The Jade Shadows Must Die [Cultivation LitRPG]

Smelling blood, his opponents closed in for the kill. Rix feinted as if he was going to rush them, and then suddenly reversed, slashing his staff out in a wide arc around him with both hands. His [Wind Blade] wouldn't have had the desired effect in a different sort of forest. But thick though they were, the trees here were still bamboo, and his conjured edge carved easily through their trunks, sending them toppling all around him. They were too light to cause serious damage, but his goal wasn't to injure, only to distract, and in the chaos, he turned and ran.

As Rix dashed through the bamboo, zigging and zagging and trying to confuse their pursuit, he could hear them crashing along behind him.

"No guards to protect you. Of course you run, dreg!" the taunt came.

Rix didn't reply. His focus was completely on finding the landmark he sought. As he broke through the tree line, he found himself once again at the cliff face. Below him, a thirty-foot drop down onto dusty rock.

And there, about a hundred feet away in the cradle of the canyon, was the little circle of rock that contained the entropy field he'd explored earlier.

The trees rustled behind him. Without looking back, he sprinted along the cliff's edge. He had one desperate goal now, and everything rode on it.

He thought he was going to make it.

But then something slammed into his calf, and a searing fire lanced through his leg. The world turned upside down as Rix crashed to the ground.

Kenzo had managed to trap Rix in the chain of his Meteor Hammer and had yanked him off his feet. Rix flipped onto his back to find the two men staring at him from fifteen feet away.

"Like a rat in a trap," said Kenzo, speaking for the first time. Rix found himself thinking how soft and reedy the man's voice sounded. It wasn't the voice of a killer.

Yutaro laughed. "Fitting, I think. Let's put the poor thing out of its misery then. We wouldn't want to be cruel."

Kenzo tugged on the chain, and Rix sucked a breath in through his teeth to keep from crying out. The meteor hammer had looped several times around his legs, ending with the ball striking his calf. Though it had been an incidental blow rather than a direct hit, Kenzo's technique meant the attack still burned Rix's leg. Even now, the head flamed there in the sand next to him.

With Kenzo holding the chain taut, there was no way he could untangle himself before they were on him. His options limited, Rix did the only thing he could think of, pushing the last of his qi into Energy Surge and summoning his [Force Hammer] at the same time. The men themselves were too far away to attack, but that wasn't all the technique was good for anymore.

[Force Hammer] had a new function now.

He brought his staff down instead onto the chain itself. Though the metal held, Kenzo let loose a cry as the force of the augmented attack wrenched the weapon from his hands. Rix's follow-through brought the staff crashing into the dust, sending a shockwave through the ground that caused both men to stumble.

It wasn't much of an opportunity, but he seized it.

With the chain's tension broken, Rix was able to yank his foot free and leap up. By the time the men regained their footing, he was already running again. His leg pulsed painfully with every step, but he ignored it, dashing along the cliff until he judged the position to be right right before turning and leaping off the edge.

Thirty feet was a long way down. If he'd still been mortal, it might have been the end of him. As it was, he could only pray that his Martial Soul body was up to the challenge.

The pain of landing was twofold. First, in his legs, a spike of impact that shot through him, causing him to stumble momentarily. But the real pain came from the entropy field itself, a hammer blow of torment that was nearly overwhelming. In all his previous times exploring them, he'd entered gradually, a slow escalation, like adding weight to a bag. But leaping in from above had plunged him straight into the centre of it, giving no time for acclimation or adjustment. It was like being plunged straight into icy water. Had he not been prepared for it, it likely would have incapacitated him on the spot.

But that was the whole point. He didn't want gradual. He wanted a short, sharp shock, something that would cause a person not expecting it to stumble.

A person like Kenzo.

Entropy fields were basically invisible, so unlike Rix, he didn't know what he was jumping into. He hurtled down, his weapon whirling and ready to shatter Rix's skull. But as his feet struck the ground, the man staggered and let out a cry. His weapon dropped uselessly to his side as his hands clawed at the sides of his head, vainly trying to free himself from the sudden oppressive agony.

