The First Harem Tournament 21 – Striking Cat vs Hidden Dragon [Lu Zhi POV]

Lu Zhi hid her mischievous smirk behind her fan.

Where or when she had picked up the gesture, she couldn’t remember. She had a vague recollection of a teacher telling the potential heirs about the value of half-hidden emotions. Showing enemies enough to get an idea of one’s next move invited speculation. Few things were more destructive than a leader who had reasoned themselves into the wrong course of action.

Not that this would work against the woman standing across from her now. Jane Hollmey was a genius in her own way. Though ledgers and history were not her forte, she was politically savvy in a way few others were. Wearing her whimsical nature on her sleeve allowed her to change her mind on a dime, to minimal grumbling from followers that she had gathered with her charisma and connections.

If Lu Zhi hadn’t shimmied her way into the Imperial Choir, the leadership of the Fusion Empire would have been quite the headache to deal with. The overthinker in charge and his goal-oriented first wife, a power couple backed by a harem of likewise brilliant women. A blessing to be part of it instead. The political calculation of offering her hand to John Newman had worked out better than she could have hoped for.

“One of us has to give this wheel a tug,” Jane stated.

“By all means, the lesser empress should go ahead.”

“Right, so when are ya giving it a spin?”

Lu Zhi laughed. It was so nice to have equals to banter with. None of the stuffy bureaucrats who insisted on tradition to the point of stagnancy. “It would be beneath us to argue.” The Heavenly Jade Empress closed her folding fan with a resounding snap. The tool flicked against a peg of the hovering wheel, sending it spinning wildly. The crowd beyond gasped, thinking it had been just the imperial tomboy’s strength that had put the wheel into motion. They were unaware of the way her Innate Ability combined with Tianlong’s blessing, the binding and releasing of forces via jade.

Some of the audience perhaps knew. It wasn’t a national secret like the Cardinal Copying was. All the same, elements at her court had spoken out against her participation. They had been silenced by appeasing acts, whispered threats and reminders of their oaths. If nothing else, Vinh’s declaration of rebellion made for a perfect millstone to grind the rat-infested grain of the imperial nobility into a pure wheat.

The wheel came to a gradual halt, the arrow above pointing at the words ‘parking garage’.

Lu Zhi let out an audible groan. Brutalist pillars of bare concrete rose up all around them in a grid pattern. Concrete and rebar sprouted between them, forming a flat ceiling. More concrete no doubt extended further upwards. Concrete replaced the floor. Concrete, concrete, concrete – the worst of all the building materials, too efficient to be ignored and ugly as sin.

“…Ya wanna start off with a huge bang and turn this whole place into rubble?” Jane suggested.

“Three!”

“We confess that you are most wise.”

“Two!”

“Let’s do it then!”

“One!”

Tomboy to tomboy, the two empresses smirked at each other.

“BEGIN!”

“A solemn reign, for the few that rise up high…” The chant began immediately, golden light seeping from the roots to the tips of Jane’s hair, surrounding her gorgeous face with a halo of light.

Lu Zhi’s grin twisted into a feral display of anticipation. Jade scales surfaced on her arms, covering them in striking green. The dragon on her white dress swirled, loosening clouds that formed an arch from shoulder to shoulder, bending behind her head and coiling around her arms.

“…and we all fight…!” Jane continued her chant unobstructed. Hard-light claws expanded in size with every spoken syllable, growing more unstable and prismatic as power flowed into them.

The Heavenly Jade Empress raised one foot and planted it a half step back. Concrete cracked, the immediate surface pounded into powder by her digging heel. Her perception of the world changed. A dragon’s tail curled around her, its stone scales gently clicking against themselves. A dragon’s antlers extended from her head, complimenting her twin buns nicely. The very shape of her irises changed. Mana, light, scent, the atmospheric pressure, all of it was different now.

“…LET OUR WORLDS COLLIDE!”

Even to the supreme senses of the Middle Empire’s sovereign, Jane’s movement was akin to a video catching up on itself. One second, she had her arm back, ready to strike, the next the solar streaks were already upon Lu Zhi. The heat seared her shoulder, turning much of her dress, a masterwork of weaving and enchantment, into ash.

Flesh seared. Fresh scales grew. Lu Zhi’s reaction finally kicked in. The extreme heat and kinetic energy burning and carving into her diminished rapidly. All of that force was hers to bind, to pull into the jade fan she carried in her hand.

