Chapter 103: Desperate Combat [Interlude]

His best friend had officially lost it.

Feng watched as Lianshi wrestled yet another bear to the ground, screaming incoherently as she stabbed it to death with a multitude of mutated limbs. A Glacial Hound tried attacking her from behind, but her winged arms snapped back and lanced itself upon the lunging ice wolf, killing it instantly.

“She’s insane!”

“She’s desperate. There’s a difference, however slight. She needs to get the bracelet by today. The Matriarch already suspects her intent.”

Something was going on that Lianshi did not mention. Even Feng’s dull-headedness could pick up the Young Miss’s sheer despair. Frustratingly, the pretty lady in his head did not feel inclined to enlighten him as to why that was the case.

“Her planning could use some work. This was reckless, even if the idea was borne from urgency. Your wife-to-be has grown more proficient in combat, at least. I see that the other six bracelets have worked their memory transference. Lamashtu had always been a Demon of ill-patience.”

The memory what? Never mind, that was not important.

“Not now, pretty lady!” Feng harshly whispered. “Are you sure this is the right spot?!”

“I have already checked. The girl is correct that there is a cave entrance buried here, and she is correct that this is the right spot. However, you would need to burn through approximately another four metres of ice to reach it.”

“A-and how many metres have I burned so far?”

“One.”

Great. Fantastic. It had been fifteen minutes since he started expelling his fire techniques in a flame-throwing stream. According to the pretty lady, that meant he had a whole hour left of continuous burning before they would see the cave entrance. 

Feng was already feeling the effects of exhaustion. His meridians and qi reserves were good for his age, but he was still only twelve. He could not keep this up for another hour.

And that was assuming Lianshi could keep the monsters off his back for that long.

Her proficiency in combat was startlingly good — way better than what she showcased the first time they met each other years ago. Her cultivation was still inferior to his, but Feng could no longer confidently say he would win as easily were they to spar in earnest again.

That being said, no amount of combat prowess was going to make up for her being outnumbered ten to one, however.

Lianshi fought and screamed like a manic, but even she was beginning to slow. Another ursine beast fell. Only the Hounds were left, but undoubtedly more would come. The cold and wet from the endless sleet were not helping either. It slowed their movements and left their bodies freezing. They were running low on qi.

They needed flesh and warmth.

Feng eyed the giant body of the dead ursine, rich in flammable fat.

“Not a bad idea. Watch for the Hounds when you proceed. I will chart the fastest path.”

[Art of the Beheaded Phoenix — Fiery Comet Step]

Under the pretty lady’s guidance, Feng bolted forth, smashing aside ice wolves with his fist while setting the bear corpses alight into raging bonfires. He zipped back and forth, repelling the pressure of the hounds upon Lianshi while expanding significant amounts of his dwindling qi.

For a moment, a blessed lull in the combat appeared.

“What… What are you doing?!” Lianshi snarled as he picked up her collapsed form and pulled her near a burning ursine. The choking stench of fat reeked, but the warmth against their freezing-soaked form was bliss. “Keep burning the entrance! We are almost through!”

“About that… The location is correct, but the ice is too thick. I need another hour if we are going to burn through all that…”

Lianshi almost collapsed again, the distress nearly overwhelming her. “A-another hour? You… You must be lying. You can’t know…”

“I’m not saying we give up, but we can’t keep going like this. Here.”

Feng plunged his hand deep into the ursine and sliced its stomach open. Offal and blood splashed onto them, made warm by the flaming fats.

“You need to eat the organs and replenish your qi,” the boy said as he insistently pushed a fatty liver into her shivering hands. They needed to hurry; more howls were coming. “Stay near the fires as much as you can. Whenever you kill an ursine, I will burn it. If we pace ourselves, we might be able to do this.”

Lianshi’s eyes were wide. “You… You are still staying with me?”

“Well, I mean… You are my best friend. This is clearly important to you. So yeah, I’m staying.”

Feng grabbed an ursine heart and viciously bit into it. He had no time to enjoy the taste, simply swallowing it quickly and willing his Dantian to immediately start assimilating the feral qi. He grinned bloodily at Lianshi.

“You and me against the world,” he shouted, voice defiant against the howling rain and snow. “Let’s do this. Together!”

Lianshi’s eyes sharpened. Determination returned. “Together!”

