The riders' leader snapped at his companion, and the man's face went purple-red at once. He seemed to fear the leader badly, for he did not dare argue a word; kneeling there, he gritted his teeth and heaved twice to rise, only to stagger and go down flat instead.
Seeing that, the leader's face darkened another few degrees. He rode forward a couple of paces, his expression set to speak — then he studied the man more carefully and sighed. "Forget it. So you're hurt. Get up on your own!"
So it turned out the fellow had been hurt earlier, when Xia Ya knocked him off his horse. The force of a galloping horse is savage — likely only Xia Ya, a wild brute raised in the mountains, would dare pull a stunt like that.
That collision had flipped the horse over, and when the rider came down, one leg had tangled in the stirrup. Thanks to his superb horsemanship he tore himself loose in the confusion, but one foot had been crushed and broken.
Xia Ya's axe blows had been brutally strong, true enough, and had kept him from getting up — but part of it was that ruined foot, which simply couldn't bear his weight.
And being knocked off a galloping horse had left half his shoulder torn open and bleeding. That was the lighter of it: luckily he wore soft, thick, supple leather armor. Had it been iron, the shock would likely have snapped his bones.
Seeing that his companion had been wounded first, the leader did not hold it against him that Xia Ya's axe had left him in such a sorry state. Every man in their party was, by rank, an outstanding warrior; to lose so wretchedly to a wild demon hunter would smear their names for good.
The riders' leader lifted his head and looked Xia Ya over again. "You blocked one cut of mine and held your ground. Your strength is nothing small." Proud of his station, he felt thoroughly shamed that a wild boy had chipped his saber, and hung the weapon back on his saddle. Looking at Xia Ya — tall, thick-built, a fierce air in his brow — his will to kill faded a little. A young man of such ferocity, taken back and properly trained, would be a fine, sharp blade in his hand in three years at most.
But that thought turned over in his mind only briefly before it died. The task he had been sent out on meant that anyone he crossed paths with could not be left alive. He had already butchered an entire goblin tribe he'd had dealings with — how much less could he spare a lone boy out in the wilds?
The murderous look in his brow eased a fraction; then the savagery surfaced again. "A pity. Your luck is just bad."
Xia Ya was glaring at the broken half-axe in his hand, his heart bleeding. He had always been a pauper; ten-odd years of axe practice and he had never once used a weapon this good. Since he got this battle-axe he had been over the moon — he hadn't let it out of reach even while he slept. And now it had been broken. It was like a beggar who had come into money and gone broke again in under three days; the rage that swelled up in him now was stronger than anything.
The riders' leader's words might have counted as praise, but to Xia Ya's ears it was like someone slapping you twice across the face and then telling you, "That's some thick skin you've got."
How could Xia Ya possibly swallow an insult like that?
Half his nature was the honest, open-handed bluntness of a mountain man — but he had grown up on Wildfire Plain and run with the crowd in Wildfire Town, and had been seasoned with a measure of an adventurer's cunning and ferocity. Those traits mixed together made Xia Ya the man he was: simple-looking, with a sly savagery beneath. Now it stirred up the ruthless, desperate streak in him as well.
The riders' leader had already taken another weapon down from his saddle: a short-handled wolf-tooth club. Wooden-hafted, thick at one end and pointed at the other, the thick end cased in iron sheeting and studded all over with sharp iron spikes. It was the handiest weapon in mounted combat — it didn't care about going blunt, and it was made for knights of great strength.
The leader walked his horse in a few circles, gave a whistle, and came galloping in again. This time he lay low along the horse's neck, club held high, and as he closed he brought it smashing down at Xia Ya's head! If that club landed solid, even iron armor would have been beaten flat around Xia Ya.
Seeing him charge, Xia Ya's pupils shrank to pinpoints — then he whipped around and slid backward in a sideslip, his breathing going short and choppy. Three or four steps and the horse was on him, the club already falling; and Xia Ya sprang up into the air!
