Jade to Scarlet, Rubies to Amethyst

Battle

Battle

Akari sighed. She knew she should've waited longer, stalled a bit more, maybe even made up some excuse that would excuse her entirely, but no. This was it. It was either war or execution. No turning back. No more innocence. Her act was over, and the only thing left for her was to win.

She knew heaven would strike soon, but they didn't know where she would be, so she had time to prepare, not that she needed it. There was just one problem: she was heavily outnumbered.

While thinking of what to do, she decided to study and practice some magic, just to see what kind of damage she could carry out on her own. Of course, she was a formidable enemy, but even the best of the best could be defeated by sheer numbers alone. She thought about a saying that the humans on Earth use: sān gè chòu pí jiàng, dǐng gè zhū gě liàng. (Three ignorant cobblers add up to a genius.)

And so she practiced. Of course, she didn't work nearly as hard as she did during her periods of cultivation down on Earth, but she still put in effort nonetheless. Before she could get much done, though, she heard a sound outside, so she went to check it out.

"Trai-" Before the general could even finish, Akari engulfed herself in flames and disappeared in a flash of light, although it was more so just to add a flare of dramatic effect.

She appeared behind the general. "Traitor? Is that the best you've got for an insult?!" As she said this, she summoned her flames, preparing to strike, but before she could, the general disappeared in a flash of light as well.

Akari took a closer look at the heavenly general that had been sent to capture her. It was Li Jing, the pagoda bearing king. Of course it's him, she thought, heaven ALWAYS sends him to vanquish monsters before anybody else, it's practically tradition at this point!

"By the emperor's commands, I must eliminate you," Li Jing said. Akari sighed, she had hoped for some more time by herself, "then so be it. May the best one win."

And with that, the fight was on. Akari knew that she had to drain Li Jing's energy somehow, and so she summoned wisps of flame to attack the heavenly soldiers he had brought with him. Li Jing sucked the spirits all up in his pagoda, and tossed it to the side. This was looking good for Akari, she had disarmed the general.

She knew she shouldn't celebrate too early, though, and so she concentrated on the task at hand. Dodge, fire, flash, repeat. That was all she did, and so far, it was working.

Li Jing seemed to be really drained because of her flames, and so he left the heavenly soldiers to fight for themselves for a bit. Akari thought she had won, but the heavenly general came back, and this time, he wasn't alone.

Akari knew had to gain the upper hand somehow, and so she used her shapeshifting abilities on her wisps, turning them all into fox spirits in order to even out the numbers.

That was when Li Jing's helper struck. It was Nezha, Li Jing's third eldest son. Akari tensed up, but relaxed when she realized a key detail: Nezha may have been immune to flames normally, but his body was made out of lotus, which meant she just had to get him in his original form somehow.

The fight went on for a while, with Akari pretending to fend off the soldiers while thinking up a plan. Just as she seemed like she was about to be captured, she used her mind-bending abilities and went into Nezha's mind.

Upon entering his mind, she knew exactly how to exploit him, and so she used illusion in order to form the image of his mother. "What?! Where am I?!" She spoke through the illusion.

Nezha recognized the voice as his mother's, and slowly morphed back into his original form without realizing it. "Come home..." The illusion was saying, "come home..." As Nezha was slowly drawn towards the illusion, Akari decided to strike.

In a cloud of smoke, the illusion wore off. Nezha snapped back to reality, but not before Akari burned him in his lotus form. She had done it, and Nezha was off in a flash, just like that.

Next was Li Jing, and she had already bested him before, so she knew the fight was over with, however, she had underestimated Li Jing's skill. As she was about to go for the finishing blow, Li Jing raised his pagoda up in the air and muttered something in ancient Chinese. Akari's eyes widened, but before she could escape in a flash of light, the pagoda was dropped on top of her. "I have bested you, traitor. Surrender right now and we shall lessen your punishment." Li Jing's voice was harsh and cold, but filled with pride, Akari knew that he thought he had won at that point, and used it to her advantage.

"Oh so great and powerful heavenly general," she spoke with as much charm as she could muster up, "I have recognized this defeat, please, release me."

Her charm abilities seemed to have worked, but Li Jing was not so easily fooled. "Nice try," he said. Akari sighed, she had to do something else to get herself out of this. First she tried to make her fox spirits attack the general, but they were easily dealt with.

Finally, she decided that she'd had enough and used her last resort option: forbidden dark magic. After muttering a few incantations, she managed to free herself and turned back to face Li Jing, who's face had darkened. "You've gone real low, traitor." Akari was unfazed, she just let out a heavy sigh. "I said I would do anything it takes, didn't I? Now come on, fight me."

Li Jing sighed as well. "As you wish." As he said this he raised his Wanggang sword up in the air, preparing to strike a blow on Akari. She flashed away. "I should really get myself a weapon," she muttered under her breath.

At that point she decided to get rid of Li Jing's army of heavenly soldiers first, and so she got to work killing them off one by one. Li Jing wasn't amused in the slightest, and only tried harder to kill her.

Akari decided she was bored of the back and forth, and ended the stalemate by summoning more flames and shooting them at Li Jing, who decided to flash away as he knew she could not be captured or killed as easily as they thought.

Sheesh, glad that's over... Akari thought, anyways, where was I? Ah, yes, gathering forces of my own. She smirked. The war was going to get so much more interesting from there.