Perspiration turned to dense clouds of vapour. A faint golden hue shimmered over Vera's skin.
His body snapped to the side at a moment's notice. A swift sword whistled while a mace roared, ripping through the atmosphere.
Gang Wu shot forward; his mace swung down to Vera's skull. From behind, Li Yue let out a barrage of thrusts.
The golden hue over Vera's skin boomed outward, birthing a scant sun. As the heat baked away at Li Yue's throat, she retreated 20 paces in one breath. Gang Wu, with the Iron Blanket Law, forged through the hearth of flames.
Vera's brows furrowed; his halberd shifted to an overhead guard. The shaft's butt end blocked Gang Wu's advance.
Qi pulsed through his meridians with an extreme frequency, but…
Not enough time!
The dome of flames dissipated in the air. A sharp whistle permeated through the battlefield.
Vera jerked his neck to the left. The skin over his jugular vein was sheared off as he barely avoided Li Yue's strike.
Scorched earth crumbled under his feet as his leg shot backwards. There was no contact.
She got away—
The mace's rounded head crashed into Vera's ribs. Blood spurted through his gritted teeth; his lungs crumpled under the sheer force. However, the gleam in his eyes didn't die out.
Vera's left hand let go of his halberd and grabbed at Gang Wu's neck.
"Incinerate!"
The acrid smell of melting skin filled the air. Guttural screams left Gang Wu's throat quivering; the vibrations ran down Vera's arm.
She should be coming now.
A silver trail shot towards Vera's elbows. Its trajectory would skewer through his elbow to his wrist.
The mark of the Baize shone over Vera's back. Earth rumbled as the terrain broke down. Li Yue's footing broke, driving her sword askew.
The rapier cut through the flesh over Vera's wrist and sheared off the cartilage on Gang Wu's nose.
Gang Wu's screams grew louder. He flailed his mace at Vera's fortified body. Nonetheless, Vera stood firmly. His fingers gouged into Gang Wu's neck and ripped it half off. Blood fountained from Gang Wu's veins as his limp body crashed into the ground.
Vera's vision swam. Each breath strained into a gasp through his crumpled lungs.
Not yet!
His blood boiled over; a faint golden hue resurfaced over his skin. "Incinerate!"
Vera, having used this technique for over two years, grew accustomed to the heat; however, others…
Li Yue, still regaining her footing, was caught in the explosion. Unlike the last time, the flames were translucent. The surface of her skin turned to a shade of brown. The heat caused her blood to boil over; it seeped through her orifices uncontrollably.
Dazed, she felt a firm grip over her elbow.
Vera's expression grew ecstatic. His elbow shot toward Li Yue's mouth. The roots of her teeth pushed through her gums under the force of Vera's elbows. She choked on her own blood and teeth.
Vera slid his elbow out of her mouth and gripped her face with his palm.
Die!
His manifested qi turned to a dense shade of red. The smell of immolated flesh stung his nose.
"Incinerate!" Spit tinged with blood splattered across his hand as he screamed.
Dense flames flooded from his fingers, engulfing the sound of her screams. At the start there were three—now, only one…
The blood vessels in his eyes burst under the pressure, painting his sclera a deep red. A dull thud echoed as Li Yue's headless body fell to the ground.
The battle's chorus resonated through the camp's ground.
He lowered his centre of gravity, his shoulders slumped over as he walked over to Gang Wu's squirming body. His stomach churned; a dull weight pressed against his chest. But his thoughts…
Too quick!
He stared down at Gang Wu with disgust. The churns from his stomach almost mimicked hunger.
Why did you talk so much? If you were going to die so fast?
He stomped at Gang Wu's skull until the squirming stopped. Shards of bone and brain clumped up in Vera's hair.
Unfortunately, for Vera, he heard the clangs of swords striking shields.
He found out where the shield line from before had gone to. Vera knew that's where his peers were.
He rested the flat end of the blade over his shoulder; the staff's butt end bit into the ground. He leaned against his halberd and put his right leg forward.
With a single explosive motion, he pulled the butt end backward and kicked off the ground. The atmosphere broke into dense rings. The immense friction burnt off the grime over his skin.
The ground blurred into a brown stain.
***
Downwind of where Vera fought with the One Law masters from the third faction, Lin-yu and the other team members were holding off the shield line's advance.
