Kapitel 140: Days of Madness - Capture and Combat

Breath came in sharp pants as she pushed Essence through the Mountain Mists Technique, leaping to another broad tree branch. The strong winds and steady rain made it harder to keep her footing; Mountain Mists made her lighter and faster, but less able to land solidly. The rough bark should have made gripping easier, but regardless of the thickness of the vegetation, rain had been soaking past the usually protective canopy and saturating the wood for days now, leaving it spongy and crumbly, the contact with the soles of her boots exposing slick inner wood when she landed and causing her to fight to stay on the branch.

The sharp cries of her pursuers reached her ears, from both sides and behind her, although they were attenuated and muffled by the thick vegetation that shifted and swayed around her perch. The dampening of sound was compounded by rushing swirls of wind, the heavy spatters of rain that accompanied it or the splashes of rainwater dislodged by the wind from the branches around her. Both wind and water caught and tugged at her body at random times despite the barrier of the massive trees she was moving through, the forceful movement of air causing a symphony of creaking of wood and rustle of foliage in response.

A fresh gale of wind made the branch she was on sway wildly, despite its girth, even as the various foliage above dumped a cold shower of collected rainwater downward as a result of the ponderous shifting of the trees around her, leaving her damp despite the quality of her Essence Silk robe. Fortunately, the Formations that were part of the silk repelled the majority of the water, keeping her relatively dry despite the small waterfall she had just been hit with, but it was an unpleasant experience.

She swore in frustration, digging a dagger into the trunk of the tree as she tried to think of options to elude her pursuers. She was regretting not having been able to keep up regular training sessions over the last couple of chaotic weeks.

"You would think daily battles and dodging crazy Essence Distortions would be enough to keep the edge," she grumbled as she pushed her rain-soaked hair out of her eyes, regretting not having kept her hair tucked into her hood, "I am going to have to organise time for regular training sessions, despite being on the move."

Sighing, Dàilán glared up at the overcast sky as she looked around, "this storm is getting on my nerves. Three days and nights of constant wind and pouring rain," she murmured to herself, "at least the gale winds, thunder and lightning have ceased."

Looking downward, she could not spot anyone - even when she spun out a web of Essence threads - so she leapt out of the branch, landing in a muddy crouch in the undergrowth and leaf litter of the forest floor. Mountain Mists kept her landing light, with barely any impact or mud splatter, but she still winced at the slight thud. Her pursuers had sharp hearing.

She darted away from her landing, doing her best to keep her feet landing on harder surfaces. She supposed the rain and wind was a benefit for her despite the irritation, poor footing, the rain and unpleasant temperatures - although her Cultivation and her robe's formations prevented her from experiencing any negative effects - it was still not enjoyable. Acknowledging the fact tended to help ignore the unwanted sensations, however - so after a moment, the unpleasant aspects faded to the back of her thoughts.

Down on the ground, the sounds of wind, creaking wood and the constant rain was muffled as the intervening layers of the understory provided further insulation, replaced with a sodden silence broken by the patter of heavy drops of water - falling from where they had collected in the vegetation above - onto the thick leaf litter and other slowly composting detritus of the forest.

The occasional chirps and croaks of a few optimistic amphibians, the rapid scuttlings and faint crunches of creatures who preferred the wet weather or were just looking for meals surrounded her, along with the scent of wet and rotting vegetation, the sharp smell of fungi, the perfume of flowers and the cloying scent of overripe wild fruit spoiling in the wet.

Dàilán spun out another web of Essence threads to try and overcome the various distractions on her physical senses and 'noise' of the ambient Essence in the forest.

Once the sudden storm began to decrease in intensity from its original typhoon-like rage that had left everyone, Cultivator and Yāoguǐ alike, cowering within the shelters that had been hastily organised in the protected clearing, both groups had started sending patrols out again.

On the few patrols she had been assigned to outside the protected clearing - she had noticed that the previously harsh jumps in Essence pressure they had experienced within the wilderness previously were gradually diffusing into a much higher ambient level over a wider area, like ink in water, since the storm had hit.

