Chapter Text
Today should have been a relatively normal, if not— a rather busy day.
In retrospect, all should have been fine. Yanqing, after all, had followed his routine as he usually did; Waking up at the crack of dawn, preparing himself for the day with an impeccable uniform and sword at hand, then ensuring the general woke up at an appropriate time, and then attending to his duties as lieutenant; patrolling, supervising new recruits, protecting the citizens from harm and all that jazz.
Yet there he found himself standing in a dark, musty alleyway at the edge of Central Starskiff Haven, facing against a marastruck that stubbornly just wouldn't go down.
Now, Yanqing would like to think that he was quite strong. Stronger than most of his peers. Spending a large chunk of his life— if not his entire life, really— training as a Cloud Knight granted him the privilege of learning more than others did.
So with that in mind, taking this guy down shouldn't have been a problem. Not in the slightest. Yanqing has taken down several enemies at once, has stood his ground against Blade and Dan Heng, and aided in the literal defeat of Hoolay, for Aeons' Sake!
So why was it so difficult to kill one mara-struck creature?
He just about tried everything— sending sword after sword into the entity's body, hurling icicle after icicle, watching it crumple to the ground endlessly and regenerating again as if his attacks effectively made no damage— yet frustratingly, every time the creature crumbled, it would rise again is if nothing happened.
Did Yanqing grow weaker? Was he really out of his game to the point where he'd truly begun losing to one entity he's taken down several times before? Or maybe— did the Marastruck evolve into something this durable?
He's shaken out of his stupor as he narrowly dodges a blob of ominous, bubbling black ink hurled at him. With a frustrated grunt, he lunged at the creature with his sword, piercing it straight through the chest, retreating once he saw it collapse to the ground and begin to crumble— hopefully for good.
Except this time around, there was now an odd, black, ink-like substance seeping on the floor as if it were the creature’s blood.
Hold on. Yanqing squinted his eyes at the sight of the mysterious substance. Ink?
Yanqing whipped his head around to see where the blob of ink directed at him had landed. It seemed to wriggle for a moment— the puddle eerily moving as if it were seeking something— before eventually lying still, becoming nothing more than a dormant puddle. If Yanqing didn’t know anything better, he would have assumed that this was simply an unfortunate puddle of ink that had been spilled by a merchant or a scholar.
Not only was the mara-struck itself strange, the presence of the inky substance was weird. The mara-struck didn't use ink. They didn't attack with ink and they never have.
Yanqing narrowed his eyes as he glared back at where he last saw the creature.
He recalled the creature resembling a typical mara-struck creature, vaguely humanoid with branches of gold stabbing through and often holding together the flesh of the poor soul that succumbed to mara.
An average person with combat experience could take down a mara struck down after a few good hits, before it would get up again once and disappear after it got defeated again. Cloud knights were trained to take it down efficiently— only having to strike down a mara-struck creature once or twice before it went for good, and most would repeat that process again as soon as it got up only one more time, and nothing more.
Never has Yanqing had to take it down several times like he had to today. Could the ink be the reason why it kept regenerating?
The stench of rotting flesh suddenly became more eminent. The creature was emitting a low, hoarsely unnerving noise now, and it seemed like the mara— and maybe the strange substance— would take effect and reanimate the beast again.
He had to report this variant of mara to the general immediately. If this sort of mara got out, then the Luofu would be thrown into disarray once more. Hastily, he placed a hand to his ear, activating the communication device with a click. "General Foresight, This is Lieutenant Sword. Are you able to respond? Over."
For a moment, there's nothing but silence. Yanqing couldn’t help but tap his foot on the ground as he impatiently awaited Jing Yuan’s response.
After a few seconds, to his relief, there's a beep.
Jing Yuan responded. His voice is deeper and groggier than usual, and Yanqing had an inkling feeling that the General may have dozed off at the Divine Foresight again. "Lieutenant Sword, this is General Foresight. I received your message. Has something come up in your end? Over."
"There's a mara struck that's creating a black, inky substance." Yanqing described, his other hand slowly coming to raise his sword at the creature that was slowly starting to form again. "I've struck it down about seven times already, but it keeps on regenerating. I suspect the black ink might have something to do with it. Over."
