He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It absolutely broke his heart.

My sweet love...

Qi watched as Ashong began to charge for his Zen and ground his teeth as his fingers gripped the injury at his waist tightly.

You forced my love to do such a thing. I will never forgive you!

He channeled his spiritual energy as quickly and quietly as he could as he watched his love easily deflect each of Ashong's attacks. He'd retrieved his blade right before the man had closed in on him, and was using it to prevent further injury as purple electricity slowly, somehow, sewed up his injuries.

With each attack that his Zen blocked, Ashong grew more and more aggressive. He was beginning to become desperate, because even though the man still had plenty of spiritual energy left, his body was beginning to exhaust itself. There was a balance that had to be maintained... and he was ignoring it in order to try and kill them before they could turn the tables.

As far as Qi was concerned, it was already too late for that.

I will make sure that you can hurt no one else, ever again!

He was about to send a burst of energy forward to act as a shield should Ashong actually manage to land one of his desperate attacks, but then his attention dropped to the ground.

He'd been able to summon plant life from the walls to restrain my Zen. Perhaps...

Qi lifted his gaze to the imperial general, then waited with baited breath. As much as he wanted to follow his own love and make sure that he had the defenses he needed, Zen didn't seem to need him for such a thing at the moment.

I will make myself useful.

He narrowed his eyes on Ashong's feet as the man danced around Zen, trying to find an opening to strike. His footwork was nearly perfect.

Not for long...

With a rare smirk gracing his dirty face, Qi saw his chance and took it! Dropping to one knee, he slammed his entire hand, up to his elbow, into the damp dirt. Not a second later, a spiritual version of it surfaced abruptly directly beneath Ashong and grabbed ahold of his ankle right as he was about to dodge a strike.

Instead of being able to move away, the man's body was jerked to a halt as his attention quickly redirected to what had grabbed hold of him. Unfortunately for him, as he was redirecting his sword to swing downward and remove the restraint, Zen completed his attack.

Qi winced as Ashong's blade tore through his spiritual hand, dissipating the spell and slicing his real one along its back, but the pain was well worth it as he watched his love's own sword stab the man straight through his right shoulder.

Again, love!

Before Ashong could even stagger backwards completely and regain his balance, Qi was shoving his other hand down into the dirt. Its spiritual copy grabbed hold of Ashong's boot right as Zen withdrew his blade, then swung it toward the man's throat.

The attack was blocked by Ashong, but the man didn't have time to strike at the ephemeral hand holding him without losing his head. His injured shoulder failed almost immediately, too, and Zen was able to easily push him off his feet.

Ashong dropped his sword and swung his arm forward with a feral snarl right before roots erupted from the walls all around them. Qi retracted his hand immediately in order to try and deflect the flora, but before he could even begin to form a barrier, the entire area around him suddenly erupted in dark purple and black flames. He could feel the heat, but it was clear that Zen had perfect control over his skill at that moment, because while the plants were being incinerated faster than they could appear, he wasn't being hurt by any stray ash due to his added wind ability keeping it away. Even the smoke created by the burning vines seemed to somehow avoid his lungs completely.

When the fire finally began to die down, Qi tried to see through the fading smoke, but he struggled to make out any specific forms.

"Zen!" he called out, worried that something might have happened, even though his love seemed to have been in control of the situation.

He didn't have to wait long before he saw a blurry figure heading toward him through the thick smoke and dimming fire. The man's hair was flowing in waves behind him as he moved and his purple eyes glowed in the darkness.

My Zen.

Incredibly relieved, Qi hurried forward, meeting his love at the edge of the charred circle on the ground where the fire had stopped advancing. The moment he was close enough he wrapped his arms around his love and pulled him into a tight hug. Zen returned it as he pressed his face into Qi's neck and closed his eyes.

"Tired, master..."

Qi was just opening his mouth to tell his love that he would begin healing him immediately when his words got stuck on his tongue.

My Zen... spoke?

Taking his love by the shoulders, Qi gently guided him backwards until he could meet his tired, soft purple eyes. When he still could find no words to say, he tugged his love back into his arms and looked over his shoulder. The smoke had now completely cleared, leaving what appeared to be a charred corpse a short distance away.

Feeling Zen press a finger against his chest, Qi focused on what his love was writing.

"He was trying to kill you with his last bit of energy. I had to burn him to death."

He could tell that Zen hadn't wanted to do such a thing, especially in front of him, but he wasn't upset. In fact, he was in awe of his love's new abilities.

"Are you feeling okay, my Zen? I've been trying to stitch up the worst of your injuries with my spiritual energy so that you did not lose too much blood while fighting," Qi said as he quickly settled Zen down on the ground and began double-checking his body.

As he worked, he heard the faint sound of the glass tarantula walking past them. It apparently hadn't left when the fighting had begun, and as he followed the sound of its footsteps, he realized where it was going. He expected the giant beast to begin eating Ashong's charred corpse, but instead, it's invisible form simply sucked out the remaining spiritual energy from the man, then moved to walk back over to them.

"Are you feeling well enough to travel, love?" he asked as he carefully helped Zen back to his feet.

When Zen straightened and nodded, Qi hesitated. He honestly expected Xisheng to leave Zen's body since the immediate danger had passed, but the young man before him still had his little feline fangs and sharp black nails. His eyes were also still purple, like Xisheng's cat's. He wanted to question him again, but Zen turned and walked away before he could.

Qi took a few steps forward to follow, but stopped when he realized that Zen was simply retrieving his dropped sword and placing it back into its scabbard. When he returned to him a moment later, the glass tarantula gave a quiet hiss to garner their attention.

"I am sorry my friend. Thank you for waiting for us," he said as he walked up to the giant beast and pressed a hand against one of its massive legs.

"May we trouble you with finishing our ride to the surface, please?"

The spider gave another hiss, but didn't move away, signaling that it would finish the task it had been called to do.

"I thank you," Qi said with a bow of his head.

He was about to turn around in order to help Zen up first, but before he could do so he was suddenly tossed up onto the spider's back! His love joined him not a moment later, a mischievous grin on his tired, dirty face.

"Tossing your master about like that," Qi mumbled, slightly embarrassed... and grateful that no one else had been present to witness what had just happened.

His words only made Zen's smile widen as he sat down right up against him, then leaned his head upon Qi's shoulder. He wanted to keep grumbling at him, but as their spider straightened back up and began moving again, he could tell that his love was already drifting off to sleep. He wouldn't keep him from resting. He was going to need as much of it as he could get before they got to the palace.

Keeping quiet, Qi let his curiosity wander a bit as he gently lifted one of Zen's hands and began spreading his fingers, observing their new black, slightly-longer fingernails.

You really do have claws now, love.

Turning his head slowly, he could see just the tiniest bit of a fang poking down below Zen's upper lip as he rested with his mouth slightly open. He was just about to turn his focus inward in order to begin recovering from his own injuries when he noticed one more thing.

Your hair has dark purple highlights now...

He wanted to lift his fingers and sift them through the soft strands immediately, but held himself back.

There will be time to sate such curiosities after we are all safe.

Forcing himself to focus, Qi took a deep breath, then released it through his nose as he closed his eyes.

Heal yourself as much as possible so that you can keep your Zen alive and well in the coming battle.

He stole one more tiny glimpse at his love resting against him before forcing himself to keep his eyes closed so that he could finally focus. It took him no time at all to retrieve his remaining spiritual energy and begin distributing it throughout his body, healing his few serious injuries before channeling it back into his core. He would have a lot of scars, but that was a minimal price to pay for the energy that he would save by not healing the marks.

Now focus and make sure that you're as ready as you can be for our upcoming battle.