The new 'normal' amount of free-floating Essence in the forest obscured her awareness of other Cultivators to a much shorter range than she was accustomed to, making it doubly difficult to pick up if anyone was drawing close.

Dàilán had, almost, gotten used to the now nearly constant presence of Essence Mist everywhere she looked, clinging to the base of trunks and twining around the smaller plants in faint curls of blue, gold and green.

As she ran, taking care to pick a random path and even jumping between tree trunks to avoid swollen streams, the subtle glow of Essence rich herbs and other plants was enough for her eyes to pick out a path, despite the shadowed gloom of the thick forest and overcast sky.

The sight of Essence rich plants had become so common that the girls assigned to gathering food and Cultivation Resources had been largely ignoring anything unless it was unusually bright. She had even overheard the Head Healer tell them to leave anything that did not have the Essence Motes that indicated a Sky Level Essence plant around it.

Part of her was still resisting the idea that you could pick up a Sky Level herb while casually moving through the Fusou - the rest of her was starting to understand the hostile reception of the Yāoguǐ; once the other Cultivators got wind of the dramatic changes out here, they would try to descend on the wilderness like a swarm of locusts.

She knew her father had been deep in discussion with the Mówáng regarding the subject of finding a way to subtly defend the area - neither group wanted their existence discovered or the wilderness stripped of resources before they could defend it - and keep it for themselves.

Dàilán strongly suspected her Father had been leaning heavily on her supposed relationship with the Sage in his negotiations - although it was possible the group's skill and knowledge of Formations had been offered as an incentive for the Yāoguǐ to work with them.

The young Consumer twitched, forcibly recalled from her musings as a tug registered on several of her Essence threads - someone was coming towards her from higher up - towards her left side.

She changed direction to shade towards the right, while keeping attention for movement in the trees above her. Trying to guess her actual direction in this mess of foliage and shadow was a waste of effort, so she was using her sensing threads to warn her of oncoming obstacles and threats, but that was going to leave her trapped eventually. She had to stop reacting and start acting or…

A sudden rustle of leaves above, despite not having seen any movement in the branches; her body flung itself desperately to one side before the sound had fully registered with her conscious thoughts, but she went sprawling as a warm weight hit her squarely between the shoulder blades, smashing her downward into the muddy leaf litter and undergrowth. The disturbed plants shook off their collected burden of rainwater, dumping copious amounts of cold water over her as she crashed through them into the sodden mulch.

"~found you!~," came a young and obnoxiously cheerful voice from next to her right ear, "~you Predator now!~"

Stifling a groan, she forced herself to her knees, brushing off mulch and humus from her robe as she reached around behind her to pluck a large Yāoguǐ Eaglet from her shoulders to glare at it, but it gave her a cheerful click of its beak, its feathers fluffed up as it mantled obvious excitement.

Hiding a smile at the young Yāoguǐ's antics, she dropped the Mountain Mists technique and deliberately let her shoulders slump as she released the ball of feathers, who chirped energetically in victory and hopped over to tug on a small leather strap on her left wrist that had a shiny stone hanging from it, "~fun! Fun! Good chase! give! Give! Hurry, before others come!~"

Despite her best efforts, Dàilán giggled and straightened out of her pose of defeat at the Eaglet's obvious pride at catching her, "Ok, ok." She stood up and quickly unstrapped the stone from her left wrist, clasping it around one of the Eaglet's legs, "There! Go!"

The young Yāoguǐ gave her a serious look, "~No watch! No hunt for hundred breaths~."

The young Heiress nodded solemnly, "I know the rules. Go, before others get here." She turned deliberately to face the nearest tree trunk, hearing the rush of wings behind her.

"I do not know how Chénli expects us to evade or catch opponents that can fly," she grumbled to herself as she counted her breaths, brushing several persistent leaves out of her hair.

"You forget - you - can fly also," came her friend's familiar voice from the tree above her and Dàilán's shoulders slumped again, this time in genuine embarrassment, "You saw that?"

