Mana 5 Chapter 18 (Patreon)

Aurora looked like she wasn’t too sure, but Mei was bouncing all over.

“Yes! Let him play. You already have tokens for him, and we are only a few rounds into the new game.” Mei grabbed a set of wooden miniatures for me.

They were far less impressive than their own miniatures, each formed from their own mana. Green, gold, purple, and blue figures dotted the sandbox, which was divided into four quadrants.

I looked down at the pieces in my hands. They were perfect replicas of the ones I had played with her, once upon a time.

“Okay, it’s been a while. Tell me the rules.” I sat down with the figurines, placing myself between Mei and Aurora’s spots.

Aurora paused before coming back over to sit at her spot. “You’ll be an invading force. These pieces are worth one, these five and this one ten. You can attack them in groups like this.” She moved the pieces around. “Larger value wins and shaves off the difference of the opponent.” She assigned point values for each of the different figurines and began explaining how we went about moving them along the sand box.

It wasn’t a terribly clear set of rules, and they seemed to morph a bit depending on several factors, but I had to remind myself they were made up by a five-year-old child.

I couldn’t believe Aurora had made my random play into an actual game.

“Okay, I think I get it. Now, what do I win?”

“Sexual favors with Master!” Mei bounced once before realizing her error. “Uh… I mean sexual favors from us?”

“And what do you win?” I asked Mei, since she seemed most excited about the game.

She fanned out a number of white cards with ‘IOU’ written on the back and held them in front of her face so that her eyes were peeking above them. “I’m going to make Aurora lose, and she’ll owe me. I want her to be spit roasted between you and me.”

“You know that’s normally two men and one woman.” I was skeptical of Mei knowing what she was asking for.

“I can make do. Worst case, I just shove her face between my legs.” Mei huffed at my correction.

I chuckled, but the slight frown Quinn gave me made me stop. They took The Game very seriously, and I didn’t want them to think I was teasing them.

Aurora spoke up, breaking the moment. “Be careful. That alliance you have with Quinn right now is looking pretty tenuous.” Aurora tried to tease Mei. “Besides, Lumi might just sweep in after and take us all out.”

“Bold words for someone who is going to lose.” Mei narrowed her eyes, looking over the cards. “Looser owes the winner an IOU. If it isn’t me, I’ll make sure you owe someone.”

“Let’s get this show going.” Lumi urged impatiently.

I settled in and started the game off cautiously. So far, it seemed the game was more a game of politics between the girls as they bantered on and openly made deals with each other.

As we played, my units faded back as theirs dominated the sandbox. Eventually, Quinn and Mei caught the majority of Aurora’s forces in a brutal pincer attack.

But then Lumi came from the side, and Aurora acted as if she was really the one pincering Quinn.

It became a race to see who could do the most damage, leaving Mei and Lumi mostly whole.

My wooden figures moved into place between Aurora and Quinn, attacking them both equally.

“That’s no fair, Master.” She looked at the others, a wicked smile on her face. “We should gang up on him.” Aurora tried to negotiate herself out of being attacked.

“Sure, after we finish you off.” The smile dropped from Aurora’s face as Mei made her move. “Ha! Got another one.”

“Master, save me!” Aurora tried a different tactic, turning and pushing her breasts together as she batted her eyelashes at me.

“That’s cheating!” Mei threw her hands in the air before she grabbed my arm and shoved it into her cleavage. “Master, don’t you want to save me instead?”

I looked over at Aurora. “You know, I did just hear you trying to get them to gang up against me.” She threw her hands up, giving up on trying to seduce me.

Scanning over the board, “Besides, I intend to win this whole thing.” I declared, swiftly taking a piece from both Aurora and Mei in the same turn.

“Maybe we should take him out.” Lumi narrowed her eyes at me playfully as her tail twitched behind her. “He is a veteran at this game, after all.”

Quinn pushed forward with her own turn, grinding away at Aurora’s forces. “You’ll not distract me that easily. I refuse to lose.”

