Year 663 of the Stable Era,

  Twenty-second day of the eleventh month

  Too late to back out

  “Let’s have a good fight,” Lu Ri declared, unwinding a coil of chain from each of his arms as he approached. “No sense in letting the other sect’s think that we’re playing it soft for the bracket. Besides, I’ve always wanted a chance to take a swing at the so-called Great Sage, now that he’s finally stepping onto the stage with the rest of us.”

  Chao Ren didn’t react to his words or his loathsome nickname, focusing instead on both ends of the twirling chain as his foe approached. He had half a mind to try and engage with Lu Ri in banter, but it was hardly the best course of action.

  Bailong Shen and Lee Han, in a miraculous moment of solidarity, had agreed that he was positively awful at it, and he was inclined to agree with them. He always ended up making things worse for himself when he was well-mannered, so it would be dreadful to consider tempting fate with for ire verve might earn him.

  And besides, if Lu Ri was truly intent on taking this seriously, it would be better to give his full attention to the fight at hand rather than engage in a second arena of combat in which he was hopelessly outmatched. He was already paying the cost for attempting to catch two birds at once, and it would be the height of foolishness to fail to learn the only lesson he’d been taught by the experience.

  As Chao Ren burned that thought into his mind, Lu Ri struck with a whistling, whiplike sweep of his chain that forced him to leap back to avoid it. Too much reach for the classic half-step technique Bailong Shen had drilled into muscles to dodge—the chain was long enough that he had to fully disengage to avoid becoming entangled by it. As he did the other end of the chain struck, flying towards his chest with a sparrow’s swiftness.

  A good tactic, Chao Ren thought, as he took in the glinting metal and his approaching foe, who was trailing the flying metal. Following so close to the first, it took perfect advantage of his inability to dodge midair. And a blow with the hook no less, rather than the blade.

  Something he should have realized earlier, if he’d paid attention to his opponent’s posture rather than his own thoughts.

  Up close, he could see just how thick it was, the heavy hook sharpened to a fine blade along both edges of its curve. Likely not enough to break his staff, as infused as both their weapons were with qi, but certainly enough to damage it. And likely entangle it as well, no doubt, if he attempted to block.

  Which was probably why Lu Ri had led with the blade. He’d expected that the hook had been used for the sweep. Though in retrospect it made sense that it would be used for the true attack, as it would be far easier for a weapon like his own to deflect a straight blade.

  Only one way for him to avoid it then.

  Chao Ren jabbed to the side, striking the ground diagonally with the end of his staff. A flicker of surprise passed through his opponent’s face as the angle propelled him to the left, the hem of his robe barely rustled by the wind of the hook as it passed him. As soon as his feet touched the ground he immediately rushed forwards to meet Lu Ri’s approach, pressing the moment while both of his chains were still extended.

  A risky move, given his unfamiliarity with his opponent’s fighting style, but one that he couldn’t afford to not take advantage of if he could. If his opponent expected him to be cautious, a rare show of recklessness would unbalance him.

  The chains rattled as Lu Ri whirled, the length connecting the hook to his left hand rushing back towards Chao Ren as he twirled like a top. It arced as it did, its path curving into a wide clockwise sweep, forcing him to duck just as it whipped over him.

  Pain exploded through his arm as the edge of the hook bit into his shoulder as it passed, and he forced himself to resist the urge to grasp at it. Every second mattered now, as he drew ever closer to Lu RI, and he couldn’t afford the lapse.

  A temporary retreat would let him staunch the wound, but against Lu Ri that was practically surrender. Distance simply favored his weapon too much , regardless of whatever technique he had been cultivating.

  No, he needed to capitalize on this opportunity now, like Lee Han had said.

  Leap through the fire, to avoid being burned.

  Turn the length of his opponent’s chains from strength to weakness.

  Lu Ri’s right arm was twirling in quick, tight circles as he closed in, coiling the chain around his forearm as Chao Ren leaped over one last sweep of the hook.

  He struck without pretense, with a vertical strike that put the full length of his staff into the blow, eschewing defense for power as he forced his opponent onto the former. Lu Ri’s hands shot up, metal and leather clad forearms crossing as he took the blow directly.

  Chao Ren let his staff bounce off his opponent’s guard rather than attempt to force it through. Flexibility was the strength of his weapon, and while he could attempt to clash with his opponent’s qi, it was better to embrace the brevity of blunt impacts rather than waste his energy trying to treat it like it was a sword.

  The butt of his staff rose as its tip fled, his right hand sliding up its shaft for leverage as it did. With a crack it struck Lu Ri on the chin, slipping in just before the muscular cultivator could lower his guard to intercept it. He took a heavy step back as Chao Ren pushed the attack, pulling a chain taut between his hands as he used it to parry his next two sweeping strikes.

