The air is rich with the scent of grass, only slightly contaminated by mold from the trees. The fog blocks the view up front while likewise leaving our own trail out of sight. Conversely, the trees also hinder our visions as well as our movements as they are twisted, malformed growths, mutated by the overexposure of mana. And the grass itself has experienced a similar augmentation, spinning into little curls and becoming sharp enough to cut human skin. Insects the size of dumplings buzz around us and come from the right, having cleaned the visible corpses of the previous travelers here completely, with only their bones and equipment remaining. Such is the reason why there is mold here, and why it doesn't stink of death. Though they are mercilessly bereft of their life, their remains aren't even given the time to rot.
- "That means whatever killed them all is somewhere close. Stay sharp."
Bartholomew Farren was at the front of this pathetic cavalcade of ours, his shield raised and his senses sharp. His expertise with this forest will act as a perfect lookout for incoming threats.
In the middle was me, ready to attack anything that Bartholomew spots and/or blocks. My sword's edge sharp and my grip on the handle tight, I focused my senses for any signs of danger (aside from the already-present hazardous terrain, which we were steadily traversing through).
Suddenly, we hear hissing. A shift in the razor grass alerts Bartholomew as he turns to me.
- "Behind us!"
His bellowing is overshadowed by the hissing of four giant bugs, the size of human children. Big, round eyes were pinned on a bead-like head, two antennae dangling off of it. A stick acting as the body stood on two other twigs while two sharp arms were placed on it. These claw-like appendages were placed together, as if for a prayer, inducing a fear of sudden death as these swift blades could move at speeds that regular people couldn't even see.
- "Bishop Mantises! Get down, I'll-"
While the ginger giant was beginning to act, the one behind me had already moved. A massive gulf of fire erupted from their palms and made its way to the mantises. She was Seraphine, my sister. She was there to provide ranged attack power, though she could even fill my role of close-quarters combat, as strong as she is.
Though quick, they couldn't move at the speeds they attack, and so, faced with ranged firepower, the first two perished on contact while the third lost one of the claws it was so proud of.
The fourth one, however, had avoided it narrowly and was preparing to strike. Her vision was obstructed by the flames, so she couldn't see it coming. I get to her fast enough and block the insect's strike. The impact reverberates through my sword and into my skin. It was quite a hefty blow.
Nonetheless, I recover and swing at this adversary.
- Brewing Storm Sword Technique: White Hurricane
A fierce cleave traversed through the air horizontally, cutting into the insect before leaving its gash, swirling back around and coming back with twice the force, splitting its torso.
Seeing this, the other, lesser-armed Mantis scurried off over the dark grass. I raise my black cloak and sheathe my greatsword behind my back.
- "...Damn. You two are as strong as I've heard. You sure you need me around?"
I turn to him.
- "Those were only Bishops. We'll need you for the ones that are too fast. Plus, with how much you've traversed through these woods, you know the layout and hazards better than anyone else. We can't brute force our way through this place."
- "It was a joke... but still, good to know you have a very capable head on those shoulders!"
Oh... grasping humor was never one of my capabilities.
- "Let's keep moving."
With Bartholomew's words, we continued making our way through.
*************
The scenery hasn't changed a bit, no matter how far we went. We were all rather exhausted. I mow down the razor grass with my sword to make a place to sit down.
- "Hah... I didn't think it would be this difficult."
Sera sits down and sighs.
- "This forest is called a dead end for a reason. We're defying the cultural norms by traversing it. We've been using mana all week to not get cut by the grass too much, of course this is exhausting."
Sera turns, as if in annoyance
We took a break on the freshly-cut grass and ate our shares. We had used about half of our food supply. We can't get more inside the forest as, while there is an abundance of Direwolves, they all get devoured almost instantly by the giant locusts. In seconds the meat is already inedible and in hours nothing but bone is left. We could try to keep them away with Sera's flames, but she doesn't have nearly enough mana to keep it up for the hours we need to prepare the meat. This is why you need a supply of food for this journey.
- "It's strange how we haven't found a single monster for the past two days. Normally you can't go two hours before coming across a pack of Direwolves. Something's wrong here... keep your guard up."
We nod and get back up. Bart smells the air.
- "We're getting close to the end. The fog is slightly less thick here. At most, we'll be out in a day."
The journey typically lasts anywhere between a week or two, depending on the capabilities of the party. However, you constantly have to strengthen your feet with mana to avoid injuring yourself on the sharp grass, so food is used up twice as fast. That is why we took three weeks worth. We've obviously over prepared, but it is better than starving in this hellscape.
