Tejoka

This one became longer than I thought, one of the longest chapters so far. And I probably don't need to warn you, but there is going to be violence and death.

It would have been epic, if I hadn’t been in the middle of it. Right now, I could only swallow nervously as I looked out over the battlefield. Instead of epic music, there was the creaking and snapping of equipment, raised voices, and the thud of boots on the ground. My qi senses strained to keep track of everything as cultivators unveiled their auras.

I closed my eyes for a moment, curling my senses towards myself and locking my knees. After a few deep breaths, it got easier to deal with. The stronger ones would be farther away from me, except for the guards, who kept their power on a leash.

“Are you absolutely sure about this, Your Highness?” Aston asked.

I continued walking forward. “Yes. I need to participate, at least.”

People hadn’t been happy when I’d said that during the planning, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t sit on the sidelines while the battle happened.

Of course, I wasn’t suicidal. As I stepped toward the back of the Imperial lines, I looked over the Imperial Guard and other soldiers forming up around me, a few of them from San Hashar’s group. I would be well protected.

Tenira stayed beside me, her presence a comforting anchor to my senses. She looked out over the field, frowning.

The army spread out around us. Instead of the crowded lines I might have expected from Earth, they left more space between each warrior, allowing them to fight to their fullest. At least the nobles’ forces seemed well integrated. They formed the flanks of the army and many of the groups in the air, taking their place in the battle formation with no issues.

“A lot of people are going to die,” I said.

Tenira glanced at me. “I know you ordered them to ‘take prisoners, but not at the cost of our soldiers’ lives or safety’. That means there aren’t going to be many, if any, prisoners. It’s hard to deal with cultivators, short of killing them. Why do you think our laws apply harsher penalties, and usually no prison-time, for stronger ones? It’ll be a hundred times worse in a battle.”

I nodded. I knew Imperial laws were that way, and could understand the reasoning. It would take a lot of resources to keep a high-stage cultivator imprisoned. But that didn’t mean I had to like it. Hopefully, we could at least take the lower-level raiders prisoner, especially the wounded ones.

The elites were the first ones to begin the battle. Colored lights lit up the sky as they clashed. Some of them fought on the ground, but most danced through the sky, trying to both hurt the enemy and keep the clash over their fighters, so the spillover wouldn’t affect their own people.

Probably one more reason we’d spread out like this. And I knew the elites would probably decide the course of the battle. But if we could take out the main army, that would free our mid-level fighters to help them and secure our victory.

A thunderous crack cut through the sky, making even the elites hesitate for an instant. Darkness spread out from a point far upwards, fading as it touched on the qi of the fighters.

Okay, the eighth-stagers will decide this, I corrected myself. But Kiyanu seemed stronger than the other one, probably in the middle of the eighth stage. He’s got this.

I needed to worry over the battle, not the clash of titans I couldn’t influence. So I rose in the air a little on my flying sword, taking stock. Our army had drawn up defensive positions and forced the nomads to come to them. While they’d hesitated a bit, it seemed they were now taking the initiative. They charged, and the front ranks were already clashing.

I took a deep breath and pulled my weapon from my spatial ring. I could have worn armor, but my current robes were almost as good. While I could wear heavy armor for hours, that didn’t mean I wanted to, or that it wouldn’t sap my strength. And even though I’d lost my most potent defensive talisman, I wore most of the rest. The unfamiliar weight of three rings and two necklaces attested to that. I’ll be fine. Focus on the enemy.

I raised my spear, the enchanted head with black and silver lines etched into it gleaming. The black deepened as I fed qi into it. A moment later, I finished, channeling the attack technique through the weapon and letting it fly to crash into the enemy ranks. It hit the shield of a nomad, and the darkness expanded as Void’s Nibble ate into it. The next moment, an attack from an Imperial combatant downed the man. A bit of the dark mass splattered off, latching onto the weapon of a passing raider.

I channeled the next attack, putting more power into it. This time, I aimed for an elite in the air who was occupied fighting an Imperial. But the raider dodged at the last second, and my technique disappeared into the sky. I cursed and readied my next attack.

While I fought, I tried to keep an eye on the battle around me. It wasn’t easy, with the chaos of so many fights and the qi thrown around. There was no way they’d let me fight in melee combat, but even here I barely had a sense of the larger picture.

No runner or message came to tell my any important news. I hoped that was a good sign.

The soldiers in front of my group advanced slowly, so I stepped forward as well. At first, it was only a meter every few attacks, but soon, we started marching forward at a steady pace. The nomads were getting pushed back.

I glanced around, trying to ignore the chaos in my qi senses and to see the rest of the battlefield. It looked like our center advanced more than the rest. The sides had spread out so far there were people fighting practically at the horizon. But we still had an edge in numbers there, so it should be okay.

I focused on the fight again, wincing as a huge fireball sailed in my direction. One of my guards intercepted it with a wall of water. Steam shot into the sky, obscuring my sight for a moment. A scream cut through the din of battle, and once it lightened, I saw the corpse of a nomad fighter who’d been caught in the technique.

