by Tony Tran
Due to the denseness of the forest the three beauties and thousands of soldiers had to walk while leading their horses. Although they had the option of abandoning their horses it would mean that they would lose their mobility.
As they made their way through the forest the moon was slowly replaced by the sun that was peaking over the horizon. By now the soldiers were all exhausted from all of the running. But they continued moving forward because the thought of taken over by a swarm of Heart Burrower worms could make anyone shiver and cringe in fear.
While the soldiers in the rear of the army followed those in front of them a loud tell could be heard from the front of the army.
“FUCK!!! It’s a dead end!!” The voice rang out in rage.
Once these soldiers from the rear caught up they found a tall and steep cliff wall of rocks in their path. Neither the beginning nor end of this wall could be seen.
“Fire the red flares! Warn our lord not to come this way!!” Lu Xun yelled as he shot a red flare into the sky. Soon to follow the first one dozens more were soon shot into the sky.
“we need to do something before they catch up or else we will be surrounded.” Sun Ce said as he stood next to Lu Xun.
“If we are corned then the only thing we could do is fight!!” Lu Xun bellowed as he lifted his sword into the sky.
“To the death!!!” He screamed.
“To the death!!!” The soldiers responded as they also lifted their swords and shields into the air.
As the soldiers screamed their hearts out Yuying pointed up the wall and spoke to Silky.
“Go Silky.” Yuying said as Silky jumped onto the steep cliff wall and climbed up.
As Silky made its way up the face of the cliff down below the undead made their way through the forest toward the soldier of Aurora.
“Protect the madams and prepare for battle!” Lu Xun ordered to his men. Currently ensuring their safety was his highest priority, if anything happened to them he wouldn't know how to face Zhang.
The soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder with weapons ready. They were no cornered and their only shot at survival was to cut down the enemies in front of them. These men were no more Like caged beasts ready to fight with every fiber of their body. If they had to bite the enemy to death they most likely would if it meant they could live another day.
“If we can hold out then Silky will be able to lower down strands of silk which we can use to climb up the face of the cliff.” Yuying said as she kept looking up the face of the cliff.
Hearing these words, a glimmer of hope popped into the hearts of the soldiers which soon spread to the entire army.
“If we fight! We live!!” A few soldiers yelled.
“Attack!!!” Lu Xun yelled as he spotted undead closing in on their position.
“If not a lot of undead show up we can easily take care of all of them thanks to our numbers but if we attract a large horde then we are screwed.” Lu Xun thought to himself as he rushed toward the undead and began swinging his sword.
Chapter 63: Unleashed
Although every fiber of his body was screaming as he was running toward danger Zhang could not help but continue moving forward.
“Please be okay.” Zhang murmured as he ran through the forest with a few of his soldiers following behind him. Besides a handful of soldiers Zhang ordered the rest of the soldiers that came with him to stay with the villagers.
He had told them all to climb up and hide in the tall trees in the forest and to wait for him to return.
“My lord undead to our front!” A soldier yelled.
“Follow me! We must get back to the rest of the army!” Zhang yelled while brandishing his sword and shield.
Soon Zhang and his guard engaged the undead in battle.
“Aim for the heart!!!” Zhang yelled as he plunged his sword into a corpse. If they aimed for the heart, there was a chance of injuring or killed the Heart Burrower inside the corpse.
As Zhang drew his sword out from the corpses he could see that it was coated in a gooey greenish liquid.
Once the sword was pulled out of the corpse, with a push it fell backwards onto the ground.
Seeing this many soldiers began aiming where the heart should be within the corpses.
“It's working!” One soldier yelled out joyfully as he pulled his sword out of a corpse. However, as he sword slide out of the corpse instead of falling to the ground it’s arms lunged for him.
“Gahhhh!!” The soldier yelled as he was knocked to the ground.
But before the corpse could claim his life a shiny black object spun through the air and embedded itself into the corpse. Green liquid could be need oozing out from where the object cut into the corpse.
Zhang could be seen running up toward the corpse and pulling the shiny object out of the corpse. Turns out the object was his shield.
“Get up quickly we must keep moving.” Zhang said as he extended his hand to help the fallen soldier back up.
“Many thanks my lord.” The soldier said filled with gratitude as he grabbed onto Zhang’s arm and go up onto his feet.
“Make sure you stab the heart! We need to move quickly! Zhang yelled as he continued stabbing the undead.
As Zhang and his soldiers inches their way through the horde of undead a river came into view.
“My lord from the looks of it battle broke out here.” A soldier said while pointing off into the distance where dozens of diced up corpses could be seen.
