Outmatched

Yun Ying stared at Shadow's retreating figure as she swaggered into the dormitory entrance with Xie Xie in her arms. "Fuck you, you white-haired lunatic," she cursed, wiping the blood flecks the Glazed Blade had sliced across her face, then turned and ran toward the school building.

She had never wanted to call for backup. Yun Ying always finished her own fights. But those exchanges just now had carried real bloodlust within Shadow's Glazed Blade Featherstorm, not the amateur brawling level of last year's field mission, when she had "gone off course while stealing kills." Wu Changkong had broken this lunatic's ribs with one sword strike, yet she had turned around and driven Yun Ying against a wire fence, slicing through her hair. This was no longer "she had some skill." This was "she had too much skill to keep down."

"Xie Xie, that coward, is in there. Teacher Wu's pajamas got torn, and he's patching up ducks. Tang Wulin's probably still in bed gnawing on chicken legs..." Yun Ying gritted her teeth and turned onto the locust-shaded path between the girls' dormitory and the school building. Gu Yue would usually be in the reading room at this hour, or up on the rooftop catching the wind. That woman was even more ghostlike than Shadow, but at least she was one of theirs.

The shadows of the locust trees swayed.

Gu Yue leaned against a lamppost, her black hair falling over her shoulders. She held a copy of Women's Self-Defense, one page corner folded over. Her eyes were not on the book, but on a lit window on the third floor—the level Shadow and Xie Xie had just entered.

"Gu Yue." Yun Ying grabbed her sleeve, hard enough to yank the book crooked. "Stop looking. That white-haired yandere dragged Xie Xie back to the dorm. I couldn't beat her just now. Come upstairs with me."

Gu Yue raised her eyes. Her violet gaze was cold and clear beneath the streetlamp. It swept over the blood on Yun Ying's shoulder, then the crooked short spike in her hand, before settling on the third-floor window. The lingering mist on the sill had yet to disperse.

"She's set her sights on Xie Xie." Gu Yue closed her book, her tone as flat as if she were discussing the weather. "Are you sure you want me to interfere? She just tore Wu Changkong's pajamas."

"Teacher Wu can come collect the bodies after he finishes patching up his ducks, but Xie Xie's in there now!" Yun Ying tugged her along. "You clear the way with your elemental power, I'll suppress her with the Flame-Reaver Spear. Are two people really going to lose to one lunatic? Move!"

Gu Yue did not resist as Yun Ying dragged her along. With one shift of her steps, she had already fallen into stride. She did not ask why Shadow had suddenly grown stronger, nor why Yun Ying had not called Tang Wulin. Sometimes, it was better to call the person from the next building over who watched the stars than anyone else.

The two rushed into the dormitory building.

Yun Ying kicked on the motion-sensor light in the stairwell, only for it to go dark again. Gu Yue raised a fingertip, and a wisp of green light held the filament lit. Cold white light fell over the chipped stair railings. At the end of the third floor, a thread of pink-purple mist seeped from beneath Room 303's door. From inside came Xie Xie's faint, trembling plea: "No, no, no..."

"Go straight in?" Yun Ying reached for her spear.

Gu Yue nodded and held her palm just above the door. Her elemental senses probed inside—traces of ice, faint fire, and a sickly-sweet current like rotting flowers. At its center lay Shadow's aura and Xie Xie's tightly clenched pulse.

"She's on the couch," Gu Yue said. "Xie Xie's in the corner."

"Fine." Dark red patterns flared across Yun Ying's Flame-Reaver Spear. "I'll count down from three. You clear the way with your elements, and I'll blast the door."

The green light in Gu Yue's palm condensed into substance as wind element stirred a sharp whistle through the corridor.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

Gu Yue rammed her shoulder into the door. The latch of Room 303 burst open with a bang—not from a kick, but because earth element had shattered the bolt inside the lock. The door slammed into the wall, and Shadow's lazy voice drifted out from within. "Big Sister Yun Ying brought a friend over for a visit again?"

Yun Ying was already sliding inside, driving the Flame-Reaver Spear straight toward the couch. Gu Yue stepped in after her, black hair lifting slightly. A curtain of water spread from her left hand to block the flying glass shards near Xie Xie, while ice-gold element condensed in her right hand into slender needles that silently shot toward Shadow's knife-wielding wrist.

"Big Sister Gu Yue came too?" Shadow's red eyes curved into crescents. Her short blade knocked away the ice needles, while the tail blade slid from her sleeve and curled toward Gu Yue's waist. At the same time, Glazed Blades spun around her in rings. "The two of you are coming at me together? Perfect. Let's see... how many people it takes to fight me to a draw."

"Fight your damn head!" Yun Ying swung the butt of her spear sideways. Seizing the opening, Gu Yue raised an earthen wall to seal Shadow's retreat. Elemental power exploded through the cramped dorm room—Gu Yue crossed her hands, wind feeding flame, flame stirring water mist, ice spikes thrusting from the floor. Yet Shadow was like a fish entering her own sea, using the pink-purple fog as her medium.

