"Damn." Wu Xiaoming cursed at himself as the bone arrow struck the grass and dirt on the right side of an imp. The practice in the evening helped, but definitely not enough to make him a passable archer-sniper. The imp looked up, just in time to catch Wu Xiaoming, and came charging at the building he was in, followed by a bunch of other imps.
Wu Xiaoming did not wait for the imps to come near him, he simply jumped out of the second floor window and landed right behind the imp horde. Two morningstars swung back and forth, in but a moment he annihilated at least six of them. He then proceeded to run towards his father's house - it would be a test to see if it really was a "safe house" of some kind. And either way, he would have a better chance of fighting these imps there.
For some reason, the entire community seemed to be shrouded by light, white fog. As Wu Xiaoming kept at it, the fog grew thicker. Though not terribly limiting on the visibility of his surroundings, he slowed his steps in preparation for anything incoming. The imps were still running behind him, though he could afford to slow a bit.
A white shadow appeared in the fog and shot at Wu Xiaoming from the side. It was that of a slender, pale, black haired woman, with unsettling large eyes, mouth wide enough to reach the back of her head, and a long, watery and wiggly tongue. Wu Xiaoming swung the morningstar in his left hand right at the shadow's face, and exploded it into rags, ashes and dust.
Nothing too powerful, and a similar Spirit Fragment count to imps. Wu Xiaoming picked up the pace and continued on his way.
Yet, just when he was only one building away from his father's house, at least a dozen of the same bubble-eyed, long-tongued women appeared before him, all fixing their eyes on him.
"Shit." Wu Xiaoming took a quick look back, the imps were still pursuing him - not all of them, but only those with bigger bodies, or longer and sharper horns.
The long-tongued women rose up into the air and swarmed at Wu Xiaoming from all angles possible.
"Attack! Attack! Attack!" Wu Xiaoming spun around, with his morningstars swinging all over the place. Maybe he should just put the bear fur vest back on to boost his defences, right now the attention from all of these creatures was already on him, there seemed nothing more that would hurt him.
Within the span of only a few seconds, five or six of these shadows were blasted away, torn, broken and tumbling like rag dolls in a tornado or explosion. More shadows grabbed onto Wu Xiaoming's back, waist and legs, their long, wet tongues covered in paralyzing saliva wrapped around his body.
"Shield!" Wu Xiaoming roared, releasing an energy shield to block off the grapple temporarily. He swung the maces again and again, bashing and obliterating the long-tongued woman and imps left and right, while at the same time enduring the disgusting tongues and sharp teeth from these enemies.
It was a couple of very long, tormenting seconds before he reached the front porch of his father's house. A sharp aura manifested around the house, and in an instant the long-tongued women and imps were driven away.
With bleeding shoulders and legs, Wu Xiaoming dragged himself into the house. His injuries did not seem that serious, only that the women's saliva had seeped into his body and numbed large chunks of his muscles.
When he was inside, he finally got the chance to take a clear look at the long-tongued women. A sight sent chills down his spine and made goosebumps pop up all over - behind those floating long-tongued women, the house on the opposite side of the road from his father's, somehow morphed into a face-like shape. To be precise, the main body of the house seemed to be enclosed inside of a giant bubble-eyed, long-tongued woman's face; the mouth was where the front door was, the red tongue was running from inside the mouth to the side of the main road, like a fleshy entry walk; the eyes were where the windows once were, and long black hair flowed down from from the head, covering the sides of the house.
The two giant eyes turned left and right, as if the humongous woman's face was trying to spy on its neighbors.
Wu Xiaoming took a break before the windows. The imps and the long-tongued women were hanging just outside the range of the aura covering this house. This was indeed a "safe house", though he did not want to experiment how safe it was under pressure.
Wu Xiaoming took a moment before he began touring the house again. After this many days, he was quite familiar with the arrangements of the house. He went up to the top, then came down to the basement gym, then to the open air balcony. Still, he found nothing.
The only non-building item of use close to him, would be the wide red wood chair in the next door neighbor's house. He did not get to examine it last time, maybe he should go there this time.
He went up the second floor, looked out from his father's bedroom window, which was facing the next door neighbor's house. No imps or long-tongued women were close by, so he just climbed out and landed on the ground. Without delay, he rushed over into the next house and jumped in through the window.
No imps or women followed, so he just proceeded to the position of the red wood chair.
The wide chair sat in its original place, with a rough estimate, it could sit four grown men comfortably, five, if they were okay with their shoulders touching. There were no gaps or joints anywhere, it was as if the entire chair was carved out from one single solid piece of red wood.
"Item panel." Wu Xiaoming placed his hand on the back of the chair and muttered to himself.
