"Wonsoo," Secretary Liu called for his great-nephew.

"Grand-Uncle," came a reply from the dim interior of a large bed chamber.

The low voice issued forth from a face with an unkempt beard blanketing the speaker's mouth and chin. Likewise, although the man was in silk robes, his lounging on the divan and the bedraggled state of his undress suggested an undutiful slovenliness.

"Light!"

Sectary Liu illuminated the room.

To his displeasure, the once pristine studio was now a mess of discarded clothing. Feeling a throbbing in his temples, the Secretary regarded his nephew.

Wonsoo Liu was a born prodigy, the product of purposeful lineage. Unlike the Clans, the Su-Hang Houses did not possess the bloodline diversity to preserve Elemental Affinity safely. As such, they drew their talents from a pool of local aristocrats, with many descending from the dynastic Houses banished to the Frontier by the CCP after the Cultural Revolution. They had been scholar-bureaucrats in the age before the Communists reforged the social strata of China, possessing enormous ambitions for returning to a period when the Confucian Gentry held dominion over the lowest farmer to the child Emperor.

Today, theirs was a common enough narrative. Dispossessed gentry, such as the Lius, existed throughout China and its territories. For the scholar-bureaucrats, the European Spellcraft Revolution was a disaster of existential proportions. Within two decades, their monopoly on the pedagogy of magic, the source of their influence and the ladder that elevated them above the masses, had been pulled out from under them.

First came the peasant rebellions.

Then came the Communist Revolution.

After that, the threat of the Undead.

Then a new status quo descended.

New China did not need the old gentry, for the CCP elevated hundreds of thousands of Mages from NoM stock. The new state desired quantity to fill its administrative, manufacturing, territorial, and military ambitions—not prodigies.

But that didn't stop the scholar-gentry, who had mastered patience, subservience, and subversion for two millennia. When the Song Dynasty fell, they went on to serve the Horse Lords. When the Ming Emperor wiped out the Mongol Demi-humans, the gentry immediately prostrated before the new world order. When the Manchurian Tribesmen took the heavenly throne from the decrepit bloodline of the Mings, they ingratiated themselves into the new dynastic government. With the CCP, it would be no different. What the scholar-gentry possessed was knowledge to rule, to keep the proletariat dumb and pliable, and to ingratiate themselves as the bureaucratic sword arm of those sitting on society's apex.

In time, they forged alliances, controlled government sectors, and sent their feelers into the CCP and the PLA, into the Universities, the manufactoriums and the military tribunals.

That and the Gentry refined their Spellcraft and bloodlines.

Wonsoo was the product of that particular ambition.

A Para-elemental Mud-Mage.

A rare existence among rare existences.

A Conjurer and Abjurer, trained from birth by the best instructors, fed more precious Wildland floral and fauna than most NoMs have eaten rice bowls.

At only twenty-seven, Wonsoo had already made a name for himself on the Northern Front. A young man whose future was immeasurable and restrained only by time. It was with serendipity that the young man was even in Hangzhou. After a Purge mission had gone awry, he had been given time for rest and relaxation. Paranoid that the PLA would send his nephew toward riskier missions, Liu requested that Wonsoo "sow his wild oats" before setting off again.

Had the Song girl been pliable and obedient, Liu would have entertained the notion of setting up the two for what could potentially be an incredibly potent union. If the girl could give birth to three or four children, there were bound to be quasi or para-elemental talents among that number.

But Guo had refused his best efforts at an inter-house alliance, and now Liu must demonstrate to the old dog that the millennia-old gentry of Jiangnan wasn't just for show.

It was almost sickening how talented the man's gweilo granddaughter was, especially considering the common stock from which she emerged. The Songs were an old House, but they weren't scholars nor bureaucrats. In Liu's esteemed opinion, the House of Song, originating from Hubei, was akin to peasants.

Peasants elevated by the Communists. The very thought was an insult.

"You have been watching the match, yes?"

Wonsoo nodded.

"What do you think of the girl?"

"A bother," Wonsoo confessed readily. "That Familiar of hers is bad news. Mao knows what other forms it can shift into."

"Can you do it, though?"

Wonsoo grunted. "Grand-Uncle, I don't mean to be forward - but I am a Lieutenant in the PLA's Elite Northern 11th Battalion—and I'll be promoted to Captain by the end of the year. Do you think I should be duelling girls too young for me to date?"

Liu's jaws stiffened.

"Why, you want to date the girl?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"She's a lovely thing."

"Stop it..."

"I've sent you a few promising candidates, didn't I? Where are the girls?"

"Sent them home." Wonsoo shrugged his shoulders. "I did my duty if you must know. Now I am trying to get some sleep. Between that and the wedding, I've had a busy week."

"Your laziness is legendary," Liu chided his nephew. As a Mud Mage, slothfulness was parred for the course. "Those girls are counting on you. A child with your talent would set them up for life."

"Being a father is a bother as well..." Wonsoo lamented.

Liu hid his growing irritation.

"I am out of options here, Ah-Won. Tell me one thing, can you beat the girl or not?" he asked the only question that mattered. "For the House, for Jiangnan, I need the Songs under my thumb."

"Yes." Wonsoo yawned.

"Good. Also, use this for the Familiar." Liu passed Wonsoo a spell scroll.

"This is?"

"A tier 7 Banishment—it'll deal with her Familiar."

"I don't need it." Wonsoo pushed the scroll aside. "Too much bother."

"You will." Liu threw the scroll at his nephew's chest. "Activate it before the match. It's got a trigger algorithm built in. You're an Abjurer. No one would notice."

Wonsoo took a deep breath before exhaling deliberately.

"Whatever you say, Grand-Uncle."

"The girl can be yours; if you prevail. I can make it happen," Liu promised.

Wonsoo regarded the Clan's Patriarch. "Uncle, as a military man, I am both revolted and impressed by your pragmatism. I must also remind you that you dragged me to marriage meetings before this. Now, you want me to beat down a lovely girl and humiliate her. These reasons are not why I am here."

"Finish this, and you can return to your beloved base." Liu declared.

His nephew appeared to be dozing off.

"Pay attention!" Liu slapped Wonsoo's knees. "I am counting on you, Ah-Won!"

Gwen emerged from the ladies' room wearing her old skin suit from her Singapore trip, overlaid with cargo shorts and a tee. For her next match, she wasn't going to take the chance that Void Skin was off the menu and risk unnecessary exposure again.

Murmurs of disappointment and disapproval rose from the crowd when she returned fully clad from neck to toe.

Gwen resisted the urge to give the wedding guests the bird.

"Okay, I am ready to rock." She stretched out her hammies and calves, flexing the stiff leather of her combat boots. Her jungle set was elementally attuned, though the build quality was strictly Frontier.

Her hair had been tied into a thick ponytail, double knotted to avoid whipping her own eyes should the combat require acrobatic manoeuvres.

From across the courtyard, Liu returned with his next combatant.

"That's a 'young' Mage, is it?" Gwen looked over at Petra

"He looks old, not from our generation." Petra shook her head.

"Mina, any ideas?"

Mina had never seen the man.

Her opponent looked nothing like the clean-shaven young men she had met. The Chinese, particularly the Southerners, favoured sharp brows and intense eyes with clean-shaven faces.

The new guy appeared as though possessed by the spirit of "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski, only with dark hair and an Asian face. He had a stooped gesture and yawned as he walked. Everything about him seemed tired and devoid of life. Even the man's hair lacked vitality, plastering his face in oily, disorderly locks.

_Was she going to fight a hobo now?_

The Secretary conversed with Magus Ly, who glanced up at the 'young man' with an expression of surprise.

"Our NEXT and FINAL challenger!" Ly returned to the arena before announcing the next duel. "From the House of Liu, Magus Wonsoo Liu."

"Gwen." A Message spell from Guo blossomed beside her ear. "You'll need to use every trick for this one. Wonsoo is an Abjurer and a Conjurer who uses mud. It's a terrible Elemental matchup for you. Please don't stay in one spot for too long, and DON'T let him trap you. Remain mobile at all times. All I can tell you is that his signature move is entrapment magic, not unlike Watery Tomb, but virtually impossible to escape. He doesn't have a Spirit, but his Affinity is at least a 5."

Gwen nodded in her grandfather's direction before turning her attention toward this unassuming opponent.

As Wonsoo wandered into the arena, the crowd began to protest.

"How is this a fair fight?"

"Wonsoo's a Captain now, isn't he?"

"No, he's still a lieutenant."

"Didn't Wonsoo go to the Northern Front?"

"Still, for him to be back now, the Patriarch sure put some thought into this."

Petra took Gwen by the arm.

"Mud is a bad matchup for you," Petra affirmed Guo's advice. "However, Mud-Mages are weakest during the first few spell exchanges. The longer you fight, the worse it will be."

"I can intimidate dat bitch if yo like," Tao proposed, scratching his head. "If he is a good Abjurer, U gonna be in for a long grind, Gwen."

