Happy Holiday, everyone! Fiftieth chapter! Enjoy Volume Three's climax!
12/21/22
Volume Three: Deng Wa
Chapter L
Emerald Storm
"Jombies!"
A group of glossy green stone zombies swung on the rope toward Xing and Kai. As soon as they reached the middle of their strings, the tiger spun his acrobatic jump and hammered his foot, slicing the dart nearby. One rope snapping made the second team of a fox, yak, pig, and gorilla tumble. The mighty did the same by his palm slicing the arrow's line.
When they fell, a harsh wind stirring its glassy vibration had aggressed in the air, emerging an owl jombie whose dark wings bent forward. Chen Xing ducked to the side as the avian swirled his sharp feathers, now focusing on Kai, who countered wings and talons with his lofty arms. Dodging from sharp edges, the yak pummeled his punches as the thrash of smashing stone bricks drummed; the owl's whole arm was trapped under Kai's arm, as becoming prevented from wrestling as the avian squealed. Chen Xing fastened his paws, unleashing his silver beams. Recoils from the jombie made him react once his talons propelled kicks near his chest and head.
The tiger deflected the owl's sharp talons, nearly ripping his flesh; reaching to his front while Kai fastened his wrestle, Xing launched his ball of chi at the avian's heart, fragmenting stones apart. The owl, screeching its glassy hail, churned with agony, silvery cry, crashing him to the snow.
Slithering close to the injured bird with defensive poses, Kai and Xing inspected brown feathers crawling upward, hearing the owl's harsh screech. "GAH!" the owl showed his terrifying glances, glimpsing at his surroundings. "Lieutenant, where is Wang?"
Chen Xing knelt to him. "Are you alright, soldier?"
"You! You are called the Nine's Leader," the owl gaped.
"Name and your rank."
"Captain Haoran, one of Master Eagle's ace fighters," he named and shortly gasped in horror. "Oh no. All those thoughts of mine were planning for the attack! Wang forced me into his idea!"
"What plan? What is Wang doing, Captain?"
"That plan!" the owl darted his feathers behind Xing.
The village altered its slow probe light of dark basil before the tiger turned and witnessed something stirring behind five behemoth ridges of Guilin Mountain. The cloud swirled upward as it crept into irregular motion, hissing winds hovering over the storm. The gale stretching upward formed a whirlwind, the tip of the emerald storm darting into the sky.
"Everybody, set your defenses!" Chen Xing roared.
Villagers of bovines, pigs, rabbits, geese, and antelopes around the village retreated toward their houses. The Nine's Serpent and Heaver assembled next to Kai and Xing. "Fanshe, call out the Nine, warn Gidahn, and get over here."
"I'm on it!"
"And fetch my sword in my guest room!"
"Help these villagers and smash jombies, Bao," Fanshe pointed to the ape's palms and slithered into Gidahn's cabin.
"Bao, help!" The Nine's Heaver crushed his fingers, slamming the soil.
"Jade Warriors incoming!" cried a sow villager down to two houses.
"Look over there, Bao! Do you see him?" Xing guided his ape brother, pointing at the gorilla jombie charging on fours. "Bao, smash! Bao, chi! Bring him back to normal!"
The Nine's Heaver performed fast drums on his chest. "BAO, SMASH!"
The three positioned their fighting stances as soon as a single group of jombies from the first rope arose and advanced (a jombie pig plummeted into the third-story cottage and bellowed, wrecking through the barrier). Xing and Kai took on the fox and yak, and Bao brawled with one of his kind. The second group of outraged green soldiers (calf, dog, and doe) raced, and their swan partner soared above them.
Kai encountered his elbows from the yak's hooves trying to maul his upper chest. The fox flipped amidst the air, clouting his feet against Xing's head; the tiger swiveled his arms while deflecting fast kicks. One gorilla against the other, Bao struck and blocked swinging arms, sidestepping back. A jombie ape clenched his wrist, trotting and tossing Bao off course.
Gidahn, Ming, Lotus, Wolf Boss, and Fanshe, departing from the cabin, observed the scene. They glimpsed at the other group of soldiers barging into two houses. Villagers hollered.
Ming shrunk her pupils. "Fanshe, Hong, go help your Leader and Heaver," both cobra and bunny scurried forward. "Lotus, Zhong, we draw our chi lights and capture the rest of the victims as possible!"
"Help Ming's students, you three!" Gidahn's children nodded to their yak master. "I'll defend here!"
