Chapter 8

"Fight!"

As soon as the word left the generals' mouths, Yichen's hands and feet ignited in a wispy blue flame. No matter how many times I witnessed his aura, it was always mesmerizing, much more so than Mars or Donghai's crimson auras.

"You're really pushing the boundaries of knight-class, Your Highness!" General Lu warned.

"I told you not to be so formal with me!" Yichen hollered back. "Besides, you didn't say how skilled of a knight I could mimic!"

"Let's go, Huotian!" Yunshu yelled excitedly.

He slammed his hand into the ground causing a black rune circle to appear. The circle had four other circles inside it, each one smaller than the next. In the space between each circle, glowing words written in runic script arranged themselves quickly.

"Spacial Rift," Yunshu breathed.

"His casting speed never ceases to amaze me," Yichen grinned.

In less than a second, the rune disappeared, a portal opening up above it. He reached his hand through and grabbed my collar, yanking me into another portal that materialized in front of me. In an instant, I found myself at his feet.

"Hello there, little boy." Yunshu smirked. "You got Yichen, Huotian!"

"You coward!" I threw a punch at him, which he dodged effortlessly by stepping to the side. "Too scared to let your son face me all alone, huh? You coddle him too much!"

"He wanted to go against Yichen. Didn't see a point in fighting 'a halfwit who can't even manifest a knight-class level of aura.'"

"Excuses," I grunted. "He just doesn't want to lose another eye."

"Whatever you say, bud!" Yunshu grunted as he leapt towards me, grabbing me and throwing me into the ground with no remorse.

I rolled backwards, dusting myself off. I glanced at the two referees. General Chen was watching Yichen and Huotian intensely, while General Lu was watching me and Yunshu. The fact that he hadn't said anything meant that this freakish strength of Yunshu's was completely natural, no magic enhancements at all. To be fair, he was a mountain of a man, even towering over Yichen, so that was to be expected.

"Come on! Activate your aura, kid!"

I closed my eyes, focusing on trying to recall the feeling from the few times I had activated my aura. I took a deep breath in, and something inside me clicked. Before I could fully materialize it, Yunshu was already sprinting at me again.

"Come on now, you can't meditate in the middle of a fight!"

He aimed a kick at me when he reached me. I ducked under it and punched him twice in the leg. He bounced backwards, sucking in air through his teeth.

"There it is! What a beautiful shade of purple!" he exclaimed.

I looked at my hands, flexing them experimentally. I definitely felt something change; the colors in my vision were more defined, my mind felt clearer, and I could make out the difference between Huotian, Yunshu, and Yichen's breathing. But I still couldn't see any aura around my hands, so I was probably still using pawn-level aura.

"Where are you looking?" Yunshu's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

I looked up to see him towering over me. Once again, he threw a kick at me, which I ducked in the same manner as I did previously. Only this time, he was prepared.

As I prepared to counter, he dug his foot that he aimed the original kick with into the floor, grunting as he turned and kicked me with the heel of his other foot. I was barely able to block the strike, both of my arms pushing back against his right leg. I grunted as I pushed him back, throwing him off balance momentarily.

Unfortunately, before I could capitalize on the opportunity, Huotian launched a blast of wind at me, flinging me back. I steeled myself against the shockwave, my feet digging into the ground as I was still pushed back anyways.

"Thanks, Huotian!" Yunshu beamed.

"No problem, D- Ahh!" he screamed as Yichen grabbed his arm and began spinning, before slamming him into the ground.

"Son!" Yunshu rushed towards him, but I stood firmly in his way.

"Hold it, old man. You're my opponent."

I raised my fists in preparation to fight. A spark glinted in Yunshu's eyes as he laughed.

"Where'd you learn to fight like this? You've only been conscious for a day."

"It's fairly simple, isn't it?" I lied. "Doesn't take a genius to figure out how to punch and block."

"It'd be easier if you could reach my torso, little boy."

Just then, Huotian came hurtling at me. I thought he was propelling himself with wind like he did during our first fight, but he was flailing his arms with a panicked look on his face.

"So why don't we pick on people our own size, Yunshu?" Yichen cut in, cracking his knuckles.

I stepped out of the way as Huotian flew harmlessly past me. He tumbled and rolled about eight feet and groaned as he got up, coughing. His heterochromic eyes glinted dangerously as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and spat out bloody saliva. He brought his hands up in a fighting stance. He wavered a little, but still stared at me with deadly focus.

"Let's dance, asshole," he croaked, before promptly collapsing. He raised his hand and gritted his teeth, staring daggers at me, before his arm went limp, falling to the ground with a quiet plop.

I turned away from him and looked over to the adults as Yunshu chuckled. "You couldn't have gone easier on my kid? I went easy on the little prince."

