Chapter 31: The Creature That Spoke
The sewers of Mistforge had never been built for war.
The tunnels were narrow.
Barely wide enough for two grown men to stand side by side.
A narrow stone ledge ran along one wall.
Only a single person could move comfortably upon it.
Anyone beside them...
Had no choice but to wade through the foul, freezing wastewater flowing beneath.
The air was thick with dampness.
Every sound echoed.
Every movement became awkward.
Long weapons were difficult to swing.
Large formations were impossible.
Even retreat required careful footing.
For cultivators below the Foundation Establishment Realm...
It was a nightmare.
One mistake...
One slip...
And death would arrive before a second chance.
The archers were still kneeling.
Some clutched their bleeding ears.
Others fought back nausea.
The scream of the Hundred-Eyed Hollow had nearly shattered their minds.
Yun Che looked from one exhausted face to another.
Then toward the darkness ahead.
His thoughts raced.
"We can't let it reach them."
Yun Ren nodded immediately.
"If those archers fall..."
"No one destroys the remaining formation nodes."
Tianyu rolled his shoulders.
"So..."
"We distract it."
"Exactly."
Yun Che pointed toward the trembling archers.
"You've all heard the plan."
"Forget the monster."
"Your mission hasn't changed."
"Find every remaining formation node."
"Destroy them."
One of the archers looked horrified.
"But..."
"What about that thing?"
Yun Che answered honestly.
"We'll keep it busy."
The man stared at him.
Then nodded.
It wasn't confidence.
It was necessity.
"Go!"
The archers hesitated only a moment before scrambling deeper into the sewer network.
There wasn't enough room for everyone to move together.
Several lost their footing.
With an impatient sigh, Yun Che simply grabbed the nearest two by the backs of their armor.
"Move!"
He shoved them off the narrow ledge.
They splashed into the freezing wastewater with startled yelps.
"Stop worrying about getting dirty!"
"Worry about surviving!"
The remaining archers immediately abandoned all concern for dignity.
One after another they jumped into the filthy water and hurried forward through the tunnel.
Behind them...
The darkness stirred.
The Hundred-Eyed Hollow emerged.
Its massive spherical body barely fit within the tunnel.
Its countless eyes slowly opened one after another.
Tentacles scraped against the brick walls.
Black slime dripped into the water.
Where it landed...
The stone hissed.
Rotting.
Dissolving.
Tianyu moved first.
He and Bingya ran together with perfect coordination.
Their breaths merged into white mist.
Cold Ki gathered around both claws.
"Frozen Wolf Claw!"
Two enormous arcs of icy Ki shot through the tunnel.
Yun Ren attacked at almost the same instant.
His spear thrust forward.
Instead of piercing...
Blue Ki burst from its tip like a compressed cannon.
The attacks reached the creature simultaneously.
The Hundred-Eyed Hollow did not move.
Several tentacles rose calmly.
Each attack struck the writhing limbs.
The black appendages absorbed the force before casually knocking the techniques aside.
The icy claws vanished.
The Ki blast exploded harmlessly against the sewer wall.
The creature remained untouched.
Its countless eyes slowly shifted.
Watching.
Studying.
Then...
Every one of them focused upon a single person.
Yun Che.
The young blacksmith felt every hair on his body stand upright.
The creature spoke.
Its voice echoed from every direction at once.
Cold.
Ancient.
Wrong.
"You..."
Everyone froze.
The eyes narrowed.
"You..."
"...Human."
A dreadful silence followed.
Then...
The creature spoke again.
"Leave."
The word rolled through the tunnel like distant thunder.
"Leave this city."
"I shall spare your life."
For several seconds...
No one spoke.
Yun Ren frowned.
"...It talks."
Tianyu looked genuinely offended.
"That's the part you're surprised about?"
Even Bingya tilted his head.
The wolf clearly hadn't expected conversation either.
Yun Che narrowed his eyes.
"...Why?"
The Hundred-Eyed Hollow laughed.
It was an awful sound.
Like wet flesh tearing apart.
"You creatures..."
"...see so little."
