Rising Dragons (11)

Wing Chun enjoyed the small bit of sun while it lasted, she walked for a brief moment before the clouds descended on her again.

The clouds thickened as she kept walking, some more time passed before she realized something was wrong. She had memorized the path up the mountain in the morning, but as she walked she realized that a part of the path wasn't lining up with what she remembered.

She stopped so she wouldn’t get more lost and remembered the mental image of the path she memorized, she was sure she hadn't made a mistake.

She retraced her steps, going back the way she came, but as time passed, the fog grew thicker and the path in front of her was barely visible. She paused once again, as through the fog she began to recognize some of her surroundings.

She was sure that she had walked past this part of the mountain before, she marked the wall of the mountain with her daggers, and began walking forwards with her hand against the wall. As she kept moving, she felt the mark again confirming her suspicions, she had fallen into an Illusion Array.

Her master had told her about them long ago; arrays are powerful spells, usually made by infusing carefully placed talismans with internal energy to produce a magical effect. She needed to identify what type of array she was dealing with in order to break through.

There are two broad types of Illusion Array’s, those that affect the target's senses, and those that distort the space around them in some way. Illusion Arrays that distort space are exceptionally rare but she still tested that theory first.

Wing Chun crouched low and placed her feet firmly in the ground as she settled into a sprinting stance. She gathered her internal energy into her legs and feet. If the Array indeed distorted space, she would see or feel some sort of effect by moving quickly.

She sprung forward, sprinting as fast as she could, but found that nothing changed as she went forward and quickly found herself in the same spot as before.

“This must be the type of Illusion Array that tricks the senses” Wing Chun thought. The alternative scenario would require an extremely powerful Illusion Array and she doubted that such a complex Array would be used as a simple trap in an examination, after all Arrays are extremely hard to make, requiring decades of learning and extremely expensive ingredients.

Wing Chun focused on her senses, Sensory Illusion Array’s usually only trick one or two senses, she thought that her sense of direction and her sight were being targeted so she insulated both of them with her internal energy. She opened her eyes and began to move forward, once again finding no change.

She tried a few more times in case she wasn't properly protecting herself from the effect. She stood dumbfounded as she returned to her original theory. It must be a Spatial Illusion Array, but either she wasn't fast enough to affect it, or she was missing something else.

Her mind raced as she remembered Batu’s warning from earlier that day. Had Steel Sword somehow commissioned and placed an extremely expensive Array just to stop her from continuing? The question felt absurd but she couldn’t think of a reason such a powerful Array would show up in a random spot in the mountain.

She refocused and shelved the question for later, she would find answers to it later. She crouched low to the ground once again and ran as fast as she could to no avail. She took a breath and switched tactics, instead of running forward, she would challenge the Array in a different direction, hoping to break out of it that way.

She ran backwards this time, back the way she came, and this time as she reached her full speed, the space around her began to visually distort, the clouds swirled around as the wall of the mountain shifted and swayed in place, the ground beneath her feet slid under her as she kept moving backwards.

Wing Chun kept sprinting until her lungs gave out, the Array still did not break. She caught her breath and doubt began to fill her mind.

“Am I not good enough?” she thought “Is this part of the exam or something else?”

She felt her mind begin to darken with stress and emotion, as soon as she recognized it she took a deep breath, refocusing her mind.

She laid out the facts, she was dealing with a Spatial Illusory Array that distorted the space along the narrow path up the mountain. She was not fast enough to go forwards, but barely slower than what was needed to break the array by going back. The Array wasn’t adding more space but instead pulling her towards the center of the array in a horizontal direction.

She looked up the stone mountain. If the Array was so strongly affecting a horizontal direction, then maybe moving vertically could break the Array? She tried climbing, but the wall in this section of the mountain was way too flat and slippery to attempt a climb. She looked for a foot hold but found none.

She looked over the edge of the path into the white clouds below, she pulled out her daggers, took a deep breath, and jumped down the mountain.

Wing Chun began to pick up speed as she fell, the space around her distorting quickly before it visually snapped. Wing Chun suddenly appeared mid air, the ground quickly approaching from below.

She spun around using her back and lower abdomen to turn, at the same time, she pushed her internal energy into her arms and daggers and thrust them both against the mountain side.

One blade snapped immediately, the other caught itself on a jagged edge on the cliffside. The quick stopping of momentum hurt her arm, as all her weight suddenly snapped at her joints. She focused all her energy on the arm that held onto the dagger to keep her shoulder joint from popping out of place.

She stopped and pushed her body against the cliffside, finding awkward footing and another handhold to balance herself. She took a deep breath to focus her internal energy once again.

Wing Chun looked at her surroundings, spotting a path she could take a few feet below her. She steadied herself and jumped down once again, slowing her fall with her dagger every few feet. By the time she finally landed on solid ground again, her second dagger was completely destroyed, she felt a twinge of sadness as they had been gifted to her by a young lady she had helped some years ago.

However, she had no time to stop, she had spent way more time than she expected on surpassing the Array. She looked for another path up the mountain, noting where the Array lay its trap in order to avoid it. She once again spotted a white eagle, the same one she had seen in the morning, and she could swear it was looking down at her. She followed its flight and found an alternate path up the mountain, she followed it without a second thought.