Hot.
Humid.
What the hell.
The girl in white collapsed.
A ragged, tired Li Mojiu limped, stumbled, then rolled into the jungle rivers against her best judgement. She was exhausted, dying of thirst and starving- had been for weeks now as she was on the run after her incident with her Shi'mei and master. Flanked on either side by the massive, jungled karst hills of Western Ionia, she managed to lose both her pursuers and her way, but only by trapping herself in those valleys of death. The jungle trees hung a thick canopy over her head, their branches meeting over the center of the black river to form a natural cathedral.
Li Mojiu slumped in that black, muddy, stinking water. Sinking further and further into the river. Letting it swallow her whole.
Her Sect had abandoned her. Her dearest Younger Martial-Sister betrayed her. Her Master forsaken her. She was all alone again. Like she was before Master Lei-Na had first picked her out; nothing more than a wretched street urchin cutting purses and picking pockets just to survive.
She had no one and nothing to live for. Li Mojiu sighed, lying floating in that black, muddy, salted water that flowed backwards from the sea. Here the briny ocean water was poisoned with the rotting corpses of dying sea-life. The unnatural flow turned the land into a putrid, fetid swampland teeming with venomous creatures and deadly diseases. In this hellish land of opposites she had finally managed to evade the Placidium guard and find some rest. Perhaps she would just go to sleep in that black, lukewarm river, drifting away, born as a nothing and die as a nothing. How poetic.
Though she knew it would be death, she just had to have a sip of water.
Li Mojiu turned her head to the side and took a gulp of that black liquid.
She immediately regretted it. Her eyes widened. Li Mojiu thrashed about in the water, coughing it all out. It was like drinking raw sewage. She half-swum, half-staggered to the riverbank, falling to her knees in the mud. When she looked up, she saw the gleam of a silver spearhead hovering right over her nose.
There were people.
The men were wearing colorful square, rectangular masks over their faces and hefted in their arms were spears with just the tiniest edge of sharpened silver embedded at the end. Just enough to make the stick lethal. Over the heads of the women were cylindrical, drum-like hats that glittered with hundreds of pieces of silver jewelry attached to them that glistened like stars in the night sky.
These… were the outcasts of Ionia. The Xong. They were heathens not only against the Warrior Saint, but also the Old Gods and therefore found no sanctuary with either religious group. They had turned their backs on the War God, the Hearth God and the Thunder God to practice their traditional animal spirit worship… doing so at a price. Now the only animals they ever saw were the poisonous toads, venomous insects and diseased reptiles of the Western Libo Karst jungles.
One of the men spoke in some a thick, alien language, but it didn't matter what he was saying, not to her. All that mattered in Li Mojiu's mind was that he didn't immediately drive his spear through her heart. He wanted to talk, not kill and she would leverage that opening.
Li Mojiu took this chance to topple over and fall backwards into the fetid river. It was easier to play the part of a helpless, half-dead young girl when she was already most of the way there. She hit the river like a rock and the Xong around her shouted in a language she didn't know. But she could hear the concern in their tones. She had won.
The wheels began turning in Li Mojiu's head as the men began to lower their spears and the women hurried forwards to grasp Li Mojiu and drag her out of the river. She noticed that the ladies' grips were unnaturally strong. The jungles couldn't dull the Xong's long tradition of being a war-like people after all.
Good. This was good.
The starving, tenacious, survivalist young thief in Li Mojiu began to surface once more. She started to drift off into unconsciousness for real, but not before she balled her fists, clutching at her wet, sopping robes in determination. She already destroyed most of the Ancient Tomb Sect, but there was still justice to be had. She would have her revenge on the last vestiges of her former sect. On her master. On her dear Shi'mei. This she swore.
And these outcasts, these kin after her own heart, would serve her to that goal.
The Western Venom's handmaidens danced in tandem, their glittering silver jewelry sang a chiming peal with their movements. Each one of them moved with consideration to the other as if they each of different leg of the same poisonous insect. Though the Sect Alliance army was great, the unity of the sister assassins was greater. The six of them danced, weaving in and out, their poisoned, bladed whips racing out to bite a man on the arm here or cut a soldier in the throat there, leaving behind only death and poison-filled veins.
