The camp suddenly rang with the frantic peel of bells alerting everyone to battle.

“Raiders are in sight! Weapons at the ready!” Captain Dui Zhong’s powerful baritone voice echoed through the air.

Qing Wu ceased his banter, the air turning frigid as first one then three then a half dozen spear-sized bolts of ice shimmered into existence right above the man’s head.

Alex frowned. He could sense the lesser wards around the man, but a quick look and 18 Perception made it clear that they would be dealing with more than a ragtag group of bandits.

“Captain, they’re armed with crossbows!”

A guard's desperate words were confirmed when Alex noted no less than half a dozen of the approaching bandits slowed down their mounts to take down choice targets while the other thirty plus charged with their spears in chillingly perfect formation… before half a dozen explosions of ice broke their line, nearly a dozen mounts collapsing with panicked winnies and squeals, half the mounts flash frozen, more than one bandit shrieking as his legs had been frozen to ice, in many cases shattered outright. Only a few bandits stopped to help what fallen men they could, the dozens remaining continuing their deadly charge.

But that wasn’t what alarmed Alex.

It was the cold-eyed crossbowmen in the distance, gazing far too intently his way.

He felt a lurch in his gut, dismayed but not surprised to see every last crossbow shifting to draw a beed on his charge.

Qi Perception check made!

And that’s when he felt it.

Shadowy tendrils of death eager not to be seen or heard. A pressure on the back of Alex’s mind. Trying to coax him on facing the threat in front of him as he summoned a swirling disk of stone. Far more secure a prize than any half-decent mortal shield could ever be.

Qing Wu gave a pleased smile. “Earthern Shield. Summoned before you’ve even broken through to Bronze. And almost, but not quite, with an adept’s grace. The perfect defense. Well done!

But Alex was only paying half a mind as he infused his other fist with Earth Qi as well, raising his balance from the crouch they had both embraced.

“Careful, Alex. I need your shield right where it was. Those fools are firing!”

But there was no time for Alex to do other than knock the other man over, ignoring the wujen’s killing glare as the air rang with the buzzing hornet’s sound of steel quarrels fired with devastating force, smashing into Alex’s Earthern Shield and flying right over the now prone Wujen’s head as Alex whipped his leg around in a spinning heel kick that slammed into shadowy gloom suddenly revealing a snarling man glaring with absolute killing hate Alex’s way, wielding a gladius covered in black ichor Alex knew would be absolutely lethal to the touch.

“Assassin!” Alex roared, readying himself to shield-slam the man right off the roof, praying his biochemical mastery would activate in time for him not to die when the man darted forward, revealing just how quick and deadly he truly was.

A Speed cultivator who had broken through to Bronze with an affinity for Shadow Qi and not a trace of Kitsune blood in his body. Observations that did Alex little good when the man’s gladius moved like a blur, Alex’s Earthern shield all that saved him as he stumbled back, nearly lost his footing… before the would-be assassin lurched to a stop, sparing Alex one final haunted look before slowly keeling over backward, massive shards of ice having plunged into his chest, throat, and eye socket.

You have successfully countered Bronze Rank 3 Assassin.

Experience earned!

“A warrior’s reflexes. Well done, Alex! Our opponent certainly wasn’t expecting someone of your caliber stumbling by and disrupting this farce of an assassination attempt disguised as a raid.”

Alex blinked at this, before spinning around to face the raiders once more, absently centering his shield to protect his companion as well. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

The wujen blinked, looking momentarily flustered, before summoning another half dozen ice spears, floating above his head once more. “Never mind, boy. Just keep your focus on the crossbowmen! We’ll take them out next.”

“Next?”

By way of answer, the wujen pointed his arm down at the roaring and shouting bandits below, who were lashing out with their weapons to cut the straps and reins of the massive spirit beast mounts pulling the carriage wagons while those armed with spears did their best to impale the defenders who had ensconced themselves upon the wagon rooftops.

