For the next several days the four friends continued their jobs, preparing for Caravan Day. Danka, as part of the town guard, was on patrol with one of the inner disciples. Ponma, not having accepted a job yet as he was still twelve for a few months and therefore didn’t have to get a job, carried all of the jars and vinegar he could to Fisher, having purchased several magic bags with his profits from the last Caravan Day and his other business ventures. Mae got much better at pill refinement, only losing a batch of cleansing pills occasionally and being given permission to make healing pills. Shen continued to make flying swords, making Wood and Water swords when she had made enough of the others so that she could get more practice with those elements. Master would get ten gold per sword from the caravan merchants for a sword of that quality, the equivalent of twenty four contribution points, so he sold her one of her Wood swords for twenty points and she started wearing it. She would have to remember to tell her friends about this so that they could buy their own, even if they would have to pay full price.
Now that she had her own flying sword she was able to fly to Fisher to resupply them and to Dragon Village to deliver the jars to them after work. She would have one of the Caravan days off, but she used her two days off during the time building up to it to move as much merchandise as possible. She was able to move faster than Ponma, as the sword didn’t need to follow the path and flew twice as fast as he could walk, but he was able to do much more business as he had every day to work on it and didn’t need to travel several li to meet her customers.
Still, she managed to sell thirty jars to the village for a total of twenty eight spirit stones and several magical ingredients. She wasn’t making much profit from these sells, as it cost her almost five contribution points for the materials and labor to produce them, but she was earning a lot of good will with the people she hired and sold to, which might be much more valuable.
There would be two fighting competitions being held during Caravan Days, one for the outer disciples and one for the inner, so Shen, Danka, and Ponma all signed up for the Outer disciple competition. The reward for first place was a Beast Core from a middle foundation Burnt Fox, so all of them could benefit from owning it, if for no other reason than that it would let them store far more chi. Though the fact that it came from a Fire elemental spirit beast would mean that it could store more Fire chi than neutral chi, and wouldn’t be damaged by an elemental imbalance which favored Fire. This is why Shen wanted it, as she favored Fire.
The day the Caravan arrived her master closed the store. He always took the first day of the festival off anyway, and would only need to visit the store to sell the various goods he had produced for resale. Shen only had one thing to do at work before she left for the rest of the day. She gave Master Chen another twenty contribution points and took one of the fire swords she had carved earlier that week. The competition for the outer disciples would be starting at noon, and she wanted a proper weapon for it.
For two days this week she had been practicing with the sword in the dragon village and, while she knew that she wasn’t the best with it, she was at least passable. While she was currently better at hand-to-hand combat, she couldn’t rely on that in a proper competition, as without a weapon she would be forced to use her own arms to block blows. This would quickly deplete her chi reserves if she relied on Dragon Scales to block the damage, or would damage her if she didn’t. Thus, she purchased a weapon which, while not of the best quality, would be good enough to get her through the competition.
She bought some food from one of the stands there and glanced at the merchandise the caravan had for sell before heading to the fire section of the city where the tournament would occur. There were a few interesting things available, and she considered buying a few minor relics like jewelry or clothing with special effects, but she decided against it for now. They wanted five spirit stones for even a basic self-cleaning robe, and ten if you wanted it to be self repairing as well. While she had more than enough money, if she was going to spend that much she wanted something nicer than basic robes.
The field master called for the attention of all of the participants and instructed them on how the fights would work. Each participant would draw a number from a box, and tell the field master what number they drew. They would have to fight the person with the matching number from their bracket, which would be listed on a board beside the field. If the other person lost consciousness, left the field, or surrendered, you won the match. The winner of each match would then face the winner of the neighboring bracket in the next match. As sixty outer disciples signed up for the match, the numbers sixty one through sixty four were removed from the box, so the last four were removed from the chart, and whoever one the brackets before them would have a slightly easier time.
Everyone took turns drawing. Shen was number eight, so she would go near the beginning. Her opponent was one of the many sword fighters that trained here, a child of two sect members, so she would be fine using her sword for the fight, as he also had a metal sword, though a non-relic one.
After the first three matches she made her way onto the stage. Elevated seats had been set up at the side of the field so that people could watch the fights, as the bets was one of the main reasons the tournament was held now besides just testing the recruits later. Even with all of the seats there were still dozens of people sitting or standing on flying relics, where they could get a better view. “Do your best, Shen!” a woman called from one of the relics. Shen looked up and saw Sho, Do, and Cal sitting in a small flying boat. Cal had shown no interest in visiting the sect before, so she wondered why he was here. In fact, he had even scolded his daughter for visiting three years ago. What could have changed?
