I leaped over gaping cracks in the earth, stumbling frequently over rocks and gravel as I ran. The moon was finally rising above the mountains – I could feel it hanging in the sky, its light bathing me in soft power – but it wasn’t providing enough light to offset the dancing, flickering shadows of the fires raging below. Those cast the ground in pools of inky blackness that I quickly learned to avoid; snapping an ankle was going to help anyone.

I slid down the side of a rockslide and found myself face-to-face with a half-dozen raggedly dressed men. They turned at the sound of my descent and stared at me in brief shock before lifting their crude weapons and flinging themselves at me. In their instant of hesitation, though, I moved on them. I deflected a club blow with the palm of my hand and kicked the knee of the attacker, collapsing it sideways, then twisted the weapon from his grip. I used it to batter aside a thrust spear, then slammed it into the side of an axe wielder’s skull with a sickening crack. I dropped the fractured weapon, grabbed the spear, and yanked, pulling its wielder toward me and into my rising knee strike. Vomit sprayed from the man’s mouth as my knee slammed into his solar plexus, and I dropped a hammerfist on the back of his neck as he bent forward around the blow. His neck broke with a popping sound, and he collapsed boneless to the rocks below.

I moved through the remaining three men swiftly and efficiently. A blow from my brass knuckles cracked against one raider’s forehead, crushing the bone there. My elbow collapsed another man’s shoulder, and the spikes of my knuckles tore open the man’s throat when my backfist slammed into his neck. The last kicked awkwardly at me, and I grabbed the extended knee, hooked my foot behind his other knee, and smashed my fist into his chest. He fell backward, clutching his broken sternum, and I followed him, pressing my knee into his wounded chest and dropping a second punch onto his face that stilled him at once.

I rose quickly and moved toward the center of the camp. As I did, I felt an odd sensation rising in the pit of my stomach. It was a queasy feeling, as if my stomach were filling with acid and bile. It was faint, and I didn’t feel like I was in danger of losing my lunch, but as I ran toward where I’d seen the bestial man, the feeling slowly grew.

“Sara, have I been poisoned somehow?” I asked silently.

“No, John. That’s your Sense Imbalance ability. Something here is related to the reason you’re in this world.”

“Great. My superpower is indigestion. Wonderful.”

A few of the raiders tried to intercept me as I charged through the camp, but I swept through them without too much effort. None of them had access to their qi, and without that, they were as helpless before me as I’d once been to Jing. At least, that was the case until a foot lashed out of nowhere and slammed me in the chest, knocking me back onto my ass. I quickly rolled over my shoulder and sprang to my feet, looking to see where the attack had come from.

Two men and a woman stood before me, and as I looked at them, I felt the uneasy feeling in my stomach solidify. The woman was tall, slim, and dressed far too ornately for this camp in a long, flowing dress or robe of some kind. Her dark hair was coiled tightly behind her head, and her porcelain face was set in an expression of contempt. Despite her apparent beauty and the incongruity of seeing her in the camp, though, the men drew most of my attention.

One of the two men was short and squat, with wide shoulders, arms that seemed too long for his body, and muscular legs that threatened to rip the thighs of the ragged pants he wore. His hands were wide, with stubby fingers and nails so long they looked like claws. The other was tall and lean, his face too narrow and his legs almost impossibly slim. His feet and toes looked too long, and just like the first man, his digits ended in nails long enough to be called short talons. As I looked at each, my stomach lurched, and I realized that they were the ones setting off my ability. Something about them was important; now, I just had to figure out what.

“He is another practitioner,” the woman told the two men, her voice cold and cruel. “Poison his qi and subdue him. One of the two of them will serve.”

“You are not our Chief,” the shorter man spoke slowly, his voice deep and resonant. “His command was to kill the intruders.”

“If you kill them, I will stop feeding you,” she sneered at the man. “How long will you retain your minds then? Do as I command, or by the light of heaven, I will use you as an example for the others.”

The two men exchanged a glance, and the taller one shrugged. “Let her explain to the Chief,” he suggested in a high, thin voice. “He will take his displeasure out on her, not us.”

“I pray to the celestials that you are correct,” the shorter man grunted.

I barely managed to dodge to the side as the man tensed his legs and dove at me, his long arms sweeping toward me. I deflected the nearer arm and grabbed it, twisting in an attempt to lock the joint. Movement flashed in the side of my vision, and I grunted as the taller man’s foot smacked into my side, driving me back a step before lashing at my skull. I ducked that blow, but I lost my grip on the short man’s arm, and I barely managed to block the backfist he swung at me. I responded by slamming my knee into his side, knocking him back, but I hissed in pain as the tall man’s foot slammed into my chest. I rolled with the blow, bringing myself to my feet and giving me some distance. As I stood, I realized that my chest burned. I touched it and felt a long, thin gash running along my skin. The man’s toenail had actually cut me; the wound wasn’t deep, but it certainly stung.