What would have been a slaughter, had the raiders been able to tear through sleeping men and women settled about their fires and the outside of their wagons had suddenly become a much more challenging encounter. They were now unable to charge into their foes or apply hit and run tactics, while their targets were protected by the massive wagons that not only gave reach and cover, like any decent wall or barrier, but were sealed well enough that the bandits couldn’t force easy entry. Save for the wagon adjoining their own, where shouts and desperate screams made it clear that the bandits had broken in and that at least a few of the caravaneers were young, female, and now in mortal peril.

Qing Wu’s gaze hardened as he whispered a single phrase. “Frigid Death!”

All six of Qing Wu’s ice spears hurtled through the air in rapid succession, each finding the chest or throat of a bandit closest to their wagon, the half dozen men slumping over and falling over their mounts.

Alex hated the thought of just standing still as the air rang with desperate screams, but before he could think of how best to take the fight to his foes, he sensed death rapidly approaching the wujen by his side once more, raising his shield to deflect another tight barrage of crossbows that would have blown through a mortal shield and pincushioned the wagon, if Alex hadn’t lowered his shield to cover the lip of the wagon as well.

Alex gazed intently at the scowling wujen. “They’re aiming for you specifically. And those crossbows are massive for horseback.”

The wujen snorted. “They’re not even trying to pretend they’re thieves now.” His eyes widened when a fresh cry tore through the air. “Ya Ling!” Intent eyes gazed into Alex’s own. “Just how good are you, boy?”

“Good enough.”

“Good, then fight!” The wujen glared into the darkness. “I have a surprise for those bastards, and I should have more than enough time to fire it before they can reload.”

But Alex had already slipped free of the wagon with the wujen’s assurance after readying his spear and leaping free of the wagon. He knew they were lucky, the talisman traps that had been unleashed had taken out half of the first wave of bandits, turning what would have been a pinpoint charge into a broken, scattered affair, evening the odds and buying them time.

But wagons had never been truly designed to be forts, and the wagon holding whatever prize the bandits w ere seeking had clearly been breached, as Alex saw for himself as he raced around the far side of the closest one next to the wujen’s, catching sight of a pair of women struggling in the arms of powerfully built men radiating the strength of cultivators. The farthest thing from common bandits.

Which was of course the moment that a handful of mounted raiders circling the wagons, looking for weak points, caught sight of Alex loping forward.

He had just enough time to pivot so that the wagons were at his back, limiting how well they could encircle or charge him.

“Reisin! Get the girls and get out of here! These assholes have a Ruidian gem master!” Roared a giant of a man from his mount as he glared Alex’s way. “You’re dead, fool!” He roared as he wheeled his mount to charge past Alex, the air whistling with the passage of a wicked looking bronze mace, perfect for smashing in skulls and sending even well-armored man crashing to the ground.

Before being stopped cold by the swirling disc of stone Alex held before his body like a shield.

The man’s eyes widened in surprised disbelief.

But before the bandit could say another word, he was flying through the air, smashed from his mount with a stone covered fist hitting with such force that Alex knew the bastard wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.

Find Weakness Skillcheck made!

Bronze Rank 2 Strength versus 14, modified by 10 ranks of Golden Realms kung fu.

You have critically struck your opponent!

Spleen has been ruptured. Kidney has been ruptured.

Spine has been shattered!

Qi Perception Check successful.

Duck!

Alex immediately ducked under the whistling blow of a scimitar that could have torn out his unarmored throat, grateful for the partial cover of the wagons and the effective 360 peripheral sense of the battlefield that Qi Perception gave him, choosing that moment as well to minimize the interface messages that had been flashing across his minds eye, just like it had in the Golden Realms, once upon a time. It was as if all the basic parameters had been reset.

The bandit who had come so close to decapitating him sneered and spat. “You can fight, Ruidian? Good” He flashed a wicked, black-toothed smile. “You’ll fetch a pretty coin, when we sell you to the arena!”

