Chapter 180 - 181: The Duel of Honor

Chapter 180: Chapter 181: The Duel of Honor

The Colossus Ring had never been so full.

By dawn, every tier was packed. Merchants stood on their benches. Disciples hung over the railings. Somebody had climbed onto the roof of the ticket booth with a telescope, and somebody else was selling dumplings from a tray at a markup Daniel found personally offensive. The air hummed like a beehive.

At the center of the sand, a ring of white stone, thirty meters across, had been laid down overnight. Elder Jian stood at its edge in plain grey robes, with Examiner Qin at his side and a scroll in his hands.

Daniel walked in from the east gate with his hands in his pockets.

"MASTER!" Fluffy screamed from the stands. She was waving a banner that read MASTER WILL WIN (OR ELSE) in three colors of ink. "FLUFFY MADE THIS ONE ALL BY HERSELF!"

"It’s lovely!"

"MITTENS HELPED WITH THE SPELLING!"

"It shows!"

Lyra was waiting at the gate. She did not say anything. She just put a hand on his chest, flat, over the heart, and looked up at him with a face that was trying very hard to be calm.

"If you die," she said, "I will kill you."

"That seems backwards."

"I will bring you back and kill you *again*."

"That’s very thorough."

"Don’t joke."

"I’m not joking. I’m deeply moved." He covered her hand with his. "I’m going to be fine."

"You always say that."

"I’m always right."

She did not smile. But her thumb moved once against his shirt, a small, hard, helpless gesture, and then she stepped back and crossed her arms and said, "Go. Hurry. I want to see him bleed."

Behind her, Su Wan stood with her sword at her side. She wore the same armor as before. The patch where the golden dragon had been was bare and polished.

"Ready?" Daniel asked.

"No," said Su Wan.

"Me neither."

"That is not comforting."

"It’s very comforting. We’re in this together."

For one second, her face did something complicated. Then she nodded, once, and followed him onto the sand.

---

Long Tian was already waiting.

He stood at the far side of the ring in full ceremonial armor. The gold plate had been polished until it blazed. The crest of feathers on his shoulder was fresh and straight. A thin gold circlet sat on his brow, a mark of rank Daniel had never seen him wear, and his hair was bound back severely. Beside him, scowling, arms folded, stood Heng Bao of the Iron Mountain Sect.

"Seconds," said Elder Jian, in a voice that carried to every seat. "Step forward."

Heng Bao stepped forward with a face like a man swallowing a lemon.

"I’m his second," he muttered. "Don’t ask."

"I wasn’t going to."

"I owe him gold."

"I’m sure you do."

Su Wan stepped up on the other side. Heng Bao looked at her, and then at Daniel, and then at the bare patch on her breastplate.

"Huh," he said, and said no more.

A man in gold-trimmed robes had come to the edge of the ring with a flat lacquered case in his hands. He was a lean, silver-haired clansman, very correct and very pale, and he held the case before him like a coffin.

"Elder Long Ming of the Golden Dragon Clan," Elder Jian announced. "Witness for the challenger. He bears the Wardship Deed of Su Wan Lin, as declared in the stakes."

Elder Long Ming bowed stiffly. His eyes did not meet Su Wan’s.

"The duel," said Elder Jian, "will proceed under article twenty-two. To submission or incapacity. No killing. No interference by seconds once the duel begins. The stakes, as declared by the challenger and accepted by the defender, are as follows."

He unrolled the scroll.

"If Long Tian Zhao wins, Daniel Black will withdraw from the examination, and Su Wan Lin will be returned to the custody of the Golden Dragon Clan."

A murmur ran around the stands.

"If Daniel Black wins, Long Tian Zhao will kneel in this ring before the guild and apologize publicly to Su Wan Lin. And all debts, oaths, and contracts held by the Golden Dragon Clan over her will be declared void." He lowered the scroll. "Do both parties affirm?"

"I affirm," said Long Tian, in a clear, flat voice.

"Affirmed," said Daniel. "Can I add a clause?"

"No."

"Just a small one."

"*No.*"

"Fine." Daniel shrugged. "But I want it noted that I asked."

Examiner Qin made a small sound that might have been a cough.

"Begin," said Elder Jian, and stepped out of the ring.

---

Long Tian did not move.