There's a sound of something heavy hitting against something and clothing rustling. "I see. Can you send your location to me, Sword? I'll see to it as soon as I can and send backup your way. Can you manage until then? Over."
"I’m not sure how long, but I’ll try my best, General." Yanqing affirmed, before awkwardly fumbling for the phone in his pocket, typing the password in before sending his location to Jing Yuan, shoving his phone back in his pocket once it was done. "Sent. Over."
“Good. I'll be there in roughly seven minutes.” Jing Yuan hums. The communication device buzzes to indicate that Jing Yuan may be barking orders at the cloud knights at the Divine Foresight.
The creature slowly moved to get up, groaning. Yanqing pointed his sword directly at it.
The earpiece buzzed to life again. Jing Yuan’s deep voice comes through. “Stay safe, Lieutenant Sword. Retreat if need be and make sure no civilians get hurt. Stay on the line with me until we get there. Over."
"I will! Over." Yanqing said, summoning his other swords as the creature reanimated again. It stood upright, the winding branches of mara intertwined in its flesh flaring, indicating that it would be attacking again— except this time, the puddle of ink it was on began to slither up its limbs as if it were merging with it, intertwining with the mangled flesh and golden branches to form an amalgamation of something that he'd never, ever imagined.
Right in front of him, standing over ten feet tall, was what Yanqing could only describe to be a monster. With large limbs and tendrils intertwined with ink and mara, and a scent of rotten leaves mixed with ink and a face so distorted— it was a horrifying sight.
"Shit!" Yanqing cursed, opting to ignore the dissatisfied reprimand from the General in his earpiece. Immediately he hurled one, two swords at the creature, watching it screech in pain, one of its inky tendrils falling to ground with a squelch.
To his horror, the attack is rendered futile as a new tendril replaces the fallen one, growing in an instant. He can only gasp, ducking and rolling out of the way as the tendril swipes at him, the limb slamming into the ground where he just stood with a loud crash.
All he needed to do was to buy time. Enough time so the Cloud Knights could suppress the entity. With a flick of his hand, a burst of swords emerge behind him. He climbed on one of them, floating, and saw how the trail of frost captured the creature’s attention.
Yanqing quickly craned his head to take a survey of the area. Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be any civilians nearby. Good. That would allow Yanqing to do whatever it took to get rid of it— or to at least, hold it off until backup arrived.
Unfortunately, that meant that this side of Starskiff Haven would be closed off and would be facing repairs for the foreseeable future, but that was better than dying to the creature.
He cupped a hand to his mouth. “Hey!” He bellowed, “catch me if you can!”
With a loud roar, the beast sent a blob of ink towards him. Yanqing swerved to the side, avoiding it, and directed a sword to the offending limb in retaliation.
The beast let out a sickening screech.
Yanqing furrowed his brows. This could get nasty quick, he thought, before narrowly avoiding another blob hurled at his direction.
As long as he kept it up, it would be fine.
But he could only dodge for so long before it started to wear down on him.
Yanqing doesn't know how long he's been flying around, evading hurled projectiles, tendrils and debris alike. Realistically, it couldn’t have been longer than an hour. All he knew is that he's been managing well enough, sending icicles, swords and ice towards the thing over and over again long enough to know that the General should be here any second now. But it was still taking longer than usual for backup to arrive.
His stomach sank, worry worming itself present in the back of his mind. Did something come up? Were Jing Yuan and the Cloud Knights attacked, ambushed or worse— did more of these things come up?
He yelped in shock as a large chunk of debris was sent his way. He flew out of the way last second, cringing as the debris crashed on the wall next to him— forcing him to move further out of the way as the wall began to collapse.
Was there a way to try to contain this creature before it got out of hand? Maybe, if he got closer and bound it to the ground with his ice— he'd buy enough time and help the Cloud Knights take this abomination down for good.
Perhaps, if he damaged it enough, he could end the creature. Permanently.
「You’d prove yourself more capable to Jing Yuan. 」 A nagging voice from the back of his head says. 「If you can’t take down a simple mara-struck beast, what makes you think that he’ll continue to take you in as his successor?」
Yanqing flinched,shaking his head at the thought. No. He couldn’t afford to think like that now.
