The arrival of the mysterious voice had rooted the caravan in place. Each member of the group felt as if a sword of Damocles was hanging on top of their heads, ready to slay them without the slightest resistance. However, they all had different expressions; Abbas’s men of labours were utterly terrified.
The fat merchant had trembling hands, unsure if he should use his hidden trump cards. Salaman was better off but his expression was dark. His friend Farhan heavily frowned and didn’t betray any movements. Ava on the other hand simply listened with interest, to see what was this new being was.
The atmosphere was icy figuratively and literally as the blazing sun was quarter deep in the horizon. Salaman bit his tongue and mustered his courage. “O’ Great One…. How can we assist? We are but mortals, weary….in our travels.”
“Hehehe! This great one had never seen a brave mortal!” The voice spoke with rhythmic patterns, gnawing at the sanities of the men present. “Since you are brave…. this great one…wanted to know…where is the silver shaitan!???”
Salaman drawn a blank face at the question. He gulped and continued. “O’ Great One… We had never encountered or know this…being…Great One speaks of.”
“Oh? Do not…lie to me. You mortals were speaking about it.” The voice became clearer than ever as if it was personally whispering to each and every man in the caravan.
The scholarly man blanked for a second before realizing they had just brushed with death. As this mysterious being had yet to kill the whole caravan, it may just seek some answers. Salaman became hopeful that was the case and answered in serious tone. There’s no point lying to this great being! “O’ Great One…if we knew where is it, we wouldn’t…be here, Great One. All would be…naught!”
The voice harrumphed as what Salaman said was right; mere mortals can’t hope to survive the illusory Silver Shaitan if they did encounter it. Yet these mortals somehow knew the existence of such being? It pondered for a while. Perhaps some higher beings found the demon and fled, creating the rumours.
Salaman and his companions were shaking in their boots as a formless pressure spread all over their bodies. Evidently the being was displeasured on hearing his answer. He could only give out a wry smile as it was the truth! Unfortunately, not everyone was stoic; one of Abbas’s men ran away in fright!
Farhan was alarmed and wanted to warn the man but it was too late; a torrent of dark wind appeared and swept the man backwards. His shriek was cut off before bone-crunching sound was heard. By now all men in the caravan knew better to stay still. Some inwardly cursed while others soiled their pants.
This standoff invited interest from Ava as her avatar had limited sensing capabilities. She raised her snake avatar’s head to peer outside of her hiding spot. She saw five dark fogs; the center one was humanoid-shaped, flanked by four smaller snake-like fogs. Two of them were chewing on something.
As their gazes met, the humanoid-shaped fog shuddered and its fiery green ‘eyes’ contracted in fraction of a second. “Yi!!! Foreign dao! fOrEiGn dAo!” For some reason unknown to Ava, it wailed and spurred the four snake-like fogs straight at her. “Kill it! KILL IT! KILL IT NOW!”
Mortals in the caravan was dumbstruck and shellshocked by its wails. Farhan forcibly resisted it and sent words to his friend Salaman to his right. “I’m sorry Brother!”
“What…” Farhan’s words mysteriously clarified Salaman’s mind. His statement was cut short as Farhan was no longer in his sight!
The middle-aged man pumped his left hand to the dusk sky and with a thunderous shout, an emblem of bronze lion was projected above. His battle cry immediately awakens the rest of the caravan as he muttered some complex chants. The projection then split into smaller ones and shot to his brethren.
“Do not evade it brothers! My mudras will keep you safe!” Farhan formed series of mudras and several symbols rapidly scattered in his vicinity. At the same time, five glowing daggers flew from his sleeves. Now that this shaitan recognized me, fight then it is!
The central fog sneered at his action and simply commanded its minions to evade but what came next shocked it; Farhan’s daggers split into three pieces each and arced through air in hot pursuit of them. All daggers struck true, causing snake-like fogs to scream in agony before dissolving into nothingness!
This caused the big fog to falter and ignited its fury; its flaming eyes became brighter and it apparated from its spot, narrowly missing the daggers aimed at it. The formless being emerged some zhangs away and started to screech, sending visible sound waves. Farhan countered it by roaring like a lion!
Gudong!
The exchange only lasted a fraction of a second as each combatant was forced back from the resulting shockwaves. Farhan wore a heavy expression as he formed yet another series of mudras, this time sending multiple mystical characters to the ground and to the errant fog. This will be a difficult battle!
The fog merely viewed him with contempt until it saw the faces of the rest of Abbas’s caravan. They were stunned but they weren’t what it initially expected. A sudden realization dawned upon it; Farhan had somehow neutralized majority of its soul attacks directed to them in advance! It scattered and avoided his conjured characters with ease. “Hateful! Foreign dao, I will kill you! Eat your soul!”
