Chương 21: The Fox and the Mountain

The wariness of his teammates was well-considered, but the first attack still caught them off guard. The four of them were moving cautiously when Guan Li froze and shouted out a warning. However, the warning came only a split second before the rumbling earth sent Paike tumbling to the ground. Even as he popped right back up, he saw a mountain of a boy charging at them—a broad-shouldered, muscular youth with arms as thick as his legs.

His brown hair was cropped short, and Paike could sense a considerable amount of earth qi radiating from him. But before Paike could fully process the situation, he found himself blocking a knife-hand aimed at his throat. A second young man, with wiry, sharp features and dark, piercing eyes, slipped away from Paike's counter-strike. Paike sized him up. He moved with a frenetic grace that spoke of many hours of training. However, Paike could see an obvious weakness.

His movements were agile and calculated, and the way he held his hands made it clear he was used to wielding knives, not simply striking with his fists. The boy blurred slightly, but Paike was ready for the movement technique, setting up a block to his left. A whistling sound caused him to duck just in time to avoid an arrow of wind that flew over his head. A slight cry from Xin Yixin told him one of his party members was hurt.

Guan Li and Liming met the charging mountain of a boy, while Xin Yixin, injured but not down, turned to return fire at their mysterious ranged attacker. Paike entered a quick but deadly exchange of blows with his opponent, his mind distracted, waiting for the fourth member of the enemy team to appear. Just as he landed his first decisive blow, sending his opponent staggering back with what would soon be a black eye, Paike blinked. There wasn't just one more attacker—there were five.

Five copies of the same little boy, who was barely taller than Liming. His green pupils were slitted like a fox, and a perpetual smirk exposed slightly pointed teeth. As one of the copies sprang at each of their members, Paike twisted and struck out. The apparition attacking him exploded in a blinding light, leaving him dazed, and he took a kick to the side from his attacker. This was not going well. Luckily, their formation had held, but fighting a bunch of individual battles was not a recipe for success.

Paike needed to put down his opponent fast and go help his allies. The first thing he could see were streaks of light—the Starfire Piercing Rain technique flying from Xin Yixin's hand, shooting ammunition from the bag of pebbles she carried. The pebbles flew up to a slight hill on the right, where arrows of wind issued from a slender archer whose long black hair was bound in a braid that rippled in the wind.

Paike could make out the dark blue of her eyes, even from a distance, as they glowed with the light of her wind. Somehow, she held a bow that seemed far too large for her. Paike wasn't sure how she managed to bring the six-foot-tall bow that towered over her, as he certainly hadn't seen anyone carrying it. That was something he wouldn't have missed. His attention returned to his attacker, even as his allies dealt with their own illusory distractions.

This time, when the wiry youth got in close, Paike accepted what could have been a lethal slash to the gut, but without a knife in the boy's hand, it was simply an annoying blow. Paike used the opportunity to grab his opponent. The youth thrashed with all the slipperiness of an eel, but once Paike had him in his grip, there was no escaping him. He wrapped the boy up into a chokehold.

The boy attempted to bite Paike's forearm, but Paike simply kneed him in the back, powering him into the ground and knocking the wind out of him. He cut off the oxygen and blood supply to the boy's brain. This technique wouldn't work on higher-realm cultivators who no longer needed to breathe. Still, for someone so close to mortality, it rendered the boy was unconscious within about ten seconds. A moment later, the boy turned into particles of light, fading as he was withdrawn from the trial.

Paike wondered if it was because the boy was unconscious or completely defeated. But he didn't have a chance to dwell on that as he popped to his feet. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Guan Li and Liming were fighting the boy whose stomps made the earth shake and who seemed to shrug off most of their attacks. Between the two of them, they were keeping him and the illusionist pinned down.

Paike crossed his arms in front of his face and charged at the archer's position. She calmly adjusted her aim and shot at Paike, but he dove and rolled just in time to avoid being hit by the arrow propelled by the wind. Xin Yixin had timed her attack perfectly to take advantage of this moment, skewering the archer's leg with a pebble. The archer let out a shrill shriek as she collapsed, her calf muscle pierced through entirely by a blunt pebble no larger than Paike's fingernail.

He winced as the girl lay on the ground, unable to draw her oversized bow. When he stood over her, he almost hesitated while decided what to do to prove she was defeated. Was he supposed to strike her? Was he going to choke her out again? But even as he moved to grab her, she disappeared, leaving her bow behind.

"Huh," Paike exhaled, hefting the weapon before running to assist his other allies. The remaining two members of their team didn't stick around to fight. The mountain of a boy sent another shockwave through the ground, disabling his enemies as he fled with the foxy boy following behind him. Paike held the bow high as he walked down the hill to where Xin Yixin knelt on one knee, gasping for breath.

"Are you okay?" he asked, offering her his hand, but she didn't take it, staying on the ground.

"Yeah," she said.

"She got me in the leg, too, in the calf." Paike looked down and saw some blood staining her robes.

"Liming!" he called, but his sister was already there. She pushed up the hem of her roommate's robe and laid hands on the bloody calf. Green power glowed as Paike sensed a surprising amount of qi flow from her, like water pouring into a pond. Xin Yixin's breathing slowed, and moments later, the hole slowly shrunk and eventually vanished. She took his hand, and he pulled her to her feet.

"Good job, everyone," Paike said. Liming and Xin Yixin both smiled, but Guan Li wasn't even looking at him. His eyes carefully scanned the horizon, ever vigilant.

"Xin Yixin, I'm impressed. It takes a particular sort of person to take an injury and keep fighting. You never really know who that is until it happens." He extended the bow to her.

"I think no one will argue if you want to take it." She picked it up and was barely able to hold it in a ready position without the end touching the ground.

"Thank you, but you can just call me Yixin. After fighting with by your side, it's too much to hear you call me Xin Yixin."

"In that case, just call me Paike." He replied with a smile. They both ignored the huff coming from Liming. This was evidently too much for her, and she burst out in mock outrage.

"You haven't even let me call you by your name!"

"I don't have any arrows, so the technique will be muted, but it's better than pebbles," Yixin said with a satisfied grin as she hefted the bow, not responding to Liming at all. Paike didn't get the sense it was malicious, but rather, it was some gentle teasing.

"I'm glad to hear it," Paike responded.

"But if you're good, we should keep moving. We have no idea how many other teams are headed toward this objective as well."

"There's one other thing," Guan Li said, handing Paike a stick about as tall as him.

"The earth cultivator boy dropped this. I don't think it was a weapon he brought into the trial, but rather something he infused and made as a crude tool."

"Huh," Paike said, holding it.

"I don't suppose either of you know how to use a staff?" he asked Yixin and Guan Li. They both shook their heads.

"I mean, I can hit things with a stick," Guan Li said, "But I've seen you fight. You probably have more training with it." Paike shrugged.

"Not really. Actually, my family didn't really train with weapons, but swinging sticks around was a big part of my childhood. I do have some martial skills, so I can try to use it?" Besides, there was something about the earth qi that called to him. It wasn't quite right, but it echoed with the attunement in his own cultivation—a muted echo, but an echo nonetheless.

"Well, if you don't want to keep it, maybe we can sell it. It's not terrible," Liming said. Guan Li and Paike both shrugged, clearly not having any opinion on it, and Liming didn't have anything to add. The four of them set out toward the fortress walls in the distance.