Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  After this, Zhang’s body raised from the ground and onto his feet. He gripped the bolt that had pinned him to the ground and inch by inch pulled it out of his body. Once the spear sized bolt was pulled out from Zhang’s body, it left a gaping hole on his chest and his armor, making a pool of blood beneath his feet.

  Once the spear was taken out, Zhang tossed it onto the ground as he fell on his knees and began coughing mouthfuls of blood. Moments later, the purple light reappeared and in an instant, restored the gaping hole in Zhang’s chest as if Zhang had mistakenly worn a broken piece of armor.

  While looking at Zhang with a tear-stained face, Ling felt a gentle hand wiped away her tears.

  “I didn’t lie, did I?” those words resonated in her ears as she felt the warm hands caressed her petite face.

  By now, silence had filled the entire battlefield as all eyes were focused on the miracle that had occurred. Well of course, besides those few screams and pleas for mercy from the unfortunate soldiers who were being hacked to death by Ai.

  After wiping off the tears from Ling’s face, Zhang stood up as his pitch black cape was draped over his shoulders fluttered in the wind. Each and every gaze was soon drawn to Zhang’s cape as everyone felt someone was looking back at them from within his cape. Moments later, dozens of eyes that did not belong to human appeared on the black cape staring back at the onlookers.

  The black aura enveloping Zhang’s body shot forth encompassing a large area around him; creating a black mist which blocked everything from sight. It was as if an endless abyss had been formed as the howling and screeching was heard and pitch black colored beasts of all shapes and sizes walked out from the black mist.

  Lightning Eater snakes crawled out from the darkness and towered over the city walls; Voracious Eater Lions jumped out from the black mist and pounced on the soldiers of Heavenly Sword Army; while packs of One Eyed Hell Hounds tore their victims limb from limb as they charged out from the mist.

  Chapter 77: Sweet Revenge

  Within the dark mist that was emitted from Zhang’s cape, hundreds of shadowy, black colored demonic beasts appeared: Lightning Eaters, Voracious Eaters, Titanic Spiders, Frost Apes, Jade Leopards, Hell Hounds, and even undead corpses. Every monster that Zhang had encountered thus far began crawling out from the depths of darkness, filling the streets with terrifying roars and howls.

  “Th-this has to be a nightmare!” The soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army thought as they threw down their weapons and ran for their lives as the abyssal beasts charged at them.

  “Soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army aim and prepare to fire!” Chao Chang ordered to his men who manned the ballistae atop the walls.

  After Chao Chang gave the order, dozens of Abyssal Titanic Spiders crawled up the walls and pounced on him, pinning him to the ground. However, they could not keep him down for long; Chao Chang roared and hacked away the Abyssal Titanic Spiders, turning them into particles of black dust and was blown away with the wind.

  “Attack! They are not as strong as they seem!” Chao Chang desperately yelled as he saw his army ran away, abandoning their weapons and was being one-sidedly slaughtered by those Spiders.

  As Chao Chang was trying to get his soldiers to stop from fleeing, an arrow flew past his face. Once he turned his head towards the direction where the arrow came from, he saw a beautiful young woman with long black hair holding a bow.

  “Chao Chang prepare to die!” The woman’s melodic voice yelled.

  A distance away, atop the tiled roof of a diner stood a beautiful young lady that Zhang had befriended on a lonely night, Lu Lingqi. All this time she had been hiding in the shadows, trying to find an opportunity to revenge her father. But when the ballista bolt pierced through Zhang’s armor, she, like Ai, Ling, and Yuying fell into a state of disbelief. After she witnessed Zhang got back to his feet, she gathered all her courage and decided it was time to appear and claim Chao Chang’s life.

  “Ahaha! If it isn’t the daughter of the late provincial lord, Lu Lingqi, so I take it you’ve come to get revenge for that old buffoon?” Chao Chang mocked as he looked at Lu Lingqi who had an arrow knocked in her bow.

