I rifled through the dead man’s robes, finding a couple of pills I didn’t recognize, a restoration pill that I did, a tightly wound scroll that I pocketed to check out later, and a few qi stones that quickly became mine. I took the restoration pill as well; killing Banisher had eased the discomfort in my stomach, but the burning in my legs hadn’t abated, and I couldn’t afford to keep maintaining Flesh of the Stars anymore. Then, I hefted the corpse and carried it out into the room of cages, where I looked around at the despondent beasts.

“Okay, Sara, which of these things is the strongest?”

My AI guide hesitated briefly. “Judging by pure power levels, probably that golden, horned creature, John,” she said. “However, for what you want, I suggest the one to its left.”

I looked at the monster she indicated and nodded. It was a fearsome-looking thing, with a body like a hyena and a head like a wolverine. I opened its cage, grabbed the corpse, and slid it over to the monster. The creature just lay there, unmoving, staring at the corpse that was just out of its reach. I sighed, walked into the cage, and pushed the body closer to the beast, trying to get it within range of its muzzle.

The monster reacted faster than I could blink. It lunged at me with a roar, and its chains snapped taut, groaning as the thing snarled and gnashed at me. I jumped back reflexively, and the monster strained toward me for a few seconds. When it realized it couldn’t reach me, it turned to the corpse before it. Just as I’d hoped, the beast lashed out with its strong muzzle and seized the body, dragging it back to itself. I watched for a moment; I wasn’t really interested in watching the thing eat Banisher’s body, of course, but I did want to make sure it was well and truly engaged in the process. If it had just taken a single bite and spit the man out, my plan wouldn’t have worked.

Fortunately, it seemed like the former teacher and extreme pervert tasted pretty good, at least based on how the monster tore into him. I backed out, leaving the cage open, then returned to the room where Bai still slept. I took a better look at the young woman; she seemed to be younger than Jing, probably around the same age as Shi Lo. Her face was wider, almost moon-shaped, and her mouth was smaller and more delicate. Her hair was short, but I didn’t know if that was on purpose or a result of the burns she’d suffered earlier in the evening.

She looked incredibly peaceful resting there. I stood for a moment, torn over what to do with her. With Banisher and his students gone, I didn’t know how long it would be before someone came to check on things down here, so leaving her here wasn’t an option. I wasn’t the nicest guy, but I wasn’t going to leave someone strapped to a table to die of thirst. I remembered that kind of thirst from my time in the Afghani prison; I wasn’t going to inflict that on anyone.

I could just unstrap her and let her find her own way out once she woke up, but that plan had several flaws in it. First, I didn’t know what knocked her out and how long she’d stay that way. I was assuming she’d been drugged since she’d have woken up already if she’d just been knocked unconscious. Would she be out for hours? Days? Indefinitely until someone used alchemy to wake her? If that was the case, I might as well just kill her myself and make it less painful for her.

In fact, that would be the fastest and easiest solution. I could kill her without any real effort, then toss her body to the beasts as I had Banisher’s. It might be doing her a favor, considering what had been done to her. I didn’t know. I didn’t have a problem with killing someone while they slept, of course – that was the best way to kill someone in my last job because sleeping people rarely fought back or raised an alarm. At the same time, she wasn’t a mark. She was a victim, a girl who’d had things done to her against her will. She hadn’t volunteered or asked for any of this, and from the sound of it, what Banisher did to her basically ended her life at the school. Once Strider or whoever she worked for realized the girl lived, they’d stick her in that camp the woman mentioned, and that would be it for her.

In my other life, I wasn’t a hero in the slightest. I wasn’t a savior or a protector or whatever. When I went after the right marks, I could think of myself as a sort of avenging angel, and that was the best thing I could say about myself. I came along after the fact, after the deed was done, and punished the people who did it. That probably didn’t do much to help the victims, but I hoped that it at least gave them closure.

The simple fact was, in my whole life, I’d never really helped anyone. I’d never looked for the scum that did things like what had been done to Bai and stopped them. I’d even watched assaults happen once or twice because it wasn’t a good time to kill the mark, and timing was crucial in my old life. Today, though, I’d acted. I could have let Banisher do what he wanted and killed him after – or even during, when he’d definitely have been distracted. I hadn’t; I’d taken a chance and done something to stop the man from completing the violation he’d already begun.

