Chapter 31 - Jake Sully To The Rescue

I returned to Ling, who was relieved to see me. I let her hug me while I came over with a plan of action.

I had the element of surprise but the window to use it wouldn’t last long.

I also had mastery over the elements, despite not knowing if I was stronger or better than the fire-casting woman. And I couldn’t leave Ling alone.

I looked around us for inspiration, until it hit me in the face.

Literally.

A bug crashed on my face and I suddenly remembered that there must have been dozens of life forms surrounding the river! Maybe even some predators! And I just happened to be a master in elemental magic!

I grinned, whipping the mud from my forehead, bug and all. I kissed Ling on the cheek and placed my hand over the ground.

I concentrated on the flow of energy coming from it and into every living being around us.

Rats, boars, snakes, spiders, bees, and a million more insects answered to the beat of the earth. With great respect, I asked the earth itself for aid, and every animal within a mile answered.

A brother was in danger, and Mother Nature could do something about it.

I smiled ‘don’t worry Fa Min, Jake Sully is coming to the rescue!’

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(From FA Min’s point of view)

How was I caught so easily?

I’m supposed to win the mastership for the Fa family from Mu-di, and yet I was caught unaware by an ambush!

I wanted to kick myself, but since I was tied, I instead saved my energy and sulked.

Fortunately, it seemed like Mu-di and Ling-mei had escaped the ambush, which gave me some hope. I doubted my grandfather’s star apprentice was going to forget about the little old me, even if I was an idiot.

I had gone for the captain so that we could face the attackers together, only to receive a hard hit on the head and, later, a splash of cold water in the face.

The freaking captain himself had been the one to soak me and ask me where the prince was.

The fucking traitor.

I told him to go fuck himself in the most painful way I could imagine, and I got beaten up for my lip service.

A few moments later there were others around us. A dozen or more guys dressed all in black and carrying bows or other throwing weapons.

“And who’s this?” one of the newcomers asked with a strange accent. He was taller than most, and more muscular than the captain.

His eyes were also blue.

“A friend of the prince, I believe.” Captain Weng answered with a frown.

The new guy frowned.

“You think the prince will come for him?”

“He most certainly will.”

“Hmp!” The unknown guy turned to me “Let this be a lesson for you, monkey. Friends only serve to kill the powerful.”

“Fuck you!” I spat on his face and got kicked in the guts.

Suddenly, I didn’t want Mu-di to come for me. There were too many enemies, and who knew what else waited for him in this place. For all I knew, Weng’s own men were hidden behind the trees, waiting to strike.

I was fuming again when a man screamed in front of us. Everyone turned, and the guy with blue eyes dispatched another to see what had happened, but then that man too screamed in agony and fell to the ground.

“The shite is happening here?” he warily approached his two fallen comrades but quickly jumped back. “A freaking snake?!” he laughed mockingly. “Two shites died from being bitten by a snake!” he continued laughing, while at the same time unsheathing his sword. His strike was swift and deadly.

As if in response, the ground began shaking.

“Wha- wha-?” one of the guys in black asked, confused, trying to look in every direction at the same time.

Another pained scream from my right, and another further away.

The ground was still shaking, so the guys in black were having a hard time staying on their toes.

A moment later a whole herd of wild boars came crashing through the camp from the bushes. People scattered and tried to fight back, but there were so many it was impossible to move, and with the ground shaking, many fell to their knees a few paces after, only to be trampled to death by the beasts.

I lost sight of the big brute and Weng long before two big hogs came at me.

I wanted to turn and run, but I was tied. However, instead of getting trampled to death like the others, the animals stopped to hook their husks under the ropes and dragged me into the foliage.

They kept running, zigzagging, and turning every other moment until I was unceremoniously tossed away. The animals huffed and were gone the next instant.

“Freaking crazy animals. What in heaven’s na-” a hand fell on my lips just as the two people that worried me the most appeared in front of me.

“Peace, Fa Min. Do not curse the hand that saved you.”

I was never so relieved to see any man than at that very moment.

He and his woman untied my bonds while I whispered about what I had seen.

Mu-di frowned and then smiled.

It was a smile full of malice and promise, one that looked completely out of place in the face of a man like him. “How about we show them how friendships are really like, Min-ge?”

That moment, I thanked the gods that I wasn’t on his bad side.