The Jade Shadows Must Die [Cultivation LitRPG]

Rix's blood ran cold. They'd warned him retribution was coming, but in the lull, he'd grown complacent. If he'd been focused, he'd have made straight for the deepest part of the Mid Whisper zone where the realm was largest. But instead, he'd dawdled here closer to the portal, playing with the entropy field and taking his time with Low Rank fades. Maybe the Iron Hand would have found him anyway, but he'd certainly made it easier for them.

Kenzo reeled in the weapon that had been a few inches from caving in Rix's skull. It was an unusual soul bond, a meteor hammer — basically a heavy iron ball on the end of a long chain. Rix had never fought anyone wielding one before, but he'd read about them in stories.

Yutaro, meanwhile, carried his long, cruel-looking jian in one hand, which he swung now in casual loops in front of him. "Of all the people to run into out here, it's my favourite dreg. What are the chances?" Even now, his voice held that same trademark tone, cruelty masquerading as friendliness. Just by looking at the smile on his face, it was clear he'd been looking forward to this.

As the life bled out of the fade next to him and the essence entered his body, Rix sucked in a deep breath. Things could have been worse. He felt fresh. The battles against these weaker fades hadn't taxed him. He still had full pools of both qi and mana. More importantly, his style was freshly ranked. If he had to have this fight, he was as ready as he was going to get.

The way the two of them began fanning out said the fight was, indeed, inevitable. They'd put themselves between him and the portal, meaning if he hoped to get home, he had to go through them.

"I know you probably thought we'd forgotten about you," Yutaro said, his voice almost a croon. "I'm sorry about that. Things have been kind of crazy lately. But today, I promised myself I'd set aside some time and resolve our little miscommunication. Permanently."

His threats in the mess hall had been somewhat nebulous. Rix hadn't known if Yutaro intended to beat him or kill him for his 'crimes'. But his intention was crystal clear now. It was written in his face, his posture, the sharpness in his voice. If they could, these men would leave him as a corpse hidden there in the mist, and they wouldn't stop unless he stopped them.

This was a fight for his life.

From this distance, Rix could feel the strength of them. Two High Whispers, now armed and unfettered by the prison's restraints. He didn't know what techniques they had, but they were likely stronger than his. Tolson had said that Yutaro had multiple corporate techniques. Rix had his Energy Surge, but even that advantage was muted now. Yutaro had seen it before. Still, he had to try.

He let his fear spill over onto his face. It wasn't difficult. He raised one hand defensively and said, "Hey, sorry. Yutaro, listen, I'm really sorry about the stones. I know I fucked up. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" As he talked, he walked steadily closer. He kept his steps slow, halting, frightened and non-threatening.

"All of this just got out of control," he said, keeping up the flow of words and trying to keep their attention on his mouth instead of his body. "I didn't know how things were here, and I made a mistake. If you'll just let me—"

Rix exploded into action, calling on Energy Surge to catapult him forward. In the blink of an eye, he closed the gap between him and Yutaro and thrust out for the man's stomach. His mantle shattered immediately, but rather than hitting the soft flesh beneath, Rix's staff instead met something hard and unyielding that sent it bouncing backwards, a jarring vibration shooting up his arm. There was a dull grey ripple across Yutaro's body, like a splash mark in muddy water.

The smile that spread across Yutaro's face was wicked. "I've seen that trick before. Thankfully, out here I've got my own tricks."

It had to be some kind of technique, something that provided extra shielding. It looked vaguely like Han's [Stoneskin]. Perhaps the man was following in his leader's footsteps. That didn't bode well.

The counter-attack came swift and vicious. Still shocked and off-balance, Rix wasn't able to fully dodge. Yutaro swung for Rix's head, aiming to end the fight then and there. Rix dodged to the left, ducking low, but still his mantle crackled to life and pain blossomed in his ear. The blade had clipped him, shearing off a hunk of cartilage. He let out a hiss, warm blood spilling down the side of his face.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the barest hint of movement. Instinctively, he fired Energy Surge a second time and dashed behind a nearby tree, the meteor hammer once again whistling through the air where he had just stood. This time, he felt heat accompanying the wind as the weapon sailed past. As the ball landed on the ground with a thud, Rix caught a glimpse of it, a flaming mass that burned so bright he could barely look straight at it. One of Kenzo's techniques, then. He could turn his meteor hammer into a literal meteor. It felt a little redundant to Rix given how dangerous the weapon was by itself, but perhaps it made it more suited to taking down stronger foes.

"An ear for a nose," said Yutaro merrily. "Not a perfect trade, but we can't have everything we want, now can we?"