Maybe…maybe that could be part of this new life. Maybe in this new life, I could act instead of reacting, try to stop this sort of thing before it happened. If that was what I wanted to do, though, then my choice was clear. I had to try and save Bai Ren, and that meant I needed to find the tunnel that Strider was talking about before.

A door stood opposite the one I’d used to enter this room. It looked like whoever built it had made it a bit too big for the frame, and it was wedged closed pretty tightly. I yanked it open with a minor effort and looked inside. I immediately wished I hadn’t, as the stench of rotting meat, shit, and bile hit me hard enough to make my eyes water. I clamped my mouth shut; the funk was strong enough that I could actually taste it. The room was dark, without any of the torches that lit the rest of this underground complex, but I supposed that made sense. None of the miasma filling the room had made it out, which meant the oversized door had to be close to airtight. I knew that people could use fire qi to make flames in this world, but I wasn’t sure if those could burn without oxygen, and a fire in the room would have sucked the air out fairly quickly.

I channeled qi to my hand, and it lit up once more, shedding a clear light across what I could only call a slaughterhouse. Mounds of torn flesh lined the walls. Someone had stacked piles of bodies neatly all along the room’s periphery. The corpses were badly decayed, but they all showed signs of mutilation. Most of the bodies were those of beasts, but a few human cadavers were stuck in the midst of that gory abattoir.

I slammed the door shut as I realized the room was a dead end. It had to be, for the stench to build up that way. Still, Strider had mentioned a tunnel, so there had to be one around somewhere. I leaned back against the crates, thinking furiously.

If I were a mad scientist, and I had a secret escape tunnel, where would I put it? Somewhere close by, obviously. I would want to be able to bring captives and creatures into my lair without being seen. I frowned as I looked at the door separating the operating room from the one with the cages. There was an interesting question. How did they get the beasts into the room beyond? The door here was too small, as was the metal door I used to enter in the first place. Either they’d brought the monster in here as babies or cubs or whatever the hell young monsters were called and let them grow up, or…

Once I knew what I was looking for, it only took me a few minutes to find the large door hidden in the other room. The door’s seams were thin enough that I’d overlooked them earlier. Of course, it didn’t help that I’d focused on the creature chained in the cage instead of the wall behind it. You know, for obvious reasons. At the same time, I should have noticed that this one cage was larger than all the others, and the beast inside it was chained up in a corner, not in the middle of the cage the way the others were.

Once I’d found the door, opening it was easy. It wasn’t locked or secured in any way; my guess was that whoever used it relied on secrecy instead of security to safeguard it. Or, I supposed, there might be more of the statues waiting in the tunnels for me. I really hoped that wasn’t the case because I couldn’t handle another water-ranked statue at that point.

It was pretty easy to unstrap Bai and heft her up onto my shoulders in a fireman’s carry. What was difficult was doing it without feeling like a creep since the young woman was naked and everything. I eventually got her situated in a way that was, if not exactly okay, at least less weird than any other position, then took her through the hidden door and into the tunnel beyond, kicking the door shut behind me.

The tunnel was dark and unlit, and I was forced to channel more of my vanishing celestial qi up into my forehead to illuminate the path ahead. This tunnel wasn’t as smooth as the ones I’d been walking through, but it was much larger, easily big enough for someone to bring those beasts in the cages through. The walls and ceiling looked almost natural, and the tunnel weaved and bent only slightly as I walked through it. The more time passed, the more I felt that I was walking through what had once been an underground river or stream of some sort.

An hour later, Bai still slumbered on my shoulders. Her breathing hadn’t changed in the slightest; she hadn’t shifted or moved once. The tunnel began to descend, and the walls darkened as if they were wet. I move close and examined one; they glistened beneath my impromptu headlamp, and when I touched the stone, my fingers came away damp. We’d gone deep enough to be below the water table, it seemed, but not deep enough for the water to flood the tunnel or even form stalactites or stalagmites.

The tunnel curved gently for a while, and suddenly, I felt a shiver run through me. My skin tingled, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I looked around, wondering if something lived in the tunnel and was watching me, and as I did, I saw an odd shimmer in the air. I turned to gaze at it, but it vanished the moment I stared at it directly. I shifted my head to the side a bit, and I could just see it out of the corner of my vision.

