Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

"What does it take to put this idiot down," thought the Heiress in frustration, as she warily stepped back into a defensive stance. The various shouts and cheers from the Audience seemed to both agree and urge the last opponent to give 'a decent fight'. Apparently the average Sect member did not seem too pleased at how easily she had dealt with all the others. Unfortunately, despite his unpleasant behaviour, this Genius actually appeared to have some skills to back up his status.

Blocking out the roars of the crowd, the smell of sand, exertion and blood, Dàilán focused on her Essence levels momentarily and winced. She had pushed almost everything she had left into that last strike - between running Veil and Mists constantly through the fight, plus adding her use of Rivers, Winds, powering the formation, overcharging the sparring daggers and using Essence boosted throws - on top of the physical exhaustion of having to move and fight for an extended period of time, with Essence boosted speed and strength, meant that she was running on barely a thread of Essence.

With all the changes that had happened to the arena there was now quite a bit of shade from the direct crow-light, meaning that she could drop her modified eye-veil if she kept her hood up.

Quickly, while there was a lull in the combat, she dropped all the techniques she was running and sank into a very light meditation again - just enough to start gathering Essence. Thankfully the meditation was almost second nature by now and she was able - with a little focus - hold it while still being able to pay attention to the world around her.

There had been a lot of Essence Techniques expended in a very short time, so the air was heavy with Essence, making it easier to draw in.

"Elders! End this!" Chenli's shout came from behind her where she remained on guard, glaring fiercely over her shoulder at the approaching vengeful opponent, "The Heir has met your requirements!"

The BloodWitch spoke up from the other side of formation as the crowd erupted in a mixture of scoffing and agreement, several members appearing to be close to blows over differing opinions, "A battle is not over until all the enemies are beaten. You cannot simply order them to stop attacking."

"But the only reason Cǎo Jian still stands is that he hung back behind everyone else," came a hoarse voice accompanied by groaning and various scrambling noises. Dàilán looked around slowly, still holding the meditation as a series of gasps and cheers came from the crowd.

Meng Fan was staggering to his feet, wiping blood from his face and c.h.e.s.t. The arrogant genius flushed and snarled at Fan, "At least I was not taken out in the first Fēn of the battle. Muscle-bound monkey."

Fan shrugged, muscles rolling under the skin as he stood upright and walked slowly over to where the bloodwitch was leaning against her sword. "I fight honourably face to face - unless lives are in the balance. Can you say the same? This is only a tournament - there is no need to behave dishonourably by treating your fellow Sect members as shields."

There was a chorus of both agreement and hoots of derisive laughter from different parts of the audience at Fan's words as he stretched out a hand and his huge log staff tore out of the sand and flew into his hand; he rested one end on the sand with a muted thud.

Jian grinned unpleasantly, "The rules say the winner is the person who vanquishes the Heir; it does not say how, or when. Being the oriole is perfectly acceptable."

Chenli spat, "So you wait until my mistress has fought every other contestant before you bravely face her. Impressive."

"I accept your compliment of my strategic planning," Jian bowed mockingly, "Will you fight, Heir, or is your Guard right and you are unable to continue?"

Dàilán raised one eyebrow, still holding the meditation and inwardly praying she could gather enough Essence in time to defend herself. She doubted very much this Jian character would let her go without at least attempting to humiliate her, "By my count, I have hit you squarely several times - unless you usually look like a piece of charcoal?" She asked calmly, "how many more hits like that can you take? It does not look like look like your strategy is working all that well for you."

Dàilán grinned to herself as the audience erupted in laughter and mocking shouts. Apparently, despite his status and strength, Jian was not universally loved within the sect. The other Cultivator flushed that ugly purple color again and grasped his practice sword so tightly his knuckles showed white.

"Making an opponent angry is a good strategy," hissed Chenli from over her shoulder, "but in this case I would urge - not - antagonising the opponent with the full Essence reserves."

"At this point the only chance I have is hoping he is angry enough to make a stupid mistake," murmured back, "I cannot drag this out much longer either - I am recovering Essence, but he will calm down if I give him time."

Jian is considered the top sect Genius on the Knife Ranking," murmured Chenli, "He should be in Justice, but he is only eighteen summers."

"Again, I say that is complete turtle crap," grumbled Dàilán, "Ranking should be based on skill, not age - he has four years experience on me!"

Chenli shrugged behind her, "Next year you will be of age and eligible for Justice; he still has to stay on the Knife ranking for another year, so technically you will be his Senior - there is unfairness in both directions."

