Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  Hearing Zhang’s words a frown appeared on Zhuge Dan’s face.

  “On a second thought they won’t be entering the city! I’ll make sure every last one of them dies before they set foot inside.” Zhuge Dan roared as gusts of wind blew.

  Blasts of wind sent the two huge iron city gates spiraling at Zhang’s soldiers who were about to enter the city. Screams sounded as dozens of soldiers and horses were being crushed by the heavy iron gates.

  Suddenly a loud bang resounded and the screaming ceased.

  The soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army who were watching from above were completely dumbfounded. They saw the two iron gates spiraled through the air and smashed into dozens of soldiers dressed in the standard armor of the Heavenly Sword Army.

  When suddenly, a young woman with long silky black hair appeared atop of fiery steed with a black whip on hand. Amazingly, with two strikes from her whip, the two iron gates were smashed back into the city walls.

  “Charge!!! Secure the city gate!!” yelled Sima Yi as he could be seen in the center of the cavalry with a sword in his hands, still dressed in the same purple armor without the helm.

  Hearing his words, many of the Zhang’s soldiers once more began charging toward Green Clover City.

  Seeing this, Zhuge Dan sneered as he looked up toward the walls and yelled, “Skew them with arrows! Soon, thousands of arrows were shot into the sky by the soldiers atop the walls.

  To Zhang’s soldiers below, it was as if night had descended due to the countless arrows blocking out the sun’s warm rays. In part, this was also due to the large number of clouds floating in the sky.

  “Yu Squad fall to the rear and ready your aim the rest of you, raise your shields!” Sima Yi ordered calmly to the former disciples of Yu Sect. Instantly, a portion of the soldiers under Zhang’s command split off and move behind while the rest equipped the shields hanging from the side of their horses and raised them into the air.

  A rhythmic melody sounded out as the arrows hit the iron shields. It sounded as if a heavy rain was tapping against the shields of Aurora’s soldiers as they made their way toward Green Clover City.

  “Make sure to shield your horses!” Sima Yi reminded as he rode forth. This was because if the horses under them were pelted by arrows the soldiers mounted would most likely end up being trampled to death by their comrades. Falling onto the ground. fully dressed in armor with horses all around you, definitely would not end well.

  “If arrows can’t stop you then how about this!” Zhuge Dan yelled as he could be seen flying in the air. Moments later, dozens of horses and soldiers were split into bloody pieces and splattered onto the ground.

  From the entrance to the city, rage filled Zhang’s eyes as he watched Zhuge Dan slaughtered his men and soon, essence gathered on his fingers and lightning began to crackle; but before Zhang could launch his attack a blade came by swinging to his head.

  “Your opponent is me!” Chao Chang bellowed as his saber left a faint trail of blood on Zhang’s neck.

  Zhang clicked his tongue as he gave up stopping Zhuge Dan and focused his attention on Chao Chang. “I’ll just have to hope Yuying, Ai and Ling can work together and kill that bastard.” He thought as blood lust emitted from his body which suffocated the area around him.

  “Your surprisingly fast for someone who’s so fat.” Zhang snickered trying to provoke Chao Chang into action.

  “Your pretty strong for someone with such a puny build.” Chao Chang said without reacting violently upon hearing Zhang’s provocations.

  “You forgot fast!” Zhang yelled as he jumped into the air and withdrew the ten dragon talon throwing knives from his interspatial ring and launched them at Chao Chang.

  “You think these playthings can harm me?” Chao Chang laughed as he swung his sword at the throwing knives, however upon their clash, his saber snapped and a large portion of it spun through the air before embedding itself into the ground.

  Using this opportunity, Zhang lunged his halberd at Chao Chang’s heart. Seeing Zhang’s intention Chao Chang shot the broken saber at Zhang as he hopped back to avoid being ran through by the Sky Piercer halberd in Zhang’s hand.

  “Guess I’ll have to use this sword.” Chao Chang said as a long black blade appeared on his hands.

  While Zhang and Chao Chang fought without either person gaining an advantage; outside the city walls, a tall pillar of blood was erected with Ling standing on top.

  “With so little water you think you can defeat me?” Zhuge Dan snickered as he gazed at Ling.

  “Not with this amount of water but with that amount.” Ling said as she pointed up at a large cluster of clouds. Soon these clouds condensed into large blobs of water that flew to where Ling was and turned into hundreds of icy needles.

  “Die!” Ling yelled as the hundreds of icy needles short forth at Zhuge Dan.

  But with a wave of his hand, Zhuge Dan changed the direction of the ice needles and made them shot elsewhere.

  Suddenly loud yells outside of the city could be heard in the distance. “For Lord Lu Gong!!” The voices yelled.

  Chapter 76: Unexpected Outcome

  The Heavenly Sword Army spotted hundreds of green flags in the distance with white clover sewn onto them, as they continued to fire barrage after barrage of arrows at the soldiers of Aurora approaching the walls. Those were the standard flags of the Green Clover Army.

  Thousands of soldiers donned in green armors steadily marched towards Green Clover City. At the forefront was a man sitting atop a red horse with a guandao in hand. Any citizen of Green Clover City would instantly recognize him as General Guan Yu, officer in-charge in protecting the northern region of the Green Clover Province.

