Sochai exploded into a mad rush, reaching the poison-user in two steps. Old Snake crumbled under the steeled fingers around his neck. Sochai lifted him by the throat, threw him, then drew his saber and sshed the old man in midair.
Old Snake nded painfully. He touched his chest and a look of deep fear crept over his face. Only his coat was sshed open, so perfectly that his skin wasn’t even grazed.
Sochai wasted no time. He brought his saber down with such vehemence that Old Snake squeezed his eyes shut and prepared to die. The bde stopped inches from his head. “Antidote!” Sochai said, his voice empty but firm. “I want the antidote to your candle poison or you will die.”
The familiar sound of a metal flute cutting the air emerged from behind. Sochai instinctively parried. His eyes fshed fire, the hate in his chest swelling. He spun around and sshed at the monstrous woman. She owed him—owed him for attacking him, for humiliating him. She owed him his grandfather’s jade. But most of all, she owed him answers. With a deep roar, he covered an unreal amount of distance with one forward leap and struck at her. The Flute Demon slipped back and barely managed to cover her retreat. Sochai followed the same momentum, sshed at her from a different angle, forced the flute from her hands, and smmed her with his shoulder. The Flute Demon choked, gasping for air. She flew back from the impact.
Sochai felt the urge to move in and finish her, but a group of suicidal warriors stood in his way. Behind them, a boy appeared and pulled the Flute Demon to her feet. “Who’s that barbarian?”
Sochai popped one of Li Kung’s pills and turned toward the poison-user. He will kill the demon ter.
“He’s going to kill Old Snake, Cricket,” the Flute Demon said. She wrenched free, picked up her flute, and rushed in again.
This time, the Flute Demon barely managed to stand between Sochai and Old Snake. She used hit-and-run tactics—once proven to work against the poisoned Mongolian—to force a lengthy battle and wear him down. But well before he showed any sign of fatigue, the Flute Demon felt the strain in her own body. The Mongolian was different this time; he was so much stronger. She stumbled back every time their weapons crossed. Her arms numbed. She knew that little time was left before she would make a mistake and his heavy bde would ssh her in half. She felt as though a stampede of wild bulls charged her from every direction, each one capable of running her through.
She held on, worn and injured, certain that she would colpse any moment.
Then, a shout boomed from behind her, “Drop!”
She fell ft to the ground. A cloud of white smoke streaked past her and enveloped the Mongolian. Old Snake helped her to her feet.
The Flute Demon grabbed the poison-user by the coat and asked, “Why didn’t you run? Why did you come back?”
Sochai shook the powder off, swallowed another pill, and stormed forward again.
Old Snake’s mouth dropped. “He’s not affected.”
“He’s the Mongolian who had the jade. He even survived the Soaring Dragon Candles. Let’s go!” She pulled on his sleeve, but she was too te. Sochai was already upon them. She threw herself in to shield Old Snake, watching desperately as Sochai’s saber came down like a whirlwind. If she moved, Old Snake would be killed. “Run!” she shouted.
The bde froze in front of her forehead. She stared at his ashen face, twisted with suffering, at his determined, iron features.
Sochai stared back, at her crooked nose and deformed lips, at the tumor over her left eye. Somehow, there was no sign of fear in her. Then, without hesitating again, he smacked the side of her head with the back of his bde. The Flute Demon toppled.
In two bounds, Sochai reached the poison-user.
Old Snake looked at him with interest. “The poison must be in your bones by now, but you’re still alive.”
“The antidote!” Sochai grabbed the old man’s arm and twisted it. Old Snake screamed in pain, choking, before Sochai loosened his hold.
“Antidote?” Old Snake said between gasps for air. “For the Soaring Dragon Candles? I wish I had some.”
“Come with me! You will find an antidote for me!”
Sochai lifted the old man, threw him over his shoulders, smashed through a few men in his way and headed for the Grand Stairway.
The familiar whistle of the flute emerged from behind again. Sochai secretly marveled at how quickly she recovered. Perhaps she really was a demon. He threw the old man onto the ground and spun around to counterattack.
The Flute Demon was in no condition to fight, and after three blows, she colpsed to her knees. Without taking time to breathe, she climbed to her feet and charged him. Again and again, the force of his heavy saber sent her staggering back, but each time, she fervently returned.
Kill her. Kill this woman now. Out of the corner of his eye, Sochai saw Old Snake stumbling toward the Grand Stairway.
“Run!” The Flute Demon shouted.
The poison-user was escaping. Sochai pounded his saber against her flute, causing her to topple back against the pressure, and then, without another gnce, flew after Old Snake. The heat in his chest intensified, and he knew there was little time left. Even with Li Kung’s pills, he could not fight forever.
The Flute Demon scrambled to her feet and followed closely behind.
The Grand Stairway was cluttered with frantic warriors, each bashing the other for space. Sochai pursued the poison-user down the narrow steps, his eyes burning with desperation. He had used the st of Li Kung’s pills, but Old Snake was far ahead. The thick crowd of fighters, injured and scrambling down for safety, kept him from his target. He couldn’t close the distance.
Not far behind, the Flute Demon chased. The multiple injuries on her body slowed her but didn’t stop her.
She smashed through a group of Green Dragons with a painful cry and closed in on Sochai.