The leap was clean and sharp, as if he had turned into a rabbit — taut, high, fast — or like a fish vaulting from the water's edge. In midair he bent his body into a beautiful arc!
Whump — the club swept past his skull, and the wind of it opened two or three thin lines of blood on his face. In midair, Xia Ya's hand flashed to his waist and drew the fire fork — and he thrust!!
A muffled thud. Xia Ya had dodged the club, but the galloping horse rammed him square — yet that fire fork drove hard into the horse's neck!
With a spurt of blood the horse screamed, and in the middle of that scream Xia Ya was flung again. This time he was ready when he landed: he stamped both feet down hard, staggered back several paces, the fire fork gouging a deep furrow in the ground, and barely kept his footing. He spat out a small mouthful of blood, clamped one hand against the spot on his chest where he'd been hit, and fought for air.
The leader's horse, its neck run clean through by the fire fork, ran on a few steps and then crashed over sideways with a shriek. Luckily the knight's riding was superb: in that instant he kicked out hard with both legs — his martial skill truly was remarkable, for the kick cracked the stirrup apart — and sprang clear, so he was not crushed under the horse. But his landing was ugly; he had to roll once on the ground before he got up.
He had barely steadied himself when Xia Ya was on him, the fire fork stabbing at his throat like a venomous snake! Seasoned in a hundred battles, the leader did not panic at all; he whipped a short sword from his waist and parried —
The short sword was keen, its edge glittering, and a ball of gray battle qi burst from the blade. Sword and fire fork clashed with a bang, and there came a ding —
Xia Ya's whole arm jolted to the bone! A length of metal went spinning into the sky and came down with a thunk into the dirt. And the leader, whose face had been fairly composed, changed color outright! A trail of black qi had swept past the side of his neck, and blood came spattering out!
In his pain he flung himself aside, every muscle in his body clenched, pouring a lifetime's strength into that dive. When he landed, the pain in his neck nearly blacked him out; luckily he got a hand up to feel it and found the wound was not deep — but in his hand...
The keen short sword was nothing but a hilt now; half its blade stood stuck in the ground. And the boy before him still held that black, utterly unremarkable fire fork — completely unmarked!
The riders' leader was struck dumb!
Xia Ya was struck dumb himself!
His one strike had clashed head-on with the other man's battle qi again, and his arm was so numb he could not grip; he hurriedly switched the fire fork to his left hand. But he had never expected that his worthless fire fork would actually shear through the enemy's keen short sword!!
"Damn it!" Now the leader was truly enraged. Whatever fondness he had felt for the boy's talent was flung clean out of his mind. A man of his station, and he had come off the worse against this wild boy two or three times running — and had his own neck cut! If he hadn't reacted quickly, he would have lost his life right there!
"Chief, take my sword!"
The knight who had been scolded earlier shouted and hurled his own sword over. The leader caught it in one hand; burning with shame and fury, he gave a low roar and charged like a pouncing tiger. Xia Ya still seemed a little dazed — half his body was still screaming from the horse's impact, and savage monster of a frame or not, he could not simply shrug that off.
Now the leader lunged in again with the sword. One cut came down, battle qi bursting along the edge; the gray light was already at his eyes before Xia Ya came back to himself and raised the fire fork to block.
Clang!
The leader's swordsmanship was vicious and sharp. One cut blocked, he was not the least bit discouraged: in his hand the sword became several streaks of gray flame — thrust, flick, chop, cleave, slash... the flaming qi crisscrossing, almost like a violent storm!
Under swordwork so fierce and keen, Xia Ya became a wooden post. His own martial skill was truly half-baked and second-rate; against a complete sword technique like this, he was no more than a target.
And yet — the strange thing happened!
Clang! Clang-clang!
Clang-clang...
The leader attacked in a frenzy. At first Xia Ya's responses were a scrambling mess; several times he barely held on, a hair from being punched full of see-through holes. But after three or four exchanges, Xia Ya's expression grew stranger and stranger. The other man's face was hideous, but this whole sword technique — Xia Ya only lifted his hand at random, as if that fire fork were clumsy and slow in his grip, and yet he lightly, neatly blocked every one of the man's vicious attacks!
