🧢
Yrvut rushed towards Ariena. When he hit her, he felt his hand turn cold. He looked and saw his hand had been frozen. He unfroze it with some Tai and looked at the lady.
“The Ji of the Kori, huh.”
This is gonna be tough.
A few minutes passed and Yrvut was struggling more and more to unfreeze his hands.
“How disappointing,” The lady shook her head. “You are quite famous in this vicinity, and yet so weak…” She laughed and within a few seconds throw a spike made of ice towards Yrvut, who jumped to avoid it. Except he didn’t jump and when he looked down his feet were frozen and attached to the ground.
“Goodbye,” she said before her projectile made contact with the man’s head.
As she turned around towards the stair back towards her chambers, she felt something approaching her from behind, she turned and saw the man, unscathed rushing towards her. As she attempted to dodge, she saw her vision go blank for an instant and was hit and sent to the ground.
“W-what? How!?”
“Ya’ didn’t know what my Ji is? Oh right, almost no one from ya’ clan who done see it still alive.”
He chuckled.
“Oh well, guess I gotta use it. It kinda sucks ya know? Ji of the Sinob, just teleport and win instantly. I prefer fightin’ without it, requires more creativity.”
The lady stood back up and started laughing frantically.
“I am so relieved. I was so thoroughly disappointed by you, but you seem like you will be fun to put back in your place?”
Yrvut tsked. “Let’s see ya’ try then?”
As he said that, the room’s temperature dropped significantly. Yrvut was assaulted by ice spikes from above below and behind in an instant.
Heh, maybe this’ll take some creativity after all.
☀
The trio was left stunned by the fight they were witnessing. They had stayed silent when Yrvut seemed like he’d lost and were at a loss forward when they saw him teleport, or more accurately, exchange places with the ice around Ariena. This turn of the situation wasn’t long lasted as Ariena started an indiscriminate attack on the entire room. This forced the trio outside of the building.
Dalia broke their silence when they arrived outside.
“We have to do something. I’m not sure what’s going on but he’s clearly at a disadvantage.”
Rana nodded. “Yeah, I don’t know either but clearly his ‘Ji’ or whatever he called it is at a massive disadvantage inside.”
“Solution’s simple then,” The young boy said. “We just have to destroy this building.”
“Easier said than done.”
Dalia nodded.
“For us, maybe.” Haru continued, “But if we could bring Izac here, he’d be able to destroy a building like this.”
“Are you sure the walls aren’t reinforced through some kind of application of Tai.”
Dalia cut her off. “I say we do as Haru and started running back to the village right now, we can discuss as we go.”
Rana nodded and the trio were on their way.
“So about what you said Rana,” Haru paused. “It’s probably not the case from how much damage the ice shards were inflicting on the building.”
“Point taken. If this was a defensive fight it would be so much easier as he could just leave outside.”
“Yeah well that’s not the case,” Haru said firmly.
Rana nodded and the trio continued rushing back towards their village.
☀
“Oh you finally came?” Izac said teasingly standing up.
Dalia shook her head. “We need you right now follow us there is no time for talk.”
Izac was confused, but he followed them.
“So, what’s going on that got you guys like this?” He said awkwardly.
“So,” Dalia answered, “We went to a village with a traveler and we found a Yondan of the Tyara Clan and they’re fighting in a castle over documents so we need you to break the castle so that the traveler can beat that woman and we get evidence.”
“That’s a lot to take in, but you know travelers are enemy of the Clan, right?”
“Is this really the time for this?”
Rana looked a bit surprised to hear this from Haru, but kept it to herself.
Hearing Haru talk about bending rules communicated effectively to Izac that it was not the time to be particular. “Haha, you sound like Rana.”
“Shut up.”
☀
The trio and Izac arrived at the area of the building and started freezing. The temperature was glacial. It was bearable for Haru in his usual blue sweater, but for the three others they had trouble moving.
“Okay,” Izac said. You want this building to crumble, right?”
He ran towards it, but his hand on the building. Nothing happened.
For a few, seconds nothing happened. Then, Rana decided to rush towards him.
“We just have to make it weaker right?”
