Willful Beauty Takes the Villain | System | BxB

55: Live Fire

A jittery, uneasy atmosphere spread through the unit as they traveled to the suspected site of an overlap.

The location itself is a moderately used marshland road near several mid-sized villages. Dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves of giant ferns that towered over the soldier's heads. The rustle and chirp of birds and buzzing of insects filled the air.

The day passed slowly. Shadows lengthened and converged, creating an early darkness. In the eerie false twilight, the unit could only wait and see if anything would happen. Everyone was on edge with frazzled nerves from the uncertainty.

As true dusk approached, the surroundings suddenly descended into a disturbing silence. A faintly glowing mist flowed through the underbrush. The soldiers tensed in preparation but everyone remained silent, waiting.

One dark shape emerged followed by groups of three or four soon after. Sound returned to the marshland. The soldiers released pent up breaths, their stress relieved a bit by knowing what they will face now. These reptilian like spirit beasts move slowly, are low to the ground with dark, rough skin that blended well in the marsh.

The unit commander carefully noted the arrival time and location of the beasts as well as their seemingly organized movements as the fight began. All this would be very important information for clan head Song.

Song Min advanced alone toward the beast's formation. All of the beast's attention focused on him. Low growls and the stomping of their large clawed feet drowned out any other sounds. Song Min's body flashed, his sword arm moved in an arc, the beast's front line was decimated in this one move.

As more beasts emerged from the mist, Song Min seemed unconcerned about the whereabouts of young master Qin. Some soldiers even grumbled that he was going to get them all in trouble with the Qin house by neglecting his responsibility. They all considered the young master as baggage meant to test them further and nothing more.

There wasn't much time for the soldiers to think about it much though. There were far more spirit beasts pouring into the marsh than they had expected. The pungent smell of blood and crackle of spirit energy filled the air. The soldiers were all people raised and trained to be used to spirit energy but some still had to grit their teeth and resist the urge to vomit. Only Song Min and the young master Qin remained unaffected.

Sen Jia and Sen Shuai had been feeling stifled by the monotony in the Song Estate. Now they had a good opportunity to let loose so they didn't hold back at all in this battle.

In battle, master Qin showed himself to be nimble and attentive. He had a strong sense of the flow of combat and he moved to where he was most needed and away from danger in a flash. Soon everyone adopted the same attitude that Song Min had shown. They started to realize Song Min had never been uncaring, he just had complete and well-deserved trust in the young medic's ability.

The soldiers gained respect for master Qin during this fight. Towards Song Min, they could only gape in awe.

They had recently been impressed by his ability on the practice field but never could have expected his prowess in actual combat. He was a blur of color and vicious motion as he swept across the scene leaving gore and disorder in his wake. The cold flash of his blade reflecting the last golden rays of sunset would catch the soldier's eyes from time to time.

The rest of the soldiers moved as a unit under their commander's orders. Only Song Min and Master Qin had special identities allowing them to move freely around the battlefield.

The commander that had "kindly" advised Sen Jia earlier fully accepted he was wrong about the little master. He was about to pat the young man's shoulder in praise when he remembered a certain dangerous little upstart's words. His hand hovered in the air a moment then was retracted.

Now that he's seen how formidable Song Min's skills are, he silently praised his luck that he hadn't made trouble with him earlier.