Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  After sometime everyone was in the carriage speeding toward the rendezvous point where the rest of Zhang’s army was positioned. Once they meet up, Zhang would take command and lead everyone through the “Dragon’s Maw”, all the way back to Red Mist City.

  As the carriage along with one hundred horsemen speed onwards, something unexpected happened as they rode past a thick grove of trees. Hundreds, if not thousands of arrows came out of nowhere. Due to being caught off guard many of Zhang’s soldiers died immediately.

  “Protect the carriage!” Lu Xun yelled as he plucked an arrow out from his shoulder. He was situated near the carriage where not a lot of arrows were aimed. Thus he was able to avoid death.

  “ATTACK!!!” A loud voice rang out from within the woods. Following the signal, countless number of masked men charged out from the grove with weapons high in the air and engaged the few surviving guards in battle.

  Zhang’s guards were instantly overwhelmed by the large group of attackers. One by one they began to perish.

  That was when the carriage doors busted open and Zhang walked out dressed in his Lightning Eater scale armor while brandishing the Sky Pierce halberd.

  “Kill him!” One of the attackers yelled.

  “Die...” Zhang murmured as he swung his halberd. With a single swing a number of the attackers were bisected.

  Seeing this quite a few of the attackers backed off in fear of death. However, Zhang used their hesitation to his advantage and charged forward. From his interspatial ring he withdrew his ten Dragon’s Talons throwing knives and his two chained daggers made from the teeth of the Voracious Eater.

  Using the power of the Underworld’s Heart the throwing knives and chained daggers danced through the air and swept down to take the lives of the attackers.

  None of the attackers wore any armor that could protect them from his high tier weapons, which made it extremely easy for Zhang to cut them down. His blades cut through flesh and bones as if they were made of butter. And to further add to his newly created chaos, he opened the Ruler’s Domain and unleashed a horde of Titanic Golden spiders.

  The attackers, who originally were the hunters, had now turned into the pray. Although they possessed an absolute numerical advantage, they could not overwhelm Zhang. They were simply too weak to face him in single combat and when fighting as a group only so many of them can attack at once.

  Unlike them, Zhang could easily fight many enemies at the same time. He could manipulate the throwing knives and daggers to keep the attackers at bay while using his halberd to mow down everything in front of him. The horde of spiders also proved to be a deadly force.

  The spiderlings would jump onto the attackers and inject them with neurotoxic venom causing them to fall to the ground and be dragged off by the spiders.

  As if this wasn't enough, from within the carriage, Yuying, Ai and Ling now also came charging out. Ai used the black thorn whip to lash out at the attackers, while Yuying used her reanimation magic to manipulate the corpses of the dead enemies and Ling erected a small water barrier around herself and the other two girls to protect them from any surprise attacks.

  “Everyone fall back to the barrier and fall into formations!” Lu Xun yelled to the remaining soldiers. Although Zhang was able to hold his own against the many attackers, the soldiers were still being overwhelmed, if they did not fall back then soon every last one of them would die.

  “Reinforcements will arrive soon!” Lu Xun yelled toward his men who were struggling against the enemy.

  Only ten or so of Zhang’s soldiers managed to make their way into the barrier that Ling had set. The majority of them have already died and the rest are stuck hopelessly fighting for their lives.

  “Who sent you? Was it that bastard Ming Jiang?!” Zhang yelled at the attackers. Although he and Ming Jiang had somewhat settled their differences, Zhang did not trust Ming Jiang at all.

  Instead of saying anything, the attackers redoubled their assault.

  “Keep attacking men! There are only a few of them left!” One masked man yelled.

  “Hmph.” Zhang snorted as he swung his halberd, separating limbs from bodies. Wherever the halberd went a trail of blood and gore followed.

  Zhang plunged the sky piercer into the chest of one of the attackers then lifted the man into the air. Blood gushed out from where the halberd had entered the man’s body and poured down onto Zhang.

  This horrendous sight further increased the fear that the attackers had for Zhang. From afar Zhang looked like the reincarnation of death, as if blood rained down onto him from the heavens themselves.

  “You fools! What are you doing?! Continue attacking! He will tire and be overwhelmed by our numbers soon enough! We must obtain the necklace for the sect master!” One masked man yelled out.

  “For the sect!!!” The rest of the attackers yelled out in response.

  “Whoever kills him and gets me that necklace will become the next sect leader!” Yelled a masked man in red robes who was standing in the rear of the group of attackers.

  “It’s you! Yu Zhao, you old bastard!” Zhang yelled with blood dripping from his face. He had figured out who the attackers were once they had mentioned a sect master. The face of the middle aged man who had wanted his necklace at the auction house had immediately popped up in Zhang’s mind.

  A bit away from where Zhang was, Ai was demolishing another group of attackers with the black thorn whip. The magical whip’s ability to change size proved to be extremely useful when fighting large groups. Ai would change the size of the whip upon its impact with an enemy thus increasing its weight and attack power exponentially.

