Ferenike 19 - Many Grains of Sand
Dust lingered beneath her boot toe, scraping across the reddish glass surrounding them in this little shelter. Li Feiyan couldn't pull her eyes away from the stump of her leg, but she was at ease. The heat of the room and the smell of cinnamon was comforting, signs of the expert meditating across the shelter from her little group of injured Legionnaires. Many were sporting broken arms or legs, or partially caved in chests, and horrible cuts. She was the most injured though.
"Hey." Her savior's rough, quiet voice followed a metal skinned hand with pink glass nails entering her vision, fingers wrapped around a simple clay bowl full of rice. "You should eat." Ferenike said quietly.
Feiyan nodded tiredly and with two hands took the bowl and the offered clay spoon. The hand disappeared, leaving her sad, until exhaustion swallowed it up. As she scooped food into her mouth she dimly heard the other woman handing out supplies to the others.
This was how it had been for what felt like forever since she saved them. March for hours, reach a shelter, wait there, rest and eat, march again. Now they were waiting, moving slowly away from the mountains and deep into the desert.
It wasn't too much longer till they reached their goal, Ferenike apparently knew of an oasis a days march away from here, where they were now headed. They'd been marching for a week and it wore on Feiyan, but she kept going because Ferenike was unperturbed. Perhaps a little madly, she felt hope in her presence.
The only time the monotony was broken was when Ferenike diverted them around a breached tunnel or took another path after the group received a message. There was a clanging clap as they finished eating, cleaning and putting away their dishes. "Alright folks lets get going. Wei Guang, your turn to carry Li Feiyan." Ferenike ordered, voice echoing slightly in the dim shelter, lit only by red light.
Wei Guang was a taller fellow, the best off of their little group, with only comparatively minor injuries dotting his form. He walked over to her and nodded with a faint smile, his yellow hair turning reddish in the light. "Front or back?" He asked her. She set her her shoulders and propped herself up on the wall. This was so embarrassing, but
ugh, necessary. She could barely balance upright and she didn't have enough qi to keep herself going on one limb, not after having dropped to the second Heavenstage from her injuries.
"Back please." She said quietly. It was more comfortable anyway. He nodded and knelt in front of her. Resting her arms on his shoulders she carefully hopped on. With a grunt he grabbed her thighs, what remained anyway and lifted her up.
Ferenike was looking over the gathered members impassively, at ease as she waited. Once all five were ready to go, those who couldn't walk unassisted leaning on those who could, she turned and led them away, her yellow swathed form guiding the way down the dimly lit tunnels.
After an interminable time walking the tunnel began to slope upward and Ferenike's pace slowed. They came to a bend and she signaled for them to wait, before disappearing around the corner herself.
Minutes ticked by, her heart starting to thump in her chest as her eyes fixed on the corner in front of them. Thoughts started to leak in of what terrible fates might await them if they were caught out. Alone, crippled. Wei Guang's hand tightening painfully on her uninjured thigh brought her back as she began to hyperventilate.
She saw a red light come around the corner. Ferenike followed it a moment later, and illuminated by the light in one outstretched hand gestured for them to follow with her other hand.
Energy surged through the group and they rounded the corner quickly and then emerged out into moonlight, the stars wheeling above their head, and at their feet. A square oasis pool. They'd emerged in an orchard, from between the roots of trees. As Li Feiyan watched Ferenike turned and whispered a spell that caused an array to flare and the roots and sand to flow back over the tunnel, hiding it completely.
She returned to the front of the group and led them on. "I was gifted this place by a nomad named Laosha. It's a temporary field hospital, where you can be more effectively treated for your injuries by an expert." She said as she led them to a small compound, slightly hidden under the boughs of the trees. The white tile of the plaza clicked under their feet quietly.
Ferenike approached the compound door and was greeted by a slightly stooped elderly man, at the peak of Qi Condensation. "Good girl, more patients?" He asked in a gentle voice.
She nodded. "Yes Ban Ao. Everyone, this is Doctor Ao. He'll treat you for a week, and then take you to the next temporary hospital." She said, voice melancholic.
Li Feiyan choked slightly, then spoke. "You're leaving?" She didn't want her to leave. Who'd protect them from those
monsters? She scrambled off Wei Guang, balancing herself shakily on one leg as she stood in front of Ferenike.
