CH. 7

  ///\\\*!*

  A MAGNUM

  OPUS

  +++###

  SRC: RELAY_9

  "Do I stop if I knock you unconscious, or do I just wait for someone official to come?"

  The yard went quiet. Everyone simultaneously had been struck dumb by his sheer audacity.

  Cai turned.

  He looked at Xu with an expression that appeared to be befuddlement.

  Then at Vance.

  Then back at Xu.

  “Clearly… I have not skimmed the records enough.“

  Cai raised an eyebrow, slipped his tablet out of his robes, and flicked through it for a few moments.

  “Huh?”

  And then he laughed—a real one, the kind that escaped his lips before he could even think about it.

  "Fourth stage!?" he said incredulously.

  "A fourth stage Zero." He shook his head, reached into his inner robe, and produced a pill. Pale gold, faintly luminescent, warm-looking even from across the yard.

  "Kid, if you even last 30 seconds, I’ll throw in this pill. Once you're a stage 9 Zero, it’ll help you undergo the Priming and breakthrough, straight to the Resonance Realm. It’s of no use to me, but if you are truly so… talented, how could I refuse to assist my brother?"

  Kid? Oh, because my stage is lower?

  He spread his hands. The bottomless generosity of a man who had none. "I'll even give you the first strike."

  Xu looked at him.

  "Okay, though you didn’t really answer my question," Xu finished.

  He stepped forward.

  I wonder how'd you feel if this “kid” beat your ass.

  Cai entered his familiar combat stance once more.

  Xu surged forward.

  Vance started the timer.

  The first thing Xu noticed was that everything was slow.

  Not slow. He still didn't have the right word for it. He'd been looking for it since the sprint assessment, and it kept fluttering around the edges of his mind.

  Maybe readable. Like a dial turned down by a single notch. Not in a way that time had changed itself. Just enough that the information pouring into his mind had more “room” in it—more space between his thought and his action. His body knew where to be before he felt like he did.

  Xu closed the gap in mere moments, adjusting into the space to Cai’s left, fast enough to hear the air whistle as it stagnated before his body split it.

  Oh. I feel GOOD.

  Cai's expression changed instantly. His eyes widened, and his leisure evaporated completely. It was replaced by focus, possibly even concern. It was one Xu recognized.

  He had seen it at the end of his fight with Lee.

  They impressed you that much that you're serious about little old me?

  Cai tried to block, but Xu saw his left arm hitching.

  Go ahead. Lean in.

  Xu exploded upward with an uppercut that undercut Cai's block entirely, driving directly through the open wedge of his armpit.

  The yard dropped into silence.

  Cai grunted hard and jumped backward, his boots kicking up dust. He tried to thrust Xu back with a quick counter-strike, but Cai was already off balance. Xu was ready, he shot his arm in with a small, precise movement that redirected Cai's punch into nothing but air.

  Not yet.

  Xu shifted his weight forward off his back foot, and his palm drove into Cai's sternum.

  It landed. Flat, direct, and clean.

  Xu had no delusions about the power gap between them—but he remembered what Taylor’s fists had done.

  Mine should be able to do the same.

  The yard seemed to take a collective breath.

  Seven seconds.

  Cai reassessed. He looked at Xu differently now.

  Cai glanced around the yard and then came again. This time, he was faster, throwing combinations of punches and kicks built from long habitual practice, each piece seamlessly slotting into the next.

  His shoulder dropped before each one.

  Xu read them. But that didn’t mean he could respond to all of them. Some strikes came too fast, or from angles his old body never would have been able to dodge. He hadn’t quite gotten used to the new, explosive power in his own muscles, but—it was enough.

  Cai finally pushed a strike that dug into his ribs.

  CRACK.

  I’m sure I’m fine.

  FLASH.

  Broken, yep, but I can still keep up.

  He leaped to his feet cleanly, but his ribs burned with a fire. Cai changed his approach. He was more reserved now. His eyes had become more analytical and cold.

  Oh, that's good.

  That's very good.