“Good, we are going the right way.” Zhang said while quickening his pace.
As they splashed through the river, Zhang and the soldiers had to be both wary of the water and the undead who were also present in the river.
Luckily while in the water the movement speed of the undead had greatly decreased. This allowed the soldiers to be able to handle any undead that appeared near them.
Suddenly a yelled could be heard.
“Gahhh!!!!”
When Zhang and the soldiers looked toward the direction it came from they could see one of their comrades being dragged down into the water.
Seeing this Zhang and the other soldiers ran to help. They slashed wildly trying to free the soldier being pulled down into the water. Thankfully the river was shallow or else the soldier would have most likely died.
The soldiers dragged their comrade out of the river and into the banks. The man could be seen panting as he gasped for air.
That was when Zhang noticed his sound transmission bracelet was flashing.
After reading the message on the bracelet, Zhang lifted his hand into the air. A black hole appeared just above the ground and from within it dozens of creatures poured out.
From dozens they turned into hundreds as the Titanic Golden Spiders crawled out from the Ruler’s Domain and assembled in front of Zhang who was standing by the river bank.
The hundreds of spiders obediently stood still awaiting Zhang’s commands. As the early morning rays shone onto them a clear metallic gloss could be seen on them
“Kill!!” Zhang commanded them as he pointed his finger toward the undead.
The spiders screeched as they began their assault on the undead. They sped their way through the forest and began latching themselves to the undead.
Despite not having reached maturity these spiders were more than enough to deal with the Heart Burrowers. The Titanic Spiders possessed great intelligence thanks to Yuying’s tampering with their minds, this allowed them to cooperate with each other and take down their enemies.
As if they could sense where the worms were the spiders would use their legs to rip open the chests of the undead and then feed on the worms inside.
“Fuck…. I should have done this sooner….” Zhang said while staring dumbfounded as his army of spiders ripped through the horde of undead.
“Totally should have fucking done this sooner…” Zhang cursed as the spiders continued their onslaught. That being said if Zhang had unleashed the spiders earlier without knowing what he was facing
then there was a chance they could have died pointlessly.
Also despite the spiders being able to overpower the undead their numbers were too low to take all of the undead head on.
“Let's go!” He yelled to his soldiers as they watched the scenes in front of them unfold.
“Ye-yes my lord.” The soldiers replied as they began following Zhang.
Zhang led his forces swiftly through the forest, while praying that the three beauties and the rest of the army was ok.
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As Zhang was making his way through the horde of undead, the battle had broken out at the face of the steep cliff.
Earlier Silky had lowered down dozens of silk thread ropes for the soldiers to climb up but due to the huge number of soldiers there were not enough ropes to go around. So Lu Xun had ordered his men to pack closely together as to not let the undead overwhelm them. The battle was intensifying by each passing minute as more and more undead appeared. Despite knowing how to kill the undead Zhang’s army still had trouble holding back so many undead.
“Sun Ce lead some men and begin retreating up the ropes and secure the top of the cliff.” Lu Xun commanded.
“Right away.” Sun Ce replied as he began directing the soldiers who were not engaging undead in battle to move up the ropes.
However, there were only so many ropes and many soldiers which meant that it would take a very long time for the army to all move up the ropes.
Seeing this, Ai lifted the Black Thorn whip into the sky and with a flick of her wrist and some essence it snaked up the face of the cliff all the way to the top. Once the tip of the whip reached the top of the cliff the whip began to grow in size. Soon a large winding pathway was created. Of course Ai made it so the pathway and the ropes did not get in each other's way.
“You men quickly move!!” Lu Xun yelled toward some soldiers as he gestured to the bridge that Ai had created. It would not be safe if he simply just ordered every soldier to stop fighting and move up the pathway so Lu Xun decided to move groups of them at a time.
Also going up the pathway made by the Black Thorn whip or climbing up the ropes made by Silky meant that they would have to abandon their horses but if it meant surviving then in the end it was worth it.
Losing the horses would deal a heavy blow to their army but in the end horses could be bought again but if their army was wiped out then there would have been horrible repercussions.
“Most if not all of the people in the Black Wind province most likely have turned into undead.” Lu Xun said as he judged the number of undead that they were facing.
“There are probably hundreds of thousands of them here alone general, perhaps you are right and we are stuck in a province of undead. If this keeps up any longer we will suffer heavy casualties.” One of Lu Xun’s lieutenants said to him.
“General look!!” The lieutenant yelled as he pointed into the sky.
In the sky a signal of hope could be seen. A dazzling green flare sparkled in the sky despite the rising sun's rays.
