He twists, and it's enough to lift his arm and slam the hilt to the ground; an unnaturally thick cloud of dust rises with a gust of wind, blinding all of them.

He twists again, this time enough to dislodge Wen Ying from atop him, and everyone can hear but not see his sword unsheathe.

"A-Ying!" She leaps forward in the direction where A-Ying had just been, grasping frantically through the dust until she finds her sister's shoulders. Wen Qing yanks her back, hauling A-Ying up from the ground and then behind her.

Wen Qing's cry alarms her -- is Wen Ying hurt already? "Wen Ying," she says urgently, drawing her own sword --

--Xiao Xingchen closes his eyes and darts into the cloud, listening intently for Xue Yang's movements--

He lunges, striking directly for Lan-guniang's face.

Just as a fun experiment.

He has a half-second's advantage on her, while she is blinded and distracted by Wen Ying -- she senses him at the last moment -- moves -- 

Lan Zhan twirls away and a hot line slices itself neatly across her cheek, just grazing her. That is fine. She knows where he is now. Lan Zhan flips through the air and counters Xue Yang's next strike, then dodges, then blocks again and spins into a strike of her own. She's entirely capable of keeping him occupied as the dust finally begins to settle.

The dust settles enough for Wen Ying to see, and the first thing she sees is the red line on Lan Zhan's face. 

She doesn't parse what it is, for a single moment, and then it clicks and she sees Xue Yang dueling Lan Zhan, Xue Yang who has hurt Lan Zhan, Xue Yang who hurts and hurts and kills and--

Her ears roar with the screams of the dying and worse that Xue Yang had toyed with. 

She sees red, and her mind narrows until all she sees is Xue Yang and pain and death. 

She steps onto her sword so that he won't hear her approaching footsteps and rams into him at all the speed she is capable of gathering in the intervening distance. 

"OWFUCK--" She sends him flying, hitting the ground much harder than last time. 

She takes a controlled fall off her sword directly on top of him, her weight falling primarily on her knees on his kidneys. She braces herself with one hand against his shoulder and punches him in the face. 

And again. 

And again. 

Again. Again. Again. 

This results in lots of yelping and struggling to breathe on Xue Yang's part. And blood.

"Wen Ying -- Wen Ying!"  Lan Zhan takes Wen Ying's shoulders firmly and tries to pull her back. Blood has welled up and trickled all down her cheek from the shallow cut. "Calm down."

She allows herself to be pulled back. 

"He hurt you," she protests, gesturing at the blood on Lan Zhan's cheek with a hand that has a lot more blood on it, but it's not her blood so. 

Lan Zhan is -- baffled.

"Shallow," she says softly, taking Wen Ying's hand and guiding her fingertips very, very gently to touch the thin cut. "Immaterial."

Slow nod. 

"That one is. But he wouldn't stop at shallow and immaterial, if he had half a chance. So he had to really really really not get half a chance." She swallows and looks away. 

"Wen Ruohan has made me do some terrible things. The things he's let Xue Yang do are much, much worse." 

"Wen Ying..."

"Lan-guniang, let me look at you." Wen Qing approaches them, her medicine kit already out. "I can bandage that very quickly."

"Mm."

A new arrival floats down out of the night, taking in all the bodies with horror and the state of Xue Yang with some confusion. "I'm late, apparently," he says, touching down next to Xiao Xingchen. "Xingchen."

"Zichen." Oh good a person who makes complete sense and doesn't bring any extra drama yay. 

"The good news is that Xue Yang has been apprehended." 

"Uh.

Yeah, it. Seems... that way. Is he conscious?"

"Yeeep," Xue Yang gurgles indistinctly.

He isn't sure whether he should ask about what the hell just happened right now or not. Xingchen is usually better at deciding these things.

"This is Wen Ying, I think, we weren't introduced but her friend called her that, who already knew Xue Yang and therefore had a lot of rage built up against him, apparently." 

"Wen-guniang," he says slowly, and then bows. "Thank you for restraining from killing him. It is best if he can be brought to trial."

"Your friend said that too! Don't bring him to trial anywhere the Wen sect holds power, Sect Leader Wen is complicit in his crimes."