  “Come, shoot! I dare you! Hahaha who do you think I am? I’m Chao Chang general of fifty thousand men of the Heavenly Sword Army. You think your arrows can kill me, a cultivator at the seventh level?” Chao Chang sneered as he tapped the flat side of his sword against his armor.

  It did not take long before Lu Lingqi released the second arrow in her hand and sent it spiraling towards Chao Chang. The arrow pierced through the air as it came closer and closer toward its target. It was as if time had slowed to a standstill as Lu Lingqi stood there, praying for her arrow to hit its mark and grant her release from the ill fate of an avenger.

  But of course fate has its own ways of playing out. Lu Lingqi’s arrow made its way inches away in the center between Chao Chang’s brow before he extended his hand and plucked it from the air.

  “Like father like daughter… Both shall meet their end in my hands. Or shall I say... like mother like daughter. Hahaha!!!.” Chao Chan laughed wildly as he snapped the arrow into two.

  “Fool!” Lu Lingqi sneered as she also began laughing hysterically.

  Hearing Lu Lingqi’s laugh made a sense of unease crept into Chao Chang’s heart. “Why is she laughing? Why?” He questioned as he continued listening to Lu Lingqi’s laugh. When suddenly he felt a burning sensation in his hands. Looking down, Chao Chang saw that the skin on his hands had turned completely purple and his veins had visibly turned black.

  “What did you do!? What did you do!?” Chao Chang yelled, horrified as he continued looking at his hands.

  It did not take long for the skin on his entire arm to turn purple. It was clear that whatever was happening to him, it was spreading to the rest of his body, fast.

  “Have you heard of a plant called Midnight’s Glory? This certain plant only blooms every five years and only for five days before it withers away. But if one is able to collect its nectar, before it withers, and mix it with the nectar another flower called the Wolfsbane, the two creates an extremely toxic poison called the Devil’s Brew. It seemed that I coated a little on an arrow that a certain someone caught and perhaps, the only cure for that poison right here.” Lu Lingqi said, waving a small jade bottle in her hand.

  “Give it to me! Give me the cure!” Chao Chang pleaded as he jumped off the city walls onto the roof of a building trying to make his way where Lu Lingqi was standing.

  “You want this?” Lu Lingqi said as she held out the jade bottle loosely.

  “Don’t drop it!” Chao Chang screamed as he landed on the roof where Lu Lingqi stood.

  “Opps…”

  The small jade bottle fell out of Lu Lingqi’s hand, rolled off the roof of the building and smashed onto the stone paved road below splattering a clear liquid everywhere.

  “Perhaps, if you can lick enough you’ll be cured.” She laughed as she sat down on roof to enjoy the look on Chao Chang’s face.

  Faced between life and death, Chao Chang did not hesitate and jumped off the roof and began licking the spilled contents of the jade bottle on the dirty ground.

  “Ahaha how the mighty has fallen. The great general of fifty thousand Heavenly Sword Army soldiers reduced to lick the ground beneath me like a pig.” Lu Lingqi laughed hysterically.

  “I wonder what this pig will do when he finds out that the bottle was filled with water I used to wash my feet.” She added as a devilish grin appeared on her face.

  “Yo-You! I’ll rip you to pieces!!” Chao Chang roared in rage as the poison ate away at his body. Angrily, he jumped into the air trying to get back to the roof of the building but before he could, he felt an otherworldly pain struck the core of his being.

  “Ah yes! I forgot to mention, the Devil’s Brew has a very particular side effect. After roughly five minutes whoever is affected by this poison loses all ability to control the essence in their body. I must say, it was quite har
d to acquire the small batch that I had... but it was very worth it. That whore and her children will surely enjoy it too like you have, general.” Lu Lingqi said as she watched Chao Chang rolled about in pain.

  Lu Lingqi was relishing her success at partially gaining revenge while the battle to claim the city raged on.

