“Sir Teng I think it best you retreat below deck with Junior Brother Fan Zhong for your safety. Meanwhile I shall lend what aid my sword can provide to the crew,” Fan Shun said as his eyes focused on the surroundings.

Both older men stood at the top of the steps blocking Fan Zhong's view of the deck itself. Ahead all he could hear were shouts and the cascade of hundreds of splashes in the water as if a horde of small creatures were jumping out of and landing in the river.

“The concern is appreciated however, a captain must see things through with his crew! Worry not mirage waves usually aren’t that dangerous if enough hands are around. Also, young Sir Zhong will surely protect me! Come lad we make for the helm!” Sir Teng let out in a jovial tone.

The old merchant captain seemed almost excited as he pulled a dagger from the inside of his robe and charged forward with an astonishing amount of speed for his rotund form. Fan Zhong stared after him with both confusion and bewilderment evident in his expression.

“Sir… the contract…” Fan Shun sighed as Teng Liang bound onto the deck before sternly looking at Fan Zhong and coughing in irritation at the lack of instant response from the youth.

“Oh.. of course, senior. Sir Teng, please slow down!” Fan Zhong called out as he sprinted up the stairs as fast as he could.

Although he attempted to use the momentum of the charge to fuel his movement technique Fan Zhong quickly found he was too flustered to control his movements in the way the technique required. Irritated with his lack of focus Fan Zhong pushed off with all his might as he crested the stairs causing him to jump out of the opening onto the deck. As he flew in a shallow arc for a few feet his training kicked in and Fan Zhong quickly scanned the scene all around him. Crewmen raced around securing riggings while others stood between them and the sides of the ship holding large wooden shields.

Water kicked up on all sides of the ship as it quickly became apparent what the shields were guarding against. From within some of the larger water eruptions, Fan Zhong saw silver semi-transparent fish. These fish appeared thin in one direction while being wide in the other like the flat head of a shovel. At the top and bottom of each fish, their bodies came to a razor edge of slim blade-like protrusions that curved back like saber blades, each fanning out around five to ten centimeters from the main body.

In effect, the fish looked like carp with ridges on top and bottom that contained scales shaped into dozens of miniature sabers. The most startling thing about them however wasn’t the menacing shapes the sharp ridges took but the horrifying amount of the fish coming at the ship. From three separate waves of water, they emerged each wave seeming to spew an endless stream of the creatures. Fan Zhong couldn’t count them all but to him, it seemed as if thousands of blade-like fish were about to engulf them in a sea of swords sure to mince the entire crew.

As Fan Zhong observed he saw Sir Teng charge forth with dagger in hand. Quickly the dagger went to work gliding through the air to slice a fish in half from the side. Teng Liang laughed in joy and as his long thin beard tousled with the roiling wind he pulled a second dagger from the inner folds of his robe. His attacks seemed to double in speed as each hand-worked independently to seek the fish out of the air and bisect them. Fan Zhong stared in amazement as the merchant captain single-handedly held back one of the impossible streams of fish!

Although Sir Teng’s dagger work was excellent, Fan Zhong doubted he could have tracked it only a year ago, he still moved with the speed of a mortal. There should be no way for someone moving at that speed to cut down such a large amount of incoming attacks let alone hold back a continuous stream of them for any period of time. Examining closer Fan Zhong noticed that although the daggers seemed to blur in his vision sometimes, obviously Sir Teng had some skill at using them, but there was something else at play.

Whenever one of the fish was cut down dozens of others seemed to disappear as if they were dissolving into thin air. It was then that he looked over to the other two waves of fish that were attacking his side of the ship to the crew members that were holding the shields. They still stood covering those that worked with the riggings and upon the shields were dozens of cuts. However, on the deck below them lay only a dozen or so fish, not the hundreds Fan Zhong had expected.

With all of these clues, he finally realized what was going on! It was all in the name “Mirage wave” these fish weren’t so numerous as they appeared. Instead, they were using a Water Qi ability akin to Little White’s, but instead of shunting away light, they were reflecting it to create mirror images of themselves. Quickly Fan Zhong thought of how he could determine which of these fish were the real and which were the illusions. Of course, he could always attack all of them but then he would just be swinging wildly, although higher realm martial artists could perhaps overpower this problem with brute force he lacked the physical speed to do so.

