DC 75

Guess something went wrong, its definitely over next chapter. That being said, it looks like life is giving me a brief respite in its unrelenting ass kicking. 

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“Don’t just stand there, move! I can’t turn very well when I run like this!” Xin Lee, who was already embarrassed by his inability to immobilize the beast with his archery as planned, felt even more self-conscious when he saw all of his friends staring at him running. Although his Scramble was one of those few trump cards that could be operated with both essence and Qi, he had always hated the way he needed to run like an ape to maximize its effectiveness.

Moments, later, Xin Lee came crashing into the safezone. His speed was so fast, he had a hard time stopping and ended up having to just tumble over and let his body slide to a stop just to make sure he wouldn’t overshoot their safezone.

The beast, however, had no trouble coming to a sudden halt outside of their ring of torches. The entire time they’d battled it, Feng Jiao had kept a close eye on the beast. During the entire night, the creature had done its best to avoid all of the torches, not just the ones with the extra strong repellant. 

Feng Jiao theorized it had a strong aversion to light, or fire, and it stopping so far from their ring just proved his point. As he opened his mouth to share his discovery, however, there was a change in the creature’s behavior. 

One step at a time, it slowly moved forward. Either the repellant in the torches was not yet strong enough to scare the creature away, or it hadn’t been affected by the poison that was also laced into the fire. Cursing their bad luck, Feng Jiao rushed to light the rest of the torches before the beast could get too close. 

“If you light those all, we won’t have any protection when they are spent in four hours.” Feng Lou knew that his cousin wouldn’t recklessly put them in danger, well any more than he already had, but felt the need to remind Feng Jiao of the consequences nonetheless. 

Feng Jiao and company had consumed the antidote to the poison within both types of  torches earlier that morning, which was why they’d felt safe battling in a field that was slowly filled with toxic gasses. Looking at the creature, it was very likely to be affected by the poison, but just not strongly enough. With no other choice, the other torches had to be lit or it would be upon them in no time. 

Looking at the creature’s jerky movements, though, Feng Jiao could tell it was taking a lot of effort just to move forward into the thicker areas of smoke. The others might have trouble seeing it because of the weird mist that surrounded it, but Feng Jiao could clearly feel the shaking in its limbs as it stepped upon the weeds he’d grown there. 

Eventually, it came to a stop only 10 feet or so away, staring at them but not retreating. The uncanny intelligence that the monster had shown up until this point told the group that it very likely understood that the beast knew the torches could not last forever. It’d likely seen many torches burn themselves out in the months it hunted in the field before it was abandoned.

“Can you use your artifact from this range?” Curly asked while holding his injured leg in a sitting position. Although he’d come to assist them, he hadn't shown up until well after they’d already discussed most of the battle plan. He’d gotten a recap, of course, but he hadn’t asked and they hadn’t explained the specifics of Xin Lee’s treasure. 

“No, I need to be able to make physical contact with its head and have time to contrate. It takes at least 30 seconds to power up and use.” Xin Lee, not injured so much as exhausted, exhaled his words between deep labored breaths.

“What good is an artifact like that? It’s way too restrictive!” Curly was still worked up, terrified of death and not recovering very well from the betrayal of Spiky. Although he knew it wasn’t Xin Lee’s fault, he couldn’t help but speak too aggressively for the situation. 

“What good is it? This line of pseudo artifacts is the reason my family is reigning as the strongest beast tamers on the continent! Sure, it doesn’t look too useful to you right now because we are fighting something far stronger than we are, but it isn’t even supposed to be used until I am at the peak of the Mortal realm! For the gods’ sake, it's an item that can forcefully bind a strong creature’s will to my own and force a soul contract! Of course there are limitations!” Xin Lee wasn’t having a very good time either and didn’t take too well to a stranger questioning his ability or family’s legacy. Without a timely intervention from Feng Lou, the two of them probably would have come to blows.

With nothing else he could do, Feng Jiao sat down to treat his injuries and begin cultivating. Although his cultivation technique wouldn’t reach maximum efficacy for at least three hours, Feng Jiao decided to start converting what was left of the flame essence in his primary dantian into wood essence for his secondary. Although he’d lose the ability to rapidly heal with his fire essence, no amount of healing was going to save him if they weren’t able to constrict this beast in time. 