"I concur. You should alpha-strike," Petra insisted. "Don't stop until you're spell-fatigued or OOM, or both. That's how I would do it. If the guy's capable of continuing after that—forfeit."

Gwen surmised the situation and found herself in agreement with her family.

She was running tier 6 lightning.

She had a VMI of over 200.

And she had a trump card as well.

Two of them.

Caliban's Horror Stag form.

And Ariel's Barbanginy, which she dared not use for two reasons: one, she would like to save it for a life or death situation like Golos, and two, she had no idea what Barbanginy plus tier 6 affinity would do. Could Ariel even control something at that level of power? What if her AOE shattered the portable Force Barriers and maimed the wedding guests?

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

"Alright, wish me luck!"

"You won't need it!" Mina called out with confidence.

Petra thumbed her Storage Ring and took account of her spells.

"I've got healing spells from Babulya!"

"OI! YOU!" Tao called out not to Gwen but to her opponent. "DICK-SOO! YOU KNOW WHO MY DAD IS?! LET ME TELL YOU MANG, YOU- OW!! Damn it, Mina! I am shit-talking here!"

"ZIP IT, Peaches! Gwen will be fine."

For the fourth time, Gwen stepped into the duelling box.

His opponents stood a little shorter than she did. His stance, however, suggested he was completely relaxed. If anything, the man reminded Gwen of someone browsing the university's canteen menu.

"Look, no hard feelings." Wonsoo caught Gwen's attention with a wave of his hand. "You're young; life will have lots of other opportunities."

"I'll be the judge of that," Gwen riposted tartly. "Do your worst."

"I always do my worst." The man appeared amused by her enthusiasm. "Let me guess; you're the valedictorian who always does her best?"

Gwen's temple throbbed.

It would appear that she and Wonsoo were indeed poorly matched.

"BEGIN!"

Magus Ly wasted no time in getting the show on the road.

"Dimension Door!"

Gwen decided to take Petra's advice to heart.

She would close in with an AOE, then dance around her opponent.

An offensive barrage from start to finish.

"Shield!" The Mud-Mage's reaction, unlike his languished mannerism, was instantaneous.

Gwen appeared beside the Abjurer, triggering a burst of tenebrous ink.

Her Void matter splashed onto the Mud-Mage's barrier, though her consumptive motes of mana corroded no more than an inch of Wonsoo's considerably impervious semi-dome surface.

"Void Bolt!"

_HISS—!_

To her surprise, the impact failed to penetrate the weakened barrier.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Wonsoo, too, appeared to be surprised by Gwen's offensive potential.

“Terracotta Guardians!”

Two semi-opaque chunks of mana broke off from his enormous, fractured shielding.

Gwen didn't need Divination to know she had underestimated the Mud-Mage's defence.

"Dimension Door!"

She reappeared to the man's right, about five meters away. Her lightning burst caught one of the golem-things as it emerged.

"Lightning Bolt!"

A line of arm-thick lightning surged across all three targets, with Wonsoo caught in the middle. The foremost Guardian exploded, while the further one escaped with missing limbs.

"Mud Slide!"

"Dimension Door!" Gwen escaped the conic, AOE barrage.

She revved up an Elemental Sphere.

"Marching Mud!" The viscous mud mana disbursed by her magic began to collate. Be it the mud from his Shield, his Sleet-Storm, or his summoned "Guardians", they all began to form into vaguely shaped humanoid elementals.

A shot of adrenaline straightened Gwen's spine.

_SHIT._ To think her opponent combined the resilience of an Earthen Mage with the regenerative versatility of a Water Mage.

"Elemental Sphere!"

With tier 6 affinity, her imploding-then-exploding sphere encompassed the entirety of the second half of the duelling area.

"Caliban!"

Before the secondary explosion began, Gwen summoned her nether-worm to her side.

As her serpent materialised, her spell reached its second stage—a radial burst in the form of an electric nova.

The resulting energy was enough to destroy most of the 'Terracotta Soldiers', though Wonsoo's 'mud' had now spread everywhere, plastering every surface.

_Fudgesickles!_

Gwen felt the engendering of a terrible premonition.

The man's Mud Shield smoked with tears and rips, but ripples of fresh elemental mud instantly replaced the damaged exterior. Furthermore, when Wonsoo exchanged the volume-metric ratio of water and dirt, it became translucent.

_Clap—Clap—Clap—_

"Not bad." Wonsoo grinned, striking his palms in appreciation. "You're a greater prodigy than I, that's for sure."

Was the man mocking her?

"You're not too shabby yourself," Gwen retorted. "CALIBAN!"

"SCREEEEE!"

Caliban sped toward the Mud Mage as though launched from a catapult, transforming halfway into its spider form. Gwen figured that since the man's shield was unusually resilient, Caliban would perform best if it harassed the guy while she loaded up on buffs and turret spells to up her damage per spell exchange.

"Barrage!"

More conjured balls of semi-translucent slime flew her way.

Weary of what had occurred with the Water Mage, Gwen immediately erected her semi-dome shield.

The mud splattered all over, obscuring her line of sight.

Meanwhile, Caliban raked the Mud Mage's Shield with a flurry of sword strikes from its forelimbs.

"Mao, what a fantastic beastie." Wonsoo whistled. "Almost like a Shambling Horror crossed with an Arachne."

"Warding Bolt!"

"Call Lightning!" Gwen, meanwhile, loaded up on persistent Conjuration attack spells.

For all his resilience, the Mud Mage appeared to cast one or two spells every time she managed three or four. If so, the man must be used to opponents going OOM long before penetrating his defences.

Hoping to test Wonsoo's limits, she began a chant for Ball Lightning, simultaneously giving Caliban a mental order to play interference until her incantation finished.

The Mud-Mage took a step backwards.

_Was he bracing for impact?_ Gwen pondered.

"Jump!"

To her surprise, Wonsoo utilised a low-tier Transmutation spell.

The man launched into the air like a human cannonball, catching Caliban by surprise as he balled into her creature, Mud-Shield and all.

"Adhesion!"

Gwen almost lost her spell when Caliban slammed into the soft and wobbly shield like a cockroach caught in a sticky trap. Her Familiar squirmed and screeched, crying out "Shaa!" as it attempted to free itself.

Did he only use three first-tier spells disabled Caliban?!

Gwen felt her confidence falter.

The versatility of the Mud Mage was ludicrous.

_Shield._

_Jump._

_Adhere._

To think someone could defeat _Her Thing_ by using a human-sized cockroach trap. John Carpenter would be spewing.

Gwen was four incantations from finishing her Ball Lighting when Wonsoo turned his attention toward her.

"Jump!"

The Mud Mage charged her, using Caliban's stuck body as a battering ram.

"YOU'RE SHITTING ME!" Gwen swore. She had no time to finish the spell; even if she did, Caliban would be the one tanking her explosions. "Dimension Door!"

With another "Jump", Wonsoo reached her within a second or so. Confined within the arena, Gwen was incapable of using the 100-meter-plus range she had exploited in her fight with Golos.

"Caliban!"

Her fiendish Familiar turned back into its serpentine form, secreting grey goo all over its obsidian carapace to free itself from the adhesive shield.

She was slipping up. Gwen knew this and yet had little recourse. Her reactive tactics painted her as a monster hunter, while her reactions are unused to catching Mages off-guard. Unlike Magical Creatures, a Mage-Duel was akin to a game of Go; one had to plan three moves, where no action was performed solely for the act alone.

"Barrage!"

Gwen resumed a defensive stance, warding off the globs with her non-newtonian shield.

"Lightning Bolt!"

Her lightning arc obliterated a few mud clumps, though the rest splattered over her shield.

"Adhere!"

What remained of the sticky mud Gwen had teleported into suddenly grew liquid and slime-like, glueing her feet to the floor.

"Void Skin!"

Gwen fumed she had to use such a dangerously double-edged spell so soon. The sticky slime fell away, sizzling as her vitality-draining body armour absorbed the offensive substance. Her t-shirt and shorts disappeared, but at least she had her skin suit.

Caliban harassed Wonsoo with a few tentacles, punching small holes in the man's semi-liquid shield even as they self-replenished.

But the momentary gap created by Caliban gave Gwen an idea.

Do Mud-Shields have a convenient _crack_ through which Caliban could slither? She could get her Familiar to burrow downwards in the wild, but they were surrounded by Force-Barriers while in the arena.

Furthermore, from what she could discern, the man had restrained himself to low-tier spells while she had been nuking the guy with tier 3 Lightning Bolts and above. Perhaps the man was trying to disgrace her as she had the Fire and Air Mage, but if they kept going like this, even with her massive mana pool, she would be OOM before long.

_Crack!_

_Thunk!_

"Lightning Bolt!"

_Splat!_

Gwen's Warding Bolt, Call Storm, and Lightning Bolt barraged Wonsoo's Shield again, turning a portion of it opaque before the Mud Mage allowed it to fall from his barrier. The process reminded Gwen of reactive tank armour, only these grew back.