Its countless eyes blinked one after another.
"My Master..."
"...desires your soul."
The words settled heavily inside the tunnel.
"You are... interesting."
"You will grow."
"You will become stronger."
"When that day arrives..."
"My Master..."
"...shall devour everything that you are."
It slowly opened its enormous mouth.
"So."
"Leave."
"Grow."
"I shall permit it."
"For now."
The creature sounded utterly sincere.
As though offering kindness.
As though promising mercy.
It was somehow more terrifying than if it had simply threatened them.
Yun Che listened quietly.
His hands never stopped moving.
While the creature spoke...
He had already replaced the damaged cartridge.
Loaded another rune bullet.
Closed the chamber.
The Mountain Piercer rested steadily against his shoulder.
He calmly answered.
"...No."
The trigger broke.
BOOM!
The rifle roared inside the narrow tunnel.
The deafening sound echoed endlessly.
The bullet crossed the distance before the creature could react.
It struck directly beneath one cluster of eyes.
The explosion blasted away chunks of black flesh.
For the first time...
The Hundred-Eyed Hollow recoiled.
Thick black blood splashed across the sewer walls.
It hissed violently wherever it landed.
Several bricks dissolved immediately.
The creature stared at its wound.
Then...
Very slowly...
Its countless eyes widened.
"You..."
Its voice had changed.
Gone was the amusement.
Only fury remained.
"You wounded me."
The entire tunnel trembled.
Every eye glowed crimson.
Tentacles lashed wildly against the walls.
The sewer ceiling cracked.
Stone rained into the filthy water.
Yun Che didn't wait.
"Run!"
The three youths scattered instantly.
Yun Ren sprinted down the left tunnel.
Tianyu and Bingya launched themselves toward another passage.
Yun Che dove across the narrow ledge, boots splashing into the freezing wastewater before climbing back onto the stone walkway.
Behind them...
The Hundred-Eyed Hollow screamed.
Not with sound.
But with rage.
---------------------------------
The Hundred-Eyed Hollow forgot everyone else.
Its countless eyes narrowed upon a single target.
Yun Che.
Its promise still stood.
It would not kill him.
Not yet.
Its Master had claimed this human.
But...
It had never promised he would remain whole.
A dozen crimson eyes flashed.
Black beams exploded through the tunnel.
Yun Che threw himself sideways.
The beam passed where his right leg had been an instant before.
The stone behind him simply... disappeared.
Another beam swept toward his shoulder.
Another toward his waist.
It was herding him.
Trying to remove his limbs one by one.
"So that's your game!"
Yun Che gritted his teeth.
He sprinted along the narrow ledge, his boots barely finding purchase on the damp stone.
The tunnel bent sharply.
He kicked off the wall.
Another beam flashed beneath him.
The only safe landing...
Was the sewage.
He splashed into the freezing, foul-smelling water.
The stench hit him like a hammer.
"...I'll complain about this if I survive!"
He immediately climbed back onto the ledge before another beam carved through the water where he had been standing.
Life...
Was worth far more than pride.
While running, Yun Che snapped his wrist.
Steel wires burst from the launcher around his waist.
They wrapped around the creature's tentacles like silver snakes.
"Tighten!"
The wires constricted.
For one heartbeat...
The monster slowed.
Then...
Smoke rose.
The black blood coating its body hissed.
The steel began to dissolve.
One wire.
Two.
Ten.
Every single one corroded into useless fragments.
Yun Che's eyes widened.
"My wires..."
The creature laughed.
"You forge metal..."
"I consume it."
The tunnel turned again.
Yun Che stopped so suddenly his boots scraped sparks from the stone.
He turned.
Not away.
Toward it.
The Earth Rune upon his borrowed armor erupted with heavy brown light.
His Ki surged through every muscle.
Body Enhancement.
Power Strike.
Everything.
His legs exploded forward.
He became a living battering ram.
"Move!"
He slammed shoulder-first into the Hundred-Eyed Hollow.
The impact shook the sewer.
The creature crashed into the wall hard enough to crack ancient stone.