Without any other magic to bind it, the slash of light passed through the imperial tomboy. She was left blind for one more moment, finally finding herself several dozen metres in the air, surrounded by the scattershot debris of the garage tower’s outer wall. She laughed manically. The brutalist structure was ruined already. Where the attack hadn’t outright ripped the wall apart, the edges of the superheated gashes glowed incandescent, dripping molten concrete and iron.

Still, the structure stood.

‘Time to change that,’ Lu Zhi thought and waved her fan.

The air shimmered. A series of booms filled the air with a primordial cacophony. All of the absorbed force was sent back the way it came, a horizontal echo bereft of light. Pieces of debris all around her came to a halt, dropping almost straight down. The inert building before her did not have any momentum to be countered. Its exposed levels served as the perfect traps for the force. Heat weakened pillars until the extreme winds pulled the concrete apart like wax.

At the centre of it all, Jane stood, her arms crossed in resistance to the impact. “Ehe!” A delighted squeak escaped the Heavenly Jade Empress. Her aura manifested, a white fog rolling down her curves like the chilled air down a mountainside. Her foot struck air as if it was solid, catapulting her forwards. Another step, then another, until her human body broke the sound barrier.

She was descending on Jane at speeds imperceptible to most. One foot was aimed down, the other raised to the height of her knee, dangling loosely from her ankle. Ki gathered in massive amounts in her joints, flowing through meridians in a complicated web of self-reinforcement.

Jane lowered her arms, her manic expression mirroring that of the descending empress perfectly. She assumed a ready stance.

The timing was immaculate. Lu Zhi’s heel came down, the Ki slamming down through her joints like a descending steam hammer. It needed an outlet and would have found it in Jane’s head.

A thin pad of externalized Ki on Jane’s right hand added an irresistible push. The flow of the Seismic Step was redirected. What hope the building had to keep standing was eliminated when Lu Zhi slammed into the ground, inducing an earthquake that rattled apart what remained of the structural integrity.

A massive chunk of concrete fell down on top of them. The women leapt in opposite directions. Even if they could survive it, an entire structure dropping on top of them was still inhibiting. Better to use their absurd speed to dodge the bits of concrete and climb the piles as they formed.

Jane shot a beam of light between concrete chunks, searing Lu Zhi’s cheek. “EVEN IF THIS WHOLE BUILDING FALLS… I’LL TAKE YOU WITH ME!” the feline Lightbearer shouted.

“DIE FOR NOTHING, FOOL!” Lu Zhi shouted back and raised up her hand.

A jade dagger manifested, shaped with the energy of her catching a falling piece of concrete. Another soon piled on top, then another and another. Each time, Lu Zhi bound the force into the created jade. The growing stack of weight pressed down, the gravity a constant supply of energy for her to absorb – a constant draw on her resources.

Jane spotted the moment of weakness and charged in. Lu Zhi tensed her midriff. Scales beneath the dress took the initial force of the palm strike. Greater force rippled deeper, causing popping blood vessels and threatening to rupture organs. Alas, Lu Zhi had been prepared.

Most of the force Jane had struck her with was thrown back at the Lightbearer, discharged through the smack of the Heavenly Jade Empress’ tail. Jane crashed through a resting pile of concrete and rebar. She disappeared into the heavy dust cloud that had enveloped them.

With a flex of her muscles, Lu Zhi threw the tower of rubble aside. It caused another rising of grey within the omnipresent dust. The horrid loudness had come to a stop. The building had fully collapsed now, leaving them only with unsteady footing and poor visibility. ‘A thorough improvement,’ the Heavenly Jade Empress thought. ‘What do you think, Tianlong?’

‘A structure without colours is like a soul without memories,’ the dragon responded.

‘Put that on a t-shirt,’ Lulu responded.

‘A traditional medium would be a scroll.’

‘Mhm… t-shirts sell better.‘

The empress and the god continued their unheard conversation as she walked. A remnant of human sensibilities made her lungs itch with every breath she took. Concrete dust dried her eyes and made a mess of her hair. She could taste it on her tongue, feel it grind between her teeth.

Thoroughly unpleasant.

“A solemn reign, for the few that rise up high…”

Lu Zhi’s grin returned with a vengeance. What a wonderfully desperate gamble! The words of the incantation rang through the air. Regular sound would have been lost. A Babel Phrase was no regular sound.

