With my legs dragging uselessly behind me, I hauled Eleb with one arm while the other pulled me slowly forward. I was not sure where forward was, but I was still uncomfortably close to the corpse. I knew it would not be long before it was found, and despite my illusory techniques hiding me, a good scour on their part would reveal me eventually.
Eleb groaned and I looked down between my arm to see that she was opening her eyes.
I was able to see most of the damage from outside but, just in case there was something that I could not see I decided to double check. “Are you alright?” I asked.
“I’m…” She was interrupted as I pulled us further forward. “What’s happen…” Interrupted again, this time by pain. “My arm?”
“There was a trap in the array.”
She began to wriggle. “Let me go.”
“We need to escape,” I said, just to make sure she knew that a hasty exit was paramount.
“I know,” she confirmed. So, I let her go. She rolled over onto her back and held her arm out to me. “Hold this,” she said. I clutched her wrist, unsure exactly of what the plan was.
She suddenly lurched her body in a powerful roll and I heard a disturbing pop from her shoulder. She seethed for a second before turning back around to me with a forced smile.
“All better.” She must have seen the surprise I felt as she offered a hurried explanation. “It’s an old injury, it gets dislocated.” She then pushed off her newly capable arm and stood up. “Now, it’s my turn to carry you.”
It was obviously a better option than oozing across the floor like an injured slug. She picked me up, being careful to avoid my severely damaged legs. Her other arm was definitely broken and she did not seem to have a miracle fix for that so she slung me over her shoulder like a sack of rice. Keeping me in place with her only good arm meant it was taken out of commission.
Between the two of us, we had all the limbs of one able-bodied person. My arms - her legs.
She marched in the vague direction I was going in. I found that the elevation allowed for a much better view of the area we were in. We were approaching a hedge that surrounded the circular scorched lawn like the centre of a maze. We had no way of telling what would be on the other side but we heard some noises behind us and a quick glance revealed two Elders had arrived. One investigated the body, the other, the surroundings.
The hedge felt like a better option. Eleb agreed. She picked up the pace a little, we were walking in the open so the smallest falter in my illusion would reveal us. I closed my eyes and put all my effort into making sure that did not happen.
Her slow but steady pace and my added effort allowed us to reach our goal. Eleb panickingly dived inside, seeming to think that as long as we were obscured visually, then we would be fine. That was not the case, I was not worried about being spotted, I was confident in my technique. I just wanted to get away from the dead body I’d just made.
Her sudden movement meant that I only noticed she had just flung us straight into one of the sect’s infamous illusions. It appeared to span the whole perimeter and the fact that I was at the mercy of Eleb’s reckless launch meant I did not have the time to break the gateway. Instead, we passed right through, we didn’t even knock.
I was overtaken by pink, losing Eleb completely. I shut my eyes and pushed my qi into a technique I called Not You. As in, I’m the master of illusion, not you.
It worked, the pink gave way to small branches and the dense foliage of the hedge. I looked toward Eleb. She was rubbing her eyes.
“Stop, it doesn’t help.”
“It was so bright.”
“It also revealed us. We don’t have time.”
She did not seem to know that would be the case as she got up quickly and pulled me out of the hedge, now on the other side.
We were in a part of the sect I was not familiar with, which meant it was off limits to new disciples. “Run, I’ll keep us as hidden as possible.” My use of Not You required a huge amount of my qi, and it was not even the complete technique, which was why I was not able to stop it from revealing our location.
I was nearly empty. Hence my stealth technique would not be as effective.
Eleb sprinted through the empty greens, I was never more thankful for night. There was not a soul to be seen, despite the various buildings that whizzed by as Eleb’s sprinting took us closer and closer to escape.
Unfortunately our hedge debacle caught up to us in the form of the two investigating Elders. They sprinted in front of us and attempted a clothesline on Eleb.
Eleb spotted the outstretched arm and threw her upper body forward to duck under while rotating. She threw me to the side midway round and transformed the magnificent movement into a furious kick aiming straight at the Elders ribs.
