Temüjin wasted no time and began running toward the town, motioning for me to follow. I took off behind him and thanks to my new speed I was able to barely keep him in sight. Undergrowth whipped at my arms and legs as I sprinted through the forest, ducking trees, vaulting streams, and hopping over limbs and logs that had fallen during the heavy winter snows. Soldier and Sage ranks were what Temüjin had called “watershed” ranks, meaning that the lucky cultivators that reached those ranks had transcended that which was physically possible as a mortal human.

It was, in theory at least, possible for a mortal to do the workouts that I had been subjected to previously. I had an advantage, of course, in that I could heal myself overnight and prevent long-term injury caused by pushing myself to the limits constantly. But a human could still do the work, if they trained long and hard. Now, though, I could feel the power coursing through my arms and legs. There was no burning in my lungs as I pushed myself to the limit attempting to keep up with my mentor.

I began to see the value in the exercises that Temüjin had forced me to do as I jumped down a steep slope in a controlled fall. Using earth qi to stabilize my footing had become instinctive over the past year, my feet hitting the ground barely long enough to solidify the earth before I leapt further into the forest.

We emerged from the forest near the escarpment that I had descended a year ago, on my first trip to the village. Temüjin climbed up the cliff walls to gain a higher vantage point, and I joined him within a few seconds. The village was laid out before us, fires eating away at homes and businesses of the inhabitants. Scores of red-clad men were streaming into the village through a gaping hole where the gate had previously been.

“Obsidian ring?” I asked.

“Imperial troops,” Temüjin answered.

His voice was cold. It was a tone I’d heard in my previous life a few times and it had always, without exception, been followed by violence. One of my old friends had been a soldier in the army. He came back from his last overseas deployment missing his lower left leg and sporting a whole boatload of PTSD. We were drinking in his garage, a few months after he got back, when his little sister’s boyfriend got into a shouting match with her outside of the house. I don’t think the kid knew her big brother was there, or else he would have never done it, but we got outside just in time to see him hit her. The tone of voice he used when describing to the kid just how monumental his fuckup had been, before beating him half to death, was the exact tone of voice Temüjin was using.

“What should we do?” I asked, confused.

Temüjin started to glow a faint red in the morning sun and I could feel my pulse start to pick up. It pounded in my ears like war drums, urging me toward violence. I got that hollow feeling in my gut that signified an adrenaline surge into my system. My body started to sweat lightly as my internal temperature rose and I broke out into goosebumps. Even my qi started to surge, urging me to use it, let it break free to destroy those who would dare threaten my home.

“It’s simple,” came his reply, “We kill them all.”

He abandoned our vantage point, kicking off from the cliff wall and free falling the hundred feet to the ground. I followed a bit more cautiously but joined him at the base of the escarpment within a few moments.

Temüjin started a fast walk, turning it first into a jog, and then into a run, as we neared the largest concentration of soldiers. A few of them saw us, and perhaps a dozen broke formation to meet our charge. It was over so quickly that I never even saw the skill Temüjin used. He just twitched his hand and the dozen fell apart in a tangle of dismembered limbs. Slowly enough to scoop up a weapon he threw himself into the ranks. Anything within his reach was stabbed, cut, cleaved, burned, or otherwise deprived of life and the once disciplined ranks collapsed into chaos.

I stopped, mouth agape at the carnage Temüjin was unleashing, but soon realized I had problems of my own. The soldiers on the fringes of the fight had realized that they were outmatched by the old man, but I guess they thought I’d be easier prey because a handful started moving toward me. There was a moment of panic as I realized that I was unarmed but it passed quickly as my qi surged again, as if to remind me that I wasn’t without the means to defend myself. The soldiers were thirty feet away when I thrust my hand forward and let my qi manifest. A jagged bolt of actinic lightning roared out of my palm with enough force to push me back a half-step and engulfed the lead soldier before branching out and hitting the rest. The lead soldier literally exploded from the force of the blast. All but three of those behind him were charred and fell to the ground, dead.