Lotus, Zhong, and Ming ran to the main brick road; Tai, Mel, and Mika pursued them.
Chen Xing engaged the dog once the fox skidded backward; the canine in black qipao trashed his paws before Kai rammed his horns against the dow; two dogs partnered up and focused throwing punches at the tiger, whose arms deflected with forms of Chi Sao. With countless combinations of his bridges blocking and attacking simultaneously, Xing booted the dog's two knees, circulating straight punches; with a single blow of chi, throwing the jombie to the ground, the tiger gripped the jombie fox's tiny foot, slamming him forward. He cast his silver chi on two canines, and they drowned their flesh breaths as their gold lights of dust spread wide like ripples.
Fastening his horse stance while pressing the attack forward, Kai launched his elbows in short-range combat against the bovine jombie, whose fists heaved hard blows. Each block fragmented the stone's hoof into bits; once staggering the bovine, Kai bounded and threw his heavy blow with his roar, rounding his fast punches on his head before a jombie giant lurched his high kick.
Kai seized the bovine's whole leg and propelled his heel kick at the other shank, thrusting it down to its knee level. Right on time, before it could rise, Chen Xing plunged his whole claw into the stone's head, fusing a silver beam as his chi glared. A bovine reeling on the dirt growled in defeat, his glass body shattering into his black fur.
"Here they come!" the owl soldier beside Xing pointed, had warriors surveyed small groups of jombies advancing at four houses down.
"Can you fight, Captain?"
"Nothing stops me until I am dead, Master Xing," Captain Haoran stated, drawing his curved blade.
"Here's your sword, Xing!" Fanshe twirled his tail, hurling the weapon at Xing.
The tiger managed to tie his weapon belt while keeping his glare at the incoming projectiles slithering upward beyond distant ridges. Blazing his blade with his chi, the owl glided in a thin yet wailing air, hammering his weapon against the gorilla's double halberd. Successfully disarmed the ape with rapid swirls and deflections, the avian executed his firm talon grip on the ape's whole neck, casting dawn ribbon chi.
"Grab that halberd, Kai!" Xing tossed the ape's weapon to Kai. "We're going to fight with swords, big time!"
Kai did so after the bovine was knocked unconscious. "What are those flying?"
Once done with his chi bathing the gorilla, who howled out of stone surroundings, the owl glimpsed at the storm; the lightning projectiles rounding in orbit ignited its silvery green smoke trail, squealing as it cracked the sky. Five green fire orbs zoomed toward the village.
"INCOMING!" the owl screeched.
Three spheres crashed on two cottages and one down the road. One with the closest at one house emerged four archers of a wolf, two antelopes, and one porcupine on the ridge roof, drawing their arrows.
"Archers! On the roof!" Xing growled once arrows released, and without hesitation, he diverted a few to different directions while dodging and rolling; the owl whirled in the air and had his sword rendered a gash yellow line, throwing his chi at two archers. Two antelopes (no longer jombies) fell on the roof valley and crashed into the snow.
Kai sidestepped and jerked his head wherever he could dodge quills; pivoting some with his hooves, he shoved the other jombie canine as Bao beside him from the left charged on fours, hammering his chest as he barrelled the stone ape into the affray jombies. Mounting on the roof from supporting, with his incredible pace springing toward the ridge tile, Chen Xing thundered his growl and rocketed toward the wolf archer.
The tiger recoiled from the bandit's bow, swinging into crosses. He quickly demilitarized the weapon and unlatched the quiver to the side, keeping the wolf unharmed as Xing gained combinations with his Chi Sao blocks. Elbowing the lupine's neck after a deflection in each limb swinging, Xing darted his kick to his belly, reeling him in three steps. The porcupine, drawing his bow, loosened several quills, and Xing shielded with the wolf's body.
Once he saw the porcupine reloading, which had no chance to fire back, Xing threw the wolf to the side and beamed his light under the wolf's stomach, crashing him down with the affray. The tiger engaged the second archer, whose fists gripped sharp quills; the jombie snapped its glassy snarl and gained momentum to slashing. As tricky as this next fight seemed challenging on the bending tile roof in the middle, which side to divert but the weight leading down could cause falling, Chen Xing attempted to parry the porcupine's wrists. Once successfully staggering a jombie, vaulting over with a single flip to land from behind, the porcupine shot his foot twice, delivering the tiger off balance.