As I rolled on across the ground I lost vision of the encounter but a satisfying crunch alerted me to her success. I finally stopped bouncing and quickly turned my head to see Eleb standing menacingly over the crumpled body of an Elder.
While one arm fell limply at her side, the other was raised and ready for the attack of the other Elder, who was now a lot more wary of the brawling girl.
Fortunately for Eleb, it was times like this where I was glad I was a dual cultivator. It would also serve as a test to see if she was capable of handling everything I could provide.
I opened up to Redemption’s Rose, the ocean in my dantian began to rumble as I connected with the brown waves that came about thanks to my connection with Eleb.
The waves turned stormy, it blended with my red and Chit’s green forming a ferocious whirlpool at the foot of the impossibly tall mountain.
I saw Eleb flinch. She straightened her back a little as she was filled with Chit’s vigorous soul qi. Soul qi that brought life and stability.
Eleb, with renewed confidence charged forward and feinted a left jab. The Elder reacted with fright and channelled all their qi into a defensive manoeuvre. I was not surprised such a stuck-up guild was so inexperienced in combat.
Eleb’s obvious feint was followed by a fatally fast conversion to a spinning kick towards the Elder’s head. I decided there was no need for me to facilitate the strike with my own soul qi as her heel caved the side of the Elders head in. They dropped to the floor alongside the other one.
Eleb did not delay picking me up and began running once again. I was completely out of qi; whatever little I had left after Not You, I used sharing my ocean of soul qi with Eleb.
I saw a wall that had the same pattern as the one that we had passed through when entering the sect and Eleb changed course to aim directly for it.
We arrived at the foot of it and Eleb picked up her pace. I prepared myself for an inevitable rough jostling as she kicked off the wall with one foot and somersaulted ceremoniously over the top of it.
Her landing was a little rough and her shoulder impacted my chest, forcing the air out of my lungs. I panted for air as she kept running. I had no idea where to go and could barely talk even if I did, so I left the direction up to her.
I focused instead on recovering some qi, just in case.
With my legs dragging uselessly behind me, I hauled Eleb with one arm while the other pulled me slowly forward. I was not sure where forward was, but I was still uncomfortably close to the corpse. I knew it would not be long before it was found, and despite my illusory techniques hiding me, a good scour on their part would reveal me eventually.
Eleb groaned and I looked down between my arm to see that she was opening her eyes.
I was able to see most of the damage from outside but, just in case there was something that I could not see I decided to double check. “Are you alright?” I asked.
“I’m…” She was interrupted as I pulled us further forward. “What’s happen…” Interrupted again, this time by pain. “My arm?”
“There was a trap in the array.”
She began to wriggle. “Let me go.”
“We need to escape,” I said, just to make sure she knew that a hasty exit was paramount.
“I know,” she confirmed. So, I let her go. She rolled over onto her back and held her arm out to me. “Hold this,” she said. I clutched her wrist, unsure exactly of what the plan was.
She suddenly lurched her body in a powerful roll and I heard a disturbing pop from her shoulder. She seethed for a second before turning back around to me with a forced smile.
“All better.” She must have seen the surprise I felt as she offered a hurried explanation. “It’s an old injury, it gets dislocated.” She then pushed off her newly capable arm and stood up. “Now, it’s my turn to carry you.”
It was obviously a better option than oozing across the floor like an injured slug. She picked me up, being careful to avoid my severely damaged legs. Her other arm was definitely broken and she did not seem to have a miracle fix for that so she slung me over her shoulder like a sack of rice. Keeping me in place with her only good arm meant it was taken out of commission.
Between the two of us, we had all the limbs of one able-bodied person. My arms - her legs.
She marched in the vague direction I was going in. I found that the elevation allowed for a much better view of the area we were in. We were approaching a hedge that surrounded the circular scorched lawn like the centre of a maze. We had no way of telling what would be on the other side but we heard some noises behind us and a quick glance revealed two Elders had arrived. One investigated the body, the other, the surroundings.
