NOVEL NEXT 121: A Future As A Laser Pointer
With their caravan plodding along through the city, Lin Songmei relaxed against a railing. Letting the wind blow through her hair as she and Yan Mingqing talked about whatever came to mind, Songmei wiped her bow down, trying to stay in the mindset to fight.
Wang Taigang, Han Youhong, and Zhao Liying, on the other hand, were chatting up a storm on the first carriage! Having not seen the esteemed daughter of the Phoenix Clan for more than a few years, Taigang and Youhong wanted to spend their mission time refreshing their friendship.
As they traveled into desolate, worn-down, abandoned neighborhoods, everyone quieted down as sounds of fighting echoed over from nearby streets where other caravans routed. It seemed these streets were the war zone.
“So, I’ll take any drones and other machinery in the air. Are you going to go down and fight or stay up here?” Songmei murmured as Mingqing warmed up her arms and legs.
“I think you got it, yeah? I still worry for you though... I don’t want you to get hurt.” Mingqing murmured, “Actually, I’ll ask Zhao Liying or Youhong to come. They have a little more range to their attacks, so they’ll stay useful even while up here.”
“Alright, you stay safe as well, okay?” Songmei murmured, hugging Mingqing as the carriage began to slow.
Before the linked carriages could even grind to a halt, machines began to stream out of the cracks between buildings.
As the machines did a mix of lumbering, staggering, and jostling to advance towards the carriages, there was only one word popping into Songmei’s mind: clunky. Reinforcing her arrows with Qi so they could pierce the metal carapaces of the machines, Songmei’s eyebrows furrowed. It seemed a little too easy at the moment.
There were a mix of flying and non-flying machines. Looking like they had been cobbled together, the machines were all decked out—covered not head to toe, but scalp to sole—in weapons.
They, honestly, seemed more like guns with automatic movement than robots outfitted with weapons.
Letting an arrow fly, Songmei sent a drone spiraling into the crowd where Mingqing, Taigang, and Youhong were now wreaking havoc. Zhao Liying, on the other hand, had begun to make her way up to the top of the carriage. Similar to Songmei, Zhao Liying was focusing on the airborne drones, beaming her flaming spear into the sky before pulling it back for another go-around.
“Yan Mingqing asked if I could hang out with you so we could cover each other,” Zhao Liying shouted over the sounds of scraping metal and battle. “So I’ll be here, okay?”
“Sounds good!” Songmei shouted back, her arms warming up as more and more drones took to the skies.
Feeling the pain of the bowstring through her arm guard, Songmei cycled more Qi through her body, blinking a few steps to the side to avoid the waves of barrages being launched by the drones. Moving and rotating as if she herself were a turret, Songmei let loose arrow after arrow, after arrow.
It just seemed to never end. Songmei, now more than ever, was really feeling the need to start learning how to fire multiple arrows.
Taking a breather, Songmei began expelling as much Qi as she could from her arm, coating some arrows in iridescent crystals while laser-focusing on bobbing and weaving through the barrage of bolts raining down on the caravan.
No wonder the carriages were so armored and sleek. If she had to survive a beating like this everyday, Songmei would also start to wear jet-black, heavy metal, straight-out-of-a-dystopian novel armor.
Expelling a huge amount of Qi into her quiver, Songmei clenched her fist. This would have to do. She wasn’t practiced enough to just be making arrow after arrow herself, but coating arrows would have a good enough effect.
Shoving Zhao Liying out of the way of a stray bolt, Songmei apologized as she commenced her own counterattack. One bolt, of course, wouldn’t have hurt Zhao Liying, especially with the armor she seemed to have, but it would sting and disturb her flow.
Spinning her arm like a waterwheel, Songmei began her dance. With her hair fluttering along behind her in the wind, Songmei flitted her way across the carriage roofs, leaving a trail of butterflies in her wake as she let loose a barrage of arrows.
With each arrow that pierced a drone, sending it careening downward, Songmei flexed her fist, bursting each crystal coating to destroy or damage the nearby drones as well. Each arrow on its own, with a qi reinforcement as well, ripped its way through the cloud, puncturing holes through lines of drones at once.
Doing the equivalent of laser beaming through the cloud of drones and machines, Songmei pressed her lips together, a faint grin leaking onto her face as she reveled in the moment. Staying on the move with her hair streaming behind her, Songmei couldn’t help but to take a moment to reflect: it was nice, nice just to see the improvement clear as day.
