A Beginning's Continuation

by Tony Tran

  “Brother! Brother! I want one of those! I want to fly onto of one too!” Ai yelled in an excited tone as she spotted the thousands of Golden Winged Eagles that were currently flying toward the Sky Fortress.

  Just like Ai, Zhang’s eyes also glittered as he caught sight of the eagles.

  “If they joined me then not only will I have an aerial fortress; I’ll even have an aerial army!” Zhang thought excitedly.

  With the fortress alone he wasn’t confident in being able to deal the kingdoms that bordered the Warring States Region. As Zhang saw things, although it did not take much time at all to lower his soldiers down to the ground using the dozens of platforms apart of the fortress, if he met with a highly-organized army the size that some kingdoms possessed, his men would be easily outnumbered and subdued when the platform landed.

  But if he had an army like the Golden Wing Army, then Zhang would be able to cover his soldiers being unloaded from the platforms of the Sky Fortress. Such an army would also only serve to add to his army’s overall military might.

  “You two can spend as much time as you like taming flying demonic beasts after we repel them.” Lingqi laughed as she saw how much Zhang and Ai currently resembled two children who just caught sight of a shiny new toy.

  “Ri-right.” Zhang laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

  “All archers and ballistae units prepare to fire! All civilians fall back to the underground sanctuary. We are under attack; I repeat we are under attack.” Zhang said as his voice projected throughout the fortress thanks to the magical voice amplifiers installed everywhere.

  Once orders were given, Zhang walked out from the room he was in and jumped off one of the four balconies that circled the top most floor of the Azure Tower. After jumping off the balcony Zhang landed on top of a flying platform that began to lift him upward toward the roof of the tower, but not before Ling also jumped off the balcony and landed beside him.

  At the very tip of the Azure Tower was a massive diamond shaped crystal that glistened under the sun’s rays, this, of course, was one of the Sky Fortress’s essence cores.

  “Just put your hand on it and draw on its power, I’ve already bounded a drop of your blood to it so, that the core’s defensive mechanisms won’t activate on you.” Zhang said toward Ling as they both sped toward the essence core.

  Unlike the Underworld Heart which can draw an unlimited supply of essence from the area around it but was limited to its user’s storage capacity, the essence core created its own essence at a fairly quick rate and possessed massive storage capacity. The only downsides it possessed is that it had a limit to how much essence it could store, which could not be expanded like a human’s or was not infinite like the Dragon Heart Necklace storage capacity and that its rate of essence regeneration isn’t as quick as the rate that the Underworld Heart absorbed essence at. Then there was also the fact regarding its massive size so, it can’t be stored on a person’s body.

  So, although they could not be compared to the Dragon Heart Necklace in terms of storage capacity nor could it be compared to the Underworld Heart’s essence channeling rate, essence cores are without a doubt very usefully because it contained lesser versions of the two treasure’s abilities but combined into one.

  One may wonder why didn’t Zhang simply funnel essence absorbed from the Underworld Heart into the Dragon Heart Necklace, well actually he did, but he was normally unwilling to tap into the store of essence in the Dragon Heart Necklace and saved it only for life-threatening situations.

  Thus, the essence core served as an alternative for when Zhang wished to use or strengthen his techniques that require more essence than his body could store.

  Placing their hands onto the essence core, Zhang and Ling began unleashing their techniques on the incoming army of demonic birds being ridden by soldiers in golden colored armor.

  Pointing one of his hands outward while keeping the other on the essence core, Zhang began to unleash massive lightning bolts the size of which no one has ever seen before. Ling on the other hand began to draw out moisture from the atmosphere and the surrounding clouds to create a hail of sharp shards of ice.

  In mere moments, dozens of Golden Winged Eagles fell to the sky after being pelted by ice or shocked by lightning. Of course, since the eagles were level seven demonic beasts that were big enough to be ridden by people, they would obviously be fairly resilient and would not die so, easily. But they would certainly sustain heavy injuries while their riders who are humans would without a doubt meet their end due to falling to the ground from such heights.

  Chapter 70: Aerial Skirmish

  While Zhang and Ling continued to unleash lightning and ice across the sky, their soldiers released countless arrows and ballistae bolts into the air.

  Sadly, the arrows shot toward the Golden Wind Eagles proved to be rather useless and were simply deflected. This was because the feathers of the Golden Winged Eagles were as hard as iron and thus impervious to regular arrows.

  However, despite not being affected by regular arrows, the massive ballista bolts the size of spears proved to be very effective. But there were simply too many eagles and too few ballistae to do very much damage.

  Since Zhang and Ling could only do so, much, the Golden Wing Army soon descended upon the fortress at blinding speeds. With their eyes set on Zhang’s ballistae, only weapons under the disposal of Zhang’s soldiers that could harm them, thousands of Eagles swarmed the Sky Fortresses hangers.

  Alone the Golden Winged Eagles were already monstrous opponents, but since they had mounted riders armed with pikes and bows, their battle potential was much more devastating. Mixed into their ranks were also low level mages who could unleash a fury of attacks from the sky and fly away unharmed.

