The old man sighed. “What a disappointment you turned out to be, Sudong.”
The headmaster’s manic gaze hardened into something dark and terrible. “How dare you look at me like that, like you have any moral ground to stand upon, you ancient piece of refuse! Dongfang Hong is ascendant. His dominion is destined, and all who oppose him will be ground to dust. You taught history for centuries, fool! You know the peril of daring to oppose destiny’s currents, and now you know the peril of daring to oppose my own!”
For long moments, he glared into Elder Ru’s eyes, and whatever he saw in that disdainful gaze filled him with fury.
“Shall I tear off his other arm, Headmaster?” offered the malevolently smiling sentinel stationed behind Elder Ru.
Sudong pierced the elder with a final glare before flashing the most merciless of smiles. “No. I think that’s exactly what he wants. Coward that he is, he hopes to escape into shock and death before he is forced to sully his honor, before he is forced to watch us disembowel his only living relative!”
“Monster!” screamed Chun An, eyes bright with furious tears. “You have betrayed this school, you have betrayed our students, and you have betrayed all your oaths as headmaster! The Sudong I knew for so many years was obsessed with bettering himself and this school’s standing, but he would never have countenanced what you dare to do. And he would never have thought of striking his mentor!”
Her words were cut off with a crack.
“Know your place, castoff!” snapped one of the four female guardians as her fist slammed into Lady Chun An’s jaw, and Alex heard the crack of broken bone even from where he hid in shadow. It was everything he could do to focus past his fear and horror before the terrible pressure of a Gold’s killing aura, keeping absolutely still as the searching gazes of frowning, hard-eyed Silver sentinels kept trying to pierce the shadows where he and Xun Hu hid. It took all of his willpower to concentrate on mastering what was, at this moment, his most vital skill, until finally, after too many horrific seconds wasted, he got the message he needed.
Complex Portal successfully summoned.
Only then did he dare his mad gambit, slipping back the way he had come, probability’s dice rolling in his head louder than ever before.
“Alright! You win, Sudong. Stop your madness this instant, I beg of you!”
For a heartbeat, the tableau of the one-armed Elder Ru beseeching his tormentors to release Lady Chun An, whose foot had just been frozen before being shattered as the four cold-eyed guardians held the pair down, Headmaster Sudong gloating over them all, was frozen to stillness as a new presence made himself known.
“Your presence is requested at once before the remnants of the assignment hall, Headmaster Sudong. And if you wish to live to see a new dawn, I would suggest that you and your lackeys head there immediately.”
Arrogant blue eyes in the face of what could only be a Ruidian, garbed in the finest crimson regalia, regarded the nonplussed spectators with a cold, disdainful sneer.
There was no question that they could destroy the intruder in an instant.
Yet still, they hesitated.
Hesitated to act against the cold mockery of the one who dared to castigate them. As if he were their equal. As if he were their superior.
Because, for all that at least some of them instantly recognized who he was, none could be absolutely, utterly sure, that he was truly Ruidian and not, say, a descendant of YanTu Royalty. Perhaps even a relative of Dongfang Hong himself.
Alex already knew their darkest secret, and it was clear from the way that everyone’s hostile gazes turned cautious, that they all knew it as well.
His disdainful smile grew. “And you’d better be kowtowing by the time the master we both serve arrives, with a concise, detailed explanation as to why, exactly, you have allowed so many of our foes to infiltrate our academy and make an absolute mockery of our plans, devastating territory which Dongfang Hong has claimed as his own, fool!”
Though the four crimson maidens staring at him were transfixed by furious disbelief, Headmaster Sudong alone roared his outrage, standing up to his full height and scowling at Alex with clenched fists, holding back an absolute storm of Water and Lightning Qi that Alex knew, in normal circumstances, would have already obliterated him in a heartbeat.
“You! The Ruidian! The one who dared trespass within these halls. The one who dared to mark the flesh of Dongfang Hong’s chosen!”
It was all Alex could do to avoid crumpling under the weight of that terrible, deadly focus.
And how hard he fought just to keep from jumping back with a desperate scream, let alone maintaining his current expression of haughty disdain, as the headmaster roared his accusations.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t obliterate you this very instant, Ruidian filth!”
Alex’s contemptuous smile grew. “I think you already know the answer to that, youling fool.”
That insult was too much for the Headmaster to bear, his hand instinctively squeezing tight as a maelstrom of icy shrapnel roared through the air for Alex’s chest… before seeming to pass right through him.
And how glad Alex was that his enemy couldn’t hear the screams of his own perforated sentinels, which Alex could sense, along with the sudden surge of potency he had gained, even indirectly, as his foe’s attack was replaced by wide-eyed disbelief.
But if that attack had been lightning… if it had arced instead of hitting him straight on…
He immediately pushed those thoughts out of mind, lest the pounding of his heart and the awful sense of dread he felt before these monsters who could so easily kill him in an eye-blink if they only understood what was occurring, gave him away.
Alex’s slow clap and mocking laughter washed over the stunned observers, his hands finishing with a furious flourish as he caught Elder Ru’s stunned eyes while taunting his foes with his applause.