“That should do it,” the man said, triumphantly. “Now, we just need to wait…” His words cut off as I lunged for him, the qi flowing through my legs driving me forward impossibly fast. He lashed out with a hasty snap kick, trying to drive me back, but I knocked his leg aside, spinning him off balance, and slammed into him. I grabbed his standing leg with one hand, drove my shoulder into his gut, and yanked upward, sending him to the ground in a classic takedown. He tried to punch at me, but unlike his kicks, the attack was wild and flailing. I didn’t even bother to block; I absorbed the blow and responded with an elbow to his face that rocked his head back and smacked his skull into the stone below.

Pain lanced across my back, and I rolled as I remembered the shorter man. I’d hoped that the takedown would carry us both out of his reach, but I’d forgotten about his abnormally long arms. I pulled the taller man with me, dragging his stunned body on top of mine as a shield, but he managed to get a knee up between us. As he thrust himself off me, I lashed out with a fist and drove the spikes of my knuckled into his retreating chest, tearing open four small wounds there. He staggered backward, clutching the punctures, and stared at me in surprise as I rolled to my feet.

“Now, we’re even,” I told him, gesturing to my chest. I glanced at Short-stuff menacingly. “I still owe you one, though.”

“Interesting,” the woman said clinically. “He is resistant to qi poisoning.” She shrugged. “That simply means you must give him a larger dose. Proceed.”

The two lunged at me, but I had a better measure of them, now. Short-stuff was a close-in fighter; with his long arms, he would be deadly in a grapple. He was slow outside of his initial charge, though, so his attacks were designed mostly to distract me. Lanky was faster, and his kicks were probably deadlier, but it seemed he could only fight at longer distances. He relied on Short-stuff to keep me tied up so he could deliver his punishing kicks.

So, when Short-stuff lunged at me, rather than dodge the attack, I moved into it. I let him wrap his long arms around my back and drove my knee up into his chest, driving the wind from him. I fell backward, pulling him with me, and wrapped my legs around his waist. I felt his arms lock behind me, and he squeezed with horrific strength, but I slammed my elbow into the side of his head, rocking him back. As his head lifted from the blow, I drove my knuckled fist into his face, tearing open his cheek. One of the spikes plunged into the man’s eye socket, and I felt the bulging eye pop and deflate beneath my fist. Short-stuff screamed and clasped his hand to his ruined eye, arching his back in an attempt to escape me. That exposed his throat, though, and lunged upward, driving my fist into his trachea and collapsing it beneath my blow. I released him with my legs as his scream turned into a gurgling cry, and I shoved him to the side, rolling swiftly as I did.

As I’d expected, the moment I broke free of the shorter man, Lanky slammed an axe kick down where I’d been laying. His bare heel struck the stony ground with a loud smack, and he twisted as he tried to lash at me with a hook kick. I caught his ankle with both hands and kicked at his standing leg from my spot on the ground. My foot caught the back of his knee, and he lurched backward as he lost his balance. I helped him by bringing my other leg up in front of him and sweeping it into his stomach, and he cried out as he hit the ground hard on his back for a second time.

I was already on my feet, twisting his trapped ankle until he had to roll onto his stomach or lose the foot. Once he was facedown, I dropped onto his back and slammed my brass-knuckled fist into the back of his skull. The first blow tore open his scalp in a spray of blood. The second cracked the skull beneath, and the third pulped the back of his brain. The man spasmed once and fell still beneath me.

Something struck my stomach with the force of a fricking Mack truck, lifting me off the man and hurling me through the air. I hit the ground ten feet away and rolled, clutching my stomach and staggering to my feet. I looked over at the woman, who stood in a sort of pose, her leg held high and her hands daintily holding up the hem of her dress. Since she wasn’t wearing anything beneath the robe, that should have been an interesting view, but the haughty look on her face and the painful throbbing in my stomach pretty well quelled any lust I might have felt at the moment.

“And, as usual, I must handle matters myself,” the woman said, dropping her leg down so that her foot touched the knee of her standing leg and holding her arms at an angle to the side. “Master had best be grateful; this will certainly sully my robes.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but the woman was moving, almost too swiftly for me to see her. She didn’t run toward me; instead, she seemed to float above the ground as she sped forward. Her foot lashed out, and while I managed to dodge her first kick, the backfist she slammed into my chest knocked me sprawling. I rolled to me feet and leaned to the side, dodging a snap kick. I brought my forearm up in time to block a knife-hand strike aimed at my head, but I didn’t even see the follow-up kick that caught my temple and laid me flat out on my back. I tried to roll to my feet, but her slender foot slammed down on my chest, cracking my ribs and pinning me to the ground as if she weighed a ton. I slammed my elbow into her leg, but it felt like punching a tree, and the limb didn’t even wobble.

“You are a strong cultivator,” she told me. “But none can stand against the power of a Master of the Fifth Circle.”

“What about a Master of the Sixth Circle?” I groaned, coughing as I spoke.