I take a step and feel the pain setting back in. I had messed up yesterday and lost concentration on my mana, so I cut a small gash on the left side of my right sole.
I take a look at Sera's feet. She's in much worse condition than me. She wasn't used to needing such immense concentration to simply walk, which makes sense. She hasn't ever traversed spiky or sharp terrain, unlike me. Battles in the Murim happened anywhere and everywhere. Terrain didn't matter. You had to keep your Qi flow stable if you wished to live. One time I fought a group of Wudang senior disciples in between two mountains, connected by a bridge which later flipped sideways since one of the ropes detached.
Another time was the Great Fire of Mount Hua. The Wudang Sect had basked Mount Hua's pavilion in flames. Wudang and the Sky Dragon Company were allies at the time, so they requested for help in this battle. We had to fight it out in the flames.
Forget just supporting your feet, I had to keep my entire body safe with Qi, otherwise I'd burn to a crisp. So, keeping a steam of Qi in my feet for hours at a time wasn't as difficult as it seemed.
However, that doesn't change the fact that this man, Bartholomew, doesn't have a single injury from the grass. He had constantly maintained it and it was even strong enough to completely stop it. It had slightly grazed me and Sera every half hour or so of travel, but not him. This man had the durability of a mountain.
Bart pulls out a compass, determines our target direction and keeps walking. It's a good thing he has that, this fog is almost impossible to cross without one.
Suddenly, we hear a shift in the deadly grass. Without pause, we all reflexively ready battle positions. After what felt like eons of focus, three Direwolves appeared from across the fog.
Bart hurried to the frontlines. He raised his shield and blocked two pounces. One Direwolf didn't pounce on him. It instead circled around and attacked me. I block its claws before cleaving its head clean off. I then turn to Bart, who is having a bit of trouble handling two Direwolves at once. I dash to his side and slice at both of the Direwolves, grazing one while severely wounding the other's left front leg. Bart bashes his shield against them in tandem. They get sent back a few meters.
As I get ready to charge in, a massive maw emerges from the side and skewers the two wolves with its teeth. Moments later, its whole body comes into view.
Rough, scarred hide covers its canine shape in pale dark blue, with a grey pattern spreading around. Its tail is thrice the size it should be and seems to be covered in much more rough and conversely sharp fur. The two enormous hounds hanging off of its mouth look like puppies in comparison. This beast was more than three times bigger than them both.
- "By the Dragons... It's an Alpha..."
Bart who, up until this point, seemed completely steadfast and confident, was visibly shaken. And understandably so. This creature was one of the rarest sightings in the Dead End Forest. An A- Rank monster that should be avoided at all costs, unless you have an army with you.
It was an Alpha Direwolf.
Without giving us a chance to think, it crushed the two wolves with its teeth, devouring their corpuses, with only their hind legs and head falling down on the grass and beng skewered by it, blood spilling everywhere. The beast then swallows, its mouth drenched with blood, before turning to us. I build up a Brewing Storm technique out of pure survival instinct.
Bart seems to have the same idea as he raised his shield before smashing it into the ground, covering it with a layer of rock as well as energy. He then signals us to wait until it has attacked him and strike back.
- "Aim for the neck."
With those words, the beast readies a pounce and, in a swift release of force, rams into Bart's shield, chunks of rock splitting off.
Although clearly shaken, Bart managed to block its attack. Now was our chance.
- Brewing Storm Sword Technique: Swirling Zephyr
I charge past Bart and thrust into the Adam's apple of the beast with a spin. The Sword Aura changes shape into a drill and digs into its rough hide and manages to barge through, lightly scathing its flesh. Following behind me, Sera throws a palm holding flame into the same spot. The blow hits and the flames burst out into the wolf's neck, damaging it considerably. The wolf then recovers and leaps backwards, landing on the razor grass, the beast's feet unscathed by its sharpness.
Seeing the threat we pose, the wolf howls into the unknown sky with resonance. Out from the fog, a large pack of Direwolves shows up. It seems there are about eight, excluding the Alpha.
Bart signals to stay close. We huddle up back-to-back as we're surrounded by these blood-crazed beasts.
The Alpha makes a signal and they all suddenly pounce at once. I gather my energy for continuous bursts instead of a constant stream to maximize speed.
- Brewing Storm Sword Technique: Endless Torrent
I swing my blade horizontally, moving swiftly and in haste. I throw a few dozen or so swings, each one gashing into one of the three wolves on my side, their blood and guts spilling on my sword.
