Chapter 77 Holy Mountain (Part 3)
Leave’s blood froze upon seeing this horrible scene.
To their left, two shadows slowly emerged out of the dark. They were big and had a strange appearance that was nothing like the looks of common demonic beasts. Leaves thought that their appearances were similar to humanoid creatures riding on the back of hybrid wolves. Their bodies were twice as large as ordinary humans, and instead of armor they wore clothes that were made from an unknown material – no, “clothes” wasn’t the right word, it was more similar to bloated animal skin in which they wrapped themselves tightly, thus giving them a bulging look.
However, the most eye-catching feature of the two beings were the heads they wore as helmets, they were clearly skulls of demonic beasts, giving them a malevolent and atrocious impression. Their eyes were gouged out of their heads. Instead of eyes, lumps of reddish-brown crystals were sewn in. A patch of skin was attached to the head, extending to the back of the demonic beast’s shell. One of the people still had spears attached to its mount’s saddle while the other one wore an unusual kind of gauntlet – from Leaves’ point of view, it looked like they only had three fingers.
Suddenly, one word flashed through Leaves’ mind: “Devil!”
“Attack the enemy!” Cara was the first one to attack, and her piercing shout dragged their attention back away from stupidly looking at the enemy. Stone squatted down and placed one hand on the ground, turning the area underneath the snow into a swamp. This could be regarded as a brilliant response: Normally when they reacted fast, the two demonic beasts mounts could jump and fly the short distance over the swamp with their wings. But apparently not these two, their wings had been cut off, and now a harness was tied to their bare bones to which the devils held on to. Since they could not fly any longer, they would have to go around the swamp, which gave the other witches time to react.
But the enemy didn’t play by the same rules, they just drove their mounts into the swam Using the beasts’ momentum, they jumped up from the monsters’ back, crossing over the distance of the swamp and landing behind Stone, which was exactly the place where the non-combat sisters were stationed.
“Spread out quickly!” Leaves loudly shouted at the same moment the devil with the three-finger gauntlet started its killing spree. Its agility was completely unexpected for its body length, the witch standing near its landing place hadn’t even the time to react before her head was already shattered by its punch. Until they were finally able to respond, two more sisters got their necks immediately broken, but eventually they fled in panic. Only Shino was still standing at her former place. Although she didn’t have any combat ability, she didn’t choose to escape like all the others. Instead, she took the crossbow from her back, aimed, and shot at the enemy. But, the devil reacted just too fast, it took a sidestep and then kicked Shino in the chest. The kick was so powerful, that the little girl flew away like a broken doll, her body flipping over several times before crashing into the ground. Blood gushed endlessly from her mouth as she finally laid still.
The spear-carrying devil instead turned and walked towards the utterly terrified Stone. He raised the spear and aimed at her, but exactly at the moment when it wanted to release the spear, a flame exploded in front of it. Red Pepper had aimed at the enemies crotch, and after she had released her attack, she took Stone’s hand and ran away together with her. When the devil tried to catch up with them, it was stopped by a wall of black grass.
Leaves released all of her magic into the ground, letting all the seeds within the earth grow, turning them into vines, which slowly crawled in the direction of Ironhand (Devil). At the same time, Cara shouted out “Pain” and released two snakes which each bit into one of the devil’s arms. Just when the devil finally shook off Cara’s snakes, it suddenly felt a tugging feeling at his feet. When it looked down, it saw vines crawling up his feet, and suddenly it was pulled back and fell towards the ground.
“Run, run, sisters, Run!” Shouted Leaves with a trembling and fearful voice, “Quickly, everyone escape! Hurry away from these horrible monsters! They are the source of evil described in the ancient book! They must have directly come through the gates of Hell!
The torment of the snake’s venom seems to be ineffective against the Devils. When the fallen down Ironhand saw that his companion with the spear was in trouble, he frantically tried to free himself from the vines, which held his body down. The devil with the spear went into a throwing posture, which let its arm rapidly swell up. This caused the already thin supporting skin to get even thinner so that the devil’s dark red blood vessels and bones became clearly visible.