"Getting ambushed by a five year old? En. You are getting sloppy. That little one should have never caught you like that," her best friend and bodyguard landed beside her with a barely audible brush of leaves, "we have been slacking with your training."

Some distance away, excited shouts and cries could be heard faintly over the wild weather as the other players caught wind of the prey token having changed hands.

"My Cultivation might be Sky Level now, but I am not skilled enough with 'sky stepping' to maneuver well in this," the young Heiress waved her arms around to indicate the thick jungle and the towering expanses of iron-like wood that surrounded them.

Outside the Sanctuary, forest giants grew oddly close to each other, considering their size. In a normal forest, the larger trees grew a distance from each other as they fought for crow-light, with smaller plants scattered underneath wherever the light could reach. These trees clearly had other sources of nourishment, growing ridiculously close to one another for their size, leaving little room to pass through them.

Each looming specimen was almost a small vertical grove of internked glowing Essence plants, flowers, vines, fungi, bushes and animals in itself. The massive, wall-like trunks rose upward to fantastical heights, exploding outward in massive, faintly glowing, crowns that all entwined together to create a giant interlinked canopy that blotted out the overcast sky - and intermittently dumped heavy splashes of water downward off of overburdened leaves - as the winds tossed the crowns.

It said something of the strength of the storm and the quantity of rain they had received over the past three days that so much water was falling down into the lower understories.

"Playing cat and mouse in the trees as if I was Sun Wukong, was not exactly what I expected when you suggested a training session," the young Heiress replied as dryly as was possible given the copious rainfall.

"It - has - been a while since we sparred," agreed her bodyguard speculatively, "all the way back to when we were training with your Cousins and the other Heirs, unless I am forgetting something."

Her best friend had a thoughtful look on her face as she jumped down beside her from the tree branch she was perched in, accompanied by a sheet of water as the formations on her robes did their best to shed the recent accumulation of rain out of the fabric.

Dàilán's own robes of Essence Silk were composed of formations that were markedly superior to the ones woven into Chénli's Knife Sect Enforcer robe, so the water barely touched the fabric of Dàilán's robe before it was repelled violently away, causing Chénli to click her tongue in annoyance as she sidestepped the water that splashed onto the forest floor, the extra liquid quickly becoming indistinguishable from the rest of the wet plants and leaf litter,"I have an idea, come on," she declared, gesturing into the forest as she moved off through the trees, with Dàilán matching her steps.

The game with the Yāoguǐ younglings was being played in the trees and forest directly around the 'Sanctuary' clearing. Constant patrols from both groups - at first separately and most recently together - ensured the immediate area was safe to move around in.

Chénli grunted slightly as they moved eastward around the clearing towards the Yāoguǐ side and the Essence pressure began to noticeably increase. Dàilán nodded in satisfaction as she observed her friend covertly - unlike half a week or so ago, she did not show any other sign of discomfort.

"The communication jades are - still not working - the Storm has made the Essence even more turbulent than it was before," Chénli commented, flushing slightly under her Mistress' approving regard at her improving ability to handle higher Essence density, "Monitor Leng was complaining about it this morning. He was theorising we should run into less vicious and dangerous areas of Essence from now on. Something to do with the Storm rebalancing and cleaning the mess of overlapping and contesting waves of Essences that were colliding everywhere. Something about stagnant and evil Essence too, but I did not really understand what he was getting excited about."

Dàilán laughed as Chénli rolled her eyes at the recollection, returning to her original point, "between the storm and residual effects of the… the collapse, the waves of Essence are still turbulent enough to keep the jades from establishing a solid link. He - is - getting very frustrated about the lack of information on what is happening outside," she hesitated slightly before continuing, "he also was saying something about a third element involved in the massive increases in Essence - but he complained, at length, to me about being unable to divine the exact source."

"We all are. I agree with him though, the Essence levels in this area have been equalising since this Storm came in," remarked Dàilán as they moved swiftly through the trees, "it is still growing denser the further you go into the Fusou, but it is not like crossing a definite boundary anymore."