The Xong of the Five Poisons Sect were used to playing the part of the villain. A religious minority in Ionia, their ancestors were chased into the Western Jungles by the spiritual orthodoxies, finding no favor either with the original Ionian Orthodoxy or the new guard of the Warrior Saint's followers in the Taoists and Buddhists. Fleeing persecution, they made those rolling jungle hills their castle and made those the poisoned, salted rivers their moats.
It was the Snakemother who gave those Xong their first real hope in generations. Combining the superior swordsplay of the Ancient Tomb Sect with their own advanced knowledge of poisons and venoms made their already strong warriors nearly unstoppable. Owning one of the seats of the Five Greats of Ionia after Li Mojiu slew the previous Guardian of the West gifted them with political clout. Through strength, the Xong won back their ancestral homes and escaped the jungly hell that once was their prison. And they would do anything to safeguard their livelihoods.
Thus when their de facto leader ordered six of her finest to accompany her to a suicide mission to fight for the Blood Moon Sect, these handmaidens drank their last cups of wine and broke the porcelain on the floor, well aware they would never return.
A warrior from the Sect Alliance spun, his blade flashing in the low torchlight, the edge falling like a shooting star down on the closest Five Poisons handmaiden.
The girl stepped back, her violet and lilac livery floating after her, leaving a ghostly, silken afterimage that the warrior's blade passed harmlessly through. The sharpened edge smashed into the rock below, embedding itself a full inch into the volcanic slate below. The Five Poisons handmaidens fought like a coiling serpent, one of their formation moved back when the other lashed forwards like the sidewinding of a viper.
As one handmaid moved back, her sister moved forwards, cutting outwards to bite once at the man's neck with her bladed whip. Silver bit into the man's throat and he collapsed, choking on the blood filling his throat.
And the man died, joining the sea of dead bodies that littered the ground around them. Those at the front of the Sect Alliance's army who bore the brunt of the slaughter began to lose heart. One by one the hundreds of proud warriors were backing away from the lone group of martial artists before them. Six women repelling hundreds, their formation carved a bloody circle into the throng of warriors before them like the moon crossing the night sky.
One of the Five Poisons handmaidens stopped. She lowered her bladed whip, looking out over the cavernous tunnel they were in. Above the cacophony of battle there was something else. Something strange. It sounded like… whistling?
There was something coming from the back of the Sect Alliance's line. Something fast.
Did the Snakemother lose? The handmaiden gripped her bladed whip in anger. Damn it all. Their lives were already forfeit; they six had come to this fortress-monastery prepared to die, but what would become of their tribe if they lost their strongest champion?
The woman was just about to order her sisters to reform when she was cut off- literally. All the handmaiden saw before the sudden darkness was the sight of the other handmaidens, her fellow sisters falling to the ground, their heads toppling soon after the rest of them while a flash of white and a glint of violet darted back and forth between them-
Before it lunged straight at her. Her words died with her head leaving her body.
The Dragon Maiden saw everything, running on the walls of that tunnel that led into the Blood Moon Sect's necropolis. She glided over the heads of her men, ignoring their cries and cheers and pleas for her mercy. She saw further down how her entire army was held off by six of her Shi'jie's personal bodyguard.
Incompetents, the whole lot of them. She didn't have time for this.
"Get-!" The lady dragon muttered, loosening the Warrior Saint's First Sword in its black sheath. She sighed, loosening her body further, willing her sea of chi to propel her entire body to the utmost limits of her Qigong. She took smaller steps upon that tunnel wall in preparation.
And with one step she flew with her godspeed at the Five Poisons Cultists.
"-Out! Of! My way!" She roared, swinging her sword with each exclamation. Each cut claimed twice the number of heads. And with those decisive one, two, three cuts it was the end of the Five Poisons Cult's presence in the Central Mountains.
The white streak vanished, replaced with the Dragon Maiden. The legendary master had to catch her breath, but it was only for a moment. She didn't even care to watch the bodies of Li Mojiu's handmaidens fall. After her brief rest she was a blur once more, barreling down that tunnel to find herself within the Blood Moon Temple's most inner sanctum. Their graveyard of gods, their Necropolis.
