Chapter 108: Chapter 108: Pyrrhic Victory
Leng Yue didn’t look back. Her blade was already slashing toward the first guardian’s throat, its cracked porcelain mask reflecting her silhouette in the blood-red glow. But the creature twisted with unnatural fluidity, raising a spiked limb to intercept.
~CLANG~
Metal rang against bone-like armor. Sparks flew. "Its core is protected by the runes," she said sharply, ducking beneath a counter-blow. "We must sever them before the mask can shatter." A fighter’s intuition was just as vital as their strength, in the face of an opponent capable of withstanding brutal punishment, reason was required.
Li Wei landed beside her in a crouch, breathing shallow, sweat slicking his brow. "Then we don’t fight the body..." he raised his gaze, "we dispel the runes." The young man blasted a qi blast at a section of runes covering the torso of one of the guardians.
The runes that crawled across the guardian’s form pulsed like veins filled with black fire—feeding it strength, sealing its wounds. Some of them shimmered faintly, reacting to their qi techniques with resistance and redirection.
Li Wei reached into his robes, pulling forth three slender talismans inscribed with counter-script. "I’ll disrupt the binding pattern," he said. "Buy me ten breaths." In one move, the young master had assessed the strength of the restrictions riddled on the body of his opponent
"Eight," Leng Yue replied, already moving. She surged forward, her form a blur. One guardian swiped toward her, but she slid beneath it, slicing along its thigh as she passed. A gout of black ichor sprayed the air.
"Foolish Child! This is were you die!!" The second guardian had recovered, now flanking Li Wei once more. But the young man did not move from his stance. He planted the first talisman with a sharp motion, his hand gestures were almost illusory as the young man completed his incantation in moments.
~FZHHHT~
A sigil of azure flame ignited beneath the guardian’s feet. "What!! It cannot be!!" It howled and reared back, stunned for the briefest of moments. The guardian could feel the runes on its body destabilizing and knew that time was of the essence, it had kill Li Wei before the situation worsened.
But before it could reace, Li Wei was already placeing the second talisman—this time midair, pinning it with a lash of qi. "Sever—wind and breath. Bend the roots to bare the fruits."
"STOP!!!" The guardian could not even reach Li Wei in time, as the runes boosting his speed and recovery were struggling to unite. Each talisman the young man cast out, further disrupted the cohesion of the runes .
The third talisman burned in his hand, trembling as it drew in corrupted energy from the surroundings. "You are finished..." Li Wei was pleased with might of the talismans, one more would surely spell the end for his adversary.
Meanwhile, Leng Yue struck high—aiming for one of the runes atop the guardian’s shoulder. "Break damn it!!" Her blade hissed through the corrupted barrier, and with a violent screech of resistance, on of the runes shattered.
This display showcased the might of the runes tattooed on the bodies of these guardians, merely shattering a single chain of them required a normal practitioner to exert all their might.
~KRAKK~
The guardian froze. Its limbs faltered.
"Now!" she shouted. The runes were quick to reconnect themselves, thus the sense of urgency.
Li Wei leapt upward and drove the final talisman into the mask’s brow. " I will see you in another life...." A brief moment passed.
Then—
~BOOOOM~
A burst of golden light erupted from the talisman, crawling across the mask like ink spreading across parchment. The runes convulsed.
"NO!!!!!" The guardian’s entire form twisted and collapsed inward, as though the very idea of its existence had been revoked. With one last gurgling scream, it crumbled to dust.
The second guardian snarled and charged, but halted mid-lunge. Its eyes—milky and unreadable—twitched toward the remains of its kin.
Then it hesitated.
"Even they fear being destroyed," Leng Yue whispered, staring down the beast. "That is something all creatures possess."
Li Wei didn’t answer. He was already weaving the next talisman, slower this time. The drain of battling such dense malevolence was beginning to show.
The second guardian bellowed, summoning more underlings. Dozens poured from fissures in the cracked terrain—crawling, leaping, twisted beyond recovery.
"I can’t seal another fully," Li Wei warned, jaw clenched. "Not yet."
"Then we divide." Leng Yue raised her blade and turned her back to him. "You sever the chain. I’ll hold the hounds."
He wanted to protest. He didn’t.
As she charged forward, facing the encroaching tide, Li Wei’s focus narrowed.
The second guardian extended a clawed hand toward the remains of its sibling—perhaps to absorb what power remained. But Li Wei anticipated the move.
He launched a concentrated burst of spirit energy, shaped like a spear.
~THUK~
It struck the claw and shattered bone. The guardian shrieked and stumbled back, roaring.
But before it could recover, Leng Yue appeared beside it, having sliced through four lesser beasts in her wake.
She slashed upward—one, two, three strikes across its chest—disrupting three distinct rune nodes in succession.
The guardian buckled, runes flickering chaotically.
Li Wei threw the last of his qi reserves into the air, shaping the final talisman—not for sealing, but for binding.
He cast it like a blade.
It struck the center of the guardian’s chest, exploding outward into a golden web.
~SHHRRAAAAK~
The guardian writhed as the web constricted, compressing it against the earth. The runes that had once given it strength now twisted in rebellion, turned against their bearer.
And finally—its porcelain mask cracked.
Then shattered.
The guardian collapsed in silence.
Their breath echoed in the hollow that followed.
Li Wei leaned heavily against the hilt of his sword, staring at the fragments of the mask. "Two remain," he murmured.
Leng Yue sheathed her blade with a swift, practiced motion. Her voice was calm, but her gaze burned with fury.
"Then we move. Before the others gather."
Overhead, the red sky rumbled furiously. It was far from pleased with the result.