There was zero chance the back to back fights like that were anything but purposeful on Instructor Ceng’s part. She half expected Xinshi’s lackey to have a brain cell or two remaining after the beating she’d just taken and surrender immediately, but no— she pushed herself to her feet, mud and all, and squared up on her side of the arena.

Everyone was watching— perhaps even more intently than they had her match with Guandong. It only made sense— it was the very first time they’d actually get to see Avyr fight. Truly, actually fight someone, not the… halfhearted excuse of a battle they’d had at the very start.

A second passed, as Instructor Ceng raised his arm. “Ready, and…” a breath— “start!” His arm cut through the air like an omen, and— with it came the pressure. In a moment the day went from just a little bit warm and a slight bit too muggy to oppressive, a vast and dry heat blasting down on them from above. She could see the qi wisping off of Avyr as he stood in the center of a great and terrible force, a pressure that heaved against her shoulders and sapped her strength— and it wasn’t even directed at her. The power of a cultivator, the pure presence of a second step cultivator unleashed for combat—

Guandong dropped like a sack of rocks, impacting the dirt hard enough to leave an imprint. Then, blissfully, the pressure disappeared. Avyr hadn’t even taken a step. Such was the dominance of cultivation.

Lily grinned. That had been awesome.

Then her grin faded, as fast as it’d come. Now…

All that remained were the fights that mattered.

………

Most of the other students had finished their matches and left as the last of them came only ever closer. Just like the midterms… their fights were the last ones. Her hands were clammy. Her breath, short. She knew what was coming— had known from before the start and yet still, now, standing there in the center of it all with Zhihu staring down at her and Mingtian watching placidly, and Avyr…

First rank against third. The Young Master Qin Xinshi against Lily Ward of no name and great hope.

Avyr’s paw gently pressed against her arm, smooth fur brushing softly against her skin. “Victory is assured. You’re an entire rank in cultivation beneath him, and the fate of the battle is as of yet uncertain— isn’t that something to be proud of?” It was an empty platitude… but it helped, regardless. Maybe less because of what it was, and more because of who was saying it.

She breathed out even as Instructor Ceng actually called her and Xinshi forward. Right. Right. She breathed in, and held it, and let it burn— fuel to the raging inferno, ablaze with all hope and fear, four steps and rapturous, shivering anticipation, until— she breathed out, and left onlythe calm at the edge of a storm.

A battle. That’s all it was. That was everything— here, in the arena before her, in the gaze of the man whose burning gaze stared her down unflinchingly, utterly and completely confident… this was where the course of her future would be written.

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Every moment was made of molasses.

Each second, the slow trickle of slow time—

Water under a bridge. Always starting, never returning, reaching, at last—

“Match, start!”

Xinshi did not rush at her immediately. He should have, but he was cautious, and that allowed her to do exactly what she’d spent hours practicing. With a graceful motion that belied its quickness, she let the glass vial she’d been holding in her sleeve drop down into her hand and—

Raised it, to catch against gold skies the saffron of sunlight breaking through the sanguine blood encapsulated within—

And smashed it down against her own arm.

It shattered, the shards digging agonizingly deep into her flesh. Deep enough to make her bleed— and that was exactly

what she’d wanted. In the moment that Xinshi paused in shock at her self-mutilation she pushed through the pain, pushed through the way the glass shards dug at her each time her muscles twitched, pushed through the all consuming burning of the vial’s blood as it lit each and every cut aflame with liquid pain—

She dipped her hand— itself lacerated— into the wound, and began to draw.

Xinshi noticed how much danger he was in, and immediately went on the offensive— but it was too late. The shielding charm she’d quickly drawn onto her skin deflected his first blow off to the side, and she dodged out of the way of the second, still drawing on her arm. It was the same strategy she’d used against Guandong, more or less, just far more extreme.

She ducked under another one of Xinshi’s empowered blows, then activated the second talisman she’d drawn. A burst of fiery wind erupted from her palm, golden flames lashing against Xinshi as he was blown back to the other side of the arena with a force that was— if she was being honest— far more effective than she’d dared to hope for. Her hand was blistered after that, but— a real blow. A real blow!

Xinshi picked himself up, brushing off his robes— which had taken the brunt of the blow— eyes wide. “You’re mad. You’ve actually gone mad.”

She smiled, a vicious and liberating thing. “Not mad, Young Master— I’m merely determined. That’s a different thing entirely.” Even as she talked, she kept drawing— taking those scant few moments earned to create something truly magnificent. She’d used the vial of the most potent blood out of the lot— the blood that echoed of vast and endless molten in its viscous ripples, that smelled like the heart of a star and dragged down her spine the gold of a burning sunrise— and she would not let it go to waste. “To a cultivator, what is a mere cut? To a cultivator—” she punctuated each and every word with a step to the side, both of them slowly circling each other— “what is mere pain? What is…” she grit her teeth as the agony flared up again, something burning through her veins— “what is endless agony in the face of victory? I’m not mad, Xinshi. I simply refuse. I’ll never give up! Not while I still—”

Xinshi drew his sword in a single motion and dashed forward—

Lily ignited her formation and felt herself burn. It was too much. It was so gloriously too much. She screamed in agony as her entire world became one of light! So much light! Burning, blazing, rushing and shining, all-immolating—

Boundless.

Radiance.

………

Thunder echoed across an empty sky.