I rubbed my eyes after annotating the assigned chapter for my chemistry class. Damn, I didn’t even use any powers yesterday! No one else was at the usual student lounge table today so it was a great opportunity to actually get work done.
“Just you today, huh?” Zhuyu pulled a chair out and placed his backpack on it.
“Were you expecting someone else?” I responded, capping my highlighter.
“Not really. I’m usually the first one here so I’ve gotten use to hanging out by myself doing homework,” he explained, pulling out several notebooks.
Oh, a newspaper. It was thicker than the free campus ones available in the libraries, entrance, and exit points. I didn’t expect the math major to buy something like that. Also, I didn’t know anyone in my friend group or age range that still read physical newspapers.
“Did you just buy that?” I pointed at his folded newspaper.
“Huh? Oh, you mean this. I have a subscription so I get a copy every morning. Just something to have during the bus or train ride,” Zhuyu answered.
“Really? I’ve never seen you read one,” I pointed out.
“Why are you so suspicious, Yuki? Think about what the bus and trains are like during rush hour,” the man countered as he moved his backpack down to the floor.
“Then why bring it if you don’t have a chance of even reading it?” I stared at him with skepticism.
“Just in case, I guess. Okay, don’t give me that look, Yuki. Sometimes, people just do things that don’t really make sense,” Zhuyu answered, tapping his pen against the table.
“Coming from someone like you? Fine, I won’t keep bugging you about it anymore. Any news about the last piece?” I changed the topic.
“Thank you for sparing me. I haven’t heard anything yet. Tess or Feng would contact me right away if they found anything out,” Zhuyu replied, filling in a hand-drawn table of contents at the front of one of his notebooks.
Zhuyu was just a weirdo sometimes. He put a lot of effort into things that were insignificant to other people but were somehow really important to him. For someone who worked with math, it wasn’t efficient at all. Although, if he were like that, wouldn’t he just be a version of Tess? Maybe it was good he was so strange.
“Yuki, get ready,” he warned, pausing his writing.
My necklace swayed and struck my other one. Not this again! It was annoying to deal with this stuff during my regular schedule. So who the hell was it this time?
The math major stood up, staring at the wall clock. The hour and minute hand didn’t move, stuck at 11 o’clock. Okay, I expected it to be stuck at 12. Was there a meaning behind the number eleven? If Zhuyu knew, he didn’t say anything. I stretched my right hand out as my sword materialized into it.
“Yuki, keep them busy while I figure that out,” he said, moving closer to the wall clock.
“What-?” I glanced over at the man before parrying an attack with my blade.
Five mannequins, each carrying different weapons, advanced towards me. They had no faces, light bouncing off of their shiny heads. The one wielding a firearm unleashed bullets at Zhuyu. Without even looking in the enemy’s direction, he stuck his palm out and all of the bullets dropped to the ground. I pivoted behind the enemy and recalled a move Kuan showed me. Grabbing their arm, I forced the mannequin to shoot at its allies. It eliminated all of them within seconds. Now to finish this one off!
I took its knees out and then shifted the weapon barrel. Now it was pointing the firearm at itself. After forcing the mannequin to pull the trigger, I leaped into a nearby portal. I watched the mannequin explode as bullets struck it. Nearby, its allies were on all fire, meeting the same fate.
“Got it,” Zhuyu said.
“What do you have to do?” I inquired, freezing all the mannequins so they weren’t a fire hazard for us.
“11 is the fifth prime number and also the first two-digit one as well,” Zhuyu revealed.
“Still not seeing how that’s gonna help us,” I said, not understanding the importance of his words.
“Second floor and the fifth room,” he explained.
Definitely a stretch but I would trust his reasoning. He must have experience with this before since he sounded confident about the conclusion. I followed him up to the second floor of the student lounge. We walked to the fifth room from the stairs and Zhuyu opened the door.
Someone immediately locked me into a choke hold once I entered. Zhuyu pointed at my assailant and their grip on me loosened. I wriggled out and coughed in pain.
“Ace sent you, huh?” the math major questioned, staring at a large cat-man wearing an eye patch.
Oh, the feline beast man shown in the footage from our desert adventure. I never expected to run into him here. I remembered a scar across his left eye so someone probably damaged it further in a battle. He ignored me, heading straight for the math major. Zhuyu remained still, doing nothing as the beast man got close enough to snarl at his face.
“A message from your former colleague. She sends her regards,” the beast man revealed, placing something into the hero’s hand before squeezing it with force.
“Leave it up to Ace to make such a big deal out of such a trivial matter,” Zhuyu responded, not flinching even as the beast man continued clutching his hand.
“She told me you were a funny one,” the beast man said, finally releasing the man’s hand.
“So your name’s Tianhu. I get the general idea,” Zhuyu said after inspecting the crumpled piece of graphing paper.
“Don’t be late. You only have one chance,” Tianhu warned, vanishing as soon as he exited through the door.
“What the hell?” I stared at where he was just seconds ago.
“Just another one of Ace’s little tricks. He has the last dragon piece. I have to fight him and win to get it,” the hero revealed, holding up the graphing paper in the air.
