Two scouts crested the cliif, huffing and puffing. Ki No and Ah Le really didn’t slow down. The magnificent view ahead of them, to include the evergreen forest on the edge of the frozen desert.

“They’re really putting us through our paces,” the first one said

The second one caught his breath, a thick layer of sweat coming off his head.

“The rock beasts might slow them down,” the first one said, dropping his pack, and taking a seat.

It felt like home, as cold aura in the air drew into his core.

“I can only hope,” the second one said as his rucksack hit the ground heavily. The puff of snow didn’t go far, and over the sound of the rock beasts throwing boulders, it didn’t account for much.

“At least they decided to give us a show.”

Sand kicked up around the two scouts far below and ahead of them.

“Dang it.”

***

“This one was probably the leader!”

“You’re probably right!” Ah Le said, as the siblings sprinted all out towards the edge of the desert.

The rock demon had taken the opportunity of the sand cover to pull out parts of it’s fallen comrades. It was now following them on all fours, like a giant rock dog. A giant rock mouth had formed where the dogs head would be and it snapped at them as it cleared the sand.

“The trees will make it stop, right?” Ki No said, his voice wavering.

“Erm…”

“Ah Le!”

Then she saw the two small cultivators on top of the cliff, hundreds of meters above. The other scouts were a beacon of concentrated qi where the rest of the aura around them was dispersed evenly.

“That way!” She said, pointing up to the sheer cliff face and up.

Should they catch the hint, they might start moving backwards or moving to the side. Third realm cutivators wouldn’t be worth beans against the might of this beast.

The bright green trees, a welcome sight drew closer and with one giant leap, they were jumping from treetop to treetop.

A sickening crunch caused Ah Le to look behind herself. This was not good.

“Dodge!” She said, jumping left as Ki No went right, their normal procedure to confuse an enemy. A thirty meter tall pine tree passed in the area where she and her brother had been moments before.

Each time the beast threw something, it had to slow down, so she took a quick stock of the battle. Rather than being slowed down by the trees, it seemed to flow around them in quick succession.

The problem with giant rock dogs, besides them uprooting and throwing trees at you, was that one couldn’t pet them. Also it would be very difficult to play a game of fetch. Ah Le knew in her heart that it wasn’t a pressing problem, and that complaining about not being able to pet or play fetch with a thirty meter tall beast wasn’t the best use of her time, but a girl could dream. She did briefly consider what it would take to harness her qi and bond with such a creature. It would be nice if they could capture and tame such a beast, and her brother would be insanely jealous of that. But the two pine trees thrown in quick succession, and accurately was proving to be a bigger issue than she’d ever thought possible.

Three pine trees were thrown with such force that they were impaled halfway into the cliff. Two others splashed wood fragments around it.

“Use the trees!” She tried yelling to her brother, but he was already on it.

Ki No jumped, using the new tree platforms as a spring to jump higher, reaching the top of the cliff.

The rock dog now focused all of it’s ire on her and for the first time, she was at a loss.

“Er… good doggy?” She said, underneath another tree that went wide.

The throws were getting more accurate and as she cleared the empty patch of about a hundred meters between the cliff face and the end of the forest, she saw that she was about to get hit by one.

Ah Le pulled out her shortspear, venting qi to strike down the tree. Her spear sent it twirling end over end as she used the force to move back to find a spot on the sheer side of the mountain.

That was when a giant rock jaw missed her by inches.

“Ay ya!”

She stuck her long spear, pointy end into the wall. The rock dog growled, something guttural and earthy at her.

Ah Le bounced off the long spear, using it’s motion to jump all the way to within a few meters of the top. One of the third realm cultivators lowered himself down. Grabbing an arm, he heaved her over his head and then climbed backup after them.

“There. That should do it,” she said, looking down.

The helpful scout reached the top and she grabbed his arm, reversing the favor as she pulled him easily over the edge.

“You’d think that wouldn’t you?” Ki No said, peering over.

“‘Oh no,” the other third realm cultivator said, gasping. Ah Le tried to remember his name. It was Ka Ru or something, right? She’d ask him later if they survived. And they were going to survive. At least that is what she thought until she looked over the wall and the pit of her stomach met with her lizard brain.

Ah Le heaved, throwing up bile and her stomach contents.

The dog, unbothered by gravity had started climbing up the wall. And it was gaining speed.

“Circle up, quick!” she said.

