The Green Corridor was a kill zone.

  To the West, The Cove was holding the line against Amoto, the screams of witches mingling with the roars of the Beast King and to the flanks, the Cloud fanatics swarmed the Harvest Fleets, Qolius directing them like a conductor of chaos.

  But the main event was here in the East.

  White Hill had arrived.

  Their tanks rolled forward, firing volleys that shook the earth while their soldiers advanced in phalanxes, shields locked, discipline absolute.

  "Hold the line!" Bells screamed.

  He was on the ground, in the mud with his men as he deflected a tank shell with a wind blade, sending it careening into the ditch. He looked like a demon, his armor chipped, his face smeared with soot. He was fighting for his redemption.

  But White Hill held. They didn't break. They absorbed the attacks, returned fire, and advanced. Inch by inch.

  I stood on the command platform I had grown from the wall and saw the stalemate.

  "Dominion," I whispered.

  I raised walls of bamboo to funnel their infantry into choke points and sprouted Sky Piercer turrets on the ridges, raining wooden stakes down on their rear guard. I summoned two Guardian Treants to wade into the center, tanking the heavy fire.

  It wasn't enough.

  A horn sounded and the White Hill lines parted.

  A massive command tank rolled forward. Standing on top of it was Axehill.

  And beside him were the 8 Generals.

  One of them stepped forward.

  "Long time no see, Gardener," Adan shouted.

  The duel in Ann Arbor, the 'friendly' rematch and the free intel on Cloud and Black Hand.

  He didn't care about a rematch. He was scouting and gauging my strength, testing my limits, and feeding that data back to Axehill. He had set this up, measured me and found me wanting.

  A month ago, I would have been furious. Betrayed.

  Now?

  I stepped off the platform and walked out to meet him.

  "Ready for our rematch, Adan?" I asked. "Just me and you this time."

  Adan grinned. "Of course."

  He pulled a talisman.

  Dragon.

  The ink bled into the air and the massive white beast materialized, roaring. Adan hopped onto its back.

  The other generals sat back, watching.

  "Grow."

  Five mounds of earth exploded around me.

  Five Guardian Treants rose from the soil.

  Adan’s grin faltered. "Five?"

  "Moss," I whispered.

  The golden light of the Heavenly Moss carpeted the entire corridor and I felt the Qi flowing into me like a limitless river.

  "Kill the dragon," I ordered.

  The five Treants charged.

  Adan fired talismans—fire, lightning, ice. The spells hit the Treants, blowing chunks of wood off their bodies, but the green light of my Dao knitted them back together instantly. They swarmed the dragon, grabbing its wings, pinning it to the ground.

  Adan was overwhelmed. He was fighting a forest.

  I looked at a patch of bamboo near me.

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  "Cannon," I commanded.

  The stalks twisted, weaving together into a massive, spring loaded tube. I climbed inside.

  "Launch."

  The bamboo spring released.

  I was fired into the air like a human cannonball.

  The battlefield went silent. Everyone—White Hill, Eden, The Cove, Cloud—stopped to watch the Gardener flying through the sky.

  I reached the apex of my arc and was directly above Adan, who was frantically trying to free his dragon from the Treants.

  I dropped and tackled him in mid-air, knocking him off the beast. We tumbled through the sky, wind screaming in our ears.

  I reached into my Gourd.

  I pulled out my sword.

  "The duel is over, Adan," I said.

  I drove the blade through his chest.

  His eyes went wide and he gasped, blood bubbling on his lips.

  "There will be no more games," I whispered as we fell. "No more tricks or plots. It is time I start dictating the lives of others and stop letting my life be dictated by everyone else."

  I pulled the sword out.

  I kicked off his chest, pushing myself away.

  "Slide," I commanded.

  A ramp of bamboo shot up from the ground, catching me and I slid down safely, landing on my feet.

  Adan hit the ground ten feet away.

  The White Hill army stared in shock as their 8th general, the summoner of dragons, lay dead.

  I looked up at the command tank.

  Axehill was smiling.

  He nodded at me.

  "Next," Axehill said calmly.

  The 7th General stepped forward.

  Bina.

  He was a quiet man with a sword that glowed green.

  "Green Mountain," Bina whispered.

  He swung and a wave of green energy, shaped like a mountain range, crashed toward me. It tore up the earth, pulverizing the concrete of the highway.

  "Trampoline," I said.

  A sheet of woven bamboo sprang up under my feet and I jumped. The tension launched me fifty feet into the air, over the energy wave.

  "Sinkhole."

  I pointed at the ground beneath Bina.

  The soil liquefied and Bina stumbled as the earth tried to swallow him. He was fast, though and leaped out of the pit at the last second.

  But I was waiting.

  "Cannon," I said, forming another launcher on the wall next to me.

  I fired myself again but this time, I aimed for the flank.

  I landed behind him.

  "Glacial Gourd."

  Liquid cold engulfed him and Bina froze instantly, encased in a block of ice. His expression of surprise was preserved perfectly.

  "Root," I commanded.

  A massive root burst from the ground and smashed the ice block.

  Bina shattered into a thousand pieces.

  "Two down," I said.

  The next general rushed me, Nicholas.

  Nicholas was a body cultivator covered in a rainbow aura.

  Nicholas slammed his fists into the ground and a shockwave rippled toward me, cracking the earth.

  "Whispervine," I said.

  I wrapped the vines around my own arms and legs, creating an external muscle system and used the vines to pull myself into the air, dodging the shockwave.

  I then launched myself at him and threw an Explosive Heavenly Squash.

  Trevor raised his shield. "Calculated."

  The 5th General, Trevor. A shield cultivator.

  "They're not fighting fair anymore," Goros noted.

  "Seems so," I said.

  "Treant!"

  I summoned a Guardian Treant behind them.

  Nicholas turned, roaring, and engaged the wooden giant. His rainbow punches shattered the bamboo armor, but the Treant kept regenerating.

  That left Trevor.

  The squash hit the shield and detonated. Trevor braced, absorbing the blast perfectly.

  "Calculated?" I asked, landing in front of him. "Calculate this."

  "Whispervine."

  Vines shot out of the ground and grabbed his ankles.

  I yanked.

  Trevor was pulled off his feet, sliding out from behind his shield.

  "Voltaic Vine."

  I whipped a vine charged with electricity at him and It wrapped around his metal armor.

  Trevor convulsed as thousands of volts fried him and he went limp.

  Three down.

  I turned to Nicholas.

  He had just destroyed the Treant and he stood panting, his rainbow aura dimming. He saw me and roared, charging. His mouth was wide open.

  "Hungry?" I asked.

  "Teleport."

  I didn't teleport myself.

  I teleported a Heavenly Squash.

  Directly in the space in front of his mouth.

  Nicholas accidentally swallowed it and gagged, his eyes bulging as the vegetable sat in his throat.

  "Boom," I whispered.

  The squash detonated and Nicholas’s head vanished in a cloud of orange mist.

  Four down.

  I stood there, covered in blood, sap, and guts. My chest was heaving, but my Qi was full.

  "You said I was as strong as the Fourth General," I said to the corpse of Adan.

  I looked at the corpses of Adan, Bina, Trevor, and Nicholas.

  "Well," I said, wiping blood from my face. "I guess you weren't lying about that."

  "Next?" I asked.