Fates Parallel Chapter 72 - Sacrifice

Zheng Long’s advance was halted by a wall of stone erupting from the path in front of him—most likely from Dae. Without needing any prompting, Jia’s team moved into position for a defensive battle against a single powerful opponent. Jia and Rika retreated back to cover Dae and Eunae, respectively, while Eui stood in the center as the pillar of their formation. The idea was that no matter who the enemy targeted, there would be at least one front-line and one support ready to receive them, and Eui would be able to follow up.

Theoretically, the worst option was to target Eui directly, since the rest of the team would then be able to converge on that point and apply their full force. They had not actually used this formation in a fight before, but they had discussed and practiced it enough that they knew to fall into it automatically.

In fact, they had drilled this exact formation just yesterday, and Jia was very glad of it—without the ability to hear, it would be a lot harder to coordinate. She had developed signals in practice with Eunae, Eui, and Rika, and Dae had been briefed on them as well, but they were a much more limited method of coordination than simply calling her strategies out directly.

The wall of stone only created a small delay for Zheng Long, but it was enough for them to get into formation. He leapt up and stood on top of the wall, looking down on them with a smug grin.

“Oh, not a bad formation! I finally get a chance to see you face a real challenge, come to think of it! A lesson for you, however—never assume that your enemy will engage you on your terms!”

The flames around Zheng Long seemed to twist around him, and to Lee Jia it really did look like a fiery dragon perched atop the wall. He extended his arms, and dozens of the flaming spears he had used to pierce the stone rams hurtled towards them—clearly he had been holding back when they watched him!

The spears were fast and even though he was firing them in numbers, each one seemed to be precisely aimed. Lee Jia focused her efforts on deflecting the spears aimed at Dae with bursts of ki in order to allow him to concentrate on returning fire. Rika did the same for Eunae, but was unable to balance that with controlling her copies, which were both taken out by spears.

Eui got the worst of it, being completely pinned down and forced to focus on dodging, rather than being able to retaliate. Behind Jia, Dae had unfurled his magical scroll and talismans began to fly out of it and orbit around him. He flicked out three in rapid succession, causing the terrain around Zheng Long to turn against him.

The top of the wall he was standing on shattered, launching shrapnel up towards him while spikes erupted from each side. Zheng Long was forced to leap away from the wall, but as he did, a pair of fiery wings unfurled from his aura and he glided impossibly over their heads. Eunae attempted to take advantage of the moment to fire a barrage of icy darts towards him, but he simply banked away from them and laughed as he landed on the path behind them—trapping them against their own wall of stone.

“Is this really all you can do? I had meant to simply stall you until Han Yu was finished with Yan Yue, but at this rate I’m just going to defeat you all by myself!”

Jia wasn’t interested in his taunts as she considered their options. Zheng Long was strong—strong enough to back up his boasts, clearly. Lee Jia had fought stronger opponents before, but he was on a level that she’d never experienced outside of her spars with Hayakawa, and she suspected that he was still holding back.

They essentially only had two options, as Lee Jia saw it. They could fight defensively and hope to outlast the flashy, wasteful, Awakening Dragon style—but they’d be in trouble if Han Yu won his battle against Yue and came to support Zheng Long. Alternatively, they could go all out and try to take him down as fast as possible. Third stage or not, he was still flesh and blood—one solid hit from Eui would end it.

The problem was that he clearly understood the danger that Eui posed. His earlier attack had focused on pinning her down, and despite his taunting, he was still keeping his distance rather than face their formation head-on. They might be able to wear him down by forcing him to keep flying—Jia knew from her research on the subject that flight was a prohibitively expensive ability before the xiantian stages.

Before she could consider how to communicate that idea to her friends, Zheng Long went on the attack once again. More spears of flame flew at them, and without the higher angle, they were even more difficult to avoid than they had been before. This time, Dae was prepared for it—he created another wall of stone to block the barrage of spears, then with a follow up spell, caused the entire structure to explode violently, sending a massive barrage of shrapnel towards Zheng Long.

He was unable to avoid the entire cloud of debris, and as he focused on defending, Eui and Eunae took advantage of the opening to go on the offensive. Eunae’s spell created another barrage of icy spikes to distract him while Eui threw a knife charged with the deadly element of destruction.

Zheng Long’s fiery aura surged, and a wave of heat that Jia could feel even from her considerable distance destroyed Eunae’s attack. In the meantime, he ignored the continuing barrage of stone from Dae long enough to knock Eui’s knife off course with a fiery whip, where it exploded harmlessly, taking a chunk out of the cliff wall next to him.

Their coordinated attack had left a few superficial injuries on Zheng Long, but even now she could see them closing on their own—the same healing technique that Eui used. As the intelligence that Eunae had gathered indicated, he really had mastered all of the techniques of his style. It worried Jia that they hadn’t yet seen him use the Valley of Illusory Mists technique. Rika’s practice of that technique expressed itself in her semi-illusory clones, but it was the most unpredictable of all the spiritual arts that Jia was familiar with.