The three survivors were wounded but kept coming. One was a water cultivator, apparently, because he started to lob ice spikes at me. The other two closed into melee range and I was forced to duck a sweeping slash from sort of polearm that I couldn’t identify while the other tried his best to stab me with a straight-bladed sword. A twist of my hand knocked away the blade, earning me a small gash in the process, and I was able to grapple with him. His qi was almost nonexistent, he was mortal, and it was easy for me to overpower it as I used fire qi to rip the heat from his body. I formed it into a ball of flame which I launched at the water cultivator, turning him into a pillar of fire. The polearm came slashing around again and I rolled backward to avoid it. The wielder didn’t stop his weapon in time, and it hit the frozen cultivator and shattered him into several fleshy chunks. The look on his face was one of horror as he realized what he had done, and he paused in his movements long enough for me to close in on him and launch a left hook. The bones in his face crumpled under my fist and he dropped to the ground unconscious.

I left him drowning in his own blood as I took to my heels and raced to the village. Temüjin was still wrecking the soldiers and reinforcements were streaming to the melee, which left me a clear approach to the remains of the wall. A guard and soldier were fighting on the wall and as I approached I realized it was Tarkhan. His left arm was clenched across his midsection, holding pressure on an abdominal wound, and he held his sword with his right hand, trying desperately to fend off attacks from the soldier. He wasn’t having much luck though, as the soldier slashed again and again, scoring several small wounds. The soldier ignored several openings for a lethal strike, just toying with Tarkhan.

Infusing my legs with qi I leapt as high as I could, clearing the twenty-foot palisade, and clotheslined the soldier around his torso and off of the wall. We both crashed to the ground, the force of the impact forcing us apart, and I continued my roll to gain distance. I had wrenched my knee on the landing, and I flooded the area with my diminishing qi reserves in order to heal it. The soldier, this one wearing the red uniform but with gold piping around the collar and shoulders, stood and picked up his weapon while favoring his side.

“Sword!,” I yelled, holding my hand out to Tarkhan, who was gaping at me like an idiot.

His training kicked in, and he tossed the weapon down to me just in time for me to block a powerful overhand strike from the soldier. I counter-attacked with all the ferocity I could muster but was blocked at every strike. The soldier was much better with a sword than I was, and it showed as he danced around my strikes and launched counterattacks that I was increasingly hard-pressed to defend against. To make matters worse, the soldier slowly started to stand straighter, his side beginning to heal, and his movements started to come more rapidly.

Soon enough my hands and arms were covered with small wounds. The blood dripped down my hands and made my grip on the hilt of the sword slippery, and I finally lost my grasp on it as the soldier disarmed me. Like an idiot, I tracked my weapon as it flew out of my hands rather than keeping an eye on my opponent and he took the opportunity to ram a foot of steel through my guts. I gasped in pain before he ripped the weapon out and spun, chopping at the back of my leg. It, predictably, collapsed under me, and I fell to the street.

“A noble try. You will sell well in the arena,” the soldier gloated, “if you survive.”

A surge of anger swept through me, and I flashed him a bloody smile before croaking out, “Oh, I’m going to make it out of here alive. You won’t though.”

“That’s where you’re mistaken little cultivator. I am an officer of the Eternal Blue Sky Empire, and you are all alone,” came his reply.

“Nope, I’m not alone,” I said, laying my head back against the comfortable dirt and starting the qi flow to heal myself.

The officer opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was going to say was interrupted as he was buried by two hundred pounds of pissed off drake. Shunakhai had put her wings to good use and climbed partway up the escarpment before jumping off and gliding into town. Her dive bomb had laid him out prone and that spelled the end of the fight. She got her mouth around his head and all four of her legs were doing a credible impression of a cheese grater as she literally shredded his body before clamping down and crushing his skull.

She padded over to me and nosed my torso, concern flashing through our bond. I threw an arm over her neck and she helped drag me to the wall and then posted up to guard me while I healed up. Tarkhan climbed down but maintained a safe distance, clearly wary of the drake that was keeping a close eye on him.

