Yu let out a pained moan as she thumped to the ground at the edge of the formation. She could feel it. The barrier holding Qi out was pressing on her. But it was not a physical thing and Yu shakily lifted her arm and let it fall against where the barrier’s energy stopped. Then her hand was against the cold stone and she felt it. Her fingers has passed through. Almost immediately, Qi flooded into her like it was a waterfall and she was the empty pool below.

She exhaled in relief, the emptiness inside filling. It had barely been enough. In fact, she knew that if she had not been working so hard on optimizing her usage, she would never have succeeded. It was thanks to her master’s insane methods that she could wield her primary affinity to well.

If I live through this, I’ll never complain about being thrown into a volcano again.

That was when the exclamations and yelling started.

“What the—” Xing called. Then he screamed, “She’s free!” while pointing at her prone form. Then he ran at her.

“Get her!” yelled Bao Qing’s grandfather before turning towards her and taking a step.

“Seize her quickly! There may still be time,” ordered Xing’s grandfather to his grandson.

“I’m not dying for you!” declared the enchanter as he pulled a talisman from his ring.

Knowing she was about to be recaptured, Yu immediately created another void, this time able to form a much stronger one thanks to her replenished Qi, and rolled out of the barrier’s grasp and into it as she had done before.

She heard a “No!” just before she fell once again to the floor. This time she had moved herself as far down the hallway as she had been able to see. She heard hollering from down the hall, and she knew her reprieve was only temporary. Yu wished she could just step out of the cave, but she could only create voids to somewhere she could see unless she had physically been to a location and remembered its placement in space. It was obvious she was too far away to step anywhere she knew, nor could she simply teleport out of the cavern as she had no reference point.

That left her with only one option. She needed to flee and hope she lasted long enough for help to come. She could only believe that having escaped that barrier formation, someone could find her again. Assuming anyone even knew she had been taken and was looking.

Yu tried to stand, but found her body weak and unwilling. She immediately sent rejuvenating Water energy through herself and after a few breaths was able to shakily climb to her feet. Still unsteady, she leaned against the uneven wall. Taking a breath, Yu forced one bare foot in front of the other, just wanting to move away from the group that she knew would either trap or kill her again if she did not move.

Yu already felt better from the healing skill, but she knew she wasn’t really healing herself. She was just providing energy through her blood so she could move. She hadn’t even done a diagnostic, not wanting to have to focus on anything but energizing herself and fleeing.

“C’mon master. Where are you?” she asked the empty hallway. All she hard back were echoes and the faint screams he had left behind.

Yu pressed as hard she could on her shaky legs and started a stumbling run into the dark hallway. She could hear the yelling behind her getting louder and she tried picking up her pace, but that only caused her to trip.

“… can’t run!” Yu barely heard from behind her. She created a void about to step forward again in an attempt to buy just a bit more time when she stopped, frozen at the next words. “… your friends. Will you leave them?”

Li and Lu. I was just going to leave them there. And the guilt struck like a hammerblow to the middle of her chest. She clutched herself, feeling sick.

While Yu knew logically that she could not help them, it still hurt. Yes, there were elders who could likely kill her with a thought, assuming they hadn’t fled. And yes, there were two the two grandsons of those elders also. And even thought she was unsure how much of a threat Bao Qing was in his condition, she was positive that Xing was deadly as he had proven to have compressed his Qi. He could seize her.

Logically, staying made no sense. In fact, if she got away, she could get help. Someone else would be able to release Li and Lu from their bindings, right? Someone else could save them.

Someone else… Are you going to leave your friends?

Yu scrunched her eyes closed tight, stinging tears forming and falling down the sides of her cheeks.

Lu is right to hate me. But I won’t allow myself to not at least try. I have to believe help is coming, and until it does, I’ll look out for them. And after we’re all safe and their free, I’ll say goodbye to them.

More tears stung her eyes as she heard an echoing voice. “I knew you’d stay for those little sluts.”

Then he was there and Yu had made her decision. She firmed her resolve, glared at the approaching Xing, and firmly told him, “Looks like I’ll get to watch you die sooner than I thought.”

Suddenly a deep rumbling could be felt throughout the cave.

He looked around at their surroundings and spat hurredly, “You bitch! I can still have you!” His eyes were wide and bloodshot, flicking all over the rumbling hallway. “I knew you were mine when he told me where to wait for you there in the tree. He was right. I knew it the moment I saw you. You were perfect!” Yu was confused for a moment about what he said, but it went away when she saw a mad light in his eyes flare. “You’re mine! You were promised to me and I always get what’s mine!” Then he took a talisman out of his robed, held it up before her, and laughed manically. “Do you see this?” He waved it at her as he laughed again. Another rumbling came from their surroundings, this time dust and tiny pieces of stone fell around them. Xing was so caught up in mad ramblings, he did not even seem to notice. “All I need is to do active this we’ll teleport out. Then I can have you! You’re my girl!” Spittle was flying from his mouth and dripping down his chin. “Mine! Mine! Mine!” and he laughed again. “Nobody takes my girls!”

He's lost it, Yu thought. Maybe I can—

Then he charged her. He used a familiar skill because Yu caught sight of the flames behind him. Reacting almost out of instinct, Yu stepped backward and reappeared ten paces behind where she had been. She watched as his fist, ablaze with fire, flew through the air where she had been moments before.

