Chapter 18 - Crater Exit

Minutes ago, just outside of Crater Woods.

"'Wait! Silence!' Liam exclaimed as we approached the outer perimeter of Crater Woods. He held out his open palm to stop us from moving further. I used a minor zhougeru on him to increase his senses earlier. I thought, if he will be leading the group going into Crater Woods, it would benefit us all if his senses were enhanced since Izrik is not with us yet. Additionally, it would help with his newly learned skill of finding tracks.

"'What is it?' Guunnar asked. He guarded the rear of our group.

"'There is fighting inside the woods,' Liam replied. 'At the outer edge of the Crater Hills. Probably near the lake,' he added.

"'That's too small to be a lake. Probably just a pond,' Yiiq-Yin replied sarcastically. He stood right behind Liam and I stood behind him. He has traveled into Crater Woods at least twice before. He was part of the escort team that accompanied the Omono-Ryu when he visited the Crater Woods two winters ago.

"'I think that's Mingmei and the others. I can hear their voices!' Liam exclaimed. His face visibly lightened up as he started to hurry into the Crater Woods.

"'Wait a minute, lover boy,' Yiiq-Yin said as he held Liam's shoulder to stop him from dashing into the Crater Woods and the fight. 'We need to know their positions. If they are in a calculated or planned battle, we might ruin their plans if we suddenly jump in,' he explained patiently. 'Additionally, Crater Hills is not near where we stand. We will need something to speed our movement and retain our stamina if we do not want to be out of strength and breath when we reach them.'

"'I agree,' Guunnar replied briefly.

"'What should we do?' Liam replied. He looked like a helpless kid. He looked like he desperately wanted to have a toy that was just inches beyond his grasp, but a glass barrier prevents him from reaching it.

"'Let me scry their positions first,' I offered. I started to form different arcane sigils with my hands and whispered the power words that activated an eizou that revealed the position of our friends to me. My companions remained quiet as I completed the eizou. Once it was complete, my eyes became completely white.

"'That looks…weird,' Yiiq-Yin whispered to himself. His face twisted into a half-disgusted look.

"'It is not a calculated or planned battle. They currently have the upper hand, but their opponents are secretly preparing siege weapons against them. Onagers and scorpios,' I described. 'It doesn't look like they are aware of the siege weapons that are being readied against them!' I exclaimed.

"'That's it! I'm going in!' Liam declared right away.

"'No! Don't!' I exclaimed as I stopped Liam.

"'Why not? You said that they have no idea that siege weapons are being prepared against them,' he replied. His face has started to become red.

"'No, but the weapons are steam-powered. If they see us, they might activate the weapons prematurely on our friends!' I explained. 'We must go in without being detected!' I added.

"'Steam-powered siege machines,' Guunnar said, his voice trailing off. He probably wondered how our opponents obtained steam-powered siege weapons when our kingdom has allowed only very limited use of steam technology. Moreover, it will take a lot of men to bring all of that siege weapon across the kingdom and into the Crater Woods. And there is the factor of traveling with those large contraptions without getting noticed by anyone.

"'Ok. I like that, but you and Izrik are the only ones who can use stealth,' Yiiq-Yin pointed out.

"'And aren't there traps inside Crater Woods?' Guunnar asked ���If a crime ring is using it as a headquarters, they'd set up traps,' he added.

"'Yes, that is highly likely. However, they likely removed the traps if they are setting up a siege line against our friends. They wouldn't want their own men to get caught in their own traps,' Yiiq-Yin suggested.

"'So, what do we do?' Liam asked impatiently. Listening to us argue has made him more impatient to get into the woods. 'We need to do something before those weapons start firing on our friends!'