She could easily see that the two had been cultivating while they waited and she needed that precious resource. They needed it now. Judging by how quickly the dog had adjusted to it’s new situation they might have a minute.

Four cultivators all drew in qi, cycling inside their cores and dantians, two empty, two nearly full cores in the small circle. AhLe could sense the cold aura and mixed that in, gathering it and transforming it as the circle moved faster.

One of the siblings would need to lead, and she would be cursed it she let her brother do it. His strong will might not let her lead,but it was certain that they would need to work together on this. There was too much at stake.

Ki No also seemed to accept it, and as the circle drained the two third realm cultivators, she tried to give them a sense of what they needed to do.

The crunchy stomping of the rock on rock shook their circle, as she reached for every drop of cold and ice aura. Already she felt her core nearly halfway full, and the third realms cultivators looked spent.

It would have to do.

A rock appendage reach close enough to the top that the group shook.

“Go!” she said, as the two cultivators grabbed their packs and started running away from the battle.

“Would it be too much for me to ask you to distract it?”

“This one said that he would get three,” Ki No said, his face a mask of chilly resolve.

A rock protuberance reached over the edge swiping at them. The siblings deftly jumped up and back, landing gracefully on the closest tree. The swipe downed at least five trees in front or them.

“Let the best sibling win, then,” she said, pushing our a large portion of qi as she shaped a buffeting snow blast to push the rock dog back, “Let’s see you ignore gravity now!”

Qi rushed through her meridians to her palms as the directed the technique from her core to the beast. It crested over the edge, looking for them with blank dead eyes. It knew where to find them, probably through some tremor sense, she figured.

Ah Le blasted a snow blast the size of a house into the rock beast. For one second it stayed put, suspended in air until gravity caught up with the reality of the situation. Ah Le decided it would be better to save any laughs until she was certain of her safety, but Ki No rushed in.

Now understanding it’s predicament, the beast reached out with all of it’s appendages trying to grab onto the cliff.

Ki No, as usual, had no chill as he positioned himself on top of the beast, pointing his spear down as his hang time brought him just above the beast.

The sheer amount of qi he pushed into his downward thrust flattened all of the trees around her and as she watched in horror, he connected with the beast.

Gravity finally caught up to them as Ki No and the beast plummeted to the ground.

“Oh no! Brother!” She said, getting up. She ran to the edge, and then over it, skipping along the little ledges as she hopped lightly.

Before she was halfway down, the cloud of pines, sand and snow choked out the sun and she was surrounded by darkness.

Ah Le reached out with her spiritual senses, jumping from impaled tree to impalled tree on the side of the cliff.

“No no no!” she said, skipping down.

The cloud of debris kicked up almost to the top of the cliff, not that she could tell from her vantage point.

She ran, propelled by gravity and an impending sense of doom. It would be just like him to try some heroic stunt to save her and she was having none of it.

A wave of qi pushed the debris out, a shockwave cleared the area and below her, she saw a clean circle, approximately two meters wide with a grinning jerkface brother.

“That’s still only one!” she yelled at him.

“Pardon, but it’s hard to hear over how excellent that heavy drop was!” He yelled back.

“Stupid jerkface brother,” she said, landing on the remains of a truly large beast. The writhing remains that she was happy to be done with, “We probably need to cultivate a bunch now, huh?”

“You think? This one thought that Senior Sisters were supposed to be smart!” He yelled back.

She nearly clocked him with her fist, her relief at seeing him back was so strong, but she held firm. He would get what was coming to him.

***

The four scouts took turns gathering qi for six hours before they moved. One was always on watch, and still with neary empty cores and stressed meridians, they ran onwards. Advancing across the sand dunes, they crossed to see the beginning of the town they had just saved.

Each of them held back, as it was going to take more than a day to replace what they’d spent as a group. It was either that or deplete their qi pills immediately.

“We’ve just got to persuade them that there is no honor in being crushed by the divine beasts feet.”

“Or it’s massive qi pressure,” her brother said.

“Or that,” she said, as they stopped running a kilometer away from the town. They found it was best to not run into a village, so as to not scare the regular folk that lived there. At least that’s what they were told to do, and they stuck to it.

Ah Le didn’t know the town, it was too far to the northeast, hundreds of kilometers, and weeks of travels for mundane folk, so there had to be some pressing reason that the locals stayed here.

When the first huts came into view, though, she understood.