The creature met Jin in the air.
It came up off the plateau like something thrown, black light streaming off it, and its hand closed on the empty space where Jin had been a heartbeat earlier. Jin rolled sideways on his clouds and threw lightning into its back. The bolt hit. Black light burst off it in a spray of sparks, and the thunder rolled out across the summit so loud that it shook loose the last few dead leaves still clinging to the lower branches of the tree.
The creature twisted in the air and came at him again.
It was smaller than it had been. Sujin's work on the tree had done that much. But smaller didn't mean slower. If anything, it moved faster now, like all the size it had lost had been packed down into speed. It swung at him, and he dodged. It swung again, and he barely dodged. The third swing caught the edge of his cloud and tore it apart under his feet, and he dropped a full meter before he could call another one up to catch him.