"What are we going to
do?" She nearly shouted, waving her arms as she wobbled.
A pink nailed hand fell on her shoulder, steadying her. "You need to heal, then fight to save who you can. I can't save everyone on my own. None of us can." She said, her voice calm. Li Feiyan looked into her savior's eyes, and saw a red flame. It twisted, burning, writhing with power and Will.
The words she'd said were bolstered by that flame, ringing in the cavern of Feiyan's mind. Her dantian shifted, a little flame awakening in the void above it.
She nodded. "Yes ma'am." She said fervently.
Ferenike smiled, glass teeth glinting in the moonlight. "Good girl." Wrapping one strong arm under her shoulders, she helped carry Feiyan into a bed.
Staring up at the ceiling Feiyan cradled her little flame close. She would heal, find a replacement for her leg, and fight, and do her damndest to
live.
Ferenike left that night, the darkness swallowing her as she set off for the next city on her chosen path.
Months later.
Screams filled the air above the town of Little Zhao. Howling and wailing the air vibrated with misery as mortals fled their homes in a wave away from the battle occurring only a
li outside of it. In amongst them were a handful of cultivators, children really only in the first and second Heavenstages, guiding them and fleeing with them.
A beaten and weathered Hoplite Formation was standing on the dunes outside the town, shield dented and spear cracked and leaking golden Qi. Twenty cultivators of the Clan fueled it's desperate fight against three dancing and capering enemies, slowly being pushed back towards the town, the desert pockmarked with signs of battle for five
li. The Fifth Sea Hunters wore loose fitting tunics and pants, two wielding knives and wide bladed crescent swords and a third wielding a staff with a jingling golden bell at its top. The staff wielder was leading the dance with the beat of their feet on the sands and the jangle of their bell as the three cultivators hemmed in and harried the Hoplite. All were at the peak of Qi Condensation, and the best of the Clan members were at the Sixth Heavenstage.
The enemies were not entirely unharmed, one of the sword users was favoring a leg from a deep stab wound and the staff wielder was holding a broken arm close to their chest.
But the Dao-Heart of the Formation was wavering. The Hoplite flickered, fading away in fits and starts, and cries of panic sped its loss until the clan members were left exposed. Holding spears out they bunched up in a huddle desperately trying to counter the assault of the strange sound blasts of the staff user and the dozens of swords which seemed to follow the strikes of the sword and dagger users.
Three fell in the first exchange, clutching their ears and blood spurting wounds on their guts and legs. They were quickly pulled into the formation and it retreated while carrying them, falling back through the gate at the cries of their commander. Two of the Fifth Sea cultivators laughed and slowed for a moment in their pursuit, causing the third to look at them in annoyance.
"Guess without their Bronze Magic these Demons really are weak. If we were home that number would have been troublesome, eh Acharya?" The wounded sword user asked of the staff using man. The staff using man laughed at his younger sister's jest.
"Their courage is weak Lopamudra and the cry of my Karma Purifying Bell frightens them terribly." The staff using man responded.
The other sword user huffed. "If the both of you would focus? They're getting away." He said grumpily.
"Tch, really Agni?" Lopamudra scowled at the other man, slowing their pace even further as her grip on her sword and knife tightened. There was less than two hundred meters between the front of the Legion formation and the gate. Agni flicked a hand at the fleeing Clan members as he sped up, looking back over his shoulder at the other two.
"This will be a lot easier if we kill them all
before they get behind their defensive arrays, you know that..!" He trailed off and his eyes became wide as saucers as a powerful aura on their level slammed into them and a shadow darkened the horizon. Every cultivator on the battlefield looked east as screaming winds blew across the desert, a sandstorm twenty
li in diameter and ten
li high swallowed the sky and eastern horizon.
"What the hell is that!?" Agni and Lopamudra shouted nearly simultaneously.
"Another Demon!" Acharya shouted.
There was a mighty
crack and the innards of the sandstorm ignited, red light boiling within it as lightning flashed. The commander of the Legion detachment shouted then. "It's the Senior! Legionnaires, run for the sandstorm!" And gave a mad seeming order to the Fifth Sea cultivators.