“Shoot red flares! Warn our lord that there's danger here!” Lu Xun yelled as he shot a red flare into the sky trying to warn Zhang not to approach their location. Soon dozens of red flares could be seen shooting up into the air.
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“This way!! We are closing in on them!” Zhang yelled as he led his guards and the hundreds of Titanic spiders through the horde of undead.
The Titanic spiders could be seen taking down all of the undead around Zhang as he and the guards advanced through the horde. Despite having the spiders to help them break through the horde of undead if they slowed for even a bit they could still possibly be overwhelmed.
Zhang had seen the dozens of red flares in the sky earlier so he knew that he was very close to where the rest of the army was.
While moving through the horde Zhang could hear a very familiar sound coming from a distance away. It was the sound of people marching uniformly.
However, Zhang ignored it and continued heading toward his army and where Yuying, Ling and Ai are.
Moments later Zhang could spot huge pitch black vines snaking up the side of a cliff. And soon after that he could see a battlefield in front of himself. Zhang’s soldiers under the command of Lu Xun were furiously fighting the undead.
Men covered in green goo and black blood could be seen fighting wildly with the undead. If their swords failed, then they used their shields and if their shields break then they relied on their fists. I came down to a battle of will between the soldiers and the unless horde of undead.
Although they were tired, although they were afraid and although they wished they could be somewhere else, all of the soldiers pressed on and fought with everything they had. If it meant they could survive then they would fight until they dropped.
“Move!!” Zhang yelled as he began running through the horde of undead.
With each thrust of his sword Zhang was able to swiftly take down everything in front of him. Along his side were hundreds of titanic spiders pinning down the undead.
“My lord!!”
“Brother!!”
Many voices rang out as they saw Zhang approaching. They were a mixture of worried voices along with relieved voices. Some were afraid that Zhang was in danger while others were relieved that he was coming.
“Silk Webs!!” Zhang commanded to the spiders.
Moments later all of the Titanic spiders began weaving a massive maze of webs. The massive webs netted a huge portion of the undead, making them unable to move.
“Attack!!” Lu Xun yelled. Now that most of the undead were unable to advance if they could deal with the few undead that were on their side of the net then they would be safe.
The soldiers madly charged forward to slay the undead.
As they were fighting the undead the spiders continued creating a giant web and almost created a wall made of undead in front of the soldiers.
“Brother I’m so glad to see you!” Ai yelled as she jumped at Zhang and embraced him.
They hugged and spun around for a few times until he let her down.
Moments later two more beautiful figures descended and tackled Zhang to the ground.
“These four…” Lu Xun thought as he shook his head.
“My lord! I suggest that we move up the cliff because it's not very safe down here.” Lu Xun suggested as he looked at the wall of entangled undead.
“Everyone move!” Lu Xun yelled.
Moments later Zhang ordered the spiders to create a large net up the side of the cliff for the soldiers to climb up. Of course he only ordered a few spiders to do this because it takes time for the spiders to produce silk and if all of the silk was wasted then that wouldn't be wise.
“My lord where are the rest of the men? And those villagers the girl spoke of.” Lu Xun asked.
“They are waiting for us to come get them.” Zhang said.
“That's if we can make it to them. With so many undead we can't possibly move very easily with such a large force.” Lu Xun said with a sigh as he thought about the soldiers waiting for them.
“Once we are up the cliff I have a way of getting to them.” Zhang said.
“The spiders can construct a bridge from the cliffs down into the treetops and through the forest. Then they can use that and get back here.” Zhang said.
“I didn't do this sooner because I didn't know the exact situation you and the rest of the men were in nor did I have an exact location. But now I do.” Zhang stated as he walked with the three beauties beside him.
“Next time I’m going with you brother.” Ling said sternly.
“I won't leave you again.” Zhang said as he patted held her hand tighter.
“Me too. Me too! Don't leave me behind next time.” Ai said as she hopped onto his hand and popped her head over his shoulder.
“Yuying do you know how to stop the Heart Burrowers on a larger scale? There is no way we
could beat them if kill them one at a time.” Zhang said.
“Well besides physically attacking them, we could use fire or ice to kill them. Either of the extremes would do the trick. Also aside from that perhaps if we find and kill the queen Heart Burrower. But that's easier said than done, the queen is always mixed into the hordes of undead.” Yuying side.
Chapter 64: Survivors
After traveling up the giant vine that led to the top of the cliff, Zhang, and his army were welcomed by an empty atmosphere without a tree nor plant in sight, it was barren and lifeless to behold. The entire cliff was made of solid rock; with no way up or down once Ai retrieved the Black Thorn whip, which made it an ideal place to stay away from the undead.