With those words he roared and charged, before jerking back in his reins with the oddest expression on his face. He looked desperate to say something profound as blood shot from his mouth and the massive gash in his throat, thanks to the spear that had ripped open his throat in a shower of crimson death before Alex weaved and darted away, nothing but a spinning dervish of death, the air ringing with the screams of not one but three additional raiders clutching gushing wounds before the first raider he had stabbed finally crashed to the ground.

You have slain 4 mortals and two basic cultivators. Experience earned!

Alex knew it was madness to charge head-on into a battle against an unknown opponent in unfamiliar terrain when he was just barely getting his bearings. Yet he felt nothing but fiercest exhilaration as he weaved and ducked under blows that were so clumsy and slow that he would have felt pity, were it a struggling student. But since it was bloodthirsty cutthroats he was facing, all Alex felt was furious satisfaction when he slipped under yet another desperate spear thrust, before grabbing the haft of a fresh weapon and jerking it free of his enemy’s grip while spinning around, shield momentarily dispelled long enough to crack the back of the man’s skull with the haft of his own weapon before Alex flipped it over in his hand and plunged it into yet another raider’s back, just before he could cut down a desperately screaming girl who spared Alex a single desperate glance, before rolling under the closest wagon.

Probably the smartest move she could have made.

Alex then repositioned himself with the wagons at his back once more, elemental shield at the ready as an entire handful of shouting raiders pivoted on their ponies and tried to pin Alex between daomen and a grimly smiling pair of slavers holding a wicked looking crossbows.

Alex, not being a complete idiot, did the only thing that made sense in that scenario. He lifted up his Earthern Shield for maximum cover and charged right for the crossbowmen while locking eyes with the snarling slaver to his right, the man perfectly positioned to cut Alex down when he passed.

“You’re dead, Ruidian scu--”

The cutthroat’s words were cut off in a fountain of blood as the tip of Alex’s most recent acquisition plunged under the chin of the wild-eyed man, slicing through soft flesh before cracking the skull as it lodged in the man’s brainpan, his target collapsing like a sack of potatoes as the air rang with the crack and twang of a pair of armor piercing bolts cartwheeling away from his shield as a simultaneously thrust spear also skittered right off the rim of his defenses.

“Kotec, why the fuck didn’t your bolt punch through!?” Screamed the still angrily thrusting bandit. Though his companion was in no position to say anything with a leaping Alex’s Stone Fist shattering the man’s jaw and obliterating his teeth.

Kotec’s hands struggled for the dao secured to a saddle sheath on his left side. Which suited Alex perfectly as he darted to that side of the mount and claimed the blade for himself, the furiously cursing spearman unable to land any sort of hit in the heartbeat it took Alex to wrench free the surprisingly well-balanced blade and slice the furiously cursing man’s head clean off his head, then ramming his blade through the second crossbowman’s guts, Tier 2 Bronze strength effortlessly bursting through the man’s too-thin armor, the air suddenly ripe with the stink of ruptured bowels and blood.

Rank 10 Golden Realm’s skill check: Critical success!

You have overwhelmed your mortal opponents’ limited vitality and skill.

You have successfully decapitated your opponent!

You have successfully disemboweled your opponent!

All foes within 15 feet have been momentarily stunned!

Alex didn’t need the messages now flickering across a tiny discrete corner of his interface to know that his grizzly display of martial prowess had frozen the nearby bandits in terror. Those who had witnessed it, anyway. He was already sprinting forward with a roar, a contemptuous flick of his shield forcing his nearest opponent’s spear off line right before he rammed his seized dao into the man’s side, sending the raider crumpling before the cloth armor tore and three feet of steel blasted through the wheezing man’s bowels before Alex tore it free with a furious wrench, immediately charging for another pair of raiders busy aiming their crossbows at the wagon the bandits had successfully broken in to, revealing a trio of huddling women and several guards crumpled over in death.