Then Alex locked gazes with the stunned countenance of Sudong and sneered.
“Did you truly think I was Ruidian? After so effortlessly penetrating your library, besting your pathetic excuses for Adepts, and putting my distant relative in his place, I would think that who and what I am would be obvious, even to you. But perhaps you’re even stupider than I had thought, though my opinion of you had already sunk to new lows after stress-testing your entire academy and finding it utterly and completely lacking! And just when I complete my report, when I fear our master will have no choice but to take immediate action once he is given to understand just how utterly disgraceful your stewardship over this military training center truly is, your job hall is flooded by death’s own waters!”
Alex bellowed the last, five pairs of eyes now boring into him with a nauseating mix of homicidal fury and fear that left him sick to his stomach. Yet it meant nothing compared to the fierce surge of satisfaction he felt when the room’s occupants suddenly decreased by two.
You have successfully closed one Simple Gate.
“You’re no simple Ruidian. You’re one of Dongfang Hong’s agents!” hissed one of the four guardians.
Alex smirked condescendingly and bowed. “And you should have done your best to strike me down when I first dared to enter Dongfang Hong’s sanctum sanctorum. Then I would have been forced to reveal myself, and you would have been elevated above your sisters.”
The girl flashed an eager smile at the thought, but Alex slowly shook his head. “But you failed. You underestimated me. You took pity on the poor, blubbering librarian at my side and threw me back like a too-small fish, not like an agent that could have informed our enemies of all our weaknesses!”
Alex felt a dark thrill, quickly suppressed, to see them all flinch at his words. He gave a dismissive shake of his head. “You have a quarter of a glass, Sudong, to present yourself and your pathetic excuses for guardians for inspection and judgment!”
Alex’s expression hardened. “And for your sake, I’d get moving immediately.”
He then turned on his heel as t
he Headmaster’s protests washed over him. “Wait! Things are not so simple as that! Many pieces are in play in our service to the Red Prince. It is for that reason alone that you were able to penetrate our defenses so well, and of course we won’t waste men with true potential on training riffraff that will never be more than throw-away shock troops!”
Alex stiffened, swallowing his sudden surge of outrage while doing his best to play his role to the hilt.
Wondering just how deep this man’s influence was.
A simple shot in the dark… So easy to play the arrogant royal, refusing even to turn around to address his lackeys, his own features thus utterly unreadable to his foes.
“Have you done your part to capture and isolate my wayward cousin?”
“Princess Xian Hong? We are doing our best… my lord. But we have successfully managed to enslave Crown Princess Cui Zhe’s eldest daughter when she dared the Path of Rulers, and our hooks will soon pierce the others!”
Alex forced himself to turn around, clenched jaw so easily mistaken for a cold, satisfied smile. “Good. Good! And what of the others? What of our master’s future bride?”
This alone earned averted gazes and more than a hint of fear. So odd to see in a Gold. “We regret to say… we have been unable to find a solution to Princess Cui Li’s mastery of Shadow. Even knowing her commoner name, Liu Li, avails the grey seers nothing! Dongfang Hong’s exalted spies have also failed to keep track of her. She even hides Princess Xian Hong within her sphere of influence, but that is the JiangHu sect’s responsibility, not mine, as the Red Prince himself agreed!”
Alex scowled. “Best not be pointing fingers this late in the game, Sudong. It would be wise to have as much good news as possible before our master arrives.” He shook his head, clasping his hands behind his back. “But enough on your many failings. Let’s focus on your successes! Princess Cui Chan, Crown Princess Cui Zhe’s firstborn, and cousin to the kitsune girl; where is she?”
The four guardians paled and lowered their heads. The one whom he had castigated went so far as to kowtow before him.
The Headmaster kept his face carefully blank of emotion. “She is safely contained… within the inner sanctum, my lord.”
Alex sighed. “You mean the chamber you have been struggling to access for so long that you’ve made a complete laughingstock of Dongfang Hong’s administerial competence?”
Sudong’s eyes widened with horror. He shook his head in furious denial.
“No, it is not so simple, my lord! That fool of a Blue Prince—”
“Cheng Lei is many things, but a fool is not one of them. Continue.”
“Forgive me, my lord. Cheng Lei actually managed to ascend the steps all the way to Jade! A feat not seen in… anyway, his arrogance clearly knew no bounds, thinking it a prize to keep to himself in pursuit of his own ends, when by all rights, he should be sitting by his grandfather’s side at this very moment, feted with accolades and treasures while the Red Prince is granted custodianship of this territory! Instead, that serpent of a prince actually dared to raid our holding cells, cut down Cui Chan’s minders, and free her before we could force her foundation into an infernal alignment. But fear not, my lord. She is already bound to us. Should she hear my voice, she cannot help but obey, just as is true for all officers of the Red Prince when calling out orders to our newly indoctrinated troops!”
Alex’s heart began pounding in his chest. The desperate, panicked features of a certain princess he had fought so hard to save, what felt like a lifetime ago, now burned brightly within his mind. A girl who had called out to him in his dreams for countless nights, until he had pushed those nightmares firmly out of mind with dawn’s first light, refusing to accept the horrors of that truth, let alone the duty before him. It was the only time he had ever failed to walk the hero’s path, no matter how dark and bitter his struggles had made him.
