Losing Battle

Mia and Emily began their first battle to the death.

Either they would kill these Sub-Kanjus or they would be forced to kill themselves unless they wanted to suffer untold humiliation by these rowdy magical beasts.

They had wanted to defeat these magical beasts then quickly rush to help Yeon. He was facing a beast an entire realm above him and was in a much greater danger than the two of them.

But despite their wishes, it was devolving into a battle of attrition.

The magical beasts were exactly that at the end of the day. They were beasts. Their intellect grew as they evolved but they were still only level 0 magical beasts.

They didn't have enough teamwork to properly make use of their numbers, and the duo didn't have enough power or skill to defeat them while outnumbered.

Yeon had told them on the way down the mountain that if this scenario came about, that they should wait until he returns.

They wanted to ask how he would defeat a foe in a higher realm than himself, but they kept their mouths shut. They needed to trust him.

If he said he could do it, then he would do it.

They had no choice but to believe him because they would die if he failed to hold the Kanju off at least until they could go help him.

'Damn it!' Mia screamed internally.

Although Yeon had viewed Mia to be more talented, in this situation it was her that was struggling the most.

Mia's combat was more suited to fighting alone like Yeon. She much preferred to dodge incoming attacks and make use of counterattacks to deal damage rather than fighting aggressively like Emily.

But the problem was that her battle style was too passive in a situation where they didn't hold the upper hand. It was impossible to counterattack every single time, especially if there were multiple attacks at the same time.

She could choose to use her superior footwork to slither past these attacks but then the pressure would be moved to Emily. This wouldn't be an issue if they fought at a distance, but they had to stick close together so that one of them wouldn't be isolated against all four enemies at the same time.

Mia would be able to change her fighting style to match the more aggressive style of Emily and not lose her prowess in the future, but as of now, she couldn't.

She had been practising different battle styles during this past month, but she was still naturally inclined to her own style. She simply didn't have the experience yet.

*CLANG*

Mia's sword struck the Sub-Kanju's sharp claws, but she didn't manage to cut them off. Instead of pushing through with its attacks and risk losing its natural weapon, the beast retracted its arms.

It didn't need to fight in such a desperate manner, it moved out the way to make room for the beast behind him.

Before she could regain herself, another pair of claws were drawing rapidly towards her neck. The Sub-Kanju that had been waiting behind the one she repelled instantly attacked her without giving her room to breathe.

Mia rapidly dipped her legs and twisted her shoulder to the right as she imitated Yeon's boxer slip maneuverer but-

'Emily!'

In the heat of the moment, her body had reacted before she could understand the consequences of her actions. Emily was fighting her own battle just behind her and if she dodged this, it would be her who suffered.

She awkwardly raised her sword to fend off those eager hands but had to sacrifice her balance to do so.

The eyes of the Sub-Kanju gleamed with excitement as it recognized Mia's weakness and quickly whipped its lanky arm towards her torso.

Mia tried to raise her sword to defend but she was too slow as she felt those long nails ripping through her robe and digging into her soft flesh.

Mia grimaced in pain, and she had no choice but to retreat before the Sub-Kanju ripped through her to expose her organs.

She held down her urge to scream at the intense searing she felt with pure will-power. Although she had been cut, it felt as if her entire stomach area had been scorched in a burning pain.

*Thud*

She bumped into the back of Emily who luckily wasn't in the midst of swinging her sword.

"Mia! Are you okay!" Emily shouted in surprise.

She felt her arms shaking as it struggled against the beast whose hands were locked against her sword trying to push her back.

She spared a fraction of a second to glace at Mia and was stunned to see her state.

There were numerous tiny rips in her robes that exposed to her fair skin and quite a few of those exposed areas were dyed with her blood where the Sub-Kanjus' claws had managed to dig into her skin and not just her clothes.

Although Emily herself was also injured, it wasn't to the extent of Mia. She was literally covered in blood and her breathing was laboured.

But the deep gash that had just formed around her belly area was spilling blood at an alarming rate.

"Mia, your healing pill!"

Mia listened to her friend and quickly popped a small brown bead into her mouth. She felt the qi contained within the pill quickly spread throughout her body from her mouth where it dissolved rapidly.

'That's the last one…'

Mia's smaller cuts that were present around her body slowly began to close up but the largest cut in her torso was still bleeding out faintly.

She could feel her store of qi in her dantian empty out rapidly as her body healed. The pill she ate was the most expensive and powerful pill she had on her, a rare grade healing pill.

But the medicinal herbs used to create the pill weren't miraculous enough that it could heal all her wounds instantly and her body still needed to use some of its own qi to help in the healing effect.

Emily mustered up all her strength to push away the magical beast and quickly stood protectively in front of Mia until the healing effect of the pill finished and all her wounds finally closed.

