The Tale Never Ends

Adorned in a jet-colored down jacket that came with a hood that fully concealed the person’s appearance, I could only guess that this stranger was a woman, although I still knew nothing about her intentions for coming close.

Our party of five separated in the middle to allow her to pass, thinking that she might be headed somewhere else and we were only in her way. But instead of walking past through the gap we had opened up for her, she followed me and stopped right in front of me, standing as still as a tree.

There was no way I could know what she wanted. But any other people would have been frightened by now by this woman’s brusque behavior. Ordinary people would already be dreading if a ghost or a demon was hidden under the hood, but I was sure I would deliver a hard blow with my fists.

The hood retracted to reveal a face. Not pale as Death like a ghost would have worn, but a black-colored face mask that completely cloaked the woman’s face, leaving only her gleaming eyes tunneling into mine. “Urm, hello?” I uttered, but the stranger said nothing, keeping her stare transfixed upon me.

I frowned. “How can I help you?” I asked again, but the woman only maintained her stare, not even deigning to show any indication that she had heard me.

I grew annoyed; as would anyone if a masked stranger was barring your way yet ignoring you. “What is she? Is she insane?” Beside me, my companions were similarly puzzled. But no one said a word. They looked at me and I shook my head, gesturing that we should walk away. I sidestepped past the woman and began to leave then I stopped short; a hint of malice and fury surged from the woman. It did not come with the force of a tide, yet it came as sharp as the little dagger she brandished, quick and deadly.

I instinctively ducked and grabbed at her hand. Only then I realized that it was not a dagger; her hand had looked like a dagger in the dimly-lit lobby! The hand was only a few inches from my abdomen when I stopped her. But a small, lithe woman like her had the strength of an ox! I could no longer hold back her strength!

The hand stabbed into my abdomen with the efficacy of a sharp knife, much to the horrors of my companions. Not even Big Sister managed to react swiftly enough! Everyone was utterly flabbergasted! Lin Feng and Chongxi were the first two to spring into action. Our extensive experiences of street-brawling together had made us no stranger to sudden incidents. Acting as one, they surprised the woman before she could deliver another blow to me, sending a pair of kicks into her!

But before they could hit her, the woman, seeing both kicks coming at her from both sides, immediately ducked backward! A jet of blood sprayed from my open wound with so much pain I nearly fainted. Big Sister finally regained her senses. With a wave of her hand, she conjured everyone’s gear! “Goddamned woman!” Lin Feng snarled. He lunged forward, bringing his iron whip down on the woman’s head mercilessly with a crack that sounded like thunder.

Her head would have been smashed into an unrecognizable pulp of skin, flesh, and blood if Lin Feng’s stroke had struck true. But the woman had the agility of a cat. With a twist of her body, she easily evaded Lin Feng’s serpent-like whip. Unyielding, a glint of steel shot from Lin Feng’s other hand followed by a sharp whistle. Lin Feng had thrown his flying dart! The projectile screamed through the air like a shooting star in the dark, charging straight at the woman’s head with a speed just barely shy of a bullet’s. During his battles against the demons and beings of the Creed of the Eight Trigram, Lin Feng’s darts had never once missed their mark. But for the first time, it finally did. The dart was just inches away from the woman’s face when she was evading Lin Feng’s first stroke. But she threw herself back, somersaulting in reverse! The dart missed her cleanly and slammed into the pillar just behind her, still trembling from the force even as its tip buried deep into the wood.

Lin Feng was left awestruck. He had seriously intended to mortally injure the woman. Any one of the two strokes he unleashed was enough to kill. But the woman had managed to evade both of them with seemingly zero difficulty and Lin Feng was, for a brief second, stunned. But it was all that the woman needed to mount her escape. She ducked and skittered across the darkened lobby, darting towards the doors!