"Ready to give up?" the man called out from across the room. "There's no shame in it. We're not well-matched, and I've got almost a decade on you. Don't push yourself too hard! Old men talk and drink their tea while young folks like us are given the butcher cleaver to carve each other up."

"Lightning Bolt!"

Another chunk of shielding fell away from Wonsoo's shield. Gwen felt her frustration buzzing like a hive of angry bees.

"Almost forgot about that... you high-affinity Lightning Mages, always tripping up on your ego." Wonsoo sighed. "Barrage!"

More mud built up around Gwen's Shield, hinting at more dire circumstances.

Wonsoo's accurate assessment of her mood pissed her off.

She suspected the hobo-looking prick was trying to undermine her determination. If so, all Wonsoo had achieved was piling fuel on her bushfire.

It was time to up the ante.

She recalled what Alesia had once told her: if your opponent's defence appeared impervious, change gears. She could target the environment, their defence spell, and do whatever was necessary to expose a chink in the armour. An opportunity always presented itself, for no such thing as a perfect defence existed, only insufficiently applied offence. As an anecdote, her Sister-in-craft professed to never Fireball a Mermen Water Priest when collapsing the building on top of them would do just fine.

As for her immediate dilemma...

Her Warding Bolt and Call Storm fired every other interval, tinging her mana channels before they activated. The man's shield was reactive, meaning there was a play she could make if she were willing to put herself at risk.

"Caliban," Gwen mentally commanded her Familiar. "Slip in when you get the chance."

"Shaaa!"

_CRACK—BOOM—_ Her Conjuration spells fired their payload.

"Barrage!"

Wonsoo was building the density of Mud-mana around her, readying a finisher. According to her grandfather, it was likely an entombment-style AOE.

Gwen timed her assault for the split-second the Mud Mage was distracted by her bolts.

"Elemental Sphere!"

Her vitality dropped like a stone.

A blob of tenebrous darkness appeared just behind the semi-opaque mud clumps, forming a phenomenon akin to a micro-blackhole against Wonsoo's Shield.

Having expected another Lightning blast, Wonsoo's eyes narrowed just before the dark dot imploded, rapidly expanding into an all-consuming ball of jet-black, swirling ink.

"Caliban!"

Caliban leapt into the void created by the exploding sphere.

'Whomp!'

The secondary explosion triggered. A Void-nova rang out, a dark disk splashing against the sides of the Force Barrier.

As one, the audience retreated.

The wedding guests fell atop one another to find some cover. Overwhelmed and overcome by a sudden sensation of vertigo. The Force-Barriers held, but the visual impact of the attack amplified its metaphysical stimuli.

Secretary Liu shot up from his chair.

"Guo! You! Y-You've been keeping something of this magnitude from the PLA?"

Guo sipped his cold tea, frowned, and motioned for a servant to refill it. The pale-faced servant obliged with a trembling hand.

Liu recalled a vid-cast attached to the report he had received—particularly the effects of the Void Mana—a dark lightning that consumed rather than electrified the target. But the Fung's intelligence had mentioned nothing of the fact that VOID could be used with Signature Spells such as Elemental sphere, nor how absurdly devastating the attack could be.

Liu's back became drenched with cold sweat. Nothing better happen to Wonsoo, or else there will be blood.

Elevated on the stage, the tenebrous burst of ink faded.

The audience slowly came to their senses.

A clay semi-dome Shield remained in the duelling arena.

Wonsoo Liu was presumably inside, safe from the Void-empowered Elemental Sphere.

"Where's the Familiar?" a spectator's voice broke through the silence. "The Void-Beast, I mean."

A hundred pairs of horrified eyes converged on the muddy dome.

_SUCCESS!_ Gwen mentally punched the air as Caliban slipped between the gap that was created. As she had suspected, the self-replenishing mud-Shield had the same problem as Richard's Shield of Water: it could be disrupted when an equal or greater force was applied.

Of course, she didn't have the force, but she could 'disappear' enough of the Shield for Caliban to pierce. Cloaked with its Void-tinged goo and filled with Void-matter, Caliban should be impervious to the Void-blast generated by her spell.

As the orb erupted, she could sense Caliban striking the raw mana below the elemental ooze, she had held her breath, anticipating failure—then confirmation arrived from her Mongolian Deathworm.

"Do it now!" Gwen willed Caliban to intimidate the Mud-Mage, maybe take a nip out of the man if he refused to yield, though her Familiar should take care that its blow wasn't fatal.

Caliban landed with a plop, faced its opponent—then shifted into its centipede form.

_Gotcha!_ Gwen couldn't help but grin smugly, happy that her spontaneous plan superseded her expectations.

Then she stumbled.

There was no warning from her Divination Sigil.

Whatever happened, it wasn't targeted at her.

From standing tall, she was suddenly freefalling.

It took Gwen a split second to catch herself, dropping to one knee as the feedback of losing her Familiar washed over her.

Caliban was gone—banished by a counterspell, back into its pocket dimension, incapable of re-materialising anywhere between an hour to a day, depending on the tier of the expulsion.

A forced 'unsummon' had only happened once before in all the time Gwen had fought other Mages. When Xiao Huyi ambushed Petra and herself in the Hengsha Dungeon, the young Master had used some Clanner gobbledygook to send Caliban packing.

The jubilation of victory bled from Gwen's systems as though Wonsoo had opened a vein.

The crowd began to clamour in confusion as she spat out a mouthful of Maotai-infused bile.

Thankfully, the expulsion cleared her head.

The Mud Shield collapsed.

A guilty-looking Wonsoo stood in front of her.

"Sorry." The Mud-Magus' chest rose and fell. "That caught me by surprise."

Gwen picked herself from the floor, her bosoms likewise heaving.

"So, call it a tie?" The man scratched his head. "You can't win, and I'd feel guilty if I won now."

_Was he taunting her?_ Gwen wondered if the man was as thick as molasses. Why hadn't Wonsoo taken the opportunity of her disorientation to floor her? Was it to keep her on the back foot?

A truce? Or a bluff?

Either way, she couldn't quit with a straight flush in her left hand.

"We continue," Gwen declared.

Wonsoo scowled, clearly irritated. He looked around the arena, saw the lead-coloured face of his Patriarch, then turned back toward the teenage girl standing thirty feet away.

"You're not making this easy on yourself." The man's voice took on a tone of condescending criticism.

"Well, tough luck. Life is hard," Gwen riposted with a catty twang.

The Mud Mage snorted.

"Very well, ladies first—that's how you Westerns do it, right?"

Gwen took no heed of the Magus' mockery.

She had another familiar and another means of breaking through the man's barrier.

"Warding Bolt!"

"Call Storm!"

"Mud Amour!"

The Mud Mage became encased in semi-opaque globs of mana that flowed around his body, levitating him into the air. From her point of view, it seemed as though the man had become suspended in a vaguely-humanoid ooze.

_Crack!_

"Lightning Bolt!'

_THUNK!_

Three chunks of the Mage's liquid erupted, and the resultant electricity grounded itself, ionising the barriers on the floor.

The man finished his invocation.

"March of the Terracotta!"

By now, the room had been thoroughly splattered by the translucent mud. To Gwen's dismay, the clumps of the stuff which had formed here and there now transformed into little mud-men. The impromptu army then sprang from the floor and began to converge on her position. When two or more mud-men met, they formed into slightly larger variations that reminded Gwen of claymation.

"Dimension Door!"

Her vitality was holding up, but Gwen had to use her health sparingly. The AOE Void-burst from her short-ranged Teleportation spell cleared the space she'd landed, affording Gwen a renewed appreciation for the Signature Spell her Master had left her.

"Ariel!"

"EE—ee!" Gwen summoned her second Familiar.

Fighting while partnered with her Familiars was now second nature to her, so much so that the moment Caliban was Banished, she felt incomplete, frustrated, and furious.

It was as though she was made to fight with an arm tied behind her back.

A meter above her head, Ariel materialised, though not in the way that she'd expected. Where the marten usually performed a twist before landing with a flourish, it emerged directly in mid-air.

A strange hush fell over her audience, including the Mud Mage.

"Eeee?"

Her familiar haughtily surveyed its surroundings, whipping its bushy, fan-like tail.

Upon its head were two elongated stag horns, branching out before spiralling into sharp tips.

Its mongoose face had elongated, taking on a strange hybrid appearance that was neither mammalian nor Draconic but something in-between. Two tendril feelers struck out from where its whiskers used to be in the guise of a carp or a catfish, and Ariel's new pale-blue fur shimmered with a strange pattern that resembled fish scales. Around its neck grew its old pure-white marten coat, giving it a faux mane.

Most importantly, its front paws were two maned hooves, while its back legs were predatory claws from its original body.

"Is that a Kirin?" a voice in the crowd whispered audibly.

A murmur radiated through the crowd.

"Horn of a stag, the scale of carp, the beard of a catfish, hooves and a fish's tail with a lion's mane."

