Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 17: Gisael

 Benzhi faced Gisael, he hadn't come close to a full recovery from the battle with the troll, he was using his left hand even. They began to spar, exchanging blows, no qi blade, no shunpo. 

 The qi technique Benzhi used to increase his speed and leap was known as shunpo, as its creator, Benzhi reserved naming rights. The technique still had a long way to go, with speed and leap, he would continue to experiment with qi patterns and flows to enhance this ability. There may also be ways to enhance his speed by enhancing his body and not just the soles of his feet, as he was limited by how quickly he could move his feet. In its current state, it was effective, similar to how skates were faster than running back on earth.

 It was no holds barred strenuous exercise, with cuts and bruises. Benzhi relished the knocks and practised healing on the fly. Healing could consume a great amount of qi, Benzhi focused on using as little as possible to assist his natural healing of blood vessels and other damaged organs including skin.

Benzhi headbutted Gisael's blade, all in the name of training. She stopped. Benzhi began to heal the cut on his head with it cocked to the side looking at her.

"You did that on purpose!" Gisael accused him.

"I'm training," Benzhi replied innocently.

Gisael starred at him as the cut on his forehead stopped bleeding as it sutured. She laughed, "You will take all the fun out of bruising you." She paced back and forth, her demeanour changing to a less self-assured one.

"I need to learn qi blade, but, it has not come to me on its own. I cannot fight a troll like you without it." Gisael stated.

She continued, "We cannot cut the skin without qi blade, let alone strike a mortal blow. In the past, we drove out trolls by shooting many arrows, more than you can count, into them. If they started moving in a direction to leave the forest, we would stop shooting, and if they turned back we would start again. We could not kill a troll, not without fire, not with arrows. The arrows hurt it and a troll would decide it was less of a problem being outside of the forest than in it. There are other qi blade guardians and many of those who fought a troll died. It is so tall, so difficult to escape its reach. There have been clans who have killed trolls, through bravery and loss. Most try to encourage trolls to leave without loss. I tell you this not lightly Benzhi. Never before have so few defeated a troll and never before without loss of a guardian."

He was impressed that Gisael spoke so many words, she must really want this. "Technically we did lose one," Benzhi informed her, "you could argue that I did die and was brought back. Although, I do not know much about these things." Waving the comment away, Benzhi wanted to stave off further questioning on the matter.

"I have a question for you," Benzhi enquired, "if qi blade does not come to you naturally, how can you learn it? Has that ever been done before?"

Gisael nodded and pointed at Benzhi.

He laughed, "Oh, but we know we are not the same, nothing comes to me naturally." After a pause, he continued. "Can you push qi out your palm?" He asked and then demonstrated.

She shook her head. Looking downcast. Benzhi sighed not knowing where to start, "When you do use qi, how do you use it?"

 "I..," Gisael began haltingly, "just do it. I think of what I want and it happens."

"I am no expert," Benzhi replied, "but I think two things. One, you are not like me, you cannot do what I do." She looked sunk, but Benzhi continued, "Two, if you want qi blade, just do it."

She stood looking at him earnestly yet helpless. Gisael was incredibly beautiful and looking like this it was enough to break his heart.

Benzhi continued, "You are Gisael. Elite forest guardian, with prodigious talent. The guardians can use qi blade, it is a natural skill of the fae. So I ask you. If any guardian ever can use qi blade," he punctuated by pointing his finger at her with each word he spoke, "it ...would.. be...you." He waited for her to think about his words for a minute. Benzhi had given her sugar, now, he thought, time for some spice.

"So stop acting useless and just do it." With that, he flushed his blade with qi and held it in front of her face.

She looked up at Benzhi, concerned, cornered, she stepped back and looked down.

Benzhi kicked her in the midriff driving her back, holding his qi blade in front of himself, "Come on fight me," he roared.

Gisael got angry, within a heart beat her sword was whistling through the air at him. Benzhi mustered all his speed and strength just to parry it. The two blades met with sparks. Benzhi rolled backwards and looked up, ready for another attack he called, "well it seems your blade is still intact." Benzhi smiled at her. Gisael morphed from furious to confused in a few moments, it was glorious for Benzhi to watch.

"Lesson over," he couldn't help acting all superior for a change, after all the lessons she had given him, it was payback time. He walked across to the willow where a few artisans were gathered with Mother. Gisael had achieved qi blade in one morning. All he had to do was kick her.

Gisael stared at her blade, to the departing Benzhi, and then back to her blade. She began to practice the forms with her qi blade smiling from ear to ear.

"So the student has become the teacher," Mother welcomed Benzhi.

"I don't know about that," he replied and after a pause, "I need to find Ruven, I'm starving."

One of the artisan's chuckled. She was tall, for a fae, and for from what Benzhi could tell one of the senior artisans. Mother introduced her, "Benzhi you have met Paphyra, but with so many new names you can be forgiven for forgetting a few."

"Oh I remember," Benzhi gave the artisan a small bow. "Bowyer?"

Paphyra gave a small bow also, chuckling, this was a new custom, from Benzhi, some of the people were adopting, it seemed like fun. "Yes," she replied, "do you know what a Bowyer crafts?"

"Bows and arrows?" Benzhi answered noncommittally.

