Some long-running battle had taken place between the city and the Tree. The guards who should have been protecting the gate were missing, and the gate itself was tilted in its place, blood spattered and smeared as if a dozen kobolds had bled to the last drop, though no bodies were visible. The very stone beneath Kaz’s paws was shattered in places, and Li held tightly to their concealment, expecting to come upon a scene of chaos around any corner.

  Nothing happened except that the amount of blood spilled seemed to diminish as they drew closer to the Tree. Occasionally, they would hear howls calling for aid, but without knowing who was howling, Kaz just folded down his ears and forged ahead. The closer he got to the Tree, the more he felt that something was terribly wrong, and he needed to be there now.

   Li asked, staring back at the cracked stone Kaz had just jumped over. Blood filled the crevices like a gory river, but once again, there was no sign of the bodies from which the blood must have flowed.

  Kaz started to say he didn’t know, but as he put down his paw he felt a pang go through his core, causing it to shiver in place. That pain was followed by another, then one that made his legs buckle, sending him stumbling to hands and knees. Li jumped down, instantly turning back to Kaz as he curled up, clutching at his gut. Li demanded, pushing her nose beneath Kaz’s hands, searching for a wound.

  Kaz gritted his teeth, holding back a howl of pain. he told her silently, knowing that if he opened his mouth, he wouldn’t be able to remain quiet. His knees drew up as a spasm punched through him. His vision turned inward, and he could instantly tell that there was nothing wrong with his body. This pain wasn’t his.

   he whimpered, pressing his fist against the place where his core rested. Four parts of it cycled as they should, but something was pulling on his Wood ki, twisting and, yes, draining it away down that link he had only recently recognized.

   Li said, almost frantic as Kaz writhed in pain. She opened their bond, pushing the blue ki she held in her dantians toward Kaz, but he refused it, gasping at the strain of trying to hold onto his own ki while preventing hers from vanishing as well.

   he managed, panting with relief as that shattering pain diminished. His dantians and core were now entirely empty of Wood ki, and his head felt like it might float from his shoulders as he sat up. Li climbed into his lap, staring into his eyes with frightened concern.

   Li demanded, her dexterous paws still searching for wounds she wouldn’t find.

  Kaz drew in a shaking breath and shifted her to his back and shoulders, then used a nearby rock formation to pull himself up hand over hand. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so weak and unsteady, not even when he’d been half-starved and all but powerless.

   Li said.

  Kaz shook his head, closing his eyes so the tunnel would stop spinning around him. He didn’t know how to explain. Li had touched the mountain through him, but usually when she did it was because the mountain was pulling power from Kaz. Li didn’t like that, so she didn’t like the connection, especially since it seemed to have something to do with Nucai.

   Kaz said as he finally started forward again.

  Li hissed.

  Kaz had to agree, especially as another stab of pain tore through him, stealing his breath along with the small amount of blue ki he’d managed to produce. This time he felt a distant sort of sorrow along with the pain. Not an apology, exactly, but regret.

   Li said, and jumped down. As she fell, she grew, and soon she’d reached the largest size that would fit in the rather narrow tunnel through which they walked. She clicked angrily as her wings caught on the walls, shrinking slightly again, then stopped in front of Kaz, lowering her shoulder.

   she told him, and he could tell she would only accept one answer. Kaz got on, collapsing gratefully across her back and neck, barely able to hang on as another convulsion gripped him. Li began to run, following the trail of blood and cracked stones toward the Tree.

  By the time they reached the stairs that should have been guarded by members of all four great tribes, Kaz was barely conscious. For good or ill, no one was there, and the broad stairway allowed Li to grow to her largest size and fly straight toward the Tree, with Kaz clinging to her back with the last of his strength.

  They began to hear sounds when they were a little over halfway there, and Li settled down onto her back claws, her head tilted as she listened. She hadn’t been bothering to conceal them, since that not only took ki she couldn’t spare, but forced her to move more slowly. Now, she hesitated, and Kaz forced himself to sit up, though one hand pressed uselessly against his abdomen.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Someone’s fighting,” Kaz said, and Li bobbed her head in agreement.

   she asked.

  They listened a moment longer, and then Kaz shook his head. “Those aren’t just howls. This is something else. We need to go.”

   Li said, and launched herself forward again.

  The sounds grew louder and more distinct. There were loud explosions intermingled with metal striking stone or…something softer? It almost sounded like yumi gatherers hacking at reeds that had been allowed to become too thick. There was a certain hollowness to it that made the fur on Kaz’s neck lift.

  The bright light of the Tree’s cavern rose up before them, and when they burst into it, Li instantly swooped up and into the open space around the Tree’s huge branches. Except that most of those branches were no longer there. Instead, they had been cut or blown off, lying shattered on the ground hundreds of feet below. The few remaining green and yellow leaves were already beginning to curl and turn brown. Mingled among the broken wood were bones, the last remnants of the first Diushi Emperor, the dragon, Qiangde.