"Well, if it looks like a Kirin, sounds like—"

"EEEE! EEEee!" Ariel turned its handsome, whiskered jowl toward Gwen, demanding validation.

Its Master was enraptured with equal surprise and suspense.

Gwen knew Ariel wasn't a Kirin.

She would bloody well know if her marten was a Kirin,

It was a Lightning-Mongoose that ate an Eland antelope's core, a Draconic Stag's core, and a Draconic carp's core. Ariel had taken on some faux-Kirin traits, _sure_ , but they were superficial, possessing no ability. A true Kirin, according to her research, could Command Weather, Plane-Shift, Shape-Shift, use Telepathy and Illusion at will, and speak. Her marten-creature was restricted to "EE-ee", face nuzzling, and shooting lightning.

"Hear that cry?" a voice ratified the crowd's presupposition with complete incompetence. "A true Kirin neighs like a horse, this is a young Kirin, so it goes 'Eeeee…'"

Gwen felt like she should thank the bullshitter personally.

"Leader's ghost, that's amazing."

"Holy shit, the girl killed a Kirin and absorbed its Core?"

"Maybe she found a young one?"

"Maybe she's a Mythic Whisperer?"

"Most people would be dead."

"They eat human flesh, you know, like Dragons."

"An adult Kirin could obliterate Hangzhou by itself."

"Oh, Mao…"

Liu turned to Guo with his mouth open, all composure thrown to the five winds.

The Regional Administrator was visibly trembling.

"ARE YOU ALL INSANE?" her grandfather's foe blurted out. "YOUR SON WENT AND KILLED A KIRIN FOR YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER?!"


Gwen watched as her opponent put up his hands, motioning for her to look instead to her elders. Equally weary and wary, Gwen instructed Ariel to keep an eye on her opponent while she turned to Guo and Liu.

"Ee-ee!" Ariel flittered through the air, swishing its tail and twirling its prehensile whiskers. Pointing its buttocks toward Wonsoo, it wagged its tail tauntingly.

Gwen reached out with a hand to stroke the creature's mane, simultaneously materialising a block of raw HDM crystal.

Ariel took the opportunity to fly around its Master in a figure-eight, tickling her face. When it passed her outstretched hand, it nipped the crystal gingerly from her fingers and crushed the mana-rich material in its jaws, using the second whisker as a grasping tentacle.

Below, the audience watched, mesmerised.

Besides the livid Secretary Liu, Gwen's grandfather had taken on a contemplative expression.

The appearance of the "Kirin" had caught him flat-footed as well.

The corner of the ageing Chairman's eyes creased as he divided his attention between Gwen and the Familiar, his irises glowing subtly with Divination, unsure of what to make of their present circumstance.

The Kirin was a mythical creature tied to the Song's history. The Amulet that his sons shared was said to be crafted from the Core of one such being their ancestor had slain. The Analects of Song Rou had stated that due to their progenitor's transgression against the heavens, their family bloodline had been cursed with drought—resulting in male heirs awakening with Salt or Ash, elements that would render them infertile. However, after many years of cultivation, the progenitor uncovered a way to circumvent the affliction by utilising the Core of the creature that had cursed his progeny. Consequently, the line survived, growing weaker but persisting—until the family left Hubei and joined the Cultural Revolution.

But that didn't explain to Guo why Gwen had Kirin with her.

He recalled Jun's debrief; his younger son had informed him that Gwen had bested a Thunder Wyvern in single combat. That knowledge had been the source of Guo's confidence. Not having anticipated Wonsoo, he doubted the Lius had a candidate who could measure up to an impervious Draconic Wyvern capable of obliterating the outer city of Hangzhou.

Jun likewise had not mentioned a Kirin.

Assuming uncle and niece had encountered a Kirin, why would they monopolise the knowledge? For one, Guo knew better than anyone that Jun's reputation preceded his ability, that much of his son's legendary competence was attributed to widespread propaganda. Much to his regret, Jun was no Gunther Shultz, and there was no way that a Lightning Mage and an Ash Magus could even begin to harm a Kirin without supporting magic from a Tower.

Was it _Gwen_ , then?

Did the girl possess yet more untapped potential?

Had his granddaughter's association with Henry Kilroy given her yet more secrets to be unearthed?

If the reports were accurate, Kilroy could have hunted down a Kirin.

The man had done no less during the Saurian Sea War and on the Eastern European Front, aided by his Void-Sorceress wife and his Dryad Familiar.

Kilroy and _Sobel_.

_Gwen_ and Kilroy.

At any rate, it was improbable for Huangshan to house both a Kirin and a Yinglong.

By nature, Dragons are highly territorial and usually hate those of their kind with a passion. There was only one exception to the rule: when one of their _kin_ fell to lesser beings. Retribution was the only banner under which Dragonic-kindred banded together, forming cabals capable of erasing cities.

_What if it was a young spirit they subsumed?_ Perhaps Gwen had stolen an egg, and somehow Jun managed to hatch it during their Huangshan trip.

Guo found his second hypothesis equally unrealistic.

He had begun entertaining a third when Liu's incessant squawking grew to such a pitch that it derailed his train of thought.

"GUO! You're a fool! Do you hear me?! Your sons are nothing but troublemakers! I can't… I can't believe it… Mao! My poor Qin-Qīn, what have you done to my precious child?"

In Liu's mind, there was no doubt about what had transpired.

The mournful Secretary regretted inviting the Songs into his house. He regretted letting his daughter near that playboy Hai. He lamented, more than anything, signing his name on the Pass, which allowed Jun and Gwen to access the Anhui province. When Internal Security came looking for heads to chop, his name would be penned in _red_ next to the Songs.

Dragons were quick to avenge their kin.

What if the Yinglong issued an edict that banished all rain from the region?

Would the PLA capitulate?

Give up Jun and Gwen Song?

Or would the PLA follow the Militant Faction's doctrine of no mercy, no negotiation, and directly assault the Yellow Mountain?

What ghastly enterprise had driven Liu so low as to think of allying with the peasant House of Song? What cursed coincidence had tempted him? Now the Lius and the Songs were mutually doomed! No Faction mattered when their immediate future involved being mind-read, mind-wiped, and then offered to the Yinglong with less ceremony than a suckling pig on Chinese New Year.

"Guo! Say something!" Liu wondered if Guo would be more reactive and forthcoming if he grabbed the old man by the collar and rattled down the answer like a pepper shaker.

Abruptly, Guo rose from his seat.

"Guo—" Klavidya's Silent Message bloomed beside her husband's ear. "This has to be a mistake. Gwen knows better! Jun knows better! Her Familiar is a mongoose! Look! You can still see part of its original form!"

"I am aware of that." Guo gave his wife a reticent expression fraught with cautious confidence.

He had suspected that Gwen might bring a calamitous destiny to the house, though this wasn't it.

Not to mention his wife was right. Jun was too wise to make a mistake of this magnitude. Whatever this was, it originated from Gwen—which meant he could divert their present predicament to Gunther Shultz or perhaps the late Henry Kilroy.

But first, it wouldn't hurt to receive confirmation.

"Gwen—"

Guo sent a Silent Message directly to his granddaughter.

"Grandfather!"

"Don't move, and don't look around. Tell me one thing, is Ariel a Kirin?"

"No! HELL NO! Ariel just ate some bad Cores, that's all!"

"Good. I believe you."

"You do?! Tell them that I—"

Guo suppressed a smirk.

Liu's would be an error that he could use to his advantage.

The wizened old hound of the CCP turned to his counterpart, catching the stench of the man's fear like a Stinking Cloud to his dog nose.

"Secretary Liu. Do you forfeit the match?"

"What?"

"If you do, I shall assume all responsibility for the Kirin."

Liu stared at his counterpart, gobsmacked by Guo's declaration.

"Guo." The Secretary was caught between resentment and a desperate desire for exoneration. "Have you lost your mind?"

Gwen's grandfather looked toward the stage.

"You heard Gwen when all of this started, no?" Guo's face was blank as a piece of paper, an expression which exacerbated his mockery. "It's over, Liu. It was all over the moment Gwen stepped onto that platform. We can still finish the banquet amiably; do you wish for bad blood that fervently? Are our children not lovers? What would they think?"

Liu's tongue caught in his throat dangerously.

A cascade of doubt washed over the Secretary.

_Should he give up?_

Cut his losses?

The two families would need to work together and pool their connections if they wished to survive this.

"Guo..."

_DING!_

A Message spell blossomed beside Liu's ear.

"Wonsoo?" Patriarch Liu had not expected his grand-nephew to Message him now of all times.

"It's not a Kirin," Wonsoo's voice came across from the duelling area. "This thing's a paper tiger; it looks like a Kirin. And another thing, the girl most definitely got blooded on Huangshan. We're all thinking her Familiar is a Kirin because it's exuding Dragon-Fear! That thing's been fed on Draconic flesh!"

At the mention of the idiomatic origami tiger, Liu's face ignited.

In a fury, the Secretary turned to Guo, his complexion now the scarlet passion of raw pork liver.

