Chapter 11: Ending Injustice

Ting kept his eyes shut. The horror of seeing his beloved niece left beaten and defiled by such devils was too much for him to bear. Rather than stand and fight, he could do nothing more than tremble in fear.

"You'll die for this…"

Suddenly, everything grew still. His brother's final words resonated, and continued to do so for several moments.

'Is my mind playing tricks on me or something?' he thought. 'Heian's voice, it's echoing endlessly…'

Ting forced himself to open his eyes. A blue speck flew past, startling him. He watched as it glided through the air in a similar fashion to a snake swimming through water. After a little while, it finally dissipated.

Another speck whizzed by, this time coming from the opposite direction. Its appearance resembled that of a miniature lightning bolt, albeit bluish in color.

'Wait, I recognize these!' Ting remembered spotting the remnants of the spectacle after he first awakened the cursed Guang. He reached out to touch with one such spark. It evaded him, instead dancing around his finger in a taunting manner.

Ting turned to face the rest of his surroundings. About an arm's length away was an arrow floating in midair. He rose up, noticing that the pain had mostly subsided, and trotted closer.

The bolts continued to surround him, decimating particles of kicked-up dirt that stood in his path. Everything seemed surreal, as though he were in a lucid dream. And yet, the earth beneath his feet felt all too real.

Once he was close enough to the arrow, he gave it a flick, which sent it flying away with sparks in its trail. Ting looked at his hand in amazement.

Close by were even more arrows trapped in the same predicament. Ting rushed over, giving the other projectiles the same treatment. Soon, a spectacular display of sparks filled the air.

The boy giggled like a small child; it had been years since he had this much fun. Just as he was about to flick one more arrow, he bumped into something large. He fell to the ground, stunned.

"What was that?" he said out loud. His voice echoed, just as Heian's voice had earlier.

Ting looked up at what had brought him to the ground. In the midst of a long bound was a man wearing his clan's tunics, frozen in place just as the arrows were.

"Heian? Is that you?" he called out in awe. "What's going on?"

The man didn't reply.

Ting jumped to his feet and circled around. Sure enough, the mysterious man was his brother, whose face was contorted as if in pain. A few arrows had begun to pierce his abdomen, shoulder, and legs.

"Don't worry, I'll help you!" Ting tried to pull the arrows out, groaning as he heaved with all his might. "Damn it."

Heian's face was still twisted in agony. Ting's efforts had broken the arrows, but the heads still remained lodged. The boy's adrenaline fell quickly as the peculiarity of the situation began to dawn on him. Disheartened, he backed away.

It appeared that time had come to a stop. But such a possibility seemed absurd, even to a boy as imaginative as Ting. As he continued to ponder, he noticed something had changed, and not as a result of his doings.

The arrow that he was about to knock out of the air moments ago was now centimeters away from the back of Heian's head. Ting knew that had it been that close earlier, he wouldn't have missed the man's presence.

The boy's eyes widened. 'Time hasn't come to a stop...it's just slowing down!'

The lightning around his body roared to life, as though his profound realization had unleashed another level of Guang within him. He rushed toward the arrow, swiftly striking it away from its original trajectory.

"You're safe now, brother!"

He then turned toward the assailant holding his niece hostage. The larger soldier bore a shit-eating grin — one that rocked Ting to the core. He lunged at him, in the same manner as Heian had been doing, and landed a powerful punch to the side of his jaw.

The soldier himself didn't flinch at first. The skin where Ting had punched, however, was slightly displaced.

'Rot in hell, you bastard,' Ting thought triumphantly. He watched with a smirk as his victim's face began to cave inward. Teeth and blood flew at a snail's pace from his mouth and nostrils; he was grinning no more.

Slowly, his grip on Jiu mitigated. Without a second to lose, Ting pulled the little girl into his arms and rushed to the cover of nearby trees.

Upon placing Jiu down, he looked her over. Her arms and legs were badly bruised. Her face told the same story. Her pupils, usually sky blue with an outline of brown at the edges, had become a sickly gray and black.

"Hang in there, Jiu. Uncle's here, uncle's here," he whispered in a soothing voice, wiping the tears from her eyes. "There's no need to fear anymore. Uncle will make all the bad men go away."

The screams of the innocent girl descending into hell echoed through Ting's mind. He grit his teeth. For all his life, he had heard of such injustices being committed against his kin in the valleys below his village. And yet, he didn't bat an eye. He didn't know them and couldn't understand why he should feel sadness over transgressions that didn't affect him, no matter how horrible they may have been.

But now he understood more than ever. The lightning surrounding him came together and enveloped his body in a heavenly aura. With a new conviction ingrained within his soul, he turned to face the soldiers sitting atop the trees.