Míng Jiàn moved first, her Formation scriber shooting out and circling at high speed in a wide ring around the three cousins. A trailing ribbon of gold essence followed it, lashing at the ground and causing plumes of sand to be flung upward as the brush flew around them, temporarily obscuring them from the opposing team.
Dàilán bolted to the left at her full speed, kicking up her own rooster trail of sand as she curved around the perimeter of the garden away from her cousins in an attempt to flank the oncoming four maids.
Chénli immediately shifted to intercept her, but Dàilán dodged, easily outpacing her and slamming at speed between the two younger maids stretching out her arms left and right to catch them both solidly across the chest. The two girls went tumbling across the meditation garden throwing up clouds of sand, forcefully exhaling as they had the wind punched out of them.
Using the new clouds of sand to block Chénli's line of sight, Dàilán dove behind a boulder, landing in a crouch and drew her Essence inward closing her pores, then pushed Essence through a technique her mother had taught when she was a little girl, almost as soon as she could manipulate her Essence.
A slight wavering of her vision and a glance downward at the sand now unobstructed visually by her body confirmed the technique was successful. As necessary for a technique taught to young children and designed to conceal, the technique used nearly no Essence - making it very hard to detect.
Pushing Essence to her feet and legs she activated the Guan 'Mountain Mist' movement technique and took a single long step backwards away from the boulder, the technique keeping her footsteps quick and light, barely shifting the grains of sand - and more importantly, not impacting the ground hard enough to break the invisibility technique.
Her movement proved not a moment too soon as several short range Essence attacks blasted into the sand around the boulder as Chén'er came leaping over, her sparring sword already stabbing downward, perfectly positioned to… catch a sparring dagger in the neck as Dàilán leapt forward.
The invisibility technique snapped as she made contact, but it did not matter as her bodyguard spasmed in the flash of lightning Essence from the sparring dagger, crashing to the sand in an ungainly heap. Dàilán immediately pushed Essence through the invisibility technique again as she bolted away towards the sounds of combat coming from the other end of the garden.
Looking around she saw Ài engaging Yue, looking like two choreographed dancers spinning and twirling around each other. Ài's weapons and kicks were being blocked by wide strips of cloth that shot through the air as Yue spun and bent in a much faster version of a traditional dance, dodging and ducking anything the cloth did not deflect.
Chàng and Biyu had picked themselves up and with Yue occupied, were targeting Míng with thrown weapons, who was dodging quickly while scribing frantically on the sand.
"Biyu, in close," called out Ài as she dodged a length of cloth spearing towards her, "Stop her from completing the formation."
Dàilán cursed as Biyu darted forward and flung herself across the garden. She had hoped her cousins could last longer that this…
Míng visibly smirked and spun away from Biyu's rush, still scribing. A formation glyph suddenly glowed under the attacking maid's feet and Biyu frantically threw herself to one side - aborting the attack - as the sand spouted upwards where she had been a miǎo before. Similar small runes lit up spinning out towards all three attackers and Ài was forced to break off her attack on Yue as she had to dodge her own sand explosion.
Yue did not miss the opportunity and her lengths of cloth reared up like striking snakes, spearing towards Ài from all directions. Caught off balance, Ài backpedalled and parried, but Dàilán could see she was just working to get out of range of those odd explosive runes of Míng's - Yue did have all her attention though…
The youngest Heiress smiled and moved behind the maid, stabbing her sparring daggers down into Ài's back, breaking the invisibility technique again.
As Ài stiffened and dropped to the crackling discharge both Cousins cried out in warning and Dàilán instinctively dropped and evaded, rolling in the sand as Chén'er's sparking sparring sword slammed down beside her.
She threw herself to her feet and backward with her daggers raised defensively, weeks of training with the limiter making her instinctively avoid getting locked in close combat. Chénli made to purse, but was a heartbeat slower than usual, perhaps still suffering from the previous zapping.
Míng's voice rose triumphantly and there were three bolts of what looked like white light blasting towards all three standing maids from the general area where Míng had been inscribing. Chén'er and the others raised weapons to block - but from the small detonations as the Essence weapons resisted and the way all three were flung off their feet - whatever the attack was, it was not weak.
The other group retreated to the other side of the garden, pulling Ài's twitching and cursing body with them. With all three attackers on guard and in one location, Dàilán did not think she could make a successful attack, so she retreated herself, joining her cousins.
She noticed with concern that both of them were panting hard and Míng was looking a little pale. She could see a sweat drop roll down her cousin's forehead as she skipped carefully over the glowing lines joined them inside the Formation.
"I would say well done, but you two look done in," observed the third heiress with concern.
"We can continue," Míng spoke roughly, but the determination was clear in her eyes.
"We are unused to such rapid Essence use and physically draining combat," contradicted Yue, worriedly, between heavy breaths. "I am used to moving a little more than you, but your maid," she glanced at Dàilán, "hits like a bull and I could not stop moving, or defend Míng, even for a moment. Míng usually does not have to move much during our spars at all - and she worked on the Garden's formations before the spar so her Essence…"
"Give me a pill, Moon," growled Míng.
"For a spar?" Yue shook her head. "No."