Lin-yu and Tai-yan stood at the forefront of the charge, attempting to break through the shield line. The remaining three members held the back rank, preventing pike thrusts from reaching the forward group.
Lin-yu dashed to the edge of the shield line; Tai-yan followed. She called out to the back rank, "Hold them back until we can take out one shield user."
At her command, a flurry of qi projectiles shot toward the centre. Dust piled up as the guard line was pushed back by the back rank.
For each step back they took, two steps forward.
Tai-yan observed the situation as he made his way over to Line's end. "Senior, we have about 30 breaths before they restructure."
Lin-yu pointed to the last warrior on the line. "Push him out of the line. I'll hold off the attacks that come your way."
Tai-yan lowered his mace to the ground and coiled up a strike as he dashed in; Lin-yu circled inward to deflect the pikes that were coming his way.
She extended her sword outward, keeping three paces between her and the defence line.
With minimal and swift strikes, she threw off the trajectory of each thrust, keeping Tai-yan from harm's way.
A dull thud resounded through the field as Tai-yan's mace struck the shield. The shielder's arm trembled from the force. Nonetheless, he clenched his teeth and lowered his stance.
Losing position meant death.
Tai-yan formed a veil of qi around the two of them. In a moment's time the heat in the air rose sixfold.
Unlike the sixth-branch squad, the shielders were dressed in heavy armour. The strikes of his mace mirrored the beat of a drum.
Each strike left subtle dents.
Lin-yu's movements picked up in tempo as more shielders closed in on them. From one attacker to two, the margin for deflection thinned.
Dizzied by the heat of his own veil, Tai-yan resolved himself. Qi surged through his skin as he bit on his tongue.
I'm sure it's harder on him!
From sixfold to tenfold, the heat went up. Sweat pooled under the shielder's heavy metal armour.
Thick layers of sweat trapped in the armour grew in heat rapidly, with no place to escape; the perspiration couldn't even turn to steam.
Strike after strike, slack started to form. And finally the warrior's footing gave way. Tai-yan charged into the shield, toppling the warrior over. He pressed the shield down, preventing the coalition member from getting back up.
The veil of qi compacted around the coalition member.
Excessive heat.
Pressure over the diaphragm.
His suffocation did not allow a single peep as he perished.
Within five breaths, the shielder died, just as the timer for restructuring ran out. Lin-yu dashed backward, her skin riddled with gashes. With a single swift motion, she grabbed Tai-yan's collar and pulled him along to the back rank.
"Tai-yan needs to recuperate. Guard as we retreat!"
The five-man group pulled back whilst firing projectiles, slowing down the shield line's advance.
Lin-yu hurriedly undid Tai-yan's leather armour. The moment she undid it, his sweat burst into steam.
"Tai-yan! Can you hear me?"
Only weak nods followed her question. Lin-yu's brows furrowed. She used water qi of the yin orient to cool him down.
Her grip over his armour tightened.
How are we supposed to handle this?!
Battle cries engulfed them from all ends. The heavy march of the armoured troops shook the ground.
Just killing one of them took this much. How are we going to clear out the whole camp?
She slung Tai-yan over her shoulder as she retreated further.
"Retreat! Don't engage any further!"
There was no other option for now.
We need to regroup before pushing in any deeper.
Her hand reached down to her belt to pull out the emergency flare.
"We need to regroup! I'll shoot the flare—"
Screams echoed from the shield line. They broke structure to form a barrier. The leader of the shield line barked out commands while holding onto a small jade tablet.
"The third faction reinforcements have failed! The man who wields the halberd is heading—"
The world slowed down.
A fire that birthed rumours. Stories of teams that encountered mass graves of charcoalised bones. The crazed prattle of surviving camps that encountered hellscapes.
The most brutal of all sights, the ashen graves.
The sun bloomed on earth.
Brilliant white flooded the shield line. Iron wept; its entirety was the tears. Before anything could be heard, the ground quaked.
Faultlines climbed through the camp like arcs of thunder. Then came the sound. It was akin to a whip cracking in the air.
There was no air to breathe. The sheer heat caused the atmosphere to convulse. The wind cried as it ran from the momentary brilliance.
Being thirty paces away from the shield line, Lin-yu's squad got away with burnt skin. As for the shielders…
All that was left was a grave of galvanised bones.
