Cold vapors escaped a woman's lips as she leaned her center of gravity forward. Beneath lithe and supple flesh, innumerable cells reflecting miniscule stars fired off like a collapsing nebula.
Calmer than the sea and more wrathful than the storm, she ignored the torrents of rain pouring over her. She ignored her state of undress. She ignored the lightning and thunder in the sky. She ignored the millions of lives existing in the city. She ignored the darkness of the night.
'Time to kill a monster, again.'
Her fist pierced through the air akin to the spear of mortal pain soaked in the blood of armies. It crashed into his face like a meteor compressed to the size of a bullet.
The man with the devil's smile was sent hurtling back as his feet carved into the ground. His blood mixed into the rain.
Violence.
That was all Yang could innately sense from this man. His life was seeped in enough violence to drown a battlefield. It was ghastly that a human could be capable of living such a way.
If he was even human at all.
She burst forward, her hips pivoting as she lifted her right knee up and banished him to the ground with a roundhouse kick to the temple.
Letting none of the momentum go to waste, she directed the flow of power to her heel and stomped the man's head further into the ground. Fissures exploded from the earth and spiraled outwards through the concrete.
"Drop dead or disappear." Her voice was heartlessly cold and merciless.
A primal force exploded out from beneath her. She was sent flying back. Her toes gracefully touched against the ground when she stopped, as if she weighed a single feather. Her glare widened and focused on the man rising from the ground.
He laughed. "Why so joyless? We've just met!"
For the first time, Yang instinctively raised her guard. The presence around the man had changed into something even more threatening.
She bent backward and felt his knuckles swish past her nose. The building next to her was blown away by the shockwave.
His leg raised and arced down in an axe kick that narrowly missed her body. When he stepped forward with the kick, his arm thrust down like an overhead hook. His foot speared straight up at her chin like a viper before stomping back down towards her midriff.
The barrage of blows numbered over a hundred, mimicking rapid fire canon shots.
His hands were unclenched and relaxed. His legs stayed strong and firm. Every step he took pulverized the concrete.
The rhythm was wild and unrestrained, lacking any orthodox style. He charged forward, firing away immensely strong attacks.
It was a dance inviting death.
Yang weaved away from it all before letting loose a sharp jab that cut his skin when he narrowly avoided it.
"Hooh! Now this is pretty good! You're flowing around me like water! Neat!"
The ground in front of her exploded once more. The man was gone.
She tilted her head as an unnaturally fast palm thrust past it. The rain in the air disappeared. Before the storm would soak the street once more, Yang grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder.
Yang immediately straddled him when he was on the ground and began to pummel his face. Everything shook and rattled. A bloodthirsty light flickered in her eyes. She didn't pay heed to the blood on her hands nor the pain.
His hips were pinned down, preventing him from delivering full bodied strikes, and his arms' range of motion was limited by the ground. His arms weren't even guarding his face.
It was a fully advantageous position for her. She kept her thighs locked around him so that he couldn't buck her off.
Then, her drenched shirt was grabbed at the collar. His elbow suddenly plowed through the ground beneath him as if it were water. His back stretched as his arm was pulled all the way back. A vicious grin grew on his face.
A large fist appeared in her vision, magnifying in front of her at a terrifying speed. The world seemed to slow down around her. She carefully observed the incoming attack, coming to the realization that she had neither time nor room to avoid it.
All she could do was cross her arms to block as his fist hurtled into her.
Pain flooded her arms as she was sent crashing through the cobbled road into a canal. Even submerged in the water as she was, she could see him leaping towards her with his arm reeled back like a wild tiger.
Yang grabbed him by the throat and plunged him into the water while pushing herself up. His skin felt exceedingly hot.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her in close before ramming a cruel hook into her side. It was barely blocked by the palm of her hand, dispersing the force from anything major.
The woman crashed into a streetlight.
With a snarl, she twisted and ripped off the metal pillar before smashing the pike into the man's eye with perfect accuracy.
It crumpled and tore like wet tissue, the pike that is.
She casted away from the ground as a crater opened up from a fist.
The muscles in his body tensed as his velocity exploded again and again. His technique was abysmal, only seeming to rely on brute force, yet that alone with his natural instinct made him an overwhelming threat.
Flickering around him in a chaotic tempo, she allowed none of his strikes to touch her. She didn't even grant him the right to look at her face, staying in his blind spot. Dancing in a hurricane while wrapped in iron chains would have been safer.
Everything in their surroundings was being ripped apart. This destructive dance between the two was a thing of dangerous beauty.
