Brax, Xinyu, Epsilon, Samson, Cygnus, Kofi, and the elder were all present at a meeting held in the elder's hut the morning after the feast.
"Now, the matter as to why you were brought here," Epsilon said. "I'm sure you were briefed in some semblance."
"Some kinda phony god sightings, right?" Brax asked. "I ain't see any way that's true. 'Course, if it was, I don't think there'd be anything more we could do."
"Perhaps, but this isn't quite as nuanced as a god striking us down on a whim," Epsilon said. "Since a few months ago, there have been various accounts in the Southlands of a giant creature wandering the desert. They say this anomalous being is taller than a mountain and wider than one as well. With that, we've also been picking up dark splotches on the radars in this outpost. What's most troubling, however, is that all the Southland people who have seen the creature say it has a striking resemblance to their supreme god, Sango. Is it actually the deity in corporeal form? Probably not. What is it actually? No clue, to be frank."
"This conundrum, along with the prophecies, is troubling," Cygnus said, scratching his chin. "You've done well as my head researcher, Epsilon. You too, Samson. From this point on, I will be taking over this investigation."
"Your orders?" Samson asked.
"We start to piece together this puzzle, piece by piece," Cygnus said. "Bring every bit of information and book about Sango's legend to the camp. I figure I should read up on Southern lore, just in case. Have someone analyze the magic radar at all times. Look for patterns in those pesky black splotches and leave no stone unturned. For curiosity's sake, we'll uncover the truth in no time at all!"
"What about us?" Brax asked.
"For the moment, you, Xinyu, and Kofi aren't needed," Cygnus said. "You'll have quite a bit of free time since this investigation will most likely take a few weeks. You've never been to the Southlands before, yes? Indulge in the culture and learn something new. You'll find the experience is eye-opening."
"What was the point of us coming along if we're just gonna be waitin' around?" Brax asked, sighing. "We coulda stayed back in Wunderdum, ya know."
"That is not true, Brax!" Xinyu said gleefully. "The king gave this mission to all of us, so just because there is nothing for us to do now, that does not mean we will not have a role in the future! Each of us will play a part, of that I am sure."
"Precisely. I couldn't have said it better myself," Cygnus said. "Now, is there anything more before we adjourn this meeting?"
"Just one more thing, "Kofi said. "I'd like to challenge you, Cygnus, to a battle."
"Ah, of course! In accordance with your land's warrior culture, I shall oblige," Cygnus said. "I'm curious about you as well, my good sir."
"A fight?" Brax asked. "Is that really okay?"
"It's fine," Epsilon said. "In the south, there is an ancient technique in which you can gauge a person's character by locking fists with them. I personally haven't been able to master it since natural magic isn't my forte, but it's intriguing nonetheless."
"I can't imagine gettin' to know someone by beatin' them up," Brax said.
"Something about it seems familiar…" Xinyu said.
…
The duel was to take place not far from the village, and the two men agreed they wouldn't fight to the fullest of their abilities, since they still didn't want to risk harming anything or anyone. Cygnus appointed Xinyu as the referee by her own eager request, though it was merely a formality since the bout wasn't necessarily to determine who was stronger.
Various onlookers from the village gathered around as the opportunity to see two powerful warriors renowned in their respective lands was always a spectacle. It reminded Brax of the time Xinyu and Cygnus had first clashed and how much of a crowd that drew in, though the crowds of Avalon were marginally greater. How far they had come since then, and in such a short time, too.
Kofi and Cygnus stood not far from each other. Roughly three meters. Xinyu brought her hand down to signal the start, then joyfully hopped backward.
In less than a second, Kofi sprang in tandem with Cygnus. Cygnus's fist, wrapped in a glove of cosmic energy, clashed with Kofi's hand, which had been reinforced with magic drawn from nature. The energies canceled out, leaving the two with locked fists. Kofi, who was much bigger than Cygnus, easily knocked him back. While tumbling to the ground, Cygnus retaliated with a swift blast of nebulous fire and hopped back to his feet. Undaunted by the ambuscade, Kofi summoned a light gust of desert wind to blow it out and inadvertently created a smokescreen of sand.
As the dust cleared, Cygnus emerged immediately and threw a ball of light into Kofi's stomach. It didn't hurt the muscular man's reinforced body, but it was forceful enough to knock him on his rear. He stood up fast as Cygnus was already running towards him with a blugeon comprised of the starry sky– a magic material that could only be described as cosmic dust. In response, Kofi stabbed his arm deep in the ground and pulled out a plate of radiating stone with earthen magic. He used it to block the scholar's burning club, but it exploded, blowing them both to their backs.
"Not bad, savior," Kofi said as he lay in the hot sun. "I've got a good read on the type of man you are. You are both a valiant warrior of the mind and his fists. I believe that is enough."
"As you wish," Cygnus said, releasing his magic. He stood up and began to brush off his suit, which was covered in sand. "I'll surely be cleaning this one out for ages."