Rix did it on his behalf, opening his throat with a single [Wind Blade] infused slash. The man collapsed, great gouts of blood spilling out of him.

[Wind Blade has improved to Mid Rank]

Under other circumstances, that notification would have made him overjoyed, but at that moment he wasn't even capable of processing it. For a second, Rix simply stood there, battling the nausea and muscle aches and the surge of emotions as he watched the man die in front of him. He didn't think he'd actually killed anyone before, though it was hard to say for certain. The quarterstaff was a blunt weapon, subtle in its strength. He'd struck many people in their vital points, but he rarely hung around long enough to assess the extent of the damage.

But there was no question about the outcome this time.

Logically, he didn't feel particularly bad about killing the man. It had been kill or be killed. In truth, this is what he'd signed up for when he committed to this path. His was a story where people would die. But that didn't stop him experiencing a momentary rush of guilt and anger and even a tinge of horror. There was an unexpected heaviness that came with taking another's life, even one who deserved it. It was a weight he hoped he'd adjust to — or maybe not. Was that better or worse? He didn't know.

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He didn't have time to dwell on it further, as the sound of something flapping above him caused him to spin, raising his staff instinctively. As Yutaro plunged into him, Rix's block saved him from the man's blade, but that just meant their bodies collided, crashing to the ground in a knot. Rix's mantle flared, then shattered. Both their weapons went flying.

The air was driven from Rix's lungs and he felt Yutaro's hands clenched tight around him. The man let out a pained cry as he felt the full impact of the entropy field. Rix, too, was suffering. Dazed, bleeding, burned, bruised, and drained, it was only his preparation and previous time spent in the entropy field that kept it from knocking him out cold.

Despite the grogginess, something in his mind was screaming to get away as he and Yutaro wrestled. He realised what it was: he was in skin-to-skin contact with his opponent. He shoved the man hard in the chest, trying to push his bulk to the side so he could roll away, but Yutaro was quicker to adjust than Kenzo had been. Rix felt the man's technique slam into what remained of his mana, drawing a gasp from his lips. He threw out a wild punch, somehow finding flesh and managed to break away, but the damage was done.

[Mana: 24/200]

There was enough left for a single use of [Wind Blade] for a few seconds, but that was it. His qi, too, was exhausted. He had been bled all but dry.

He shuffled lamely towards his staff, scooping it up and turning to face his attacker. Yutaro had done the same and retrieved his sword. For a beat, they simply stared at one another. Rix imagined they must have looked like quite a sight. Bleeding, dusty, hunched over from the pain. If a fadeborn stumbled upon them at that moment, they'd have been an easy meal.

Yutaro spat a wad of blood. "Well, well. Looks like the little lamb's grown some teeth. That was clever, with the entropy." He glanced down at his partner's body. "Poor ole Kenzo. Still, saves me having to split the fun, doesn't it?" Even now, he managed one of his trademark grins.

Rix met it with a grimace. "Are we here to talk, or are we going to fight?"

He knew he couldn't win. He was out of options, but he was overcome with the desire to end this one way or the other. Since the day he'd arrived at Spiritlock, Yutaro and his threats had been hanging over his head. The man had him where he wanted him. Let's see if he could take what he'd come for.

Yutaro's smile dropped away, and he bared his teeth. "Fine."

From the first clash of their weapons, it was clear this fight was not what it had been. All elegance and artistry had been wrung from them. What was left was pure, brutal instinct.

Rix's style completely abandoned him, his mind simply unable to summon the required focus. Yutaro fought in a similar way to before, but he, too, was less refined. He hacked at Rix with heavy, vicious strikes like a child with a practice sword.

Free from what the system wanted of him, Rix slipped into an unbalanced grip, holding the staff at one end, trying to take advantage of its length. And it was working, to a point. Whenever Yutaro tried to close the distance, he'd receive a blow to the chest or arms. Those strikes with that much leverage behind them would ordinarily be enough to crack bone, but Yutaro still had one critical edge. He still had mana. He still had his technique.

