Ryu gathered Eun and five other members to help save Seong. They stood outside the temple, waiting for Ryu's signal.
"Let's go."
They followed Eun's lead, tracking through the dark forest, the only light being the moon's faint glow. Ryu had gone ahead after seeing the beast inches away from Seong, ready to tear him apart. Seong was beaten black and blue; he had spikes stabbed into him all over his body to the point someone might mistake him for a porcupine.
Ryu unsheathed his sword, leaped onto the furry creature's back, and tried to stab it square in the neck. Ryu expected the blade to sink smoothly into the beast, but instead, he heard a clang: the blade had somehow been blocked.
So, the fur not only serves as spikes to launch as offense but also as sturdy armor for defense.
Distracted by Ryu, the creature readied his spikes to shoot them straight into him. That's when a big, burly man appeared in front of him carrying a shield.
"I'll defend you from the spikes, you go ahead and rip it to shreds."
Ryu nodded his head. The creature shot its spikes, the man blocking every spike for Ryu, although not every spike hit the shield.
"Eun! Distract it, I have a plan!" Ryu yelled.
Eun immediately leaped on top of the creature with her spear, trying to stab it, albeit unsuccessfully, with its sturdy fur.
"The rest of you, attack its legs! Try to make it go off balance!"
The men immediately started attacking the legs of the beast. Ryu ran behind the beast, sliding under his belly to slice it open. With the fur focused on defending its legs and Eun's spear, its underside was vulnerable, Ryu's blade easily cutting through the skin. The beast whined in pain and, knowing it was in danger, ran away as fast as it could. Ryu tried to catch up, but in a desperate response, it fired a last round of its spikes, Ryu barely dodged most of them, but one had punctured his leg.
Damn, whatever. Taking Seong back to the temple first is of utmost priority.
Ryu limped back, examining the injuries and losses he and his party had faced. Eun appears by his side, ready to report back on the situation.
"Eun, how many did we lose?" Ryu said, clutching his right thigh.
"One dead, two others injured, excluding you."
Ryu grunted as he limped over to the dead body. He kneeled, to pay his respects to the man, his followers doing the same. He put his hands over the man's face, closing his eyelids.
"Get our men back to the temple and the injured to see Seol Ah-ra," he said, looking at Eun.
Eun ordered the two uninjured people to help the injured get back to the temple, and Ryu picked up Seong in his arms, sprinting as fast as he could back to the temple.
Dammit, I don't have enough time! At this rate, if he keeps bleeding out like this, he'll die!
Ryu clenched his teeth, enduring the pain in his leg. Every step made the throbbing pain in his leg worse, the spike hindering his movement. When he got to the temple, he kicked the door open and ran up the winding staircases, multiple bridges connecting different houses to get to the infirmary.
"Seol! We have no time," Ryu said, laying Seong on the bed. "Quickly, if we don't stop the bleeding, he's going to die."
Seol immediately grabbed different herbs and smashed them in the mortar and pestle. She grabbed a handful of tree bark and started spreading the plaster on the smooth side of the bark. She began to remove the spikes and immediately placed them on the wounds, with no room for error.
"Ryu, I'm sorry. The spikes that the monster carried were laced with poison from dark energy. For now, I can only stop the bleeding. There's nothing else I can do without my qi at this moment. The chance of Seong living or dying depends on whether the Patriarch will give us our qi back soon."
Ryu sighed and closed his eyes. The two people carrying the injured rushed into the room, placing them on mats on the floor.
"Guys, get some rest."
They nod, heading out the door.
"You should get some rest too, Ryu," Seol says, worried for Ryu.
She leans over his leg, pulling out the spike. Ryu winces in pain, falling into a deep sleep as Seol places a tree bark on the wound.
...
Ryu jolts up, seeing Seol sound asleep next to Seong's body. Yearning for some fresh air, he heads up to the top of the temple. As he approached the top of the temple, he realized he wasn't alone. Wary that someone snuck in, he tenses up, putting his hand on the handle of his sword, but relaxes when he sees the familiar beautiful black bob cut. It was Eun, her hands interlocked lying on the parapet of the temple, her chin lying on it. She stares out into the distance, mesmerized by the view of the basin. Ryu approaches her, leans his back against the side of the parapet, and stares in the opposite direction.
"Couldn't sleep, huh," Ryu says breaking the silence.
"Yeah."
An awkward silence follows, Ryu not knowing what to say. The sun started to peek out between the two mountains in the distance. He turns his head to look at her, spotting a strange mark on her neck. To get a closer look, he lifts his hand to brush away her hair, but as soon as he gets close, Eun slaps his hand away. She gives him a disgusted look and backs away. Ryu was about to reply when a static filled his brain.
"Rise and shine for day 3! Today's a special day! I have deactivated your needles. You can now use your qi! There are 5000 people left, good luck!"
Ryu immediately runs back down to the infirmary and takes out the needles in his back. He barges through the door, already seeing Seol work on Seong.
"He'll survive."
Ryu grins bowing down his head, "Thank you."
He heads out the door calling Eun and six of his men to go on a hunt.
...
It was around midday when Ryu sensed something was wrong. They had caught a couple of deer and some rabbits, but it was much less than what they usually caught on a hunt.
"You guys can keep hunting. Me and Eun will go back first," Ryu said with a bad feeling in his stomach.
