Blood, dark and viscous, trickled from the captain’s left shoulder down to his waist, painting the writhing tattoos on his skin in grim crimson.

  The fact that he was still standing was not, in itself, what sent a tremor of fear through Re Jui’s legs. It was the smile.

  A wide, manic grin that stretched the man’s lips, revealing teeth stained yellow from cheap wine and something darker.

  Re Jui steeled himself, his own eyes narrowing into an intense glare, his knuckles white on the hilt of his longsword.

  "T-This bastard…" he breathed, his strategist’s mind struggling to comprehend the scene.

  "Despite receiving such a grievous wound…"

  The captain looked up, his bloodshot gaze locking onto Re Jui with an unnerving, predatory joy.

  "Hahaha! I have bled far more than this in my time!" His voice roared through the ruined camp, a physical force that sent a fresh shower of leaves down from the battered trees.

  High above, a flock of birds erupted from the canopy, their panicked caws a testament to the raw power radiating from the man.

  "You'll have to cut every single limb from my body before I even think of falling!"

  He took a step forward, the ground groaning beneath his weight.

  "Your blade felt nice, though! A tender kiss, a lover’s caress! I will repay you a hundred-fold! No, a thousand-fo—"

  His boast was cut short by a faint whisper of air, the sound of a body launching itself from the shadows.

  Daggers, twin slivers of moonlight, glinted as Ran Ji descended from his opportunistic angle.

  "Less talking, more dying!" he snarled, contempt dripping from his voice as he slashed downwards, aiming for the captain’s thick, exposed neck.

  "Don’t resist."

  The captain spun with a speed that defied his massive frame.

  He didn’t even bother with his bat. His fist, a slab of calloused meat and bone, slammed squarely into Ran Ji’s gut.

  "GHK!" The impact was a sickening,

  wet thud. Ran Ji felt the shockwave ripple through him, the horrifying sensation of his own ribs puncturing his organs from the inside.

  He was launched backwards like a stone from a catapult, a human missile that crashed into the nearby cliff face.

  The rock cracked, a small hole forming around the point of impact.

  A spray of blood erupted from his mouth as his eyes went white. A single, lucid thought pierced the agony:

  If he had used the bat… I’d be minced meat by now… He slid slowly down the rock, his knees hitting the spiky ground before his face fell flat into the dirt.

  "R-Ran Ji!" Re Jui shouted, his voice cracking.

  Two of his comrades were now injured, one of them grievously so.

  Could they really win this without losing a single life? No, that was far too hopeful. His mind, now stripped of all strategy, screamed a single, terrifying question: could any of them make it out of this alive at all?

  Laughter, deep and triumphant, erupted from the captain.

  "HAHA! Is that all you puny kids have got?! Nothing?! If my men were still alive, they’d tear you apart without breaking a sweat! You weaklings!" He began a slow, deliberate walk towards Ran Ji’s crumpled form, dragging his spiked bat along the ground, the sound a harsh, grating promise of death.

  "One down, three more to go."

  Re Jui’s eyes widened in panic.

  He launched himself forward, a desperate sprint to intercept the executioner.

  "R-Ran Ji! Wake up! Don't you dare die on me!" he yelled, swinging his longsword in a wild arc that connected with the captain's back, carving another shallow, bloody line into the man's flesh. "AHH!"

  The captain spun back, the bat a blur of motion.

  Re Jui parried, the deafening clang of steel on wood echoing through the night.

  The force of the blow was staggering; his arms screamed, his bones vibrated, and he knew with sickening certainty that he could not contest this man's pure, unadulterated strength.

  "Look at you! Struggling to even clash hits with… ME!"

  The captain spun with the bat, the follow-through of his blow sending Re Jui tumbling into the dark forest.

  "AGH!" He rolled through the grass and tangled roots, his hands clawing at the earth to regain his footing before he charged back into the clearing, his face a mask of furious desperation.

  "What an utter fool," the captain sneered, his smile widening.

  "You simply do not know when to give up!" He leaned his bat far back, the spikes glinting in the faint moonlight, preparing to meet Re Jui’s charge with a final, overwhelming clash of weapons.

  "I have to gather more strength," Re Jui thought, his mind a frantic storm of calculations as he charged, the wind whipping his silver-grey hair across his face.

  He could feel himself inching closer, the distance between him and the captain shrinking with every desperate stride.

  "I can feel myself rivaling him!" His grip on the hilt of his blade was so tight his knuckles were bloodless, a desperate anchor in the raging sea of his own doubt.

  "The last impact was too powerful. I have no doubts that he can shatter my blade if that hit was any stronger."

  He gazed at the captain's hulking form, at the massive, spike-studded bat leaned all the way back, a promise of overwhelming, world-shattering force.

  This would be a power swing, an attack meant not just to defeat, but to annihilate.

  A cold tendril of fear snaked up his spine.

  "Damn it, I can't meet that strength with mine alone," his rational mind screamed.

  "I am far too weak! I can't contest against him!"

  But despite his thoughts, his feet did not stop.