“Brothers! Snap out of it! We need to slay this shaitan quick!” The middle-aged man rolled as a sharp gust of black wind swiped his turban. The turban later disintegrated into powder, shocking him. He somersaulted to the left in order to open some distance.
The big fog didn’t relent and continued to parry him with frenzied attacks. It knew that once Farhan fell, the rest would be easy pickings! Farhan of course won’t resign to his fate. He threw a punch with his left hand and a zhang-wide projection of bronze lion came out, roaring all the way to meet the fog.
The sinister black fog cannot help than to scatter as it vaguely sensed his powers were its bane. Farhan saw this but wasn’t flustered; with lion-like cries, multiple lion emblems rose from the ground to surround the evil fog. Each emblem transformed into sand lions in mere moments and pounced at it.
Roar, roar, roar!
Three sand lions tangled with the black fog as it darted from one place to the next. The remaining four stood back and sent energy shockwaves to trap the devious fog in place. Farhan however, felt something was amiss. Was it too easy? This evil fog must be hiding something in its proverbial sleeves!
Hualalala!
Sure enough, something did go wrong; in their perplexed dazes, the caravan wasn’t aware of the fog’s devious plan. Two of Abbas’s men of labour were impaled by their own shadows. Said shadows then squirmed and sucked them dry! This ghastly sight immediately sent waves of furor to the mortals.
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Before they can even react, the shadows dispersed into nothing. The evil fog eerily laughed at them as four snake-like clouds were manifested at its side! With its newfound reinforcement, the formless being managed to extract itself from Farhan’s sand lions’ trap and flew toward the middle-aged man.
Salaman recovered from his shock. “Blood sacrifice! It’s a second circle shaitan!” In his alarm, he too chanted something under his breath and produced a small glittering, red whip. “Brothers! Use nars! Avert your gaze!”
“Humph! This great one will take care of you first!” The billowing dark cloud deviated from Farhan as Salaman managed to perceive some of its abilities.
Abbas reacted next and threw a slew of stuff to his men. He himself brandished a glowing red scimitar. “Shaitan! Go away!”
“Salaman! Endure!” Farhan can only give a short yelp as some of the newly created serpentine fogs eluded his sand lions and came for his head. The middle-aged man was forced into a defensive posture as said snake-like fogs were equally troublesome as the big evil fog.
The combined defense of Abbas and his labourers barely fended the evil black fog. It snorted in rage as it barreled back to Farhan. Although the men were beneath its notice, the fog knew better to not touch their fiery dao weapons. “Humph! You got lucky, puny insects! I’ll kill you, foreign dao!”
“Meet your doom, shaitan!” Seeing his conjured lions didn’t have much effect, Farhan forcibly canceled his current technique. Beads of sweat fell from his face as said illusionary emblems slammed into his body in short span of few breaths. He quickly gained a faint bronze aura and a shimmering light blade on his left hand. “Brothers! Believe in me! We can slay this shaitan!”
“Hehehehe! What can your puny trick ca…” The evil fog cackled halfway and swallowed its words next. Farhan was more fearsome than before! Whenever his light blade touched any of its minions or bits of its main fog body, they sizzled into oblivion! It shouted again, in anger and in pain! “ARGH! Foreign dao! FOREIGN DAO!!!!”
“Aiiieee!!!”
“AHHHH!!!”
Two screams broke out at the same time. Both Salaman and Abbas turned around and saw two shadows had reaped another life each! The survivors quickly lashed their fiery weapons at the shadows lest they escape. One was cut down then and there but another slipped out of their grasp!
“Wait brothers!” Farhan ceased his swings and formed new mudras in order to save them.
Woe to him as the evil fog obviously won’t allow him! The fog shook upon the death of the first shadow as if it took grievous damage but the second shadow turned the tables by merging with itself. The evil fog then let out a raspy laugh as its greenish eyes shone as bright as twin lanterns. “Hehehehe! More souls! More blood!”
“Ahhh! Don’t come near me!!!”
“Wait, wait! Don’t hit me!!! I’m too young to die!!!”
Confusion was abounded in Abbas’s huddled men as three serpentine dark clouds buzzed near them. While the snake-like fogs did little than apparated everywhere, their effects were clear as the men were nothing more than a hysterical mob. More bloods were spilled which those fogs greedily lap up.
“Brothers! Retain a calm heart!” Farhan shouted with dignity of a lion. At this point the enemy won’t have to do anything than sit back and watch their infighting!
Salaman lashed his whip near one of their feet, almost vapourising the tricky being. He too, sensed something was horribly wrong! “Brothers! Stop attacking each other! The shaitan minions are drinking your blood! Stop!”
“Ahhhh!!!” Unfortunately for the scholarly man, his thunderous reminder had the opposite effect! The four men of labour scampered in all directions in attempt to avoid those sinister snake-like clouds.
