Tenets of Eden – A Romance Urban Fantasy Cultivation Story

There was a moment of clear cut silence in the air. The freezing winds were much quieter in the small valley, but even if they’d been howling, I think I would’ve thought them silent.

I caught myself from almost falling when the door opened, securing my feet with Qi, but when I looked back up, I saw them.

The inner courtyard was flooded with kamaitachi.

Whoever had said they were native to the grasslands was apparently dealing with outdated info. It looked as though every single one of the fucking weasels had moved up into the mountains. Dozens of the creatures were in the courtyard, skittering about with the blades on their hands and tail.

Because yes, apparently, their tail was also a scythe, and a much larger one at that. Their heads snapped to us, staring with those black pupils. I would’ve found them cute, calling them button-eyed, if it didn’t feel like they were about to lunge and start carving into me.

Then, one of them squealed. Skittered away. The others remained perfectly still, like a host of statues, staring at Emilia and me.

My eyes drifted over to the other woman, and she met my gaze with panic.

“What’s going on in there?” Matt asked from behind us, unable to see the courtyard with the other party members in front of him. “Helloooo? Fio? Emilia? Start walking I’m freezing!”

“Shut up!” I hissed at him, watching as some of the close creatures shifted their posture. No longer were they warily looking at us; instead, their sickles were raised, ready to strike at us, their fur raised.

At the very least, Matt had the decency to shut his dumb mouth when I asked him to. The silence rang out even louder.

I felt the cold gnaw at my body, felt how the kamaitachi were assessing us. I still didn’t know where that one of them had run off to, but I feared I was about to find out, when a few more of them skittered into the courtyard.

The noise they made when walking was horrendous. The click of metal on stone and ice, repeated over and over again as their scythes touched the floor. Except, it was soon eclipsed by a much more horrendous sound.

Instead of a clicking noise of metal hitting stone, there was the sound of slicing.

It made me aware of the condition of the building. There was a large gash, maybe twice as long as I was, right diagonally across the front door of the main pagoda. And from the sliced-open door, another kamaitachi emerged.

Except this one was twice as long as I was tall, the scythe on its tail more than capable of cutting me straight in half. Its sickles sunk a good chunk into the stone as it walked, lazily across the courtyard.

Finally, it arrived in front of Emilia and me.

Our eyes were wide with fear, the giant weasel’s tail drifting gracefully across the floor behind it. Its fur sent clouds of powdered snow into the air, while its sickle carved furrowns into the ground with an almost sickening noise of cutting.

Slowly, its nose drew closer to me, and it sniffed a few times.

I saw the giant kamaitachi shift. Its tail stopped moving for a moment, as its entire body turned stiff. Its fur slowly raised, and its lips drew back to reveal sharp fangs. It hissed, a noise that was so grating it felt like someone was dragging their nails across my bones.

Despite that, I focused on iron will.

Predators like this one looked for weakness, for fear, and despite being afraid, I pushed that aside. I met its gaze, and when it hissed, I instinctively almost hissed back. Instead, I just took half a step forward. The creature froze for a moment, its sharp ears pressed flat against its head.

The pressure came from it, I now noted, and standing less than a metre away from the monster didn’t exactly make it a whole lot easier to stand. My knees were shaking, but I hid it as best as I could as I stared the weasel down.

Its aura grew even heavier, pressing against the coating of Qi I had. I reinforced my protection, charging it up enough for it to become visible to the naked eye, wispy strands of gold rising from my skin and dissipating into the air.

I heard my blood rush through my ears, and it felt like my heart was about to burst through my chest, but I stared the creature down. This thing was not going to be my end. I knew that much, and iron will let me stand my ground, where most would have buckled.

The thing hissed again, renewing the pressure on me. It was using wind Qi, I now noticed, the icy breeze having picked up and turned into half a storm. Many of the smaller kamaitachi had since fled into burrows or the pagodas, as the fresh snow in the valley began swirling through the air.

Half a second later, the storm hit my face. The icy wind cut through to my bones, the snow smashing into my face with such speed it felt like a hundred tiny needles. In response, I took another step forward, and continued increasing my Qi output, until the wisps of gold were on the verge of becoming armor.

My Qi disintegrated the snow before it could reach me, the bits that hit my face mixing with the sweat and dripping off. I saw the tail of the kamaitachi swish back and forth even more in rage, as it seemingly didn’t want to back down. But I was on the offensive now.

I manifested [Golden Body], coursing my Qi through me, and summoned my spear, as though I was baring my teeth. The pressure grew heavier, and so did my Qi output, in an endless match to see who would give up first.

It was neither of us.

Aura suppression was an ability that was new to me, not yet properly mastered. My control with it had far improved during the journey, but it was by no means perfect. And with the amount of Qi I was releasing, my mirror Qi eventually got caught up in the storm.

A wisp of the smooth, glasslike power escaped from my skin, wisping into the air, yet it was enough.

In front of me, the kamaitachi froze, its eyes following the single wispy trail. I saw a bit of saliva drop from its lips. I knew then and there, without a doubt, that it would attack me.

So I attacked first.

Seizing the initiative was almost easy. I had enough fear coursing through my blood that an untrained person might have started foaming at the mouth, but an iron will was made from iron. I didn’t break underneath it.

Instead, I stepped forward another step, fully this time, completely unleashing the Qi. Aura suppression fell away like a misfitted cloak, the mirror Qi joining my golden power in coursing through my body. I felt the glass underneath my skin shift rapidly, adjusting as though it had awakened from hibernation.

