The Magistrate of Ten Huo observed the breach from atop the wall. The hole was large, certainly. Large enough that ten elephants stood abreast could easily march through.

The enemy didn’t have any elephants.

What they did have were men and cultivators in excess. Which they threw against the defenders of Ten Huo with reckless abandon.

The Imperial princess watched as hordes of tribesmen clashed with disciplined Imperial guardsmen. As cultivators dashed from rooftop to rooftop battling with Instinctive champions or waded through the mass of mortal bodies to seek out their opposite numbers.

The breach was a hotbed of activity.

That was not to say the rest of the battlefield was empty. Whatever interim commander had been appointed while the Herald was – presumably – indisposed, they were no fool. The breach, while an opening into the city, was still a bottleneck. To that end, assaults by instinctive tribesmen on the other intact walls of the city had not abated.

For that reason, the big gonnes of Jack Johansen still whistled overhead, while her elite guard continued to ride out and reap a bloody harvest on the enemy.

Yet despite all that carnage, more and more tribesmen streamed toward the breach in an attempt to break through the mass of defenders there.

It was not surprising. While the damage they had inflicted on the horde thus far was not insignificant, it was still just a small part of the greater whole. Entire tribes had yet to even be bloodied in the fighting thus far, and were eager to test their mettle.

Idly, she raised a hand, pointing it at the densest collection of the enemy. With but a single lightning bolt she could wipe hundreds of the unwashed savages from the world. She wouldn’t even hit her own troops. She need only strike a little ways back from the frontline, where the enemy thronged in anticipation of their chance to strike.

Yet when she called upon her ki, it was slow to answer her call. Like molasses, it felt thick and gooey as it bubbled within her, threatening to block her very meridians if she forced the point. Sweat beading her forehead, the Imperial scion withdrew it, letting it settle down once more within her.

Absently, her hand moved to the bandage on her thigh. Despite it having been changed only just that morning, she knew that it was already soaked through by the same thick black rancid substance that had formed there the previous night.

Whatever their other failings, the Instinctive were no more primitive than the Empire where poison was concerned. Perhaps they were even ahead, as her physician could find no cure for her malady beyond time and a careful purging of her system.

Something that would take time.

Until then, it throbbed, it itched… it stank.

It hurt.

She let none of her discomfort show on her face. She couldn’t afford to appear weak. Not now.

More than the efficacy of her enemy’s poison though, she could only hope that the enemy had no more warriors of the snake’s caliber. She had killed the Instinctive assassin, but doing so had not been without cost.

And that cost was not just to her own person. An entire wing of the palace had been rendered unlivable in the running battle between Huang, her bodyguards, the assassin and her associates. Worse still, the dead woman had very nearly succeeded in her assassination attempt. Only the sacrifice of one of Huang’s hidden protectors managed to keep the assassin from running her through when the snake-kin literally appeared from the shadows.

The dragon-kin’s heart beat just a little faster as she recalled it, being woken from her slumber by the piercing nature of the woman’s killing intent before being sprayed by the lifeblood of one of her most loyal servants, a woman who had protected her since the very day of her birth.

Her bones creaked as her fingers tightened into a fist.

It had been the hardest battle of her life. And after it was done, she had been left heaving for breath, in her ruined bed-clothes, crackling with electricity and bleeding freely from her leg. Yet as she stood over the corpse of her foe, she found the woman looked almost serene in death – despite her entire lower half being missing.

Of course, it hadn’t taken long for the Imperial scion to learn the reason for that serenity. Even in death, the snake-kin had succeeded in her task. The woman had been a mere distraction intended to buy time for the Herald to do… something, to the wall.

She didn’t know what chilled her more. The idea that her foe had such warriors amongst her roster – or that she could afford to throw them away on what was an otherwise suicidal gambit.

More to the point, she still didn’t know why the ancient wards had not activated to stop the attack on the wall. Was her foe simply that strong? Had the ritual she performed allowed her to simply overpower the wards? The same wards created by the Divine Ox?

She shook her head. No, if that were the case, they would all already be dead. More to the point, the woman wouldn’t have been wounded by Jack Johansen’s foreign witch. Or his big gonnes.

Which begged the question, how had he even hit her with them? Huang well understood the principles behind the weapons, if not the details. The new big gonnes were simply assumed to be a larger variant of those supplied to her and the sects. Already her alchemists were taking apart those designs to create ‘Imperial’ variants.

And for all that they were powerful weapons, they were useless against a cultivator prepared for them.

The Herald would not have been taken off guard. Not after having spent days having her forces bombarded by them.

Were that we had spies within his compound, she thought irritably.

