Chapter 53: Tragic Plight
Watching what happened to Tank, knocked his fellow disciples, Zen, Roger and Sun, for a loop. And they felt a massive sense of loss in their hearts.
While the four of them hadn't deliberately sought each other out, they had become a close-knit team in a short time. There was an understanding among them from following and working closely with the Green Haze Group to fight the blade locusts.
But, only a few hours after they formed the team, one of the four was killed on the spot. At this moment, naturally, the mood in their hearts was one of sorrow. They couldn't help mourning for Tank's fate. What if all of them died here today?
As they were feeling sorry for themselves, Martin?roared and shot an arrow aiming at the queen blade locust's compound eye as he ran. As the arrow sailed through the air drawing near the queen's eye, she extended her blade-like appendage, batting it from the sky and it clattered harmlessly to the ground.
In an uproar at the arrow, the queen blade locust targeted Martin next, lumbering after him.
“Everyone, just run! I'll distract the queen and lead her away!” yelled Martin, in apparent acceptance of his fate, whether life or death.
Chasing Martin, the queen blade locust was no longer blocking their way, giving others a slim chance of escaping.
However, the situation was still grave, aside from the queen, there was a mass of blade locusts waiting, along with hundreds of blade locust officers.
The soldiers of the Green Haze Group lit their bamboo torches, sending smoke and flame billowing into the air. Whether ordinary blade locusts or the officers, they were repelled by the smoke, fearing it. They scattered in all directions. Finally, a passage cleared ahead of the troops.
“Let's go! We're moving out, Zen!” called Sun. He was ready to leave, but, when he looked back, he saw?Zen standing in a daze.
“Zen, if we don't leave now, we'll die here!” urged Roger?as he fidgeted, having a strange feeling in his gut.
Zen thought a moment, turning to face Roger and Sun with a look of determination. He said, “Roger, Sun, you are my brothers. You go ahead. I'm going to help Martin! We'll catch you up later once we deal with the blade locust queen.” Not waiting for his brothers in arms to argue, Zen started running in the direction Martin disappeared.
“What're you doing? Do you have a death wish? Don't you understand? You will die!” questioned Sun anxiously.
Roger winked but didn't say anything. He was pretty good at reading people. Although Roger had met Zen only two days ago, he already understood Zen's unique character. Once he made up his mind, there was no use trying to sway him.
No matter how fast Martin ran, the queen blade locust ran more quickly, each step bringing her a few feet closer to Martin, and soon she would be on top of Martin.
While the queen locust chased Martin in haphazard directions, Zen easily caught up by cutting a straight path through the woods.
Now he was only a thousand feet away from the queen blade locust!
After Zen began refining at the marrow level, he could hear and see farther away than before. He also acquired a better grasp of distances, thanks to the marrow refining level.
The wind rushed past, whistling in Zen's ears. With his sweaty palms, he clutched the broken flying knife in his hand.
As Zen drew closer, he felt excitement twisting faintly in his gut, but no fear!
Five hundred feet away now!
Closer now, he could make out the markings on the queen blade locust at a glance.
Only two hundred feet!
One hundred!
The distance between the queen blade locust and Martin was disappearing. As she prepared to overtake him, she raised her large blade high in the air.
Martin knew there was little hope of survival as he faced the queen blade locust alone. As a standard imperial soldier on the verge of death, he wouldn't just give up, but, would fight to his dying breath. As such, his eyes were filled with determination, courage, and strength.
He let loose a battle cry at the top of his lungs. All of the muscles tensed, preparing for the action. And he lunged at the huge queen blade locust.
“It's time!” exclaimed Zen.
Timing it to the second, Zen focused strength to his feet and leaped high, propelling himself forward in the air.
At the same time, he drew back his arm, aiming the knife before sending it sailing through the sky and to the queen blade locust.
The queen blade locust was huge, while the knife?was only half an arm's length. Even if the knife stuck into the queen, it might not cause enough damage. So, Zen targeted the vital part of her forelimb.
The timing of his shot was remarkably accurate!
When the queen blade locust was a few feet from Martin, the broken knife slashed through the crucial point of her forelimb.
Although the carapace of the queen was notably hard, the broken knife effortlessly sliced into it.
“Cra-ack!”
In a split second, the blade cracked and was separated from the queen's body. It fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Shocked?Martin stood frozen with a dumbfounded expression, as his mind took a moment to figure out what just happened.
“Zzzztttt...”
shrieked the queen blade locust in agony.
Both Zen and Martin felt a stabbing pain from her screech piercing their eardrums.
The compound eyes on her head rolled around, searching for the source of pain and soon?focused on Zen nearby. She turned her fury on Zen, raising her other blade and swiftly hacking in a downward motion at him!
Prepared for her retaliation, Zen evaded the horrible blow, sprinting away in the other direction.
The blade came down hard, leaving a long crack in the ground. She pulled the blade back, and let loose a monstrous scream from her mandible. All her hatred was focused on Zen as she rushed him, forgetting Martin, her earlier target.