"WE CONTINUE! THE MATCH WILL CONTINUE!" Liu ejaculated with a petulant intensity, sending out a spray of spittle.

Gwen's grandfather dabbed at a spit spot with a finger, unmoved by Liu's sudden passion.

Liu tapped into the still-open Message.

"HURT HER! Crush the girl! I want the Songs to regret everything! Listen to me, Wonsoo! Do your WORST!"

Gwen watched as Wonsoo grumbled under his breath, then looked toward the ceiling with an expression that read, _I regret everything._

"What's wrong with you?" She sized him up with her eyes.

"Nothing," Wonsoo lamented. He stretched both of his arms, then shook loose his fingers. "Fair warning, I won't be holding back this time."

"The feeling is mutual." Gwen stood with her off-hand resting on her hips. Her other hand stroked Ariel, purring and swimming here and there with adorable swishes of its tail.

"The MATCH WILL CONTINUE!"

Magus Ly resumed his position atop the cage.

Wonsoo cracked his neck. "Last offer - we tie, what do you say?"

"Nice try..."

"Song _mei-mei_." The man groaned, referring to her youthful age. "Are you always this difficult?"

"Try me, Big Brother Liu."

Wonsoo regarded her to see if she was serious. The man sighed when he saw that her serious demeanour was entirely genuine.

"Look, I am finishing it with my next spell," he declared to her. "If you're serious, stop screwing around. Come at me with everything you got."

"Fine!" she retorted.

The two parted.

"BEGIN!"

Wonsoo moved behind his barriers, then began an incantation.

"Ariel, to me."

Gwen pulled Ariel closer to her torso.

Discretely, she transferred a flow of Draconic Essence to her fingertips.

"Ee-ee!" Ariel indicated that there was no need. "Eeee! EE!"

"Oh?" Gwen felt only wonder at her creature's newfound ability.

She released her Familiar just as Wonson began his chant.

There was no need to _feed_ her Familiar because Ariel had just _requested_ her Draconic Essence like Caliban. Having gotten accustomed to Caliban's liberal consumption of her vital force, all she had to do was channel her Draconic Essence toward her Conjuration Sigil for Ariel to subsume the usually inoperable resource.

She quickly glanced at her opponent.

Wonsoo had his Mud-Shield, Mud-Armour, and a shit-load of Mud-mana stacked here and there. Whatever the Mud-Mage had planned, he was confident she couldn't do shit to him.

That would be his mistake.

From the length of his incantation and the mana radiating from his body, Gwen suspected it was at least a tier 6 spell, a tier withheld from Gwen until her Spellcraft knowledge caught up with her Affinity.

"EEEE!"

Her Familiar was loaded up and ready to go.

"ARIEL!"

Raw lightning-mana flowed from Gwen's Elemental Gate, channelling into Ariel's body, activating the Draconic-Essence encircling its centre.

"EE-ee!!"

Her Kirin-marten expanded to full size.

Ariel's neck distended, its mane whipping the air. Long, stag-like limbs spiralled from its stumpy, infantile form, and its fur shone so brightly that Ariel seemed like a descending divine comet.

"LORD KIRIN!" someone cried out in the crowd.

"So she does have a Kirin for a Spirit!"

"Forgive us, Lord Kirin!"

"It is TRESPASS to kill a Kirin!"

A palpable wave of Dragon Fear, dulled by the Force barrier, rolled over the audience like an undulating tide.

A portion of the guests fell to their knees.

Some wept.

Others began to whimper.

"WONSOO!" Patriarch Liu cried out, half choked with rage. He appeared on the verge of a paroxysm, igniting every mote of his mana to retain his sanity. "DO IT NOW!"

"Cao, I am glad I wore 'the' underpants," Tao moaned beside Mina, who was fighting an uphill battle.

"Seven Li of Swallowing Earth!" The Mud Mage completed his attack.

Gwen recognised the manifesting phenomena.

Her father had used a similar spell!

She had seen him use it on Sufina's island.

In an instant, Hai had turned an entire twenty-odd meter radius of his strike zone into a world of sparkling white salt—destroying all hostile flora and fauna in a single strike.

Her Divination tingled.

With added urgency, Gwen willed Ariel forward.

"EE-EE!" Ariel swished through the air, then made a bee-line for the Mud-Mage.

Gwen wasn't sure how potent Wonsoo's AOE would be, nor did she have time to gauge Ariel's new abilities. Whatever Wonsoo's plans, she had to finish it first.

With one word, she sang the snake.

"BARBANGINY!"

Ariel's horns blazed, incandescent and viridescent.

Inside the humble, mortal realm of Liu's wedding banquet, an emerald-hued celestial object, and Elemental Sphere, entered the Prime Material.

A cacophonic _CRACK,_ not unlike Golos at the apex of his insane wrath, washed over the wedding guests with the bone-thrumming intensity of rolling thunder.

But Gwen's wasn't the only spell in motion.

Mud wasn't a flashy element.

From above and below and all around, Wonsoo's oppressive, ooze-like mana enclosed her being. Gwen was standing unassailed one moment, then unexpectedly, she was underwater—or more precisely, under a deluge of semi-opaque mud.

The force elevated her globular barrier from the floor, swallowing all light. Within the protective shell of her non-Newtonian sphere, the undertow of an obscure current tossed her about like a snow globe in a washing machine.

_SPAK—crack—!_

The weakness of her Non-Newtonian Shield became immediately apparent. The all-encompassing crush of mud rendered her impact-resistant insulation worthless.

Her world went dark.

The mud was now entirely opaque.

Gwen became shrouded in pitch-black darkness, her world illuminated only by the glow from her iris, weakly refracted from the glass-like interior of her Shield.

_CLACK—_

Her Shield shattered.

The walls pressed in, first enveloping her feet and hands, then her thighs. The mud-mana was coarse and cold, with a texture like high-grit sandpaper.

Claustrophobic panic inundated her mind, paralleling the viscous liquid filling her Shield.

The compressed air was making her head swell.

Her ears popped.

She couldn't breathe.

Outside, Ariel reached its target.

"EE-EE!"

Gwen's payload left her Familiar.

Not one but two Elemental Spheres issued forth from Ariel's horns; twin emerald suns bright enough to illuminate the entire courtyard, turning night into a smogless summer's day.

The guests stared in stunned silence, overcome by the twin spectacle before them. Those on their knees had already accepted their inevitable demise.

A volatile cocktail of destructive energies washed over the Force Barrer, sending the generators into a hysterical whine.

Wonsoo's para-elemental quagmire had held the energy of the Emerald Lightning captive, and now the whole duelling area was filling up with immense pressure, threatening to escape via the only logical means.

It was an unexpected outcome for both Patriarchs.

Guo had not anticipated that Wonsoo would take advantage of the arena to 'fill' the room instantly with his 'Mud' mana, incapacitating Gwen by assailing her on all sides.

On the other hand, Liu had not foreseen that Gwen could squeeze out an artillery-class AOE capable of taking out his entire manor.

'WHOOOMP!'

The Elemental Spheres forcefully expanded to their maximum allowance.

The entire duelling arena became an incandescent, rectangular light block, blinding the audience and obscuring the combatants.

The Force Barrier warped.

A shockwave rang out.

The manor rocked as though an earthquake had struck. Pavements cracked. The pond water churned. A stone bridge collapsed. Eaves fell from the fascia, and roof tiles clattered, falling over the panicked guests.

For a moment, the wedding guests wondered if this were the last and final duel they would ever witness, pondering if the green sun was the call to some higher purpose. A few regretted their skeletons in the closet. Others thought of their families and their children in their final moments.

Then the secondary blast hit.

A lightning nova swept across the arena unimpeded.

The barriers grew white-hot, then dimmed.

The crowd came to their senses.

What happened to the _quagmire_?

The only beings who remained in the duelling arena were the girl, looking dazed and confused, and a Kirin handsomely dog-paddling above her head, vainly showing off its mane.

It took Liu all but two seconds to realise what had occurred.

Guo too seemed to have understood, more or less.

Their eyes met.

Liu shied away, his lips ashen.

A flush of colour spread across Guo's uncharacteristically stony face.

Gwen had defeated Liu's prodigy.

Wonsoo's plan had backfired.

To think the combination of an enclosed space and highly-compressed mana would amplify the power of the girl's Elemental Sphere.

Guo searched the arena, wondering why there was no Magus Ly to announce Gwen's victory.

A sudden realisation made the corner of Guo's lips twitch.

If he had been Ly, would he have stood on top of the duelling box, waiting for it to blow?

Shaking his head and turning to Liu with undisguised loathing, Guo stepped away from his in-law.

"A well-fought match," he declared to Liu, loud enough for the crowd to hear. "I would have contested that curious Banishment, but let us not dwell on such trivial dishonours. My family and I will leave for Shanghai once the banquet is done. The air of Hangzhou, Secretary Liu, is _far too humid_ for a Northerner peasant like me!"

Shanghai.

PLA Super-structural Tower.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Contingency Teleportation Chamber No.11.

