Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  No one said a word and instead looked at where Yan Li was laying on the ground close by. Seeing this Zhang quickly ran up to Yan Li and checked for a pulse.

  “He’s on the brink of life and death.” Zhang said with a sigh.

  “Luckily we have this.” A small bottle appeared in Zhang’s hand and from it red liquid flowed into Yan Li’s mouth. It was the phoenix blood that Zhang had bought before at the auction house.

  Once the phoenix blood entered Yan Li’s mouth his wounds began rapidly closing up and his pulse stabilized. However, he was still unconscious but everyone around him was put to ease.

  Once the giant web was extinguished by the fire the burning spider queen plummeted onto the ground. The group watched as it wallowed in pain and after a few breathes stop moving with small puffs of smoke still rising from its body.

  “Glad that is over.” One sailor said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and sat down onto the ground.

  Suddenly the spider queen's body began twitching and a large split appeared from its head. And from that split a spider leg popped out and slowly the split got bigger and bigger and from within it another spider crawled out.

  The spider queen was molting in order to survive the fire.

  “Shit every one of you get out of here!” Zhang yelled while pointing for the door.

  As everyone headed for the door Zhang walked toward where one of his chained daggers had fallen and picked it up.

  “Wait aren’t you leaving brother!?” Ai asked.

  “You guys go on ahead I’ll catch up really soon.” Zhang said calmly.

  “But we can’t leave without you.” Yuying said.

  “NO buts! GO!” Zhang yelled.

  Knowing they could not convince him and if they stayed they might hinder him everyone retreated to the door.

  The spider queen sounded out a very distinct shriek which sounded very different from the ones she had done before. After doing so she lunged at Zhang looking to get revenge.

  Zhang brandished his chained dagger while running full speed at the spider queen. Once he was close enough he slid under it and while under the spider queen slashing wildly at the joints of its legs. However, he was only able to make shallow wounds due to the shortness of his dagger.

  As he was engrossed in fighting the spider queen something else happened. The ground began shaking and what seemed like an army of cavalry soldiers galloping through the land can be heard. Along with the sound numerous shrieks could be heard.

  “It called for help!! Everyone find a safe place to hide now!! If they surround you use fire against them!” Zhang yelled toward the group.

  Hearing this the group began panicky running trying to find a safe place to hide. Moments later hundreds of spiders began descending from the broken ceiling of the palace. And these were just the first ones to arrive. A spider colony consisted of hundreds of thousands of these monsters so many more were on their way. The queen had her own chamber and the rest of the colony had stayed elsewhere but when she called for help they would all rush over to help.

  Tens of titanic golden spiders pounced at Zhang once they reached the ground. Zhang sent essence into the chained dagger and made it dance about around him slashing and killing the spiders. The only reason why he had not been able to kill the queen yet was due to its size but these regular sized titanic gold spiders were easily dispatched by him.

  The rest of the group had found a small storage room to hole up in. Jian Wei pulled out a large jar of wine and poured it a short distance away from the entrance into the room and ignited it. This fire would keep the spiders away and out of the room keeping the group safe.

  Hundreds upon hundreds of spiders filled the room after a while and they all targeted Zhang. At first Zhang slaughtered all that came his way but eventually he became overwhelmed. If not for his armor he would be dead long ago. The armor kept the spiders from ripping him to pieces but if he did not act sooner or later he would die from taking so many blunt hits.

  As the spiders mobbed him the spider queen whipped her front leg and sent him smashing into a wall. Zhang’s dagger slipped out of his grip and fell to the ground. Weaponless Zhang would not have a chance at survival at all.

  Just when everything seemed so bleak a sparkling blade could be seen popping out of a pile of gold coins right by where he landed. Thanks to Zhang’s impact a part of the blade could be seen as the gold coins slid away.

  Zhang had somewhat regretted not picking out one of the swords before and had let the sailors take them. All he had so far was his daggers, arrows, and shield. None of which could cut deep enough to kill the queen.

  Zhang sprang to action and used both of his hands to dig the blade out from under the pile of gold coins. After a few moments a beautiful halberd appeared in front of his eyes. The halberd’s blade was a crimson red and its shaft pitch black. And on its blade the words sky piercer could be seen etched into it.

  With the sky piercer in hand Zhang stood up and to face the army of spiders. The blade was extremely sharp and cut through the spiders as if it was cutting through air. The spider queen jumped into the air and lunged at Zhang.

  Once more the two engaged in an exchange of blows. However now that Zhang was armed with weapon more fitting for the occasion he was able to hack off the spider queen’s limbs after a few swings. Zhang would repeatedly aim for the same spot until the limb was chopped off. First went the spider queen's left front leg and soon to follow it was the right front leg.

  When two front legs were hacked off the spider queen’s speed slowed drastically. This allowed for Zhang to hack off one more leg and with that leg gone the spider queen's body fell forward.