Jia felt so useless in this fight. Her ability to fight at range lagged far behind that of most of her other teammates—even Rika could fight at a distance by using her clones as a proxy for her hand-to-hand style. Worse, with everyone deafened, she struggled to fill her role as a leader, only able to coordinate by hand gestures and signals.

Speaking of which—she made a quick hand gesture towards Eunae, indicating that she needed to change her tactics. She hoped that would be enough to communicate that she needed to use an element other than ice if possible—it had been effective against creatures of magma, but clearly wasn’t suitable for Zheng Long’s fire-based techniques.

Eunae nodded in acknowledgement, and changed the spells she was using to lightning attacks similar to those that Jia used, though less powerful since she lacked the same affinity for the element. It occurred to Jia that she also had a lightning bolt talisman—but only the one. She was strongly tempted to use it, but seeing Zheng Long shrug off Eunae’s attacks reminded her of the warning she had been given about Yan Zhihao after her duel.

Spiritual artists could use their qi to blunt the effect of energy-based attacks. That was why Dae and Eunae had been using spells that created more physical manifestations—Zheng Long was clearly much more comfortable taking Eunae’s lightning bolts with this qi shield. If Jia was going to be able to use her trump card against him, they would first have to wear him down.

She had a strategy to do that, but she didn’t know how to communicate it. It would be so much simpler if she could just explain it to her team, or at least demonstrate through action. They needed to force Zheng Long off the path—attack his footing in order to force him to use his flight or else risk falling from the cliffs. She knew that they were running out of time, and she couldn’t think of another way forward.

In desperation, Lee Jia decided to take a big risk. She was confident that Dae was capable of doing what she needed, or at least demonstrating through action well enough that the others would follow his lead. However, the only way to communicate her plan to him was to explain it in words, and the only way to explain it in words...

She turned her back on the fight to face Dae, grabbed his shoulder to gain his attention, and then mouthed the words. Dae hadn’t practiced reading lips with them, but she knew that he could—he was always diligent about the weirdest things.

“We need to force him to fly! The only way we win is if he runs out of—”

Dae’s eyes widened as he noticed something behind her and tried to pull her out of the way. Jia felt a sharp pain in her back and collapsed to the ground. Dae attempted to help her, but was quickly forced to step in front of her and focus on defending her as Zheng Long pressed the opening.

Jia realized what had happened after a moment. Zheng Long had taken advantage of her distraction to attack her while her guard was down—she had expected he would, but thought she’d be able to react in time by sensing the attack with her domain. The spear of flame had pierced her all the way through to her chest, and only Dae’s quick response had saved her from being shot through the heart.

Even so, it wasn’t a minor wound. Stupid! Jia cursed her idiocy. Turning her back on any opponent was the height of foolishness, especially one as powerful as Zheng Long, and it had cost her dearly. Now, Dae couldn’t even enact the plan that she had left with him because he was forced to defend her while she lay helpless on the floor. At least she wasn’t bleeding—the spear had cauterized the hole that it put through her.

Eui rushed to her side almost immediately, and Jia knew it was a mistake. She tried to shake her head or point her towards Dae, but her body wasn’t moving the way she wanted it to. With Eui out of position, their formation was broken, leaving Rika and Eunae vulnerable to attack.

“Jia, what the fuck were you thinking!? Stay still—oh, fucking ancestors this is bad!”

It was a reversal of their first major fight. Back then, it had been Eui injured and Jia who was panicking and fussing over her. She didn’t have time to appreciate the humor of the moment, though—she needed Eui to do what she had done back then. Jia gripped Eui’s shoulder and met her eyes.

“Leave me be, Eui—I don’t matter in this fight and I won’t die from just this. Support Dae, he knows what to do.”

Eui wore a pained expression as she glanced back to where Zheng Long was already rapidly overpowering Rika, even with support from Eunae and Dae.

“Ancestors damn it, Jia! If you die, I swear I will track your soul down to the underworld and kill you again myself!”

Jia tried to chuckle, but it just came out as a wheeze—breathing was a bit difficult at the moment. At least she only had to mouth the words as she spoke.

“Go! I’ll be fine!”

Eui steeled her expression and nodded. She stood and turned to rejoin the fight, but it was already too late. Rika was on the ground—unconscious or dead—and Eunae was being forced to focus entirely on her own retreat. Dae was still covering for Jia and Eui, but the fight had completely fallen apart, and it seemed like their defeat was inevitable. Was the gap between the second and third stage really that large?

As if fate itself was trying to make fun of them, it was at that exact moment that Han Yu emerged from behind the wall of stone that Dae had erected—apparently he had won his battle against Yan Yue.

“Tsk, Senior Zheng, you’ve hardly left anything for me! Always the overachiever. I suppose I’ll let you have your fun. Call me if you need me!”

