Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 29: Vaugend Trial 11

The mountain air was crisp, cold and biting. Especially if you were not used to it. The sun splintered brightly through the mountain peaks and its reflection glared off the pure white snow. Those not accustomed to the conditions suffered. 

As Benzhi, Gisael and Reyas swooped down on the rearguard all of this mattered little, there were three hundred of the Duke's troops left and three of them. Of these three hundred troops were the elite guards, what passed for nobles and peers from Vaugend and the Duke's own elite troops, all well equipped, plus five Blackcloaks of unknown ability with their abominable pets. 

 Before these abominations started to wreak havoc amongst his people Benzhi was determined to cause his own chaos amongst the enemy. If there was one thing Benzhi was a master at, it was chaos. He shunpo'd then skipped across a snow-bridge using tree-run, Benzhi was even leaving the talented Gisael in his wake. The three hundred remaining enemies were spread, from front to rear, by a few hundred paces. With the Duke and his entourage at the rear, the abominations and their masters at the front followed by the elite troops. 

 By now, Benzhi was hoping the Guardians had spotted his attacked and relayed the information on to the Gaels, he could only trust in them, it was also likely they were focused on the Blackcloaks and abominations and not noticed anything. 'Oh well,' he thought, 'they would notice something soon' he was only a hundred paces from the rear.

  Benzhi was moving quickly, now in the base of the crevasse, there was a smattering of grass and nothing was stopping him from using shunpo, he was able to increase his speed even more by adopting qi patterns in his legs, using the Gael qi body technique. It was difficult to concentrate on two techniques at once, fortunately, Benzhi was at the level where he could use shunpo and tree-run without thinking. He lined up the Duke with a plan in mind, the last few paces he could see the Duke with normal sight judging by his armour and embroidered flowing blue cloak. The armour was all leather, embossed cuir bouilli, similar to the Adept Soldier, patterned with qi. It was no surprise the Duke wore this rather than a plain metal cuirass. The qi patterns embedded into the armour made it far more protective than mere metal, and he was better covered than the Adept Soldier. The armour encased him head to toe, only his eyes, nose and mouth were uncovered. He also wielded a sword and leather shield. The leather shield was also patterned with qi. It took mere moments for Benzhi to assess all this with qi sight. Just as well, that was all he had as he closed at astonishing speed.

 It was only moments before contact when the first alarm sounded, Benzhi had run over five hundred meters down the mountainside with Gisael and Reyas in his wake, yet the enemy noticed nothing. This five hundred meters was traversed in less than a half a minute. With the full momentum of the charge, Benzhi collided with the Duke, side leaping one aristocrat, Benzhi brought his shield up in front of himself and pushed half its stored qi out as a strike which connected as he collided with the Duke. Having an inkling how much protection that armour would afford, Benzhi gambled on a shield charge, with his new Ebony Shield and consumed half of the stored qi with a massive qi strike. 

 The Duke flew.

 There were three hundred paces, from the rearguard to the front, and the Duke flew half the distance then rolled the other half losing his sword and shield as his tumbled end over end. Benzhi stopped watching the spectacle and hoped that the superb armour did not save him from being hit by the proverbial bus.

It was Chaos time.

 When the enemy regrouped the Vanguard would be in real trouble, it was best to keep them on the back foot for as long as possible. He began to weave and spin, striking with his qi blade on one side and bashing with his shield on the other. A shield was supposed to be for defence, most warriors would block with their shield then swing their sword. This is what opponents expected. Benzhi revelled in spinning attacks and before where he would qi punch, now he would qi shield bash instead. The shield did a lot more damage than his punch, and when a soldier possessed good armour, it did more damage than his sword as well. Benzhi would stab and jab with his sword, slicing against high-quality armour was not taking down enemies quick enough and he could not afford to duel with someone for six blows when there were three hundred enemies in front of him.

 By the time Benzhi had flung the Duke and hacked down three others, who happened to be unlucky enough to be standing near the Duke at the time, Gisael arrived on the scene. She had sparred with Benzhi so often she could almost predict his movements, to a degree, when engaged in combat against real enemies Benzhi was much more ferocious than during a spar. During a spar, he may practise a move, or a qi technique, during a battle he was focused on killing his enemy as efficiently as possible. Gisael had no shield, not as much practice with the blade as her bow, she followed in Benzhi's wake downing opponents that focused on him, showing her their throats, backs or stunned and left behind by Benzhi. Gisael was on cleanup duty.

