The Shrieker’s tail was flying toward the group in the center and there was nothing he could do. However, in the next moment the world turned dark red and it seemed like time itself froze. Quin could hear a strange noise, but it disappeared before he could have started to wonder how it sounded. What happened during that brief moment was something he could barely see, the tail instantly turned into purple blood and then into dark red which fell to the ground.
Everything changed back to normal, except everyone -- including the Shriekers -- stopped in their place, completely dumbfounded.
Quin carefully looked around hoping to get a glimpse of what or who caused this to happen. As his gaze came upon the people at the center he also inspected them to see if they were alright. They are the ones I helped to get here, fortunately they all seem to be alright other than being shocked and scared. Faiyi’s still sleeping? Well, she’s lucky to not having to see all of this and... Mom?! His face lost all of his color as fear quickly overcame him.
Blood was flowing out from the sides of her mouth and although it did not look serious, he would have been scared even if it had been just a scratch.
She noticed how Quin looked at her and then reassuringly smiled back at him after cleaning the blood from her face. It did make him a bit more relaxed, but he still felt rather worried about her and what had happened to her. They were safe from the attacks and not even that tail could reach them, so he was completely lost about the cause of her bleeding.
Quin started to hear various noises that signaled the battle continued, and turned back after his mother pointed behind him. She probably wants me not to worry and go back to help the others... However, the sight in front of him was completely shocking. What the heck? Did that do this?
The area was still crowded with Shriekers, but one of the four streets was completely devoid of them. The entire street was painted in the exactly same color as the attack he had previously seen, and that made its origin fairly evident.
Quin was aware that the Spirit Forming stage was a completely different realm and that there was a big gap between them and the ones who were at the peak of the third level of Qi Culmination, but this was something he had found hard to believe. It only took a single moment and hundreds, if not thousands of Shriekers were gone, including two of the Tailed Shriekers.
Alright Quin, there’s no time to dilly-dally! I can think about these things later, now the most important thing is to get rid of them all. Fortunately only a single Tailed Shrieker remains, and although there still are a lot of adult Shriekers, their numbers have been greatly decreased.
He quickly made his way to the remaining Tailed Shrieker, that was currently fighting with Pei. The leader of the local soldiers was not in a very good shape, as his body was covered by wounds and gashes. He isn’t even merged with his element and barely attacks. Rather, he’s all about evading and dodging. Quin suspected that the man did not have much energy left, as he used his qi quite sparingly.
He jumped into the fray and punched the creature from its side, pushing it back a few meters.
“I got this,” he said and seeing the hesitation in Pei’s eyes, he quickly added, “Don’t worry, I killed one before and I think you know very well that you’d be more help to the others.”
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He delivered a few other punches to the Tailed Shrieker before he could continue, as the creature was obviously not keen on stopping to let them talk.
“You know me, I’m no team fighter, and didn’t really have much experience at it,” he explained further.
Pei let out a tsk voice and joined the nearby soldiers who had their hands full with adult Shriekers.
I should deal with its tail first, to make sure that doesn’t happen again... Quin felt a bit shameful about how proud he had felt about defeating the creature, and as he was standing there complacently, he nearly let another tragedy happen. Damn, I thought that I was over it, but this kind of behavior seems to be deeply ingrained inside me. I should never let my guard down in a fight or get distracted by feelings of conceit or superiority, just as my fight with Mang should have already taught me!
He continued to exchange blows with the Tailed Shrieker while he was thinking about these things, and it made him notice that despite having his mind occupied by various things, he could still concentrate on the fight fairly well.
Naturally he could not fight to the best of his abilities, but it seemed like his fighting instincts were truly well developed, so much so that he was able to suppress a strong enemy like the Tailed Shrieker. I can’t help but think that it’s because of that egg... Well, in that case it at least gave me something positive as well. Letting these instincts help him fight was not the same as that time when his consciousness was completely lost. Although the egg had various strange reactions during the Shriekers’ attack, it was held in total submission.
Quin was focusing on getting rid of its tail, but it turned out to be a quite difficult task to accomplish. His speed was better, but it still did not mean that the Shrieker was slow. On the contrary, it was the fastest enemy he had yet faced. In addition, its tongues were dangerous weapons that the creature could use to react to his moves very well.
It looked like the Tailed Shrieker had some kind of sense which covered all directions, as it countered his attacks precisely with its tail even during the times he managed to get behind its back. Nonetheless, his fists were stronger, and furthermore, he had his regeneration -- something his enemy clearly lacked.
Quin managed to gradually batter its tail into a pulp after numerous blows, and thus, he felt that he could finally finish the vile creature. One punch came after another, and he was completely dominating the creature. Losing its tail was a rather significant loss to the Shrieker, as it could not use it to defend its back or to stabilize itself when needed anymore.
It shot out its three tongues numerous times, but each time it did, Quin simply slapped them back and tried to attack its back which was now much more vulnerable.
He looked around on occasions to check out how the battle was progressing overall, and in spite of seeing numerous soldiers lying unconsciously at the town’s center, it was clear that they would secure victory eventually.
His enemy’s movements started to slow down and its attacks got sluggish as he caused more and more damage to it. However, as he was about to strike the Shrieker once more, he suddenly stopped in the middle of it and quickly jumped backward.
What’s going on?
Something strange was happening and he had no idea of what it was. All of the Shriekers started a piercing cry simultaneously shocking everyone to their very cores, and then the things started heading in the direction of the Tailed Shrieker he was fighting.
Its body was glowing in a purple light which gave Quin a great sense of danger and made him retreat a couple of steps back. The other Shriekers started to fly around it in circles, and soon it looked like as if his enemy was standing in the eye of a vortex -- a vortex that was made out of Shriekers.
A shriek resounded that was incomparably louder to the previous ones, and a few people even coughed up mouthfuls of blood, while the weakest ones straight up fainted. Then, the spin of the vortex stopped for a single moment and then resumed, turning lightning fast. They were not only circling around the Tailed Shrieker, but also started to wildly charge right at it.
The strange thing was that there was no collision, and they only disappeared into the Tailed Shrieker’s body. One Shrieker after another dived at it fearlessly, and Quin was at a complete loss about what was happening.