Leo, just like the rest below the Nascent soul stage, had no clue what happened. They’ve just dealt with the first wave, then a new threat was announced, but then suddenly their leaders began to fight. Both Lily and Musa were too high to clearly discern what they were saying, but it was clear that Mark left towards the city to set up the formation that was supposed to attract attention of beasts and the two local experts charged after him.
According to what Alice explained few days ago, the formation was meant as the last resort in case the squad with the help of locals couldn’t quickly deal with a beast or a group of beasts that were of too high rank. It was supposed to attract the attention of high ranked beasts and guide them to another spot chosen by the students where they could deal with them in a controlled fashion. Now though it looked like the target for the beasts was going to be somewhere in the city.
While Leo, similar to the rest of the people on the ground, was trying to get his head around what was going on, another wave of beasts, albeit smaller than the first one, charged from the jungle. Fortunately the nine Core formation students, probably because of the experience they gained during the past years, were disciplined enough and immediately reorganized, leading the rest of the city defenders forth.
The only one who remained standing was Leo. He kept staring at the darkening sky where Musa struggled against the Ice queen, but then took a deep breath and decisively charged towards the city. There was nothing he could help his squad leader with, but the rest surely will somehow take care of the beasts on the ground.
What he was worried about was the formation Mark was about to set up – for some reason he was getting a really unsettling feeling about it.
Leo was right at the city wall when Mark flew over him towards the direction Musa and Lily were. Maybe he got lucky or maybe the Nascent soul stage cultivator didn’t give a crap about the puny Core formation stage country bumpkin, either way Leo was able to get on the wall unhindered.
There he was met by a couple of local defenders who threw a questioning glance at him, but, obviously, since he was a human, they couldn’t be bothered. They were already terrified stiff from the flock of huge birds that arrived to the city at the same time.
Thunderhawks were of dark color, but the flickering lights resembling flashes of lightning made them look silvery-blue. And while the color made them look beautiful, the close to ten yard wide wingspan gave a feeling of dread to any onlooker.
Leo was confused where the two local experts disappeared since clearly they were the ones who were supposed to take the birds on. There was no way the regular people on the ground with bows, crossbows and weak Qi techniques could deal with a single bird, to not speak of a flock consisting of over a dozen, but sadly neither Galla Santoro nor Tyno Woods were around.
The birds though didn’t attack anyone at or on the city wall, but directly flew over to a tower not too far away and began to circle around it. It seemed harmless at first, but when one of them got too close, something happened that caused the whole flock to start madly attacking the buildings in vicinity. As it turns out the enormous steel-hard talons were capable of tearing down stone structures as if they were made of hay and it didn’t take long until the first shouts of horror and agony filled the city accompanied by the cries of the thundrehawks.
Leo was no genius, but it was not hard to guess that Mark had placed the pole-like beast attracting formation on the tower and it got targeted by the birds. Apparently one of them got hurt by it, causing the rest of the flock to madly retaliate.
Seeing there was only one thing he could do, Leo, without a second thought, jumped down from the wall and rushed towards the tower. There were a couple occasions when he had to evasively roll away after a bird dived at him from above, but in the end he managed to reach the door at the bottom of the tower. It did seem strange none of the birds attacked the tower itself and only targeted the buildings around it, but he had no time to think too much and stepped on the stairs inside.
Within span of three breaths Leo was already at the top and he had to admit that, apart from the devastation and the tragedy they brought, the birds were mighty impressive. For few moments he admired the humongous creatures, but then noticed the largest of them was about to fly by. It was double the size if compared to the rest and it felt like each flap of its wings caused a small storm in the surroundings.
If asked later, Leo would likely say he didn’t know why he did so and, if he had time to think, he would never do so in his life. But now, purely on impulse, he pulled out the formation pole from the spot Mark set it and jumped right on the back of the biggest bird, plunging the pole in it’s head.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The terrifying cry that followed startled the whole city and even Musa, Lily and Mark barely remained focused on their fight. But, the view Leo riding by on the head of the peak rank seven thunderbird patriarch, made Lily’s and Mark’s jaws literally drop.
After his epic fall in the pocket dimension from who knows what height had made Leo paranoid about heights in general and he was already cursing himself for what he had done. Of course, he had no clue that the unexpected distraction allowed Musa to grab a handful of heavenly ranked pills from his spacial treasure and swallow a couple. As the result a large portion of Lily’s ice Qi was expelled in few heartbeats and he was able to regain most of his movement ability and distance himself from the pair.
That in turn spoiled Lily’s and Mark’s mood quite a bit, especially because Musa immediately began to taunt them.
