Chapter 166 - Cockroach Assault
Hei, his companions, and his other allies positioned themselves in front of a fire to have dinner together. Although it wasn't advisable to keep a fire in the forest in the evening, they were still a rather large and powerful group. Unless it had been a group of many spirit beasts, the latter wouldn't have dared to attack them. And even in that case, it was in doubt as to whether such spirit beasts would have dared to risk deaths among their numbers; after all, the best prey was what you could have with minimal effort.
Thus, Hei and the others had the opportunity to get to know each other and chat. For people raised in ordinary families, it was unimaginable even to think that they could interact with someone important from the Eight Big Families. Yet now, Hei and his other companions were sharing the same food with the family heads' sons of two of the Eight Big Families and the Sun Emperor's son.
Unexpectedly from what might be thought, Long Tian, Feng Chen, and Hu Jie weren't arrogant or disdainful people toward whom didn't come from an influential family. Hu Jie was a very expansive person and said what he thought without dwelling too much on whether it was appropriate or not. He was a free and pure-minded person. Feng Chen was more calm and quiet and mostly preferred to interact with his partner Huli Xieren. But in any case, if he were asked a question, he would kindly answer.
As for Long Tian, he didn't appear to belong to the Imperial Family at all. He had a friendly way of doing things and didn't want to make its origins weigh on others. In fact, he expressed that he didn't want to be called 'Imperial Prince.' In addition to that, although they were his guards, rather than a relationship between boss and subordinate, Long Tian had a relationship between comrades with the four young men assigned to protect him. Dae-Won, Hide, Xinya, and William could indeed openly express their thoughts and suggestions that would be welcomed by Long Tian. Nonetheless, even though Long Tian wanted to appear like an ordinary martial artist, he couldn't hide his origins. There was a feeling hidden in his way of doing and moving that Hei had difficulty describing.
'I can't explain it, but I feel that this person has something special. Even though I only met him today, my instincts tell me that I can trust him.' Hei thought to himself that he was amazed at this fact. Usually, he would feel mistrust of new people until he got to know them to a level he could trust them. But with Long Tian, it was different, even if he didn't know exactly why.
"I really needed a nice meal like this. I have to admit your food, Haruno, was delicious. It wouldn't hurt the White Tiger Family to have a talented cook like you." Hu Jie complimented Haruno after tasting his cuisine.
Haruno was speechless at this compliment. He didn't expect someone important like Hu Jie to say these words to him, let alone make such an offer. "Thanks, Hu Jie, about the offer..."
Haruno had been taken aback and looked with Mareo to understand what he had to do. From the little time spent with Hu Jie, he could see that he was a sincere and direct person. Considering that he was the son of the family head, it wasn't unlikely that he could nominate someone for a role within the White Tiger Family. But Mareo, too, was left taken aback and didn't know what words to suggest to Haruno. Fortunately, another person intervened to support them.
"You shouldn't be making such awkward offers Hu Jie," said Feng Chen, who, despite appearing uninterested, had listened to the conversation from the beginning.
"Awkward? What do you mean, Feng Chen?" Hu Jie asked that he didn't understand what was wrong in his offer.
At that point, Long Tian stepped in to explain what was wrong with the offer made to Haruno. "Even if you have good intentions Hu Jie, you should learn to weigh your words first. Haruno is a talented martial artist chef. The pasta he prepares is exceptional, considering he is only to the rank of spirit soldier. Therefore, in the future, his fame is likely to grow. To hook him up now using your family name is a little sneaky. Besides, he is currently part of Hei's team. If Haruno accepted your offer, you would involuntarily force him to have him follow you for this test and the rest of the period at the Academy."
Hearing Long Tian's explanation, Hu Jie finally understood and put his hand on his head. "Ah! Now I understand. I am sorry, Haruno, I didn't want to put you in such an awkward position. The same goes for you, Hei. I didn't want to try to steal one of your comrades."
Listening to the apologies of someone like Hu Jie seemed decidedly strange for those unfamiliar with the young man of the White Tiger Family. Feng Chen, Huli Xieren, Long Tian, and his four guards smiled instead because they knew well Hu Jie's character. In the same way that he wouldn't have thought of certain aspects in interacting with others, at the same time, he would have had no problem apologizing and making amends if it was his fault, even if it was someone with common origins.
"Don't worry; you didn't do it with bad intentions," Hei responded by looking up for a few moments to answer Hu Jie. He could understand a person's character thanks to his instincts, and they told him that Hu Jie was sincere. Then he returned to focus on his little sisters waiting for Hei to cut the meat of one of the jaguars they killed on the first day of the trial.
