A sharp pulsing pain shot up Susu’s left arm as she spun. She wrapped her whip around her, deflecting a spray of spikes that had been shot at her from behind.
She sensed them at the last second, when her attacker heightened his enshrouded Qi around the spikes.
She spread her legs, to anchor her weight into her left leg. Then, she shot herself forward, deflecting and parrying off another barrage spikes.
The thunderous sound of Susu’s whipped cracked, forcing the spikes to drop on the deck, hitting the deck like darts.
Two men charged toward her from opposing sides. Where are they coming from she hissed, I thought only eight men were left.
She rolled herself up into a ball, then spun at irregular angle, tossing her whip into the air. She struck the men into their chest and neck simultaneously.
They sagged to the ground, growling in pain, but they were quickly silenced as Susu struck them at the back of their neck, killing them instantly.
A spearman thrusted his spear at her right side. She spun, feeling the blade graze her waist, making her wince. I need to end this quickly, in case the blade has been laced in poison.
She caught her whip, then flicked it in an upward motion. The whipped wrapped itself around a pole, then she tugged the whip lurching forward and sliding across the deck like a swan taking flight.
She flicked her wrist unwrapping the whip from the pole, then surged the Qi from within Core Dantian into the whip.
The spearman danced towards her like snake, trying to cut the distance between her and him, but that’s exactly what Susu wanted.
She cracked the whip at this head and the sound of thunder blossomed into the night sky. The spearman halted his advance, but before he knew it. She had wrapped her whip around the blade of his spear.
She surged Qi into the wood, watching as the shaft exploded into wooden powder. Then, she turned into the man, surging Qi into right hand before performing An Unnerving Fist, shattering his chest cavity from one solid blow.
A scream screeched across the sky, drawing everyone’s attention. It wasn’t from the man Susu just killed, but from one of the Axsumite warrior’s victims.
He brought down his crescent moon sword venomously, killing anyone who reproached him. It was like watching a sword slice water, only to be englufed by a wave shortly after. He’s tenacious, Susu thought.
Susu turned, noticing a piece of metal shining in the corner from her, reflecting from from the moon’s light.
She pivoted to her left, then counter-spun, bending her waist as she avoided another sword slash. She then watched as a spike shot right past her left cheek, aimed directly at the Axsumite.
Susu unwrapped her whip, flicking it backwards. The whip strike the spike and it wobbled through the air, then fell down right next to the Axsumite’s right foot.
He nodded at Susu, showing his gratitude and continued his dance of death as three more assailants tried to take him down with spears , knives and swords.
Another two spikes shot right pass her. She tried to knock them off their target with her whip, but this time she missed them both.
The spikes hit him in the arm and leg with loud thuds. The Axsumite shrieked from the pain and howled a melancholic song that sent shivers down Susu’s spine. Then dropped to his knees.“WHAT ARE YOU FOOLS DOING? HE’S DOWN…HURRY AND KILL HIM BEFORE HE REGAINS HIMSELF!” Someone roared from behind Susu.
Susu’s cracked her whip and collapsed the swordman’s chest that was about to stab the Axsumite. He rose up again and began defending himself against his attacker.
Susu on the other hand, began to hunt for the spikeman, but he slithered through the smoke like a snake, keeping himself hidden within the shadows of the night, which annoyed her, as she couldn’t perceive Qi the way she wanted as she was only of the Divination Realm.
A howling growl emanated from the Axsumite, drawing Susu’s attention. As the man looked fatigued and defeated, then his eyes went pure white.
He opened his mouth and shrieked. Red demonic aura began to flood from his mouth. “That looks dangerous,” Susu whispered, as she leapt over another dead body.
The Two spikes that’d been lodged into his arm and leg spat back out, dinging as they hit the deck.
The Axsumite scooped up the flaming barrel to his left hand and tossed it at a spearman to his right. He then spun violently, his sword blurring. The two spikes that were once embedded in him appeared in his hands.
The Crescent Moon sword cut through an assailant’s arm, whilst the spike went through another two assailant’s eyes in one swift motion.
The assailants dropped to the ground like dead sand. Te Axsumite skipped back, stomping his foot like a warhorse, then slid cross the deck, decapitating the final assailant in one smooth stroke, leaving the deck filled with blood, err and the menacing aura that fluttered around him.
A large boom echoed to her right, and her eyes went left. Susu blocked an incoming spike, snatched it out the air, twirled it in her and fired it back in the general direction it came from, then turned right.
