Both the Huntress and the Wushi chose to not say a single word. If anything, the man and his words made the two of them keep their guards up even more despite their exhaustion.
They could not trust the words of this man. His voice, which should be tinged with concern and worry, was ominous and almost deprecating. He wasn’t acting like someone that had come to help them out. No, he seemed like someone who had arrived to come take the two of them down.
Not to mention the fact that he had those demons following his command. This man had no worries about having these mindless beasts that couldn’t help but murder humans for no reason beyond what seemed to be sadistic joy. There was also the problem with the timing of his appearance as well, as he came just as soon as the horde had been completely dealt with.
This meant that he had to have been hiding when the giant attack was going on. That meant he had to know the current situation. That meant he never bothered sticking his head in and trying to help out the village in critical danger.
All of this meant one thing. He was not to be trusted and if anything, they needed to get away from him. Slowly, the two of them began to take several steps away as they kept their guard up, keeping an eye on him and his horde as they did so.
They didn’t make it far, as the sinister armored man took several steps forward with the rest of his horde trailing right behind him. The Wushi grit her teeth at the sight and that was when she realized they wouldn’t be able to walk away from him. Rather, both of them weren’t going to be able to leave as long as this man was keeping his eye on them.
They needed a distraction to get away. Something that she was more familiar with. And thankfully, the stranger offered the chance.
“You ladies are quite rude, you know? I asked a question and I expect a response.”
“Oh, so sorry!” She responded by clapping her hands together, enduring the sheer pain her muscles gave from the action, “We didn’t mean to be so rude, you know? It’s uh… nerves, that's all.”
“Nerves, huh?”
“Exactly!” She nodded, ignoring the shocked stare the Huntress was giving her, “Why, you understand, right? There was quite a huge battle and we’re still a bit on edge. You know how it is?”
The man looked at her for a while, before giving off a smug scoff. At this point, the Huntress couldn’t stay around any longer and got closer to her with a wary look.
“Uhm, what do you think you’re doing?” She whispered harshly as she kept her bow ready for use, “I mean, I get you want to see the good in people, but this man doesn’t seem trustworthy at all. You understand that, right?”
“Of course,” The Wushi scoffed right back, “I can tell even that. His qi is all misaligned and more importantly, he controls those yaoguai. How on earth can I trust him?”
“Then what exactly is this?”
“A distraction,” She whispered harshly as she kept her eye on the man, who seemed to be giving off a smug aura, “Go. I’ll keep him here for a while. Go and make sure the villagers are safe, okay?”
“Wait, but what about you?”
“What about me?” She shot back, the Huntress freezing at those words. However, the Wushi wasn’t done, as she tapped the girl’s shoulders. “Go. Okay? I’ll catch up later.”
“And what on earth are you ladies talking about? If you’re talking about me, then say it out loud. I’m about finished with you being quite ignorant and needlessly rude despite my polite offer.”
“Oh no no no! We aren’t talking about you at all!” The Wushi laughed as she tapped the Huntress shoulder again, this time more harshly, “Why, this was nothing more than a little discussion about other things?”
“Oh? Is that so?” The man took another step and the Huntress backed away, “Why, I’m curious now! What are you discussing?”
“Well, that’s about the, well, beasts!” She smiled, not confident at all in this plan, “After all, we’ve never seen such well behaved monsters! We were discussing how on earth that could be done, you know?”
“Oh? You mean to tell me that no one else has been able to tame these dogs?” The man laughed as he proceeded to raise his hand. One of the monsters came forward and kneeled down. Then, he unceremoniously laid his hand on its head and started to pat as though the beast was a dog.
The monster let its tongue out and a squeal of joy rang out as its eyes rolled around. It started to pant and quiver as the man continuously ran his metallic hands through its fur, chuckling at the beasts’ reactions.
The scene didn’t help calm the Wushi at all. Rather, this made her skin crawl and her hair stand on end.
She looked back quickly to see if the Huntress was gone and to her relief, the young girl was nowhere in sight. Good, this meant that she had made sure someone was safe and not in any kind of danger.
Now she needed to stall for long enough to recover enough energy to get back to fighting. To have a chance to stand against this man and his horde of monsters that definitely did not have any good intentions in mind.
“Oh, no need to act so scared.” The man grinned, before lifting his head and letting the beast go back in rank, “They’re well trained. They won’t do anything without my command or will. They’re nothing more than war dogs that know more or less how to act with my desires. They won’t act out and bite you to death, you know?”
“Well, that’s a relief!”
That was not a relief to the Wushi. In fact, this made her even more worried. That meant these monsters would be good with their tactics for once. They’d be difficult opponents this time around because they wouldn’t simply rush in mindlessly, they’d have some form of thought and process to attacking like pack wolves tended to have.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Good. Glad to see that you think that way!” The man smiled as he took another step forward, before leaning in a bit further. “Say. I’m quite curious about something and I’d like to have an answer.”
“Wellll, if you plan to ask a lady a question, I’d imagine one would pick a better place. Somewhere that’s relaxing or beautiful, such as a garden or a tea-house. I don’t think a battlefield is the best place to stop and demand answers.”
“A battlefield?” The man chuckled, before waving his arm around. “What enemies are out here still? I don’t see anything that would give you a moment of worry at all! We’re at peace now, can’t you see?”
“Hrm. Well, I can’t refute that. But can’t we still move somewhere else? This still isn’t the best environment to–”
“Ask a lady a question, huh?” The man cut in, stepping even closer. The two of them were incredibly close now, but not enough for her to land a palm strike at this distance. The Wushi grimaced, but she still did not take another step back.