But unfortunately for the two little divine beasts, their time to taste that meat didn't come. Suddenly, an almost imperceptible buzz could be heard from every corner of the forest. However, this buzz was slowly increasing in intensity as a bad atmosphere began to spread throughout the forest.
"What is happening?" asked Leon, who started to feel uncomfortable all of a sudden. However, it wasn't just him; everyone else had stood up as well as they looked around.
"Fenrir, do you smell anything?" Lang asked Fenrir, who began to sniff to the right and the left.
"Ye, Xing, you too. Warn me if you perceive something." Hei commanded his little sisters as he began to investigate his surroundings with his eyes.
Unfortunately, Fenrir, Ye, and Xing couldn't find anything. Even if there were sounds, Xing couldn't perceive them nearby, and as far as smells were concerned, there were only those of the spirit beasts that lived nearby. However, none of them was responsible for that strange buzz.
'They can't find the source? How is it possible? Fenrir's nose is highly developed as well as the senses of Ye and Xing. As the buzz gets louder and louder, they should be able to perceive who is causing this sound.' Hei meditated to himself as he began to mull over how to act.
"Wait, maybe I have an idea. You just have to remain silent." Mareo said before putting his face on the ground, his ear resting on the ground.
Hei nodded to everyone else to do, as Mareo requested. He trusted in Mareo and his hearing skills. Mareo probably had an intuition and wanted to verify it before explaining it to others.
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Suddenly though, Mareo got up and screamed aloud, "Fly high. NOW!"
Without warning, Mareo rose into the air with a shocked face. Hei and his companions followed him without asking questions. Only from Mareo's face could they see that the situation had to be more severe than expected.
Seeing Hei and his team members flying high, Long Tian and the others who weren't part of Hei's team decided to trust Mareo's order anyway. During their brief interaction, they had been able to see that the group contained talented people who knew what to do in battle.
Crack!
In the ground beneath them, cracks suddenly formed and widened more and more. From these splits, large creatures ranging from one meter in length to three to four meters, came out. Even though it was night, thanks to the light produced by the moon and the fire still lit, Hei could see what creatures they were.
"Cockroaches!" Mia screamed as she felt a sense of vomit when she saw a multitude of cockroaches like that. After all, cockroaches were a species poorly seen by humans who killed such insects as soon as they saw them.
"How many are there? Are they more than a hundred?" Leon asked that he couldn't believe his eyes.
"Hahaha, fortunately, Mareo told us to fly. Or else we would have found ourselves surrounded." Lilian laughed but, although she tried not to show it, she too was disgusted by that sight.
But when Lilian said those words, something lit up in Hei's mind as he thought of something his mother had said long ago.
'Now let's get to the cockroaches. You must know that these are very resistant creatures, and you must not underestimate them. They have incredible running speed, they can swim, but above all, some of them can fly. Some types of cockroaches have wings, but unless they are forced, they don't use them since they can only fly for a certain amount of time. However, for that short period, they can be formidable adversaries for birds as well.'
"Be careful! Some cockroaches have wings and can fly." Hei promptly communicated as he hoped that the cockroaches beneath them were of a wingless species. But things didn't go as he wished.
The cockroaches began to open their wings on their back and began to fly. Quickly, the sky in that section of the forest filled with black spots that darkened the blue of the night sky. Seeing this, all the martial artists there became speechless as a sense of extreme danger descended upon them.
It was to be known that although martial artists and non-flying spirit beasts could fly once they reached the rank of spirit soldier or the second level, their flight ability wasn't comparable to their movements on the ground. In fact, they could only fly for short periods, and their speed would have been significantly reduced. Only by advancing in rank or level would their flight ability improve. It meant that it was dangerous for low-rank martial artists to fight flying spirit beasts in the sky.
At the time, Hei and the others were all in midair. Ye and Xing were on his back in their petite form while Fenrir was also suspended in midair. However, they couldn't stay there forever, and with all those cockroaches that had taken flight, it was impossible to think of running away by flying. Cockroaches, although they weren't on a par with other flying creatures since they possessed wings, they were more adept than them in air combat.
"We cannot stay in the sky. We have to go down at any cost." Hei communicated as his mind struggled to think of a solution. If it were only he, Lian, and his little sisters, he would have had a way to escape from this situation. But now he didn't just have three of them; he couldn't abandon his companions nor the others who had come to their aid in the fight before.
As the situation deteriorated visibly, Long Tian promptly gave his orders. In that desperate situation, his incredible command ability appeared like a beacon in the middle of the night.
