Avyr couldn’t help but feel… conflicted as he padded into the formating, feeling the faint sense of qi slink over him and cling to his fur like a second skin. He knew he was going to win. That was never in question. What was in question was how.

For a long moment, as Instructor Ceng stood one side of the arena they on their own ends, each held apart only by the intangible rules of combat, they simply stared at each other. They didn’t need to gauge each other’s abilities, or think of a strategy on the fly— they both understood each other’s fighting style well. They’d trained too long together to not.

“And… start!” Their instructor dropped his hand dramatically— but neither of them started. Instead, they simply… sood there. That their first match was against each other… Avyr did not know whether that was a good thing or a bad one. The consequences… the meaning of it— it made sense, in theory. He knew he and Lily were both at the top of their class. Of course they’d been pitted against each other… but first?

He could not for the life of himself believe that it was anything but purposeful.

Slowly, he stalked towards Lily, skirting around the edge of the formation. His qi was placid within him. His strength, utterly languid. It was probably obvious to anyone who could perceive qi that he wasn’t really trying.

A second passed, silent, tense—

He pounced.

Lily moved.

It was almost laughable— mortal combat against a cultivator two stages higher than her? There was no road, no path, no set of steps laid out before her that she could possibly take to defeat him. Her fate was sealed.

Yet, she tried anyways, and that he found admirable beyond belief.

She ducked out of the way of his blow and swept her leg up into a picture-perfect kick, her knee impacting him right in the stomach— and doing essentially nothing as she bounced off. Yet, she avoided his claws, which was good enough for him. He’d have hated to have hurt her before the actual matches.

He landed, claws digging into the loamy earth beneath the field as he skidded to a stop. “You can’t win.”

“Obviously.” She settled into a fighting stance, so furiously— “but I can’t give up, either. Do your worst.”

“Never.”

“I should have expected as much.”

Then the battle was rejoined— leaping, again, this time empowered by the supernatural strength that flowed through his every motion. His qi swirled within him, by careful practice over months rendered smooth and orderly and—

The transformations of his Self

. He did not know them, but in the moment of— adrenaline rushing, midair weightlessness, of motion so inexorably powerful— such speed! He could almost feel as though he knew the path—

He barreled into Lily before she even had a chance to dodge, the qi barriers between them straining and shattering as he bowled her over into the soft ground with vicious force. A moment before they hit, he caught her in deadly grip and twisted—

Landing on his back and taking the force of his own thrust. His jaws clamped down around her neck, just barely light enough not to break skin. “Match!” Then, he released her, the two of them tumbling apart on the grassy field. Lily was panting— and he wasn’t even breathing hard. The entire match— he hadn’t exerted himself at all.

Lily groaned as she picked herself up, brushing the dirt off her clothes as she stumbled off the battlefield away from the group of students who were so busy muttering and murmuring about the fight. He followed her, even as Instructor Ceng started the next match— towards Mingtian, whose mere presence and the occasional faint disapproving look kept anyone else from approaching him.

He nodded as they settled in beside him. “That was good. You were outmatched, but you did well.” Lily had strength enough to smile before slumping against him in complete exhaustion. “And you…” the librarian’s gaze settled on him, as ever almost uncomfortably piercing. “You did extremely well. I’m proud of your progress. Continue to meditate on the nature of self.” Right. Exactly. That. How did he always know?

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It would be disturbing if he wasn’t aware of how much the man cared. Even if he didn’t typically show it.

After a while, Lily did manage to get up. “Thanks. For not, you know. Eviscerating me like Instructor Ceng asked.” He snorted softly. Of course he wasn’t going to eviscerate her. One did not simply eviscerate their friends.

They sat in that comfortable not-silence for a while— the noisy peace of divorced-from-their-class silence, adrift on the sidelines as they watched the next few fights. Mingtian didn’t pressure them to talk, and none of them quite felt like talking. In that moment… there was an almost slumpen, exhausted quiet. The sallow tenseness of anticipation, leaning forboding…

Lily was worried. He could see it in the twitch of her, the sharp intensity of her, the every movement of her. He’d never been the best at reading human emotions, but Lily made it too easy. Either that, or maybe he’d just gotten to know her too well…

All too soon it was time for Lily’s next fight, and then it was his turn to watch with bated, nervous worry— because for all he tried his best not to look it, he was. So very, so very very nervous. It coiled in him almost as densely as his qi, clashing with the burning core of himself and yet still molding with it… it was difficult to describe. It was so very perfectly easy to describe, given one single and all-consuming layer of abstraction—

As he watched, as his heart thundered in his chest—

He was worried.

Only the strength of his cultivation prevented him from flinching when Mingtian slunk his fingers into his fur, dragging them down his shoulder in an almost rough way that had no right to feel as reassuringly relaxing as it did. He wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or not, but the man was basically a master masseuse. “Relax.” There was a firmness in the librarian’s voice. A subtle and perfect confidence. “If it were Xinshi, then I would be uncertain as to whether or not she could win, with the hand she’s been dealt… but Guandong?” The other girl stepped into the rink, already holding that ribbon that had given her such terrible strength before— “she doesn’t stand a chance.”

Instructor Ceng glanced between the two of them one last time, raised his hand and— “match… start!” Guandong didn’t wait a moment. Unlike the last time, when she’d wasted her time bantering and thinking that she was inevitably going to win, she immediately snapped the ribbon down on her spirit stone, a violent aura erupting around her. Now that he was an Opening cultivator, he could feel the intense power of it, the way that it burnt the qi and coiled it through her body in a looping, sweeping, geometric pattern that far surpassed anything Lily had ever made in complexity. It was a masterwork of enchanting… and it was the enemy’s. He barely had a chance to admire it as Guandong threw herself at Lily—

And missed.

Then again— and Lily just held out her foot and let Guandong trip over it— a move he recognized from all the time she’d spent trying to get it to work on him. Unlike him, though, Guandong didn’t have six legs for stability— no, mid furious charge, she barely had any chance to react, and… well, Avyr could admit that he chirped out a soft laugh at how the other girl ate dirt. “I see.” Mingtian’s reassuring touch wasn’t such an empty platitude anymore. Of course the man would understand that sort of…

A few words were said between the two combatants. A taunt from Guandong that didn’t land, and one from Lily that very clearly did. Then— a burst of light, and in that blinding burst, a repositioning. When Guandong managed to blink away the aftereffects of the dazzling burst, Lily was in a completely different part of the arena, and with a handful of dirt in one hand— and by then, it was basically over, even if Guandong didn’t know it.

A bit of dirt wasn’t much… but it was enough to draw some simple formations, and to Lily, that was as easy as breathing.

Avyr flicked his gaze away from the one-sided smackdown, choosing instead to look at something far more interesting— the reactions. He wasn’t great at reading human expressions, but luckily, they made it easy for him. Gasps of surprise and gleeful horror from the rest of the class, a bloodthirsty, animated eagerness from Instructor Ceng… a warm smile from Mingtian. The only one who was particularly difficult to place was the Outer Disciple, who was looking on with as cool an expression as ever. Beneath that, though… he wasn’t sure, but he could have sworn that he felt something, faint and ephemeral and not quite even qi. The razor-sharp presence of a predator.

Something hit the earth hard— he didn’t even have to look up to know it was Guandong. “Match!” She struggled to rise, but it was already over. Lily had won with nary a scratch on her— though her leg would probably bruise— and Guandong…

It was probably a bit unfortunate that— only a minute or two after Lily stumbled over to him wearing a triumphant smile— her next match was called. Fourth rank against first—

She had to fight him.

Poor girl.