“But if you lose, that means the master might win and get an IOU from you.” Mei tapped her lips. “Although that is sort of like winning.”

All of my mana beasts paused mid play or mid scheme.

Aurora frowned before waving it off. “No, that’s still losing. I refuse to lose, even if it is to Master.” She pushed her pieces forward, dealing a devastating blow to Quinn and finally taking her ten point piece. “Ha! Take that stinky dragon.”

Quinn bit her lip in frustration. The way the game was playing out, she would be the one to lose. She only had a few pieces left in the game. But light shined in her eyes as she moved her pieces erratically.

“You can’t do that!” Aurora pointed to a piece.

“It’s technically downhill, so I get increased movement.” Quinn pointed to the contours of the sandbox, which I’m not entirely sure were set up on purpose.

“She’s right.” Mei and Lumi agreed with Quinn’s move before Aurora looked at me for help.

I held my hands up. “This is my first time. But it looks like those pieces were on a hill, and that’s the rules.”

Now Aurora was in the hot seat as Quinn whittled away the last of her defenses around her own ten point piece. And Mei would get a turn before she had a chance to reset her defenses.

As predicted, Mei swooped in with her own pieces and cleaned up the last of Aurora’s. Then Quinn fell to Lumi on her next turn.

Now the game was narrowed down to myself, Mei and Lumi. All three of us were rather unscathed.

“Mei, we should go after master together. Then, we fight it out at the end. Deal?”

“Deal.” Mei shook Lumi’s hand over the sandbox.

“Hey, don’t just gang up on me like that.” I moved my pieces, trying to reduce the length of my defensive line despite having two opponents.

Aurora blew a raspberry at me. “Should have thought of that before you teamed up with them to go after me.”

“That’s the game, isn’t it? This is pretty fun.” I said, even as my pieces were being whittled down. Lumi was far more aggressive with her pieces, and I had to take the easy kills.

As a result, Mei had a clear advantage once I was down, and she pushed Lumi to the edge of the sandbox. Lumi tried to fight back, but she only had small victories.

“Yay.” Mei jumped up and down, her tails twirling behind her after she took Lumi’s last piece. “Aurora, you owe me an IOU to be spit roasted between Master and I.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” I joked, but they all looked at me questioningly.

“You have a problem with it?” Quinn asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Well… no. Not at all.” I guess if they wanted to play for sexual favors like this, then I was all game. “So what now?”

“Want to play again?” Aurora asked, mischief in her eyes.

“Sure.” Taking the bait, I set my pieces back up, just as they all did.

Aurora cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “We all go for master, then we can fight for his IOU among ourselves.”

“An IOU from Master?” Mei’s eyes went wide, and she turned to me excitedly. “Yes, let’s gang up on Master.”

“Now wait a minute.” I tried, realizing my mistake too late in agreeing so quickly. But Lumi just smiled, ignoring my protest as she took her turn, racing her units across the sandbox to pin me in the corner.

Quinn was right behind her. “Sorry, Master, but some things are too valuable to pass up when the opportunity arises.”

Like that, I was swiftly crushed in a four on one match as the girls' tokens pinned me in the corner and ground my army to dust.

After I was out, they turned on each other like a pack of wild animals. Aggressively, they tore each other's armies apart, until Lumi won.

“I won! Master’s IOU.” She looked at me excitedly, her tail wagging behind her as she blushed and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I want an IOU for an hour of slow, cuddly sex with lots of petting.”

Inside the shared soul space, it wasn’t difficult to use a small amount of mana crystals to form the card and tuck it carefully into Lumi’s hands.

She checked the wording and nodded to herself before putting it in her bra.

“Hey, what’s on it?” Aurora popped over Lumi’s shoulder, then tried to reach into her bra to dislodge the card.

Lumi swatted her away. “None of your business, nosy Kunpeng.”

Aurora didn’t give up. She started groping Lumi as the two of them went down in a tumble. Soon, Lumi was on her back squirming while being tickled by an unrelenting Aurora.