One of the wolves manages to get past my slashes and tries to bite my head off. I place my blade in between its teeth to stop it before forcing my way through its throat into the cranium, cleaving its upper head apart. It falls over motionless, however another wolf takes advantage of my opening and bites into my left arm, its canine teeth ripping through my skin as well as muscles before digging into my forearm bones. Searing pain jolts from my arm into my hand, loosening my grip on my weapon. I manage to concentrate through the pain and, with a thunderclap, I ram my fist into the wolf's head, separating its teeth from its jaw. I pull the teeth out and begin Restoration Breathing. By focusing my Yang Qi onto the damaged parts, I clad the wounds with thrombocytes and tense the muscles around it, stopping the bleeding temporarily. My muscles remain damaged, but I can somewhat compromise, although it'll be exhausting.
I surround my injured arm with energy. After cloaking it, I then consciously shifted it and my arm followed suit. My arm was now moving in accordance to my energy. This was originally called the Flying Blade Technique since it was first used for swords, but then warriors discovered its unlimited amount of practical uses and accordingly renamed it the String of Will Technique.
Its core concept is not that different from the Aura Sword, except the result is reversed. Rather than move an object around with your body while supplying it with the Yin-Yang energy, the energy took charge and lifted the object wherever the user willed it. Doing this, I can keep my arm in motion for my techniques.
I could just lift the blade itself, but doing so would result in far less power. Martial Arts come from not just Qi, but also the movements. The subtle shifts in weight. Every body part moving together to generate as much force as possible. It's why my arm is so crucial to my techniques. And it was much more effective to do so with my body rather than try and mimick it with my energy alone. Like a novice martial artist perfectly copying what he saw from his master, only to fail completely due to the thousands of subtle, but important aspects he could never hope to grasp with sight or conscious alone.
Now recovering, I turn to Bart and Sera. There were two more wolves charred to the bone. The ones still standing now grouped back up with the Alpha. Seeing this, Bart saw an opportunity and, without pause, grabbed hold of it.
A yellow-ish brown aura gathered in his palm, which he drived into the ground below him, piercing his hand on the grass slightly, before retrieving a massive, glowing boulder about four fifths his size. He then gathered the same energy into his shield before flinging his arm backwards and, in a swift motion, crashing the shield into the boulder, releasing a powerful shockwave that tore it apart and sent the remains flying at a speed faster than sound.
These stone remnants then made their way through the unclear air, carrying a trail of that same aura and mercilessly tearing into the Direwolves. One of then had turned to the side, so its innards were rearranged by the natural missle before it even grasped what had happened, it drilling past its center before flying off into a tree behind it, the aura now painted in a taint of crimson. A similar fate befell another one, as one of the projectiles digged into the other Direwolf's head, exploding it on contact. The third one had its left leg and ear along with eye severed, but was still alive, albeit whimpering on the ground.
The Alpha, though, didn't seem particularly phased as four or five of these missiles made contact with its armor-like hide, making a dent and ruffling the fur before falling to the ground, bereft of the aura that shone so potently before.
- "Haah... I can block one more attack. After that I'm out. Make sure you kill it. Running isn't an option, it'll just chase us down with twice our speed."
Bart seemed evidently drained. He wasn't lying. I'm guessing he even endured some pain from speaking, as he was clutching his lower ribs, indicating damage.
This will be up to us to finish.
Sera jumps into the fray and throws a massive ball of flame at the beast. It then raised its disproportionately large and thick tail as a shield, blocking the impact. The fur on the tail at the point of contact was turned black, but was still mostly intact. That thing's defensive properties were ridiculous. It's not even right to call it a tail. It's more like an additional limb.
The Alpha then came closer, swirling to its left in accordance with its previously outstretched tail, before suddenly picking up speed and making it come back around with deadly force, like a spiked log about to crash into us.
No way in hell were any of us surviving that. I turned to my allies. We had the same idea and all nod in unison before jumping out of the way of this appendage of death, it razing the razor grass fields in its path, stealing all life from it like the harvest of a grim reaper. This tail served as a sturdy shield as well as a deadly weapon.
Sera unleashed a cascade of flame while in the air. The Alpha was hit by part of it near the eyes before blocking the rest with its overgrown tail. Its vision was somewhat obscured, so I seized this golden opportunity while I could.
- Cloud Dance Step
With a swift motion, I dashed over to the beast, the dirt below me bellowing into shapes akin to the pale clouds of the Heavens with each step. Since that tail sweep earlier got rid of a lot of the grass in our immediate vicinity, moving around was much easier.
As I rapidly approached the creature, it tried to smash its tail down on me. Just before it makes contact, I increase my speed and slide under its spiky hide, it catching a bit of my cloak before unceremoniously detaching it from its whole.
Recovering from my slide, I get back up without misstep and jolt over to its head. I then leap into the air whilst readying a decisive move.