“He’s a friend Shun, and he’s hurt too, so be nice. And you, Tarkhan…she won’t hurt you unless you try to hurt me first,” I said, slumping back against the wall and drawing in as much qi as I could handle to jumpstart the healing process. Again, the rate at which my flesh knit back together was astounding when compared to my previous speed. Just over a minute after I started healing myself I was back up to fighting strength.

Tarkhan had kept his distance while I was healing, and when I stood he asked, “Now what?”

Still feeling the bloodlust coursing through me I shot him a grin and echoed Temüjin, “We kill them all.”

I stopped at the shredded corpse long enough to pick up his weapon, and headed further into the village, drake at my side. Soldiers were working in teams to drag people out of their houses as we proceeded down the street. The three of us made quick work of the small teams that we came across and had freed a few dozen villagers by the time we encountered serious resistance.

Over two dozen soldiers were attacking the inn where Irma and Batuhan lived, including one officer with the same gold piping on their uniform as the one that had nearly killed or captured Tarkhan. He was actually the first to notice our approach and shouted at the men in the rear ranks to turn and receive us before following his own suggestion and stepping out into the street in challenge.

My eyes fell on a bucket of water as we approached, and I burned some of my energy to animate its contents. Orbs the size of baseballs drifted up out of the bucket and started to rotate around my right arm. Another push of qi froze them solid, and I launched them at the officer, not wanting to tangle with him in close quarters. He dodged them all, but in such a target rich environment I couldn’t really miss. The frozen orbs slammed into his men, shattering bones, and dropping a handful of targets outright. The officer screamed in rage and started forming a ball of fire between his hands. I was considering how to deflect or dodge it when Shunakhai took a deep breath and then breathed. A blue orb of light the size of my head left her mouth and flashed across the distance to the officer almost too fast for my eyes to follow. The bolt of raw qi slammed into the officer’s chest and exploded, hurtling him backward in a spray of blood and viscera.

The violence of the explosion was enough to stop both sides as they gaped at the remains of the officer. Shunakhai trumpeted her victory, breaking the spell and we swarmed over the remaining soldiers. Villagers closed into melee, fighting like dervishes, and using whatever weapons they had picked up along the way.

I tossed a young man my sword and picked up a spear that a dead soldier had so thoughtfully dropped before cutting a swath to the door. Batuhan stood in the doorway while I could see Irma behind him with a bow in her hands. He buried his oversized axe into a soldier’s shoulder before shield bashing him back, freeing the weapon, roaring like some blood-soaked god of war the entire time.

“Karlus! What’s happening? Where’s Temüjin?” he shouted.

“He’s outside the walls, dealing with the rest of these invaders,” I called back, before burying my spear into the side of a soldier that was about to deal the killing blow to a woman who was vainly trying to defend herself with a cracked wooden shield.

I looked for another enemy and saw none standing. Around me the villagers were standing, some sporting wounds, all of them heaving for breath in the chill air of spring.

“Alright, cultivators, those who can heal get everybody back to fighting shape. We’re heading back out to help Temüjin,” I said.

The woman who I had saved spoke up, “We’ll die if we go out there. We need to run and hide.”

Tarkhan saved me the trouble of responding, “And you’ll die there, too. The Empire will track you down regardless.”

Batuhan and Irma both moved out from the inn and stood next to Tarkhan and I, voicing their support. I’m sure they had some inspirational speeches, but the truth was I was too busy healing the wounded to take note.

We formed ranks, as much as we could, and marched down the street. No opposition faced us, and as we walked through the shattered remains of the gate I was able to see why. Temüjin had decimated the Imperial forces that were arrayed against the city. He was standing, alone, at the base of the escarpment while what remained of the Imperial forces ran for their lives up the steep road leading out of the valley, hurried along by the white-hot balls of fire he was launching at them.

“Tarkhan, get anyone that’s good in a fight and let’s move up to support Temüjin. Irma, grab everyone else and try to get these fires put out and salvage what you can from the village,” I ordered. I didn’t know if anybody would listen to me, but sometimes in a panic people will just freeze until they’re given a specific task.

Suiting action to words I picked up into a jog and ran across the field, cratered by explosions and who knows what else, before making to Temüjin. To my surprise Tarkhan was only a few moments behind me, accompanied by Yaromir, Batuhan, and a handful of villagers I didn’t recognize.

