Chapter 879: The Invasion [4]

The shattered moon's fragments drifted apart in lazy orbits, glowing faintly with residual heat and the occasional crackle of dying lightning.

Chunks the size of cities spun end over end, trailing streams of dust and molten rock that froze in the vacuum.

Yuliya floated amid the debris, one arm hanging limp, the other still gripping her katana.

Her coat was in rags, crimson flames flickering weakly along the torn edges.

Blood trickled from multiple wounds, freezing into dark rubies that drifted away from her.

Yet her eyes burned brighter and dashed toward him, closing the distance in a heartbeat.

Zhao Tian met her without retreating, and their swords clashed mid-void.

Clang-!

The first impact was pure edge-on-edge.

Yuliya's katana slid along his blade with a screech that vibrated through bone.

Sparks of white and red exploded outward, igniting nearby dust into brief, silent fireworks.

She immediately twisted her wrists, turning the lock into a vicious rising cut aimed at his throat.

Zhao Tian leaned back as the edge whispered past his mask, close enough to leave a thin scorch-line across his mask.

He answered with a short, snapping horizontal slash at her midsection.

She sucked in her stomach and parried downward with the flat of her blade, redirecting his strike so that it carved a glowing scar across a drifting moon fragment behind her instead.

They separated for half a second, then slammed back together.

*THUD*

Yuliya drove forward with a shoulder check, trying to ram him off balance.

Zhao Tian absorbed the impact on his chest, then hooked his free arm around her elbow and yanked, pulling her into an overextended lunge.

As she stumbled past, he reversed his grip and slashed downward at her exposed back.

She spun on instinct and whipped her katana up behind her in a reverse guard.

Clang-clang-clang!

Three rapid exchanges in the span of a breath.

"Urgh-" Yuliya growled low in her throat and stomped forward, planting one foot against a spinning rock fragment for leverage.

She exploded off it, using the momentum to deliver a brutal overhead chop.

Zhao Tian crossed his sword above his head to block, and the force drove him downward half a meter before he stabilized.

Their faces were inches apart now as her red eyes locked with her blue eyes through the mask.

"Show me that pretty face now..." She headbutted him.

The crown of her skull cracked against his mask, breaking his mask into pieces.

In that split-second opening, she wrenched her katana free and stabbed straight for his heart in a lightning-quick thrust.

Zhao Tian twisted at the waist and the blade punched through his robe, grazing his side and drawing a thin line of his blood.

Looking at his face, she smirked "You got a pretty good head up there."

He counterattacked without hesitation.

His free hand snapped up and grabbed the flat of her katana mid-thrust and twisted.

The blade bent, then snapped clean in half with a burst of crimson energy that scorched both their arms.

Yuliya didn't flinch.

She dropped the broken hilt and lunged barehanded, her fists wrapped in crimson lightning as she aimed a savage right cross at his jaw.

Zhao Tian caught her wrist, twisted, and drove his knee into her stomach with spatial-amplified force.

"URGHH-" The blow folded her in half, and she vomited a spray of blood that crystallized mid-air.

Still she fought.

She hooked her leg behind his, trying to sweep him.

He stepped over it, pulled her closer by the trapped wrist, and slammed his elbow down onto the back of her neck.

Yuliya dropped to one knee amid the drifting rubble and then surged upward again, slamming her forehead into his solar plexus.

"Ugh-" The impact forced a sharp exhale from him as he released her wrist.

They separated and Yuliya rose slowly, one hand pressed to her cracked ribs, the other empty but still crackling with faint red sparks.

Her broken katana hilt drifted past her face. She caught it without looking and hurled it at him like a spear.

Zhao Tian slapped it aside with the back of his hand and the hilt exploded against a nearby moon chunk in a final, feeble burst of flame.

She smiled through the blood onher lips "No more sword…" she rasped. "…just us."

Zhao Tian looked at her for a long moment.

Then he dismissed his blade with a flick of his wrist.

He stepped forward and she met him.

*THOOM*

Yuliya threw a lightning-charged uppercut but Zhao Tian easily blocked with his forearm.=

He countered with a short hook to her temple, and she ducked and came up with a palm-heel strike to his throat.

He tilted his head and took it on the jaw instead as the blow snapped his head back, but he used the momentum to spin into a back-fist that cracked across her cheekbone.

She staggered, laughed again, and then tackled him.

They spun through the space together, grappling, striking, and clawing.

*THUD* *THOOM*

Every impact created tiny shockwaves that scattered dust and debris in perfect spheres around them.

Yuliya wrapped her legs around his waist, trying to lock him in place while she rained lightning-charged punches down on his face.

Zhao Tian caught both her wrists, forced them apart, then headbutted her.

He reversed their positions, slamming her back-first into a drifting moon fragment.

The rock shattered on impact, and she used the rebound to flip him over her shoulder, sending him tumbling through space.

He stopped his spin with a pulse of spatial energy, then launched back at her.

She met him with an open palm but he grabbed her wrist and slammed his knee into her face.

"URGH-"

She was hurled back into the space because of the force and dashed back at him.

He spun and slapped her face with a roundhouse kick.

The arc of his shin caught her square across the cheek with spatially amplified force.

CRACK-!

Her head snapped sideways into a spray of crystallized blood fanning out in a perfect crescent.

The momentum hurled her straight through the remaining largest chunk of moon debris, a kilometer-wide slab still glowing with molten veins.

*THOOM* She smashed through it like a cannonball, and the fragment detonated outward in a slow-motion bloom of rock shards and plasma.

Yuliya emerged on the far side, tumbling once before she stopped her spin with a weak pulse of flame.

She levitated there for a moment, one hand pressed to her cracked ribs, the other hanging limp.

Her hair was a charred mess, and her coat is reduced to smoking tatters.

She lifted her gaze and looked up at him.

A small, tired, genuine smile curved her bloodied lips.

"...Thank you... for the fight... Honoured One."

Zhao Tian's eyes narrowed, and in the next instant he teleported in front of her.

He clenched the tattered collar of what remained of her coat in one fist and pulled her forward.

"Now don't act like you're going to die," he said, his voice edged with dry irritation. "Heal yourself. And explain."

Yuliya blinked and let out a hoarse, bubbling chuckle that ended in a wet cough.

"I just wanted to be a bit dramatic. You know… go out with a poetic last line."

Zhao Tian stared at her for a moment, and then he released her collar.

She floated free, still smiling that crooked, bloody smile.

Golden light began to bloom from her palms, and the glow spread across her body in slow, soothing waves as she healed herself.

Within thirty seconds she looked almost whole again.

She rolled her shoulders, cracked her neck, and exhaled a long, satisfied breath.

"Much better," she murmured.

At that moment, Lirien arrived.

The great loong glided into view with and she looked at Zhao Tian first, then at the woman floating beside him.

"My Lord..."

Zhao Tian raised his hand "She's not a threat anymore."

He turned his masked gaze back to Yuliya.

The pirate queen floated there casually now, one leg crossed over the other in mid-space as if she is lounging on an invisible throne.

She tilted her head at Lirien, openly admiring the dragon's scale and grace.

"Magnificent mount," she said with genuine appreciation. "Wait.. are you the same mount as First Honoured One herself used?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Lirien's eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything.

Yuliya returned her attention to Zhao Tian.

"So," she said lightly, spreading her hands. "Questions?"

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I hope you guys liked this chapter!