Martin teetered on the brink of death, feeling like he would collapse at any second. As he watched the retreating form of the queen blade locust, his chest heaved as profoundly, out of breath after his run. He never thought Zen would lead the queen blade locust away just in time to save his life!
The whistling wind rushed past his ears, and the woods fell away behind Zen on either side as Zen ran. Zen didn't choose any specific way because he had no idea where he was anyway!
Aside from running onward with all his effort, he hadn't had time to think of a plan.
The queen blade locust was chasing after him at a crazy speed. Although she had only one blade left, for Zen, she was still an invincible being.
“Scri-itch!”
came the sound as a shadow of red flashed through the trees in the spot where Zen was a moment ago, leaving a ten feet long scar in the ground.
The queen was obviously much faster than Zen. In seconds she would overtake?Zen!
“What now?”
questioned Zen looking around frantically as his heart gradually sank. Faced with such a powerful opponent, he didn't hold out for the fight to go his way.
“Scra-atch!”
came the ominous sound as the red shadow fell again, and at the same time the wind whizzed past. Zen surged up, avoiding the attack and rolled forward out of reach.
Colliding into shrubs and bramble as he made his way through the jungle, Zen saw a canyon come into view ahead. He looked?around and noted that the canyon was?about seventy or eighty feet?wide.
'I'll have to jump the gorge!' decided Zen quickly in mind.
Racing to the edge of the canyon, Zen clenched his teeth, directed the strength of his entire body to the feet while pulling himself into the shape of a curved bow, and flexed as he launched.
With the power of his kick off, he thrust himself across the canyon.
Midair, halfway across, the queen blade locust jumped after him, as she spread her wings. She flew at Zen.
“Jerk! The queen blade locust can fly?” yelled Zen into the empty sky, depressed.
In reality, the queen blade locust's body was too large, and she couldn't fly. The wings weren't strong enough to carry her up into the sky.
But, using her strong hind limbs to propel upward, she could use her wings to glide on the air for short periods.
In the meantime, the queen with her remaining red blade outstretched was gaining on Zen, quickly.
“What am I going to do? This will kill me...”
Zen couldn't stop his mind from turning to thoughts of death as he soared through the air. He couldn't dodge the red blade this time and watched as the tremendous red blade bit down on him.
At this crucial moment, a desperate desire rose in Zen's heart to survive.
“No! I can't die now! There's still so much left for me to do!” spat Zen suddenly, his eyes bloodshot red.
Faced with impending doom, Zen pressed his knife against his arm. And as he did, he raised it to block the queen blade locust's blade.
“Kla-ash!”
The violent force connected with the broken knife but didn't break it. Sure enough, the toughness of the knife could handle blocking the attack of the queen blade locust's blade.
“Oa-ff!”
gasped Zen as the wind was knocked out of him from the force of the blade clashing into the dagger. Spitting, Zen sent a large mouthful of blood?splattering through the air.
He felt the veins on his forehead throb, and his blood coursing through his body as if his organs were?shattered.
Fortunately, Zen's corporeal form was unique. If anyone else had taken such a fierce strike directly, like Zen had, whether they were a master at the marrow?refining level or at the nature level, they would be dead.
Zen transformed most of the power he absorbed from this energy into a warm current, that continually penetrated his bones and rinsed his marrow.
Unfortunately, the rest of the power from the blow injured him greatly as it was too much for him to bear.
With the help of energy he could use, Zen flew higher, gliding hundreds of feet above the ground until he was across the deep chasm. Falling fast, he landed on the soft ground below.
“Thu-ud!”
The ground shook from the shock of his impact. The queen blade locust landed on the ground seconds after Zen and sped at him.
Lying on the ground, Zen felt as though his body had been ripped to shreds. He didn't want to move. However, when he saw the queen locust rushing closer, he spat bloody saliva and swore while he forced himself up enduring the pain from his fall, and darted in the direction away from the queen.
Being chased for another thousand feet, Zen came to the mouth of a large cave.
He turned and looked at the jungle, spreading endlessly. When he sprinted away, he'd expected to find a place to duck into. But, there was no place to hide from the queen blade locust.
Without thinking, Zen could only seek refuge in the cave.
For humans, caves were far more dangerous inside than the outside.
Especially caves out in the wild, who knew what powerful creatures called the caves home?
But, Zen had no choice at the moment. It was futile to continue running. Zen could only hope there would be a chance for him to survive somehow in the cave.
When Zen got into the cave, the queen blade locust saw and followed close behind him without any hesitation. Hellbent on killing Zen, she just wouldn't give up.
It was such a spacious cave that even the large queen blade locust was able to walk freely inside. Fortunately, the cave also curved along, so that, although she was faster outside, inside the cave, Zen was quicker.
Therefore, the distance between them wasn't shortened.
As Zen went deeper and deeper into the cave, the thick smell of sulfur penetrated his nose. What was below this cave?