40 – Duel With a Devil
This... really should not have been possible. When was the last time a qi blade had had the strength and sharpness to not only cut through one of his specters, but to kill it outright? The man was stronger than Kiri wanted to admit, certainly, but only someone nearing the Spiritual Realm in power should have been able to shred an incorporeal being so utterly.
His sightless gaze fixated on the broad beast of a sword the foreigner wielded. It was made entirely of his qi, from the tip all the way to the pommel. This was, in itself, nothing too special. Most cultivators, once they went beyond being novices, could fashion their qi into weapons and armour stronger than any mortal steel.
But this energy... this was different. It blazed like a cauldron of molten iron, and there was something in the metal of his sword that went beyond just qi. It was... malevolent, almost, a miasma that bled from the man and threaded through his power. He was no ordinary cultivator. No ordinary man...
And, now that he got a better look at the man, there was something just wrong about him on a fundamental level. Something in the constitution of his being, unlike any Kiri had sensed before. He'd thought it was just because the man was a westerner but now... now he wasn't so sure.
He weaved from a slash a fraction of a second too slow and the burning edge nicked his shoulder, slicing into the waxy flesh beneath and leaving a tract of blackened flesh behind. The yokai snarled and leaped away, the flesh scalding and aching even as his own qi knit the wound shut.
More swings came Kiri's way, his massive foe pressing through the spikes of darkness that sprouted up and stung his flesh. They dug in enough to slice his dense flesh, but the stranger healed just as quickly as the wounds appeared and scarcely noticed them beyond a grimace.
Even as a specter caught him in the ribs, teeth struggling but eventually breaking the skin, the man's blazing eyes were singularly focused on Kiri.
And the yokai would admit to being impressed. And also slightly... afraid?
No, no of course not. An absurd notion. He crushed the feeling before it could properly take root.
He hissed as the stranger's blade bit his hip in a glancing blow, clearly intended to sever him at the trunk, more glancing blows striking his body and bringing with them flashes of white hot pain. Hat qi, whatever it was, stung something fierce. He promptly leaped back to put some distance between himself and the westerner.
Fear, he told himself, was foolish. No yokai would fear a mortal cultivator, no matter how strong. Caution, on the other hand, was far more reasonable. And this human warranted a little extra caution.
Shrouded Arts: Spatial Curtain.
A miasma of darkness rose up around him as a bubble, twisting and contorting the space around it. And as the darkness faded that distortion in space remained, an invisible field of molded and condensed reality laden with his own qi. His spatial field had only been broken once before, an impervious defence otherwise. Kiri grinned as the burning blade swung forth... And thudded to a halt in the air.
Well, this was annoying. I stared at my broadsword, the blade embedded in thin air and otherwise unmoving. I set my jaw tight, pressing my arms forth. But while the ground shook from my strength, my blade moved no further.
"How's that, hm?" the yokai mocked.
Shadows rose up at my feet, and a flurry of black needles sprang up to puncture my legs. The pain ran up my body in white hot jolts, enough to pull a sharp gasp from me, my spine briefly locking up on me.
"My Spatial Curtain is a rather... unfair technique, I'll admit. A thin layer of molded space, sculpted by my qi. Arrows halt against it, fists and blades are held tight by it, even energy attacks fizzle and die. But you strike me as a man with some understanding of reality, I'm sure you know that only fools think there's fairness in any fight."
"Aye," I admitted.
A toothy maw snapped toward me and sank into my right shoulder, kicking up small spurts of blood. Stung, but I'd had worse. And I had the impression the stupid thing was as stuck as I was, trying the failing to pry his jaws from me.
"Honour is one of those things humans like to prattle on about. It must sound nice, on paper, but... all that really matters is winning or losing. And though it irks me to have to use this technique of mine, that qi of yours has a nasty bite to it. And I'd rather not feel it again. I'm sure you understand."
He raised his right hand, a bony finger aimed my way. Darkness smoked on that thin digit and then spewed forth as a focused beam of magicka that struck my chest, a burning and grinding spear that sought to carve a path through me. I set my brow tight, hissing from the pain. Things could leave through that curtain of his, but not go through. Wizards and their damned magic shields.
"Oh my," Kiri said, fighting a chuckle. "You seem troubled. Does it hurt that much? I've only gotten started."
"Just... focusing."
"Focusing? On the pain?" he asked, amused.
"No. On... this." My sword blazed white hot from tip to crossguard, the immense heat of it lighting up the dark forest. Kiri recoiled and gradually a wound of scalding red hot air began to take shape around my embedded sword.
His jaw hung low. "No, this is... how are you..."
