Manifestor

Tomoko took a steadying breath as she stepped into the courtyard. Master Moriyama stood with his arms crossed on the raised wooden deck of the dojo, golden scales gleaming on his cheeks and horns standing proudly in the morning sunlight. As a Ryujin, he demanded perfection in all things and believed disagreements between students or visitors should be settled in challenges of skill. Or, in her case, a duel to settle the insult of her family’s art. 

Her ears twitched and her tails flicked nervously as she came to a stop on the hard packed dirt of the courtyard. Across from her stood a hulking man built like a statue, a Nio that had arrived as a guard for the supply caravan that brought food to the dojo regularly. He was a former student of Master Moriyama and had scoffed at her when he’d been observing her practicing. She hadn’t even said anything, just ignored it and continued running through her forms. Her friend, however…well, she wasn’t sure how Naoko insulting this man meant she had to duel him, but one did not argue with Master Moriyama. It was probably some sort of lesson in that she should stand up for herself.

“Let’s get this over with, little fox,” the Nio rumbled. He took a stance that looked more like a mountain standing indifferently before a typhoon than a person getting ready to fight.

Tomoko bowed to Master Moriyama and then bowed to her opponent. Then she slid into her own stance, her tails spreading out behind her, tips alighting with foxfire. The blue fire rushed from the tips of her tail, engulfing her briefly. A ghostly copy of herself formed, half a step to the side and behind her. She shifted her stance, her copy following her movements in wisps of spiritual fire and embers.

“Ready,” Master Moriyama intoned. She could feel his eyes shift from her to her opponent. “Begin.”

Before the Nio could take a step, her manifestation crossed the distance between them with only the speed something that wasn’t tangible could attain. The intangible seeming uppercut took the stone man with the force of a magical battering ram. In a flicker, her body collapsed into a ball of foxfire, tracing a fading line to her copy and she was suddenly there. A thought anchored her manifestation back to her and she brought a swift knee up to continue the pressure of surprise but the man stopped it cold with one hand. It was like trying to knee through a boulder.

He sneered down at her, bringing a powerful blow down toward her only to hit the ground as she and her manifestation flashed to one side, a bolt of foxfire slapping him in the face, which only seemed to annoy him.

“I’ve fought slippery kitsune like you before,” he grumbled through gritted teeth. His followup kick had just as much power as his first blow but she easily evaded it. The ground rumbled with the impact and she didn’t waste time in exploiting his overextention, converging her next blow with her manifestation that amplified the blow, sending the man staggering back. She took a step back and reset her stance. She took a steady breath and cut a glance at Master Moriyama.

“Continue,” the Ryujin said flatly. But he wasn’t staring at her, he was staring at the Nio rubbing his chest. When had this turned from a lesson for her to a lesson to an ex-student?