A Moment in the Spotlight

The cold glow of the electronic screen flipped to another page, and a new shout from the referee cut through the buzzing waiting area:

"Third match—Group C3, Tang Wulin versus Gu Yue."

Yun Ying, who had been leaning against her spear, suddenly stiffened. Her brown ponytail slid across her cheek without her noticing, and her eyes widened as though an old man selling sugar cakes in Chang'an's Western Market had suddenly announced that everyone could eat for free today. Her fingers instinctively tightened around the spear shaft. The patterns on the Phantom Crystal glimmered faintly from her body heat, then quickly dimmed again.

"...Tang Wulin against Gu Yue?"

Her voice was not loud, but Xie Xie was nearby with his hands in his pockets, idly swaying. His messy blond hair shot upright with a swish, an even more outrageous reaction than when he had learned he would face Li Jinglan.

"Boss is fighting Gu Yue?!" Xie Xie nearly tore apart the shoelace he had just tied. He squatted down, then sprang back up, even botching the flourish as he spun his dagger around his fingers. "We're screwed, we're screwed—"

He grabbed Dongfang Yao by the hilt of the Star Sword at his waist. Yao had been standing on tiptoe to look at the other side of the drawing machine, and the tug nearly made him stumble. "Hey, hey, Brother Xie Xie, what are you doing? My sword—"

"You still care about your sword?!" Xie Xie tapped his temple with his knuckles, his blond hair trembling in the dawn light like weeds in the wind. "You know Gu Yue, right? The purple-eyed girl you just mentioned—the one who punched Tyrant Queen Yun Ying so hard she had to be carried away like a bucket! If she can make even Tyrant Queen eat dirt, will Boss die by her hand?!"

Yun Ying straightened from the spear shaft. The bruise on her abdomen flared hot from the sudden movement, and she glared at Xie Xie. "Who are you cursing to death, Blondie?... Cough. He's the most reliable fighter on our side. What do you mean, die by her hand?"

"She punched right through your shoulder socket and left you sitting on the ground, unable to get up for ages. I saw it with my own eyes." Xie Xie looked stricken, slipping his left hand back into his pocket while holding two fingers against his neck with his right. "Elemental battlefield control—she can throw ice, fire, wind, and lightning around however she wants. Boss is fierce, sure, but control types against assault types are all about execution. You know what Boss is like—he's the kind who takes a hit without hitting back. If Gu Yue really goes all out..."

Dongfang Yao let out a little "Huh" nearby, laying the Star Sword across his knees. Crystal fragments reflected the words "Group C3" scrolling across the electronic screen. "Tang Wulin has a dragon aura—against an element wielder? This is interesting. Where I come from, we call this a 'physical bro crashing into a mage girl.' Usually, the physical bro gets kited to death."

"Stuff your Star Sword crap." Yun Ying leaned her spear backward. "Tang Wulin is incredibly good at breaking defenses. Once he gets close, it's over."

"Get close?" Xie Xie wailed. "Gu Yue's elemental lockdown is tighter than Chang'an's city gates. You think Tang Wulin can teleport? In the last mock match, an agility assault type tried to get near her and got twisted into a spinning top by wind blades in midair. He puked for half a minute after landing."

The scattered chatter in the waiting area was silenced by the referee's second whistle. Tang Wulin emerged from the check-in entrance with his slip of paper in hand. The wind from the barrier ruffled his black hair into neat order, and his expression remained calm, as if he were merely heading to a well to draw a bucket of water. His steps paused as he looked toward the other side of the arena—

Gu Yue was already standing there.

The girl stood quietly, purple eyes calm, silver hair falling over her shoulders. The morning sun edged her plain dress in pale blue. She carried no weapon, her fingers slightly curled, while elemental particles in the air seemed drawn by an invisible magnetic field, slowly circling within half a foot of her. She looked at Tang Wulin and faintly furrowed her brow, as though she recognized him but could not grasp where that familiarity came from.

"...Tang Wulin?" she softly said, as if testing the taste of the name on her tongue.

Tang Wulin did not respond. He merely looked at her, his golden eyes steady.

The referee raised a hand. "Group C3, both sides ready—match begin!"

Before Xie Xie could even say, "It's over," Tang Wulin moved first.

He pushed off the ground with astonishing stability and raised his left arm. Fine golden scales instantly spread across his skin, his knuckles lengthened, and his five fingers curled into claws. Golden light flowed from his palm to his claw tips, like molten gold poured into the seams of his bones. Golden Dragon Claw.