She stopped again, struck by the scene and the pernicious scent of death.
A black wind rushed up from the cemetery of faith that lay before her. She saw at her feet the lined bodies of a dozen beheaded Blood Moon Sect soldiers. In the distance half of a tower stood in ruin, its shattered levels still smoking with the Blood Moon Elder's dark chi. And further down…
She could faintly hear the cry of battle.
The Dragon Maiden turned her head to the skies expectantly, searching for any sign of her lover and more importantly, his giant flying eagle. She would need to be at her peak for this next fight and she couldn't afford to run at full speed, her stamina depleted, straight into the monster of a man that the Blood Moon Elder was now.
She failed Shi'jie. The Dragon Maiden berated herself. She should have seen the warning signs in her Elder Martial Sister sooner. She should have saved Elder Sister Li from her sickness. But she was so enamored with her Elder Sister whom she so idolized that she didn't confront her until she was too far gone.
She failed Guo'er. She fell in love again and she couldn't navigate being little Yang Guo's master with being further and further intimate with the young man who was her only companion in those lonely nights after Master Lei-Na died. Her failure cost them several lifetimes being together.
She would not fail her.
"Akali," the Dragon Maiden pleaded, muttering to herself in some low prayer. "Wait for me. For on the day that you stood in my crypt and swore yourself to Master Lei-Na as I and Shi'jie once did so many centuries ago…"
She heard the cry of Yang Guo's eagle and let herself have a small sigh of relief. She raised her hand expectantly as the cries of that giant eagle grew louder and louder.
"I swore to myself that I would never fail my disciple again."
And she caught hold of the diving eagle's leg, grabbed on and flew.
來是空言去絕踪
Her promises to come were empty words.
"Let's g-" Akali said, but she was cut off.
By Sintra.
"Sacred Flame." And with a snap of the mage girl's fingers, black and blue flames burst outwards in a ring under the Blood Moon Elder's feet. Akali's eyes could barely follow as the sect leader dashed unnaturally fast to the left, avoiding the inferno by just a heartbeat. But it looked like Sintra was expecting that.
She saw the Blood Moon Elder glanced down at his leg, frozen in place. Black, shadowy chains that entangled his back leg.
"Come." The sorceress said, windmilling her arms, dancing in place and by her bidding, a nest of a dozen purply dragons sprung out of her shadow, twisting and curling around her in a perfect sphere. Where the girl's hand passed the dragons followed, howling louder and louder as they grew in size and strength.
Sintra opened her eyes, locking onto her target. The trapped Blood Moon Elder.
"Sae Eleisa Tera Vi... Dragonflight." She snapped her fingers.
The dragons lunged, snaking all at once at the Blood Moon Elder and on impact they burst into black and purple flames. The explosions rocked the Altar; Akali could feel the very ground tremble. The explosions stacked on top of each other like a drumbeat, its rhythm growing faster. The intensity and speed of the summoned dragons grew, until Akali could barely see the sorceress girl from within her cage of howling, flying dragons. Then they were swept up by the dust cloud of the explosions.
She heard Sintra sigh and the howling of the dragons stopped. The dust cloud began to clear. The silver-haired girl had put her hands on her knees, her breathing heavy.
"Tian'Ah." Akali swore under her breath. That might have just done it.
"Did I get'em?" Sintra asked.
Her answer was a shadow that loomed overhead. For an instant, the party of five was overcast by the falling Blood Moon Elder. Then came the bladesfall.
A dark red cloud hung overhead and the head of his glaive fell crashing to the earth like rain.
"Get away!" Akali screamed and her companions obeyed, all of them splitting away from her as she stood alone against the onslaught.
The Blood Moon Elder thrust a dozen times in an instant with his rubied glaive, pulverizing the stone tiles at her feet, carving away at the very ground she stood upon, but Akali herself was unharmed. She had instinctively brought her arms over her face to guard herself, but she was fine. Which meant this moment; this instant when the Blood Moon Elder was not attacking her- was her chance.
The Elder landed and Akali lunged.