"I must ask you," Kofi said. "Your powers seem to be suited for a wide array of abilities, which could give you range or utility. Why fight a close-range battle in which you'd certainly be at a disadvantage?"
"I don't know what you speak of; that's just how I do battle," Cygnus said. "But if I had to guess, perhaps it's because I prefer to see things as close as I can."
"Regardless, you've proven your soul to me," Kofi said. "My abilities are at your disposal."
"Ah, thanks. Someone such as yourself will certainly prove useful-" Cygnus started.
"That is it?!" Xinyu exclaimed. "As in, that was the entire fight? That was not much of a fight! I expected a more extravagant performance!"
"Do not speak of the strength of others if you do not have such strength yourself, odd one," Kofi said, chuckling to himself. "Warriors from each place in this world have their own code of honor. Battle is ours."
"Then perhaps you would like a match with me?" Xinyu asked smugly.
"I will have to pass this offer," Kofi said. "I do not sense an ounce of energy coming from you, so I must ask, why do you speak so loudly?"
"Careful with that one," Cygnus warned. "Her powers are beyond even me."
"Hm, how uncanny," Kofi said, looking down at the small woman.
"Shall we fight, warrior of the South?" Xinyu asked.
"Actually, I'd like to fight you, if that's alright," Brax said. The others looked at him, surprised. His voice was faint and uncertain at first, but grew as he spoke again.
"I know ain't strong, but at least I wanna see where I'm at," he said. "I need to know, just this once, how far I gotta go to be useful. And it starts with fightin' someone so far ahead of me, I could never dream of catchin' up. So please, Xinyu, will you fight me?"
"If that is your wish, then I shall grant it!" Xinyu said happily.
…
The two stood opposed where Cygnus and Kofi had previously stood.
"I will not afford you an easy fight, Brax!" Xinyu said. "I do not hand out victories! Not to my enemies or my allies!"
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Brax said nervously. "I ain't a child."
"Indeed! You are very far from a child!" Xinyu said.
"I don't know if that was a diss on me, but damn that hurts," Brax said under his breath.
The air was still. This time, Cygnus was the referee with Kofi, Samson, and Epsilon on standby, both ready to stop the match in an instant.
"What is this, a fight to the death?" Samson asked, half jokingly.
"Is she really as powerful as you say?" Epsilon asked.
"Hmm, yes, but that's not the main issue," Cygnus said. "I'm more worried about the other fellow. At the core of everything, he's reliable, but self-destructive. He's against someone he doesn't have a chance against, and I don't want him doing anything too rash."
While Brax's face turned into a serious glare as he prepared himself to fight the foe before him, Xinyu stood there smiling. In that moment, he realized that her smile was more multifaceted than he'd given it credit for. To her friends, it may have brought warmth and radiated hope and kindness, but to her enemies, it was something else entirely. The way her lips hid her thoughts and fears. How it became a symbol of unpredictability and of strength. Of composure. Fighting a smiling enemy was much more horrifying than one who was scowling.
Brax tried to swallow the saliva that built up in his tingling mouth, but something seemed caught in the back of his throat. He could not figure out why he was so nervous. It was a simple brawl among comrades and nothing more. There were no stakes, no risks, yet he couldn't help but feel a deep foreboding in his heart.
"What could this overwhelming pressure be?" he wondered as he trembled. It felt like a gravity pressing his entire being down, and it took every ounce of willpower he had to not fall.
Before he could ponder it more, the match had already started, with him being knocked back by an ox that seemed to come out of nowhere. It was one of the twelve zodiac animals summoned by Xinyu, and he only barely managed to shield his body with an earthen wall drawn out from the ground purely by instinct. He did not have time to compose himself as the bull had already pivoted behind him with immense speed. Faster than any bull should have been, Xinyu had infused the ox spirit with the rabbit spirit, making the animal a force of both strength and nimble acrobatics. Brax could only avoid its attacks by burrowing beneath the earth using his tunneling escape spell.
"Your instincts have improved since we first met!" Xinyu said. "But running will not always be there to save you! When you were cornered against that angel, it was you who stalled for enough moments for me to finish it off. You could have run, yet you chose to fight with the idea that you might die. Show me that grit you conveyed then!"
Brax heard Xinyu's muffled voice beneath the ground. He looked at his hands, which were still shaking. He had no idea what he could possibly do, nor had he any clue as to why he challenged her in the first place. If it had been Cygnus or Kofi, they would have shown restraint and tact. But he chose the worst one of them all. The one he thought was the strongest. His mouth just moved on its own, and now he regretted it deeply.
Was anything really expected from a middle-aged nobody like him?
The ground began to shake as Leigong's thunder pounded the desert floor. As each bolt of thunderous electricity hammered the barren land, it knocked up rock and dirt, digging through the earth's dry, crusty skin. Booming crackles bounced all to the mountains yonder, and winds pierced the cloudless cyan sky, blowing away the dactyls and desert flutterbeaks. Rodents scurried away from the fissuring earth as it quaked and created a massive hole where Brax had been hiding.
