An hissed as the sword passed mere inches from her face. Flicking up her glaive to buy time, she rapidly backpedaled to once more gain distance.

“A most impressive showing, Lady An.” The stupid dog idly twirled her blade as the pair once more stood across from one another. “Especially from one without a sect. You truly are most adept at dodging.”

An’s returning smile showed more teeth than mirth at the other woman’s taunts.

“My thanks for your words, Lady Ren. Though I must say, I’ve little choice when faced with such an… admirably straight forward fighting style.” It would have been hard to miss the way the other woman’s ears twitched at her words, and An knew her own insult had found fertile ground. “Perchance,was the founder of your sect a lumberjack before he reached enlightenment?”

The words had barely left An’s mouth before her opponent leapt at her again, and the air was once more filled with the sounds of clashing steel. Every blow between the pair kicked up the sand of the fighting pit beneath them and the noise resounded across the training yard.

Some are louder than others though, An thought irritably as the strength of her opponent’s hits transferred up her arm.

Which was all kinds of ridiculous given that the other woman was wielding a duelling sword in one hand rather than a war glaive - like herself. Something her fellow cultivator had been quick to comment on in the opening banter that had preceded this ‘friendly’ duel.

As if using a weapon actually designed for battle rather than exhibition matches was somehow shameful!

Unfortunately, for all that the stupid dog across from her was the perfect picture of a pampered inner province cultivator, she clearly knew how to use the weapon in her hand.

Even if her fighting style had all the sophistication and elegance of a charging bull. Because for all that the ‘elegant lady’ liked to put on airs, she fought more like a woman borne of an ox than a dog. An’s arms already felt numb from deflecting her hits – she dared not block them head on! – and with each passing moment she could feel even her prodigious cultivator stamina being sapped.

Fortunately, she was not without tricks of her own.

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity, she recited from the works of her master.

So it was with a rush of movement that when her opponent swung again, she did not deflect it to the side. She in fact allowed herself to absorb the blow – and used the momentum of it to slam her foot down into the dust beneath her feet.

The stupid dog’s eyes widened just for a moment before her features were obscured by a massive explosion of dust.

Absently, An could hear the cries of disappointment from the onlookers as their view of the fight was concealed, but she had no time for them. Instead, her enhanced senses strained for the telltale signs of a sword’s passage.

The wind on her skin. A whistle in the air. The metallic tang of iron against her nose.

There!

She ducked – allowing the blind blow to pass straight over her head, dust parting like a wave in its wake.

She hadn’t been lying when she called her opponent’s fighting style straightforward. It was. Predictably so.

And if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles, she thought.

She almost cried out in triumph as her glaive struck out to where she knew her opponent to be.

…Only to hit air?

“What?” The words uttered from her mouth without thought.

Indeed, as the dust cleared, she found herself staring at nothing. Her opponent was-

Above!

She dove to the side, just in time for something to land with the impact of a descending meteor right where she’d been standing.

“A neat trick,” the stupid dog muttered, her blade buried in the dirt. “Though ultimately fruitless.”

Resisting the urge to scowl in irritation, An instead shrugged. “That cut upon your dress suggests otherwise.”

Glancing down in surprise, the stupid dog’s eyes widened at the gash in her clothes, before her expression turned to outrage.

“This is Imperial silk,” she hissed.

For her part, An just smirked, earning a growl of irritation from her foe.

Still, there was a distinct wariness in her opponent’s posture now, as the pair once more started to circle each other. Hopefully, that meant the stupid dog wouldn’t be quite so free with those crushing blows of hers now.

An’s arms already felt like noodles. She didn't know how much longer she could keep this up.

That was why she was more than ready to finish this fight. A sentiment she knew her opponent echoed. So it was that the pair glared at each other, practised muscles tensing in preparation for-

“Very impressive.”

The pair of duelists almost fell over at the sudden interruption, the tension that had been almost omnipresent moments ago abruptly disappearing in the face of a newcomer.

Regaining herself, An bowed.

“Master.”

“Mas-”

She grinned at managing to get out her greeting mere microseconds before the stupid dog could get out her own – causing the pampered princess to scowl at losing to a ‘scruffy provincial bumpkin’.

Sure, she hadn’t said it, but An knew she was thinking it!

“As I said, a very impressive fight.” Master Johansen nodded from the sidelines. “Still, I thought it smart to intervene before someone got hurt.”

An wanted to argue – even if the man was entirely correct in his interpretation of events. She had been rather hoping to inflict some manner of… training accident on her opponent.

