Close Fight

Xuan Yin made the first move, sending out a pair of black arrows. Like two rays, they shot forth in a straight line, aimed at Tong Ku's heart.

He sneered at the sad attack, easily dodging it.

"Was that really the best you had?" he asked mockingly.

Xuan Yin merely waited, watching him. Looking at her, he felt that something was odd and before he knew it, a piercing pain burned through his body. He looked at his back finding the two arrows that she shot wedged in his back.

"But how?" he thought, "Could those arrows have a homing ability?"

Tong Ku touched the arrows and ripped them out, grunting in pain. He may have a rough idea of their strength but the two women had many cards up their sleeves.

Taking him by surprise, Ming Yue took this chance to attack him. But his awareness was too good, he saw her approaching and dashed away, throwing a number of needles at her. Dark green in color, they must have been dipped in some sort of powerful poison. She made a quick sidestep to avoid them and retaliated with a blade of wind. Cutting through the numerous branches, it quickly reached his position and missed after he ducked under.

Both Ming Yue and Xuan Yin chased him through the trees, sending arrows and wind blades at him. Getting pushed around by these two had angered Tong Ku. He stopped running and charged back at them. With the short dagger on one hand and a hook and chain on the other, he fought them to a stand still. His short dagger was quick enough to keep up with Ming Yue's sword while he used the chain to keep Xuan Yin away. The chain seemed to follow her wherever she went, his control was almost perfect. On its end was a meat hook, the type that butchers used to hang pigs. It was not well maintained, rusted from blood. Even so, the hook was extremely sharp.

She had barely any opportunity to shoot at him, she was too focused on dealing with the chain.It was not long before she slipped up, landing sloppily on a patch of wet soil. With no time to recover, the hook stabbed right through her forearm.

"Arghh!" she screamed in pain as Tong Ku yanked the chain and brought her to him.

However, she would not come to him without resisting, shooting a barrage of black arrows. Each one was more powerful than the last.

But Tong Ku was prepared for this and covered himself in a layer of energy to defend against them. At the same time, Ming Yue took out her dagger and stabbed it forward, past his guard. With both arms preoccupied, he could not deal with her dagger and took the hit.

Lucky for him, it did not break his protective layer, merely cracking it. But Xuan Yin followed up with several shots, making a hole in his defense.

"Ah, fucking hell! Get off!" he yelled out.

A shockwave emitted from his body and knocked back Ming Yue. Afterwards, he grabbed Xuan Yin and held his knife to her neck.

"If you don't want her dead now, come back with me!" he yelled out angrily.

Ming Yue did not know what to do at that moment but Xuan Yin did.

She spit on him before berating him, "Fucking kill me now, you asshole. I want to see you try!"

An arrow formed in her hand as she grabbed it and stabbed the arrow deep into his thigh. Releasing her from his grip, he looked at his thigh and screamed in pain. Xuan Yin had broke off the arrow, making it harder to take out. She faced him and aimed her bow at his head.

In the face of her weapon, he only laughed at her.

"Oh, you have no idea what you've done", he said.

Tong Ku suddenly threw something at Xuan Yin. It was a pure white ball that exploded into mist when it hit her. At first, Xuan Yin felt nothing but then her knees gave out as she fell to the ground.

"What..did you..do?" she spoke weakly, losing control of het body.

"Paralysis poison, one of my own creations. How do you like it? It's quite a fast acting one" he smirked at her limo body.

With Xuan Yin out, he only had Ming Yue left to care care of. Rather than continue fighting, she made rescuing Xuan Yin her highest priority. She built up her energy for Savage Tempest, Xuan YIn had given her enough time to accumulate it. The power expanded around her sword, three times its size. She slammed it in to the ground causing cracks and tremors all over the area. Tong Ku was surprised by the sudden attack and lost his footing. Under the confusion, Ming Yue sent Hei Yue after Xuan Yin and started running.

"I'm not going to let you go that easily!", said Tong Ku.

He chased after her throwing more needles while he tried to capture them with his chain. In the midst of running, she took out some herbs and stuffed them into Xuan Yin's mouth. Then the two split off into separate directions. After splitting, Tong Ku chased after Ming Yue as she was his goal from the beginning.

Knowing that she could not outrun him, she began moving in a strange fashion. Turning, diving and jumping, her movement made it difficult for Tong Ku to follow. This was her dao in play, darting and dashing at every moment, her unpredictable movements made her a hard target to chase. But she was not good enough, following her, he threw a number of knifes and needles at her eventually hitting her in the shoulder.

Ming Yue winced from the daggers cutting through her left shoulder. She could feel numbness passing through her arms and into her body. She quickly circled her energy to slow it down but it did not do much. In a last ditch attempt, she turned around and burst forth, the added momentum from running made her extremely fast. Her left arm was limp from the poison while her right held her blade. She charged straight for him before changing directions, creating faint afterimages of herself.

"Stop running like a mouse!" his eyes tried to catch her but only found blurs.

Spinning the chain in his hand, the hook began to glow red.

"Bloodhunt", Tong Ku threw it at her, letting go of the chain in the process. The chain began chasing after her, hungering for her flesh.

"That chain will follow you so long as you bleed. You cannot escape it", he laughed in contempt.

Ming Yue felt a bit frustrated by this. She had planned on showering him in attacks but this chain kept her quick on her feet. It looks like he really wanted to capture her or at least get her body. By now the paralysis had begun to spread past her arm and into her other limbs.

She dashed towards him and attacked him head on. Tong Ku was ready for this and blocked her strike, making an attampt to grab her. Ming Yue was not quick enough and he took ahold of her sword. Just when he felt victory in his grasp, she let go of the blade and instead grabbed the hook of the chain that was just inches from her back.

Gripping it tightly, she stabbed the hook right into his neck, puncturing it deeply. Shock emerged from his eyes as he struggled to breathe, coughing up blood.

She fell to the ground unable to move her body, the numbness had spread to the rest of her body. He took out the hook, blood constantly ran down his neck.

Tong Ku looked at her with hatred speaking with a gargled voice, "You caused me so much trouble, making me go out of my way to hunt you. You little bitch, when I bring you back, I'm going to make sure you suffer until your last breath. I'll keep you company with that friend of yours once I find her."

He reached for her body with his arm outstretched. Then a black light passed through ripping through his hand. Another followed it and came for his neck. Taking him by surprise, he could not defend himself and hoarsely screamed as his neck bled profuselg from the arrows. Seconds later his screams stopped as the arrow in his neck corroded his neck. It turned gray and melted, his head fell off a slimy mess as his body soon followed.

From afar, Xuan Yin barely held her bow up and Hei Yue carried her on his back.

"Haah, that was close, too close for comfort", she said.