Duel among spiritformers

"Is the girl tired of life?" groaned some of the surrounding spectators of the spectacle.

"She dug her grave with that!" shouted some of the city guards who had been in the marketplace.

"Let's get out of here quick, or we're going to get it!" Many bystanders of the scene looked frightened by what could happen.

Kiyu could hear the panicked shouts and screams of the people standing around throughout the marketplace. Within seconds, there wasn't a single person who didn't know there would be trouble here at any moment.

"YOU LOWLY PEASANT DARE?" spat the downed Tānlán as he pressed his broken arm against his torso as if it would heal his arm or ease his pain.

Kiyu couldn't tell if the tears that had formed in his eyes were from pain or because the city administrator felt offended in his honor and worldview. She didn't care either. For people like him, she would feel no pity, shed no tears. If she had not accepted Cheryu's teachings, he would not even be alive anymore.

"Siwang!" he shouted even angrier than before, looking around to see where his escort had gone. "What are you doing there? You better take care of that scum!"

He himself had struggled to straighten up and had taken a few steps back.

Siwang hadn't seemed interested in all the commotion at first. Instead, she just had the finest silken fabric in her hands and was looking at it.

'I guess her clothes are more important to her than her mission, huh?', Kiyu concluded, wondering what was going on in that woman's mind. On the one hand, she seemed to be committed to that slimeball Tānlán, but on the other hand, she cared little about her assignment.

"Well, well, you know you should never interrupt a fine lady while she's shopping, right?" Siwang just put in annoyed and turned around. Her expression changed and a nasty smile flitted across her lips, which she licked with her tongue.

"Oh, look!" she exclaimed, letting a hint of feigned surprise resonate in her voice. "If it isn't the little girl from days before."

With slow steps, almost as if she had all the time in the world, she walked towards Kiyu, not even trying about it to hide her joy. "Well, now I can squash that little cockroach that got away from me."

Kiyu, however, looked at Siwang, not saying a word, and wiped her right hand from right to left, showing for her to move closer to the center of the square where the two had more space.

Siwang met the wayward gesture with a bitter smile. She was we a monster that had hunted its prey and was now ready for the death blow, but she followed Kiyu's instruction.

"So, I've complied with your request" she scoffed at Kiyu, who also moved to the center, but so far did nothing but stare at Kiyu. "What's next?"

Kiyu once again raised her hand in the air and waved it once, signaling Toras.

From fear through anger, all emotions cycled through her, but she couldn't let it distract her. It was in this very battle that her fate, or Siwang's, was at stake, and she had to do everything she could to make sure it would be Siwang's.

At her hand movements, a massive dome of plants that had wrapped itself around them surrounded both her and Siwang like a dense wall. Neither of them would escape until either Toras, who had erected this dome, would resolve it, or one of them could take care of this dome undisturbed.

Kiyu imagined that people outside the dome maybe screamed, confused or frightened by what was happening before their eyes. Also, Laki and Zhèngyi would without doubt have some questions. For example, why Toras had concealed his abilities, or why he was so strong.

But with this action, Kiyu cut herself off from the others. At least that was what Toras had assured her. The situation outside their duel she entrusted to the others.

For the two opponents inside, it meant only one thing: It was a duel until the end. Only the winner would determine when it was over.

But Siwang did not seem to be shocked. Not a single reaction to the appearance of the dome escaped her, not even a movement when the enormous amount of plants and tendrils shot out of the earth.

"So there's no running away this time?" she pondered, still not moving a bit. A moment later, she tilted her head. "I'm curious, how did you survive my poison?"

"Maybe you'll find out when you defeat me," Kiyu replied, unimpressed by her opponent's behavior so far, and took up her position of battle meditation. She felt no intentions to reveal anything to her opponent. "Ready when you are," she ended the conversation and reopened her eyes, which she now kept fixed on Siwang without pause.

"You must have created this dome to prevent poison from getting to the inhabitants, and also to prevent me from taking any of the people standing around hostage," Siwang said, shifting her weight onto her left foot, which she moved a step forward, "but you did me a great favor by doing so."

"This room here is airtight as far as possible!" she smiled, and without another warning let venom pour from her hands and mouth, which within a few seconds had filled the entire knoll.

"Don't worry," she sneered through the foggy cloud of poison that obscured the view, "it would be too bad if our brief encounter ended too soon after you cowardly ran off last time."

"The poison here is not lethal," Siwang explained. "Before I kill you, I'll play with you a little more and mess with your senses!"

Kiyu had inhaled a lot of air as a precaution before Siwang launched her attack. The impenetrable plant dome had been like this, so that she would have Siwang close to her even if her opponent poisoned her, and so that people would be safe.

'So her poison won't affect her herself,'

'My air won't last forever, so the poison will get me.'

But before that happened, she had to at least get close to Siwang so she could deal her a decisive blow.

"It's almost a little sad.", Siwang spoke, putting a hint of affected pity in her voice. "Almost dying for that redhead just to free her.... and now getting yourself killed, ahahaha!" Her arrogant laughter filtered through the dense poisonous fog to Kiyu, who had amplified her sense of hearing to determine the source.

Like a hunter, she stalked her prey, an unknowing Siwang who seemed to feel safe thanks to her visual protection.

"But what the heck. I guess some are just too stupid for this world," she continued to insult Kiyu, trying to provoke a reaction.

Kiyu, however, had approached the source of the sound and, thanks to her improved vision, perceived a faint, dark outline in the dense poisonous fog.

'Gotcha!'

With full force she charged toward Siwang. Speed and precision were better than what she had mastered just a few days before. It took her only a blink to get to Siwang in front of her and aim her fist at her opponent's chest.

She felt her fist hit Siwang's body.... and rushed through it! Where there was safety a moment ago, there was now total confusion. Her eyes were wide open and she only just managed not to open her mouth in surprise.

Siwang's body had dissolved like a veil by now, leaving a surprised Kiyu behind.

"Oh, it seems you believed I could do nothing but produce poisonous mist?" she taunted Kiyu. "Well, tough luck, kid. I can do so much more, more than you can imagine!"

"AH!"

Kiyu felt a dull pain in her back that went up to her neck. Siwang had hit her well with her elbow, though not injuring her. But the problem was not the actual attack, but what it had caused.

"Oh, looks like the real fun begins now, huh?" laughed Siwang, before she disappeared again in the dense poisonous mist.

Kiyu felt a small portion of the poison spreading through her body. Though she had stopped breathing right away, she had run out of air, and with that, the hope of ending it before it had started was no longer.

< Shall we heal it? > Cheryu interfered.

'No!' Kiyu insisted. 'She doesn't want to kill me right now, so let's wait and see what will happen. If what she said is true, she wants to mess with my senses,' she continued.

'She wants to feast on me stumbling through the dense poisonous fog.', she finished her explanation.

'For now, we'll play along with her game.'