21 Chapter 20: Behemoth (1/2)
”You've got to be kidding me.”
I glanced from one side to the other, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Clearly this had turned out to be a trap, and we were currently trapped between monsters. On one side, where countless small formation circles appeared, dozens – if not hundreds – of moving, breathing terracotta soldiers materialized. Clad in earthen armor and wielding metallic weapons, they marched forward to form disciplined ranks.
They kind of reminded me of the terracotta soldiers entombed within the Qin Emperor's grave. No, I'm not talking about the terrible versions in the awful Brendan Fraser third Mummy movie – a pity, because the first two Mummy movies he starred in were downright awesome.
On the other side, the formation circle was massive. It extended and stretched over ten meters and a gargantuan monster emerged from it. As I said, it reminded me of the legendary Fenrir wolf from Norse mythology. As I said, it had spiky fur and gigantic fangs that leaked out of its deadly jaws. Crouching on all fours, the Behemoth bristled, its thick muscles rippling underneath that armored coat of black spiky fur.
I gulped as I stared at it. Even though the terracotta soldiers numbered over hundreds, they failed to strike the same amount of fear that the Behemoth inspired. Its spiky fur was as black as night, and its inky black eyes seemed to devour me whole into an abyss.
It looked exactly like the top-ranked monster I saw in the magical beast encyclopedia that I borrowed from Wu Ling library. Its mere presence was sending massive chills down my spine, and I almost suffocated from the sheer fear generated by merely looking at it.
”That really is a Behemoth…” I muttered, concurring with Xiao Zhang.
As if he heard my words, the Behemoth threw its head back and unleashed a deafening roar that reverberated throughout the cavern.
”GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
”Whoa?!”
”AAAAH!”
”No!”
All around me, my classmates screamed and dropped down, clutching their ears or trembling from horror.
”Get up!”
Xiao Zhang was one of the few who were unaffected. He stood strong and began issuing orders to everyone, rallying them.
”Get up! Jiao Shi! Lead the students to the stairs and smash a path through that army of terracotta soldiers!”
”Roger that!”
Teacher Jiao spun around and gestured for us to follow him.
”Ban Zhang! Zhu Jiao! Qi Fu Ren! You form the vanguard! The rest of you, stay back and provide support with long-range techniques!”
”Please wait, Teacher Jiao!” Zhu Jiao protested when he saw that Xiao Zhang had stayed behind to fend the Behemoth off by himself. ”We will help! That gigantic wolf seems like it's the most dangerous enemy!”
”Idiot! That's a Behemoth! It's a Rank 9 magical beast! With your present strength, there's no way you'll be able to defeat it! You'll only get killed! Even a Nascent Soul Stage practitioner will have trouble fighting a magical beast of that level!”
”Hurry up and go!” Xiao Zhang yelled. ”You are all the future of the orthodox Martial Arts Alliance! I can't afford to let you all die in a place like this!”
Even Xiao Zhang appeared intimidated by the monstrosity before him. Stepping forward, he drew his Spirit Sword and Spirit Staff, their arcane Engravings glowing ferociously. The Behemoth lunged at him, but the Principal of Wu Ling Academy stood his ground determinedly.
”You shall not pass!”
With a bellow, Xiao Zhang slammed his Spirit Staff into the ground. A glowing barrier manifested around him and rapidly expand to fill the space between the Behemoth and the fleeing students. The Behemoth crashed heavily into the barrier, and the resulting impact sent a tremendous shockwave rippling throughout the bridge.
”Whoa!”
”Ah!”
”No!”
The entire bridge was trembling violently from the shockwave, even as the ground beneath the Behemoth's paws was obliterated. The retreating students shrieked as they swayed, lost their balance and toppled over.
In contrast, the terracotta soldiers stood firmly, maintaining their balance despite the ferocious quake. They continued marching onward in a grim manner, slow and methodical in their approach. The front ranks lowered their spears to impale the stumbling students, while the ones at the back raised their swords.
”Eek!”
”Get away! Get away!”
”What the hell are these things?!”
My class was panicking when they found themselves trapped between an army of unnerving terracotta soldiers in front and a ferocious gargantuan monster at the back. With no path of retreat, we could only advance forward. But the way was blocked by countless terracotta soldiers, who moved inhumanly like automata programmed solely for destruction.
Hauling themselves to their feet, the class was completed blinded by panic and consequently they threw caution to the wind as they desperately raced toward the entrance. The terracotta soldiers seemed much weaker than the Behemoth at the back, their strangely human forms both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
”Calm down! Stop panicking! Get back into formations! Don't recklessly rush forward!”