  It was obvious that Zhang’s army was currently at an absolute disadvantage and if it were not for Zhang and Ling, they would have little to no means of defeating the Golden Winged Army.

  “Turtle formations and retreat!” Some of Zhang’s captains commanded as they tried to fend off the onslaught of razor sharp talons and vast array of attacks being sent flying toward their men.

  Seeing that they had no part to play in this battle, Zhang’s commanders, ordered for their men to retreat to defendable locations to minimize their casualties.

  Even with the Sky Fortress on their side Zhang’s forces were still at an overwhelming disadvantage so, one could only imagine how much more deadly the Golden Wing Army would be when facing a landlocked army on an open plain.

  Seeing his men being picked off one by one by the massive eagles, while still tapping into the essence core Zhang began to activate his Abyssal Cape.

  As the cape that appeared to be a doorway into an endless abyss fluttered in the wind, Zhang’s shadow expanded and began spread from the spot under his feet until it covered the majority of the land on the upper side of the fortress.

  Once the fortress was cloaked in shadows, thousands upon thousands of terrifying screeches rang into everyone’s ears. Soon enough countless black colored eagles and winged snakes rose out from the shadows and up into the skies.

  Much to the horror of the Golden Winged Army, an army of Abyssal Eagles practically identical to the Golden Wing Eagled and massive winged snakes appeared out of nowhere, ascended into the sky and charged straight toward them.

  As a clash of talons and claws began in the skies, the soldiers of the Golden Winged Army unlike their companions, began to panic. Since this could be counted as the first time in its history that the Golden Wing Army had to face an opposing force in the skies.

  “How could there be such a large force of flying demonic beasts besides ours in the Warring States Region!” A soldier atop one of the massive eagles said as anxiety filled his mind.

  “Prepare to engage the enemy! It doesn't matter how they massed such a number of flying demonic beasts because the skies belong to us! As like as we stay within the area ruled by the sacred bird no one can challenge us!” Another soldier of
the Golden Wing Army roared as he lifted his spear up into the air. However, moments later this very same soldier found himself in dire straits as three Abyssal Eagles surrounded him.

  Since they were trained to use their aerial advantage and take out opposing enemies who were stuck on foot, the soldiers of the Golden Wing Army were at a loss at what to do when Zhang’s Abyssal Beasts closed in on them.

  But since the Abyssal Beasts did not really possess much intelligence nor durability, they were rather lacking when compared to the Golden Winged Eagles that were bred and trained for war. But what they lacked, the Abyssal Beasts made up for in numbers.

  It was simple to say that for everyone Golden Winged Eagle there were roughly three or four Abyssal Beasts.

  “Sis do you think I can catch one of them?” Ai asked as she stood beside Lingqi and Yuying, looking up into the sky.

  “One hundred gold coins says you can’t.” Lingqi teased.

  “You don't know until you try.” Yuying laughed as she saw Ai gripping onto her black whip.

  While Ai, Lingqi and Yuying were watching the battle unfold, Zhang noticed that the soldiers of the Golden Wing Army were quickly forming aerial formations while regaining their composure.

  After the initial clash with the Abyssal Beasts, they began to realize that despite being outnumbered and despite how terrifying the swarm of Abyssal Beasts appeared to be, they weren't much of a problem.

  That isn't to say the Golden Wing Army was not suffering any damage at all. Although they did not lose a large portion of their forces, roughly about ten thousand riders were lost while more the six or seven thousand Golden Winged Eagles were shot out of the sky by either Zhang, Ling or one of the many Abyssal Beasts flying around.

  As the battle heated up, the rate at which riders of the Golden Wing Army were falling from the skies began to increase despite the fact that the number of Abyssal Beasts were dwindling. This was because as the Eagles swooped through the sky, they would get shot be sticky blobs of spider webbing, which would tangle their wings and cause the eagles to lost the ability to stay in the air.

  Yuying’s horde of Wraith Spiders could be seen unleashing barrage after barrage of their webbing into the skies, further adding to the casualties of the Golden Wing Army.

  But of course, the arrival of the Wraith Spider did not change much because the sheer difference in numbers between the two groups of demonic beasts. Eventually some of the Wraith Spider were even attacked by the Eagles that swooped down from above.

  “Shit…” Yuying cursed as she saw some of her spiders being hooked by the claws of some of the eagles and being lifted into the air.

  However, much to her delight, the spiders were able to break free of the eagle’s grasp by injecting them with venom then jumping back onto the Sky Fortress.

  “Guess I’ll have to use some of the fortress’s defensive mechanisms.” Zhang thought as he saw the tide of battle go unchanged and continued in the favor of the Golden Wing Army.

  Soon enough the silver ring on his finger began to emit a blood red glow. Moments later the Sky Fortress’s sixteen azure colored towers began to light up and countless runes and inscriptions began to appear on their exterior.

