Attracting attention seemed to be Zao Wu Hai's super power regardless of the form he was in. The man simply knew how to get peoples interest quickly. Even while he was gone, Mike had taken the chance and drawn yet another crowd.
The Unrest that they left in the City Square had spread throughout the settlement. The people were louder than before and the slavers who had remained had only picked up their pace of business. Many of the guards had pulled away and a rumor that was going around was the cause for the uplift in chaos.
Gefest was busy working in the Lower Forge. The older one had its own quirks but the advantages of the new addition far outweighed whatever attachments that the forgemaster previously had.
The Formation was activated and the blast furnace was helping remove the slag. Mike and Wu Hai waited for the next batch to temper while their master focused on the raw ore. It was a regular practice and necessity to constantly go through natural materials and temper them. If they didn't, when the time came they wouldn't have what they needed.
Slag didn't clear itself.
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Mike was lost in thought when he heard something from outside of the main entrance. Just as he was coming up the stairs in the back, an explosion rocked the upper forge.
Gefest, Wu Hai, and Mike all stopped what they were doing.
"Search the area, the boy has to be around here. Those two come here a lot, I've seen them here all week. If you see the boy, call it out." A voice came from above, it was obviously from the tone that he was in charge.
The few doors above wouldn't stop the eventual search of the exterior, someone was bound to find the lower forge. Mike didn't know what else to do, he started channeling his frost ability to fight. Wu Hai wasn't sure how far he should take the situation. Killing within the City could be taken the wrong way, even if you were defending yourself. Everything had to be contextualized the right way or he would become the villain of his own story.
"I have to go, back me up." Wu Hai wanted to swap powers, he was using a pure fire build with earth as a secondary, the processing was going well until just a moment ago.
Mike didn't even bother putting down the Hammer. He gripped it tighter and walked up the stairs.
Outside were a number of people who were watching, but the group of noisy fellows only numbered in the tens. Prince Wu Hai could feel their power, it wasn't small and they had no problems showing their murderous intent.
"The Boy, Now." The one in charge was Corq'wei, he thrust out his hand in expectation.
"What boy? I'd say follow your nose, but apparently its wrong. What brings you here? You ask for some boy by pounding on our doors and yelling like you're owed something." Gefest felt there was a lot more to be said, his tongue lashing wasn't done.
"What's with the quiet tongues so suddenly? I thought you wanted something, well.. come out with it. What Boy?" Gefest was getting angry but Mike and Wu Hai weren't sure just what he could actually do in combat.
"If you want to play stupid, we'll crush your bones before we tear this place down. If you are still breathing, you can watch as we leave with what we came for. Go. Get this old fuck out of my way." Corq'wei threw out a hidden weapon when he pointed, he intended to kill Gefest right then and there.
A Mud wall appeared in front of Gefest, surprising the two apprentices. "Teacher??"
"What.. you didn't think I only knew how to work a bellows, did you?" Gefest noticed the blade was glowing as it tried to burrow through the mud.
Another moment later, the Mud Wall exploded and Gefest flew backward. He wasn't injured, and he was smiling. Gefest saw his two apprentices charging out into battle, one with the forge hammer and the other with just his fists.
Mike swung at three that were on the left and created an Ice wall around five in the middle. Wu Hai went right and drew circles on the ground. The containment of the less talented thugs was mostly easy, it was Corq'wei that kept them on their toes. A strange energy came out from his fingernails and started to peel them back, it looked like he was undergoing rapid decomposition.
"What is going on with that guy? Shit. He's headed for Teacher. Gefest, he's headed.." Mike saw what was happening and stopped talking, his attention was broken by what he watched unfold.
A large block, probably 10x10 appeared out of nowhere and was shattered by Corq'wei's strike. Gefest controlled the pieces and shot them all back. The dagger like slivers did a lot of damage to the still peeling exterior of Corq'wei's flesh and eventually his true face was revealed.
"Devil." Gefest flinched.
