Roadside Culinary

With the fight beginning to wind down a little, Lin Songmei took a few glances at the last member of the party, Han Youhong. Songmei didn't have much to say about him. He was great! Out of everyone in the party, he was the most independent. He didn't need support, help, or defense, all he needed was an area to go to work.

For the most part, in smaller battles, Songmei noticed Youhong kept to an assassin like role, disappearing in and out of shadows, releasing a short burst of attacks to decimate an enemy before disappearing again. In bigger battles, ones where there were just waves of fodder, where the goal of the enemy was to just wear them down, Youhong could then demonstrate his... keen ability to use chain blades.

Fighting as if the enemies had committed war crimes against a lychee jelly factory, Youhong would twirl his blades while gripping the center of the chain, creating a straight up zone of death around himself.

During spars, Songmei would be spared, she'd just stick to a distance and annoy Youhong with her arrows. She could add chunks of crystal to his blades, throwing his rhythm off before finishing him off.

Well, that had worked for a while until Youhong had learned. At least her strategy served as great practice for when machine parts would get stuck to Youhong's blades... Now, as 'training,' Songmei would just aim for Youhong's eyes and head with non-lethal arrows.

With a couple extra free moments, Songmei kept a curious eye on Youhong's battle. With a new crowd of enemies crashing down on Youhong, Songmei watched Youhong spin his chain blades before twirling them forward. With Youhong sprinting forward through the crowd, Songmei took a half-step back as she grimaced. Youhong, with his cold expression as usual, just... particle-ized a crowd of machines!

Songmei was one-hundred percent sure she made up "particle-ized" but she didn't care! It fit with Youhong's ruthless domination... machines were being carved up, the pavement was being carved up, and every house in the general vicinity was being carved up. It was almost as if Youhong was training himself to become one of the lychee jelly cutting machines working non-stop at the factories.

Sighing, Songmei went back to her own job, launching arrows at a constant rhythm towards the enemy, harassing them as everyone else cleaned up their last enemies.

With the first, and main stage of the battle coming to a quick close, Songmei's primary job was over. Instead, she could go back to her preferred role: sitting around in the back doing nothin-... supporting.

Watching from behind, Songmei did her best to participate in the battle. However, the party from Flame Ocean Palace didn't put up much resistance. It wasn't out of Songmei's expectations either. Her party had already warmed up and had plenty of gas still in the tank—one built from all the excruciatingly long battles they had fought—so Yan Mingqing, Wang Taigang alone could steamroll the party. It just... didn't help, of course, when Zhao Liying and Youhong decided to pitch in to help.

----

"What now?" Taigang asked the group, sitting on the now pulverized pavement. "Battles over, I don't think we'll actually get anyone else today, will we?"

"I don't know either..." Mingqing murmured, glancing over her sword with practiced looks. "When they send this many people, it's usually a whole day thing. I don't think they expected Wrath to assign such a strong party to this unimportant neighborhood."

"So... what now?" Taigang repeated his question, falling back and splaying out against the ground. "I mean, technically we do have to guard the neighborhood for the whole day. Even if we know nothing's going to happen."

"Well, what if something does happen?" Youhong retorted, raising an eyebrow as he nodded with a grin. "Yeah, I don't even believe myself when I say it. Want to set up something nice for lunch?"

"What do you have...?" Liying groaned from her own starfish position. "I'm beat, I just want something unhealthy... I have some instant noodles in my ring if someone has a stove and pot..."

Just nodding along to the conversation, Songmei closed her eyes, sending some Qi into her spatial storage ring to see what was inside. "I have a stove, it's solar powered so we're good to go on that front. I don't have a pot though, just a pa-"

"I have a pot," Youhong answered without hesitation, pulling one out of his ring and handing it over to Songmei.

"Well... I was also going to ask if we wanted to... uh... buy something? Or eat something a little healthier or nicer than instant noodles? I'm fine either way, but I have some vegetables in my ring as well." Songmei continued, taking the pot from Youhong with an awkward nod.

Flicking over a packet of instant noodles, Liying gave a weak thumbs-up from her position. "Just instant noodles for me... and also sorry I don't have the energy to cook today..."

"What made you so tired?" Youhong asked, poking Liying's limp body. "Also take out some more packets, we all want instant noodles."

With a small mound of instant noodles appearing beside Liying, Youhong pushed them toward Songmei. "Want to cook? I can if you want to, of course."

"No, no, I'm fine," Songmei shrugged, grabbing Mingqing's hand and tapping on it like a water faucet. "I didn't do anything really during the battle, I'm quite full of energy."

Watching a small stream of water come out of Mingqing's fingertip, Songmei sighed—she had forgotten how icy cold it always came out as. "Do you have another pot though, Youhong?"

"Yes ma'am," Youhong answered, handing over another pot while bowing. "Please cook our instant noodles to perfection!"

"I... I'll try my best..." Songmei murmured, turning toward Mingqing and pulling out some vegetables from her spatial storage ring. "Want to help me cut these up? I might as well add these in for some extra flavor."

"Sure," Mingqing nodded, her head still a little absent as she stowed her sword. Taking the vegetables with one hand, Mingqing put them down on a cutting board before pulling out half-a-dozen knives.

Watching Mingqing fan them out, then look at them with an inquisitive stare, everyone in the party fell quiet as Mingqing pondered which knife to use.

"Why... do you have so many knives?" Liying broke the silence, rolling over and pushing herself up. "And putting aside you have so many knives, why don't you know how to use them?"

"I do, I do," Mingqing nodded, storing away five of the knives. "I'm just tired so I zoned out."

"You know what," Youhong laughed, deciding to splay out after Liying got up. "Out of all the answers you could've given, that one was probably the best. If you said something like 'I wanted to admire them,' I would've booked it as fast as I could outta here."