Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  As the soldiers rushed to save their comrade the demon flicked its hand and tossed its victim down onto the horde of undead below. A defying scream soon followed as the poor man was ripped apart by the undead. Soon after only a pile of mangled flesh and a pool of blood was left.

  The soldiers who watched as their comrade was ripped apart winced as they imaged the pain the poor man had to go through.

  “Archers! Shoot him full of arrows!!” Zhang Liao screamed as he picked up a spear and began moving to where the demon child was.

  Moments later many barrages of arrows cut through the rain and headed toward the demon child. However, with a flick of its long arms the demon child brushed away many of the incoming arrows and then dodged the rest.

  But as it was dodging the arrows two daggers attached to chains could be seen shooting out inside the prison and dancing through the air. After the two daggers many flashes of light also flew out from the inside of the prison. If one looked closely they'd see that these flashes of light were actual lying rowing knives cutting through the air.

  Each time the lightning flashed the daggers and knives could be seen flying toward the demon child.

  “Die!!!” A loud shout sounded out as Zhang could be seen running out from the inside of the prison with Yuying by his side.

  The daggers and knives finally arrived at their destination and were about to embed themselves into the demon child when it extended its arm and grabbed a soldier near it and used his body to shield itself.

  But the ten throwing knives pierced through the soldier's armor and body like paper and made their embedded themselves into the demon child’s arm which it used to lift up soldier.

  With a thought from Zhang the Dragon Talon throwing knives began to drill into the demon child’s arm. As knives continued drilling deeper and deeper the demon child severed its arm. Once the arm was severed dozens of tentacles sprang out from its body.

  But before Zhang could launch another attack the demon child jumped over the walls into the horde of undead outside of the prison walls while pulling a few soldiers down along with it and disappeared.

  “Damn it…” Zhang cursed as his target slipped away.

  “Brother let's go quickly!” Yuying yelled as she grabbed Zhang’s arm and began running back into the prison.

  They were now headed to the room where Shen Shi was residing in.

  Yuying and Zhang sped their way through the prison as they made their way to the room. Moments later the lavish looking door that led into Shen Shi’s room could be seen with a few hulking guards standing in front of it.

  “Halt!” The hulking guards yelled as they crossed their spears in front of the door.

  “We are here to see if the young lord is okay. The demon child showed up just now.” Zhang said trying to come up with an excuse to get inside the room.

  However, before the guards said a word the door slowly creaked open and General Chanming Hai walked out from the room and closed the door behind him.

  “Ah it's you two I was wondering who it was.” He said with a smile on his face.

  “General Chanming we wanted to see if the young lord was safe.” Zhang repeated.

  “The young lord is perfectly safe I've been with him all night. He's currently sleeping right now so it's best not to disturb him. I will be heading outside to take command of the soldiers in a bit.” General Chanming said as he smiled to Zhang and Yuying.

  “If that's the case then we will head back outside and see if we could help the soldiers.” Zhang said while holding Yuying’s hand and began walking back the way they came from.

  After walking a while and making sure no one was around Zhang and Yuying began conversing.

  “Brother does that mean that we were wrong and Shen Shi wasn't the one infected by the queen heart burrower?” Yuying asked while looking at Zhang as the two headed back outside.

  “Perhaps we were wrong or perhaps we were right and General Chanming is trying to cover for Shen Shi.” Zhang replied.

  “But why would he if Shen Shi is being controlled by the queen heart burrower.” Yuying questioned with a perplexed look on her face.

  “Who knows? But we will find out soon.” Zhang said as they exited the prison and walked into the rain.

  Surprisingly although the two of them walked out into the rain which had gone from a down pour to a light drizzle neither of them became wet. If someone observed closely they would notice that wherever Zhang walked there seemed to be an invisible force pushing the rain water back.

  “Brother I’m glad that you figured out how to do this with the Underworld Heart or else we would have gotten wet from the rain.” Yuying said as she linked her arms with Zhang. Not too wise to get wet while wearing white cloths she thought.

  If someone learned that Zhang was using a legendary treasure to keep himself dry in the rain, they most likely would puke blood.

  As the two lovebirds walked outside of the prison the banging against the iron gates were even louder than before.

  Suddenly loud rumble sounded out on the other side of the gate. Many of the soldiers who were above the wall had faces filled with fear.

  “Wha-what is that thing.” One of them murmured as his feet buckled.

  A hulking undead roughly three times the size of a regular person could be seen pounding away at the iron gates. After each of its powerful strikes a small dent could be seen where it had struck.

  Seeing this the soldiers fell into true despair. Before although the undead were constantly attacking the iron gates they wouldn't even make a scratch on it but now the small dents continued to increase and soon the gates may fall.

