6 - The Mighty Ten Rings

Ming Dynasty China, 1640

"You are in my lands, but technically this is the land of the Ming Dynasty... 1640..."

1640.

Of all the things she may have possibly been expecting to hear, that was not it.

1640?

No, no. No he must be pulling a trick on her, amusing himself at her expense.

"B-but, that's - impossible..."

"Listen, Phoenix Girl. I don't know who you are and where you come from, but clearly I am in the know here."

"B-but-" 1640... 1640?

1640?!

The doors suddenly burst open then - startling her, but not as much so if she hadn't been so shocked by what she had just been told. A soldier hurried inside, addressing the leader just as quickly as he was moving.

The leader was suddenly on his feet and shouting what sounded like orders in Mandarin and swept out of the room.

"Hey - wait!" He couldn't just drop a bomb like 'hey, by the way, we're actually in the year 1640' and then just run away! How could he? How dare he!

But he just stalked away, robes flowing behind him with each step. He didn't appear concerned, just irritated. His voice echoed off the walls even long after he had disappeared. He was still shouting out orders by the sounds of it.

"Hey!" But her own response fell on empty halls and only echoed back to her, unheard. Suddenly, they weren't so interested in her. So she followed, curious, but moving in a daze due to the sudden shock.

She had to run to catch up, but luckily the quickly amassing band of soldiers was easy enough to follow.

They were exiting the compound at rapid speed, and the walls were too high for her to see over. What was happening? She hurried over to a nearby tower, free to roam now that all the soldiers were gone, and stared out at the scene rapidly forming before her in the valley below.

Her jaw dropped as her eyes met the massive form of an army stationed outside the compound gates.

She watched from her perch on the tower as the figure of the leader approached the army, no weapons, just him, his own soldiers standing behind him.

Then it began, so suddenly she jumped-

A flash of bright blue, followed by a shaking blast! reminiscent of thunder and lighting on a massive scale. The entire fortress - the entire ground - seemed to shake with the rumble.

But how was this happening? How was he doing this? And all by himself?

The leader was swinging his arms around, flashes of gold and blue around him. What sort of weapon was he using, could he possibly be using? Not any sort of traditional one, clearly, or any that she knew of at least.

Then, suddenly, she understood:

The rings, the gold bands adorning his wrists. Whatever was happening down there was being caused by the golden bands around his wrists.

How and why she did not know, but he was absolutely destroying this army, and all singlehandedly, his soldiers barely having to do a thing. He was using the gold bands as a weapon, and somehow they were releasing strikes of blue energy all around him. The whole battlefield was engulfed in it!

And pretty soon - mind-blowingly so - the battlefield was covered in the bodies of the fallen soldiers. But even that wasn't the most shocking thing she had witnessed today.

The realization suddenly came crashing down on her once again:

1640.

1640?

Yeah, 1640...

It felt as though the walls of the fortress surrounding her were quickly closing in, crushing her under the pressure of her newest discovery.

She jumped when two soldiers arrived up the stairs, not having even realized they had come back into the compound. They dragged her down from the tower and over to face their leader once more.

He radiated power, both literally and figuratively.

She stared at him. "W-who are you? W-what are you?"

But he said nothing. Just smirked and gestured to his guards who immediately tightened their grip on her arms and dragged her back to her holding cell. And this time, she didn't even fight back, didn't even resist. She was too numb to do that, to do anything really. Too numb to barely even think. Everything was happening in a wild blur, causing her head to spin and making her feel queasy.

She was in the past. Like, way, way, WAY in the past.

But how the hell had this happened?

And that was just it - it still boiled down to the most terrifying thing:

She had no idea what was going on.

Sorry it's been so long, this chapter took me way longer than I'd hoped, I was just feeling really stuck with writing it, not sure why. But here we are, finally!

Thank you so much for your patience! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed and that the chapter was worth the wait! :)