That was what Daniel noticed first. The heir of the Golden Dragon Clan simply stood there with his feet planted, his back straight, and slowly raised both hands to shoulder height, palms outward, as if embracing the whole arena.

Golden light bloomed around his fingers.

It spread, quick and bright, running up his arms like fire along a fuse. The sand at his feet began to hum. A deep note vibrated through the stones of the ring, low and heavy, and Daniel felt the air thicken against his skin.

*The Domain.*

"One," said Long Tian. His smile was soft and pleasant. "I will give you the courtesy of a count."

Daniel did not answer.

"Two."

The crowd was silent. Eight thousand people, and not one of them breathed.

"Three," said Long Tian, and his smile widened. "I know about the shadow trick, Daniel Black. I watched you in the gorge. It lasts three seconds, no more. Use it now, and it will be gone before my Domain closes."

"Interesting theory," said Daniel.

"Four."

"Shadow Step."

[Skill activated: Shadow Step. Duration: 10 seconds. Cost: 5 MP.]

The world went soft and grey.

Long Tian’s smile did not fade, not at first. He had expected this. He waited, counting under his breath, as the figure of Daniel Black blurred and sank into the shadows.

*One. Two. Three.*

Daniel did not reappear.

*Four. Five.*

The Domain closed. The pressure fell on the ring like a mountain, and every stone in the arena groaned. Spectators in the front rows gasped. Fluffy’s banner folded in half. And in the center of that terrible, crushing weight, Long Tian stood alone with his hands outstretched, and looked at the empty air in front of him.

"Where..." he whispered.

"Hi," said a voice, from directly behind his left ear.

Long Tian whirled.

Daniel Black stood there, ten seconds of invisibility still ticking in his skin. He had walked across the ring at a slow, easy stroll while the Domain built, and he had been standing at Long Tian’s shoulder for the last three seconds, waiting for it to finish.

"The pressure only lands on what you’re looking at," Daniel said. "Su Wan told me."

His fist was already moving.

It hit Long Tian in the ribs with a sound like a hammer driven into a drum. The gold plate cracked. Something inside the armor crunched. The heir of the Golden Dragon Clan flew backward through his own Domain, sand spraying, skidded eight meters across the ring, and landed on his side with a gasp.

The pressure collapsed.

The crowd erupted.

"That one," Daniel said, shaking out his hand, "was for the coffin."

---

Long Tian rose slowly.

There was blood at the corner of his mouth, and his breath came in short, sharp gasps. The crest on his shoulder hung crooked. But his eyes, those cold, pleasant eyes, had changed entirely. They were bright and wide and burning.

"You," he whispered. "You *struck* me inside my Domain."

"I did."

"No one has ever..."

"I know. That’s why it worked."

Long Tian’s laugh was ugly and short. A golden light flared around his body, brighter than before, bright enough to make the spectators shield their eyes. When it died, he was wrapped from head to toe in a skin of overlapping golden scales, each one the size of a coin, shimmering like the hide of a great serpent.

"The Dragon Scale Armor," Su Wan said from the edge of the ring, in a tight voice. "He rarely uses it. It makes him nearly impervious to strikes."

"Nearly?"

"Nearly."

Long Tian lifted his right hand. A golden disc spun up in his palm, brighter and larger than any before, the size of a cartwheel, screaming like a drawn blade.

"Now," he said. "Let us see how you dodge *this*."

The disc came.

Daniel Blinked. It tore through the sand where he had been. He Blinked again, ten meters left, and a second disc shrieked past his ear. A third. A fourth. A fifth. Long Tian was not smiling now. He moved forward in a smooth, ruthless stride, flinging disc after disc with each step, and the arena floor behind Daniel dissolved into a wake of molten sand.

[Mana: 350 → 340 → 330 → 320 → 310]

*He’s learning my landing spots,* Daniel thought, and ducked a disc by about a hair. *He’s reading the Blinks.*

"Faster, Napper!" Long Tian called. "Faster! Or you will run out of mana!"

"Daniel!"

It was Su Wan’s voice, clear and sharp over the roar.

"He never fights from below!"

Daniel stopped.

It was a strange, floating second, a drop of silence between two heartbeats. He looked at Long Tian, tall and golden and proud, standing with his chin raised. He thought about a pot of rice, a dough twist, and a girl saying, quietly, *he believes nobody would ever be so foolish.*

He grinned.