The voice was already moving to Rix's right, no doubt hoping to pincer him. He needed to go on the offensive or the fight would stay on their terms. He launched himself from behind his cover towards Yutaro's voice, closing the fifteen feet between them in a second. Their weapons clashed, a blur in the strange dappled light.

With a day of training under his belt, it only took a moment for Rix to slip into his style, gripping the staff towards its centre and leveraging both ends to attack. For now, he had to keep [Wind Blade] in reserve. During his training session, he'd worked out that his style didn't intuitively work with the technique. Its movements just weren't naturally designed to function with a blade at one end. Master Zhen had said that with a little practice, he could adapt it, but with the style so fresh in his mind, right now he didn't have the intuition to improvise well enough. It disrupted his flow too much.

So, for now, he simply tested his opponent's martial prowess. He deployed every trick his style could present him, mixing up thrusts to the body with sweeps down low and quick swipes at the head. He didn't inject any qi yet. It would likely be important later, and he wanted to get a feel for the fight to understand what the man was capable of.

It quickly became clear that Yutaro's movements were not particularly refined. His attacks lacked the fluidity and precision Rix had seen demonstrated by the better Whispers in the arena. He actually felt like Yutaro's equal in terms of raw skills, which said that maybe he hadn't progressed his style beyond Low Rank.

But that didn't mean he didn't have advantages. Physically, Yutaro was a step above Rix. The force of his strikes felt like an avalanche. Every time their weapons met, sparks flew as the metal bands of his staff barely held back Yutaro's blade. The man was fractionally faster too; his sword always an instant ahead.

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Still, if it had been just the two of them, Rix might have felt his odds weren't totally dire. But, of course, Yutaro had never intended it to be a fair fight.

Kenzo wielded the meteor hammer like a ranged weapon, waiting for gaps in Rix's defences and attention to launch its leaden weight with catastrophic force at his central mass. It wasn't elegant or particularly skilful, but it didn't matter. Any one of those blows would have caved in Rix's ribcage.

Rix did his best to give the man few opportunities. In many ways, the fight was similar to his battle with the spider fades and the spine thrower — a melee opponent and a ranged one. This time, the terrain was even more favourable to him. The bamboo was everywhere, and he used it as best he could, keeping the fight moving, blocking line of sight, keeping Yutaro between himself and the other man.

But they weren't completely inexperienced as a team. Yutaro did his best to give his partner opportunities, surging forward to push Rix into a clearing, or suddenly leaping backwards to leave a gap for the man's assault. Without his Energy Surge, he'd likely have fallen, but his qi was the equaliser he sorely needed, letting him accelerate to bat the meteor hammer away with the end of his staff, or dodge the attacks altogether. His enhanced acuity, small though it was, also played a part. His peripheral vision was just the tiniest bit clearer, his mental reactions that instant sharper.

While dodging Kenzo's attacks, Rix was also trying to find something he could exploit against Yutaro. The man's technique did indeed seem to operate like [Stoneskin]. Rix could see it every time his staff connected. Though he was striking harder than he ever had before, each blow landed with a dull thud, like hitting a wall. It made him seemingly invincible, but also reckless. Often, he barely even tried to block or dodge, willingly taking the hit to try and expose Rix to a counterattack. Several times in the aftermath, he came close to grappling Rix with his free hand, but something in the depths of Rix's mind screamed at him to avoid that. Perhaps it was those precious points in acuity, or simple instinct picking up something he couldn't consciously see. All he knew was that it wouldn't end well for him. He hadn't seen the man display a second technique yet, so perhaps that was it.

Soon enough, it became clear Rix needed to do something. He'd seen this story before, and he knew how it would end if he didn't change things up. He briefly considered trying to deploy [Force Hammer] to take out one in a single strike, but with two opponents, it was just too risky. He needed something else.

So, drawing on a now familiar playbook, he waited for his moment. As Kenzo's meteor hammer hurtled past him again, he made his move, pouring a little of his waning qi into Energy Surge, and unleashing a sudden torrent of attacks at Yutaro's side. Even with his defences, he took a momentary step back under that onslaught, and the moment he did, Rix spun and dashed straight at Kenzo.

The man's eyes widened. He was still reeling in his weapon, which made him effectively unarmed. For a moment, Rix felt a surge of elation. If he could remove one opponent, his odds went up dramatically.

Unfortunately, Kenzo was not totally out of tools.

