Ginseng + Yew (人蔘 + ᚔ) [NBxNB healer x necromancer xianxia adventure]

38 - Do I need to spell it out for you?

A/N: I've been doing well with posting chapters since Sunday - all my stories are getting their chapters on the scheduled days. Let's see how long this lasts.

Also, this chapter = (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

CW: a bit of blood

***

"...did I do something wrong?"

A small smile "Maybe."

"Uh... Well I'm sorry... Ye don't have to fight m-"

"Pang Yau, I'm asking you to fight me."

"Yuet... We've fought before."

Sou Yuet rested the top of their head against the necromancer's chest. "Yes. And that... That was wrong. I lost myself, and attacked you. This is different. I'm perfectly calm now.

"Why do you want me to do this?"

"You'll see."

The necromancer made a face, but he let Sou Yuet go. "Alright...So..."

"Use everything you have."

"No."

"Yes."

"I'm not-" He reeled to one side, his cheek tingling, from where Sou Yuet's staff had scraped the skin. The monk had drawn their hairpin and transformed it in the blink of an eye.

"Pang Yau."

"Fine."

The tattoos on his arms writhed and crawled out from under his sleeves, sliding along the ground towards Sou Yuet like snakes. Sunny barked and growled unhappily, backing up with her head swinging.

Sou Yuet struck out with the staff. The necromancer blocked it with his forearm, sending dark shapes running up its length. He almost missed the kick that the monk aimed directly at his chin, catching that too, but the staff changed back to hairpin again, coming loose from the shadows, then was a staff again in an instant, and the end of it was rammed into his diaphragm, knocking the air from him in a rush.

And the air didn't come back easily.

It wasn't simply a matter of him being winded. Looking up, he saw the green glints in Sou Yuet's dark eyes and the strange patterns that the monk's hands made.

Still, he had endured worse.

He could hold his breath for perhaps five minutes before he passed out, so he had five minutes to fight through.

The jagged line that ran along one of his temples left his skin and lanced towards the monk, and Sou Yuet was instantly seized with an almost blinding headache that made them sway, but still they withheld the air from the necromancer's lungs. They dodge the next tattoo that flew towards them, a starburst shape from the necromancer's knee. That probably would have shattered their kneecap.

Sou Yuet slammed a foot down into the ground to try and regain concentration, leaving a depression in the stone. Brambles rose up and wrapped around the necromancer's body, and with a growl of pain he spat out the band of black that was patterned around his tongue. Sou Yuet felt a searing pain across their own tongue, releasing their hold on both the air and the brambles to direct healing energy to the injured body part.

The necromancer scrambled up, shedding blood and thorns, to find Sou Yuet's fist flying at him. It hit him square in the chest, and he felt his ribs crack along the breastbone, and he was launched into the rock behind him.

He coughed, ruefully. "Why are ye doing this, Yuet? Ye look miserable."

The monk froze, next fist still raised, teeth bared unhappily. Unclenching their hand, they laid it on the necromancer's chest, and he felt everything knit neatly back together, the bones healing, his bruised lungs easing.