“Sara, is that…?”

“The barrier surrounding the City of the Sunrise Moon, yes. This tunnel seems to lead out of the city, John.”

I looked around at the barrier. “Is it just me, or did the barrier do a really bad job of stopping me? Isn’t that what it’s supposed to do?”

Sara appeared in the tunnel beside me, her face creased with a frown. “Yes, it is, but the energy level of it down here is ridiculously low. I think – I think that the city’s masters don’t know this tunnel exists, John.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because if they did, they’d make sure the barrier was stronger here, if anything, don’t you think? I think the little bit of barrier that is here is just…runoff from the main one. It spilled into the tunnel, but it’s too weak to do anything but tingle as you go through it.”

“Well, that can’t be a good thing for the city,” I sighed. “If the beasts found this, they could have a field day up there.” I paused. “And since they haven’t done that, I’m thinking that something stops them from getting inside.”

“That’s what I’m thinking, as well. The exit to this tunnel might be guarded, John.”

I sighed. “Well, if it is, we’ll deal with it when we get there. Hopefully, at least.”

I trudged through the descending tunnel for another fifteen minutes before I stopped, taking a deep breath. Suddenly, the air of the tunnel felt…brighter, somehow. The atmosphere seemed cleaner, as if something unhealthy had just been purged from it. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation, and as I did, I noticed something interesting. My qi pool was slowly starting to refill.

“That’s what you’re sensing, John. It’s not better air; there’s celestial qi coming from up ahead. The tunnel must open up fairly soon.”

“Well, no reason to rush,” I thought, standing there and enjoying the feeling of qi easing back into my body. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it until it stopped coming in. The sensation of having qi accessible was – well, it felt like finally being able to take a deep breath after holding it for a long time.

“It’ll be even stronger outside, you know,” Sara reminded me.

“Yes, but if the exit is guarded, having more qi might be important. A good fight might wipe me out right now, Sara.”

“Good point.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t take too long,” I thought with a mental grin. “I know how impatient you get.”

“Yes, that’s me. Rush, rush, rush,” she laughed in reply.

I stood still for a few minutes, just soaking in the qi and watching my pool slowly refill. The energy poured into my cultivation spiral, where it was cleansed and processed before sinking into my pressurized dantian. Once I was sure that my cultivation was active again, I opened my eyes and began walking once more, moving more cautiously than I had been and dimming my makeshift headlamp until I could barely see. I had to assume the tunnel ahead was guarded, and if the guards were powerful or outnumbered me, surprise might be my only advantage.

I rounded a bend, and the tunnel’s end loomed before me. The entrance was nothing more than a lighter darkness against the blackness of the tunnel, but the few stars peeking into the passage gave me enough light to see by. I turned off my lamp and moved even more cautiously forward, my ears straining to catch any sound. As I neared the exit, I lowered Bai’s still form to the ground; it wouldn’t do for me to be caught in a fight with her on my back. I slipped cautiously to the edge and peered out, quartering the space and checking every direction before gazing silently at the sight before me.

The tunnel came out in the middle of a cliff face that overlooked the ocean. Someone had cut a ramp of sorts into the cliff, one that led down toward a narrow strip of pale land that I thought might be a dark sand or gravel beach and up to the top of the cliff face. The strand below us had people on it; I could see the campfires gleaming against the dark beach. That was probably the camp Strider had been talking about. I couldn’t see anything above me, but I assumed that path led back toward the city.

More pressing was the pair of figures standing just outside the tunnel entrance. They were dressed in the normal brown and orange Earthly Fires robes, and they stood looking outward, staring into the distance. Neither looked around; they both looked bored and unhappy to be standing there. That was certainly an advantage – security that is tired of doing their job is always the easiest to defeat – but the fact that there were two of them, and that both had four stripes on their robes, signaling that they were probably advanced students was much less encouraging.

I slipped back into the tunnel noiselessly and hefted Bai once more, carrying her back into the passage until we were out of sight of the exit. I stood for a few seconds, weighing my options. Attacking the two of them was a possibility, but it was probably a bad idea. I would have to put them down quickly and silently, without their having a chance to raise an alarm. A battle of any kind would rouse the camp below and might alert anyone up above that something was wrong. I didn’t need a dozen or so people coming to investigate.