"There is a definite step upward in pressure," Chénli countered, "but you are right in saying it is more like a gentle incline, than hitting a wall - like it was before. We have all been acclimatising ourselves to the heavier pressure on this side of the clearing too, of course."

Dàilán nodded, "of course. But I think all of us should be able to cope with proceeding further along our route once the storm passes - even the youngest girls have adapted quickly."

"Adapted quicker, more like," her Head Guard laughed, "some of them are quickly making fast friends among the younger Yāoguǐ as well - I am sure I spotted several of them participating in that game of Cat and Mouse you just lost."

"Mĕilì looked like she was going to explode with excitement the first time she ran into a bunch of the younglings," agreed Dàilán as they continued to move through the forest at a brisk walk, "I was keeping an eye on things when the barter market between the two camps was opened in the middle of the Sanctuary. All the younger girls from camp were walking around the stalls as a group from one side of the market while a small flock of younglings were running around from the Yāoguǐ camp side."

"What happened?" asked Chénli as her young mistress paused, the young woman grinning at the memory, beginning her back to the present, "oh… the two groups spotted each other and it was hilarious," Dàilán elaborated, chuckling at the memory, "The girls - Mĕilì in particular - started squealing about 'fluffy' and 'cute'; the younglings could not get over the 'miniature' Cultivators, '~look at tiny humans!~'," Dàilán did a passable imitation of a youngling chirping in excitement, "the next thing anyone knows the two groups are rushing off around the clearing together, arguing about a dozen things at once at the top of their voices, leaving both sets of minders chasing after them all over."

"Makes sense," answered Chénli thoughtfully, "the Yāoguǐ would have only ever seen adult humans before - children do not usually venture deep into the Fusou."

Dàilán snorted at the irony, "we are the same age or younger than some of those 'children'," she pointed out and her 'maid' shot her an arch look, "it is not the years, Mistress, it is the Cultivation."

"En. Whatever you say, Chén'er," with Dàilán replied with mock gravitas, "we are much too mature to be considered children."

Chénli came to a stop as the pair of them reached the edge of a small clearing a couple of lǐ away from the sanctuary. Dàilán could hear the sound of weapons clashing, the sounds of heavy impacts, shouts and grunts of exertion, mixed in with the occasional growl or roar; the wind brought a strong whiff of musk, sweat and overheated mammal competing with the faint stench of blood and other less savory smells.

"Well, this lot will not treat us like children regardless of our age," she warned seriously, "most of them are not very happy with their King's decision to let us stay in 'their' forest."

"Ah?" Dàilán looked through the trees at the long, lopsided clearing which seemed to have been formed by the space left behind after several of the forest giants had fallen. Dàilán could see the fallen trunks strewn like enormous straws radiating out in all directions on either side of the largest fallen tree. At a guess, the first tree had come down and taken the smaller ones directly in and around its path of collapse. Some impacted trees were leaning against others, partially upright, while others had fallen in turn, taking down still other trees in a domino effect and gouging a massive opening in the thick forest.

Evidently once the area had been scouted and cleared of danger - the Heiress could still see tell signs of blood and fur on some of the fallen branches indicating not all the inhabitants had gone quietly - the Yāoguǐ had set up a training arena in the cleared space.

Despite the rain and wind let in by the large rent in the canopy, Dàilán could see what looked like a couple dozen Yāoguǐ in the clearing, performing various martial exercises, the source of both the sounds - and the majority of the odors.

She could see some Cultivator Beasts sparring - both with weapons and unarmed - while others worked alone perfecting punching, slashing or other physical attacks against one fallen trunk or another. Some were firing arrows or throwing spears at the wall-like masses of wood, while others were practicing releasing what were clearly Essence techniques, leaving massive scars in the unnaturally tough material, or practicing complicated exercise routines over, under and through the maze created by the branches of the fallen giants.

There was even one massive bear Yāoguǐ using the massive root ball of one of the fallen trees as a target for thundering punches, working the mass of mud and broken roots over like a regular boxer might use a straw or wooden dummy.

