An anxious knock came from inside the palanquin, and Wild Pig Yi knocked back without taking her eyes off of Gravewraith Chen.

“I do not warn people twice,” he said, and Wild Pig Yi grinned at him, showing off her sharp teeth.

“You shouldn’t bother warning them once. It takes too long,” she said, and they rushed at each other.

It was the clash of lightning striking Maidenhair Tower, it was like the sea returning to its old home in the Nguyen Basin. Lance met hammer, and neither shattered and neither would be cast aside. They pushed against each other, no edges between them to cut, and such was their strength that they dug themselves into the earth.

They sprang back and came at each other again, and this time they struck so hard they dug themselves almost hip deep into the ground. Still neither of them yielded.

The third rush, they struck each other, but neither was killed and neither emerged the victor, and so Wild Pig Yi and Gravewraith Chen beat at each other with their weapons, striking blows so hard that lesser people would have died immediately. Mountains would have shattered under their blows, but still they both stood, though now bloodied and furious.

“You hit like an old grandmother swatting at a fly,” Wild Pig Yi declared. “You are so slow the Huan River could run backwards and the emperor could give the realm to the rule of the people and they could breed a wise horse and an honest lawyer before you landed a blow.”

“You swing that lance like a dancer with a fan,” growled Gravewraith Chen. “Are you planning to seduce the governor of the dead when you arrive in Stone Country?”

They both stood still, catching their breath, and another knock came from inside the palanquin. Wild Pig Yi answered it, all was well as far as she was concerned, and then she rolled her shoulders and struck the butt of her lance on the ground.

“Well? Have you decided to nap instead of fighting me?”

Gravewraith Chen started to answer her, but a flight of arrows fell on them like rain. They struck away the arrows that would have hit them, and Wild Pig Yi glanced at Gravewraith Chen.

“Are your friends too impatient to let you do your job?”

“They’re not friends of mine,” he said, and Wild Pig Yi made a face. The marauders in the forest had apparently hoped one of them would kill the other, but now they were growing impatient.

“Too many bandits in this part of the world,” she said, shaking her head, and then another flight of arrows came, this one harder and faster. They were both struck, her in the thigh, and him in the shoulder, and they both realized the same thing at once. With as many archers as now lurked in the trees, they could not dodge them; the first flight would only drive them into the second.