“…and we all fight…”

Swinging the dagger, Lu Zhi unleashed the raw force stored within. It boomed, it pulled the surrounding dust with it, forcing fresh air to move in. The roil was enough to thin the cloud in a slice, revealing the feline Lightbearer at the end of it.

Jane was put on the backfoot by the advancing wall of force. It was enough time that Lu Zhi could inhale deeply, the air in her lungs mixing with godly energy. The breath of the divine dragon was an invisible ball of force. It struck Jane mid-recovery, sending her flying back further.

Lu Zhi leapt. Magic fuelled the bond with her patron. A dragon of jade formed beneath her feet, moving in artistic arches towards the gold-haired cat woman. Stone teeth parted wide.

“Let our-” Jane threatened to finish the Babel Phrase, only to suddenly stop. All of the gathered energy dissipated uselessly, allowing Jane to leap up unburdened. As the head of the jade dragon crashed into the floor, a clenched fist nearly caught the empress’ cheek. “BAITED!”

“HAH!” Lu Zhi did not have the brainpower for a witty response. All that she was poured into the exchange of blows that followed. All of their fancy magic had served to get them both into their happy place: the taste of iron in their mouth, surrounded by rubble, in a melee with a hot woman!

Jane went into a rapid assault. Fist and claw swung repeatedly at the Heavenly Jade Empress. Following her traditional teachings, Lu Zhi focused on defence, redirecting and blocking the strikes.

Her opponent adapted on the fly. Lu Zhi adapted in turn.

Jane lunged forwards. Lu Zhi channelled the force of the forward strike into a shoulder throw. Jane landed on her feet, left palm pointed at the Heavenly Jade Empress’ midriff. Lu Zhi had her hand in position already. The blast of heat was immediately bound into a jade sphere, falling to the ground unused. Jane flexed, suddenly using the fact that Lu Zhi still held her to lift the shorter woman off her feet. Lu Zhi kicked the air, somersaulting over Jane’s head. Three blows came for her head. Three strikes were blocked.

Lu Zhi landed on her feet again. Jane snapped forwards again. Sunlight pierced the remaining cover of dust with supernatural intensity. Lu Zhi’s eyes snapped to Jane’s left hand. The claws of hard-light were replaced with actual metal, shining just as brightly with prismatic energy.

Eclipse had been activated.

“ORA! ORA! ORA!” Jane shouted.

“MUDA! MUDA! MUDA!” Lu Zhi met the weebery and flying fists in equal measure.

Knuckles clashed against knuckles, both of them straining to reach the utmost of their speed. At first they were at parity. Then, bit for bit, Jane moved ahead. The constant impacts of their fists were interrupted by light hits on Lu Zhi’s chest and shoulder. One even struck her face. The overlapping blessings of Tianlong with the power of her martial artist’s aura was finally outclassed. It would not be long before Jane could bring forth that feat without burning the candle of her stamina from both ends.

That day, perhaps Lu Zhi would lose.

Today, the gap was nowhere wide enough to make her fear for that outcome.

Lu Zhi kept taking the blows in stride. Her feet left trenches in the rubble as she was pushed back. Strikes on her torso rang true. Every meeting of their knuckles, however, was nullified. Their fists met and parted with scarcely a reverberation in the Heavenly Jade Empress’ wrists. All of the force of their clash was stored in the scales of her arms until the overlapping stones softly rattled with all the power within.

Jane’s intuition was as sharp as ever. She twisted her torso out of the way of Lu Zhi’s next punch. Having anticipated the evasive manoeuvre, the Heavenly Jade Empress held onto the force for that one critical beat. The vibrating arm hovered just in front of Jane’s chest. “Need me to do it?” Lu Zhi asked, opening her palm just as a show of what could happen.

“Nah, that’s as far as I go. No need to get flung across the arena again.” Jane tried to smile again, but the toll from her intensified Unleash made the expression forced. “Ya win, Lulu.”

The Heavenly Jade Empress smiled. A good fight was worth a lot and a good victory was found at the point of dominance, not in relentless harm. The energy stored in her scales gradually flowed outwards as a light breeze as she returned to her bare human state. She only kept a bit of the green around to assure her left tit wasn’t showing. Personally, she wouldn’t have minded showing off what she got for her hubby, but it wasn’t that time yet.

“Let’s get you healed, girlfriend,” Lulu said.

“Hey, ya need the stitches too. I banged ya up real good.”

“Eh, 4 out of 10.”

“Ya sassy bitch.”

They bumped shoulders the entire way to Undine.