Re Jui’s body was calming down, a dangerous and seductive peace settling over him.

  His eyes slowly shut, the world a distant, fading memory.

  He had promised himself that he would be grand in his next life, he was finally accepting that this… this was the best he could do in this one.

  Then, a faint sound.

  A scuff of a boot, the whisper of fabric in the wind. It was right in front of him.

  His closing eyelids stopped their descent, the weight upon them suddenly becoming lighter.

  His right eye, a sliver of defiance against the encroaching darkness, slowly rose.

  "What's that sound… no, who's this… in front of me…" His vision, a swimming blur, focused on the backside of Mi Shui, her hands gripping her daggers, her stance a solid, unyielding wall between him and the captain.

  "M-Mi Shui…" he thought, his strategic mind, even in its shattered state, screaming at the futility of it all.

  They had a better chance of running, of living to fight another day.

  His hand, trembling and weak, reached out, his fingers grasping the worn leather of her boot.

  "S-Shui…" His voice was a coarse, dry rasp, as if he had just woken from a century of sleep.

  His body trembled, not from cold, but from the raw adrenaline that was the only thing keeping his spirit tethered to his broken body.

  "F-Flee… while you can," he sputtered, a cough racking his frame.

  "He's weakened," he spat, his grip tightening on her ankle.

  "He's not dumb enough to chase all of you down…"

  Mi Shui turned her head slightly, her gaze meeting his, a mixture of fiery determination and raw frustration in her eyes.

  "And leave you all behind? Do I look like some scum that abandons her fellow disciples?"

  Re Jui’s face scrunched up, his teeth gritting against a fresh wave of pain.

  "No… No… you don't… get it! We'll all die if you stay! At least live… and avenge me later in life!"

  He heaved, his chest a burning agony, his head throbbing with an unimaginable pressure.

  "T-the pain is far too much…" he thought, before his fingers dug into her boot once more.

  "Please… Mi Shui! Don't… die… in vain!" His eyes shot wide, his other one finally snapping open as he saw Ran Ji, his body a battered ruin, somehow pushing himself to his feet, his hands already forming the beginnings of a desperate technique.

  "R-Ran Ji…"

  Mi Shui grinned, a fierce, almost feral expression.

  "Can't you see? Even that bastard's still standing." She chuckled, a short, sharp sound that was more grit than humor.

  Re Jui’s lips trembled. He too wanted to stand, to fight, but the impact to his head had sent a ripple of chaos through his meridians, a paralyzing disruption to his nerves. But then, a shout cut through the tense air.

  "I can't just stand idly by! I will do it!"

  She exploded from her position, her feet pounding against the earth.

  At the last moment, the pavement cracked beneath the force of her launch, and she shot forward like an arrow released from a master’s bow.

  The captain’s peripheral vision caught the blur of motion.

  "You think… you can contest me… girl?!" He grit his teeth, reeling his fist back before snapping it forward in a brutal, straightforward punch.

  "Let's strike, little girl! Your hand will tremble and shatter! Let me hear your cries!"

  His fist slid through empty air. His eyes widened.

  This girl wasn't meeting his strength with her own.

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  "W-Wha-!" She had slipped under his guard, a ghost in his defenses.

  Her palm was already leaned all the way back, her entire body a coiled spring of power.

  "S-Sister Ming Mei!" Re Jui shouted, the name a ragged prayer.

  Mei’s glare was absolute. She put every ounce of her frustration, her guilt, and her desperate resolve into this one, perfect bloom.

  She threw the shot.

  WHUMP!

  Her palm connected with the captain’s face, the impact a deep, concussive blast that sent a gust of wind and dust billowing outwards.

  The man was lifted from his feet, sent flying several feet to land in a crumpled heap.

  Re Jui watched, his heart hammering, as the captain placed his bloody hands on the ground, pushing himself up.

  "N-Not yet," Re Jui whispered, a new, impossible fire igniting in his own shattered body.

  "In this life… I'll soar… through the heavens, along with all of you!"

  Mei landed lightly, her hand trembling, the skin over her knuckles split and bleeding.

  "His face… felt like I was hitting a steel wall with spikes," she breathed, gritting her teeth against the pain.

  "That won't be enough, won't it…?"

  The Captain stood tall, his face a swollen, bruised ruin, a fresh trickle of blood snaking down from his hairline.

  "A puny little girl… like you…!" he roared, his voice thick with disbelief and rage.

  Mi Shui grinned, preparing another fast, two-dagger throw. "Yes," she taunted, her voice a sharp, cutting blade.