Gu Yue's purple eyes narrowed slightly. Wind element lifted her half an inch from the ground as she turned aside to dodge, but Tang Wulin had not aimed for her body. He was targeting the path of her sleeve. The claw wind grazed her forearm, ripping her clothing with a sharp tear and leaving a line of blood behind. It was not deep, but he had truly wounded her.

"..." Gu Yue lowered her eyes to her arm. She did not cover it or retreat. Rather than getting angry, the trace of interest in her purple eyes only grew more distinct after that claw strike. With a flick of her fingers, ice crystals condensed in the air beside the wound and sealed the blood. When she looked up again, the corner of her mouth seemed to lift slightly.

"Dragon scales... golden ones." She murmured, "Interesting."

Tang Wulin retracted his claw and took half a step back. His golden eyes remained fixed on her, but he did not pursue. His breathing was even, as though he were waiting for her to make a move.

The next instant, Gu Yue moved.

She did not charge in a straight line. Instead, she laid down an elemental field—three fireballs spun in the air above her right palm, wind blades circled her body with a sweep of her left hand, and half an earthen wall rose behind her.

Tang Wulin struck left and right with the Golden Dragon Claw. The fireballs exploded when the claw wind tore them apart at close range, and the wind blades clanged against his scales. But Gu Yue gave him no chance to close in. The earthen wall forced him to shift position while fireballs crashed down in turn, slicing the arena into a chessboard with him as a pawn being driven across it.

"Kiting..." Dongfang Yao sat up straight on the steps. "He's really getting kited."

Yun Ying leaned against her spear, its tip lodged motionlessly in a crack between the steps, her brown ponytail taut behind her shoulder. "He's looking for an opening. What are you panicking for?"

"I'm panicking?" Dongfang Yao pointed at the arena. "Look at this. The Golden Dragon Claw breaks defenses well, but it burns energy. Gu Yue's elemental cycle costs her practically nothing. If she drags this out for three minutes, she wins—hey, Xie Xie, stop biting your nails."

Xie Xie's messy blond hair was pressed into an utter mess. His left hand had long since left his pocket and gripped his dagger, his knuckles white. "My boss won't lose... but he can't die either... You brat, don't go too far..."

Tang Wulin really was looking for an opening.

The Golden Dragon Claw suddenly withdrew, and his left fist slammed into the earthen wall. Dirt exploded outward as he used the recoil to cut diagonally into an opening at Gu Yue's flank—her purple eyes flashed, and wind blades rushed back to defend, but Tang Wulin's move had been a feint. His true attack was a sweep from his right leg at her lower body.

Gu Yue landed, the wound on her arm already covered in a thin crust of ice. She looked at Tang Wulin as though he were an ancient object that had suddenly begun to move. Her interest rose from "interesting" to "I need to figure this out."

"You're not ordinary," she said, her voice cool and clear.

Tang Wulin took a breath and stared back with golden eyes. "Who are you?"

"Gu Yue." She paused. "Perhaps... we've met before."

Xie Xie tugged at his blond hair below the stage. "Met my ass. Boss has never mentioned this purple-eyed girl. This is definitely their first meeting—wait, Gu Yue said he seemed familiar? She knows Boss? Then why was she attacking him so hard? Women's hearts are deeper than the sea."

Yun Ying did not respond. The spear shaft leaned backward under her weight as her body tensed and relaxed with each breath. She stared at Gu Yue's purple eyes. Somehow, that gaze did not feel like killing intent. It was more like... turning to a page in a book and finding an old note tucked inside, then freezing for a moment.

The battle resumed.

Gu Yue no longer simply kited him. She began engaging in short-range exchanges. Ice spikes darted out to stab at Tang Wulin, only to be shattered by the Golden Dragon Claw.

The two collided three times. Once, Tang Wulin's claw tips slashed across Gu Yue's back, tearing nearly a foot of her plain dress. She let out a muffled groan but did not retreat. On the last exchange, Tang Wulin grabbed her wrist while an ice awl from her other hand stopped half an inch from his throat.

The referee did not blow the whistle, because both of them withdrew at the same time.

"Why did you stop?" Tang Wulin asked in a low voice.

"You pulled back." Gu Yue's purple eyes curved ever so slightly. "So I did too."

Xie Xie: "???"

Dongfang Yao rubbed his chin. "Testing each other? Flirting? No, they're recognizing each other."

Yun Ying: "..."