As Rix swung for the man's head, Kenzo stuck out his hand, and Rix felt a flash of mana as the meteor hammer accelerated dramatically, flying into his grip. As he caught it, there was a pulse of white energy, and Rix's staff was shoved to the side by an unseen force. It felt almost like some kind of magnetic repulsion because the point of pressure seemed to be the metal band that had been inches from slamming into Kenzo's face.

The man grinned at Rix.

Rix responded by jabbing him in the stomach three times in rapid succession.

Kenzo's mantle crackled, but still he doubled over as the blows drove into his gut. Whatever the repulsion had been, it seemed to require actual conscious effort to activate, rather than being a passive effect that could be maintained indefinitely like Yutaro's shield. That meant if Rix were fast enough, he could break through.

A tiny part of his mind considered whether he needed some kind of defensive technique of his own. It seemed like a lot of people had them. But that was a thought for another time. Behind him, he heard footfalls. He had but a moment left.

Kenzo was quick to recover, straightening and raising his weapon, but Rix was already swinging again, and this time he had another idea. Letting his style drop away momentarily — this required some creativity — he lashed out low with one end of his staff, aiming to sweep the man's feet. Kenzo responded as expected, firing his repulsion again. But this time Rix was ready. With the way he'd angled his staff, the attacking end had been shoved backwards, but with his fists in the centre acting like a fulcrum, all that energy translated into driving the other end of the staff forwards, towards Kenzo's shoulder. With his own power added to the swing he summoned [Wind Blade] microseconds before his weapon crashed into his opponent.

It was a devastating blow and the man's mantle bulged then shattered. For a moment, Rix thought he'd landed a killing strike, but though Kenzo hissed in pain, [Wind Blade] bit only half an inch into his skin, instead of cleaving clean through. Rix grimaced. There must have been enough mana left in his mantle to defend him.

Before Rix could strike again, Yutaro was upon him. Rix spun to defend himself, blocking a jian strike to his neck that might have ended things then and there, but he couldn't block the follow-up. Their bodies were now too close. Rix couldn't create distance fast enough.

Yutaro's hand shot out and wrapped around his wrist.

There was a pulse of mana, and then a violent wave of something rolled through his body, starting at that contact point and surging through his meridians until it landed like a gut punch in his dantian. Mana exploded out of him, and he gasped and doubled over. Yutaro tried to leverage his grip on Rix to yank him off balance, but in his panic, Rix found some desperate strength, slapping his staff down, wrenching his arm free, and stumbling backwards.

Though the attack had done no physical damage, a quick glance at his System display told him it had drained close to 40 mana from his pool. Fear lanced through him. He hadn't even known that such a thing was possible. He was already working with such a limited mana supply that getting hit with that again would probably spell his end.

"Didn't like that much, did you?" said Yutaro with a grin. "The ole juice tap. A little gift from my time with Deep Core Mining."

Not even giving him time to reply, Yutaro reengaged. Kenzo gingerly reached for his wound, wincing as he tested it, but then his expression turned steely and he, too, whipped his weapon up and leapt into the fray. Rix felt a spike of panic. Just like that, he had two melee opponents.

While Kenzo was clearly more comfortable wielding the meteor hammer from range, it was effective in melee as well, whirling around his body, almost like a slow-moving nunchuck. It lent the fight a certain rhythm, almost like a pendulum swinging in the background, albeit one that could cave in Rix's ribcage. Kenzo didn't seem at his best any longer. The wound was clearly hampering his movement, but he didn't have to be great. His role was just to serve as a distraction for Yutaro, which he did with remarkable efficiency, constantly staying out of danger while providing an imminent threat.

In theory, Rix's staff made him well suited to fighting two opponents. When centrally gripped, each end acted like a different weapon. However, he was shaken from having his mana attacked and struggled to hold his style in place. Worse, Kenzo's weapon was far from ordinary. The sorts of attacks Rix might parry from another opponent he was forced to dodge here. He defended as best he could, but even with his undisciplined blade work, Yutaro was able to capitalise. In quick succession, Rix was bleeding from several more cuts on his arm and leg, leaving his mantle mostly consumed. He'd strengthened it with the standard 20% that he used when diving. If he'd known he'd be fighting other Martial Souls, he might have rethought that strategy.

When Kenzo suddenly got creative and brought his meteor hammer down in an overhead strike that came an inch from crushing Rix into the soil, he knew he was on the brink. His breath was coming short and sharp now, a combination of adrenaline and exertion. His mana was below half, and his qi was virtually gone. Like so many of his fights before, his resources were dwindling. His mind raced, desperately seeking a way to turn the battle to his advantage.

He landed on something that felt borderline insane. But when your options were limited...