When I arrived near Black Marsh I decided to stop at MarshWatch port city which lay at the western side of Black Marsh and had ships sailing down the river that was connected to the Marsh
As a port city it was always lively back when I had traveled here with my parents with street stalls and stores everywhere
But now when I looked at it I couldn't help but feel saddened by how dilapidated it looked, it was so gloomy as you could cut the fog with a knife
Upon walking the streets I could see people hiding into their homes and barring the doors, no one dared to go outside and hid away from site
The only place that seemed to be working was an old run down bar near the slums, when I went inside everyone who was there jumped up in fright, but upon seeing me they calmed their nerves and sat down
"what happened here?"
I asked the bartender as I sat down at the bar, he sighed and spoke with a trembling voice
"I can't tell you, if I tell you I'll end up like..."
Without finishing his sentence he suddenly went quiet when he heard sloshing as if someone was walking through puddles outside, everyone became silent as a mouse and no one dared to move a muscle
Slowly the sloshing came up to the door of the bar and then slowly left the way it came
Everyone sighed in relief and returned to their usual drinking and grumbling
"what was that?"
I asked pointing at the door feeling a little shaken myself from their worried expressions
"a beast, a beast like no other, it is blind and relies on it's ears to hunt, it won't attack unless there is loud noise coming from somewhere"
He whispered in a quiet voice
"the local sects had been trying to hunt it down for months now, but it is extremely elusive and has taken the lives of many"
He continued with his hands shaking
"I see, it seems I must do something about this"
"you're going to try killing it? But you can't! That thing has killed many Apprentice martial artists, and even Adept martial artists had been poisoned by them, if not for the healers they would already be dead!"
The barman said trying to dissuaded me
"don't worry, I won't be like them"
I said as I dashed out the door and took off towards Black Marsh, what I must do was leave here as soon as possible before this thing kills me
*screech*
When I was dashing through the streets I heard a voice coming from behind as I looked back and saw a ghastly snake with black dreads like hair along it's body chasing after me
Without stopping I ran out of the city until I tripped over a branch and fell over, when I looked up I noticed that was no branch but the tail of the snake
It was so fast that it had already ran ahead of me and lay down an ambush for me, it rammed towards me with it's fangs wide open and bit down on my sword that I had quickly drawn in defense
With a wave of my hand I released a wave of frost into it's mouth freezing it solid for a moment
"guh, wha-"
I suddenly felt my vision go dizzy as I noticed I had been wounded by it's poisonous fang on my arm
I quickly circulated the Chun in my body towards the wound to counter the poison and rushed forward at the snake with my sword, if I didn't have my healing talent then I would most likely already have been dead or unable to fight
At this time the snake crushed the ice that was holding it's jaw open and swung it's tail at me, I redirected the force with my sword and leaped on it's head, my sword cut a shallow wound between it's two horns as the snake shook me off it's head and I was suddenly wrapped in it's dreadlocks around it's body
I quickly ignited the Li with my Xin arts around me and burned the hair and escaped it's grasp before summoning a frost zone to aid my fight
The temperature dropped several times as frost crystals began forming on the ground, the best attacks against reptiles and insect type Beasts were ice attacks as they were cold blooded and this caused them to slow down when frozen