A sentiment she rather felt that was reciprocated by the stupid dog.

It wasn’t even really personal. It was just the way of things when cultivators of near even ability clashed – especially where a man was involved.

Even if the man in question seemed oblivious to that fact.

“As you wish, Master Johansen.” The stupid dog stood up. “Though I assure you, your student was in no real danger. I merely wished to exchange pointers with her as her senior.”

An bristled, but whatever she might have said in response was cut off as Master Johansen spoke.

“Is that so?” He sounded more curious than anything. “Then perhaps, as your own senior, you might allow me to swap pointers with you myself?”

An resisted the urge to grin too widely as all the blood seemed to drain from Lady Ren’s face at once.

…Well, perhaps she could forgive her master for interrupting her duel if he was willing to chastise this interloper personally.

In fact, she couldn’t wait to see it happen.

----------------

One didn’t need to be particularly adept at reading the mood to realize that a certain tension had fallen over the clearing at his words. Nor did one need to be particularly wise to understand why.

Which was good, because Jack knew he was neither.

He’d very deliberately avoided sparring with An, despite her occasional requests. He’d made a point of pretending it was beneath him. In reality, it was because he wasn’t entirely sure he’d win if they came to blows. Sure, his suit was big, tough and could undoubtedly fold An like a pretzel – but that required he actually get his hands on her first.

And as the small duel he’d just interrupted proved, punch wizards were fast.

Terrifyingly fast.

Which was why it was fortunate he had no intention of fighting Ren himself. No, instead he intended to use this opportunity to prove a point. To himself, to Ren and to the men around him.

Assuming all went well…

If it doesn’t, well, at least this will have been a learning experience, Jack thought.

“I would be honored, Master Johansen.” Ren said in an entirely at ease manner, one that utterly hid the fact that his sensors said her heart was going a mile a minute.

“Excellent.” He clapped his hands together. “How many of my guard do you feel you could defeat?”

He felt as much as heard the ripple that went through the surrounding crowd at his words. Which was only natural, given that everyone present was a member of said guard. Ostensibly they were supposed to be training, but it seemed that had been put on hold when An and Ren had wandered in for their own little duel.

Not even the presence of Gao and his fellow sergeants had apparently been enough to galvanize the men back into action. If they’d even made the attempt. He wouldn’t have put it past the ornery former city guard to have used the impromptu duel as a means of showing the men just how outclassed they’d be if they went up against an actual cultivator.

Which was rather unfortunate for them, because Jack was about to do his level best to undermine that lesson.

“Your guard?” Ren asked hesitantly, obviously thrown by the non sequitur.

Jack nodded. “Yes, the men here and now. How many do you think you could defeat in an open field?”

A hint of irritation flashed across the woman’s face – and even An was staring at him in confusion. “Is this a joke, great one?”

“No joke.” He gestured around him. “How many? Assuming you start from… over there?”

He gestured to the far end of the firing range where a number of rather tattered looking animal shaped targets stood.

“How many does your guard number?”

“Four hundred.” Jack answered. “Give or take a few.”

“All of them.” Ren answered instantly. “Every mortal at arms within Jiangshi.”

Her answer was instant, with not a hint of doubt within her tone. Which Jack considered pretty impressive given that, even excluding the exceptional circumstances his presence had created, that was probably a lie.

Or at least, not a complete truth.

Because he’d already had this conversation with An under the guise of learning her limits. And from what he’d seen during their short duel, Ren was roughly An’s peer – if perhaps a little stronger.

And An was not ‘immortal’. Yes, she was essentially superhuman, but not invincible. A cultivator at her level had incredible stamina, but she wasn’t inexhaustible. Yes, her very skin was hardier than that of a human, but even so, with enough strikes, small wounds would build up. From cuts to bruises. And yes, while those strikes would be harder to land, given she had better reflexes than a regular human, she could still be distracted, overwhelmed or just plain unlucky in a tight melee.

And the chances of any of the above happening would only grow the longer a fight went on.

Of course, ultimately, it was all rather irrelevant. A canny cultivator wouldn’t stick around long enough for exhaustion – physical or mental – to become a factor.

They’d dive into a fight, kill fifty or so unlucky sods, then retreat for a quick five minute breather.

Rinse and repeat, Jack thought grimly. Though I’d doubt they’d need to repeat the feat more than once…

He knew he’d certainly be thinking about turning tail if some crazy woman had just butchered fifty of his buddies. Sure, if he had three hundred and fifty more buddies at his back they might be able to take her – but what were the chances he’d be one of the lucky sods who lived long enough to see it happen?