But why had that thought suddenly come up? He knew his mind tended to wander every now and then, but not like this— when there was an evident threat right in front of him.
「Let’s face it— you’re weak.」 The voice continued.「Don’t fight it. Accept it right now, you can’t live up to his expectations.」
He shook his head. That voice— it could only be the work of the entity right in front of him. Jing Yuan wouldn’t discard him over a mistake. He’s far kinder than that.
But how can you be so sure?
Yanqing froze. “What?”
「How can you be so sure that he won’t throw you away? Time and time again you keep on getting hurt. You worry him immensely. You keep on proving to him that you’re too immature, too reckless, and a burden. Why bother trying when you know the outcome will be the same?」
“No,” Yanqing huffed. He called all of his swords to point directly at the creature. I’d suddenly started losing focus the more I was exposed to the ink, he thought. This was the creature, not him. “That won’t happen. You’re lying.”
「But how can I be lying if what I say comes from things you have already thought about?」
Yanqing would just have to resort to drastic measures to ensure that another failure won't happen again. If he kept his composure, all would be fine. Jing Yuan wouldn’t be mad, and everything would go back to normal.
He took a deep breath as he slowly commanded his summoned swords, merging them together to form a giant sword. He raised the sword, aiming directly at the creature—
“Yanqing! Behind you!”
—Just to barely notice a sudden tendril that came towards him, slamming against his back, causing him to crash on the ground unceremoniously. His sword clattered to the ground beside him.
Dazed, Yanqing groaned as he looked up, his eyes widening in horror as he realized the creature was now standing right in front of him, its tendrils slithering towards him. He leapt to his feet, already summoning his swords with his hand, but it was too late.
The tendrils have already begun wrapping itself around his legs.
Yanqing tried to flinch back, wincing as the limbs tightened against his legs. Was it trying to consume him?! He slashed at the tendrils on his legs, only to find that the limbs only grew more of themselves at such a quick pace where they were slashed. They were morphing into more of that dark, inky substance now.
Yanqing struggled, trying to free himself from the substance to no avail. Was this really it? He lamented. Damn it— he was going to get killed before he even—!
"Yanqing!" A voice bellowed close by—somewhere just outside the alleyway— it's a strikingly familiar voice, deep and reassuring, and it brought him a huge sense of relief.
It's Jing Yuan.
"Here!" Yanqing screamed, as loud as he could, shrieking unintentionally as the substance reached his waist. "General— HERE!"
Yanqing could only watch as Jing Yuan entered his vision, other cloud knights hot on his heels as they were met with the creature that he was fighting not long ago. They raise their polearms against the creature, but the ink-like substance has reached his neck now, wrapping around his neck and effectively cutting off any sound that tries to leave his neck.
Somewhere in the background, Jing Yuan began to administer orders to the Cloud Knights, with many of them attempting to divert the newly-emerging tendrils to no avail. Some try to divert the creature away from him, but it doesn’t move. It remained there— actively choking the life out of him.
Yanqing’s vision blurred as he struggled to breathe. His swords, without him realizing, have dissipated, and he weakly clawed at the substance suffocating him.
Before long, a large, celestial-like form emerged from the sky. Lightning Lord.
With Jing Yuan's guidance, he and the Lightning Lord strike the creature in one fell swoop. A loud, shattering noise spread through the grounds, the creature shrieking in pain as it dissolved completely into ink.
But the ink slowly consuming Yanqing doesn't stop. Instead it quickened, moving to envelop his entire body, reaching up to his mouth.
I’m going to die, Yanqing realized, the thought horrifying him. I’m going to get killed and it's because I let my guard down and upset the general again.
“Baba,” he croaked weakly, hardly any noise coming from his mouth. “I’m sorry.”
There's barely a second that passes by before Jing Yuan is already running towards him, reaching a hand out— and Yanqing is only able to hear a distressed, anguished noise coming from Jing Yuan that Yanqing hasn't heard at all before, and vague call of "A-Qing!" before he's being wrapped in darkness.