“Leaves, look out!” shouted Stone as she used her quagmire magic again, this time directly aiming it at the devil’s feet. The devil was already in its throwing motion and when its foot sank into the ground it had no time to react. Through this unexpected attack, the devil lost its balance and spear that was already leaving its hand changed its angle at the last moment, impaling itself completely into the ground right before Leaves feet. Seeing all this, Leaves broke out in sweat.
The swollen arm shrank rapidly after the spear was thrown, looking just like a dried tree trunk soon after.
Seeing that the devil couldn’t throw spears repeatedly, Leaves realized that now was the best time to flee. Other witches also noticed this, for example, Stone and Red Pepper. Seeing that Ironhand was still struggling with the vines on the ground, they ran towards the unattended Cara, wanting to bring the mentor with them when they ran. Leaves, who looked into the direction of Ironhand, discovered that it didn’t try to free itself any longer but instead turned towards the three witches with both of its hands extended towards them.
What is he doing? Stop!
“No -” Leaves didn’t even have the chance to warn the others before glaring blue light burst out of the Devil’s hands like a lightning bolt it pierced through the air, twisting and hitting her three sisters. Blue rays jumped between the three, issuing a crackling sound of thunder. White smoke began to rise from their twitching bodies which had caught on fire.
The attack seemed to have consumed much of the enemy’s energy, because it started to breathe heavily and couldn’t move. At this point, Leaves’ magic also reached its limit, and her vines began to wither, turning into dead weeds.
Leaves was only able to think, now, everything is over. Cara’s desperate cries seemed to slowly get farther and farther away as her own body strength faded away, until she fell to the ground.
After only a moment of rest, Ironhand had already stood up from the snow and began to walk to a panic-stricken Cara, this time there was truly no one who could stop it. When he arrived at her side, Ironhand grasped Cara’s throat and began to strangle her. Cara desperately fought back and tried to break away from the Devil’s finger, but in front of its monstrous power her efforts were futile. During her desperate struggle, Cara sent her snakes out again, letting them attack the enemy’s arm and neck. However, the Devil seemed unmoved, and continuing to tighten its hand around her neck.
At this moment the unexpected happened. Under the fierce attack of the magic snakes, the devil’s skin was finally ripped open. Immediately, red fog began to leak out of the fracture, soon enveloping the Devil and Cara. The former released a terrible scream, and under the red fog its skin began quickly to fester, exposing its tendons and bones. Ironhand had to let go of Cara and instead tried to block the wound, trying to hold back the dissipating fog. But it was in vain, its body began to tremble uncontrollably, and soon fell down to never move again.
When seeing this, the other devil whose body was already half buried within the swamp, released a heartbreaking scream, it was a sound Leaves had never heard before, like a sharp scream and a dull roar mixed together, piercing her ear and giving birth to endless pain.
But the enemy’s scream didn’t let Leaves fall into panic and flee. Instead, she only had their victory in her eyes.
She bit her lips and tried to pull out the last drops of her strength in order to stand up. When she finally stood, she grabbed Shino’s crossbow, reloaded it and aimed at the last Devil. The devil clearly understood what Leaves was trying to do and began to work his arms frantically, but within a swamp, the more someone struggled, the faster they sank. The devil He tried to block itshis vulnerable parts, butyet in the end, it was in vain.
For my lost sisters, with that thought, Leaves pulled the trigger and sent the arrow flying.
The crossbow arrow accurately pierced the neck, releasing once more the red fog from the wound. After the mist dispersed, its head finally dropped down.
She had killed the Devil.
After letting the crossbow fall, Leaves turned around only to see the bodies of more than ten sisters who had lost their lives. Immediately hit by sorrow, Leaves dropped to her knees as her tears burst free.
TN: I would like to know what you think about the fight scene. Was it interesting or boring, was it understandable or confusing etc.? After all, it is quite different to the normal xianxia fights.