“The Flute Demon!” one of them shouted. “The monstrous Flute Demon!” Other Green Dragons on the Grand Stairway answered.
She spun around and pierced the shouting warrior’s throat, reducing his shouts to a child’s gurgle, then, withdrawing her weapon, charged toward the base of the cliff.
In a short time, the ancestral gravesite became a gravesite for hundreds. The carnage and devastation to human life became so vast that the carpet of bodies piled into a second yer. The sughter spun into utter chaos.
???
Meanwhile, on the top of Redwood Cliff, Li Kung stood motionless, his mouth gaping open, his eyes blurred with tears.
It was no longer rage, nor hate. It was no longer the sying, nor was it the number of mangled bodies that littered the cliff.
“They’re enjoying it,” he said out loud, his mouth quivering, tears in his eyes. “They’re enjoying it.”
Pun grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the Grand Stairway. “There’s an opening! Let’s go!”
“Where’s Sochai?” Li Kung asked, turning away.
Pun pulled him harder. “There’s no way to find him now. Let’s go!”
They reached the mouth of the Grand Stairway. Pun stomped a warrior in the chest with a strong thrust kick, sending him into two other men, toppling them. A path was cleared. She pulled Li Kung down the stairs.
Men rushed from behind them, in front of them, scrambling to leave Redwood Cliff. Once on the stairs, the fighting ceased—each warrior focused on the long, dangerous trip to the bottom.
Not far ahead, Li Kung spotted Wei Xi, accompanied by a group of his students descending quickly. Wei Xi appeared unhurt, but almost all of his men were injured and on the verge of colpse.
???
At the foot of the Cliff, Sochai was completely locked in a renewed battle with the Flute Demon. The old poison-user was no longer in sight.
They found themselves on Middle Pass. The road was recently filled with peaceful mourners who traveled great distances to pay respects to the Old Grandmother. But now, the same courteous men were scrambling through the pass, their hair and clothing disheveled, many of them wounded and bleeding. Men from the Green Dragon House poured from the Grand Stairway in scattered disarray, their faces flushed with pain and fatigue and caked with dried blood.
Sochai confirmed that he had no more pills left. The heat swelled in his chest. His throat tightened, the dark blood about to fly from his mouth would reveal that the battle had turned. There was little time left.
He pressed the Flute Demon off the road and into the barren field where hard snow crumbled under his heavy footsteps. He became more ferocious than ever, certain that the poison would soon course through him again, and the hideous woman would have a second chance to kill him. He didn’t know where he was chasing her to, but the barren nd reminded him of home, of the bright winter afternoons where the frozen earth felt brittle under his boots, where he would wrestle his friends in the soft snow of early winter.
There was no time to think of home. With a thunderous roar, Sochai surged forward like a charging bull, saber outstretched, throwing his body into hers. The force of his body sm sent her flying into the distance. He knew then that the fight was over, not just for her, but also for him.
Streams of dark blood propelled from his trembling lips. He fell on one knee, his body doubling over in pain. The Flute Demon was unconscious on the ground, and all he had to do was find enough strength to sink his saber into her flesh.
The Mongolian forced himself to stand, his body in convulsions. He should kill her now.
“The Flute Demon!” he heard from a distance. He turned his weary eyes to a group of Green Dragon warriors, dressed in light green, their weapons drawn and running toward them. There were over twenty of them, their young faces eager and excited despite the trauma and fatigue of battle.
“The Flute Demon!” someone shouted. “She’s wounded!”
“Kill her! Kill the Flute Demon!”
But Sochai stood in their path, fshing the gre of a suffering soul who could only find pleasure in the sughter of men.
The Green Dragons froze.
With a deep growl, Sochai moved away from the unconscious woman. Perhaps, he didn’t need to kill her. Her enemies would do it for him.
He trudged toward the main road in icy snow; his back turned, his ears alert. He thought he heard one of them say: “We’ll sever the head. Lord Xi will be pleased and we’ll receive the biggest reward of our lives if we bring back her head.”
Another said, “She’s still alive. Should we take her back alive?”
“No, she’s too powerful. We can’t risk it.”
Yet another said, “Look at that face. How could a woman live with a face like that? Her mother should’ve killed her when she was born.”
A short ugh.
“Let me cover her face.”
Sochai slowed, breathing deeply, waiting for the pain in his chest to clear. Why hadn’t they killed her yet?
“She actually looks like a woman with her face covered!”
Gleeful ughter.
“I wonder if she really is a woman ...”
Sochai stopped altogether and slowly turned his head. One of the men tore open the woman’s coat, while another tugged on her trousers.
There was a scream, and Sochai knew that she had awakened. He forced himself not to look, to continue forward. Her fate didn’t matter to him now.
There was another scream from her and this time, it was not in shock, but in pain. Someone had sshed her with his sword. There was ughter. One of the men shouted, “Keep her face covered. I think I can take her if I don’t see her face.”
Sochai reluctantly turned and saw four men pinning the Flute Demon to the ground while another one knelt between her legs, loosening his trousers. The rest stood around and watched. She writhed and twisted; her screams muffled by the coat over her face. Soon, her screams subsided. He could hear faint sounds of the Flute Demon choking in her own blood. Two other men, their smiles from ear to ear, reached down to pull her legs apart. She y still and waited.
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