Chương 21: "It's Been a Good Ride, Boys”

Ch 21 "It's Been a Good Ride, Boys"

"To be honest, I thought you might've noticed us following you, and came here to set up a trap," Mud laughed.

"To think, you'd be out here serving yourself up on a silver platter for us like a good little chicken!" Amber glanced back and forth through the tiger's vision, revealing the remaining men beginning to spread around her. Though she could see them like this, it was still difficult to tell exactly where they were in front of her own eyes through the dark and rainy forest.

"I did set a trap! A big one! You'd better leave while you can!" she yelled.

"Oh really," Mud laughed.

"Show it to us then! Skinner! Iron! Get her! The rest, get in formation to block escape routes!" He's hiding the number of his men on purpose. She smiled. Too bad for you, I have the little tiger!

"You think I can't leave if I want to?" Amber yelled as she darted towards the open spot in the encirclement, Qi rushing down to her pumping legs. She was moving unusually well.

"How can a person leave their grave?" Mud yelled.

"Spread out! Cut her off and get her!" As Amber passed the tree the tiger was under she spoke, "Stay with me! Don't attack, just watch from the trees!" in a voice she was sure only the tiger would hear. The rain covered it well enough. Her palm was burning like crazy. There was some serious demonic energy swirling all around her as the men tried to follow her. Their demonic energy boost had made them just as fast as the girl was with Saint Tiger Qi, maybe even a little more.

But they didn't have the night vision of a nocturnal predator. You're incredible! s he thought to the tiger, even though it was unable to hear her. She was amazed at the brightness and clarity with which it saw the dark and stormy forest. It was like a clear afternoon! Sadly, she wasn't experienced enough to use it well. She found relating her movements to the overhead angle of herself was incredibly difficult. Luckily her escape ploy worked to break their formation and drag them deeper into the forest.

She quickly darted and hid behind a tree, trying to quickly control the remaining Saint Tiger Qi as much as she could so that she was hidden well enough. Amber clenched her spear so hard that her knuckles turned white. Let's just see who the hunter is! she thought. Through the little tiger's vision she saw one masked man coming up fast on the tree she was hiding behind. His speed hadn't broken, so he likely hadn't noticed her hiding place. Not yet… not yet!

s he closed her eyes and watched carefully through her feline companion's eyes. She would have one shot at this. Now! She leaped out and swung her spear in a ferocious sweep that would decapitate the pursuer coming towards her at such a speed. The masked man's eyes bulged out of his head.

"Shit….!" Amber had completely struck air. The demonized man was on the other side of the tree! The girl had completely forgot to reverse the sides to account for the tiger's orientation. The man froze in disbelief locking eye contact with the growling girl as he realized that he had almost died. He shook it off and charged in her direction with an outstretched dagger as she quickly spun to avoid it. The girl's spear quickly rotated with her, leaving a bloody gash across the man's chest.

A thin spray of blood was lost in the rain. It was too shallow to kill him.

"She's over here! Get over here!" he yelled, terrified his companions may not make it in time. He had already watched one comrade die at her hand, even after taking the black elixir. The girl let loose a battle roar. She had no time to lose, she pushed Saint Tiger Qi into her stance as she charged him with a series of quick spear thrusts. Her footwork seemed more fluid than usual, but she couldn't spare a thought to think about why.

The masked man managed to avoid a fatal wound with his dagger as sparking collisions lit up the night.

"G-Get over here already!" He was barely keeping up with the fierce girl's assault, but he was getting cut up in the process. Amber grit her teeth in frustration. She hadn't been able to kill him quick enough and she needed to move before the rest of her pursuers locked onto her position. She dipped back into the darkness of the trees behind her and tried to take an unpredictable path to fly off of their radar.

The tiger nimbly followed her overhead through the branches and kept the girl and her surroundings within it's visual field as both of their movements synced. Amber felt a bit queasy from the motion of two visions! But she didn't dare take her attention off of the doubled view. Another pursuer was closing in fast on her position from behind. Thanks to the tiger she knew from exactly which direction. Just as he nearly had her in his field of vision, she pivoted around a tree to come at him from an unexpected angle.