The hedge felt like a better option. Eleb agreed. She picked up the pace a little, we were walking in the open so the smallest falter in my illusion would reveal us. I closed my eyes and put all my effort into making sure that did not happen.
Her slow but steady pace and my added effort allowed us to reach our goal. Eleb panickingly dived inside, seeming to think that as long as we were obscured visually, then we would be fine. That was not the case, I was not worried about being spotted, I was confident in my technique. I just wanted to get away from the dead body I’d just made.
Her sudden movement meant that I only noticed she had just flung us straight into one of the sect’s infamous illusions. It appeared to span the whole perimeter and the fact that I was at the mercy of Eleb’s reckless launch meant I did not have the time to break the gateway. Instead, we passed right through, we didn’t even knock.
I was overtaken by pink, losing Eleb completely. I shut my eyes and pushed my qi into a technique I called Not You. As in, I’m the master of illusion, not you.
It worked, the pink gave way to small branches and the dense foliage of the hedge. I looked toward Eleb. She was rubbing her eyes.
“Stop, it doesn’t help.”
“It was so bright.”
“It also revealed us. We don’t have time.”
She did not seem to know that would be the case as she got up quickly and pulled me out of the hedge, now on the other side.
We were in a part of the sect I was not familiar with, which meant it was off limits to new disciples. “Run, I’ll keep us as hidden as possible.” My use of Not You required a huge amount of my qi, and it was not even the complete technique, which was why I was not able to stop it from revealing our location.
I was nearly empty. Hence my stealth technique would not be as effective.
Eleb sprinted through the empty greens, I was never more thankful for night. There was not a soul to be seen, despite the various buildings that whizzed by as Eleb’s sprinting took us closer and closer to escape.
Unfortunately our hedge debacle caught up to us in the form of the two investigating Elders. They sprinted in front of us and attempted a clothesline on Eleb.
Eleb spotted the outstretched arm and threw her upper body forward to duck under while rotating. She threw me to the side midway round and transformed the magnificent movement into a furious kick aiming straight at the Elders ribs.
As I rolled on across the ground I lost vision of the encounter but a satisfying crunch alerted me to her success. I finally stopped bouncing and quickly turned my head to see Eleb standing menacingly over the crumpled body of an Elder.
While one arm fell limply at her side, the other was raised and ready for the attack of the other Elder, who was now a lot more wary of the brawling girl.
Fortunately for Eleb, it was times like this where I was glad I was a dual cultivator. It would also serve as a test to see if she was capable of handling everything I could provide.
I opened up to Redemption’s Rose, the ocean in my dantian began to rumble as I connected with the brown waves that came about thanks to my connection with Eleb.
The waves turned stormy, it blended with my red and Chit’s green forming a ferocious whirlpool at the foot of the impossibly tall mountain.
I saw Eleb flinch. She straightened her back a little as she was filled with Chit’s vigorous soul qi. Soul qi that brought life and stability.
Eleb, with renewed confidence charged forward and feinted a left jab. The Elder reacted with fright and channelled all their qi into a defensive manoeuvre. I was not surprised such a stuck-up guild was so inexperienced in combat.
Eleb’s obvious feint was followed by a fatally fast conversion to a spinning kick towards the Elder’s head. I decided there was no need for me to facilitate the strike with my own soul qi as her heel caved the side of the Elders head in. They dropped to the floor alongside the other one.
Eleb did not delay picking me up and began running once again. I was completely out of qi; whatever little I had left after Not You, I used sharing my ocean of soul qi with Eleb.
I saw a wall that had the same pattern as the one that we had passed through when entering the sect and Eleb changed course to aim directly for it.
We arrived at the foot of it and Eleb picked up her pace. I prepared myself for an inevitable rough jostling as she kicked off the wall with one foot and somersaulted ceremoniously over the top of it.
Her landing was a little rough and her shoulder impacted my chest, forcing the air out of my lungs. I panted for air as she kept running. I had no idea where to go and could barely talk even if I did, so I left the direction up to her.
I focused instead on recovering some qi, just in case.
