Domain itself. We won’t go into that now as we’ve already touched on them before. The third is Altered Qi. Which you may have all heard of before, just without the term.” A few tilted heads prompted her to continue. “You currently all use some form of Natural Qi. You predominantly focus on one or two of the natural Qi elements, draw it in, and use it to fuel your Cultivation and techniques.”

“As you all know, Natural Qi comes in five general flavors; fire, water, earth, metal, and wood. Of course, those five general types can be further altered into more specific types. Things like ice, poison, or lightning.” Nods of understanding followed her explanation. “It is one of the reasons that many Earth Realm Cultivators study similar techniques, and there’s nothing too advanced or complicated usually taught in those stages.”

“Once you reach the Sky Realm, your body begins to naturally alter any Qi that you circulate through your body toward something more suited to your techniques. It becomes a type of Qi that is distinctly yours. Thus the term Altered Qi as a catch all.” Emery said, then raised a hand before her, palm up. She cycled her Qi and called up a small knife to hover over her palm.

“I imagine you all believe that I use metal Qi, and Avuri uses predominantly ice Qi, yes?”

“Do you…not?” Karn asked, looking confused.

Emery chuckled. “I do not. Not typically, anyway.” She set the knife to fly around her in a figure eight pattern. “Because of how individualized Altered Qi is, there’s not really a standard for names. Even people that use very similar techniques might have slight differences in their Qi, it’s difficult to use someone’s Altered Qi type as any sort of identifier. That’s why people would still think of me as a metal user, and Ri as an ice user.”

“However, it’s also common practice for Cultivators to give their Altered Qi an appropriate name. It doesn’t usually get used or mean very much, but it is still common.” Emery smiled. “For instance, I call mine ‘blade Qi’. Avuri uses ‘blizzard Qi’. They communicate what we’re each focused on, somewhat, but it’s not all that useful as a name when it doesn’t mean anything without context.”

“But, having said that.” She met eyes with Kord, who was a metal Cultivator. “Kord, come up here, please.”

The boy hesitated for just a moment, then stood and walked up. Emery addressed the whole group. “Kord is a predominantly metal specialist like me. Unfortunately, this is the best demonstration I can give.”

Emery called the knife to hover back over her hand, and it dissolved into a mass of mercurial-looking metal. Then she focused for a moment to pull natural metal Qi from the air and coalesced it into her other hand mimicking the same mercurial state. She offered both Kord.

“Try to explain how different they are.” She prodded.

As instructed, Kord took control of both masses of Qi. The natural metal Qi felt the same as always to him. While Kord had focused his techniques on using metal Qi to strengthen his body, creating metal weapons was a technique that Emery had taught him ages ago, and he quickly ran his own Qi through the mass of metal, restructuring it into various shapes.

“As usual, the metal Qi moves and shapes easily, as I’d expect.” He said aloud, then turned his attention to Emery’s Qi. When he reached out with his own Qi to take control, it went as expected. But when he tried to shape it, things suddenly felt different.

“The ‘blade QI’ feels…weird.” He said, as he moved it between shapes. “The metal feels like it wants to be fashioned into anything with a sharp edge. It’s like it fights rounded shapes?” He said, continuing to mold it in his hands. As he altered it between a cylinder and a knife, something else clicked. “Not only that, but it seems to be faster to morph into a bladed shape. And it’s easier to sharpen?” He said tentatively.

Emery nodded. “On a basic level, yes. Altered Qi will have specific properties that help the person that produces it function better. For me, my Qi is adept at creating many weapons very quickly and making them very sharp. It’s also easier to direct in the air and manipulate while shaped. Among other things.” She shrugged.

“But!” She called a bit louder. “Now we get to the practical portion of this little demonstration.” Then an evil little smile appeared on her face.

“All seven of you. Attack me.”