Death-Grip

Suzhen shuddered. She raised desperate eyes to Fahai. "Why must you force me?" she cried out suddenly in anguish. "Can you not go on your way and leave us to live happily like we did before you came? I have never hurt you. Why must you do this to me?"

Fahai looked wonderingly at her. "You still don't understand. You are an intelligent demoness, but your emotions have made you wilful. You and Physician Xu should never have been together."

"What makes you qualified to decide that?" Suzhen whispered. "Why should you part us?"

"You know why, in your own heart," he replied simply. "You should never have followed him down the mountain."

Silently he held out the alms bowl. "Will you give yourself up?"

Suzhen stared at it, every line in her body stiff and rigid. She raised her eyes slowly to meet his. Her voice, when she finally spoke, was low and level.

"Will you force me to? I might have to kill you."

Fahai let his breath go in a barely audible sigh. He lowered the alms bowl and slowly replaced it into his garments. "I am disappointed. But not surprised. Like so many of your kind, you must still resort to violence in the end."

Suzhen was pale but her eyes were bright and hard. She lifted her hands, channeling the energy around them. Always, in her heart, since she had first seen the monk, she had known that one day they would face each other in battle. It was inevitable. She braced herself.

Fahai raised his arms, slowly and steadily placing them before him in a defensive posture. He sucked in a deep, even breath and felt the energy tingling down his meridian lines like electricity. Bai Suzhen was no ordinary demoness. He knew that much from the aura she gave off. He was grimly aware that there was an even chance he might not step away from this fight alive, and he was prepared for it.

Without warning, she sprang.

Fahai leaped aside, smoothly avoiding the blow she hurled at him, and his fists swung up rapidly as Suzhen whirled round to face him. He felt the power of her strike stinging his cheek as it rushed past him, like a warning to stay on guard. Every moment could mean his death.

He warded off the second blow but the sheer strength of it forced him backwards, skidding through the snow. Catching his balance, he dug his foot firmly into the ground, scattering the layer of snow so that the black, frozen dirt lay exposed.

Drawing a deep breath, he looked up to see Suzhen running towards him, her feet skimming across the ground so rapidly they barely seemed to touch it.

He closed with her and their arms flashed as they fought hand-to-hand to break past each other's defences. Suzhen's hands twisted rapidly, striving to drive home a blow, but always Fahai's hands were there to deflect it. She was forced backwards several paces in the process until she realized what was happening and broke free, vaulting off the ground and landing onto the bare branches of the tree behind them. Without missing a beat Fahai followed suit, his dark robes licking at the air as he leaped after her. Instantly Suzhen lashed out with stiffened fingers, slicing through the branch he was standing on.

He heard the crack, and even before it broke beneath his feet he had already leaped upwards and alighted on another branch.

A shower of severed branches rained down on the snow as Suzhen cut them off under him, as rapidly as he found a new foothold. Fahai realized she had him at her mercy, and let himself plummet downwards instead of seeking another branch. But as he fell, he seized advantage of the low angle he was at to shoot a bolt of energy at her, hitting her full on the chest.

Her arm leaped up to block him, a moment too late.

He landed on the ground and sprang back, barely avoiding the shot she sent after him. It tore into the earth, leaving a hole that gaped black and ragged in the white snow.

Suzhen staggered, feeling a nauseous jolt of pain. She quickly unleashed a last blow that made the monk spring backwards, and seized the chance to leap off the tree.

As she hit the ground she felt the pain shoot blindingly throughout her body, and she gasped involuntarily. Gathering herself together, she swung round to see the monk coming towards her, his palms twisting against each other as he generated the energy for his attack.

She had to beat him. Or she would die in the snowy wilderness and Xuxian would never know. Perhaps he would think the demon that killed Zheng Haoran had killed her.

A sudden memory of Minglan, the beautiful tiger spirit, flashed across her mind. Had she felt like this too?

Suzhen steadied herself, pushing the pain from her mind. As Fahai advanced she waited till the last possible moment, and then flung herself seemingly right into his path, only to curve neatly under his arm with one of her adroit twists of body. With a sharp, smooth turn she righted herself and brought her hand up in a savage chop, striking him twice rapidly across the back of his shoulders.

Fahai staggered and whirled round, as Suzhen sprang into the air and hurled three successive bolts at him. The monk's knees buckled and he barely managed to stay upright.

Encouraged, Suzhen attacked him desperately, forcing him to retreat. Fahai had all he could do to deal with the fury of her assault.

The air pulsed with their blows as they struggled in the snow, but Suzhen was gaining the upper hand. She hovered in the air, avoiding the ground whenever she could, knowing the soft snow here hid an uneven ground that could prove fatal in a fight with stakes like this.

Fahai realized too late when the earth gave way unexpectedly under his foot. He righted himself instantly, using his qinggong to keep himself above the air, but that moment of delay was enough for Suzhen.

The next thing he knew, there was a gaping rent across the chest of his robe, and he felt himself hit the ground at the same moment the bright blood leaped to the surface. Suzhen's energy caught him about the throat in a death-grip before he could break free, and he felt the air leave his lungs as she clenched her fist.

"You should not have forced me," she whispered through clenched teeth.

He looked up, panting, to see her white, livid face and the blood smeared on her shaking fingers as she tightened the grasp around his neck.

Fahai smiled, though his lips were gray. He had never once lost his composure. "So this is how it ends." he managed to say. "Well, I accept my fate."

The breath fluttered in his throat. "Kill me."