I glanced down at my own robe. It only had one stripe, which I thought meant it belonged to a beginner student. I smiled grimly. Perhaps I didn’t even need to fight at all. If I killed those students, they’d eventually be missed. The longer I could go without raising an alarm, the safer I would be. I took a deep breath, hoisted Bai back onto my shoulders, and strode forward confidently. That’s a key thing when you’re somewhere you don’t actually belong; act like you really do belong. Most people don’t really want to cause a confrontation – especially bored security guards who don’t want to be there in the first place.

The pair reacted as I’d expected when I stepped out of the tunnel. They didn’t whirl around, move to block me, or demand a password. They simply looked me up and down, and the one on my left spoke in a bored, tired voice.

“Another creation?” the man asked.

“Yes,” I replied with a bow of my head. I was supposed to be a lesser student, after all. “My teacher, Banisher of Waves, has instructed me to take…”

The man waved his hand at me, his face annoyed. “Yes, you must take her to the encampment below.”

I shook my head; that wouldn’t suit my purposes. I could keep up this charade if I had, but without more information about how the school worked, at some point I’d make a mistake. Plus, giving Bai to the people down there probably wouldn’t be doing her any favors.

“Forgive me, but this one was a failure, one that Banisher of Waves does not wish to see again. He instructed me to take her to the top of the cliff and leave her for the beasts that prowl outside the city.” I kept my head low as I spoke and used the most respectful tone I could dredge up. Hopefully, these two were so apathetic that they didn’t care what my orders were, so long as I left them alone.

“Then you must obey those instructions,” the man to my right said nonchalantly. “Even though they will likely lead to your becoming food for the beasts, as well.” The man laughed darkly as he spoke, and I forced a look of fear to cross my face.

“But – surely, my teacher would not send me on such a dangerous errand,” I protested falsely. From what little I saw of Banisher of Waves, he absolutely would do that sort of thing. Apparently, the students beside me agreed. At least, based on their level of amusement, they did.

“Foolish one,” the one on my left laughed, “no teacher would send a student of the Tenth Circle into the wilds surrounding the city!”

“Unless they wished that student gone,” the other added with equal delight before shooing me with his hand. “Run along to your errand, little student. Perhaps we will see you after its conclusion – but I greatly doubt it.”

I kept the look of panic on my face and looked a bit frantically at the pair. I glanced back down the tunnel as if contemplating returning, then sighed dramatically and turned to trudge up the steep ramp that led to the top of the cliff. As I did, I suppressed my delight. This had gone better than I could have hoped, but I couldn’t dwell on that. I needed to stay in character as a poor student sent to his doom by a harsh master. If my steps suddenly became lighter, the guards behind me – who were no doubt watching with delight – might become suspicious. I forced myself to keep my head down and march slowly upward, dragging my feet as I went.

At last, I crested the top of the cliff and moved out of sight of my guards. The ramp came out in a lightly wooded area. I knew the city had to be nearby, but in the darkness and through the trees, I couldn’t see any signs of civilization. I supposed that was probably purposeful; if the Earthly Fires school wanted to keep their tunnel a secret, they’d have made sure their ramp came up out of sight of the city. So long as they didn’t use it during the daytime and kept an eye out for patrols or random people walking by, they could probably keep this place secure without a lot of effort.

I pushed through the trees, carrying Bai on my shoulders, my senses on high alert. The guards below seemed to think that there were monsters all over the place up here; at least, they expected that I’d be eaten by one. One the one hand, that was great, because it meant when I didn’t return, they wouldn’t get suspicious or come looking for me. On the other hand, I wasn’t really excited about fighting creatures while trying to protect the unconscious Bai.

As I moved through the thin woods, I felt the familiar prickling sensation along the back of my neck. The feeling moved down into my shoulders and spread out along my back, telling me that I was being watched. I stopped and looked around, but between the darkness and the trees overhead, I couldn’t see anything. I was tempted to generate a light, but I held off; light could be seen from much farther off that it could illuminate anything. I channeled qi into my body, keeping it ready, and resumed my trek through the forest.

The feeling of being watched never faded, but after five minutes or so, I stepped out of the forest and into a field of low grass. The moment I left the trees, I felt a rush of cool energy wash over me and glanced up at the sky. The moon hung high above the horizon, bathing me in its silver light, and I stood for a moment, absorbing the energy and enjoying its soothing radiance. My qi pool was refilling, slowly but steadily, and I took a deep breath as a stress I hadn’t even known was there melted from my shoulders.