  By now, the remnants of the Green Clover Army had reached the city and joined the soldiers of Aurora in battle. After the demise of Chao Chang and Zhuge Dan’s disappearance, after Ling abandoned their battle and entered the city, the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army were left without a leader and fell into a complete disarray. To make things worse, hundreds of abyssal beasts rampaged throughout the city aiding the soldiers of Aurora and the soldiers of the Green Clover Army. One could say, despite many casualties on both sides, the war had become one sided.

  “Kill the dogs of the Heavenly Sword Army! Avenge Lord Lu Gong!!” Guan Yu could be seen yelling while cutting down soldier after soldier of the Heavenly Sword Army.

  “Charge on top of the walls! Take control of the ballistae!” Sima Yi ordered as he pulled his sword loose from a freshly made corpse. Despite being a strategist Sima Yi was actually very skilled with swordplay and possessed a cultivation of the fifth level.

  Green Clover City became a bloodbath as a sea of blood stained the stone paved streets. Blood stained swords dripping with blood laid abandoned on the ground as their owners had either fled or were slain in battle.

  Ai could still be seen crazily hacking away at the fleeing soldiers, her hair was disheveled as she charged forth. This was of course until, a gentle hand pulled her into a warm embrace.

  “It’s okay now. Everything will be fine.” A tender voice rang out in her ears restoring her sanity. It did not take long for Ai to begin sobbing happily in Zhang’s embrace. Yuying and Ling were standing side by side a short distance, faint tears could still be seen on their tender faces.

  While Zhang and Ai stood motionless in the middle of the battlefield, a respectful shout sounded out. “My lord! Lord Sima Yi ordered me to inform you that we’ve taken control of the ballistae atop the city walls!” A soldier shouted out to Zhang.

  “Good! I want as many soldiers as possible stationed atop the walls to man those ballistae. We don’t know what those soldiers from the Green Clover Army will do once our common enemy is gone.” Zhang said as he stroked Ai’s head trying to reassure her everything was okay.

  “Yes my lord!” The soldier saluted as he ran off.

  Once Zhang’s men occupied the city walls, the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army were cornered and retreated to the inner city. Just like New Leaf City, the inner city of Green Clover City had its own set of walls where the Heavenly Sword Army made their final stand.

  Rows of men stood atop the inner city walls with fear tearing away their sanity. They knew survival was nothing but a hopeless dream, a dream that every single one of them prayed to come true. Sadly, these dreams were crushed in an instant by dozens of jade bottles that were being thrown up the inner city walls and splashed black colored liquids everywhere.

  Soon this black liquid began to bubble and turn into a smoke, covering the entire inner city walls. A whiff of this black smoke caused hundreds of the Heavenly Sword Army soldiers above the walls to roll on the floor as white foam spewed out of their mouths.

  Without even a chance of resisting, every soldier atop the inner city walls had met their demise.

  “At least I granted you all a quick and painless death but those three will not be so lucky.” Lu Lingqi mumbled as she waited for either of Zhang’s soldiers or Green Clover Army to approach and break down the inner city gates, so she could kill the mother and daughters that ruined her life.

  Not long before, thousands of soldiers clad in green armor reached the inner city gates. Seeing a familiar face, Lu Lingqi decided to exit in the shadows.

  “General Guan Yu!” a melodic voice yelled out, remembering how frequent Guan Yu had visited her home, before Guo Meiyan talked her father into relocating him to the northern region of the province.

  Hearing Lu Lingqi’s voice, Guan Yu turned around. “Someone, escort this young lady to a safe place! This is no place to be lounging about!” he yelled. To him who did not recognize Lu Lingqi, he thought that she was a daughter of some noble family and this was no place for a young lady to be without any guards.

  But without saying a word, Lu Lingqi pulled out a jade medallion from her pocket.