  “For Lord Lu Gong!” Guan Yu roared as he led his men towards Green Clover City.

  Seeing the green flags and thousands of soldiers in green armor, creases appeared on Zhuge Dan’s forehead.

  “What are they doing here… That woman should have already suppressed any general who is against us in the province.” he silently muttered.

  “Hmph! Whatever! The more they come, the more I will kill.” He thought as wind began spiraling around his body.

  Moments later, a miniature tornado appeared in Zhuge Dan’s palm and swirled down onto the ground where it exponentially grew in size. This tornado spun towards the Green Clover Army at high speeds threatening to shred everything in its path.

  A short distance from Zhuge Dan, a glint appeared in Ling’s eyes as she saw the opportunity to strike. Zhuge Dan had held the advantage throughout their entire fight due to the volume of water that was available for her use. But now that his attention was focused elsewhere, Ling could possibly overwhelm him with a surprise attack.

  “Dark Nimbus.” Ling mumbled when suddenly, all of the water in the battlefield rose to the sky and turned into ominous black clouds. Heavy rain descended upon a small section of the battlefield, where Zhuge Dan and his soldiers were.

  “You've ran out of tricks?” Zhuge Dan mocked as droplets of water trickled down from the sky.

  “Eternal Frost!” Ling yelled as the entire area where Zhuge Dan was becoming covered in a thin layer of ice.

  The rainwater pouring down on Zhuge Dan turned into small ice needles as a layer of ice covered his body. After being icebound, Zhuge Dan’s body fell from the sky.

  “Die!” Ling yelled as a hundreds of ice needles shot toward Zhuge Dan’s icebound body.

  But before the icicles could strike their target, cracks began forming on the layer of ice that coated Zhuge Dan’s body and a burst of wind sent shards of ice flying everywhere.

  “Had I not covered myself by wind perhaps that would have been my end.” Zhuge Dan murmured as he shot a glare at Ling.

  While Ling and Zhuge Dan faced off in the air, the soldiers of Aurora successfully made their way into the city, after riding passed Zhang who was currently engaged in a battle with Chao Chang. Once inside, they engaged in battle with the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Ar
my.

  “Brat, you're pretty good at dodging.” Chao Chang snickered at Zhang as blood dripped from the saber in his hand.

  The two had been in a deadlock with neither of them gaining the upper hand, but Chao Chang’s attacks clearly contained much more power than Zhang’s. Meaning, as the battle raged on, it was more likely Chao Chang would gain the upper hand.

  To make things worse, the black blade in Chao Chang’s hands was able to barely slice through the scales of the Lightning Eater armor Zhang was wearing. After every exchange of blows, faint trails of blood appeared on both men.

  “Luckily, wars are not won by a single man but by armies.” Zhang chuckled as he dodged one of Chao Chang's slashes.

  “Perhaps, but a dragon without a head is a dragon without a purpose!” Chao Chang roared as he continued, wildly swinging his sword.

  While Zhang and Chao Chang battled on, yelling could be heard coming from the tops of the city walls.

  “Quickly bring out the ballistae!” Some soldiers from the Heavenly Sword Army yelled.

  The reason why Chao Chang had to go through all of the trouble of sending his concubine Guo Meiyan to infiltrate Green Clover City was due to these ballistae. The Green Clover province did not have a strong army nor natural defense, but they had hundreds of ballistae stored to defend their capital city. Of course, this information was not widely known. Even the majority of the citizens who lived in the province themselves didn’t know.

  Had not the Heavenly Sword Province sent several spies into the Green Clover Province, they most likely would have not known either.

  Each and every ballista uses large bolts, the size of spears, tipped with mythril which could penetrate through any kind of armor.

  Soon, rumbling sounded as hundreds of ballistae were rolled out onto the top of the city walls. Luckily, Zhang had launched a surprise attack or else his army could have been wiped out before even reaching the city walls.

  Moments later, hundreds of bolts were shot downward from the city walls striking indiscriminately, impaling friend and foe. Few unlucky commoners were even caught in the crossfire as the bolts shot through the walls of their homes.

  “Ride into the alleyways!” Sima Yi ordered as a spear sized bolt nearly pierced into the side of his horse.

  “Shit... I need to get out of here.” Zhang thought as dozens of bolts flew past him.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Chao Chang laughed as he pursued Zhang.

  “Chase after someone who isn't of the same gender!” A voice belonging to a woman rang out as a black whip lashed out at Chao Chang.

  Using his saber, Chao Chang hacked away at the onslaught of whip lashes directed toward him. Soon bits and pieces of the black whip littered the ground underneath where Chao Chang stood.

  “Bind!” Ai yelled as the pieces of whip on the ground extended and shot out at Chao Chang.

  “What is this!?” Chao Chang was shocked as black vines coiled around his body.

  “Get him brother!” Ai yelled cheerfully as her whip bound Chao Chang to the ground.

  Zhang turned to shoot a smile at Ai, but soon his face paled as if time slowed down as he ran towards her. Seconds became minutes, minutes became hours as he inched toward her.

