CHAPTER 13 THE STRONGHOLD

Scene 1:

After pack up, the scout led our way back to the oval hall, where King Fang had formed an army ready for attack.

Besides the numerous lizard riders around his throne, I found another interesting unit called lizard raider, which was much smaller than the rider’s lizard, but faster with its legs and sharper with its claws, climbing on the walls.

King Fang was standing in front of his kin, on his throne, with a great glaive aside. The weapon was made of copper, single-edged, but twin blades, and there was a skull of giant python adorned between the blades and grip, which made the weapon overall looked like a serpent mouth wide open with two fangs ready for charge.

When we joined, I was asked to step on the throne, and stood by King Fang, so I did.

King Fang held his glaive, and used it to knock the ground to draw everyone’s attention. By the heavy thump the glaive made, I guessed it must be over 300 pounds.

“Time’s up, my brothers!” King Fang shouted. “Here I am, with Han Cang, the Great Lord of Thunder! Together, we’ll slash down anyone who dare cross our way and feed the victory with enemies’ blood!”

Then I heard the roar of crowds, but it sounded just so crap. Snakeman didn’t know about how to roar in an exciting and powerful voice. They were all just hissing with their flicking tongues.

Besides, I was not Lord of Thunder. There was someone actually had claimed this title.

“Now, it’s time for charge! Hail the Basilisk!” King Fang raised the glaive as he roared, so the whole army started to move.

“What’s basilisk?” Aezo whispered behind, but I totally disregarded him.

In fact, Basilisk was more like a literature name here. The actual spell in mandarin was Ba She, which was a monster snake worshipped by many snakemen, and it was said that the monster had permanently shapeshifted to something like a mountain hill somewhere northwestern.

Anyway, we followed King Fang to head to the place up close to ground level, where the bloodsuckers were spotted nearby.

Scene 2:

We were on our way to attack the bloodsuckers. A stronghold of those flying monsters was spotted by Fang’s scouts, and it blocked the way out of cave.

I was with King Fang, and the others followed behind. But soon Aezo caught up with me. It seemed that he was a bit frightened because of the previous unpleasant experience which made him believe the closer he stayed with me, the safer he would be.

“Hey Doctor, how many elements are there in sum? May be five or seven, even nine?” He asked in whisper.

I smiled in a negative way and questioned: “What makes you think there are five? Like Jin (Metal), Mu (Nature), Shui (Water), Huo (Fire), Tu (Earth), the Penta Circuit?”

“Yeah, exactly, something like the Penta Circuit.” Aezo nodded.

I rolled my eyes and felt speechless, while had to explain: “Dude, the Penta Circuit is all about energy flow, which has nothing to do with element, and it is quite old fashion. Are you some cult fan of Daoist and totally obsessed with the cultivation stuff just because you’ve read too many Xianxia fictions?”

Aezo shrugged: “I don’t know. I’m just asking.”

“Ok, fine. That’s fair. Let me explain.” I said as I lay my hand on his shoulder.

“There are typically five elements, water, fire, thunder, light, and nature. Generally, there is no parallel or against between any two elements. For instance, I can easily beat someone who possesses the power of water, because I’m thunder. But, if I’m drenched or immersed in water, I can’t play any trick unless I wanna get a shock, which would be totally out of mind and suicide.”

I quickly glanced back from the side of my view, just to see what Qiushui would think about it, because I was actually talking about her when I made an example of water against thunder. She once drowned me in a water locker. I was totally tied up, helpless.

Aezo nodded: “Yeah, that makes sense, so we can’t just say which element beats the other. It all depends on the power of user, and maybe adds some guts and experiences to it.”

“Yep.” I commented. For the first time I felt that Aezo was actually not that dumb.

“By the way, there are actually more than the typical five elements, right? You said you’re thunder and air.” He asked.

