22 Results in the "Strongest Under Heaven" category
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The lei tai was simple from above and severe from within: a broad circle of bone-white square stone tiles, smoothed enough to be uncanny, and inlaid with eight equidistant bronze trigrams. Beyond it, nothing but red dirt and a moat of smoking black water in the pit below, then the tiers of demons ascending into the mountain’s throat. Four prayer-pillars stood at the cardinal points, wound with iron sutra chains. At the north wall, looming over the ring from a niche of red lacquer and soot, stood the…
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56.5 K • Ongoing
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The arena snapped sideways. He hit the stone on his shoulder and rolled through pain bright enough to have color. Before he could find his knees, a second blow struck the ribs. A third landed under the sternum. A fourth slapped his guard aside and cracked across the cheek. He came up on one elbow. She kicked him down. He gasped and looked up at her. She stood. He had, at the last panicked moment, seen her move and braced himself. “For you,” she said, “I start with twenty…-
56.5 K • Ongoing
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Bakuga Kōten of the Burning Sparrow School was called next against Kurohane Shigure, the Rain-Crow Ronin, a narrow demon in a lacquered crow mask and a traveler’s cloak darkened by spells of perpetual rain. His sword was longer than his arm and black along the back, the edge flashing clear whenever he breathed; around his shoulders hung wet feathers, though no water touched the ring, and each step he took left a small black footprint that evaporated after his shadow passed. Mali bounced along. “If…
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56.5 K • Ongoing
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Late afternoon lay over the palm-dappled canal town with the soft authority of habit. Laundry snapped between second-story balconies. The sparring yard behind Old Hu’s tea shed was dusty from boys dragging heels through practice stances. Wooden bridges crossed the canal in stacked angles, darkened by old rain and hand oil. Children shouted over the water. Someone fried fish with too much pepper. Someone cursed at a pump engine that had survived the Horror, the reconstruction, three floods, and every…
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56.5 K • Ongoing
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Mali brought her flag down. “And that will settle the first rounds! Now it’s time for a much-needed food break!” Enekai and Yulaan ran towards the food court, a hundred paces away from the pavilion and arena. The bronze champion hyperventilated around Yulaan and calmed when Enekai rushed along. Sesame shook both fists after them. “I’ll tie your tails into knots if you spend all my money stuffing your goddamn maws again, monkeyfucks!” Temujin felt cooler than the other side of…
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56.5 K • Ongoing
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“Nine!” He awoke. “And—!” Pink smoke struck him in the face. It had the taste of sugar, copper, and Sesame’s sweet sweat. He sat up before he understood that sitting up should have been impossible. His ribs no longer ground together. His throat opened. The crushed place under the sternum filled with warmth. His torn cheek sealed. His lungs drank air and found room for it. He stood. Sesame stood at the rail with one hand stretched toward him, her whole arm…
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56.5 K • Ongoing
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Several slow clouds came and went. The bracket wheel burned and turned and sent ashes fluttering down. Temujin’s name appeared again. With renewed zeal, he stood, beat his palm, and said, “Alright, bring it on!” As he walked, the voices of his new ‘friends’ cheered him on. This drew a complicated, but grateful warmth to his fists. There surged a sound different from the roar that had greeted Qinglong. This was a warmer noise, uglier for being warm. Temujin recognized it as the…
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56.5 K • Ongoing
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Beyond them, demons who had stopped cheering and started edging away. The hyena mother and Zeru and Temu, skittering to safety not far off from Makku, who ran and didn't turn back. Injured spectators crawling over broken seats. Sword-school disciples forming a defensive ring around their wounded master. The arena’s appetite had curdled. The crowd that had come to watch death had discovered death laughing back. He saw Utita pulling Ari-apari, but the boy refused to move. And the manly voiced boy…
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56.5 K • Ongoing
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Bakuga KōtenversusMukhahīna Śveta A part of Temujin grumbled that the two most interesting fighters were about to go at it, but that part took a blow to the nads. Heaven above, he hoped Enekai faced off against whoever won this one. She was probably going to sweep this, and he wasn't entirely bothered by the thought, though his own martial pride didn't let him entertain blowing their inevitable showdown. Yeah, it'd be the two of them, surely. He felt he could take the others. Well, Ryūei…
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56.5 K • Ongoing
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The mountain ranges beyond the arena answered. Peaks shook. Loose ridges lifted from their roots and hung in the air. Storm clouds gathered with unnatural speed, churning above the broken roof, then were blown apart by the first pulse of her power. The empty pit where the black water had been split wider, revealing old bones embedded in the stone below. The Daimaō’s cloud bucked. He grabbed the armrest of nothing and failed to stay dignified as he and three shrieking demon babes lifted from the…
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56.5 K • Ongoing
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