Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  As the prisoners quickly armed themselves, loud banging could be heard coming from the outside.

  “Everyone lock yourselves inside the cells and use the iron bars to our advantage!” Zhang yelled as he ran toward the prisoner holding area.

  Without hesitation, the inmates and soldiers all lounged into the closest cell and quickly locked themselves inside.

  Just as the last cell was closed, a loud boom could be heard, followed by the sound of heavy objects crashing down onto the ground.

  The gates that the soldiers had locked were knocked down and the undead began swarming inside. the prison walls had already been overrun by undead because Shen Shi and Chanming Hai had opened the gates which allowed the undead to easily enter.

  As the undead reached the prisoner holding area they were greeted with walls of spears and swords coming out from the prison cells.

  “Aim for their chests!” Zhang yelled as he used Sky Piercer to stab holes in chests of the undead.

  “Kill!” Gan Ning and Zhang Liao yelled.

  Although there was countless undead, the sturdy iron bars kept the death count of the soldiers and inmates to zero. Sadly, some of the few walls that helped make up the cells gave out and caved in.

  “Ahahahaha you lot are trapped like rats!” A hoarse voice rang out from behind the hoard of undead.

  Strangely, the undead stopped their onslaught against the living and ceased moving. A few of them even parted from each other and created a path.

  From the path created by the undead, Chanming Hai could be seen walking toward a prison cell with a few men inside. Once he arrived at the cell, he stuck his tentacle like hand through the gaps between the iron bars.

  Seeing this the men trapped inside yelled out in fear.

  But before Chanming Hai could do anything, Zhang’s ten dragon talon throwing knives flew through the air and plunged into his back, piercing through his chest. From the holes that the dragon talons left green goo oozed out.

  “That’s for acting cocky! Damn worm!” Zhang cursed as he made the dragon talon throwing knives fly back into his hand.

  “Foolish human you think you can stop me with those?” Chanming Hai chuckled as he turned back and stared at Zhang. Despite being classed as a rank one demonic beast, when the queen heart burrow infects a victim it could strengthen the victim’s body. of course only to a certain extent depending on the victim’s cultivation and physical properties. Also the queen worm can mentally take over anyone who is infected by the worms.

  With that all being said, General Chanming Hai was a level six practitioner before the queen infected him. But now he could be comparable to a level seven practitioner with an extremely tough body.

  Chanming Hai slowly made his way toward the cell that Zhang locked himself in. Step by step he inched closer as a creepy crooked smile appeared on his face. As he walked, green goo continued oozing out of his deformed body.

  “None of your tricks can kill me human. not in this body! I’ll kill you and take your body since that child’s body is of no use to me anymore.” Chanming Hai said while closing in on Zhang’s cell.

  “Are you sure my tricks won't be able to kill you?” Zhang chuckled as essence began gathering at his fingertips.

  Soon the essence began to crackle and snake about his arm. From afar it would seem like dragons made of lightning were coiling around Zhang’s arm.

  “This is something a kind old man taught me in hell.” Zhang said with a smile as the lightning dragon shot out from his fingertips.

  The crackling lightning quickly struck the closest undead and then began to arc to the next closest undead, causing a chain of lightning.

  “Thank you senior.” Zhang thought as he remembered the kind elderly man that he met in the underworld, who died to give him another chance at living.

  Zhang had learned many things from Xin Tao during their time together, but only recently had he felt comfortable using these skills. The reason for his new found confidence was because he had managed to reach the 7th level of cultivation thanks to the constant streams of essence he had been receiving from the Underworld Heart. Those techniques required a significant amount of essence, and if he was not careful when using them, he could find himself in trouble.

  After shooting the lightning dragon, Zhang stumbled onto the ground. Seeing Zhang on the ground, Yuying rushed over to him and placed a small bottle of essence water in front of his lips.

  The lightning dragon snaked from undead to undead until it finally reached Chanming Hai and engulfed him in a blinding white light.

  Each and every undead that was touched by the lightning before it reached Chanming Hai was turned to char.

  Anticlimactically, Chanming Hai’s charred corpse fell to the ground and a puddle of green goo formed beneath it.

  After Chanming Hai was killed, the undead who had ceased their onslaught against the living began moving once more.

  “Kill them! Kill them all!” Gan Ning yelled as he stabbed an undead in the chest with his spear.

  ==================================

  A short distance away from the prison, Zhang’s army of fifty thousand was making their way through the forest using the bridged created by the spiders.

  “It's as if all of the undead have gathered here.” Lu Xun said as he looked down from atop the silk bridge in the canopy of the forest.

  Moments later, they were at the edge of the forest and saw that the entire lake and the area around it was filled with undead.

  Seeing the lake, Ling’s eyes lit up. Behind her, dozens of people were holding bottles of essence water.