Healing pills couldn't replenish the lost blood and vitality of the cultivator. This meant that even with an unlimited supply of pills, it would be difficult for Mia to continue fighting if she were to get heavily inured again.

Her huge drop in stamina would prove fatal in this fight as her slower reaction times and clumsy movements would be immediately exploited by the bloodthirsty Sub-Kanjus.

The four Sub-Kanjus were also injured where Mia or Emily had managed to slice past their thick fur, but it was only Mia who had suffered a potentially lethal wound in this fight.

When the beasts were pressured or about to suffer a serious wound, they would immediately retreat. Their partner would then send an attack from the sides, forcing the girls to either sacrifice themselves and continue their final blow or retreat and defend.

As frustrated as they were, they could never fight in such a manner where they exchanged attacks since they would be the ones to lose first.

They prowled around the girls, their beady black eyes squinting deviously as they smirked. They had always held the upper hand during this exchange and they were confident in their victory.

"Can you keep fighting, Mia?" Emily asked anxiously.

Her face was covered by her veil, but her brows were visibly wrinkled as she ran through their possible options.

"I'm.. fine…" Mia responded through her pants. She had lost too much stamina during their exchanges, and the constant use of healing pills as well as the mental fatigue that had built up during their trek down the mountain was piling up.

"…" Emily didn't respond but she could tell that Mia was struggling immensely.

'We're being too static and allowing them to surround us. We can't let them face us individually as pairs…'

"Mia, follow closely behind me and follow my lead."

Mia didn't reply but simply nodded, she was too tired to reply and wanted to conserve her energy as much as possible.

"Don't focus on dealing damage," She instructed Mia.

This was their first endurance type battle as well as the first fight where they were outnumbered. It was impressive that they had managed to hold out this long when they were learning how to tackle this situation on the fly.

Yeon had told them to 'divide and conquer' but Emily realized that they didn't have enough skill to carry out the 'conquer' part of the plan. Instead, she decided to focus solely on the 'divide'.

But this meant that they were essentially giving up on defeating these beasts and therefore helping Yeon in his fight. He would have no choice but to follow through with his words and kill the level 1 magical beast by himself.

'I'm sorry Yeon. It seems like all I can do is keep these beasts at bay. Mia wanted to fight with you, but this is the best we can do…'

"Instead of counterattacking or trying to deal damage, we're going to push them onto each other and keep circling around them. We'll be acting to immobilize them using their numbers…"

Mia was silent for a while as she imagined what Emily was suggesting.

She had to admit that this battle was much more difficult than she had imagined. She wanted to help Yeon with all her heart but understood that this was a safer plan.

But it was a plan that had a fatal flaw.

Their survival would fall completely on his hands.

'So you do trust him after all…'

It was a completely irrational belief that he would somehow kill the Kanju and then be healthy enough to return and help them.

Mia smiled softly at her friend.

She looked at her tattered robe and dishevelled hair stick to her sweaty back.

Compared to her normal elegant appearance, her blood-stained appearance looked much more rough and raw. But to Mia, her small back was as grand as an opulent palace and more dignified than any saint.

It felt like just yesterday when the same back had protected her from her childhood bullies, boldly stepping into her life.

Mia was drawn out of her thoughts as she heard Emily's instructions.

"To the left… Now!"

Emily couldn't even spare Mia a look behind her and could only blindly trust that Mia was following along. If she loosened up her guard for even a second, those beastly tyrants would have assaulted her immediately.

Emily swung her sword horizontally at the leftmost Sub-Kanju. It was fast enough that the Sub-Kanju couldn't parry it to the side but slow enough that it could easily block it.

The magical beast did exactly that, sneering at Emily's attack which was weaker than before. It assumed that her endurance had finally fallen through after this extensive battle and was already convinced of its victory.

Emily smirked back at the beast before holding the blade of her sword with her left hand and using it to apply a powerful push knocking the arrogant beast backwards.

Following this timing, Mia shot out from behind Emily using her swift footwork to strike at the beast, guiding its forced retreat towards its partner next to it.

They stumbled into each other and were now vulnerable.

But instead of continuing their offensive, the girls quickly circled round to face the other two Sub-Kanjus who were confused by what had just happened.

This time, Emily's expert swordsmanship was enough to lead the beast to stumble onto its partner as it retreated in fright.

"Emi!" Mia couldn't help but exclaim.

Her muscles were burning and her bones ached in pain, but her mind tired mind was in a frenzy. Emily's idea was working!

The pressure they had to face rapidly decreased as they continued to circle around the infuriated magical beasts.

Their feet were in constant motion as they looped around the beasts, keeping them contained, preventing their lanky arms from fully swinging.

Their rapid exchanges continued, now a struggle between the girls trying to keep them contained in their cage of flashing metal and these imprisoned creatures desperately trying to break free.

But even with their change in strategy, the wounds on the girls kept piling up as their exhausted minds made increasingly more mistakes.

'Yeon, where are you…'