"Feng Chen create a space for us to land. My subordinates will clean up your aerial view. Once we land, we have to fight using all our power. The enemies are too numerous to attempt an escape now. We have to reduce their numbers so that we can try to break through and escape from here."
Without wasting time, the four subordinates of Long Tian moved. Their spirit power was released into the night sky as a bright aura showed itself outside illuminating the night.
"Intent of Urumi, Law of Poison, Poisonous Cutting Dance!" Xinya shouted as he waved his flexible swords. When guard number 3 began to wave his weapons, a thundering roar was soon heard echoing in the air. The affected cockroaches were mutilated by small cutting wounds all over the body, but the dangerous thing was the poison associated with the tiny blades of the urumi.
"Intent of the Morning Star, Ghost Law, Spectral Thorn Spinner!" Hide shouted as he began to rotate and push himself towards other cockroaches. The spiked mace took on an extreme speed and smashed the bodies of those cockroaches. The strangest thing was that every time a cockroach tried to hit Hide from behind, the body of the guard number 2 would become intangible for a few moments, thus avoiding the attack.
"Intent of the Katars, Law of Blood, Sting Stab!" William, guard number 4, pulled out his Katar daggers as he shattered a glass flask extracted from his space ring. The glass bottle contained his own blood, which was extracted every month. Such blood clung to the blades of his weapon. After that, William flew to one cockroach, and one of his two Katar daggers entered the body of the spirit beast. Suddenly, the blood attached to the blade became alive as it condensed into small solid needles, which were expelled 180 degrees inside the cockroach's body.
"Intent of the Trident, Law of Illusion, Twin Bodies!" Finally, Dae-Won, guard number 1, created two other identical figures and charged towards other cockroaches. The cockroaches attacked the copies but to no avail because they weren't real. This consequently left Dae-Won the chance to attack without being disturbed.
Watching this, Hei and the other members of his team looked amazed at the power of those four guards. During the first fight, everyone was too focused on their own battle to pay attention to what the others were doing. As a result, it was the first time they saw the real power of the guards in the service of the Imperial Prince Long Tian.
"Xieren! Let's go!" Feng Chen shouted at the fiery-haired woman by his side.
"I am ready. Follow my rhythm." Huli Xieren replied as she took a breath of air.
"Phoenix Bloodline! Nine-Tailed Fox Bloodline! Activate!"
Feng Chen and Huli Xieren joined their hands as they activated their fire law bloodlines. Suddenly, a single wing, half flame, and half ice, formed behind Feng Chen's back. It wasn't a real wing but was made up of his spirit power. Huli Xieren also underwent a similar transformation; on the lumbar area of her back, just above the height of the bottom, a long tail of fire made of spirit power appeared.
"Battle Formation, Joint Sphere!" the two shouted in unison as their spirit power was condensed together to form a sphere two meters in diameter. This sphere contained an incredible strength and a high quantity of flames.
"BURN!"
With that cry, the sphere of flame was pushed down. The cockroaches in the trajectory of the sphere were entirely devoured by the flames as a smell of burnt flesh spread all around.
"NOW! Go down!" commanded Long Tian aloud before continuing, "Yellow Dragon Bloodline, Activate!"
When he activated his bloodline, small gold-colored scales formed around the edges of his face as his spirit power began to swirl in his body as he drew out his hook swords.
"Let's go! Lian, full power! "Hei communicated to his teammates before he also activated his bloodline with Lian.
"Nightmare Spider Bloodline! Activate!"
"Lotus of Love Bloodline, Activate!"
In Hei and Lian, too, their spirit power surged as they drew their weapons. For the time being, Ye and Xing wouldn't activate their bloodlines. Even if the situation was serious, they hadn't reached such a desperate point. Unconsciously, Hei felt that by following Long Tian's orders, they could all get out of that dangerous situation. Therefore, he commanded his little sisters not to activate their bloodlines or their elemental laws. However, he left them free rein in using all their spirit power to fight and not to spare themselves.
"White Tiger Bloodline, Activate! Law of Metal, Diamond Body!" Hu Jie also activated his bloodline as his body turned bright white with black streaks. Once his bloodline was activated, he swooped down at full speed. He was the first to land, and with a roar, his fist went to destroy the head of a cockroach, scattering the fluids of the spirit beast on the ground.
Once the first cockroach was killed, Hu Jie turned to target another cockroach. However, unbeknownst to him, the cockroach that had had its head destroyed by his fist wasn't dead. It was still alive and rushed towards Hu Jie, catching him off guard.