  Zhang lifted the sky piercer into the sky and was able to chomp the spider queen's head off when the regular sized titanic golden spiders began swarming him once more. But they could only delay the inevitable as Zhang hacked them into pieces also.

  With a chomp Zhang cut the spider queen's head into two. Seeing this the rest of the colony fell into a frenzy and attacked Zhang even more. Although he killed the queen there were still hundreds of thousands of her subjects around. Zhang tried as best he could to break out of the encirclement of spiders but a large portion of his strength had been exhausted fighting the spider queen.

  He did not know how much longer he could last before running out of energy to retaliate. The spiders filled up almost every corner of the treasury as they attacked Zhang.

  But from the corner of his eye he noticed oddly there was one corner of the room they did not seem to go near. He wondered if he made it to that corner of the room would he be safe.

  “Guess I got nothing to lose.” He thought to himself as he tried to work his way toward that certain corner of the room.

  While Zhang was fighting the fire that Jian Wei had started slowly began to dwindle. But before it went out he would supplement it with more wine and flammables. But once the spiders fell into a frenzy they ignored the fire and began jumping in trying to kill the group.

  Luckily the entrance to the room at most would only allow one spider to get in at a time. The group would be able to defend themselves for a while unless something happened. And well something did happen one of the walls of the room started rumbling. Soon a small hole appeared on the wall and the eyes of a titanic golden spider could be seen peering in.

  Then the wall began rumbling once more.

  Chapter 29: Red Pearl

  The spiders continued to swarm around Zhang, countless claws and fangs scraped against the Lightning Eater scale armor. If it wasn’t for the armor, Zhang would have been torn to shreds by now. And if not for the sky piercer, Zhang would not have a chance in this lifetime or the next to escape from the horde.

  Each time Zhang swung the Sky Piercer, carnage followed. Limbs would be hacked off and pale blue spider blood splashed everywhere. Thanks to the sharpness of the Sky Piercer, Zhang inched his way toward the corner of the room that the spiders stayed away from.

  “DIE!!!�
� Zhang yelled as he panted. At all times, he would have to fight at least five or six spiders at once and once he killed them, more would replace them almost instantly. He is only human and would soon run out of stamina to fed off his foes.

  While Zhang made his way through the swarm, the rest of the group faced their own troubles. The hole that appeared in the wall, had long ago expanded. It became big enough for one spider to stick its leg through.

  If the group was not vigilant, they might be punctured by the spider leg sticking out of the hole. With enemies to the front and the chance the wall toward their side would crumble soon, the group fell into quite a predicament.

  “Hold out for as long as we can, brother will come for us!” Yuying yelled as black energy shot out from her black sword into the head of a spider. Once the energy entered into the spider’s head, runes began glowing on Yuying’s hand and traveled onto the sword. From her sword, the runes were transferred onto the spider.

  “Obey! And attack!!” Yuying yelled as she pulled her sword loose from the spider’s head. The runes on the spider’s body began to glow and it began attacking its brethren

  “Sis, I thought they had to be dead for you to do that!” Ai asked.

  “Since their intelligence is low, I can use my magic to manipulate their minds while they are alive. This doesn’t take as much energy as reanimating dead corpses.” Yuying said as she shot out black energy at yet another spider.

  Eventually in a short amount of time, Yuying had five spiders under her control. With these five and the rest of the group, she was able to create a secure area around the entrance to the room.

  The sailors looked toward Yuying with appreciation and awe.

  Hundreds of spiders had fallen to Zhang’s blade, with one swing of the sky piercer tens of spiders lost their limbs and stumbled to the ground. Once they fell to the ground, the halberd came smashing down crushing them and the ground beneath them. If it wasn’t for the halberd, Zhang’s foot also brought the end to many spiders.

  The endless struggle was extremely taxing and exhausting for Zhang, however he could not die here. There were still people that needed him alive. There were still people that he wished to see once more. Places to travel to and things to do.

  His past life and his current life had not provided him with the enjoyment he wanted and he would not go down like this before obtaining what he wanted.

  “Fuck you bugs! COME AT ME!!! I’ll kill you all!! I am not dying a virgin!” Zhang screamed as he chopped and hacked his way through the swarm.

  Dying a virgin in his past life was bad enough, then dying a virgin in this life was the worst thing, Zhang definitely did not want to go there again.

  As he walked towards the corner, Zhang spotted a sword handle sticking out of a pile of gold coins and quickly grabbed it. Although the sword was nowhere near as sharp as the Sky Piercer was, it would serve him fine for now. Swinging the sword in one hand and using the halberd in the other, Zhang crushed everything that stood in his path.

  Soon, he was able to retrieve one of his chained daggers. Using the Underworlds Heart, he made the chained dagger dance around him. Although he could probably form countless weapons out of essence, they would be too fragile and wouldn’t damage the spiders. So Zhang had to pick up whatever weapons he could, as he made his way toward the clear area in the treasury.