It wasn’t the first death scream I’d heard today, but I tried not to think about that. I gathered enough qi for a new attack, launching a lance of light at another nomad. She caught it on her shield, then my line of sight was interrupted as someone crashed a huge boulder into the battlefield.

I changed tactics, cycling more light qi and focusing on a new technique. I spread my qi out over the people in front of me, coating the soldiers in a thin layer of light. I could sense Light’s Speed buffing them, even if the effect didn’t amount to much since they were mostly stronger cultivators than me.

I picked up my pace, advancing further. The number of the nomads facing us seemed to lighten, and I intended to press the advantage. The guards and soldiers around me echoed my movement. A quick glance assured me that the rest of the lines, or what had been lines, didn’t lag far behind. Further off, the fight seemed to have devolved into duels and group battles rather than a field battle, with Imperials and nomads mixing on the plain.

Suddenly, a roar of thunder shook the sky again. Darkness descended for a moment, so deep even I couldn’t see through it. I covered my ears and cowered. A pressure wave of qi washed down on us, forcing me to sprawl down and blanking my senses.

When I raised my head, I saw chaos. The phenomenon, probably an aftereffect of an eighth stager’s attack, had sent people flying and halted the battle temporarily. I picked myself up and staggered forward. The guards around me had managed to keep their formation pretty well. Aston rose from his knees and kept close to me.

A number of soldiers hadn’t been so lucky. I tried to assess the damage during this short lull, looking at the dead and wounded scattered not too far from here. I’d almost decided to retreat, when a familiar qi signature caught my attention. Hesitating for a moment, I walked forward and knelt down next to the soldier.

He wore a standard uniform and had advanced to the late part of the third stage, but I recognized his face from the sect. Lorn Rhis. His eyes were open. When he saw me, he tried to speak, but was interrupted by a cough.

I glanced at the guards around me, some of them only staggering to me now. Then I focused on my qi senses, breathing deeply to center myself. Tracing the life around me, I pulled nature-affinity qi to me. It scraped against my core and channels, but I pushed it out and into Lorn, forming a technique I’d practiced a few times at the palace.

He had internal injuries, that I could sense now. I pushed healing energy into him, giving his body the power to combat them and weaving the qi into the damaged tissue to heal it. I couldn’t keep it up for more than a few moments, the qi dissipated after that, but he looked a lot better.

I stood up and checked him over, but didn’t find any major problems now.

He raised himself up, eyes wide. “Your Highness…”

At that moment, another wave of qi crashed down from the sky. This time, it wasn’t as overwhelming, but the earth trembled. I staggered, almost falling down. A few of the guards around me did the same.

I sensed Lorn moving, but a surge of qi distracted me. Before I could react to the attack, he tackled me.

I thudded to the ground. I only had a moment to wonder before I watched a fireball burning with qi get caught on an earthen shield Aston raised.

I shook my head and got up, looking at Lorn. My guards would have caught that attack, hopefully, or at the very least my defensive enchantments. But I couldn’t fault his reaction.

“Looks like being a soldier suits you, Lorn,” I said. “I’ll make sure you get a commendation when this is over. Now, you should probably get back to your unit, and I’ll retreat a little.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” He smiled, the expression almost hidden by the dirt on his face, and bowed deeply.

I headed back in the direction we came from, only sparing a glance to see Lorn hurrying to a group of soldiers that must have been scattered by the blast. The guards drew tighter around me, and Aston barely gave me any personal space on his side.

Once we’d reached the back of what I could generously call the Imperial formation, I stopped and tried to get a better view of the battlefield. The two blasts had impacted the middle of it more than the sides, and scattered the lines even further. But all in all, it didn’t seem like much had changed.

I focused and started fighting again. From time to time, I’d take a shot, but I mostly concentrated on buffing the soldiers. That would probably help more for the large picture, and I needed to conserve my qi a little.

I lost track of time, as the roar of the battle and the many types of qi pressing in on me strained my senses, narrowing my focus to the fight. Occasionally, I’d glance around, but it was hard to see how the rest of the battle progressed. Only the steadily shrinking number of nomad fighters to defeat and the advancing Imperial fighters let me know we were winning.

Finally, my concentration was shattered by the arrival of a messenger. He touched down behind a ring of guards and bowed deeply. “Your Highness, General Wei reports the battle is coming to a close. The nomads have broken, and the commanders are now focusing on trying to hunt down as many of them as possible.”

I exhaled, feeling as if hours of stress started to leave me. “Great. Tell him I’ll see him soon.”

Then I turned back to look over the battlefield. My guards had relaxed a bit at the news, and didn’t crowd me as closely. Now that I’d heard it, I noticed how much emptier the field had become, most of the people still on it only because they were unable to leave.

I started walking, curious about the knots of still standing soldiers. From some of them, I could clearly feel qi in use, indicating the fighting wasn’t finished.

After half a minute, Aston cleared his throat. “My lady, they’re calling for you. Over there.”

