555: A Spinning Staff

A Spinning Staff

The boat shuddered every so often and Zhu Xie steered it, pushing to its highest speed. A half-days worth of travel wasn't very long, in fact, it was short, far too short for anyone to recover a good portion of their strength. 1

"We're nearly there! Just another hour awa- Oh no..."

The sudden change in Zhu Xie's voice caught everyone's attention. 

"What? What is it?" 

Lao Yang looked at him before walking up to see what was happening. When he did, he too was shocked by the scene. Soon after, everyone else joined to see what was outside, or rather what was below them. 

Ruishi Lei narrowed his eyes. 

"It's the hordes", he muttered. 

Indeed, it was the so-called "hordes" that the voice of the medallions spoke about. 

"The size... the number... No wonder they wanted to call everyone back."

Lang Yang walked gazed out from the cabin, seeing the hundreds of thousands of beasts below them. His face was blank as he did not know how to react to this.

Qiang Rong put a hand above his eyes as he squinted, looking out at it all. 

"This is at least... ten times the size as the previous one! What should we do?"

The monkey-kin whistled out as he spun his staff around. He glanced towards the others, awaiting an answer from them. Unfortunately, there was barely any time for them to make a decision. 

"Incoming!"

Zhu Xie suddenly shouted out before swerving the ship to the right. Everyone grabbed onto each other to hold balance as they barely avoided a flock of Red-Feathered Herons flying past them. And then everyone looked forward. 

"There's so many..."

One of them uttered these words as they saw dozens of other flocks, each one a different type of flying beast. From birds to bats, there were even winged fish, and all of them shared that same bloodthirsty feel. If that weren't enough, they all seemed to have found a target. 

Niu Hong spun and pointed at the scholars. 

"You three! Inside! Now! Everyone else, prepare to defend the ship!" 

Taking out his short axe, he held it tightly and awaited the attack. Everyone else except for the scholars, Shu Yi, and Zhu Xie, who was steering the ship, did the same. 

"Zhu Xie! Keep the boat forward! No matter what, stay at the highest speed! Steer it straight!" he shouted out. 

The boar-kin gulped as he steeled himself and nodded, gripping the ship's wheel. The vessel quickly regained its speed and moved in a straight path, aiming to drive past the coming beasts. Shrieks and cries echoed out as the flying beasts eyed this fresh target.

Flapping their wings violently, they flew towards the ship with their claws out! 

Everyone braced themselves as the distance between the two sides closed quickly. Qiang Rong jumped towards the bow of the ship and began spinning his staff. 

"Extend! Extend! Extend!"

As the staff spun faster, it grew longer and longer, covering the front of the ship. With him taking charge of the front, the others went to defend the sides. 

"Prepare yourselves! They're coming!"

Niu Hong shouted out to everyone, brandishing his axe which glinted under the sunlight. 

And the first flock came, crows with three eyes that split apart, avoiding Qiang Rong's staff. They were big with mouths large enough to swallow a child whole. And the incessant cawing was mind-numbing as they swooped down, trying to pick the ship apart, pecking and scratching at the hull. Others looked to grab the passengers with their sharp talons!

"Pests!"

Ruishi Lei leaped up, wrapping his arms around the collars of two of them. He grunted and tightened his grip, snapping their necks without hesitation. The lion-kin them let them go, not even sparing another glance and he landed and jumped back up. 

"Come on then! Don't think you're going to escape me!"

Ao Qin swung his saber out, causing a fierce wind that rocked the crows. Any that came too close suffered broken wings, dropping out of the sky. Despite his injury, it wasn't enough to cripple him. 

While these two each took a side of the ship, Niu Hong stood at the center of the boat, not moving from his position. Being as still as he is, the ox-kin made for the perfect target but it was far less easier than it seemed. 

Marking him as its target, a random crow fly up before diving down. It flew swiftly, gaining speed as it descended down upon the ox-kin. Cawing out loud, the crow raised its talons and opened them up for the grab but the beast didn't expect what would come next. 

"Hup."

The moment the crow came, Niu Hong raised his axe before grabbing the crow by the leg and swinging down. It was a powerful and accurate strike, cutting the leg right off at the joint, and reddish blood spattered out. 

The crow shrieked in pain flying off with its missing legs. 

At first, it didn't seem like they were in a bad situation, rather it seemed like they were doing quite well. But that was just the first flock of many others. Some like the crows split up into two groups, attacking from the side, others weren't quite as smart. 

While Qiang Rong helped to clear a path for the ship, there were a few beasts who didn't take kindly to being treated like this. They didn't avoid it, rather they charged forward, daring to go straight towards the monkey-kin. 

And such a move resulted in only one result, death. 

He had enough time to spin the staff, gaining both speed and power. It was to the point where the staff was nearly a blur, spinning through its own momentum, Qiang Rong just had to guide it. And those that flew towards it, clearly underestimated the sheer power. 

In seconds, their head was bashed in and smashed down to the ground, dead just like that. The sound of crunching bone was clearly heard and his staff was avoided. 

However, those smart enough to avoid him were also smart enough to know that his back was exposed. Eyeing his weak spot, several of them flew down, aiming to knock the monkey-kin off the boat. 

"Hmph, do you think it's really that easy?!" 

She Xing spat those words out as she crossed her swords together to meet the beasts. The snake-kin stood right between them without any fear but that was because she was not alone. The beasts narrowed their eyes as they seemed not to care, spreading their wings apart, they slowed for just a few seconds. 

And that was enough time for Yu Tu to make her move!

The rabbit-kin hopped from one spot to the next, throwing out various hidden weapons: knives, needles, more. With a few accurate shots to the wings, they all lost control and barreled down. Some smashed into the deck of the ship, others plummeted to the ground. 

One or two were perhaps lucky enough to stay on their path but She Xing wouldn't let them. Brandishing her two swords, she struck at their talons, slicing off a few from their bodies. She was agile and flexible, skilfully avoiding whatever came at her while defending Qiang Rong's rear. 

With the front and the sides of the ship covered, it flew a straight path through the sky, smashing into anything that couldn't avoid it in time.

In the span of a few minutes, they killed over a hundred of them and the boat was covered in blood. Several of them laid on the deck dead, their necks snapped off and wounds covering their bodies. 

But it was over. 

They broke free of the onslaught and killed a quarter of them in doing so. Qiang Rong's staff slowed as it returned to its original length. Jumping back down from the bow of the vessel, he dropped the staff onto the floor and laid down flat. 

Sweat covered his body as he panted heavily. 

"Hah, hah, hah, oh, we're finally out!" 

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