  He tried to change direction. Cai had already anticipated two of the three options and closed them. The third was available but risky.

  He took it anyway.

  Fifteen seconds.

  It’s gonna be tight—just a little longer.

  Cai's follow strike found him before he'd fully cleared the last strike. Cai feinted low.

  At least he thought he did.

  Cai went low anyway.

  CRUNCH.

  A double bluff.

  You damn bastard.

  Cai's shoulder drove into his midsection, driving him backwards.

  He felt his compromised chest creak under the pressure. The world seemed to continuously sharpen, each of his senses crisping beyond anything he had ever experienced.

  Xu pushed his hands down into his upper back, separating himself before jumping back.

  Twenty-two seconds.

  It’s the only way.

  Tick.

  Xu surged straight into Cai's guard, throwing caution to the wind. He visibly gathered all of his force into his left arm, preparing the strike.

  Tick.

  “THERE,” Cai hissed, a vicious smile breaking across his face. Xu had left himself wide open. Cai squeezed his fist and struck down with his full, terrifying force toward Xu’s stomach.

  NOW.

  Xu pushed through his body, violently reversing his coiling momentum. He twisted, gathering everything he had into his right, open palm, and swung through like it was the last thing he’d ever do.

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  Tick.

  CLAP.

  Xu’s palm found purchase. His hand had slapped cleanly against Cai's cheek, crowning Lee’s Magnum Opus.

  The price was immediate. The locations of Cai’s foot and head swapped places. Cai grabbed the ground, twisting his momentum to translate it into a brutal kick that embedded itself directly into the pit of Xu’s stomach.

  A tearing pain screamed through his abdomen. Xu collapsed into the dirt, the wind abandoning his lungs.

  Vance's voice rang out. "Twenty-six seconds."

  Cai stood over him.

  He was breathing harder. Not dramatically, but more than he should have been after fighting a stage 7, let alone a stage 4.

  He looked down at Xu.

  Xu smiled, coughing up a spatter of blood, and admired his work.

  On Cai's left cheek, a red-hot handprint seemed embroidered into his skin, utterly impossible to miss. But it wasn't just a handprint. It was perfectly framed by the continuous cuts Lee had left behind. The bloody lines acted as a perfect outline that stretched from the left of the ring finger to the right of the index finger.

  The piece was finished. An absolute masterpiece of disrespect.

  Lee grinned.

  Cai reached down. Xu took it. He was on his feet.

  They stood facing each other.

  My legs are fine?

  Cai was quiet for a long moment. He seemed to be organizing his thoughts. “I’ve never heard of someone who can do what you just did.”

  "Me either," Xu wheezed.

  "Did your parents buy you spec performance genes?"

  "No. My family could have never afforded that."

  A pause. "Then… how?"

  Xu considered his answer carefully. "I really don’t know."

  Cai looked at him with a complicated expression. He reached into his inner robe and held out a pill. It sat between them as a pale, warm gold gleamed off its surface.

  Cai looked at the pill rather than at Xu, still organizing his thoughts around the absurdity of the last twenty-six seconds.

  "You didn't make thirty," Cai said.

  Xu waited.

  "But I want you to take it anyway."

  Xu looked at the pill. He looked at Cai.

  Cai met his eyes. The arrogant exterior was entirely gone. Underneath it was something more direct and considerably less constructed. "I’m giving you this because I’ve never seen a talent like you." A pause. "Find me when you get accepted into the inner sect next year. I’ll show you a thing or two."

  Xu took the pill.

  Why do I feel kinda guilty?

  He focused on Sibal in the background.

  No. Still deserved, but I do feel… confused?

  "Train hard. I’ll see you next year," Cai said.

  "You’ve said that twice now. Why next year?”

  Cai exhaled through his nose, letting out something close to a laugh. He seemed to be talking to himself. “A fourth stage Zero… moving like that. No one would believe me if we didn’t record these."

  Xu and Lee shared a glance.

  "I moved like a guy who got taken down in twenty-six seconds," Xu said.