“You have obviously never trained in a true school, savage,” she shook her head. “Such uncouth speech, and such a lack of knowledge! Any true practitioner would know that the Sixth Circle is lower than the Fifth, not higher.”

“Sorry, I skipped college,” I panted. “Went military instead.”

It seemed she wasn’t listening to my words, though. “I should bring this one back with me, but his resistance to qi poisoning – it may cause trouble. The other will serve as well, now that these vermin have proved the concept…”

I kicked up at her, but again, my blow simply glanced harmlessly off her. Her skin felt like stone, and I assumed she had some sort of powerful qi armor. My eyes narrowed as an idea occurred to me. I quickly lifted both hands and channeled qi from my dwindling pool. I’d never done this before, but it seemed logical that something that worked with my right arm should work just as well with my left.

“If I kill this one, we may never discover the secret to his resistance,” the woman was saying, ignoring me utterly. I didn’t blame her; she’d handled me like I was a child so far. As it turned out, she really should have been paying better attention. “Master will forgive me for losing our subjects if AAAAIIIIGGHH!”

The woman screeched as twin blasts of light erupted from my upraised hands and tore into her smooth face. I smelled burning hair, and while she clutched her face too quickly for me to see the damage I’d caused, I thought I smelled burned flesh, too. She staggered off me, shrieking madly and shaking her head.

“What have you done!” she screamed, her voice booming through the camp and causing most of the raiders to drop to the ground, clutching their heads in pain. I didn’t reply; instead, I held out my hands and lashed out with another pair of Sun’s Scorching Rays, striking her in the chest. The ornate robe burned away, revealing her womanly assets – assets that quickly blistered and seared as my technique scorched her flesh. She screamed again, even louder this time, and the sound of it was like a vice to the sides of my head.

“YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS AFFRONT, SAVAGE!” she bellowed, her face still in her hands. “I WILL MAKE YOU BEG FOR A THOUSAND DEATHS!”

I rose to my feet and leveled my hands at her once more. My qi pool was too low for another blast, but she didn’t know that. She screamed one, final time, a sound that seemed to echo throughout the entire ravine and beat at me with her fury. A wind rushed through the camp, and when it passed, the woman had vanished. The only thing remaining was a scrap of her robe, and when I picked it up, I noticed an ornate symbol woven or dyed into it. I slipped it into my jacket pocket; that might prove to be important.

I looked around and realized that almost everyone in the camp was still and unmoving. Blood flowed freely from their eyes, mouths, and ears, and their gazes stared unseeing up at the night sky.

“Shit! She killed everyone in the damn camp with a scream?”

“It was a technique, John,” Sara explained. “I observed it, and I’ll analyze it. We might be able to mimic it – once you have enough power, of course – and hopefully find a defense against it.”

“Why? It didn’t really hurt me or anything.”

“Actually, it did. You took some minor internal damage, nothing serious, and you’ll have some bruising. And that was just an undirected attack. If she’d aimed it at you, you might not be standing here right now.”

“Damn. Okay, so yeah, we’ll need to work on a counter.”

“That’s what I’m planning to do. You should probably go check on Jing.”

I turned toward the center of the camp and saw that two more figures stood, seemingly unaffected by the woman’s technique. Jing stood proudly, but her tattered clothing and how she swayed drunkenly showed that her battle with the Chief hadn’t been one-sided. The huge, bestial man looked equally battered, though. He clutched one arm against his side, usually a sign of broken ribs, and he moved slowly, his left leg dragging at his side.

“Give up, woman,” the man growled menacingly. “The poison is in your meridians, now. It is only a matter of time until you succumb. Surrender, and perhaps I shall keep you for my own rather than sharing you with the camp.”

“I…will…not,” Jing gasped, and I realized that she was fighting just to stay upright. “I…I will…” I didn’t know what she planned to do, because her eyes suddenly rolled up in her head, and she collapsed in a heap on the ground.

The Chief chuckled and moved painfully toward her. “Stupid woman. Now, I will…”

I never found out what he was going to do, either. I was hurt, battered, and bruised, but I crossed the camp to the man in a flash and leaped onto his back. He cried out, reaching back toward me, but I wrapped my arm around his neck and slammed my fist into the back of his skull. He staggered from the hit, and I repeated it, driving my brass knuckles into his head. It took five strikes to crack the bone there, and two more to crush it. He flailed at me with his hands, dragging his nails along my arm and sides and opening long, shallow wounds, but I ignored him and pounded on his skull until I felt it collapse like an eggshell. His legs collapsed, and he fell to his knees. I scrambled off his back, and he rolled sideways onto the ground, peering up at me.

“Not…honorable,” he gasped.

“No shit,” I snarled at him. “Killing never is.”

The light fled from his eyes, and I sat down heavily. The Chief was dead; the camp was dead; our little quest for the old man was done.

Now, I just needed to see if Jing was going to live.