Unfortunately, what she had with just about every other organization in the city, Huang had no informants within the walls of his compound.

Why? Because the infuriating man hadn’t gone through the usual channels one went through when seeking out talented mortal help. No, instead he had walked out into the city and chosen a bunch of urchins at random.

Random!

Huang liked to consider herself a skilled political operator, but in some ways the actions of Jack Johansen left her in the dust. A harsh reality for her to swallow, but one she did nonetheless.

Was it mostly the witch then? She pondered as she watched two cultivators trade blows within the breach, the mortals on both sides of the conflict desperately inching back to make room as the two superbeings clashed within their ranks.

It was possible. Unfortunately, she was only passingly familiar with ‘mana’ and its effects. For all that Ten Huo was renowned as a trading city, she actually only knew of two foreign magic users who had passed through the city in her tenure as Magistrate. Neither had stayed long either.

Eventually she decided that the only real option remaining to her was to ask Johansen the truth of the matter.

Though… what if he denied her? Cited that the means by which he brought down the Herald was a sect secret?

…Why did that thought thrill her so?

She shook her head irritably.

“Has he left his compound yet?” She asked.

There was no need to specify who she was referring to and one of her advisors appeared at her shoulder without prompting.

“He is on his way, my lady.” The woman bowed. “He is bringing with him a rather sizeable force of his militia.”

Huang scowled. He dared to insult her by implying she needed assistance!? The temerity of the man.

Yet she could not deny him. Could not insult him either. His assistance was too valuable. Now more than ever. So instead she would have to gracefully accept his aid, even as he stole glory that rightfully belonged to the Imperial army.

It was not five minutes later that she sensed his approach. Not his ki, for he was fastidious in his concealment. No, instead she heard the pounding of his devices before she saw them.

They marched up the main street, three abreast in a manner akin to the elephants she had thought of not that long ago. They were awe inspiring to look upon, clad as they were in great metal sheets, their long gonne barrels aimed to the fore.

Behind them, in perfect lockstep and with their gonnes over their shoulder, marched a phalanx of his militia. They glistened in the morning sun, their plate armor polished until it gleamed, while their blue cloaks fluttered in the wind.

Yet further behind them came the man himself. Not on foot. Not on horse. Not even aboard a carriage. No, he floated along, held aloft by the strange amorphous mass that was his favored spirit beast.

The man had remained tight lipped on the origins of the creature that he kept close by at all times, despite many requests from the beast tamers union and the alchemists guild.

Not even Huang, with her access to the Imperial libraries, could claim to know the origin of the man’s strange companion.

The man was a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

And Huang hated mysteries – but this was one she needed to tolerate. The foreigner was simply too valuable to alienate. Not for his work with the sky-blocks, his infantry gonnes, or his food preservation techniques, but for his big gonnes.

They alone were invaluable. All the moreso now that they had apparently brought down a top tier expert.

Still, the Imperial princess couldn’t help but scowl as she made out the figure in the cupola of the lead Crab.

Gao, as she had learned his name was. The overall commander of Jack Johansen’s militia.

She hadn’t known that when she tried to kill him. She had thought him a mere manservant. A second in command whose job it was to relay Johansen’s orders.

She hadn't thought the man a leader in his own right, one trusted by Johansen to act almost entirely without oversight. For the idea was galling. The idea that a mortal was in command of the weapons that were instrumental in defense of the city.

She shook her head.

It had been a mistake on her part to try to kill him. A consequence of her dragon-blood acting in the place of good sense.

…That did not mean she forgave Johansen for denying her that small release, not over a mortal of all things, but she could at least respect him for it.

The dragon respected those that valued the things close to them.

As she watched, the mortals of the Imperial army parted of their own volition to allow the men of the Hidden Master to pass. Yet the Crabs did not wade into the front line. Nor did the militia move beyond forming a small perimeter around the machines.

She could see confusion on the faces of the Imperial Army soldiers closest to the small encampment that had formed at the rearmost ranks of of the breach.

Huang was not confused though. She well knew what would come next. And her dragon’s blood thrilled at the sight.

Flame bellowed forth, passing well over the heads of the Imperials, and those enemies closest to them. Instead, the burning fluid landed amongst the third and fourth ranks of then enemy, bathing them in flame.

In moments, the entirety of the breach had become a deadly conflagration as the crabs vented their fury upon the enemies of the Empire. The area had not been silent before – men and women dying bloodily was rarely a quiet affair – but the screams that reached her ears as tribesmen began to burn was exquisite.