“Should we stop them?” I asked Quinn.

“Na. Lumi can handle herself. Want to play another while they are distracted?” Quinn started putting her own figurines in the sandbox.

Mei and I joined her. The act of starting a new game brought the other two to a quick resolution. They didn’t want to miss out on the chance to take me for another IOU.

Luckily, this time they didn’t all gang up on me. I was able to talk Lumi into a deal and take Mei down first. But then I lost once again as Aurora got her revenge on Mei.

***

I wasn’t sure how long we played that night, but I had given out at least five IOUs before I needed to wake up the next morning. The girls may have once been reluctant to share the game with me, but now that they were getting IOUs from me, they seemed much more excited about me joining. I was starting to think I was getting hustled.

When I left my soul palace and returned to my body in the shard, it was the next day. I continued with the Biji Family, picking our way through the broken terrain towards the tomb. Overall, the trip was relatively uneventful. It wasn’t until what I thought was mid-day that we came upon a massive crater with the tomb resting at the bottom.

The sky was dotted with stars, and only a faint light separated the daytime from the pitch black of night.

“There it is.” Mu put his foot up on a rock and leaned over the crater lip to get a better look at what was going on below. “And we’re late to the party. Perfect.”

I joined up at the edge and noticed the gathering of people below. “What are they doing?”

“Waiting.” Mu smiled. “Let’s go see what the fuss is about.” He jumped into the crater and slid down the side.

Following him, I rode down the side with my hands in my sleeves, landing at the bottom among several hundred cultivators. They were all standing around a massive door.

“Ah, the Biji family.” An extraordinarily large man turned to see Mu and company. His gold robes and the dragon insignia gave me a hint as to who he might be, but the draconic aura coming off him was a dead giveaway.

This was someone from the Jin family.

His eyes flitted to me, but I suppressed my bloodlines, wary of showing off my gold dragon or my heavenly dragon blood.

He patted the door. The noise it made sounded like a gong. “It’s sealed up tight, but the Biji family are the perfect people to help.” He praised them in front of everyone.

The gathered crowd of cultivators all turned to listen to what Mu had to say.

Mu stepped up to the door and then looked instead to the brazier at that side, stooping down and running his finger along the inside lip. “All who wish to claim the power of the living flame must first prove they can rise above the ashes. Monsters made with drops of dried blood roam the land. Extinguish them all and light the braziers once more with phoenix blood to proceed.”

Mu stood up from where he’d found the small engraving. “Seems simple enough. Sounds like we need to gather all the cores from the ash beasts and plop them in here. Shouldn’t be too hard, Tian Jin.” He used the large man’s name.

Tian Jin grunted and turned to the people behind him. “Gather the cores we found and drop them in the brazier, then go hunting for more.”

“Yes, sir.” They saluted and in an orderly manner, dropped off their stones before moving out.

Tian Jin then addressed the rest of us gathered. “Since there is no challenge here that requires bloodshed, let’s all make this easy and deposit the stones you’ve collected.”

Mu returned to the group and shook his head. “Shame, this one’s a bit boring. I like when there’s a bit of a bloodbath, helps narrow down the people after the additional treasures.”

I followed his lead, dropping in my stones, as did many others, under the scrutiny of Tian Jin. His eyes squinted at me as I dropped mine in.

“You aren’t Biji.”

“No, I’m not.” I agreed. “Fell in with them after escaping an ambush.”

That, luckily, seemed to satisfy Tian Jin. He nodded and turned his attention elsewhere. The last thing I needed was another enemy.

I noticed the group at the bottom of the crater was growing as others came down the sides. Apparently, many had avoided getting too close before it was determined if bloodshed was required.

I quickly tried to hide myself among the crowd as I noticed the Leon and Yutu family among them.

Ming led her people down, strutting forward proudly with her spear as a walking stick. “Tian Jin. Good to see you again.” She called out.

