The waiting room for the Semi-Finals was tense. Squad Azure sat on one side. Mei was polishing her sword, her hands trembling slightly.
Liang (the tank) was meditating, trying to regather his Qi. The Archer was checking his bowstring for the tenth time.
Jin Ryeong stood behind Mei, adjusting her hair. To an observer, it looked like a servant grooming his mistress. In reality, he was arming a bomb.
He slid a silver, beetle-shaped ornament into her hair bun. It clamped down with mechanical precision. "Ouch," Mei winced. "It pinched me."
"It has to connect to your meridian points," Jin Ryeong whispered.
"When you need it, channel a small pulse of Qi into your scalp. Just a spark."
"And it will wake up?"
"It will clear the way," Jin Ryeong corrected.
"Squad Shadow uses the Black Mist Art. It blocks sight and dampens sound.
But mist is just suspended water particles. And particles... have a charge."
Jin Ryeong stepped back. "Don't touch it. If you touch the wings, you'll lose a finger."
The gong sounded.
"Semi-Final Match: Squad Azure vs. Squad Shadow!"
The Arena
The crowd was hushed. Squad Shadow was notorious. They didn't fight flashy battles. They turned the arena into a nightmare and picked their opponents apart.
Squad Shadow materialized on the stage. Three disciples wearing matte-black robes that seemed to absorb the light. Their Captain, Ying, wore a veil and held dual daggers.
"You got lucky against Iron-Blood," Ying whispered, his voice echoing from everywhere at once. "But you can't rust a shadow."
"Begin!"
Ying didn't charge. He dropped a smoke bomb.
POOF.
It wasn't normal smoke. It was Spirit Smog. Heavy, oily, and pitch black. It expanded rapidly, swallowing the entire arena.
The crowd groaned.
"Great. Another boring match. We can't see anything!"
Inside the smog, Mei held her breath. She couldn't see her hand in front of her face. She couldn't hear Liang or the Archer.
The smog dampened sound waves. She was isolated.
Swish. A cut appeared on her arm.
"Ah!" Mei swung her sword blindly. It hit nothing but air.
Swish. Swish. More cuts. Shallow, testing strikes.
The Shadow Squad was playing with them. Bleeding them dry.
"Liang!" Mei shouted.
"Where are you?" No answer.
Mei's heart raced. Panic set in. This was how they won. They broke your mind before they broke your body.
She remembered Jin Ryeong's words. Particles have a charge.
She closed her eyes. She focused on the heavy weight in her hair.
She channeled a spark of Qi into her scalp.
BZZZZZT.
The silver ornament in her hair vibrated. Scalpel woke up. The Galvanized Scarab opened its elytra (wing cases). It didn't fly.
It hovered just above her head. And it released the charge it had stored from the Thunder Stone.
[Pet Ability: Electrostatic Field]
A sphere of blue static electricity erupted from Mei's head.
CRACKLE.
The physics were instant. The static charge latched onto the heavy smog particles. The particles, suddenly magnetized, clumped together and fell to the ground as black dust.
Whoosh. A clear circle of air, ten feet wide, opened up around Mei. The visibility returned instantly.
And standing right in front of her, frozen in surprise, was Ying. He had been preparing to slit her throat. Now, he was exposed, his daggers raised, the protective cover of his smog stripped away by the sudden ionization.
"What—" Ying gasped.
Mei grinned.
"Found you."
But she didn't strike yet. The beetle on her head wasn't done. It launched.
It moved so fast it looked like a streak of purple lightning.
[Pet Ability: Taser Bite]
Scalpel slammed into Ying's neck. Its mandibles sank into the flesh.
ZAP.
High-voltage lightning Qi flooded Ying's nervous system. Ying's eyes rolled back. His muscles locked up.
He stood there, stiff as a board, twitching uncontrollably. He dropped his daggers.
Mei stepped forward. She didn't use a fancy technique. She kicked Ying in the chest.
THUD.
Ying toppled over like a felled tree. He lay on the ground, foaming at the mouth, sparks jumping from his neck.
The smog began to clear across the rest of the arena as the static field expanded. The other two Shadow disciples were revealed, crouching near Liang and the Archer.
They saw their Captain down. They saw the purple streak zipping through the air, buzzing angrily.