  “No,” Kaz whispered, his eyes locked on the bones and the dying Tree. The thick bark that he had once used to climb to the top now lay in curled sheets, revealing the hacked and oozing wood beneath. And there, gathered around the roots, were the kobolds and the humans.

  Gray, brown, and yellow-furred kobolds attacked humans and Tree alike, while the humans did the same in return. As Kaz and Li watched, Yingtao threw something at a group of kobolds that caused the enormous root on which they stood to splinter beneath their paws. Chi Yincang appeared as the cloud of smoke and debris began to settle, his long spear slicing deep into the Tree’s trunk, causing Kaz to gasp in pain. Even Lianhua was there, her expression fierce as she pulled on her bow, launching ki-bolts one after another toward the Tree.

  A shudder seemed to shake the Tree as Kaz gasped for air, his Wood ki once again draining out of him like his life’s blood. It swirled away into what was once a river of blue ki, but was now little more than a trickle. His grip on Li’s neck slackened, and his body slid to the side. Only Li’s quick dip and glide down toward the ground kept him from falling free.

  Drawing in a deep breath, Li released the loudest, most powerful roar she had ever roared. Her ki swept out with it, pressing down on all the figures below. Li roared, causing kobolds to stagger and fall, crushed by the weight of her power. Lianhua’s fingers paused mid-draw, while Chi Yincang appeared halfway through a leap, dropping to the ground, where he kept his feet, but only barely.

   Li roared again, circling over the battlefield. They could already tell she was too late, though. Nearly all of the branches had fallen, and every visible root was cut at least partially through. Even the massive trunk looked like it had been chewed on by some great beast.

  “Nucai took my grandfather!” Lianhua called up, and Li flew back toward where she stood with Baihe and Yingtao. The human female lifted a finger and pointed at the Tree. “They poisoned him and took him in there. He could be-” She bit her lip, and fresh tears rose in her eyes, making them shimmer like freshly cut amethysts. These weren’t tears of weakness, but of an anger and fear so deep that there was no other way to release it.

   Li said, turning so they could see Kaz draped across her back.

  Lianhua drew back, shaking her head. “But we have to reach Grandfather. We can’t just let Nucai have him!”

  Kaz shifted. Now that the Tree was no longer actively being damaged, he was able to pull himself together, though once again he had his eyes closed against the world circling him. If he only looked at ki, he was all right, but there was something terribly wrong with his eyesight.

  “You’re doing what he wants,” he told Lianhua, suddenly certain he was right. The power in the Tree - what he had thought of as the mountain - had no words remaining, but it showed him images, much as Li had once done. “The Tree isn’t Nucai’s home. It’s his cage. And you’re about to release him.”

  Lianhua paled, and Baihe laid a hand on her granddaughter’s arm. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she said, “but if this Nucai has my husband, then let him come. We’ll kill him, and take Yufei back.” She lifted her hand, deep red ki gathering around it. At some point since Kaz had last seen her, she had unlocked black ki to go with her red and blue, and it now swirled up among the red, hissing furiously as Water met Fire and became something worse than either alone.

   Li said, moving in between the humans and the Tree.

  Lianhua wavered, holding up her hand to stay her grandmother. Her eyes went back and forth from the Tree to Kaz, who was clearly suffering as he sat curled around his middle, arms wrapped around himself. “Kaz, is that true?”

  But Kaz, Li, and the humans weren’t the only ones gathered around the Tree. Now, seeing that the humans were no longer doing their work for them, the Irondiggers and Goldblades turned on the Tree with renewed ferocity, using claws, blades, and even teeth to tear at it. They weren’t as effective as Chi Yincang’s spear or Yingtao’s explosions, but Kaz whimpered as the pain began anew.

   Li roared, knocking everyone else back as she drew her body around Kaz, supporting him. Lianhua drew her bow again, launching another arrow made of pure ki at a kobold using a long knife to hack at a nearly-severed root. The kobold stumbled and fell, but another picked up the blade and replaced him.

  “There has to be another way,” Kaz said, clutching at his middle. Somehow, as the thing to which he was connected dwindled, so did the pain, and he shook his head, trying to chase away the moss that seemed to clog his mind. As he did, his closed eyes came to rest on what remained of the Tree, and he saw the golden force within it surge, almost as if it was desperately trying to-

  “There are two,” he said, barely aware of what he was saying. “They support each other. One is a trap, and the other… Why is the other there? What purpose does it serve? What were you doing, Qiangde?”

  His face turned up, staring toward the last of the bones, now exposed in their nest atop the Tree. The skull had fallen at some point during the battle, but the ribs still arched up, containing the core that had been cracked by a curious kobold pup sometime before.

  “Li,” he said, finally able to open his eyes, finding that he saw less than he had when they were closed. “We need to get up there. Quickly. Before the Tree falls.”

  LitRPG Convention this summer? Why didn't someone tell me? I even missed the early-bird tickets, and, NGL, $108 is kinda pricey for me (x3 for the family). But I want to go ?? Even though I also don't want to go, because that would require driving 600+ miles, and there would be So Many People, but they would be my people. AUGH!