Suddenly a memory hit him like a bolt of lightning. It came from a time when his sister was being lectured on the use of illusions. This had been shortly after Fan Jingyi had been accepted as a core disciple of the clan observers and as such was still being trained in theory at home by their mother.

“Remember Little Jingyi, illusions flashy displays but they also aren’t only about subtle changes either. If an opponent sees two of you all he has to do is determine which is the real one and then a technique you spent large amounts of time and energy on is wasted. Neither are small parlor tricks overly effective, observant mortals or those with strong mental techniques will see through slight course alterations in punch kicks, strikes, or even slight color shifts and the like. No illusions are most effective when the two blend seamlessly when the opponent cannot tell if what they are seeing is the cause of a large effect or the product of reality. When subtly and bombast truly coalesce into your illusion arts that is when they will truly shine. Any two-bit illusionist can make it appear as if two of themselves have appeared, a true illusionist would make the opponent question if they had truly somehow duplicated. In the same way, any simple warrior can alter the path of their sword to throw off an opponent, we strive to make the opponent question whether the path of the sword was altered or the senses they have honed over decades have deceived them. This is ideal we set for illusion techniques”

Remembering this Fan Zhong wanted to test the fish, since they were doing something bombastic perhaps they forgot to alter a simple detail that would expose them. Narrowing his eyes he focused on a set of fish and set all of his attention on his mental technique. Within a few seconds Fan Zhong noticed the flaw in these ‘two-bit’ fish illusionists, the clones lacked the subtle twitches and lively movements of the fish.

The true bodies still moved their eyes and bodies like a living creature experiencing outside feelings, like the wind, bodily functions, and the like. Conversely, the mirages were static, only making a menacing expression and angling to put their bladed ridges on a path to cut one of their targets. Having spent a few moments observing them, and knowing what to look for, it became obvious that anyone who had trained in a good quality mental technique should be able to pick out the live fish. Knowing this Fan Zhong understood why the more normal crewmembers simply stood behind large wooden shields while people with training could confidently hold off the jumping fish.

Now that he was calmer Fan Zhong even noticed a few of the crew members had drawn their weapons and were fending for themselves. These crewmen were striking those that lay on the deck and occasionally dashing out from behind the shields to attack some of the fish mid-flight. It seemed not all members of the crew were completely untrained.

A scream from in front of him caught Fan Zhong’s attention and he spun to see a blade fish, what he had chosen to call them for now, that had deflected off the shields of the two crewmen in front of him. In the confusion of the battle, the blade fish had flopped about and gotten behind one of the unlucky men. With a shove, the blade fish had propelled itself back off the deck towards the water and cut a bloody gash in the side of the man’s leg as it dove back into the water.

Many of the fish that landed on the deck and weren’t killed during the flight seemed to be doing the same and almost all of the shield bearers now sported some kind of cut of varying degree.

“Boy, are you here to help or gawk. What am I paying you for? Not to stand around surely.” Teng Liang shouted from the side as he continued to ward off a newly formed stream of attacking blade fish

“ Of course not Sir Teng! I’ll be right there, apologies!” Fan Zhong shouted back, although it had only been a minute or so since they came on deck his cheeks reddened at the embarrassment of forgetting his duty.

“All good on this front good sir, help the men if you don’t mind. I’ll shout if my old rump gets in too deep” Teng Liang shouted back with a chuckle, the jovialness returning to his voice.

Fan Zhong only nodded and sprinted forward to the men in front of him juggling his staff in spinning arcs and occasionally bringing it down on any living blade fish with heaven origin palm techniques when they were within reach. As he ran across the deck Fan Zhong noticed his team scattered across the ship. Fan Shun was on the opposite side of the deck and only visible for fractions of a second, appearing as a black blur of motion after each slight pause.