It was a lot of time in a battle. When someone flinched, the entire battlefield could change. The words came out of his mouth just as a large bony hand slammed against Gefest, throwing him into the forge's exterior wall. Mike and Wu Hai both flared up, killing their opponents instantly. The situation had gone sideways.
Darting to the position of the next strike, Mike threw up another Ice Barrier and Wu hai threw fireballs at the Devil's back. The damage was minimal.
"I can't use this form, humans don't have the utility. But I don't have time to think about it either!" Wu Hai had mike take the dice and throw them all, they scattered against the wall near Gefest.
Mike started changing. but he only shrunk a foot in height. The form die had both landed on human, he was stuck with a wave-form earth-fire combo but it was perfect for him in that very moment. Mike looked more like a Dwarf with a very large hammer, his inner gamer was screaming while trying not to laugh. Channeling came easy with the Waves function attached to his magics, Mike created a multitude of bands from the Metal ability and started pelting them against Corq'wei's back.
It quickly got the Devil's attention.
Wu Hai couldn't wait to watch, he ran to sweep up the dice, but Gefest had already cast them.
Gefest's change was enough to stop the battlefield. The Devil looked on in terror. Gefest had lost his humanoid form. He grew feathers of light that seethed with vitality and dripped with sacred waters. The Ultimate Function Die came to rest on explosion. Although Gefest had shed his humanoid form, Phoenix's were among the undying. But unlike the Undead, a phoenix never truly die. Their nature was exactly the opposite, giving life where there was none, and yet Gefest had achieved something no other phoenix type had.
A true healing rain.
The droplets of Sacred waters started to cleanse the body of Corq'wei at a visible pace. The devil that had possessed him could feel the toxicity of the cleansing water on its body.
Another explosion from Gefest's surging power brought the attention of the rest of the City. People were starting to move in their direction from all over.
"We need to finish him." Mike ignited the hammer.
The molten metal seemed to fuse with the demon skin whenever it came into contact.
A chance at tempering had begun. Mike could feel the change in the hammer while he struck with all of his might. Charging his energies into the hammer, he incorporated the peeled flesh of the devil into the hammer's face. compacted and compacted again it smoked and smoldered with the glowing hammer. Mike stopped caring about the devil, Corq'wei was losing ground.
Mike swung the hammer again and again, his force never yielding. Wu Hai had no choice but to stand back in the battle. All the scrapes and bruises he had accumulated over the past few days had vanished, and Mike was regenerating like a Boss Mob.
No matter how the Devil struck at Mike, the healing rain healed his wounds. The Hammer kept getting cleansed during the tempering process, its might grew again and again. Soon, an aura of undeath was swept with the power of unbridled life.
The hammer's head, one side which had been cleansed again and again but untempered by the devil flesh, the other side scarred with the signs a great struggle.
It became a Maul of dual affinity, Healing Flames and Death by Fire. The Devil's power, which seemed only to be his strength was fused with the hammer. Mike tore a piece of flesh from the still kicking Corq'wei. The Devil's flesh was a different material than the skin he was pretending to have. Mike rest the hammer in a pool of the sacred rain and wrapped the handle quickly with the devil's flesh.
"See. Now you'll be useful to this world. Something good finally came from you." Mike raised the hammer above his head.
"The Hammer Falls." Mike dropped the hammer with all of his strength and crushed the chest of the Devil.
Bones broke and its organs were in worse shape. Mike wasn't foolish, he knew that Harris would have a field day. Mike pulled out a ring and started yanking organs out of the Demon to store them away. While the Devil kicked, Mike kept grabbing the sacred water nearby to splash in the wound. When the kicking stopped, he stored the corpse in the ring immediately. A Devil's bones would be of great use.
Gefest disappeared in a flash of light and then rose from his own decayed state once more, this time Gefest looked more like a well defined Qilinkin that was also a descendant of a phoenix.
Mike and Wu Hai didn't know what to do.
It took a bit to get Gefest to take the die from the cup. When the die stopped, it was on Qilinkin again and Mike sighed heavily.
