My mind wandered as I sat sweating on the rim of the pool. Our cave was set into the side of a small hill, but it wasn’t far underground and didn’t provide much insulation. The weather was cooler here than it was back in Chicago, and even in late spring the cave had been chilly, making the heated air around the hot spring feel comfortable. However, Shimak and I had lived here for nearly a month now and the summer heat had finally come, turning the inside of the cave hot and stuffy. Now, sitting in the hot-tub room was like cooking in a sauna.

The problem was that the room was the best spot for cultivation that I’d yet found. The essence here was thick and Rupert really enjoyed the pool. The world’s essence here had a sort of ‘flavor’ that Rupert seemed to like and it made my absorption easier. So, I was forced to do all my cultivating in here to reap the maximum benefit, even if sweat was streaming from my body the entire time.

The weeks Shimak and I had spent here were like a vacation. We did what we wanted and went where we wanted. We hunted the weakest beasts and foraged berries and roots for food. We spend our days sparring and cultivating and our evenings relaxing in the cave or out under the stars.

The only real problems were the beasts of the forest. They were both the forest’s most valuable resource, as well as its largest danger. Shimak and I were still only Blood ranked fighters. We could only fight the unranked beasts or a single soldier rank beast if we managed to isolate it. Everything else we had to run from, and we did a lot of running away. Not too many powerful creatures roamed this close to the river, but there were some. Both of us had been injured multiple times, and at one point an elite rank hawk beast had trapped us in the cave for five straight days. Still, there was something liberating about living out here on our own.

In the village we had to hide our cultivation and train in secret. We’d had to attend to our jobs while dealing with petty politics and the whims of the more powerful cultivators. Here we were free. We only had to follow our own hearts and survive the dangers of the forest. It made for a much simpler life.

Another drop of sweat rolled down my nose and plopped loudly onto the stone floor. I sighed and continued to circulate my energy.

“Dammit Chok, how many times do I have to tell you not to leave your crap laying around everywhere.” Shimak shouted from the other room. “I swear, you're like a damn pig beast. You just lay around all day wallowing in your own filth.”

“Sorry dear.” I said sarcastically as I stopped my cultivation and stood up. Shimak walked into the pool room and I stifled a laugh. Both of us had only had a single set of clothes when we’d left the village and our weeks of surviving and hunting out here had been hard on them. She’d been wearing the rags of her shirt tied around her chest when she’d left but now it seemed they’d finally torn all the way. Now she was only wearing her tattered shorts and what seemed to be a couple of large leaves bound over her chest with a vine.

I apparently hadn’t done as good a job hiding my amusement as I’d imagined, because Shimak’s eyes sparked with rage. “Oh you think it’s funny.” She said picking leaves out of her hair as she glared at me. My face hurt with the effort to restrain my smile, but finally I cracked and started to laugh .

“Yes…… You look like some demented nymph. “ I said between laughs. Shimak’s face turned red which made me laugh harder. “I told you to find something to wear other than that rag but you kept putting it on.”

Shimak raised one of her orange eyebrows. “What you wanted me to wander around naked? You’re such a pervert.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, because walking around wearing plants is much more dignified.” Things between Shimak and I had gotten oddly domestic while we’d lived out here. I’d never lived with a girl before. Allison had stayed over fairly regularly, but there was something different about actually living in the same space with someone every day, rather than just sleeping over occasionally.

It wasn’t like Shimak and I were involved but our relationship had definitely gotten a bit strange. Somehow we’d managed to skip from ‘best friends’ directly to ‘old married couple’. We bickered about pretty much everything now, but it was always done with an odd sort of warmth.

Shimak snorted and shot back at me. “Yes, because my plants are so much better than your stupid wolf-skull belt you wear around.” She had a point, but I wasn’t going to admit it. I’d strung a piece of rope through the wolf-skulls we’d gotten and wore it around like a belt. I thought it made me look like a barbarian bad-ass, but Shimak constantly made fun of me for it.

“Well, why don’t you just go back to the village and buy some more clothes for us? We’re too low on basic supplies and you can get your bow while you're there. It’s not like we don’t have the money now. We we could afford a nice house in the middle-caste section of the city now if we wanted.” I said.

