Sky Pride Vol. 5 Chapter 1- King of a Short Hill

A slim white hand gently guided a heavy fist off to one side, fouling the axe blow chasing behind it. The axe wielder’s situation was made even worse when a heavy, if petite, foot smacked into their calf. The sudden loss of support saw the axe man falling forward, bringing the point of his chin into a rising palm, twisting his head hard to the left and rattling his brain. The axe man collapsed onto the dirt, eyes spinning and trying to find where he was between earth and sky.

“Halt! Winner, Tian Zihao!”

“Thank you for letting me win, Brother.” Tian bowed politely to the bigger man, before offering him a hand up.

“I should be thanking you for taking it easy on me. I over-extended.” The axe man pulled himself together after a moment, rising and dusting himself off with a few quick flicks of his hand.

“You did, but the bigger problem, if you will forgive my saying so, was you didn’t use your size to its full advantage. Just get a big shield. You can bash people with it, and it makes anyone coming at you unarmed rethink their lives.”

The two bowed to the referee, bowed to the crowd, then bowed to each other. They walked off the practice square, not minding the cheering. The crowds weren’t that big, after all.

“I do usually use a shield.” The big man looked torn between laughter and tears. “But I saw what you did to the last two who came at you with a shield and figured I would set you up with the jab, grapple, then finish you with the axe.”

“Good tactic!” Tian approved wholeheartedly. “But you still aren’t using your size to its full advantage. With the weight difference, who cares about unbalancing me? Just grab ahold of my hand or sleeve. Hook with your axe. Doesn’t matter what you do, so long as you catch part of me. Then you control the range and can hit me while I struggle to hit you. So long as you move with absolute speed and violence, you would win most fights.”

The big man’s mouth twitched. He had caught the qualifiers, but didn’t argue it.

“Final Match of the Semi-Final Round- Hong Liren and Zhang Shuang, come forth!”

“Since you have said so much, you must have a counter strategy.”

“Yes. I would break your wrist, or use your arm as leverage to take control of your body, or if it was a true battlefield, I would use Thunderous Palms to destroy the nerves and tendons in your hand, crippling you and using the collapse of your hand as a window to close distance.”

“I never thought my Hundred Hewing Blows technique was cute before, but I’m rethinking that now.” The bigger man laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe I should study those Dragon Subduing Palms.”

“Couldn’t hurt, hard to beat an empty hand as a backup- oh Liren won already? I didn’t hear the match starting.”

“Tsk! It seems Sister Zhang couldn’t withstand a single move. Can’t say I blame her, though. I didn’t see that spear even twitch before it arrived at her throat.”

“She practices that explosive lunge a thousand times a day, most days. She says it is the purest essence of the spear.”

The big man nodded fervently. “Won’t hear me arguing with her. Good luck on your bout with her.”

“Oh, we aren’t going to fight. No point.”

“Eh?”

“Yeah. It’s a bit like shadow boxing, really.”

“Sorry, Brother Tian, I don’t follow.”

“We know each other’s moves so well that the few times we did spar properly in the last year, we fought to a draw. She would win today as my weapon is broken, but it would be a meaningless fight.” Tian laughed. “Our record in serious matches is two to one, in my favor. Not updated since we were fourteen.”

“Tian Zihao, Hong Liren, come forth!”

The two walked out onto the practice field and bowed towards the Martial Uncle overseeing the bouts. It was an open secret that the bouts were being supervised by essentially all the elders still in the sect, and quite possibly the Sect Master too. There had been quite a few martial aunts and uncles wandering the mountain, taking careful notes and scrutinizing their juniors. Everybody knew something was up, and this tournament was part of it. They just didn’t know what was up, or why a special “Century or Younger” tournament was organized for everyone in the Earthly Realm.

“You two are our finalists in the Level Eight grouping. Do you wish to compete, or are you willing to share the reward? If you share it, the free weapon will become, instead, a heavy discount on two weapons.”

Tian and Liren chorused. “Share the reward, thank you, Martial Uncle.” Then looked at each other, because they hadn’t planned on saying it together.

The referee snorted and, with an amused smile, waved them back into the crowd. The last bouts were wrapping up. The lower level competitions took longer, but there were fewer fighters. The Level One group didn’t have any fighters in it, while the one Level Two was stuck fighting the one Level Three. Tian couldn’t believe how small they looked. Refusing to believe that when he had been their age, he was even smaller. On the other hand, Level Nine made up the majority of the Earthly Realm disciples, so it was taking a little while.

“I don’t think I will ever get used to spectators looking down on me from flying boats. And swords. And bamboo rafts. I think I heard about someone having a flying cloud, but I haven’t seen it yet.”

That was life in the Monastery- immortal mists wreathed the sky-piercing peak, spiritual cranes gliding through the endless blue heavens, while brilliant blossoms in butterfly white or peony pink or saffron yellow burst from trees and grasses, the ordinary transformed into something spectacular by the dense qi. It was amazing how quickly it all became invisible. Until something snuck up on you, and your brain, using its calmest voice, reminded you that most places didn’t have giant stone tubs filled with qi-dense water whose temperature you could control by raising or lowering a pair of gems on a string. Lower the carnelian for hotter, the turquoise for colder, and if you just needed to top up the water level, there was a cistern on the roof that was fed by pipes running to the streams that came down from the snowpacks miles above you.

A long way from washing in the stream itself. An even longer way from not washing at all. There was free soap, and it was nice soap too. There were soap making missions for the outer court disciples, just to make sure the soap never ran out. It was part of the very first block of “welfare missions” that the Elders released. Tian shook his head and tried to focus on the bouts.

It was a bit uncomfortable to watch. His seniors were often five times his age. In his memory, they were heroes of impossible strength and grandeur. They were still heroes, still with a dignity and grandeur that came from two mortal lifetimes of living and fighting for honorable causes. But they were all people he could beat.

The strong men and women dashed over the sands of the practice squares, sabers chopping, swords thrusting, heavy staves and maces and axes, bows and halberds, all moving to take a life. Hard external martial arts, soft internal arts, light body arts, perception arts, even more esoteric skills that imbued a blade with crackles of lightning or stretched a spear like a reaching tree branch, or let one boxer land feather light on the tip of his opponent’s sword and kick the swordsman in the face so hard the gallant swordsman flew back three yards. Exquisitely polished arts, and yet Tian was entirely sure he would win.

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Tian was amused to see Brother Wang dropping out at the quarter final round. Well, not ‘dropping out’ exactly, he very convincingly lost to a heroic young man with a halberd. It should be persuasive, Brother Wang was working hard to sell each step of his retreat as a bitter setback, and the eventual gap he left wasn’t an error on his part, simply the superior skill of his opponent.

“I think he stuck in for this long because Sis’ Su bullied him into making a decent showing” Tian muttered.

“Nah, this has Sister Mei’s stamp on it. I bet you she pressed up against his chest, batted her big eyes at him and told him she was looking forward to watching his manly display. Did you see him in the first couple of rounds?” Liren sounded equal parts cynical and amused.

“Knocked ‘em straight out of the ring with a couple of hammer blows, yeah.” Tian nodded.