"Oh, we will!" the lackey roared, his voice thick with a grief that had curdled into pure, homicidal rage.

  "I'll enjoy breaking every bone in your body! Tearing you limb from limb!" He had completely drowned in his own fury, becoming little more than a vessel for vengeance.

  He charged forward, a relentless storm of brass-knuckled hooks and haymakers.

  Each blow was predictable, each thrust telegraphed, and Bi Kan weaved between them like a ghost, an awestruck smile playing on his lips at the disciple's sheer, beautiful stupidity.

  "Haha! Yes, be more irrational!" Bi Kan taunted, his voice a gleeful whisper. "Come on, avenge Wui Yei! Your precious BROTHER!"

  The leader grit his teeth, the sound a harsh grinding of enamel as he finally propelled himself forward, meaning to aid his last remaining man.

  "Tch! Calm down, you fool! He's trying to rile you up even more! You won't win this fight if you let him!"

  He knew, with a sickening certainty, that Bi Kan was playing them both like instruments. He was using the lackey's raw, unthinking rage as a blunt weapon, and he was using the leader's own paralyzing fear as a shield.

  The taunts, the casual cruelty—it made him hesitate with every move. The more he inched closer to the fight, the more the vines of terror seemed to wrap around his legs, pulling him back from the brink of his own inevitable death.

  "I enjoyed it, you know, killing Wui Yei!" Bi Kan’s voice was a venomous caress in the tense air.

  "The way his eyes lost their light! The way he just… crumbled to his knees! It was so satisfying. I only wish I could have tortured him more!"

  The lackey let out a choked, animalistic cry of rage, wailing his fists like a newborn child throwing a tantrum.

  "Go fuck yourself, Bi Kan! I will give you hell—" His threat was cut short as Bi Kan, seeing his opening, landed a vicious kick to the disciple's stomach.

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  The impact was a wet, sickening thud, and the disciple was sent flying, tumbling through the dust like a discarded doll.

  "Pathetic," Bi Kan spat, his voice dripping with contempt.

  "You're far too predictable. Is this all you've got? Haha!"

  He threw his head back, his hand covering his eyes as a wave of manic laughter escaped him.

  The sound died as his gaze, now cold and sharp as obsidian shards, settled on the leader.

  "Are you too afraid to fight back?"

  Before the leader could answer, Bi Kan lunged.

  His fist slammed into the man's gut. "Guh!"

  The air was driven from his lungs in a pained grunt.

  As the leader doubled over, Bi Kan crippled him with two vicious stabs. The iron blade punched through one thigh and then the other, sending the man crumpling to the floor. With a flick of his wrist, Bi Kan brought the blade back to his side.

  Tears of pure, unadulterated pain streamed from the leader's eyes. He had never felt anything like this.

  "P-please! Mercy… mercy!" he sobbed, his bravado shattered into a million pieces.

  Bi Kan ignored him. His focus was now entirely on his other opponent. The enraged disciple, clutching his gut, had staggered to his feet once more.

  "You! YOU!" He lunged forward, his final reserves of strength fueling a desperate, clumsy attack that hammered against Bi Kan's forearms as he put his guard up.

  The impacts were heavy, bruising. Bi Kan slowly gained a fresh tapestry of wounds on his forearms, but he grit his teeth and smiled, a wide, psychopathic grin that stretched his lips.

  He suddenly opened his arms wide, the unexpected movement sending the disciple stumbling back a step, off-balance. It was the only opening Bi Kan needed.

  He thrust the iron blade forward, burying it deep into his opponent's chest.

  "N-ngh…"

  Blood foamed at the disciple's lips. Bi Kan twisted the blade, the grinding of metal on bone a horrifying sound, inflicting one last, exquisite agony.

  The disciple's hands grasped weakly at Bi Kan's shoulders, tears of pain and loss streaming from his eyes.

  "W-wui…"

  Bi Kan simply watched him, his own gaze locked onto the disciple's, observing with a detached, and cold gaze as the light of life slowly faded.

  The disciple finally fell from the blade, landing on the dusty road with a soft, final thud. He was dead.

  The leader was now only crying, his fear a palpable, shivering thing. He knew he would not die as easily as his brothers.

  He was promised a far more painful death.

  "Okay, finally,"

  Bi Kan said, his voice returning to a low, conversational tone that was somehow more terrifying than his laughter had been.

  He took a single, deliberate step towards the whimpering, crippled leader. "As promised, I'll torture you."

  He grinned, a genuine, terrifying expression of pure excitement. "Who knew that a simple trip to buy a mattress would lead to me killing three people?"