“I’m not taking all those cores up there. We’ve got what…. twelve of the semi-formed cores and three full soldier cores now? There’s no way I want to carry that much wealth on me, and I’d never be able to sell them all without someone blabbing to the upper caste.” She said moodily. “Just give me those wolf skulls. I can sell them to the smith, those would be worth almost as much as a beast core but shouldn’t raise nearly as much fuss.”

“I’m not giving you my wolf skulls.” I said defensively. I was not giving her my sweet belt. It was mine damnit.

“How are they YOUR wolf skulls?! We killed them together, and I did most of the work.” She shouted.

I looked up at her and my expression fell. My eyes widened and started to mist and my lip trembled. “You want to take them away from me?” I asked piteously, giving Shimak my puppy-dog face as I stared into her eyes. Her scowl softened for a moment and she wavered, but I couldn’t keep up the act and smiled, breaking the spell.

Her scowl returned instantly and she shouted “You’re such an ass.” She glared at me for a moment before breaking into her own smile and shaking her head at me. “You're never going to find a wife.”

“Don’t want one.” I said with my own grin. “But seriously, we do need a bunch of stuff if we’re planning on staying out here. Take the wolf skulls and the herbs I cleaned out of the garden. I tried to leave the really good ones but a lot of them weren’t in that book Nessa gave me. I”m sure I didn’t harvest them properly for alchemy, but they should still be worth something, its not like we have any real alchemists in the village anyway.”

I’d been working on cleaning up the garden room as a side project. The place had been monstrously overgrown when we’d come so I’d been trying to at least get it back under control by cleaning out all the overgrown herbs, and trying to organize the really important ones. I’d killed a lot off trying to replant them, but at least it looked like a garden now instead of a jungle.

“Every time I leave you alone, you always end up getting into trouble.” Shimak said as she looked at me doubtfully.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll use that elixir I’ve been saving. I can’t get into much trouble sitting in the cave and cultivating. “ I countered. Cultivating all day during the summer stuck in this overheated cave really would suck, but the elixir would help out my cultivation quite a bit. I still had a long way to go before my next break-through.

“I know you don’t want to leave me, but it’s ok babe. I promise not to have any girls over while you're gone.” Shimak glared at me for a moment, then stomped out of the room.

************************************************************************************

I sighed as I stared into the bubbling surface of the tub. I was hot, sweaty, and bored out of my damn mind. When I’d started cultivation it had required my entire focus, a small mistake while I was moving energy would be both painful and dangerous. However, I’d now been at it for most of a year now. My cultivation path was ridiculously simple and it took almost no concentration at all anymore to cultivate. Even with all the extra essence I was pulling in because of the elixir it was still not enough to require my full attention.

Which was a problem, because now I was forced to stay next to the pool even though my mind was almost completely unoccupied. I was losing my mind from boredom and I still had twenty hours of this left.

I glanced around the bare room looking for something to distract me. The pool room was completely empty and all the walls were bare stone. I sighed heavily, as I looked into the other room with longing. That was the problem with an elixir. Every second I slacked off was 10 or twenty seconds I’d have to make up later. The knowledge was its own horrible torture. Especially when I really wanted to be anywhere else doing anything else. I re-focused my mind and tried to concentrate, my will power lasted about an hour. Then I was standing and pacing the room with my hands still making the essence gathering seal and my mind still moving the incoming essence around my body as it purified.

I couldn’t practice martial arts because I couldn’t move my arms or move essence around my body. I couldn’t move more than about ten feet away from Rupert in the pool, in essence I was trapped by my own laziness. I took another turn around the room, then spotted the bag I’d brought from the village just outside the archway. My book on plants was in my bag, but In the month we’d been out here I already had it mostly memorized. That did give me an idea though, My eyes locked onto the shelf in the other room with the old dilapidated books there.

Shimak and I hadn’t touched them for fear that they’d disintegrate as soon as we picked them up, but thinking about it, a book you couldn’t read didn’t have any value regardless of what information it might have contained. I wavered for a moment then stopped cultivating, walked over, and gently picked up the first book on the shelf. It broke in half, then sent disintegrating pages spilling all over the floor until it was little more than a cloud of dust. I sighed then tried the next book. The cover fell off, and the binding broke, but the pages stayed mostly intact. I quickly returned to the pool and started to cultivate, this time with the book spread out on the floor in front of me.

