The God of Martial Arts

Laying on a floating cloud, Zahna was fast asleep. Before he went back down to his room, Korin gave her a gift for reaching the top of the tower; a cloud called the Flying Nimbus. He told her that few others had ever received such a gift in his hundred’s year vigil at the tower, it was a special occasion to be sure. The night passed peacefully, without the recurring specter of traumatic memories. After all that exertion, the young magic knight had earned a well-deserved rest.

Morning slid over the horizon, illuminating the vast forest below but not before it sent warming rays of golden radiance to wash over the tower above the clouds. Morning comes earlier for those who make a home of the sky. Two figures arose from within Korin’s tower, one was the legendary feline himself. The other was a stout looking man with long black hair, and orange robes. At his side was a katana.

The two of them looked upward, tracking Zahna as she floated about lazily above them. “She climbed up here last night?” the stocky man asked of his roommate.

Korin stroked his beard, “Yes, and she’s the first woman to ever do so. Quite interesting.” Looking briefly at the sword at the man's side, the cat seemed to be brewing a plan. “She has a sword too, very similar to yours. I want you to challenge her, Yajirobe.”

With wide eyes and mouth agape, “YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!” Yajirobe shouted incredulously. “You want me to fight a girl? Are you crazy!? What kind of swordsman would I be if I just went around picking fights with girls!?”

The passive facial expression Korin had been wearing twisted into a frown, his brows looked like a widened ‘v’ and his teeth were bared. “You live here for free, and you eat my senzu beans! And now you think you can refuse? I guess you really are a scaredy cat!!”

The two argued back and forth for several minutes, neither noticing that Zahna had started to wake. She stretched her arms outward as she shook off the sleep, before she peered over her heavenly cradle. “Huh? What are they fighting about?” She pet the cloud, and looked at it longingly as it was such a nice place to rest for the night. With a sigh, she leapt down, interrupting the spat. “Mornin Korin, who’s your friend?”

They both stopped their bickering and turned to look towards Zahna, the cat had a smile on his face while his counterpart crossed their arms and frowned.

“Hehe, this guy is Yajirobe. And I want you to fight him!”, he pointed a claw at her while his friend grumbled and shook his head.

“I told you I don’t fight girls!” Yajirobe yelled furiously while his face turned red as an apple.

Zahna looked disappointed, she had just woken up and now she would have to fight yet again! She enjoyed fighting and testing herself, but not before breakfast. Her stomach growled loudly as she laid her hands over her belly, “Can’t we eat first?”

“Hey! I said I’m not gonna fight you, missy!” Yajirobe felt adamant in his position and turned his nose up at the two of them.

Korin tossed a single green bean at Zahna, prompting her to catch it. “That will keep you full for ten days. And I’ll give you more if you can beat Yajirobe!” He whacked Yajirobe in the back of the head with his cane as he leapt away on to a nimbus. “If you don’t fight her, NO MORE BEANS FOR YOU!” He pulled down on one eye and stuck out his tongue to mock the man after shouting his edict from the new vantage point.

Zahna examined the bean in her hand, ‘Ten days, huh?’ she threw the senzu into her mouth and chewed it up fast. The texture was unsurprisingly like any uncooked bean would have. Its dryness reminded her of pot potatoes from Hage Village, but the flavor was quite fishy indeed, even for an avid pescatarian it would have been quite intense. Her face scrunched up after chewing it, and she looked like she was about to spit it out right before she ended up swallowing it like bitter medicine. “Whoa” The flavor was challenging for Zahna, but she suddenly felt all her stamina recover, any fatigue or soreness she had disappeared as soon as she swallowed the strange bean. Even more than that, her mana suddenly surged as if it couldn’t be contained in her body anymore. Her mana was overflowing and flared up into a shifting aura around her. Dark, light, and spatial mana violently flickered around her in a mesmerizing chromatic dance. She had a huge grin on her face as she looked at her hands, flexing them. “That thing was amazing!”

Korin was surprised by the dancing energies around her, he had never seen such an aura before, but he could sense both unfamiliar magics and ki mixing around in it. He leaned forward with interest.

With a look of surprise and disbelief, Yajirobe could scarcely prevent his jaw from hanging wide. “What the hell is that?!” he rubbed his eyes as if to disappear the spectacle in front of him, but it was to no avail. For as soon as his eyes opened again, it remained. He instinctively reached for his katana.

Zahna narrowed her eyes at him like a bird of prey sizing up her prey. “Do you not fight girls cause you’re afraid to lose to one?” She said in a challenging tone while giving him a thumbs down.

“WHAT!? I would never lose to a girl!” Shaking with fury he yelled at the top of his lungs. “What kind of guy beats up women?!”

“Oh, so you actually think you can win? Prove it.” Unsheathing her weapon, she stood ready for battle.

“Fine! If you really wanna fight that badly” He glared at Korin as he drew his blade in kind. “You better have those senzu ready Korin,” slowly he turned back to Zahna “I hope you’re ready, lady.”

A cool breeze rolled across the morning sky, followed by the quiet before the inevitable clash. Launching forward at incredible speed, Yajirobe was in front of Zahna in a near instant. ‘Damn! He’s even faster than those other guys but I can still see his moves!’ His blade was closing rapidly but she deflected it, causing him to follow-up with a series of slashes. The sounds of metal clanging rang out as both fighters moved around the tower.

From atop his cloud, Korin looked on with interest and a smile. ‘She’s very interesting! What swordsmanship, I wonder where she trained.’ He watched as they deftly moved across the battlefield, their swords singing in the wind.

The clash of blades spat out bright sparks like camera flashes as attacks and counters were deflected to and fro. Even at the speeds they were moving at it was an artful display of battle prowess, at least for those skilled enough to see what was going on. The arena itself was yet to be covered in damage from the duel.

Where blades would fail to connect, kicks would follow. Both opponents followed up with combinations of attacks that rend any usual enemy in an instant, but it seemed to be a stalemate that would not soon change balance.