Battleground

All her opponents had still lined up around Kiyu like an impenetrable circle. Meanwhile, she had disarmed a dozen of her opponents and some had already had enough.

But in the end it was only a hot drop on the stone, because she still faced a superiority of opponents. For a moment she had considered grabbing one spear she had taken from the guards, but if she spent a second thought on it, it would do her more harm. After all, she never trained to fight with a weapon for armed combat.

'It is almost fun'

Kiyu let her focused gaze wander over her opponents.

'But I'd rather like to see them all giving up. But well, guess I'll have to deal with it for now.'

She herself didn't know when the fight would end, but she hoped Zhèngyi would show himself soon to signal her she could escape.

"Is that all?" she called out to the guards around her and again moved into fighting position.

Many of the guards had been hesitating all along. Individual opponents didn't stand a chance against her, they had understood that by now. Instead, a wave of enemies was now streaming towards them from all directions.

Kiyu had already expected something like this and used her body amplification to leap over the heads of her attackers in one bound. Not only had she bypassed the wave of attackers, but everyone else as well, landing just behind the last line of guards.

"Pleasant weather, isn't it?" she quipped, and followed that up by shoving a guard in front of her into the crowd with a good amount of force, before taking a few backward leaps away from the crowd.

'Where the hell are you, Zhèngyi?' It hadn't occurred to her until the fight that they hadn't even discussed the last part of the plan. Would Zhèngyi even come here to inform them? Kiyu could only assume that he noticed her dilemma regarding the lack of coordination as well, and would act according to their situation.

She, however, had now moved away from the center of the square in order not to be surrounded by her opponents once again. Although they had tried it again, Kiyu kept moving to move against the target of her opponents. She got into short quarrels with some men and women of the guard, but she ended them by avoiding the attacks and running on, or disarming her opponents.

What do you think, Cheryu? How am I doing?' That her chances weren't the best, she could tell for sure without his help, but he had more experience or knowledge for the situation she was in.

< Well. They'll run you down, but you know that yourself. > he explained. < I'm afraid you'll have to get rid of a few more opponents. >

'Seems quite like it. Playing around doesn't intimidate them.'

In the end, they couldn't help it. After all, it was Kiyu who was the evil one by attacking the marketplace, no matter her reasons for that. However, because of the circumstances, she didn't care. As long as it was conducive to the liberation of Laki, she would carry that burden and accept it.

"I guess it's time to release some more energy." she said, concentrating her power on her arms and hands.

Instead of running away as before, she now ran towards her opponents. She concentrated on the smaller groups of people so they couldn't circle and surprise her.

Dodging and disarming had been her tactic before, but now she changed it to dodging and beating. Any opponent who approached her carefree, she gave a broadside with her flat hand against the chests of her opponents, who flew several meters back through the air, before he crashed into a stall.

The noise in the marketplace grew louder and louder. Some guards shouted their orders. Here and there, there were battle cries or screams of pain. Total chaos had broken out, and Kiyu had to admit that it was hard to keep a proper overview anymore. She was alone and therefore at a disadvantage. The only area she still had halfway under control was the area around her body.

One opponent after the other fell victim to her attacks and soon she had reduced the number of combatable opponents to just under half.

But this effort also had its price.

She found it harder to breathe and her movements became rougher, but she couldn't let on that her strength wasn't enough.

"Don't act like that, men. Are you going to let a little girl defeat you?" shouted the captain of the group. "What kind of disgrace are you?"

'Seems like they won't give in until I defeat them all,' Kiyu sighed. It wasn't the outcome she was hoping for.

"Tānlán has already sent the Spiritformer off. So don't let her get away!"

For Kiyu, these words were bad news. She had already spent herself, though not completely, but she could not defeat the Spiritformer in the worst case. She didn't know his abilities, and for another, the opposing Spiritformer was still with his strength.

'I'm afraid it's getting serious.' Meanwhile, the remaining city guards had backed them into a corner. Giving up was not an option, but she had to figure out how to escape if necessary.

'I wonder if Zhèngyi has freed Laki by now?' If push came to shove, she would have to take the risk that he might still be in the middle of the liberation operation while she was retreating from the fight.

"What the hell is that?" Several of the opponents in front of her screamed out, and Kiyu couldn't figure out what was going on. People, in perfect health just a few moments before, were grabbing themselves other by the throat and coughing. A few moments later, foam came out of their mouths and they collapsed, gasping.

'What's going on here?' Unease spread through Kiyu and she didn't know what caused the collapse of her enemies.

< Your nose! > Cheryu instructed her.

Kiyu improved her sense of smell....

< Poison! > Cheryu warned her. < Inhale no more of it! >

But it was already too late. Kiyu had reacted as fast as possible, but a small amount had already spread through her body.

"Damn it," she snarled. She hadn't counted on having to use a lot of her strength for something like that.

Without loosing time she had removed herself from the poison's area of effect with a few jumps. But the sight of the marketplace was a disaster. All the soldiers had inhaled the poison, both the defeated ones and those who had encircled Kiyu.

"Oh my, some rude lumps must have harassed my prey," boasted an elderly woman who had entered the marketplace. "Impetuous men shouldn't interfere here, don't you think?" she asked, turning to Kiyu.

"You did this?" Kiyu asked in shock, realizing that this stranger had caused the chaos. "Are you the spiritformer? Why are you attacking your own people?"

The stranger's demeanor was intimidating, and that she made no distinction between friend or foe also worried Kiyu. How could anyone do such a cruel thing?

"So, little girl...." the stranger spoke. "From Spiritformer to Spiritformer. What do you say to my delightful gift? Impressive, isn't it?"

"Gift? You call poisoning people a gift?" roared Kiyu. No matter how much she was at odds with the city, just poisoning people was too much even for her. Especially since she held no grudge against the guards themselves, only against Tānlán.

'Now that he's let loose such a dangerous person, I like him even less,' was all she could think, and continued to concentrate on neutralizing the poison that was attacking her body from within.

"Amazing that you can still stand," she remarked. "You should have been kneeling on the floor after my first sentence, like all the other pathetic scum here," she declared without pity.

"But it seems you're at least some good." She strode toward Kiyu, kicking one man lying on the ground in the face with the heel of her high heel. "Take the little one as an example of how to be good, you filthy scum. Useless idiots!"

'How's it looking, Ryu?' asked Kiyu inside her, hoping for good news.

< The poison won't be able to do any more damage, but we have little energy left. > he replied. < You can't win this fight. >

"I see" she said, getting ready to fight.

"Oho? So you still have the strength to fight after your battle against all these scum here and my poison?" the woman in front of her asked with amusement.

"Well, then I, Siwang Mao, will put an end to your life," Siwang spoke. "But before that, I am interested in one thing... Why this riot here? What is the meaning behind all this?"