Any time Rix's staff landed, it bounced harmlessly off his opponent's skin. Though Rix was still able to drive him backwards, his ability to hurt the man was almost zero. The grim satisfaction on the Iron Hand member's face said he saw it too.

Rix's muscles were beginning to fail him now, joining the rest of him in utter depletion. The fight had squeezed him dry. He had nothing left to give. He could already tell how it would end. At some point soon, when he deemed Rix too sluggish to dodge any further, Yutaro would rush him and throw his full weight forward. It wouldn't matter what blow Rix landed. Once he was taken to ground, the man's blade would make short work of him.

Rix felt strangely calm. He didn't want to die, to leave his mission before it had even begun, but unlike his other recent near-death experiences, he realised this one felt different. To go down swinging Martial Soul against Martial Soul, that at least felt like a proper end. Better than a drained of essence by a random fade.

And then, as if summoned by Rix's thoughts, something made Yutaro's eyes grow wide. He froze.

For a beat, Rix did nothing, convinced it was some kind of gambit. But then, from off to his left, he heard a low growl and looked over to find the strange, shimmering tiger-like fadeborn stalking out from behind a nearby rock. Though he'd had many encounters with different versions of each fadeborn, somehow he could tell this was the same one he'd met previously. There was a sense of recognition in its eyes.

It moved with predatory grace, four-inch-long claws clicking softly against the rocky ground. The two men stood utterly still while the creature surveyed them, their battle completely forgotten. Rix was hit by an overwhelming wave of dread, the sensation of a thousand swords pressed up against his neck. It was a sensation unlike any he'd experienced before. He couldn't have run even if he wanted to. It was like his muscles were not his own. Judging by Yutaro's terrified expression, he was experiencing the same thing.

The creature's head swung from left to right, taking them both in one at a time. It lingered on Rix, and for a second, he thought it had made some kind of choice. But then bizarrely, impossibly, the fadeborn winked at him. If he hadn't had that previous encounter with the creature, he'd have assumed he was mistaken. But the intention behind the gesture was clear. It was communicating with him, though what and why Rix couldn't say. As if to confirm that, the sense of dread dropped away.

At least from his perspective.

Yutaro was still frozen to the spot. The fade turned to him and began advancing. Though it wasn't growling anymore, there was a deep thrum emanating from the depths of its throat.

"Fucking hells," Yutaro hissed, finally finding his voice. He raised his jian, eyes locked on the creature as it paced slowly around him in a circle away from Rix. His face was pure horror. Seeing the man truly shaken was more than a little gratifying.

For his part, Rix's fear had given way to curiosity. Everything about the way the fade interacted with him suggested it wasn't a threat. If anything, it was curious about him. It didn't make any sense, but he trusted his instincts.

Soon, the creature had Yutaro completely turned around until his back was to Rix. The other Martial Soul seemed uncertain what to do, his body coiled like a serpent ready to strike. But the fade didn't attack. It simply stood there, poised, facing Yutaro down. Rix didn't know what it was doing. Was it taunting him somehow? Was it confused about whether it could win the fight? But then the fade caught his eye and gave the barest hint of a nod, and Rix understood.

It was acting as a distraction. There was no other explanation.

The distance between him and Yutaro was less than fifteen feet. Even without Energy Surge, Rix could cover it in less than a second. The man still had his shield, but Rix had one thing that might punch through. Over the minute they'd been fighting, his mana had recharged just a little. As Rix called up his System display, the number ticked over.

[Mana: 30/200]

A pained grin spread across his face.

So fixated was Yutaro on the monster in front of him, he didn't even react as death fell upon him. Rix's staff crashed down, [Force Hammer] falling like a boulder from the heavens. The technique smashed into Yutaro's defensive shield and kept on going, bursting his head like a melon. His body collapsed soundlessly to the ground.

Leaving Rix alone facing down the fadeborn.

The creature cocked its head, studying him, and for a second Rix thought he'd made a mistake. Had he just made himself its only viable target? But then the fade opened its mouth and spoke.

"That took you longer than it should have."