Each time the older man appeared he was sheathing his short sword with the sheath held vertically in front of himself as dozens of the blade fish fell to the deck, minced into tiny strips. Su Fen was actually on the upper side of the deck near the helm where Sir Teng had originally intended to go before the fighting had distracted him. The older warrior seemed to casually walk along as if he didn’t notice the streams of blade fish appearing to his side, however, his staff spoke a different story.

It moved in a blur around his body in a complex series of contact juggling spins that Fan Zhong couldn’t even comprehend. Su fen seemed to be using shifting palm strikes as the basis of his technique combined with momentum of shifting earth to deliver dozens of the relatively low power techniques to tenderize the blade fish into a pulp before they even neared him. Finally, Fan Zhong neared the crewmen that stood on the same side of the deck as him and Sir Teng, sliding to a halt in front of them as his staff slid into his hands.

With precision, he slid the staff forward on his outstretched off hand in the void gate stance and executed three all things birthed from the origin palm techniques. Using his dominant hand he struck the bottom of his staff while his offhand spun the length of the weapon sending the business end spiraling forward like a lance of spinning destruction. Each time the technique left the target little more than a rain of bloody fish pulp with power to spare to pierce additional targets. This was the technique Fan Zhong had used to kill a full-grown bear during his warrior trial and it felt unique to him as he hadn’t seen many others use the palm techniques in such a spear-like way.

In this instant, he noticed that for weaker foes like the blade fish the technique was overkill so he used the leftover momentum to pull the staff back into the original position. Next, he funneled the remainder into his momentum of shifting earth technique to help power the next strike. Previously Fan Zhong hadn’t been able to do this; however, now that he was more comfortable taking momentum from none full-body movements, such as his contact juggling, the process of transferring the momentum felt almost natural.

Feeling comfortable with this change to his technique he decided to give it his own name “Origin Piercing Palm”. This name felt appropriate as the modification of the simple palm strike turned the staff into a spear-like strike rather than the blunt damage strikes most common in the clan style. Although he was far away from the master realm, Fan Zhong looked forward to the day that he could proudly display this technique to his father during his advancement ceremony, a technique he could call his own.

Such thoughts quickly faded as he executed the technique another dozen times, wincing as one of the blade fish got past his guard drawing a shallow cut across his left shoulder. After this a brief lull ensued as the two streams of fish that were attacking Fan Zhong and the men behind him vanished, falling back into the river. Breathing hard Fan Zhong looked up to see that one of the crew members from below deck had retrieved the wounded shield-bearer behind him and was replaced with a fresh crew member who smiled and nodded at him.

Returning the nod he turned to face the river as the sound of churning waters returned and two waves of water started to rise to deck level. Panic flared through Fan Zhong’s mind as two streams of blade fish fell upon him, earlier he had arrived after one of the streams had begun to falter and only held off the tail end of the assault. Now he was staring down two fresh assaults from these bladed fish and he felt anxiety well up inside of him.

Resolutely he stepped forward and struck with Origin Piercing Palm dozens of times. Slowly as more and more blade fish joined the assault Fan Zhong began to falter. Soon the Origin Piercing Palms stopped coming and he was forced to utilize rapid Shifting Palm techniques. Mortal, heaven, and earth variants were all used in a flurry to deflect the cascade of blade fish.

Unwounded fish parted around him landing on the deck and jumping around sporadically before diving back into the river. Most of them flopped harmlessly over the rails but ever so often one would arc near Fan Zhong causing him another cut. In just a few minutes his martial robes were in tatters and blood ran from the multiple cuts covering him.

“Fool, how could the elders praise someone so reckless!” Fan Zhong heard a voice to his side, unable to recognize it through the pain and battle haze flooding his mind “ Step to the right, earth origin palms sweeping outward attacks!”

A figure came up to his side and took up attacking the left-hand stream of blade fish. What surprised Fan Zhong was that he recognized the newcomer, it was Zi Bao! The other youth used shifting palms to slide into position beside Fan Zhong and then swept low, preparing to execute an upward sweeping earth origin palm technique with his staff as he had commanded Fan Zhong to do. Somehow Fan Zhong found himself falling into the motion as Zi Bao did as if falling into the tempo of a song.