  As the fighting progressed, Zhang and his people slowly but surely started to tire. Although they were able to hold their own for quite a while, there were simply too many enemies. There was no way a hand full of people could face an enemy force that numbered in the thousands.

  For each enemy cut down there would be two more to fill in the gap. With each swing of the sword, each thrust of the spear, their energy was slowly being sapped away. Zhang’s group no longer possessed the explosive force they had at the beginning of the battle.

  Zhang could be seen surrounded by more and more enemies as he tried to hold them back. The halberd felt heavier and heavier after each time he slew an enemy. The chained daggers and throwing knives were no longer dancing about in the air. Zhang was struggling to keep himself on his feet as the wind brushed against his blood coated face.

  Ling’s barrier could be seen fluctuating and looked like it was about to collapse.

  “Brother we can’t hold out for much longer over here.” Ling yelled to Zhang, panic starting to fill her voice.

  “Just a bit longer and our reinforcements should be here.” Zhang yelled back trying to comfort her the best he could. When his army arrived, the flow of the battle would be completely reversed.

  “Perhaps I should use that.” Zhang thought to himself.

  Although it had not been long since the fight had begun, it seemed like a lifetime as the group fought to keep the attackers at bay.

  “Hand over the necklace now and I’ll let you leave alive.” Yu Zhao yelled from behind the backs of some of his underlings. He had taken off his mask after Zhang had yelled out his name and was now showing a confident smile.

  “You want this necklace?” Zhang said he pulled the dragon heart necklace out from under his armor.

  “Yes, hand it over. And I’ll let you leave.” Yu Zhao said eyeing the necklace with a greedy expression on his now wicked face.

  “With the mass of energy within that necklace, my sect will become one of the strongest sects on the continent!” Yu Zhao said with a disgusting laugh.

  “Hmph, if you want it so badly, let me first give you a demonstration of the power of the necklace!” Zhang yelled as the necklace emitted a pitch black brilliance.

  “Wha-what is this?!” Yu Zhao yelled as he stared with round eyes at the creepy light being emitted from the necklace.
r />   Chapter 54: Absolute Power

  As Zhang held the dragon heart necklace up, a pitch black brilliance emitted from it and enveloped everything around him.

  “What’s happening!” Some of the attackers yelled as glowing blue translucent spheres began slowly coming out of the corpse on the ground and flew into the air. Even the corpses that Yuying were manipulating had blue spheres come out of them and would then fall lifelessly to the ground.

  When one of the masked men tried to reach out and grab one of these spheres, to find out what they were, his hand phased right through.

  Hundreds of blue spheres floated in the air and began flying toward Zhang, spiraling around him. An instant later the blue spheres were all sucked into the dragon heart necklace in Zhang’s hand.

  “What was that!” Yu Zhao screamed at Zhang with a hint of horror present on his face. He had originally thought that the necklace was simply a massive store of energy that he could tap into and transfer to the sect’s heirloom sword.

  Although he did not know what Zhang just did, Yu Zhao was somewhat afraid of the outcome. “Maybe that brat knows the secret to that necklace.” Yu Zhao thought to himself as he stared at Zhang.

  “You wanted to see the power of the necklace, so I’m showing you!” Zhang yelled back at Yu Zhao with a glare. Zhang had used the dragon heart necklace’s ability to store away energy to absorb the blue spheres, which were the souls of Yu Zhao’s henchmen. He of course made sure not to absorb the souls of his fallen men.

  Oddly enough although Zhang fed the necklace a few hundred souls it did not have the reaction he wanted it to have. The voice that would emit from the necklace and into his mind did not sound out like it did in the underworld. Despite this, the necklace worked like it had when he was collecting the thousands of souls in the underworld.

  Soon a few dozen black fire began to ignite in the air and float around Zhang. Since he was now in the mortal plane and not the underworld Zhang could only generate a few dozen black flames. Had he been in the underworld or possessed thousands of souls like he did before then perhaps he could have generated thousands of black flames once more.

  “This will have to do.” Zhang thought as he made the black flames spiral around himself and then shot out into the skies above.

  “Quickly kill him!!” Yu Zhao with bloodshot eyes yelled as he brandished a long sword with a blood red blade and charged toward Zhang.

  However, it was too late, after only a few steps a black flame shot down from the sky and into him. After which Yu Zhao lost all color in his eyes, slumped over and fell down onto the ground. Soon the other dozens of black flames also descended. A few of the attackers tried to shield themselves with their weapons but it was useless.

  Seeing this Yu Zhao’s subordinates fell into mass panic. It was one thing to be attacked by a sword or spear but the black flames were something totally different. One could knock away a sword or block a spear but these black flames could not be stopped. These men knew that if they continued attacking then it would simply become a slaughter and it would not be them who would be doing the slaughtering.

