Chapter Two hundred thirteen (Patreon)

Kaz and Li returned to Raff, following the trail of char left by the salamander’s passage. Along the way, they encountered another of the beasts, a little larger than the first, and dispatched it as well. Kaz dug out its core, but strangely, he felt no urge to eat it. His body was still cycling the ki from the first core, gradually turning it from ‘other’ to ‘ours’, and something in him knew it was too soon for more. He tucked it into his pouch and went on.

Raff was surrounded by a pile of corpses so high that he had to leap over them when he saw Kaz and Li. He wasn’t wearing his armor, and his cloth pants were in tatters, revealing reddened patches on his skin. There were no living salamanders visible nearby, so Kaz jumped down from the roof and ran over to crouch down in front of the human. Reaching out, he passed ki into the angry spots, and they faded almost instantly, blue power quickly turning to gray mana that sank into Raff’s flesh.

Raff sighed in relief, flicking blood from his blade. As always, it almost seemed to clean itself, leaving a gleaming edge that looked as if it was freshly sharpened. “You sure are handy t’have around, Blue,” Raff said, though his eyes didn’t stop scanning the shadows. “Sure y’ don’t wanna stay and join the Adamant Reach instead of haring off after Lianhua?”

Kaz stood, frowning. “I promised Lianhua I would help her.” Technically, he’d completed that part of his promise when Lianhua found proof that the missing Diushi court did indeed travel to his mountain after they disappeared from their empire. But he’d also promised to try to help Lianhua’s grandmother, and though that agreement hadn’t been witnessed by the mountain, he still wanted to make the attempt.

Raff chuckled, rolling his shoulders as they heard the telltale skitter of claws on stone. “That doesn’t mean y’have to spend the rest of your life helpin’ her. Or your little friend there.” He glanced up at Li as three more salamanders surged into sight.

<Mine,> Li said stubbornly as she dove toward a flaming lizard, distracting it long enough for Kaz to fling a bolt of pure black ki that stabbed through its eye.

Yours, he agreed silently, then, tentatively, Mine.

They fought silently for a few moments, as Kaz felt her struggle with this. She had said it herself, but it was very un-dragonlike to admit that she belonged to him as much as he belonged to her. Still, her voice was filled with determination and truth when she finally said, <Yours.>

More salamanders fell, and then came a surge of smaller reptiles filled with mana instead of ki. They were strong and tough, but they didn’t create fire, so Raff loaned Kaz a long knife to kill them with. That was easy enough, but a few of them did manage to sneak up on Kaz, thanks to the fact that they didn’t glow with power the same way the salamanders did.

Then came the hunters. Most of them were humans, but there were also a few members of those other races Kaz had seen in the tournament den. Some of them ran through, saw Raff and Kaz - Li hid herself - and then left again without a word. A few others lingered for a while, but soon saw that there was no need for them and left again.

After the third one of these, there was a lull, and Raff sighed, flicking his blade clean again. Kaz took the opportunity to heal the fresh burn marks on Raff’s arms and legs, then said, “Who are all these people? Are they members of the Cliffcross tribe, even though not all are human?”

Raff shrugged. “There are a few dwarves and elves in the mercenary groups, but nah, my guess is these folks’re mostly here for the tournament. They’re out helpin’ because they get to keep the cores from their kills, and a lot of the little critters from incursions have cores. Way more than any other kind of beast, anyway. Some people even go out hunting incursions on nights of no moon. Good money in it. If you don’t die.”

These last words were dry as dust, and Kaz looked around at the piles of bodies lying around them. Cores still glowed in many of them, since Kaz hadn’t had time to gather them, and he wondered what these would be worth to humans. He would far rather eat them, but since humans couldn’t do that, he supposed it was reasonable to trade them instead. Even if he was trading for gold, which would then be traded in turn for something he could actually use. It was a ridiculous system, though.

They all looked up as they heard the distinctive sound of armored feet running toward them. Li dove toward the nearest roof, flattening herself against it, as a pair of particularly short humans emerged from between two buildings to their left. The one in front had a wild look on his - her? - face, and as they ran by, that one shrieked, “Run! There are too many!”

Then they were gone again, and what looked like a massive horde of mixed salamanders and tough lizards appeared, surging like a wave through the same gap the humans had come from. Raff growled, lifting his sword and settling into a ready stance, looking truly worried for the first time since the battle began.

“Damned kids,” he muttered. “Don’t bite off more than you can chew and then dump it on someone else.” He looked over at Kaz and smiled grimly. “If I say run, run. But if we don’t at least thin this out, everyone who lives nearby is dead.”

Kaz nodded, hefting his knife. Both he and Li were short on water ki, but otherwise they were fine. He was definitely producing a lot more wood ki than he had before interacting with the Tree, so in spite of healing a few minor burns caused by the salamanders’ dense fire ki, he still had more stored in his central meridian.

They had fallen into a pattern over the last - how long had it been? - where Kaz took the smaller mana-lizards, and Raff sliced into the salamanders, since his height and the length of his weapon let him stay away from the worst of the fire. This time, however, there were too many, and both males quickly found themselves surrounded.

The only good news, if it could be called that, was that most of the beasts stayed to attack them, rather than continuing after the fleeing pair. That meant those two should be safe, at least for now, as should the people huddling inside their wood and stone huts, hoping their homes weren’t about to be destroyed.

