Chapter 61 - Tang Jin’s Heart of Fury

Within Tang Jin's inner world, a once small and enclosed space had become a sprawling mountain forest. Dark trees clustered close together, their branches becoming interwoven into a labyrinth of twisting passages and dead-end paths. Thick underbrush made the terrain treacherous, piling up in places to give the sense of firm ground underfoot only to give way at the weight of anything heavier than a small dog, spilling the unwary victim into ditches and gullies full of thorns and briars. 

Overhead, lightning crashed as oppressive dark clouds hung low enough to cover the mountain in a thick omnipresent fog. Tang Jin's heart hammered in his chest as he crashed through the thick foliage constantly turning to look back over his shoulder at the sounds of the approaching beast that had never paused for a moment in its relentless hunt. 

Slipping on a muddy puddle, Tang Jin sprawled onto the roots of a massive tree, scraping more skin off already battered knees and covering his hands and arms in a fresh layer of scrapes and mud. Long gone were the elegant robes of a refined young gentleman, the once fine fabric had been reduced to tattered rags of muddy brown and dark red blood stains with only the occasional flash of orange to hint at their original color. 

Drawing a ragged breath, Tang Jin scrambled to his feet, pushing himself to round the tree and weave further into the underbrush, hoping to put as many obstacles as possible between himself and the unseen predator. Time had become meaningless as he fled once again, mind shuddering at the memory of the last time he felt safe enough to rest for even a moment. Two breaths after he had stopped he had felt the hot breath of the beast on his back, a swipe of claws raking from shoulder to opposite hip and flinging him into the underbrush with the force of the blow had taught Tang Jin everything he needed to know about how quickly this monster could make up the distance to savagely maul him given the slightest opportunity!

His slender arms trembled as he used his hands to bounce off tree trunks or grasp hold of thorny vines to change his direction as he ran. His once-powerful chest felt hollow and almost skeletal as his lungs burned, desperate for more air as he continued to push his weakening body to the limits. He just needed to make it to the other side of the ridge, he told himself and then he'd be able to rest. He'd promised himself the same thing when he crested the last rocky outcroping and he would tell himself the same thing when he found the next landmark to dash towards. One goal at a time, one next step forward after another. 

He kept telling himself that if he could keep running a little further, his friends would eventually rescue him. Ao Wen and Feng Xi weren't like Mo Yan and Zhang Bo. The latter two might abandon him to this cruel fate but the former two had already shown that they would never leave him alone. When he'd first found himself in this dark world he'd searched desperately for them. It wasn't until later when he began to hear the soft strumming of Feng Xi's zither that he knew help was out there for him to find, he just had to keep looking! The zither sounds came and went providing the only reassurance that he had in this horrifying place. He didn't know how long he'd been running or how long it had been since he'd last heard her music but…

But nothing. There was no music in this forest other than the crashing of his own desperate fleeing, the pounding of his flagging heart, and the constant sound of hot breath and rustling trees as some beast hunted him like it was a game!

Resentment bubbled up in his chest, welling up from the pit of his stomach, flowing like hot blood in his throat and filling his mouth with a bitter copper taste. He was unwilling! Visions of Ao Wen's mighty saber cleaving into the flesh of the Rage Queen filled his eyes, savaging his heart with guilt and shame that he hadn't been able to match her ruthless power. 

How long had he been running in search of a rescue instead of turning the hunter behind him into his own prey? He knew that Ao Wen would never spend so long running passively. Tang Jin gulped down the burning blood and bile that threatened to surge from his mouth, swallowing it down like a fiery elixir to sustain his charge. This wasn't the way he would die! Skidding to a stop, Tang Jin ignored the long scrape left in his leg by the branch he'd careened off of and began rushing in the opposite direction, this time trying to find a way to circle back around the beast that had hunted him all these days. 

Power surged in his limbs as though his body responded to his determination to fight back by disgorging a hidden reserve of power. His pace increased as he gulped sweet air, pushing his battered muscles to their limit, straining his bones with his demanding maneuvers through the jungle that seemed to come alive with snagging vines and swinging branches blocking his path. 

Thunder boomed overhead and fog gave way to rain but this time, the thunder held no terror for him. Tang Jin imagined the peals of thunder as the war drums of a hunting god, pounding out their rhythm as though summoning him to battle. Lightning flickered in his eyes revealing amber-colored eyes with rounded pupils in one flash and blood-red irises with catlike pupils in the next. His vision grew wider and power surged in his body. 

Tang Jin's disorderly run turned into the smooth gait of a predator, using both his powerful legs and dexterous hands to navigate the mountain terrain like a three-dimensional maze. Vaulting over a chasm he spun towards a tree that fell leaning against an even more behemoth trunk. Water splashed in puddles as Tang Jin sprinted towards the sloping trunk, leaping into the air and catching a low branch to swing himself up onto the tree. His fingers flexed like claws, gouging into the soft bark of the tree for purchase as he scampered higher, looking for a path to get the drop on the predator that was stalking him from the darkness. 

Day after day he had fled like a coward! "NO MORE!" he roared, unleashing a cry halfway between that of a man and a lion! Today he'd stop running away from danger! Today he would run towards it. Today he would tear apart anything that threatened to hurt him or his friends. Fear flitted through his heart for a moment, disrupting his rhythm and nearly causing him to fall from the branches of the mighty tree. What if he hadn't heard Feng Xi's zither because the beast had finally caught her? "No! My friends are still out there!" he screamed in defiance. "They're still out there and THEY NEED MY HELP!" Power surged from the thickly corded muscles of his arms and legs as he leaped towards another tree, moving from one giant tree to the next as he stalked his prey on the ground, circling around while searching for the beast that could harm his friends.

His heart pounded faster and faster, so fast that he felt like he had gained a second heart, a third, a fourth! Blood rushed along his veins from his powerful heartbeats, filling his body with overwhelming strength that cried out for a target, a victim, something upon which he could vent this overwhelming RAGE! 

Finally, his blood rage eyes glimpsed a shadowy figure stalking through the undergrowth beneath him. Reaching out for the sword at his waist, Tang Jin pounced towards the figure below, swinging Blinding Light in a radiant arc before him. Four long bloody wounds blossomed on the shadowy beast followed by four more intersecting the first group as Tang Jin unleashed a second strike on the backswing of his blade. 

Snarling in anger both the dark beast and Tang Jin pounded on each other, the beast's claws trying to tear into his flesh as Tang Jin's sword flashed in one vicious arc after another. The world fell away in a red haze and even his sword Blinding Light slipped from his grip as Tang Jin began to tear at the beast with his bear hands! Pain didn't matter, wounds didn't matter, nothing mattered as fury blossomed in his heart. This thing had HUNTED HIM! Worse it had hunted HIS FRIENDS! Nothing that did either could survive the savage blows from his fists as he struck out again and again and again at the beast. 

Long after the beast had gone still, Tang Jin's bloody fists still pummeled it, the red fog in his eyes not clearing until he'd caved in the beast's chest and crushed it's heart in his bare hands. Then and only then did he stand back up straight, watching the dark clouds above part with a farewell peal of thunder, filling a once shadowed forest with soft golden light. Steam rose from Tang Jin's powerful body, lean muscles covered in a number of lesser wounds, the upper half of his robes long since discarded leaving his chest and arms completely bare to bathe in the soothing morning light. A thick bloody taste filled his mouth as though he'd devoured the flesh of his enemy and perhaps he had he realized, looking at the bloody hole in the middle of the beast's chest. It didn't matter. The beast had been slain. He was safe. His friends were safe. All he had to do now was find them.