 Reyas arrived after another few moments, her qi body techniques allowed her to run across flat ground almost as fast as Benzhi. Where Benzhi was a novice with qi body, Reyas was a master. Where Gisael followed in Benzhi's wake finishing off opponents or taking attacks of opportunity, Reyas forged her own wake of death. Her picks were not qi blades, but they had her qi body technique enhancing speed and strength behind them. Against even the best armour they were deadly. A sharp meter long pick with the strength of qi body behind it penetrated any armour Reyas desired. The only drawback was pulling the pick out of a corpse. Her preferred method was her foot planted on the side of their face while pulling the pick free. Then smashing her other pick into the face of an attacker trying to find an opening as she extracted her first pick from a skull.

  The three cut a swathe through the enemy. With the Duke lying motionless on the ground, his immediate coterie under attack the army fell into disarray. The front turned at the commotion, looked on in confusion for a minute as the attack continued.

 The Blackcloaks looked on in interest. The barbarians did not attack their rear in force it was only a couple, no wait three attackers. Yet the small army was falling apart in terms response, there was none. The Blackcloaks, with their pets on a qi leash then noticed the capability of the attackers. They were all talents and there were three of them. Forgetting their orders from the morning, the group of five Blackcloakss turned and walked towards the three barbarian talents. There was supposed to be only one. At the time the five of them was overkill for one talent, now, with three, it was merely simple. They were brought here for this very threat, they would no longer have to tread through this loathsome mountain range.

 The five Blackcloakss slowly made their way to the barbarian talents with their pets snapping in anticipation.

 Talila watched as the morning's events unfolded, at first, she noticed the abominations being brought to the front and begin to scale the mountain towards their location perched atop a high ledge, this was a dramatic change in tactics from the enemy and unsurprisingly Benzhi had acted as soon as this was apparent. The Vanguard were charging the enemies rear and in moments would be fighting the entire force of three hundred of the cream of the enemies force, alone. Talila sped to the Clan Chief's position.

 "We must attack now," Talila spoke as soon as she arrived. "The Vanguard are engaging."

 "Shite," Ulfgrim swore and stood from his position crouching behind a crag. Looking at the other Clan Chiefs he said, "we charge."

 With little hesitation, the two other Clan Chiefs nodded clasped hands and ordered their warriors to charge down the mountain slope.

  Ninety blood thirsty Gaels charged down the slope towards the enemies front, which was now the enemies rear. The four Guardians ran to flanking position and into range so they could begin firing immediately.

 Benzhi had cut down red cloaks, blue cloaks, yellow cloaks, a grey cloak or was it just a dirty white cloak, he wasn't sure. He was tiring and couldn't be bothered counting how many he cut down, between him, Gisael and Reyas they had cut a path through the enemy who now began to part on their own accord. He took this brief opportunity to take a breath and look behind. Gisael was splattered in blood, but still managing to look as beautiful as ever. Reyas was covered in blood and looked damn scary with her raven hair and alabaster skin. Where Gisael was behind him, Reyas was off to the left cutting her own swathe. The wake of bodies were strewn for over a hundred paces, out of the three hundred soldiers they must have cut down or incapacitated close to fifty. Benzhi may have had an injury, it was nothing he noticed. There was no pain and no point in looking for bleeding, there was too much blood that wasn't his own.

 There was a reason that the men of Vaugend had parted and it wasn't through fear of the Vanguard. It was to allow the Blackcloaks and their abominations to approach the three. Benzhi took the opportunity to close his eyes and take a deep a few breaths. Relaxing for a moment. The real battle was about to begin. Gisael walked to his right and Reyas stood to his left. 

 "Stand in a triangle," Benzhi ordered, "I don't want you two flanked by those things," Gisael and Reyas just looked at him. Benzhi sighed, "take two steps back and we make a three pointed shape, almost like a tent. This will make it more difficult for them to flank us. We protect each other's flanks."

 For all the sparring they had done, they never actually fought in formation, until now they hadn't needed to and who the hell would spar the three of them anyway? Benzhi pondered. The ladies nodded, getting the drift of what Benzhi was asking. 

