The forest did not feel the sa after the split. Sai moved first, slow and deliberate, each step placed where leaves were damp enough not to crack. Behind him, the others were already in position. Ronan crouched behind a fallen trunk slick with moss. Sarah and Eissa stayed low in a patch of brush where thin branches broke their outline. Taylen waited farther left, half-hidden behind a crooked tree, fists flexing and unflexing to keep blood flowing.
No one spoke. They could feel the approaching qi before they heard movent. Four cultivators. One spirit root level 5 above. The other three Spirit root level 5 but controlled.
Sai exhaled through his nose. The bait had worked. He let his own qi leak just enough to be noticed, then shifted backwards, pretending to retreat. A snapped twig was carried in the air. The assassins adjusted course. They were careful. Too careful to be amateurs.
The first assassin appeared between two trunks, blade low, eyes scanning. He did not see Ronan until it was too late.
Ronan thrust. The spear shot forward, not for a killing blow but to force a reaction. The assassin twisted aside, fast, but that was the signal. Eissa moved.
A stone flicked from her fingers, wrapped in a thin layer of qi. It struck the assassin's wrist. His grip loosened for half a breath. Sarah blurred in, her blade flashing. A shallow cut opened along his ribs. Not deep enough. He kicked backwards and whistled once. The others surged forward. The battle exploded into motion.
Taylen lunged from hiding with Stone-Breaking Fist. His punch t an assassin's guard and still forced the man back two steps. But the recoil travelled up Taylen's arm and into his shoulder. He hissed. Too much force, too soon.
Sai intercepted the counterstrike aid at Taylen's throat. Sword t Sword. The vibration numbed his fingers. They were too close now for a clean ambush. It beca a scramble.
Leaves churned underfoot. Short breaths. Sharp movents. One assassin slipped past Ronan and aid for Eissa. She reacted late, barely raising her dagger. The blade cut her forearm instead of her neck. Blood welled imdiately.
Ronan ramd his shoulder into the attacker, driving him into a tree. Bark cracked. The assassin recovered quickly and slashed Ronan across the thigh before retreating.
Pain sharpened the air. No one had fallen. That was the problem. The Level 7 assassin still had not moved. He watched from behind, asuring. Sai realised it at once. He is waiting for weakness.
They had to reduce numbers fast. He shifted tactics. A low signal tap against his blade. Ronan understood. They focused on one.
Sarah darted in and feinted high. The assassin raised his guard. Taylen struck low this ti, driving his fist into the man's knee. Sothing cracked. The assassin dropped.
Eissa, bleeding but steady, finished it with a quick thrust to the throat. Her hand trembled after. No ti to breathe. Another assassin pressed in, furious now. He forced Sarah back with a flurry of strikes. One sliced across her side. Shallow but burning.
Sai stepped between them, redirecting the blade. Ronan's spear followed, piercing the man's shoulder. Not fatal. The assassin twisted free, desperate.
He tried to run. Taylen chased on instinct. Bad choice. The fleeing assassin spun mid-step and cut Taylen across the chest. Cloth tore. Skin opened. Taylen staggered but still grabbed the man's arm.
Sai closed the gap and drove his sword through the assassin's back. Two down. The third Level 5 hesitated. That was his mistake. Ronan and Sarah cornered him. He fought like a trapped animal, wild and quick.
Sarah took a slice across her calf before Ronan's spear finally punched through the man's abdon. He collapsed without a sound. Silence fell for a heartbeat. Then the Level 7 moved.
His qi spread like a weight in the air. Controlled. Dense. He stepped forward calmly, as if entering a training yard rather than a battlefield. They felt the difference imdiately.
He attacked Ronan first. A blur. Ronan barely raised his spear in ti. The strike still knocked him off balance and split the shaft near the tip. Sai joined, blades clashing. The force travelled into his elbows. Stronger than expected.
The assassin targeted Sarah next, sensing fatigue. She dodged once, twice. The third strike clipped her shoulder and spun her to the ground. Eissa threw another qi-wrapped stone. He deflected it without looking.
Taylen charged, anger overriding pain. His fist connected with the assassin's ribs. A solid hit. But the counter ca instantly. A backhand strike sent Taylen crashing into the brush.
Air left his lungs. They were losing the exchange. Sai forced calm. He watched the rhythm. The man favoured his left after Ronan's earlier thrust. Small weakness.
He signalled with footwork. Ronan shifted right. Sarah forced herself up despite the blood on her sleeve. Eissa circled wider, ignoring her wound. They moved together.
Not perfectly. Not cleanly. But together. Ronan attacked high. Sarah slashed low. Sai pressed the centre. The assassin blocked two and dodged the third, but that was enough.
Eissa's dagger slid into the gap under his arm. He reacted fast, elbowing her away, but the opening existed now. Taylen, coughing but upright, poured the last of his qi into one punch and drove it into the assassin's wounded side.
A crack. A real one. Sai finished it. His blade slid between the ribs and into the heart. The Level 7 assassin froze, then sagged. No one spoke for several breaths.
They stood there bleeding, panting, shaking from exhaustion. Three dead at their feet. Then four. Victory did not feel like victory. Ronan tore cloth to bind Sarah's shoulder. Eissa wrapped her own arm with tight movents. Taylen leaned against a tree, pale but conscious.
Sai scanned the forest. Too quiet again. This was only half. Far away, Robert stopped mid-step. A ripple in the qi brushed his senses. Faint. Violent. Then fading.
A fight. Close enough to matter. His jaw tightened. He could not tell who had won. Only that blood had been spilt. The forest pressed in around him. Sowhere ahead, four more assassins waited. And now they would be alert.
Robert adjusted his grip on his weapon and moved again, slower than before. Day Two was not ending quietly. And the forest still had not shown its full hand.
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