Not great, he thought. Which is why it’s fortunate my people have a few toys to help even the playing field.

“Fair enough. So, with that in mind…” he turned performing a quick mental headcount of those present. His people worked in six hour shifts, so if one excluded those who would be on watch duty on the walls or patrols in town, he figured there’d be about fifty to sixty present here at the training field. A number backed up by his quick headcount. “…fifty would be easy then?”

“Yes.”

There was no missing the hint of irritation in the woman’s voice. It seemed even his status as a hidden master wasn’t a complete defense against a cultivator’s prickly pride. Which was good to know.

Though let’s see if we can’t do something to deflate it, he thought as he gestured to the firing range.

“Then if you would humor me, Lady Ren.”

The woman looked like she might argue for second, before seemingly coming to a decision and nodding. Satisfied, Jack turned back to his own – very worried looking people – before a thought occurred to him and he turned back.

“Oh, and this is a demonstration.” He called out to the dog woman. “Please don’t kill anyone. My people will ‘play dead’ if you tap them with the flat of your sword.”

Around him he could see his people nodding in full agreement. Some with a little more enthusiasm than was strictly called for. Not that he blamed them. He’d be nervous too if he was about to by facing off against a human blender.

Which was why he’d made sure it was his militia said blender were facing off against and not himself.

Start as you mean to go on and all that, he thought.

“Of course, you have my word.”

The woman sounded irritated, but ultimately she seemed willing to humor the kooky hidden master.

That was fine with him. She’d learn. Or he would. Either way, this would be a learning experience.

“Sir, we can’t fight cultivators!”

It was rather gratifying that Kang chose to make his objections known via a panicked whisper, rather than yelling them to the heavens. Say what you would about the former cripples, they’d rather deftly slid into the roles Jack had assigned them within the militia.

Which he supposed only made sense, Kang himself had been a man of consequence before his crippling.

“Why not?” Jack asked finally, deigning to turn towards the man.

A man that flushed a few different shades and whose face went through a number of expressions before he finally spoke.

“…She’s a cultivator.”

Jack nodded. “And as of two nights ago, the militia has successfully killed at least one spirit beast and driven off two others.”

“That’s…” Kang started to say.

“Not different at all.” Jack interrupted.

Probably. Maybe.

To be honest, Jack didn’t know.

Still, if An had struggled with a spirit beast, it implied there was some level of parity there. Transitive properties and all that. Sure, a human would have a lot more fancy tricks than an animal, but when you got right down to it, all things were made equal before the barrel of a gun.

“Now,” Jack continued, neatly bulling through whatever other complaints Kang might have – politely! – made. “In the interest of not accidentally killing our latest guest, I’ve brought along a few new toys.”

He gestured over to the crate Lin had been ‘guarding’ since he’d arrive.

“Inside that crate, you’ll find a number of fresh bullets with blue tips.”

Specifically, they were rubber bullets. Or at least, a synthetic rubber composite sourced from his new chemical refineries, given he had less than no inclination to go seek out the natural alternative.

As to what a rubber bullet was, well, he’d discovered that they were almost exactly what they sounded like. And in the past, they’d been used as a rather primitive alternative to modern taser-phasers. Which was to say, as a tool for less-than-lethal riot control.

And just like modern taser-phasers, they could be very lethal if one were unfortunate. And even if you weren’t, profuse bleeding, internal bruising and fractured bones were the norm rather than the exception.

Which sounded just perfect for this little test.

“I want you and everyone else here to dump out all of your ammo and replace it with these blue ones for the duration of this ‘duel’.”

He pitched his voice just loud enough that everyone could hear him.

No one moved though. Right up until Gao slapped the man next to him upside the head and started bellowing for the crowd to get moving. That seemed to shake the militia out of their indecision, as they started moving toward the crate.

“Move it you lazy louts, you heard the great one!” Kang himself joined in – his earlier reticence apparently forgotten in favor not wanting to be shown up.

Soon enough the militia were formed into neat orderly lines, with the officers overseeing the distribution of the blue tipped rounds.

“Kang, please make sure none of the old ammo gets overlooked.” Jack called out as a thought occurred to him. “Because, if someone accidentally kills our guest because of it… I’m…” He paused. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to pick a few dozen names out of a hat to have messily executed.”

Part of him almost felt guilty at the way just about everyone bar An and Lin paled at those words.

Almost.

Still, it needed to be said, as evidenced by the dressing down one man got as he ejected a round from his gun. Something one of the sergeants immediately noticed and started haranguing the man for.