Dàilán blinked, then grinned and stepped away from Chenli, raising her hands out in a conciliatory manner, "Cǎo Jian, I understand your frustration. Given that you are two summers away from coming of age, after this meeting, we will not be able to compete again until I have been on the Justice rank for a year."

Jian blinked, then paled in anger, "You are not my Senior! I…"

The young Heiress shrugged, "As Heir and by age both, I will be - by my next birthday. I would not wish to bully a Junior after I come of age."

Cǎo Jian gave a wordless cry and charged across the sand as the crowd roared in excitement. His rapid movement gave Dàilán very little time, but she let herself fall to the sand, sliding into Mists just as her opponent's blade came slashing across, missing her dropping body by the tiniest of amounts. She could smell the scent of the lightning Essence from the sparring blade as it swept over her.

Her own blades came together as she threw her arms upward and together in an intercepting arc aimed at Jian's sword arm. Committed, Jian threw himself out of the way awkwardly - unfortunately for Dàilán, her own bad positioning gave her no ability to adjust and the blades only grazed his arm, to hisses and laughter from the crowd.

She rolled to her feet, growling in frustration as Jian recovered and stepped into a solid stance, watching her warily. That had probably been her best shot…

Jian's blade came in again in a skillful side strike as he took two quick steps toward her at an angle. His longer blade put her at a disadvantage in a head on battle and her limited Essence reserves meant that she had to use Mists as sparingly as possible. Only pushing a fraction of the Essence into the technique she usually used, she leapt back with her left heel coming up against a sand dune - barely escaping a nasty shock as the tip of the blade trailed through her battle robes to the excitement of the audience.

The younger teen's mind was racing, running through her training with Chenli against superior strength opponents: evade, escape, find a way to gain advantage and strike at weaknesses - never engage head on…

Jian's expression was gloating - he clearly thought that he had her pinned against the dune. Watching his eyes, she pushed a thread of Essence into Rivers and backsteped into the sand, just as he committed to an executioner's overhead sword strike, the wooden blade crackling spitefully with lightning Essence. The roar of the crowd was deafening as the blade blasted into the sand - a fraction from her left shoulder - she had quickly shifted to the right as she was concealed by the sand, saving her from the hit.

The sand heated and cracked next to her ear - she even saw some grains flare white hot and start to melt from the intensity of the Lightning Essence coating the blade - even as she leaped out of the dune to take advantage of the fact that her opponent's weapon was pinned. Dàilán felt anger coil in her belly.

That much Lightning Essence could kill, sparring weapon or not. He must have removed the limiters on the Formations on the practice weapon. And this was no longer a 'friendly tournament'.

Her own anger at what was clearly an assassination attempt caused a fresh upwelling of strength from somewhere. Her own practice daggers lined with lightning, she slammed both into Jian's torso under the temporarily trapped arm, resulting in a bright flash and a small clap of thunder as the Essence on the blades clashed against the protective formations on his robes.

Despite the majority of the shock being deflected, the residual charge and concussive force still elicited a shout of agony as he was flung away from his weapon and sent plowing into the sand across the arena to roars of excitement from the crowd.

At this point her senses had narrowed down to her opponent. As Essence around her flooded into her meridians in a sudden rush without her conscious effort, the noise of the crowd, the bright reflected crow-light, the sand, the heat - all became nothing more than background knowledge she was aware of - but it flowed around her, not impacting her.

Her right hand pushed Essence into the dagger it held as she threw the weapon up into the air - and her now empty right arm reached behind her and pulled her opponent's dropped weapon free of the sand.

She threw herself forward and up into the air over her still tumbling target, her right foot kicking the dagger that was still rising in mid air, down towards Jian. The dagger blazed to earth like an actual lightning bolt with a thunderous clap of displaced air and the arena trembled as it slammed home - throwing up an enormous explosion of sand.

Her 'knowing', that much more acute with the meditation active let her know her opponent was just below; obviously he had evaded the dagger, much to her frustration. She charged the sword she held and angled her body to fall directly on top of her target despite the blinding clouds of sand - closing her eyes to avoid damage.

The blade crashed against another held by Jian with a sharp report, Essence flaring outward and blasting the sand away. The momentum of her fall forced her blade down against her opponent's sword despite her opponent's superior strength and she opened her eyes to see Jian looking up at her with rage.

So she let her leg swing outward with the remaining momentum of her descent and kicked his face.

The so called top genius' nose exploded in a shower of blood and he snarled as he stumbled back a few steps, which allowed Dàilán to land safely in a guarded crouch. She let a confident smile flow across her face, but internally she was cursing again. She was running out of options - those had been some of the hardest hits she had ever dished out and despite everything Jian was still standing strong.