Xing soared through the air holding a woman in yellow robes with gold chains snaking around her body. Leave it to Brother Xing to find a damsel to save!, Susu thought.
Xing landed on the Red River with a subtle splash, then leapt forty meters into the air, heaving his way across the Red River, using his Qinggong clumsily as Susu expected.
The Axsumite peered into Susu’s soul, eyes white, but laced in demonic aura. Aura she wanted nothing to do with. His eyes then shifted slowly to Xing, fixated.
A demonic wail, reminiscent to a war cry of some sorts. He stepped off the burning ship and landed with a loud splash below, then shot himself towards Xing.“WAIT!” Susu shouted, “HE’S ONLY TRYING TO HELP”
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As loud as Susu shouted, she knew all too well, what it was like to shout at deaf ears, it was frustrating, but she couldn’t blame the man.
These Axsumites arrived in Huaxia, only to be killed off by Huaxians, anyone would do anything to save their people.
Anyone.
A whistling sound zipped in the air. Susu strafed left, avoiding another spike and watched as a man wearing a black cloak came floating down from a sail. He wasn’t in the shadows, he was attacking from above! Susu thought, flustered, An expert,
“I never thought that on a night such as this. That I would’ve been able to meet the Susu, The Scorpion Maiden” The man said firmly. He stepped off the sails and floated to the ground as if he were some bird descending the heavens.
The cloak wearing assailant dropped his spikes and unsheathed his sword, he tilted his head to a side, then pointed it directly at Susu. “Do you know the reputation I’d gain for killing you?”
Susu curled her lips into a devilish smile, then cracked her whip behind her, licking her lips in the process “Do you know how much men I’ve killed? You don’t…but I find it interesting how you could speak so freely, and not know how you’re courting death!”
Susu slid back, but cracked her whip to the front. The whip slapped the sword from the cloaked assailant hand. He rolled to his left, scooping up to the spikes he’d dropped arrogantly.
Susu spun and dodged the spike attack. She tried to slap his sword away, but the man was fast enough to scoop it and fend of a series of attacks from Susu.
Each blow she sent, was met with a dodge, slash and a deflective glance. It was clear to Susu he was versed in the blade, but not as advanced as Brother Guo.
The cloakman’s sword began glimmer with Qi and excitement began to arouse within Susu’s heart. It wasn’t an excitement that one usually felt, but one where she accepted the challenge.
“What they say about you is true.” The cloaked man said confidently.
“…oh…and what is that!” Susu asked.
“You believe yourself to be a paragon of JUSTICE!”
Susu lips curled into a smile and she kicked herself backward. As the flames crackled, popped and snapped, reservation appeared on the cloakman’s face. “I am a facilitator of justice!”
“You delude yourself Scorpion Maiden!” He cut back, rounding Susu as if she were the prey.
“Justice isn’t killing innocent people in cold blood.”
“Cold blood?…look around you Ban Susu.” He hissed, “You’ve killed patriots of this fine country.”
“Patriots?” Susu said, laughing bitterly. “LOOK AROUND YOU FOOL…HALF THE PEOPLE YOU’VE KILLED WERE UNARMED. THEY WERE WAR REFUGEES AT BEST!”
“War Refugees? That’s what they deserve after they tried to invade us!”
“That was over four hundred years ago. Emperor Tian Hao is long dead, his decree is nothing but ashed paper!”
“EMPEROR TIAN HAO HIMSELF. WOULD FLAY YOU ALIVE FOR WHAT YOU JUST SAID. HIS DECREE IS THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN, ALL AXSUMITES MUST BE TO BE KILLED ON SIGHT IF FOUND WITHIN HUAXIA.”
“I COULD CARE LESS FOR YOUR EMPEROR’S MANDATE!”
“…you…you SLANDER OUR GREAT EMPERORS NAME.”
“Slander? You think that is slander?” Susu hissed, “heh, fine then, let me show you what slander truly is.” Susu said, biting each word.
Maybe…just maybe, I should’ve practiced my Qinggong like Sister Susu and Brother Guo, Xing grumbled to himself. He held the woman across his back, interlocking her arms over his neck after he’d sealed her acupoints.
The baby the woman held was was as puce as the mother. However, the mother didn’t have emerald eyes as she did, which made him wonder what eyes the father’s own was.
The moment Xing had soared through the air, the child silenced herself, trying to bite one of his fingers.
