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2.5 - The Poison Wood
🕑 Added 2024-01-13 22:31:50 +0000 UTCNone of the three cultivators hesitated. A hail of Yan Shirong’s daggers cut through the undergrowth as they flew towards the serpent. Li Heng appeared just behind the serpent’s head in a flash of moonlit snow, his jian tracing a silver arc as it fell. He Yu rushed forward, carried by the Sky Dragon’s Flight. Wind qi gathered along the length of his guandao.
Wood and poison qi bloomed out from the serpent as it activated its own technique. Emerald scales glinted in the soft light, and He Yu found his blade turned effortlessly. The crack of a branch or a sapling was all the warning he had before the serpent’s tail—as thick around as his torso—lashed out from the undergrowth, sweeping at all three of them.
The Sky Dragon’s Flight carried him away and above the incoming tail. Out of the corner of his eye, Yan Shirong had hauled himself into the trees by sinewy tendrils of shadow made solid. He Yu couldn’t see Li Heng, but the noble easily had the best movement technique of them all and He Yu spared no further thought for him.
Releasing the Sky Dragon’s Flight, He Yu allowed himself to fall. Wind qi whirled around the length of his guandao once more as he formed the Crashing Wind into an overhand strike aimed at the serpent’s head. It darted to one side, and He Yu bit back an instant of frustration twinned with panic as his attack uselessly crashed against the serpent’s scales once more. He was a bit off balance, and the serpent had him fixed in its golden eyes.
The serpent’s lower jaw hinged down, and two gleaming white fangs dripping with a clear liquid that was undoubtedly poison unfolded from the top of the serpent’s mouth. He Yu managed to pull his guandao back into a ready position. The serpent struck. It was faster than he’d counted on. His Foundation level perception allowed him to track its movement, but he wasn’t yet fast enough to keep up with something like this. The massive guandao in his hands now felt somehow flimsy in the face of a gaping fanged maw rushing at him.
A flash of silver preceded Li Heng appearing between He Yu and the serpent. A pure metallic note rang out as the Winter Moon Reflection took the attack meant for He Yu. Li Heng’s jian shone brighter than He Yu had ever seen it before, and although Li Heng had successfully managed to deflect the strike, he was thrown back by its force. He slammed into a tree and staggered momentarily but somehow managed to keep his feet.
“Annoying mice,” the serpent hissed. It opened its mouth again, but this time did not strike. Instead, it shot a jet of concentrated poison qi at He Yu.
This time, at least, he was ready. Not wanting to find out what that poison would do if he touched it, he dashed away with the Sky Dragon’s Flight. Given the stream of dead and rotted plants left in the poison’s wake, he’d made the right choice. Following its attack, the serpent’s head swayed from side to side. He Yu found himself on the opposite side of the beast from Li Heng, and the serpent was clearly intelligent enough to know this wasn’t the best position for it to be in.
He Yu wasn’t about to let the serpent decide who to attack. Not if it was going to hesitate. He leaped forward, forming another overhand Crashing Wind. On the other side of the serpent, Li Heng held his jian in both hands. He looked like he was struggling to lift it as silvery qi streamed away from the blade.
Despite his difficulty, Li Heng managed to bring his sword up and pointed it at the serpent. With attackers on either side, the serpent activated another technique. Shimmering green wood qi covered its already durable scales. He Yu’s guandao bounced off it once more, the Crashing Wind slamming into the serpent’s barrier. Wind and wood sprayed away from one another, and He Yu grimaced as he watched the barrier reform before he could bring his weapon around for another strike.
A river of silver sword light blasted from Li Heng’s jian, knocking him back once more. The temperature in the area immediately dropped, and frost even formed on a few of the plants closest to Li Heng. He Yu had to turn away and shield his eyes, so bright was the light released by Li Heng’s technique. He knew from training with Li Heng that the Winter Moon Reflection absorbed attacks and allowed Li Heng to empower his strikes or return them as a blast of qi. If deflecting a single strike from the serpent produced a retaliation of this strength, He Yu didn’t want to think about what it would have done had it connected.
When the light faded, the serpent’s scales had been scoured away, exposing bloody pink flesh underneath. Any momentary victory He Yu felt was crushed as wood qi rushed in from the surroundings, and the wound rapidly closed. Within moments the snake was whole again, and if it was only playing with its food before, it was clearly angry now.
“Insolent worms,” it spat, droplets of poison spraying from its mouth. Venom fell on nearby plants as it spoke, causing them to wilt and decay. “I will make you suffer.”
