Avuri

As I created another ice wall to defend against the demon's attacks, my mind raced through options on how to approach this fight. I assumed that my new opponent was Danil, the second most powerful person in their sect. There were only two people that had been fighting against the antlions with demonic abilities, and it made the most sense to me that they were the two strongest.

However, my opponent was either not as well trained as Wenzu was, or simply did not focus on controlling his Domain. Unlike the feeling of a wall that Wenzu's Domain produced, Danil's was almost easy to push against, barely offering any resistance at all until I had surrounded his body with my Domain.

Unfortunately, even with all the pushing I did on the Domain front while defending against Danil's attacks, it didn't seem to have much effect. The man even just laughed, boasting about how he didn't need his Domain when his long range techniques were so dangerous.

I didn't pay much attention to what he said. While his spears probably were dangerous, they weren't actually getting through my defenses. But the lack of his focus on his Domain was likely how I would win this. Probably.

Not every technique required movement of the body to use. Some were certainly improved by adding motion to it, but there were plenty of techniques that a Cultivator could use to their fullest without requiring any bodily movement. Those types were one of the most difficult ones for me to face.

Danil, however, looked like his spears required input to be useful, with the way he pulled back for a punch every time he launched one. I suspected that he might be able to create the spear without bodily input, but launching them at a good speed probably required him to 'throw' it.

And that stipulation made fighting me a poor choice for him without the addition of a strong Domain or enough power to simply overwhelm me.

He, apparently, had neither.

While he was chipping away at my defensive wall of ice with his spears, I felt suddenly aware of how little danger Emery and I seemed to be in. I glanced back at my wife, who was overpowering her own opponent, just waiting for the opening for a killing blow. It was a credit to Wenzu that she hadn't found one yet.

"Just realized it, did you?" Emery sent, a bit of laughter filling the link.

"I guess so." I replied. "When did you notice?"

"When he ended up on the defensive after two attacks. They're paper tigers."

Emery felt disappointed, but I suspected it wasn't at the surprisingly weak opponents. She was very likely disappointed in herself for allowing Wenzu to kill one of the children before we engaged in combat.

With my resolve firm, I turned back to focus on my own opponent. Danil seemed to be content throwing his spears at my ice, shouting about how he was chipping away at my defenses with his great power.

Paper tigers was right.

Both Wenzu and Danil had used their technique to gain raw strength and an abundance of Qi in a short time, but did nothing to consolidate that new power, relying solely on simple techniques that outclassed those around them. They were like shiny, expensive weapons that were blunted, untreated, and untempered - they'd stand out in a store but were functionally useless.

I concentrated for just a moment on the edges where my Domain encircled his. With a small bit of effort, I was able to even out the pressure, allowing his Domain to create a fairly even dome around him.

And then I created a solid dome of ice around him, completely cutting him off. I pushed extra Qi through my Domain to make the ice harder and solidify faster, making the thick dome's appearance abrupt and startling. Danil had enough room to launch his spear, but his next one crashed into the reinforced ice and clattered to the ground just in front of him - it wasn't strong enough to break through the dome.

I inwardly smiled as I felt his shock destroy his concentration. He hadn't been prepared to suddenly be surrounded in ice, let alone have his spear stopped dead leaving only a scratch behind.

My Domain felt his shudder and clamped down hard, leaving his Domain crushed against his body, offering just the barest protection. It didn't matter, though. With another flex of Qi, I filled the entire dome of ice - which was now almost all within my Domain - with more of the same. The ice encased Danil perfectly, leaving him less than a few centimeters around his entire body to move, with solid ice even in the gaps between his arms, legs, and body.

I could hear his scream at being completely trapped. I may have won the fight, but I could feel myself break out in a cold sweat, my stomach clenching, and my heart pounding. I fought hard against the panic attack I felt coming on.

It was one of the primary reasons, aside from difficulty, I typically didn't trap people in ice so completely. Aside from the cruelty of it, it triggered my fear of being unable to move quite badly. In an active fight, that sudden spike of anxiety could be deadly - so unless I was sure of it ending the fight entirely, it was a skill I often avoided.

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I did what I could to push the panic down. I also actively told Emery repeatedly over our connection that I was alright. The last thing I wanted to do was make her worried by feeling a sudden spike of severe anxiety and fear when I was not in any immediate danger.

The feelings I received in return were mostly comforting ones, occasionally broken up with more immediate feelings of combat. And an undercurrent of anger.

I turned away from the large dome of ice that encased Danil to try to assist Emery. Not that she would need it. But as I turned toward her I felt more of the panic come on, my vision narrowing a little. I crouched to steady myself, letting my Qi and Domain flow out freely, hoping the extension of it would help me through the panic. I wasn't the one trapped - I just needed to get my body on board with that.

Despite my physical form being uncooperative, I was able to keep an eye on Emery's fight. She still had Wenzu on the defensive, the large demon-man trying to fend off her unnaturally fast flurry of strikes while growing increasingly angry.