After that, their fighting style changed. Gu Yue's elements remained dense, but her fire no longer swept toward his face, the earthen walls left openings, and wind blades cut at his clothes as warnings. Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Claw remained fierce, but more of his strikes went wide than broke through her defense. Twice, he could clearly have seized her, yet his claw tips tilted aside and only tore her sleeves.

The arena barrier hummed as elemental motes and fragments of golden scale-light mixed into a pale purple and pale blue mist.

Xie Xie's heart rose into his throat as he spun his dagger through seventeen flourishes. "What are these two doing... fighting or tailoring clothes?"

Dongfang Yao suddenly let out a laugh. "I get it. Gu Yue recognized something and doesn't want to fight for real. Tang Wulin... he isn't going for the kill either. They're using a fight to talk about the past."

"Talk my ass!" Yun Ying jolted her spear shaft, and the Phantom Crystal's faint glow shot up half an inch. "That purple-eyed Gu Yue didn't hold back when she punched me! Why is she going easy on Tang Wulin?? Do they know each other??"

Just as her voice rose, Tang Wulin spread the Golden Dragon Claw for the final time—this time, it was real.

Gu Yue did not retreat again.

Wind, fire, and ice twisted together at her fingertips as she met his attack head-on—

It exploded.

Ripples surged across the barrier's light screen from the impact, and the low benches in the waiting area shook three times. Before the smoke cleared, the referee raised a hand, his voice piercing the hum.

"Group C3—Tang Wulin wins."

"..."

Yun Ying leaned against her spear, her brown ponytail sliding in front of her. She did not brush it away. Her eyes were even wider than when she had first heard the matchup, and the spear tip remained stuck motionlessly in the crack between the steps, as though someone had immobilized her with an acupoint strike.

"...What?" A single word squeezed out of her throat.

Tang Wulin won??

That purple-eyed Gu Yue, who had punched Yun Ying so hard she was carried away like a bucket, who had made Xie Xie cry out in anguish that "Boss will die by her hand," lost??

And she had lost... not as though the Golden Dragon Claw had overwhelmed her. In that final collision, Gu Yue had held back seventy percent of her strength. Even from this far away, Yun Ying could see it—the girl had not used her elements fiercely, as if she had deliberately waited for him to take the attack head-on before using the recoil to step back half a pace and sit down. Her purple eyes were still looking at Tang Wulin, and that faint curve at her lips had not faded.

She went easy on him. Absolutely went easy on him.

Yun Ying's head went boom, louder than when Zhao Huaizhen's name had exploded into her mind. Her face reddened from her ears to her cheekbones—not out of embarrassment, but confusion and grievance. So that purple-eyed girl had gone for the kill against Yun Ying, but held back against Tang Wulin while even smiling??

"This... can't be..." Yun Ying muttered, leaning back another half inch against her spear, the corner of her mouth twitching painfully. "Do they know each other??"

Xie Xie's cheers erupted then. His blond hair sprang straight up like a compressed spring as his dagger flew out of his hand, spun into the air, and landed back in his grasp. "Boss is awesome!!!! I won my bet!! Anyone who said Boss would get kited, get out here!!"

He jumped hard enough to kick up dusty grit from the steps. Dongfang Yao was elbowed beside him, and the Star Sword struck the step with a clang. He grinned too. "Tang Wulin's pretty good. Physical bro counter-killed the mage girl, though I think Gu Yue held back in that last attack more cleanly than she'd put down a teacup—"

"Dongfang Yao, shut up!" Yun Ying shouted back from afar, her voice cracking slightly.

She wanted to cry but had no tears.

The spear tip turned half a circle in the crack between the steps, and the Phantom Crystal flashed before dimming again. The morning light remained pale blue, the barrier still hummed, and Tang Wulin had dismissed his martial soul on the arena. He turned back and extended a hand to Gu Yue. Her purple eyes curved as she placed her hand in his palm and stood, the tear in her sleeve swaying in the breeze.

Yun Ying leaned against her spear, her brown ponytail stuck to the sweat on her cheek, while nothing but a chaotic mess spun through her mind.

"...Do they know each other?" she muttered again. This time, she no longer even leaned on her spear as she straightened. "That's way too ridiculous..."

In the distance of the waiting area, Xie Xie was still jumping around, while Dongfang Yao had already sidled toward Tang Wulin's exit to start chatting. Yun Ying stood where she was, her spear hanging unmoving. She wanted to curse that chatterbox, but the corner of her mouth would not lift even a fraction. All that remained was a completely blank expression soaking in the dawn light.

She wanted to cry but had no tears.