บท 40: Crawling Shadows - RUN
In the midst of the panicked and ravaged town, Shu He walked at a brisk pace towards the large hall behind the second defence line, he coughed, and spots of blood splattered on to the ground, the battle so far was tough on everyone, including him, he had taken a few glancing blows and strained his body far beyond what he should have.
It was easy to forget he was still a mere 9-year-old child, in the midst of battle the other men had relied on him like he was their age, his skill with the bow, qi reinforcement, his use of Keen Sight and the explosives he had, all made them forget how young he was as they fought off the beasts that attempted the penetrate the barricade.
But right now, he was almost at his wits end, it doesn't matter how much he uses his Qi to reinforce himself or use whatever medication he had on him on himself, it wouldn't be able to get rid of the physical and mental fatigue he was feeling, compounded on top of the near sleepless night he had preparing the explosives and his inexperience for long battles he was already running dry.
He had used all the arrows he had up at his defence post, so someone else took over his position and he decided to make his way inside to rest for a period, if he continued as he was, he'd without a doubt make a mistake that would prove fatal.
There were many people running back and forth in the streets he traversed, both men and women carrying all sorts of supplies, shouldering the wounded or carrying them on farm carts to be tended to, the only ones that weren't doing anything were either people like him who had hit their limit and rotated out, or the people who couldn't fight in the first place.
Unfortunately, there was a large problem that kept going worse as the battle went on.
'We don't have enough people to keep this up' Shu He though as he looked at the thinning population around him, people who were resting were being woken up still dark eyed and forced to return to their positions, at the start people could catch a longer rest but as more casualties appeared, the short half hour rests now barely eclipsed 5 minutes.
Eventually, Shu He reached a large hall that was within the upper residential area, its huge size was formerly used to store various equipment for farming or grains in case the yield was higher than usual, but it had all be cleared out to be made use of as a primary shelter, inside were the majority of the minors and elderly, people that couldn't assist for various reasons.
Shu He looked up and around the large wooden structure out of curiosity, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
'Didn't Chao Shi say Yun Hua would be left to help? I haven't seen her at all, I thought she'd be around here if anywhere.. is she inside?' He thought to himself as he approached the entrance.
He wanted to see his mother, who was convinced to stay inside after tiring herself out during the preparation period, he thought he'd feel more relaxed if he did so.
The hall itself wasn't guarded, they had no manpower to spare, and there was next to no point anyway, they weren't fighting other people, only beasts; there was no point in keeping guard outside because if beasts made it here, they'd be using the second defence line already.
Shu He reached and opened the heavy door that opened into a smaller portion of the hall, he entered and heard the door slam behind him dropping him in to a deep darkness only lit by a set of small flickering candles, all of which had almost burned down to the base and would need replacing soon.
'No-one bothered to replace them. I guess no-one has needed to enter or leave the hall, so they didn't bother…'
He went and picked up some candles that were laying to the side and place them on brass holders before putting his hand in a basket and pulling out some matches, they were cruder than the ones he was used to seeing in his other life, but they worked all the same, there was a stone tool, presumably made of flint that was used to strike and light them, after doing so he blew out the other candles.
Seeing the flames, he couldn't help but think about the plan to use dynamite outside.
'It's dangerous but I can see why they'd do it… after all this time more than half of the tide still remains, it's a pity though, I couldn't use my explosives on the crowd because they might prematurely set off the dynamite… they should come in use after though'.
He stared at the newly flickering flames calmly for a minute as his mind settled, and as it did, at the back of Shu He's mind a quiet alarm began to go off.
He took a deep breath and began walking towards the hallway leading in to the larger, main room of the hall where everyone was taking cover and the alarm began blaring.
Shivers began crawling they way up Shu He's spine and a cold sweat grew on his brow.
'Something's wrong!' His footsteps picked up pace, and his eyes began glimmering with gold, he didn't care if he'd already strained himself at this point he needed them.
As he stared though the walls into the hall, his pupils dilated, and he began shivering.
What he saw left him breathless, yet he didn't want to believe it, for the first time he didn't want to trust in the two eyes of his, that he was seeing an illusion.
Shu He stood before the small wooden door with his hand on the knob, frozen.
If he opens this, and what he saw was true…
But if he was only imagining things, and he opened the door to see everyone well, taking cover with each-other…
"Stop it!" He whispered to himself.
'This is reality!' His own voice echoed in his head.
Without hesitation, he opened the door and the scene that greeted him was, of course, exactly as he'd seen.
Not a single person in the hall was awake… they were all on the floor, collapsed like a pile of stones on to sand.
He had plenty of time to adapt to his keen sight over the years so he could tell… some of them were deceased, there was no flow of energy in their bodies, and he could visibly see that their bodies were as still as a stone.
He grit his teeth as he looked through the hundreds of figures, every few he observed had one of them dead, many of them were elderly with children following after, the middle aged and teenage ones survived the most.
'Why?!' He wanted to scream, so many people dead, and for what?!
He kept scanning the room, again and again and again.
