In the arena, San had finally spent enough of his rage to realize that he couldn't beat Su Xiang the way he had been fighting. It infuriated him that she melted like smoke in his claws whenever he came close to touching her but as strong as he was, he had to admit that she was much, much faster than he was. As long as she wished it, he would never touch her.
Worse, her longsword gave her a tremendous advantage in reach. Even with his great size and the length of his arms, her sword was longer even when she didn't use her sword energy to extend its reach further.
She was smaller, faster, and had the reach advantage. In contrast, the only ways in which San possessed an advantage were his superior size and his ability to shrug off the damage she inflicted.
As long as she was toying with him, the cuts she inflicted, as bad as they might initially appear, weren't beyond his ability to heal with his martial energy. He had survived far worse from Hua Qianhu after all, this little bit of pain from an honorable swordswoman was nothing!
"No. More. Games!" San roared. "Stop running! Fight Me!"
"No," Su Xiang said, dodging away from his clumsy strike again and inflicting another light cut on his forearm in exchange.
As calm as she looked on the surface, underneath it all, she was beginning to reach her limits. Being twice as fast as the towering mountain of muscle and anger called San might not take twice as much energy as the other man expended but it took at least one and a half times as much.
Moreover, she knew that if he ever managed to put his hands on her, the damage he would inflict in a single strike would be far worse than everything she'd done to him so far. Still, she had yet to wear him down enough to make a serious move of her own. She needed more time.
Seeing that Su Xiang had no intention of meeting his challenge, San rushed in again, swinging his claws wide with all the strength he could muster. Once again, Su Xiang's sword flicked out to inflict a light wound, or at least, that was what she expected to happen.
Thus far, whenever her sword came close to San, he made some movement to minimize the damage she could do with her sword. He rolled with the blow, slipped under the technique, or did whatever else he could to turn a potentially serious wound into something he could easily recover from.
This time, however, San made no such effort. In fact, he did the opposite, leaping forward to impale himself on the point of Su Xiang's blade! With a roar of pain and fury he allowed her blade to pierce through his ribs and the soft viscera his ribs protected, lunging so far forward that the tip of Su Xiang's unnamed blade pierced clean through, emerging from the towering man's muscular back.
Su Xiang's eyes went wide as San seized the opportunity, slamming both claws into her shoulders before she could release her blade to escape. The wickedly sharp red energy surrounding his thumbs pierced into her flesh, just below each of her collar bones while the claws tipping the rest of his fingers sank deep into her flesh, scraping against her shoulder blades.
Pain seared through Su Xiang's body as blood flowed from the wounds. Her hands became numb and her arms limp, unable to resist as San barreled forward, lifting her up and then slamming her into the ground. Her vision went white when her head struck the stone floor of the arena and blood flowed into her hair from the wound.
"I saw her. In the stands," San growled, his face only centimeters away from Su Xiang's, his breath hot on her cheeks. "She will see. What I do. To You. And Then. She's next!"
"No," Su Xiang said in a voice so calm, so detached from the pain flooding her body that it felt unreal. "You will never hurt the ones I love."
As she spoke, her eyes flashed a brilliant sapphire blue before she was surrounded by nearly two dozen beams of sword light. This man, this beast wearing human skin, had impaled himself on her blade because his hate for the person she loved was so great that he would endure anything to make the other person suffer.
This kind of person had no place in her world.
In less time than it took to draw a breath, the beams of swordlight struck out. They pierced San's heart, each lung, his throat, and even his skull. More light flashed, severing the hands that gripped her and the legs that supported him as he loomed over her.
In an instant, the once powerful late-stage Brawler had been reduced to a pile of meat clinging to life by sheer force of will. Su Xiang, however, would take no chances with someone who could threaten her loved ones.
Gathering all of the energy she still possessed, Su Xiang rolled out from underneath the dying San and raised her hands as high as she could. Light gathered at the center of her chest before it became a longsword of pure silvery sword light.
Slowly, Su Xiang raised her head, fixing her sapphire eyes on Gao the Glutton in the stands. "No one," she said, her voice as smooth and strong as steel. "No one hurts my sister."
Before anyone could think to respond to her words, the sword she'd conjured struck out, splitting the remains of San's body clean in half. The sword contained all of the love she held for the person she treasured most, pulled from the deepest part of her heart and shaped into a weapon that would protect him from any harm. There was nothing her Heartsword couldn't cut through to protect Wu Ling.
With that swing, she reaffirmed the greatest truth of her heart and as she cleaved through the most hateful enemy she'd ever fought, she cleaved through the barrier separating her from the second stage as well.
She knew who she was and she knew who she fought for. From today forward, Soldier Su Xiang would dedicate her sword to protecting the ones she loves and as long as she can do that, nothing else matters.