"Maybe its fate." Mike looked at Gefest, then at his hands.
He spoke under his breath, but something else happened.
"This form is pretty nice, although I could deal with better powers. Apprentice, allow me to roll the Wooden and Metal Die again. I'd rather have something else." Gefest made a very straight forward request but it came as a shock to the duo.
"You know about these?" Wu Hai wanted answers but the crowd had arrived and more enemies were coming.
Wu Hai and Mike had Gefest follow them down stairs. Mike sealed the entrance, from the outside it looked like a regular patio foundation.
"Tell me everything." Wu Hai passed the Cup and Die set over to Mike so he could get comfortable.
Then, he started on his own.
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The Tower had been buried, but Wu Hai hadn't taken the initiative to bring Gefest inside. In fact, he had wanted to keep it a secret all together, in case his master turned out to be like Darkwing. Darkwing's betrayal had a deep sting.
Upon their arrival, Gefest started fumbling around with the Dice. After he had a Humanoid Pheonix body, he moved onto his powers. In the end, Gefest rolled Fire Stars. He had thoughts of obtaining Metal abilities, but his forging had never required it before, it would be a shame if he wasted such a chance on something that he could do by himself.
The Stars power would allow him to add ethereal energies into his tempering, his weapon's sharpness would increase substantially. He now had a regenerating body that was half-pheonix, he felt somewhat godlike and couldn't help but practice with his ability while they stood in the Tower.
The slaves from earlier had taken up residence within the tower, Lu Sha was among the first to come up. He could feel a familiar presense with Gefest inside of the Tower. The pair quickly got off to a good start and went off to the Arena grounds.
Mike went to the library and passed off the ring containing the devil corpse to Qu.
"Be careful with this one, the contents are a devil's corpse." When Mike finished his sentence, Qu stopped what he was doing.
Qu erected a barrier around the ring and started destroying it.
"We cannot toy with these corpses, nothing good comes of it. Was this all of it? Did you collect the blood and ashes?" Qu noticed some burn marks and the wounds on the body.
"Here is a ring of organs, I thought Harris would want them." Mike passed it over and Qu repeated his actions, erecting a barrier around the ring and purging it.
"Kuzonoha's scrolls are of great use. If you're encountering Devil's then things are progressing faster than I imagined. We need to return to the sect." Qu didn't seem like he was joking.
The pair had literally just returned, and now they had been discovered. It wouldn't be a good thing to just abandon the City. They had commitments they had to finish out. The Dragoons were still stabled at the Inn, and Wu Hai had yet to retrieve the Eunuch from the Auction House.
"Give me half an hour." Wu Hai wasn't about to forget his promises.
He channeled his ability again and focusing on the Auction house stables. Wu Hai appeared about 100 feet away on a rooftop. Slipping into the shadows he searched the area around the stables first, and then moved onto the housing and basements in the vicinity. Slaves were rarely given large residences, and as a stable keep the Eunuch was likely made to sleep outside. Several minutes later, Wu Hai found Eunuch bathing.
"Time to go." The Prince threw a sheet to cover the man up then started channeling his ability, focusing solely on the stable at the Inn.
The Dragoons were still caged and well fed but their cages were locked. Wu Hai threw a gold bar to the ground, channeled his ability and took the contents of the stables directly to the hold in the Tower.
"Wait here, tend to the Dragoons. Qu!. Get him some clothes and a bath, I'm going to shrink the tower and take us back to the sect." Wu Hai had teleported a lot in the past few weeks, he had gotten quite use to moving himself around, but the strain of moving the tower while it was expanded proved that it was not something he was able to do lightly.
"Mike, get everyone ready to meet the Sect Leader when we arrive." Wu Hai opened the buried entrance, and shrank the tower.
The pit behind the Inn was obvious, the trees surrounding the hole were drawn inside.
Wu Hai sifted through the debris and grabbed the Pagoda to put into his storage ring.
Someone was watching.