A couple minutes later, having gone through two quivers of sixty arrows already, Songmei’s breath began to stagger as the sky emptied.
Coming to a stop next to Zhao Liying, Songmei grabbed onto the railing as the last few drones plummeted from the sky. “We survived!”
One breathless high-five later, the two girls leaned against the railing, electing to take a breather before starting to help the ground fighters finish off the more durable robots meandering their way over towards the carriage.
“That wasn’t... too hard...” Zhao Liying gasped, catching her breath while massaging her throwing arm. “That was just... a lot. You think they’re just trying to tire us out right now?”
“I mean... probably,” Songmei agreed, cycling Qi through her body to catch her breath just a little faster. “That’s probably why they’re all so garbage though. I bet they just collect as much as they can and salvage them into new machines.”
“Yeah...” Zhao Liying murmured, nodding as she forced herself to wind up to throw her spear once more. Groaning, Songmei pushed herself up as well, pulling out another quiver as preemptive preparation.
“So, how are you?” Songmei asked, more relaxed now they were free to stand still due to the lack of... sky barrages. “You were so cool earlier throwing your spear! Like an indomitable general!”
“Thank you! You were so graceful as well, dancing like a butterfly through the barrages! I just... tanked them head on,” Zhao Liying laughed with a self-deprecating smile. With a quiet silence falling between the two, Zhao Liying with a voice a touch higher and softer, couldn’t help but ask. “Do you think I’m too gruff, Lin Songmei?”
“Huh? Wha? Huhh?” Songmei shook her head, caught off guard—blind-sided even—at the sudden turn the conversation had taken. “I... I think you’re fine? Do you worry about not seeming feminine enough?”
“Sometimes, yeah, not that often, but it popped into mind just now,” Zhao Liying shrugged, her spear becoming a fire laser almost as she threw it through a couple of machines near Taigang. “I just wanted to ask, you know? You just met me after all. I cut my hair recently, so it probably doesn’t help my femininity.”
“I think... your face makes it so you probably don’t have to worry about that... Also, you don’t seem to have an ego bigger than Youhong’s lychee jelly collection, so you’re fine.” Songmei mused, pausing for a moment to try and create a crystal arrow. “Yeah, on the topic of Youhong, I think Youhong’s face is also as feminine as yours, but he acts like he couldn’t care less about that type of stuff.”
“Well, he doesn’t,” Zhao Liying relented with a shake of the head, grinning as she pulled back her spear. “Anyway, thanks for humoring my little curiosity. I think it’s just been a bit of insecurity that started nagging at me when I was a child.”
“Childhood?” Songmei murmured, trying to add a little into the conversation. “I feel like it doesn’t matter as much then does it?”
“Yeah, it doesn’t. I realized that a year ago while sick in bed. I’ve mostly grown out of it, maybe just the inner child in me just likes to ask sometimes,” Zhao Liying laughed with what Songmei could only describe as a smile of a person who definitely still hadn’t completely grown out of it.
Asking what sparked it, with the addendum she, of course, didn’t have to share if she didn’t want to, Songmei listened as Zhao Liying elaborated. “I think it just started when some parents of this other cultivation family pointed out I only hung out with the guys during the big parties growing up. I kinda only played tag with them or those other types of games, tomboy, yeah? I think that’s what I’d fall under...”
“Huh... that’s chill,” Songmei shrugged, letting loose her arrow before patting Zhao Liying on the back a few times.
Pausing for a moment, Songmei coughed as an awkward tinge crept onto her face. “Also, I just want to clarify, my comment earlier about your face wasn’t me hitting on you. Just... yeah, sorry I’m not the best with socializing and don’t want to cause a misunderstanding.”
“It’s fine!” Zhao Liying broke down laughing, pulling Songmei into a hug. Letting go after a brief moment, Zhao Liying leaned down and whispered. “The boys already told me about your little relationship. Don’t worry about it. Also, I’m only into guys, so don’t worry about me trying to snap up Mingqing, mkay?”
“Hah? They know?” Songmei squinted, another bolt of shock running through her as Zhao Liying’s second comment went straight through one ear and out the other.
“You... didn’t know?” Zhao Liying blinked, giving a silent apology to Youhong and Taigang in her head. “I... feel like it’s harder to not know than it is to know with you two. Just... just being honest.”
“Oh...”