“Yes. Exactly. Speaking of which, could you stop coming closer?”
“Why? Am I scaring you right now?”
She didn’t know why. She knew the best course of action would be to continue playing the servant card and acting meek. However, for some reason, that question pissed her right the hell off. To hell with her previous plan, time to change things up.
“No, your breath smells awful. I can smell your awful stench even from here. Have you not taken a shower recently?”
“Oh, how cheeky!” The man laughed, shaking his head and looking down on the ground. “My, you have quite the tongue, don’t you? Why, I’ll have to admit, there’s one thing I don’t like…”
The ax head came fast, but she anticipated such an action. She ducked under the strike and jumped back a distance away, gasping as her legs roared in protest against her actions. It didn’t hurt as much as a while ago, but the pain was still unpleasant.
“I don’t like catty women, unfortunately. I’m more of a dog person myself.” The man spat back as he hefted the ax again, “So cut the act. You’re going to tell me what I want to know, or you’ll become food for my dogs.”
“Aw, you’ve got quite the short temper, huh? Not used to a woman talking back?” The Wushi shot back, though there wasn’t a bit of confidence in that voice. Her legs were still shaking, begging for her to collapse down to the ground and rest, her arms were like jelly and refused to move well, and the beasts were starting to move to surround her.
Things were not looking good. But, she wasn’t too worried. After all, she’d been through worse. Some upstart twat with a bunch of dogs wasn’t going to make her stop running her mouth.
“What? Are you telling me you need all this to take down a weak little lady like me?” She sneered as she kept her eyes on all the combatants near me, “You must be one pitiful man! Why, I’m quite certain now that you’re nothing more than an honorless coward who can’t even talk to another lady without a few servants to boost your own ego!”
“Typical foreign scum. Always talking back like you know everything.” The man snarled as the beasts got closer, “You talk a lot of smack for someone who’s a foot in the grave.”
“If you expect me to beg and cry, tough luck. I’m not going down easy.”
“I don’t doubt it.” He sneered while looking at her. “I think you’ll make good entertainment for my dogs. Maybe then you’ll think twice about disrespecting your superiors.”
“My superior? I can’t even imagine you as someone above an ant. What kind of bastard stands around and lets the women do all the work? Why, I bet you can’t even fight, that’s why you rely on all these beasts to do your bidding.”
He scoffed. “I’ve had enough of this useless conversation. Besides, there’s another one of you I could always interrogate. I’ll just get my answers from her.”
“Wow. How pathetic can you be? You’d stoop so low as to bully a girl to get answers?”
The man stared at her, before waving his hands. At that, two of the beasts surged forward with their claws, ready to rip her to shreds. Of course, she was ready for such actions and acted accordingly.
She redirected the first incoming strike with her palm and tried her best to twirl out of the way of the second swipe. Unfortunately, her body was not able to continue with such a move, resulting in her staggering and taking the strike right to her side.
She wheezed. Her body reeled back, the claws ripping through her clothes and leaving shallow wounds. She bumped into another beast, who proceeded to grab her arms. Try as she might, she did not have energy to break free. That unfortunately left her restrained, which allowed another beast to land a direct strike into her stomach.
A gasp. She could feel fire burn throughout her core as something hot was starting to come up her neck. She swallowed that sensation down and tried to kick the beast away.
She was still far too weak. Another strike, this time to her head. Everything went blurry and her ears rang. She couldn’t breathe easily as she was forced back up, this time by the man commanding the beasts.
“Had enough?”
She gasped again. Then, she spat at his face. A glob of spit and blood landed on his cheek. He stared for a while, before swiping it away.
Then he backhanded her. For a second, everything went black. Then, her vision returned and she could feel blood pouring down her face. She didn’t get to do anything for long, as the man forced her to look right into his eyes.
“I’m only going to ask you once,” he spoke methodically as his rage filled eyes drilled right into her soul, “ If you lie or keep silent, then I’ll make the pain even worse. Understand?”
She didn’t respond, only growling. He seemed to take that as an answer, as he nodded and looked at her again.
“Answer me. You have seen God, haven’t you?”
God? What was he talking about? She had met a celestial figure, not a god. She couldn’t understand all his actions for this measly question.
The man narrowed his eyes at her reaction. He reared back his fist, but he never got the chance to strike.
An arrow struck the beast that was restraining her right in the head. Without further ado, the projectile exploded, ripping apart its skull in an eruption of bone, skull, and roots. The Wushi fell, the punch from the man sailing over her face. She landed on the ground and instantly rolled away from the incoming stomp from another beast.
The man snarled and looked around, before pausing. He hefted his ax and the beasts all rearranged themselves. She managed to stand up and back up a bit, before looking where the man was staring.
She found the Huntress, with her bow cocked on the field. She could see the girl’s face filled with rage and tears as she cocked back another arrow into her bow. She could feel herself fill with pride and worry at the sight.
Without further ado, she turned back to the man and his army of beasts. She breathed in deeply, letting her qi refill just a bit. Then, she took on a fighting stance and raised her hand, before gesturing for him to come at her.
The man’s face took on a beautiful shade of red. He whistled. The beasts split up, seven of them rushing towards her and the others going for the Huntress.
She was shaking. She was injured. She was low on energy.
But she wasn’t that worried. Not anymore. After all, she wasn’t alone at this point. She had back-up. And without further ado, she braced herself.