 The three stood, five long paces between each, if the beasts flanked Benzhi with three immediately hopefully Reyas and Gisael would be able to flank those in turn. The formation would break if anyone was forced to leap or move large distances, but this would suffice for the initial onslaught. Benzhi stood with his sword and shield hanging loosely at his side. The enemy could have taken this opportunity to fire a few crossbow bolts at the Vanguard, but the enemy's regular troops were waiting themselves, with baited breath. They probably had not seen the Blackcloaks in action either. Either that or they thought this was a foregone conclusion at this juncture.

  The Blackcloaks loosed their beasts, the regular troops kept backing away, not wanting to become an impromptu snack, the abominations charged.

 It was at this moment that the Gaels arrived smashing into the lines of the Duke's troops, qi arrows were beginning to occupy the Blackcloaks attention as well as a few brave Gaels. Benzhi did not have time to examine the combat further, his full attention was on ten pincers and five beaks.

  The abomination drooled as it charged Benzhi, it was not a martial arts master, it knew no combat moves. It merely threshed pincers with incredible speed and reach. It was all Benzhi could do to shield the first wave of attacks, the large pincers were fast and unpredictable, thirsting for his flesh. He parried the first stab barely knocking it aside and blocked the second with his shield. Before he brought his sword back into position the first pincer was aiming for his head again. The pincer was longer than Benzhi was tall, over six feet, its reach was double his outstretched sword. Qi blade did not breach the thick skeleton, Benzhi wasn't even sure if it was scratched. This was only the first abomination, as soon as another began to attack he was a goner. Benzhi had to go on the offensive and nullify them somehow.

 The were fighting on snow, on a slight slope downhill, Benzhi hoped Gisael and Reyas would be ok as he enacted his offensive. Layering his back with shunpo, the small qi bubbles which allowed him to skate across surfaces and bounce or push when needed Benzhi kicked his feet forward and slid underneath the Abbie. Sledding at speed Benzhi sliced its left rear leg, which had different sort of shell than its pincers. He added strength to the blow using qi body for an instant. The leg was partially severed as he passed through. Now he was behind the wounded Abbie, with three others charging him. Benzhi kept sliding, picking up a small amount of speed due to the iciness, shunpo and the fact the slope was downward. He slashed two more legs, severing one and wounding another. All four abominations turned and chased Benzhi, at differing speeds, only one was uninjured. 

  Benzhi's used tree-run to regain his feet and in an instant after halting he charged back up the hill towards the Abbies. Bringing his shield around in front of his body he charged directly for the front runner, the uninjured Abbie. Shunpo and qi body for extra speed, Benzhi leapt as they closed holding his shield out front and hoping for the best a pincer did not nail him before the shield smashed into the Abbie. Its pincer was still in the air swinging in a downwards motion as Benzhi hit it full in the chest with the shield. He did not use qi strike, qi seemed to have little effect on these beasts. However, momentum did.

 Benzhi began launching himself at Abbie after Abbie, shield charging using qi body and shunpo. Reyas had cut down an Abbie and was heading to Benzhi to assist. Where Gisael was virtually impotent against the Abbies, Reyas ripped through them. Reyas did not use qi blade, she used speed and strength. Her picks cracked open the shell like armour it was a crab in a seafood restaurant.

 Benzhi charged again, the Abbies were not intelligent, they did not adjust tactics if they were losing. Circling around the Abbie Benzhi charged when it had its back to Reyas, either she would get a free hit, or could kill it when stunned after Benzhi's charge. Benzhi catapulted into the Abbie as its pincer came down and slashed his back. This one was just a little quicker, he thought through the pain. There was a gouge from just underneath his shoulder to his lower back. In some places, it was a few centimetres deep. Benzhi did his best to ignore the pain while Reyas dispatched the stunned Abbie. She had taken down three now. There were two left. Benzhi attacked the next in tandem with Reyas, while Gisael dodged and weaved keeping the fifth occupied, it had a wounded leg from one of Benzhi's earlier attacks.

 Benzhi, Reyas and Gisael made short work of the last two Abbies, after working out strategies and weaknesses the lower number of Abbies wasn't difficult to overcome.

 Benzhi used the short break to qi heal the incision in his back there were a couple of other wounds that needed attending but they weren't life threatening like the bleeding gash to his back. A minute later his wound had closed and he had consumed much of his qi in the process. 