- Brewing Storm Sword Technique: Rising Updraft
The blade, wrapped in a baby blue aura, rises towards the Heavens and, on its way, cuts into the now-damaged hide of this creature. Blood spills out like a waterfall, only a very miniscule one, as if you were watching it from two mountains apart. The cut was shallow.
The force of the swing still persisted. Guiding it along naturally, I redirect it downwards.
If the previous motion mimicked the flow of wind, then this next one was going to be reenacting the Heavens' Fury.
- Brewing Storm Sword Technique: Crashing Thunder
In stark contrast to the graceful blade that flew through the air just a moment ago, this one struck suddenly, and without warning. The sword arc was violent, rigid and uneven. One would think it came from a sawblade. Coming down with a vengeance, it tore its way into the eye of the beast before crashing down into its snout. A cascade of blood shot out of its face, bathing me in a crimson shower.
While it was writhing in pain, I jumped off of its now-scarred face and landed back on the ground while Sera continued letting off wave after wave of flame. It continuously took damage, its thick hide now burning to a crisp at various places.
We were doing incredibly well so far. Other than Bart being exhausted and my arm damaged, we suffered far less compared to this beast. We might actually be able to take it down!
...it was at this point that I remembered what happened every time I thought something similar. And then it did happen.
Now with a missing eye, the Alpha was going to furiously charge forward and swipe at us. It has understood the threat we pose and will no longer spare any expense.
Its hulking mass moves with surprisingly precise swiftness as its feet gallop through the grass, crushing the blades entirely on its way. Bart braces as he puts up his shield and tries to defend, but it is of no use. The furious beast slings its paw sideways with its claws fully extended and smashes in, cracking both the stone surrounding Bart's shield as well as the metal below, with his bones likely following suit as he was sent flying through the foggy sky, crashing into one of the trees behind us, his shield now splintered into two separate chunks.
A sense of dread filled me from the inside. Bart was our tank. He was needed so that we don't die trying to attack. And now he's incapacitated and his shield is broken. This beast may be missing an eye, but that has not affected it enough to make it a fair fight. Its strength has not wavered, and its movements are even more precise than before thanks to its increased speed.
Sera was able to move before I could. She blasted more flame at the beast, now clearly exhausted from an overuse of her skills. The beast took note of her state and closed the gap bit by bit, raising its tail in a fashion similar to Bart, shielding itself from the flames.
At some point, the Alpha had caught up to her. She tried to dodge, but it was far faster than seemingly possible. With its other paw, it smacked Sera's side, missing with the claws, before sending her into a tree on the opposite side Bart had been flown to.
I suddenly come to and move to catch her fall, remembering where I currently am.
- Cloud Dance Step
I dash over to where she is about to land and catch her in my arms. My momentum doesn't stop, so I forcefully do. The razor grass cuts into my thighs as I take a knee and crouch down. I check her pulse and confirm her present, but fading life.
I never had much love for my siblings in my previous life, mainly because we were all competing for the right to become the next head of the family. I had four brothers and one of them had attempted to assassinate me no less than fifty-six times. Another one just tried to kill me during sparring and claim it was an accident. One just skipped the formalities and set up a duel to the death, which I won. That was the only time I ever killed any of my siblings.
The fourth one, he was the fifth son. He was rather indifferent to me, and likewise I was to him. He seemed like the nicest one by far, though. We even had visited each other once each to discuss things. Now that I think about it, he was the closest thing I had to a friend growing up. He wasn't that strong, but he had an incredible mind and an all-seeing eye that could peer into one's mind from just observation. He had good relations with Sichuan and his connections even spread so far as Chengdu. I should've tried to get along with him better.
In any case, sibling love is a foreign concept for me.
...Or at least, it was. Because now, I have a sister. One who, despite not actively showing it, cares about me deeply. She only got this strong because she wanted to protect us all. Me, mother and father, all of the things she held dear. Even when we lost hope, she still clinged on to what slim chance of victory there was. And now she's here, motionless in my arms, one of which is currently crippled and only held up by my sheer will.
She doesn't deserve to die. Not here, not now. I will make sure you can come back to mother and father someday, Seraphine. For that is my duty as your older brother.
I turn to the massive terror, a determined grit shining a bright blue in my eye, matching the beast's piercing jade divided gaze. The air shifts as I raise my greatsword, focusing my Qi and preparing a move in my head, as if issuing a command to my body, to be instantly executed in my muscles, faster than the nerves can travel.
Beads of sweat climb down the peak of my head, reaching my chin before taking the plunge down.
As they are about to hit the ground, the stagnant air roars into life.