And dropped to the ground.

---

Long Tian had never been looked at from below.

He was an heir. He was a prodigy. In twenty years of life, every opponent he had ever faced had either stood level with his eyes or knelt at his feet. The thing that now slid across the sand toward him, low and fast, a dark shape skidding on one knee with a pistol in each hand, was an insult he had no category for.

"What are you *doing*?" he snarled.

"Having a lie-down."

"Stand and *fight*!"

"I’m very comfortable."

The golden disc went wide. So did the next one. Long Tian’s footwork, so smooth, so perfect a moment ago, had begun to stutter. His face had gone red. His lips were drawn back from his teeth, and he was stamping now, slamming each foot down like a child in a rage.

Daniel slid under a disc, rolled to his feet, and said, very quietly, to the gold-plated man in front of him:

"You’re angry."

"I am *not*..."

"You’re sloppy."

Long Tian screamed and threw both hands forward.

Daniel was already gone.

He had Blinked, a short hop to the left, and now stood directly behind the heir’s right leg. The golden scales covered every inch of Long Tian’s body, bright and hard as armor. But at the back of each knee, in the little hollow where the leg bends, the scales did not quite meet.

*The knees!* Su Wan had shouted, in a rehearsal in a noodle shop at midnight, a thin line of sugar on her lip. *The scales cannot overlap there. He must be able to bend.*

"Sure Shot," said Daniel.

He fired one bullet.

It flew in a bright, flat line, curving ever so slightly in the air as if it had somewhere better to be, and punched through the tiny gap behind Long Tian’s right knee with a crack like a snapped branch.

The knee buckled.

Long Tian screamed. He went down on one leg, golden scales rattling, hands slapping the sand, and Daniel stepped up beside him, and the arena fell absolutely silent.

"Do you yield?" Daniel asked.

"Never," Long Tian gasped. His eyes were wild. "I am... the *heir*..."

"That’s a no, then."

"I will... I will have your..."

"Okay."

Daniel looked up at the stands, at the ring of faces, at five thousand mouths hanging open. His eyes found a small girl in grey, in the third row, a dumpling halfway to her lips. Then Lyra, white-knuckled, her hands clasped over her mouth. Then Su Wan, standing at the edge of the ring with her sword in one hand and her eyes very, very bright.

He turned back to the man at his feet.

"Su Wan," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "asked me to deliver something. On behalf of every year she spent being called a debt."

He rolled up his sleeve.

CRACK.

The sound rang out over the stands like a bell, deep and clear and absolutely perfect. Long Tian’s head snapped to the side. A bright red handprint bloomed across his right cheek, perfectly matched to the faint yellow bruise on his left.

"Symmetry," said Daniel.

The golden scales around Long Tian’s face flickered, cracked, and dissolved like frost in the sun. He swayed. His eyes rolled. And then, very slowly, the heir of the Golden Dragon Clan fell forward onto both knees in the center of the ring and stayed there, hands on the sand, head bowed, shaking.

For one long moment, nothing moved.

"WINNER," said Elder Jian’s voice, trembling very slightly, "DANIEL BLACK."

The Colossus Ring went off like a cannon.

---

It took a long time for the crowd to quiet.

Daniel had to wait. He stood there with his hands in his pockets, hair stirring in the breeze, and watched them stamp and shout and throw things, and found that his knees were shaking, just a little. Fluffy was screaming something high and joyful and incoherent. Brick Head was in tears. Paul had both hands in his hair. Lyra had sat down very suddenly on the edge of the ring and was staring at nothing.

At last, Elder Jian raised a hand.

"The stakes," he said, "were declared by the challenger and accepted by the defender. I will remind the participant of his obligations."

He looked down at Long Tian, still kneeling on the sand, golden armor dull, head bowed.

"Long Tian Zhao. Rise to your knees."

Long Tian did not move.

"I will not ask again."

Slowly, very slowly, he lifted his head. His cheeks were a livid mess of red and yellow. His eyes were empty. His hands, flat against the sand, shook with a fine, steady tremor.

He looked at Su Wan.

She stood at the edge of the ring, very straight, her sword at her side. She did not smile. She did not look away.

"I..." Long Tian’s voice cracked. He swallowed and tried again. "I apologize."

"Louder," said Daniel.

"I *apologize*..."

"To whom?"