Akali swung deep, feeling the edge of her sword carve into thick red cloth. Her sword passed through and she could see drops of dark, dark blood fall off the edge. She got him!
The Blood Moon Elder turned, his weapon rotating with him, the shaft of the glaive racing upwards to smash into Akali's face. But there was nothing there. She was gone. The sect leader's yellowed eyes widened.
From above, Akali fell. Now she was the one to fall from above onto him, her sword turned downwards.
"Hah!" Akali's sword pierced down, driving deep into the man's shoulder. She cut deeper this time. Through the man's hardened leather pauldron, she felt the snapping of his collarbone. But still, the Elder Master didn't even flinch.
And with that she landed, hopped, then cart-wheeled backwards to safety, her allies hurrying to her side.
The Blood Moon Elder barely moved. He simply glanced over the hole in his shoulder pauldron.
"So that's how you're going to play it?" The Blood Moon Elder said, hefting his glaive over his shoulder with his only whole arm. "How boring."
The man moved so quickly he looked like a blur. From one blink of an eye to the next, the Glaive was levelled at Akali and her comrades and the Blood Moon Elder lunged, the glaive racing outwards like a hungry dragon.
Every bone in Akali's body told her to run, flee. To get as far away from this man and his weapon as she could. But she knew she couldn't. The moment she took one step in retreat in the face of the Elder's advance, and she and her friends would be lost.
Instead, she charged straight at him. Straight towards the Blood Moon Elder, and death.
And the hungry dragon abated. The man's glaive stopped, the point of the hafted blade an inch over her heart.
It was Akali's allies turn to get their share. As one, they moved. Sintra stepped out first and shouted, shadowy chains rising from the earth to wrap around the Blood Moon Elder's limbs while at the same time, Brother Udyr charged, grabbing onto the shaft of the Blood Moon Elder's rubied glaive with both hands.
Shen and Kona split towards both flanks, one on each side, their weapons flashing. In an instant they struck, Shen cutting into one foot with his sword and Kona getting a bite out of the other with her scythe. All could hear the parting of flesh with steel, a sickening grinding sound as metal ground against bone. The two ninjas each took a bite from a foot.
The Blood Moon Elder trembled, Sintra's chains weighing his limbs down with sorcery while Brother Udyr tried with all his might to tear the Elder's glaive from his only hand.
But he shook his head.
"How disappointing."
The Blood Moon Elder swung his glaive, lifting Brother Udyr off his feet and flinging him away, while at the same time snapping Sintra's summoned chains like they were spiderwebs. These attacks, these powers… to him, they were nuisances. Minor inconveniences.
"You think I won't kill you, girl?" The Blood Moon Elder hefted his glaive over his shoulder once more. "You think you can act as shield for your friends forever?"
"I know you won't kill me." Akali replied. "You need me as Sacrifice. Or you would have never tried to capture me alive. You would have never bothered."
"And this… trick? That is how you're going to kill me? By throwing yourself at my halberd at every turn, hoping I won't simply take your head off and use the magician girl instead?"
The Blood Moon Elder turned his focus to Sintra, his second choice for Sacrifice. And his eyes gleamed. "It's not as poetic, but it will make do."
"You kill Akali and the very next person to die is her." Shen said, his face stony. He glanced at Akali and Akali turned to him and nodded. In response, Shen swung his blade out, stopping just short of an inch from Sintra's neck. The sorceress girl didn't respond. She only held her head higher, exposing her jugular further. If one of them died, they both died. This was their plan, their one advantage over the Blood Moon Elder- that he needed them alive.
The Blood Moon Elder advanced, spinning his glaive in his only working hand. What was wrong with this man? Wasn't he injured, Akali thought as she looked over the man's gait, searching for any single of a limp, a wince, any sign at all that he had been cut. But the sect leader didn't seem to notice.
"Is that all? Inflict a thousand cuts and simply hope I die? You could cut my body a million times over, I will never die so long as I have the Vortex of Shadows. Your efforts are futile."
The Blood Moon Elder stopped his glaive, taking a second to rest his hand over his stretched, grayed forehead. The creature sighed and Akali could see the gleam of real fangs in the Blood Moon Elder's mouth. "Men make plans. Children play tricks."
