But it was already too late. By the time he was unconscious they had already started moving towards our location. Everyone stayed as quiet as possible, hoping they would just magically get distracted, by some kind of convenient noise else where.
'The protagonist is here. They won't be able to get in here, right? Something will get their attention, which we would just take advantage of and sneak out, right?'
I looked around just to see the situation everyone was in. The janitorial disciple- I mean Jin Bo and the two children looked fearfully over at the stone slab. Maybe they have PTSD from before or the memory of hearing their friends die were just fresh on their minds.
Xing Shun and Xidong Dai held each other once more, Zhen Wuying looked over with a solemn expression like a tough battle was ahead, and Tang He held himself slightly shaking as they all looked at the slab.
Chen Huang and Yao Ya had already drawn their weapons at some point. They held their weapons by their sides while neither of them had fearful expressions.
Chen Huang had a similar expression to Zhen Wuying, though I could see a hint of excitement in his eyes. Almost like he couldn't wait to fight them.
Yao Ya on the other hand had a calm expression, too calm. It was almost like this situation didn't concern her at all or it didn't matter to her.
*Tat* *Tat* *Tat*
The sounds of their foot wear against the hard stairs slowly grew louder and louder; they approached the only thing that blocked their path to us, the giant stone slab.
Soon their voices were once again heard as they stopped their movements outside.
"The sound came from this area, right?"
'Come on! Any minute now, that random distraction will happen.'
"I think so, but there's only a wall here."
"I don't sense anything near here or in the walls either."
"Okay, something is wrong here. We both heard that noise, so something is definitely around here."
'ANY minute now!'
"The sound came from here right? I want to check something."
*Knock* *Knock* The sounds of knocking permeated the slab.
*Tat* A single step is heard after the knocks.
"It's... hollow, the wall is hollow! They is definitely someone behind here! Help me out!"
'What the fuck? It didn't happen. They're suppose to leave damn it!'
"That's what you were doing? alright then, but how do we open it?"
"Um, I don't know. Let's just search around for something. If worse comes to worse we can always just destroy the wall to open it up'"
"You think what ever made that noise came from behind the wall?"
"Well of course! I mean- how else could a 'wall' made such a sound huh?"
"I guess you're right."
Their movement once again started as they walked around near us. Judging by the little conversation they had they were probably searching around the wall for something to open the slab.
While we listened to their conversation movement was seen inside. A person walked up to the stone slab. After realizing that someone actually moved, I looked over at them to find out who it was. I didn't even have to think twice when I saw her. There was only one person it could of been, Yao Ya.
She placed he left hand on the slab and before anyone could react to her she began pushing. The slab slowly slide open, the two pairs of foot steps halted probably watching as the door slide open. The only sound left that was heard was the grinding of stone against stone as the slab slide open.
I was stunned for a few seconds before collecting myself and unsheathing my sword, awaiting the outcome we all knew was bound to happen now.
When the door was ajar we all saw light shining through the cracks of the doorway. She kept pushing until her could no longer reach the slab door, even then she gave it a final push right before it left her reach.
The door slowly swung open revealing the two men we've been hearing from behind the slab. They both looked at us, more specifically Yao Ya, the one who pushed open the door. They both focused on her as she jumped out of the room we were in.
I couldn't let her be in front by herself, so I followed and walked to her left. Soon after I heard another pair of feet hop down. Turning my head slightly I saw Chen Huang standing of the other side of Yao Ya and staring one of the men.
One of them had a scruffy beard and a another one of the cleavers that we had seen from the man we captured, while the other was shaven carrying a saber with him. The bearded man also held the light talisman which shined upon all of us.
Chen Huang was looking specifically at the shaven man and his saber. I still saw the little sparkle of excitement in his eyes as he looked ahead at the men. He had already taken up a stance with the saber pointing towards them.
Our three members stared across from us at those two and they returned it with blank expressions. For a moment there was an unnerving silence that enveloped us, until another came out of the room. The sound of their feet hitting the ground from behind gave us the advantage over them in numbers at least.
I didn't know who came out, but they came to my left before stopping. I noticed that they both glanced over at the new person beside me before refocusing on the two to my right.
I was a little scared, as I remembered what seeming leader said about our group strength. He mocked us about it, but I don't know how to sense a person's cultivation yet.
I knew our minimum cultivation stage, since I was at the lowest level to even pass the qualifications. Them on the other hand was completely unknown to me, but seeing as the leader from before was acting like that it's probably safe to assume a good number of them are third stages.