  “General Guan Yu could it be that you've forgotten about me? After the many times you came to visit.” Lu Lingqi said with a pout.

  The instant Guan Yu saw this medallion and heard Lu Lingqi’s words he kneeled on the ground on one knee.

  “My lady.” He said as he clasped his hands. Soon all of the soldiers behind Guan Yu followed him and paid their respects to Lu Lingqi.

  Despite being manipulated by Guo Meiyan after their marriage, Lu Gong had always been a kind ruler, who many chose to pledge their loyalty to. However, many of these loyalists were spies sent from the Heavenly Sword Province, leaving only a handful of men who they could not Manipulate

  Guan Yu, being one of these men, who had too much military influence and his cultivation was fairly high so the spies of the Heavenly Sword Province could not get rid of him. The only thing they could accomplish was to designate him away from the capital. But once Guan Yu made it to the northern region, his influence expanded exponentially.

  “My lady, after I left, I heard that you had an accident, was disfigured and that you died together with Lord Lu Gong.” Guan Yu asked perplexedly.

  “I managed to escape from the mansion and hide on the night that woman led the soldiers from the Heavenly Sword Army into the city. As for my face, I'll tell you another time. Now our priority is to capture that woman and get revenge for my father and mother.” Lu Lingqi said.

  “Yes mi lady. Knock down the gates and surround the inner city!” Guan Yu commanded.

  Due to not having siege weapons, Guan Yu’s men knocked down an empty house and took out a large wooden pillar from the rubble.

  Using the wooden pillar as a siege ram, Guan Yu’s men began pounding away at the inner city gate. As they smashed the wooden pillar into the inner city gates, hundreds of soldiers clad in black armor marched forth behind them.

  Leading these hundreds of black armored soldiers was Zhang and the three beauties along with Sima Yi. It was evident that after almost losing Zhang, the three beauties were very much afraid of losing him for good thus, they clung to him as they walked.

  “Brother Zhang!” Lu Lingqi’s angelic voice rang out. Hearing this, started the three beauties beside Zhang.

  “Who is she?” Yuying questioned as she hugged Zhang's arm tightly.

  “Yea you got some explaining to do brother.” Ai said poking her head out between Yuying and Zhang.

  Clinging to Zhang's right arm was Ling who was muttering to herself.

  “Damn! more competition doesn’t tell me she’s another princess from hell…” Ling muttered as she looked at Lu Lingqi’s well-endowed chest then back at her own well-endowed chest.

  After a sigh, Ling mumbled to herself, “It's okay Ling. It's okay, you were here first. Still number one. Always number one.”

  Chapter 78: Venomous

  “Brother!!!” Lu Lingqi yelled as she ran towards Zhang with open arms.

  “My lady, what are you doing? They are the enemy!” Guan Yu was confused as he grabbed Lu Lingqi’s wrist, keeping her from running to Zhang.

  “Lingqi long time no see. I've come back to listen to your singing.” Zhang said with a smile. Suddenly, a burning pain was felt on his arm, looking down he could see Yuying pinching his arm with her long nails.

  “Didn't I ask you who she is?” Yuying said as she glared at Zhang.

  “She is a friend.” He casually replied to her, trying to ignore the pain from her pinch.

  “Brother you remember me?” Lu Lingqi said cheerfully.

  “Of course I do.
”

  “I guess... how could you even forget when we both fell into the water and went back to my room to dry ourselves.” Lu Lingqi said with blushing cheeks.

  “To her room?” Yuying said as two raging flames ignited in her eyes.

  “My lord is that perhaps another one of your madams?” Sima Yi asked purposely trying to stir trouble for Zhang.

  “Ah ha ha…. how could I forget, but we didn't really do anything.” Zhang said while laughing awkwardly as he cursed Sima Yi in his mind.

  “Didn't do anything? Didn't we do that for hours?” Lu Lingqi said as she remembered how she and Zhang talked and sang under the moonlight for hours.