The formation wheeled and sprinted for the storm. It was already only a
li away, moving at incredible speed. A shadow appeared in the light as the Fifth Sea cultivators raised their weapons defensively and rushed to meet it and head off the Legion's escape into it.
The screaming rasp of the sandstorm became a thunderous boom, words echoing from the shadow on waves of burning Qi. "SLAY YOUR FEAR LEGIONNAIRES! HOPLITE FORMATION!"
The light of the sun became
red and the scene became washed sharp light and sharper shadows, sand ripping free from the desert beneath the feet of the Fifth Sea Hunters, the Qi of the Desert answering a great
breath. The world shifted.
BOOM!
An explosion of thunder met in the center of the sandstorm, the shadow raising a spear that crackled with power.
Acharya began to raise his bell, a spell on his lips, too late.
CRACK!
A massive red spear ten meters long flew out of the center of the storm as it swallowed them. Lopamudra screamed in fright as the spear, wrapped in horrific killing intent, soared for her guts and she vanished in a twist of heavenly Qi. Acharya howled in fury as the spear then exploded in a red star, shrapnel shooting from it and pinging off his hastily moved staff. She'd needed this Trial's Karma! Father would not be pleased with him.
As he lowered her hand he saw the shadow leap to meet them and a golden dome surrounded him and Agni. A ringing barrage of blows slammed into it as a glass Devil appeared, its terrifying face shielded by a large round hat of blood red glass. In one hand it wielded a spear, and three half-formed arms carried three more. In its other a massive shield.
That shield swung out and more arms and spears sprouted from its surface, pushing him back until Agni struck, shattering the arms in a spray of red glass as the storm howled around them.
It was sweltering like an oven in here, sweat evaporating directly off his skin as his eyes watered from the heat. Then there was a cry from the Clan members. "FOR THE LEGION!" A massive golden Hoplite swooped out of the grinding sands and its spear slammed down onto Acharya's magic dome as he and Agni stood beneath it.
The glass coated robes of the devil swirled as it leapt back from the shield and became one with the Formation. Ferenike laughed, a rasping howl of a blast furnace ripping it's way free.
"Charge!" She howled, the Hoplite crackling with their combined might.
The magic shield of the Fifth Sea cultivators cracked before her spears and the Hoplite's blows. The annoying tones of the bell man couldn't reach her mind over her roaring laughter and the sword and knife of the other man were turned aside with pillars and spears of glass and the Hoplite's shield.
The sandstorm shook around her as she reached out with her Qi to touch the Qi of the world around her again. She took in another great
breath. The storm swirled compressing around her and her soldiers and grasping the Qi of the Hoplite she guided her soldiers to strike. The shield cracked the sword of Agni and then slammed into him, sending him flying up and away for thirty
li before his token kicked in and took him away.
They had turned away Foundation Building experts with this Formation before and the enemies before her fell to their spear and shield. Acharya bat aside the spear once more and then with a scowl cursed her and then he turned and leapt, landing on a golden cloud and speeding away faster than the Hoplite could keep up. She considered launching a spear, but it was too fast for as well and so she called the Formation to a halt.
It faded around her as the storm did. She looked back at her soldiers. "Casualty report!" She shouted. One of the fourth heavenstage members sprung up like a rabbit and answered.
"Ma'am we have three badly wounded, and all of us are on the edge of Qi exhaustion." She said, wobbling slightly on her feet, saluting.
"At ease then. We'll rest and recover and then we're leaving this town through the tunnels." She ordered. Then she smiled, a horrifying expression in her current state as glass fangs ground against each other. "You did good as bait. I'll make sure you all get extra Contribution Points, and the wounded three will be getting a further bonus."
"Yes Tessarian!" They all responded, feverish smiles flitting across grim faces.
While Ferenike battles.
Nan Fuxi swung her spear in a whistling arc, knocking aside the burning beam about to slam into her with a thunk! Her aura of a Seventh Heavenstage cultivator snapped and crackled around her as her hawk spirit dived at the enemy again. Lightning flashed from her cracked, blackened and charred hand, breaking the battle into jagged shards of light and vision as Fuxi pushed her body beyond the breaking point. Her blood dripped from a dozen wounds in her bronze flesh and her silver hair was lank with sweat.