Moments passed; soon the squad members regained their breaths. Their vision streaked with lines of red and green; through the rubble, they made out a single figure. His shoulders slumped over as he walked through the remains of the coalition members. He turned to face the squad members; his red eyes shone in the cover of night.
All of a sudden, his neck snapped back. He stared into the distance; a single word escaped him.
"Jin."
He dashed off to the northern end of the battlefield.
The team stared with widened eyes. As the wind crept back to the field, one of the members turned to face Lin-yu.
"We can still win?"
Most of those who came to clear out the major beggar camp weren't a part of the entourage that went to the competition. That being the case, they didn't understand what they just saw.
Lin-yu laid Tai-yan down on the floor. The scent of molten copper and rotting corpses struck her nose.
"Hmm… maybe."
Her eyes quivered as she observed the graveyard.
You won't do that to us, right?
She could only hope that he remembered the words he said back in the first sector.
"Take a minute to rest. We need to prepare for the second wave."
***
Sparks burnt out and appeared again. The sound of Jin's movements barely followed him. Three shrill clangs shrieked every moment. His sword arm flickered through space, fending off three Second Synergy masters at the same time.
Each exchange caused the air to boom violently. Those under the Second Synergy were already incapacitated by waves from the four-way battle.
Warm sweats beaded up on the attackers' skin as they tried to keep up with him. Jin's sword slithered around one of the attacker's swords; it gouged out the flesh over his palm.
In one fluid motion, Jin slipped through the strikes of the other two attackers and kicked in the third one's chest.
The dry snap of his ribcage echoed as he crashed into the ground. He smirked at the two assailants.
"You couldn't make do with three. What can you do now?"
The two ignored Jin and rushed toward their fallen comrade. The Swift Sword practitioner reached for the fallen fighter to carry him away.
However, as he pulled at his body, there was a resistance. Stuck in place, the man looked toward what anchored his comrade in place.
He was met with a cold gaze. Jin stared at the man; his sword skewered the fallen warrior's skull, pinning him to the ground.
He kicked at the Swift Sword practitioner's shin. "Bring the camp's leader here before I kill you and the one who ran the other way."
The attacker's eyes darted around the camp looking for his living teammate, only to see him running away.
Without speaking another word, he ran toward the southern end of the camp. His breathing turned to wheezes as he ran for his life.
Unfortunately…
He tumbled into the ground; his right arm was cut off cleanly. Jin planted his foot over the man's head.
"Are you going to find your leader or are you just running?"
Jin pressed on the man's head, driving it deeper into the ground. "Answer me!"
The man spasmed on the ground as he gripped at the stump that was now his right arm. Jin's expression contorted into a scowl at the sight. He lifted his leg and stomped down with enough force to turn the man's head into paste.
"Fucking sissy bastard. I didn't lose my mind even when I had to rip my arm off."
Just then, the air grew viscous. Jin turned in the direction in which the other attacker had run.
At the end of the field, an old woman walked toward Jin at a leisurely pace. She held a pen the size of a dagger in her right hand and the head of the last Second Synergy master in her left.
She flung the man's head over to Jin and let out an annoyed sigh. Her tone was hoarse, akin to the grating of a knife over a chalkboard.
"These beggars are so useless. They didn't even tire you out."
Jin kicked away the man's head and turned back to face the old woman. "Ugh… You're even uglier than I thought, bitch."
Despite his calm exterior, Jin's grip over his sword tightened. Now that he stood face to face with the hidden master, he could tell…
Brat, that isn't a Third Synergy master.
Her grating voice filled the air as she drew closer to Jin. Her chuckles akin to a rasp, she spoke.
"Don't hope that I'd kill you just because of some insults. I'll be taking your limbless body back to the sect. These new generation children of the Zhuge don't have blood as pure as the old ones."
Qi flooded the air.
The chatter had come to an end; it was time to fight now. As Jin raised his sword, a wave of warm air blew over him.
He hurriedly turned to the western end of the camp, through which they had entered.
"Vera?"
The old woman laughed joyfully.
"I didn't expect that ant to be hiding so much. What a joyful day! The clan head will reward me greatly for such high-quality slaves."
She extended her pen out in front of her and drew sigils over the air's surface.
"Hurry now. I don't have all day to take care of you ants."