Before it could recover—
Yun Che drove his fist straight into its enormous mouth.
Crunch!
Several black teeth shattered.
The monster screamed.
For a glorious instant...
It actually hurt.
Then the tentacles struck.
They wrapped around both arms.
His waist.
His legs.
They squeezed.
Not to crush.
To hold.
To tear apart.
The creature's countless eyes stared into his.
"You shall live..."
"...without arms."
"...without legs."
"...until my Master comes."
Yun Che struggled.
The grip only tightened.
A howl echoed through the tunnels.
Bingya.
"Tianyu!"
Silver and blue flashed through the darkness.
Wind screamed down the narrow passage.
Ice formed instantly upon the walls.
Tianyu lowered his body.
Golden eyes blazed.
"Tempest Fang Charge!"
Wind and frost wrapped around both rider and wolf until they became a spinning spear.
They didn't merely strike the creature.
They drove through it.
The impact was so violent that the sewer walls burst apart.
Ancient bricks exploded into the surrounding earth.
The ceiling sagged dangerously.
Only thick layers of rapidly forming ice held everything together.
The Hundred-Eyed Hollow was dragged backward several metres, black blood splashing across the tunnel.
Frost spread over its body.
Its movements slowed.
For the first time...
It looked genuinely shaken.
Its eyes immediately shifted.
Toward Tianyu.
Every crimson pupil opened.
Black beams gathered.
"Tianyu!"
Yun Che reacted without thinking.
Fresh wires shot forward.
They wrapped around Tianyu's waist.
"Back!"
He yanked with everything he had.
The young lord and Bingya slid backward just as the beams lanced through the space they had occupied.
The stone behind them simply vanished.
No explosion.
No debris.
Only absence.
"Keep moving!"
Yun Che shouted.
As they retreated...
Small metallic spheres rolled silently across the wet floor.
One.
Three.
Five.
Ten.
The creature floated after them.
Then—
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Explosions chained together throughout the tunnel.
Flames filled the passage.
The weakened ceiling finally surrendered.
Thousands of kilograms of stone collapsed downward.
The entire section of sewer disappeared beneath rock.
Dust swallowed everything.
Silence followed.
Yun Che breathed heavily.
"...Did we..."
Tianyu grabbed his shoulder so hard it hurt.
"Run."
"What?"
"RUN!"
Yun Che saw it immediately.
Not with his eyes.
With instinct.
Death.
The feeling washed over him so completely that every hair on his body stood upright.
They sprinted.
Behind them...
The mountain shook.
The collapsed tunnel bulged outward.
Stone rose into the air.
Not blasted.
Lifted.
As though something beneath considered rock to be nothing more than loose sand.
A pulse of black light erupted.
Every remaining stone dissolved.
The darkness that emerged no longer belonged to the Hundred-Eyed Hollow.
It had changed.
Something had answered.
Something higher.
Something far worse.
It descended like a piece of the night torn loose from the sky.
Its body was covered in overlapping plates of black and midnight-blue armor, every edge honed into a blade. It did not resemble flesh. It resembled a weapon painstakingly forged from hatred itself.
Its silhouette was almost human.
Almost.
Jagged wings spread behind it like the torn cloak of a fallen angel.
Not feathers.
Not scales.
Blade-like fins that seemed to drink the light around them.
Smoke-like darkness leaked continuously from those ruined wings, rotting the air wherever it drifted.
Its head was long and cruel, crowned by sweeping horns and ridged armor.
Only one eye burned beneath the shadowed helm.
A single crimson eye.
Cold.
Patient.
Merciless.
Its mouth opened just enough to reveal rows of razor teeth.
Not in hunger.
In contempt.
One of its arms ended not in a hand...
But in a massive crimson cannon.
The weapon pulsed with living light.
It looked less like equipment and more like an organ that had grown from its body.
The red armor surrounding it curved like frozen flames.
The creature hovered soundlessly above the ruined sewer.
No breathing.
No movement.
Only overwhelming pressure.
The Hundred-Eyed Hollow...
Was gone.
Or perhaps...
It had merely shed its skin.