"Elder said you're very good with weapons," Nara says slowly as she draws her twin hook swords, "But also mentioned you didn't feel comfortable with any of the cardinals. It looks like you've finally found your fit. It's a shame you choose such a weak weapon. I don't really care how strong you are or who your mother is, if you think your dinky little knives can face me and win, you're naive."
Nara has her pride as a swordwielder, having trained from a young age to master their family's weapon. Nara looks down on anyone who couldn't or wouldn't use what was strongest with their family's weapon skills. Tara's no exception as she takes out only one of her daggers, a silver blade that gives off an orange gleam.
"Then let's see who's Tiger Swipe is stronger? Loser has to run around the Matriarch's mansion backward!" Tara bets. Tiger Swipe was a quick vertical slash that relied on physical strength to have boulder-crushing power. Nara clicks her tongue and moves fast as lightning with one of her swords.
Tara's movement is slower as an amber light gathers from her blade and she swipes out. Nara's face flashes with confusion as Tara's aura is white, not amber. Tara's dagger light cuts through Nara's move and flies past her before causing a small explosion as it comes into contact with a defensive barrier around the arena floor. A normal attack would only have a small glitter of light! As blood dripped from Nara's cheek, the nick was small but deep, Nara put her swords away wordlessly and walked offstage.
Tara faces Kang next, who has strong mental defenses and techniques that even include an illusion of eight ferocious aural tigers! She slashes through them with her lunar knife using Tiger's Lunge, a straightforward jab that pierces through his technique and aura easily.
Unfortunately, Niven faces Neijin who somehow backs her into a corner, to the point that Niven considers going back on her word and using her lunar energy. She doesn't forfeit, fighting until he knocks her unconscious with one of his strikes.
In the end, it comes down to Tara and Neijin. Neijin is a tall and muscular youth wearing a sleeveless martial artist's robes. His golden-toned arms are strong and powerful with his black hair cut short against his head.
This was a huge surprise within the betting pool that someone had started at the tournament. Neijin was set to win first place but Tara had appeared like a dark star in the night! Now she stands across from her senior cousin, two boundaries below and eight years younger. No matter how much ability Tara had displayed before the disparity was too big to cross.
"When I heard that you would be entering, I knew you would get far within the ranking. However, it seems I've underestimated the stray favored by our Matriarch and blessed with Lady Di as her mother," Neijin comments with no ill will. However, being called "stray" was an insult to adopted children and he was hoping to get a rise out of her, "Furthermore, it seems you've been holding back this entire time."
"Couldn't the same be said for you?" Tara replies, as her lunar sense sweeps over him. Neijin had actually been suppressing his true level.
"I haven't had a reason to use my true strength. Are you saying you can push me to that point?" He asks with a wild grin appearing on his lips as his face twists with excitement.
"You make it sound like you're my match. Enough words!" She snaps.
Neijin moves faster than anybody Tara has faced so far. She has half a second to block his strike but it's not enough. A heavy palm strikes her sternum and Tara coughs as she's sent back several steps.
Before she can gather herself enough to return an attack, he's there in the corner of her eye with his kneecap connecting to her right cheek. Neijin isn't pulling any punches because of the age difference nor because of her special status.
Tara goes tumbling on the floor before she shakily gets back on her feet. Her overconfidence in her own ability is gone at being easily knocked around with her white aura shattered like broken glass. Just another lesson learned along her path: do not underestimate your opponent no matter what strength you're hiding.
"You can still get up? You're hardier than you look, little kitten." Neijin laughs as he moves into a defensive position, waiting for her aura to reform.
Tara's head tilts in confusion but doesn't reply instead, striking with her own attacks. Nejin easily deflects her blows and returns with his own within the gaps of her defense. His strikes are hard and precise, the impact almost like a weakened Ember Gather!
"You're not going to use your dagger tricks? Do you think I'm not worth it?" He asks as he jumps and delivers an ax kick. Tara can't help herself as she uses Midnight Prowl to dodge out of the way and recenter herself. He's right that using her daggers would give her an upper hand but Tara stubbornly refuses.
"I'll stop hiding my full strength only if you do." She replies with a ragged breath.
He stops and thinks for a moment before grinning again. "Let's see who's Tiger Claw is stronger? The loser has to show off their secrets! You can use your daggers and I'll put on my claws." Neijin echoes Tara's banter from her earlier battle with Nara. A pair of fingerless gloves appear on his hands with hooked blades that extend from the knuckles. Tara's eyes shine with surprise and then in suspicion.
Tiger Claw is an aural beam attack shot from the hands. It could also be focused on weapons to rapidly grow in power. Somewhat similar to what Di had shown her after returning, it was one of the strongest techniques taught to the younger generation. If you weren't strong enough then it would drain your aural energy and the user would pass out. It was a huge gamble.