However madly the knight attacked, the sword qi falling like water splashed from a bucket, it could never get past that fire fork in Xia Ya's hands!
Xia Ya was baffled too; the look in his eyes had begun to go wrong.
This guy... this guy... is he playing with me or what? How can his martial skill be this bad?
Eh? That thrust — the way he does it, isn't that the move the old man taught me for poking the coal balls?
Huh? This chop, the way he uses it — isn't that exactly how the old man taught me to chop firewood?
Uh? And this stamping cut — the old man taught me to hack up meat chops with that exact move!
Hm? This slash — that's the old man's way of shearing sheep, just those few strokes...
Xia Ya was about to lose his mind!
Every single sword stroke the man threw at him was a motion he had drilled thousands upon thousands of times before: poking coal balls, splitting firewood, hacking meat chops, shearing sheep... He could do those in his sleep, could do them without thinking at all. Each attack was exactly like a drill partner feeding him the move by prior arrangement — Xia Ya might not react as fast as his opponent, but one look and he could judge the path of the sword precisely, and a casual horizontal flick of the fire fork easily blocked the man's vicious swordsmanship!
And the riders' leader was nearly losing his mind too...
The sword qi flew. The leader had pushed battle qi to its very limit, and the longer he fought, the more frightened he grew.
Humiliated and in a fury, he unleashed the fiercest, most vicious sword technique he had drilled for years on end, wishing only to punch a few dozen see-through holes in this boy. A formidable expert in the army had taught him that technique when he was young, and over the years it had carried him through countless savage fights to the death; many times he had cut down powerful enemies beneath that sword.
But facing this boy, it was simply, simply... simply like seeing a ghost!
No matter how vicious his strokes, the other man blocked them offhand — and the longer they fought, the more relaxed the boy became. Several times, before his sword had even thrust, the fire fork was already laid across the exact spot he was certain to strike!!
At last the leader could no longer hold down the fear in his heart. With a great shout he abandoned technique altogether, put a lifetime's strength into it, and simply hacked the sword straight down.
Klang!!
The blade fetched up on the fire fork, and both men shuddered and froze there.
Both were gasping now — Xia Ya's face flushed red, the leader's ashen. Their weapons were locked together; and just then came a crisp ringing sound, and the fine knight's longsword in his hand broke into seventeen pieces!! While the fire fork in Xia Ya's grip was still that same black, still completely intact!!
The two of them goggled at each other for a moment. Then Xia Ya could not help but squint and say, in a low voice:
"Hey, brother, back home did you used to poke coal balls and hack up meat chops a lot too? You've really got those moves down pat..."
At that, the leader's face changed. The qi and blood in his chest surged the wrong way; he staggered back several steps and suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood.
His opponent was throwing up blood, and Xia Ya was still completely at a loss. Seeing the man had no weapon left, he hesitated not an instant: in he went, fire fork thrusting!
But the man seemed to have gone entirely blank. He fixed Xia Ya with a dead stare, as if he had even forgotten how to dodge — just stared at him like that, unable to get out a single word.
The fire fork was about to land when from behind came the humming thrum of a bowstring.
Whish!
After that sharp whistle through the air, Xia Ya gave a stifled grunt and sprang aside — but a streak of black light had already struck him! A goose-feather arrow was buried in his shoulder, its fletching still quivering.
Off in the distance, the third knight, face cold and stern, still held his bow, two more arrows nocked on the string, the points aimed at Xia Ya.
"Boy. Put down your weapon and back away slowly. Slowly!"
Xia Ya gritted his teeth and gripped the arrow's tail. His brows lifted, a savage look crossing his face, and he was about to step forward when — whish — an arrow thudded into the ground less than three fen in front of his toes!!
"I'll say it only once. Back off!" The third knight stared coldly at Xia Ya from the distance, not a spark of warmth in either eye.
And just then, from the west side across the river, came the sound of hoofbeats too!