It took quite a bit, but the information finally popped up before his eyes: "Blessed Red Wood Chair: made from an aged solid red wood with care; heals, soothes and tempers; boosts the energy field if resonating with the right Fengshui set up."
Possibly the longest description he had encountered. And it was indeed worth his taking a risk coming here. After a quick thought, he tried putting it into his inventory - it didn't work. So he tried lifting the chair up. It was still quite heavy, even with his enhanced strength.
"Up!" Wu Xiaoming focused on the chair and commanded.
The chair did not actually lift up, but was lightened, though not enough for him to carry without trouble.
"Up! Lighten!" Wu Xiaoming commanded again.
The chair lightened up a bit more. So he pulled it off the ground just by a hair and began walking towards the window through which he came in. It would be best if the window would fit, if not, then hopefully the front door would.
He made it barely half way before he had to take a break. He took a careful look at the window: it was definitely big enough, but he needed to lift the chair up quite a bit in order to pass. Right now, with his current strength it would take him a lot of work to do that.
Looking out the window, the imps and the long-tongued women seemed to have dissipated. These creatures in the ethereal realm, it was hard to tell what their origins or purposes were, and therefore their patterns were harder to gauge. The man-bear creature from the house of Tom Barracuda was the only thing he could kind of establish a connection so far.
He went to check out the side of the wall facing his father's house - there was no side door he could use. It seemed the only way was through the front door, which luckily, was not far from where he was.
"Lighten." Wu Xiaoming decided to try a different command.
The chair's weight decreased as he expected, and just as what he felt previously, the decrease was quite a bit more than using "up". Possibly, it was due to the command of "lighten" being more concrete and narrowly applicable. First he pushed, making sure as much of the chair was out of the front door as possible before he had to expose himself to potential threats from outside.
He succeeded, as the chair was already fully out of the door after a bit, and nothing came over to bother him.
He went outside, with his body lowered, and wrapped his arms around the middle section of the chair. After a short low grunt, he picked the chair up and began scooching towards his father's house, while keeping his eyes on the imps and long-tongued women.
As he was about halfway into the area of protection of the aura, a strange gurgling growling sound came from behind.
Wu Xiaoming froze, then slowly turned his head to take a look.
It was a dog, made of iridescent paint. A pitbull, from the looks of its head shape. Right now, this dog was looking at him with its head tilted to the side.
"Shit." Wu Xiaoming cursed, then muttered with a low voice: "Shield." With this very thin and often unreliable layer of protection, he proceeded to continue on his way, while also keeping his eyes on this paint pitbull.
The pitbull was still aggressive, but not ready to attack just yet. It just kept following Wu Xiaoming, growling and sniffling.
And just as Wu Xiaoming was about five meters away from the edge of the aura's protection. The paint pitbull acted - it let out a loud, gurgling bark and lunged at Wu Xiaoming. Wu Xiaoming roared and almost threw the chair forward, at this time. The ground in front of him was covered by grass, so he was not worried that it would damage the chair too much.
The teeth of the paint pitbull locked onto his right thigh. In but a single moment, the energy shield crumbled. The teeth and jaws were also made of paint, but it did not change the fact that the bite force of the jaws were almost debilitating for any normal man. He yelped in pain, took out one morningstar and swung it right at the pitbull's neck.
He did not hold back on this swing. The heavy mace head cracked the pitbull's neck, and two spikes left two large gashes on it as well. But it did not stop, as its jaw clenched tighter, almost squeezing on Wu Xiaoming's leg bone.
"Slash!" Wu Xiaoming roared, the energy slash struck the paint pitbull on a gash left by a spike, then swung the morningstar again at the same gash.
He repeated the same sequence two more times, and the paint pitbull's head was finally separated from the body. Yet, its jaws were still locked in. And what was worse, was that the imps and the long-tongued women were swarming his way.
"Lighten! Move!" Wu Xiaoming roared at the chair. It worked, before this, it was already halfway into the aura, and right now, it was shoved by an invisible force, leaving only a small corner outside.
Weariness flooded Wu Xiaoming, he swung his morningstars tirelessly as he pushed the chair with his back. The imps and long-tongued women were destroyed left and right, but it was still not enough to stop their attacks. The attack of the paint pitbull pretty much disabled his right leg, and he could only use his left leg to push himself and the chair.
"Attack!" Wu Xiaoming roared, almost with the last of his breath. A long-tongued woman was blasted away. Finally the entire chair was inside the range of the aura. He pushed again and rolled on the ground, dragging himself inside.
The pitbull head smoked, melted and completely loosened its jaw. Wu Xiaoming could finally let out a breath of relief. The leg still hurt like hell, though.