A blaring red light illuminated the chamber, followed by a wailing siren indicating an incoming Mage whose Contingency Ring had triggered.

_BESZZZZAK—_

A flash of Conjuration mana blazed across the end-module mandala, hand-etched into the mithril-plated floor.

The figure of a male, slightly charred and fully disoriented, plopped unceremoniously onto the platform.

The medical team rushed to the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Magus Wonsoo Liu!"

"Mao! From Hangzhou?"

"Sir! Can you hear us?"

The Magus had spread himself on the floor, resembling the Chinese pictogram figure for _big._

He raised a hand to indicate that he was alive.

The Medical Mages regarded one another.

"Sir, you are badly burned," one of the nurses pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah...Hrrng!" Wonsoo coughed. A spray of crimson issued forth from his lips.

"Get me the burn ointment! We'll stabilise him with Healing Word, then transfer to the 1ST PLA! Get the Transport to get ready!"

Drawing on the last of his will, the Mud-Mage circulated his languished mana, dulling the wracking agony stabbing at his nerves. "Tell Colonel Jiang that I need another week of R&R..."

"Sir?"

"…away from Hangzhou..."

"Sir, we need to move you..."

Wonsoo was already unconscious.

For Gwen, the period after Ariel's double Elemental Sphere passed as though in a trance.

She had seriously thought she was going to die.

When Ariel's attack filled the entire arena and electrified the mud-like mana, she knew she had fucked up. The AOE was too much for the barriers to handle.

Furthermore, the invigorated positive lightning had ignited the mana that Wonsoo had used to fill the room, much like it had done before in the enclosed sewers under District 109.

But who'd have imagined Ariel could double up on her spells? She had felt the increased drain on her mana pool and thought the phenomenon a part of her empowered casting.

Her dark world had suddenly become white.

She had wondered if the pressure exerted on her body would pop it like a blood sausage.

And then she recalled that she owned a Teleportation Ring.

The Contingency Ring had been a gift from Gunther, a surety that she would be safe no matter where she ventured. So long as she was close to a Tower, her survival was assured.

How could she forgive herself if she had expended Gunther's ring on an ego trip, especially after Wonsoo had explicitly offered a truce?

Gwen reflexively dispelled Ariel, much to the crowd's relief.

Caught in a haze, she descended the stage, swallowed by a sea of noise and sound. There were pats on the back, cheers and congratulations, death stares, and jeers and boos born full of anger and disappointment. The chaotic stimulus grew until it was white noise.

"Good work," a familiar voice cut through the static.

A large towel wrapped around her shoulders, covering the spectacle of her immodest skinsuit.

Gwen looked up.

Jun's face grinned back at her, his arms folded across his chest.

"Uncle Jun!" An unbidden surge of passion choked the cry of relief from her lips.

Her immediate reaction was to embrace him.

Next, she carefully inspected the complexion of his neck and collarbones for hickeys.

Just as she had finally rested her cheek comfortably against his shoulder, she caught Ayxin staring.

"Ayxin." Gwen pulled herself away.

"Gwen." The Dragon-kin inclined her head.

The air between the two women sizzled.

"So, are the two of you an item yet?"

"Gwen, not now," Jun cleared his throat. He cautiously warded off the curious faces of Tao, Petra and Mina with broad smiles. "The short answer is no."

Ayxin growled, visibly flustered by Jun's confession.

The sound emitted from the Dragon-kin's vocal cords carried a suggestive purr. It was a strangely erotic reaction, especially considering her exquisite and alluring choice of form, so much that her audience had to will themselves away from staring too intently.

Gwen wanted to say something witty, but her exclamation was interrupted by an uproar from the middle of the courtyard.

"Don't you understand, Guo? We're in this together now! Your grandchild and your son have killed the Yinglong's flock! They're going to bring calamity to Hangzhou and, by extension, Shanghai! How will you explain that to the National Assembly? To the Security Council?!"

"Excuse me a moment."

Her uncle left, followed closely by Ayxin.

Before Gwen could follow, her friends closed in on her.

"Gwen, are you alright?"

"How are you feeling?"

"What was that spell!?"

"Is Ariel a Kirin?"

"Can it turn back into a marten?"

The barrage of questions made her head throb.

She noted that the assembly of wedding guests who had enjoyed the death match was now also craning their necks to hear what she had to say to her friends and family.

"Yes, I am okay. That was an EMPOWERED Signature spell. Ariel IS NOT A REAL KIRIN, and I am sure it could turn back into a MARTEN if it wanted to."

With the euphoria of seeing Jun now displaced, her muscles ached as though each piece had been individually racked and screwed.

"Overextended your mana channels, I'd wager," Petra noted Gwen's unnatural stiffness. She moved behind her cousin and began massaging her shoulders. "You'll need a week's worth of bed rest and healing from Babulya. Assuming you're continuing with Master, we're probably looking at a whole new body scan too."

"Yeah." Gwen closed her eyes and sunk into the sensation of Petra's fingers kneading through her bruised and battered flesh. Her commitment to Magister Wen had to continue. Less so on Petra's account and more so out of necessity. According to Jun, so long as Pudong and the PLA Tower had equal access to Wen's research data while Gwen remained in China, they would abide by their unspoken agreement to leave her be. Should that teat of knowledge dry up, all would suffer.

"My Lady!"

A not-so-familiar voice caught Gwen's attention.

It was Chen Pao, and the young man had accosted Ayxin, separating her from Jun.

_Holy moly_ , Gwen tugged at Petra. THIS she had to see.

Pao was staring at Ayxin with his eyes peeled, as wide as quail eggs, possessing the same ferocity he had previously garnered for Gwen. However, as he came closer to the Dragon-in-disguise, the young man appeared to grow less sure of himself.

"You…" Pao stuttered. "I..."

Then to their surprise, he back peddled.

"Miss? Do… I know you from somewhere?"

Looking at Ayxin strutting around in her laundered Hello Kitty t-shirt, something clicked between Gwen's ears.

Ayxin must have _borrowed_ her likeness!

The Dragon-kin had asked for a change of her clothes back on Lotus Peak! Assuming the woman ventured into the human world searching for Jun, the only garb the dragon-woman would have possessed was Gwen's gift of mundane, non-magical clothing. QED—to enter the human world, it would have been best to assume Gwen's likeness, not to mention the Anhui border guards had seen her prior.

_Bloody hell, you snake bastard!_ Gwen spewed internally. _You violated my copyright!_ _A Dragon wouldn't download a teenage body, would you?_

But of course, the Dragon-kin had done just that. Ayxin was arrogant, entitled, and perfectly happy taking people's shit without regard. Not to mention that getup! God, how old was the woman? TWO HUNDRED?! Parading around like she's sweet sixteen, do dragons know no shame?! How thick was their skin?

To everyone's surprise, Ayxin did not rebuke the young man.

"Your suffering was my oversight, young Mage. I shall now clear your mind. Go and sleep off your sorrows—tomorrow will be a better day, and all your woes will pass like a summer storm."

"Yes, Mistress." Pao appeared to have acknowledged Ayxin's cryptic response.

The young man turned toward the exit, catching Gwen and her posse eavesdropping.

Gwen swallowed nervously as their eyes met.

Chen's orbs were bloodshot with sentiments he could not rationalise.

_Oh Lordy,_ her heart ached with second-hand pity, the poor sod.

Pao bowed deeply.

"I am sorry I mistook you for someone else," the young man apologised. "Please forgive my blindness."

"Look, it's not your fault." Gwen waved her hands defensively, fanning the wretched misery drifting from the young man like a stench. "We all make mistakes."

"I will do everything I can and beyond to exonerate your reputation."

"That's not necessary." Gwen was serious. She wanted to put this episode behind her. Being slut-shamed in front of half of Hangzhou's high society wasn't the sort of experience one cherished.

But before Gwen could continue, Pao walked away, compelled by a greater force than Gwen's mortal presence.

With the young man gone, she approached Ayxin.

The two _girls_ were the same height, with near-identical figures, creating a curious visage for Gwen's cousins to digest.

"Don't expect me to thank you," she addressed the Dragon-woman cattily. Rather than a beauty that felt real, Ayxin's comeliness appeared as though she sprung to life from a silk-screen painting.

Team Cousin joined the two.

"Gwen, who is this?" Petra examined Ayxin but couldn't quite pin Ayxin's mien onto her internal mind map.

Gwen introduced her uncle's Dragon D'amore.

"Ayxin—Petra. This is Tao. This is Mina."

"Guys, this is Ayxin. She's a Demi-human-Dragon-kin."

Ayxin snubbed Gwen's cousins.

"Ai's got an attitude, eh?" Tao chuckled. He straightened himself, then threw a gang sign up in Axyin's face. "Sup, Ayxin! You wanna party, you come to me, gurl! I show you the best beats in town, real Culture, with a Capital SEE."

Mina was a far better listener.

"Umm... Where's she from?"