Teacher Jiao was yelling at the class, but none of them except me was paying any attention. Ban Zhang and Zhu Jiao were still dithering at the back, trying to help the exasperated Xiao Zhang. But he couldn't complain when Bai Ning Xue joined him, reinforcing his barrier with her qi. The barrier swelled up and strengthened, the cracks disappearing instantly.
”Not bad, Ning Xue”
Zhu Jiao also raise his hands and reinforced the barrier with his qi, turning the protective screen golden.
With the three great pillars in class, and the other more competent martial artists such as Qi Fu Ren, Du Lang or Li Chun Long more interested in preserving themselves rather than help the rest of the class out, the majority of my classmates had descended into mindless panic, their retreat devolving into chaos as they rashly plunged toward the terracotta soldiers without any semblance of formation, strategy, skill or technique.
”Stop! Fall back! Get back into formation!”
Teacher Jiao hollered at them, but again everyone ignored him or didn't hear him because of their imminent terror. In the messy withdrawal, Tang Qi Hong stumbled and fell after one of our classmates rammed into her knocking her over. She groaned as she crashed heavily onto the ground, and raised her head, only to catch sight of a terracotta soldier raising its sword to behead her. The blade gleamed ominously in the darkness of the cavern.
”No…”
Tang Qi Hong helplessly looked upward, unable to do anything but watch as the terracotta soldier swung its sword down.
Just when Tang Qi Hong thought she was dead for sure, the terracotta soldier suddenly disappeared from sight. Her eyes widened and she glanced around, thinking that someone had saved her by transmuting the ground beneath the terracotta soldier's feet and causing it to slip and fall off the bridge and into the abyss.
Sorry, but I'm not a synergist and my name isn't Nagumo Hajime.
”Eh?”
Tang Qi Hong blinked in confusion as she glanced around. She suddenly realized that it wasn't the terracotta soldier who disappeared. She was the one who had been transported away. She also saw that she was currently in my arms.
Earlier, I had used Jin to advance toward her position, snatch her up in my arms, and then used Tui to retreat from the terracotta monster.
Looks like it was the right decision to learn Shadow Steps. Plus those footwork lessons are also paying off now…glad I spent the whole month practicing them.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I set Tang Qi Hong down. She stared at me, her eyes wide and her jaw dropping open.
”H…how did you do that? Weren't you…?”
She trailed off when she realized what she was about to ask. Shaking her head, she glanced downward in embarrassment.
”T…thank you,” she muttered in a small voice.
I didn't pay much attention to her. I was already moving forward, trying to gauge the strength of the terracotta soldiers.
”Hey! You guys!”
Weaving through a bunch of terracotta soldiers who attempted to impale me with their spears, I evaded and made my way toward the other four Four Star Constitution martial artists in class. Li Chun Long, Feng Tian Yong, Wu Hei Gui and Du Lang. I pointedly ignored Qi Fu Ren and his two cronies because I knew they wouldn't bother listening to me, and I had no time to waste on their selfish and arrogant antics.
”What are you doing? Help us!”
”We're having our hands full here trying to survive,” Du Lang replied as he smashed a terracotta soldier with his lightning claws. Silver qi sparked and danced about the triple blades that extended from his gauntlets, glowing ominously. As he cut apart a terracotta soldier, the qi on the blades exploded with such power that it blew his opponent apart.
Don't fuck with me. You were basically breezing through the terracotta soldiers without much difficulty.
”They can take care of themselves!” Feng Tian Yong added as he jumped back, raising his golden bow. Fire arrows materialized in his right hand and he unleashed them upon the terracotta soldiers, incinerating swathes of them.
”Ugh…I'm trying my best.”
Unlike the others, only Wu Hei Gui was inclined to cooperate. He had rushed forward to defend a group of other classmates with his water barrier, blocking the attacks from the terracotta soldiers. The two girls and a guy rose to their feet, nodding their thanks.
”What do you think we're trying to do?”
While Li Chun Long was technically trying to help the other classmates, his assistance was limited only to a single girl and his fellow sect disciples. He kept sneaking glances at Qing Xin Xia, who had stayed behind to help heal and support Zhu Jiao. It was so obvious that Li Chun Long had a crush on Qing Xin Xia, who was in love with Zhu Jiao, who in turn was smitten with Bai Ning Xue. And that wasn't even mentioning Qi Fu Ren, who always liked Bai Ning Xue.
God, I'm so glad I didn't have to deal with all this romance bullshit.
”You guys realize that Zhu Jiao, Ban Zhang and Bai Ning Xue are currently delaying the Behemoth so that the rest of us can escape, right?”
I was directing my words to Du Lang, Li Chun Long and Feng Tian Yong. Smiling, I gestured toward the terracotta soldiers and made a fist.
