Chapter 11 - First Blood

With the sun high overhead and the heat rising from the parched earth creating shimmers in the air it was difficult to say which direction they should approach from. In the end, the trio of hunters circled wide, choosing to come from the opposite side of a small cluster of trees. At least the trees whittle give them a few obstacles to maneuver around if they needed too.

At the edge of the trees, Jun Xiang crouched by the base of a tree, concealing herself as much as she could while Jun Ben and Ao Wen crept forward.

Ao Wen eyed the pack of six coyotes warily as she drew her black-bladed saber. Wiry, gray-brown fur covered their lean frames, hinting at the unnatural speed and strength hidden beneath. Long jaws hung open, tongues lolling out to pant in the midday heat.

These were no simple scavengers. Wind Howl Coyotes commanded power over the very air to blind and bewilder prey. Even this small pack could call raging dust storms to conceal their flanking attacks, leaving victims helpless until fangs tore out their throat. Many bandits, soldiers, even novice cultivators had mysteriously disappeared crossing these Lands of Howling Dust. Now Ao Wen intimately understood why.

Despite their efforts to take the coyotes by surprise, as they approached, the coyotes began to stand one by one, lolling tongues withdrawing as their lips curled in fierce snarls. A cruel cunning filled the pack leader's amber eyes as they tracked Ao Wen's movements. Coiled tension rippled down the spines of the others, ready to pounce at their leader's command. They had marked the pair of young hunters, sensing weakness in their hesitant advance. Prey bold enough to approach but reeking of fear and uncertainty. Live meat that practically delivered itself into their territory.

Ao Wen felt ice trickle down her spine under their hungry gazes. But beneath the fear smoldered growing embers of defiance. She refused to become another lost soul claimed by these wastelands. Gritting her teeth, she angled Dragon's Fang before her and sank into a ready stance. She would be the one to feast today, even if it meant pushing her untested skills beyond their limits to survive this deadly trial. The coyotes would discover she had just as much bite as them!

With a resounding cry, Jun Ben ran right beside Ao Wen until he lept at the nearest coyote, his saber swinging parallel to the earth for the first strike of a Rending Pincer. The coyote sprang away from the blade, taking only a shallow cut from the sabers tip while completely avoiding the follow up strike.

Ao Wen put Jun Ben momentarily out of mind as she closed on her own target. Unlike Jun Ben, she made no attempt to utilize a named technique. Instead, she placed one hand along the spine of her saber, keeping the weapon close as she met the charge of the coyote leaping towards her. Once the coyote had reached the apex of its leap, Ao Wen twisted her body, stabbing out like the stinger of a scorpion towards the center of the coyote's chest.

Realization dawned on the coyote as it plunged towards Ao Wen's blade. Wind energy surged around it as it tried to twist aside mid air. Ao Wen twisted Dragon's Fang slightly in her hand, the other hand guiding the saber from its spine until she encountered resistance as the blade pierced deep into the coyote's chest. With a howl of pain, the coyote lashed out at Ao Wen's arms with its paws, tearing at her tunic and leaving a row of shallow gashes along her upper arms before the light faded from its eyes and Ao Wen kicked it off her blade.

"Help!" Jun Ben called, already surrounded by three coyotes, blood dripping from a row of slashes on his shoulder.

"Run!" Ao Wen shouted as she turned to face the next coyote springing at her, barely getting her blade in position to deflect its lunge. Her heart pounded in her chest, her mind spinning as she tried to find a way to help Jun Ben that wouldn't just result in her own death. Sadly, the only idea she could piece together was that if Jun Ben ran, he could create a line of coyotes chasing after him rather than allowing himself to be surrounded.

Jun Ben swung his saber in a wild arc as he charged in the direction of Jun Xiang, hoping help would arrive in time to save him from the coyotes. He'd been so sure that he could overwhelm them with his Rending Pincer! Why hadn't it worked?!

Dragon's Fang spun in Ao Wen's hand as she rooted her feet in place, swinging her blade towards the head of a lunging coyote. Her hands shivered as the blade struck the coyote's skull, cleaving deeply into its brain. Before she could wrest the blade free, searing pain blossomed on both shoulder blades and her calves as the third coyote slammed into her from behind, knocking her to the ground.