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“Yeah, I did. As a matter of fact, there are a few expansions in addition to the five elements. I don’t know exactly how many and what they are, but the power of air is what I possess because it is often combined with power of thunder to make a lightning storm. Besides, frost is also an expansion of water, someone who possesses the power of water in a high level usually can freeze things drenched yet, and some may even produce ice without any use of water.”

“Yeah, I get it, so the combination of two elements can be a power-up for both, like a damage buff. Then what if someone possesses more than two different elements? Let’s say three or four, or even five, maybe all of them. I don’t know, but would he become the Master of Elementals?” Once again, Aezo was getting annoying by making nonsense.

I could not help but to shake my head and question: “What the hell is master of elementals? A last airbender? You’re just too involved in shows and fictions, Aezo. Look at your dumb name, are you really gonna name yourself after some stupid fantasy characters for the rest of your life?”

Aezo was gonna say something, but I stopped him before he could raise a voice. The whole army was getting slowdown, which seemed like we approached the stronghold yet.

“What’s going on?” Aezo asked.

I heard Pinks sigh: “Oh, for God’s sake, could you be quiet for a moment Aezo?”

King Fang also slowed down, and held his glaive up in the air. Soon the entire army stopped. We all awaited in darkness.

“Can somebody tell me where is the stronghold?” I looked over, but there was nothing significant ahead, only rocks.

Because this was supposed to be an ambush, so we all lurked without any use of torchlight in case the enemies were aware of our presence.

King Fang had to bend over to keep a low voice because of his significant height.

“The stronghold is right over there, and if we wanna get out, we must go across the battlefield without drawing any attention. Fortunately, it’s daytime outside. Those bloodsuckers are sleepy, but there’re still a few on guard. You know, I hate to say so, but…they have a really good vision in night and darkness, so I’m afraid we don’t stand a chance to go sideways without across their alert range.” King Fang explained.

I nodded: “Okay, fair enough, so what is the plan?”

King Fang whispered: “I’m going to assign the raiders all spread out around the walls so they can sneak into enemies deep, while riders will charge in right on the front as a bait. As for you, my dear friend, you’re gonna help us to hit the bloodsuckers with mass of lightning bolts.”

Then he lay a hand on my shoulder. That was really a huge hand, and his fingernails were almost as sharp as daggers.

I shrugged to shake off his heavy hand and asked: “Wait…wait…hold on a second, what do you mean by around the walls and…and into enemies deep? Where the hell are they?”

I turned my face to look at him. Fang’s eyes were such a terrifying shit like those of a big dead fish that I had to take my eyes off instantly.

But Fang didn’t say anything, he simply raised his index finger and pointed upward. Then I looked up:

So many shadows loomed high above on the ceiling. The first impression told me they were just rocks. But soon I realized what they were, numerous bloodsuckers hung over upside down, like coffins up in the air.

“Holy shit…are they real vampires or monster bats!?” Aezo asked in a shocked voice.

“What we gonna do?” Pinks whispered behind.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll just walk out and fire a blast of firework.” I replied without any thinking.

But then Fang said: “My scouts have spotted the guards and located their coordinates. Please shoot them down first, Lord of Thunder.”

“I’m not some shit lord. I am a Doctor.” I corrected as I searched around with my eyes. But in the darkness, they all looked the same to me. I couldn’t figure out whichever were on guard or asleep.

“Don’t worry, the raiders are in position now. They’ll send feedback which tells us exactly where the guards are.” Fang said with confidence, while I totally had no idea what kind of feedback it was.

We awaited behind rocks for another minute, until Fang heard the feedback while I was still blind to it. I watched Fang raising his arm, pointing at somewhere high above in the air.

“There is one. Do it, my brother.” Fang said.

I frowned and tried my best to focus, but they all seemed no different to me. All I could see was infinite darkness overhead.

“Are you kidding me? Which one is it?” I questioned as I tried to target my fingers at the shadows several times. But I just could not be 100 percent sure that my strike wouldn’t miss.

