Gou Jia watched the violet warrior abandon his sword in the ground, and with slow steps, he walked before The Matron's barrier.
A half smile grew on Gou Jia’s face as he wondered if the man named Fate would really try and enter without a proper weapon. If he dared to try, his Bloodwater Arts would shred his earthen armour long before the violet warrior could close the distance.
Thud!
What is he doing?
The violet warrior stopped before The Matron's barrier and slammed his fist into the ground. From the earthen cracks, violet mist billowed and wrapped around his figure. It slithered across his body, amalgamating in the air above him, slowly forming a scene that was all too familiar to Gou Jia from his long-past battle with Gou Jing.
“No way!” Gou Jia cursed under his breath, and the blood droplets under his control surged towards Louie as sharp sickle blades.
Stomp!
An earthen wall rose before Louie, protecting him as the violet mist gathered above him. The violet mist formed a shape resembling Louie’s favourite weapon: A fist.
The blood droplets slashed against the earthen wall, tearing it apart and continuing past the barrier to cut against Louie’s earthen armour. Deep grooves formed by the time Louie let out a shout.
“I’m sick of this barrier!”
Louie reared his hand back, and the violet mist fist followed in the air. Louie struck forward. With a booming crash, the violet mist fist struck the barrier, causing the ground to shiver from the impact. Small cracks spread from The Matron’s barrier, not destroying it outright but causing Gou Jia to shiver at the prospect of it falling apart.
I have to stop him from destroying the barrier! It's the only thing keeping the violet mist out!
Gou Jia collected the blood droplets along his hand, which spread, making his hand glossy like he had dipped it in crimson paint. Gou Jia dashed forward, and for the first time in the fight, he exited the barrier protecting him, facing another of the violet mist fists.
Gou Jia clawed at the violet mist fist, causing a slamming echo to spread across The Pit. The violet mist battled against Gou Jia’s attack, dispersing the power behind it and allowing the violet mist fist to slam against the barrier.
The cracks on the barrier widened, causing Gou Jia to frown. Suddenly, Gou Jia bit his tongue, and his hand shot to cover his mouth.
The blood flowed through, covering Gou Jia’s hand and extending his fingernails like a devil’s hand had clawed out into the world. Gathering his Qi, Gou Jia sharpened his claw and once more faced an oncoming violet mist fist.
Slam!
The claw pierced through the violet mist fist, dispersing it and letting Gou Jia breathe a breath of relief. Behind him, The Matron's red particles spewed from the cobblestone dome, repairing the barrier with each passing second.
“Fine,” Louie screamed, and another fist condensed in the air, followed by two more. The veins on Louie’s arms popped out as the force within each fist collided against the barrier.
“I’M. BREAKING. THIS. BARRIER. DOWN!”
Despite Gou Jia barely managing to disperse two of the fists, the remaining two violet mist fists were enough to widen, then burst through The Matron's barrier. With a grand clattering, the barrier shards fell to the ground, consumed by the violet earth that hurried to expand its domain.
Ack!
Louie hurried back from his spot, with his right arm dangling from his side, a result of colliding with the reinforced blood claw attached to Gou Jia’s hand. The violet mist hurried to heal him, but it would take a moment to remove the remnant traces of The Matron’s power from the injury.
Gou Jia watched Louie attempt a retreat to his violet sword, and with a growl, Gou Jia raised his blood claw.
“Eviscerate.” Gou Jia commanded, and the blood claw attached to his hand leapt from his skin and shot towards Louie. It lengthened, becoming an all-encompassing hand that wished to shred Louie apart. The first finger, which had extended the most, slashed against Louie’s back, carving out a diagonal line stretching from his shoulder to his hip.
Grip!
Louie’s hand met the Mountain Sealing Sword, which reared against the flying blood claw, slashing in confrontation with a sharp squeal of metal against metal. The resulting force sent Louie flying back, and gashes opened on his arms from the remnant power behind the strike.
Puffing filled the silence of the area as Louie looked around for Gou Jia, and his eyes caught the drifting form of crimson-red robes fleeing back towards the cobblestone dome.
“Get back here!” Louie screamed as the violet mist healed him.
“Why would I?” Gou Jia yelled back.
With a grunt, Louie’s heel slammed against the ground, causing the ground below him to spiral sideways and shoot Louie forward with astonishing speed and a lack of care for his defences.
Gou Jia shot a blood droplet toward Louie, slashing against his face. But, the weakened blood droplet hardly pierced the earthen armour due to the ambient violet mist flooding the area and ripping apart his blood droplets. With a growl, he summoned three more blood droplets, sending them back toward Louie to at least slow him down.
Louie’s feet sidestepped the attack, launching off an erected earthen wall and propelling himself the last distance needed to catch up to Gou Jia.
Gou Jia’s face leaned back, witnessing a sight filled with dirty knuckles and an angry look.
Thud!
Gou Jia’s head crushed into the ground, nose broken in multiple places and feet tucked up towards the sky like a ragdoll. Another punch came down as the earth rose below them, forcing Gou Jia’s face into Louie’s kick. Louie sent Gou Jia flying away.
Slam!
Louie stomped on the ground and kicked the air, raising earth from where he sent Gou Jia flying to and forcing him back. Louie slammed Gou Jia back to the ground with a bone-crunching, face-denting punch with all his pent-up frustration from the battle, forming cracks that snaked in all directions.
There was a coughing sound from nearby.
Louie looked from where he punched to witness Gou Jia stepping onto the cobblestone walkway. With a double take, Louie watched the fake Gou Jia he had beaten slowly dissolve into a pile of blood that sizzled against the ground.
Air shot out Louie’s nose as he realized he had been fighting a blood clone, and with comparably slower steps, he made it to the door to the cobblestone dome, far behind Gou Jia. Stepping inside, Louie stared straight ahead, meeting Gou Jia's calm expression.
“You won’t be able to win.” Gou Jia announced.
“And yet, here I am,” Louie said.
Gou Jia’s eyes darkened as he spoke again, and a faint light emanated around them.
“Yes, you’re far worse than my sister. More persistent, but only as a result of stupidity. Did you even think about why I retreated here?”
The red glow snaking between the cobblestones hissed as they fell apart, producing clunking sounds as the cobblestones forming the dome fell to the ground piece by piece. Louie weaved between falling cobblestones, racing towards Gou Jia, whose hand inched closer to The Matron Seed’s root.
With Louie’s sword mere moments away from slashing against Gou Jia, their hand finally contacted the root. It hissed as it retracted from the touch, causing Gou Jia’s eyes to widen from the shocking betrayal.
Puchi!
The Mountain Sealing Sword pierced into Gou Jia’s chest.
Gou Jia looked at the sword embedded inside him and tried to clear the blood collecting in his lungs by coughing but with little success. Without remorse, the sword slid out from Gou Jia, leaving a hole behind.
Gou Jia’s knees hit the ground as Louie slashed off one of his legs from the knee down.
“I see—”
Cough! Cough!
Gou Jia spewed blood, not taking his eyes off the root wriggling before him.
“I should have never—”
Cough. Cough. Cough!
The blood coating Gou Jia's throat prevented him from speaking anymore. With a deep unwillingness in his hell-steeped eyes, he lifted his gaze from The Matron Seed ahead to the floating mountain above. Maybe it was because of death approaching, but Gou Jia could have sworn he noticed things shaking in his last breaths.
Little tremors added up to a bigger, more frightening quake that shook the violet mist flooding towards him.
A sliver of red moonlight drew a line down Gou Jia’s body right as the Mountain Sealing Sword separated his head from his body.