History of the Xi Shan Continent

Xi Shan is the largest and northernmost of the ‘three sons’ continents. The three continents sit near each other within the western sea, isolated from the rest of the world by the vast distances that separate them from the other landmasses. The three are within trading distance of one another, but they rarely interact in a peaceful manner…….

I read on with avid interest. Shimak knew very little about the world outside the village. Nessa had known slightly more but even she could only give me vague details about the world. As for everyone else I knew, they seemed not to care. I wasn’t sure if it was because they just weren’t curious, or if they knew they’d never leave the mountain.

The Xi Shan continent was ruled by three massive empires, the Jade Phoenix empire in the West, the Tian empire in the East and the free cities in the middle that acted as a buffer. The free cities were a republic that pretended they wasn’t an empire, but from what the book said it mostly was. The Jade Phoenix and Tian Empires were each overseen by a corresponding Martial Sect while the free Cities had a triumvirate of Sects that had banded together to keep the other-two powers at bay.

I wasn’t sure if the political situation had changed in the time since this book was written, but with rulers whose lifespans were measured in centuries and millennia instead of decades things should change more slowly. The geography in the book was more immediately useful. The Great Forest was mentioned by name. It was located in the north-central part of the continent which meant that the Sun-Mountain clan technically owed fealty to the Republic of Free Cities. Although I doubted any tax collectors ever made it to the mountain.

I was only about a quarter of the way through the book when the elixir wore off. My reading skills still weren’t up to par, and I kept having to re-read sections because my focus was split between reading and cultivation. It was nearing noon the next day when I finally stood up again and un-summoned Rupert. My joints popped in a satisfying fashion and my whole body tingled with vitality. Shimak wouldn’t be back for another day or two at least, and I wanted to see if I could hunt down something decent for dinner.

*********************************************************************************

“He’Sha be reasonable.” The patriarch said as he trailed after the imposing woman. His robes were made of white silk that contrasted greatly with the fighting leathers He’sha was wearing. It mid mid-afternoon and the sun put highlights in her dark hair. She kept walking, her head forward as she ignored the older man trailing after her.

“Stop acting like a child.” The older man said. His voice turned from a faintly pleading tone to one that contained frustration.

“I’m 65 years old. Do NOT call me a child. Just because I refuse to bow to idiocy for the sake of convenience does not make me a child.” She snapped back, but still didn’t turn to look at him.

“Be reasonable…” the patriarch of the Sun-Mountain Clan started and He’sha’s temper finally broke. She whirled on the older man and the force of her fury shook the nearby buildings as her voice boomed audibly across the village.

“REASONABLE! You being reasonable is why we are in this mess. You keep acting reasonable as this village is run into the ground. Hallon gathers power and allies. He asks for inches and takes feet while you stand aside and watch acting ‘reasonable’.” She finished with a sneer in her voice.

The old man's own anger rose and his own qi leaked out. The clash of the two massive auras sent swirls of dust flying into the sky. “I am old but I’m still the patriarch…” the old man growled but He’sha cut him off again.

“Are you?! You’ll use your authority to slap me down when I refuse to tow the line, but you let that animal run roughshod over you. You're losing your temper with me because I refuse to stand aside as you prepare to throw that girl in prison. For what, a few plants!” She looked into the old man’s eyes while her voice softened.

“What has happened to you uncle? You were always the kindest and most caring of all of us. I don’t understand you anymore.” She said as she shook her head. “You’ve had a boy sent into the wilds to appease that monster. Now, when he’s managed to survive and has sent that girl into the village to trade with us, you wish to stomp on them again?” She asked, disgusted.

“I’m not trying to be unreasonable, but she refuses to tell us where she got them. If she’d just be rea….. practical we could come to an agreement. You don’t need to do anything, just don’t stand in the way.”

He’sha sighed and shook her head. “Yes, then she’ll have given us the only thing she has of value…… I wonder how long it would take Hallon’s men to cut her throat and toss her body in the river.” He’sha shook her head.

“I’ve stood aside for you once already. I owe that boy a debt I can never repay. He saved Nessa’s life and I’ve already sacrificed my honor when I let you banish him for a thing he did not do. I’m not going to let you do the same thing to the girl.” She said stubbornly.