I grit my teeth, forcing my way through the pain that scalded my limbs and chest, and felt the blaze of Chaos swell inside of me. I was a little out of practice, I'll admit. It had been a long time since I really pushed myself, and so the power was slow and lethargic in initially rising. But, once awoken, it surged forth at a rising speed that made the burning scar broaden in Kiri's barrier. The blade started to move, pushing through with more and more ease.
"This can't-" Red hot air rushed into his barrier through the widening opening, and Kiri sucked in an anguished gasp as the heat blasted him with the roar of an opening furnace.
Then, with a final wrenching jerk of my arms that had the cords flaring in my neck, I sliced through the barrier. It shattered apart in a flash of fire, and the blast wave tore forth like an enraged tide. A stretch of the woodland was instantly flattened, replaced with a crater of smoking black ash, and Kiri had been smashed to the farthest end of it.
Much of his robe had been scorched, revealing gnarled skin that was struggling to heal from the intensity of the impact. Still, I was impressed. Thought for sure that would have been an end to it, but that magic curtain must have soaked up much of the impact in its death throes.
He rose, groaning, as I stepped from the shattering remnants of his shadow constructs. My wounds were healing, blood crusting on the outside, but the sting lanced up my legs with every step. But I had felt worse. I had survived worse. And I was getting mad now, so damn mad that the Old Stranger himself wouldn’t be able to stop me from working out some anger on the scrawny bastard.
"Nobody should be able to just... That qi of yours... what are you?" Kiri was forcing himself to his feet, blackened chunks of flesh falling from his body to make way for the regenerating new meat.
I pressed my free hand to the scorched wound in my chest, felt the flesh writhe beneath. "A man who really wanted to be left alone."
I saw the fear on his face plain enough as I took my next swing, his pale jaw hanging open. But Kiri sprang back quickly, avoiding a blow that sawed a deep scar in the soil.
"You're strong, I'll admit that. Few humans have ever... ever broken that technique," he admitted, his voice ragged and breathless. But... do not think that means you've beaten m-"
His voice vanished into a sharp yelp, the blazing edge of my sword barely missing his collarbone. Kiri's counter was swift, a coil of darkness exploding from his fist and ramming into me. I skidded back, grunted, but it lacked the prior punch he'd packed when we started.
There was a snarl as Smoke struck him from behind, claws tearing his back open, and the yokai yowled as he was sent stumbling forward.
More blows struck him, Smoke bounding too and fro with impressive speed, and Kiri struggled sluggishly to hit back. Occasionally I stepped in with a blow of my own, scoring strikes that were slow to regenerate.
More spikes of darkness sprouted from the earth, some of them spearing me or grazing Smoke. But I was past the point of dodging or blocking. I just took them head on. And Smoke, for his part, endured with only the occasional growl or hiss.
My hand swept forth and caught Kiri's wrist with stone crushing force, his bones grinding together from the pressure.
"Wait-"
I lifted and swung him about as a flail, smashing his slim weight into the ground hard enough to fracture it. Then I swung him again and again, each blow harder than the last, kicking up great clouds of ash from the scorched earth.
He was built tough, for how skinny he was, but his shouts and cries made it clear he was far from unbreakable. And I could feel him struggling, vainly, in a bid to break free.
Kiri's other hand swiped out, desperate, and the flat of it hewed through his elbow with shocking strength and speed. His body was flung loose, trailing spirals of dark blood, and he crashed into a ridge of risen earth a few paces from me.
I stared blankly at the severed arm in my grasp. "Huh." Even for me, that was a new one.
Still, as Kiri rose to his feet, I could see flesh and bone rising up from the wound to replace that which he had lost. "Monstrosity," he hissed. "Even compared to me, you're a beast."
"No doubt," I replied. "But I'm aiming to be better."
The eyeless man sneered at me. "Aiming to be better... What a fool you are."
The arm in my grasp bulged, waxy grey flesh turning pitch black before the while thing exploded in a spray of needles. I hissed, recoiling, black shards puncturing me all over.
By the time the worst of it had passed, and I could open my eyes again, Kiri was aloft in the air astride a swirling torrent of mist, and immense gales battered against me to buckle the ground under my feet. "I won't forget this," he snarled. "Nor will my kin. You'll pay for this humiliation, of that you can be certain!"
I took a step forward, the shadowy needles evaporating away. But Kiri was already airborne, rocketing into the distance under the light of the full moon.
I sighed. It would probably bite me in the rear later but I really was in no mood to chase him.
"Father!" Smoke said, halting beside me. Parts if his fur were matted with blood, but he'd gotten no lasting injuries. "He's getting away!"
"I know," I said, nodding. “Let him go. He’s not worth the effort. Let’s go back to the camp and catch some sleep. Then we can head for home come dawn...”