Between Nastasia and this self-proclaimed greatest spear, Hui Se Ying set himself as he faced the latter while blocking the former from view. "I see," he murmured. Though this Mao claimed it, he could feel the truth of it.

This spirit was an old one.

The accumulated spirit energy within his vessel was far greater than Hui Se Ying's own. If they were forced into a head to head battle, though he'd fare well for a bit, he would surely lose in the end.

Mustn't let him see that, he thought as he drew his posture up with an air of confidence. "Your master having such a great spear, I wonder just who he could be?" Of course, he was merely asking for the sake of distraction. What good subordinate would toss his master's name about without a care?

However that was the case, the reaction of this spirit, who wanted to be addressed as Mao, was far from what he expected. None the less, it was welcome. It made it easier to distract his mind from Hui Se Ying's slight of hand.

The spirit, called Mao, darted his almond-shaped eyes about and laughed with a forced joviality that was quite painful to look at. "My master is so great that all names pale in comparison to him. He's so great that it would a blaspheme to give him a name that any other person could have possibly used, so he doesn't have one." He laughed again, this time it was confident and overbearing. "Yup, that's how great master is!"

Raising a brow in question, Hui Se Ying's lips arched in a mocking fleer. "Oh, so you're your master's greatest spear, yet he doesn't trust you enough to share his name with you? Hmm, but I suppose not everyone can be as close as I with their master."

The hands that had been placed behind his back moved, fingers flexing as they gathered a red energy in his palm. The energy, as it gathered, heated up into a rapidly growing flame.

Mao stomped his foot, his sharp-featured face twisting malevolently with his anger. He tossed a pointed finger in Hui Se Ying's direction as he raged hotly. "I am my master's favorite! His most important! I'm the one he calls for his most special missions." He then ground out word by word. "I-told-you-he-doesn't-have-a-name! If he did I would certainly be the one he tol-"

The energy Hui Se Ying required to condense a fireball in the palm of his hand, with enough heat to incinerate even bones on contact, had been amassed. It was something that shouldn't have gone unnoticed, especially by a spirit as strong as Mao.

Hence his need to distract him.

It was good that Mao was both childish and proud, easily falling prey to such silly words. Having achieved his goal, Hui Se Ying threw the ball of fire toward the ice at their feet, covering a wide range of ground. The extreme heat suddenly meeting with extreme cold caused a thick rush of misted air to blanket everything from sight.

Hui Se Ying wasted no time in rushing toward Nastasia after throwing out the fireball. Scooping her up, he gave it his all to flee far enough from the area that the spirit, Mao, would have difficulty in tracking them. As he fled, Hui Se Ying made sure to leave as little presence as he could in his escape.

If Mao was able to track them down from the near nonexistent traces left, then he was way beyond Hui Se Ying's first impression of his strength. If this was the case then, although he would give it his best to hold out, Hui Se Ying didn't have the confidence to fend the spirit off, while protecting Nastasia, until the others arrived.

He ran for a good hour, his path a bunch of zigzagging lines as he changed direction periodically, hoping to throw off his possible pursuer with his disjointed run. Eventually, he found his way to the side of a mountain. There was a cave carved out at the side of it, hidden behind a close cluster of ice bushes and ice trees.

As there was no sign of being chased, Hui Se Ying felt it safe enough to stay at the cave for the time being. Not once did Nastasia rouse from her unconscious state and her body burned with fever. He understood that it was an effect of being bitten by the Shaqi.

Although he wasn't a doctor, Lu Se Ying always made them carry energy cleansing pills. While he couldn't be sure if a pill tailored toward cleansing his energy of vitality poisoning from the mortal realm would help in any way, he was determined to try it.

She couldn't be left this way, with such a burning fever. Though he wasn't a doctor, Hui Se Ying understood it wasn't good to leave a fever unchecked. Especially one that felt it would melt flesh on contact.

Luckily he had a skin of water on hand before the unfortunate night attack had befallen them.

Taking off his outer robe, hoping that it would make the icy ground a bit warmer, he laid Nastasia out across it. Uncapping the skin, he pressed the pill past her smooth, pink lips before filling her mouth with water to help it go down.

Being that she was unconscious and couldn't swallow down the pill or water on her own, Hui Se Ying used his finger to help massage it down her throat to her stomach. Satisfied that he managed to make the medicine to go down without having to resort to tactics his master would kill him over, he capped the water skin and shoved it into the folds of his inner robe.

Looking at the soft, pink lips that were wet with the water he poured, he had to admit that he felt tempted to go for it. Especially when he imagined his master's insanely jealous expression after getting wind of the matter. He almost felt the brush with death would be worth it just to see his master in such a way.

However, his master's woman was someone he would never touch.

Worried that the water, in this cold climate, would make her situation worse Hui Se Ying used his sleeve to wipe her lips, chin, and neck dry. After that, there was nothing left to do but to watch and wait for the medicine to take effect.

If it would take effect.

Hui Se Ying wasn't a doctor and had very little understanding of how to care for the ill and injured, but he had witnessed Lu Se Ying on more than one occasion. He could mimic and follow along with the steps he remembered, but that was all he could do. If the things he knew didn't work, then he could only hope Nastasia would be able to hold out until he got them to the teleportation array of the Ice Forest.

As his eyes traced over her tragic form, helplessly, his sight was immediately drawn to the blooming red on her shoulder. After seeing it, he couldn't bring himself to ignore it. So, though it felt improper, as this was his master's woman, he still pulled back the top part of her robe to reveal her delicate collarbone. The creamy white flesh was bedewed in blood and sported a horrific serrated bite mark.

With nothing available to bandage it, Hui Se Ying could only clean the wound using melted ice and the handkerchief he pulled from her person. Taking the extra cloth that was held in place by a sash around her waist to dangle pleasantly downward, he slashed it to use it to bandage the wound after taking a portion of it to staunch the bleeding.

The sheer material was quickly and easily soaked, but it would have to do.

Pulling her robe up and over her shoulder, he righted her clothes to look proper. Satisfied, he reached a hand over to find that her skin was still burning. Her hair was becoming slick with her sweat. Taking a moment to consider his next move there was a vague memory that surfaced from a time before his death.

He remembered a time from when he was delirious with fever. There was someone who had covered him and kept him warm, saying it was necessary to burn through the fever. Thus, he jumped on it. Before leaving the cave to find sticks for a campfire, he wrapped the girl in his inner robe.

Being that his element was fire, he wouldn't easily fall prey to the cold of the Ice Forest.

As he left, he murmured. "Pull through this, okay? For master. And, don't get worse while I'm gone."

-----------

With a wave of a hand, the mists cleared and Mao was able to see around him. Unfortunately, the spirit and the mistakenly grabbed girl were nowhere to be found. Snorting, Mao turned to leave. He'd rather face his master's punishment than to chase after unnecessary prey.

That thought in mind, he headed toward where he recalled Tongchu having a research lab in the Ice Forest. Master had a tendency to widdle his time away there.

Ah, he was so jealous. As he walked along in the direction he remembered he couldn't help hoping that he wouldn't find master there.