Her blood felt hot.
She could see it every time the lightning flashed before the thunder roared, his body. Musculature like brutish art carved into tungsten metal, numerous scars from fangs, claws, blades, and bullets that had long since faded, impossibly mighty strength and near blinding speed. It was a body solely fit for combat.
And it was entirely unharmed. He was neither bleeding nor bruised. Exhaustion hadn't inflicted him in the slightest.
A single breath flooded from her lips before she drove her fist into his throat. It brought him a great deal of pain, as it did for her as well. Her bones screamed at her.
Grabbing him by the chin and neck, Yang slammed his body headfirst into the cement before kicking him in the sternum through a line of buildings.
With a breathless snarl and force that would topple a jötunn, the bleeding man cleaved his arm through the ground with the full range and force of his body. It was a level of raw power that couldn't be reached by humans.
The woman's arms snaked around his neck and pulled his head under her chest, crushing his throat with a guillotine choke.
He picked her weight up with his neck before trying to crash her into the ground. Her knee impacted his temple as her hands carved flesh from his throat. His blood splattered over the wet ground. The asphalt turned from blinding red to searing white as it was superheated by the blood and set ablaze.
Yang felt the same burning blood on her hands. Her face heated up as she took deep breaths. She could feel her heart beating against her chest as her own blood ran hot, hotter than the sun.
She staggered back and slumped against a cold wall on the verge of shattering. The pouring rain was drowning out her thoughts. Her bones were knitting themselves back together while her bruised flesh healed. In a moment, she would be healthy as she ever was. Her nails had partially torn off. They fixed themselves as well. She let out a long steamy breath as her body continued to heat up.
Her body felt slovenly. The white shirt she had slept in was drenched, clinging tight to her body. It was torn up and stained with blood.
The long golden hair she was deeply proud of gently swayed with the wind and was flattened by the rain.
Every few moments, her body would tremble with a feeling she could not put to words. For a single moment, her body seemed to nearly collapse.
'I feel hot…' Yang grasped her chest as her breath came out as ghostly fumes, a mingling of pleasure and pain.
She shook her head. It was already well past midnight. Her sister wasn't supposed to be out in the dark and cold. She was supposed to be sleeping in a warm bed. Tomorrow would be a relaxing day. Yang glanced through the falling droplets at the fallen man with a devil's smile.
Blood mixed with the rain. Yang turned to leave. Her bare feet became dirty as she stepped through murky puddles and streams.
"Haaaaaa…"
She glared over her shoulder with a cold passion. The ground broke beneath her toes.
"I'm feeling awake now." Black smoke left the closing wound on his throat. His heart furiously beat against his chest with the fury of a rampaging Red Oni. The ground crackled and melted beneath his feet. "Let's dance some more."
As if molten iron rods were shoved into her bones, an outburst of energy rushed through her blood cells. Her body accelerated like the projectile of a railgun. Her leg turned into an unforgiving sickle that would penetrate his lungs.
However, as life is, neither love nor battle always go as planned.
For the first time, their eyes met. Time seemed to stop.
Tempestuous violet eyes stared into a calamitous abyss. In that abyss, she saw something ignite, a hellish red glow.
A searing gale of fire erupted between them and blasted Yang away. The red, orange, and yellow flames set the night ablaze. They were unextinguishable and unquenchable. The buildings behind her turned to black before disappearing into nothing. It was something that would devour everything in its path.
Yang choked out her own saliva when she was blindsided by a kick trailing in front of blazing flames. It felt like a sledgehammer being driven between her ribcage and bending her spine. For a haunting moment, air refused to enter her lungs.
The man walked towards her, approaching her naturally. Every step he took, every time the sole of his foot touched the ground, the ground exploded behind him with stunning heat, sound, and light, leaving his body a silhouette.
Pushing the hair away from her eyes, Yang took a deep breath, letting the rain cool her skin and clear her thoughts. 'I felt his throat tearing in my hands… So how is he up again? What's more…'
He leaned his center of gravity forward. His fire drastically increased his speed and force. The speed of his blows would now surpass her's.
As Yang parried his crushing fist away from her chest, his palm opened and burst into flames, birthing a torrent of fire that engulfed her.
'Target is the eye…'
She lunged at him from the flames and clawed through his right eye, cutting two bloody lines from his face.
'-and the brain…'
She then grabbed the back of his head and ran her knee directly into his skull.
'A burning beast with ungodly strength or not… robbing him of his senses should work.'
