Jingyi Bo prepared tea in the morning following their epic battle. The previous night had found them a nice clearing to set up in, Bo using her ability to flatten the ground while Chao used his cleaning wind to brush away any obstructions. It made for a fine spot to sit, drink tea, and talk about the day to come.

“We should probably avoid getting into fights recklessly.” Bo was the first to break the silence. “Yesterday, we entirely underestimated our foe and nearly paid dearly for it.”

Tatsumaki nodded his head solemnly. “Indeed. Finding robes in my size again will be quite difficult.”

“What we need to do is come up with a plan of attack!” Everyone nodded and murmured their agreement - Bo was just trying to think of what Izumi would say, were she here.

“Well, what d’ya reckon we should do, if’n we’re gettin’ in more fights?” Hizashi handed out small rice-cakes to the party.

“Hm … well, my technique isn’t the fastest, or particularly strong. Chao’s is … also not particularly strong. Not to mention, Wang’s technique is limited in what it can copy.”

“I’m aware of my shortcomings, and I embrace ‘em wholeheartedly.”

“As do I.” Both Wang and Chao nodded sagely.

“The cousins can do their body-hardening technique, but it’s slow to wind up and slows them down when they use it, making it only really useful for defense. At the very least, it means that they’ve got a perfect place up the front of our formation.”

“Wow, the front of the formation! Cousin, isn’t that exciting?”

“Since when did we have a formation?”

“Since right now! Hizashi, your ability is … really cool! But your light doesn’t yet do anything except blind your opponent. Which is really good!”

Hizashi beamed a bright smile and nodded. “Once I make my breakthrough, I’ll be able ta do all sortsa neat stuff with it. Fer now, I can only really let the light outta me.”

“Next is … Tatsumaki. You’ve got a really strong offense, but your moves are kind of big and predictable. Do you have to shout whenever you’re going to attack?”

“It is the honourable thing to do! I’ll never go back on my promise to announce my attacks … not after the tournament.” Tatsumaki made an extremely anguished expression and held his hand to his heart. The mood sombered momentarily, but the way he held the pose gave everyone the impression he was simply waiting to be asked about what happened.

“Okay, so our offense is predictable and slow, our defense is similarly sluggish and those of us with spiritual techniques kind of just suck. Well, except for Youni. That thing you did the other day was really impressive, actually!”

“Hehe.”

With all that information out in the open, Jingyi Bo grabbed a pile of leaves to transform into a sheet of paper. The group spent the next hour talking over battle strategies, good ways to use their abilities together, suggestions for one another’s skills … but it was no use. No matter what way you looked at it, they were hopeless in a fight.

“Argh! How did we ever get anything done without Izumi?!”

--

“Achoo!”

“IZUMI! FOCUS ON THE FIGHT!”

“Yes, Lady Hayakawa!”

--

One good thing had come from their strategizing. With the open-ended nature of Bo’s spiritual technique, the meeting had petered out into suggestions for using the Endless Steps. Unfortunately, nearly all of them involved Bo suddenly getting really good at an entirely different skill. They were still worth a try - and given the efficiency of the technique, it was no problem to attempt the easier ideas while continuing their walk.

The first and possibly most straightforward of the ideas, suggested by Hizashi, was to turn an object into a weapon by changing its shape and material. It was also the most complicated - a lot of common materials, such as wood, water or air, had a complicated or risky path to reach metal. Wood would have to pass through Gravity, which Bo didn’t understand properly, or flip-flop from Yang while it lost its Water to become Stone, then regain Yang as it gained Fire to become Metal. Air and Water could become Ice, but a weapon made of ice was typically single-use. That being said, thrown shards of ice could be quite useful.

“I feel like there’s gotta be a better way to do this,” Bo complained, throwing a sharp chunk of ice at a nearby tree, “but I’m fresh outta ideas. Ah well, next idea …”

Chao had suggested using the Steps of Transformation directly on a foe. This was, as far as winning a fight went, probably a good idea. However, it was something that made Bo feel a little queasy - the Endless Steps affected a permanent, intrinsic change that would make healing injuries difficult, and anything that was serious enough for a life-or-death battle wasn’t going to sit still long enough for her to wrap them in her awareness. Most cultivators had some defense against qi-based attacks, and the Endless Steps was no exception to that.