Farhan furrowed his brows and noticed his earlier mudras had weakened. “Oh no! It’s night time!” He tried to chant and form new mudras but was continuously interrupted by his opponents.
“Hehehe! I won’t let you, foreign dao! Give me your soul!!!!” With the change of day to night, the evil fog had strangely become stronger! It conjured a three-zhang long projection of bleeding claws and slapped it to the mortals.
The claws split into five identical copies and sped in a blink of an eye to their targets. Four of them easily sliced the men of labour while the fifth one grinded against floating characters drew by Farhan in haste. The evil fog ignored the fat merchant and scholarly man as it felt Farhan was more dangerous.
It was as what he feared; Farhan saw how those claws first slain the retreating men and then sucked blood out of their bodies until nothing was left! He stomped the ground and prepared to stake it all against them. If those bloody claws managed to fly back to the evil fog, he would be checkmated here!
The middle-aged man had long recalled his flying daggers and now bringing them out with his hands after dispelling his energy blade. At first the evil fog was puzzled but it remained on guard as looking down on foreign dao was unwise. It ceased its attacks as it waited on what Farhan planned to do now.
As for precautions, it ordered only a single snake-like fog minion to keep Abbas and Salaman occupied while withdrawing the rest into its ghastly being. Elation rose from its greenish eyes as the bloody claws were mere half a zhang from its position. Farhan suddenly let loose a long growl in response.
ROAR!
He grabbed the first dagger and the next two smashed together on its tip and hilt respectively, creating a furious lion roar that even shocked the evil fog. His daggers morphed into a bronze-glowing spear of intricate design that for the first time sent the big fog staggered few steps backwards. That spear was bad news!
Farhan was paler than before, yet he tightened his grip on his new weapon and left after-images in his wake. He materialized point blank between the eyes of the evil fog and thrusted his spear with all of his might. The black fog and big sand dunes behind it were immediately split apart in tens of zhangs!
Ghastly wails filled the area as the split dark fog tried to mend itself. Farhan twisted his spear in place and caused eruption of energy which literally vitrified the sand grains below into glass. The middle-aged man withdrew with a flicker, killed the last snake-like fog near his friends and coughed buckets of blood next. His secret move almost costed his life!
“Is…it, over, Brother Farhan?” All these while Salaman and Abbas were dumbstruck of what had transpired. It was over faster than it took to brew a pot of coffee. Salaman thought he was in a dream. Never he would think that Farhan would be similar to immortal cultivator of the legends! “Brother! Let me lend you a shoulder!”
“Urgh…I hope so…Brother.” The middle-aged man coughed up more blood while his glorious spear had turned to dust. He accepted Salaman’s help without reservations. “We best move out of this place…Brother. I fear that…”
“Argh! Foreign dao! fOrEiGn dAo!!!” A sharp shriek momentarily dazed the three mortals. It turned out that the evil thing was still alive! “You have no friends to help you now! DIE, FOREIGN DAO!”
A dark reddish cloud appeared and instantly agglomerated into a vague humanoid that stood two heads taller than Farhan. It had three heads with vicious fangs and six arms equipped with glistening crimson blades. The evil fog was truly furious beyond compare and forcibly burnt its core essence to exact revenge!
Salaman exclaimed in panic. “No! It’s a third circle Shaitan!”
“What-what-what should we do now, Brothers???!!!” Abbas was peeing in his pants. The evil visage was too much for him to bear.
Much to their confusion, the sinister entity abruptly stopped. It wasn’t looking at the trio but instead somewhere farther. Naturally, Farhan and his friends followed its gaze. What they saw were corpses of camels that were killed by the heat of battle. There was nothing else noteworthy so what was it?
The six-armed entity contracted its three pairs of crimson eyes to their utmost limit. Something out there was giving it an existential dread. It recalled the first foreign dao being that stared at it. That being was alien, incomprehensible and not of this world. An abhorrent existence, worse than what it knew!
It completely left Farhan and co alone and sprinted forward with all of its bloodlust. Even though its killing intent wasn’t directed to them, the trio were petrified on the spot. More questions played in their minds as this day was strange enough. The crimson entity roared and slashed its blades for thousands of times!
Blade lights fluttered from its weapons, drowning the targeted spot in inescapable tidal of red. The entity wasn’t done; its six crimson blades disappeared and black lances took their place. It then muttered cryptic chants, causing the lances to turn into water tank-thick beams of dark light that instantly converged on target.
Honglong!
After the dust had cleared, only a large crater measuring several lis wide remained. Farhan was spooked as clearly the evil being was holding back in their previous battle! But what triggered it to attack with domineeringness? As he mulled over it, he saw a silver silhouette half his height was standing behind the crimson entity. With flash of silver, the crimson entity soundlessly disintegrated into dust that flowed with the desert winds.