'She should be here!'
He strained his Keen Sight, Sense, and extended the range and senses, looking for that familiar one.
But he couldn't find it.
His eyes lost some light.
'Where's my mother?... did she leave before this?...' His head moved on to the last hope he could think of.
And then, he had to address the biggest problem in the room, one that he didn't even want to look at, in fact he wanted to run as far away as possible right now.
In the centre of the room as a massive hole in the wooden flooring, like a small meteor had pierced through, yet it didn't affect the roof.
And towards the far side of the room two figures were there, still.
He could see their entire figures here with his Keen Sight, yet he didn't want to believe it.
The first one was a man he didn't know; he had a simple black robe and mask on, yet he could see underneath, a pale face with white hair, emancipated body carrying, or rather, loosely gripping a weird dagger.
His body was stone cold and still, dead, presumably due to the mass amounts of cuts over his body, he had likely quickly died of blood loss.
Shu He could easily assume that this man belonged to the group that caused the beast tide, but he questioned why he was here in the first place, and how did he get in.
Unfortunately, he didn't think about that for long, because the other figure made his heart feel like it was being wrenched in multiple ways.
A short distance away from the second figure, a long sword was piercing the wooden flooring like it had been tossed aside.
The figure lay, kneeling on the ground, her body hunched forward, arms spayed to the side, her long brunette ponytail left hanging to the side running along the dirty wooden floor.
Her white and grey robes that she was oh so proud of stained with a deep crimson from front to back, the blood overflowing and dripping from the material.
Shu He could tell.
Yun Hua was soon going to die; she was hanging on to the last threads of life she had left.
He couldn't help but shiver as he began to step towards her.
He still didn't want to believe it, in front of his eyes one of those cultivators who he had seen as invincible, was dying, she was feeble and weak as she clung to what vitality she had left.
But it doesn't matter what she did, the hole in her chest wouldn't let her live.
Her heart was gone, her qi seemed to be gone with it, Shu He watched with his 'sight' as the body of a cultivator began to shut down without qi.
"Y-Yun Hua…" He eventually managed to speak, he didn't know what to say, his face pale.
Her dying body jerked ever so slightly; he could see her expression shift ever so slightly.
To one of panic and terror.
"S-u- -e" She seemed to speak, but her damaged organs wouldn't let her.
"R—"
"R-u"
"-u-"
"--N"
He listened to every letter, every decibel as it was her dying words.
But when his mind quickly pieced it together, he felt the atmosphere of the room shift.
'RUN'.
His heart sped up as he circulated the small amount of Qi he had left; he didn't even need to think for a single second longer.
HE NEEDED TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE.
His body shot in the opposite direction, straight for the larger door.
He was using his 'Keen Sight' at the same time, overserving the room, trying to find the threat, and as soon as he began to run he saw it, the shadow near the dead man began shifting as it was alive, crawling across the floor straight towards him.
Fear filled his mind, he had no idea what it was, but it killed Yun Hua for sure!
The great door was in his way, he had only one way one, and one way to call everyone else, he pulled out a vial from his cloak, this was the only one he was carrying, but it was his only way out fast!
He lobbed it straight for the door, he couldn't wait too long, or he'd get caught in the blast, he braced himself with his arms as the continued running forward, expecting an explosion to follow soon but-
'What?!' He was left in despair, he looked at the door and saw… the shadows themselves reaching up, grabbing the vial before it exploded.
He paused for a second, unable to comprehend what he was seeing for a second before realising something else.
'If it's that fast then-!'
As he thought that he felt something grip his right leg, the next thing he knew, his light body was hoisted into the air, spinning him around and completely knocking him off balance.
*SLAM*
His body hit to the hard wood floor flat, the back of his head being smacked made his head spin as he almost blacked out and his entire body groaned from the force, all the air left his lungs leaving him winded.
"This little thing, an explosive? Annoying brat" Shu He heard a voice, low and grating pierce his ear canals, he struggled to move and see, he had been knocked out of his keen vision state due to the hit on the head, he couldn't focus.
"Well, I should thank you for coming here anyway; it saves me time" He barely made out a figure, tall and lanky with a tattered black cloak covering the body, long white hair hanging everywhere, but the most identifying thing he could see was the eyes.
Those terrifying, deep red eyes with all consuming black sclera.
He tried to move, but the lack of oxygen and pain prevented him, he could only pathetically twitch.
"To think his kid would be a little cultivator though… the world is small" Shu He heard the man chuckling, he could almost hear the clatter of bones as he did so.
He could see the man making hand signs as he stared at him.
"W-h…at a..re yo.." He tried to speak but before long.
The mans hand came slamming down on to Shu He's chest, and he could feel something enter and entwine itself on to his body.
"Sleep for now"
His mind felt like it became bound, sending him in to darkness.
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ShiroN3K0
ShiroN3K0 Chapter 40!
We're getting there, i thought i would have wrapped this arc up around 40 but at this rate it'll be 50, oops.
As always, thanks for reading, comments and feedback are appreciated!
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