Once Ku Lo had roared the order, his attention changed to an ever brightening backlight as he and the others continued to descend the mountain at a rapid pace.
Just as he feared, the phenomenon arrived in the form of a Yang Qi-based attack. Moreover, the power of the technique was at a completely newfound level for a hundred of Ku Lo’s Yin Paws would not be its match.
It crossed through thousands of meters of space in the appearance of a light-yellow deer locked in a charging stance.
The attack missed them, though the mountainside hit by it dissolved into nothingness. The few trees tore like sticks and were launched high into the air while boulders crumbled to pebbles.
Damn it… if one of those hits us there won’t be anything to even bury, Ku Lo thought, leaping down a twenty meters deep cliff, and his fear wasn’t just about the same attack repeating; instead, he dreaded the other similar attacks which had been coming at them behind the first one.
Soon they came under what Ku Lo would name as ‘Qi bombardment’, derived from ‘naval bombardment’. Like the gigantic cannons wielded by the largest of battleships trying to destroy landing defences and anti naval batteries, the enemy’s Qi attacks began to hammer down on them with enough force to turn ground upside down.
Mixed in was the ‘secondary battery fire’ in the form of hundreds of smaller attacks Ku Lo himself might be able to summon. These attacks were more dangerous as each and one of these could kill just as well as the stronger attacks.
“Let’s make it for the other side of the ridge!” he commanded, changing his direction. “It’ll be slower but staying here will get us killed!”
His men did not object, though neither did he wait for one or glance behind him.
Pebbles scraped past them when one attack struck too close for comfort and the bandit clothing provided little protection.
Ku Lo’s ears rang with the whistling as his hand vaulted him over the ridge.
The three others made their appearance by him soon after.
THERE’S THE RIVER! Ku Lo yelled loudly as possible, not knowing if they too suffered hearing loss.
The beer-bellied man’s mouth moved yet he didn’t hear anything.
So he shook his head and pointed at his ears.
At the same time as he did so, one of those ‘main battery shells’ tore the ridge meters away from them clean off.
None were hit in the explosion which ensued, though the shockwave threw Ku Lo into the air and down the slope. The others who had had their backs to the explosion followed as he picked a boulder and landed.
Feet fixed on the boulder, his hands brought down a subordinate each. The beer-bellied man’s flight came to a stop by bumping his soft stomach with his.
The impact of a larger mass sure sent his airs out; nevertheless, they got their hint and fled instead of trying to communicate with each other. It was futile so why bother.
By the time they reached the tree line, the first bandits dragged themselves over the ridge. Why are they slow? he thought, feeling everything wasn’t right. Did I miss something?
Of course, Ku Lo wanted to inform the others of this too, yet he could not. The whole team was deaf, for now, so the notion stayed with him, on his shoulders alone.
Stay calm.
All seemed to be progressing well, too well. They even made it to the river without a warning shot from their pursuers, who to his understanding should’ve been on their tails already.
Don’t think about the what-ifs and fictitious possibilities- Ku Lo shook his head. The current moment is what matters. If being honest, he wasn’t exactly enjoying all this pressure that brought him a certain tightening pressure on his throat.
Still, as the commander of his and three other lives, he wasn’t going to succumb to any pressure. Risks are a part of life, especially to those who wish to succeed, he repeated what he had spoken to Huang Gingge as he stripped the bandit rags and threw them into the river.
Right behind the rags, Ku Lo dipped himself into the river while signalling for the others to follow his lead.
What responded to his had signals were efforts to say they couldn’t from the looks of it. The three men were wailing their hands, sometimes crossing them as a notion of ‘no can do’.
To leave them behind? The obvious question came into mind.
Before the process even came to a conclusion, Ku Lo dismissed it and instead of swimming to safety alone ran for the tree line.
While hearing their enemies closing in, he chopped an oak tree branch before diving back into the river with it in one hand.
It might’ve been the survival instincts of his men that drove them to jump for the oak-tree branch even before he communicated anything.
Ku Lo did not complain as he began to swim across the river a few hundred meters in width.
“They’re here! Kill the spies!”
Swimming fast as he could in no particular fashion, he glanced at the beach, not thirty meters apart from them yet.
Some knee-deep in the water, the bandits opened fire with everything at their disposal. One larger, better-clothed bandit went as far to hurl a living human at them while shouting for the man who would drown to take the spies with him…
What a cut-throat world, Ku Lo deemed, diving underwater in the hopes of it working like in the movies.
What? Eyes open underwater, he began to see a pattern which almost made him lose focus.
Focus on the mission! Now wasn’t the time for pondering. Lives depend on this. And it wasn’t just the lives of the three men he was still hauling, but the Yin and Yang Sect people. And the surrounding villages! What if his body’s family would be killed, or even worse enslaved by these people?
The mere notion of people being sold like items burned him from the inside with a rage he hadn’t felt, not even for Yao Khange or Rin Tin Tin.
It steeled his conviction further as he came to the surface for a quick breather. Or what was supposed to be a quick breather since he took a moment longer than needed since the water was becoming red.
Damn it, damn it, damn it! Still, to save the two others he continued with his efforts.
It took twenty gruelling minutes for Ku Lo to hit his head to the opposite shore.
Once there, he dragged the last surviving member of his team out from the beach while under bombarded from the ‘main cannons’ who still had Qi to spare.
Sand and mud had dirtied his face a long time ago, yet he refused to drop his palpating subordinate and run for safety. Everything had been his idea, so he felt the results were his, both positive and negative.
Until they were some fifty meters away from the beach and in a ditch did Ku Lo keep going.
But whence there, he dropped to his ass, back against the side of the ditch.
“Huuuh…” Ku Lo allowed this to himself before returning to his command duties.
During the latter part of the drag, he had regained his hearing, so he figured the beer-bellied man would have also. “Are you alright?”
“Except for my leg, yes Captain.”
Those words made him look and for the first time realise the man was missing his right leg. It was torn off from the middle of his thigh, blood, mucus, bones…
“We need to get you fixed…” Ku Lo searched his storage artefact for the medkit.
“no-” The beer-bellied man gripped his hand. “I won’t make it…”
“No. No. No.” Ku Lo shook his head, taking out the medkit and opening it.
“get it together… they’re planning something. one bandit boasted about how close they got to the sect… too many scouts for simple pillaging and robbery.”
I think if you had kept writing you might have been able to fix what he messed up with his. Making a few of the harem select too unlikable and the slow pacing. You just need to make a rough plot outline and write toward it.
That's the plan
thanks for the chappie
sad to hear that hid is leaving, but im happy you'll be continuing ill still be here and ready with ideas if you need any
Sad to hear, it was a good run.