Most people think that getting into a guarded and secure location is the hard and dangerous part. That’s the part the show in the movies; the hero sneaks into the defended base, does whatever they’re supposed to do, and then somehow just walks back out. The thing is, getting out is just as dangerous as getting in, and most of the time, it’s even worse. When you’re going into a secure location, people are watching for a possible threat. Their vision is mostly turned outwards, so once you get past that initial cordon, things become much easier.

Once you’ve done whatever you’re there to do, though, you’re dealing with people actively hunting a known threat. Every eye is turned inward, and you have to escape through a shitload of active and passive surveillance all hunting you, specifically. Plus, it’s much harder to stay in control once the job is done. Your adrenaline is high, and you can practically taste freedom just beyond the final wall of security. That makes you want to rush; there’s a sense that if you can just run out, you’ll be safe and in the clear. Of course, that’s not true – running out will just get you shot in the back – but it’s a powerful temptation. That’s why you hear a lot more about assassins and murderers being caught after killing someone, rather than on their way to commit the act. Well, that and the fact that stories where someone died make for better headlines…

I grunted as something heavy slammed into my back, knocking me forward. Sharp pain seared my back and shoulders, and I let go of Bai reflexively as I dropped my shoulder and turned my fall into a roll to my feet. I spun as a large, dark shape swarmed toward me, all fur and teeth and claws snapping at my flesh. The creature lunged at me, and I danced to the side. It reversed direction quickly, far too quickly for me to adapt, and it leaped on me, knocking me onto my back. I brought my feet up by instinct, keeping the thing off me, and lifted my arms to block its flailing claws, but it was bigger, heavier, and stronger than I was. Plus, it had claws, front and back, and it used those to shred the skin of my arms and legs. My still-burned legs exploded in agony, and I almost jerked them back, but I managed to push away that reflex. That would have been a disaster; only the fact that the creature couldn’t reach anything vital on me kept me alive.

Instead, I pushed with one foot, grunting and shoving as I lifted the beast slightly. It only shifted a couple inches, but that was enough to let me swing my other foot up and over the monster’s shoulder. I grabbed a flailing arm, tucking it under my armpit against my chest and locking it in place, then swept the other foot up into a classic triangle lock. The beast collapsed toward me, but I twisted as it did, and it landed hard on its face on the ground. It began to scramble back to its feet, but I yanked and twisted on its trapped arm, jamming the elbow against my ribs and using the strength of my entire upper body to hyperextend it. The monster roared as its elbow flexed, then shattered with a loud crack of breaking bone. It dropped to its chest again, and I used the moment to clamber onto the thing’s back. It snarled and snapped as I wedged my arm beneath its chin, and it flung itself backward, trying to dislodge me. I grunted as its weight slammed my back into the ground but merely tightened my grip around its neck.

The monster rolled again, freeing me from being pinned, and I used the moment to take my free fist and slam it down into the back of the beast’s neck. I did it a second time, then hesitated; once again, I was forgetting about my techniques. I concentrated, pulling up some wood qi and circling it into my arm. The monster howled as wooden spikes shot out of my skin and plunged into its throat. At the same time, I placed the palm of my free hand on the back of the thing’s head and moved celestial qi into it. The beast jerked as a blast of barely visible light shot into its skull, cooking the brain within. Blood poured from its throat to coat the arm wrapped around it, and its thrashing slowly stilled beneath me as it died.

I let go of the monster and rolled off, landing on my back with a sigh and a hiss. Before I could get comfortable, another growl rumbled in my ears, and I shot to my feet in a crouch. I glanced around, looking for the source, and saw a second monster, smaller than the first, crouched at the edge of the forest. The thing had one of Bai’s arms in its grip, and it dragged the woman slowly toward the trees, eyeing me as it did.

I’ll admit, I was tempted to let it have her. She wasn’t waking up, and I had no idea how long she’d be out. For all I knew, when she awoke, she’d be furious with me for taking her from the school, and she might even attack me. Even if she didn’t, would she want to live with what had been done to her? Lots of potential problems, and here was a simple solution. I sighed. Being heroic was a lot more complicated than being an asshole.