No, he was on top of her, his blade coming down and across. Instinctively she executed a straight line stab for his c.h.e.s.t, the blaze of fully operational formations on the modified sword throwing Lightning Essence in blinding arcs. She had only a moment to appreciate the irony of her enemy's weapon being used against him before his sword smashed against hers as he diverted his strike into a block, forcing her blade to miss it's target. It also saved her from his strike, but Dàilán felt the power of that block all the way down her arm into her c.h.e.s.t and she stumbled back, only managing to hold her position after several steps.

Jian was looking at her, his eyes hooded, but no longer enraged; and her heart sank as she felt her own rage and that extra surge of Essence start to slip away against the bone-numbing fatigue that was starting to soak in.

"I will admit you are very skilled for your age and background. But still not worthy of being Heir," he smiled at her coldly, "it will make this all the sweeter."

He moved for her left side and she barely managed to bring up the dagger to block the strike; despite her fatigue she stabbed forward with the sword in her other hand, but his raised eyebrow was the only warning before an Essence Beast slammed into her, driving the air explosively from her lungs.

She was lifted like a ragdoll into the air, her body unresponsive. Despite her best efforts she could not catch her breath; she felt the weapons flying out of her grasp. Her view of the arena spun wildly for a moment; she caught a glimpse of Jian standing with his empty hand clenched into a fist, glowing with Essence - it was raised level with his face in an uppercut position.

That explained what hit her. Stupid of her to forget unarmed combat - her thoughts came to a crashing halt as she slammed into the ground - forcing air and sand into her frozen diaphragm and causing her to black out for a moment.

---

She came to, coughing and spitting mud out of her mouth. It must have only been a few moments, because that son of a turtle was standing over her, looking down with a dark look on his face, evidently angry she was conscious.

She could hear shouts and yells from somewhere. Hazily, she realised that someone was obviously trying to intervene, but she was reasonably certain that if Jian decided to carry through on his earlier attempt, no one would be able to stop him in time. With some effort, she slid her right arm down behind her body hidden from Jian's view, down to the holdout steel dagger hidden in her boot, grasping it with difficulty and pulling it into her hand.

The pompous a.s.s dropped to one knee, one of her sparring daggers in his hand - the other stabbed his sword violently into the sand next to her head. Lightning Essence hissed and spat off the blade and the scent of hot sand and burnt hair came to her nose. Gripping the dagger she positioned it for an upward strike. As long as he came closer…

"Foolish noble girl. Worthless. You are a one Technique Cultivator - not even strong enough to take a regular hit," the 'genius' mocked her, "I win. I will be Heir now. You? You can go back to your pitiful little Clan and play at being a spoilt princess there."

Dàilán said nothing, observing the tensing and relaxing of his muscles for tells as he bent low, "Damn fools on the Council and your idiot of a Grandfather… you should just have an accident…" Her practice blade in his hand glowed brightly as his expression twisted - his wrist tensing, "...oh, I did not realise she was so weak when I hit her… I am so sorry for your loss, but for the good of the Sect…"

Dàilán's hand and arm holding the steel holdout dagger coiled…

Cǎo Jian leapt back as an enormous sword slammed down where he had been crouched over her. "Step away from the Heir, Apprentice!" The BloodWitch's voice stern and cold, blotted out all other sound, "As Tournament Invigilator, I declare the Tournament over! The Heir has exceeded all requirements put forth by the Council to prove her worth as Heir."

The massive sword towered over the young teen as she rolled over and did a pushup to clamber wearily to her feet. An arms span away, Jian was cowering away incongruously from the tiny Cultivator, even as he protested, "I beat her, I am…"

"Nothing. Your weapons had been modified to be lethal - they no longer meet the requirements set out in the tournament as sparring weapons - and unless I miss my guess you used defensive talismans and other prohibited items. You are disqualified!" The smaller but much more dangerous Cultivator somehow loomed over the taller teenager, "You want to argue the point? Go ahead - I can and will reduce your rank, Apprentice."

Cǎo Jian spat and turned on his heel, stalking for the exit with a slight hitch to his stride without further protest. Judging from his body language however, Dàilán doubted he was reconciled to the outcome.

There was a cheer from the Audience as the Bloodwitch strode over to Dàilán and pulled her right hand up to signal her victory. The young Heiress fought to stand upright, only dimly aware of Chenli coming up to her other side to support her and slowly lead her towards a different exit than Jian had taken.

"Come on Hero," muttered her friend with fond exasperation, "Let us get you to the Healers."