Bullets were only supposed to go in barrels at the moment wherein shooting might be needed. Not before. Especially given the guns did not come with a safety.

Jack considered it a small miracle no one had been killed by an accidental discharge yet. Because a few had happened. And there’d been more than a few injuries since his band of ancient peasants had been introduced to the wonders of gunpowder. Mostly lost toes and missing fingers, but Jack didn’t think it’d be long until someone blew someone else’s head off by accident.

Some people might have felt some guilt over that acknowledgement. Jack had never been that responsible though. If some moron blew their own brains out by looking down a gun barrel, well, he knew he wouldn’t be losing any sleep over it.

Jack glanced back towards where the cultivator was waiting impatiently, though it was clear she was at least slightly curious as to what the militia were doing.

To tell the truth, he didn’t entirely know what to make of the dog woman. She was the first cultivator aside from An he’d spoken to, and while she wasn’t his ally, she at least wasn’t trying to kill him. More importantly, she was clearly the mercantile sort. He could work with that. He’d have to work with that.

Jiangshi would need regular shipments of food going forward. And given his last experience with sending people out to acquire that food, he was more interested in acquiring a guaranteed supplier rather than risking the open market again.

Ren could be that supplier. She certainly seemed interested enough.

To that end though, he needed to make clear certain facts to her. Predominantly, that his people were capable of maintaining any supply chains they chose to set up.

Hell, Jack himself needed some proof that his people were capable of it.

Sure, everything seemed feasible in theory…

His thoughts trailed off as he glanced back at his militia.

But that theory needs to be back up by a live fire exercise, he thought. That means that I need to see how my people stack up against a cultivator.

Truthfully, he should have done this test with An weeks ago… but Ren’s arrival had sort of forced his hand.

More to the point, An knew exactly what the gonnes were and what they were capable of. He wanted to see what happened when a cultivator who was completely ignorant of them came up against them.

I also need to learn more about these Marble Cloud folks that roughed up my people, he thought. Ren seemed pretty certain they’d be trouble at some point and An didn’t seem to much disagree.

So many problems, such little time.

----------

Ren watched with subdued disinterest as the militia of Jiangshi lined up across from her. It seemed that just like the guards that had accompanied her from Ten Huo, they intended to fight in the same square formation as their contemporaries.

They didn’t even have proper spears, instead they all seemed to be holding some manner of strangely shaped staff with a metal pipe attached. No doubt more of the hidden master’s oddities.

Still, the formation represented a minor inconvenience. But that was all it was. A minor inconvenience. One she could easily circumnavigate by jogging around the clumsy formation of mortals to strike at the group’s vulnerable sides before they could reorientate - rather than attempt to face the sea of spear points that represented the front.

It would be beyond easy.

In this case though, she felt an object lesson needed to be made.

It seemed that Master Johansen had spent far too long away from civilization and forgotten the more basic courtesies. Like the fact that even the dragon could not entirely repress the garden snake. Just because she respected who and what he represented did not mean she was not offended at the insinuation that this small collection of mortals might somehow challenge or even meaningfully hinder her.

No, it was time to remind the hidden master of the reality of things.

So, she’d go through the front. Overwhelm the mortal formation through sheer force.

And after this young mistress is done with this farce, perhaps the young master might reconsider his choice in hobbies? She idly twirled her duelling sword. Perhaps this young mistress might direct him towards something more fitting than playing with mortals?

Certainly, administration of mortal settlements had once been a rather popular hobby amongst cultivators, but it had since been replaced with more cultured pursuits like gardening, painting and poetry.

Ren felt a small shiver run through her as she thought on Master Johansen reciting poetry to her in his deep voice… with that enticing accent of his.

Yes, that would certainly be more fitting, she thought.

Naturally, she’d also need to convince him to return with her to Ten Huo. To somewhere far more fitting of his talents. Because, while his Apart Ment was certainly a fine construct, as were his skills at refining metals, they were wasted out here.

Better they be recreated somewhere where they would be appreciated.

And if I can convince him to leave the cat behind… well, all the better.

…Really, the man could do far better for a student than an uncouth barbarian like that. All Ren had done was make a few comments on the state of the girl’s hair and the violent little thing had practically leapt at her.

“Are you ready, Lady Ren?”

She nodded, her thoughts returning to the task at hand.

“On three then?”

Ren was in no rush. She nodded once more.

“Alright, three.”

She’d take her time to reach the mortal lines. Let the dread build.

“Two.”

With any luck, they might even break before she reached them.

“One.”

She was just about to take a step forward when something exploded and she felt a sudden pain in her chest.