"Ah, yes, amongst other things," she smiled and her eyes twinkled with beautiful green specs.

"Benzhi," she continued, "I was watching you spar with Gisael and it made me think to offer you something. I can craft for you, something you may like."

"Oh?" Benzhi was intrigued.

"What do you think about an ebony shield for your left arm, once you are healed?" Paphyra asked.

"Sounds like a great idea! I didn't know you could do that. What is it like?" Benzhi replied rapid fire.

"It's a small shield, not too big usually, I may make it larger for you," Paphyra showed Benzhi the diameter on his arm, it stretched from his wrist to his elbow.

Paphyra continued, "I will ask Elred to find us some ebony, it is the best wood for shields. Light and strong. It also has to have the right grain for a shield so it may take some time."

Benzhi waved that comment away, "I would appreciate anything, take whatever time you need, thank you." He began to imagine if he could strengthen a shield with qi. Shields could be weapons too.

"Benzhi!" Gisael called loudly from across the glade. When he looked, she waved at him to come over.

"It looks like you have been summoned," Paphyra laughed lightly and Mother joined in.

So much for food, Benzhi thought and strode across to Gisael.

"I can do it!" Gisael informed Benzhi as if relating news.

"Yeah, I know, I was here," he answered bemusedly.

"Let's spar, this time with qi blades," Gisael requested. She had never shown as much deference as today and especially now. Maybe she was finally thawing, Benzhi pondered.

"Ok, you asked for it," Benzhi replied, he needed to practice shunpo as well.

They began to spar in earnest, with the restrictions off, Benzhi would make use of shunpo which more than made up for Gisael's many years of physical training.

 Gisael was fast, agile, acrobatic and strong. Qi use came naturally to her, she used qi blade without having to focus, he had merely assisted her in removing the block. Now the block was removed she could qi blade on command. Gisael had trained for many years, Benzhi was unsure of the exact number, but it was more than a handful, it could even be more than ten. However, she had not trained with the sword in earnest, not being a qi blade user.

 Benzhi, on the other hand, was taller, stronger, had shunpo and better reach. He was fast and agile as well, but without the many years of training that Gisael had was inferior in this respect. Benzhi was able to push qi out his palm, if needed, as well. It was a tight match, never before had Benzhi competed with Gisael on the same level.

 They had to be careful when sparring with qi blade, it wasn't wise, but they made an exception this one time. Benzhi could heal small cuts if needed but he needed to pull any blow that would come in contact with her. On one occasion he dropped the qi blade and just hit her with his wooden sword to make a point.

 The two sparred well past noon when hunger finally overcame Benzhi, they also had to meet the other guardians, something which was now overdue.

 After a light snack, Benzhi had felt hungry yet a handful of forest food had satisfied him, they made their way to the troll grove. Benzhi could almost keep up with Gisael on the ground but in the trees, he still needed a lot more practice to come close to her skill. Tree-running wasn't just about agility, stamina and speed. It was a skill all on its own. The more practised you were at picking paths and the knowledge of the forest was of the utmost importance. Benzhi decided to switch to a combination of tree-running and ground running. He would use qi to increase his leap on occasion as well. Since he was purely melee, with no bow, there was no point to him being solely in the trees.

 They made good time to the troll grove where the other Guardians were waiting for them.

"So. Who won?" Ailen asked.

Benzhi shrugged. "I guess Gisael did since she can now use qi blade."

The others gasped and then congratulated her.

"Time for a celebration," Gisael announced. They looked on expectantly.

"We run to the southern tree-line add a handful of rations to this pouch in the giant red and then run back to the glade. The last one has the first duty as the Eastern scout for a week." From the groans, Benzhi guessed this was a bad thing. The elders were quite concerned with another troll incursion. The Guardians were going to leave a scout out there permanently until things calmed down.

 Benzhi practised his new style of tree-running combined with some ground running. It confused the guardians, they usually did one or the other and of that predominately tree-running. Benzhi recalled the fight with the troll where he ran up the tree to gain height and launched back towards it. He needed to practice that, tree-running had more uses than just travel, scouting and sniping.

 Benzhi arrived back to the glade on the heels of Gisael, he had used shunpo intermittently to try and stay in touch with her. Sakaala was last, but it was Vulen who gained the duty, it was not appropriate for the apprentice.

"So. Who won?" Ailen asked.

"You are getting repetitive Ailen. Just always assume Gisael won and if anything else happens I will let you know." Benzhi informed him.

 After a small meal, Benzhi meditated for half the night and slept the other half. He was still evolving. Each week there were small changes. He was now eating and sleeping, albeit, not a great deal. His body was also evolving in other ways. Since he was eating he would need to be able to pee in the future and his body was adapting in this regard also.

 The guardians scouted, trained, sparred for a few weeks without incident. The builder even built small outposts, and they stocked them with rations, on the Eastern and Northern edges of the forest. The tree-lines closest to the mountains.

 Benzhi made progress with qi healing and shunpo. He had to be careful with qi healing as it consumed so much qi, he could not afford to train it as he did other techniques with a no holes barred approach.

 Four weeks after the troll intrusion, news came from the Eastern border, there had been another invasion.

Chapter end