016: Hurt

The arrow shot out in a spiral, an intense icy Qi wrapped around it as it shot forwards and bored a hole through the chest of the Queen Beast Bat. The strike itself had enough power to carry the bulky body of the creature backwards, throwing it into the air as an intense spread of Icy Qi erupted within it's body. In mere seconds, even before it hit the ground, much of it's chest had become frozen. The arrow continued it's advance to bore a hole deep into the ravine wall, going deep enough that even the feathers of the arrow could not be seen. Frost began to spread from the hole that was made, rapidly freezing the herbs, vines, weeds and flowers growing on it.

The frost effect spread quickly, turning an area of almost 5 meters in diameter to ice. The planets and whatever biologist organism unlucky enough to be on the ravine wall as the frost spread were all turned into exquisite figurines of ice. They looked like the most beautiful of crystals, but ultimately it took everything Divyat had to use that move as he collapsed to the ground, his Qi and energy spent as he slowly succumbed to both the pain and throes of his injuries. The giant bat crashed down to the ground at exactly the same time he did, dead as a doornail. Divyat had tears in his eyes, he was just so angry at the unfairness of it all, he was not supposed to be here in the first place, yet he was.

And in retrospect ,there was a lot to be said for his tenacity, which 15 year old could confidently say they survived the eradication of their sect and family, and then pushed forward till they got to this spot. Granted Divyat hasn't really moved all that far away from the territory of what was now the cover Divine Sky Dao Sect, but still he was still alive. All alone and surviving, but from the look of things it seems that such a situation would be changing any time soon with how injured and battered he currently was. And considering how injured he has been for the last couple of days, perhaps this was going to be the new norm or perhaps the end after all.

An intense icy feeling seemed to stretch from the bottom of his spine going up all the way to the base of his skull. For a moment the chill was so intense, incredibly painful as it shot forwards through his head to his eyes. And then all of a sudden it became a comfort, there was a sort of coolness to it, and quickly it spread to the rest of his body and an intense feeling of relief suffused him. Where his injuries were the worst, he began to feel warm and then cold and then warm again. The pain he was feeling became heavily subdued and breathing easier… .this was shocking for him. He could actively feel his body healing itself, and all without the help of any herb or healing salve or pill.

It would take a few hours, but Divyat knew instinctually that he would be healed fully in at least 16 hours. And he was more than happy to remain laying here during the duration of the entire time, but he felt the ground vibrate under him. From the entrance of the ravine he could feel an immense amount of Qi and it was rapidly rushing in his direction. He turned himself over, but just as soon as he did, he got a sharp whiff of an enticing scent coming from the frozen hole on the body of the Queen Beast Bat. Thankfully his legs were still working, and while moving around would get him even more injured, staying here any longer would see him very much dead.

He quickly reached the body of the bat and dug his hand into it's chest, relying on instinct and prior knowledge about why the scent from it had been so enticing. His hand came back covered with fleck of frozen blood and skin and an untouched marble crystal the size of gold ball was held in his hands. The scent coming off of it became even more appealing and without hesitation, Divyat not even knowing he was reacting based on instinct, took the beast core he had just harvested and swallowed it promptly, before falling back from the body and hobbling away, making sure to retrieved some of his lost arrows in the process.

*Rooooaaaaarrrrrr!!!*

That roar? Divyat turned for a moment with shock in his face as he noticed a massive head come into view. Flecks of wind, and leaves drifted around it's body as Divyat knew without a doubt who or rather what he was looking at. The tiger had a massive scar running down from one side of it's face to the bottom of sabre like fang jutting out of it's mouth. The white, black and grey coat was recognizable, the deluge of snow on its body cascading to the ground as it stood to it's massive 25 foot frame, her eyes red as rubies with an intense hunger for blood and destruction.

"Majana!"

Divyat whispered the name in shock before immediately diving into the next available tunnel. He did not even seemed to care or notice that it was the same tunnel he had perceived blood and humans from before. Or perhaps it was because he knew that he went through it. It did not really matter in this instant, he had to get away from here and as fast as he could. Majana was a named Beast, which meant that she was above the Nascent soul stage and had developed intelligence akin to humans, or close enough to it as whatever intelligence beast are able to cultivate is always usually tempered by their savage instincts.

*BOOM!*

A wild rush of qi slammed into the tunnel, a beam of Qi snapped like a single claw, rushed into the tunnel Divyat had just taken, accompanied by an intense and wild roar. The beam acted like it had a mind of it's own as it attempted to split Divyat in two. But a quick judgement call had Divyat jumping to the left at the last second, but it was a second too late as his right hand and the bone bow held in it went flying into the air. By this point fear had pretty much taken over as Divyat in a show of more will than he would have ever thought himself possible, gave a light grunt and then continued forwards. Going round the bends and twists the tunnel had, the roar of an enraged Divine Tiger echoing above and below the Ghadovara mountains.

Divyat kept his pace, running with a missing arm before suddenly both his feet was treading on nothing but air. He had enough time to know that blood loss had affected his perception and he had ran over a wide hole in the tunnel. And then down he went, down a shaft that got wider the deeper he fell, with absolute no control over his body.

*Splash!*

The fall into the freezing waters of the underground river hurt, more bones were broken in the process, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back as Divyat was dragged down into darkness.