"Huangshan." A mischievous smirk touched Gwen's lips. "Lotus Peak, to be specific."

"But that's where." Petra traversed her eyes until they landed on an answer. A flicker of Divination passed behind her orbs, and then the Russian girl audibly gasped.

Petra retreated a step and bowed.

Mina quickly followed suit.

Tao appeared confused. "Wat's wrong with chu?"

"Peaches! Shut up and bow!" Mina insisted.

Ayxin waved them away.

"I am here for a private matter," Ayxin dismissed the young Mages. "There is no need for ceremony."

"Dangerous as she might be, she's a cool Sheila." Gwen tucked a hand against Ayxin's narrow waist. "Did I mention she's got the hots for Uncle Jun?"

Mina shot Ayxin a look that was shock-horror.

"Child, you have been very liberal with me," Ayxin chided Gwen. "Your overfamiliarity displeases me."

"You came uninvited!" Gwen fired back at her. "What did you do with Uncle Jun? The two of you were gone for a long time."

"I fail to see how that is any of your business."

"My business? Oh ho ho..."

"Gwen…" Petra touched a hand to her forehead to suppress a sudden migraine. She pulled her cousin away from the Dragon-kin. "How is this possible? Ayxin shouldn't be here. She can't be here!"

"I wouldn't know." Gwen studied the Dragon-kin, hypothesising a few potential possibilities. "She's here, though, so I'd say it's a bit late to worry about Shielding loopholes."

"What about her C-O-R-E?" Petra whispered warily. The vast majority of the guests had cleared out by now. The place was filled with servants cleaning up what remained of the banquet. "You know…"

"That's a good point." Gwen turned to Ayxin. "So, how is it that—"

"AYXIN!" Jun's voice called out from beside Liu and Guo. "I need you for a moment. Can you spare a minute?"

"I can," Ayxin's voice effortlessly carried over to Jun.

The cousin crew watched Ayxin depart.

"She got a nice ass." Tao smacked his lips. "She hollering from the Anhui Frontier, you say?"

_That's MY ASS._ Gwen resisted the urge to punch Tao in the arm. She could feel her Draconic Essence trickling back now, unknotting her muscles one by one.

Mina and Petra regarded Tao with distaste; there were terrible listeners, and then there were _awful_ listeners.

"No, Peaches." Gwen mimed a flying Dragon with her fingers. "She's a Winged Drake, a Dragon-kin. Half human, half Demi-God, and she's over two hundred years old."

"SHE'S OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD?!" Tao suddenly looked up. "If dragons live for thousands of years, does that make Uncle Jun a cradle robber?"

"Naw, she's an old goat looking to tuck a young ram," Gwen snorted spitefully. "Say, where's Percy?"

Mina and Tao both shrugged.

"I saw him leave right after you won," Petra informed her cousin.

Gwen exhaled deeply before surveying the desolate courtyard, now empty of guests. Only the NoM servants remained, scrubbing grease and vomit from the tiles, mementoes left over from her inexpert Dragon Dear.

"Come on," she notified the others. "Let's see what the oldies are doing. Maybe we can leave for Shanghai tonight. I don't think I've ever missed my apartment so much as I do now."

"Jun, I signed you a Pass through to the Anhui Frontier because you said your niece needed training, not so that you could slaughter the Yinglong's flock!"

"Magus Liu, it's a little disingenuous to back peddle. Both you and I know the rules. Why raise a fuss after the fact?" Jun had on his usual affable grin. From the looks of it, her uncle was trying to dissuade Liu from weaselling out of their gambit.

"Because he lost his gambit, and now he wants to reclaim his face," Ayxin interjected before Liu could continue. "You can see it on his face."

"Excuse me, who are you?" Liu snapped, his eyes narrowing with annoyance, his patience no longer generous after losing Wonsoo. From the Secretary's frustration, this wasn't the first time Ayxin had spoken up while the 'men' were talking. "I have been nothing but courteous to you, young lady. I suggest you take your wisdom and leave my estate."

"I refuse," Ayxin scoffed. "If Jun stays, I stay."

"Guo, this is your son's guest. Are you going to let her insult me in my own house?" Liu's tepid attempts at dragging her grandfather into the muck no longer escaped Gwen now that she was over her shoe euphoria.

"I think our esteemed guest can do whatever she likes." Guo meets his son's eyes.

"Oh yes," Klavdiya informed Ayxin. "You just be yourself, dear."

"Yes, I intended to." Ayxin eyed Jun's parents happily. "I was told that hat mothers-in-law were frightful beings. But you are nice."

Klavdiya nodded.

"Guo!" Secretary Liu's voice took on a higher pitch and volume. "This disrespect is unbecoming! Do you think that just because you have defeated Wonsoo, you can walk sideways all over the House of Liu? Did you know crabs are an Hangzhou delicacy?"

"Secretary, there's no need for that kind of language," Jun stepped between his parents, his in-law, and his Dragon-girl.

"Let's just part amicably, shall we? Where's Hai and Qīn, anyhow? Shouldn't they be here to acknowledge how... er... 'events' will go forward? Our families are now joined, are we not?" Jun's diplomacy seemed to encourage the desperate Secretary.

The man's face suddenly grew grim.

"If you think I will hand over my grandchild just like that, Guo, you've got another thing coming. You uncultivated peasant farmers—"

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT JUN!" Ayxin tongue-lashed the unsuspecting Secretary. "CHASTISE YOURSELF!"

The Dragon-kin's words reverberated through the air with a palpable force. With the deliverance of the last syllable, something overcame the Secretary, crushing his being until only crumbs remained.

To the surprise of the Songs and the remaining servants, Liu prostrated himself before Jun and Ayxin.

In Gwen's opinion, the word prostrate could hardly do the man's actions justice.

What Liu performed was a full-body, Manchurian kowtow; one in which the sycophant threw oneself on the floor, flattened one's body while on hands and knees, and then slammed one's head against the floor.

Too bad for Liu, his estate had used solid granite for the flooring.

_THUNK!_

The audience winced as Liu fell face-first on the pavement, pancaking his facial features.

A bloody tooth went flying.

"FUCK ME!" Tao muttered audibly.

The spectacle lingered, as did the awkward silence.

"Master!"

"Protect the Master!"

"Defend the Patriarch!"

Abruptly, guards began to converge from the shadows, the doorways, and the roof. All in all, a dozen Mages of various seniority surrounded the outer courtyard.

Jun shook his head.

"Peaceful Hangzhou isn't just for show," the Ash Bringer chortled sardonically.

Guo chuckled.

Ayxin stood unmoved. Her visage was that of an empress who could command the death of Liu's men at a whim.

She turned to the Secretary.

"You... dare?"

The bleeding Secretary Liu was a stone statue. His lips defied his cerebral commands, welded shut by some external, compelling force.

"Father!"

To Gwen's dismay, the beleaguered Secretary was saved by the bell, for his helpless acquiescence was interrupted by the sound of Qīn's harrowing shriek from the eastern gate.

Liu's bleeding mien darkened considerably. Even Gwen could see that losing face in front of his beloved daughter was a fate worse than being beaten half to death.

Qīn ran across the courtyard, silk robes streaming behind, her white-jade flesh dancing against the pale light. She fell to her knees, heedless of the muck, then scooped up her father with both arms.

"Cure Wounds!"

A flow of Positive Energy suffused Secretary Liu, who became putty in his caring daughter's hands.

Hai then appeared at the threshold connecting the inner and outer courtyard.

"Jun, what is the meaning of this?" Her father sheepishly entered. Gwen winced when Guo glared at him with an expression that could only be matched by the frigid hostility exhibited by Jun's libidinous little minx.

But the girl's anger was different.

The girl's body language of a woman in love defending her beau.

"Father, can you get up?" Qīn pulled at her father desperately.

"Ayxin. That's enough," Jun pleaded with his Draconic companion. "Sectary Liu wasn't serious."

Ayxin lifted her chin imperceptibly.

Liu felt his lips loosen.

"Qīn, get away!" he yelled out. "The girl's a Mind Mage!"

"You'll be sorry!" Qīn screeched at Ayxin. To Gwen's complete delight and amazement, the willow-like woman turned to her new husband. "Hai! Do something!"

As for Gwen, it felt as though something inside her had finally ignited.

Hai almost tripped over his own feet.

_Do something?_

That's his brother, the fucking Ash Bringer and his mind-warping Grey-Ghost escort standing there, and the Salt Mage without a catalyst-Pendant should do something?

Not to mention Gwen was glaring at him judgementally, though that was expected... AND his whole bloody family, including his little sister, Nen, his mother, Klavdiya, and his nieces and nephews, are all waiting for him to play the silly bugger.

_Do something?_ Qīn may as well have asked him to shove a wand up his arse and do a fucking Tripak routine.

Hai scratched his head.

His wife began to sob.

_FU-UCK!_

What the fuck was his wife thinking?

Should he fight his fucking father?

Fight Gwen?

Fight Jun's Hello Kitty?

But Hai instinctively knew he had to do _something_.