  "You moved." Cai glanced back, "like you knew where everything was going to be before it got there. That's not a fourth-stage thing. That's not even a most stages thing."

  He paused.

  "And you didn't panic. The entire time. Let alone mentioning your strength?"

  Xu said nothing.

  I have an eye on my leg. Sir, I am out of Panic.

  "When you enter the inner sect," Cai said, "find me. Once you've undergone your Priming and reached the Resonance Realm. In a year, maybe two." He looked at Xu with interest. "I’d love to show you around."

  "We're supposed to enter in a week," Xu said.

  Cai raised an eyebrow.

  "The minimum entry requirement," he said, choosing his words carefully, "is to be an eighth-stage Zero with above average assessment results." He paused. "Or the ninth stage, regardless of results."

  The yard was completely still.

  Xu stood, feeling the warmth of the pill seeping into his fingers, as his heart dropped into his stomach.

  Cai glanced at Xu once more. Something in him had reached a decision. "Don't lose it."

  He reached into his robe and pulled out his sleek tablet.

  Cai sighed. Its screen had been completely shattered at some point during the fight.

  He moved to put it back into his robes when he seemed to notice a Neon Red sticker on its fractured glass. He jerked the tablet up to investigate, but he seemed to get distracted by something when he held the dark, reflective surface in front of his face. He stared into it.

  His gaze slowly rose from the tablet, turning to look at Lee. Then at Xu.

  Lee waved with a bright, innocent smile.

  Xu’s lips pursed, and his eyes shot to the sky, suddenly deeply enamored with the cloud formations.

  Cai looked at the pill Xu still held in his hand.

  Xu immediately pocketed it.

  “You—” Cai began, his voice trembling with a sudden, violent realization.

  He looked into his shattered tablet. He looked at Xu. He looked back at his tablet.

  He looked at Sibal, who was looking at her feet. The handprint on her cheek had started to fade at the edges.

  Cai breathed out a long, slow breath as his entire body seemed to wilt in profound resignation.

  He had been played.

  “I’ll see you all in the inner sect—” Cai managed to say through gritted teeth.

  His eyes landed on Fenwick, who was still clutching his ribs.

  “...Eventually,” Cai finished. He turned sharply on his heel and marched out of the drill grounds without so much as a glance back.

  “Okay, seriously, is there a joke that I’m just too dense to get?” Fenwick asked the empty air.

  No one replied.

  Lee walked up beside Xu, placing his hand on his shoulder. He carried the expression of a man who had reached into the box of his favorite sweets—only to find none remained.

  "So," Lee said.

  "Yeah," Xu said.

  A pause.

  "Fourth to eighth," Lee said.

  "In a week…" Xu confirmed.

  Taylor's voice arrived from Xu's right. "We need to talk tonight."

  "Yeah," Xu said. "All three of us."

  "My rapier needs a minute," Lee said.

  "Your rapier is fine," Taylor replied.

  "It’s father," Lee clarified. "My rapier survived this time. Its father needs a minute."

  Xu frowned.

  Insufferable—

  “Lee… Xu…” Sibal stared at her feet.

  “I know… Don’t sweat it, Sibal.” Lee patted her head.

  Lee, you barely know this girl. It’s a miracle you even remembered her name! What are you doing!?

  Sibal looked up at Lee with a face full of admiration.

  Of course.

  “Of course… Sibal.” Xu replied.

  He was ignored.

  Xu reached into his pocket and turned the pill over in his hands.

  Fourth to eighth.

  One week.

  That’s impossible

  The eye on his leg blinked secretly under his robes.

  Good point.

  “Dismissed,” Vance’s voice rang across the yard.

  EXHIBIT_LOG: #002

  // THE_AUDACITY_REPORT //

  "There is a dangerous type of audacity required to accept a heartfelt, brotherly gift from a man whose face you just used as a literal coloring book."

  The fact that Xu immediately pocketed the priceless pill the second Cai pulled out his reflective tablet?

  Immaculate loot goblin behavior. He might have broken ribs, but no one can say he didn't secure the bag.

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