“So, who gets what?” Ku Lo asked the inevitable question while staring at the bloody corpse. 

“You, everything, if you agree to help me.”

Looking up, he found Za Huan leaning onto a new sword. It was fitted with nine turquoise gemstones and made from a bright, silvery metal, much unlike the mundane bronze weapon that she had used before. “Despite how poor I might look, the debts we owe can’t be repaid with a single mediocre mine. Either one of us offers something of equal value, or we fight it out.”

She tensed when he finished his sentence, but calmed herself down with a sigh. “Whatever you kill is yours, all I want is someone having my back against the frenzied wolves.”

“ … Alright.”

He stretched out his hand to stow away the rock grizzly, but found himself unable to. The storage ring’s capacity was insufficient.

I just need the cores anyway and this will probably be the best time in the near future. The deer warped out of the small metal band around his finger and dropped down next to the bear.

He took his sword and began awkwardly cutting at its stomach.

The flesh was tough and with the bones and viscerals in the way, it took him a good while to reach the fist-sized, light blue gem growing from its heart.

Breaking off the antlers turned out to be a lot less difficult, as they were harder than the bone they were growing from and could be leveraged.

Ku Lo stood up, his hands and forearms now completely covered in red, and turned towards the rock grizzly.

But before he could start working on it, Za Huan grabbed him by the shoulder. Signaling him to stay back, she readied her sword. One of the socketed gems flared up as an ethereal hue spread on the blade.

With a single, fluid motion, she brought it down on the corpse. The swing sent off a narrow wave of energy that cut the giant bear clean in two.

As the sword came to a rest, Ku Lo noticed the flaring gem to have dimmed, its surface scattered with cracks and discolored to a mundane grey.

She plunged her arm into the gap without hesitation and pulled out an almost head-sized, brown jewel. But unlike the deer’s, which had been perfectly round, this one was distorted. Her hand held it for him to take. “It was about to ascend, no wonder it got me.”

“Why didn’t you use-” he pointed at her weapon “that to beat it?”

“Because the strikes are numbered.”

“Then why waste one on the corpse?”

“To show my sincerity.”

Choosing to ignore her backward logic, he grabbed the core and stowed it away. “So where are the wolves you want to hunt?”

“Follow me.”

… 

She led him further up the valley, to a point where its end, another steep rock wall could be made out. A single trail of paws ran through the snow at their feet.

Following it, they reached a burst rock formation, where others joined in. The cliff grew towards the sky right behind the boulders, but no living being could be made out.

Za Huan next to him readied her ornate blade, so he did the same as they approached their target. 

When there was less than a few paces separating them, the valley echoed with howls. Wolves appeared between the rocks and from the forest, their eyes gleaming maliciously.

The first immediately threw themselves at him and he could see his ally be faced with the same onslaught.

Kicking an attacker’s snout with full force, he watched it fall to the side, only to struggle for balance when the next charged. A vertical sword strike missed entirely, but forced it back. 

He could see five in total, none of which were the cause of the marrow-quenching howls. 

Qi gathered in his hand, but a vicious bite at his leg forced him to disperse the technique and dodge back.

“Haaa!” Following her scream, her blade crashed onto the ground. Two wolves were thrown over by the blast, one of which she immediately crushed with a dragged strike. Another gem had gone dark.

The other scrambled to its feet, but before getting the chance to retreat, Ku Lo jumped at it.

From up close, he saw the convulsing muscles writhing beneath its ragged fur. The senseless red pupils, the bared teeth, lusting to dig into flesh.

His knee struck the beast’s head, forcing it down before stabbing at the neck. 

Blood spurted out of the slit throat, melting the already trampled snow as it fell.

He spun to face the remaining three. 

Witnessing the death of their companions, they showed aversion for the first time. They slightly cowered, backing off. 

One was even about to turn when a threatening howl sounded from behind the rocks. 

Any fear they displayed vanished on the spot. In complete disregard for its own life, the closest charged into Za Huan’s blade, getting sliced open along its body.

The lifeless beast dropped behind her, but more emerged. 