"'I will use four zhougeru on all of us,' I said to get their undivided attention and to calm them down at the same time. Especially Liam who suddenly became agitated when he found out that Mingmei is at an arm's length and was in trouble. 'The first will render us all hard to see, but we will still be able to see each other. Just remember to keep moving. If you stop moving for more than fifteen seconds, you will start to become more visible to our opponents,' I said then paused. I waited for my friends to nod their heads before I continued to talk. I wanted them to understand that they need to keep moving to maximize the effectiveness of the first zhougeru. Additionally, I want to see them acknowledge that they understood what I just said. Moving and fighting while under the effects of a zhougeru was something that they rarely experienced. So, I wanted to make sure that they understood everything that I just said. 'The second zhougeru would protect us from non-eizou injury for five minutes. Injuries that can come from attacks or traps. However, we will not be protected from traps that do not injure its victims. If a trap releases an eizou on us, we will not be protected against that as well,' I said and then paused once more. They all nodded and eagerly waited for me to continue. 'The third will allow us to speak through our minds. You don't need to move your lips or make any sound. This will also be for a limited time only. Thus, we need to finish what we need to do before the three zhougeru starts to expire,' I cautioned them. 'Before I activate these three, I will transport us near our target location. The wind will fly us high above Crater Woods and drop us where we need to be. I will activate the protection zhougeru as we fall so the drop will not harm us. I will then activate the remaining two once we're on the ground.' The three all nodded and did not complain about the method of transport that I suggested. It was the fastest way for us to get to Crater Hills and they all understood the urgency.

"'Understood,' Liam replied. He was oddly calm unlike earlier when we arrived. He remained calm as the sound of battle became louder. We can hear it now from the edge of Crater Woods. An explosion of trees rocked the ground where we stood.

"'Remember, these are steam-powered siege weapons. Look for the source of power and destroy it. Look for an engine that has an opening where they can put in an emberstone,' I explained. 'This is what will power these weapons. We have to destroy the power source as fast as possible!' I added.

"'Understood! Let's go!' Liam replied and straightened himself for the attack.

"'Liam, take out the weapons at the center. Guunnar, you take out the weapons on the right side. Yiiq-Yin, disable the weapons on the left,' I said and each of them nodded back at me in response. I immediately activated the zhougeru that catapulted us up into the air at the speed of the wind. In a matter of seconds, we were high above Crater Woods and we could see the clearing at the center where Crater Hills and the small pond of water is located. A few seconds more and we started to fall. I preactivated the zhougeru that would protect us from damage, so, I only need to complete the final sigil to activate it. A brief moment later, we were falling through the leaves of the giant dammara trees and were soon back on solid ground. The three immediately ran the rest of the way towards their targets. 'And I will take out their siege engineers,' I whispered to myself. The three were already close to their targets when I made my move. I ran towards the closest group of siege engineers that were making some final adjustments to a cluster of onagers.

"As soon as I approached the group, I was taken aback. Our armored opponents are unlike anything that we have seen before. I shot a glimpse at Guunnar and he was shocked to see our opponents as well. He threw a momentary glance at me and all I could do was reluctantly nod back at him as I tried to look as confident and calm as I can. I watched him grab the head of the closest opponent with his huge muscular arm and broke its neck in one swift and soundless motion. Blue blood flowed out of the dead reptilian as it lay on the ground. Guunnar moved swiftly to his next target and never once looked back.

"Our enemies look so much like the shuul-ying, but logic tells me this is not possible. The shuul-ying is one of the evil races created by Discord to destroy the peace in The Old Orient. They look like humanoid lizards with several unique mutations. Because they were created by Discord—the Celestial Dragon of Chaos—their physical body manifested the chaos that their creator represents. Physical mutations make each shuul-ying completely different from each other. Some have more than two arms. Some have multiple eyes. Some can spit poison while some can breathe out gases that can have different effects. Some can even breathe out fire or frost.

"When they cannot penetrate the defenses of human civilizations, they turned their attention on the naga. The naga is a race of peaceful human-like beings that evolved from a reptilian ancestor instead of a mammalian ancestor like humans did. After decades of getting terrorized by the shuul-ying, the naga decided to go on an all-out war against the shuul-ying and hunted them down to extinction. The last surviving stronghold of the shuul-ying supposedly fell more than five hundred years ago. And they were declared extinct after a few years of failing to find even a single shuul-ying. Not a single one of them has been seen since that last battle for centuries.

"Until now.

"Finding a large group of shuul-ying in full battle gear like they did five hundred years ago brought conflicting feelings to me. it has been part of my discipline and passion to save all forms of life—especially those that are endangered to become extinct. What if these are the very last surviving shuul-ying on the face of Paragon? Are we just going to kill them off? Is it our group's destiny to finish what the naga started all those centuries ago? Is it the celestial decree that this race—a creation of Discord—should go back one final time into the darkness of oblivion by our hand?