Xie Xie cowered in the corner between the couch and the bookshelf, his phone screen lit with a missed call from Yao. He did not dare answer. All he could see was Gu Yue's black hair flying amid the firelight, Yun Ying's curses mixed with spear shadows, Shadow's white hair sweeping over the stacks of books, and fresh blood smearing across the windowsill.

"You two work well together," Shadow said with a laugh as she fought. A new wound beneath her ribs was grazed by Gu Yue's ice needle, blood pouring from it, but she ignored it. "But that little brother is the one I chose. If you touch him, you'll have to leave something behind."

Gu Yue's violet eyes darkened. She brought both hands together, the four elements twisting into a vortex in her palms—her rarely used Small-Range Annihilation. The dormitory windows instantly exploded into powder, and half the book pages burned away. The smile in Shadow's red eyes finally faded by half. Her tail blade curled around Xie Xie's ankle and dragged him behind her as she met Gu Yue's elemental vortex head-on, layering Glazed Blade after Glazed Blade into afterimages to withstand it.

Yun Ying seized the opening and smashed the Flame-Reaver Spear into Shadow's spine. Shadow let out a muffled groan and was blasted half a step forward. Gu Yue's ice needle took the chance to stab into her lower abdomen. Shadow drove her short blade into the floor, and pink mist exploded outward, forcibly knocking both of them away.

"That's enough." Shadow coughed up blood, her red eyes wet and bright as she shoved Xie Xie back onto the couch. "Be good, little brother. Your big sisters need to lie down for a while."

The next second, Gu Yue's wind blade slashed toward her. Shadow did not block it. Instead, she shoved Xie Xie forward as if using him for a shield. Yun Ying cried out in alarm and pulled back her spear; Gu Yue withdrew her strength. Their movements stalled for an instant, and Shadow's tail blade swept sideways with the momentum. A peach-red blade light lashed across Yun Ying's spear shaft, splitting the web of her hand and forcing her back. Shadow spun and kicked Gu Yue's ice-covered elbow. Gu Yue's brow creased slightly as that mad force hurled her into the bookshelf.

Bang—!

Crash—!

The two dull impacts came almost at the same time. Yun Ying flew out first, her back slamming into the wall across the corridor. The Flame-Reaver Spear slipped from her hand and rolled toward the stairwell. Bracing herself against the floor, she coughed blood. "That yandere... when did she get this strong...?"

Gu Yue was thrown out through the doorway right after her by the backlash of elemental power. Her black hair covered half her face as her shoulder struck the fire hydrant. She gave a muffled groan, clutching beneath her ribs as she curled up. "Yun Ying, you're paying my medical bills."

Shadow stood in the doorway of Room 303, her long white hair hanging over her shoulders. Blood beneath her ribs had soaked through her white shirt, but her red eyes were curved with amusement, as though she had only just finished warming up. She stepped over the threshold. "You big sisters really can't take a beating."

She walked to Yun Ying and crouched down, patting Yun Ying's face with the flat of her short blade. "Big Sister Yun Ying, I'm collecting interest on the debt from the time your spear went off course." Then she looked toward Gu Yue, lifting a lock of her black hair with the tip of her tail blade. "Big Sister Gu Yue, your elemental power is so pretty. Too bad it can't freeze me."

Gu Yue raised her eyes. There was no fear in her violet gaze, only calculation. "You were hit by Teacher Wu's soul skill, then took our attacks. Your injuries are worse than ours."

"They are." Shadow smiled, the frenzy in her red eyes fading into a thin, tender pity. "But little brother is worth it. You came to save him, and the more he trembled, the cuter he got." She glanced back at Xie Xie, who was curled into a ball inside the room. Her tail blade dragged a pink line across the floor. "I'll teach you a bloody lesson tonight. Don't come sticking your noses in next time."

The tail blade rose. With a flick of Shadow's wrist, the blade light descended toward Yun Ying's collarbone—

Just then.

A frigid sword aura shot out from the far end of the corridor.

It was not the glow of a soul skill, but sword intent so pure it pierced to the bone. Before the sword wind even arrived, ice crystals had formed on both walls, and the motion-sensor lights shattered into icy fragments with a pop. The sword aura was as fine as a strand of hair, yet unimaginably precise. It cut between Shadow's tail blade and Yun Ying's throat, knocking the tail blade aside by three inches with a ringing clang. Its tip grazed Yun Ying's ear and sank into the floor tiles. Ice fragments burst out with the sword aura, freezing Shadow's sleeve into powder that rustled to the floor.

Shadow's red eyes paused. She raised her blade across her body, its tip trembling within the icy mist.

She did not turn around, but the smile at the corner of her mouth stiffened for half a second. "...Teacher Wu finished changing his ducks?"

From the source of the sword aura, cold air spilled down from the shadows around the stairwell corner.