  “It's only a matter of time before they get in….” A soldier said as he fell toward his knees and kneeled in the rain while looking up in despair.

  “Kill it!!” Zhang Liao yelled as he held up his spear into the air and threw it toward the huge undead pounding at the prison gates.

  His spear shot through the air and landed between its neck and right shoulder. The spear dug deep into the undead but did not seem to hinder it very much as all.

  But this did not make Zhang Liao falter because soon enough he picked up another spear and threw it. Thanks to his deadly accuracy and the size of his target the second spear landed right beside the first spear.

  Once the second spear lodged itself inside the huge undead it could no longer move its right arm but continued pounding at the gate with its left arm.

  “Follow the captain’s lead!!!” Leng Zai yelled as he made his way up the walls. He had just returned from carrying the unconscious soldier who was trying to commit suicide to a cell.

  Soon dozens if not hundreds of spears made their way through the air and into the huge undead. But unlike Zhang Liao’s spears many of these spears did not hit their mark and landed on the ground or struck the smaller undead.

  “Bring out all of the lamp oil in the prison! Now!!” Zhang yelled as he noticed the light drizzle of rain had stopped and no more water was falling from the skies anymore.

  But of course since none of these men were his soldiers they did not respond to his command.

  “What are you doing! Do as he saying?!” Zhang Liao yelled.

  “Where's the general at a time like this...” He cursed to himself.

  Hundreds of barrels of oil were soon tossed over the walls as a bow and arrow appeared in Zhang’s hands. Yuying who was standing right beside Zhang also had a bow and arrow in her hands.

  The two dipped their arrows into a barrel of oil and then used their essence to ignite a fire. Once the arrows were lit they were shot through the air in into the horde of undead. Shortly after a sea of flames ignited and smoke plumes rose into the air.

  Despite the fact that it was raining just moments ago the lamp oil almost instantly ignited and set many of the undead on fire. But of course since the undead had been soaked with water they did not instantly turn into puffs of fire. Instead their feet slowly melted say and their bodies would topple over and
fall into the sea of flames.

  “Since the walls here are made of stone and the gates of iron we can safely light them on fire.” Zhang thought as he remembered how the undead overran the fort his men had constructed out of logs.

  “Ahahahahaha burn! Burn!!!” One soldier laughed manically in joy as he watched the undead burn.

  Until a long whip like tentacle shot out from below and latched onto him and pulled him into the sea of fire.

  “The demon child!!! It’s the demon child!!” Some soldiers yelled.

  After the soldier was pulled down into the fire and figure jumped up over the walls. Now that a huge fire was raging below everyone was able to clearly see the features of the demon child.

  “Yo-young lord?” Once they saw the facial features of the demon child they instantly recognized him. It was Shen Shi but unlike his regular appearance he had many tentacles growing out from his small body and his arms were horrifically elongated.

  But before the soldiers could say anything general Chanming could be seen walking up to the top of the walls. But unlike the regularly kind looking general that everyone knew and loved he looked terrifying. Countless tentacles could be seen poking out from underneath his armor and long cape.

  Chapter 67: Prison Break

  Once Chanming Hai made it up to the top of the walls, all of the soldiers present could clearly see that their general had also been infected by the heart burrowers.

  “Ge-general….” Zhang Liao murmured as he saw the disfigured monstrosity that was once his general.

  But something much more horrifying suddenly happened. Many soldiers began falling to the ground, morphing into monsters themselves. Hundreds, if not, thousands of the soldiers in the fortress joined the ranks of the undead.

  However, unlike the undead outside, they seemed to be many times stronger. Of course Shen Shi and Chanming Hai were most likely the strongest of the bunch since one of them housed the queen heart burrower worm.

  “This is the result of the queen heart burrower personally infecting them.” Zhang murmured as many soldiers around him turned into enemies.

  “Yuying let's go. Quickly!” Zhang said as he grabbed her hand and retreated back toward the prison.

  A few quick witted soldiers realized the situation and began running in behind Zhang.

  As Zhang and some soldiers made their way into the prison, the infected began assaulting those standing beside them.

  “Brother Liao let's go!” Leng Zai yelled as he pulled his friend and began running along with the escaping soldiers.

  Once Zhang and the soldiers made their way into the prison, they shut the gates behind themselves.

  Many of the stragglers were thus locked outside and met their demise.

  “Brother where are we headed?” Yuying yelled.

  “What we need right now is people to fight along with us and the only force left in the prison are the prisoners.” Zhang said as he grabbed a soldier who was running beside him.

  “You! Lead us to where you keep the prisoners!”

  “You couldn't be thinking of releasing the prisoners!” The soldier said frantically as he looked at Zhang with confusion on his face.