Yu knew she needed to keep a distance. If he got close, he would be able to capture her easily.

Ranged combat it is then.

Yu swung her right arm forward, a whip of flame forming in her hand and reaching for Xing. His eyes were wide with surprise when she had vanished and then grew wider when he saw the fiery weapon heading for him.

His skin seemed to solidify and turn brown and wrinkled in Yu’s eyes. He held up his arm and the whip slashed into it. Sparks flew as contact was made, and Xing stumbled to the side. “You bitch!” he screamed as he steadied himself. The cavern rumbled again and the ground rose and fell causing both Yu and Xing to stumble.

“You’ve said that a bunch of times. Don’t you have anything new?” Yu taunted.

Xing released a wordless scream and whipped his hands towards her. Massive green vines shot from his hands. Yu pulled back her fire whip and slashed it down at the vines. Unfortunately, Yu was still unfamiliar with her skill and could not manipulate her whip of Fire Qi as well as Xing could his two Wood Qi vines. She only managed to slice one, causing the end to fall to the cavern floor with a crunch. The other swerved around the fiery whip allowing its end to strike Yu in the chest. It was a such a strong blow that it threw her backward, only to strike the stone and tumble over and over until she came to a skidding stop.

If Yu hadn’t barely managed to use her Earthen Armor skill, she might have lost the battle right then. As it was, the air had been driven from her and she struggled to get back to her feet.

“My girls don’t hurt me. I hurt them! You’ll know! You’ll come to like it. They all do!” and Xing cackled his crazed laughter again. “They beg for more!” Yu caught her breath and rose to her feet as she watched him laughing as he walked closer.

“You are one deranged bastard,” Yu told him, creating six hand-length flaming spears and launching them at him.

He held up his arm in front of him, which once again turned brown and tough. But this time, a round shield seemed to grow from his forearm in just a breath and cover his entire torso. He ducked behind it and the spears struck, creating small explosions on contact.

He was forced back a step and his bark barrier looked a little scorched, but that was the best she could say. Just as he lowered it, she swung her whip forward again. He raised the shield and her whip sliced into it, creating more sparks and leaving a burning gash as long as her forearm. Seeing her success, she struck again.

He raised his shield like before, but this time, his other hand moved around to the side of the shield and he pointed his palm at her. Another vine sped towards her, causing her to have to drop the attack and defend herself with the whip.

She managed it, but in that moment of distraction, he struck. Yu did not see the flames appear behind his back, but suddenly he was only a pace from her. From his left hand another vine shot towards her, and from his right, a thorn the thickness of her thumb and the length of her arm jutted out.

Yu burst into flames and created two fiery swords in her hands. Her right sliced the vine and her right moved to block the thorn. But when she went to block it, nothing was there. Then she felt a sharp pain in her thigh.

She quickly looked down and saw a hand length of the thorn sticking out. Then she looked back into his face and saw his madness. Any semblance of sanity he had once had, was gone as he laughed at her. Thorns as large as the first exploded all over his body, and he lunged at her, his laughter never ceasing. Yu fell backward, intending to create a void and make some space. Then she felt it. What she had feared. She was frozen as the Qi surrounding her stiffened. Then his body hit hers and she was pierced all over. The thorns passed through her flimsy sackcloth shirt like it wasn’t there. They punctured her skin after only a token resistance, the density of his Qi many times higher than her skin when no Qi was used to actively enhance it.

He drove them both to the ground, laughing right in her face the entire time. His spittle flew into her eyes and nose and mouth. Yu wanted to be sick. But she could not move.

“This is it! This is what I’ve been waiting for!” he screamed in ecstasy as he laughed even harder. “Just wait, there’s more!” The thorns vanished and he climbed off her and stood. “Scream! Beg for more!”

Yu, in pain and bleeding but unable to even move, watching as he whipped his hand down. A vine once again grew from it and lashed into Yu’s bleeding body. He laughed as he lashed down at her again. By then nothing of her shirt remained and his laughing insanity turned into an uncontrolled leer.

Able to do nothing else but feel the pain and humiliation and disgust, Yu hammered at the hold his Qi had over hers. She struck at it with her mind, scrabbling at the power, solid as jade. She could feel herself weakening, but she pulled and pushed with all she had, trying anything to get at what bound her. Nothing worked. Through her waning ability to focus, she felt another lash across her front, from her left shoulder to her right hip, tearing her skin deeply and making her bleeding even worse.

Everything had started to lose focus. Exhaustion was growing as her energy flagged.

Blackness was encroaching in her vision. She barely saw was the demented boy kneel before her, a talisman once again in his hand. He said something to her, but it was muffled and she heard only the slowing pulse in her ears.

Lost too much blood, she thought vaguely.

Then, as if from inside her mind, she felt a tingle. A tiny twitch in her power. Yu reached for it. It was deep within herself, but she reached and reached, digging at the restraints. Through them. Her vision went dark, but she fought to reach it still. She released her hold on everything except the search for that dim light. And then she saw it and touched it. Red light flashed and all the Qi around her shattered.

With the last of the strength her body had to offer, Yu closed her hand around what had just appeared in it and thrust it into the side of the person above her. She heard a gasp and then a great weight fell on her.

She had barely been able to breathe before, but now it was impossible. The last of her consciousness faded from her, and the only things she felt was what she knew were the final beats of her own heart.