As one they swept out killing three to four blade fish apiece as the stronger origin palm technique put much more force into the attacks than Fan Zhong’s shifting palm strikes had been able to.

“Hmph, at least you can follow instructions. Heaven Origin palm next, make sure to sweep. Follow my lead!” Zi Bao intoned in his normal harsh voice as he contacts juggled his staff into a high position and swept it in a downward sweep to his outside.

Like this, Fan Zhong and Zi bao stood in void gate stance back to back facing outward from one another, a stream of blade fish incoming on each side. Over and over they repeated a loop of outward sweeping strikes using earth origin palm and heaven origin palm techniques. This seemed to go on for an eternity, with the pair moving multiple times to follow where the blade fish were assaulting the ship. Finally, while they were on the upper deck near the helm, where Su fen had originally been, no attack came for a full 10 minutes marking the end of the ‘mirage wave’.

“Ancestors save me your an idiot, if my hands could move I’d pummel you,” Zi Bao said between breaths as he dropped down next to the railing, leaning his back on it “Who in their right mind jumps in front of two streams of mirage carp without using the cover of a shield bearer at all?”

“I…. weren’t we supposed to protect the crew?” Fan Zhong said as he lay sprawled on the deck, ignoring the fish guts covering everything around him as his brow furrowed in confusion

“Keyword crew, they do this all the time and aren’t strangers to mirage carp attacks. This one was larger than most but anyone who has traveled by river ship enough knows to duck behind the shields and attack them once they land, what do you think you are a master or something?” Zi Bao said, exasperation mixed with waning irritation evident in his tone

“Well… Sir Teng met a stream head-on. Surely it isn’t too abnormal?” Fan Zhong replied, his embarrassment rising.

“Again you're missing the key points. One, he took on one stream not two and he’s been sailing this river for at least a decade. Something you’d know if you bothered to talk to any of the crew. I’m not even sure if anything me or you could handle would threaten the man. Of course, that's mainly what the seniors are here for.” Zi Bao replied, most of the usual arrogance and irritation missing from his tone.

Fan Zhong was a bit startled as the other man simply sounded tired, he had never heard such a subdued tone from Zi Bao. He thought the tone sounded much more pleasant on his fellow warrior than the normal anger that seemed to suffuse Zi Bao’s soul.

“Well done junior brothers, rest easy for a few hours. Su Fen and I shall see to Sir Teng’s protection until you're recovered.” Fan Shun shouted from the lower deck giving them an approving nod.

“It must be nice… having this all the time” Zi Bao said quietly under his breath, in a whisper that Fan Zhong could barely hear.

A look of profound sadness and isolation crossed Zi Bao’s face for just a moment before he shook his head and an angry scowl once again fell upon his visage like a mask. Quickly he stood and started walking below deck. Fan Zhong could only stay frozen in place, remembering the pure emotion on his former bully's face.

Seeing that was a stark reminder to him that although trials and tribulations had been thrown at him, everyone else also had their own difficulties. It was one thing to be told such words another to experience it first hand. With a sigh, Fan Zhong looked up as a weight fell on his chest pushing all air from his lungs.

Standing there on top of him was a happy-looking Little white with a fat Mirage Carp held in his mouth. With a small muffled noise, the little wolf dropped the fish on Fan Zhong's chest and made a small cry of triumph, obviously happy with delivering his kill. Smiling Fan Zhong took the mirage carp and threw it off the ship before wrapping Little white in a hug, squirming as he might to dive after the fish, the little wolf was held tight and he stopped after only a small whimpering.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity Fan Zhong stood up and pushed off as much of the fish guts as he could.

“Time to go find Sir Teng Little White, want to come with?” Fan Zhong said while smiling and petting his small companion.

Little White growled slightly at him and gave him a look of faux betrayal. Rolling his eyes Fan Zhong looked around and picked up a mostly intact mirage carp and tossed it to Little White. With a happy sound, the wolf cub caught it and as Fan Zhong started walking away Little White followed along, carrying his prize the whole way.