“And just what do you mean to do to stop us.” The old man asked with a bit of a growl in his voice.

He’sha met the old man’s eyes, letting him see both her regret and her determination.

“Whatever it takes.”

By the time she’d made it down to where they were holding the girl she’d worked herself into a temper. She slammed open the door to the small room where Hallon and the guard captain were sitting across from a red-haired girl in her early teens. The girl looked annoyed rather than upset or scared and she wore an expression of suppressed impatience. That brought a small hard smile to He’sha’s face. She could like this girl.

He’sha hadn’t met the girl before but had heard about her from both the boy Chok and her daughter. She wasn’t pretty exactly but was obviously in good shape and had eyes much too hard for her young age. The thought tugged at her memory and she took another look at the girl. She really was in good shape. Too good really for a girl living in the forest for the last month. Her skin glowed with a healthy vitality and well defined muscles showed under the dirt and ragged clothing. She also was wearing long-sleeves even in the summer heat. He-sha smirked. It seemed the boy wasn’t the only one to have become a cultivator… this was becoming interesting indeed.

“What are you doing here.” Hallon snapped as he looked up at the sound of the door.

“Just checking on the girl. She’s a friend of my daughter.” He’sha lied smoothly. She was really a friend of a friend, but that did leave He’sha obligated to the girl, even if the girl didn’t didn’t know it.

Hallon sighed in a put upon manner. “This girl has information the village needs and refuses to co-operate.” The girl snorted derisively from her seat at the table.

“You mean I have information that you want. I bet the village will end up with whatever’s left after you’ve taken your cut.” She said bitterly.

“I assure you the retrieval of the items is for the good of the village. Our warriors are weaker and less numerous than ever. We need cultivation aides if we are going to beef up the village forces again.” He said calmly, before his smile sharpened into something malicious. “What would your mother say if she knew you were sacrificing the good of the village for your own personal gain?”

He’sha raised an eyebrow. There were undercurrents here she didn’t understand. The girl's eyes had gone flat when Hallon had mentioned her mother. They were dangerous eyes, not angry but determined and as cold as mid-winter. It was a very disturbing expression on the young girl’s face. The girl stared at Hallon but stayed silent, just watching him with her hard brown eyes.

“I don’t think all this is really necessary. The village needs the supplies, the girl knows where to get them. Instead of trying to extort them from her why don’t you just buy them.” He’sha asked in a bland voice, cutting through the building tension in the room.

“BUY THEM! For what reason? We need those supplies and we’re being blackmailed by a child.” Hallon sputtered, making He’sha rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure black-mail is what’s happening here. The girl has little besides that knowledge with which to protect herself and she’s smart enough to know it. This seems like an elder of the village is extorting a child. Just give her some tokens, take her items and send her back. I’m sure she’ll be back with more.” He’sha said calmly. “There’s no need for you to bully the girl into doing something she was going to do anyway.

“Why are you even here?” Hallon snapped. “Shouldn’t you be off training or bullying your husband.” He said snidely.

“I’m just making sure that your not alienating a free-lance hunter who’s brought us some solid cultivation materials. As you said earlier the village needs all the help it can get. It would be foolish to lose anything she may be able to bring in the future just to gain a temporary advantage. She is, as you said, a child. She’ll likely be a profitable hunter for years to come.” He’sha countered.

Hallon’s face reddened as he stared hard at He’sha. She was of a height with him and their eyes seemed to be trying to bore holes through each other. They stood like that for nearly a minute until the door to the small room opened again. The patriarch walked in, still wearing his white robes and sat down on a stool next to the girl. He looked haggard but his aura of calm power seemed to dampen the anger between Hallon and He’sha.

The old main sighed heavily as he looked at the two aristocrats once more squaring off. “Just let the girl go.” He said, waving an old wrinkled hand at her. He’sha smiled viciously at the words while Hallon balked.

“Patriarch you cannot be serious. This is a matter that will affect the future of the village. You know well how much we need those resources. I can’t believe you're going to go along with this…. Woman.” He said with disbelief.

