Chapter 15 #8
“Acceptable. Though I much look forward to Xun Lan’s performance to lighten our evening and bring pleasure to the court, I fear his question does way heavily upon all our hearts, seeing as we only desire the best for our future protectorate.
So, in the interest of easing our hearts and minds before the performance, I, too, am curious to know if the miraculous retrieval of a Bronze or better tier Water or Ice core would be sufficient to win your approval and heart, honored Princess Sunlay? ”
Sunlay stiffened at those words, and for the first time, it was her father who spoke.
“Should any hero of our fair city successfully claim such a magnificent prize, then I can think of no greater dowry for my eldest child’s hand.
” He flashed his stricken daughter a gentle smile.
“And the moment such a stone is secured and our sacred fall roars with vibrancy and life-giving sustenance once more, then that is the day I myself would be willing to formalize their betrothal.”
His eyebrows narrowed in warning. “Though it shall be with the understanding that her future husband would give his oath to treat my daughter with respect and care and never deliberately cause or allow to be caused any harm to her person or immediate family. Nor do anything or deliberately allow anything to be done that might ensure any sudden… abdications.” He flashed a humorless smile before continuing.
“Such a man would indeed earn the right to be my son-in-law, though may his foundation crack and crumble to a mortal’s despair, should he ever break his binding oath. ”
The entire court grew silent as the magnitude of the crown prince’s words sank in.
He truly was offering his kingdom to whoever would secure their waters, showing just how incredibly priceless Water and Ice cores had become.
Of course, there were caveats. Said son-in-law would indeed inherit the keys to the kingdom, so long as he treated Sunlay like a wife, not a tool, caused her no harm, and did nothing to hasten the king’s own demise.
And somehow Alex didn’t doubt that the man had the power to enforce an oath so binding that even the deepest Silver’s foundation would crack, should they deliberately violate it.
Still, it was almost a given that Wanshi would immediately become Dongfang Hong’s protectorate, should one of his pawns secure that prize and Sunlay’s hand.
Yet the look of stricken horror on Sunlay’s face made it clear that even her father’s attempts to ensure her independence and safety had done little to soften the blow.
Though she was still royal enough to freeze her features to an icy enigma, giving absolutely nothing away, save for that first momentary flash of dismay.
The king’s words were clearly enough for the diplomat.
“Well said, Your Grace. Spoken with the prudence and forethought we’ve come to expect from a ruler as wise and capable as yourself!
And we have no doubt at all that dear Princess Sunlay will know nothing but love and adoration in her future husband’s arms.” He smiled in satisfaction before nodding to his lackey.
“Well, Xun Lan? Let’s not keep our fine friends waiting.
Put on a show worthy of this august court! ”
The courtier gave Alex a cold smile after the pair stepped into the space cleared in the center of the court, where musicians and several dancers had been performing just a short time before. “Are you prepared to die now, you pathetic excuse for a cultivator?”
Rachel’s eyes widened when Xun Lan drew his blade. “Wait, why is he permitted live steel? My husband is unarm—”
“Bleed for our pleasure!” Xun Lan roared, drowning out Rachel’s protest, darting forward with his jian flicking through the air in a dizzying series of moulinets before lashing out with a flurry of whipping crosscuts.
The crowd gasped and applauded when first blood was drawn, Xun Lan’s features taking on a wicked cast when Alex’s lifeblood splattered upon the finely polished marble floor tiles.
Left forearm has been struck thrice with fencing jian! You have suffered 25 damage. Vitality check made! You have suffered no significant impairment.
Prismatic Fox Restoration in effect! Blood loss stabilized. Baseline regeneration in effect.
You welcome the pain!
And it was true, Alex thought, for all that his forearm burned with the hot sting of steel ripping through flesh.
The wounds were less deep than his opponent might have been expecting.
Of course, Alex knew to expect nothing less than to bleed, refusing to summon his elemental shields, parrying with nothing more than his forearm.
Xun Lan mocked him with cold laughter. “I fear it will be a short duel if you don’t show yourself worthy of your contemptuous arrogance! Come, fool. Put up a fight worthy of our audience!”
Even as he goaded Alex, Xun Lan lunged forward with a blistering series of crosscuts once more.