The sun erupted through the safety of his darkness, and Brax stared in terror at the Eastern girl standing on a nimbus cloud directly above. She manifested Leigong's hammer, or at least a replica of it, in one hand, and beat a drum with it. With each beat, a wave of thunder shot outwards at an accelerating rate. And then Brax saw it. What he thought was the sun at first wasn't the sun at all. Every single electrical bolt that came from Leigong's drum had gone to a huge ball of lightning above them both, which kept growing.
"I am going to throw this ball of Punishing Thunder at you, Brax!" Xinyu shouted from atop her cloud. "It will hurt you if you do not do anything about it!"
The ball grew from the size of a snake to that of a tiger, then to a dragon. The pressure its aura emitted was astounding, and as if it were igniting the world's gravity merely by existing. It quickly became an amalgamation of fire, electricity, and pure energy, sending ripples through the desert like a hurricane. The air itself melted, and the ground wavered, quaking and breaking in the surrounding area. And among the mountains yonder, the joyous laughter of the Merchant of Joy echoed.
"This… this is madness!" Kofi said, preparing to act, though unsure of what he could possibly do. "We must stop this now!"
Cygnus halted him by placing his hand upon the warrior's chest.
"Wow, you are rigid," Cygnus said, surprised at the sturdiness of his muscles. "But you need not fear, for it appears our friend on the ground hasn't quite given up. Wouldn't it be dishonorable to stop the battle now?"
Kofi peered at Brax with his eagle eyes. His legs and arms were shaking, and the middle-aged man was certainly in no position to defend against such an attack. No matter how Kofi looked at it, he had no chance. But then, he looked deep into the old peasant's eyes, and he saw something that contrasted with his body's instincts. Determination.
Brax's mind went blank as his body turned to stone, or more accurately, became encased in a suit of earthen armor. It wouldn't do anything against the ball of lightning, but that's not what it was to protect him from. All the power in his being, every single drop deep within his vast reserves, flashed out at once in a brilliant flame of sturdy vigor that negated the immediate gravity, allowing him to stand tall. Then, three cards manifested and fell from the air, floating right in front of Brax.
He pulled one, but it instantly exploded in his face and knocked him straight down. It was another card of self-destruction, which was something quite common in the tier of card magic he used. His rock armor crumbled from the card's abrupt eruption, but it was enough to protect his flesh from the fire. Such was the reason he unraveled the armor in the first place. Shaken, but not finished, Brax managed to stand in his aching body, limestone bits crumbling off his tattered clothes. In that moment, he, too, began to grin. No longer did he feel fear, for he was now enveloped in the rush of battle.
He pulled the next card and threw it at Xinyu without looking at what it held. As it pierced the air, it morphed into a silver spear with aflame greatswords haphazardly strapped to it. It began to spin rapidly in all directions, forming a sharp ball of swords like a meteor of fiery steel. Twirling around like a planet caught in a star's gravity, it locked onto its center and began barreling straight for her. Xinyu summoned the goat zodiac and its defense to deflect it away with its unbreakable horns. The horns of the goat were the zodiac's ultimate defense and changed material depending on the circumstance. Since its regular horns were not nearly hard enough, they then turned into iron horns as they clashed with the monstrous ball of hot weaponry. The iron horns quickly yielded to the card, and thus the goat had to use its diamond horns to finally divert the ball away from Xinyu, knocking it right into the ball of lightning, where it was eviscerated on contact.
"Amazing resolve, Brax!" Xinyu exclaimed. "When we first met, I never thought you could be so incredible, but time and time again, you have proved me wrong. From your bravery to your knowledge! Come, let us finish this battle with an incredible end!"
Brax placed his hand on his final card, his mind focused only on the foe before him. He poured every ounce of magic into it until there was nothing left in his body. He took a deep breath, ready to pull the final card, but before he could, he floundered. He stumbled, and he fell. Having poured out all his energy in the span of a second, his body was unable to process it, and he slumped onto the ground, unconscious.
Seeing his error, the ball of lightning wisped away, and Xinyu's nimbus cloud teetered to the ground beside him.
"I see," Kofi said. "That man has great reserves of energy, but no control over them. He might have potential if he is willing to put in the effort to train his body. Perhaps I can mentor him."
"And what do you think of the girl?" Cygnus asked.
"She scares me," Kofi said. "For reasons beyond her strength… it is her uncanny soul that makes me feel uneasy."
"I can't quite figure it out myself, but I fear she knows something that's better left untouched," Cygnus said.
"And what would that be?" Epsilon asked.
"I don't know," Cygnus admitted. "For now, let us just observe and focus on the task at hand."
Brax was completely out of magic and resting soundly on the ground, making Xinyu the winner between the two.
"You did well," Xinyu whispered. "Brax, my first friend, ever. Where your path leads, I do not know, but I hope you will walk down it until you reach a future filled with everlasting happiness."