“How are you feeling, Xinyi?”

I had recovered enough that I was being sent home, but Xinyi’s internal injuries were a bit more severe, so she was still hospitalized. She would make a full recovery, they said, and since the doctors here possessed Skills that allowed them to heal others in some way, there was no reason not to believe them.

“I still can’t move very well, but the pain is better since yesterday… t-thanks for coming to visit.” she replied, a noticeable strain in her voice. I probably shouldn’t stay too long, since she needed to rest. She gave me a weak smile to try and reassure me she was alright. “I’m sorry for… causing so much trouble…”

I looked down at my splinted right arm, and one prevailing thought entered my mind.

“It was a small price to pay.” I responded, patting my arm with my off hand. “Next time, let’s not get in a fight with a legendary assassin.”

“N-Next time?” she looked kind of confused by my statement, maybe she expected me to abandon her after this, as if it was her fault.

“Do you not want to go out with me again, when you get released from here?”

“I-I do!”

I smiled and turned around, heading for the door. As I placed my hand on the door handle, I looked back to her and winked at her.

“It’s a date.”

She blushed and hid behind one of her pillows, and I entered the hallway. It had been about two weeks of being cooped up in here, so I was really looking forward to getting out. I still couldn’t resume my normal life, but my arm wouldn’t heal any faster if I stayed here, the limits of the doctor’s Skills had been reached already.

Now it was up to my body to finish the job, but if I increased my daily Chi cultivation routine, I would be healed in no time.

I passed my nurse, Fan Shu. She mimicked an obscene act with her hand and mouth in my direction as I walked by her. I increased my pace.

The brightness of the sun stung my eyes as I exited the drab imperial hospital. I looked around, but I saw no sign of my mother anywhere, I was sure she would be here to pick me up, considering how concerned she got about me if I so much as stubbed my toe.

But considering the assassin in the royal palace, it was possible she was forced back into a more prominent role as a swordsman. I’m sure the emperor himself had requested her attention, as that was really the only thing that would have kept her away from me.

In her place was a very unlikely pair of my acquaintances. My somewhat estranged friend Lei stood against a sign post, waving to me as I came out.

“I hope the other guy looks worse than you do.”

“The other guy is dead, and…” I slapped the split on my arm. “They wouldn’t be needing one of these anymore either.”

Now, Lei and I had been friends for a long time, so I never expected him to stay distant from me. Him showing up to my discharge from the hospital was somewhat normal, finding out I was badly injured in a fight with an assassin would likely have made him forget being mad at me for lying to him.

But the person with him was shocking to say the least. To both be here, waiting for me, but also to have arrived with Lei, as they stood together.

Jin Chun, arms crossed, looked me up and down. He let out a “hrrmph” and remained silent after that. I’m not sure what her purpose in coming here was, did he come here to laugh at me?

“...”

An awkward silence fell between the three of us. I stood there, looking at Jin for any sign of hostility, but he remained as still as a statue.

“When that arm heals… I want a rematch.” Jin finally spoke, directing his words straight at me.

“What a pain…” I respond with my normal additude, and for some reason, Jin smirked.

“You really are fine, huh? Good, if you died on me before I regained my honor, what would I do then?”

I suppose this was the nicest thing I would get out of Jin. Frankly, it made me uncomfortable to see him not acting antagonistic to me. Perhaps losing to someone he thought was powerless has made him rethink his attitude. I wasn’t about to forget the years of him being a huge jackass though, and it isn’t like he became a saint or anything.

It seemed we were heading in the same direction, as Jin walked shortly ahead of Lei and I along the same road. The whole way, Lei was babbling something about nurses, but I had tuned him out, merely pretending to respond with some “hmms” and “mms” every few seconds.

“So this is the prodigy who killed Xie Jie? Doesn’t look like much, does he, Xuefeng?” A deep, menacing voice I didn’t recognize cut through Lei’s inane chatter, and I froze in place.

“I wouldn’t know, Honon.” replied another unknown voice from behind me. “Besides, wasn’t it the Platinum Knight that killed him?”

“True enough, guess he’s not the type to finish the job.”

There were people all around, and I couldn't figure out who the voices belonged to. But every word they spoke carried a malice behind it even stronger than the assassin Xie Jie’s.

I reached for my sword out of reflex, but I didn’t have it on me, which was obvious. I was injured and was just released from the hospital, so of course I didn’t have my weapon. Lei’s basic one handed sword at his hip, but he hadn’t seemed to have noticed anything.

“Hmm? Yi Zen? Why did you stop?” he stopped walking and looked towards me, confused.

My senses were all on a hair trigger, anything around me that moved even slightly got picked up, but I couldn't locate the voices in the crowd.

“Lei… you should probably run away from here, quickly.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“How sweet, worrying about your friend before yourself~” the second voice whispered in my ear, directly behind me.

“..!”

I spun around in place, but there was nobody there at all. Just the same usual crowd here every day, nobody stood out. The air thick with bloodlust wasn’t my imagination however, there was someone here… an enemy.

“Lei! Get out of here now!” I turned back towards my friend, running at him with all of my speed. Grabbing his shoulder with my uninjured arm, I threw him to the side.

And in his place, I took the blunt force of an unseen attack. A heavy metal object smashed into my body, and my feet were ripped from the ground with immense force. I landed on my feet a few meters away, the crowd around us nervously dispersing.