Just like that, even the enemy fighting on the front lines, untouched by the wall of fire that formed behind them, found themselves cut off. More to the point, renewed vigor filled the mortals of the Imperial Army and the enemy found themselves being driven back into the flames or otherwise forced onto the spears of disciplined Imperial spearmen.

Nor were mortals the only victims of the sudden attack. One champion, who had been engaged in a duel with one of her cultivators, tried to leap high to escape as they saw their tribe disintegrate around them, only to be engulfed by the sticky flames.

For just a moment, Huang forgot the pain in her leg. The grief from her lost protector. The irritation that was Jack Johansen. Instead she simply enjoyed watching the flames as the enemy, for the first time since the breach had opened, broke and ran.

Of course, she knew that less than half would make it back to the camps. Her cavalry were already homing in on the scattered and broken rout like a great white scenting a wounded seal.

“Not bad, eh?”

Of course, then the moment was ruined as the man responsible for it all casually stepped onto her lofty vantage point, using his beast to form an impromptu bridge – as casual a show of power as any she had ever seen.

For some reason, her first thought was not to rebuke him for his casualness in speaking to her. No, instead she hoped that he didn’t notice the… odor coming from her leg wound. Or the slightly unkempt nature of her clothes – a fact owing to the rather rushed way in which she had deployed to the breach.

“I suppose it was a passable show of force,” she said carefully turning her gaze back to the carnage below. “For a male.”

--------

“Could you fix it?”

That was not how Shui would have greeted the man who had by all accounts turned the breach into a death trap worthy of the Dragon itself.

Clearly the daughter of the dragon felt differently, as she’d asked the question the moment the slightly soot stained man had stepped into the small inn they were using for a meeting place.

Then again, maybe she’d be feeling a little vulnerable? No longer being the only one who can call down the wrath of the heavens on command, the boar woman thought as she took a swig from her cup, only to frown and resist the urge to spit it out.

While she certainly liked to affect a rather low-brow demeanor in her interactions with others, the truth of the matter was that she was as high born as any other highly placed cultivator – and the swill she’d just imbibed was truly an offense to her palate.

Of course, they hadn’t chosen the inn because it was fancy. They’d chosen it because it was close to the breach and relatively easily defended.

The princess’s guards were taking no chances after the attack on the palace. Shui didn’t have specifics, but just going by the collateral damage involved, it seemed that last night’s assassination attempt was closer than the Imperial scion wanted to admit.

Which was part of why Shui had bulked up her own guard force. If something was running around that could threaten an Imperial princess, she knew she wanted as many bodies between herself and it as she could muster.

In fact, the only person in the city who didn’t seem to be wandering around with a larger coterie of bodyguards was the man across from her.

A rather powerful statement as well as a firm reminder that none in the city had actually seen the man get serious in a one on one fight.

Which begged the question, just how powerful was the mysterious male?

And that’s ignoring the fact that it was his gonnes that brought down the herald when she tried to bring down the wall while our fearless leader was distracted, the boar thought.

The man’s eyes darted between Shui and Magistrate, as if only just realizing that they were the only two women present.

Which was intentional. This was a meeting where frankness and truthful answers would be paramount.

Hell, originally it was just supposed to be the Magistrate herself, but Shui had no intention of being left out of this meeting once she’d caught wind of it. And the princess wasn’t willing to expend the political capital required to see her repulsed.

“Yes,” he said finally. “Easily.”

Shui believed him. She’d seen the sky-blocks. And apparently the Magistrate did too, because while she didn’t quite smile, some small amount of tension seemed to leave her frame.

“Good, do so.”

Of all the responses Shui might have expected in response to that demand, from payment to obeisance, the only one she hadn’t been able to anticipate was confusion.

The man raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

Apparently the Magistrate didn’t expect that response either as she took a second to collect herself before responding.

“Why would we not? The breach is a clear and present danger to the safety of the city? A hole in our defenses through which a million Instinctive tribesmen are free to funnel.”

Rather than be taken aback or back track in the face of the powerful woman’s irritation, Johansen just looked amused. “Yeah, but you just said it yourself, ‘funnel’.”

He pulled up a chair and sat down in it in the most uncouth manner Shui had ever seen. For one thing, it was backward. For another, his legs were spread wide open as he leaned forward to place his crossed arms on the backrest.

“Before, we had to worry about defending the entire wall equally. Now though, we know exactly where they’re going to strike and can focus our countermeasures there.” He gestured backwards with his thumb. “Hell, I just spent the last few hours watching thousands of them get barbecued by my Crawlers because they kept trying to squeeze into the killbox they’ve made.”

Shui couldn’t help the tired chuckle that slipped from her throat. “And while that’s good and all, they can afford it. They’ve got the bodies to spare. We don’t. Sure, you’re killing a lot but we’re also losing a lot of people holding the breach too. More than anywhere else on the wall.”