“Ming Feng. I heard rumors that some people had it out for you.” His eyes turned to look at the Yutu family.

“If it wasn’t for that damned freak, we’d have succeeded.” Jade Yutu ground her teeth in anger. “Where the hell did you find him, Ming Feng?”

Ming either didn’t know where I was, or she was playing stupid. “Find who? There’s a freak among my people?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Jade Yutu walked up to Ming. It was humorous to watch, given how much shorter Jade was than Ming. “The man that was with you. Who is he?”

“You should ask him. I’m sure he’ll turn up again.” Ming gave Jade a bitchy smile.

I kept myself low, trying to make myself as unassuming as possible.

Mu noticed. “Are they talking about you?”

“They may be.” I let out a nervous chuckle. While downplaying it to him, I was certain they were talking about me. And I didn’t especially appreciate being called a freak.

“Jade, was this man able to fight you?” Tian Jin asked. “They would be among the top ten here if they were.”

She waved off his question. “I didn’t go all out.”

“He managed to fight you, me and Yanjing to a standstill.” Lee Leon joined the conversation. “He might even be able to compete among the top five.”

Tian Jin turned back to Ming. “It seems you brought a dark horse with you. Hopefully, he makes it here in time.”

I smiled. If only they knew that there was more than one dark horse in the shard. My wives had yet to show what they could do.

Looking over at my beautiful women, I hated that I couldn’t go to them. I needed to stay under the radar. It was not the time to make myself obvious.

Nobody was fighting at the moment, but the tension was still high. The tomb entrance at the bottom of the crater felt like a powder keg ready to blow.

There were too many competitive young masters in one place; it was a miracle there hadn’t been a single duel yet.

“Either way, we are gathering all the stones from the ash beasts into these two braziers. That’s what we need to move forward. I sent my men off to hunt down the rest. Everyone who just joined us, deposit your stones.” Tian Jin demanded.

I couldn’t help but notice that he sent all of his people away, yet stood alone and remained overbearing among the best of the fifth ring in the entire immortal world.

Pulling on Mu’s sleeve, I got his attention. “What’s this about the top five, top ten?”

Mu blinked his eyes in surprise before answering. “Everyone knows this, but the ancient families often rank each other based on martial prowess in their generation. Right now, Tian Jin is number one, with Yi Long as number two and Ming Feng as three.”

“What about Jade Yutu?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

“She’s seventh, with Lee at eight and YanJing Zhi at ten.” He answered quickly. I was surprised it was so clear cut. It was as if I’d asked him the most obvious question in the world.

I frowned. Yanjing had actually felt more powerful than the other two.

“Don’t think on it too hard. The chances for them to compete directly are slim, so they are just estimates.”

“The top ten ancient families dominate the top ten for their generation?” I asked.

“Pretty much. The fifth rank takes so much cultivation skill and resources that they have an inherent advantage. In the earlier ranks, it is more convoluted.”

Ming was at the brazier now, glaring at Tian Jin. “If I put my stones in, how are we deciding the order we enter?”

Tian Jin stared down at Ming. “Whoever contributes the most can go first. How does that sound?”

Ming gave a sharp, satisfied nod before turning her hand over the brazier and dumping out a huge mound of the stones. “Good. Then I’ll go first.”

“We’ll see.” Tian Jin turned to watch another group approach. “Yi Long. How goes your hunt for the ash beasts?”

“Great.” Yi Long cut the line and dumped a mound even bigger than Ming’s into the brazier. “Overheard the order.” Looking at the comparison, he smiled. “Guess I go first.”

Ming clenched her jaw and glared at the two men. Both radiated the power of draconic bloodline. From what I understood, the Long family was the azure dragon, where the Jin family was the gold dragon.

They also happened to be number one and two of the cultivators present.

It was all making more sense. They both would lose that prestige, if Ming claimed the phoenix essence blood. I knew that they would block Ming if they could, even if they weren’t outright stopping her like the Yutu, Leon and Zhi families.