I'll Be Here

The Next Thing

The front lines were crowded with all kinds of adepti: illuminated beasts, qilin, Vision-carrying humans, a couple of minor archons, and hybrids of all things in between. Xiao didn't recognize most of them, though to be fair, he didn't always remember the names of the ones he did recognize. He had never had the opportunity to see this many people at the same time before, and the colors and shapes and sizes and energies were a little overwhelming, adepti and humans all laughing and shouting and sparring and talking loudly and preparing themselves for battle or for defense or for healing and interacting with each other as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Even his yaksha family, who were not even intended to be a part of the front line army, stood at the edge of the army. He could make out the sight of some of them interacting with the other adepti, making friends or something like it.

The sun sat high in the noon sky, and Xiao sat high above the harbor on a nearby plateau, legs hanging off the edge of the cliff, looking down at the beginnings of the city and the front lines of the Archon War, eyes shielded by his hair that really did nothing to keep his focus from rushing back and forth.

He wasn't stressed by the number of people below him. He was more stressed by the fact that he was more powerful than every single one of them.

He wasn't stupid. He remembered killing archons. He remembered being faster and stronger than almost everything he came across. Usually the only things that held him back from defeating something big, like the Pyro Regisvine, were his own karmic restrictions and inability to heal himself. His strength now was a benefit to Rex Lapis, so much so that even those that had been adepti for ages and had the right to treat him as a subordinate considered him a superior among their rankings.

It wasn't right. He hadn't asked for it. He hadn't deserved it.

And in the back of his mind he had to wonder if he should credit his former master for it.

Zhui had kidnapped him and tortured him and forced him to fight and gotten him addicted to dreams, had made him stronger and more resilient to karma than any yaksha alive, had brought him above the level of most archons, and had given him more fighting experience than all of these frontliners.

Xiao hissed in frustration. He slipped one hand under the gauntlet on his left wrist and pressed his nails into the soft skin there, feeling the thin texture of his scar tissue, feeling the mental strain of karmic binds, letting the pain from his own action clear his mind. Breathe in.

He could really use a dream or ten right now.

"Xiao."

Xiao snatched his hand back, whipping around and grabbing his spear from the air, only to find the Archon of Broken Things standing behind him with her one hand up.

Crap. He dissolved his spear and bowed his head. "Lady Jing, I apologize for that."

"No, no. I apologize for startling you." She lowered her arm and summoned her sword. "Spar with me, Xiao."

In the same breath, she had apologized for startling him and then startled him again. "What?"

Half a second later her sword, a light but deadly sharp gold steel, was inches from his face.

Xiao ducked quickly, summoning his jade spear again, using the pole to parry the next strikes.

He could feel her energy, putting everything she had into her sword fighting skills, even with one arm and no supplementary Geo energy, but the length of his polearm seemed to give him an advantage.

The initial fear he'd felt melted away. She was coming at him with everything she had in terms of skill, and he could only feel concern for the adepti army. If Jing's best was not even quite on par with Xiao's mid-effort defense, what was the rest of the army capable of?