He appeared above the barrier that Tegan had erected around her, raising his vigilance when he saw that May wasn’t actually inside of it. In her place was a small globe of energy that gave off the same aura that she usually exuded. The constant flashes of lightning didn’t help Tems to catch any glimpses of her, not while they were at the heart of the giant plume of smoke. He didn’t simply float there in idle confusion, but rather drew out an arrayment diagram and immediately activated it. Just as he would have done were their positions reversed, May chose to attack him while he was still unsure of her location, though not with a head on attack as he’d expected. His barrier was broken by a heavy sword of cyan energy that came flying through the darkness, which continued on through the dispersing energy to target his heart. He caught this blade with an energy-covered hand and snapped it in half, then followed up with a ruthless strike towards the area where May's real aura had just appeared.

Before he could give chase to the retreating aura, a delicate hand reached up out of the smoke and grasped one of his ankles in a bone-crushing vice-grip. Sudden inertia rendered his line of sight useless as he was flung around for five full circles in a single second, forcing him to rely on his spiritual sense to perceive his movement. The landscape changed as he continued to tumble through the sky, though he managed to catch himself in the air just in time to meet May’s right fist with his own. Both of their robes began to whip about as he was driven back by about twenty paces, May having only been pushed back by two or three.

How is she so strong?

The moment that their knuckles met, Tems knew that May was trying to kill him. He’d never seen her eyes so feral and full of hatred, which poured cold water on any attraction that he had toward her and replaced it with a mind-clearing wariness.

“Why are you doing this?” he screamed as their fists met again, this time their left ones. “Didn’t I give you everything you ever asked for?”

He used the momentum of the second push-back to boost his airborne retreat, though May was right behind him, her fingers adding the finishing touches to a hastily drawn arrayment diagram. With no time to work on his own, Tems revolved his inner essence and activated an offensive martial skill, which conjured a great wave of water-like energy to appear behind him. This power was harmless against its user, so he was able to retreat behind the cascading energies just in time for them to rob May’s azure swords of their momentum.

It had been a long time since Tems had fought anyone, and it was disheartening to see that May’s physical strength was somehow superior to his. Since that was the case, his best chance of success was to turn this into a battle of arrayments.

“How do you know her?” yelled May over the storm, her hair whipping about wildly as she was illuminated by a bolt of lightning that cut across the backdrop.

He avoided a punch that she aimed for his face, grabbed her arm and threw her a few hundred paces to the north. Rather than chase after her, he used the fleeting seconds that he’d bought himself to draw out a compound arrayment diagram. She appeared before him again with her own diagram on hand, though he was quicker to activate his.

A condensed beam of navy light shot forth and collided with May’s left hand, which she had thrown out to take on the brunt of the blast. Tems watched on as the deadly energy tore her hand to pieces and ejected her from the area.

May…

He hadn’t wanted to kill her. On the contrary, after Little White had made known her reluctance to settle down with him, he had shifted his attentions toward the beautiful elder of Peach Blossom Peak. Unfortunately, now that he had unleashed this specific attack arrayment on her, May’s death was all but set in stone.

The technique that Tems had just set off was the most powerful in his arsenal, which consisted of seventeen techniques that had been handed down to him by his father. This was more than most arrayment practitioners, who usually learned a handful of arrayments and focused on honing those to perfection. The technique that he had just used was one that wouldn’t disappear until the target was destroyed, unless it was forcibly dispersed.

Now that he was free of the distant smoke cloud, the frequent flashes of lightning afforded him a good view of May’s struggles. She had managed to break contact with the blinding beam at the cost of her entire left arm, and was now flying around in random patterns with the hopes of shaking it off.

“Why are you just standing there? Finish her off!”

Tegan had appeared at his side, showing no signs of his recent injuries. Bodily regeneration was one of the greatest benefits of being a Genesis-staged cultivator, and his faithful supporter was clearly worried that May was simply buying time to heal her wounds.

“You corner her,” said Tems, hating the conviction in his own voice. “I’ll deliver the final blow.”

They charged toward May, who surprised them both by making a bee-line straight for Tegan. Just as she was about to strike out, she pulled back her feint and slipped around him to latch onto his withered limbs with the obvious intent to have him absorb the impact of the deadly attack that was trailing her. The old man expected this and flipped over so that both of them were floating upside-down with their backs to the beam. May avoided certain death by conjuring a platform of spiritual energy at her feet and kicking downward with enough strength to send her crashing into the earth below along with the entangled elder. She released Tegan the second that she landed, but unfortunately for her the targeted attack swerved away from the old man at the last second and followed after her with ruthless efficiency.

Determined not to let her get away, Tems appeared in front of her in an attempt to cut her off. She had a fresh diagram ready for activation as she charged toward him in the same manner that she’d just done to Tegan. Although the design looked slightly familiar, he didn’t have time to think on it.

“Humph, you think I’ll fall to my own attack?” He launched a second beam towards her, which drastically limited her potential paths of escape. She pulled upward at the last second, but rather than continue to flee, she activated the arrayment that she had been preserving throughout the latter half of the exchange and conjured up a massive sabre of pulsating energy. This was one of the most powerful techniques in the sect, one that only great elders were allowed to practice.

He had forgotten that he’d lent her the diagram schematic for that arrayment. It had actually been his bargaining chip when he was negotiating his terms for their agreement on his continued access to the private villa of Peach Blossom Peak.

Shockingly enough, another bolt of tribulation lightning crashed to the ground in the distance, off in the direction of the boy that had injured Tegan with his wiles. Peculiarly enough, the boy’s aura also rose to that of someone at the first level of Integration, a suspicious coincidence that was difficult to explain. Tems dismissed the strange bolt as his imagination playing tricks on him since it was immediately followed by several others. The boy’s breakthrough happened to happen at the same time as that strange lightning descended, but purely by chance as everybody and their sister were well aware that it was impossible for someone so weak to call upon a Heavenly Tribulation. Regardless of what had happened, Tems didn’t have time to think about anything other than the task at hand.

He fled towards Tegan, who was watching from the sidelines as he worked on a complicated attack arrayment in preparation for a killing blow. The sabre that May had summoned was a defensive arrayment, not an offensive one, and it was particularly famous within the sect. This was because it had the power to reflect any attack that contained less energy than was stored within the user’s dantian, at the cost of the equivalent amount of energy.

As expected, the moment the attacks were about to hit May, she swung her massive sword and repelled the twin beams at the same time, swiping outward and sending them flying towards him and Tegan.

“Why did you come near me, you fool?”

Tegan had no choice but to abandon his diagram in order to defend against the beam that had targeted him. So unexpected was the destructive counterattack that he was forced to crush a special ring that had been on his left finger, a life-saving treasure that he had received on the day that he’d been sworn into his position. With an odd flash of white light that was more of a strong glow than anything else, the beam glanced off of a sheet of energy that had suddenly appeared in front of Tegan and then veered off into one of the many woodlands that dotted the countryside.