  As Ling conjured her essence, the water of the lake began to swirl about. Shortly after, many columns of water shot up into the sky creating a wall of water. The massive wall of water then tumbled over and smashed down.

  The tsunami created from the wall of water swept away many undead and sent them smashing into the walls of the prison. The force of the water alone ripped the undead and the worms inside of them to pieces.

  Soon even the outer walls of the prison gave out to the tsunami and collapsed inward. Ling made sure that the tsunami did not smash into the prison itself, because she did not want to kill her future husband.

  As the tsunami continued smashing everything in its path, Ling could be seen gulping down dozens of small bottles of essence water. The toil of creating such a disaster was huge.

  Despite the destructiveness of the attack, not all of the undead were taken out. There was still a sizable sum of them still around. This just goes to show how many undead there was to begin with.

  “Descend the trees and go aid our lord!” Lu Xun yelled as he slid down one of the many thread ropes that the spiders had spun.

  Yuying had made it so the spiders under her control would listen to Zhang and Ai, but Ai was currently commanding them.

  After the soldiers descended the trees and approached the edge of the water, they formed orderly ranks.

  With a wave of her hand, Ling made the water in the lake part, creating a path for her and the soldiers of Aurora.

  “I should have worked harder and became a mage.” Lu Xun thought as he saw Ling’s power.

  “Ice God’s Eternal Frost!” Ling yelled out as two tiny needle-like pieces of ice shot from her sleeves, hitting the walls of water.

  The instant the two needles hit the walls of water, they dispersed and created a thick membrane of ice. The membrane began spreading along the wall of water until it completely turned into ice. The two walls of newly created ice kept the water back and made it so Ling did not have to constantly use her essence to control the water.

  After creating the walls of ice, Ling fainted due to exhaustion. To be honest, if it had not been for the fact that they had lots of bottles of essence water, she would not have been able to do everything she did.

  While crossing the path, soldiers were busy staring in awe at the walls of ice. As they crossed the lake, something was happening inside the prison.

>   Chapter 68: The Giant

  As the water began receding back, something sinister was brewing behind the broken outer prison walls. Thousands of undead who were not crushed by the raging waves began congregating together. In the center of the horde was what used to be a small boy.

  The dozens of tentacles poking out of the small boy began plunging themselves into the corpses around him. Whenever a tentacle touched a corpse, it would begin to absorb the corpse into it. Soon, a large mass of flesh was formed with the small boy’s body as the core.

  With each corpse, the tentacles that absorbed the blob of flesh began growing bigger and bigger, until the blob took a humanoid shape which towered over the prison.

  Every bit of flesh and every severed limb that was on the ground was now a part of the giant abomination.

  The tentacles even extended into the prison and absorbed the many undead inside. A few unlucky living people were also absorbed. Screams echoed through the now empty halls of the prison as their bodies were mercilessly dragged outside.

  Luckily, most of the people inside the prison were armed and had locked themselves behind thick iron bars, which helped them defend themselves from the tentacles.

  The sight of the giant undead looming over the prison struck fear into the hearts of the soldiers of Aurora, but of course anyone would be afraid of something so big. Most likely just a simple kick from this giant would smash city walls or crush hundreds, if not, thousands of men.

  Despite having a humanoid shape, the giant undead looked deformed and had countless tentacles poking out of its body along with two elongated arms that hung from its massive torso. In place of what-would-be fingers, were ten large tentacles that slithered about.

  “What have I dragged myself into…” Sun Ce murmured as he and the rest of the soldiers of Aurora made their way closer and closer to the giant through the lake.

  Suddenly, the giant lifted one of its huge legs up and stepped down on the prison below. The ground rumbled and shook as it’s foot crashed down, and with a single step, it was able to flatten a large portion of the prison. As the giant moved its foot, thousands of people ran out from the damaged prison, almost as if they were ants in a freshly stepped on ant mound.

  “Everyone move quickly!” Ai yelled while she rushed forward at an increased pace. The fact that Zhang was probably in the prison and could be crushed by the giant made a sense of dread creep into her heart.

  ==================================

  Inside the prison, something unnatural was happening. A green mist had spewed out from inside the prisoner holding area.

  The thick mist had an eerie feel to it which would send shivers running down the spine of anyone who was near it or touched by it.

  Wherever the green mist went, the ground began shifting as if something was trying to dig its way up from below. Moments later, countless bony limbs began emerging from the ground. Countless skeletons of people and various animals crawled out from the ground and began swarming the prison grounds.

  From inside the prison, Yuying could be seen with green mist swirling around her as countless black runes were moving about on the ground. Her eyes had an eerie green glow emanating from them and a face tense with focus.