Haru and Dalia did the same and soon all for of them were pouring all their Tai onto the wall.
Nothing happened. For a few seconds, nothing happened.
But then Dalia heard something shaking, the wall was vibrating, cracking, and soon the entire building was crumbling. The large castle from top to bottom fell onto itself with debris flying all over, many of the pieces of the wall were frozen nearly instantly and this quickly turned into an onslaught of ice blocks falling from the sky.
The trio and Izac rushed towards the part of the building where the documents should’ve been scattered as Haru jumped around ensuring none of the debris hit them as they search for them. After a few seconds of search they found the documents and screamed at Yrvut to run away with them.
“Ya’ secured the document?” He asked.
Dalia nodded.
“Then let’s leave.”
Within less than ten seconds, all five of them had arrived back at the village.
“Won’t she follow us?” Haru asked Yrvut, who shook his head.
“No, she would lose in open air combat to me, it would be foolish of her to come here.”
“So what happens now?” He asked.
As he looked through the documents they had secured, Izac replied. “This clearly implicates the Tyara Clan in a plot to overthrow Tinow. This means we’ll need to commission a trial of the Clans.”
“A trial?” Rana asked.
Izac sighed but started explaining.
“So the Clans were created to avoid wars and confrontation. To this end, if one Clan is viewed as aggressive we cannot simply leave this to the others Clans’ leadership to decide. Instead, we hold a trial were each Clan sends jurors to decide if one Clan has broken their accords. In this case, Tyara has been stealing from a village in Tinow’s territory, has been raiding villages and lying repeatedly in its reports to the Tinow Clan. This is a serious violation that will cause a war if proven.”
“A war?” Dalia asked, her voice slightly trembling.
“Ya’ kiddo,” Yrvut replied. “Do ya’ think the Tinow Clan will want to just leave the Tyara Clan intact after this?”
“Doesn’t that mean there’s going to be a war because of… us?” She asked.
“It’s not your fault,” Izac shook his head. “And if it wasn’t you it was going to be discovered by someone else?”
Haru frowned. “Doesn’t that mean the Tyara Clan wants this war to happen. They should know it would’ve been found out.”
“Look, Haru, if I knew what they were planning we wouldn’t be here. I assume they think they can take on Tinow and Kenmai together right now.”
“Can they?” The young boy asked.
Izac sighed before replying quietly. “Probably.”
“WHAT?” The young boy erupted. “So you’re saying they are going to start a war and probably win and destroy Tinow!?”
Yrvut took a step towards the young boy who was sitting on a bench near the fountain in the city square. He looked at him deeply and then talked. “That lady earlier was a Yondan of that Clan, they got dozens o’ those. The highest rank is Tokudan, remember? They have five of those. A single one of ‘em would easily defeat five Arienas.”
“Doesn’t the Tinow Clan have its Unique Rankers too?” Haru asked back.
“There are three Unique Rankers in the Tinow Clan, you probably already know two of them.” Izac replied.
“Kinav Jhytt and Ikeo Mavur, right?” Dalia asked.
Izac nodded.
“Those three are still weaker than the Tyara Clan’s Tokudans. And in terms of High Rankers we have at most twenty or so, compared to their dozens upon dozens of Yondans.”
“What about Kenmai?” Haru asked.
Yrvut and Izac almost scoffed at him.
“Apart from their Duchess you can’t count Kenmai as a serious military force. They have Lord Almzo Aikan who is their only Marquis, who maybe could take on a single one of the Tokudans. If this went to war it’s grim, but that decision will come from the Clan leadership, not a Mid Ranker like me.”
Dalia looked relieve. “So you think they won’t start a war?”
“Nah lad’ the lad’s just tellin’ ya’ that he ain’t sure they’d win, thing is the leaders of each Clan are extremely powerful and with correct strategy any could win ya’ know?”
“Anyways,” Izac said, turning to Yrvut. “Me and the kids will go back to the Clan, you will come with us and I’ll protect you as a special witness. We’ll call a trial and the kids will present their case. Any other evidence you guys need to collect.”
“Yes, actually.” Haru said. “We need to bring the village chief and Lae as witnesses as well.”