But he had failed.
Failed the girl whose name was so similar to his beloved Hao Chan. Another soul he had rescued from dire peril.
Similar name, similar circumstances.
Both precious, both vital in ways he could scarce comprehend.
And the same monstrous card of his enemies had been used to strike at them both.
Only this time, Alex had failed to act.
Failed so badly he was now sickeningly certain that his master had put another of his rapidly dwindling pieces in play, to pick up Alex’s unforgivable slack.
A piece and a princess now both in dire jeopardy.
A part of him wanted to howl with fury. To think that these monsters had so callously dared to defile her… that he might have been able to rescue her… but none of that mattered now.
He could do nothing to change the past, or his own failings.
All he could do was everything in his power to make amends, here and now.
He would embrace his role to the fullest, no matter how much it imperiled his soul.
Alex glared at the headmaster who could so easily end his life. “Do my ears deceive me with your idiocy? Tell me again where the princess is!”
“Within the inner sanctuary, my lord. But fear not, just as soon as we secure the final key which our captives are holding, not even Prince Cheng Lei’s Jade talisman will be able to lock us out of our own inner library!”
“Excellent. So. Where exactly are your captives?”
The headmaster furrowed his brow, glaring at Alex as if he were an idiot. Then his eyes widened with dread as he heard one of the sentinel’s panicked gasps, turning to catch their despairing gazes.
Alex chuckled with cold contempt. “They’re gone. Somehow, a crippled old man and a fool of a girl hopping on one foot managed to evade your grasp?”
And before Sudong could do more than inhale, Alex roared at the man. “Pathetic! Absolutely, utterly pathetic! I had hoped, perhaps, but no. No! You fools are too incompetent to be allowed free rein in this school any longer.” He snarled and spat. “You have five minutes. FIVE! To get your pathetic asses to the ruins of the job hall, or I’ll happily tell my sire to sear your sad souls with so many dark bindings that all you’ll ever do is serve in the front lines till you drop dead with ecstatic smiles upon your brain-burned faces!”
Alex sharply turned around as the headmaster gave a furious roar, and it was all he could do to affect nonchalance when tendrils of absolute ice cold caressed his limbs as he crossed the barrier discreetly placed just before the library gate.
Numbly collapsing to the ground, Xun Hu looking down at him in horror, he caught the messages racing across his mind’s eye.
You have been critically hit by Doomfrost! Qi Deflection fails to counter! Qi Absorption results in partial mitigation!
Right Leg has been partially frozen! Right arm has been partially frozen! Back of skull has been partially frozen. Hair has been completely frozen!
Eternal Fox Power Healing in effect! Dark Qi mastery counters entropy! Subzero temperatures shielded from brain!
Equilibrium with frozen flesh reached.
You have restored partially crippled limbs.
You have restored damaged skull.
You have saved against crying out.
Your targets have taken the bait!
It was all Alex could do to choke back his screams, biting his lip til it bled as his body began the torturous process of using excess cellular heat to warm up his frozen cells, channeling the heat far more effectively than he would have thought possible, while Eternal Fox allowed him to near instantly repair damaged cellular membranes as his flesh was thawed. Painful as his healing always was, he was beyond grateful to find that restoring his partially frozen arm and leg was a far quicker process than if he had been forced to regenerate an entire limb.
Which left him more than enough time to gaze through the remaining open portal into the library’s hidden chamber and spot the furious Headmaster, caught between wrath and growing fear at what would might happen to him if he dared to defy the prince of an entire nation, to w
hom he now, it seemed, owed utter fealty.
“Enough with this farce!” Sudong cursed, glaring furiously at the trembling library guardians now fully kitted in the Red Prince’s colors. “You and you, attend me. You two, guard that door! If Cheng Lei tries to escape, you know what to do.”
The pair of remaining crimson sentinels solemnly bowed their heads as Headmaster Sudong headed for the portal that was just as he expected it to be, Alex having already removed the one he had so carefully placed over it as his enemy stepped through and disappeared in an eye blink, along with the two frightened-looking shield maidens who followed right behind him.
Only then did Alex clench his will and put the next part of his plan in motion.
Complex Gates successfully summoned! 30 Qi spent.
In just a handful of seconds, he successfully formed a pair of invisible gates that he and his kitsune companion alone could sense and pass through, now bisecting the donut-shaped hidden library. Near the library entrance portal, he placed another gate as well.
In truth, he was beyond amazed to find that his insane gambit had actually worked. At least the first part, anyway.
Xun Hu just shook her head. “You’re a madman, you know that, Alex?” she said, taking his fully healed hand, the shadows seeming to thicken around them as they made their way around the curving library.
Alex smirked at his companion. “Probably true. But they took the bait.”
“Because you risked your life goading them, coming off as so damned arrogant that they found it impossible to believe you’re not of noble blood. And since YanTu nobility has its roots in Ruidian ancestry, as well as native bloodlines, though absolutely no one will admit it out loud, even if everyone knows it…”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 75