Qi Like Tar

With his sister on his right, Paike slowly shuffled to the left in a circle. Staying true to his training, he never crossed his feet. This pattern continued for several seconds while the combatants sized each other up after their initial clash.

Every once in a while, at random intervals, a beam of light flashed toward Lan Zhu's face or body. Despite the sheer speed, it was stopped by a flicker of one of the two vines protruding from the edges of her robe. He couldn't tell if any lasting damage was being done, but it was at least forcing her to keep some attention diverted to blocking.

As the siblings methodically flanked their dangerous opponent, Paike darted in without warning, his staff swinging. He didn't have any special technique—just simply gripped down low and twisted from the hips, aiming to smash through any block. At the same time, from the other side, his sister darted in, not to attack but to catch their opponent if she tried to dodge. She ducked, dipping under the swing that Paike had intentionally overextended.

Just as she was about to come up and deliver a counter, Liming kicked the back of Lan Zhu’s leg right at the moment she was most off-balance, sending her stumbling. Paike swung the staff all the way around, using his extra momentum.

This time, when the lance of Starfire slammed into her, it hit her shoulder and sent her spinning. Then Paike's follow-up blow arrived in full force. The stick smashed on an upraised forearm and he heard a loud crack as bone met wood. He wasn't sure if her arm broke, but that had to have hurt.

The vine tendrils caught her tumble after several meters and pushed her back upright before Liming could capitalize. Liming stopped just outside of her reach and started to circle behind while she waited for Paike to catch up. Lan Zhu straightened the rest of the way; she shook out her arm as if it was numb and clearly hurting. Paike met her eyes and moved in a way that forced her to keep them on him.

"I didn't expect—" she started to say, but Liming came from behind, sending a punch into the small of her back, causing her to stumble forward. The Kong family didn’t believe in letting their opponents talk in a fight. It was a distraction and should be taken advantage of. That training had been drilled into them their entire lives.

Paike let go of the staff with one hand and palm-struck the stumbling girl's chest right at her sternum, sending her flying backward into a second strike from Liming.

This time, she was ready, spinning with the blow and using another technique to jump off the air briefly. A small green leaf materialized from nothing and then faded as her foot left the spot to get some distance. As she spun in the air, a foot flashed out. Liming caught the strike on her crossed forearms with only a wince. Clearly, Lan Zhu was off balance as it held only the fraction of the force that she was capable of imparting.

Another arrow flew right as she landed, but another vine intercepted this one.

"Mm, rude," Lan Zhu said, but the Kong siblings didn't respond. There were times for taunts in fights, in conversation, and in banter, but only when it was to their advantage. That was taught after the instinct to pounce on any opportunities that talking opponents gave them. Usually, when an opponent tried to taunt and speak, staying silent had a better chance of putting them off guard than engaging in banter.

They had been trained for this, and the two siblings worked as a well-practiced team, intentionally making sure that their blind spots were covered and capitalized on any openings. It was like they were a single, talented martial artist.

One of them would come in and present an opening, overextend. This would bait out a predictable response, allowing the other to take advantage. They were only able to do this because of the trust between them, as one wrong read could leave one of them in a tenuous position. Despite their coordination, Paike thought they needed to train more. He was not aware enough of Liming's techniques and was often unable to give her a full opening to use her own techniques as effectively as she could. All he could really do was hit hard.

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Paike would have liked to say that the fight continued on this way, the two of them slowly battering their opponent down with tactics and numbers without really taking much risk themselves. But that would not have done their opponent enough credit. The next time he got close, a cloud of spores erupted from her mouth as she blew in his face, blocking his strike. Liming went at her from either side and he had moved in, but he was sent back, reeling and coughing, as he felt her qi attempt to seep into his channels.

In a rare turn of events, Paike was thankful that his qi moved so slowly. He had recognized this effect a few times with toxins and poisons, but never so directly. He simply had time to halt the cycle and expel the little bit of qi attempting to poison him before it got to a vital part of his cultivation. In contrast, an ordinary cultivator might have cycled it into their core before even noticing the poison or being able to react.

Liming had to survive on her own for a few seconds while he reversed the damage. But soon, he was right back in the fight.

Lan Zhu was not ready for him to recover so quickly. As he grabbed her arm and tossed her over his hip into a building behind him, he had a quick chance to step up to Liming, who laid a hand on his face. The watering and burning in his eyes disappeared. The physical symptoms vanished almost as quickly as the more mystical ones. The brief second gave their opponent a chance to stand up, but her robe was now dirty, and she was breathing heavily. Still, Paike was impressed. Fighting two-on-one was difficult, even if Liming was a partial stage below her, and he didn't have any techniques.

They were supported by a surprisingly competent long-range archer with a technique made explicitly for piercing, and she was holding her own. He was pretty sure they could win eventually, but he wasn't sure if both he and Liming would survive the fight. They were also on a bit of a time limit. How long could Guan Li run and hide from three cultivators at once before they either caught him and took him out or gave up and came back?

They traded knowing glances as they picked up the pace, taking more and more risks. Occasionally, they would take hits, but with Liming being able to heal, they wore their opponent down. Slowly, they exposed her bag of tricks. And what a deep bag it was. Her family must have provided her with at least two full arts. One with plant control and another dealing with growth and repair. That advantage wouldn’t last forever as everyone also learned arts, but it was a significant headstart.

Their opponent was incredibly skilled, however she still had a limited qi reserve. Liming did as well, but after the first couple of minutes, when it was clear they couldn't take down their opponent quickly, Liming saved her qi and pretty much only used it to heal Paike. Paike, though, was running constant qi reinforcement through his body, strengthening his limbs and hitting with the force of a mountain in every single strike, something that neither Liming nor Lan Zhu could afford to do.

"Yixin!" Paike yelled. They weren't getting anywhere, not fast enough. "Swap!"

It was a prearranged code word—not to swap with him, as it wouldn't make sense to give their opponent a warning like that. No, Yixin was meant to help Guan Li.

Their covering fire vanished, and the fight resumed, this time at a quicker pace as they didn't have that half-second the arrows provided to better position themselves and coordinate. For once, the siblings were put on the defensive. Vines kept trying to entangle them now that they weren't required to block the projectiles, and they had to be careful to jump out of range or work to free each other. Paike's sense of time faded, and the only thing that existed was him, his opponent, and his sister. He moved on instinct and training, keeping himself on his toes, ready to react to everything. The world fell away as he entered a sort of combat trance.

The trance was only broken when a boy stumbled out of an alley. When the figure straightened up to his full height, Paike met a pair of gleaming golden eyes.

"Liming!" he called, and she moved as she became aware of the presence at her back. They separated from their opponent and sized up the new arrival.

"Ren Chi," Chu said in surprise. "You don't look so good."

Her remark came just in time for the boy with golden eyes to fall to his knees and collapse forward, a pincushion of golden arrows sticking from his back. Out of the shadows behind him stepped Guan Li, a knife clasped in his hand. As he walked through the vanishing body of Golden Eyes, Guan Li spun the knife in his fingers.

"Metal boy didn't want to go down easy," he said.

Paike blinked at the uncharacteristic gutter talk from his friend. He knew that Guan Li had a rough upbringing. Still, he usually did a decent job hiding his speech, sounding more like an ordinary citizen than whatever he must have been.

The odd moment of stillness was interrupted by an arrow flying right for Lan Zhu's face. She blocked it, but Paike could see the first bit of concern in her eyes.

"I think it might be time to give up," he said, speaking to his opponent for the first time since the very beginning.

"Give up? It just got interesting," Lan Zhu said with bravado, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

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