I wasn't sure if he had any idea that his support had been taken out of the fight already - after all, Danil's Qi was still there. I hadn't killed him. He simply couldn't do anything useful.

I pushed thoughts of Danil aside again, focusing on the beauty of Emery's martial dance. Her movements were clean, crisp, and generally just beautiful. The moniker of "Steel Dancer" that she hated so much from her days in a sect was truly well earned. Despite trying to forcefully break through Wenzu's defenses and searching for an opening, Emery never looked less graceful than a trained dancer. Her movements held no sign of hesitation or second guesses.

I had no idea how she fought like that. Even her feints and parries looked like they had been planned ahead as part of her dance. She never visually had to readjust for a strike or block, simply flowing from one movement to the next.

I didn't think I was watching her for very long when she finally found the opening she was looking for. Wenzu had battered away one of her strikes, and in his anger overextended to make a counterattack. His massive claw was streaming demonic red behind him as he brought it forward to cleave Emery, but he had wound up the haymaker too far back.

Emery transitioned from her parried strike into a tightly controlled upward cut. Her blade bled from the pure white of the demonic Qi purification infusion to the blood-like scarlet of the infusion that she had said destroyed demonic Qi.

Emery's blade, which had been much faster than Wenzu's claw, entered the demon-man's body just above his waist and cut deeply through his massive torso, leaving a huge diagonal slash from the right side of his waist to his left shoulder.

The skin around the cut also looked almost like it was on fire, the demonic red Qi boiling and burning away to reveal charred human skin. Wenzu screamed out in pain as Emery followed with a quick cut to his right flank, which similarly bit in deep and burned away a chunk of the demonic Qi feeding his reinforcement technique.

The pain caused Wenzu to crumple to the ground while screaming, where Emery made one final cut that ended the agony-filled shouts.

An instant later, Emery no longer had a weapon in her hand and was beside me, helping me stand. Despite the gruesome end to her battle, her weapon infusion that ended the fight had stopped any blood splatter, leaving her still perfectly clean. Wenzu had never even landed a blow on her. Or at least not one that drew blood.

"Thank you." I said weakly.

Emery glanced at the dome of ice that still had Danil trapped. "We shouldn't leave him like that."

I closed my eyes. "Right." I tried not to think about his situation while my Domain reconnected to the technique. With Emery's support, I was able to hold the panic back well enough to finish the second half of the technique that I rarely ever used. Arctic Tomb.

As my Qi spiked with the technique, Emery picked me up and leapt away toward the exit we had sent the mortals into. I tried to ignore my senses as they relayed how Danil was run through with spikes of incredibly dense ice from a myriad of angles.

"Ri, I need you to melt -"

"I've got it. You can put me down." I said, as we landed near the large ice chunk I used to block the exit. I channeled my Domain toward it, pulling away from the rest of the massive chamber. The fight near the entrance was basically over, anyway. The demonic sect was moments away from being entirely overrun without their two leaders. There were a couple pockets of fighters remaining, but the antlions' victory was all but assured.

Emery set me on my feet as the block of ice melted rapidly at my behest. I still felt a little panic, but it was mostly in the form of minor physical tells - shortness of breath and a slight tremble, mostly. It was also, ironically, one of the few situations in which I could feel chills. But mentally, I understood that I was fine. I would not make Emery carry me out of here. And the way I physically folded after using my own technique made me more annoyed than anything else.

Once the ice that blocked our way was gone, we both slipped into the darkness - which was swiftly rectified with Emery producing a small glowing knife that functioned like a torch. While the two of us wouldn't need the light now that we could use our Qi again, the mortals we would be traveling with wouldn't be able to see in the dark.

"I'm going to reblock the hole." I said, turning back to the entry into the camp.

"It's not worth it." Emery said. "The demonic sect will be wiped out by the antlions, and if the damn bugs want to follow us, the ice won't stop them."

I made a face, looking back toward the camp. There were still tents visually blocking us from the view of the losing battle by the other entrance, and without using Qi I couldn't tell what was happening. The sounds were not pleasant, though.

"Right…"

"Let's get going. Our new charges are just a little into the tunnel." Emery said.

"I'm right behind you." I muttered, still unsure about leaving the cave to antlions. There was little doubt they would kill all of the humans down there, and perhaps even eat the evidence. It stood to reason that the camp itself would be similarly destroyed. "Should we burn it down? Hopefully destroy whatever writings there are about their technique?"

"I'd be in favor, but we don't know the way out from here. We'd be putting ourselves in danger with a big fire and smoke in the tunnels."

I took one last look at the camp before turning to follow Emery out. I couldn't help but imagine that situations like this are what led to people unearthing ancient technique scrolls after they were hidden for decades.

Maybe one of the antlions would find and eat the paper or scroll it was on. That would be nice.

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