A long, wretched pause.

"To Su Wan Lin."

"For what?"

"For... for..." Long Tian’s jaw worked. His eyes were bright and wet and furious. "For every year. For every year that I treated her as a debt."

Silence rolled across the arena.

Su Wan did not move. Her eyes were very wide. After a moment, she raised one hand and wiped her cheek, quickly, with the back of her wrist.

"I accept," she said, in a steady voice.

Elder Long Ming stood at the edge of the ring, white to the lips. He still held the lacquered case in both hands. He looked at it. He looked at Elder Jian, who looked back at him with eyes like old iron.

"The Wardship Deed," said Elder Jian, gently. "If you please."

For a very long moment, nothing happened.

Then, with trembling fingers, Elder Long Ming opened the case, drew out a roll of heavy cream paper bound with a gold ribbon, and held it out to Su Wan with both hands.

She took it.

She looked at it. She read the first line. Her lips moved silently over the name. *Su Wan Lin, ward of the Golden Dragon Clan, bound for life.*

She tore it in half.

The sound was small and dry and final, like a branch snapping. She tore the halves again. And again. And again, until the paper lay in a drift of tiny pieces at her feet, and she stood in the middle of them with her chin high and her hands loose at her sides and tears running freely down her face.

"I am free," said Su Wan, to nobody, in a wondering voice.

The crowd went mad.

She turned, and Daniel was already there, grinning like a fool, and she did not think. She did not plan. She stepped forward, put both arms around his neck, and held on.

He caught her.

"Thank you," she whispered into his shoulder.

"You’re welcome."

"I do not know how to repay you."

"You already did." He squeezed her gently. "You told me where to hit him."

She laughed against his collar, a wet, cracked, helpless laugh.

[Affection Level: Su Wan: +34%]

Behind them, someone started a chant.

*Dumplings. Dumplings. Dumplings.*

Daniel glanced up. In the third row, a small girl in grey sat with her arms folded and her chin tilted at a very specific angle. She did not look at him. She looked, with great dignity, at the sky.

"That’s not what it’s about," said Yun Xi, loudly, to nobody.

"It’s a little bit about dumplings," said the woman next to her.

---

It was Examiner Qin who read the announcement.

He stood at the edge of the dais as the noise settled, a thin grey figure with a scroll in his hand, and cleared his throat.

"The fourth test," he said, "is a test of teamwork."

A rustle ran through the stands.

"One hundred participants will be divided into teams of three by lot. Each team will receive a single objective, a single resource, and a single time limit. The objective will be revealed at the start of the test. No team may refuse its assignment." He unrolled the scroll. "The teams have been drawn."

He began to read.

Daniel half-listened. Lyra went into a team with a quiet, bookish boy named Ming and a girl in green who looked terrified. Paul went in with a cheerful, round man and a woman who snored. Brick Head went into a team that included a very small, very nervous kid who was immediately, tearfully adopted. Su Wan’s team included two Iron Mountain disciples, who looked delighted to have her.

"Team Seven," read Examiner Qin.

Daniel looked up.

"Daniel Black. Yun Xi."

In the third row, a dumpling stopped halfway to a mouth.

"And," said Qin, "Long Tian Zhao."

The silence was catastrophic.

On the sand, Long Tian, who had just struggled to his feet with the help of two silent clansmen, went rigid. He turned slowly toward the dais. His eyes were enormous. Both of his cheeks were bright red.

"No," he said.

"The lot has spoken," said Qin.

"*No.*"

"Your handicap for the fourth test has been doubled, as previously announced." Examiner Qin lowered the scroll and gave him a small, tidy smile. "I wish you the very best of luck."

Daniel turned, slowly, and looked at the man he had just slapped twice in two days.

Long Tian looked back.

"Teamwork," said Daniel, brightly. "I’m so excited."

"I will kill you," said Long Tian.

"Wonderful. You’re already getting into the spirit of it."

In the third row, Yun Xi had put down her dumplings. She was staring at the sand, at the two of them, with an expression of perfect, terrible calm.

"I want a different team," she said, to the sky.

"The lot has spoken," Examiner Qin repeated.

"I would like to file a complaint."

"On what grounds?"

Yun Xi thought about it for a long time.

"He is *loud*," she said.

And in the stands, Fluffy burst out laughing so hard that she fell off her bench.