Howls and roars descended upon them, and they each got to work.

~~~

It was sheer desperation.

More and more beasts came, in ever-greater hordes and variety. Hail Hawks harassed both Feng and Lianshi, pelting them with ice shards that served as fatal distractions. Glacial Hounds and Winterfeast Bears worked together, their bestial fury clashed against Lianshi’s maddened rage and Feng’s occasional flaming fists. A giant Awakened Frost Branch — ten metres of crackling ivory wood in humanoid form — nearly smacked Lianshi off the mountain in a single slap before Feng burned it to cinders.

It was as if an entire army was summoned from the sleet just to interrupt their efforts. There was no more doubt in the Young Master’s exhausted mind that an outside intervention was involved. The How or Why of it did not matter; they were going to die soon if things kept up.

For an entire hour, they fought, with Lianshi slaying most of the beasts while Feng continuously spewed flames onto the thick ice covering the cave entrance. In the precious minutes when the hordes lulled in numbers, the frost-pale children would gorge themselves on whatever meat their shivering hands could tear from the snow and corpses.

Their minds became numb to thought or fear, consumed utterly with their individual tasks. Their spirits dwindled. Their bodies began breaking down. And then…

“I can see the cave opening!” Feng howled, his voice barely audible over the dozens of creatures screeching over them.

Lianshi had opted to defend Feng at the entrance of the four-metre-deep tunnel he had blazed through within the glacier — a prudent choice, given how there were at least thrice as many creatures hounding them from the beginning. No matter how many Lianshi or Feng killed, they just kept coming.

“Hurry up!” Lianshi yelled back. Her right arm was completely limp, and her body bore numerous injuries. “I can’t keep doing this for much longer! We need to—”

Her shout was cut off by yet another presence joining the horde outside. A thunderous roar sounded through the makeshift cavern, accompanied by earth-shaking stomps. Its aura — electrifying and monstrous — flooded the cave.

Tempering Realm, Third Step.

“Thunderhusk Mammoth,” Lianshi whispered in horror. “But that’s… There’s no way one would climb all the way up to the peak…”

The monsters they had been fighting thus far were almost all within the Foundation Realm. The Awakened Frost Branch had been a Shaping Realm Spirit Beast, but its weakness to fire still allowed Feng to defeat it.

This creature… If it reached them, there was nothing they could do.

“Burn the wall down now!” Lianshi cried. “Or we are all dead!”

Feng really wasn’t sure how that would help. Even if they managed to get into the cave, what then? The Spirit Beasts would still follow them in. The pair of them were exhausted, and there was nowhere they could hide.

Feng didn’t say any of that. He merely focused on burning the last few inches of ice before him, his body dying from spiritual fatigue. Their previous plan of snatching the bracelet and fleeing the mountain was no longer viable.

The glacier looked to be their grave. At least Lianshi would be with her father, for what little that was worth.

Feng could see the inner tunnels now; within a small enclave of stone instead of ice was the corpse of a bisected man, preserved by the cold and his marble flesh.

On his wrist glinted a sapphire bracelet, shaped like an eye.

More roars behind them. The entire cave was shaking with colossal footsteps. Sparks of electricity ripple through the air as if a thunderhead approached.

The ice wall fell away, revealing the entrance.

“It’s… open,” Feng croaked out. He managed two steps forward before he stumbled.

Lianshi grabbed him before he fell, dashing into the cave with him over her back. She ran all the way to her father’s corpse before stopping.

“Stay here,” she whispered. Howling roars echoed into the cave. “I’m so sorry I forced you into this.”

“My choice. Not your fault,” Feng shrugged tiredly. His eyes were drooping. “I don’t think we can fight our way out of this.”

“There’s still a chance.” Lianshi held his hands tight. Her eyes were wet. “I… I don’t know if this will work. But if this is the end… Thank you. For staying with me. It means more to me than you can imagine.”

She kissed him then. Her lips were cold and clumsy, but when her mouth pressed against his, Feng thought they felt unbearably sweet.

Coherent thought became impossible afterwards. Feng saw a horde of snarling teeth approaching them. Lianshi crouched over her Father’s corpse and picked something up.

A gleaming frost-blue sapphire, tied to a bangle woven of human hair. Lianshi pulled the sleeve of her right arm back, revealing six more similar bracelets already strapped onto her limb.

She placed the seventh onto her wrist. The gem glowed bright right as the horde descended on her. 

There was a flash of light, and Feng saw no more.