The Prince threw out a whip of liquid lightning, a trick he learned from the Cheng Twins during their duels. The charge hit a tree and a thud could be heard followed by a rushing in the opposite direction. The voyeur was trying to flee.
Wu Hai leapt into the air and scanned the treetops for movement, but the area was still.
"Stealth" Wu Hai knew what was going on and landed onto a tree branch.
He slipped into the shadows and started to search. Wu Hai didn't find anything after half an hour. The unidentified individual didn't want to be found.
'Lets put some distance between us.' Wu Hai had a good idea and acted on it.
He flew to the Coastline, found a cave and channeled a teleportation ring, with a touch from his finger they disappeared.
The view was spectacular but there was little time. Wu Hai could feel the eyes watching him.
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"Soaring Eagle Catches Rabbit!" One of the Young Princes of the Sect was practicing his aerial strikes, plucking rocks from the Cheng Twins. As Qilinkin they were both fliers and could easily throw out projectiles. Mu would take drinks from his gourd while Yu would throw, and Yu would drink from his own when Mu would take over.
To an onlooker, it looked more like the Cheng twins were using the prince as target practice.
The smile on the boy's face dispelled any questions however. A suffocating pressure could be felt as he dodged through the trees. The Cheng Brothers didn't want to kill the young prince, but they had to harden his skills. Between the two of them absentmindedly bombarding the area, soon the forest floor was covered in debris. The arbors of the Sect would have to come out and replant some harder trees in the future but for the time being, the site was a wonderful training ground. The footing was scarce and hiding spots were of little use.
Tiancho quickly got a feel for the rhythm of their attacks and began catching them more rapidly. Each time it was the same cultivation mantra.
"Soaring Eagle Catches Rabbit!" Again and again he called it out.
The training day was focusing on the one move, and the twins had been at it all day. Tiancho could work on other moves, but he had been convinced by the Twin's and their duels that this was the way to go. When the Cheng Twins did battle between the two of them, they didn't hold back and there was always a healer nearby. Both of them would take considerable damage regularly, or scar the landscapes with each other's bodies. It was brutal to watch and quite interesting to hear each of their thoughts after the battle. When they weren't arguing over who won or who's move was better, their battle analysis was pretty good.
They gave pointers to Tiancho's Eagles Grip Cultivation techniques and reminded him that if he's going to cultivate the Eagles Grip he should beg the patriarch and his uncle to let him roll the Gygax for a Qilinkin body. Although it had gone out of practice to freely give power away in the sect, the Princes were special cases. The Patriarch loved his sons, and a stronger body would be greater for the Sect, but Tiancho felt otherwise.
"Thank you Teachers. Father says I should learn more about the body I already have rather than start over. I already asked." Tiancho wiped his face, it was covered in soot.
"I almost got half of that last group, were you both throwing slower?" The young prince was sure that he was getting a lighter load of training but the Cheng Twins both shook their heads.
Mu was the first to talk. "Kid, we've been aiming at you.. we're not that drunk."
"Hey, give him a break.. he's younger than Wu Hai when we first met him." Yu rubbed his stomach.
"I miss his cooking." Yu grabbed his gourd from the bench and was preparing to take a swig when he felt a disturbance in the air.
A pinpoint of black showed up then a spark of electrical discharge followed.
Wu Hai had appeared outside of the City, and the mountainside had been destroyed by bombardments. Wu Hai started to spread out his spiritual sense and found the Cheng Twins and one of his brothers.
"What are all doing out here? What happened?" Wu Hai searched his senses to see if the eyes that were watching had gone away.
He had switched continents, but he was worried that it wouldn't be enough. For the moment, he didn't feel like he was being watched and sighed in relief.
Mu came up to Zao Wu Hai and gave him a bear hug. The feeling nearly cracked at his ribs, but Cheng Mu put the Prince down. "What else.. Training!"
Another tree fell in the distance.
Wu Hai felt a bit awkward, so he produced some alcohol. The gesture cheered up the Twins.