The man yelled in horror as the girl and her spear shot out of the darkness and pierced his eyeball with a swift brutal thrust. A clean shot! The man screamed and grabbed her spear shaft with blurring speed, stopping it from entering his brain completely. Amber yelled as she ran forward gripping the shaft, trying to drive the spear in. Her pursuer screamed like a murder victim as he ran backwards gripping her spear, trying his best to live. The girl ran him into a tree with a loud thud and gushing sound.

The spear penetrated his brain, blowing out the back of the man's skull and into the bark. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. This annoying demonic power! Amber thought as she retracted her spear and flicked the gore off. She could tell these men were clearly not well trained in martial arts. Yet their demonic boost made them so strong! It was stupid! So stupid! The girl boiled under the effects of the Saint Tiger Qi as she dipped away from the murder zone.

"Oh God! She got Ray! She fuckin' killed Ray!" She retreated a bit away through the darkness as she saw them begin to converge around the corpse. Sharing senses with the tiger was very interesting. With her heart pounding in her ears she hadn't realized she was feeling the way the cub moved right along with her, synching up perfectly from time to time. If felt very similar to the glimpses of Predator that she'd managed. It even helped regulate the flow of Saint Tiger Qi within her!

"Is the Jadehand family really worth dying for?" Amber yelled through the darkness.

"There! Get her!" One of them yelled as they all snapped towards where they heard the girl, but she was already in a different location.

"That's what you should have asked yourself before you fucked with them! I'm also dead if I return without you!" Mud shouted, hoping to keep her talking.

"Baldie! You shouldn't have tried to rob your mother!" she yelled. The bald man swallowed his anger and clenched his jaw.

"You were just supposed to be wine and women money for me and my boys! It would have been so easy to just do what we asked!"

"It would've been ' so easy' if you had died along with them instead of running like a scared mouse!" The girl's voice rang through the darkness.

"Well this isn't the city! I'm here now! Little girl, why don't you come out?" The man yelled with his arms raised in the rain. The thunder cracked the air. No response. The men tried to listen through the rain and the darkness. Suddenly, one man dropped like a sandbag, a glinting obsidian blade sticking out of his head as he fell over instantly. The man's eyes remained open as blood and rain mingled together and poured out over them. The remaining men jumped back.

"Little girl!" Mud yelled. No response. He gritted his teeth.

"Boss! What are we going to do?" His last two subordinates looked back and forth wildly, not wishing to be killed in the darkness like their team members.

"There's only one way any of us survives," the boss grunted.

"Tell us!"

"Yeah tell us fast!" The dark forest's rainfall seemed like the roar of an ocean through the forest's stillness. Thunder clapped and lightning lit up the bald man's face. He wore a grimace that looked as if it was etched in steel.

"It's been a good ride, boys." Before they could react to their boss's strange words, they felt a giant hole erupt in each of their chests. They looked down in horror as they airlessly gasped. Coming out of each man's chest was one of Mud's arms, covered in slick black blood and holding a beating black heart.

"B-Boss! What—" The men could not even stammer as they felt their limbs lock up and their bodies quickly draining of energy as thunder clapped in the background.

"Sorry boys, but you won't die here. You'll live on with me!" The man pulled his right hand back through one of his men, black blood spurting heavy in the rain as veins and tendons snapped free of the still beating heart. Mud never even looked at him as he fell dead, black blood and rain mixing together in a grotesque pool. The man with Mud's other hand still grasping his heart looked on in horror as his boss raised the dead man's black heart over his head. The bald man squeezed.

With a revolting pop, he stretched his tongue out to lap up every bit of demonic heart blood. The still barely living man made some panicked gurgles and struggled pathetically, knowing his heart was next. His will to live overshadowed the fact that his death was already written. A sharp whistle passed through the night as cold metal broke the darkness behind Mud's neck as he drank.

Mud quickly whipped around his left arm with the still living man on it in front of the oncoming spear, letting out a sickening gush as organs spilled out and the man cried in agony. Whatever pain the man could feel was quickly coming to an end. The spear pulled back quickly into the darkness as Mud roared and threw the now corpse at the girl, still holding its beating heart detached in his hand. Amber nimbly dodged as the corpse smashed against a thick tree with a wet thud.