I followed where he was pointing and sped up. As I came closer and the haze of the battle started to lift, I could make out a large number of soldiers forming a ring around a group of people. They parted to let us through. After a moment, I recognized San Hashar and a few elites standing over a few nomads. They seemed unharmed, but I could barely detect a flicker of qi from them.

San Hashar bowed as she saw me. Two of her elites grabbed one of the nomads and pulled him away from the others.

“That seems to be the leader of the foot soldiers, Your Highness,” San Hashar said.

I nodded. “Have you tried to interrogate him?”

She grimaced. “He was not being cooperative. If you’d let me use some forceful interrogation …”

“No,” I said. “No torture, or anything like that.” I still had my standards, and I wouldn’t allow that. Well, if it was absolutely necessary, maybe, but not like this.

“Well, then …” San Hashar glanced at the spectators, then nodded at her soldiers. They unhanded him.

The spectators started muttering. I didn’t like their expressions. This looked like it was going to be a tradition, or some symbolic thing. Clearly, they wanted me to kill him.

Well. Realistically, he’s going to die either way, I realized. Even if I wanted to, what else could I do? Try to keep him captive for centuries? Let him go back to the Yellow Graves only to return with the next raid?

I grabbed my spear more tightly and looked at the man. He’d probably reached the seventh stage, although it was difficult to tell with how drained of qi he was. His clothes were more elaborate than those of the other nomads, with pearls and crystals stitched into them, but they showed several bloody spots. He had long, gray-streaked hair and a weather-beaten face set in a determined scowl.

“Are you going to kill me now?” he asked. His Common was accented, but pretty good.

I took a step closer and considered for a moment. “I’ll give you a fight if you answer one question. Why did you invade us? It’s obvious this was more than a usual raid. Whoever started this probably expected you to fail.”

He considered this for a moment. The Zarieni nomads were a warrior culture. I knew that he would want to die on his feet, with a weapon in hand.

“The Zarian,” he answered after a moment, grimacing. “They sent a delegation a few days before. Our Lord and the shaman met with them.”

Pretty much what I’d expected. And I knew the Zarieni nomads didn’t hold much love for the Zarian Dominion, so I wasn’t surprised he ratted them out. “The shaman?” I asked.

His eyes moved upward for an instant, then back down quickly. He didn’t say anything, but that was enough. That must be the eighth-stager.

San Hashar and the soldiers stepped back farther, giving us room. I didn’t expect the guards to stand by and let him kill me if it came to that, and from the looks he gave them, the nomad didn’t, either. But he didn’t hesitate for long. Before I could settle into a fighting stance, he charged me.

Light qi still covered me, increasing my speed. I stepped aside, twirling my spear and stabbing forward. He ducked aside just in time. I knew that even drained of qi, his body had been enhanced with it through many breakthroughs, making him stronger than me and just as quick.

But I hadn’t given his weapon back, which meant I had the advantage. I used the spear to keep the distance open, probing his reactions with light attacks.

He jumped forward again. I sidestepped and gave a real thrust, piercing his shoulder and throwing him to the ground.

Standing over him, my spear still pinning him to the ground, I shook my head. “I suppose that was our fight. Now, I have another question. The last one, I promise. If you don’t answer, I’ll let my guards try to pry the answer out of you.” A bluff, but he wouldn’t know that. “Otherwise, I’ll let you die on your feet.”

He licked his lips, then glanced at the soldiers, probably weighing my publicly given promise.

“When you tried to kill me, how did you know where I was?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He winced as I put more pressure on the spear. “But the shaman sent some of his people on a raid without telling us what he was doing.”

I sighed. That didn’t sound like I would have much luck with questioning anyone else. But I carefully pulled the spear out of the nomad and took a step back.

He rose, swaying on his feet. The wound still bled freely, and he looked paler than before. But he didn’t let that stop him. He raised his hands and moved forward again, determination in his eyes.

I didn’t draw it out this time. I thrust my spear into his throat, then yanked hard. I let his body fall, but turned away without looking, dismissing my weapon into storage.

The surrounding soldiers cheered, but I couldn’t muster the energy to respond. Instead, I started trudging away, only giving San Hashar a short nod. Aston and the rest of the guards followed me in silence.

We’d only made it a few meters before I noticed a presence approaching so quickly I didn’t see more than a blur. I blinked, then realized Kiyanu stood a few meters away.

“I take it your fight went well?” I said.

He nodded. “I took that from his corpse before I threw it into the ocean.” He held up a device in the shape of a bird shining with qi. “A communication talisman with a trail leading south, to the Zarian Dominion. I overheard what your opponent said, but this is probably where the trail ends.”

I sighed. “It looks like it. Still, I’m very grateful for your intervention, Lord Kiyanu.”

“Don’t mention it.” He glanced over the battlefield. “You have this well in hand, so I’ll return to the palace. My lady.”

He bowed, and before I could respond, he seemed to vanish again. I only got an impression of his presence moving north.

I sighed and shook my head, then resumed walking towards the commanders. We’d just won the war, but the work wasn’t over.