Rise of the Forsaken Dragon: The System's Retribution

CHAPTER 5: THE CLUMSY PROTECTOR

The first Executioner moved like a shadow detached from its owner. His blade, humming with that sickening purple light, sliced through the air exactly where Zhenkai’s neck had been a millisecond before.

"Whoa! Watch it! You almost had my head off!" Zhenkai yelled, his voice cracking with a feigned, high-pitched panic.

He didn’t parry. Instead, he seemed to trip over the shredded remains of a velvet curtain. As he fell, his shoulder slammed into the Executioner’s hip. It looked like a clumsy stumble, but the impact carried the weight of a runaway semi-truck.

"Ugh!" the assassin wheezed, his ribs shattering with a sound like dry kindling. He was sent flying backward, smashing through the railing and plummeting into the darkness of the main hall below.

"Zhenkai! Behind you!" Xueira screamed, clutching the doorway.

Zhenkai spun around, his arms flailing. "I’m trying! Everything is slippery! Why is everything so slippery?"

The two remaining Executioners didn't wait. They lunged in unison. Zhenkai grabbed a heavy silver serving tray from a side table.

"Incoming!" he shouted.

He swung the tray wildly, looking like a man trying to swat a wasp. The edge of the tray caught the second assassin squarely in the temple. The man’s mask cracked, and he spun three times before collapsing into a heap.

"Is that... is that tech?" Zhenkai muttered, staring at the air next to the third assassin. "I think I see sparkles!"

[System Warning: Optical Camouflage active. Six additional hostiles entering the lounge.]

"Six? You guys brought a whole party and didn't even bring snacks?" Zhenkai yelled at the empty air.

"Kill the girl first!" a voice hissed from the void. "The target is distracted!"

"No! Stay away from her!" Zhenkai scrambled toward Xueira, but as he did, he 'accidentally' kicked a heavy marble pedestal.

The pedestal tipped over, crushing the foot of a cloaked assassin who had been sneaking up on Xueira. A pained howl erupted from thin air as the cloaking field flickered, revealing a man in tactical gear clutching a mangled boot.

"My foot! He broke my damn foot!" the assassin roared.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" Zhenkai cried, rushing over and 'tripping' again. His knee landed directly on the man’s throat, silencing him permanently. "I’m just so clumsy when I’m nervous!"

"Zhenkai, stop talking and get us out of here!" Xueira grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the back service stairs. "The whole building is crawling with them!"

"Right! The stairs! Great idea, Xueira! You always had the best ideas!"

As they burst into the hallway, they ran straight into a panicked crowd. Among them was Su Xialan, her expensive silk dress torn at the hem, her face a mask of pure, unadulterated terror.

"Xueira! Over here!" Su Xialan shrieked, waving her arms. "The elevators are dead! The stairs are blocked by men with glowing swords! We’re going to die in a Hyatt! I didn't even get to finish my champagne!"

"Mother, get down!" Xueira shouted.

"Don't tell me to get down! Tell this useless husband of yours to do something!" Su Xialan pointed a shaking finger at Zhenkai. "Look at him! He’s shaking like a leaf! Zhenkai, if you don't find us a way out, I’ll—"

"Watch out for the light fixture, Mother-in-law!" Zhenkai interrupted, lunging forward.

He grabbed Su Xialan by the waist and hauled her backward. A split second later, a burst of gunfire from a cloaked assassin shredded the wall exactly where she had been standing.

"They have guns now? That’s cheating!" Zhenkai yelled.

He grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher, pulled the pin, and threw it. Not at the assassins, but at the floor.

"Whoops! My grip!"

The extinguisher hit the ground and began spraying a thick, white cloud of chemical foam.

"I can't see! I can't see anything!" Su Xialan wailed, coughing into her lace handkerchief.

"That’s the point!" Zhenkai whispered, his voice suddenly dropping its panicked edge for a fraction of a second.

Through the white mist, his eyes flared gold. He could see the heat signatures of the cloaked assassins perfectly. They were moving in a pincer formation.

"Stay behind me! I think I see a clear path!" Zhenkai shouted, reverting to his 'lucky idiot' persona.

He began moving through the mist, his movements a blur that no one could see through the foam. To Xueira and her mother, it sounded like a series of wet thuds and metallic clangs.

"Ow! My head!"

"Is that a mop? Why is there a mop here?"

"Sorry! Didn't see you there, Mr. Scary Mask Man!"

One by one, the cloaked assassins were neutralized. One was sent head-first into a vending machine. Another was tripped into a janitor's closet and locked from the outside. A third was found slumped against a fire exit with a heavy brass lamp wrapped around his neck like a scarf.

By the time the mist started to clear, they were back in the main ballroom. The chaos was absolute. The elite of the city were cowering under tables, and the Black Tiger Syndicate guards were engaged in a losing battle with the Void Sect reinforcements.

"We’re almost to the lobby!" Xueira panted.

"Wait! My necklace!" Su Xialan stopped dead in the middle of the dance floor. "I dropped the Lanyue heirloom in the lounge! We have to go back!"

"Mother, are you insane? People are literally being murdered!" Xueira tried to pull her, but Su Xialan was stubborn.