  "A puny girl like her!"

  The daggers didn't slip, they were an extension of Mi Shui’s will.

  she launched them, two slivers of steel that spun through the air like living, hungry things, glinting in the pale moonlight.

  The distance was shorter now, her aim more precise, her intent absolute.

  "I'll take your eyes now, you meathead!" she grinned, the expression a fierce, almost feral slash on her face.

  The captain, on his last legs and bleeding from a dozen wounds, roared in defiance.

  He was tired, the accumulated damage a crushing weight on his Body Tempering frame.

  A one-on-one fight, he would have won. Four-on-one, against these tenacious, backstabbing cowards? He was being bled dry.

  "D-dang it," he bellowed, his voice thick with a rage that was beginning to curdle into despair.

  "You lecherous scum! How can you call yourselves righteous sect members!"

  He didn't have the speed to dodge.

  He made a sacrifice. His hands shot up, twin shields of flesh and bone.

  The daggers struck home with a wet, tearing sound.

  "NGH!" A guttural grunt of pure agony was ripped from his throat as the blades pierced his palms, pinning flesh to bone.

  His eyes, already bloodshot, widened in torment.

  Blood dripped from his trembling, impaled hands.

  He didn't have the strength or the focus to pull the daggers free.

  His gaze, burning with a final, desperate fury, locked onto the two girls. They were the only ones left standing, the only ones capable.

  He would not die without taking one of them with him.

  He launched himself from his spot, a blur of motion born from the very last of his reserves.

  In a split second, he had closed the distance, his hulking frame appearing before Mi Shui as if summoned from a nightmare.

  "W-Wha—" Mi Shui’s blood ran cold.

  The air was stolen from her lungs. She had no time to move, no time to even raise a defense.

  The speed was impossible.

  She had time for one, single, lucid thought that screamed through the panic:

  If that hits, I’m not just dead. I’m a smear on the ground. A vegetable. A mindless, drooling thing for the rest of my pathetic life.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, a final, silent surrender to the inevitable.

  "I won't die," the captain roared, his voice a ragged promise as he drew back his fist,

  "without taking at least one of you with me towards the next life!" The air itself seemed to ripple as his knuckles rushed towards Mi Shui’s face.

  "N-No!" Re Jui’s voice was a shredded ruin from the ground, his hand reaching out uselessly.

  A sound, sharp and concussive as a thunderclap, shattered the moment.

  Mi Shui opened her eyes. The world hadn't ended. Instead, she saw the captain’s head snapped violently to the side, his neck contorting at an unnatural angle.

  Ming Mei stood there, her own palm still smoking slightly from the sheer force of the impact, her expression a mask of cold, hard resolve.

  "Blooming Lilac Palm!" she shouted.

  She didn't give him a moment to recover.

  "Blooming Lilac Barrage!" It was a storm of strikes, a rapid-fire battery of eight palm heels that hammered against his forearms as he instinctively brought them up to block.

  Each impact was a deep, resonant thud, forcing him back step by agonizing step.

  "G-Ghr…!"

  But as the captain focused all his might on blocking the girl's assault, another shadow emerged from his blind spot.

  "Graving Briar-Point!" Ran Ji’s voice was a broken rasp, but his eyes blazed with a manic, triumphant light.

  His hand, fingers held rigid like a spearhead, plunged into the captain’s side, piercing through muscle and finding purchase deep within. It was an incomplete, desperate technique, but it was deadly.

  "G-gahkk!" The captain spat a mouthful of blood, the liquid spattering across Ming Mei’s robes.

  "H-Hahaha!" Ran Ji coughed, blood and laughter mingling in a gruesome spray as he hung from the captain's side.

  "Got… you…"

  "ENOUGH!" the captain roared, a sound of pure, world-ending fury. He brought his impaled hands down, smashing them into the earth.

  The daggers, driven deeper by the impact, sent a fresh wave of agony through him, but he didn't care. A shockwave of pure, desperate force erupted outwards.

  Ran Ji was flung away like a broken doll, tumbling through the dust to land in a heap, out of commission once again.

  But Ming Mei did not falter.

  She planted her feet, her small frame an unshakeable mountain against the tide of force.

  She settled back into her stance, her gaze fixed on the bleeding, staggering titan before her.

  "No," she declared, her voice ringing with a cold, hard clarity that cut through the chaos.

  "It's not enough. You must lay down. Let my comrades finish this before it's ever enough!"