Standing in front of me was a tall, heavily muscular man. He had dark, tan skin and no hair. I could tell just by looking at him that he wasn’t from this country. His body was covered in white, primitive tattoos or warpaint, I couldn’t tell which.

On each hand he wore large metal gauntlets, but otherwise had no other armor, and he carried no weapon. It was one of said gauntlets that had hit me before, I surmised.

“Honon, it doesn’t look like he has the sword with him.” the other voice responded, walking out of the crowd. He wore the traditional garb of a swordsman of the country, and a greatsword hung off his hip. A long braid of hair trailed in the wind behind him.

“Figures, but since we found him, why not have some fun?” the man identified as Honon replied, his deep voice booming through the narrow street.

“I’m not sure how much entertainment there is in picking on a wounded animal, but if he recovered it would be… troublesome.” the swordsman continued, walking out in front of the first man. “Nice to meet you, son of the Platinum Knight. I am the wandering blade, Xuefeng. Through various circumstances I find myself aligned with a certain individual who would like you to disappear, and this is my associate Honon. I met him on my travels abroad, and we became somewhat of a team.”

“I don’t give a shit about your personal history, you bastards…” I growled, raising my left hand into an unarmed stance. “Who are you working for? What do you want with the Crimson Dragon Emperor?”

“I’d tell you, but since you’ll be dead shortly, I fail to see the point.” Xuefeng laughed, drawing a twisted looking blade. It looked designed to cause pain more than to kill, with a jagged edge almost like a saw.

The enemy swordsman launched his attack, leaping into the air towards me. There wasn’t much I could do about a sword while unarmed, and I wasn’t back to full capacity either. Things seemed fairly hopeless at that moment for me. But his sword never reached me, getting caught in mid air against a second blade.

His body shaking with fear, Lei stood between us. His sword above his head, he braced it with his off hand along the flat, preventing the enemy sword from reaching either him or me.

The murderous swordsman took a slight hop back, distancing himself from Lei’s range.

Lei was an average fighter, with an average build and an average Skill. He didn’t stand out in the crowd, girls didn’t pay attention to him, and he was content being middle of the road and forgotten in his daily life. I never would have expected to see a scene like this, but he stood in front of two dangerously looking men, and despite the obvious fear in his body, he remained firm.

“Analyzer…” he spoke, his voice barely louder than his normal speaking volume. He used his Skill, an ability that let him learn the abilities of another’s Skill by looking at them. It wasn’t immediate, but if he could survive for a short time against them, he could learn what advantage they held over him, even if they didn’t use it during that time.

Turning his body so his shoulder faced his opponent, he held his sword out in a simple fencing type stance. He bounced back and forth on his feet, maintaining a level of mobility at all times compared to my heavier style.

“I don’t know who the hell you guys are, but I’m not about to let you hurt my friend, who just got to come home from the hospital!” I couldn’t see his face from where I was standing, but I’m sure he was sweating nervously while putting on a brave front. “My father is the fourth hero general of the empire, Zhen Chao! As his son, Zhen Lei, I will be your opponent!”

Xuefeng lunged forward, his twisted blade slashing through the air with deadly speed. But Lei, if nothing else, was quick on his feet, sidestepping the swing and stabbing towards his opponent with swift precision.

But the sword passed through the man in front of Lei like he wasn’t even there, his body dissipating into mist. He reappeared a short ways away as if he were always there.

It must have been his Skill that did it, and I tried to activate my Zero, but a sharp pain shot through my eye. I clutched at my face, panting heavily. Looks like I was still too injured to do that, my Chi needed to be calm in order to activate it properly.

“Not bad, but not enough to hurt someone as great as myself, boy.” Xuefeng gloated, slowly striding back towards Lei.

“Analysis… complete.” Lei pushed his messy, unkempt brown hair back out of his face, his sweat slicking it back in place. Trying to look cool or intimidating, Lei glared at the swordsman before him. “Thanks for showing me your Skill, it really speeds up my own. I understand everything you can do now... should have used it for a killing blow instead of running away, idiot.”

“So what, knowing how I’ll kill you doesn't mean you can win, you fool!” Xuefeng howled with laughter. Despite his animated voice, his face was entirely devoid of his emotions, giving his pale, slightly eyes an even more eerie look. “My Aura Mirage has no weaknesses!”

“That’s what they all say, but if you really were invincible… you wouldn’t need a partner, would you?!” Lei dashed in, practically sliding across the ground to pass right through the other man’s defenses, his blade slicing millimeters across the cobblestone street towards Xuefeng’s ankle.

But like before, he vanished into thin air, leaving behind only an illusion.

“..!” Lei skidded to a stop when his opponent disappeared. In the void left by the swordsman, the massive frame of the unarmed martial artist replaced him. His armored fist flew through the air, and lei barely had a chance to raise his sword to stop it.

The force behind the followup to Honon’s punch sent Lei soaring through the air, and he crashed against the wall of a house. He bounced off and fell to one knee, clenching his teeth through the pain.

“You are correct, son of Zhen Chao.” Honon spoke, raising his fists into a type of guard I had never seen before, with both hands close to his face. “Xuefeng is not invincible… not on his own at least.”

“But with his fists… and my blade!” The blind swordsman walked up next to the martial artist, standing back to back with him, his greatsword hung over one shoulder. “Our combination is unbeatable!”