Temüjin didn’t look so great. His face was drawn and pinched and his complexion, normally ruddy and healthy, was pallid. Whatever he had done to drive off the soldiers had obviously drained him. His barrage of fireballs slowed, and then stopped when we arrived.

“Is the village safe?” he asked in a hoarse tone.

“The village is probably a lost cause,” I said, “but the villagers are safe. For now, at least.”

“Then let’s regroup in the village, see what we’ve lost,” he replied, swaying a bit on his feet.

***

We split up upon returning to the village, Batuhan to feed the survivors, I went with the water cultivators to extinguish the flames, and the earth cultivators were busy healing any wounded. So, it wasn’t until late evening until I had a chance to sit down and actually talk to Temüjin and the villagers about the raid.

I walked into the inn and plopped down in the only open chair around the table where Temüjin, Batuhan, Tarkhan, Irma, and Yaromir were talking. With the exception of Temüjin they all turned to stare at me, wide-eyed.

“What?” I said.

Tarkhan was the first to speak, “How did you learn to fight like that?”

I tipped my head to Temüjin, “He’s an excellent teacher. And he’s said, grudgingly, that I’m not a bad student.”

“There’s more to it than that,” Yaromir said, and pointed to Shunakhai who was laying at my side, “That’s the same damned drake you brought to my home last year. Beasts don’t change like that. Hell, I don’t know what she is anymore, but she’s for damned sure not a Snowsquall.”

I shrugged, “She’s a bonded beast. When I broke through to Soldier rank she changed alongside me. Don’t ask how, I don’t know the mechanism either. But I’m not going to argue with the results. Considering she hasn’t so much as batted an eye at any of you so far you shouldn’t argue with them either.”

Giving them a hard look, I continued, “So why don’t we focus less on my ass-kicking abilities and drake and more on why a few hundred Imperial soldiers decided to forcefully remodel your village?”

“They were after a foal,” said Tarkhan, “Their force showed up and demanded we turn it over. I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about, and they attacked.”

I paled. Tarkhan may not have known what the foal was, but I had a sneaking suspicion that I did.

“Temüjin, you said that unicorn hairs are used for healing potions, right?” I asked.

He nodded, “They are.”

“Would the qi be more potent if the unicorn was…younger?” I said.

“Maybe?” he replied, “I’m not an alchemist. I’m not sure what the effect would be. Why?”

I sighed, “There was a foal with the herd. A few of the hairs I had Batuhan sell came from it. Occam’s Razor says that’s the reason they were here.”

The table erupted in an explosion of voices, everybody clamoring to speak at once. A roar from Shunakhai shut them up. I took a particularly vindictive pleasure in noting the flinch from Tarkhan when she sounded off. Apparently her display against the officers had made an impression.

Temüjin sighed, “That could be the answer.”

Irma chimed in, “It just raises more questions. We’ve always sold those hairs. Not from foals, I didn’t think anybody could actually gather hair from one, but from the adults, sure. They’re rare, but not worth attacking over.”

“And I didn’t sell them all to the same vendor,” Batuhan interjected, “I spread them out over the caravans. Hell, half of them are still in the box in the back room.”

“Get them,” Temüjin requested, pulling the lens out of his pocket, “I’ll see what this shows me.”

Batuhan complied, and in a few moments the box was on the table. Temüjin examined the hairs he pulled from the box individually while we sat in silence, waiting.

He placed the lens back in his pocket when he was finished with the last hair and sighed, “There is more power in the foal’s hair, and it’s very different than the adult hair as well. I’m not sure what effects it would have on a healing potion. It’s still not enough to make me think it warrants an attack by the Empire, though.”

“Surely they’ve heard the tales in Amadora about the powerful hermit that protects the valley. The Obsidian Ring has been pressuring the Empire to take the valley for centuries and haven’t made a secret about your existence,” mused Irma, “So why would they send a force so small knowing you were here?”

A cold feeling of dread lodged in my chest, “Unless they were sent to distract us while another force went to find the source.”