 "Black Cloaks," Benzhi suggested. Reyas and Gisael nodded. They marched down the hill where the Blackcloaks were fighting with the Gaels. Only the attention from the Guardians had stopped more Gaels from dying. As it was there were five lying at the feet of the Blackcloaks.

 "No Mercy," Benzhi roared, wanting the attention of the Blackcloaks to stop further loss on the Gaels.

 Benzhi's mastery of Chaos stemmed from his habit of charging an enemy and giving them no time to think. The three charged into the centre of the Blackcloaks, Benzhi guessed 'the leader would be at the centre, wouldn't he?'

 Benzhi ran at the centre Blackcloak, who turned to face the incoming Vanguard. An arrow shot directly at his back, flying true and at the last second he side stepped. Benzhi gaped, he must have eyes in the back of his head. The Blackcloak wielded a long sword, it looked like a katana, Benzhi thought, he wore leather armour, embossed with qi runes, and of course wore a black cloak. He wore no helmet and had climbing boots on his feet, similar to the soldiers. The evil bastard smiled confidently as he faced Benzhi. 

 Benzhi did not hesitate, he shunpo'd into close range and stopped just out of reach using tree-run. His opponent arced his sword through the space Benzhi was about to occupy. As the sword passed Benzhi positioned his shield to handle its return moved into close range of the Blackcloak. The man looked confused as Benzhi closed, too near for a sword fight, the Blackcloak had twisted to a side on stance, preparing to dodge or defend against Benzhi stabbing him. Benzhi had successfully got close enough to be standing chest to chest with the Blackcloak, confounding the man's expectation of fighting forms and possible tactics Benzhi could employ.  The Blackcloak focused on Benzhi's sword expecting some sort of attack. Benzhi proceeded to headbutt his opponent. 

 Powering the blow with qi strike had the desired effect. 'The Blackcloak was a martial arts master. His form was impeccable. His movements were elegant. He was not used to someone brawling, and judging by how easily he fell for a headbutt lacked actual combat experience.' Benzhi speculated these thoughts in the moments before moving to his next opponent.

 Gisael was causing her opponent distress, and so she should, Benzhi thought, she often caused him much more distress. Benzhi shunpo'd past Gisael's opponent, forcing them to defend against his sword, Benzhi put as much force behind the swing as possible, coupled with the momentum of shunpo and the fact he had no intention of stopping, Benzhi stretched his concentration to the limits by adding a small amount of qi body strength to his torso for the swing. Their swords clashed, the Blackcloak successfully parried Benzhi's blow, qi sparks flew in a showering display, the impact was colossal. It had the desired effect, Benzhi merely wished to cause Gisael's opponent a loss of focus, control and balance. She would be sure to end him in a moment. Benzhi did not even look back as he shield charged the next Blackcloak who had just finished a Gael. 

 The fifth Blackcloak turned to face Benzhi just in time, sensing he was coming, he skillfully sidestepped the shield charge despite its speed. Benzhi skidded to a stop. There were three Blackloaks remaining. Benzhi had dispatched one and Gisael had just finished hers off. 

 "I think your side is losing," Benzhi told the Blackcloak maintaining a short distance between them, but withholding an attack for now.

 "I've faced worse," the Blackcloak replied.

 Benzhi laughed at him, "You're a crap liar, I can tell you are shit scared." Benzhi had no idea if it was true or not, he was sledging the Blackcloak until Gisael closed from behind.

 Benzhi bent at the knees, he was ten meters from the Blackcloak. With one quick step he launched into the air, gaining as much height as his qi body and shunpo allowed when combined. He brought his sword from an overhead position combining with the momentum of dropping down from height with all the force he could muster, in an attempt to crush his opponent with the sheer power of the blow. The Blackcloak did not attempt to parry, sidestepping at the last second and stabbing Benzhi under the ribs before he could block with his shield. Benzhi grabbed the Blackcloaks sword before he could withdraw, trapping it inside his own torso, spitting blood out of his mouth at his opponent and grinning at him, as Gisael removed his head from his neck.

 "Finish them off with Reyas," Benzhi pleaded as Gisael moved to his side. "I will take care of this." He removed the blade, sat down and closed his eyes. 

Chapter end