She was dying from a hole bored through her lung by her enemy's own spear, a gleaming thing of ivory tusk and bronze. Behind her stood the Golden Cloud Fortress, where her clanmates were being treated in a temporary field hospital.
The Hunter leapt out of the sea of lightning with a brazen cry, body smoking and weeping blood from a dozen small wounds. Before Fuxi could blink she was being harried back towards the entrance she was guarding, towards the courtyard where a solid dozen wounded clan members were recovering. She could hear the clamor of the medics trying to evacuate them. Behind her the mountains loomed, casting everything in their shadow.
Her enemy was a blisteringly fast and bulky woman with elephant themed leather armor, and wielded her spear and a brace of knives with incredible skill, possibly greater than even Fuxi's friend. Her aura in the tenth Heavenstage was overwhelming, the sound of temple gongs following her every mighty blow, rattling Fuxi's skull and disorientating her. Another flurry of blows and then Fuxi's spear was cast aside, shattered in the dirt.
"HAH!" The Hunter cried, stabbing forward for her heart as Fuxi frantically tried to leap to the side. There was an ear splitting cry and then her Twin-Tailed Thunder Hawk dove to meet the blow Fuxi could not avoid. There was a burst of lightning imbued blood and feathers as the hawk was impaled, screeching in pain as it turned aside the blow. Her heart froze as she continued moving, the shadows falling deeper upon her. She grasped her spear and attacked viciously, stabbing into her enemy's chest in the opening, her hand skating along the woman's rib's. The lightning imbued in Fuxi's fingers sparked off of her armor futilely.
The Hunter laughed and then with a flick of her spear cast aside the corpse of her hawk and struck. Fuxi was sent tumbling into the gate, rattling them with a massive boom, with a knife in her guts. She groaned, standing shakily, bracing herself on the door.
"Stubborn for a Demon." The woman said in accented Third Sea. She spun her spear casually and stepped forward. "I expected you'd take the offer I made to kill the Demons behind you and spare your life, if you let me pass."
Fuxi coughed, expression horrified as she looked at the Hunter. "You really are honorless. Unbelievable." She rasped with a broken voice.
The Hunter woman laughed. "What would you know of honor Demon? My grandfather taught me honor, and perpetuating affronts to heaven is about as honorless as you get."
Fuxi finished standing and smiled. "I'm protecting people. That's enough."
Her heart beat was slowing, even as adrenaline pumped through her, running out of blood to pump and she could feel the cracks running through her dantian burning with wild Qi. She was dead on her feet. She tried to raise her hands, shaking and weak. Thunder rumbled through the world, unheard by all but Fuxi.
Ferenike would be lividly pissed with her, and she was leaving her alone in this cruel world at Heaven's mercy. But the Heavens were
bastards and she'd be proud she protected these people. Fuxi would be pissed if Ferenike followed too quickly. Hopefully that Xiao Yi fellow could help her. She entrusted her hopes to him and Ferenike, flung onto the wind.
The spear came for her and punched through her sternum. She stepped into it, sliding down the haft to smack into her Hunter's hands. The other woman gasped in surprise and tried to jerk back as Fuxi's sharp nailed hands wrapped around her throat. Lightning kindled in her heart as Fuxi grinned with bloodstained teeth, her thumbs digging into the meat of her enemy's throat and her hair rising ominously in a snapping cloud of static as her red eyes were swallowed by a burst of white light.
Kraka-THOOOM!
A horrifyingly large bolt of lightning exploded from Fuxi's chest and throat, scouring the enemy in front of her with radiant light. Her screams were swallowed in the thunder. The display lit the surrounding desert for only an eyeblink but when it was done all that remained were two figures.
On the sands before the fortress that would soon be renamed Fuxi's Stand stood a bronze statue polished to a golden shine with a beatific smile on her face, clutching the blasted remains of a human skeleton in its hands.
@occipitallobe another! Decided to show the trials from multiple perspectives to convey a more external perspective on Ferenike, all connected by being a part of Ferenike's personal sphere, and it was time to kill the last of her squad. Another Fate bonus please! Not sure if I'll make any more Omake until the storypost is posted.