The field master got Shen’s attention and started the match. The other boy ran at her and swung, but thanks to her hand-to-hand training she was able to dodge his blow. He kept swinging, not wanting to give her a break, but she was able to dodge most of the blows, only having to parry two of his blows that got too close. After a minute his movements became sluggish as he ran out of energy. He had apparently been using Release during every blow to speed them up and didn’t have the chi reserves to maintain it for more than sixty or seventy swings. Shen had taken several steps backwards while dodging, however, so they were now at the edge of the field. He swung again and she parried his blade into the stone platform beneath them and brought her leg up to kick him in the ribs. He fell over, dropping his sword, and rolled a few times before falling out of the ring. Luckily it was only half a meter above the dirt outside so the fall didn’t hurt him.
“Winner Shen!” the announcer called and several people cheered, including the three in the boat. Shen left the stage and the matches continued, though she didn’t pay attention to them, choosing instead to cultivate to restore the small amount of energy she had used during the fight. An hour later someone told her that she was next. Contestant number six had won his match, so she would be fighting him next. After hearing the crowd cheer for the fighters she made her way outside as a bruised fighter left the field.
Contestant number six was a larger, muscular boy, maybe sixteen years old. He had been stuck at Outer Disciple for many years as he was unable to break though the Foundation bottle neck, and he liked to take his frustrations at this fact out on the younger disciples. “Begin” the field master called and he ran at Shen swinging.
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His sword was a Metal flying sword. While it was only a low grade one like Shen had, he was able to put far more strength behind it than number seven had, even without using Release. He was also more skilled and Shen was forced to work much harder to dodge and parry his blows, even getting hit a few times and having to rely on her Dragon Scales to avoid actual damage. She knew that if she continued to fight like this she would run out of chi before him, as Dragon Scales required too much chi with her current level of skill, so she threw her sword on the ground, jumped on it, and flew off the field. He did the same and started chasing her, and she responded with bursts of fire directed at him. Because she hadn’t practiced attacking while also flying, however, her attacks were weaker than normal, so they only annoyed him.
He managed to close the distance and started swinging at her with his fists. Shen was able to dodge or block him due to her training, but he was far stronger than her so he didn’t need to expend chi to fight like this, while she did. Knowing that this would deplete her reserves even faster, she would have to end this quickly. She flew slightly further away so that he would have to lean over slightly to hit her, then let her sword fall by a meter. As he tried to right himself she drew her wooden sword and hit him in the shins, using Release to make sure that it hurt.
When he flinched from the pain he lost his balance and fell off of the sword, falling five meters before hitting the stone. There was a crack as he impacted the stone and he lost consciousness, his sword falling beside him a second later as it could no longer receive orders from an unconscious person. “Winner, Shen.” said the field master and even more people cheered this time.
Shen left the field, and knowing that she wouldn’t have a fight for a little while made her way to the bathroom. There was something damp between her legs and it would be quite embarrassing if she wet herself during the competition. When she got there, however, she realized that she hadn’t done so. ‘Blood?’ she thought. She hadn’t been hit hard enough to even be bruised during the match thanks to Dragon Scales, much less get seriously injured. It only took her a minute to realize that, during the rush to prepare for Caravan Day, she had lost track of the lunar cycle.
She quickly went to her quarters to clean herself, used the bathroom, and ran back to the field. Her situation might distract her from the fight, but she wouldn’t let it take the victory from her. When she arrived and realized that she still had some time she sat down and started cultivating. She had used a lot of chi in that last fight, especially Fire Chi, so she needed to replenish them. She barely managed to do so before number fifty eight and fifty four entered the field, and she was informed that her fight would be next.
She got up and walked to the exit onto the field, where she found Ponma standing. “You watching the fight?” She asked him.
“Actually I’m waiting for my next fight.” he said. “I’m contestant number one.”
Shen knew that she would likely face him in this contest, but wasn’t expecting to have to do so so soon. “Oh, well, I’m number eight, so I guess you’ll have to face me.” she said.
Ponma nodded. “Well, I guess I’ll have to try my hardest this time. My last two opponents were too easy.”
“My first was pretty easy, but the second wasn’t bad.” she said, making small talk. A cheer came from the field as number fifty four held his spear in the air in celebration and two outer disciples from the medical division ran over to lift his opponent onto the stretcher. “Hey, look, it’s Mae.” Shen hadn’t noticed at first, but Mae was lifting the man’s legs to put him on the stretcher so that she could help carry him to the clinic.
“I guess as an apprentice alchemist she does qualify as one of the medics.” Shen responded, and Ponma nodded. Neither of them greeted her as she ran by because they didn’t want to disturb her, but Shen could tell that she was using Release in order to keep up with the other healer.