  Adapt! A dozen memories of Bailong Shen snapped, and Chao Ren transitioned, feinting another sweep before moving into a series of thrusts. The stretched chain was powerless to stop it as Chao Ren landed another five blows in quick succession before he drew back, just as Lu Ri let out enough slack to attempt to twist the chain around the tip of his weapon.

  Chao Ren let him increase the gap, but forced it to remain tight by keeping up the pressure, constantly probing at Lu Ri’s defenses as he kept his opponent close enough to deprive him of the advantage of reach his chains could afford him. His qi hummed in his veins as he finally allowed himself to halt the flow of blood from his wound, drawing the energy though his hands and into his staff to conserve as much as possible.

  He felt ecstatic, elated even. But even still, something didn’t feel right. His blows had had an odd sensation to them, more akin to striking a training dummy than flesh.

  An excess of body cultivation, perhaps?

  Lu Ri certainly had the build for it, given the glimpses he’d caught of the biceps attached to his opponent’s thick forearms.

  Or the work of a defensive technique.

  That possibility lingered on the tip of his mind, as he took another swing.

  His next blow to Lu Ri’s ankle felt normal enough, the hardness of bone against his staff eliciting a wince before he raised it just in time to block a counterattack from the blade. He took a half-step back as he did, to prevent himself from catching the chain and allowing the blade to wrap around his staff and cut into his face.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  His opponent was wily about the length of his chain, constantly varying it now that they were in close combat. The vast majority of it was currently consolidated around his arms, with just about a foot of slack between his hands and the weapons hanging from each end.

  He felt the blade start to bite into his staff, and he pushed more qi into the wood to resist it, twisting his weapon to the side to dislodge it as he did.

  Wood was weak to metal by its nature, as he was more than aware of thanks to both his own experiences and his manual, so he made sure to imbue it with a burst of extra qi to overcome the disparity as he separated the two. He was careful to keep it balanced, infusing his staff with each of his five elements rather than simply more of its natural one.

  Power alone wouldn’t be enough, and the combined form would grant more strength than simply adding more of the element that was already disadvantaged, regardless of how much more easily his staff might accept it.

  His right arm rose to deflect another blow from the hook, only to be caught off guard by a second attack from the blade as Lu Ri jerked his hand back and forth in a rapid motion. The long length of steel flailed erratically towards his face, and his eyes shot over to it as he tried to judge its path. His staff turned to intercept, moving a fraction upwards just as the hook struck.

  Too late he realized his mistake, as the flat of the blade bounced off the side of his wood and the chain of the hook twisted around the thick Red Copper Hickory.

  He thrust his arms forward before Lu Ri had the chance to pull him off balance, throwing his head back as he did. The long leaf blade sliced through his robes as it barely missed his face, cutting a long line through his chest as it did.

  Chao Ren sucked in deep breath through clenched teeth as the pain shot through him, only for the very act to exacerbate it as his chest expanded. With a cry he lashed out at Lu Ri with a backhanded blow, qi surging as he wrenched his other arm to the side, using his opponent’s own chain against him as he pulled him into the blow.

  Lu Ri stumbled, taken aback by the force and ferocity of the sudden attack, and his cheek rippled as the full force of the blow spread across his face a moment before Chao Ren followed it up with a punch to his diaphragm.

  His hand stung from the first blow, and his wrist felt like it was going to break off as he made the second. It was just like that time when he’d punched one of Shifu’s accursed practice stones, in that moment of weakness when he’d allowed his frustration at their weight to get the better of him.

  “Heh, you almost got me there,” Lu Ri laughed, rolling his neck as Chao Ren beat a quick retreat, pulling his staff from the chain as he did. He rubbed his chin, as the metal hook clattered against the ground. “Didn’t think you’d take such a risk, letting me hook you just so that you could use my own trick against me. But it’ll take more than that to break my technique.”

  His Teal Jade Body Technique, no doubt, Chao Ren thought grimly, watching as the small sliver of chest visible at the close of his robes faded from translucent green to the lightish tan of his opponent’s skin.

  A common technique among the Teal Mountain Sect, but an exceedingly effective one. True to its name, it allowed a cultivator to turn their body into the sect’s eponymous jade. At the lower stages of cultivation this was often at the cost of reduced mobility, as it took experience to learn how to retain the durability of jade without its rigidity.

  Not that it seemed to be much of an impediment to Lu Ri at the moment. His opponent was following a classical trick of limiting the technique: focusing it on individual parts of his body to avoid the trap of immobility while also conserving his own qi.

  A difficult thing to use in combat, as it required a greater degree of control to use such partial protection to defend himself, but one that complemented his sharp reflexes and shifting fighting style well. The fact that he had made it this far into the tournament with so few injuries was a testament to that.

  His martial arts were also infuriatingly good. Chains and rope weapons were already uncommon enough even as the typical rope-dart variant, which meant that there were even fewer ready defenses for his variation. He could change his range in a heartbeat, and his control of the chain meant that feints and attacks bled into each other more often than not.