Almost tumbling from the edge of the roof behind him, Chen Xing quickly leaned his weight forward, aggressing his flow movement of fours. The porcupine fired the other two arrows with incredibly fast draws but missed by a few feet of Xing's shoulders; the third launched as Xing made his haste parried it with his iron palm, the green-churning silver quill chi changed direction at jombie.
Anticipating another ball of green fire crashing far ahead after witnessing his feline teacher somersault behind a porcupine and finish off with silver light claws with a terrifying knockout, Kai dashed forward and combated one wolf and two vultures. Only one avian focused on Gidahn's sons beside him after Kai twirled his double halberd, ramming his head at one lupine before the second vulture extended its sharp basil wings.
Shit!
Tai spun his root pole with a tiny cobalt ribbon as he evaded the vulture's black talons attempting to maul him. With the incredible scores from the avian jombie thrashing Tai's guard defenses, weakening his strength, Mel intervened with his large pole with crimson sash, retaliating his fierce blows on stone crotches. Two brothers lunging their roots by forming spirals clobbered the bird, striking back and forth before Mel skidded forward and uppercutted.
To Mel's right side, the emerald orb crashing out of the wood cottage wall into fragments, snarled a crocodile jombie with a lengthy spiked tail, glaring at Mel. Oh, no! Tai's brother propelled his fat pole, parrying the serpent's iron ball swinging side to side at a long-range counter. Each strike from the tail ball, snapping its basil flicker, strained Mel's strength of forearms, wobbling his stance while fluttering his terrifying bellow.
Bashing the vulture's head with his root stick fusing dandelion light, Tai quickly inspected his brother before engaging the argali as Chen Xing somersaulted into the affray, assisting Kai. "How are you doing back there, Mel?"
"Not good! A little help here!"
Kai fended the wolf's blade attempting to slash his belly twice, gaining close to his head after a lupine jombie sprang with his weapon downward. Chen Xing stirred his way and had his claws grip on its upper back, suppressing stone thrust before Kai forced the wolf off with his horns. The tiger dashed through the fray near Gidahn's sons as soon as Kai faced the next stone warrior, whose roar deepened its rocky glass. Once Mel fell with his left knee after his parry became vulnerable, Xing stormed in and launched his fists, welting the crocodile's long muzzle in unbelievable, agility silver ray blows.
Staggered, the crocodile snapped and whirled his tail; at an instant-mere of catching the tip, Xing heaved his arm upward and hammered the reptile, thrashing his paws on his muzzle, shattering basil stones apart.
"Thanks! I owe you one, Xing!" Mel was relieved, and Xing helped him up.
"Stick won't help unless you summon your chi, Mel," Xing uttered as soon as the boar jombie advanced with arms wide open.
"How?"
Xing executed his double-foot combo and a spinning kick, keeping the boar at a long distance when Kai started sword-fighting the ox. "Like this!" Borrowing Mel's staff, the tiger lightened his chi as his gray beam slithered on a root and engaged the boar again, lurching and deflecting round hooves. He finished the jombie with fast lunges against nerve points and the chest, launching the unconscious bandit in the air.
"Alright! Time to kick butts with my chi!" Mel filled his exciting pose and brought his root back, letting Xing sprint toward his student.
Managing to leer his double halberd from the ox, whose ax was hammering in uneven angles, Kai kept his distance, attempting to extend his hoof thrice — Come on! — as it hacked his chi. The bovine jombie's glowing eyes twinkled in stupefaction, and more than seven stones glared at the Mightiest Warrior, delivering the ox lunge with his behemoth weapon as it blared its dull edge.
Twice the parry after hitting the jombie's side of both knees with his heel kick, Kai shoved his halberd shaft before they skidded away, and the ox growled once. Above the belly, Xing's digits shattered glass stones into bits, reviving the victim, whose low shout lessened. An ox with a junk ship tattoo on his neck growled in weak energy. He pressed his forehead and felt a wave of headache stinging his aqua eyes. "Shiver me timbers. . ."
"I know how you feel, pirate," Chen Xing grumbled, hastily catching a green arrow that whiffed next to his ear. "Go walk it off."
And the tiger's mighty fists propelled him to the alleyway corner.
"My bad!" Kai and Xing heard Tai knocking the first vulture on the snow, and his heterochromia eyes widened in utter surprise. "Uh oh. This one has a fire sigil!"
"Secure him, villager!" the owl above the affray gripped the pangolin's belt, his other talon bursting his dawn chi. "Don't let that Fire Clan member fight back!"