She did notice that all the attacks and exercises were targeted at the fallen trees and not the standing ones. Even as she thought that, she heard a loud shout and a creaking thud. She looked over to see what looked like a work party of Yāoguǐ hauling on enormous ropes to pull one of the leaning giants back into an upright position. A group of smaller, less burly Yāoguǐ ran around the base of the reset giant, the telltale glow of Essence techniques sinking into its damaged roots. Several breaths later, the enormous tree visibly brightened up and settled more solidly into the ground, accompanied by a loud cheer from the work party.

"Looks like they are working on saving the ones that were not completely toppled over," remarked Chénli and Dàilán looked over at her friend to see her looking in the same direction she just had been, "makes sense - each of these probably takes a millenia to grow and probably support a small storehouse worth of food and resources," she shrugged, "if I had any techniques to help plants I would suggest we go over to help, but…"

"We have neither the techniques or the pure strength to assist usefully," agreed Dàilán quietly, "Second Cousin would have loved seeing this though."

"Sure, if she could have put up with being parted from her fashionable outfits," snorted Chénli, "but, En, she would have been in raptures over the plants…" she paused and her face split in a sly grin, "since we cannot help, what do you say to a spar?" she pointed to a fairly empty area of the impromptu training area that was a little separated from any of the other fighters already practicing.

"You want to start sparring where you say, a bunch of Yāoguǐ that do not like us very much, are currently practicing their own techniques?" questioned Dàilán skeptically, "are we - trying - to cause trouble?"

Chénli shrugged in an elaborate show of innocence, tossing her friend a pair of the special Knife Sect training wooden daggers with her offhand, "we will not start anything and we are free to go anywhere around the Sanctuary that - we - have allowed them to stay in. We will just be minding our own business training. We - are - supposed to be learning to work together, right? It would not make sense to set up a separate training arena just for us 'humans' in that case - that would just encourage separation."

"It sounds like a deliberate provocation," the Heiress pointed out, a slight smile curling her lip as she caught the wooden daggers inscribed with lightning formations without missing a beat, "not that I think you are wrong about our good intentions, precisely, but we will be just inviting someone to challenge us."

Chénli rolled her eyes, "you have been wearing your Heiress hat for too long. Put on your Enforcer hat - time to participate in some physical negotiations. It is amazing how often that helps improve things," she began to walk slowly backward into the clearing, grinning at her friend.

Dàilán raised an eyebrow, but slowly followed her, slowly tossing one of the wooden daggers to her off hand, "does it really?"

"Sure!" replied her friend enthusiastically, "look at it this way. Worst case, we get a particularly strenuous work out; best case, we get engender mutual respect and improve our alliance."

"You used a lot of big words there, sworn-sister," Dàilán needled as she stalked after her backpedaling bodyguard, though she was smiling despite her words, "I am not sure you know what they mean."

"A false accusation," retorted her friend, still backing into the clearing and reaching the empty area she had pointed out earlier, "I know exactly what they mean."

"So do I," the Heiress' smile sharpened as she followed, causing her bodyguard to pale slightly, "they mean you are trying to sell me a bunch of fake goods."

"Em… but… you are following me into the clearing," Chénli pointed out, "does that mean you are buying them?"

"No… it means I am going to make you regret trying," growled Dàilán as she blurred into a leap, the training daggers already sparking visibly with Lightning Essence as she thrust them center of mass towards the other girl.

There was a crash as Chénli blocked Dàilán's daggers with a wooden training sword of her own, the resulting flash of Lightning Essence as the two sets of lightning empowered weapons clashed blasting the rain in the air and moisture off the ground away from the pair in a sphere around them.

Ignoring the abrupt silence around them, Chénli grinned fiercely, her eyes dancing, "you - have - gotten slow, girl. I do not think - I - am the one who is going to regret this."

Dàilán did not bother replying to her opponent's banter and pushed Essence into her robe as she slammed her leg towards Chénli's chest. The Essence Treasure that Chún had gifted her, immediately lit up with a bright light, as all the Formations that made up the Essence Silk activated simultaneously - and her annoying friend was blown out of her cocky stance by Dàilán's forward mule kick as if she had been hit by a very large, very angry, Essence Beast.