He winced from the bite playfully and gave her a gentle smile. The mother, he assumed, arms locked around his neck continued speaking in a language he had no idea what she said. “alekra veh sehthin kres” The woman spat, from the back of her throat.
“You’re right,” Xing admitted, not understanding a word.
His eyes trailed to his left and the light from the moon highlighted what he feared most. Bodies adrift to the starboard side of the boat.
In that one second his eyes lay bare on them, he could see the atrocities that had been done to them.
A man’s face was frozen in a rictus grin, jaw torn askew to expose the crimson sinew and snapped bones beneath. Another’s torso was nearly cloven in two, his shredded innards trailing behind his corpse with
A woman floating adrift, in the corner of his eyes was missing both legs below the knee. It bobbed up and down in the water forcing goosebumps from his skin. The tattered peritoneum sloshing with water with each rise and plunge.
Xing wanted to gag, but as a warrior, he couldn’t afford to, especially when he carried two lives in his hands and on his back.
Another man was impaled through her eye socket by a spear shaft, the wound a tangled mess of popped tissue, splintered bone, and clotted blood. His remaining eye staring blankly ahead in an expression of eternal anguish.
The worst of all was the man - if he could be called such - who had been flayed from groin to neck, his skinned musculature seeming to ripple with each gentle undulation of the river. His face was a skull-like rictus, jaw unhinged to issue a soundless, eternal scream.
Xing tore his eyes away, fighting the urge to empty his guts then and there at such profound, needless butchery.
“BARGAZ ZI KASA!” A wayward voice shouted from behind. Xing stepped on the water, and then pulsed an extra vigour of Qi into his foot, hoping to push himself up a little more.
His foot sank into the river, swallowing it up to his shin. He recovered…barely, by slapping his hand on the river’s surface, using it to push himself back up. Fine…I’ll practice Qinggong more if I survive this night!
As he floated, he looked back noticing a figure in yellow or red? Charging towards him, skipping across the river like a fish.
The man abnormally waved his hands. He squinted trying to verify if his feet were moving, only to realise, they weren’t. Is that how Axsumites traverse the water? Xing asked, but never looked for an answer. He kept his wits and continued making his way to the beach, hopefully with a little more silence. “PIKRA SE’TH KRON GROFUA!” She wailed in his ear.
I guess not.
Every ten meters Xing looked back, trying to gauge the Axsumite as he followed him. He wasn’t gaining as fast as Susu would, and he was thankful for that. The only problem was if this Axsumite had killed off so many, what could he possibly do? Let’s hope he can do more than that Xing thought, hoping to fight. …but saving these two comes first.
Xing sailed in the air, floating fifteen meters and watched as the sand of the beach began to get closer to him. The sheen from the moonlight sparkled across an array of broken glass, rocks, pebbles and stones, making it look like a dull rainbow shining in the midnight.
“THIS IS GONNA HURT” Xing shouted. The Axsumite woman closed her eyes and instead of fighting him, tried to embrace him with her eyes, he tapped the acupuncture in her shoulder, releasing her and felt her arms wrap themselves around his neck. Then, he hugged the baby, then allowed his Qi to flow through his Meridians once more.
Xing absorbed the landing, taking all the weight into his knees, back and heels. Then, he tilted his body, trying to force the momentum away from the child as he skidded across the sand, scraping and flaking, rocks, stones and pebbles alike in a fiery display.
Once he’d slowed to a stall, he looked at the baby ensuring it was unarmed and she wasn’t. A sigh of relief washed over his body as he watched the child’s hands trying to grab his shirt.
A punch drilled into Xings’ right side sending him to his knees. The child disappeared from his hand, then a heel appeared in front of his face. He skipped back, avoiding it and channelling a fistful of Qi then rocked his hand back ready to explode a punch at the culprit.
The Axsumite woman spun, chains dinging from the momentum. Xing stopped himself, realising it was the woman who reclaimed her child with ease. She’s a warrior Xing thought.
“I’M ONLY TRYING TO HELP!” Xing shouted, swerving left and right trying his best to dodge a series of kicks from Axsumite woman.
Xing jumped back, finally using his Qinggong and watched as the Axsumite woman, turned, then darted away from him. As he soared backwards, he doubled tapped his feet against the wind, stalling and falling to the ground.
A branched snapped in the distance to his left, and then the wild rustling sound of grass swished back and forth. Eight men leapt out of the grass blades and spears brandished pointed at the Axsumite woman. Shit.