  Sensing something was wrong, the Golden Winged Eagles screeched and flew upward into the air to create distance between themselves and the Sky Fortress. Much to the distress of the soldiers riding atop these massive birds of prey a terrifying aura fluctuated in the air as the fifteen midsized essence cores positioned at the tower of the small azure colored towers began to resonate and send out beams of pure essence toward each other and the fortress’s main essence core where Zhang and Ling were standing.

  With quick movements Zhang hooked his arm around Ling’s waist and hoisted her over his shoulder as he made his way off the roof of the main tower just before the rays of essence from the ten mini towers on the upper half of the fortress connected with the main essence core while the small azure towers at the underside of the fortress connected with each other.

  Before long the rays of essence that was being shot out from the towers began to split apart and form a net around the entire sky fortress. This of course, was not before a pitch-black whip lashed out into the sky and wrapped the leg of one of the eagles, dragging it and its rider toward the Sky Fortress.

  Looking toward the fortress Ai could be seen with her whip in hand, reeling in her catch with twinkling eyes.

  Just as the eagle caught by Ai crashed into the ground, as entire fortress was encased in a massive sphere made of essence. Once the sphere was formed none of the Golden Winged Eagles nor their riders dared to move in.

  The essence given off by the sphere alone made the hairs on everyone's body stand and their senses to scream. Radiating pure essence, it was without a doubt that anything that touched that sphere would be either repelled or burnt to ashes defending on its characteristic, and of course, no one was willing to find out nor could they because the skies were still filled with Abyssal Beasts although their numbers had greatly dwindled compared to before.

  So, with the sphere constructed of essence up, Zhang began to move the Sky Fortress. Since the force field could not be kept active for a long time he decided his best course of action would to temporarily retreat.

  “I'll be back with countermeasures.” Zhang mumbled as the fortress moved through the sky.

  Since their objective was to conquer the Southern Region, allowing such a powerful force to remain wouldn't be a wise thing to do at all.

  As the massive Sky Fortress retreated, the Golden Winged Army followed closely behind until the fortress flew over a range of mountains that marked the border of the Golden Peak Province.

  “My lord, a total of twenty thousand of our men are unaccounted for while another five thousand are under medical care.” Guan Yu reported to Zhang as they departed from the Golden Peak Province.

  “Tsk… To think the confrontation only lasted no more than two hours…” Zhang clicked his tongue once he found how many soldiers he lost.

  “Also, a total of six hundred enemy demonic beasts and five hundred eighty enemy riders have been captured upon crash landing into the fortress or by the princess's spiders. My men also report that although the Golden Winged Eagles acted fairly calm when placed in captivity, they have begun to act strange after we departed from the Golden Peak Province.” Guan Yu also said.

  “I guess they didn't get off without suffering any damage either.” Zhang said. If one actually thought about it, the Golden Winged Army had suffered a greater loss than Zhang’s army.

  Normal soldiers and elite soldiers could be easily replaced whereas tamed demonic beasts trained for battle was not. Especially since the Golden Winged Eagles were fairly high level demonic beasts.

  “Brother! Look!” Ai’s voice could be heard coming from outside as it echoed up to the highest floor of the Azure Tower, where Zhang was.

  Walking out onto a balcony and looking downward, Zhang could see Ai, Lingqi and Yuying standing on a platform that was lifting them up toward where he and Ling were.

  In Ai’s hand was her signature black whip and surprisingly it was still attached to the Golden Winged Eagle that she had caught earlier. The poor bird was helplessly flapping its wings and trying to escape but to no avail due to Ai’s monstrous strength. Its rider was also nowhere to be seen either.

  Zhang couldn't help but laugh at the sight of the massive eagle trying to flee away from Ai, since if she was compared to the eagle in terms of size, it would be easily twice if not three times her size.

  Once the platform Ai, Lingqi and Yuying were on arrived at the balcony where Zhang and Ling were, Little White whom had not taken part in the battle due to its inability to fly, licked its lips as it spotted the Golden Wing Eagle.

  “Brother look at what I caught!” Ai said happily as she jumped off the platform and onto the balcony. Perhaps it was due to jumping onto the balcony or perhaps it was because act of heaven, Ai loss grip of her whip and the eagle on the
other end of the line spun in the air and broke loose.

  Immediately realizing her blunder, Ai’s face sank and a frown appeared on it. However, the eagle did not get very far because from within Ling’s embrace, Little White shot forward and changed into its maximize size.

  An instant later Little White’s claws sank into the Golden Winged Eagle’s wing and sending them both plummeting toward the ground.

  “It's okay we’ll catch a few hundred of them.” Zhang said with a laugh as he patted Ai on the shoulder.

  After Ai’s moon took another one-hundred-and-eighty-degree spin back to a cheerful one, Zhang and his wives headed toward where all of the capture Golden Winged Eagles and captured enemy riders were being held.

  Walking to the base of the main Azure Tower, Zhang activated a hidden mechanism in the floor that caused a section of it to begin to lower into the ground. Moments later Zhang, the beauties, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and a few of their guards descended into the depths of the Sky Fortress.