Around the perimeter of the wide path, a quintet group sprinted just as the two emerald orbs leaving their dust trails collided behind two houses at the front. Lotus, Wolf Boss, Chen Wing, and both bunnies Hong and Mika faced the other five in emerald blotch stones. Two pigs wielded pitchforks; two wolves drew weapons with fire details, a curved sword, a hammer (Hey, that's mine! Wolf Boss snarled), and a bunny with an iron wok pan.
"Let's restrain that bunny, Mika!" Hong twirled her sai blades.
"Farmers are mine," Chen Ming dashed forward.
"Wolves are ours."
A group of three separated, commencing their combat at flawless sprints.
Engaging pig farmers with her winter hanfu that fluctuated in incredible waves, Chen Ming sidestepped two pitchforks that neared her feet stabbing, her tail wavering as she unleashed her wrinkled limbs. Her strength of the iron, never fatiguing despite her gifted age, made Ming improve her paws, thrashing Ironwood Trees. With her fast elbows linking the pig's throat, knife-palming against the next, her fists shattered the first's muzzle.
Once his daughter wavered her yellow nunchuck and started slamming the first wolf's head from his opponent slashing, Wolf Boss dodged the hammer and set his offense into his brute stance targeting the second wolf's nerve joints with his ruby-yellow ray from his paws. After the stone's disorientation, collapsing to his knees, the one-eyed wolf launched his palm circle thrashes, breaking rocks at four blows. At first, his jombie started to glare its pulsing green eyes with intimidation, charging back with a giant hammer.
Spinning her nunchuck over her surroundings and unleashing her snarl, Lotus gained the second wolf before her opponent lunged his wavy sword. Once dodging and bashing his head with rapid swings, she fragmented his jade stone cheeks. Once he could attempt to slash four times, luckily for the Nine's Dancer to reel twice and the third backward, Lotus whirled her nunchuck over the blade, her perfect execution disarming the weapon.
Ha! Lotus cast out her tongue triumphantly and shoved her jombie toward the stand with a stack of chopped logs. She began to hurl her Chi Sao into a blocking and attacking scenario once Lotus parried his arms.
Tan-sao, chin-gon, pak-sao! Bong-sao, pak-sao, and palm strikes!
The Nine's Dancer landing her hard palm thrust toward the second wolf's chest, had the jombie crash into the stand, the glass body splitting into a natural form. The victim burst out a female grunt. "Sorry, sister," Lotus said, and a third wolf jombie splashing in the snow emerged. On his shoulder had a pulsing green mark, which Lotus detected while reading her gold ribbon stick from her belt.
"Hey! What is that mark mean for that guy?" Lotus demanded, twirling her second weapon before she executed her round over the third jombie beside her father; a haste grip made that jombie spin in the air, hurling him on the house structure.
The owl soldier flying by inspected the wolf's burnt mark. Reading a dragon symbol almost had the avian gulped, broadening his pupils. "Shit! That wolf's mark is from Jiānyù Prison!"
"So as this rabbit—!"
Mika declared, but the rabbit jombie whipped her with elbow thrashes, and Hong intervened to begin fisting across the rice garden. Flickering her long ears, the Nine's Doctor blocked most of the jade rabbit's tiny paws trashing through her forearms five times before the sixth blow allowed Hong to grapple his wrist and heave his whole weight over her, slamming down.
Mika, sprinting to Hong right before the jombie was about to twist his body and grab his wok, slammed her chi palm above his head. The body decaying with dark emerald blotches melted the rock to yellow bits, and the prisoner shrilled his agony cry. "Cuff them with your chi if you see their labels!" Haoran advised.
Next to the fray, while both bunnies restrained the prisoner, Wolf Boss gained momentum on the first wolf jombie, whose hammer pivoted left and right with repeated hard thrusts. Her daughter hollered at him once Zhong rolled to the right from the third jombie's hammer slamming down; Wolf Boss caught Lotus's sash and gave it a fast whip, the gold silk light seizing the stone's feet together. Tugging the jombie as the wolf fell forward, Zhong went on fours and shoved his yellow paws through the canine's scathe armor.
Wolf Boss recognized the mortal's howl and the upper left shoulder's sigil that seemed impossible to ignore from the past. His old friend's crimson eye symbol. An injured wolf in gray wraps with black scathe whined with his eyes shut. "My rice. . ."
"The rice was raw; I know," Wolf Boss commented.