Ku Lo readied himself to face them, but she called out while brandishing her sword. “You kill the howler, I’ll handle those.”

He ran towards the boulders and jumped up. 

Hidden behind it was a small basin containing three wolves. The furthest had its snout raised at the sky, marking it as the source of those deeply disturbing sounds.

Only after jumping down did Ku Lo realize his mistake. The first hauled itself towards him and tried to bite his sword hand while the other went for his neck.

Despite managing to back off, his sleeve was torn and a slight pain flared up in his wrist.

In retaliation, he cut into the second attacker’s front leg, but it showed little response and prepared another charge disregarding the limp.

Their assaults were too frequent to make use of the Yin Paw, so he was left with no other option besides giving them superficial wounds.

Until the injured one tripped on a rock. Sprawled at his feet, it couldn’t offer resistance to him piercing its eye.

The other rushed to avenge its fallen comrade. 

Faced with its frantic assault, Ku Lo resorted to kicking again. Smiting his heel down at the soft snout, he got enough time to pin it down and stab into the muscular neck.

But as he did, a roar hit his head like a hammer. His ears rang as he turned to the third wolf.

He was dizzy for some reason, but the howler didn’t seem to be a willing fighter, as it backed off towards a pile of rocks.

A small needle of Yin Qi formed in Ku Lo’s hand, penetrating its skull easily.

Approaching to finish it off, he noticed a large hole in the rockface, formerly hidden by other boulders.

His sword thrust down and the wolf's eyes dulled, its body twitching from instinctive struggle.

When he stepped back out onto the clearing, Ya Huan was pulling her sword out of a slain wolf. Two were escaping from her, the others had become corpses in varying states of shredding. 

Ku Lo walked up to the single most intact body and began dissecting it. Soon, he held a small, red gem in his hand. Of course this was partially due to the blood still stuck on it, but even after cleaning it, a red mist vigorously spun inside the translucent crystal. “This is where our deal ends, I take it?”

“No, I didn’t come for this small fry.” In her usual manner, she cleaved down at the corpses to split them open, albeit without the strengthening applied. He noticed that only three of the gems remained vibrant. “There is something stronger here.”

“There is a cave hidden in the rocks.”

Za Huan got up at his remark and approached the ring of boulders, ignoring the remaining corpses.

They were her kills, so he left them alone, but the three inside he wanted to loot.

She turned around with a dissatisfied expression. “Do you really wish to waste your time on this garbage?”

“Only one of us can have the core of the one inside.” Kneeling down next to the howler, he placed his sword at its belly.

Yet before he could begin, Za Huan’s greatsword passed inches from his face and split the corpse open. The remaining two were subjected to the same procedure.

She stepped into the gaping cave and began fading into the darkness. Storing the cores, Ku Lo approached the entrance.

“Halt!” A voice reached him from behind.

… 

“Young master, a slain rock grizzly!” The man wearing a robe decorated with an image of the beast before him straightened his back and turned to face the three people following at a few dozen paces’ distance.

They all shared the coat of arms, taking a spearhead formation as they approached. The middle one, armed with a short sword, answered. “Please tell me you have reason to believe it was someone other than her.”

“This one can’t tell. The killing strike was not dealt by the Za young miss’ blade, but the way the core got extracted is very much like her.”

The four gathered around the two corpses and the man the vanguard had called ‘young master’ spoke again. “Yeah, no one but that lunatic would cut a rock grizzly in half just to get its insides. And if she’s been here, the frenzied wolf pack ahead will be hers before we get there, so we should focus on finding Zhi and Yimu.”

“However, young master, not even the elders of our Ingen clan can take them on alone. She will have to flee, nothing is lost yet.” a woman cut in from the side.

“I have very painfully come to the realization that underestimating her in any respect is a grave mistake. And even if she were on the run, meeting her would be the worst that could happen.”

The vanguard gave his opinion again. “But young master, we have forgotten about the frostgleam deer. Young miss Za is far too skilled for the way it was handled. Young master, this is your best chance at proving your worth before the family head.”

“Ugh… You’re right. Lead the way.”