"Yue is right, Míng," the youngest cousin said gently, "the idea of sparring is to increase your personal abilities and strength, so that when you do need to fight in real life you can last longer without needing things like pills. House sparring rules - needing pills or a healer is same as unable to continue." She raised her voice to carry across the garden. "Team Cousin Concedes!"
Her words were met with a round of irate shouts of disgust and some visible arm waving. Míng slumped to the ground, the lines of the formation fading out, looking at Dàilán in frustration. "You are not even breathing hard! But my eyes could not even track you, you were moving so fast. And I saw you appear out of nowhere, so you were carrying a technique as well."
"Two actually," Dàilán admitted, digging one toe into the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, she observed Chén'er break away from the other group and start walking over with a disgruntled expression on her face. "I was running Mountain's Mist as well."
"Gods," breathed Yue as Míng scowled and spat in a very unladylike fashion. Dàilán's attention was on her visibly irritated bodyguard as she walked up.
"What in the hells is this Concede… sh… nonsense! You guys got us good, sure, but we could have won properly!"
Dàilán stepped away from the other two who had their heads down in shame and pulled her friend a few steps away, murmuring. "Chén'er, they are done."
"Huh? Ài is pissed - said that was the best fight she had in ages - until you interrupted it. She wants another crack at Yue. Bi and Chà are already arguing how to get around those explosive runes and whatever that last attack was - it kicked like a mule." She threw an admiring glance at the other cousins and a dirty one at Dàilán, "I am not saying anything about you, because you know what you did already."
Dàilán shook her head firmly. "By all means let the girls come and compliment them, but…" she lowered her voice further, "Chan'er they really - are - done. Yue can barely breathe, Míng is basically out of Essence and is physically at the end of her rope. She asked Yue for an Essence pill so she could continue."
The youngest Heiress shook her friend a little. "Chén'er, they may have hidden some extra skills and been trying to practice them, but they've never trained them in properly in combat - remember the usual rules for women learning to Cultivate - unlike us they've had limited chances to work outside them - besides training with each other."
She frowned and pointed out something she had only just realised. "You, me and the girls are barely getting started - your team got back footed mostly because of not knowing what to expect - but I am almost positive my Cousins were going all out, short of using lethal techniques."
"Oh." Chénli blinked as understanding hit her. "Can they recover for another round in a kè or so? We could mix the teams up a bit - make it a bit more balanced. Ài defending Dagger would be deadly and I bet Bi and Chà would work really well with Moon's style."
Dàilán nodded in response. "I would say so, their Cultivation and recovery has to be close to as good as mine - its lack of stamina and poorer physical shape that is letting them down."
Chénli nodded and agreed. "We will call a break, Bi and Chà already organised some snacks and drinks - talk shop. I want to ask Dagger about those formations. Ài loves those clothing weapons..."
The bodyguard turned to head back to her group who were starting to throw worried glances their way, then stopped and turned back around. "I was kidding before. You got us both good. Well done from both Ài and myself."
The Third Heiress flushed. "I was not really expecting to get you with that attack. Sorry."
Chénli shrugged, but rubbed her neck ruefully. "Would you believe I forgot you could do external techniques? I remembered you were not wearing the limiter - the moment my sword came down over the rock and hit nothing."
Dàilán winced. "You will have to tell me how you recovered from the effect so fast."
"Practice." replied Chénli as she turned back around to head to the other maids. "I will let the others know."
Dàilán nodded and stepped back towards her cousins. "We are taking a break," she announced to her cousins, whose relief showed plainly on their faces. "Food and drink. You two really managed to impress them - so they thought you were looking down on them when we called it."
Yue exhaled loudly, looking like a drooping flower. "Would not dare."
"I wanted to keep going," grunted Míng as she pulled herself to her feet and started thumping the sand out of her robes.
"You will get your chance," replied Dàilán, "We will go again after the break. Concentrate on recovering your Essence - the food and drink will help."
She started guiding her Cousins over to the shaded corner near the Garden exit where the others were bustling about, "Chén'er was talking about mixing the teams up a bit next match." She grinned at the other two who looked very interested at the mention of food and drink, "Ài really wants to talk about clothes and fighting techniques with you, Yue and I suspect the others will be bombarding Míng with questions about the Formations."
Míng perked up as Yue looked surprised then gratified. "I want to ask your guard about those sparring weapons," Míng agreed as they reached a couple of boulders set with light food and drinks and the expectant looks of the other girls.
Dàilán laughed, "Just do not forget to cultivate Essence while eating and talking - otherwise you will not be any good next match - and I will probably be on the opposite team next time."
Yue looked horrified and Míng closed her eyes as if in pain, Dàilán pushing them forward and laughing as the others pulled them over eyes alight with questions.
"They will do just fine." The youngest Heiress looked over from watching her Cousins fielding offers of food, drinks and rapid fire cheerful questions to find Chénli standing beside her watching as well. "Time enough, we can fix their endurance and stamina. The rest… they have talent. That can not be taught. How stupid Guan is - they could have had three genius Heiress' instead of just one."
"It all comes down to time," replied Dàilán, sighing. "I hope the Gods grant us enough."
"I have some ideas about that," said her friend matter-of-factly. "We can chat about it over lunch after the spars are done. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go and pick the brains of a Formation Master and what seems to be a budding Alchemist."
Dàilán rolled her eyes fondly as Chénli darted off to join the group. Yes. They would be OK. There was no other choice. They had to be.