  They kept moving, eating up the distance, his hands steady and unwavering on the hilt of his sword.

  A deeper, more primal part of him had taken over.

  "But… something in me is pushing me," his warrior's spirit roared back, silencing the voice of fear.

  "I must keep going, or else I'll lose myself forever! This will be but a hiccup on my long road towards the heavens!"

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  He took one last, deep breath, his entire being focused on the single, incandescent point of the coming clash.

  "I will meet your clash and come out the victor!"

  Mi Shui, however, was not about to let Re Jui have his glorious, one-on-one warrior’s death.

  "Don't be foolish, Re Jui!" she shrieked, her voice a sharp, angry crack in the tense air.

  "There's no world where you can contest his strength!" Her pride, a thing as sharp and volatile as any blade, would not allow her to stand by and watch a comrade commit suicide.

  She stomped her foot on the dusty ground, the impact creating a small, almost imperceptible ripple.

  "Did you not see?! By a mere punch, he sent Ran Ji flying into a cliff wall!" Her arm leaned all the way back, her body coiling with the explosive tension of a professional pitcher winding up for a fastball.

  "I'll get the kill this time, not you!"

  With a sharp, whip-like motion, she threw.

  The stolen bandit's dagger was a sliver of hurtling steel, a glint of moonlight that spun with lethal precision towards the thick, exposed neck of the captain.

  "Fucking eat shit, you old man!" she screamed, the words a blade in themselves.

  "You think you can just get away with all of this?! DIE!"

  The captain’s entire focus was on the charging Re Jui, a worthy opponent to crush.

  He felt, rather than saw, the flicker of movement in his peripheral vision.

  It was far too late. The dagger buried itself deep into the side of his neck with a wet, tearing sound.

  "N-ngh!" A hot gush of blood erupted from the wound, and his grip on the massive bat went slack.

  The heavy weapon fell to the ground with a dull, heavy thud.

  He had forgotten. In the heat of his rage, in the thrill of the fight, he had forgotten that he was not invincible.

  He had forgotten that in a battle for survival, there is no such luxury as a fair fight.

  "You dare drop your guard against me?!"

  Re Jui roared, his voice filled with a savage, triumphant pride.

  He saw his opening, the fatal error, and he seized it.

  "I can't wait to see if you'll smile again, now that you've courted your own death! You bastard!"

  He swung his longsword in a wide, vicious curve.

  The blade was like a paintbrush coated in crimson, the man’s chest a canvas he found profoundly ugly.

  It connected, carving a deep, bloody furrow through flesh and tattoo. "FUCK!"

  The captain stumbled back, his hands flying up to clutch at his gushing neck and bleeding chest.

  He ripped the dagger free with a guttural roar of pain and defiance, his eyes blazing.

  "You fucking cowards," he rasped, blood bubbling at his lips.

  "Backstabbing… using cheap tactics… you sons of bitc—"

  His curse was cut short.

  Re Jui was on him again, a blur of silver-grey, his longsword now aimed for the head.

  "I'll split your head in two!" he bellowed, his voice ringing with aristocratic fury. "And I will hang it upon my family's walls!"

  From across the clearing, Mi Shui snatched two more daggers from a fallen bandit.

  "Tch, that Ran Ji is so useless," she muttered with contempt, her gaze flicking to his still form.

  "To think he'd be knocked out by a single punch."

  She began to run, eager to join in the kill.

  And finally, Ming Mei, who had been frozen in a state of horrified shock, steeled herself.

  "I can't just stand by," she thought, her guilt a sharp stone in her gut.

  "They've all suffered injuries because I couldn't kill that bandit… I hesitated. If only I was brave, he wouldn't have woken up."

  She gazed at Ran Ji’s disheveled form, a fierce resolve hardening her heart.

  "I don't know if I can kill him… but I'll give my very all. This time, I'll strike with all I've got!"

  Near the cliff face, Ran Ji trembled, his hands shakily pushing against the cold, hard earth.

  The pain in his chest was a universe of shattered glass.

  "H-Hahh… Hahh…" he panted, his glare fixed on the captain’s staggering form.

  This man is far too strong… I will gladly kill him, but first… I must be able to stand… I don't want to be on the sidelines!

  "You think you can take me?!" the captain roared as Re Jui leaped into the air, his blade a descending arc of death. His hand shot out.

  "You're the one who has to step back and think if you can ever face me!"

  Re Jui swung his blade downward, aiming to cleave the man's skull.

  Only to be met by a hand. The captain caught the blade.

  "W-what!" Re Jui gasped, his momentum coming to a dead, impossible halt. He pushed downwards, the sharp edge biting deep into the captain’s palm, blood gushing freely, but the man merely grit his teeth, his grip a vise of iron and bone.

  "Y-you!" Re Jui shouted, but before he could get another word out, the captain pulled him in close, using the impaled blade as a lever. With extreme, brutal force, he slammed his forehead into Re Jui’s.

  CRACK!

  The sound was like a melon splitting.

