As the battle dragged on and momentum swung like a metronome set to one-hundred beats per minute, Lin Songmei and Yan Mingqing struggled as they got pushed back towards the city. If it weren’t for her cultivation, Songmei was pretty sure she would’ve died many times over with how the battle had unfolded.
Everyone had, at some points or another, already done the classic blood spitting trope Songmei saw in those cultivation novels. Songmei, herself, had already spit out blood and continued to fight after taking several hits which would’ve crippled her from a couple years prior.
With the battle inching back towards Wrath’s district though, Songmei struggled to fight harder as the theme of battle shifted. She forced her hands, legs, eyes, and body to keep moving, to tough through the pain, and to use more Qi.
Escape was no longer an easy option. Sure, Songmei was a fair bit faster than Mingqing, but even then, Songmei bit her lip pondering the possibility. With how fast Gao Kunshan attacked, Songmei wasn’t sure she could escape without forcing Mingqing to sacrifice herself—something Songmei, if it wasn’t clear already, wasn’t too keen on.
Feeling another clump of rocks fly past her head as Gao Kunshan used his sword as a shovel, Songmei dashed to the side as she began pumping more and more Qi into her arrows. Letting loose an arrow, Songmei pulled the string back in a flash as she formed another arrow. Starting from both hands, Songmei created the arrow right in the drawn back position, sending it off towards Gao Kunshan without a moment’s pause.
With her arrows resembling streaks of light more than arrows, Songmei watched as they exploded one after another against Gao Kunshan. Pushing Gao Kunshan back, Songmei backed off as Mingqing’s sword began crashing down on his back in an unending waterfall of strikes.
Their efforts, though, were in vain as the mist from Mingqing’s sword evaporated in an instant. Without mist, the view was clear as Songmei saw the trend from the past few exchanges held constant as Mingqing's strikes only left shallow wounds and her own crystals were ripped apart like a body-building flexing to rip his shirt.
Getting another shower of rocks tossed towards her, Songmei ran in a circle as it rained down behind her. Yet, with her eyes focused behind her, Songmei yelped as the mayor grabbed her from the side.
Surprised as to why the mayor left Mingqing alone, Songmei’s eyes widened as the mayor twirled. Getting thrown deep into Wrath’s territory as if it was a track and field hammer throw competition, Songmei grimaced and tried to right herself midair before she came crashing back down to the ground.
Feeling a few bolts of pain course through her body, Songmei groaned as she broke through the wall of some hapless storage warehouse and came skidding to a stop against the ground. With Mingqing being the target of an earlier hammer throw, Songmei guessed they were already in the heart of Wrath’s territory. The warehouses, from the looks of it too, were the ones surrounding Wrath’s headquarters.
Sun beams. They were peaking through the hole in the wall her body had just made. Letting an “argh...” slip out of her mouth, Songmei craned her neck back as she watched the mayor running towards her from a distance and Mingqing trailing in hot pursuit.
Taking a second to catch her breath, gather her thoughts, and remember who she was, Songmei sat there, inhaling and exhaling like a robot as she stared at her feet.
With the mayor revealing his more... nefarious intentions, Songmei and Mingqing had to keep fighting. They wanted to minimize the damage to the city, and, hopefully, keep it open for their junior disciples.
Songmei had shared a couple of meals with them, had a few conversations, and played a couple rounds of bricklaying one-versus-one fighting game style rounds with them. She and Mingqing had grown attached for goodness sake!
Add in a little sense of responsibility and belonging towards the sect and they had their current mess of a situation. The others still hadn’t found anything, and, without any information, Songmei had to assume there was either nothing or they were just caught in a battle of their own.
Letting a rare expletive escape her mouth, Songmei felt her body scream in protest as she pushed herself back up and began speeding up the Qi circulation in her body once more. At least circulating Qi helped dull the pain.
“Why did the mayor have to take the entire bag of pills...” Songmei let out a long sigh as her shoulders slumped just a little more. Drawing her bow back, Songmei pushed her lamenting thoughts aside and concentrated on gathering as much Qi as she could into her arrow.
Pushing her eyes to the limit, Songmei tracked the mayor’s movement before releasing the string and letting the arrow blaze through the air. Putting enough Qi into it to overpower the mayor, Songmei ran out of the warehouse after seeing the mayor try to block the arrow. With the arrow melting into an aggressive cocoon of crystal, Songmei backed off and waved towards Mingqing to join her.
“Everything okay?” Mingqing breathed as she followed Songmei on top of the warehouse.
Helping Mingqing up and pulling her into a half-second hug, Songmei just shook her head. “I think I’m going to be injured until my birthday.”
“Glad to know we’re in the same boat.” Mingqing refocused on Gao Kunshan as Songmei’s cocoon exploded into an uncountable number of slivers and shards.
Letting her crystals dissipate back into Qi, Songmei’s eyes and ears were grabbed by the commotion nearby. Watching another body fly across her vision and into a nearby warehouse like she did just a moment prior, Songmei snorted as a budding sense of camaraderie blossomed in her chest.
“Oh my! Why are you two here? You both look awfully beat up,” A cheery voice shouted towards Songmei and Mingqing from the roof of a nearby warehouse.
Opening and closing her mouth as no words came out, Songmei felt her jaw drop. Making eye contact with a shirtless Gluttony wearing only shorts and shoes, Songmei gave a small wave as he hopped over to their warehouse.
“Ah... the mayor huh, he seems to have really gone off the deep end.” Gluttony laughed, patting the two on the back as his smile fell. “No wonder you two kids are covered in blood.”
With the mayor stopped in his tracks, the whole battlefield seemed to grind to a halt as another few figures appeared.
Pride–or as they called themself now, Vainglory—walked out of the warehouse with an aloof expression and cold eyes as always. Their suit, even having gone through Gluttony’s most recent pound-town, was untouched. Pride, as always, looked like they were ready to go into a day full of corporate meetings as the most boss CEO in the world.
The mayor, with a... severe lack of clothes other than his used-to-be-pants pair of shorts, jumped down and met up with Pride as Envy and Avarice appeared in tow.
Opposing Envy and Avarice however were Sloth and Lust, both of which appeared with their weapons in hand.
“We got raided just a bit ago, so that’s why we’re fighting, don’t mind if we intrude on your battle a little do we?” Lust waved with a salacious smile, pulling her whip taunt in her hands.
Getting jabbed by Sloth with the butt of her massive great-sword, Songmei and Mingqing just nodded as Sloth clarified with a slow sigh. “Everything she says seems sexual because... I don’t know, she’s a weirdo like that. We’re here to do our jobs and help out. I just want to sleep though so help us get it over with faster.”
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It is looking like there is going to be a lot of destroyed city before this is done and I suspect more than a few sins switching sides if they do not know the mayor's plans.
tftc
overall though, life is pretty chill :) hope you all are doing well
glad to hear that
make sure to eat and drink
Thank you for writing.
Thanks for the chapter