It kind of looked like a salamander

Mildew started making anxious noises. It flew off of Lai Yiteng's shoulder and high up into the sky before going back the way they came before.

To think it left him before they were even attacked, Lai Yiteng was numb at heart.

The black thing howled again and dashed between the next two boulders, closer still. It made a scratching noise each time it moved, like nails dragging over the ground sharply. Lai Yiteng squinted his eyes, but the thing was so fast it was impossible to get a good look.

Gut intuition told him that facing the ghouls was safer. Yet, he could not turn his back to it now.

Lai Yiteng drew out his dagger. He would prefer to rely on pure martial arts to fight his enemies, but with his current state…it was better to try with the dagger first.

It finally sprung at him.

A blur shot towards his boulder and slammed into it as a shriek pierced the air.

Lai Yiteng's body felt a jarring sensation ringing through, the ground and air vibrated from the scream and his face twisted. The entire boulder he stood on was turning over from the impact of the creature. It was toppling.

Wobbling to keep balance, Lai Yiteng managed to jump onto another one.

The thing that had rammed into it slid back onto the ground.

Four bent legs slowly scuttled around so that its body faced Lai Yiteng again, as though it were confused as to how he'd managed to be on one boulder, then appeared on another.

Lai Yiteng could not tear his eyes off it.

He'd never seen such an odd creature before, even after seeing ghosts and ghouls and monsters. Its body was big as an ox but elongated, its form salamander-like in shape. And it was slimy. Wet and gunky skin, pitch-black with hints of purple beside the tens of white eyeballs that dotted its head, the pupils spinning around sporadically.

It opened its mouth that was nothing more than a huge, gaping black hole, and howled shrilly.

Something behind it -a tail- whipped out at Lai Yiteng speedily.

His dagger came out to block but there was a puckering sound and a sharp pain on the top of his hand. He tore his eyes from the salamander monster and saw that the black tip of the tail had wound over his knife unharmed, and some thing on it was lodged into his hand.

The beast pulled out just as fast, leaving a trail of goo from his wound.

Lai Yiteng cursed and rubbed it off, then stared at the pair of small purplish dots left behind on his previous pale skin, contrasting sharply.

Two sharp barbs were at the very end of that thing's tail and the wounds it created matched the those found on the other corpses here. The people lying dead were covered in pairs of purple dots, meaning that they'd been whipped countless times by the tail. Who knows if they were already dead by then or still alive.

But what made this monster the most bizarre were its two front feet. All black, but the toes were uncannily shaped like human fingers.

Hm, Lai Yiteng looked as the strange black salamander monster and was in the middle of a dilemma. Was it...cute or not?

That big head and foolish eyes, the way it waddled and scuttled dumbly.

Cute?

But the slimy skin and screaming.

Not cute.

Lai Yiteng was quickly broken from his thoughts as the tail flew at him again. He bent his knees and jumped upwards as though avoiding a whip strike. Then he tilted his body to the side as it came from above to avoid another, dodging until he finally jumped off the rock and onto the ground, using the boulder as a wall between him and the monster.

The creature made a hissing sound as it scuttled around the boulder toward him.

"Whereeeee areee youuuu…."

Lai Yiteng waited for it to come from one side then rushed to the other side of the boulder. A glimpse of tail glanced in his vision and he cut at it.

The silver blade bounced off as though hitting rubber, and he was only left with a pleasant amount of sticky gunk dripping off it.

By this point the monster had spun back towards him and opened its maw wide to bite at him. Lai Yiteng shifted down and back as the mouth snapped shut like a calm, it hit empty air but only missed his robe sleeve by an inch.

He figured that its bite strength was pretty good...enough to break bones easily.

He ran behind the next boulder to engage in a frolicking game of tag with the salamander monster.

The thing stampeded after him. Lai Yiteng shifted to dodge again, but then caught the sight of a ghoul right behind him. He sucked in a breath and pressed out his palm with seven lotus arts to blow it to pieces.

Stalled for but a second, that slimy black body caught up with him.

A dark mass entered his vision, right above him as the creature had every intention to trample him underfoot. It would pin him down securely then whip him with the tail until he was dead.

Lai Yiteng closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pushing all his internal energy into the heels of his feet. His body melded and bent with the flow of movement and action surrounding him, as though everything had slowed.

He found an exact path to avoid the creature's body and legs that were directly above him, and a moment later he stood unscathed a few feet away.

Lai Yiteng was standing back were he first began, at the edge of the pit full of corpses. Countless other ghouls were lumbering towards him.

The monster howled at him again.

"Urgh…" Lai Yiteng held head. His eardrums were close to rupturing, and one of them really did. Blood dribbled down his neck. "Fuck…chatty. You're chatty just like Xian Wu!" but he couldn't even hear the sound of his own voice under the howl.

The ghouls right beside him also froze up, their rotting limbs twitching as though they were going through a seizure. It was a screaming howl that distorted hearing and sounds, a weapon lethal for hearing.

Lai Yiteng bit his lip until he tasted blood. He needed to press forwards. He could not keep running after this while peppered by corpses.

The creature stood still as it howled, confident during it long and gruesome screams, but this provided a rare opportunity. He needed to attack it now, as it howled and would be least expecting of retaliation!

Lai Yiteng sharpened his mind and gaze. He deepened his breathing to enter into the next stage of martial technique. This was actually the last art he learned from his previous Master, An He. Not many could master it, the way of drawing breath and unleashing one's inner force required a kind of meticulous, decisive-focus.

But for the paranoid and detail-obsessed Lai Yiteng, it was an easy feat. He lifted one palm out open as his other hand curled into a fist.

White sparks drew up into his palm like flakes of snow after his first two breaths, blooming into rings of pulsing light.

As the monster closed its jaws his knee bent forward, he flashed towards it. His speed was not one the salamander knew to react to while howling.

Lai Yiteng let his palm slam into its wet skin on the vital underside of its neck.

Instantly the body of the creature was blown backward in a flurry of light, its tail flopping in the air like a wet noodle, and it pounded into the face of the nearest boulder. The rock cracked and crumbled under the weight of the force. Its sharp cry had successfully been cut off short.

Seven Lotus Martial Arts: Heavenly Blooming.

To avoid the now approaching ghouls Lai Yiteng went back up onto a boulder, catching his breath. He panted raggedly and clutched at his heart, and his left ear did not seemed dull.

All these little pains did not stop Lai Yiteng from watching as the monster's black body convulsed and wheezed under the rubble of the boulder, curling up in its own agony. A bout of purple goo leaked from around its numerous eyes, veiny and bloodshot, and its throat was making a thin gurgling sound.

At the place its neck had been struck was an indent. Lai Yiteng had thoroughly smashed in its windpipe. He sneered with satisfaction.

Now he would not have to hear its annoying wails any longer. Ah, good, how nice. He took in one more heaving breath, swallowing down his own blood.

"Thank heavens, that was annoying."

Something noisy was coming through the forest behind him. And even louder were caws from that crow along with another voice.

"I get it, I'm going as fast as possible! Sheesh stop rushing me...ugh I already ran all over this damned place..." bemoaned Xian Wu.

Lai Yiteng suddenly thought that sure, he'd gotten the monster to quiet down, but what could he do to get Xian Wu to stop blabbering as well?