Lee Jia felt herself falling into the pit of despair. Her enemies weren’t even trying. This was a game to them, and they were winning with contemptuous ease. Nothing had gone the way Jia had hoped—everything that could possibly go wrong had. Even her most final contingencies had fallen through thanks to how badly she and her friends had been overwhelmed. What was the point of a trump card if you never got the chance to play it?

She expanded her domain across as much of the battlefield as she could, in a desperate attempt to find a solution—though she knew that there wasn’t one. Eunae was about to fall, having been cornered by Zheng Long, who was using dozens of flaming tendrils to prevent her from escaping while simultaneously deflecting Dae’s attacks. Eui was still next to Jia, having hesitated after seeing how badly things had turned after her momentary absence.

The only others left were Rika lying on the floor—still breathing, thankfully—Han Yu biting his thumbnail as he watched the fight passively, and Minami Yuuko—missing? Jia looked around frantically, but there was no sign of her newest friend anywhere. Where had she gone? Jia’s thoughts froze—

Han Yu biting his thumbnail—it wasn’t a completely unique habit but it was something she had seen Yan Yue doing frequently. It seemed like almost too much to hope for, that Yue had somehow found a way around the protection that Han Yu had given himself. The habit alone wouldn’t be enough to convince her normally, but where had Yuuko gone? She was supposed to have fallen under Yue’s spell, but she had completely disappeared.

If Yue had overcome Han Yu, then why wasn’t she helping them now? Was she just using them as a distraction while she escaped? That would be completely foolish, since she didn’t really have anywhere to flee to, but Jia wasn’t sure she could put that past Yue. Why else would she be waiting?

Of course, the answer was obvious—they were losing. If she stepped in now, it would just mean that she went down with them. Yue was nothing if not shrewd, but then why was she still here at all? That had to mean she thought there was still a chance, but not enough of one for her to commit. She was waiting for something, Yuuko was missing—Lee Jia put all the pieces together and realized that one of her contingencies might still be in play after all.

The problem was time. Zheng Long was taking them apart fast, and even if help was coming, it would soon be too late. There was nothing that Jia could do at that point—everything she had tried had failed or worse—but Zheng Long was cautious of Eui, and Jia was willing to pin all of her hopes on that.

She struggled to sit up, and the motion drew Eui’s attention.

“Jia, stop moving. I think we might be fucked, but I’m not about to let you die here.”

Jia shook her head and locked eyes with Eui’s crimson gaze.

“You need to stop Zheng Long. You’re the only one he’s given even the tiniest bit of caution to. I think help is on the way, but we need more time.”

“I really appreciate the confidence, Jia, but I don’t think I stand a chance. Maybe when it was five on one, but now it’s only three, and Eunae is barely holding on.”

Jia smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“That’s why we’re going to give you a little boost. You remember the last time we tried to cultivate together?”

Eui furrowed her brows.

“Of course I remember, that’s when you—wait, Jia no! You almost died!”

“Don’t be so dramatic. I was close to suffering a deviation, but I know how to prevent it this time. I’ll be fine.”

“This is a terrible idea—what about your wounds? Your ki is the only thing keeping you alive right now.”

Jia frowned—she hadn’t actually thought of that.

“Just leave me with enough to get by, okay?”

“Jia...”

“If you’ve got another idea, tell me. I’m trying to be more open to suggestions.”

Tears began welling in Eui’s eyes and she chuckled despite herself.

“Ancestors damn it, Jia. That’s not fair!”

Behind them, Eunae fell to one of Zheng Long’s relentless flaming spears. Just how much qi did that guy have, anyway?

“We’re out of time Eui. Zheng Long is about to come this way—make up your mind.”

Eui grimaced and shook her head before clasping Jia’s hands in hers.

“Damn it, fine! I really hope you know what you’re doing.”

“For once, Eui, I’m not doing anything.”

Jia closed her eyes and circulated the ki within her body. They didn’t have time to agonize over their cultivation method, but they also weren’t really trying for balance this time. Jia sent her ki into Eui, and only absorbed the ki sent back out of habit—she knew there wasn’t much point since once the bond was established—

As if on cue, the pulse of energy from Eui’s demonic core swept through them and started greedily drawing Jia’s ki away. This time, Jia didn’t resist it, and there was no pain as she willingly allowed the core to feed on her essence. The amount of ki in her body became dangerously low, but Jia just pulled essence away from her dantian and her domain in order to continue fueling it.

In her heart, Jia gave Eui a silent apology. She had no intention of holding anything back, and she knew that without her essence, she would probably die—even without her wound. She apologized to Heian, as well. The poor little kitten spirit had only just been born, and it was depending on her for its cultivation, but there was nothing she wouldn’t sacrifice to make sure that Eui lived through this—including her own life.

She could sense the spirit protesting from within her domain, but she ignored it as she drew every last bit of essence that she could and channeled it into her connection with Eui. She felt herself growing weak, her consciousness slipping away, but she held on for as long as she could. She wouldn’t stop until there was nothing left to give.

Finally, when Jia couldn’t hold on any longer, the strength left her body, her hands slipped out of Eui’s grasp, and the world faded into darkness.