Zhen Lei was already outmatched by a single opponent of the magnitude he faced, but he was against two. 

Honon’s fists were as powerful as any warhammer, but twice as fast. His armored punches shot through the air with an intense strength that would knock a lesser man off his feet from the wind pressure alone.

And the swordsman Xuefeng moved as though his greatsword were weightless, gracefully dancing around the battlefield. 

The two were a well honed team, whenever one had a gap, the other moved in. Lei struggled desperately against the pair, but his movements were already showing signs of slowing down in the face of such an intense offense.

Lei slashed at Xuefeng, who vanished, leaving only his afterimage once again. The swordsman took a swing at Lei from behind him, but the younger fighter managed to bring his sword behind his head just in time to deflect it.

Honon charged in at that opening, his fist flying towards Lei’s head. But Lei, using his size and flexibility to his advantage, brought his leg up against the fist, kicking off it into a massive leap. While in the air, he twisted around, slashing his sword down as he fell towards Honon’s back. 

In a burst of mist, Xuefeng moved through Honon like he were a ghost, his sword sparking as it caught against Lei’s. Lei pulled his sword back and then shot it forward in a skilled stab, but Xuefeng hopped to the side, easily avoiding it.

“Good, good! I would expect nothing left from the empire’s next generation of soldiers, in a few years you would surely be worthy of the title of master!” Xuefeng smiled, his dead eyes making it incredibly disturbing to look at.

“And I plan to live to see that day, so would you please die for me?” my friend taunted his opponent, even though he was clearly losing. “I still have to get at least six girlfriends before I think about dying on the battlefield!”

I was helpless to do anything, my injuries were one thing, but I was also unarmed, so I was forced to watch this desperate struggle from the sidelines… I hate to say this, but where the hell did Jin Chun get off to? He wasn’t that far ahead of us, but now he had completed vanished. 

With his strong Skills, this would be a much easier fight. He might even be on par with one of them on his own… though the man named Honon hasn’t even shown his Skill yet. For him to be paired with such a strong swordsman, there was no way he didn’t have one.

The fight continued, with Lei barely holding them off before the duo broke off again. Breathing quite heavily, Lei staggered back. I was sure he couldn’t last much longer, but after inhaling deeply, he started to look a lot better.

His chi was still flowing, relieving his body’s weaknesses just by existing within him. He could continue a while longer thanks to the training we had undergone for so many years, but even then… his opponents didn’t seem to tire at all.

It seemed impossible for him to win, every time he looked like he could strike Xuefeng, he disappeared with his Skill, and then Honon filled the gap with his powerful offense, leaving Lei with no time to spare. 

“You must think you’re really strong… having a strong Skill like you do.” Lei circled left around the pair. “But I’ve already figured out how to beat it.”

“Liar, you’re just stalling for time, hoping someone will come to your rescue.” Xuefeng scoffed at the mere thought that Lei could do anything to him, and I had to agree, as much as it pained me to say.

“Maybe so, why don’t you come find out.” Lei held his sword back, ready to lunge forward with it at a moment’s notice. He baited Xuefeng, trying to get him to attack first. “I’ve already seen through your Aura Mirage… S rank, active type…”

“I’ll show you the true meaning of unbeatable, boy!” Xuefeng dashed forward, his greatsword grinding against the stone at his feet as he ran. 

“It allows the user to disappear by turning themselves into water vapor for a split second… leaving behind an illusionary afterimage of themselves that vanishes when touched by anything else!” Lei stabbed forward, his blade passing straight through Xuefeng’s afterimage of mist, just as he said moments before. “... And the user then travels… with a maximum distance of one meter… in a straight line!” 

Lei’s boot heel dug into the ground, stopping his forward momentum and sending him the other way. He reversed himself on the spot, throwing his sword into an arc directly behind him. 

“And for three seconds after changing back from mist, you’re unable to use it again!”

Xuefeng’s blank, emotionless face took on a worried expression for the first time as Lei’s sword soared towards him. He had appeared from thin air, exactly as Lei predicted, directly behind him. Lei’s sword had the range to reach him, and the swordsman had no time to recover his defensive stance before he was struck down.

“Thunderous Breaker!” Honon’s voice boomed, and a massive wave of Chi released from his body. With one step, he closed the distance between himself and Lei. in the instant, the split second Xuefang would lose his life to Lei’s blade, the massive man’s hand appeared in front of the blade, stopping it dead against his palm.

Sparks of electricity shot off the dark skinned martial artist, and his muscles twitched unnaturally. Before Lei could react, the man slammed one of his legs into Lei’s side, kicking him away as easily as a child would a ball.

Lei coughed and staggered to his feet, a small amount of blood hitting the ground from his mouth. It wasn’t much, so unlike an internal injury, he likely just bit his tongue. His eyes for the first time showed me despair. 

He was scared before, but he kept going… Now, now he didn’t seem to think he had any chance at all, he looked completely helpless. 

Honon moved with insane speed for his size, his fists crashing into Lei before he could even raise his sword. I watched helplessly from the sidelines as my friend impacted the wall of a nearby building and then crumpled to the ground. 

