The battle fractured into a chaotic web of clashes. Kai was locked in his desperate dance with Mang. The blindfolded brother moved with an acrobat's eerie grace, his every dodge preceded by a sharp screech from the large-eared monkey clinging to his shoulder.
"Damned monkey!" Kai spat, unleashing a wave of black gas and flame.
Mang simply smiled, slipping through the attack like smoke. His body bent at an impossible angle, then snapped forward with terrifying speed. A fist sheathed in clean, hot flames drove into Kai's exposed ribs. The crack of bone was audible. Kai gasped, the air blasted from his lungs as he was sent rolling across the forest floor.
Mang walked over, his gentle demeanor now a chilling facade. He kicked Kai hard in the stomach, making him curl around the pain. "You've always been a problem, Kai. You disobey, you distrust, you lie. That's why Mother had to feed you that medicine. Because everyone called you crazy without it, you'd always lie about mother, Try to frame mother for things she never did, but she was always forgiving always welcoming but you kept doing what you did best hurting her to the point where everyone felt bad for her that the elders tried banishing you several times out of compassion for mother because she had to put up with you an ungrateful son that couldn't tell what kindness and love were even after living all his life surrounded by nothing but them, and even after all of that she didn't care about them and what they said she cared about you." Mang's voice was a wounded, fervent whisper. "She wants the best for us. She chose us out of so... so many. Don't you feel grateful? Don't you feel honored? Don't you even feel shame for betraying her? For trying to frame her against the other elders before you ran away? And you did all of this after she blessed us with our gifts. After she tried making us perfect in her vision."
Kai pushed himself up, blood dripping from his lip. He unleashed a point-blank blast to force Mang back as disgust became more and more apparent on his face. "She didn't help us! She didn't save us! She didn't give us gifts, she cursed us! But it's useless talking to you. You're a brainwashed maniac, and Kun is a pathetic coward. And I am not your brother nor am I her son."
Mang shook his head sadly. "Well, it's no use talking to you. You're a lost case for now. Of course, you'll be back to how you were once we're home."
Kai wiped his mouth, his mind racing. "I hate to admit it, but I can't land a hit. He's too fast, and his reflexes are preternatural. And That monkey... Keeps on saving him." His eyes scanned the larger fight, landing on Lin Shu standing over the corpse of the ape, with Kun staggering away, clutching his ruined stomach. A vicious smile split Kai's bloody lips. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "I guess my friend over there is already done with that coward of yours."
Mang followed the gesture. His placid expression shattered. "!?" Without a word, he abandoned Kai and stormed toward Lin Shu, a blur of lethal intent.
Kai followed, a grim satisfaction battling his own pain.
Lin Shu was assessing his next move toward the wounded Kun when a kick, whip-fast and impossibly precise, smashed into the side of his helmet. The impact rocked him, but he didn't fall. He raised his head to see a flurry of fists already upon him. He threw a counter-punch, but Mang was already gone, having leaned his entire torso backward in a move that defied balance, his hands planted on the ground behind him. As Lin Shu tried to capitalize, Mang used his hands to pivot, flames jetting from his palms to propel himself sideways, and landed a spinning kick against Lin Shu's armored thigh.
Clang. The strike was swift, but it only left a minor dent in the steel coating. "He's fast, but his attacks lack decisive power. He can't pierce the armor. But that flexibility is a problem... and the monkey. It never takes its eyes off me and it always screeches whenever i am close to hitting him, allowing him to get away from me over and over again"
Mang disengaged, darting to his brother's side. He looked at Kun's grievous wounds, his blindfolded face etched with confusion. "How the hell did he do this to you?"
Kun breathed raggedly. "His armor is too strong..." He swallowed blood. "He... he is also using the Crucible."
Mang's head jerked back. "What do you mean, he has the Crucible?"
"I mean what I said. I saw him use it."
"Then how come he hasn't blown himself up yet?"
"He's controlling it. Releasing the explosions in smaller, focused portions."
Mang looked back at Lin Shu, his certainty wavering. Kun's next words, spoken through a haze of pain, struck deeper. "If this guy has it... then I think Mother lied, Mang."
Mang's face twisted with sudden, raw rage. "I'll act like I didn't hear that."
Lin Shu gave them no more time to confer. He stopped Kai, who arrived at his side, followed closely by a panting Aoyan. Kai was smirking at his brothers' clear hesitation.
"What are you smirking for?" Lin Shu's voice was a cold, metallic rasp. "You think I forgot how you disobeyed me and endangered Aoyan by leaving her to be attacked by a hidden assassin?"
