book 4: chapter 16: martial

    i took a deep breath, and the sweet scent of decaying plant matter mixed with earthy undertones, combining to cool my throat and soothe my racing heart. there was a good reason for my swift pulse; we were climbing the final hill between us and tropica.

    we were almost there.

    to the south, the path of destruction wrought by the king’s arrival was a dark scar, unmissable for its magnitude. the entire mountaintop it led to had been scorched, the previously lush peak now blackened and bereft of life. it was a sobering sight, and hoping to prove myself wrong, i extended my chi towards it.

    what i found made a weight slip from my shoulders. already, trees were regrowing, their new leaves only hours or days from unfurling to catch the sun’s rays.

    it was a marvelous discovery, and my relief was potent. part of me had been worried the corruption would delay the healing process. though it would take some time, the mountain would become a verdant forest once more. we crested the hill as i pondered this eventuality, and a soft breeze blew into our faces, but i hardly even registered it. tropica had come into view.

    i sent a quick pulse of chi toward the village, closing my eyes as i received glimpses of my friends. being close to them again after time apart made me literally dance with joy. i shimmied my shoulders like claws does when finding a particularly juicy oyster, picturing how her cute little cheeks would feel to scratch.

    i let out a sigh. mere days had felt like a lifetime.

    though almost everyone else was visibly excited, one person remained stoic. despite his core basically vibrating with anticipation, barry’s jaw was firm, his lips pursed as he gazed cooly down at tropica. he spun my way with deliberate care. “you know, fischer, no one would fault you for rushing in now. you’ve showed a lot of restraint by—”

    he cut off as i leaped into the air, my core feeling like it might implode if i remained a second longer. his broaching of the subject had made the urge to see maria increase tenfold. “thanks, mate! take the cart down to the water, please!”

    before he could reply, i snapped my fingers. i shifted in space, arriving before her in a flash of light.

    the afternoon sun made snips’s tidal pool dance with rainbow light, the opalescent stones within shining brilliantly. in her usual hidey hole, one sergeant snips sat in a deep meditation, her core reacting to my presence the moment i arrived. though she felt me keenly, she didn’t make a move. below her, in a secondary crevice, rocky had the same reaction. neither of them kept my attention for long.

    sitting cross-legged atop the giant boulder, my beautiful fiance sat, her shoulder-length hair swaying in the wind. her core immediately resonated with mine. my next breath came shuddering in like i’d just dived into an icy lake. maria’s was the same. it took a few more moments for our cores to readjust to the other’s presence, and though it had been less than a week, her core had changed so much. her healing nature was undeniable before, but it wasn’t yet ready to be used. now, she was right on the cusp of enlightenment—perhaps on the precipice of another breakthrough. only time would tell.

    feeling both me and my thoughts, a wide grin spread over her face. it reached the corners of her eyes and she sat a little straighter, clearly proud of her efforts. with her attention still focused inward, she parted her lips and mouthed, i love you.

    i whispered it back, so softly that the breeze would have carried it away from anyone but a cultivator. appearing next to her, i planted the softest of kisses on her forehead. the moment i touched her, i forced myself to teleport away, knowing i would only distract her if i remained too long.

    besides, i thought as i arrived at my next destination and spotted the three animal pals there. i have a breakthrough to witness.

    i’d felt its inexorable approach the moment i sent my senses out, and i’d made sure to arrive just in time. chi rushed into cinnamon’s core, finding the gaps that hadn’t been there before i’d left. she had clearly been busy. as with maria, my bunny pal working so hard filled me with gratitude, but then i felt the aspect forming within her core. my stomach dropped.

    “oh no...”

    chi flew toward the ground beneath her, leaving a crater in the shape of a giant bunny’s paw in the sand. it was the size of a small car, and as the essence that made it flew out in every direction, pelly and bill stood no chance. the bubble of chi expelled them. they didn’t get far before righting themselves, both wheeling around and facing cinnamon once more. which was a good thing, because they had attacks to dodge.

    a terrifying squeal from cinnamon’s throat as she lashed out with jabs, kicks, and even a headbutt or two. each strike caused waves of force to fly from her core, further condensing as it traveled through her fuzzy little body. when it left her, the essence ballooned out, only partially visible because it distorted the surrounding air. cinnamon remained in her paw-shaped crater, using it as a home base from which to unleash her barrage of blurred attacks.

    i shook my head as i glanced between the pelicans and cinnamon, the former dodging with everything they had, the latter only growing more pleased with herself. if a strike landed, it wouldn’t hurt pelly or bill seriously, but there was a terrifying reason for that.

    cinnamon wasn’t even trying.

    as if she knew what i was thinking, her head slowly spun, only stopping when her gaze locked with mind. a shiver ran down my spine at the mischief sparkling in her eyes. pelly and bill’s core echoed that sentiment, and they slammed down behind me, both craning their necks to watch her from a position of relative safety.

