Luckily they didn't notice us as we left the building, unluckily they were here in front of us in the first place. Were our tracks really so obvious that they basically found us only a day later? How did they even know where we exited the mountain stronghold to begin the search anyway?
Did someone leave them a bread crumb trail or something? I felt like we went quite a distance away from them, yet here they are. How should we deal with them, run away like last time?
Glancing towards the others Qiao An and the other Spirited Sun disciple looked especially shocked at the scene. We had already experienced this a few times earlier, but they were new to the enemy's method of brutalizing their opponent.
Everyone was still shocked nonetheless, but the Spirited Sun people were just a little more shocked which also lasted longer.
"๐๐ต'๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ..." Chen Huang spoke with a cold tone looking in their direction; he already had his hand hovering over his saber.
If we didn't know who they might have been before or even after the voice was heard, we did now. The robes they wore were the same blood stained clothing from before along with their dark blue color.
"๐๐ฆ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ, ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง ๐ข ๐ง๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ข๐ต ๐ข ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ด๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ถ๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ฏ." I whispered, encouraging him to back off. He did although begrudgingly looking at them the entire time.
There was simply too many for the five of us to take on. They had their entire group with them, while our massive group from before which could of definitely taken them before had scattered into many tiny teams of people.
A hand out of no where grabbed my own a began to pull me away. Looking at who would suddenly put me like that only one person came to mind and I was correct, Yao Ya. I looked back to the rest of the group which quickly took notice of my absence and started following Yao Ya and I out of here.
"You're useless! Damn it! If they all just scattered then how are we supposed to find them quickly?! We'd have to track each and every individual and they might not even be those blue bastards. Now we have these red ones as well!.... Kill him and let's go search for the next one." He spoke with anger before calming down towards the end of his words.
By this time we've just entered the forest and a few more steps we wouldn't be able to hear them at all anymore. Successfully, we escaped their hunt for us right under their noses. If they'd only looked behind them earlier we would have had no chance against them and would have probably died as a result.
..
After a few minutes of us silently fleeing the scene someone spoke up.
"Why were those people chasing after your group?! What did you do to them? Surely, just seeing their faces couldn't cause them all this level anger with you all?" Qiao An asked in a worried tone
"Well, it's exactly like that." Chen Huang replied as we kept fleeing.
"Tell me, how did this even happen?" She asked.
"Well simply we entered an opened stronghold, found them burning the corpses of the stronghold members, then escaped with the remaining members of the sect which were the children from earlier while being chased by them. I don't know what happened during the chase, but at one point they eventually gave up or something held them back giving us a massive head start on them." I told her.
"Well, I suppose you did see them doing such a terrible act. They couldn't possibly let anyone off when someone saw them do that." She commented.
"They committed such a horrendous act, it's no wonder they want to erase us and keep us from telling others." Yao Ya interjected.
"Are we just going to be aimlessly walking through a forest again?" I asked thinking of our situation
"Is that what your group was doing before we met?" Qiao An asked
"Maybe th-" Before I could finish a sound cuts me off.
*BANG*
A loud and distinctive noise rings out through the forest. One which I haven't heard in months. Hearing the sound reminded me of a crucial detail which I had forgotten about. A gun, we have guns, but didn't we decide that we would only use it in emergencies?
'Shit, I forgot about my gun! Li Lian still has it and she's in an entirely different realm! Wait.. who fired that shot? . . . !!! Are the others in danger?! We got to get over there!'
I glanced at Yao Ya's eyes for a moment and she glanced at mine. There was surprise before we both realized what this meant, acting at the same time. Instead of continuing in our previous direction we rerouted towards the direction where the shot came from.
"Hey! Where are you two going? Wait, are you two seriously planning to go to that loud sound?! That sounds super dangerous!!! Don't do it!" Qiao An questioned us before changing to a worried tone.
"I'll go with him. After all what are friends for right? We have to help each other out. Hey! Wait up for me!" Chen Huang said behind us.
"Ugh.. F-Fine I'll come too then!" Qiao An responded
"Noo! Miss Qiao it's too dangerous to go with them, what if it's a terrifying monster?!" The Spirited Sun Disciple shouted as Qiao An presumably started chasing after us.
*BANG*
Another Shot rings out into the area. Judging my the sound it should be one of the pistols. Plus it would make more sense, after all where would they hide a shotgun in their robes?
Whenever a gun fires the sound produced usually travels quite the distance and from how loud the shot was we probably aren't too close, but neither are we too far either. What would the wild life of this world do in response to this?
Would they be attracted to the sound or be scared of it? Also would other sect disciples start coming to the sound as well? What even forced them to pull out their gun in the first place? All of it would probably be answered when we made it over.
*BANG*
Hearing the shot my worry and fear of the situation deepens. The only bright side is the fact that we're getting closer to the origin of the noise. Every step I take feels heavier and heavier as we approach. What could possibly be waiting on the other side of the trees for us?
Every shot that they fire means more attention drawn to them and at the same time wasting another precious bullet. Bullets which we don't have many of nor can we get any extra supply of here.
*BANG*
The fourth shot echoes and the noise reverberates off the trees. Just a little more and we'll see what happened there. Almost like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel I see a muzzle flash in the distance between some trees.
*BANG*
A single person stands amidst a small amount of bodies, one of which recently fallen. Their arms extended to one point ahead of them holding a pistol. Smoky strands exit the barrel of the weapon rising to the sky. A moment later they lower their arms, staring at the fallen human.
Still running I went up to the person holding the weapon.
"Hey, it's me Ip Cheng!" I shouted to the gun holder in order to not surprise them into accidently shooting me.
I got close to them as they turned their head towards me.
"Eh? Ip Cheng?" Asked the person in a feminine voice as they looked in my direction.
Once I got close enough I noticed the features of her face and realized that it was Rao Nuan. Out of no where she rushed onto me and hugged me.
"Oh it's been so long since I've seen you! I'm so happy you came to me! Just when I thought that I'd be all alone in this forest!" Rao Nuan excitedly spoke as she hugged me, binding my arms in the process.
"HEY! What do you think you're doing with him! Stop that, right now!" The angry voice of Yao Ya came from behind.
"Oh? Of course you'd be with him as well." Rao Nuan spoke casually still hugging me, as if she didn't just kill the man lying over there or any of these other bodies. She acted like there were no bodies around us in the first place.
Yao Ya quickly gets between us shoving both of us apart, mostly Rao Nuan. Afterward grabbing ahold of my arm while glaring at her.
In the distance the soft footsteps of the others quickly approach.
"๐๐ถ๐ช๐ค๐ฌ! ๐๐ฐ๐ถ ๐๐ถ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐จ๐ถ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ธ๐ข๐บ, ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ!" I whisper yelled at Rao Nuan who still held the slightly smoking weapon for all to see.
Hearing what I said her eyes darted to the direction of Chen Huang, Qiao An, and the Spirited Sun disciple before quickly putting it up in her robe.
"Huh? What happened here? Oh she's also from our sect, I remember you from the ceremony. Did you kill everyone here?" Chen Huang asked as he arrived.
"So was she the cause of all that noise? It sounded like it caused some sort small explosion." Qiao An arrived and right behind her was the disciple.
Looking at the bodies they all wore the robes of the Grey Hound sect, the dull and unremarkable grey. The color of the robe fits the name of the sect and the color of most wolfs, but beside that it was extremely simple in it's design unlike some other other sects.