Chapter 52 — The Fire Dragon

The three-colored radiance of their artifacts blazed out to shield their masters, but the fire dragon's might was too great; by comparison it pressed those halos down at once. Zhang Qingyue and the other two were nearly all pushed backward by the immense wave of fire, and a moment later—bang, bang, bang—slammed into the stone wall.

The fire dragon shot straight up, its momentum terrifying. Zhang Qingyue's back struck the hard rock, and the pain made his vision go black. Still, he counted himself lucky: after steadying himself a little, he saw far off Shi Tou's massive frame hurtle square into a cave—and unluckily, in no time at all, the roars of a savage beast came echoing out of that cave.

Zhang Qingyue was badly startled and was about to rush over to help, when amid Shi Tou's great shouts there came a series of bangs from within the cave, and at last a flash of golden light that vanished as quickly as it came. A huge body was flung out—another monster of outlandish appearance, which by the look of it had little breath left in it.

Only then did Zhang Qingyue relax, thinking that the man was called Shi Tou—Stone—for good reason. He was harder than stone indeed!

Just then the fire dragon, which had soared skyward, wheeled in a circle above; with a wild roar it came charging down again, fierce as a thunderbolt.

This time, plunging from high to low, its might was even more appalling. Zhang Qingyue set his jaw, gripped his incantation hand-sign, and from midair flung himself a full zhang to the side, barely evading that hideous dragon. Pointing with his right hand, he sent the Dark Iron Staff screaming through the air straight at the dragon's neck.

The fire dragon gave a dragon-cry; its flame-spewing eyes rolled, and its huge left foreclaw lifted to block the blue light of the Dark Iron Staff. Zhang Qingyue's face went white as he felt the searing heat come rolling toward him in billows; he had no choice but to clench his teeth and hold on bitterly.

Then came a delicate, sharp cry. Above the abyss, lit by the fire dragon, a figure in water-green flashed past: Bili, green robes fluttering, drifted lightly down. The Heartbreak Flower blazed with white light, whirling through the air in a mournful rain of petals that came down over the fire dragon's head.

"Roar..." Amid the raging flames the fire dragon cried out again; a sweep of its right claw immediately drove the rain of white petals back three feet. But with Zhang Qingyue and Bili joining forces, their magic surged, and they pressed the fire dragon a full zhang lower—right onto Shi Tou, who had just burst out of the cave.

Shi Tou looked hard and saw that Zhang Qingyue and Bili were both pitting their full strength against the giant fire dragon, wreathed in flame. Though each had an artifact to shield them, both their faces were flushed red by the firelight.

Shi Tou's eyes went wide. He leaped up, and there in midair he shifted into a cross-legged seated posture, both hands raising the Demon-Breaking Staff. In an instant golden light blazed out; the whole fanged club shone with gold, nearly transparent, plainly driven to its utmost by his magic—and Shi Tou himself wore a solemn, dignified aspect, so that from afar he looked almost like a great monk of the Buddhist faith.

Then he suddenly opened his eyes, like a demon-quelling guardian, his might bearing down on all. His body in midair became a streak of golden lightning that flashed across the sky, and with a thunderous boom the entire Demon-Breaking Staff drove deep into the hard stone wall. In an instant the wall, hard as iron, caved inward over a span of nearly four zhang.

Blue veins stood out on Shi Tou's rough, bold face, almost horrifying to see; even a faint trace of blood seemed to seep slowly from the corner of his mouth. Yet the Demon-Breaking Staff in his hands blazed with a golden light too bright to look upon. Then, amid his great shout, all that golden radiance suddenly contracted, gathered into a single immense beam of gold, and struck the fire dragon.

The blow was no small thing—needless to say, it was the full sum of Shi Tou's magic. Ferocious as the fire dragon was, caught by this blow from the front and pressed from above by Zhang Qingyue and Bili in a pincer attack, under such weight it gave a long, rending roar that shook the whole valley—yet in the end it could not hold, and fell, vanishing swiftly into the darkness below.

His strike a success, Shi Tou staggered; a flush of blood crossed his face, and he nearly lost his footing and fell with it. Luckily Zhang Qingyue, seeing Shi Tou's face was wrong, had already rushed to his side, caught up with him, and seized him—and only then did Shi Tou steady himself.

But before the two could catch their breath, Bili above cried out again in alarm, her green robes fluttering as she plunged down. Out of the corner of his eye Zhang Qingyue glimpsed it and his soul nearly left him: that enormous tentacle, vast beyond measure and ghastly as a fiend, had surged up once more—and this time it came straight down at the two of them from overhead.

The wind of its passing cut painfully at their faces. Shi Tou had not yet caught his breath, and Zhang Qingyue, caught off guard, seemed about to perish beneath that gigantic tentacle—when Bili, her face pale but her form swift as lightning, flashed across in an instant and threw herself before Zhang Qingyue. The Heartbreak Flower in her hand instantly conjured six strange blossoms around the central one, each linked to it by a thread of pure white light, so that the whole formed a white wheel of radiance. Watching, Zhang Qingyue suddenly recalled that she had seemed to use this same technique that day beneath the Abyss of the Dead, when she withstood the Blackwater Mystic Serpent.

But plainly this unknown creature of the darkness was, like the Blackwater Mystic Serpent, a being of extreme ferocity. Though it could not match the serpent, one blow of it was enough: Bili's white wheel of light did not scatter at once as it had against the serpent that day, but her whole body was shaken violently and she was struck down immediately, seeming about to be crushed into the boundless dark.

A buzz filled Zhang Qingyue's mind; a heat rushed to his eyes, and strength came from he knew not where. Without a thought he let go of the now-steady Shi Tou, leaped down with all speed, the Dark Iron Staff blazing with blue light, and swiftly overtook the gigantic tentacle writhing hideously in the air and Bili, struggling to hold out.

Bili was barely enduring; the pressure felt like a mountain, and she was on the verge of losing control, when suddenly Zhang Qingyue appeared at her side. Startled, she cried out, "Go, quickly—"

Before she could finish, Zhang Qingyue had thrown himself onto the Dark Iron Staff; blue light flickered, and he charged forward, striking the huge tentacle above Bili with all his force. Where the Dark Iron Staff struck, the tentacle suddenly shriveled; its once-slimy skin withered dead over a great stretch in an instant.

As though stung, the tentacle recoiled at once. The pressure on Bili eased, and seeing that Zhang Qingyue had come to save her at the risk of his own life, she felt both joy and fear—but before she could speak, her face went white as a sheet.

In the darkness the gigantic tentacle appeared once more, and this time without a sound, charging straight up from below at Zhang Qingyue. Caught utterly off guard, he felt a stab of pain—the tentacle had seized him, and he was dragged down bodily, swallowed into the darkness.

Bili and Shitou, who arrived at that very moment, both paled. Without another word, they leaped up and gave chase.