The awakened core lunged. The move dragged the puppeted cultivator’s body behind it, and the both of them flailed with all three of their weapons. A flash of the Spring Rain Mirror turned one blow aside. A well-timed dodge under the raw speed granted by his body enforcement put He Yu in position to both avoid a second blow while blocking a third.

  Li Hang arrived with a blast of frozen winter and a flash of moonlight. The moon vanished, the snow lost its gleam, and the five black scars of the Darkmoon Strife rent apart the world. A casual backhand from the core user glanced off Li Heng’s jian. Gleaming silver light limned the blade as the Winter Moon Reflection took in the force from the blow.

  That was all the attention the awakened core spared for its new opponent. It launched itself towards He Yu once again, a flurry of massive spiked clubs pushing He Yu to the limits of his defense. The blows carried all the same frenzy and unnaturally wrong power that Sha Xiang’s had, but this time it was backed by the cultivation of a late realm Golden Core. A late realm Golden Core intent on He Yu alone.

  He met his opponent with everything he had. Each block, each deflection, every strike sent heaven crackling along both their weapons and thunder roaring through the nest cavern. The cave floor cracked and shattered from the clash of their spirits. A howling gale whipped up around them both as they exchanged blows. Jagged arcs of heaven reached down from the clouds, ripped through the sword-spires of the core user’s spirit. Metal screamed, earth shattered.

  It was far from enough.

  The awakened core and its puppet met He Yu on equal ground, and its own attacks pushed He Yu to his limits. If it weren’t for his friends, he’d have been overwhelmed nearly as soon as the fight started. Li Heng’s jian flashed in the near-dark of the nest cavern, pouring what sword qi he could into the counterattack of the Winter Moon Reflection. In the back of his mind, He Yu thanked the foresight of heaven that Li Heng had long since stopped relying solely on his defensive style of fighting. The awakened core spared little attention for anyone other than He Yu, so Li Heng had few opportunities to power up his blade.

  A barrage of silver streaked out from the darkness. In the enhanced perception of the Peerless Judgment, Yan Shirong loomed in the shadows, held aloft by summoned strands of shadow qi. A hundred hundred eyes peered from those same shadows, seeing the fight from angles beyond the physical, observing with an intensity and attention beyond even He Yu’s perception technique. Although Yan Shirong used the same tendrils to rope the core user’s limbs, it was mostly in vain. He Yu wasn’t even certain the core user noticed attempts to be bound by someone with a full realm disadvantage. Still, his spiritual perception allowed him to see that Yan Shirong’s poison was doing its work, if slowly.

  With coordination rivaling that of He Yu and Li Heng, a combined assault from Chen Fei and Tan Xiaoling gave He Yu a moment where the pressure he was under all but vanished. A golden tiger coiled and leaped, its eyes of molten metal gleaming as its claws rent burning jagged wounds across the awakened core itself. Below, Chen Fei slammed a series of monstrously powerful kicks in to the user himself. Her raw physical strength, rivaled only by Tan Xiaoling, had improved tremendously since she’d formed her Golden Core. He Yu was grateful that he didn’t have to endure her blows.

  In the brief space the others had bought him, he activated Heaven’s Descending Blade. The air above the awakened core ripped apart, opening a crackling golden tear on the fabric of the world. Heaven’s fury rained down. A pale comparison to what Cai Weizhe had been capable of, it was still an attack worthy of a budding legend.

  A column of golden lightning consumed the awakened core and the user alike. They howled in tandem, rage suffusing the sound as its double cry shook the foundations of the cavern. When the tear in the world slammed shut and the lightning faded, He Yu’s heart sank. The only evidence that the attack had any effect were a few flickering motes of light floating away from rapidly closing cracks on the awakened core’s shadowy surface.

  Two pits of burning hatred focused on He Yu. The awakened core let out a feral growl. The user gnashed his teeth and flailed his spiked club about. The pair stood at the center of a scorched starburst of partially melted stone. At the very edges of the pattern, jagged spikes resembling bolts of heaven reached out toward the distant cavern walls.

  Everyone moved at once. The clash of presences, of qi, of techniques sent explosions of power rocking through the cavern. Chunks of the walls and the floors were blasted to rubble or pulverized to dust. Entire sections of the cave collapsed, whether from a stray blow or a dodged technique. What little remained of the nest portion of the cavern was quickly made to ruin, the egg sacs and the stray mantis corpses obliterated by the clash of six experts.

  Through it all, the awakened core had eyes only for He Yu. It spared only the smallest fraction of its attention for anyone else. If a strike was too threatening to it, it would defend. It would slap away one of the other, but then immediately reorient its focus to He Yu. It pursued him with a single-minded intensity that he couldn’t quite fathom. More often than not, it opened itself to—and received—attacks from the others.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The only real defense came from its advancement. Its advancement, and the power of the fully awakened core itself. Had it been at a more equal level of advancement to the rest of them, He Yu was sure they would have worn it down by now. Even with Yan Shirong’s poison coursing through its meridians; even with Li Heng opening ragged black scars upon its spirit; even under the relentless avalanche of Chen Fei’s blows; even burned by the black flame of Tan Xiaoling’s paired dao; and even before the wrath of heaven under He Yu’s call; the awakened core endured.

