Chương 453: Ancient Yaoguai (III)

Liao Xinya was the first one to attack--her sword got engulfed with flames as she heaved over into the heart of the smaller beasts, swinging it with reckless abandon. Trails of fire and scattered embers danced above her position, giving even more light to this already blinding place. Her actions roused the rest as they seemed to throw caution to the wind completely. Xi Zhao stepped forth and navigated between the hordes of smaller ones, his sword still in the scabbard.

I'd warned him to take it easy on the bloodbath aspects, though I didn't mention why. I figured that, even without it, he'd think it was some sort of additional training. I wasn't to be left alone, either, though--before long, there were dozens of screeching, yapping, hollering little beasts swarming toward me. Unlike Xi Zhao, I did take out my sword and started dancing around rather leisurely. Save for the fact that they constantly tried to surround me, they were rather... weak.

I mean, they were already kind of weak unhurt, but now they were doubly so. More annoying than even remotely dangerous, really. As such, I took time to slowly practice--I had practically every kid tell me their 'progress' over their arts, which was my insidious way of learning what I could learn, but they were more than happy to oblige, so... well, shit, I still feel kind of guilty, but not that guilty. This was a good opportunity to test them, which is what I did.

Naturally, just because I obtained some baseline understanding didn't really mean I could execute it anywhere near to the level of kids who understood it far more intrinsically. Nonetheless, if there ever was a time to get a bit more accustomed to it, it was now. I danced between claw attacks and bites and lunges, stabbing and slicing and cutting with the sword without even imbuing it with Qi.

This meant that I had to attack the same beast at least three times to kill it, which in extension meant that I was far, far, far, far slower than Xinya (I mean, I would have been slower even if I went all out, but this way I have an excuse... I think...) who was mowing them down like grass. As I got a bit bored, I spied on Xi Zhao; oddly, he hadn't attacked, not even once. He dodged the fist slams and body slams and leaping slams, his sword about halfway out of the scabbard.... oi, kiddo.

What if you collapse the cave on us?! Have you ever considered that?! Well, I'll choose to trust him. The battle entered a bit of a lull as the cave's ground began to turn redder and redder with each passing minute, stacks of bodies piling up into small mounds. It was actually beginning to be a bit annoying since I nearly slipped once or twice while evading, not realizing there was a corpse behind me.

Just as I was about to bitch about it, I sensed Qi, north of me, all but boil--glancing over, I saw Xi Zhao had finally drawn his sword. It was... breathtaking, to say the least. It shook and shivered the world around it, pure white energy vapors creating rippling distortions, tiny motes of light and embers of flame shooting like sparks as he drew it against the scabbard. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

His entire visage was resplendent, radiance so bright it made it appear as though his hair had gone completely white. His eyes, though, did--plumes like drifting smoke billowing out of their corners, insides wholly white. Like an arrow that has been begging to be loosened, the sword shot out of the scabbard in a diagonal, upward slash.

I couldn't actually follow it with my eyes--I merely anticipated where it would go, which was the massive ape in front of the boy who crossed its arms over its head, trying to shield it. The world quaked as aggressively and violently as it did when the ape itself roared. All lesser beasts who still lived faltered and fell, while an array of light seemed to split the heavens, ripping asunder the ceiling above us, annihilating everything in its wake... except the intended target.

I'd already bid farewell to my dear, beautiful, expensive blood, but I saw the ape hadn't actually been utterly decimated. For a second I thought that was Xi Zhao's intention, that his 'testing something out' was this, but judging by the confused (and extremely tired) expression, that wasn't the case. Both of the ape's arms were gone, and there was a gash going as deep as its heart across its chest.

Its white fur had become wholly scarlet, and though it looked like something that had been dead for eons, it was very much alive, its pair of eyes wild and mad. A system notification appeared to my right, but I didn't even look at it. My heart and soul stirred in concert as I executed Shadow Steps, first to Xinya, grabbing her by the waist as she yelped and cried out, before transporting us both to the kneeling Xi Zhao. Without wasting a moment, I whipped out the Mirror and pushed it out in front of me.

It was, quite literally, in the very last moment--as I barely felt my arm stop before the ape exploded. But rather than a traditional explosion that should have been radial, this one was aimed. At us. Or, well, at Xi Zhao. I couldn't even make out the shape or the color of the energy; all I knew was that it spanned the world. Everything was ashen and white, a mixture of colors transcending description. For a second, my arm faltered, and I genuinely feared that even the mirror wouldn't be enough. But...

it quieted and calmed. And the next thing I saw made me realize that the mirror might legitimately be the most powerful artifact I will ever get. The world was open in front of us. That energy bounced off against the mirror and grew even larger in size--so large, in fact, that it was almost like an asteroid. There was no way in hell I could keep up with it using either my eyes or my senses. It was too fast, too violent, too otherworldly. Before I could blink, the world in front of me changed.

First, there was nothing there. It opened up in a wide arc and then went on so far out that the horizon fucking dipped. And there was nothing there. No trees, no hills, no mountains, no forests. Just a perfectly flattened plain stretching out into seeming infinity.

"... oh shit." The aftershock came--and it came violently. I simply felt something trounce my chest, break nearly all my ribs, and hurl me backward like a cannonball. I flew directly into the wall of the cave behind us, but as I desperately coated my body in Qi to the best of my ability, I bore through directly. The issue was that I was hurled backward with such speed that I seemed to fly back forever. Hand on heart, I must have been flying close to ten thousand miles an hour, if not faster than that.

At some point, I shot out of the stone and into the open, finally losing some speed as I began to fall in an arc. I could hardly make out where I was or where I was falling and simply flailed about, trying my best to slow down, as if I slammed into solid ground like this, I would literally splatter into paste. The chariot! I whipped it out as quickly as I could and activated it, grabbing onto the door and whipping myself inside.

In the process, my right arm was nearly torn off clean, with most of the bones in it breaking, and I still slammed into the chariot's wall, transferring most of the momentum onto it. Fortunately, when it slammed into whatever the hell it slammed, I barely felt it. Clinging desperately onto the last ounce of consciousness, I fished into the spatial ring and fetched out a few healing pills, popping them into my mouth just before my vision faded and the darkness won. I wonder... What the fuck just happened?