“What about that thing with formations you were practicing?” Hoshikawa had taken to theorycrafting quite well, enjoying the difficult problem. Bo wondered quietly if he wouldn’t take to the technique quite well himself.

“I can make formations, but not really any faster than I could just draw them. Not to mention, I don’t really have any good formations to use with it. I could attempt to copy some formations I’ve seen before, but it’s not really useful in a battle. The best I could probably do is … something like this.” Bo reached into a fold of her robe and pulled out several blank talismans - the crudely-transformed ones made of leaves that she kept for practice. With a bit of concentration, she transformed a thin surface layer of paper into mud, making the symbols involved in a basic defense talisman … or near enough to. “I can either make them quickly, or I can make them work. That’s something I need practice on. But if I could make working talismans with any reasonable haste, I could make any talisman I needed whenever I needed it.”

“That sounds extremely useful! But even I can tell this talisman is nowhere near correct.”

Under Junpei’s critical eye, Bo and her mud-paint leaf talisman couldn’t help but wilt.

---

The rest of the day passed without much incident.

“What if you, like, turned the air into lightning? Just, like, hyah!”

“Chao, we already tried that three hours ago. Look.” Bo held out her hand, and miniscule sparks of lightning crackled ever-so-briefly into existence just above it. “It’s not exactly a duel-winning lightning bolt.”

“Speaking of surprise bolts of lightning, I wonder how the mission on the mountain is going?” Everyone turned to Hoshikawa, who shrugged. “What? Yan Zhihao and Lee Jia are on that mountain. I hope their enmity doesn’t cause further issues.”

Everyone turned their eyes up towards the mountain, suddenly feeling a little worried. What was this ominous feeling of dread? The wind seemed to die momentarily, the creatures of the forest falling silent - something unbelievably world-changing was about to occur. The group decided it was best not to dwell on the odd certainty that something was, in fact, about to go horribly wrong up there.

“So! Erm, how’s about we go an’ find some more beasts t’practice on? Or maybe some place that’s good fer meditatin’?” Kokoro’s smile beamed through the unpleasant feeling, and the lot of them resolved to do exactly that. Turning their efforts towards finding interesting places, they found a plethora of odd occurrences.

The party attempted at first to split up slightly - covering a bit more ground, they would be able to cast a wider net as they wandered through the forest. However, everyone kept finding themselves running into trouble. Chao tripped over a well-hidden tree root, Tatsumaki slipped into a hole in the ground, Wang was attacked by a mundane squirrel … these unfortunate occurrences were unusually frequent, and seemed to only affect those out of sight of Jingyi Bo.

On the other hand, Bo frequently found interesting things. A beautifully coloured bird with an incredibly soothing song, a pool of elementally charged water that invigorated everyone who drank from it, even a bush that grew qi-filled berries. For reasons unknown, Bo seemed to have amazing luck when no one was nearby, while everyone had awful luck when placed at a short remove from her.

“Is this a technique of yours?!” Amai returned to the rest of the group nursing a lump on his forehead - a branch had suddenly whipped him in the head. Bo bowed deeply in apology.

“I-It’s not. I, um. Seem to have a weird effect on people’s luck … But you’re doing much better than everyone else I’ve spent time with! The last group were all-- … uh …  ” Staring meekly around, everyone seemed a little worried. “Um. Well, nothing bad happens if you stay nearby, usually!”

As if to prove her wrong, something emerged from the bushes behind her. The group stared in surprise - Jingyi Bo could barely bring herself to turn around, slowly turning her head. A massive, black-and-white creature loomed over her, its massive claws outstretched and its face twisted into a horrid snarl. 

“P-P-P-Pan--”

“That’s right! I, Pan Da-Han, have worked tirelessly to track you and your wretched band down!” The half-spirit mage crossed his arms and scowled down at Jingyi Bo. His robes were covered in scratches, cuts, and mud stains.

“Panda man!” Amai pointed at him in surprise. “Why is a panda man here?!”