  Ai watched Zhang franticly made up his way toward her. Turning her head to the side, she could see a large green tipped bolt speeding at her. But sadly, the bolt was moving too fast and was already too close for her to dodge.

  In an instant, her world turned upside down as she felt gentle hands shove her out of the bolt’s path.

  Boom!

  Ai sat on the ground in a dazed as a cloud of dust blocked her sight. Moments later, she could see the shaft of bolt sticking out of Zhang’s back, where his heart should be, through his pitch black cape pinning him to the ground.

  “Nooo!” Ai wailed as two streams of tears flooded her delicate face.

  “Guess I’ll be seeing father-in-law a bit sooner...” Zhang said with his face facing the ground as he coughed up mouthfuls of blood. After his last words Zhang’s head dropped to the ground lifelessly.

  Yuying who was commanding soldiers with Sima Yi stood lifeless as she saw the events that had transpired. Her legs gave out as if she did not possess an ounce of power left in her body, causing her to fall to the ground on her knees.

  Outside of the city, Ling and Zhuge Dan were still at each other’s neck using technique after technique trying to obliterate their opponent. As long as Ling had water, she could cancel out Zhuge Dan’s attacks and the same went for Zhuge Dan who could repel Ling’s attacks with the abundant wind at his disposal.

  Ling was channeling essence in her hand preparing to unleash another technique against Zhuge Dan when she a felt a slight tug on her pinky finger. The red thread that was only visible to her and connected her to Zhang turned black and blew loosely in the wind as if it’s another end was no longer linked to anything.

  “It can’t be….” Ling murmured, she felt as if a hard lump was blocking her throat while tears began to gather in the corner of her eyes. Ling abandoned her battle with Zhuge Dan, and the column of water she was standing on sped towards Green Clover City.

  “Where do you think you’re going!?” Zhuge Dan roared as blades of wind rotated around him, ready to be fired at Ling. However, the instant he gathered his essence, Zhuge Dan coughed up a mouth full of blood.

  “Damn!! That damage from the lightning still hasn’t completely healed and this fight had been taking its toll on me.” He muttered as he lowered himself to the ground.

  Moments later, the column of water Ling rode out splashed over the top of Green Clover City’s walls. Looking down, Ling saw a terrifying scene.

  “Brother!!!” She screamed as she descended to the ground where Zhang lay, lifeless. Ai was still sitting on the ground as if she was a puppet with cut strings as trails of tears stained her face. Kneeling lifelessly on the ground, Yuying was also frozen at the same spot she had been.

  “Wake up! Wake up! You promised you’d never leave me again!” Ling cried as she pushed and tugged at Zhang’s lifeless body that was nailed to the ground by the large ballista bolt.

  “Young lord!” soldiers yelled as they realized that their young master was lying on the ground lifeless.

  “Protect the madams! Kill those bastards and avenge the young lord!” Sima Yi roared in rage. As he looked at where Zhang lay, Sima Yi could not help but remember when he and Zhang had first met in Red Mist City; how if it was not for Zhang, he would most likely have continued to be a beggar or might had been a corpse by now on the streets of Red Mist City.

  “Kill them! Kill them all!!” He continued yelling as he withdrew his sword from its scabbard and madly charged that the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army.

  Many of Zhang’s soldiers also fell into a frenzy and began to slash wildly at their foes. If their swords broke, they used their fists; if their fists failed they would use their teeth. This caused the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army to be stricken with fear.

  “Retreat! Retreat! They’ve gone mad!” Some soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army screamed as they dropped their weapons and ran away.

  But as madness filled the battlefield, a painful laugh sounded out. Ai could be seen laughing madly as she got to her feet. “If brother is dead then you’ll all accompany him.” Ai said in a shrill and pained voice as a long thin sword appeared in her delicate hand.

  Scream filled the entire battlefield, as if Ai had been possessed by death itself, she charged at soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army and hacked them limb from limb. Despite their pleading and begging, none were spared as Ai rampaged.

  Chao Chang could be seen fighting his way up to the top of the city walls after he witnessed Zhang being impaled by the ballista bolt. This was because he had deemed that since Zhang was gone, his biggest priority was to secure the top of the walls and use the ballistae to annihilate Zhang’s soldiers as many as possible before the remnants of the Green Clover Army reached
the city.

  Suddenly, a mixture of screeching and howling filled the air for an instant. As everyone's gazes focused on where the sounds were coming from, they could see a terrifying dark aura enveloping Zhang’s lifeless body. Following this, beneath Zhang’s armor, a heart-shaped, purple colored crystal flew out into the air. Once in the air, the purple crystal emitted a dazzling light as a purple aura overlapped with the black aura and enveloped his body.

  Then something miraculous occurred, as Zhang was covered by the purple aura, the heart-shaped purple crystal started spinning in the air. It then shot down and drilled into his lifeless body. Afterwards, the purple aura faded leaving only the terrifying black aura.

  Seated on the ground beside Zhang, Ling was dumbfounded as the turn of events unfold. To her amazement, the black and colorless loose strand of thread tied to her little finger regained its beautiful red color. As if it had a mind of its own, it linked itself into Zhang’s little finger.