His hand grabbed her face and pinned her to a wall. Her nails clawed at his arm, drawing drops of blood while the wounds on his face healed as if the injuries were a fading illusion. A muffled growl sent vibrations through his hand. The brute force that already surpassed her own grew without limit.
"Ghmph!" If she could bite his hand off, she already would've, even if she'd end up choking on some blood.
He rubbed his eye that should have been ripped apart and bleeding open. Wisps of flames trickled away from his skin as if he had just crawled out of hell. "Kinda nasty from ya, yeah? Not that I mind or anything. You started out a lot more graceful, though."
He drove her head across the war like a knife through clay and threw her to the ground.
She barely rolled away in time before his foot created a hole where her head was. Twisting the asphalt beneath, she swung herself back to her feet. She was greeted with four knuckles rushing to her face.
Yang let out a breath as she let herself fall back with gravity.
His uppercut created a pillar of flames that reached the storm above. It was so cold just a few minutes ago before it felt like a blazing summer.
With a single step, he rushed forward and delivered a straight punch that left her no choice but to raise her guard and be pushed back while gritting her teeth.
He rushed forward and punched again with his left.
Yang could feel the bones in her arms rattle and crack once more.
He rushed forward and punched again with his right.
He rushed forward and punched again with his left
He rushed forward and punched again with his right.
He rushed forward and punched again with his left.
Every attack was boosted by flames. His pursuit was unstoppable. His attacks were never ending. The battle once originally controlled by the woman's speed and technique was being conquered and turned into a battle of brute force where he was the tyrant.
Stomping on the ground, he pivoted his entire body to swing a deadly haymaker into her guard. The fire that covered his entire arm covered the entire street and melted it once again.
Her bones healed again as she watched the fist approach her. He was stronger than her, and his fists would not break. If she blocked, her bones would break apart. If she dodged, she would lose her footing. If she countered, her arm might shatter.
She gently took his wrist and twisted the flow of his power again to redirect his entire body away to a vaporizing canal. A rumbling matching that of earthquakes came to be.
All she had accomplished was slowing him down.
Inevitably, he rose from the ground. What he did next rattled her on a more fundamental level.
He mirrored her stance.
Yang fired her punches into his guard with sniper-like precision. Her hips pivoted and her leg rose behind her to drive a kick through him, but she failed to break through his guard.
Fire propelled his palm into her stomach. Barely was she able to dodge the palm to her chin, a strike that would have slammed her brain against the inside of her skull. After dodging an uppercut that would have done even worse, Yang pulled her fist back, the muscles in her arm tensed to the limit and burst forth all at once into his chest.
He was improving as he fought. He was like a nightmare that became even more frightening in response to whispers of courage.
"I'll be honest with you," He began to change his copied stance into something more compact, yet somehow even more brutal. Rather than a form that balanced offense and defense, it was looked more a stance focused on crushing anything in his range. "It's been so long since I've fought anyone strong, I've practically forgotten how to fight.
Let's have some fun."
Something intangible had finally broken. It was excruciatingly liberating.
All the fire raged, raged, and raged around him. His flames began to devour the world without stopping.
Pounding and pulsing, her heart was set ablaze like a collapsing sun.
'My blood is burning…'
Yang's eyes had changed into swirling storms of callous red. Fire that could scorch the sun flickered over her milky skin. Flames danced through her golden hair.
They acted without hesitation. "Forbidden" became a null concept.
A sound of flesh tearing mingled with the sound of bones breaking, slipping through the rain thunder.
The man didn't look down at his own chest. He could feel it anyways. A large, bleeding gash stretched across his torso.
The woman paid no heed to her broken arm. The pain was numb to the point of nonexistence. It instantly healed.
They healed spontaneously and continued their dance of flames.
When Yang was in that state, her body broke past its already fickle limitations. Strength, speed, durability, the innate properties of a fighter, all increased tenfold. The force of her strikes eclipsed even that. Her power only continued to grow.
Her punch struck him like lightning with unpredictable trajectory.
Raising his knee to his chest, he stopped it dead in its tracks before grabbing her collarbone and slamming her back into molten earth.
Yang gripped at his forearm and tore through his veins before locking his opposite arm and neck between her thighs to strangle his neck and break his arm. Of course, he struggled in return. Her body felt like the spine of a bow being pulled back just to the brink of snapping. The circulation of blood in her legs began to slow from the pressure.
Tearing out from her lock, the man arced his leg up to the sky before bringing down a cleaver that would carve valleys through the mountains. Even he could no longer reign in the fire he created. It struck true and stomped into the woman's abdomen with the sound of a muffled war drum. He followed up his execution like technique with a fist that tore through countless monsters and weapons.