"As I stood there and pondered on what to do next, I failed to realize that I have stood still for more than fifteen seconds and one of the siege engineers has been staring at the area where I stood. He had six reptilian eyes, and this probably gave him better eyesight than most of his kind. Before he could call the attention of his companions, I quickly used a khayantor that froze him in place for a few seconds. It was more than long enough for me to quickly move where he was standing. A brief breeze overcame him, and his blood flowed freely from his throat. I kept my left wing open—my Pigeon Wing—and drew forth my other wing—Dove Wing. I moved swiftly among the group of siege engineers and sliced through their ranks like a swift wind of death with my twin tessen whistling in the air as I passed. They fell down on the ground lifeless and unaware of what hit them.

"Liam and Guunnar have completed disabling the siege engines on their respective areas and have moved to eliminate members of the siege army from the back row. They took advantage of their stealth very well. Shuul-ying soldiers fell dead one by one. The rest of the siege army quickly fell into chaos and this made it easier for the two to finish them off with little resistance.

"Yiiq-Yin had some difficulty on the siege engines. The officers of the siege engines were stationed in his area and the siege soldiers there did not easily fall into a panic. They were able to get into a formation to defend against their unseen opponent and Yiiq-Yin was forced to be more careful and had to move a little slower in taking down the siege engines.

"I forced myself to move faster so that I can assist Yiiq-Yin. I used another zhougeru that increased the movement of my body. I was now maintaining four zhougeru at the same time and I was happy at the feeling of stretching my eizou-jin muscles a little bit more than I usually do. I sliced through ranks of siege engineers and moved towards Yiiq-Yin's position. 'Guunnar, Liam, move towards Yiiq-Yin's position. The siege officers there are giving him a hard time,' I spoke to the two directly into their minds. I just hope they do not freeze up when they hear me. 'We're running out of time!' I exclaimed when I did not hear any acknowledgment from the two.

"'Got it! I didn't know that we could and should reply back,' Liam said and shook his head slightly.

"As I moved towards Yiiq-Yin's position, I saw a small clearing that was previously cut off from my vision because of a line of giant dammara trees. A company of archers has formed an attack line on the clearing and were ready to attack. Their commanding officer—a shuul-ying with golden scales—had one of his four arms raised and ready to give the order to open fire on Mingmei's group.

"There was no time to stop them!

"I turned towards the direction of my friends in horror. Mingmei stood resolute as Lynn and the others slowly withdrew behind her. I wanted to scream at them to run but the sound of forty reptilian arrows flying to the air and towards my friends startled me so much that no sound came from my shocked self.

"'No!' I heard Liam's voice scream in my mind. I turned towards him and saw him almost fall to his knees as he helplessly watched forty arrows fly towards our friends. My heart sunk as I watched him. He grew up as a helpless audience to Mingmei's sorrow after Mingmai's death, unable to do anything to comfort her and now he will be a helpless audience to her death.

"The thought of losing five of my friends at the same time broke something inside me. I felt the hair on my back stand stiff, pushing against my merchant clothes. I pointed my twin tessen towards the archer army of the golden-scaled shuul-ying and summoned a powerful maztera that I am usually not powerful enough yet to use.

"Not that day.

"The maztera formed in front of my outstretched arms and wide-open wings and flew towards the forty archers and their commander. Within the blink of an eye, the archers and their commander were engulfed by large vines that sprouted from the ground and immediately crawled up the bodies of the archers. It slithered up their legs towards their torso as it grew thicker. By the time it reached their chest, the vines were almost thicker than Guunnar's muscular arms. The vines dragged them forcibly into the ground once it reached their chest. The shuul-ying tried helplessly to escape, but the vines were as sturdy as the trunks of the giant dammara trees. They had no chance to break free from the grip of the vines. It will bury them deep in the ground of Crater Woods before they stopped drawing breath. It was a horrible death, but it was not enough punishment for what they did to my friends.

"I watched the archers as they slowly sunk to the ground as if they were caught by a quicksand. To my surprise, a rain of arrows flew towards the archers and struck each one of them. One arrow for each one. I turned immediately at my friends and saw Lynn looking proudly at Mingmei with a wide smile.

"'Dragons bless you Mingmei! But don't you break my heart again like that!' I whispered to myself. 'These lizards should thank Mingmei. They don't have to suffer getting buried alive twenty feet under the ground of Crater Woods,' I added with a wicked smile as I ran towards Yiiq-Yin's position.