Before it was fully finished, I already snapped my weapon forward, spear Qi covering my blade, and thrust it at the creature’s belly. Pushing through the thick fur felt like dragging my hand through honey, so I condensed the Qi coating down to as fine and sharp a point as I could.

I smashed into the creature’s skin, the blade digging into its body for half the speartip’s length, before it was stopped by the powerful muscles of the creature. I felt the kamaitachi shift to screech in response to my attack, and guarded my ears on reflex.

A good choice, because the screech was loud enough to cause an avalanche to begin descending down the side of the mountain. The winds sped up again, whipping into me like blades, as I twisted and pulled my spear in an attempt to cause more damage on the way out. Except, I didn’t get it back out.

Instead, the creature swiped at me with one of its forelegs, and I barely dodged by letting go of my weapon and leaping back, landing on the floor. I used my tether to the spear to bring it back into my hands, just in time to stop another swipe from the monster.

Its second sickle dug into the wood of my spear, going almost halfway through the weapon before it stopped. I barely stopped the sickle from reaching my face, holding my spear up with both my hands, shaking with the exertion. It brought its tail up to finish me off, when Emilia slammed into it with the force of a boulder.

In fact, I think she might have looked like half a boulder, too, wrapping the stone from the ground around herself. It drove the thing off balance, letting me throw its foreleg off and roll to the side as its tail sunk into the ground where I’d just laid. Could [Reflection] have stopped that? Doubtful.

I breathed heavily as the others came storming through the gate. Emilia was slammed aside by the creature with a swipe of its forelegs, the sickles cutting through the stone and leaving a gash on her forearms. It was so cold now that her blood froze into red crystals before it hit the ground.

Matt quickly took his role in pressing the offensive, slamming into the thing with a storm of blossoms. His plum-scented wind clashed against that of the monsters, his petals often strewn away by the icy gales that now covered the courtyard.

As I rose from the floor, I saw the smaller kamaitachi trying to move from their burrows and hiding spots to lunge at us, but they were unable to. The little critters were too light and fluffy, they would get picked up by the wind and blown away. Usually, they’d ride the currents they created, but I don’t think they could compete with the giant monster.

It was hard just staying on my feet, and I saw Matt crash into one of the wooden retaining walls to my left, being flung away as he blocked a strike from the huge thing with his sword.

By then, though, the others were in. Reya rushed to heal Matt, Eric headed over to Emilia, who was adjusting the straps on her armor a little. We hadn’t been expecting to fight something this huge, and were in more travel-ready gear, too, so I had to buy some time.

Liam, Ann and Marie appeared by my side, and we gave quick nods. The rogue dashed forward first, disappearing into the shadows. A moment later, he emerged beyond the kamaitachi, digging his daggers into the wound I’d already created. Marie shot a few arrows at the monster in the blink of an eye, targeting its face, but they were flung aside by a huge gust of wind.

Despite that, one of them struck true, a single Qi infused arrow hidden in the mix, digging into the thing’s face just below its right eye. It roared again, rolling in the snow. It would have been adorable, were the thing not so huge and actively trying to crush Liam.

The young man was suddenly beside me again, having reemerged from my shadow, one of his daggers still buried in the monster’s underside. He held his arm as if it was injured, but Reya was already running over, holding a glowing arm out to him.

I gripped my spear tighter, looking at Ann. She gave me a quick nod, and released the spells she’d been preparing, half a dozen fireballs flying into the creature’s face. They were weakened by the icy winds, only arriving with maybe half their power, but they still blew up, creating a cloud of smoke. Half a breath later the smoke had dissipated, replaced by a storm of tiny icicles, but it was all I needed.

In that time, I was already in front of the creature, Qi swirling around my spear, and I swung as hard as I could. My blade struck fur, then flesh, cutting into one of the kamaitachi’s forelegs, the joint before where the blade began. My spear dug in deep, before a sudden gust of extreme wind blew me away.

Midair, I stepped onto a platform of Qi, holding up my spear and twisting my upper body to deflect a swing from the monster. I unsummoned the platform right after, letting the momentum carry me away. The wind spun me around, and I crashed into the floor with my back, knocking the breath from my lungs, but still I channelled more Qi into my spear, the nicks in the shaft already repairing themselves again.

Marie was running in alongside Matt and Emilia now, but the monster swung the giant blade on its tail as though it weighed nothing. Emilia was first within range, forced to stop and step back, while Marie and Matt leapt over it, but the swordsman was blown away by a gust, just as I had been.

I could feel my fingers go numb with frostbite now, my legs threatening to buckle under the insane pressure the thing conjured. The blood rushing in my ears was almost eclipsed by the noise of the avalanche rumbling towards us, but soon replaced by a scream. I saw one of the smaller kamaitachi scaling Ann’s body, its scythe digging into her leg, until Liam stabbed it in the neck.

In the split second, his dagger also dug into Ann’s leg, and blood dripped from there to the floor, tainting the snow. Eric was already next to her, applying healing, while Reya shot a buff my way.

Rage bubbled up in my chest. The little fuckers were hiding in burrows in the snow. One misstep, and their scythes would carve up our feet.

Marie slammed into the large one, driving her knife forward. She imbued it with nature Qi, digging into the wound where her arrow had gone before. It was a good choice - the monster probably had eyelids thick enough to stop her daggers. And she just needed a little damage, there was the telltale glint of poison magic on her weapon.

As expected, she was flung aside, smashing into the floor beside me as the giant monster began screeching and rolling as its blades swept at anything that came near. I drew in a breath of icy air, feeling the chill spread through my bones as I saw dozens of black eyes peek at us from between the snowy winds.

It was going to be a miserable fucking day.