Fight without Flight

Meng and Youshin wandered around the Moon city, which they soon learnt was called Yue City. The denizens were all spirits of those whose ancestors had forgotten them long ago and had been sent to the moon to wander. Youshin was surprised that the myths of Ji were more accurate than he’d previously thought, while Meng was desperately asking everyone if they knew where her parents were.

Despite the commotion they caused the spirits caused them little mind, in fact despite their solemn tone of voice they were quite happy to have this interruption to their eternal limbo, though they’d never show it.

Meng looked up to the spirit after explaining what she and Youshin were doing on the moon, hopeful that he’d know something.

“So? Have you seen them?” Meng asked desperately, the day had been quite long and had been quite fruitless. The spirit shook his head apologetically. Meng mumbled a thanks and walked over to a nearby park and sat on the small wall before screaming in despair. Youshin walked over and sighed, resting beside her in the small park.

The moon spirits had been building this city out of stone from the moon, everything was various shades of white, the park had been populated with small stone statues that copied plants from back in Ji. It was an eerie sight but one Meng paid little attention to, as she was too focused on her goal.

“Perhaps we should return for the night, though I believe it would be day now back home.” Youshin suggested, noting the grumbles coming from Meng’s stomach.

“But we might miss them…” Meng sighed as she got up again, still determined to find her parents no matter what. Youshin sighed and shook his head.

“Meng, perhaps we should consider the possibility that-”

“NO!” Meng shouted, turning angrily towards Youshin.

“S-sorry… This was just…” Meng mumbled before tearing up slightly. Youshin sighed and placed one of his arms on her shoulder.

“You’ve done remarkable things searching for them, but perhaps it is time to start looking to the future instead of dwelling in the past.” Youshin offered the crying girl.

“Can we look just a little longer?” Meng asked, wiping away the tears as she looked up to Youshin.

“Of course.” Youshin obliged. So the pair continued to wander Yue City, asking the spirits they came across where Meng’s parents might be. Meng was still hopeful, though she could feel that hope faltering with the more people they asked.

“I’m afraid that I haven’t-” The spirit began before she stopped speaking and freezing.

Suddenly, every single one of the spirits in Yue City disappeared, hiding in buildings as one man arrived.

Emperor Taoyan hobbled through the streets as Meng and Youshin panicked, wondering what had happened.

“We should leave.” Youshin shouted, unceremoniously grabbing Meng with his mouth and throwing her onto the saddle.

“W-what’s happening?!” Meng screamed as Youshin tried grabbing onto a cloud to fly, but quickly found that there were no clouds for him to grab on the moon. Youshin growled as he quickly began charging up an explosive flight spell, the same one he’d used to get to the moon in the first place.

“Not so fast.” Emperor Taoyan scowled as he emerged from a street corner, the compass stone in hand.

“You!” Meng shouted angrily. Youshin tried to charge up his flight spell faster but was cut off by Emperor Taoyan suddenly closing the distance of a full block in a single moment, slicing Youshin’s leg. Youshin let out a deep growl and quickly bucked Meng off into a nearby wall which had a stone carved canopy for her to land on somewhat safely.

Taoyan stabbed his sword into the ground and faced Youshin, slowing down quickly as he slid across the dusty moon rock road.

“Not so slippy when you can’t fly then?” Taoyan asked with a smug look as he struggled to stand up on his decayed leg.

“Why are you doing this?” Youshin growled as he stepped back from Taoyan, he had wasted a lot of magic on his failed flight spell, and he’d already used up a lot of magic on his successful flight spell to the moon.

“Why? You really need to ask why? Look at me, you disfigured the Emperor of Ji!” Taoyan screamed as he lifted his sword up on unsteady legs.

“You were burning down a village. I was just putting out the flames.” Youshin responded bitterly, trying to figure out how this crippled man could move like that.

“Barbarians at the border who had to be dealt with. I wouldn’t expect a beast such as you to comprehend such things.” Taoyan scowled before he suddenly dashed forward in the blink of an eye, just barely missing Youshin’s throat with his sword.

“YOUSHIN!” Meng screamed as she jumped down from the building, stumbling as she tried to run towards Youshin.

“DON’T!” Youshin shouted as Taoyan laughed.

“Adorable, you think you can save this dragon from my heavenly mandate.” Taoyan mocked as he stabbed his sword into Youshin’s tail, causing the dragon to scream as the mutilated Emperor hobbled forwards to the flailing dragon.

Youshin flailed as he twisted his body around to try and bite Taoyan, the Emperor quickly grabbed a knife from behind him and stabbed it into his jaw before it could bite down. Youshin went limp and collapsed onto the dusty road as Meng watched in horror.

Taoyan continued his march towards Meng, grabbing the compass stone that had led him all the way here.

“It didn’t take long for the Palace Mages to identify this piece of witchcraft, you know.” Taoyan declared mockingly as he dropped the stone at Meng’s feet, she quickly collapsed down to grab it. Taoyan responded by kicking Meng with his withered leg, it was forceful and felt like she was being hit by a rotten and dried out log.

Meng rolled back as she gasped for air as she clenched onto the stone.

“I wouldn’t have been able to kill this beast without you, that stone, taking him here? I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity for a fight on equal footing. Without the clouds in the sky, he can’t fly. And without flying, he must bow to his emperor.” Taoyan growled as he stepped on the still grounded Meng.

“And you thought you could save him? With what? You are a tiny girl trying to stand against-” Taoyan ranted before being interrupted by his withered foot twisting suddenly and forcefully.

As the man screamed and fell, Youshin ripped the sword out of his tail and snapped Taoyan up in his jaw, quickly launching him into the stars.

Youshin looked down and saw that Meng was alright, and quickly collapsed, bleeding out on the ground as the spirits slowly exited the buildings to continue wandering the streets.

“Y-Youshin?” Meng gasped as she crawled up, finally opening her eyes to see that the spirits were healing the dragon.

“Rest young one. You have done well.” A spirit said in its usual airy voice.

“We must ask, how did you do that?” Another spirit asked curiously as another pair of spirits began healing Meng with what little of their life force they had left.

“Oh uh… I just pushed the compass stone into his shoe and well… it pointed to Youshin very strongly I guess…” Meng shrugged, she wasn’t entirely sure how she’d done it either.

“Very well, naive one. We thank you for removing the man from our city regardless.” The spirits said in unison before wandering off. Meng quickly ran over to Youshin who was laying down on his side, his injuries having already scarred over.

“I-I’m sorry Youshin this is all my fault and-”

“Shhh… Just let me sleep… I am very tired.” Youshin grunted as he rolled over onto his back.

“Okay…” Meng sighed, relieved that Youshin was for the most part, fine.