"Liam quickly recovered from his shock. He saw everything. He never took his eyes off of Mingmei as she deflected the arrows back to the shuul-ying that fired them. Even though he was happy that our friends were unhurt, he felt angry about not being there for Mingmei again. He decided to channel his frustration on the guards that protected a line of five onagers. Guunnar was with him. Yiiq-Yin sliced his way through the ranks of the siege officers. The shuul-ying siege engineers and soldiers fell one by one, helpless against our assault.

"I made another check on the fallen soldiers behind us and saw just in time as one of the officers was about to load an emberstone into one of the steam-powered onagers. It was fully loaded with large arrows. A single arrow was big enough to kill an adult elephant. If the officer could load it with an emberstone and fire it, it would keep firing these large arrows on our friends until it's empty. That would mean thirty large arrows would fire towards our friends ten times each second before it stops.

"'Liam! Stop that officer!' I yelled at Liam. I was not close enough to stop the officer, but Liam could make it. Liam turned towards the direction that I was pointing and saw the officer that was loading emberstone on the fully armed steam-powered onager. Liam immediately rushed towards the officer as I watched Liam slowly become visible once more.

"'The zhougeru is starting to wear off,' Guunnar said as he noticed the same thing.

"'We���d better hurry then! Or we'll end up facing the army ourselves,' Yiiq-Yin said.

"However, the siege officer was no pushover, he easily defended against Liam's odachi with his reptilian speed. Liam was at a disadvantage. His odachi was too long to be used effectively inside Crater Woods. The shuul-ying officer knew this as he maneuvered Liam towards a denser line of trees. Once in position, he quickly made counterattacks against Liam with a rapier.

"Fortunately, Liam has had years of practice with us in tight positions and he knew exactly how to handle situations where his odachi became too big to use effectively.

"He moved exactly where his opponent wanted him and allowed himself to look helpless between the giant dammara trees. His opponent made a quick lunge at him with his rapier and he stood and waited as his opponent's rapier went for his chest and throat area. Just before the rapier reached his throat, Liam flicked the scabbard of his odachi and blocked the incoming rapier. Unfortunately, the opponent's maneuver brought him too close to Liam but still too close for Liam to use his odachi effectively against him. His opponent knew about this and thought that it was his attack that provided him with an offense and a defense.

"He couldn't be more wrong.

"Liam kicked his opponent on the chest to push him backward. As his opponent fell backward, Liam moved for a quick downward slash—a slash that was parallel to the giant dammara trees and would therefore not be impeded by them. The slash came down on the officer's head with such a force that it sliced him in half—skull, armor, and the ground where he stood.

"Guunnar did not take any chances and lifted one of the onagers over his head and threw it on the last operational onager. We had to make sure that no one else would be able to use the siege weapons before we left.

"I activated another zhougeru that increased our movement speed. We then ran out of Crater Woods towards the southwest. Once outside of the woods, we ran westward and north to rejoin our friends.

"We reached the western edge of Crater Woods just as our friends exited it. The four of us should be running at the same pace because we were all under the influence of the zhougeru, but Liam had somehow managed to run even faster than the rest of us. He caught up with Mingmei and the rest of our friends a few moments later.

"'Now look at what the lizards dragged out of the woods,' Lynn said with a teasing smile. 'You guys are late. And where's Izrik?' she added immediately with a worried look.

"'Izrik had to travel back to Heung,' I replied as we caught up with Liam. He was speechless as he stood watching Mingmei who went to me and silently hugged me tightly.

"'We need to get far from Crater Woods. They are not yet in pursuit, but they likely would be once they regroup,' Eunshi interrupted.

"'Where are we headed?' Yiiq-Yin asked. I removed the zhougeru that I placed on our group and checked if any of my friends were injured. Eunshi did the same as she waited for us to start moving as she suggested.

"'Haan-Dar,' Lynn replied briefly. 'We need to get there fast. We have a lot of questions that need answers,' she added as she glanced at Mingmei who walked towards Yiiq-Yin and gave him a silent yet tight hug.

"'I know the fastest way to travel to Haan-Dar,' Guunnar said as he received a similar silent hug from Mingmei. Liam watched silently and waited for his turn."