He twitched a bit, but quickly gave up standing up. I think his confidence was shattered more than his body, but he was probably also hurt at least somewhat from that blow.

“S-Sorry, Zen, I guess I really don’t have what it takes...” his voice coughed out a weak apology.

“Did your Analyzer get enough information on our big guy?” I started the flow of chi in my body, ignoring the pain in my injured limbs, and walked over to my collapsed friend. I picked him up and set him down against the wall so he wasn’t lying face down in the dirt, and then kicked his sword into my hands with my left foot.

“Y-Yeah… S rank, hybrid boost and offense, he speeds himself up and enhances his weapons with the strength of lightning, or he can...” Lei coughed again, more blood spilling down his face. “Fire it, like a thunderbolt from the heavens, but if he does that… he can’t use the boost anymore.”

“All that from being hit once, huh?” I was impressed, his Skill’s speed of understanding was even faster than my mother’s legendary Record Skill. “Alright, you just sit tight there, I’ll take these clowns out now that you’ve tired them out.”

“What… are you saying?” he asked me, looking at my still mending arm. “There’s... no way you can beat them like that.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather die trying than just give up… I can’t lay down and die now… I just got a girlfriend.”

“Bastard… you were always… a step ahead of me.” 

“Oh, is the son of the invincible prodigy finally going to bare his fangs at us? How scary.” Xuefeng taunted me, but it felt empty compared to the dangerous malice the assassin Xie Jie held. 

I kept my breathing steady, circulating my chi as best as I could with my broken body. It wasn’t flowing as well as I would like, but if only for a second, I might be able to use Zero. I didn't think that would be enough, but it was my last chance. I had to wait for the right time to use it.

“I’ll show you the skill of the man who brought Xie Jie to his ruin, and then you can both join him!” I ran in, Lei’s sword in hand. It was shorter than I was used to, and only one handed… but it was still a sword. 

The blade skimmed through Xuefeng’s body, his Skill carrying him to safety as I had seen him do many times already. In the same exact second, Honon’s enhanced body crashed into me, and it took all of my power to not go careening into a wall. Xuefeng’s sword aimed for my throat, but I blocked it with my right arm’s splint, which had been reinforced with metal for some unknown reason.

It had all been a single instant, so Xuefeng should still be unable to shift back into mist. I threw my weight towards him, crashing my shoulder into his body and knocking us both to the ground. Honon leapt into the air, crashing towards me with incredible speed. I rolled out of the way and back to my feet, stabbing towards his exposed back. 

But a backhanded fist caught me in the hand, knocking Lei’s sword out of my grip and opening me up to a follow up attack. His fist hit me in the gut, a shock running through my entire body from his lightning ability. 

Xuefeng’s sword came rushing at me, but I was still stunned from the last hit and couldn’t move. This was the end, I didn’t even have the chance to wound one of them to satisfy my own pride. Dammit, I didn’t want to die here like this, I didn’t even know what was going on yet!

A crimson bolt flashed across my vision, knocking Xuefeng’s blade off course. It hit me in the left shoulder, but it was only a grazing cut, and I somehow managed to avoid lethal damage. I fell back on my ass, confused and dazed from what had happened. At my feet, a deep red crystal roughly in a knife shape stuck out of the ground… an unnatural object I recognized instantly… but that… wasn’t possible?

“What? Who’s there?” Xuefeng looked confused, backing up a step. He was blind after all, so perhaps we should have aimed for ranged attacks the whole time. 

“What do you punks think you’re doing to my prey?” a young girl’s voice growled at them, trying its best to sound intimidating, but I just heard a child trying too hard. 

Shambling out of an alley like a zombie, a young girl whose body was barely covered in rags approached. She was filthy, looking like she had dragged herself out of a puddle of mud and not even tried to clean off. A beggar girl from the outer slums of the city, for sure.

But that ability…

“Get out of here if you value your life, kid.” Xuefeng turned towards them, raising their wicked sword in the direction of the new arrival. 

“What does a child seek to gain from interfering with this fight, do you wish for death?” Honon asked, clenching his powerful fists. They had both completely forgotten about me for a moment, if I had acted faster, maybe I could have taken out one of them, but I just sat there watching.

“What’s the matter? I know you’re blind Xuefeng, but don’t you recognize your good friend Xie Jie?!” the child laughed maniacally, running their fingernails across their face, drawing several lines of blood under their right eye. 

“..!” 

Both myself, and the enemy I had been fighting, let out a voiceless gasp of shock at the declaration from the child. First of all, Xie Jie was dead, second, he was, as far as I could tell, male.

“Well, I guess I shouldn’t call myself that anymore… it’s so hard keeping track of all of your names after dying more than once, you know?” the crazed looking child took a staggering step forward, a curved blade of blood red crystal forming in their hand. “This body was named Bai Cai before she was left for dead in a water drain… and she was still kicking when I took it too, so her annoying voice is still rattling about in my ears...”

I think I had it figured out, I managed to put it together with the limited information I had. But knowing what had happened didn’t make it any less unsettling. 

“I won’t let you steal the prize from me, bastards! And I won’t die… until I’ve tasted Yi Zen’s blood!”

The resurrected Xie Jie cackled.

Rakushi

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