She could feel the cub's hiss as if it rang in her own head, as the cub bared his fangs from overhead. He's way too strong! Amber thought. What the hell is this demonic technique? Treating his friends like elixirs! Luckily, her Predator steps were actually flowing somewhat cohesively. She had realized that thanks to the little tiger's influence on her mind she was grasping the movements of a predatory tiger much easier.

"Monster! They were on your side!" she yelled as she slid back, her golden eyes disappearing into the darkness.

"Bwahahaha! You're worried about them? When you're about to die?" He raised the second heart over his head, and with another grotesque pop he lapped up every drop of black demonic heart blood.

"I'd rather die than kill those who trusted me!" she yelled as she circled around with a decent semblance of Predator and charged the man from behind, springing out of the darkness. Her rage was growing as Saint Tiger Qi boiled inside of her. Clang! In a shower of sparks he laughed as he spun and knocked her weapon to the side. His hand was completely black, like a starless night! It was coated in a thick layer of demonic Qi.

"I would never betray my men's trust. How could I let them die to a little girl?" An evil grin revealed two gleaming fangs still slick with black blood.

"It's an honor to their spirits to help kill you instead!"

"Ask them in hell if that's what they wanted!" She whipped her spear back around in a ferocious slash. Another shower of sparks lit up the dark forest as he raised a hand covered in dark layers of Demonic Qi, clashing with the cold steel of her weapon. With a yell she pressed forward and unleashed a fury of slashes. Consuming their demonic heart blood seemed to have more of an effect than just enhancing his Qi. His reactions were way too fast!

"You can ask them for me since you care so much!" Mud plunged his darkened fist into the girl's mid section, her spear shaft barely moving in time to block the blow. Amber grunted as the blocked blow still tossed her back several paces, landing on her feet before sliding to a stop in the wet forest mud. She felt a numb sensation in her hands. This asshole is too strong! s he thought furiously as she fought to steady her breath.

"Do you even know what you're doing to yourself with that demonic Qi?" she yelled, needing a moment as she channeled her Burning Sun technique. The girl needed to bring her Qi flow back into order.

"Do I know?" He said.

"It's what I've worked for! And you," he pointed at the girl under the glow of lightning, " you helped me get it!"

"Did I? Well, your gratitude sucks!" she huffed back as she felt her breath and Qi control returning. Her mind raced. Should she take a second drop of Saint Tiger blood? There was no time to go and get it. The Saint Tiger Qi she had left in her body wouldn't last forever, and Mud just kept getting more powerful.

"Do you know how hard we have to work for a sip of this black stuff? The fucked up stuff they made us do for a taste of it? But you went and pissed off that little Jadehand brat. And suddenly, he was handing out bottles and bottles! Bahahaha!" His malicious laugh was accentuated by the crackles of black Qi around him. The air stirred with a foul and chilly feeling as demonic Qi filled the area. It felt like it invaded Amber's bones and chilled her from the inside.

Was this how her mom had also felt faced with demons? she wondered as the rain pelted her from every direction. She felt her palm glowing white hot. The girl looked down at the black spirals and circles marked on her palm. Her eyes narrowed. The black lines were now glowing! What did this mean? Amber knew her mother had used a similar mark in combat, the day of the demon wave in Green Wood, but the how part evaded her. She reached towards it with a rushing sense of urgency, not with her hand, but with her will.

She pushed at it the same way she pushed Qi into her stances, trying to grab hold of whatever had just happened. The mark went dead cold the instant she focused on it. Of course, she clenched her teeth hard, despite an incomprehensible urge to laugh. It glows when I'm about to die and does nothing when I actually want it to, Amber thought. She snapped her eyes back to Mud. The man's smiling face grew more twisted as a layer of black energy started to cover it, turning his skin a disturbing shade of grey.

His eyes changed color as the whites became dark and the corneas became an unnatural yellow. She could feel the hairs stand on the scruff of the cub's neck as if they were her own. The little thing hissed from the shadows in reaction to the foul aura. The girl felt her hair sway merely by the power of his aura as she tightened the grip on her spear. The wind and rain roared as the forest swayed.

"How much time have you spent cultivating, little girl? Now look at you, about to die by my hand!" Mud bellowed a twisted laugh from the depths of his being.