“You know, Lily?” He said in a jeering tone, “I always knew that I’ll have to fight you one day – that is why I bought the heart-warming pills. Of course, it was a question which boy-toy you’ll have and I, just like anyone else, wasn’t prepared for the dirt-man to last this long.”
Even though the couple realized Musa’s intentions, the words were aimed at the right spots. And while neither minded the ‘boy-toy’ part, Mark hated the nickname ‘dirt-man’ he once had to his bones while Lily couldn’t forgive herself she gave Musa a split moment to recover. Mark was already finished setting up his soul-capturing formation, but Musa got away and now the damned wind affinity Nascent soul stage bastard will be incredibly hard to catch.
At first Musa seemed sluggish and they were keeping up, but after fifty or so miles the duo realized he was playing with them.
“You really think you can fool us for long?” Lily suddenly stopped and grinned.
Mark was confused for a moment, but then understood what she meant and said, “I guess we should go back and deal with the city. Master can deal with him if he want’s to, right? For an immortal to catch a puny Nascent soul stage clown will be piece of cake.”
Musa’s expression darkened, but he didn’t expect to fool them forever. In fact, he had no clue what to expect – the only thing he knew was that he had to get the two away from the city, otherwise the collateral damage of three Nascent soul stage experts fighting might take thousands of lives.
The faked escape did buy him some time though. At this point he was mostly recovered and technically held the advantage by being the strongest of the three, especially considering his elemental mutation. The problem was the synergy Lily and Mark had.
After spending years with them, Musa knew that between Lily’s ice and Mark’s earth techniques, neither had the killing power to do anything to him if he was not ambushed or taken by surprise like earlier. The problem was that they intended to capture him, but in that case he would rather die and take the two with them. Of course, that would be his the last option.
“No wonder this was the first thing that came to your mind, dirt-man.” Musa suddenly lightened up, “Obviously a useless fellow like you can only rely on someone else. Truth to be said, you even gathered courage to open you mouth in the presence of your mistress …”
While speaking, he channeled large amounts of Qi and suddenly dashed towards Mark.
Musa’s speed was at the level even Lily and Mark couldn’t clearly see him, but they already guessed that Mark would be the first target since he was technically the weakest and he was the one holding the formation – the key to capture Musa. Destroying it should’ve been the first priority no matter how one looked at it, so the sudden attack was no surprise.
Lily immediately turned the whole area into a frozen domain, slowing Musa down and Mark raised up a wall of earth in front of him, making Musa’s attempt to attack him downright futile. As expected – Musa immediately tried to fall back and only few windblades smacked into Mark’s summoned wall, but just when Mark intended to go into offensive, a cry full of pain and hatred echoed in surroundings.
There was nothing left from Lily’s haughty demeanor nor her good looks. While she focused on keeping Musa’s speed in check and subconsciously worried about Mark setting up his wall in time, a stealthy windblade took her by surprise and scalped her. In fact, the whole upper part of her head was neatly cut off, splattering the brain matter over her clothing and down on the treetops.
While she did look hideous, Musa could only sigh. One could not deny she was good even though she managed to tilt her head forward only at the last moment and the windblade arrived at her forehead instead of the middle of her face. But while he was disappointed, the other two were forced to realize how dangerous their former mate actually was.
For a Nascent soul stage cultivator such wound, just like any other fleshly wound was not lethal. Musa did manage to hurt Lily both physically and even more her pride. But unfortunately it was unlikely he would get another chance like this. There was no way around it – he had to somehow deal with the pair, otherwise the city Naryn was doomed.
Good thing he had trained his fellow students well was Musa’s second to last thought, with the last one being, ‘What in the world was that fellow thinking?!’
Afterwards he tore off the upper clothing and the sight of his athletic body, covered in myriad of tattoos stunned both Lily and Mark. The two realized that despite all the years they have spent together, they never actually have seen him without a shirt.
“So, you want to fight Mumasa, huh?” Musa said with a shallow laugh, “Let’s play then!”
If Leo would’ve been here, he would get the nostalgic feeling of being back in the Voodoo sect. The tattoos on Musa’s body were just like those the sect members had back then. The difference was that his were slightly glowing in the night and were giving off thin streams of steam. And while Leo would’ve wondered what it meant, Lily and Mark knew the guy in front of them was about to go all out.
Technically he didn’t have the ability to kill or capture them, but even the destruction of a physical body was incredibly painful and the reconstruction and regeneration process afterwards was even more excruciating. They did throw a glance at each other deciding whether they should just leave, but in the end decided to try to catch him. Maybe it was their pride or just wish to please their master, or maybe it was the drive that pushed the fanatics like them beyond the limits of a common sense.