All five of them readied themselves as the Blood Moon Elder drew closer and closer. They had to be ready for his next attack.
"The first ones to die..."
The Blood Moon Elder disappeared, the rock where he stood shattering with the force of his footstep.
The Elder was suddenly in front of them now, his glaive outstretched and his red robes fluttering all around him like he was some great bird of prey. The glaive fell at the five of them and Akali charged to meet it like she did twice before.
"...will be you two." The Elder said, from behind. All of them turned. He had his glaive outstretched over Kona, the rubied weapon gleaming, hanging high over her head like a guillotine. To the front, the Blood Moon Elder that was their path had its true nature revealed- a shadowy clone of himself. But it, too was swinging past Akali towards a different target- Shen.
The Blood Moon Elder moved to kill both Akali's best friend and Akali's first love with one move.
No. She wouldn't let him.
She reached deep inside herself. Welcoming the darkness into herself.
Clang!
There was the sound of metal clashing against metal.
And also a pale echo of the same sound, both occurring at once.
The Blood Moon Elder tilted his head ever-so slightly. His shadowy clone did the same.
Akali sighed, exhaling long and hard.
"No. You will not touch them." Akali pushed up, her sword braced with both hands against the Blood Moon Elder's weapon. To everyone's surprise, she was forcing him back. Dark smoke from the Vortex of Shadows billowed around her, faintly clouding the edges of her vision.
And to the side, a shadowy twin of Akali pushed out against the shadowy clone of the Elder, her ponytail fluttering soundlessly in whatever dark dimension the two creatures resided in. As the twin of Akali managed to push the Elder away, both Clones disappeared into the aether, fading away into the Yin chi of the world around them.
It was Akali's turn to advance on the Calamitous Guardian of the South. For real this time.
"It's not just my life that's going to protect my friends. It's my strength as well, Blood Moon Elder." Akali brought her hand to her face, doubling over and wincing. This power… it hurt. She could feel the thing inside her advancing from her arm to every node of chi in her body. But it didn't matter anymore.
I'll give you my whole life, Vortex. Just give me the Blood Moon Elder's.
Kona and Shen were yelling, but she couldn't hear them any longer over the pounding of her heart on the inside of her skull. That was fine. This had to happen.
"No… it's not about my friends." Akali muttered. To whom she didn't know anymore. But these words had to be said. "Blood Moon Elder. You're going to pay for destroying my life with your own."
Akali rose, the Dark Chi finally blossoming full and well in her heart. She was a child of darkness, born from assassins and ninjas and the night. This was her home. This was her true nature.
"Akali!" Shen's voice finally cut through her fog of confusion. She felt Kona almost tackle her, but she shrugged her friend off. Akali glanced over at her shoulders and saw the dark chi pouring out of her every pore. Not only smoke. There was flame. Just a little bit more and the flames would consume her entirely, like a lit candle over a bale of hay. She was going to burn.
Her wings, made of dark and smoky chi, started to unfurl-
"You stupid child." Akali heard from above. White silken robes engulfed her. And then her vision doubled from a sudden strike to the back of her head and everything went black.
She collapsed.
"-li!"
What…?
Was she dead?
"Akali..!"
That was Shen.
Akali opened her eyes.
"You idiot!" Shen yelled at her, inches from her face. Every syllable he screamed was like a slap in the face to her.
"I agree doubly." Kona said, popping into her field of vision from the side. "You dumb, stupid bitch. You promised we would leave Ionia together. You… you were going to leave me behind, weren't you?" Kona kept her stony, indifferent face on but her voice wavered at the tail of her words. She was really worried.
Akali sighed. She didn't expect to be actually confronted on her lies. She was trying kill herself with her own power after all.
"What happened…?" Akali muttered.
"'Tell my idiot disciple that her arrogance knows no bounds'," Kona repeated. "Your master told us to tell you that when you woke up and 'to leave things to the adults'."
Master? What…?
Akali turned her head.