The old man sighed as he ran a hand through his leaf-green hair. “That’s because you think I’m siding with her over you…. I’m not. She’s being unreasonable but she also has a point. There’s no reason to burn our bridges when we can get what we need another way and I’m afraid He’sha would kill you if you did as you wish. Then we’d have to kill her, her father would try to avenge and in the ensing reprisals and counter-reprisals the entire village would likely be destroyed. THAT would be bad for everyone.”

He’sha gave them both a thin smile. “Good, pay the girl then.” She said as she moved around the room the stand beside Shimak. There was a great deal of grumbling from Hallon but the patriarch handed her a handful of 100-token chips then left. He’sha kept smiling at Hallon as she lead shimak to the door then out of the room. Hallon just watched them go with an angry expression.

“What are we gonna do? They seem pretty protective of the girl.” one of the guards asked the still brooding Hallon.

“That parts easy.” Hallon said with a vicious grin. “We just wait till she leaves, then we just send a couple of men to find them. We’ll have to wait a few days. I’m sure He’sha will be watching but that shouldn’t matter. They can’t have gone too far into the forest and it won't take too long to find them.”

*******************************************************

“Sixty-two….” I grunted as I pressed my body up off the floor yet again. I’d found I actually could manage a few exercises while cultivating, and it actually was working out quite nicely. As long as I kept my hands in the proper seal, and didn’t use any essence to boost my muscles I could do some basic workouts. The best part was that my muscles were being torn-down and rebuilt at the same time, and it was creating an interesting sort of loop. It was allowing me to increase the amount of essence my muscles were absorbing, if only slightly.

That was my biggest disadvantage at the moment. Although I was happy with my cultivation progress I definitely had a huge weakness. I was still very weak for a cultivator of my level. Sure, against normal people I wouldn’t have any problems but my body was only marginally better than a non-cultivator. My meridians were getting better every day, and after the last elixir my speed of absorption was better than ever but that was only helping my meridians and not the rest of me. I was basically outclassed by everyone in terms of power. I was considering taking a couple weeks to cultivate my other path, just to gain some more agility, but I kept putting it off.

I was on push-ups ninety-seven when Shimak finally got back. She’d been gone for three days and I was starting to get a little worried. She was wearing a massive pack and smaller bags and satchels were tied onto her. Her bow was also slung over her shoulder which relieved me. We now at least had a real weapon. Shimak’s red-hair was plastered to her face with sweat and he eyes were a little wild.

“Get up, They followed me.” She said sharply as soon as she saw me. I wanted to ask ‘who’ but realized it was a rather stupid question. Those idiots from the village must be hounding us, I thought glumly. It wasn’t enough they had kicked me out, now they were coming to attack me. I was pissed, but Shimak looked murderous.

I didn’t want to test her temper and instead stood up, picked up my small knife and headed towards the door with Shimak.

“What the plan?” I asked as the two of us rushed toward the entrance. Shimak was strong for her level because of her rare beast but I was a weakling. I didn’t think our chances in a straight-up fight would be very good. If the cultivators were bone rank we were probably dead. Maybe not dead, but we’d lose the cave as well as the herbs and books it held.

“We fight them.” Shimak said coldly. I just blinked at her stupidly. We’d been flying mostly under the radar but this was declaring war. This was a bell that could not be unrung. I knew that Shimak had sworn vengeance but I was still wavering. For all my time here I still wasn’t used to this world, where lives were destroyed so casually and for such silly reasons. Shimak pulled the bow from her shoulders and took out an arrow as she took position opposite the tunnel into the cave.

“Wait, You wanna fight them fight here? Like this?” I asked incredulously. This was all happening way too fast. We were just going to try and kill two people we’d never met right here, in what was basically our front room. I’d fight a few demonic beasts, but at the end of the day they were beasts. Now I was actually going to try and kill a person? That was just too crazy. I was going to argue further but someone shouted from outside, their voice echoing and distorting as it made it’s way down the narrow tunnel and into the room were Shimak and I stood.

“Is this where you two little shits have been hiding? Get your asses out here, or don’t blame me for being rude.”

I glanced over to Shimak but she stayed silent, hiding behind the doorway to the next room and pointing her bow towards the door. I rolled my eyes, this was insane. I frantically looked around the plant room, then dove behind a large planter.