“Sir, I have no quarrel with you - only with these four! This diminutive fool assaulted me, and stole my entry token to the Academy! Later, when I tried to regain my honour--”

“Okay, okay.” Bo waved her hand. “No one asked for your whole backstory. Are you here for a rematch? I can’t help but notice that you’re rather outnumbered.”

As he had been talking, the rest of the group had spread out to take up better positions. Sure enough, it was Jingyi Bo’s expanded friendship circle opposing a singular mage. Mages were already at a distinct advantage against martial artists, and every single one of them was just such a thing. Bo inspected him with her mana sense and realised why he had so confidently strode out - he was far from alone.

Thin tendrils of mana extended out from him to various points amongst the trees. Bo traced one with her eyes and nearly shrieked in surprise. Above them were several sets of beady, evil eyes - the branches were filled with monkeys. They were all beasts, though weak ones, their claws and fur dripping with water. Despite their unusual elemental affinity, they also all sported one distinctly unnatural feature - pasted firmly to the chest of each and every one of them was a talisman, softly glowing.

Jingyi Bo raised a finger to point them out, Pan Da-Han smugly revelling in her fearful expression.

“H-He’s controlling them with some kind of talisman. There’s so many … !”

“That’s right! Ever since our last encounter, I’ve worked tirelessly to discover a means by which I could ensure your total destruction! It was an act of genius on my part, discovering a means by which I could sway the thoughts of beasts. I bided my time, awaiting a chance to have you somewhere alone … I couldn’t have asked for a better chance, with you lot simply traipsing off into the woods!” 

Pan Da-Han seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, but Bo’s mind was whirling with possibilities for escape. The monkeys filled the trees above them, surrounding them on all sides. The area was densely packed with branches for them to climb on, so simply running for it wouldn’t be an option. Fighting them head-on wasn’t going to work either - they had more than proven their weaknesses in battle by this point. Not to mention, Pan Da-Han was still a mage, so any plan to combat the monkeys would need to deal with him, and vice-versa.

“What do you want from me, Panda-- Senior Pan?” Bo had an idea, but she needed the mage to keep his gloating up. She needed him to think that his victory was entirely assured, so that he wouldn’t attempt to do anything clever - like simply attacking them outright.

“What I want from you, Jingyi Bo, is to see you grovel at my feet! Do you know how long it took to get out of that mud prison you put me in?! My robes are still stained - and they’re specifically enchanted to avoid such staining!” Pan stamped his feet angrily and gestured to the robes, the monkeys hooting along with his shouts. “It was humiliating, the eminent first son of the Pan clan, having to ask a bystander for help! And then that bystander calling a friend over to point and laugh at me for several minutes! Before leaving without helping me!”

The monkeys were getting agitated with him, and the members of the group not privy to the prior encounter were alternating between staring at Bo in shock and trying not to laugh at him themselves. Just a bit more, and then we’ll have an edge here … 

“Senior Pan, I am so deeply and sincerely sorry for my grave misconduct.” Bo fell to her knees and grovelled at his feet. Her face in the dirt, she heard the man laugh a deep, obnoxious belly laugh.

“It’ll take more than mere apologies to make up for what you’ve done to me! You three!” Pan pointed at Chao and the gang. “You’re equally complicit in all this! Grovel before me and I may begin to forgive you!”

Wang and Youni looked to Chao, who solemnly nodded. The three of them took up their place beside Jingyi Bo and grovelled alongside. Turning his face just slightly to see Bo’s, Chao was surprised to see a smirk on her face.

“Waahaha! It feels even better than I imagined to see all four of you fools before me! The rest of you should know better than to associate with Qin rats - they’ll stab you in the back, or they’ll stab you in the front! Nothing but a matter of time before they try to take you down!”

The Yamato members of the group didn’t know what to do, but not one of them was going to abandon their new friends to this mage. Each mentally considering what to do, they all noticed something that Pan couldn’t have noticed from his perspective.

Just what were those strange lines being drawn in the ground around Jingyi Bo?

LoakaOfTheWind

Do you have a clever idea of how you would use the Endless Steps of Transformation? Write in your best ideas, and I might even steal them!