Across the other side of the Altar… over the hellpit and on the other bank of the ring, white silks flowed with the force of her chi. The woman's long, black hair was tousled, her jade clip long since fallen off, leaving her hair flowing off of her like a great black mane and tail in one. Twin deer horns made of shining white petricite crown shone off her head, giving her the appearance of a white dragon.
The Dragon Maiden had arrived. To her right stood her lover, the Divine Guardian of the Core, Yang Guo. And to her left, the newly elected Abbot of the Shojin Monastery… it was the Old Monk, Akali saw. Dressed not in rags, but clean, new robes.
The lady dragon turned her head back to look at her. In a single look Akali saw everything. Anger at her. Fury at Akali's presumptuousness and arrogance and many other words she was sure she would learn the meanings of later in an hours-long lecture. But there was also relief in the beautiful woman's eyes.
Master… Akali's eyes welled up. And the Dragon Maiden gave her a single nod before returning to her task at hand.
The Dragon Maiden held the Warrior Saint's first sword out to the side, its sinful purple blade almost glowing in the volcanic light from below. Wordlessly Yang Guo held out his massive Heavy Iron Sword, the Warrior Saint's second sword to clash against the lady dragon's weapon, their weapons clanging, their spirits harmonizing.
"Jade Maiden's Sword." The Dragon Maiden said.
"Tai Chi Sword." Yang Guo replied.
As one, they advanced on the Blood Moon Elder. The red warrior had his glaive over his shoulder at the ready, his yellowed eyes narrowed at his advancing foe.
"Gou'er! Left!" The Dragon Maiden yelled and the Wudang Elder dashed in front of her, his Heavy Iron Sword skirting the stone below. Yang Guo launched himself at the Crimson Elder.
The Central Divinity advanced with three swift half-moon strikes, each cut representing an alternating half of the Yin-Yang circle. Light, Dark, Light, his sword cut, drawing the Blood Moon Elder deeper and deeper within his rhythm.
"Circle the Three Moons!"
Dark… The Blood Moon Elder blocked under the strike, skirting the greatsword onto the shaft of his glaive…
Then from Darkness came Light. The Dragon Maiden burst out from the shadow of the Wudang Elder's massive sword. With one pass, the Dragon Maiden sliced thrice. With her godspeed she took the Blood Moon Elder's back three times, cutting away flesh with every swipe.
The Blood Moon Elder burst outwards with a full circle swing of his glaive, forcing the Wudang Elder and the Dragon Maiden stepping back. The force of the man's swing was so strong that Akali could feel the shock of wind all the way from the other side of the Altar, several hundred meters away.
Master… Akali bit her lip in worry.
As the legendary couple retreated, the old monk advanced.
"Duyuan!" Tripitaka roared. They clashed, staff against glaive and Tripitaka twisted his weapon behind his back, managing to trap the glaive's shaft against his back and behind his staff. With a roar, he threw both glaive and Blood Moon Elder over his shoulder.
Before the sect leader could even land, the man struck out with a single punch, hardened knuckles smashing into the haft of the Blood Moon Elder's halberd who managed to block the bare-handed attack in mid-air. The two Shojin, one ascended to the height of their order and the other fallen to the utter deepest depths, struggled for an instant. Then Tripitaka yielded to turn his body, his leg coming up with a powerful sidekick, catching the sect leader flat in his chest. The Blood Moon Elder was finally sent flying backwards into the wall at his back.
The other two legendary masters didn't hesitate. The Dragon Maiden to the right, the Wudang Elder to the left, they slammed their swords into the Blood Moon Elder more like bats then blades, driving him deeper into the wall. Akali could see that the evil sect leader felt that. A grunt escaped the man's mouth and black blood trickled out the side of his greyed lips.
"You're done." The Dragon Maiden taunted.
"Surrender." Yang Guo whispered at the Blood Moon Elder, driving his Heavy Iron Sword deeper. "You may still live in prison for your sins."
"Surrender?" The Blood Moon Elder snarled. "All this... is just an even fight."
The Blood Moon Elder planted his hand behind the Heavy Iron Sword and pushed. Just pushed. With his strength, he forced both Yang Guo and the Dragon Maiden flying back. The two of them landed on their backs, caught off guard by the sect leader's supernatural strength. In unison they tried to flip back on their feets but the sweeping cut of the Blood Moon Elder's glaive forced them both back down.