”If you cooperate, you can smash this army of terracotta soldiers by yourselves. You will save the class. You will become heroes. This is your chance to step out of the shadows of Zhu Jiao and Bai Ning Xue. With them busy stalling the Behemoth, there won't be anybody stealing your thunder or kills. You will earn the class's gratitude.”
The three of them looked at each other.
”He's got a point.”
”This is our chance.”
”Yeah, let's do it!”
The big four (outside of Bai Ning Xue and Zhu Jiao) began working together, performing in concert to destroy waves of terracotta soldiers. Within moments, they blew through the terracotta soldiers and carved a huge path into the crowd.
”Follow us!”
”Come with me if you want to live.”
”Go, go, go!”
The three of them forged ahead enthusiastically while Wu Hei Gui remained at the rear to continue defending them and other classmates with his water barrier techniques. Slowly but surely, our class was beginning to recover from the panic that gripped them and reform their ranks.
”I can't lose to them…I've a Four Star Constitution too!”
Humiliated by her panic earlier, Tang Qi Hong was determined to make up for her embarrassing display. Sucking in a deep breath, she stepped forward and drew a flaming sword before incinerating a bunch of terracotta soldiers into ash. She stepped forward and waved her hand to the girls following behind her.
”Over here! Let's go!”
Within moments, the chaos had vanished, replaced by an orderly and disciplined retreat as the Four Star Constitution martial artists led the attack, smashing apart terracotta soldiers and building an escape route.
”Good.”
I exhaled in relief. Someone placed a hand on my shoulder, causing me to jump. Turning around, thinking that it was a terracotta soldier, I lifted my short sword, only to drop it when I saw that the person was Teacher Jiao.
He was smiling proudly.
”I saw that. You finally succeeded in using the footwork techniques I showed you last month, didn't you? Excellent.”
He gave my shoulder a squeeze, then ran after the Four Star Constitution martial artists to protect them and direct the flow of battle
”Heh”
I couldn't help but feel proud at the praise. I knew it. It was worth spending all that time and investing all those efforts into learning how to actually execute those footwork techniques. For now, I could only use Jin and Tui. The other three were still beyond my reach, unfortunately. But given time, I was sure I could successfully use them.
Eventually.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the time to celebrate. There were more terracotta soldiers being summoned as fresh formation circles appeared, the new reinforcements marching to close the gaps in their ranks. Realizing that they would plug the holes in their formations and cut off the majority of the class from the rearguard, I immediately turned back.
”Zhu Jiao!”
At the center of the bridge, the small group of martial artists were stubbornly holding out against the Behemoth. Despite Bai Ning Xue and Zhu Jiao reinforcing Xiao Zhang's barrier, it was already cracking under the relentless onslaught of the beast.
The Behemoth charged the barrier again, producing a shockwave every time it collided with the force-field. The bridge creaked under the pressure, more rocks scattering away from the point of impact and falling forever into the bottomless abyss below.
”That doesn't look good.”
I pushed my glasses as I quickly skimmed over the barrier. Numerous cobwebs of cracks had spread and woven over the golden surface of the barrier, and it looked like it was going to collapse any minute now. Qing Xin Xia had remained, healing the trio whenever they suffered internal damage from the tremendous impact as they blocked the Behemoth's charge.
”Damn it…I already told you!”
With a roar, Xiao Zhang exerted more of his qi into the barrier, attempting to repair it. He slammed his Spirit Staff down on the bridge again.
”YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”
The Behemoth responded with a deafening roar and swiped at the gradually crumbling barrier, almost shattering it from that single blow.
”You guys should retreat too! The majority of the class has gotten to safety, but the number of terracotta soldiers continue to increase. At this rate, you'll be cut off from the rest of the class! Please hurry!”
”You heard Student Fei Wu,” Xiao Zhang told Zhu Jiao, Bai Ning Xue, Ban Zhang and Qing Xin Xia. ”The barrier won't hold for much longer. The Behemoth will break through it soon. All of you, hurry up and retreat!”
”No!” Zhu Jiao shouted adamantly. ”I will not abandon you! We will all survive and escape together!”
Xiao Zhang gritted his teeth, as if seeming to suffer a headache from Zhu Jiao's pride and misguided principles.
”I appreciate the thought, but this isn't the time to be a hero. Leave! I can only hold the Behemoth for not much longer!”
”No! We'll fight that thing if necessary…and defeat it!”
”Don't be ridiculous,” I snapped at him. ”Do you think this is some manga? That you'll somehow power up with nakama power and defeat the Behemoth with some special move you suddenly pulled out of your ass? Start getting used to reality!”
”What are you talking about?!”
”Do you honestly think you can defeat a monster of that power?” I pointed at the Behemoth, who was snarling behind the golden wall. ”Stop deluding yourself.”