Kai's smirk vanished. He looked at Aoyan. Her palms were bloody from gripping the needle-dart, her face and arms crisscrossed with superficial but painful cuts. She held herself stiffly, pain evident in her eyes.
"It's okay, Li, I'm fine," Aoyan said, her voice tight. "We should focus on them right now, right?"
Lin Shu nodded, but the failure of Kai's judgment was logged in his mind, another black mark against the boy's reliability. "What is wrong with this Chi Clan? Every one of them turns into a complete moron whenever they meet each other."
"Keep Mang away," Lin Shu ordered Kai, and then he moved.
He rushed Kun, who painfully raised his blade, one hand still clamped over his healing stomach. A Scorch Piercer forced Kun to twist aside, the movement tearing at his wound anew.
Mang shot forward to intercept, a kick aimed at Lin Shu's temple. Lin Shu responded with a punishing fist, white flames igniting along his knuckles. Mang saw the deadly fire and, with that bizarre agility, twisted in mid-air. He used Lin Shu's own armored forearm as a platform, pushing off just as the white flames detonated in the empty space where he had been. "His reflexes are too fast for a blind man."
Mang landed away, and Kai was on him in an instant, forcing him back into their frantic duel. Lin Shu seized the opening, charging Kun. The wounded heir met him with a final, roaring swing of his flame-wreathed blade. This time, Lin Shu didn't dodge. He met the sword with a fist charged not for detonation, but for raw, reinforced impact.
CRACK-BOOM.
The clash was a small storm of opposing forces. Lin Shu was driven back several steps, his boots digging furrows in the earth. Kun was flung backward as if hit by a ram, smashing into a moss-covered boulder with a sickening crunch. He tried to push himself up, his movements feeble. A Scorch Piercer lanced toward him. He jerked his head aside at the last second, the white fire searing a deep groove across his shoulder instead of his throat. With a desperate gasp, he scrambled away, trying to put distance between himself and his relentless hunter.
To Lin Shu's surprise, instead of continuing to flee, Kun suddenly spun and lunged. It was a feeble, last-ditch attack. Lin Shu moved to meet the blade once more, but at the final instant, Kun let go of his sword. The weapon was batted aside by Lin Shu's punch, leaving him over-extended and off-balance for a critical half-second. Kun's real attack wasn't a strike, but a shove—a blast of amber flame from his good hand that hit Lin Shu's chest not to damage, but to propel.
Lin Shu was thrown back, crashing through a thicket of young trees. By the time he regained his footing and reached the boulder, Kun was already vanishing deeper into the woods, a trail of blood marking his path.
Across the clearing, Kai was wearing Mang down through sheer, dogged persistence, while Aoyan waited for an opening. She found one, a fist of cyan flame striking Mang's side as he twisted to avoid Kai. The hit landed, knocking the wind from him.
Lin Shu was about to give chase to finish Kun when the forest itself seemed to attack him.
A python, its scales rippling with actual fire, struck from the undergrowth with no warning. "Didn't even sense it!" Lin Shu thought, ducking beneath venomous fangs. As he moved to punch its head, another threat filled his vision: a saber's edge, held by a woman with eyes like banked coals and a waterfall of black hair.
He barely managed to lean back, the tip scoring a line across his chest plate. The force of the blow still sent him rolling.
Aoyan, seeing Lin Shu knocked away, froze. Her breath caught in her throat. Mang saw her hesitation and lunged, only for Kai to bodily intercept him, taking a brutal blow meant for her.
"AOYAAAAAAN!" sang the red-eyed girl, her voice mocking and bright.
Aoyan's hands went numb at her sides. She slowly, haltingly, raised her fists. Fear and a deep, old hesitation swam in her eyes.
Kun and Mang regrouped at the treeline, Kun healing slowly as Mang stood guard, his face a mask of annoyance. More figures emerged from the woods, gathering around the red-eyed woman.
"Su," Kun acknowledged grimly.
Mang looked furious. "Looking a little roughed up there, don't you think, Kun?" Chi Su said with a predatory smirk. "Didn't think you were so weak I'd have to save you. Of course, I only did that because you have to die by my blade, no one else's. So, until then, how about you mama's boys scramble away? I have business to deal with. Leave your tokens, though i am gonna need them as payment for whatever time you have left among the living."
Kun said nothing, but Mang's anger flared. "We're not leaving. It'd be less of a humiliation to lose than to be allowed to leave by them."