After the cut the Blood Moon Elder lashed out with the butt of his glaive, catching the Central Divinity in the side, sending him sprawling back.
"No! Guo'er!" The Dragon Maiden screamed. She lunged forwards, her violet sword flashing.
And the Blood Moon Elder turned and saw her advance. He saw her every move. A slice and a dodge, a slice and a dodge. To Akali's eyes it looked like the two of them became a sudden, messy blur of red and white. And when the blurry mess was done, the Dragon Maiden was left swinging at thin air, shocked at anyone at all managed to match her in a contest of speed.
With a single hand the Blood Moon Elder slammed his glaive downwards at the stone ground, releasing a burst of chi in a perfect sphere around him. The Dragon Maiden yelled, launched backwards by the force. The Blood Moon Elder turned his glaive over in his hand, ready to throw the weapon straight through the still-flying lady dragon through the heart.
"Master-!" Akali screamed, and the Blood Moon Elder threw.
"Rah!" Tripitaka stepped in the way, catching the glaive in mid-air with both hands. The Shojin Abbot grunted as the thrown weapon still took him off of his feet. He and the Dragon Maiden landed in a heap. Feet away from the crater's precipice into the lava pit below.
What… was this man…? Akali wondered, her horror growing. It was like he grew stronger the more he fought and the more he was pushed. His monstrosity went far beyond his actions or his morality, Akali realized. There was something wrong with this man on a very basic level that was being missed.
And the man still hadn't used the power of the Vortex of Shadows.
"Guo'er!" The Dragon Maiden yelled, grabbing the Blood Moon Elder's rubied glaive and turning to toss it into the lavapit to her side. The Blood Moon Elder didn't even look at his sect's treasure weapon falling out of reach. "We need to do it! Monk, buy us time!"
"Yes!" Triptaka yelled, stepping forwards.
"You all are nothing more than inconveniences." The Blood Moon Elder replied, stepping forwards without any weapons in hand. But still, it felt like his power grew. Missing an arm, missing his weapon, yet the force of the man's chi felt never stronger.
Tripitaka tossed his staff to the side, facing down the Blood Moon Elder alone. It wasn't out of a sense of fairness, Akali realized. It was because it didn't matter anymore.
"The heart soars in gratitude to Buddha," Tripitaka chanted, whirling his arms about. "And Heaven will smite wickedness like a Falling Dragon."
"Dragon Claw Fist." The old monk curled his hands before his fallen brother.
The Blood Moon Elder simply held his hand out, reversed.
And they charged at each other. Closer and closer. Until they were almost face to face-
The Shojin was the first to break. He kicked up and out, floating away from the Blood Moon Elder just before they were to make contact. With a flourish Tripitaka kicked at air in between them- The Blood Moon Elder stumbled back, eyes narrowed in surprise, his cloak bunching in at the point of impact. The sect leader didn't have time to figure out the trick behind the invisible strike, for the Shojin Abbot advanced.
"Urgh!" The Blood Moon Elder grunted, pushed back again, this time be a punch that seemed to hit from a few feet back. The old monk punched the air between them again and again, his strikes getting more and more wild and more and more powerful. It was all the Red Elder could do to block them all.
Back, further back the evil sect leader fell. The old monk was winning! Akali wanted to feel hopeful, but there was something in the Blood Moon Elder's look. Those eyes… those yellow, burning eyes… The Blood Moon Elder never tore his gaze from his opponent. Not once did he stop looking at the old monk's movements. Analyzing. Devouring.
"I see… not chi, nor hidden weapon."
Another strike. The Blood Moon Elder cupped his hand in front of his body and with a thunderous clap, he dispersed the Shojin Abbot's invisible strike. The Blood Moon Elder's hand curled outwards in a tai-chi symbol, releasing the flow of energy from his body out into the world around.
"That's the very wind pressure from your strike. How crude." The Blood Moon Elder advanced confidently now, batting away another shock of wind from the old monk. Tripitaka kept yelling and punching and kicking harder and harder, but it was like the Blood Moon Elder scarcely noticed the strikes anymore.