“Everyone makes thing too complicated. I don’t see why you can’t just get it over with right now,” I pointed out, walking towards the door.
“Ace always likes to make everything a spectacle. My fight with Tianhu is no exception. Also, don’t think that Ace will just let us leave so easily,” Zhuyu answered, summoning his sheathed sword in his right hand.
I ran into an invisible barrier, smacking my nose against it. I sighed, readying my own blade as well. Hmm, weird that no one else noticed this artificial dimension. Ksi found me pretty fast the last time. Was this localized so it only impacted Zhuyu and me?
Black feathers descended from the ceiling and converged into a shadowy figure with wings. Zhuyu raised his sheath, blocking the sharp feathers flying at him. I attempted to pull the opponent towards me with Shan’s gravitational powers but nothing happened. A strong magic user? But I didn’t get a powerful reading from it at all. In fact, I detected no signs of any magic.
“A jammer? That’s annoying to deal with,” Zhuyu remarked as a light drizzle fell upon our opponent.
“What do you mean?” I asked, avoiding a grotesque bird claw that shot up from the ground underneath me.
“It’s interfering with our ability to get a read on its strength levels. It’s also making it hard to tell what type of attack it’s doing to us,” the man answered, destroying a bird beak that dropped from the ceiling.
Puddles of water formed from the light drizzle. Our opponent avoided all of them, gliding in the air. Fine, time to trap you in one location. I surrounded the enemy with portals, all interconnected so that it would always end up in its current position no matter which one it entered.
“Awesome,” Zhuyu said, slamming his sword sheath into the ground.
The entire room vibrated and then a loud ringing filled the room. I instinctively went to cover my ears but the piercing sound wasn’t audible anymore.
“I remembered this time,” Zhuyu commented.
“You better! I coughed up blood when you did this,” I responded.
“That’s exactly why I made sure you’re not impacted this time. Now watch,” he said, pointing at the shadowy figure.
The shadowy figure suddenly disintegrated into multiple parts. Those individual pieces were then sucked into each of my portals but didn’t reappear in their original spots as expected. My portals suddenly turned unstable and exploded with a loud bang. Zhuyu stepped through the doorway uninterrupted and waved his hand at me to follow him.
“You’re just going to walk away and not explain to me what just happened?” I descended the stairs alongside Zhuyu.
“Oh, I was going to do it once we were back at the table,” he replied.
“Just tell me already,” I said with an exasperated sigh.
“Are you familiar with the nine sons of the dragon?” Zhuyu asked.
“No idea what that is,” I replied, shaking my head.
“Ancient texts state the Dragon King had nine offspring. The details about them vary but most people agree there are nine. Each offspring had a key characteristic or well-known power associated with them. The Dragon’s Mandate powers are based off of this,” Zhuyu explained as we arrived at the table.
“Did Kyoi make you learn all of this?” I sat down.
“You know she doesn’t force us to do everything, right? I have some interest in legends like this so I looked into it with Tess’ help,” Zhuyu revealed.
“Oh, I really didn’t think you were the type to do that,” I commented.
“Glad to see you think I’m so one-dimensional, Yuki. Anyways, here’s a quick list,” Zhuyu said, sliding a ripped piece of notebook paper over to me.
1) Tortoise: Capable of carrying heavy weights and a powerful shell
2) Tiger: Guardians of the court and enforcers of justice, usually located around prisons
3) Fish/Lizard: Placed on rooftops to sallow evil spirits
4) Dog: Uses its loud scream to warn of disasters, often depicted on bells and used as its handle
5) Cow/Bull: Often appears on instruments, lover of music
6) Wolf: Wealth and well-being but also greedy and gluttonous, depicted on bronze ritual vessels
7) Lion: Body covered in flames, depicts wisdom and knowledge, attracted to the scent of incense
8) Leopard: Lover of fighting and war, appears on sword as ornaments
9) Snake: Associated with water, appears on bridges
“Of course you do this to me,” I said, glaring at the man.
“Hey, you should be able to tell what is what from this list,” Zhuyu disagreed.
Always making things harder than they needed to be. Still, Zhuyu’s Dragon’s Mandate powers were versatile. This only confused me why he decided to pursue the zero-vector ones. Was its just because of his fascination with math? Yeah, that actually made a lot of sense. Sometimes with the heroes, it was just that simple.
“Welcome back. Are there any important developments that I need to be aware of?” Tess was in the seat next to mine once the artificial dimension vanished.
“Ace’s associate, Tianhu, has the last dragon piece,” Zhuyu updated the Gatekeeper.
“I see. Where is the location?” Tess flipped through a ring of flashcards.
“The former Imperial Battlegrounds,” he answered.
“An appropriate venue. Take Tomo, Zhang, Feng, Darryl, and Kuan with you there,” she directed.
“Got it,” Zhuyu agreed with a nod.
Those two should have just fought earlier so they didn’t have to waste everyone’s time later. I was curious why the Gatekeeper picked so many people to join Zhuyu this time. Was she worried about interference? Even if that were the case, En and Kyoi were more than enough. But Tess’ preparations were spot on so she probably knew something that I didn’t. Just what exactly awaited us there?