They continued ahead while Ryu and Eun stayed back.
"Alright let's hurry up and go, I have a bad feeling about what's going on in the temple."
Ryu and Eun eventually arrive back in the temple, spotting a body lying lifeless at one of the entrances. Ryu took a step back out of the shock that one of his strongest men had just been killed, ruthlessly. Claw marks that stretched all over his body. His arms had been detached from his body, whatever beast that came by had somehow ripped his arms off. Maintaining his composure, he faced Eun.
"Teleport to the Infirmary and defend the place, NOW."
Eun disappears without a trace, leaving Ryu to see what is going on inside the temple.
What is this strange energy? It's definitely not qi or dark energy, what could it be?
But before Ryu had time to think, he headed into the temple, greeted by five of his men, trying to take this beast on in one of the platforms above him. A black-scaled human-sized beast, with claws sharper than bears, slicing straight through their shields and weapons. With Ryu's qi back, he was significantly stronger as he had trained his qi from birth. Jumping up two flights of staircase, he met the beast face to face, putting his qi into his blade. His men had all been flung off or decapitated, only Ryu was left standing face-to-face with this monster.
Alright, I don't know how strong this beast really is, so I'm gonna kill it in one movement.
Ryu readies his blade, anticipating the beast's next move. But right then and there, out of Ryu's surprise, the beast runs away from him.
What? Either it's scared of me and its natural instinct was to run away or... NO DAMMIT. It's a beast! It's going to track using its sense of smell for blood to get easy prey!
Ryu chases after the beast but can't catch up even with his qi back.
Shit, I didn't want to have to do this but it seems I have no choice.
Ryu rips a piece of his clothing and bites onto it. He brings his blade closer to his arm and slices it, creating a large cut on his left arm. Blood gushes out from the wound, spraying all over the floor as Ryu grunts in pain. He spits out the cloth and the beast dashes into him without hesitation. The claws were inches from his neck and Ryu barely deflects it. Ryu was about to perform a sword art, but the beast was giving him no time to prepare. Slash after slash, Ryu was being pushed into a corner, only able to defend against it. In a split second, the beast drops his arms, giving Ryu a chance to swing, only for the beast to duck, plant one foot on the floor, and kick Ryu into the temple walls.
Ryu coughs on impact, his eyes bouncing back and forth. A burning pain started to form around his stomach, the claws had dug into his flesh during the kick. Ryu, barely able to stand his ground, dodges by a hair's length from the beast's leaping attack. The beast somehow managed to get his hand stuck in the wall, it was time for Ryu's counterattack.
I'm going to have to take him out with this one move, Shroud of the Moonlit Veil, verse 5.
A black shroud starts to form around the beast and five other shadows come up from out from the ground looking exactly the same as Ryu. The beast manages to rip his hand out of the wall, immediately swinging at one of the shadows. The shadow defends and the other four stab the beast, being unsuccessful in stabbing the beast. However, Ryu could essentially keep the beast in here for a long time if he doesn't run out of qi, an outside force intervenes, the person's qi inside overpowers the qi of the wielder of the technique, or they kill all of the shadows before they have time to regenerate. It was a high-risk, high-reward technique if used correctly. Ryu was outside of the shroud focusing his qi into this domain to keep the beast inside. Ryu did not sense any qi in the beast, to begin with, so there was a high chance it wouldn't be able to break through. Slowly but surely, some of the shadow attacks began to slice through the beast's tough armor.
At this point, the beast knew it had to step up its game. Ryu's qi was decreasing at a rapid rate, it was about halfway to being empty. Suddenly, Ryu began to feel qi from inside the shroud.
Impossible, this beast has access to qi too!?
Ryu grits his teeth, determined to take the beast down. In a sudden movement, the beast appears behind one of the shadows, taking it down. The shadow melted into the shroud, slowly regenerating back. Without even a millisecond of delay, the beast teleports behind another shadow, taking it down as well. Three shadows were left and now that two shadows were down, it would take Ryu even longer to regenerate the first one and much more qi to maintain the shroud. In a desperate reaction, Ryu makes two of the shadows disappear, sinking all of his energy into one shadow. This shadow had all five of his shadow powers, which were at the same level as Ryu, combined. This essentially made the shadow almost five times stronger than Ryu himself.
The shadow started to attack, it slashed too fast for the beast to react. The beast could only defend blow after blow as some of the attacks started to land on the beast. The shadow swung his blade upward as a feint, only to grasp the beast's shoulders and knee him in the stomach. The beast dropped to his knees, as the shadow sliced one of the beast's arms off. The shadow got ready to take its head as tendrils started to shoot out from the beast's cut-off arm, grabbing the shadow's sword and choking out the shadow. The tendrils tightened, completely ripping through the shadow, cutting its head off. The shroud broke, and Ryu leaped back almost collapsing with how much energy he had put in that one technique. The beast stood up as the tendrils connected its arm back to his body.
Ryu walked backward, tripping on an uneven surface, and began to fall on his back dropping his sword. At the same moment, the beast leaped onto Ryu, bearing its claws in front of him ready to tear him apart. Ryu slams both of his hands into each of the razor-sharp claws, the claws digging into his fingers as he gets pinned down by the beast. Ryu slowly gets overpowered by the beast, the beast's mouth inches from his face.
Haha, this is it isn't it, Ryu thought laughing at what could've gone wrong.