  A starburst of white-hot agony exploded behind Re Jui's eyes, and he was sent crashing to the floor, his longsword clattering from his numb fingers as the world dissolved into a swimming, nauseating darkness.

  His vision was a swimming, nauseating blur. Re Jui could feel the rough, pebbled ground of the hillside against his cheek, his hands lying uselessly at his sides.

  His head throbbed with a deep, cavernous ache, the force of the captain’s blow still echoing in his skull.

  "I feel so… dizzy." The silhouette of the captain was a wobbly, indistinct shape, blurring in and out of focus.

  "I… I failed," he whispered, the words a bitter taste in his mouth.

  "I couldn't stop him… I'm too weak." He felt his eyes, each weighing a hundred tons, being pulled shut by an irresistible force, an eternal slumber beckoning him.

  He knew, with a chilling certainty, that if he accepted this embrace, he would never escape from it.

  "It feels nice," a traitorous part of his mind murmured.

  "I could just… enter this sleep." He let out a soft breath.

  Time seemed to have frozen, the world stuck in a standstill, waiting for him to make his choice.

  "Should… I keep going? Should I force myself awake, stand… once again?" But the hands of exhaustion pushing him down were strong, impossibly strong.

  "I want to… give up. I want to… sleep." One eye slid shut, a testament to his fleeting will.

  The sharp, frantic crunch of boots on gravel broke the spell.

  "We can't let them die, Sister Mi Shui!" Ming Mei’s voice was a desperate cry, etched with a guilt so profound it was almost a physical thing.

  Her comrades were at the brink of death, and in her heart, she knew it was all her fault.

  Mi Shui glared at her, her face a mask of anger and grim frustration.

  "You don't think I know that already?! Tch!" A cruel, pragmatic smile touched her lips.

  "He's already closer to death than we are. That's good." She gestured with her chin towards the hulking captain.

  "We just have to keep going and hope those two sleepy bastards wake up! Be ready, Mei! Or else we'll all die here!"

  Mei nodded, her fear burned away by a fierce, protective resolve.

  She watched the captain, standing tall and bleeding, steam rising from his powerful muscles in the cool night air.

  "To think… such a man could still stand like that," she whispered.

  "It's quite frightening." She bit her lip until she tasted blood.

  Could she handle it? The question was irrelevant.

  "No," she thought, her knuckles turning white as she clenched her fists.

  "It matters not what I think. I must do this. Those two… they're my friends now! I'll protect them, even… even if my life is on the line!"

  She had to see Bi Kan again, to show him how strong she’d become, but that future was a fragile dream.

  This duty, right here, was a harsh reality.

  "He can take it. My fists. I'll make sure he gets a wonderful taste of my palm!"

  Across the clearing, near the cracked cliff face, Ran Ji saw it all. He watched Re Jui fighting a silent battle with oblivion, and he saw the two girls preparing for their final,

  desperate stand. "I hope… you keep fighting, Re Jui," he rasped, his voice thick with pain.

  "You've been a great leader." He steeled himself, his hands pushing against the cold, hard earth. He forced himself to his knees, then, with a guttural roar that was more pain than sound, he pushed himself to his feet.

  His knees screamed, threatening to buckle, but he locked them in place.

  "N-Ngh… even if it hurts, stand up… just like me." His eyes, blazing with a silent contempt, tore into the captain's back.

  His daggers were a world away, dropped in the initial, brutal exchange.

  "I'm far too fragile, is that it…?" he mused, a small, bloody smile forming on his face.

  He threaded his hands forward, his body slowly sinking into a new, unfamiliar stance. It was an incomplete art, a technique he had barely begun to grasp, one meant for the tempered body of an Inner Disciple.

  But he had no other choice. "Hooh… okay."

  His hands flattened, his fingers held rigid like blades.

  He imagined the day when he was like the Elders, capable of manifesting pure Qi blades from his very will.

  But for now, his meridians and his hardened nails would have to do.

  "Hahh… Hahh… Though incomplete and brash, I'll still pull through." A faint, dangerous glint of green light shone in his eyes.

  "Graving Briar-Point."

  Re Jui, his one open eye now weighed down by a thousand pounds, decided to wait.

  He wanted to accept the darkness, but he would not go blind. He would wait until his vision cleared, until he could have one last look at this world before it all fell away.

  "I want to… have one last look," he thought, "before I give in… before everything… falls."

  Slowly, painstakingly, the swimming blurs began to resolve into sharp, terrible lines.

  "Hah… hah… let me see you, one last time, you bastard." His vision finally cleared.

  The captain stood before him, a monument of bleeding flesh and furious steam.

  A dagger wound gushed from his neck, a deep scar marked his chest, his shoulder was a ruin of torn muscle, and his hand was a mangled mess from where he had caught the blade.

  And yet, he stood. A tired but unbroken titan who would, without a doubt, annihilate them all.

  "In the next life," Re Jui thought, a profound, weary peace settling over him, "I'll be better. I'll get you… destroy you. But now, I must… go."

  His vision slowly darkened, the last vestiges of light receding as his eyelid finally, irrevocably, closed.

  "I'll soar through the heavens next time."