The next match was called and the two of them went onto the field, Ponma going to the left and Shen to the right. The field master started the match and both of them opened with a spell. The two spells collided in the middle of the field, but because water chi had a natural advantage over fire, it wasn’t completely destroyed, continuing to splash harmlessly against Shen before dissipating. Chi based attacks like these didn’t really contain the element, but merely behaved as the element, so Shen’s clothes were dry after the attack dissipated. The one exception to that was fire, which heated the air enough that it could actually catch things on fire, and technically did contain a small bit of super-heated air, which was essentially fire.
They continued to throw weak attacks at each other until the constant splashes distracted Shen enough for Ponma to try something bigger. “Ice blade” he called, and a crescent shaped blade of ice shot from his hand. Shen noticed too late to dodge and was only able to bring up her arms in time to activate Dragon Scales and block the attack. It still had enough force to push her backwards by several meters, putting her only three meters from the edge of the field.
Ponma took the opportunity to ran at her and jump, tackling her to the ground. His own melee style was also a hand-to-hand type focusing on dodges and grapples, so he was able to pin her to the ground and wrap his legs around her throat in an attempt to choke her out. Shen realized what he was doing and, instead of fighting him, released all of the Fire Chi she had stored up in a burst, catching his clothes on fire. She had gotten used to running out of each of the elements while carving flying swords, so she was largely unaffected by the imbalance. He released her to try and put the fire out, and she immediately jumped up and grabbed the back of his shirt, throwing him hard enough that he slid off the edge of the field.
The crowd was surprised by this turn of events, but started cheering just as the field master declared her the winner. She jumped off the side of the platform and helped Ponma up, making sure that he was no longer on fire. “Sorry about that.” she said. “You almost beat me and that was the first solution that popped into my head.
Ponma laughed. “It’s ok. You surprised me and managed to take advantage of that to win, so you deserved the victory. I’ll have to practice wrapping a layer of water chi around myself so that doesn’t happen again.”
They returned to the waiting room where defeated contestants were allowed to go and watch the matches. They saw Danka, but he was off in the corner practicing his sword swings so they didn’t bother him as they sat down to cultivate. Shen needed to at least refill her Fire Chi, if nothing else, before the next fight.
She managed to restore most of it before the next match, but this guy was a Wood user that had mostly gotten through the fights using magic, so Shen was able to use up the chi of his attacks by adding it enough Fire Chi to redirect it, making small explosions like fireworks fall onto the field. Wood Chi wasn’t very useful in combat, being much more useful in healing and agriculture, but her opponent insisted on becoming a wood fighter and wouldn’t be persuaded to turn away from it.
Seeing his determination, she drew her wooden sword and swung at him. At least Wooden weapons were a passable weapon at this level, so she would actually challenge herself. The fourteen year old boy used a staff and had obviously been practicing, as he managed to hit her several times while dodging or parrying all of her blows. Furthermore, because his weapon could be controlled from one end, giving it more reach, he was able to keep his distance, making it difficult for her to even get into range.
Shen used him to practice her sword combat for a few minutes while analyzing his skills. He seemed to rely on the length of his weapon to attack and keep her at a distance. The few times she had gotten lucky he had barely been able to dodge, so his own footwork was probably weaker than hers. The other times, however, she had only accidentally gotten within range, so she couldn’t take full advantage of it before he managed to back up. That gave her two strategies, either force him backwards enough that he falls out of the field or get in so close that he can’t dodge and hit him hard.
She decided to try the first one first. She started knocking his spear aside by using Release just as their weapons impacted so that the attack was stronger than he had prepared to stop. Every time she did this he would jump backwards, and eventually he was withing two meters of the edge of the field. She did it once more, expecting him to jump backwards, putting himself close enough to the edge that she could grab his pole and shove him off the edge, but instead he jumped sideways, starting to circle around her. She tried again, getting him into a corner where jumping sideways wouldn’t work, but he simply dived forward and rolled, knocking her legs out from under her as he passed her so that she couldn’t counterattack.
They both stood up and Shen knew that that strategy wouldn’t work, so she rushed him. She managed to knock his spear to the side once more, as he still hadn’t managed to figure out how to deal with her parrying method, and got within the weapons reach, using a followup blow to hit him in the ribs. He gritted his teeth from the pain and slid his pole back in his hand so that he could fight at that range, but Shen swung at his head. When he tried to block it the other end of the pole hit the ground, throwing off his aim and the blow connected, knocking him down and dazing him. Luckily she hadn’t used Release that time or it would have meant a fractured skull at best.
“I give up.” he said as she prepared another strike, and she stopped her swing.
The crowd cheered and the field master declared Shen the winner. The Wood fighter was then helped off the stage before being sat in a wheelchair so that he could be taken to the clinic to be checked for a concussion.
Shen now had two fights left to fight, but still had most of her chi left, only using neutral chi and a small amount of Fire chi in that fight. After waving at the crowd she returned to the waiting room where she immediately started gathering chi.