Another noise came from behind this time two sets of feet touched the ground. They didn't go to the sides though; they just walked up behind us and probably looked between our heads.
This time the men's facial expressions finally changed to a small frown. They glanced at each other before, they raised their weapons above their head and the talisman holding one opened his mouth to speak.
But before he could even get a word out Yao Ya left my side and quickly charged directly at them. She raised her sword and angled it horizontally before slashing in a quick and clean motion.
She had went directly at the talisman one catching him off guard. Once he realized what had happened he tried to block the attack, but he was too slow. Once the slash connected and finished she took a few steps back.
A deep gash appeared on his stomach that tore a large part of his robes. He futilely tried to cover the bleeding with his right hand to no avail.
"YOU FUCKING B-BITCH... agh hah ahh.." Dropping to his knees he held himself up by his arms while glaring at Yao Ya.
The display shocked me, it was too sudden. They seemed like they were surrendering why did she do that? Looking around everyone looked equally shocked at her actions.
Finally looking at Yao Ya she has the same calm expression and didn't look at the man sprawled across the ground a second time. It was like she was used to this kind of situation or something.
The other man finally reacted and dashed toward her. He had already started preparing to slash down. When he eventually did strike Yao Ya immediately parried, but before her weapon connected his saber instantly coated with a layer of Qi.
The change must of caught her off guard as she stumbled back a few steps when the weapons connected.
"Let me take him!" Stepping forward Chen Huang held out his own saber pointing it at the man.
She glanced back at him for a moment before backing up.
"Haa.. *Cough* *Cough*" Sounds from another person came. When I looked over I saw the man who was huddled on the ground slowly pick himself up off the ground. A small puddle of blood remains on the ground where he laid.
He still held his hand over the gash. And the wound although still in an extremely terrible condition had stopped bleeding.
For a few seconds I thought I would see the wound just visibly heal like some protagonist. But thankfully nothing happened.
The right side of his robes had a large spot of blood where it had pooled when he was still down.
He had dropped the talisman on the ground before starting to get ready with his machete.
Everyone was just watching this happen and I couldn't stand it anymore so I dash over. I raised my sword up with both hands, preparing a feint while aiming at the same gash which he had just closed up.
*Ting* *Ting* *Tang*
A clash of metal had already started on my left. It was probably Chen Huang against the other man who welded a saber, but it was just a guess. Only a moment after those initial clangs of metal four sets of foot steps began to be heard behind me. I heard a set come directly towards me while a couple others went a different way.
"Ha! You intentions are so obvious!"
*Tang*
He completely ignored my feint- going directly for the parry of my real strike. Pushing away my weapon he went right for a thrust at my chest.
*Tat* *Tat* *Tat*
The steps became louder before a sword appeared from my right pushing the tip of the other sword to my left. It was directed just enough off course that it had only tore a small part of my robe off.
"Tch! You, don't get cocky just because you caught me by surprise. Girl, you wouldn't stand a chance if it was a direct confrontation!"
Another person came as another sword poked into the left side of my peripherals. "Tch! You have to use numbers against us to even have a chance huh? Pathetic!" With that he charged to my right where Yao Ya was.
I was going up to attack when he suddenly changed his target to me. He made a side step over to me with his cleaver raised over his left shoulder, he was going for a diagonal slash. Although I knew what he wanted to do- My body wasn't fast enough to act on it.
"I'm taking one of you bastards down with me!"
In the corner of my eye I saw as Yao Ya's eyes widened looking my way and her mouth was also slightly agape. I tried pushing all my weight on going backward and I raised my sword in attempt to try to block his strike.
As a result of my efforts when he cleaved diagonally at me he only managed to slice open the back of my left hand. In turn it made me let go of my sword with that hand. Pain instantly radiated from the wound and my thoughts went haywire.
The calm I had right before the slash disappeared, replaced by a fear of death and pain. He angled his knife back up for a another upward slash.
In a panic I raised that same hand outward to block another attack. My palm was facing him, the side that shouldn't be. He took advantaged of it to hit something and cut open my palm.
His cleaver was in the same position as he started and he swung back down. But before this strike could connect the sword from my left blocked the strike although barely as they took a knee down.
Then a sword from the right came over and thrusted straight through him.
"AgH.. ack.. d..amn."
The sword slid all the way up to the hilt where even then she wasn't finished. She pushed him off the sword making him fall on his back before walking over and plunging the sword into him a few times, before finally decapitating him.