The axe missed by an entire foot of distance.Yin Hu didn't care, because he wasn't actually aiming.The Axe of Eternal Obliteration and Destruction carved a crescent of displaced air through the courtyard. It caused red and black streaks in the air, but otherwise didn’t do much. The axe completed its arc and Yin Hu planted his rear foot, pivoted, and swung again in a lazy backhand that would have cut a mountain range in half if it had landed on anything… Yin Hu didn’t know that. Wielding should have been impossible to…Ta Rae, on the other hand, shrieked, the sound came from every leaf simultaneously. A rustling full-canopy scream of arboreal terror that bounced off the courtyard walls and scattered a flock of birds from the neighbour's roof three buildings over. The Demonic Spirit Tree of Ancient Primordial Foundings, Grand Elder of the Hu Clan, had ripped its roots from the packed earth with a wet sucking sound, showered dirt across the stone tiles, and bolted.The tree moved on its root ball like a spider on too many legs, each root finding purchase and pushing off in a gait that was equal parts horrifying and hilarious. It careened around the courtyard's perimeter, branches flailing, roots pumping, and leaves shedding in a trail of green and silver that marked its panicked circuit like breadcrumbs. The teapot clutched in a few of its thickest branches, held tight against its trunk the way a thief clutches stolen goods while fleeing the scene of a crime they absolutely committed and would commit again given half a chance.Yin Hu jogged after it in an easy, unhurried pace.His robes billowed behind him and the axe rested across his shoulder. It was massive and gleaming, radiating enough ambient destruction to make the courtyard tiles crack beneath his sandals with each step.Ta Rae rounded the eastern wing corner and its root ball caught on a flagstone.The (...)