"Get to the road," Chen Ming ran on fours next to him, leading through the broad alley. "Stones are advancing near my grandson!"
"Prisoner spotted!"
Amidst the main road, the serpent Fanshe whipped his tail from the brute bovine, whose feet attempted to stomp his whole body. Quivering side to side, he darted on joints and the opposite knee, forcing the giant to collapse to the side. "BAO, BAD! BAO, MORE!" his gorilla brother growled.
"Burn mark!" the tiger detected, bridging his round forearms against the brute vulture's wings. "If Jiānyù went jailbreak, that means—"
"Wang's father is one of them now, Xing!" Fanshe figured, darting and slashing his tail.
The tiger heard a harsh screech from the nippy breeze above him, and a barn owl jombie, bathed in blotches, dove with his extended talons. Dodging back with a roll, Xing withdrew his steps from the bird's sharp wings slicing forward. The barn owl attempted to curve his body and hurl his sharp talons. Twice kicks, and the third hit had failed once Xing lurched forward, his leading foot preventing the bird's knee from attacking. Bringing the avian to stagger, the tiger drove his palms into a circular motion toward his head, and his seventh combo bashed the stone's temple.
The tiger's silver chi shattered the avian's stone, and the barn owl, alive while screeching, pressed his wing against his head. "Ow, my head," the avian slumped over Xing's upper shoulder.
"Sorry, Chao. Take cover over there in the Keep. Go!"
Four emerald orbs screeching in the air behind Xing crashed on the path and emerged five dozen jombies in leather robes and armor, wielding halberds. "You gotta be shitting me," the tiger positioned his Chi Sao limbs forward as Kai stood beside him with Bao, Fanshe, and Gidahn's sons.
Heavy steps rumbling amidst the course summoned Gidahn, whose root trunk pitched in the air and slammed the snow. Its fragments of sharp ice stirring to a volley of gold light arrows formed and soared down to the whole jombie group, plunging into jombies' forms. Sprinting near mortals, many soldiers collapsed.
"Way to go, Master Gidahn!" Xing praised.
The goose squawked. "Hit the dirt!"
All eyes turned, and the emerald storm pulling streams of shrieking snow breeze pressured in between the gaps of Guilin Mountains, the chilly breeze becoming intense before the rise. The jade storm with throbs of black shrouds began stretching into the starry sky, fast approaching fragments kicking the air back its eminent shockwave. The uproar blast slammed the whole valley with a light stroke.
The shockwave made its brief ringing ears to a few, and many souls tumbled to the snow. Once looking back at the deadly gale, Wolf Boss helped his daughter up and squinted at the view. "What was that?" Wolf Boss asked. "Those things coming out of the whirlwind — are those. . ."
Crawling out of the storm gushed hundreds of lime and white stars soaring into the dancing sky; one speck of flash zoomed to the north, another to the south, and most fireballs shot in all directions. "Jombies. They are flying elsewhere. They're not only attacking here—" Captain Haoran shrieked, but a harsh whistle from the green fireball slammed into the ridge behind the village, and the following rain hit the nearest behemoth peak with rope bridges.
The soldier gasped. "Wang made the first wave. It's the invasion!"
"What wave, Captain? Are we facing more jombies?" Xing's silver eyes glared.
"That storm kicks its first wave of Jade Warriors army, starting the attack, letting them fly everywhere in China!" Haoran stated. "We have three waves left!"
"Three?" Lotus gasped in dread, and her feline partner stepped beside the owl.
"How do you know all of that? From Deng Wa?"
The tiger's demanding queries made Haoran remind an erratic mindset, recalling the deer serving with a badger ghost figure. "Yes!" the owl's answer wrenched his voice with anxiety. "After the first, the second will withdraw the rest of your chi toward that storm! Everyone else's!"
Haoran observed the whirlwind. "The third will commence draining your energy, worse than the second, that can slow you down!"
"What about the fourth wave? What will we face there?" Wolf Boss queried.
"Checkmate."
Multiple screams farther down the long path approached, with citizens sprinting away toward mortal warriors. Among the harsh winds catapulted more than ten lime fires wrecking into farmhouses, billowing charcoal black smokes from outbursts.
"Xing, Kai, you get Wang's attention!" Wolf Boss commanded. "We'll keep the pressure against Jade Warriors all over the village and save Gidahn's people as we can!"
Xing nodded. "Alright, Commander. Let's go, Kai!"
Both the yak and the tiger sprinted into the affray.