"It’s worth three million dollars! I am not leaving without—"

Above them, a stray blast of void energy hit the mounting of the massive, three-ton crystal chandelier. The metal groaned, the gold chains snapping one by one with a sound like pistol shots.

"Mother! Look up!" Xueira screamed.

Su Xialan looked up, her eyes widening as the glittering mass of glass and steel began its descent. She was frozen, her legs refusing to move as the shadow of death loomed over her.

"Move!" Xueira lunged for her, but she was too far.

"Oh no! Not the fancy lights!" Zhenkai shouted.

He didn't run. He dived.

To anyone watching, it looked like Zhenkai had slipped on a stray piece of lobster thermidor and slid across the polished floor. He collided with Su Xialan’s legs, knocking her several feet away just as the chandelier hit the floor.

CRASH.

The explosion of glass was deafening. Shards flew in every direction, embedding themselves in the mahogany walls. Su Xialan landed hard on her backside, breathless but alive.

Zhenkai lay facedown in a pile of crystal, groaning. "Ow... my spleen... I think I landed on my spleen..."

"Zhenkai!" Xueira rushed over, kneeling beside him. "Are you okay? Did it hit you?"

"I’m fine... I think... is the light okay?" Zhenkai asked, looking up with a dazed expression. "It looked really expensive."

Su Xialan sat on the floor, her hair disheveled, staring at the crater where she had been standing seconds ago. "He... he saved me? That idiot actually... he tripped and saved my life?"

"It was luck, Mother! Just pure, dumb luck!" Xueira said, though her eyes were searching Zhenkai’s face with intense suspicion.

"Luck or not, he’s a mess," Su Xialan spat, though her voice was shaking. "Look at him. Covered in dust and glass. Get up, Zhenkai! You’re embarrassing us even when you’re being a hero!"

"Yes, Mother-in-law," Zhenkai sighed, pushing himself up.

"Enough of this theater."

The voice was cold, heavy, and came from the far end of the ballroom. The crowd parted as a man in a sharp, white suit stepped forward. Unlike the others, he wore no mask. His hair was slicked back, and his eyes were a piercing, unnatural violet.

This was Luo Shunhai, the leader of the Void Sect’s regional hit squad.

"I’ve watched you for the last five minutes, Longrui," Luo Shunhai said, his hand resting on the hilt of a long, straight sword. "The way you 'tripped.' The way you 'slipped.' The way you managed to disable twelve of my best cloaked operatives without landing a single intentional-looking punch."

"I’m just very clumsy!" Zhenkai said, holding up his hands. "Ask my ex-wife! I once broke a vase just by looking at it!"

"Do not insult my intelligence," Luo Shunhai hissed. He stepped over a fallen guard, his gaze locked on Zhenkai’s hands. "That last move... the way you pushed the woman out of the path of the chandelier. You didn't slip. You used a localized burst of internal energy to accelerate your slide."

"I don't even know what that means!" Zhenkai laughed nervously. "Internal energy? Is that like caffeine?"

Luo Shunhai didn't smile. He drew his sword, the blade glowing with a dark, hungry light. "There is only one style in the world that uses that specific footwork. The 'Grounded Dragon' step. It belongs to the Forbidden Dragon Palm technique."

The air in the room suddenly felt twice as heavy. Even Su Xialan stopped complaining, sensing the shift in the atmosphere.

"The Longrui family was supposed to be extinct," Luo Shunhai continued, his voice echoing. "But that strike... that was the palm of a king hidden in the skin of a beggar."

Zhenkai’s smile slowly faded. He stood up straight, the 'clumsy' slouch vanishing from his shoulders. He wiped a smudge of dust from his midnight-blue sleeve and looked Luo Shunhai in the eye.

"You should have stayed in the shadows, Luo Shunhai," Zhenkai said, his voice no longer cracking. It was the voice of the man who had bid a billion dollars. "You were doing so well pretending you weren't here."

"So, the dragon finally shows his claws," Luo Shunhai smirked, raising his blade. "I’ve waited ten years to kill a Longrui. Let’s see if the legends are true."

Zhenkai glanced at Xueira and Su Xialan. "Go. To the kitchen. There’s a freight elevator that leads to the garage. Don't stop until you’re in the car."

"Zhenkai, no!" Xueira cried. "He has a sword! You can't—"

"Go, Xueira!" Zhenkai commanded. "Now!"

Something in his voice made them move. Su Xialan didn't even argue; she grabbed Xueira’s hand and ran toward the service doors.

Zhenkai turned back to Luo Shunhai. He raised his right hand, his fingers curling into a specific, ancient claw-like shape. The Azure Dragon Ring on his finger began to hum, a golden mist coiling around his forearm.

"Forbidden Dragon Palm, huh?" Zhenkai whispered, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "I haven't used this in a while. I hope I’m not too... out of practice."

Luo Shunhai’s eyes widened as the golden aura intensified. "That ring... the Azure Dragon! You actually found it!"

"I didn't find it," Zhenkai said, stepping forward. The floor beneath his foot shattered instantly. "It was waiting for its master to wake up."