Reluctantly, Kaz raised a shield around himself. It required a great deal of ki, and absently he thought that if he survived, he needed to draw a better shield, instead of using Lianhua’s runes. Perhaps he should imagine something like a jiachin shell? That wouldn’t keep out gasses and spores, though, so-

<Kaz!>

He looked up as something dove toward him, and barely managed to open his shield in time to allow Li through. The dragon almost missed his shoulder, barely managing to catch and hold the heavy cloth of his outer robe. One of her wings was burned, the delicate skin between the slender bones seared and stretched.

Kaz fell back, lifting his hand to push a desperate flood of blue ki into the damaged flesh. “What happened?” he asked. “You were fine just a moment ago.”

Li’s head swayed on her long neck, and she looked dazed. <I went to see how many of them there were. There’s a big one coming!> She sent him a picture of something like a salamander, but also like one of the little mana-lizards. Except that this one was taller than the highest human hut Kaz had seen. It walked upright, and fire vomited from its mouth in a stream. Smaller maws gaped from its shoulders and palms, snapping at anything that came near, including its smaller brethren.

Most importantly, however, were the humans fighting it. These weren’t the individuals or even small groups Kaz had seen before. These wore matching armor much like Raff had when Kaz met him, and they worked in unison, some attacking while others protected.

Kaz struck down another mana-lizard just before it impacted his shield. “Is it coming this way?”

Li wrapped her tail around his throat and shoulders, stretching her wing gingerly. <They’ll be here soon.>

Kaz shoved two more lizards back into a salamander, causing them to shriek as they impacted burning flesh. He’d discovered that this was a good way to weaken both them and the salamanders, who always snapped at the mana-lizards, leading to at least a brief battle between the lizards. The things definitely weren’t smart, nor did they work together, which made them unpredictable, but also easier to pick off.

“Raff!” he called, and though the big male didn’t look away from the salamander he’d just spitted on his blade, Kaz could tell he was paying attention. “Li says something big is coming.”

Raff skewered one more salamander, then shook both bodies off his blade before looking toward the distant castle. The bells were still going off, but their sound had shifted. “Pellis’ festerin’ fundament, Blue. No wonder there are suddenly so many of the things. Time to go. The center of the attack has moved south, which is where we are. Not a good spot to be, unless you got another fifty kobold buddies you forgot to tell me about.”

Kaz shook his head, taking a few steps in the same direction the two humans had run earlier. Now that he was out of the mountain, his sense of direction was no longer as helpful as it had been. He knew exactly where the mountain was, and thought he always would, but he could no longer tell precisely how to get back to where he had been, other than by using landmarks. It was a disorienting feeling.

“I don’t know where the tournament hut is,” he admitted as he kicked a lizard, desperately wishing he still had his long claws. Instead of disemboweling it, he only managed to flip it over onto its back. Admittedly, that did allow him to stab it, but it would have been better to kill it with one movement, rather than two.

Raff spun, slicing through a salamander who had just leaped from a nearby roof. Kaz looked up, seeing that there were several more ready to jump. “Follow me, then, an’ don’t fall behind.”

Something else blurred through the sky above the roofline. Chunks of salamander and mana-lizard alike sprayed out as Chi Yincang’s weapon swirled through the air. The male came to rest, black hair and robes nearly merging with the blank emptiness of the sky. One hand rested lightly on the edge of the roof, while his blade dripped gore to the street below.

“Stay,” he said, and jumped lightly down, landing gracefully on a single foot. His long weapon swept away several more creatures as they attacked, adding to the carnage surrounding them. Raff absently dispatched a few more as well, leaving Kaz feeling entirely unnecessary, which he honestly didn’t mind at all.

“Lady Lianhua is settled in the palace with Yingying. Yingtao,” he quickly corrected as his cheeks darkened. A small smile curved his lips as he went on, however. “Yingtao is much better, and glad to see that the lady is intact as well. I was sent to fight, in hopes of building trust with our… hosts.”

Raff snorted. “Not quite prisoners, then? It’ll do. Good t’know you’re all safe, but Blue an’ I need to be goin’. Not only is a large incursion too much for us, the folks who are fightin’ it are likely to know me.”

Chi Yincang inclined his head even as he sliced through a row of salamanders who were attempting to advance on the small group. “Well enough,” he said. “The lady will await you in two nights, at the appointed place.”

Raff nodded, kicking a writhing mana-lizard into a group of salamanders, which caused a small flurry of retaliatory bites and scratches. “Ah, y’might wanna let her know we’ve joined the tournament.”

One of Chi Yincang’s straight brows rose ever so slightly. It was as good as a shouted request for more information.

Raff shrugged and gave an insouciant grin. “Finding Jinn would be a trick. Havin’ her find us is better.”

They all whipped around as a nearby building exploded into burning rubble. Rising above the smoke and screams was the head of an enormous reptile, more fire shooting into the sky as an armored figure dove at it.

“That’s our cue,” Raff said, motioning to Kaz, who rested one hand on Li’s back, though her clinging tail should be more than enough to keep them together.

Chi Yincang nodded, saying nothing more before launching himself into the air in one of his impossible leaps, weapon blazing with ki as it spun. Kaz would have sworn there was actually a fierce smile on his face as he reached the top of his arc and began to descend.

Raff ran, not urgently, but at a swift, steady pace, and Kaz stayed close behind.