The wall of branches in front of them was broken down and thrown into the sky by sharp claws.
The red eyes of the Black Hedgehog Bears glinted menacingly under the moonlight.
Wu Yong gulped down. He crouched his body lower behind the emerald shield.
The bears stood up high. The three meters black bodies were towering to the sky. The kids felt dwarfed under such presence. They felt their courage wavering.
Ren Guang felt rather nervous. His grip on his sword tightened.
Roarr...
A bear roared loudly. It lowered its massive body with a loud thump.
Then it charged.
Wu Yong tensed up, doubting himself under the pressure of the attack.
"Evade!" Wu Feng shouted, did not bother to transmit it. At the same time he let loose an arrow. His shout jolted Wu Yong from his stupor.
Ren Guang ran to the side, taking more distance. He planned to attack from the flank after the bear stopped.
Wu Yong rolled to the side, then slid away after a short run.
The bear did stop, but the other two did not plan to just watch from the side. With saliva dripping from their mouth, they charged towards their target.
Wu Yong and Ren Guang who planned to flank the first bear from opposite sides have to abandon their intention.
Wu Feng cursed. "Shit! Normal arrow did not work! Their hide is too tough! We can not attack them directly! We need to divert their attention then drive them to another direction!"
"We can not defend here, but if we bait them we will easily get separated!" Ren Guang rejected him.
At this time, the first bear looked up the tree. With a roar, it released a rain of needles towards Wu Feng.
"Uh, as expected of a hedgehog." He jumped higher up to another branch.
The bear was enraged seeing its needles missed. It took a few steps backward, then charged at the tree.
The tree swayed heavily.
Meanwhile, Ren Guang and Wu Yong were running away in circles, evading the other bears.
Their situation was dire. Sooner at later they will become bear food if they can not turn their passive situation around.
Zhang He heard the roars not far behind them.
He asked weakly, "why your brother do this? I am just a stranger you met only for a few days."
He felt puzzled even though he was touched. Their status was completely different. The past few days he came to know that Wu Feng was the Young Master of Wu Clan.
While he himself came from a clan not inferior to the Wu Clan, he was just a descendant from a branch clan. It was like comparing a crown prince with a prince that was the child of an emperor's cousin.
Wu Leng Jing suppressed his worries before replying, "I also did not really understand. But he never leaves us behind."
He said again with an unnoticeable smile that rarely appeared on his face.
"He is the most mischievous among our brothers. He would throw us into tiger den or bear cave. But when we ran away, even though he was the first one who learned the Shadow Step, even though he was the fastest, he would always run just a step away in front of us. When we watched his smug expression from behind, it really made us wanted to punch him in the face. Maybe that was why we always manage to run away from those bears and tigers."
Zhang He can not help but let out a weak laugh. "Your Wu Clan really is enviable."
They kept moving forward carefully, trying their best to not attract other trouble.
At this moment, Wu Feng took the chance when the bear moved away again from the tree to nock his Lightning Coiled in Ring arrow. He carefully aimed, then released it. He held his breath in anticipation, but his hands did not stop moving to nock another arrow.
The arrow whistled like thunder towards the Black Hedgehog Bear. It's wild instinct felt unprecedented danger from the seemingly unremarkable arrow.
It rolled its body like a ball, while crazily shooting rain of needles from its back.
A needle bumped with the arrow, then a circle of lightning enlarged from a single dot to a large ring around the arrow. Everything around it, needles and fallen leaves in the air burned in azure flames before turning to ashes like fireworks. The Black Pangolin Bear successfully evaded a deathly attack.
But the arrow was still flying on its way while releasing a second lightning ring.
The bear rolled away like a wheel. The arrow stabbed the ground then released its final ring of lightning and thunder, scorching the ground black.
The lightning was crackling in the ground for a while before dissipating.
Ren Guang and the other bears were startled and stopped in their tracks.
Wu Yong also got startled but from a different reason.
"Fuck, who gave you that arrow? Your mother or grandfather?"
"Hey, what did you say?" Wu Feng nonchalantly asked.
"Umm, I mean, did the respected supreme lord Clan Master or the exalted Eternal Pearl of Wu Clan gave you that arrow?" Wu Yong asked nervously, afraid that he will get another extortion bill on his tab.
"No, it was just my father. I think it is a cool toy so I asked on the way here." Wu Feng replied smugly amidst the paused deadly battle.
"Damn it, this spoiled brat." Wu Yong gritted his teeth, letting out a whispered complain under his breath.
Ren Guang watched their antics with envy in his eyes that he quickly suppressed. Damn these spoiled silky pants!
"Okay, time for round two!" Wu Feng released another arrow without warning. This time he shot an unprepared bear that was glaring at Wu Yong.
The bear only barely evaded by jumping to the side because it sensed an attack from behind. But the lightning still hit its body. The bear was stunned by the lightning ring from the arrow stabbed in the ground, causing it to be unable to evade the other lightning rings. The three lightning rings successfully penetrated the defense of its tough hide. It twitched for a while then fall to the ground. A burned smell permeated the air.
The other bears let out angry roars, mourning their fallen kin. Soon roars upon roars of bears echoed from various parts in the forest as a response.
"Not good, they are calling other bears!" Ren Guang shivered with a pale face.
"Ah Feng, how many arrows you have left?" Wu Yong asked urgently.
"Eighteen! Let's run first!" Wu Feng quickly shot the other two bears with normal arrows before jumping away from the tree.
They ran quickly without looking back.
Wu Feng transmitted a message, "we can not run in the same direction as Leng Jing and the others. We need to divert their attention."
Ren Guang answered, "where to? They took the shortest route to the sect. Don't tell me we have to make a detour? It will be a lot more dangerous."
"I have eighteen arrows left. If we can make a trap using them, we might shake them off." Wu Feng looked at Ren Guang.
Ren Guang understood. "I can make traps. It can be done if we stop running for a while."
"How long do you need?"
"Not long. I only need to bury the arrows along the path and tie them with ropes. How did your arrows work? Will they release lightning when they were broken?"
"Yes, any impact will do, as long as you infuse it with qi beforehand."
"Good." Ren Guang nodded.
"Let's find a good place to set them. You two need to stall them and not let them get near me when I set the trap."
"Alright." Wu Feng agreed. He took out an emerald shield from his pouch then handed it to Ren Guang.
"Take this, my spare shield."
Ren Guang gladly accepted. "Thanks."
"Heh. Sounds like a tough fight. I can feel my blood boil." Wu Yong grinned.
Behind them the sounds of heavy mass grinding the forest floor were chasing closely.
Wu Feng and company used sharp turns, uneven grounds, and trees to slow down their pursuers. Sometimes they jumped to the trees and use concealment techniques, sometimes they cut the trees using their swords in passing to try to hamper the speed of the bears a little.
Occasionally they took cover from the needle rain using trees or their shields.
They successfully slowed down the rolling bears because they were bad in rolling up a higher ground.
Alas, the difference in level was too much. Besides the speed, the bears have sharp senses and their divine sense have been locked to Wu Feng and company. Despite Wu Feng and the other's effort to use concealment techniques, the superior divine sense and hearing of the bears can always track their movements.
By this time there were eight bears chasing them. The weakest were at the fifth level of Qi Condensation, while the strongest were the bears that originally attacked their encampment. They were at the seventh level of Qi Condensation realm.
They ran until they found a few trees with dense foliage.
Ren Guang transmitted a message.
"This is the place. Cover me."
With that, he ran to one of the trees. He carried Lightning Coiled in Ring arrows and some ropes that were already tied in a complicated pattern while he was running earlier, multitasking on the way.