  “Run!” One of the masked men yelled out as he tossed his sword to the ground and began fleeing. Soon, one by one, the attackers began abandoning their weapons and fleeing.

  As the attackers fled towards the thick grove of trees, a green flare could be seen in the sky.

  “They are here!” Lu Xun yelled after seeing the green flare. He quickly pulled out a flare of his own and shot it into the sky. Unlike the previous flare the one that Lu Xun shot out was red. This symbolized that a battle was occurring and that they were in trouble.

  Moments later the rumbling of thousands of hooves hitting on the earth could be heard approaching.

  “Quickly men run!” One of the masked men yelled. With their leader dead the large group of attackers broke off into smaller groups each being led by a different person.

  “Charge!!!” A voice rang out in the distance.

  Soon a cloud of dust could be seen in the distance. As it came closer and closer one could can see thousands of soldiers donning black armor while riding on black stallions. Some of these soldiers were carrying a black banner with a golden dragon on it.

  Zhang’s cavalry soldiers had seen the red flare that Lu Xun had fired and came as quickly as they could. Once they saw the enemy in sight the cavalry soldiers of Aurora assumed formations to initiate a cavalry charge. With spears in hand the soldiers formed into an arrowhead shaped formation.

  “Make sure not to hurt our lord and the madams! Charge!!!” A soldier yelled out to the men behind him.

  “CHARGE!!!” All the of the soldiers of Aurora yelled as they tightened their grip on their spears.

  Seeing the cavalry soldiers approaching the masked men, who belonged to the Yu sect, fell into further panic and began dispersing in all directions. However, how can something with only two legs outrun something with four?

  With their backs toward the cavalry, the masked men were taken out one after another by the charging soldiers.

  “Quickly run into the woods! They can’t get us if we run into there!” One masked man yelled.

  Soon a mass of masked men all ran toward the woods fleeing from the cavalry soldiers.

  Seeing this the cavalry soldiers gave up chase and instead moved to where their lord was.

  “My lord, are you okay? I apologize on behalf of everyone for coming late and endangering you, my lord. A captain in Zhang’s army said after dismounting and kneeling on one knee.

  “At ease. It is not your fault that we were ambushed.” Zhang said.

  “What's the status on the enemy?” Zhang asked the soldier.

  “My lord, they fled into the woods.” The soldier said. Cavalry soldiers generally only have an advantage in open plains but when fighting in close spaces they are at a total disadvantage. Although cavalry soldiers could dismount it would not be very wise to chase the enemy into a thick grove of trees.

  “Have all of our men regroup.” Zhang said as he stared at the woods where the attackers fled into.

  “Brother are you ok?” Ling with a concerned face asked as she walked up to Zhang and wiped some blood off his face. This was the first time she's ever seen Zhang kill people and when they were surrounded a sense of dread filled her heart. Although she very much wanted to run to his side and fight with him, the opportunity did not present itself.

  A short distance away Yuying and Ai would be seen sitting on the ground panting due to exhaustion. Although they themselves were extremely fatigued they still looked to where Zhang was trying to see if he was ok.

  Zhang seeing the worry in Ling’s eyes showed a smile on his face to reassure her. Then in an instant he swooped her off her feet and carried her towards where the magical carriage was.

  “What-what are you doing.” Ling asked shyly as he carried her. A storm of thoughts rushed to her head and hundreds of different scenarios played out in her mind. Soon Ling’s cheeks turned pinkish red.

  Following that he picked up Yuying and Ai one after another like princesses and placed them inside the carriage.

  As Zhang was carrying her, Ai jokingly said, “Perhaps we should do this more often then I won't have to walk so much.” With a corky smile appearing on her face.

  “Perhaps we should. But next time it'll be me carrying you to a bridal room.” Zhang with an equally corky face.

  Hearing this Yuying couldn't help but laugh despite her exhaustion.

  “Hey what are you laughing about. I'll be carrying you on that day too.” Zhang said as he picked her up and carried her to the carriage where the others two were.

  Lu Xun who was standing a bit away from them couldn't help but shake his head. “How can you guys joke around like that after almost dying?” He thought as he looked at Zhang and the three beauties joke and talk as if nothing had happened.

  After a short while, the three girls walked out of the carriage in fresh clothes, because the clothes they were wearing bef
ore were stained in blood.

  Zhang could be seen sitting on the ground wiping the blood off his armor. He had changed into fresh clothes and would don his armor once more after cleaning it.

  As he wiped his armor Zhang drank some essence water to relieve himself of his weariness and fatigue.

  “My lord all of our men have been assembled and all of those who fell in battle have been burned and their ashes has been gathered to bring back home. As for the men we sent to the city to find the location of the Yu Sect’s headquarters, they have just returned.” Lu Xun said to Zhang.

  “Good, no one should be left behind, dead or alive. Now ready all the men, I think we should pay the Yu sect a visit so I can return this sword to them.” Zhang said as picked up a long blood red blade from the ground.