With that in mind, Feng Jiao concentrated on absorbing as much wild essence as he could and supplementing it with his fire Qi for conversion with his wood technique. While he did that, he continued meditating on that hallowed technique he’d discovered within one of the wood techniques he’d stolen from the Aspect Hall.

Time continued to crawl on as the two moons inched across the sky on an apparent collision course. Feng Jiao’s ability to convert the essence into his unique version of wood essence ramped up as the moons did so, and he cursed his loss of progress. He’d been on the cusp of finally condensing his fire Qi, but now he was draining his fire dantian rapidly to supplement his wood. 

The only upside that he could see was that his dantian, which he’d stretched to its limits, was not shrinking as the essence left it. That would make it much easier to rebuild the supply of essence, as he wouldn’t need to waste a large portion of his time expanding it at the cost of his essence again.

After a couple hours, his fire dantian was running on empty but his wood dantian was more filled than it had ever been in the past. Because it was so thick, his fire essence converted into even more wood essence, as if 1 unit of fire essence was worth 3 units of wood. That was before even counting in the wild essence he’d absorbed in the meantime.

As he refilled his wood dantian from empty, he’d also felt some sort of resonance with the unnamed hallowed technique he’d been running. The new wood essence had come in thicker than ever, and had maintained the slight changes he’d caused to the original technique when he combined it with the other techniques he’d stolen. He’d been worried that modifying the cultivation technique that the hallowed technique had been hidden in would cause it to lose its efficacy, but that was apparently a pointless stressor.

The resonance continued to build over the next hour or so, as Feng Jiao stopped converting the little bits of fire essence he had left and purifying the wood essence he had to the best of his ability. He could feel that he was nearing a breakthrough with the hallowed technique and hopped he’d finally be able to understand what it did. Of course, he didn’t realize that the grass and weeds he’d grown below his meditative position were blooming more than ever, throwing their roots far and wide beneath them all.

The torches were getting eerily low and the beast was still lying there, staring at them just outside dimming torch light. Everytime the wind blew and one of the flames sputtered, the other kids would tense up. None of them had been able to properly meditate the entire time, too stressed by their first real battle. They knew they’d be better off if they could get into peak condition, but their bodies refused to cooperate with their minds.

The only other person ready for what would become, one way or the other, their final clash with the beast was Bai Fu. She’d not said anything the entire night, and had felt useless. Her martial arts couldn’t help her because her strength wasn’t even comparable to the beast. None of the hallowed techniques she’d learned from her family were operable with essence, and her weapons, two short curved blades, did not lend her enough reach. 

Still, as she sat there staring at Feng Jiao’s back, she did not regret her choice to come at all. Although she was useless this entire night, so were all of the others there with the exception of Feng Jiao and maybe Xin Lee. Before meeting Feng Jiao in the arena that day, and then injecting herself forcefully into his friend group, she’d never had a real friend. Her family was a wealthier one and the circumstances that led up to her fleeing home were not pleasant ones. Even if she died that night, she knew she would do so with no regrets. 

Finally, as the moons overlapped in the night sky, several changes took place at once. The field got darker, the silver moon now hidden behind the pink one, and the torches spluttered out. Not only did it get darker, but somehow the silver moon’s light striking against the back of the pink one amplified its effects, causing blood red light to bathe the world for a few minutes.

The beast, noticing the loss of the torches, took only a few moments to shake off some of the residual poison and continue its walk forward.

Feng Jiao’s friends all clutched their weapons with white knuckles, neither running nor hiding. Each one of them was prepared to die, knowing from the beast’s previous actions that there would be no escape.

Bai Fu took one last look at Feng Jiao, whose eyes were still closed as he mediated, before taking a deep breath and stepping between him and the beast.

And Feng Jiao, who was concentrated so well he didn’t even notice the passage of time, finally made a breakthrough with the hallowed technique. A large portion of the wood essence he’d cultivated that night rushed through his meridians in an abstract manner before breaking lose of their confines and rising to his skin. 

Within his acupoints, a milky water-like substance condensed before falling to the earth. A long slumbering field awoke, and flora burst forth from the barren earth, coloring the night with green and yellow to combat the red.