Aezo, Pinks and even Fang all seemed getting nervous as time passed by. I felt like so many eyes were gazing at me, waiting for the firework show, which made the feeling even worse than terrible if considering most of the gaze were from those night crawlers.

That was when I heard Qiushui’s voice once again, in my mind: “You go strike. I’ll protect the two kids. Don’t worry.”

“No f#king way, I’m not a bait! Hold on…you’re still in my mind?” I told myself, or the voice in my mind.

But Qiushui had reason to say so. My point was that we must rush through the stronghold and get out of this hell ASAP, so whatever came out to the snakemen didn’t really matter. Apparently, Qiushui had read it all in my mind, so she totally knew the plan and her role to play.

“What you waiting for? My brother?” Fang was losing patience. I had no time to hesitate.

“Fine!” I told myself and then stood up, regardless of the rocks, riders, enemies overhead or anything that was across in the picture. I just didn’t give it a shit.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Pinks questioned in a worried voice, but I ignored it and kept moving on.

My arms half open as I began to unleash the power of thunder. An orb gathered by much lightning force appeared in each of my hands. The noise of thunder and the flash of lightning occurred immediately drew the attention of guards.

I heard their creepy sound like an alarm to others and then found the shadow flicking in darkness. “There you are.” I whispered as I instantly fired a blast of lightning right at the shadow, without even thinking.

The red lightning bolt was like a cobra in strike when it was released from my hand, traveling through the darkness all in the blink of an eye!

BOOM!

The guard blew up with sparkle and flame, truly a firework. Its body fell into pieces instantly, and blood splashed over.

Startled by the attack, the entire stronghold was awakened. I saw countless bloodsuckers spread out immediately, making a lot noise with their flickering wings.

“Now, charge!” I shouted as I turned my face to look back. Meanwhile, I still held the lightning orbs in my hands.

I could hear the noise made by the bloodsuckers when they were gathering around and flied down quickly.

“F#k!” I muttered when I saw them surging at me. Maybe it was because the lightning orbs I held made me look so much brighter than anything else in the cave.

“Charge, now!” I repeated as I shot the enemies with lightning bolts over and over again. They just didn’t stop coming.

I felt like I was holding a machine gun as the lightning bolts kept hitting those bloodsuckers one by one, and blasted a big f#king hole on their body or wings, lighting up the entire sky with sparkle and flame.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Even brighter than the moon moon m…man, I felt like I was gonna sing along with it.

“Come on! Are you guys gonna watch for the whole time?!” I said as I had a quick shoulder-check to see if the snakemen were coming.

But it was completely dark behind. They didn’t charge in the battle at all. Instead, they used me as a bait, those snakemen, always being so snake, not a man.

Meanwhile, the bloodsuckers just kept coming more and more. I was totally tied up, but not gonna be fooled by those beasts. I instantly clenched my fingers to make the two lightning orbs smash, forcing them to spread out like a splash of lightning chains, and then the chains around me closed like a loop. Several loops caged me in tiers up and down, protecting me from the attack of bloodsuckers, just like electric fences.

For the first time I had a close look at those flying monsters. They were all around me and tried to break through the chains, but only ended up being either shocked or cut off.

They were truly some giant bats, and even uglier than the real ones, 5 feet roughly. If considering the width of wings, they were even much bigger than you thought, and their fangs looked like daggers, which made me wonder if they actually bit instead of suck.

But next moment, they seemed tired, and gave up the idea of suicide attack. They began to retreat, all back to their stronghold up in the air. That was when I found them gathering like a whirlwind, flying and rotating around something that was unseen in the center. The entire group of bloodsuckers moved in this way like a ceremonial dance to worship something and eventually came back down again, until the lower part of the whirlwind became wide open.

Then there was something falling down. A female, landed on the ground in a slow move. Her batwings were like a cloak when they closed up. Her dirty crimson hair and pale skin truly made her like a bloodsucking bitch.

“Shit…” I told myself as I looked at her purple eyes, and realized that I had to smash down this bitch before I could move on.

(To be continued…)