“This ends now! Surrender or die, slaves!” The closest slaver roared.

The youngest of the three women rose to her full height, challenging the slavers with flashing eyes of jade as a pair of women trembled behind her.

Alex’s eyes widened, tasting a cultivator’s aura around the girl. “I will give you my oath of surrender, so long as you...” The girl’s declaration was cut off when the ultimatum-delivering slaver’s head tumbled through the air in a spray of crimson droplets washing over them all, cocked and loaded crossbow falling to the ground where it discharged with a twang.

The second crossbowman’s eyes widened, registering a roaring Alex fast enough to reflexively squeeze the trigger, the steel bolt twanging through the air to lodge itself a full inch in Alex’s stone shield a split second before his flashing dao cleaved off the top of the man’s skull.

The trio of women gazed at a blood-spattered Alex in speechless disbelief when he dared to waste a moment glaring their way, as he faced off against the last of the quartet of bandits that had been specifically targeting this wagon above any others. “Dart under the wheels and head back to Qing Wu’s wagon! I’ll cover you!”

He barely caught sight of the standing girl’s abrupt nod before his attention was once more on the powerfully built slaver swinging a warhammer for his skull.

“The only thing you’ll cover is death, bo--”

You have critically struck Slaver.

Decapitation!

Experience earned!

Alex couldn’t quite hold back a fierce grin when the surprised slaver’s head went tumbling to the ground just inches away from his fellow’s, before a panicked desert pony kicked it away. The air was now rich with the coppery taste of blood clawing at the back of Alex’s throat.

Despite the well-made and curiously uniform helmets that most, but not all the slavers wore, and signs of what looked to be a high-quality chain mail hauberks worn underneath the loose billowing robes that were no doubt excellent for wicking away heat and blocking excess sun, Alex needed no Find Weakeness skill check to sense just how vulnerable his oppoenent’s necks were, protected by nothing but folds of cloth that his high degree of skill and cultivator’s strength made it effortlessly to slice through even as he cleaved.

Having forgone anything more than small round shields to use along with their stirrups, the raiders tended to be forced off balance when striking a shield made of near-indestructible Qi, at least for a mortal, with no give at all. And that moment of off-balanced confusion was all Alex needed for a single precise blow slipping either over or under their hauberks to finish the fight. Decapitation or disembowelment. Either way, Alex ended the fights the moment they over-extended and he was in position to strike.

“You killed them,” whispered a soft, breathless voice. “You killed them all.”

Qi Perception check successful! You sense the flow of the battlefield!

A panting Alex found himself surprisingly close to wheezing moments later as the young woman’s voice washed over him once more. He took careful stock of his surroundings, recalling once more that he had no access to Eternal Fox regeneration, at least for now. Which meant that his endurance and vigor was exactly what Rank 2 Bronze and 10 Ranks in his chosen martial art would bring him. Which, admittedly, was a hell of a lot.

But after multiple furious melee engagements, he was definitely feeling it. Especially considering that his Qi reserves were already depleting, and he knew he dare not take on dozens of cutthroats, no matter their skill ranks or basic stats, if he had no form of protection whatsoever.

Alex took in dusky features without flaw or blemish, as a strikingly beautiful olive-skinned girl who couldn’t have been any older than him gazed solemnly into his eyes. She had a cultivator’s presence and vitality, that was for sure.

He forced his most reassuring smile, almost certain that his attempt was ruined by the sticky blood he could feel spattered across his face. “Only for the moment, I’m afraid. I don’t suppose you know how to use a spear?”

Her dusky features reddened with an unexpected flush. “Only the jian, I’m afraid. It is a lack I will take pains to correct, when next I...”

“No time!” Alex hissed, when another trio of bandits galloped around the wagon. “Under the wagons to Qing Wu’s, now!”