  A purplish energy was emitting from Zhang’s hand and was channeled into Yuying. From simply looking at his face, one could tell how much he was currently concentrating. Clearly he was sending a constant stream of essence into her so she could maintain her spell. Without the constant stream of essence being channeled into her, Yuying wouldn't have been able to conjure the green mist on such a large scale.

  Outside, legions of skeletons began swarming the giant abomination and wherever the green mist touched the giant, skeletons would begin popping out also.

  The soldiers of the Black Wind Army and prisoners all stood with their mouths wide open. With Yuying’s technique, a massive army could be conjured up in an instant, assuming of course, there were enough skeletons or corpses around.

  Had the millions of worms not taken complete control of the flesh of the dead, then most likely instead of skeletons, then legions of zombies would have spawned under her control. However, everything has its price. Such a terrifying technique consumed a massive amount of essence.

  Even with the constant stream of essence she was receiving, the technique took a huge strain on Yuying. Much like Ling, the color on her face was slowly fading until it was pale as paper.

  While the skeletons swarmed the giant, dozens of thorny, pitch black vines came out from the ground. The vines then crawled upward, wrapping the giant’s leg, rooting it to the ground. Moments later, the vines had creeped their way up toward the giant’s abdomen.

  Without warning, hundreds of pure white petals bloomed from the vines, creating dozens of beautiful flowers that ran along the leg of the giant. These flowers were referred to as the “Queen of the Night.”

  The giant’s leg had been caught by the Queen of the Night and could not any longer move.

  Ai could be seen standing on the ground just next to where the stem of the flower came out of the ground with a large smile on her face.

  “I made it!” She yelled with a grin as she looked into the broken prison wall and saw Zhang and Yuying.

  With the legions of skeletons and the Queen of the Night assaulting it, the giant ceased its attack on the prison. This allowed the soldiers and prisoners inside to safely make their way out. The only ones still inside were Zhang, Yuying, Zhang Liao, Gan Ning and last but not least Leng Zai.

  “Archers fire!!!!” Lu Xun yelled as he raised his sword into the air.

  Soon thousands of arrows flew toward the giant, but upon landing, did next to no damage.

  “God dammit….” Lu Xun cursed as he saw their attack did nothing.

  “Everyone fall back to the other shore! There's nothing we can do here!” Lu Xun ordered. He did not wish for the soldiers to die needlessly so retreating was the best action to take.

  After hearing Lu Xun’s orders, the soldiers of Aurora slowly made their way back through the lake, but of course, Lu Xun and Sun Ce chose to stay.

  The remaining soldiers of the Black Wind Army and the prisoners saw the soldiers of Aurora retreat, which urged them to also quickly make their way off the prison island.

  “This is a battle for monsters…” One prisoner murmured as he quickly ran for his life.

  While everyone was busy retreating, massive vines grew out of the Queen of the Night flower and wildly whipped at the giant undead. Each vine was equipped with thousands of razor sharp thorns that tore whatever they touched into shreds.

  The legions of skeletons had stopped their attack against the giant and instead began conjugating down below. Green mist had begun swirling around each and every skeleton and piece by piece they broke apart. After being broken to pieces all of the skeletons combined into a whole.

  A massive dragon made of bones had been constructed right in front of the giant.

  An ear popping roar was soon emitted from the nonexistent lungs of the bone dragon. As it roared, the bone dragon’s maw widened and bit down on the giant.

  By now, Ling had awoken and had jumped into the waters of the lake. Soon, a pillar of water rose into the sky as dozens of large crescent water blades shot toward the giant. Upon cutting into the giant, the water blades would almost instantly freeze. Not long after the attacks began, chunks of ice covered numerous areas on the giant’s body.

  The thousands of people who had made it off the island watched in awe as the battle unfolded.

  “It truly is a battle of monsters.” A few of them murmured. This battle could be comparable to a battle between high level demonic beasts, but the thing is, two of the three monsters were actually human.

  Realistically speaking, regular practitioners at the 7th level could never do what Yuying, Ling, or Ai did. However, Ling had tons of essence water to replenish herself, Yuying received a constant stream of essence from the Underworld Heart, and Ai had the Black Thorn whi
p, these circumstances allowed the three girls to surpass the limitations that everyone else faced.

  As the battle raged on, the entire prison was turned into rubble. Buildings were knocked down, walls were smashed in, and nothing was left standing. Large chunks of flesh could be seen all over the ground as the bone dragon continued its assault against the giant while large parts of the giant was covered in frost.

  Despite how many attacks the giant took, it showed no signs of stopping. Each time a piece of it was ripped off, the giant would simply absorb the same piece back into its body. An endless cycle had been created where the bone dragon and Ling’s water blades would hack off pieces of the giant and then the pieces would be absorbed back into it. Ling did not have enough essence to completely freeze the giant or else things would have already ended.