Desperately Ao Wen rolled, trying to drag the blade of her saber between herself and the snapping jaws of the coyote. Her heart pounded in her chest, blood thundering in her ears as the world shrank to nothing more than the howling coyote's dripping fangs and flicking tongue.

On the ground around them, wind began to swirl, sending dust into Ao Wen's eyes and choking her throat as she struggled to draw breath under the pining weight of the coyote. Finally, her saber slipped free of the skull of the second coyote, giving her the room to press the edge against the coyote's neck. With one hand on the spine of the blade and the pommel digging into the earth she used herself as the fulcrum to force the blade into the coyote's flesh.

The blade had barely begun to bite into its hide when the coyote sprang away, raking her stomach with its paws in the process. Freed of the pining weight of the coyote, Ao Wen rolled onto one knee, pointing her saber in the direction she thought the coyote had gone. Her eyes squinted at the swirling dust, her ears straining to hear anything other than the thudding of her own heart. Faintly, she thought she caught a glimpse of the coyote, circling to her left in an attempt to take her by surprise.

Ignoring the pain in her bleeding calves, Ao Wen summoned all of her will to stand, blade tracking in the direction of the coyote. "No, that's not right," she muttered, turning back towards her right. Her right leg bent, taking most of her weight despite the protests of her injured calf. Her left foot, however, moved to the left, ever so lightly touching the ground with her heel.

Suddenly, seeing an opening, the coyote charged towards Ao Wen's left side. Hearing the coyote rushing towards her, Ao Wen's whole body pivoted, uncoiling like the tail of a scorpion. Her weight transferred smoothly to her left leg as her saber swung in a flat arc, surging with coppery earthen energy. The moment her hands felt the blade make contact, she pivoted again, executing the second strike of Rending Pincer, cleaving through the coyote's neck in an explosive fountain of blood and gore that splattered across her face.

Propelled by the momentum of her own swing, Ao Wen tumbled to the ground, her stomach heaving sending hot bile aged the remains of breakfast up her throat. Gulping it back down, Ao Wen used Dragon's Fang to help push herself back to her feet, trying to hear which direction Jun Ben and Jun Xiang were in.

A hundred meters away from Ao Wen, Jun Xian and Jun Ben stood roughly back to back as two coyotes circled them wearily. A third coyote lay dead not far away, having fallen to Jun Ben's saber when Jun Xiang's arrival distracted it.

Both members of the Jun clan bled from a number of small wounds. Jun Ben most seriously from a gash at his temple that had narrowly missed his eye. "We have to end this," Jun Xiang said softly, not taking her eyes off the circling coyote. "Biyu is alone. We have to help her."

Distantly they heard the howl of a coyote cut off suddenly with an explosive thud. "She got another one," Jun Ben said, relief and a touch of envy coloring his voice. "She should be fine with the last one right?"

"Idiot," Jun Xiang hissed. "What if she's injured!"

Hearing the sound the coyotes circling paused for a moment before they began to withdraw, howling to increase the speed of the winds and the intensity of the dust.

"Now!" Jun Xiang shouted, charging into the dust and swinging her saber with coppery earthen might. The force of her blade's passage cleaved the air, dispersing the dust cloud enough for her to spot the retreating coyote and rush towards it.

On Jun Ben's side, he ran towards a nearby tree, bouncing off its trunk to attack the retreating coyote from an unexpected angle. Were it not for his injuries weakening him, it might have been a fatal strike. Instead, his saber cleaved deeply into the coyote's rear leg, severing its tendons save sending it limping away.

Jun Xiang fared better, her desperate age rapid thrusts biting into the coyote several times until its eyes glassed over and it collapsed from its wounds.

Moments later, a pained cry came from outside the stand of trees, followed by the appearance of Jun Er dragging the coyote that had escaped from Jun Ben. "You let this one get away," he said simply. Unlike Teacher Xie, his tone wasn't disapproving, only stating a fact.

"Jun Biyu!" Jun Xiang cried. "Where is she?"

Not far away, behind a collection of trees, Ao Wen lay sprawled in the dirt where she had landed after tripping over a root. Her mind shouted frantically at her body, willing it to get back up so she could help her friends. The sight of Jun Ben running with three coyotes chasing after him played again and again in her mind. Still, her body refused to move, too weak from her wounds and loss of blood to move. Even pain felt distant as she struggled to cling to consciousness, the edges of her vision tinged with red. Moments later, darkness claimed her, the fate of her companions unknown.