"What is that thing?!" one shouted.
Scalpel didn't answer. It dive-bombed the second disciple.
Zzzzt. Another bite. Another paralyzed victim.
The third disciple threw down his weapon.
"I yield! Get that thing away from me!"
The crowd was silent for a second, then erupted.
"Did you see that artifact?"
"Lightning Hairpin! It creates a storm!"
"Squad Azure has hidden treasures!"
The referee stepped in, waving the flag.
"Winner... Squad Azure!"
Mei recalled her Qi.
Scalpel, sensing the command, stopped its rampage. It flew back to her head, clamped down, and folded its wings. It looked like a piece of jewelry again.
Except for the faint smell of burnt flesh coming from its jaws.
Mei bowed to the crowd, her hand trembling as she touched the "hairpin."
She looked up at the servant's gallery. Jin Ryeong was gone.
The Final Match Announcement
An hour later, the brackets were updated. The Finals were set.
Squad Azure (Mei) vs. Squad Blood-Lotus.
Jin Ryeong stood before the announcement board, his face grim. Squad Blood-Lotus. They were the number one seed.
Their Captain was Guo, a Core Disciple candidate. But that wasn't the problem.
The problem was their method. Squad Blood-Lotus didn't use weapons.
They used Beast Taming. Guo fought with a Spirit Tiger.
Jin Ryeong looked at the dossier.
[Target: Spirit Tiger (Tier 2 Peak)]
[Abilities: Steel Fur, Roar of Terror, Poison Resistance.]
"Poison Resistance," Jin Ryeong muttered. That was bad. The Tiger had likely been fed venom to build immunity.
Rotting Orchid Poison wouldn't work fast enough. And Scalpel... Scalpel was strong, but a Tiger could swat a beetle out of the air.
Jin Ryeong needed a new angle. He felt a tug on his sleeve. It was Liu Bao. The new Inner Disciple was wearing his fresh blue robes, looking uncomfortable but proud.
"Doctor," Liu Bao whispered.
"I went to the library. Like you asked."
"Did you find it?"
"I found a mention," Liu Bao handed him a scroll copy.
"The 'Venomless Poison' isn't a chemical. It's a... frequency."
Jin Ryeong took the scroll. He read the ancient text.
"The body is a song. Health is harmony. Sickness is dissonance.
The ultimate poison is a resonant vibration that unties the bonds of Qi."
Jin Ryeong's eyes widened. Resonance. He looked at the description of the Spirit Tiger again. Steel Fur. Metal.
Metal vibrates. If he could find the resonant frequency of the Tiger's internal organs... he wouldn't need to pierce the hide. He could liquefy the inside.
"Liu Bao," Jin Ryeong said, a manic glint in his eyes.
"Can you scream louder than you did yesterday?"
"I... I think so?"
"Good. For the Finals, we aren't using a whistle.
We need an amplifier."
Jin Ryeong turned to walk back to the lab.
"I need to build a speaker."
The Underground Lab - Night
Elder Baek was gone, drunk on his success with the Chimeras. Jin Ryeong was alone at the workbench.
On the table lay the Thunder-Edge Jian (Feng's broken sword) and the vocal cords of a Howler Monkey (a failed Chimera part he had scavenged).
"System. Integration."
[Blueprint: Sonic Resonance Emitter]
Core: Thunder-Edge Jian (Power Source).
Diaphragm: Howler Monkey Larynx.
Casing: Meteorite Iron.
Jin Ryeong worked through the night. He wasn't building a weapon. He was building a throat. A mechanical throat capable of producing a sound below the range of human hearing—Infrasound.
Infrasound (below 20Hz) causes nausea, dread, and internal vibration. If amplified by Qi... it could disrupt the connection between a Beast Tamer and his Beast.
"Scalpel," Jin Ryeong called. The beetle flew over.
It sparked with electricity.
"I need a battery."
He connected Scalpel to the device. The beetle bit down on the copper leads. Hummmmm. The device vibrated. A glass jar on the shelf three feet away suddenly shattered. CRASH.
Jin Ryeong smiled. "It works."
He hid the device in a wooden box designed to look like a medical kit.
"Tomorrow, the Tiger sings."