Chapter 17: Wrought Iron Gate

Prior to the guard de royal showing up, the tale of fifteen years ago for the noble martial elder, about her first cloth exam.

Morning had come and with a short clean up and attended needs, the group was ready to pursue their objective. They idly chatted as they wondered towards the center of the beast forest, quieting as they approached the first zone. Here from the tall pines were white streamers unstained by any beast qi. They would gray than change colors as they got to the center, but it formed the general boundary.

"Stick together and keep an eye out, we don't want to get ambushed." Slowly creeping through the underbrush, gave Valentine flashbacks to her wild romp through the woods previously. It was easier now that she was in better shape, surprisingly easier.

"…" Opening her mouth to comment she closed it when she realized it wasn't an issue. A tier one beast was hardly better than their wild counterpart.

"Ow damn birds." Their leader exclaimed as a flock of night gale forest hawks harassed her. Today the noble learned that wild animals and beast effected by qi did not exhibit the same behavior. Swinging wildly, the tallest of the group attempted to swat them aside. Their leader frustrated, smacked one into a tree, and latched on to another by the head. The flock got the message, disengaging and searching for weaker prey.

"Ruffled your feathers?" Impish Meng Sei asked, clearly throwing the lame pun. The senior groaned gingerly touching the scratches she got.

"Any nearby beast says something." She snaped at her team. Valentine had noticed them but didn't think they would swarm the leader like that.

"There's a ten-year shade kitten behind you." Meng told her leader

"Yea right, like I'm going to be attacked twice in a row." Leader sarcastically rolled her eyes

Shade Kitten pounced from its low hanging branch, eliciting a scream from the leader, when it latched on to her back.

"Told ya," Shorty smirked knowing that she had won that round. Senior leader was from the spirt peak, which focused on the care of spiritual energy and beast. She was a glowing beacon for all the beast in the forest.

"Get it off!" Jerking as the claws of the fifty-pound stunning yellow cat found their way through her sect robe. Yanking it off, the noble held it gingerly in her arms.

"Bad kitten." She admonished the cat before shooing it away. Cats had always listened to the noble since Miss Iris showed up. In retrospect, all animals intrinsically knew Iris was an existence beyond them. Some of it must have rubbed off some of it on the young heir.

"…" None of the group said anything before the leader broke the silence.

"Lets just move if we linger more beasts are bound to find us." Moving softly, with more ease and not clotheslining themselves, they pushed deeper into the forest. Most beast in the outer zone were ten to twenty years, since it was a forest, prey fed predators, and nourished trees, so it didn't take long for beast to find the ten-year enlightenment.

"Quiet, there's a large animal up ahead." Signaling her group to stop.

"A rare blue fur cotton rabbit, its size estimates it at fifteen years." Meng said confidently.

Solid lime green with brilliant shock pink eyes, there must be something that warps the colors of animals in the forest, Valentine decided. Ripe Pinkenlimes were the favorite food for the five-foot lagomorph, giving it the strange colors. It was obscenely fluffy, with lop ears and a sparking set of razor incisors in front of its squashed nose.

"If its fifteen years this is a good chance for us." After year ten, most living things could condense qi in some fashion, leading to cores and crystals that held unique properties. Tiered by major year brackets, the chance went up of finding one as it approached twenty years and beyond. Cores were common ingredients and materials in cultivation recipes of various types.

"Ill go first, Shi left, Xiao right. Valentine circle around to cut it off." All four of them pulled out gloves made of soft hide. These were common and a standard piece for the Bladeless sword sect., who as name suggested had forgone traditional weapons.

"Move in!" Bursting through the brambles, leader made a taunting cry at the rabbit. Despite its flight nature, it was aware enough that it could take the lone human. Hunching down, it engaged its powerful hind legs blasting forward. Xiao and Meng sprang forward kicking at the lurching rabbit paws.

"Fast!" Before senior leader leaned back just far enough to avoid it, thanks to the slowing the kicks had affected the hare.

"Dragnet spot-Hah" Senior had spent more time in the sect under martial training, the only one not a new or fresh foundation. Mid foundation cultivators began learning basic qi reinforcement arts, like this heavy punch. Unfortunately, at fifteen years, the lime creature knew soft fleshy things did not like striking hard teeth.

Leader didn't cry out, but she cried. She let tears waterfall off her face and pretend that nothing had just happened.

Meng used the opening to latch several talismans into the fur forest. Leaping back there was a flash of smoke before each slip explode sending acrid burnt fur across the forest. Hissing it determined that this disadvantages situation was not for it. Before it could turn Lady Valentine fought it with the only real fighting move she knew.

She kicked it between the legs as hard as she could.

Lime green chittered for a moment before it whimpered. Doing a strange kicking flip, it swung around the gap between, the four of them with rabbit like quickness.

"After it!" Leader's voice cracked as she issued the command.

"Meng, look after senior, Xiao with me." Duchess heir snaped, knowing that the sprite carried medicine and first aid supplies for her clumsy tall love. "Follow when you can."

Running was an essential skill if one ever actually fought, and she had run, every day, every night, hoping that some one would just slice her legs off to avoid having to run. It was surprisingly calm as the two sprinted after the cottontail that was giving the underbrush hell.

Lime green rabbits' pink tufted tail that matched the eyes, that bounced as it bounded along, had it been a normal sized rabbit it could have found housing in any room in the sect with its adorableness.