“Go crawl in there and get them out.” Another voice said from outside. This one was rougher and contained bored arrogance.

“You crawl in there! The other voice replied. They sent us both on this mission, I’m not your servant.” The other man shot back.

“Since I out rank you, you are my servant. Now get your lazy ass in there.” The first voice growled. There was some grumbling and swearing, before the sounds of someone large trying to struggle through the small entrance filtered it’s way into where Shimak and I were waiting.

Shimak’s eyes were cold and calm as she walked to the center of the room directly across the tunnel opening. She raised her bow and nocked an arrow. I looked frantically around the room before pressing myself against the wall near the mouth of the tunnel. My hands shook and my heartbeat was erratic as I waited there to kill a man I’d never met.

The whole thing happened much faster than I’d thought possible. There was a sound from the tunnel and a grunt. Then Shimak’s bow twanged as she released her arrow. Her aim wasn’t great but the man was only fifteen feet from her. It hit him in the right of his chest and he cried out as I pushed off the wall and rushed him. He was a dark-haired man with a mangy looking beard and his eyes were wide in pain as he tried to breath around the arrow in his lung. I jumped on him, stabbing with my little knife, all form and training forgotten. He was at least a Blood ranked warrior and his skin was like boiled leather. I don’t know if the arrow or my charge or everything happening at once took him off guard but he only managed to raise an arm before I put a half dozen holes in his chest. His cries of pain cut off as his lungs filled with blood.

The man let out a coughing gag and blood spilled out of his mouth and onto his leather tunic. That fast, the whole thing was over. One warrior had been turned into a corpse. I looked into his lifeless eyes for a moment and a shudder of revulsion seemed to start at the base of mine spine and spread out through my whole body. Then I was shaking and stumbling over into to a corner to vomit.

I’d just killed a person. He hadn’t been a good person but he had been human. I shuddered again as someone called in from outside the cave. “Tork! What the hell is going on? What happened.” There was silence for a heartbeat then a swearing. “I swear to god you lazy good for nothing moron. When I get in there I’m gonna kick your ass.”

I shuddered again as I tried to pull myself back together. Shimak was more practical and although she was pale-faced, she grabbed the corpse and hauled it away from the entrance. There was more movement and noise coming from the entrance and I trembled as I looked up at the crack. The next one was coming.

Shimak quickly moved back to her spot and pulled her bow but this time things didn’t go nearly as well. When he finally squeezed his wide shoulders into the room Shimak’s bow twanged again. This time the arrow hit the man’s shoulder instead of his chest and I finally saw his face as he turned to glare at Shimak and I. He had a flat nose and a bit of grey at his temples. He snarled and dashed at Shimak as he pulled the arrow from his shoulder.

The man swung a first at the girl with a strength that would have pulverized a normal person. Shimak however, wasn’t such an easy target. With her enemy only expecting a couple of normal children he hadn’t been prepared for a fight. Shimak dodged the fist then dashed forward and slammed her own fist into the man’s gut.

The man grunted in pain and surprise and I took the chance to attack. My dagger flashed as I aimed a thrust at the man’s back. It wasn’t noble but I didn’t have Shimak’s strength, or speed, or skill. I had to take openings when I got them.

The soldier was surprised by Shimak’s counter-attack but he was obviously an experienced warrior. He turned and threw an elbow at my temple making me abandon my sneak-attack. I turned and ducked my head, taking the blow on the back of my shoulder instead of the head. The power of the blow send me staggering towards the wall and I had to stick my hands up to keep my head from slamming into the stone.

Shimak fought on while I took the chance to recover. After her surprise attack both she and the man had settled into their stances and neither seemed to have much advantage over the other. Shimak blocked a snap kick, then tagged the man with a short jab on his chin. The blow didn’t accomplish much, but it did piss him off even more.

I shook my head trying to clear it then thrust my arm forward and summoned rupert.Greg mist rose from my arm and formed into the black slimy creature that was my soul-beast. Rupert was basically useless in a fight, he could hardly even move on land, but he did have lots of sharp teeth. Rupert let out a sibilant hiss as he formed and sank his teeth into the back of the man's calf.