Her bodyguard made an inelegant squawk of surprise and pain as the flash from Dàilán's Robes blinded her, then wheezed as the breath was knocked out of her. She was sent flying across the length of the clearing, the Formations on the Enforcer's robe flickering as they worked to dispel the force of the mule kick.

The Yāoguǐ already in the clearing slowly and watchfully moved out of their path, giving both of them space behind her as Chénli tumbled and slid inelegantly across the already churned up leaf litter in the clearing, fetch up against one of the fallen trees.

Dàilán kept a careful watch on the spectators out of her peripheral vision, cautiously spinning out a skein of Essence threads around her to catch any sudden movement outside her line of sight as she moved towards her stunned friend, but no one made any reaction other than to move away from where Chénli had stopped, although she could tell they had all stopped what they had been doing; a crowd of interested spectators was slowly growing in a wide semi-circle behind her.

Chénli looked up at her from her awkward position crumpled against the fallen tree with an aggrieved expression on her face as she caught her breath; Dàilán's Essence threads caught the telltale circulation of Essence around her ribcage as she stopped wheezing, "What was that for?"

Dàilán shrugged, "you were the one who always told me that posturing during a fight was your opponent asking for you to take a free hit," she smiled crookedly, "I took it."

Chénli growled and rolled to her feet, "Since when can you hit that hard?" she grumbled as she rolled to her feet and slid into a combat stance, causing Dàilán to roll her eyes at her friend's overacting. She thought she heard a muffled snicker, some scoffing sounds and a few quiet murmurs from the audience observing silently behind her, but kept her attention on her opponent.

"Your robe barely flickered, so I am not impressed," she replied calmly as she leapt into one of the thick branches that stuck out from the fallen trunk, "you dragged me out here to spar, but all you are doing is talking. Done already?"

There were a few scattered laughs from the audience at that and Chénli stiffened as if she had just realised they were being watched, "get down here and spar then," Chénli retorted.

Dàilán pointedly twirled the wooden training daggers, pushing Essence deliberately through them to make them spit sparks, "no."

Dàilán watched as Chénli committed to a strike against the branch Dàilán was on. There was a faint ripple of Essence around the blade, which meant the wooden blade would go through the ironwood branch like mud rather than shattering against it.

She dove off the branch with her dagger tips sparking furiously towards Chénli's shoulders in the classic assassin's backstab, but her bodyguard whirled, avoiding the stabs as the blades grazed the fabric of her robes, the Formations on her battle robe shrugging off the slight amount of Lightning Essence that made contact.

Dàilán converted her stoop into a forward roll to get away from the fallen tree into open space, even as she heard the spiteful crackle and hiss of the Lightning Essence from Chénli's weapon hitting the wet leaf litter behind her and felt the heat of the steam from superheated rain bloom over her back as she rolled out of range.

She landed in a crouch somewhere in the middle of the clearing, peripherally aware of the audience, both larger and more louder now - as some had started cheering and booing - moving to keep an equidistant space between them and the combatants. Chénli was a few paces away, shaking her sword at Dàilán tauntingly as she mocked her friend, "did you forget who taught that backstab maneuver?" The ex Knife Enforcer moved to attack even before the last word left her mouth.

The next few breaths were a blur of strikes, slashes, slabs and blocks all underscored by the crackle of lightning from their weapons and thunderous shockwaves from the excess Essence crashing outward from their weapons clashing. The violent blasts Essence continually pushed out the rain, mist and the leaf litter around them out in spheres of mud and debris around them as the two crashed against one another in the center of the clearing; ducks, weaves, dodges, leaps, evasions and charges left them both blurs as they pushed Essence through their bodies to keep up.

The audience roared, whistled and shouted in approval as the two of them engaged in an all out, head to head spar; Dàilán found herself proud of her friend - Chénli had definitely gotten stronger - she had to be Peak Earth at least. The other girl had stopped fighting her Mistress head on like this since before the problems back at the Clan, unless her Mistress was wearing the limiter collar.