Shaking the thoughts aside, the noble adjusted her stride pulling ahead a bit. If she had something to attack with maybe she could stop it. Shifting her senior moved heading it left, there were hollows in the area that were formed from the various beast clawing homes out of rock. It was a gamble that paid off as the cornered the rabbit in a depression against a cliff face. Lashing out with paws, the two cultivators danced about, trying to stay one step ahead of claws that could sheer rock.

Using a powerful hind leg, Xiao's tall body was blasted into the cliff face. When it made move to finish the girl, Lady Valentine sprang into action. Leaping forward she dug herself into the furry rabbit and attempted to pull him back from her marital sister. She was half successful as her action made it pay more attention to her than the form struggling to regain her feet.

Valentine had the basics of latching on to something from her painful daily training but opportunities to preform practicum were few. It didn't take long for the bucking bunny to throw her to the side as well.

From the top of the cliff, a dark bolder descended. The bolder would later introduce itself as Mu Cel, a tanned man who was more comparative to a walrus with incredible muscle definition rather than a human. It turned out when similar weighted mammals landed on each other, forty feet of gravity was enough to crush the lagomorph.

"Well, well, well what do we have here?" From the cliff face emerging from the forested ledge three men appeared.

"Isn't this just perfect two lovey ladies right here."

!@# !@# !@#

"Forty feet? Unharmed?" Her father interrupted, a common thing in these little story sessions.

"Seems like men should have been sent to start." He snorted dismissively.

"Women make better cultivators, as well as war fighters in general. The difference in what a low foundation realm body can take, and a mid-foundation realm, like the one that didn't break a bone when he fell forty feet, is vast. A difference that increases with each advancement. Women are better simply because one's physical strength is meaningless compared to their technical skills and cultivation levels."

"Five years, it would have taken me five more years had I been male." She finished her speech quietly and then leaned back, sipping and savoring her dark tea. Duke Even made an ugly face. Unlike a world where the strength was the greatest deciding factor, the noble realm was rooted in hereditary and birth rights.

Before her return, her status as a ducal heir had covered up for the fact that she was not born male. Just because she was borne from a countess meant that she was at lest equal to all other women born from countess and could speak with men who were below the rank of her father.

Now that she could demolish walls and beat up amour clad men bare handed the shape of her value had change.

She was just a woman to Even Lockheed, just like that worthless mother of hers.

He had no intention of allowing her to be anything more, he was a duke and despite the outlandish tales, it wasn't like she could truly oppose the kingdom.

Lady Valentine glanced to the side looking at something that wasn't there. She pondered softly for a moment before speaking.

"Perhaps a demonstration would be better. Let us go."

!@# !@# !@#

Count Gerald had not been well. As fate would have it, being slammed into a man in plate hurt. It hurt even more when it had happened a second time. While he bushed matters aside when he had been wheeled off back to the royal place, he nor his backers had any intention of letting things go.

Prince Asserik had ordered the arrest of the noble lady. It was also all official, and above board legally, so there was nothing that Duke Lockheed would have been able to do to stop it. The prince would get his women, the duke would be humiliated, and he would be honored and reward for his part In things.

"Captain, do not forget to announce and give him a chance to surrender peacefully" He informed the captain responsible for this operation.

"Sir someone is approaching the gates." He was correct, several servants or majordomos' should of approached and accepted the papers that were associated with this arrest. Instead, a single women approached down the main drive.

In the far distance at the front entrance duke and heir with both escorts and retainers followed behind.

"Identify yourself!" The nearest man closest to the closed gate answered. Arranged in several formations, almost a hundred men had taken up the front road into the duke's estate. They were all trained experienced elites, with bright amour and large plumes from their helmets. A single formation carried crossbows while the others had pikes in hand.

Somewhere along the way from the servant's kitchen Iris had changed into formal combat robes. The simple underrobe was woven from hundred-thousand-year lux bamboo, dyed with dark red bindings against a pure snow cloth. It was belted by a single noted belt with long tassels swath of orange and yellows made from human faced spider silk like fires. Her outer robe was the same pure white wrought from cloud dragon heartstring of ten thousand years, with the bindings green and blues of the ocean itself. Her back was embroidered with a violet flame that ran down her enter back, the trim of both sleeves and robes were night black. From her ear dangled a single rainbow earring, and a long platinum hair pin embedded with a fifty-thousand-year corpse whale core adorned her abyss silk hair.

Each item she wore would have costed any of the five great sects their entire budget for a century to furnish even one of them. It was a testament to just how much work she had done to reach the level of deity ascendant.

"Well?" The martial sage barked after opening and stepping through the large iron gate. These men were obviously combatants and therefore the sage held formalities to them.

"You servant, take these papers to Duke Lockheed and bring forth Valentine Lockheed. She is under arrest by order of the second prince Asserik-"

"You dare address me as servant!" Marital sage projected her voice, commanding the assembled men. "Flee while I still allow such rudeness to be meaningless!"

"Flee? These are order strait from royalty. A women should do as ordered, or we will execute everyone here!" The captain was the only one able to speak in the wake of her projection. For a pause there was nothing said, Iris's clothes fluttered as the world responded to her power.

"Well than don't blame me, the ascended deity, Iris Xin the rainbow sword saint for being unkind!"