Su's smile widened. She signaled with two fingers. Jue and Weize detached from her group, moving with purpose toward the wounded Kun and furious Mang. She then gestured to Ran and Yue. "The armored one. Keep him busy."
Lin Shu was already in motion, a force of nature cutting toward Aoyan. Ran tried to bar his path with a fist wrapped in stone-like knuckles. He took the hit on his shoulder, didn't break stride, and shoved her aside with enough force to send her sprawling. Yue lunged with twin daggers, but a backhanded slap from his armored gauntlet sent her crashing into a tree trunk.
Chi Su, watching this, raised an eyebrow, momentarily surprised. Then her attention returned to Aoyan, who was watching Lin Shu's approach like a lifeline, her fists raised but shaking.
"Oh, you're relying on him?" Su's smile stretched from ear to ear. "But I guess you've always been like that. Always needed others to fight your fights for you. Like a coward." She walked forward, each step deliberate. Aoyan unconsciously stepped back, her resolve crumbling. "Go ahead. Punch me," Su taunted, leaning in until her face was inches from Aoyan's trembling fist.
Aoyan's expression went deathly pale. Her hands slowly lowered.
"That's what I thought," Su whispered, her voice dripping with contempt. "I don't even know what made Yanqi, the most powerful elder of our clan, consider taking a weakling like you as his disciple." She began to turn away, a picture of dismissive victory.
Then she moved. It was a blur—a knee driven with cruel precision into Aoyan's stomach. The air exploded from Aoyan's lungs in a silent gasp. She folded, hitting the ground hard, tears of pain and humiliation springing to her eyes as she clutched her middle. When she looked up, Su's mocking smile was all she could see. The world shrank. The forest faded. She was a child again, curled on polished stone, surrounded by the laughter of her siblings, utterly alone.
Su placed her foot on Aoyan's head, pressing her face into the dirt. "Also, I don't know if Yanqi told you, but your mother hasn't been in good shape lately. Maybe illness. Maybe something else. Who knows?" She laughed, a bright, cruel sound.
Lin Shu was upon her then. Su's saber flashed up to meet his charge. He took the cut on his armored shoulder and drove into her like a battering ram. She activated a defensive technique, white, jagged spikes of force erupting around her, but they shattered against the momentum of his charge. She was forced back, her smile never quite leaving her face"well I would've liked to cripple then and there unfortunately it's not the most wise thing to do, simply because of the chance that some offensive artifacts might trigger in response, so it's best that I do this safely."
Lin Shu looked down at Aoyan's miserable form in the dirt. "Why didn't you punch her?" he asked, his tone devoid of judgment, purely analytical.
Aoyan looked up slowly, but no words came.
"If you're not going to tell me, then how am I supposed to help you?"
Aoyan blinked, as if the question itself was foreign. She didn't answer.
Lin Shu lowered himself to one knee beside her, motioning for Kai to intercept the approaching Ran and Yue. His internal monologue was a stream of cold calculation. "Yanqi ordered me to help her get through this. I don't know how to do that, and I still wonder why that moron thinks I, of all people, can help when he couldn't. But I have to try, or I might lose favor with him. And given how many enemies I'm making because of him, staying on his good side is the only smart play."
He reached out and carefully cleaned the blood and dirt from Aoyan's face with a corner of his cloak. His movements were methodical, not gentle.
"Aoyan," he said, his voice low. "Tell me. Do you trust me?"
She stared at him, the question seeming to echo in the hollow space her courage had vacated.
She didn't answer.
Lin Shu slowly stood. "Well, if you do, I'm expecting an answer later."
He turned and walked toward the smiling Chi Su, who had watched the entire exchange with amused interest.
"So you're the one who put Kun in that state," she said, twirling her saber. "I guessed it could never be Aoyan or that rabid dog, Kai." She pointed the blade at him. "But you do look interesting. So, how about this? Why don't you shatter her dantian, and I'll consider letting you join my branch of the clan as a disciple?"
Lin Shu's smile was a mocking, hidden thing behind his helm. "I'm not really interested in such a shitty life."
Su's grin widened. "I'd say you're already living one, being around that moron over there. But I wouldn't think you'd notice if you're willing to give your life for her."
Lin Shu didn't appreciate the comment. "Like I'd give my life for anyone. I don't care if it's the Emperor; I wouldn't give a single thing for nothing. And I'm sure there's nothing I'd be willing to buy with my life." The thought was absolute. His life was his only currency, and he spent it on no one but himself. Aoyan's safety was merely a transaction with Yanqi—one he intended to collect on in full.