"Exponential amounts of energy expended for a few extra feet of reach." The Blood Moon Elder lunged towards the old monk, covering several yards in a single step. He weaved another strike, then backhanded the Abbot with his gauntleted hand, sending the old man sprawling, skidding to the very edge of the lavapit at the center. With a slow, deliberate step did the Blood Moon Elder advance on his former Shojin brother.
"How pitiful. You are already spent."
"I… don't need anything more than that, Duyuan." Tripitaka, trembling with effort, glanced up. His stare went past the Blood Moon Elder. It went past his death. "One way or another, this is the end."
The Blood Moon Elder turned to the two legendary masters that he had been neglecting up until now.
"Master..." Akali whispered, praying. "Please..."
Yang Guo and the Dragon Maiden had their swords in front of them, crossed in perfect harmony. Their chi surged out of their bodies, curling out into air around them in a vortex. The Dragon Maiden's pitch-black hair intermingled with the Wudang Elder's pure white mane, curling about them like a real-life yin-yang symbol.
The pressure from their combined chi was incredible. It was like being in a hurricane. Akali could feel the hair stand on her arm all the way from the other side of the Altar and see her hair whip in front of her face.
"Please..." Akali almost whimpered.
The Dragon Maiden opened her eyes, roused from meditation. Her lover mirrored her, opening his own eyes.
"Jade Maiden Sword and Tai Chi Sword as One," She said, pulling her sword away.
"Yin and Yang, Male and Female forms the Supreme Swordsmanship." Yang Guo repeated.
"真武劍法. The Warrior Saint's Swordsmanship." They said together.
The lovers disappeared.
"WIN!" Akali screamed.
One cut.
To Akali it looked as if the very world had been sliced in two. Like her vision had split and each half of what she saw slid a few feet to the, centered directly on the Blood Moon Elder. There was a great thunderclap followed by the howling of wind as everything was sucked into the vacuum created by the sudden displacement.
"Ah!" Kona screamed, holding her ears and Shen did alike, wincing in pain. Akali doubled over, the sound ravaging her sensitive, ninja-trained hearing.
Yang Guo and the Dragon Maiden were past the Blood Moon Elder now. The lady dragon had sheathed her sword and Yang Guo was letting his Heavy Iron Blade rest, its tip sunk a few inches into the stone floor at their feet. At their backs, the walls of the Altar shook, great shards of the massive superstructure falling to the earth around them. Their cut might have reached the heavens. Their cut might have slain a god.
乾坤大挪移
The supreme external skill.
The Heaven and Earth, Great Shift
"Congratulations." The Blood Moon Elder said, staring up at the destruction. He held his lone arm out to the side and closed his eyes. "Today the sect leader of the Holy Blood Moon faith dies today."
He fell to a knee. Then he fell entirely, his upper half falling away from his lower, cut cleanly in two. And he screamed and burst into flames, his devouring power consuming his both halves of his body and turning it pitch black.
An East wind blew.
Yang Guo and the Dragon Maiden turned to look at their adversary in horror.
"Flame to Smoke, Smoke to Ash. Ash to Wind." The Blood Moon Elder said. "The Vortex of Shadows is a hungry inferno that consumes all."
He wasn't a human anymore. Somehow, the flames had rejuvenated and restored the man's body. His flesh was a rosy pink, just like it was when he was a young monk at the Shojin Monastery. Pure black hair fell in tangled dreads past the man's waist.
But over his heart was nothing but a hole straight through his chest. And in it, the wind howled.
He-it rose.
"I have given my life to the Vortex of Devouring Shadows. I have become my own Sacrifice." The sect leader said. The Blood Moon Elder looked straight at Akali. "Just give me the girl." The man pleaded to some dark god, "And I will gift the Island to you with her as Sacrifice."
A West wind blew now. So too did a North and a South gale, all colliding on a single point. All winds flew towards the monster in the mountain temple.
No… Akali realized. The winds weren't blowing towards the Blood Moon Elder. They were being sucked in.
"For my life, the final level of the Vortex of Devouring Shadows."
吸星大法
The supreme internal skill.
The Star Eater.