“Lots were dying.” Jack corrected. “And a lot less still would be dying if you had some gonnes supplementing my Crawlers instead of a bunch of poor sods with spears and shields. Hell, I was half tempted to order my militia into the breach just to try and preserve some manpower.”

He frowned. “Which begs the question, why are neither of you using the gonnes I gave you?”

Perhaps if they weren’t alone, that would have been the moment the Magistrate would have rebuked the man for having the audacity to question her.

As it was, she simply frowned. “You provided enough gonnes to equip the palace. The breach is not the palace.”

“Seems a bit of a misallocation of resources doesn’t it?” He shrugged. “I mean, if the city falls, the palace falls. Even if you had to cycle out some regular troops to guard the palace, the Crimson Guard would be more useful at the breach.”

The Magistrate shook her head. “The Crimson Guard are oathsworn not to leave the palace.”

“Then give their gonnes to the regular army. Even half-trained, the breach would be a turkey shoot.”

This time it was the Magistrate who quirked her eyebrow. “And have the regular army better equipped than the guard?”

Jack sighed, before turning his to Shui.

“And what’s your excuse?”

Ignoring the way the Magistrate flared an amusing red, Shui just shrugged.

“We’re still making ours. Sure, they’re a simple design, but entirely new to our artificers. We can only churn out so many.”

Plus, a lot of their blacksmithing power was focused on repairing both damaged weapons and armor.

Throwing up his hands, Jack stood up.

“Alright, then seeing as I’m the one who wants to do this, I guess I’ll take over breach duty.”

For the first time since the meeting began, Shui frowned. Amused by his antics or not, the breach was not something to be handled casually. It was a genuine threat to the city, and not something she felt comfortable leaving in the hands of a force of… by last accounts, less than three hundred mortals and zero cultivators.

“Ha,” she chuckled, trying not to let her discomfort show, “But the steel boar has the rights to the next breach rotation.”

Assuming you don’t fix it before then, she thought.

This time though, when Jack turned to look at her, there was something… different in his gaze.

“Really? Were the Steel boar Sect the ones who brought down the Herald? The one who made the breach in the first place.”

Shui said nothing.

“Yeah, I thought not,” he said, turning back to the Magistrate. “Look, I’m sure there’s a more official way of doing this, but I’m calling in my marker. I want first dibs on the breach.”

The Magistrate was silent for a time, eying him intently.

“Such audacity,” she said finally. “You were much more polite on our earlier meetings.”

He shook his head. “Yeah, well I was a lot less worried about being eaten by freaky cannibals when we last met.”

“And such eagerness. Yet earlier you were so careful with but a single life.”

His gaze turned colder. “I’ll spend lives when necessary. I’m against unnecessary wastefulness. Especially when said wastefulness is a result of a temper tantrum.”

Flames actually licked out of the Imperial scion’s mouth. “You dare!?”

Instantly, Shui felt herself buckle under the woman’s intent. It wasn’t paralyzing for her, but their was no denying that sweat broke out on her forehead as she endured the sudden crushing sensation.

Yet Johansen remained where he was. Unmoved. Unruffled. Like he didn’t even feel the scion’s intent.

He even dared to even quirk an eyebrow.

Shui wouldn’t lie, that last act got her feeling a little… moist - despite the circumstances.

Dammit girl, she thought. You really need to get laid.

“I do.” He spoke with confidence. “Not least of all because every death here is one less defending the wall later. I live here too. I have a vested interest in preserving our strength.”

The Magistrate continued to glare, before her intent finally cut out – and were those beads of sweat on her brow?

Noting that peculiar detail, Shui spoke up after catching her breath. “Well, if he’s that confident, I’m willing to give up our slot.”

It was amusing, the look the Magistrate gave her after she spoke. Almost like she felt betrayed.

Finally though, she grunted. “So be it, the breach will remain open for now. The Imperial Army will remain on standby in reserve regardless. They will step in the moment the breach looks endangered.”

Jack just grinned, as if he hadn’t just browbeat an Imperial scion into buckling.

“That sounds perfectly fair.” He tucked in the chair and got ready to leave. “With that said, I’m off.”

Then he paused, and turned back, as if a thought had just occurred to him. “Just quickly, could either of you tell me if you are familiar with the word ‘razor wire’?”

Shui’s brow wasn’t the only one that creased in confusion.

“Yeah, this should be interesting.” He grinned.

And for some reason, as he stepped out of the inn with a jaunt in his step, Shui didn’t know why, but his chuckling felt… sinister somehow.