Before we disappeared into the tree line I took a final look towards the cliffside. The almost unnoticeable figures above it swiftly moved along the edge. They were heading in the general direction Chen Huang and I were going as well.
As the first tree flashed by my head I reorientated my head to face what was in front of me. Chen Huang was ahead, so I just trailed behind him. It was his idea to save this guy so he must have a plan to get out as well right?
Trees, shrubby, foliage rapidly passed by me and the sounds of crushing said plants seemed to be all I could hear. Dozens of footsteps behind and a single pair in front, meanwhile I was stuck in the very middle.
Every once in a while their angry rant and shouts reached my ears. Most of the time, it was that girl who was yelling at me.
"Do you think you can just hurt me like this and get away with it?!
You're going to tell me what happened to my Liao Mu whether you like it or not!!
Don't you know how many people are chasing you!?! How far could you possible get?!"
Most, if not all of her anger seemed to be directed just at me. I mean I know what it looks like I did, but can you really just completely ignore Chen Huang over there?! He's the one with the hostage you were going to use as a sacrifice! Is that really not important to you at all? You didn't even mention him!
How important is this Liao Mu guy to you?! Damn it, I'm getting all this shit and I wasn't even the one who killed him!
*FFfffuunnn*
An arrow wizzes by me embedding itself within the ground only a meter or so away from me.
'NOOO!!! I completely forgot about ranged weapons existing!! Some of the novels I've read before never even mention ranged weaponry as an option! If an arrow pierces me I might be done for! Shit, shit, shit.... that's right! Qi Sense, it's the only thing I could use to try and dodge them.'
Thinking back to how I maneuvered within the crowd of people earlier I entered that feeling. Shutting my eyes and running forth. Everything around my radius was encompassed inside the Qi Sense, the trees and foliage. Soon a couple more arrow's begin to fly by me, similarly hit the ground near me. every once in a while I still open my eyes to check where Chen Huang is though.
'Alright, let me calm down a bit and think. First of all they kinda suck at the moment, so that's a major plus right now. Second they're physical arrows, so they'll eventually run out of shots if I run for long enough. That is if they don't recycle their shots by just picking them back up.
I can't really tell if the arrows are imbued with strands of Qi or not, but they aren't tracking me through the air. They'd have to use their actual skill to hit me and considering what I've just seen I'll probably be fine for now.'
Steadily the amount of arrows flying through the air seemed to increase. It was like they had just multiplied their archers, or that many of them had started taking out their bows.
As we ran and ran, we eventually found wildlife in the form of very familiar boars. Chen Huang had been running towards them the entire time apparently, and next thing I know I'm dodging the charges of boars.
As they charge past me arrows appear as well, some even hitting the boars. They even seemed to be getting better as they release their arrows, as suddenly an arrow just barely misses contact with me while I dodge a boar. The arrow tore a sizable hole in the right side of my robe before it pierced the very boar I was attempting to dodge.
As boars kept charging past me, the volume of arrows decreased by a significant margin. At this point I could feel the drain of my energy slowly creep up on me. From the fact that I had continuously used this technique of mine without a proper break in between, I couldn't last too much longer.
Sensing that I had less then a minute of time remaining I decided to stop using it so liberally. In order to conserve as much Qi as I had left, I decided that only when there was danger right in front of me would I use it.
"Do you truly believe those creatures could stop my pursuit?! This is nothing!!"
'How long has she been screaming at me for? God damn, she's been yelling at me for like 90% of the time I've known her!'
My curiosity got the better of me and I looked back. She was still at the fore front of the group leading the charge toward me, and it from what she held she must of also been one of the archers.
'Does everyone in that sect use bows or something?'
She had only around 3 or 4 guys left tagging along with her though. And it just so happens that those guys don't use bows either, so it's a big win for me.
I starting to become just a little tired when Chen Huang abruptly started to turn left and run that direction. Without thinking too much about it I kept going along with him. And soon after running a few more turns in that direction Chen Huang stopped and turned to a tree gently placing him down.
He then turned to me with a smile and said, "Time to fight!"
'What... why though? We're outnumbered and they have a ranged unit as well!' Though I thought that in my head I wouldn't just leave him to fend for himself.
With a simple nod of my head I turned back and unsheathed my sword in the process. As I stared at our pursuers they looked back with a bit of shock before regaining their focus.
"So you finally decided that running away is futile? It's too late to negotiate so we'll just take you in by force... Oh you're attempting to fight us while you're range is negligible? Ok then, bring it on!!"
As she loosed another arrow toward me I closed my eyes for a second before reopening it. Within that time frame I tried to sense it using my Qi. As soon as it was detected within my radius I open up my eyes again to save Qi, after all as long as I saw the trajectory of the shot I could probably predict where it might land.
My reaction speed on the other hand might need some work. I thought about being cool and deflecting the arrow, but then I realized that; I've never done it before, it's gonna be harder then it looks for me, and if I fail I would just get shot, possibly dying in the process. Instead, I just shifted my body out of the arrow's way and it hit the ground nearby me.
On the right side of my view I saw Chen Huang's figure run towards them, so I did so as well. A couple arrows came from that girl as we ran toward her fellow disciples, but I dodged them. Before Chen Huang and I had even reached the three close combatant disciples I saw four figures in the distance who split off into pairs.
Two went behind the archer while two came over to the 3 disciples Chen Huang and I were about to engage with. Just as my sword clashed with another I noticed the drawn bow of the archer in the distance aiming at me.
Just before the arrow was let loose, two feminine figures appeared around her. One came up behind her covering her eyes with one hand and pulling her onto her back with the other. The other figure make a swift swipe at the bow and arrow, first quickly un-nocking the arrow on the string while taking the bow out of her hands.
The other two had another feminine figure as well as a man's stature approaching us. The came behind onto the men we had just clashed with. Since there was a third man Chan Huang and I had a juggle the amount of opponents we had since the third once kept switching, helping whoever needed the most help at the time.
The two came up from behind the two constant fighters Chen Huang and I fought, before plunging their weapons deep into their backs simultaneously. The confusion and shock from the third guy was priceless as I watched how he went from pushing us back a bit to being completely surrounded on four sides.
After a moment of shock for him he immediately dropped his weapon on the floor and raised his hands.
"I give up! Don't hurt me!"
I flashed him a cheeky little smile before sending him a punch to the gut.
"Ooonugghh" Hearing his groan I then greeted the two who help us out, or well one since I didn't even know the other guy's name.
"Thanks for the help Rao Nuan, I appreciate it."
"Of course! I'll help any time, but I know of a way you can repay me~" She spoke softer and began to lean closer to me.
"Hey! Are you doing something over there?!" Turning my head a smile blossomed across my face as I heard of the owner's voice.
Yao Ya was dragging the body of a very resistant girl by her leg. She kept trying to wiggle out of her restraints, before her eye's stopped on me. After which she proceeded to stare only at me with this deathly glare.