  “Shut up and lead the way unless you want to die here!” Zhang snapped.

  Without saying another word, the soldier began leading Zhang and Yuying to the holding cells.

  As they made their way to the holding cells, they often ran into infected soldiers who Zhang had to quickly kill.

  Of the twenty thousand soldiers in the fortress, nearly half had been infected or had perished outside.

  ==============================

  While Zhang was making his way toward the holding cells, the prisoners there were facing a dilemma of their own. A few of the soldiers left to guard them had suddenly morphed into grotesque monsters and began attacking.

  Tentacles could be seen slithering through the bars of the cells and latching onto the prisoners.

  However, the prisoners weren't completely helpless when attacked. One particular prisoner was pulling the tentacle of one of the infected soldiers into his cell, and once the infected soldier's head was pulled up against the iron bars, he proceeded to grab and twist it.

  Loud cracking sounds were audible as he kept twisting until the soldiers did a 360 degree turn. This man is the infamous pirate, Gan Ning.

  But the infected soldier could not be killed and continued flailing its arms around.

  “Boss! I heard you have to stab their hearts!” A prisoner shouted.

  “Hmph! Grab the keys hanging from his waist and open our cell.” Gan Ning ordered.

  Moments later his cell door popped open and he let go of the infected soldier while grabbing hold and pulling out a sword that was on the infected soldier’s waist.

  “Come at me!” Gan Ning roared as he charged out of the cell, brandishing his newly acquired sword.

  In just a few seconds, the lifeless corpses of the attacking infected were sprawled out across the cold prison floor. By now Gan Ning has drawn the attention of many of the infected soldiers in the area.

  “Quickly go and release our brothers! We are breaking out of here!” Gan Ning commanded.

  But before anything happened, Zhang barged in with many soldiers behind him.

  ==============

  “Kill them!!” Zhang yelled as he swung the Slaughterer blade at the undead.

  As the soldiers charged in and the prisoners were released from their cells, the undead were quickly taken care of.

  But after their common foe was gone, the soldiers and the prisoners had a standoff between each other. Weapons were drawn as everyone glared at each other.

  Although the prisoners outnumbered the soldiers greatly, the soldiers were dressed in armor and were all equipped with swords and spears. On top of that, the soldiers had Zhang and Yuying on their side.

  After a moment of silence, Zhang finally spoke.

  “Join me and let's escape together.” He said.

  “Ha why should we join you? Why don't we kill you all and have some fun with that little lady over there.” One of the prisoners said while licking his lips.

  “Shut up!” A voice rang out from behind the crowd of prisoners. The prisoners moved aside to create a path, allowing Zhang to see the owner of the voice.” Gan Ning could be seen emerging from the crowd.

  “Tell me why we should join you.” Gan Ning calmly spoke as he leaned on his sword.

  “If you join me you can survive.” Zhang replied with a grin.

  “Survive? You're saying we need your lot to survive?” Gan Ning laughed.

  “Yes, let's say somehow we make it out of here, then where would you go? You’re an infamous pirate. The moment you step foot into another province or kingdom they would lock you up and quarter you. But if you join me, I'll grant you and your men amnesty.” Zhang said with a smile.

  After thinking for a bit Gan Ning finally spoke. “I'll tell you now I don't work for free.”

  “I'm not telling you to. If we make it out of here, we will head toward Black Wind city and fill our pockets.” Zhang replied with sparkling eyes.

  “Ahahaha you're my kind of person.” Gan Ning said as he put his hand out in front of him with a smile on his face.

  With smiles on their faces the two looters shook hands and joined forces.

  “Captain Zhan Liao lead the way to the armory.” Zhang said to Zhang Liao who had pretty much pledged his allegiance to Zhang.

  “Right away my lord.” Zhang Liao said.

  The armory was located not very far from the prisoner holding area as to allow the soldiers to quickly arm themselves if a prison break broke out.

  Once they reached the armory, Zhang Liao pulled out a bronze key from his robe and with a click the armory doors swung open.

  But once a few of the prisoners got their hands on weapons they began whispering amongst themselves.

  “Why don’t we kill those soldiers and pirates, take command of the rest of the men, and the
n break out of here. With the thousands of men locked up here we could take over a small city and become kings.” One chubby looking prisoner said.

  Immediately after the words parted his lips, a blade plunged through his back.

  “What was that about getting rid of pirates?” Gan Ning said as he pulled his sword out of the freshly created corpse. Moments later, a few more prisoners joined the dead and laid lifelessly on the ground.

  “Anyone else who starts talking shit like that again I'll shove a spear down your throat.” Gan Ning yelled as he armed himself with a spear from a nearby rack.