There was a curse from Chénli and she disengaged suddenly, leaping for the branches that extended out from all the fallen trees, with Dàilán immediately following.

The slight decrease in tempo allowed Dàilán to notice that the audience had relocated completely outside the 'arena', although she spotted some of the audience moving rapidly out of branches in the two fighters path, from where they had been perched or seated watching the action. There seemed to be both Yāoguǐ and Cultivators on the ground and in the branches of the fallen and standing trees surrounding the 'arena' now - and a lot more of them she remembered at the start.

The two young women clashed weapons several times to little result as the pair darted in and out of the branches of the fallen trees, sending leaves and smaller twigs flying. The branches swayed wildly in the resulting bursts of air and Essence and thrashed about, making one's footing precarious.

Dàilán ducked and managed to avoid Chénli's most recent strike as her wooden sword splintered through a branch. The end of the branch and its leave's came flying towards her head, obscuring her vision momentarily. Without hesitation she dropped off the branch she was on, swinging from it like a monkey as Chénli's sword burst through the obscuring leaves and speared over her head.

Dàilán curled her body and lashed out with a kick as she swung upward towards the branch Chénli was on, forcing her to jump upward to avoid it. Pushing off in mid swing, Dàilán followed, only to see her opponent's weapon dart out like a striking snake as she was in mid air, directly at her chest.

A Cultivator below Sky Level would be helplessly caught by this move, with no means of changing the direction of their movement through the air - leaving them to reinforce whatever defensive technique they had and hope to absorb the blow - as they literally fell into the strike. Dàilán on the other hand circulated her Sky level Cultivation and pivoted off the air beneath her feet as if it had become solid, causing the strike to strike her a glancing blow on the thigh instead of hitting her solidly.

There was a sharp crackle as the Lightning Essence on the wooden sword clashed against the Formations of her robe, but Dàilán winced as a sharp feeling of pins and needles raced down her leg for a breath.

"Dog-shit luck!" Chénli squawked in frustration at the missed strike, rapidly retreating further into the maze of branches.

"You were the one who reminded me I can fly now," Dàilán yelled back, stopping on her current branch to let the cramp in her leg subside, prompting another roar of laughter and shouting from the audience around them at their banter and the close call.

She looked around again - definitely more people were watching than before, "I wonder if this will lead to less cautious behaviour between the two groups," she muttered to herself, before flinging herself after her sworn sister again. She was fairly sure she saw some wagers being placed between the now very loud and animated spectators as she raced after Chénli who…

...Dàilán blinked as her opponent suddenly vanished in the confusion of greenery, but spun out another skein of Essence threads all around her as she continued to leap over, under and along the branches of the three dimensional maze, towards her last glimpse of Chénli. In the old days, the Veil Technique was a pain to beat, especially in a situation like this with all the obscuring vegetation, but now - she grinned to herself as her Essence Threads snagged on a fast moving invisible target coming up through the branches from below and to her left.

She leapt onto a branch in front of her that would let her make a perfect lunge back towards the target just as Chénli struck; she felt and smelt the lightning Essence as Chénli's weapon missed her by a háo - indeed, some of her hair flowing behind her crisped in the wake of the strike - but she was backflipping through the air like a diver and striking downward.

There was the usual sharp crackle and choked scream of pain as the daggers discharged solidly; Chénli's Veil fell and Dàilán could see that the training daggers had stuck her solidly between the shoulder blades as she spasmed and fell downward.

Her friend caught herself on a passing branch before she hit the ground, "I Yield!"

There was a chorus of disappointed booing and hoots of mockery from the audience at her declaration, but that was covered by a round of laughing agreement from the ex-Knife members in the audience as she swore loudly, "Hells, getting hit by those things still sucks turtle eggs, even with Peak Earth Cultivation."

Dàilán laughed from her own perch on a branch above, "you did not pass out, so it could not have been that bad," sticking her tongue out as Chénli very deliberately lifted her fingers in an obscene gesture in response.