  The abomination weathered everything they could throw at it. And more. It attacked through their offensives, bringing a storm of earth and metal with each of its blows. Spires like swords erupted from the earth, as much a part of the user’s techniques as his presence. He would swing his club, and the spikes would grow. They twisted and reached for their target—more often than not, that target was He Yu.

  A massive fist slammed into the cave floor as He Yu darted out of its path at the last moment. Stone ruptured, and another forest of blades grew in the space of a heartbeat. He Yu responded as he always did—he attacked with techniques of his own. With all the speed of the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering, he advanced. The Five Crescent Winds formed a churning gale around him, and Heaven’s Descending charged the air.

  Chen Fei’s hands flashed in an incantation gesture. A barrier formation shone before He Yu, taking the brunt of a double slam from the spiked clubs. The Spring Rain Mirror turned away the greatly diminished attack a moment later. Li Heng launched another assault with the Darkmoon Strife, ripping open even more tears in the thing’s spirit.

  The awakened core was weakened, but so were they. All of them could see it. He Yu didn’t need a technique like the Peerless Judgment to see this truth—they were in a battle of attrition. And they were on the losing side. As the awakened core slowly, inexorably ground them down and swung the battle ever more in its own favor, He Yu scrambled for a plan.

  It was hard to think, being pressed as he was. Forced to fight at the very limit of his capacity just to survive. The only plan that came to him was one he immediately rejected. It was just as like to get him killed as not. While something deep in his spirit recoiled at the thought, he couldn’t deny that right now he was the only thing keeping the awakened core from overwhelming the others. He’d already taken several heavy blows. Pain shot through his left side with each breath from several broken ribs. He was pretty sure he’d more cracked bones, too. Time was running out, and he couldn’t think of any other options.

  Fine, then. If the awakened core was going to focus on him to the exclusion of all else, that was how this was going to end.

  He Yu pulled himself back from the awakened core on wings of wind. “Tan Xiaoling, follow your Way!” He could only hope she’d catch his meaning. There had only been a few conversations between them that touched on this, but there was one exchange in particular he hoped she would remember. Just to be sure, he shouted, “Remember the tournament!”

  Princess Tan did not hold back. One of her paired dao vanished, and she lifted her hand to the heavens. A black spear limned with fire formed above her. Killing intent gleamed on its point. More powerful than he’d ever felt it before, the sharp promise of death descended upon the world with her formation of her ultimate technique. The Mark of the Dark Sun.

  He Yu sent his guandao to his storage treasure. Blasting forward with every ounce of speed he could muster, he slammed into the core user, grappling the human-sized cultivator in a grip bolstered by all the strength he could call from his body enforcement. He yanked the core user around, placing the cultivator between himself and Tan Xiaoling’s technique. He Yu fixed his stare forward. Tan Xiaoling met his gaze, and dropped her hand.

  Pain ripped through him. Black flames seared through his chest, burned his flesh and his organs. Fire surged through his meridians, and his cultivation base went wild. Distantly, he heard screams. The awakened core thrashed in his grip, and broke free. He Yu stumbled back and fell. Five black scars ripped open the world. Another formation of the Mark of the Dark Sun turned the world to fire.

  He felt the rage and the hate crescendo. It crashed over them all, and then it was gone. Somewhere close by, a thump. The wrongness faded to nothing as the impression of gleaming sword spires flickered before it, too, died.

  Black crept in to the edge of He Yu’s vision. Far away, a husky voice said, “You’re supposed to be tougher than that.”

  He Yu closed his eyes and cycled his cultivation base. He fed what qi he had left into his wounds, but in the back of his mind he knew—it wouldn’t be enough. Gentle, worried hands worked over his chest. Someone shoved a medicinal pill into his mouth. He bit down.

  “Will it be enough?” Yan Shirong. He Yu forced a smile at the fact he wasn’t making any effort to hide his concern.

  “Idiot,” muttered Li Heng from somewhere close by.

  He Yu reached out and took his friend by the hand. With his other hand, he reached up and gripped Chen Fei even as she tried to feed him more medicine.

  “A hero never gives up,” he said as his world went dark.

  Voices erupted all around him, but he couldn’t make out what any of them were saying. He knew he was hurt, and badly. He wasn’t sure if he was going to make it, but at that moment, it didn’t matter. The others would. They’d keep going, keep fighting. At the very least, they’d live. If he had to sacrifice himself for their sakes, he’d do it a thousand times.

  Even so, he didn’t simply lay back. He cycled the medicine. He drew on what little of his cultivation base was left. He’d meant what he said, and he’d be damned if he ever gave up.