    “what evil have we unleashed upon the world...?” i half joked, not looking away from cinnamon for a second.

    bill, the one who’d originally shown her the sweet karate moves she was using, let out a despondent honk. pelly opened her beak, and by the look on her face, she was going to defend her adoptive mother’s good name. unfortunately for pelly—and the world as a whole, really—cinnamon stopped holding back.

    she flew toward us at incredible speed, and i let my fake horror fall away as i dashed forward, going to meet her on the sands.

    you want a challenge, huh? i thought, returning her manic smirk. let’s what you’ve got.

    the moment before we met, she moved faster than i’d ever seen her move. despite the pace, her technique was perfect, and i couldn’t help but appreciate the immaculate form of the roundhouse kick she unleashed at my head.

    ***

    though pelly wanted to share a look of incredulity with bill, she didn’t want to miss a second of the action unfolding before them. if she lost track of them for but a moment, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to locate them again. as impressive as cinnamon’s new breakthrough was, which had apparently made her a master of the martial arts, their master was even more amazing.

    “oh, they told you guys they’re together?”

    “nope. they didn’t tell us anything. it was super obvious, and danny brought it up.”

    “... why did he do that? seems a bit—”

    “rude?”

    “yeah. extremely.”

    “well, as it turns out, danny won’t waste resources for the sake of propriety.”

    “i don’t understand—” i tore my eyes off the battle and turned toward the brothers as realization struck me. “he didn’t...”

    dom snorted. “he did. he said two people who were clearly lovers should only be assigned one home..”

    “but we have an excess of houses...”

    “that’s exactly what we said. danny wasn’t having it.”

    i shook my head. “i’ll have to apologize to them.”

    “eh, i think they’re fine. they were only hiding it because they thought we might not let them stay in the village.”

    “what? why would they think that...?”

    deklan shrugged, once more watching the fight. “people can kinda suck, fischer.”

    “huh.” i looked back at the fight just in time to see cinnamon duck a blow from barry. “yeah, that checks out, actually. people really can suck. still, i’ll go see them. to reassure them they’re welcome, if nothing else.”

    i winced as barry’s fist collided with cinnamon, but she unleashed a kick at the last second, the aura coming from it strong enough to neutralize his force.

    deklan let out a soft whistle. “fresh breakthrough, huh? feels deadly.”

    “ah-huh,” dom agreed. “impressive considering it just happened. nothing we couldn’t defend against, though. our defenses are impenetrable. a mere bunny couldn’t hope to—”

    cinnamon answered before he could finish his sentence.

    the wave of essence she launched their way rivaled the strongest i’d seen her use. without preamble, both twins joined the fray, blocking the opening strike with their chi. though i expected them to enter the melee after cinnamon invited them via martial strike, i didn’t expect their method of doing so.

    dom leaped directly upwards, and when his ankles were around head-height, deklan grabbed them. the moment they both extended their protecting chi around dom, i knew what they were about to do.

    nah, i decided. there’s no way they’d actually—

    deklan drew his arms back, swinging his brother like a baseball bat. cinnamon, who was airborne, had no means of escaping the home-run he was winding up to deliver. barry, seeing his chance to deliver vengeance, reached out to hold cinnamon in place.

    i cringed, and sure enough, cinnamon wasted not a moment. she grabbed his wrist and ran along his arm, using the speed she’d been holding in reserve thus far. all barry would do was watch with a wide-eyed stare as she disappeared behind him, his agility and technique no match for the martial bunny.

    there, cinnamon delivered a soft slap to barry’s back. it had no hope of causing him damage, but that wasn’t her intention. his lunge had left him off balance. the tap from cinnamon, slight as it might have been, was enough to tip him forward.

    barry fell directly into the path of dom, who deklan had already committed to swinging. all three men involved in the battle saw what was about to happen. they knew they’d been outmaneuvered. and none of them could do anything about it.

    as dom’s rigid body swung for barry, he at least had the good manners to say sorry.

    barry might have reassured him it was okay. might have told the brothers that it wasn’t their fault. but there was no time. the strike landed with a brutal thud, and if not for barry’s breakthrough, he might have carked it on the spot.

    cinnamon let out exaggerated laughter, her forelimbs crossed before her puffed-out chest as she watched barry sail over the river and toward the southern mountains.