There was a cheer from the audience as Chénli dropped gingerly from the branch to the ground although Dàilán could hear clear notes of derision and disappointment, among the shouts of approval and excitement as she followed her friend down and landed beside her, the two of them starting to walk towards one of the gaps between the fallen trees that acted as exists and entrances to the 'arena'.

"I guess you were going easy on the children, eh?" Chénli joked with a wry grin as she moved her arms around in wide circles, presumably to massage the feeling back into her shoulders.

"A little," grinned Dàilán apologetically, "but you would have got me with that last move a month ago. You are just unlucky that recent events have been forcing me to come up with new techniques that…"

She broke off and blurred into a push, carrying her sworn sister out of the path of a mammoth blur that pulverised the ground they had been walking on. The ground cratered slightly under the impact of the root ball of a small tree trunk - well, small in comparison to the giants in this forest. Anywhere else, a zhàng and a half of trunk with a three chǐ diameter would have been considered a respectable size.

Dàilán looked up at the nine chǐ tall and over-muscled Bull Yāoguǐ wearing a sizable smirk to go with his loincloth, holding the other end of the tree trunk - that he had clearly just ripped out of the ground to serve as a makeshift weapon - and swore under her breath, "You and your bright ideas, Chén'er."

Chénli looked up as the massive Yāoguǐ hefted the tree trunk as if it was a regular staff on one mountainous shoulder with an arm that was bigger than Dàilán's entire body and extend his free hand to point an oversized finger at Dàilán, "Weak Fight! Real Fight Noow!"

The Yāoguǐ's bellowed challenge brought an approving roar from the primarily Yāoguǐ crowd around the arena, which had swelled substantially. Dàilán could see several Cultivators - mostly women from her camp exchanging worried glances, although she also saw a few - mostly ex-Knife men - making hasty bets with the Yāoguǐ around them, confident expressions on their faces as they gestured towards her.

"Son of a Turtle," Chénli swore and pushed at Dàilán, "get out of here - this is my fault."

"Noo!" bellowed the Bull Yāoguǐ, his eyes narrowed and ears flicked forward, "Noot Fight Weak Hooman." He laughed loudly, swinging his heavily horned head as he looked around the audience, "Fight Slightly Less Weak Hooman!"

There was an appreciative roar of laughter and heckling from the crowd and Chénli's face went red, "oversized cow!" she spat at the Bull Yāoguǐ, drawing another round of laughter from the audience and a huff from the huge Yāoguǐ looking down at them.

Dàilán shook her head, "I cannot decline a challenge like this if we want the alliance to stick - you can already hear they do not think much of us. If I refuse, they will lose any respect we have gained so far. Chénli - go for the healer. Someone is going to be hurt after this." She forced herself to grin, "I will not be holding back against this guy!"

"Ummph. Hooman Hurt. Noot Tarcus!" declared her opponent to the audience's laughter as Chénli nodded reluctantly and darted into the forest back towards the clearing.

"Hmm. Tarcus is it? We spar to Yield only. I will not dishonour the agreement between your Mówáng and me by battling to injury or death," declared Dàilán, standing firmly, using Essence to boost her voice so it could be heard clearly, causing the audience to fall silent, "we are both warriors for our people, we cannot allow ourselves to risk being weakened in front of real enemies that may come later because we acted foolishly here."

There was an approving rustle from the audience and a matching rumble of agreement from her declared opponent in a more normal volume - more like a low shout than a bellow, "Little hooman smart. Hoonoorable thooughts. Tarcus agrees! Sparring oonly" The Bull Yāoguǐ waggled the tree for emphasis, his voice raised back to a bellowing laugh as he shook his head heavily again, "Oonly Need Oone Small Swat Anyway. Little Sparkle Knives Noot Boother Tarcus!"

The crowd broke into another - even louder - raucous cheer at his boasting and despite herself Dàilán felt a feral grin stretch over her features as she pushed Essence into Mountain Mists and released the constraints on her constantly running Veil Technique, allowing it to unfold outward until it hovered just under the surface of her skin, rather than merely concealing her Cultivation level.

"We will see about that," she whispered quietly, blurring with movement and vanishing in mid leap as she activated both techniques simultaneously.