The man shouted and his staggered as rupert bit down. Shimak took the opportunity to round-house kick him in the temple. The blow hit smashed him into the floor and he roared in rage. Brown light started to shine under the man’s tunic and a huge ball of gray mist shot out and formed in self into a black-bear that seemed to have chunks of earth for fur.

The bear whirled on Shimak and she had to dive away from it’s swiping claws. Although, Earth-type beasts had worse defense than Stone types they had better strength and were more well-rounded. Even though it was softer than stone it would still be nearly impossible to hurt.

“So.. you little shits are cultivators then. Fine!” The man snapped as he rolled back to his feet. I dashed at his back as he stood and channeled me essence into my palm as I struck out.

[Gentle Wave Style First Art: Bewitching Palm]

The man tried to dodge but he didn’t have his feet under him yet. The palm landed on his shoulder and his left arm spasmed, causing him to fall back to the ground. The little knife in my left hand was next and I jabbed it in between his ribs. The knife slid in and out in an instant but I’d missed the mark and hadn’t hit him anywhere vital. The man grunted and back-handed me away, then reached down and yanked Rupert off his leg.

Rupert’s teeth were still clamped down and a large hunk of meat was torn off with him. Blood spurted from the wound and the guard let out a pained shout as I unsummoned Rupert before the man could smash him. It took alot of my essence but I knew I couldn’t really fight this guy anyway. I was too weak to do anything but sneak attack him. Still, I’d gotten him once and his leg was bleeding badly. If we could drag this out a bit longer he should start to weaken.

Shimak was busy with the bear so I stepped into her place and did my best to trade blows with the man. He couldn’t put much weight on his injured leg and it was the only thing that kept me alive. I now realized why warriors didn’t all summon the beasts right off. It took a ton of essence to materialize them into the world. Rupert wasn’t any stronger than I was and unless we were in the water there wasn’t really much he could do outside of a basic bite attack. He could hardly even move on land.

Shimak moved around us with the bear still chasing her and she kicked at the back of the man’s knees. I used the opportunity to close and caught him low in the gut with my knife. It wasn’t a crippling blow but more blood started to flow and I managed to get back out of range before the man could strike back at me.

I gave ground, doing my best not to get hurt and to keep the man moving. It didn’t go well for me

and I caught two more punches in the ribs. They cracked audibly and I groaned in agony as I tried my best to keep moving. Movement was the key to Gentle Wave Style. Power didn’t matter, reflexes didn’t matter, it was all about anticipation and redirecting force. I focused on his movements and willed my aching body to react faster. A punch came at my face and I slapped at it my right hand. My small attack pushed his arm off course just a hair and the blow whizzed past my ear instead of landing on my eye.

I didn’t even try to counter, but I stood my ground. Slapping away blows and trying to buy time for Shimak do something and for the man to bleed more. I heard the bear roar again but I didn’t have time to check on Shimak anymore. I had my hands full.

After a few seconds of my stalling the guard wised up and threw a feint at me. I bit hard and caught a brutal left hook for my trouble. Sparkles flashed in my vision and the world dimmed for a moment. I paniked and ducked the next punch but caught a knee in the gut that sent me to the floor gagging.

The man stood over me and raised his fist to put me down. Then I heard the twang of a bow and the man shouted as an arrow sprouted in his back. I charged, using the last of my stength of crawl in close. The man started to turn but threw an elbow down at me as I came in. I caught it on my shoulders and landed on my knees in front of him, just in time to jam my knife into the top of his thigh. I pulled hard, cutting a jagged tear across the inside of his leg and blood sprayed as I found the artery. Then something hit my face and the world went away.

I didn’t quite get knocked out but the world was fuzzy and wobby for a long time. My thoughts came in odd fits and starts and it wasn’t until I remembered to start using my essence and pushing it towards my head that my thoughts started to clear.

It was then I realized I’d been moved into the back room, and Shimak was setting next to me looking pale.

“What happened!? Did we win?” I asked, panicked.

“I killed him. You’re knife had him bleeding out already but I had to put another two arrows in him before he stopped fighting.” Shimak said coldly. I was relieved, then worried at her tone for a moment before I saw her hands shaking. I moved over next to her and wrapped her in my arms. I didn’t say anything and she didn’t either. We just sat in the cave as I held her and she started to cry.