Alex couldn’t help but smile, his eyes glittering with at least as much wild delight as his opponent.
For no matter his ideals and aspirations or the quiet storybook slice-of-life he so often promised himself he’d pursue...
he never felt more alive than when he was embracing mortal peril, fiercely determined to grow, to excel at all costs.
Such as now, bracing himself against his foe’s fearsome killing intent.
The malevolence behind Xun Lan’s showman’s smile.
Knowing damn well that his foe was going for lightning-fast whipping slashes and not lunges because he wanted to draw out the fight.
No doubt because an instant kill with a lunge to Alex’s heart would earn Sunlay derisive looks, when Alex was armed with nothing but his fists.
But a fight where he teased and taunted, slicing his foe a dozen times with plenty of time to cry yield…
until the moment the mercenary Alex pretended to be chose to roar his outrage and charge forward.
At which point, a single, clean stop-thrust to the chest would seem as much an act of prudent defense as a cold-blooded kill.
That, no doubt, was how this courtier thought to win over his audience and put the so-called commoner cultivators in their place.
Alex couldn’t help smiling, sensing his opponent’s intentions just as he was slowly learning to sense his foe’s weakness and the flow of Qi through strained meridians, and Alex was happy to play along.
You have successfully parried your opponent’s barrage! Forearm takes the brunt of countered strikes.
You have suffered 3 additional Light Wounds.
Find Weakness skill check: Success! You sense the brittleness behind your foe’s strength. You sense flaws within his technique!
Soul Sight Perception check: Partial success! You sense the corruption of past lives. You begin to feel the weight of the storm!
His opponent’s cold smirk turned into a derisive sneer. “Is that all you have to show, mongrel? A bloody soon-to-be stump of a wrist?”
Alex made sure to keep his features stoic and cold, befitting the role of implacable defender that Nili’s guise painted him as, utterly impervious to the man’s taunts and goading.
Focusing only on the feel of the dance between them, Alex did all he could to embrace this pristine moment of mortal peril to ascend in ways last mastered a lifetime ago as he honed his focus, his discipline, on the whetstone of Xun Lan’s bitter killing intent.
So he endured the constant biting sting of an exquisitely light spring-steel blade wielded by a man whose strength was in the upper reaches of Bronze, his Quickness befitting the assassin he no doubt was when not goading for political advantage, having already crested past Silver Rank 1, Alex judging him to be just a half-step away from Silver Rank 2.
It might have been a fool’s gambit to hone himself against such an opponent, armed with just his bare arms when enchanted live steel was scoring his flesh.
Constantly.
Even when the blade bit deep, far deeper than Alex had intended, as he struggled to find his internal balance and embrace both wind, water, and the storm that he was now a part of in ways that would allow him to ward even these infuriating attacks.
Xun Lan sneered and spat, scoring wounds that sought to cripple, for all that the steel had no hope of cleaving through prismatic bone or the ligaments that secured his frame.
Yet there was no denying that his mocking foe was holding back no longer, trying to tease him no longer, his silken doublet and leggings now spattered with Alex’s lifeblood, as was the tiled marble tiled floor.
“Enough of this, fool!” Xun Lan snarled. “If you can do nothing but hold up your arm like a brainless coolly, then you deserve to die like the low-class trash you are!”
Rachel Lu’s anxious cry echoed through the chamber as Xun Lan quit holding back, flicking his blade at Alex’s face before lunging in for the kill.
And that was when Alex felt it, the frisson of connection between himself and his prey.
No longer were the waves teasing the prow of the ship with spray.
Now the waves were crashing in earnest, and Alex found it effortless to steer the prow of Xun Lan’s killing intent into the storm.
Sensing the waves part effortlessly to either side, just as effortless as it had been to swipe away a forest of killing blows with a wave of his hand.
Rachel wasn’t the only one to gasp when a surprised-looking Xun Lan found himself lurching forward, his blade sliding along the pristine stormy sheath of liquid covering Alex’s left arm as Alex embraced the dance of the elements he had striven so hard to master, the storm of Qi flowing through him making it effortless to lever the jian aside and send his foe careening to the ground, deflecting the man’s overextended thrust just as well or perhaps even better than White Crane once had, a lifetime ago.
You have successfully parried Killing Blow using the power of the storm!