She met it with her own. The resulting clash sent the raindrops shooting away like bullets. Yang felt her fist break, tear, heal, break again, heal, and repeat until it became stronger.
His arm was stained in his own blood along with her own, he stared at it as if were a prized painting at an art gallery. He started laughing, a quiet laugh that was almost pleasant for her to hear.
"I'm fired up."
"Biàntài." Yang mumbled a short curse towards him in return.
Stabbing the ball of her foot into the ground, Yang rapidly accelerated her momentum by spinning on a single point, blitzing her kicks into his temples. Upon each impact, she reversed the direction and struck him at the same point on the opposite side. When she lost count of how many times the top of her foot impacted his head, she propelled herself up and kicked him down, couldn't tell if it was her foot or his neck snapping.
Of course, it still wasn't enough.
He swiped out at her foot and swept her over while she was still in the air. His elbow drove into her ribs. It was only a few centimeters away from hitting her liver.
She clawed her hand through the ground to stop in place, pausing during an impromptu handstand. She brushed her mouth with the back of her hand, never taking her eyes off the man in front of her.
Refusing to back down, they attacked at point blank range. Any of the attacks could be considered killing blows in an orthodox world. None of them truly landed as their bodies became decorated with cuts, smoke, and steam.
Again, they danced as if they were oblivion and death.
Yang was reminded of something as she felt her heart thump against her chest. With both hands, she struck at his chest with all the force coursing through her body.
His feet tore through the melting ground like a plow through soil. He took a deep breath as if he was trying to eat the sky before he released a sea of flames.
The roar split the storm apart.
And yet, Yang Xiao Long was unharmed. "Thank you for getting rid of the rain." Her voice was sweeter than honey. The brightness and depth of the flames created a blind spot for her to move in
Her hand was on his chest… The distance between them had been voided before the rain stopped falling. She could feel the blood pulsing from his heart.
"I suppose you do have a heart. It beats slower than I thought. "
She stepped aside before his arm speared through the air where her chest was.
He had reacted too late. A line of red blood that killed the air it touched severed his eyes. Flames took their place.
This was the end.
Fire coalesced in the palm of his hand, a swirling vortex of endless heat and destruction. It took merely an instant, less time than a heartbeat. He could feel an unfamiliar pressure bearing down on his bones.
He had wandered through lands that freeze blood and seas that dissolve flesh. He had crushed swarms of creatures that ate through metal and strangled goliaths that could break down forests. Since he was a child, he had faced off with every mortal weapon from pocketknives to oxygen destroyers.
He had overcome everything in his path as an infant overcomes crawling.
And yet he had never felt such elation as he did now. His eyes would heal. His body had surpassed the point to where it would remain damaged in this realm of mortals. Death was the only concept that could possibly stop him anymore.
Would she be able to defeat him before his sight returned? This was her final chance. Otherwise, she'd be dragged into a bloody dance that would shatter her bones and rip her flesh.
"People live as they are, and then they die. I'm a dragon's son. I fight, therefore I am."
He shifted his weight precariously forward. All his weight centered at the tip of his toe. The man resembled a beast more than ever before. Fire that could burn the world ran along his arm and set the sky and earth behind him alight before leaving nothing but darkness. His muscles clenched and bulged as his blood furiously pumped through every vessel.
A single attack would decide everything.
For the first time, he would show his true self.
Yang took a deep breath before exhaling. A glowing red line crossed down from her right eye. Whom would be destroyed tonight?
The dragon's son left his shadow behind. He blazed forward on an unstoppable path.
The huntress decided to change that path, as if fate was something she could simply bend to her whim.
Yang met his ungodly strike with the palm of her hand and redirected the flow of power. Her body became like water as she let the force flow through it. She combined it with her own power. Time seemed to stop once more.
With inhuman precision, she sent the attack fully back into his heart.
The man with the devil's smile was gone. Everything was silent.
Yang collapsed onto the cold, wet ground. She greedily gulped down whatever air she could, even if it felt like spears of ice were stabbing her lungs.
She grit her teeth as her body spasmed with pain. It felt like her blood was tearing apart.
Lightning and thunder continued to fester above as the rain drenched the city. Yang could barely see through the rain and darkness. Her violet eyes blacked out from the strain.
It felt as if her body chained to the ground. The city was deathly quiet, save for her gasps for air as she forced herself to her knees.
In time, she was able to stand on her legs again, however shaky they may be.
'Time to go tuck Ruby into bed.'