"Show me, little cub, how strong you really are!" Neijin presses his wrists together and splays his hands, a light purple orb the size of a small rock gathering in his hands. Tara flips her solar dagger into one hand and he scowls. He was still looking down at Tara even as she's charging the technique, a sunny amber dot of solar energy from the blade's tip.
He releases the move with his aura sparking and the ball forming a phantom of a tiger's claw appearing. Tara uses her own move and the two clash as the beams struggle against each other. The sound of a thousand chirping birds vibrates throughout the arena before there's a flash of white light that encompasses everyone's vision.
The arena barrier flickers for a moment before restabilizing. When it returns, the crowd finds that the two are both panting tiredly but not otherwise unharmed.
Instead, Neijin reaches up for a thick collar-like necklace before yanking it off. The crowd gasps as a wave of blurry energy dispels. Standing before them, Neijin has grown a foot in height, his body even larger and more muscular than before. Painted along the visible parts of his body are leopard spots!
His green eyes shine with ferociousness and a clear thirst for battle, his aura climbing from midtier Blood Directing straight to low tier Bone Crystallization.
Tara most of all are surprised by the reveal of Neijin being an animus as she was certain she was the only one in the family. Could Neijin sense she was one as well and that's why he kept calling her kitten and cub?
'Well, that cat is out of the bag,' Shuyren's voice drifts into Tara's mind before she can think any further, 'I'm certain he can tell your lineage but if you reveal yourself, then we might get accusations of being an animus family that infiltrated a human kingdom. That will not end well for us and I have told him so just now. However, you may reveal your other hand to keep up with him.'
Now that she has permission, Tara finally revolves the Twin Sphere energy within her body. It was clear to everyone who was above her in the Body Altering stages that Tara had recently reached mid tier Skin Igniting. And yet now something had taken a qualitative change within her. A faint wind surges around her as specks of rocky dust begin to orbit around her. Tara finally pulls out her other dagger, each one glowing brilliant with amber and turquoise.
"Hmph. Finally." Neijin says, grounding himself as he charges a full power Tiger Claw. The sphere within his palm is the size of the ball now. Tara's solar dagger has white aural foam gyrating from Rain Scatter with the point of amber steadily growing larger. On her lunar dagger, the white aural flame of Ember Gather gently flickers as the blade is coated with turquoise.
As Neijin fires Tiger Claw, a full-sized phantom of an aural tiger raging towards her now, Tara whispers four words. Rain Scatter's energy is swallowed into a beam of solid amber light that's jabbed forward from the solar dagger. Slashing out with the power of Ember Gather behind it, a crescent wave of turquoise energy flies towards the phantom from the lunar dagger. The wave spirals around the beam as if in orbit like a moon around a sun.
The collision this time breaks the arena barriers and the elder members in the audience rush to shield others around them. All that covers the crowd's senses is amber and turquoise light which fades as fast as it arrives.
Neijin and Tara are still standing at odds with Tara's left arm bleeding. Neijin's seemingly unharmed still standing in the pose for Tiger's Claw, tall as a mountain...before he crumbles onto his knees, his eyes rolled back as his aura fully cracks apart with a loud bang.
The silence is heavy as everyone tries to process what they've just witnessed.
A mid tier Skin Igniting aurator who was eleven was already strange. For her to not only match a low tier Bone Crystallization aurator who was a hidden animus but defeat them? Not in noted history has such a thing happened within Dawn Jungle to anyone's knowledge.
Everyone immediately thinks of how Di was able to fight on par with Martial Academy students and of Shuyren's recent ascension to Marrow Sparking. If whatever secret was behind them could turn a simple child into a powerful warrior, then how strong would someone with battle experience and decades of knowledge be? Elder Shepi immediately decides at that moment to go make amends to the Matriarch for his family's past mistakes.
Tara is crowned the champion of the family tournament. All of those within the upper branches who hadn't believed her hand in the Aural Beast Raid quickly turned their opinions after such a display. Many of her elder cousins now fully believe that Tara is strong on her own and not just because of her maternal influence.
Though Tara won first place, she and Niven pulled away from the award ceremony. The important thing for them was their placement to take the Eightsword's entrance exam. Like this, the sixth and seventh place, Yangling and Xai, were granted an item from the treasury along with special training of an Elder of their choice now that the tournament has concluded. Neijin, the two lower branch members Bria and Sahi, Yangling, and Xai were later taken away from a congratulating party.
When they were brought before their Matriarch, they found Tara and Niven waiting in the room. Lady Di and Lord Casian were present as well along with two aunts none of them had met or even knew existed. A powerful wood green barrier erupts from Shuyren's chair and enveloped the room.
"You are among the strongest of your generation. The skill you displayed today will have brought a smile upon our ancestors," Shuyren rises and each teen quickly kneels as a queenly presence wafts over them.