He clapped his hands together firmly. Two crimson runes instantly formed by his hands, floating a couple inches off his palms. Although they were small, they both had four smaller circles contained within them. In between each layer of circles was more runic script. Human magic had become a lot more advanced compared to what Iadra had first taught them. The idea of using runes to make up for the lack of manipulation skill that their race had was impressive, but was nowhere near as efficient as just manipulating ambient mana.

"Hemomancy," he whispered. "Let's dance, Yichen!"

The pair of adults rushed towards each other, colliding forearms. Yichen aimed a kick straight at Yunshu's head, which the other dodged with amazing speed. He countered with three impossibly quick strikes, all of which Yichen parried instantly. As his final strike was parried, Yunshu smirked as he cocked back his right hand and launched a straight punch with all of his weight behind it. If not for my aura-enhanced senses, this juvenile prison of flesh I was trapped in would not have been able to see it.

Instead of smashing Yichen's face in, the punch was deflected by the king. He grabbed the other man's wrist and pushed down, slamming his elbow into Yunshu's face at the same time. He then spun around, slamming his other elbow into his face, so fast that it drew blood. The scene of the man's elbow slicing open a gash on Yunshu's face was incredibly satisfying, but also almost illusory. The accuracy and timing was nothing short of inpeccable.

A large gash ran from above the cheekbone, right next to the eye, all the way to his nose bridge. Blood gushed out of it, but to my amazement, it didn't fall to the ground. Instead, it coalesced into a floating crimson ball, before siphoning itself in two crimson streams, wrapping itself around Yichen's ankles, shackling him to the ground. The blood darkened as it hardened, firmly trapping Yichen.

Yichen clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Damn. Forgot about that."

"Big mistake," Yunshu agreed.

"Well? Come at me!" Yichen taunted. Although his words were confident, he was struggling to move his feet, even with the aura enhancement.

As Yunshu approached him, the cut on his face closed itself, visibly scabbing over. Yichen smiled and put his guard up, slipping out of the way of a punch. He ducked, bobbed, and weaved through the onslaught of punches Yunshu aimed at him, even hitting him back a couple times.

Just as Yunshu grabbed Yichen's head, preparing to strike with a knee to the face, my focus was diverted by a scratching sound behind me. I turned and looked, only to see that Huotian was gone. My heart sank. I searched my surroundings frantically, scoping out any potential blind spots he could attack me from. He was nowhere to be seen.

"Hold it."

A hand grabbed onto my ankle. It was Huotian. Behind him was a trail of handprints, like he had physically dragged himself to me. Was this boy insane?

I kicked his hand off of me and spat in front of him. "It's over. You've collapsed. What's the point in struggling?"

The boy grunted weakly, pulling himself up onto his feet.

"Because... because... I'm-" he paused as his knees buckled, causing him to lurch forward a bit. "I'm stronger than you." In between every word he spoke, he was gasping for air. His knees were about to give out again. He looked like a strong blast of wind would knock him over. All that, and he thought he was still stronger than me? Ridiculous.

I turned around, ignoring him and focusing my attention back on Yichen and Yunshu.

Yichen had escaped from the blood shackles, and was currently squaring off with Yunshu. The two were exhausted. Yichen no longer had his aura active, and Yunshu was missing his hemomancy runes. Their movements were sloppy, not even blocking the other's hits.

With every hit, they grunted and gritted their teeth. Neither were willing to back down a single inch. It was a far cry from the sharp, quick and precise strikes from earlier. This was a dogfight. Every blow was slow, but contained a great amount of force, like a sledgehammer.

After about ten minutes of repeated blows, the pair let out a cry of determination one last time before punching each other one last time. As the blow collided with their faces, both became limp and keeled over, completely unconscious.

I turned and looked at the referees. "I'm the last one standing. This means Yichen and I win, right?"

A wry smile spread across General Chen's face. Her eyes twinkled as she brushed her hair out of her face and nudged her partner with her elbow. "Yep! And this means you owe me a meal."

"I wouldn't be so sure, Miss Chen." General Lu deadpanned. "As Huotian always says: 'it ain't over until I'm dead.'"

"What do you mean? You want me to kill him?" I asked indignantly. Perhaps this country was darker than it appeared. Out of all the things I could have expected, this was not one of them.

General Lu shook his head. "I'm saying you can't beat him unless he's completely incapacitated."

"He's on the ground, collapsed. I'd say that's incapacitated enough." I retorted, walking back towards him, prodding him with a finger.

Suddenly, his hand shot out like a viper, grabbing hold of my ankle. I tried shaking him off, but he held on firmly.

"Ignite," he whispered.