  It meant that spacing him was going to be a miserable prospect. He could both outrange Chao Ren’s staff in a contest of reach and outmaneuver him up close if given the chance to prepare his weapons. Which left a narrow window of middle range for him to eke out an advantage in, if he even had the time to feel it out.

  Chao Ren took a deep breath of qi as they began to circle again, forcing himself to concentrate on both ends of the chain as he sped up his internal cycle. Only two exchanges in and it already felt like he’d been fighting for an hour, even though he knew that they’d be better measured in breaths than minutes.

  So much focus for so little, and he couldn’t afford to let up or he’d get overwhelmed by his foe’s tactics.

  With two more breaths his qi began to pick up pace like a rolling boulder, accelerated by a touch from his reserves as he used its momentum to drive his internal strength to greater fervor. Glowing wisps of qi began to waft from his staff, and he swore as he redoubled his focus.

  Spectacle was a sign of waste, as Shifu would say, and he could ill afford any at the moment.

  Unfortunately, it was too late to prevent Lu Ri from catching on to his plan, and with a twirl of his arm he unlimbered the hook. Five feet of chain swung free in a single motion, and he tossed it towards Chao Ren with a lazy swing of his arm. The casual move belied its force, as the chain rapidly accelerated with the force of his opponent’s qi.

  This time he was ready though, already eyeing the other hand out of the corner of his eye as he waited until the last minute to strike. With a two-handed twist he batted the hook to the side, timing his stride with the second blow so he stepped past it as it soared through the space that his undefended waist had been a moment earlier.

  Lu Ri yanked his arm back to recover the hook, only to realize that Chao Ren had put enough extra force into his blow to knock it far to the side. Out of reach for an easy retaliatory strike, much less a speedy recovery. So instead of a quick pull, he resorted to another spin, twirling as he stepped back from Chao Ren’s incoming offensive.

  Chao Ren vaulted into the air, using his staff to launch him high over his opponent’s sweeping counterattack. He drew more on his internal qi as he soared, committing to his attack as the chains flashed beneath him. He barely cut his last breath short as he struck, turning inhalation to exhalation as he lashed out with another vertical strike.

  A repetition of his previous attack, but all the more surprising for it. With the weight of experience on his side, Lu Ri would expect an opponent to vary their moves more at this stage of the tournament. To use a more complex series of mind games and feints to gain the upper hand.

  But such a mindset could be vulnerable to simplicity, as something so basic was rare enough to border on the esoteric at this level of competition.

  His qi-filled staff struck Lu Ri’s guard again, this time driving itself directly into the chains and leather, as both gravity and focus lent it more power than its predecessor. But this time Chao Ren committed himself fully to the blow, putting the full force of his cultivation into the strike rather than using his momentum to set himself up for a second strike.

  Chain links creaked as they deformed under the pressure, but the arm beneath them remained rock solid. The skin of Lu Ri’s fist was green as he slid back, his legs braced to balance himself against the force of the blow rather than fully oppose it.

  Chao Ren’s eyes narrowed as he sharpened his focus.

  Just a bit more and he could trip him up.

  Use the rigidity of his body as a fulcrum to knock him off balance by his own arm.

  Wait—arm?

  Chao Ren felt the qi leave his lungs as Lu Ri’s fist met his chest, rising in a furious uppercut that sent him sprawling. The stoney arm tilted to the side, redirecting his blow so that his own momentum drove him more heavily into the oncoming fist.

  He crashed into the stone of the arena, barely managing to roll to the side as the bladed chain sparked off the stone to his side, its blow wide only by virtue of the uneven links now marring its length.

  He scrambled to the side as Lu Ri pursued him with a series of stomps, rolling to his feet just ahead of the furious blows pursuing him. A kick caught him in the side and he let the blow carry him even as it incited another spike of pain from the cut across his chest, using the narrow window of distance it gave him to rise to his feet, only one hand on his staff as he tried to rise into a proper stance.

  “I told you!” Lu Ri exclaimed, snapping his chain taut in his hands. “It’ll take more than that to break my technique.”

  With a sudden motion he heaved, the looped chain he’d positioned behind Chao Ren knocking him from his feet as he barely managed to avoid the noose. He lost his grip on his staff as he caught himself with a handspring, wobbling as his injured right side throbbed in protest of the motion.

  He lunged for his staff as he landed, only for the chain to last out before he had a chance to recover it. Like lightning the blade flashed right before his fingers, sending it spinning towards the edge of the arena inches before he could reach it.

  Lu Ri caught up to it in four quick steps, lashing back with his chain to force Chao Ren away as he kicked it over the side of the arena. The barrier barely flickered as it did, designed as it was to prevent outside interference rather than ring-outs.

  “That’s enough of that,” Lu Ri tsked, winding back his chains as Chao Ren felt his thoughts begin to spiral.