Once more it opened its mouth and readied to strike, this time at Li Heng who’d only just regained his balance. Given the sheen of sweat on his brow and the way his chest heaved with each breath, He Yu didn’t think the noble would be able to weather another strike. Worse still, the green wood qi that had been shielding the serpent from attacks so far had only increased now that it had finished healing itself. A glance at their foe using the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment confirmed what He Yu had feared—the serpent had been holding back, confident that it wouldn’t need its full strength to deal with a trio of Second Realms.
Now, it had gotten serious. That Li Heng had managed to injure it had likely wounded the beast’s pride, and it was now intent on making him suffer for it. Desperate to save his friend, He Yu gathered wind qi around his guandao once more, but he knew it was useless. He wasn’t strong enough, and there was no way he’d be able to break the serpent’s defenses and deal enough damage to stop it.
Shadows coalesced in the branches above where Li Heng grimly stared down the Third Realm awakened serpent. Without a word, Yan Shirong flung his arm forward, fingers splayed in the direction of the serpent. A hail shadowy darts streamed forward, all aimed directly at the serpent’s gaping maw. At the same moment, dozens of sinewy tendrils wrapped around both halves of the beast’s jaw, forcing it to remain open as Yan Shirong poured his technique into the soft pink flesh of the serpent’s mouth.
“As suspected,” Yan Shirong said as his technique finished.
The snake let out an enraged shriek. It thrashed against the shadow bonds that still held its jaws, and the underbrush snapped and cracked around it. The bonds held, however, and Yan Shirong prepared another attack with a flick of his sleeve.
Their advantage was short-lived—the beast’s tail lashed up from the forest floor towards Yan Shirong. He hauled himself away with more strands of shadow, but in doing so he must have reached the limit of the technique. With another shake of its head, the serpent broke free of the bonds holding its jaws open.
Rage boiled in every word as the serpent spoke once more, “Suffer and die, pitiful rats. I will melt your flesh. I will swallow you whole. I will hunt your families and consume them all.”
The arrow-shaped emerald head of the beast reared ten feet up in the air. Its mouth opened and a stream of noxious gas bellowed out. The newly formed clearing that their fight had created filled with a cloud of billowing poison fumes, the remaining plant life wilting and rotting as the cloud spread.
Li Heng, having managed to recover from the burden of absorbing the serpent’s strike, flashed away in a flash of moonlight and snow with his White Hare Dance. Yan Shirong pulled himself through the trees on strands of solid shadow, flitting away like one of his constructs. He Yu had little choice but to soar into the branches above using the Sky Dragon’s Flight. The cloud of poison stayed close to the ground, and while it eventually spread over a large area, it did so slowly. For the moment, the serpent was intent on flooding the area with poison, giving them a moment to regroup.
“Attack the mouth,” Yan Shirong called as he alighted on a branch near He Yu.
Li Heng appeared nearby with a grimace. “Easiest said, Sect Brother Yan.”
A thought flashed to He Yu as his mind churned at the problem before him. While he didn’t command the winds with the authority that his tutor Fang Yingjie could, he had made considerable progress with the Five Crescent Winds. He’d seen what wind could do when harnessed—Tan Xiaoling’s sandstorm had aspects of both wind and earth. One of the techniques in his Art—the Howling Wind—could cloak him in a manner much like Tan Xiaoling’s sandstorm.
The plan fell into place in his mind. It would be risky. Were he honest, the very idea of it was completely insane. But if he didn’t risk his life, how could he hope to forge his own legend one day? How could he hope to challenge the very heavens?
“Li Heng,” he said. “Can you take another blow from the serpent?”
The noble glanced his way, then down at his blade. “I can take the blow. Holding all that power is what I’m worried about.”
“You won’t have to hold it for long,” He Yu said, desperately hoping his words carried a confidence he didn’t feel. “Just absorb it when it comes for me, then follow my lead.” Without waiting for acknowledgment, he turned to Yan Shirong. “Be ready to bind the serpent again,” was all he said.
“Is that it?” Yan Shirong asked. “Nothing else?”
“I trust you’ll know when to act,” He Yu said.
If Yan Shirong responded, it was drowned out by the rush of blood in He Yu’s ears. This was easily the stupidest thing he’d ever done. He pushed aside his doubts and his fear as best he could. His world narrowed to a single point on the forest floor below as he wrapped himself in the Howling Wind, and leaped into the cloud of poison below.