In a situation like this, the greatest danger was doing nothing.

"So…" Hai swept his gaze over those critically observing every hair on his head, groped the air for something to say, then sighed with exaggerated resignation.

"Look," he began. "It's my wedding, fellers. Maybe ease off on the politics? Have some tea. There's still the cake left. Can't we all be friends?"

A curious silence descended among Hai's audience.

Hai breathed out.

_Did it work?_

That was easier than he'd imagined.

"FUCK YOU, DAD!"

An F-bomb echoed across the desolate courtyard.

An empty bottle of Maotai flew toward Hai's general direction.

Gwen's father ducked.

Behind his head, the Enchantment-strengthened ceramic bottle bounced against a wall, fracturing the sandstone before rebounding from the granite floor and into the pond with a plop.

The 250ml rebuke had come from his daughter, who was reaching for another bottle even as Petra was restraining her.

For Gwen, watching her father putting on a self-satisfied smile finally broke something inside her.

One childhood marooned with Morye Song was one thing.

Two childhoods lost at sea with Morye-cum-Hai was more than a girl could grin and bear.

Feeling her chest ache, a curious revelation gripped her.

Gwen discovered that she wasn't mad at Qīn, Secretary Liu, or even her grandfather. They were people with an agenda, with goals that were, in their twisted way, admirable. Men and women like her grandfather worked toward their single-minded objectives with an ego-centric amorality that, at the very least, implied devotion.

But her father.

Hai 'fucking' Song.

All he cared about was his own God damned happiness.

Her father couldn't even meet the most basic metric she could imagine in a human being: to do no evil, to leave one's family out of one's cock-ups.

"HOW DARE YOU?! HOW CAN YOU LAUGH?"

The banshee shriek that rang out across the courtyard was unconsciously enhanced by Illusion.

"YOU got us into this mess! We're only here because of YOU!"

"FUCK you and your careless bullshit!"

Her face had become an outburst of bubbling rage from every orifice.

"YOU LEFT ME OUT TO DRY! AGAIN!"

"SOME FUCKERS TRIED TO HAVE A GO AT ME! AGAIN!"

"WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU, ASSHOLE?!"

As usual, she saw that Hai's first instinct was to get the fuck out of the way, but Qīn's presence tethered him to the emotional cluster-fuck wearing his daughter's face like a ball and chain.

"Gwen! Calm down! Woa… Bloody…" Hai stammered. "HEY! CALM DOWN! You won, right? Everything worked out! What's the problem?"

"FU-"

Gwen's hazel eyes glowed bright blue.

A cascade of Dragon Fear leaked from her body.

Both Petra and Mina stood frozen in their tracks.

Sensing her imminent implosion, Jun rushed toward Mina and Petra as Gwen dragged her two cousins bodily across the floor, dead set on finding another Maotai projectile.

A surge of electricity arced from Gwen's body.

"Arrgh!"

"Gwen…"

The two girls jumped back.

Petra, being a Mineral Mage, circumvented the accidental assault readily.

Mina proved less resilient. She swore and nursed her hand with a mote of Positive Energy, then again tried to help her.

"Shit!" Gwen spat, forcing herself to cool her superheated jets. "Oh, my God! DAMN IT! It's on you, Dad! If Caliban was still around, I'd—"

Jun reached her just in time.

He reached out and pressed her to his chest, burying her face so that her cries became muffled.

"There, there…" her uncle comforted her awkwardly.

"Uncle Jun, you can't let this go, not this time. This...this fucker…"

"It's okay. I get it… shush… shhh…."

Arcs of electricity fired from her hair, body, and fingers.

Jun circulated a sliver of Ashen mana into his niece.

Within her Astral Body, he sensed the Dragonic Essence fighting back.

Her dearest uncle Jun held her captive until her limbs ceased their struggle.

The front of Jun's shirt was soaked.

Her meticulous makeup was ruined, though she was sedated, calm, and no longer reaching for bottles.

A chilling breeze swept the outer courtyard, rustling the willows.

The screaming, the shouting, the crash of bottles and the sob of human misery ceased.

Hai stood awkwardly to one side, facing his family, watching her hugging his brother's waist in a daze. Slowly, unconsciously, he averted her gaze.

Not far from her husband, Qīn recovered from Gwen's sudden hysteria, her right hand firmly resting against Liu's back while her free hand dabbed the blood from her father's face. Her eyes persisted in begging her husband to make the unhappiness go away.

Secretary Liu remained kneeling, certain realisations swirling inside his head.

Guo stood beside her babulya, one hand gripping the hand of his wife of over four decades.

Her babulya slumped against her husband's rigid body, overwhelmed by disappointment and an indescribable sense of shame.

Nen hugged Tao and Mina to her sides, her body language announcing that she thanked Mao's lucky red stars for marrying the right man. Her kids likewise stood intimately beside their mother, looking at Gwen and then Hai.

Petra stood alone, thinking of thoughts Gwen could not know.

Opposite Petra was Ayxin, who studied the humans to her left and right like an anthropologist, having found the last tribe of the Anthropophagi, trying to document emotions and interactions.

Not wishing to be vortexed into the business of their betters, the guards and servants remained very still, becoming invisible, becoming decor.

_DING!_

A Message spell bloomed beside Jun's ear, breaking the spell of silence.

"As I was saying..." Jun turned to Secretary Liu. "...before I was interrupted, there's going to be someone from Central coming."

"C-Central?" Liu stammered.

His eyes watered.

The man looked terrified.

"Why would someone come from the Central Committee of the Party?" Liu's hands gripped the air as if there was invisible aid.

Almost as if on cue, the air hummed.

Gwen had seen high-tier Teleportation once before—when Gunther had come to her rescue in Blackheath.

A flash of silvery Conjuration engendered in the air.

A silvery mandala laid itself over the floor, burning the pavement with its white-hot mana, ensuring no obstructions impeded the traveller's arrival.

At its conclusion, a spatial tear opened as though someone had unseamed space and time with a scalpel.

The first to emerge was a handsome woman in a standard off-white military blouse, dark tie, pencil skirt and black heels. The badge and lapel on her collar and shoulders indicated she was from the Central Confidential Communications Bureau.

The next two were men in their thirties and forties, each exuding palpable auras. One had the build of a close-combat Transmuter, the other the stocky form of an Earthen Abjurer. Both of the men carried with them a stock of Wands strapped to their thighs. The Transmuter furthermore had a four-foot sword strapped to his back.

The last man to step through the portal was an old gent with greying hair. He wore a cotton-mandarin jacket with knots for buttons, paired with pants and hand-stitched coarse-cotton shoes. As the man dusted himself off, he gave off the air of a farmer having arrived home after a long day at the fields.

His eyes were hidden behind two thin lines that hid his orbs, made prominent by a profusion of crow's feet.

"Guo, you old hound! How are you? It's been a year since I last saw you at the National Congress!" The man was surprisingly friendly.

Guo, Jun and Klavdiya were already bowing before the portal had fully formed. The younger family members followed suit, as did Secretary Liu and his daughter.

The guards fell to one knee.

The servants lowered their heads against the pavement.

Ayxin furrowed her brows.

"You?" The Dragon-kin glanced at Jun before turning to the stout, smiling gent.

"Do you remember me?" the silver-haired gentlemen chuckled.

"Miao...Yang-Bò?" Ayxin did not take long to recall the man. Dragons possessed eidetic memory. "You're Secretary Miao."

"It's Secretary-General now."

To their surprise, Miao bowed, lowering his head respectfully.

Liu's complexion was now the colour of freshly laundered bedsheets.

"You look different, Lord Ayxin."

"As do you, Mr Miao. You look like an old man."

The man didn't look a day over fifty. Gwen observed from behind her uncle. In truth, he appeared younger than her grandfather.

"Haha, Lord Ayxin, you're as ruthless as ever." Miao chuckled, his sonorous voice pleasing to the ear. "I am eighty-two, can you believe it? Now, if you would excuse me a moment, we shall negotiate the terms of your unexpected visitation shortly. I assure you, Lord Ayxin, you will not be disappointed."

"Do as you wish."

Secretary-General Miao extended a hand.

Ayxin raised hers.

Miao clasped the Dragon-kin's appendage and shook it vigorously.

"Welcome to Hangzhou, Lord Ayxin. Come to Shanghai later. I am sure you will find Pudong to your liking!"

He then turned toward the humbled assembly.

"The Chinese Communist Party welcomes her eminence, _Lord Ayxin of Huangshan, scion of the Yinglong_ , an ally to mankind and now our state-sanctioned VIP, the first of her kind in fifty years!"

_CLAP, CLAP, CLAP—_

Miao's bodyguards broke into a standing ovation.

Guo clapped.

Liu clapped.

Jun clapped.

Swept up by the moment, Gwen clapped as well.

Every pair of hands in the room followed suit, including the guards and the NoM servants.

_Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!_

The calm had passed, and now a tempestuous ovation filled the once quiet courtyard, signalling the swelling of the next act.