Muttering a curse, Lin Feng whirled his whip over his head like a lasso and gave chase. Edelweiss kept a hand to my wound that never stopped gushing with blood, looking panicked and worried. “I’m fine,” I croaked hoarsely, “Go help Lin Feng!” She looked as if she was wrestling with herself. But as a former outlaw, it was hardly her first time seeing blood and wounded comrades. Her golden dagger ripped free from its scabbard and she circled around the other side, trying to close off the hitwoman’s escape route!

She might not be as skilled as Lin Feng in combat techniques, but she had enough combat experience to make up for it. She reached in front of the hotel doors, just before the woman could escape, and thrust her weapon directly at the woman. It was a feint; Edelweiss only wanted the hitwoman to slow down so that Lin Feng could mount another attack. Indeed, the iron tip of Lin Feng’s whip came right behind the woman like a serpent snapping its jaws as the hitwoman slowed her pace. However, without so much as a look to her back, she avoided the blow again with another sidestep!

Suddenly, something white shot past my shoulders with the loud crack of a taut rubber band! Whatever it was, it whacked into the back of the woman’s head and she staggered, nearly falling to her front. Realizing her chance, Edelweiss charged, her dagger aiming for the woman’s throat! It was also a fatally-dangerous blow, no less unexpected from Edelweiss who was a former outlaw!

I looked up and saw Chongxi beside me, grinning wryly to himself. He was holding his slingshot and his other hand was twiddling some glass ball-sized silver sycees! The sycees could only be given to him by Big Sister!

A fierce clang from the direction of the fight made me jerk my head back to the front. Edelweiss was exchanging blows with the hitwoman but the unarmed woman, with a move that shocked everyone, used her bloodied hands to deflect Edelweiss’ dagger! Similar to how her hand had managed to cut a deep hole in my abdomen, she was able to use her bare hands like an iron knife to defend herself! “There’s more than meets the eye with her hand!” Big Sister hissed with a look of comprehension and I gasped through gritted teeth, “I can manage myself, just go!” Take her down!” Big Sister’s eyes lowered briefly to check on my still-bleeding wound with a reluctant look on her face.

But she could not avert her eyes from the hard look I gave her. She heaved a heavy sigh and dropped me on one of the sofas. “Both of you, back down!” She barked at Edelweiss and Lin Feng. She did not wait for them to answer and immediately turned into a bolt of white light that lanced straight through the darkened expanse of the lounge only to reappear in front of the hitwoman in the blink of an eye. A sickening thud hit the floor and we saw one of the hitwoman’s arm plopped helplessly on the floor! The woman reeled with the excruciating pain, her other hand trying vainly to hold at an arm which was no longer in place, although strangely, there was no blood.

Realizing that the odds were against her, the woman knew she could never win. Not with Big Sister, a formidable opponent for her, entering the fray. She backtracked and wheeled around, running away from Big Sister and the hotel doors, storming straight at me! Chongxi raised his slingshot and took aim. “How dare you come back here!” His fingers released the taut rubber band of his slingshot and the silvery bullet of a sycee tore through the air. Yet, with only a simple lean of her torso, the woman dodged Chongxi’s attack and kicked, flying over me like a prancing horse! She landed right behind the sofa I was lying on and grabbed at the dart still planted into the pillar and yanked it free before throwing it at the relentless Big Sister and the other two who were chasing behind.

But Big Sister conveniently deflected the dart with her Qinglan’s Edge, sending it careening away.

But the move bought the hitwoman the distraction that she so sorely needed. She slipped into a stairwell and disappeared. She is not running out of the hotel now, she’s hiding inside! So she must be one of the guests here! We’ll lose her if she gets to her room! Edelweiss cursed in a foreign tongue that I could only surmise as Mongolian and pursued her into the stair but I yelled through the pain and agony at her, “Edelweiss, come back here!”

Edelweiss stopped at once, then she looked back at me, her eyes wet with tears and flaring with anger. I shook my head wearily and with a last, trailing, disgruntled look at the stairs, she stomped and then came back to me.