  After a while, he was able to get back his 2nd chained dagger. With the two daggers flying about and chains attached to his belt while holding a sword in one hand and a halberd in the other Zhang looked like a true war god.,

  The slaughter continued for a while until finally, Zhang reached the clearing and just like he had hoped once he entered into this clear area, the spiders stopped their attack and simply began observing him. Zhang climbed up the mount of gold as the spiders cornered him.

  Once he was at the top he realized why none of them dared to come over to this part of the treasury. In the corner of the wall a large man sized cocoon can be seen.

  “Eggs…” Zhang murmured.

  Within the cocoon Zhang could see one egg that looked totally different from the others. While the other eggs looked white that certain egg was red. Like a large flawless pearl, the eggs glistened in the light.

  “No wonder! They didn’t want to damage their next queen.” Zhang murmured, while lifting his sword and slashing the thread that made up the cocoon. However, the slash did not cut open the cocoon because the thread was too durable.

  So, Zhang used his hands to move the thread and made a hole. Once the cocoon was opened up, all of the eggs began spilling out onto the ground and with a sweep of his hand Zhang stored away all of the eggs but the red egg into the Ruler’s Domain.

  He stored the thread from the cocoon into his interspatial ring. This thread was made by the queen and would come in handy later.

  “Now to test out my theory and see if it works.” He thought as he walked toward the swarm, while holding out the red egg. The red egg barely fit in Zhang’s palm due to its size.

  Seeing Zhang holding the red egg, the spiders shrieked, however none of them dared to attack him. When he walked by them, the spiders would move back making a way for him. With the old queen dead, if Zhang destroyed this red egg, then the entire colony would die out.

  Zhang lifted the egg into the air with one hand and then in the other formed a fireball in his hand. Once he did that, the spiders backed up from him even more. Even though their intelligence was not very high compared to the queen, the drones knew that the colonies fate laid in Zhang’s hands, so they did not dare to attack him.

  As Zhang headed for the exit of the treasury, he suddenly remembered.

  “The imperial seal….” Zhang murmured as he turned back and walked toward the direction where it last was. A few moments later he found the skeleton gripping onto the seal from before.

  Extinguishing the flame in his hand and once more withdrawing the Sky Piercer Zhang, he used it to crush the bones of the skeleton. Once he did so, he extended his hand down and plucked the imperial seal from the ground.

  “Hmmm might as well take as much as I can.” He thought, looking at all of the loot still laying around on the floor.

  Using the Underworld Heart, he created a wall of energy and used it to plow the treasures that haven’t been taken yet toward him. He could not possibly just leave all of these treasures here now that he had the opportunity to take them.

  Soon, a large portion of the treasury was plowed in front of Zhang and with a sweep of his hand he stored away all of it. All of this took moments, despite how many things happened.

  He quickly made his way toward, where the rest of the group was. Once he reunited with the group, they slowly made their way toward the exit. The spiders no longer dared to bother them, but kept close watch from a short distance away.

  If the red egg disappeared or fell out of Zhang’s grasp, the hundreds of thousands of Titanic Golden spiders would continue their assault.

  “Now we have to find a way out of here, before they decide to attack us.” Zhang whispered to the group.

  One of the sailors bumped into Zhang as they made their way out of the ruins. This caused the egg in Zhang’s hand to drop and hit the ground. Seeing this the spiders shrieked and rushed toward the group, but before they could get closer, Zhang quickly picked up the egg and held it up once more.

  Suddenly the egg that seemed like a flawless pearl in Zhang’s hand began to crack. Small cracks soon turned to large ones and traveled across the egg.

  “Shit! Everyone run!” Zhang yelled.

  He had no idea what would happen once this egg broke apart.

  Moments later, pieces of the egg began falling off and the swarm charged at the group. Zhang pulled out a bottle of phoenix blood and poured it into his mouth and using all the energy he got from it formed a bubble around the group to keep the spiders away. But this bubble was only temporary because it took too much power to maintain.

  The group made it outside when the e
gg shattered and from within it, a fist sized queen spider emerged. Once she was out of the egg, the queen spider shrieked and jumped from Zhang’s hand trying to get away.

  “Not today…” Zhang murmured as he formed a small bubble around it lifting it into the air and in front of him.

  “Let me have a try.” Yuying said as she reached her hand out and touched the baby spider’s head. Once she did, runes began flowing from her hand and on to it.

  Once dozens of runes transferred from her hand onto the spider, Yuying pulled her hand back.

  "Alright, you can release the bubble now brother." Yuying said, while looking at Zhang.

  And with a thought the bubble disappeared and the baby spider queen landed on the ground. Once it landed on the ground, the spider crawls up and onto Yuying's head.

  "What did you do to it?" A sailor asked with a perplexed face.